I am not sure if this should go here under References & Research, or if it should go under events. If this doesn't belong here, please move to the appropriate space.
There is an online presentation this Friday, July 23rd that sounds interesting. Here is the blur:
Honour and battlefield violence in the Austrian army 1789-1815
‘What sufferings the soldier has to endure in war from a tender youth’ : Honour and battlefield violence in the Austrian army 1789-1815
Speaker: Kurt Baird, PhD candidate, History department, University of York
Habsburg soldiers experienced the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars as conflicts of incessant violence. Joins us as Kurt Baird, PhD Candidate @YorkHistoryDept, uses their accounts to reveal honour’s central role in mediating the trauma of the battlefield.
The Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars were experienced by soldiers of the Habsburg army as conflicts of incessant violence. Battles and skirmishes were regularly fought during protracted and arduous campaigns, in which exhausted soldiers who knew full well the effects of modern weaponry on their minds and bodies were thrown into action again and again. In battles such as Wagram, Leipzig, and Dresden, Habsburg troops sustained and inflicted tens of thousands of casualties on scales rarely before seen in European history.
The accounts of common soldiers and their company officers vividly describe the deaths they witnessed, the wounds they suffered, and the scale of the fighting. They endeavoured to convey the brutal reality of their war, which many felt contemporary intellectuals shied away from. Others, without the ability to eloquently convey their memories, or writing for family with an understanding of war, simply listed the actions of their regiments and generals, knowing that this was enough to convey their 'inner experience'.
How were these violent experiences understood by men of the Habsburg army? What enabled them to muster the courage and bravery to take to the battlefield after witnessing defeat and death? This lecture will seek to answer these questions by focusing on the 'psychology of honour' found within the military culture of the Habsburg army. Using the written accounts of Habsburg soldiers to shed light on the human factor behind the muskets, bayonets and artillery in the collection of the Royal Armouries, the lecture will reveal honour’s central role in mediating the trauma of violence and the suffering of battle. This will show how the concept of honour allowed men to understand their frontline experiences in ways that provided them with the psychological ability to continue fighting, narrate their past, and justify their actions.
Please register and a link to the online presentation will be emailed in due course. Our online lectures are free to attend but we would be grateful for donations to help support our work as guardians of the national collection of arms and armour.
Here's the link to
register for the presentation.
BE AWARE! The time listed is UK time. JD and Bob48, this is good for you! Everyone else, plan accordingly.