"History buffs are no doubt familiar with the story of Shadrack Byfield, a rank-and-file British redcoat who fought during the War of 1812 and lost his left arm to a musket ball for his trouble. Byfield has been featured in numerous popular histories-including a children's book and a 2011 PBS documentary-as a shining example of a disabled soldier's stoic perseverance."
"There are dozens of memoirs written by British rank-and-file veterans of the Napoleonic Wars, but only a handful from the War of 1812, which was much smaller in scale," O'Keeffe told Ars. "Byfield's autobiography seemed to offer an authentic, ground-level view of the fighting in North America, helping us look beyond the generals and politicians and grapple with the implications of this conflict for ordinary people."
Shadrack Byfield was born in 1789 in Bradford-on-Avon and left a weaving background to join the county militia at eighteen, later transferring to the regular army. He served at Fort George, participated in the siege of Fort Detroit, and was wounded at the Battle of Frenchtown in January 1813 before joining campaigns against Fort Meigs and Fort Stephenson in Ohio. He lost his left arm to a musket ball during the War of 1812. Popular retellings portray him as a stoic example of disabled veteran perseverance. Newly revealed details about his later life show a more complicated and difficult postwar reintegration, challenging simple heroic narratives.
Read at Ars Technica
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