Nelson: Love & Fame, and: British Admirals of the Napoleonic Wars: The Contemporaries of Nelson, and: Pictures from the Life of Nelson, and: Nelson's Trafalgar: The Battle that Changed the World (review)

Nelson's fame rests on his triumph at Trafalgar, 21 October 1805, and had that event never occurred his notoriety and achievements elsewhere would have placed him among the mere mortals of the Royal Navy and the British nation. The events transpiring off Cadiz, including the undoubted heroism of the fallen commanders, officers and men of the British, French, and Spanish fleets, were a defining moment in modern history, for in consequence of the battle the French and Spanish fleets were not only annihilated but savagely mauled. Before very long, a resurgent French navy came forward to challenge Britain's sea mastery; later still, the Spanish would recreate their abundant naval power, only to be brought to another untimely end in the Spanish-American War. But as scholars have made clear, the crushing British victory over the combined enemy fleet did not assure Napoleon's early defeat: it would take almost a decade of sullen blockade work and of more minor battles than Trafalgar to close the war. By that time Britain was at war with the United States. By early 1815 a Britannic peace could be proclaimed, though few prescient observers could guess that it might well last into the next century.

The bicentenary of Trafalgar and Nelson's death has invited the attention of many naval historians. Collected letters by and to Nelson have appeared. Special lecture series have been arranged. Conjoint work has been commissioned. Wonderful new biographies have appeared. Older scholarship has been set aside by these, though favorites of the past—Carola Oman's biography of Nelson and Admiral Mahan's, too—are not forgotten. The availability of abundant new evidence—as witnessed in the reference notes of British Admirals of the Napoleonic Wars: The Contemporaries of Nelson—indicate the possibilities of new research of this Age of Fighting Sail, and with the rapid approach of the bicentenary of the War of 1812 we may expect further insights.

Readers of this review will already perhaps have their preferences among the literature of Trafalgar and Nelson but in these four books we have more than meets the eye, for they are rich in detail and understanding of the times covered. Undoubtedly this was a heroic age, one of great sea commanders whose rise to prominence, glory, and even immortality was predicated on political credit as well as service capability, dedication to task, and, above all, fighting spirit and courage. Adkins, in Nelson's Trafalgar, provides a sharp-end appreciation of the battle, replete with details of the unsurpassed violence of nineteenth century naval warfare. For five hours, sixty ships fought at close quarters. Nelson's ships were outgunned and outmanned, but at the end of the day British gunners and boarding parties carried the day. The combined fleet of the enemy was annihilated, and the loss of Nelson seemed irreparable. Admiral Villeneuve, commanding the combined fleet, remarked that "to any other nation the loss of a Nelson would have been irreparable, but in the British Fleet off Cadiz, every captain was a Nelson." Adkins's treatment is eyewitness history at its best, and although his is not the only work of its kind the more casual reader will find much here of...