The Tangier Campaign: The Birth of the British Army (review)

The Tangier Campaign is a twenty-first century incarnation of the nationalistic historiography of nineteenth-century imperialism and romanticism. It employs narrative to convey two conclusions: (1) the British garrisoning of Tangier circa 1661-83 was the seminal episode for the foundation of the modern British Army; and (2) the Tangier experience was paradigmatic for Imperial warfare. Jack Smithers's point-of-view can be encapsulated in a single quotation. "Nothing but the skill and discipline of an unpaid and half-starved body of British soldiers kept this foothold in Africa while the molemen [builders of the port's Great Mole] pressed steadily on with a splendid work of engineering that should have been the wonder of the age" (p. 102). Smithers's characters might have been cribbed from Victorian literature: resolute redcoats, Restoration rakes, murdering Moors, stalwart sergeants, and hard-drinking, heroic colonels. These stories of panoramic desert skirmishes, daring sea battles, and desperate siege actions are complemented by Smithers's superb prose style. It's great stuff and refreshingly free of stifling "political correctness."

Unfortunately, absence of citation of evidence undermines the aim of Smithers's book. The author hopes to draw greater attention to the soldiers of the Tangier garrison and to their achievements. To encourage research, however, one should point to the exact repositories of evidence. Neither manuscripts nor printed sources are cited. This shortcoming frustrates because Smithers has ferreted out some fascinating evidence. Tantalizingly, the text mentions Ordnance minute books, stores inventories, state papers, pamphlets, secret service accounts, loading lists, and arcane memoirs. One cannot help but think that the bibliography (like the index) is partial and incomplete. For example, in the North Yorkshire County Record Office there exists a letterbook of Sir Hugh Cholmley describing construction on the Mole (the breakwater that protected Tangier's harbor). Smithers seems to have missed this useful source. But then he mentions Colonel George Legge's correspondence (pp. 73, 126) and confirms the existence of some orders in the Dartmouth MSS (p. 137, without revealing the collection's location), which suggests Smithers journeyed to the Stafford Record Office (though there is no mention of this repository in the bibliography). So maybe the author did consult the Cholmley letterbook. How is the reader to know? Cavalier citation of evidence is not an idle criticism. Smithers describes the sources for the Tangier campaign as "scrappy, often illegible and not uncommonly in ciphers that now defy unravelling" (p. 115). As such, it would have behooved the author to reference his sources.

Still, The Tangier Campaign makes for enthralling reading, and there are flashes of broader historical significance throughout. The relation between mercantilism and war is alluded to, and vignettes foreshadowing the Empire.

This is traditional military history, written with conviction and tempered by wryness. For a synoptic view of this significant episode, especially for teaching or general reference, Jack Smithers has done a splendid job. However, as a road map for investigation of the Tangier campaign, few landmarks are identified.