I have just completed “Sharpes Waterloo”. I was amazed at the brutality of war at that time. By their stadards back then, war today seems almost antiseptic when you compare the two worlds. In the historical note you compared Gettysburg and Waterloo. Stating that Gettysburg was one of the few battles of that century that could compare to the casualties amassed during Waterloo. I would just like to mention that it took almost 4 days for my ancestors to amass comparable casualties at Gettysburg where at Waterloo it only took one day. What are your thoughts on that? I think it was because of the terrain. It amazes me to no end. The sheer brutality of it. The American civil war was a meat grinder, but the war that progressed through Spain, and then to top it off with something like Waterloo…just boggles the imagination. I am begining to hold the same opinion as you on Wellington, that he was a military genious. He had more nerve than anyone in history also. I find myself wanting to know more about him. If you could recomend one book about Wellington, the man as well as the soldier. What would it be? Best regards Don Sawyer