With Zeal and with Bayonets Only

The British Army on Campaign in North America, 1775-1783

By: Matthew H. Spring

Narrated by: John Skinner

The image is indelible: densely packed lines of slow-moving Redcoats picked off by American sharpshooters. Now Matthew H. Spring reveals how British infantry in the American Revolutionary War really fought.

This groundbreaking audiobook offers a new analysis of the British Army during the “American rebellion” at both operational and tactical levels. Presenting fresh insights into the speed of British tactical movements, Spring discloses how the system for training the army prior to 1775 was overhauled and adapted to the peculiar conditions confronting it in North America.

First scrutinizing such operational problems as logistics, manpower shortages, and poor intelligence, Spring then focuses on battlefield tactics to examine how troops marched to the battlefield, deployed, advanced, and fought. In particular, he documents the use of turning movements, the loosening of formations, and a reliance on bayonet-oriented shock tactics, and he also highlights the army's ability to tailor its tactical methods to local conditions.

Written with flair and a wealth of details that will engage scholars and history enthusiasts alike, With Zeal and with Bayonets Only offers a thorough reinterpretation of how the British Army's North American campaign progressed and invites serious reassessment of most of its battles.

©2008 University of Oklahoma Press (P)2014 Redwood Audiobooks

A fine work of history ruined by a poor recording

This is a well-researched and informative work that covers a wide range of topics of interest to military historians and lay readers. Unfortunately, the audiobook falls apart abruptly with the listener subjected to hundreds of retakes. It’s infuriating to listen to and totally unprofessional. Shame on the audio editors.

Very disappointing

This audio book was disappointing. It spent too much time discussing minutiae of the British army often in battles that are largely unknown to people familiar with the battles of the revolutionary war. Virtually no time on analysis of leadership and strategy or personalities of British leadership/campaign objectives. Chapter 8/13 was the worst audio segment I have heard with it sounding like a stuck recording and the narrator clearing his throat/repeating himself. I would not recommend this audio book to others

Good content, ruff reader

The British military perspective of the American Revolution is a fascinating story. The reader for this edition is not easy or fun to listen to. His pronunciation is halting and slow. Good book, hard to listen to.

Awful Narration Chapter 11/9 Unedited

I have listed to over 300 audiobooks on this app, and never left any review lower than 5 stars before this one. I got to chapter 11 in the audiobook navigation, chapter 9 in the book and it became unlistenable. The entire chapter seems to be unedited. The entire narration before then was stilted, robotic, and overall a chore to listen to. The substance and subject of the book itself are excellent, it's a shame the audiobook turned out so poorly.

narration was robotic and unemotional unfortunatel

narration was slow and robotic and unfortunately unemotional. the listening of this book stopped after 1 chapter very sad

The narration kills the story

The narration is awful. The editing left outtakes in the recording. You sometimes hear the same lines two or three times in a row, there's coughing and throat clearing, and when it's not riddled poor editing, it sounds like the narrator is bored with the material himself. Very disappointing.

Terrible, mechanical narration!

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

It was painful to listen to this book. I thought it was narrated by a robot. I deleted this book before the end.

What did you like best about this story?

The history was great.

What didn’t you like about John Skinner’s performance?

A dreadfully boring narration. PLEASE re-record with another voice. No robots.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

A great documentary in this material.

Any additional comments?

PLEASE re-record with a live narrator!!! Or provide a refund.

The editing is terrible at the the 13 hour mark.

I struggled to finish this book. It's a dry book, I came in with that anticipation, but it's a topic I have a great deal of interest and I was able to adjust to to the narrator being a bit robotic and gained the knowledge and learning I was looking for. until I hit about the 13 hour mark where the editing ceases. The narrator begins regularly clearing his throat, coughing, at one point he states, "I need water." and "That's not even a word." That is a problem with editing. It continues for approximately 45 minutes. it was excruciatingly painful. That section needs to be fixed. I will be seeking a refund.

Editing was trash, people should be fired

This excellent book was ruined by the editing of the audio. Repeated lines over and over, a dog barking, “that’s not even a word” frustrations by the narrator who should know that is how 18th people wrote when performing a history, cell phone noises. I hope Matthew Spring finds out about the atrocious editing of the audio and gets some just compensation. This is the worst performance of one of the best books about the American Revolution.

Wonderful book! Terrible editing and narration.

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Yes, because this is a seminal book in understanding the actual functioning of the British army on campaign in North America during the revolutionary war. Excellent use of first person accounts. Some of the material is dense but it's written clearly. Unfortunately, the narrator was not up to the task of bringing this fascinating account to live. I urge the potential listener to persevere, the content is worth it.

What was one of the most memorable moments of With Zeal and with Bayonets Only?

There is no single memorable moment. Overall however, Matthew Spring smashes long-held (and erroneous) beliefs about how the British Army conducted warfare when on campaign during the Revolutionary War. The opening chapters and the contemporary accounts cited liberally throughout the book help the reader understand strategy and tactics employed by the British army, how the army adapted to warfare on the North American continent, and why suppression of the revolution was a doomed enterprise from the outset. I might add, that to me at least, there appear to be obvious parallels between the British strategy and tactics, the rebel response, the geographical and physical context of the war, and the US prosecution of the war in Vietnam.

How could the performance have been better?

This book deserves a better narrator. Non-fiction history requires oral reading skills that the narrator does not possess. The major flaw with this performance is that about the beginning of Chapter Nine (a couple of hours into the second download) the Editors were asleep at the wheel. As a result, the listener will hear 30-45 minutes of the narrator stopping, starting, repeating words and phrases, stumbling over names, trying several different inflections, clearing his throat, making side comments, and the like. It's clear that either no one at the production company listened to the whole book, or they mistakenly uploaded the wrong version. I simply had to skip much of that chapter. Were I the author, I'd be foaming at the mouth.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Yes, and it would be an interesting movie too!

Any additional comments?

I've notified Audible about the problems with Chapter Nine, but have not heard back from them. I hope they will put up a properly edited version soon!