paul_cornelius's review

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5.0

Caleb Carr brings to light a time in China's history neglected in the West (as indeed almost all Chinese history is neglected essentially) as well as the biography of a fascinating American adventurer and soldier who came to command a Chinese army and be awarded honors and titles never before or since bestowed on any other American. Nevertheless, even after reading this very good history, Frederick Townsend Ward remains something of a mystery. That is not because Carr does a bad job. Quite the opposite. Carr's work is sober, balanced, and restrains from speculation until all but the end. Instead, he contextualizes Ward's life from the available documents, letters, and evidence, all of which is scant. And much of which may have disappeared over the nearly 160 years since Ward's death fighting the Taiping rebels on behalf of the Manchu emperor of China. Ward's family, says Carr, destroyed most of his letters and papers. And the Japanese during their occupation of Shanghai destroyed many documents and much evidence in China during the 1930s and 1940s. And, so, Ward remains difficult to grasp for historians. Carr has done as good a job at revealing him, however, as can be expected. I don't know if Carr has a PhD but I do know of many PhDs who can only wish they achieve this level of historical clarity and persuasion. A very good history that I will return to often in my own research.

xxstefaniereadsxx's review

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adventurous informative medium-paced

3.0

 Frederick Townsend Ward was born in Massachusetts in 1831. He was a fairly rebellious kid, and left school to serve aboard a clipper ship in 1847. He briefly returned to school, but left again to serve aboard another ship, captained by his father. He served in several capacities at sea throughout the years. He did a stint filibustering. He joined the French Army and served in the Crimean War. Eventually, he just simply turned into a mercenary. He died in China in 1862. He crammed a lot of adventure into his short thirty years, that is for sure. He has a headstone in Salem, Massachusetts, but his body is not buried there. He also has a memorial in China, but the actual whereabouts of his remains are unknown.

I have had this book on my shelves for quite a while, and finally made it around to reading it. I had never heard of Frederick Townsend Ward, nor had I known that mercenaries from the United States participated in the Taipan Rebellion. This was only very briefly covered in one of my history classes in college, so this book was very valuable to me as far as educating myself went. The research was done well, and you could tell the author had studied up on this topic and knew what he was talking about. I just discovered that this author has several more books that look very interesting, so I will probably order those. I accidently ran across this one at my local used book store for a dollar. It was actually in the Civil War section, so it was a big surprise to me that it was not a Civil War book. The events in this book did take place at the same time that the United States was going through the Civil War, so perhaps that is why it was shelved that way. At any rate, I enjoyed this book. It wasn't very long either, which is helping me meet this reading challenge this year and emptying out my TBR stack. 

meiklejohn's review

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1.0

I actually didn't finish this book; without being at all memorably bad, it just put me to sleep. Carr's fiction is much better.

e17thstreet's review

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5.0

The Devil Soldier is a biography of an American soldier of fortune, Frederick Townsend Ward, who commanded an army for the imperial Chinese government during the savage civil war known as the Taiping rebellion. As I was reading, I found Ward's story to be both exciting and inspiring; the odds that he faced were astounding, and as a result his achievements were remarkable. As one customer on Amazon wrote, "If this story were fiction it would surely be dismissed as too far-fetched to ever be believed." Regarding the man himself, it would be difficult not to like the portrait of Ward that Mr. Carr painted. In fact, I believe that I even developed some sort of affection for "the small man in the blue coat." I actually put off finishing the last chapter simply because I knew that his death was coming; it somehow felt wrong to read about this brave, determined, and energetic young man - he was only 30 years old at the time - finally being defeated.

In terms of the text, speaking as someone without any useful background knowledge of military history, it was well-written and easy to read. In saying that, in order to fully appreciate what I was reading, I did end up spending a fair bit of time searching for supplementary information on firearms and tactical manoeuvres, something that I never thought I would find myself doing. I now know more than I ever thought I would want to know about how the firing mechanisms of various muskets, pistols, and rifles work, and I understand useful tidbits like why employing "flying columns" can be an effective strategy. Along these same lines, I found the cast of characters and maps included in the book to be indispensable, although regarding the latter, I think that more detail would have been useful; there were times when a town or river was named in the text that I was unable to find on any of the maps.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed The Devil Soldier and I highly recommend it. Even if military history isn't something you normally read, leave your comfort zone and challenge yourself. This book is worth it.
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