Rifleman Dodd

Rifleman Dodd is an excellent novel about the French-Portages war that was started by Napoleon in 1807. It’s a Historic fictional novel about an English rifleman from the 95th rifle brigade that was unfortunately separated from his unit. The book takes the reader through the missions he finds on his way back to his unit.
His travels back to the 95th are cluttered with quick thinking tactical situations evading and killing the French as he leads portages natives in tormenting the French who eventually retreat from the war. Dodd used his English rifle which was superior to the French musket to pick off Frenchmen from over a hundred yards and was untouched by the poor marksmanship and inferior technology of the French. He leads groups of local men (who obviously were not too happy with the French either) against the Emperors army. The book is full of Good examples of leadership and battle tactics.

One of my favorite aspects of this book was the big picture it gave along with the individual efforts of Rifleman Matthew Dodd in constant skirmishes with French units. The book gave the reader a perspective from both the French perspective and from the eyes of Dodd. As well as taking narrative breaks to explain what was happening with the overall French and English efforts in the war. This allows the reader to see the overall effects of Dodd’s actions as far as the major war effort and how much effect a single man can have in the will of an opposing nation. I liked the vision the book portrayed about other reasons wars are won. In the end The French retreat in part to the actions of Dodd but, in the end basically the French war machine ran out of resources, rations and the will to press on.

The book was short sweet and kept my interest. The USMC thought this book was something beneficial for young and prospective officers and I hope the lessons will help me out in a few weeks when I show up for OCS in Quantico. It was enjoyable and while a relaxing and entertaining