Ah, Artbrooks - a fellow G MacD F enthusiast! Hurrah. I used to correspond with him about inaccuracies - particularly in Flashman In The Great Game where he recalls absently-mindedly humming Widdecombe Fair in barracks while disguised as a trooper of Native Cavalry on eve of Indian Mutiny 1857; & I pointed out that the Baring-Gould version which he obviously had in mind wasn't pub'd till 1891 — & he replied charmingly, as he always did, "Oh dear, that old fool Flashman misremembering again & I failed to pick it up in my editing!"

I think it a tragedy that he died before getting to the American Civil War so that we might find out at last how Harry Flashman contrived to fight on both sides and hold commissions in both armies. But perhaps that was policy on Fraser's part - just his little joke to keep us guessing!

I will refresh the Bless em all thread for you — I think you might find my observations, which come last of all, of interest.