Description:
This book presents the diary of Captain Thomas Douglas Whitcombe, a young English gunnery officer who in 1827 participated as a volunteer in an expedition to relieve the Turkish siege of the Acropolis of Athens. Covering the period from winter 1826 to late summer 1827, the journal gives an eyewitness account of the actions of the Greek Army and its corps of European volunteers, including those known as the Philhellenes, and a view of the culture and society of Greece in the early 19th century. An introduction provides historical background for the Greek Revolution, a comparative analysis of existing published accounts of the 1827 expedition, and notes on the author and his manuscript. Three appendixes complement the journal, they present details of Whitcombe's family, the recollections of Whitcombe's daughter (with notes by Eliot), and biographical sketches of the European volunteers who served in the 1827 campaign.