George H. Snazelle (1848–1912)
How Bill Adams won the battle of Waterloo
London and New York: Samuel French, [1890?]
1890.7.577, pp. 6–7

Although the principal butt of Snazelle’s monologue was the tendency of some old soldiers to garble and exaggerate their stories of by-gone battles, there may have been another target of his satire. In declining to help Wellington, Admiral Lord Nelson, besides being dead, at least had the credible excuse that land fighting wasn’t in his line. The refusal of General (later Field-Marshal) Sir Garnet Wolseley, first Viscount Wolseley, to take on Napoleon would seem, if one overlooks the detail of his not being born for another eighteen years, somewhat more culpable. His unflattering portrayal here may reflect the fact that in the period when Snazelle was honing his performance, Wolseley was a figure of opprobrium among some sections of the British public on account of the failure of his expedition to relieve General Gordon at Khartoum in 1884–5.