A UNIQUE account of what life was like for soldiers fighting to keep America as a British colony has been rediscovered near Swindon.

The 230-year-old handwritten diary was penned during the American War of Independence by General Sir William Howe.

Until recently it had been buried and forgotten among a pile of historical papers on a shelf at the Joint Services College at Shrivenham.

Now it has been found and because of its national importance given to the Public Records Office at Kew in London.

College head librarian Chris Hobson said: "It is clearly very old and at first we thought it might have been a copy made at the time the General wrote his diary, but it is now with the PRO and they obviously think it is an important document."

Sir William was Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in America during the War of Independence. He wrote the diary between May and October 1776 and it includes mentions of his successes in capturing Long Island and New York.

It also tells how he had problems controlling his drunken men and stopping them from going on the rampage. In one passage he describes how "the utmost exertion of officers will be required to put a stop to the scandalous drunkenness which of late has been too prevalent among the soldiers".

Wayward soldiers were threatened with several hundred lashes for "marauding", and execution if they deserted.

But after the capture of Long Island he wrote how he was "thoroughly sensible of the very distinguished behaviour of all the troops that defeated the enemy".

And before the attack on New York, the diary records how "the general recommends to the troops an entire dependence on their bayonets with which they will ever command that success their bravery so well deserves".

General Howe also defeated the Continental Army at White Plains and George Washington's army at the Battle of Brandywine in 1777.

He resigned in 1778, saying he had not been supported by the Government back home in Britain, and he was succeeded by Sir Henry Clinton.