I love this series of books by George Macdonald Fraser about Harry Flashman, a Victorian lecher and cad who was also Her Majesty's most decorated war hero, (her earned his medals by running like hell but most people never knew that).
His adventures were based on real life 19th century occurences like the First Afghan War, The 1857 Indian Mutiny, The Crimean War and the Taiping Rebellion where he met real life miltary and political figures from that era.
Check him out on Wikipedia