1 At the commencement of the siege the garrison numbered twenty thousand men of all arms, and more than two hundred and fifty pieces of cannon were mounted on the works. Indeed, Tippoo’s arsenal was amply stocked with artillery—for more than six hundred pieces, in all the variety of Indian calibre, fell into the hands of the English after the capture of the place.
2 After a night attack on one of these in front of the position, from which the besiegers had been greatly annoyed by a constant discharge of musketry, a curious incident occurred while returning in the dark to the lines. Lieutenant Lambton came up, and assured the general to whose staff he was attached, that the troops, instead of marching from, were marching on the enemy. The guide, on being referred to, was obstinate in asserting that he was right, while Lambton declared that in the starlight he had clearly ascertained that instead of moving to the southward, the troops were marching directly north. Baird procured a pocket-compass—and, putting a fire-fly on the glass, ascertained that his march was erroneous, and his guide entirely astray. Fortunately, he had time to remedy the mistake—jocularly observing, that “in future he should put more faith in the stars than he had done formerly”—Hook.
3 Sir,—The breach being reported practicable, the Commander-in-Chief desires that the assault may be made this day, at one P.M.
I have the honour, &c. &c.
(Signed) Barry Close, Adjt.-Gen. &c. &c.
Head Quarters, Camp, 4th May, 1799.
4 On the 24th July, 1780, the cavalry of Hyder Aly, being within nine miles of Madras, a despatch was sent off to Colonel Bailey, who was in the Northern Circar, with a force of about three or four thousand men, to join Sir Hector Munro’s army at the mount at Madras. Most unfortunately, however, this order was subsequently changed, and Colonel Bailey was directed to proceed direct to Conjeverone. On his way to join Sir Hector Munro, he fell in with a detachment of Hyder’s army, under the command of his son Tippoo, consisting of thirty thousand cavalry, eight thousand foot, and twelve pieces of cannon. Notwithstanding the vast numerical superiority of this force over that of Colonel Bailey, considerably weakened by a mutiny in the first regiment of cavalry, which it had been found necessary to march prisoners to Madras, they were most decisively repulsed. This victory, splendid as was the achievement, was dearly bought; since, by again diminishing the effective strength of this little army, he considerably added to the dangers and difficulties of his situation. At this juncture Colonel Bailey sent off a messenger to Sir Hector Munro, informing him of the precarious state in which he found himself. In consequence, a detachment was sent to Bailey’s assistance, under the command of Colonel Fletcher, consisting of the flank companies of the 73rd, two of European grenadiers, and eleven of sepoys, making altogether about a thousand men. Dreading an attack, Colonel Fletcher avoided it by altering his line of march, and making a wide detour, which, although it added to their fatigue, insured their safety, and enabled them to join Colonel Bailey on the morning of the 9th, having, nevertheless, fallen in with Hyder’s pickets close to his position at Perambaukum. The troops of this detachment, wearied as they were, were permitted to halt only till the evening, when the whole force marched under the command of Colonel Bailey to join Sir Hector Munro. Hyder had again obtained the most correct intelligence of their movements, and taking advantage of the necessary delay in the return of this gallant body of troops, enfiladed every part of the road by which they were to march with artillery, and placed his best infantry in ambuscade at every available point. The English troops had not proceeded more than four miles, when an alarm was given that the enemy was on their flank. They immediately formed, but finding the attack was not serious, continued their march. The road lay through an avenue of banyan trees, with a jungle on either side, and upon their entrance into this road they were again attacked on their flanks by the enemy’s opening two or three guns, and commencing a fire of some musketry from the thick part of the jungle. They instantly halted, and immediately afterwards endeavoured to take the guns, but the darkness frustrated their efforts. And then it was that Colonel Bailey determined to halt till daylight; a determination at first sight incompatible with the admitted necessity of making the march by night, and which, while it not only afforded an opportunity to the enemy to draw off his cannon to another and stronger point, which the English had inevitably to pass in the morning, practically announced to Tippoo the exact position in which he had checked them, and moreover suggested to Hyder the importance of advancing, in order to take advantage of their unexpected halt. Colonel Bailey’s words, explanatory of his decision, which he addressed to Captain Baird, were, “I am determined to halt till daylight, that I may have an opportunity of seeing about me.” At daylight they accordingly recommenced their march, and as the column moved out of the avenue into the plain, a battery of eight guns opened upon it, supported by a strong body of cavalry and infantry. Bailey immediately ordered Captains Kennedy and Gowdie, with the native grenadiers, to attack them; they did so, and succeeded in taking most of the guns, and in driving back the troops who supported them. But at this moment the heads of the different columns of Hyder’s army appeared—Hyder having passed Sir Hector Munro in the night—moving down upon the line, which induced Kennedy and Gowdie immediately to call off their detachment from the captured guns to join the main body. At this juncture Bailey formed his force, consisting of little more than three thousand men, in line upon the bank of an old nullah, or watercourse, and opened his guns upon the enemy; but Hyder, too powerful an antagonist for a mere handful of men, so disposed his immense army as completely to surround him, and commenced a destructive fire upon him from his artillery in every direction. The various descriptions of this memorable and most unequal contest all agree in confirming the belief, that vast as was the disparity between the contending armies, and although Hyder had upwards of seventy pieces of cannon in the field, the day would have been won by the English if the fortune of war had not been so decidedly against them. The enemy were repeatedly and continually repulsed, their infantry gave way, while their cavalry were falling in all directions, and it is said, Hyder was only prevented from retreating by the persuasions of Colonel Lally, who represented to him that retiring would bring him in contact with Sir Hector Munro, who was in his rear; and at this moment, and while the English were actually sustaining the combined attack of Hyder and his son Tippoo, two of their tumbrils exploded, and in an instant the brave men, who were on the eve of gaining one of the most splendid victories ever achieved, were deprived of their ammunition and the services of all their artillery. In this helpless and dreadful state, under a heavy and tremendous fire of cannon and rockets, these gallant, but unfortunate soldiers, remained from half-past seven until nine o’clock. The slaughter of the British began to be tremendous, as the enemy closed in upon them on every side. Colonel Fletcher had carried off the grenadier company of the 73rd to support the rear-guard, and was never heard of more. Hyder Aly came with his whole army on their right flank, charging them with columns of horse, while the infantry kept up a heavy fire of musketry. These were followed by the elephants and Mysore cavalry, which completed the overthrow of the gallant band of heroes. In the midst of this, Colonel Bailey, wounded as he was, formed his men into a square, and without ammunition received and repulsed thirteen different attacks of the enemy’s squadrons. At length the case became evidently hopeless, and the sepoys, under Captain Lucas, having been broken and dispersed, Colonel Bailey, seeing that further resistance was vain, tied his handkerchief on his sword as a flag of truce, and ordered Captain Baird, who was now second in command, to cease firing. Hyder’s officers refused to attend to Colonel Bailey’s signal, pointing to the sepoys, who in their confusion were still continuing to fire; this, however, being explained, they agreed to give quarter, and Colonel Bailey directed Captain Baird to order his men to ground their arms. The order was of course obeyed, and the instant it was so, the enemy’s cavalry, commanded by Tippoo Saib in person, rushed upon the unarmed troops before they could recover themselves, cutting down every man within their reach.—Abridged from Hook’s “Life of Baird.”
5 “During this period, Hyder sent some of his principal officers to induce the English to enter his service. He offered them three times as much pay as they received in our army, and as many horses, palanquins, and wives as they chose.”—Life of Sir David Baird.
6 He ordered his personal servants to load the carbines which they carried for his own use, and hastened along the ramparts towards the breach. He repeatedly fired; and one of his servants saw him bring down several Europeans near the top of the breach.
7 A number of the garrison escaped by uniting their turbans, and lowering themselves from the bastions. This precarious means of escape occasionally failed, and many were found at the base of the walls, maimed or killed from the attempt.
8 When the Sultaun left the palace he was dressed in a light-coloured jacket, wide trousers of fine flowered silk, a sash of dark-red silky stuff, and a turban with one or two distinguishing ornaments. He wore his sword in a rich belt slung over his shoulder, and a small cartridge-box hung to another embroidered belt thrown over his left shoulder; the talisman was fastened under his jacket on his right arm.
9 It is a curious circumstance, that the expression of the features after death, when inspected on a field of battle, will generally tell the means by which life was extinguished. From sword and bayonet wounds, the features present a calm appearance; while those of persons who have perished by musketry or cannon-shot are always distorted and convulsed.
10 The ruler of Mysore was of low stature, corpulent, with high shoulders, and a short thick neck; but his feet and hands were remarkably small. His complexion was rather dark, his eyes large and prominent, with small arched eyebrows, and an aquiline nose. He had an appearance of dignity, or rather sternness, in his countenance, which distinguished him above the common order of his people. When examined after death, he had four wounds—three in the body, and one in the temple; the ball having entered a little above the right ear, and lodging in the cheek.—Narrative by Major Allen.
11 Two British officers, attached to the Bombay army, were killed in camp that evening by lightning.
12 Sleep after a battle is most welcome; but Baird and his staff were speedily disturbed, and it was communicated to the general that the city was on fire, and outrages were being committed, which he took immediate means to remedy. Having again composed himself to rest, a new alarm disturbed him. “The treasury of Tippoo had been forced, and the soldiers were actually loading themselves with gold.”
It was true. The door generally used was securely guarded; but another had been discovered, and by that the plunderers had obtained access to the treasure. Colonel Wallace found the place crowded with soldiers and one officer, all busily employed in pocketing gold and jewel. The individual who disgraced his rank is dead; and Baird, as it is supposed, out of respect to his family, kept his name a secret.
13 Macleod.
14 Official statement of Captain Macleod.
15 Baird’s despatch to Harris.
16 Dirom’s Campaign.
17 Above one hundred pieces of artillery were taken at Assaye, and thirty-eight were captured at Argaum.
18 Wilson.
19 “It may be a question why the army did not sail direct to Egypt, and the event justifies the supposition that it would have experienced less resistance, since L’Egyptienne, Justice, Régénérée, and Lodi, which carried out important succours of troops and ammunition, had not at that time got into Alexandria.”—Wilson’s Expedition to Egypt.
20 “The animals were naturally bad, and in such a shocking state as to make the dragoons feel humiliation in being ordered to take charge of them. Every commanding officer solicited rather to serve with his corps as infantry; but the nature of the service the army was about to be employed on rendered even such more desirable than none. Out of several hundred horses, two hundred were left for the cavalry, fifty for the artillery, and the remainder shot, or sold for a dollar apiece.”—Wilson’s Expedition.
EFFECTIVE STRENGTH OF THE EGYPTIAN ARMY.
Guards, Major-General Ludlow.
1st, or Royals, 2nd battalions 54th and 92nd, Major-General Coote.
8th, 13th, 90th, Major-General Craddock.
2nd, or Queen’s, 50th, 79th, Major-General Lord Cavan.
18th, 30th, 44th, 89th, Brigadier-General Doyle.
Minorca, De Rolde’s, Dillon’s, Major-General Stuart.
RESERVE.
40th, Flank Company, 23rd, 28th, 42nd, 58th, Corsican Rangers, Major-General Moore.
Detachment 11th Dragoons, 12th Dragoons, 26th Dragoons, Brigadier-General Finch.
Artillery and Prince’s, Brigadier-General Lawson.
22 The men-of-war brought up exactly in the place where the battle of the Nile was fought, the Foudroyant chafing her cables on the wreck of the French admiral’s ship. The anchor of the L’Orient was crept for and recovered.
23 On the morning of the 2nd of March, a frigate was seen standing into Alexandria. Pursuit was unavailing; she reached the harbour, and hoisting French colours, proved unequivocally her nation. It will scarcely be credited that a French frigate, finding herself unexpectedly in the midst of an English fleet, should have been so capable directly to disguise herself, as to continue unsuspected on her course with it, which she did the whole day before, answering the various signals made, and yet never attracted the smallest suspicion; nevertheless it is a fact, and must remain on record as an honourable anecdote to the credit of the French captain of the Régénérée. During the night, a brig, the Lodi, also entered, but which was not then known.—Wilson.
24 “A bullet which grazes four or five times, as it does on water, will be much more likely to do execution than a direct shot; which may either strike short of the mark, and in the next bound pass far beyond it, or go over without touching at all.”—Carnot.
25 “There exists, in fact, but little or no difference between the force of shot fired from a practicable elevation and that fired from a field-piece on a dead level. It is well known to military men, that artillery, firing from an elevated situation on bodies of troops, is less destructive than when firing on nearly the same level. In the former case, the shot can hardly hit more than one or two men; whereas it has been ascertained, that one single horizontal or rezant shot has killed forty-two when formed in close column.”—Carnot.
26 “Whilst Sir Ralph Abercrombie reconnoitred, the army continued under the most terrible and destructive fire from the enemy’s guns to which troops were ever exposed.” This is Sir Robert Wilson’s statement. Surely, were it necessary to reconnoitre, the troops should have been sheltered from a fire to which, without any possible object, they were uselessly exposed. The truth is, the Peninsular campaign first taught England the art of modern war—and made her army, at its termination, officers and men, the first in Europe.
27 “Happy would it have been, however, if the army had never advanced beyond the first captured position—as far as that it had gloriously triumphed. The loss which it had sustained was inconsiderable; but it was a fatal movement which brought it so entirely within cannon-shot of the second position, and where it was halted so long. If, instead of finally abandoning so important an object, part of the army had been marched to the left, obliquely over the ground which lay between Lake Maadie and Lake Mariotes, subsequently inundated, and then formed to the right, when the left reached the turn of Pompey’s Pillar, then attacking the south front of the position, whilst the right of the eastern front was attacked at the same time, no doubt can now exist of its having been easily carried and most probably the town of Alexandria. Old and new forts Cretin and Caffarelli could have opposed but little resistance; and if they had held out, must have surrendered long before the arrival of General Menou.”—Wilson.
28 “The 13th regiment dug into an aqueduct of running fresh water, well arched over, but the source or outlet of which was never ascertained. The Arabs themselves could give no information, and seemed lost in astonishment when regarding this valuable discovery.”—Wilson.
29 A curious incident occurred immediately afterwards. An aid-de-camp of General Craddock, in carrying orders, had his horse killed, and begged permission of Sir Sydney Smith to mount a horse belonging to his orderly dragoon. As Sir Sydney was turning round to give the order to dismount, a cannon-shot took off the poor fellow’s head. “This,” said the Admiral, “settles the question; Major, the horse is at your service.”
30 Flèche, in field fortification, is a work with two faces, generally used to cover the quarter guards of a camp, or any advanced post, as a tête de pont, &c.
31 Echelon, in military parlance, is the movement of companies or regiments, when each division follows that which preceded it, like the steps of a ladder. It is employed when changing from a direct to an oblique or diagonal formation. The oblique changes are produced by the wheel, less than the quarter circle of division, from line; the direct are effected by a perpendicular and successive march of divisions from line to front or rear.
32 Wilson.
33 The pain attendant upon wounds is very uncertain, and depends chiefly on the means by which they have been inflicted. It is said, “that a wound from a grape-shot is less quietly borne than a wound from round-shot or musketry. The latter is seldom known in the night, except from the falling of the individual; whereas the former not unfrequently draws forth loud lamentations.”—Leith Hay.
34 In a sandy soil the decomposition of animal matter proceeds slowly. On the landing of the Capitan Pasha in the bay of Aboukir, his army encamped on the beach, near the place where four thousand Turks had formerly perished. They had been interred upon the plain where they had fallen, but, although two years had elapsed, the corruption of the battle-field was intolerable; every hoof-mark baring a corpse in partial putridity, while the clothes remained perfectly entire.
35 One gun, an Austrian eight-pounder, was lying dismounted in front of the redoubt. In the darkness of the morning it had been too far advanced, and a round of grape from an English twenty-four pounder in battery, had annihilated the men attached to it, and killed the four horses.
The colours bore most honourable inscriptions:—“Le Passage de la Serivia; Le Passage du Tagliamento; Le Passage de l’Isonzo, Le Prise de Graz, Le Pont de Lodi.”
36 The body was conveyed to Malta in a frigate, and buried in the north-east bastion of Valetta. A black marble slab, with a Latin inscription, marks the place where the ashes of the brave old commander are deposited.
37 Life of Sir David Baird.
38 “It is utterly impossible to convey to your lordship an adequate idea of the obstacles which opposed the advance and retarded the success of our army.
“A deep, heavy, and dry sand, covered with shrubs, scarcely pervious by light bodies of infantry; and above all, the total privation of water, under the effect of a burning sun, had nearly exhausted our gallant fellows in the moment of victory; and with the greatest difficulty were we able to reach Reit Valley, where we took up our position for the night.”—Baird’s Despatches.
39 The parapet is a part of the rampart elevated six or seven feet above the rest, to cover the troops from fire.
The banquette is four feet lower than the parapet, and two or three higher than the rampart. It is the platform from which musketry is discharged, with the least possible exposure to the soldiers from the fire of the besiegers.
40 Afterwards, General Ross of Bladensburgh.
41 Manhes, steadfast in his purpose, and closing his ears to pity, became, by the severity of his measures and the novelty of his punishments, the terror of the Calabrese. He was never known to relax from love of gain; and it is but just towards his character to state, that individual interests were never considered in his proscriptions. Faithful to the views of Murat, he accomplished by persevering activity in less than six months what others had only begun in six years.
Manhes, after having ascertained, commune by commune, the number of wandering brigands, suspended all labour throughout the country. The workmen and their cattle were collected in the villages under protection of the regular troops, and the punishment of death was decreed against any individual found in the country with provisions, unless belonging to the armed columns.
The principal possessors of property received orders to arm and march against the brigands, and were made answerable, number for number, and head for head, not to return to their homes without bringing with them, dead or alive, the brigands of their respective communes.
Pursued by famine and the bayonets of their enemies, the greater number of the fugitives sold their lives dearly. The remainder of these unfortunate creatures, reduced to the last extremity, preferred a certain but immediate death, to the sharp and protracted sufferings of fear and famine. A prodigious number of them were shot. The heads and limbs of the condemned were, after their execution, fixed on pikes, and the road from Reggio to Naples was garnished with these disgusting trophies.
The river Crati, upon the banks of which a crowd of these victims was executed, and which is very shallow at Cozenza, presented for a long time the disgusting spectacle of their mutilated bodies.
The following anecdotes show the determined spirit that animated the leaders of the band.
“Parafanti could not be secured till dead with a hundred wounds. Perched on the ledge of a rock, which afforded him a certain degree of protection, his thighs fractured but his arms free, he sacrificed many to his vengeance. Not one of his discharges failed of effect. His head was exposed at Rogliano, his birth-place.
“Another, who had taken refuge in a mill, set it on fire himself, with his last cartridge, to prevent his being taken alive.
“Nierello was assassinated on the road of Nicastro by one of the civic guard, who pretended to surrender himself to him.
“Paonese, the terror of the environs of Gasparena and of Montanio, fell a sacrifice to the columns of Manhes—and Masotta, Mescio, Giacinto, and Antonio, with many others, shared the same fate.
“Murat was not, like his predecessor, lavish of amnesties; nevertheless, he authorized some; and it was observed that the brigand chiefs who took advantage of them became the most formidable and bitter persecutors of those in whose dangers and whose crimes they had participated.
“Benincasa, chief of the band of St. Braggio, fleeing with four companions from a French detachment, was stopped by the swelling of the river Angitola; they tried to effect their passage on a bullock-car, which, however, was stopped in the middle of the current. To a summons to surrender, they only returned discharges of their muskets. At last, after a long and desperate resistance, being all wounded, and having expended their ammunition, they mutually assisted each other in falling into the river, where their mangled bodies were afterwards found.
“A brigand chief, of the band of Foggia, was condemned to have his wrist severed. The executioner having failed in the first blow, the sufferer begged to be permitted to do it himself. He coolly cut off his hand at one blow, and turning to the executioner, said, ‘Endeavour to learn your trade better.’”—Memoir of Stuart’s Campaign in Calabria.
42 Campaign in Calabria.
43 It is scarcely conceivable how much the effect of artillery depends on the position of the guns, and the accuracy with which they are pointed. One gun, well placed and skilfully served, has been known to do more execution than one hundred when laid in an unfavourable situation. This was most strikingly illustrated in an attack made by Sir Sydney Smith on a martello tower, armed with two heavy guns, and situated on the extremity of Cape Licosa.
The Pompée, of eighty guns, and two frigates, anchored within eight hundred yards of the battery, and opened their broadsides. Their fire was kept up with unremitting fury, until their ammunition failed, and many of the guns had become unserviceable. The battery returned the fire slowly—but every shot took effect. The Pompée was the only object of its fire, and she was at last completely crippled, and obliged to haul off with the loss of her mizen-top-mast, and nearly forty men killed and wounded. Almost every shot had hulled her—while the concentrated fire from three men-of-war had failed entirely in silencing the French cannonnade.
On the tower being afterwards surrendered, it appeared that the carriage of one of the guns had been disabled by the second shot, and subsequently that it had been fired as it lay on the sill of the embrasure,—so that, in point of fact, the batteries of the Pompée and her consorts had been unable to overpower the fire of a single gun, and the opposition of a garrison, consisting of one officer and twenty-five soldiers.
44 Campaign in Calabria.
45 Life of Sir John Moore.
46 “At this time, also, that system of warfare began, which soon extended through Spain, and occasioned greater losses to the French than they suffered in all their pitched battles. The first adventurers attracted notice by collecting stragglers from their own dispersed armies, deserters from the enemy, and men who, made desperate by the ruin of their private affairs in the general wreck, were ready for any service in which they could at the same time gratify their just vengeance and find subsistence.” Southey.—
47 Marquis of Londonderry.
48 Written as frequently De La borde.
49 Portuguese light infantry.
CASUALTIES AT ROLICA:—
Killed, 70; wounded, 335; missing, 74; total, 479.—Wellington’s Despatches.
51 Guthrie.
CASUALTIES AT VIMIERO:—
Killed, 135; wounded, 534; missing, 51; total, 720.—Wellington’s Despatches.
53 Within twelve months from the commencement of the war she sent over to the Spanish armies (besides 2,000,000l.) 150 pieces of field artillery, 42,000 rounds of ammunition, 200,000 muskets, 61,000 swords, 79,000 pikes, 23,000,000 ball cartridges, 6,000,000 leaden balls, 15,000 barrels of gunpowder, 92,000 suits of clothing, 356,000 sets of accoutrements and pouches, 310,000 pairs of shoes, 37,000 pairs of boots, 40,000 tents, 250,000 yards of cloth, 10,000 sets of camp equipage, 118,000 yards of linen, 50,000 great coats, 50,000 canteens, 54,000 havresacks, with a variety of other stores, far too numerous to be recapitulated.—Jones’s Account of the War.
54 “The British General advanced unaided by or in communication with any Spanish force, except the remains of the army of the left, under the Marquis de la Romana, who continued to occupy Leon with that weak and inefficient force;—this, with about five thousand Asturian recruits under General Ballisteros, that had not yet been engaged, being the only Spanish force now in the field in the whole north of Spain. Sir John Moore had no friendly corps to protect his flanks—no reinforcements to expect. He commanded an army brilliant in appearance, yet weak in numerical strength; but upon that, and that alone, was dependence to be placed for the successful result of a very bold advance.”—Lord Londonderry.
55 The situation of the several corps of the French army, when Sir John Moore advanced from Salamanca, was as follows:—The Duke of Dalmatia at Sahagun, Saldanha, and the villages in that neighbourhood on the river Carion; Marshal the Duke of Treviso moving upon Zaragosa; the Duke of Abrantes with eight corps at Vittoria; Marshal Lefebre with the fourth corps beyond the Guadarama; Marshal Lasnes upon the Ebro; and the Emperor, with the Imperial Guard, and the first and sixth corps d’armée at Madrid.
56 “The Bivouac.”
57 “Early next day our sufferings opened with the crossing of the Esla. The river was already rising, and one huge and ill-constructed ferry-boat was the only means by which to pass over a whole division, its baggage, and its camp followers. The waters were increasing, the rain fell in torrents, the east wind blew with cutting violence, mules kicked, men cursed, and women screamed; all, in short, was noise and disorder. Fortunately, a contiguous ford was declared practicable. The infantry and their equipages passed safely; and before the flood rose so high as to bar their passage, the whole column were safe upon the right bank.”—The Bivouac.
58 “The difficulties were such, that the artillery preceding the column of infantry gave up the point, and were returning down the southern ascent of the Guadarama mountain when met by the Emperor. This retrograde movement was occasioned by the increased violence of a hurricane blowing hail and snow with, it was considered, resistless force. In addition to the report of his officers, the Spanish peasants declared the passage to be attended with the greatest danger.
“Napoleon ordered his troops to follow him, and immediately proceeded to place himself at the head of the column. Accompanied by the chasseurs à cheval of the guard, he passed through the ranks of the infantry, then formed the chasseurs in close column, occupying the entire width of the road; then, dismounting from his horse, and directing the rear of the leading half squadron, the whole moved forward. The men, by being dismounted, were, with the exception of those immediately in front, more sheltered from the storm, while the dense mass trod down the snow, and left a beaten track for the infantry, who, no longer obstructed in the same degree, and inspired by the presence as well as the example of Napoleon, pushed forward, and the whole descended to Espinar.”—Leith Hay.
59 This sketch of Moore by Lord Londonderry displays his character in all its valuable and defective lights, as an officer, so strongly, that no minuter description probably could exceed it in point, and none certainly in fidelity.
60 “A few were got away, but many were so tired and lame from sore feet that they did not care if the French sabres and bayonets were at their breast, so completely did most of them give themselves up to despair. The rear-guard was at length forced to retire and leave these unfortunate people to their fate. Some of these poor fellows who had thought better of it, and were endeavouring to overtake their countrymen, were unmercifully sabred by the French cavalry, many of them in a defenceless state.
“One of the handsomest men in the grenadier company, of the name of M’Gee, was coming along the road lame from an accident, his firelock and pack having been taken by his messmates to enable him to keep up; he was, however, overtaken by two French dragoons, and, although unarmed and helpless, was inhumanly cut to pieces almost within sight.”—Cadell.
61 “Under these circumstances Sir John Moore decided that the whole should be thrown down the mountain; most judiciously considering, that if the casks were broken the men would make a rush for the money, which would have caused great confusion, and might have cost the lives of many. The rear-guard, therefore, was halted; Lieutenant Bennet, of the light company 28th regiment, was placed over the money, with strict orders from Sir John Moore to shoot the first person who attempted to touch it. It was then rolled over the precipice, the casks were soon broken by the rugged rocks, and the dollars falling out, rolled over the height a sparkling cascade of silver. The French advanced guard coming up shortly after to the spot, were detained for a time picking up a few dollars that had been scattered on the road.”—Cadell.
62 Leith Hay.
63 “The Bivouac.”
64 “We bivouacked on the heights above Betanzos. Here we met with a God-send for the night. Just as we had taken up our ground we found a number of waggons laden with dry bullocks’-skins, on their way to Corunna; we made beds of some and covering of others, which gave us for once a dry sleep.”—Cadell.
65 “The French were in as great a panic as we were, their army was under arms, and aides-de-camp flying in all directions. In a short time every thing was quiet, but a shower of white ashes began to fall, and continued for some time afterwards.”—Cadell.
66 Leith Hay.
67 In this charge the regiment lost both its majors; one being killed, and the other wounded and taken prisoner.
68 “The embarkation going forward had none of the exhilaration attending an operation naturally accompanied with so much activity, life, and spirit; all seemed sombre and depressed; we were flying from the land, which was left in the undisturbed possession of troops vanquished on the preceding day, but now preparing to fire the last taunting discharges against soldiers, whom fortune appeared to have frowned upon, even in victory.”—Leith Hay.
MEMORIALS OF SIR JOHN MOORE.
The following simple inscriptions are the only memorials which as yet have marked the field of Corunna, or the grave of the departed general:—
A la Gloria
del
Exmo Sr D. Juan Moore, Genl del Exto Ingleso,
Y a la de sus valientes compatriotas,
la
España agradecida.
On the other side,—
Batalla de Coruña a 16 de Enero,
Año 1809.
Marshal Soult also ordered the following inscription to be engraved upon a rock near the spot where Sir John Moore fell:—
Hìc cecidit Johannes Moore, Dux Exercitus,
In pugnâ Januarii xvi. 1809,
Contra Gallos, à Duce Dalmatiæ ductos.