CHAPTER XV. CAMPAIGN OF THE BRITISH ARMY UNDER SIR JOHN MOORE. reproaches letin. Madrid, In all the bulletins and proclamations of Buona- 1808. parte the English were held up to the Spaniards Buonaparte for indignation and contempt: they were a people, and insults he said, who fomented war every where, and dis- the English. tributed arms like poison, but who shed their 14th Bulown blood only for their own direct interest. At this time it is probable that he sincerely despised Gazeta de the English as a military nation. Can any thing Dec. 18. be more ridiculous, it was asked, than that England should pretend to struggle with her land Do. Dec. 24. forces against France? she will realize the fable of the frog swelling itself to rival the ox, till it burst. "The day," said Buonaparte, "wherein we succeed in seeing these English will be a day of jubilee for the French army. Oh, that they may dye with their blood this continent, which they have desolated with their intrigues, their monopolies, and their frightful selfishness! Oh, that they might be met with to the number of 80,000 or 100,000 men instead of 20,000! that English mothers might feel the evils of war, and the English government cease to sport with the 14th Bullives and blood of the continental nations. All the evils, all the plagues, which can afflict the letin. VOL. II. H H letin. 12th Bul XV. 1808. CHAP. human race, come from London." He represented the Spaniards as complaining that the English had given them arms, powder, and clothing, but had sent troops only to excite 14th Bul- them, lead them astray, and forsake them in the hour of danger, when 40,000 British at Espinosa or Tudela might have balanced the fortune of the war... That number of British troops would at either place have turned it. letin. The British army from enters Spain. Great Britain possessed at that time men, means, and generals equal to any service; but the nation did not yet understand its own strength, nor had the government yet learnt either to direct it wisely, or to make exertions commensurate to the end whereat they aimed. The lessons which books and history might teach had been neglected, and experience therefore was to be purchased at a heavy price. As soon as the campaign in Portugal was ended, Portugal Sir Hew Dalrymple began to prepare for entering Spain: on the 6th of October Sir John Moore received his appointment to the command; the preparations meantime had not been relaxed, and in eight days afterward part of the troops were in motion. Difficulties and doubts had occurred at the very outset. The infantry were to go either by sea or land at the Commander's discretion; the voyage at that season was thought too precarious; and the Junta represented, that if they went by sea, half the army would be unable to leave the coast for want of necessaries, there being scarcely means at Coruña for forwarding XV. 1808. 10,000 men who were to land there under Sir CHAP. David Baird, and join the Commander wherever he should appoint. The land-journey therefore having been chosen, the Spanish CommissaryGeneral was consulted concerning the means of subsisting the army on the great road by Elvas; but the quantity of meat which was required astonished him; and he computed that in three months all the oxen in the country would be consumed, and very few hogs left. There was no want of food in the north of Portugal, but it was said that artillery could not be transported across the mountains. British officers were sent to examine the roads, and they confirmed this assertion of the natives. It was ascertained when too late, that bad as the ways were, they were practicable for cannon; but in consequence of this error, it was deemed necessary to divide the army, and this led to serious evils. General Hope, with the artillery, cavalry, and four regiments of foot, was to go by the Madrid road; General Paget, with two brigades, by Elvas and Alcantara. The rest of the army moved through Almeida; two brigades, under General Beresford, by way of Coimbra; three, under General Fraser, by Abrantes, crossing the Tagus there, and recrossing at Villa Velha,..a point which, in former wars, has been considered the key to Lisbon. These were to unite at Salamanca, and General Hope and Sir David Baird to join them either there or at Valladolid. If the people of England had been required to XV. 1808. Former Sir John CHAP. name the general who should be employed on this important occasion, Sir John Moore would certainly have been their choice, so generally was he respected as an officer and as a man. He was born at Glasgow in 1760. From the eighteenth to the twenty-third year of his age he was on the continent with his father (a physician and a distinguished man of letters, then travelling with the young Duke of Hamilton), and soon afterwards rose to the rank of Lieu His care to maintain tenant-Colonel in the army. He served with distinction in Corsica, the West Indies, the Helder expedition, and in Egypt; had often been wounded, and given proofs of professional skill as well as of personal gallantry, for he was fond of his profession, and had studied it well. But the constitution of his mind led him to look at the dark rather than the hopeful aspect of things; and it was his farther misfortune to have imbibed that exaggerated opinion of the French as a military people, the ability of their Generals, and the consummate wisdom of their Emperor, which the enemies of government in England were always labouring to produce, for the purpose of humbling the spirit of their country. Before the troops began their march Sir John discipline. Moore warned them in his general orders that the Spaniards were a grave, orderly people, extremely sober, but generous, and easily offended by any insult or disrespect; he exhorted them to accommodate themselves to these manners, to meet XV. 1808. with equal kindness the cordiality wherewith CHAP. they would be received, and not shock by their intemperance a people worthy of their attachment, whose efforts they were come to support in the most glorious cause. His resolution to maintain order and proper discipline was farther evinced by punishing a marauder upon the march with death: the offender was one whose character gave no hope of amendment, and the General took that opportunity of declaring his determination to show no mercy to plunderers or marauders, in other words, to thieves and villains. Farther to gratify the Spaniards, the army, upon entering Spain, were ordered to wear the red cockade in addition to their own. rives at Sa On Nov. 13, Sir John arrived with his advanced Ill prospect of affairs guard at Salamanca. Before he entered the city, when he arhe learnt the defeat of the Extremaduran army lamanca. at Burgos, and on the second night after his arrival, was awakened by an express, with news that the French had possession of Valladolid,.. twenty leagues distant. He had only three brigades of infantry with him, and not a single gun. His first thought was to fall back upon Ciudad Rodrigo; but he soon learnt that the French had retired to Palencia, and that none of their infantry had advanced beyond Burgos: he therefore sent orders to Generals Baird and Hope, to concentrate their divisions, and join him with all speed. Every day now brought with it intelligence of new disasters. Blake's army was dispersed, and Buonaparte might either turn his force against Castaños, or march against the |