Wellington's Operations in the Peninsula (1808-1814)T. F. Unwin, 1904 - Peninsular War, 1807-1814 |
Common terms and phrases
1st Batt 1st Division 2nd Division 3rd Division 7th Division Adour advance Agueda Alicante Allies Alten Andalusia Army of Portugal arrival Artillery attack Badajoz battalions batteries battle Bayonne Beresford Bidassoa blockade bridge British Commander Burgos Caçadores Cadiz captured Catalonia Cavalry Cavalry Brigade centre Ciudad Rodrigo Clausel Colonel column concentrated Corps crossed D'Armagnac D'Erlon despatch detachment Dragoons Duero enemy enemy's flank force fortress France French Army Galicia garrison Graham Guadiana Guards guns Hill Hill's Hussars Infantry Jean Pied join King Light Division Lord Wellington Madrid Major-General Maransin Marmont Marshal Maucune miles Morillo mountain Napier Napoleon Nive numbers occupied officers operations orders Pampeluna Partidas Picton Pied de Port Portugal Portuguese Portuguese Brigade position reached rear Regiment Reille reinforced retired retreat right bank river road Roncevalles Salamanca San Sebastian siege soldiers Soult Spain Spaniards Spanish Suchet Tagus Tarragona Tormes troops Valencia Valladolid valley village Villatte Vitoria wounded
Popular passages
Page 502 - When the extent of the night's havoc was made known to lord Wellington, the firmness of his nature gave way for a moment, and the pride of conquest yielded to a passionate burst of grief for the loss of his gallant soldiers.
Page 684 - Behind them was the plain in which the city stood, and beyond the city, thousands of carriages and animals and non-combatants, men women and children, were crowding together, in all the madness of terror, and as the English shot went booming over head the vast crowd started and swerved with a convulsive movement, while a dull and horrid sound of distress arose ; but there was no hope, no stay for army or multitude.
Page 760 - Spanish nation with you, and will bring the government to their senses, and you will put an end at once to all the petty cabals and counter-action existing at the present moment, and you will not be under the necessity of bringing matters to extremities ; if you take any other than a decided line and one which in its consequences will involve them in ruin you may depend upon it you will gain nothing and will only make matters worse. I recommend these measures whatever may be the decision respecting...
Page 764 - France and that it preponderated in the south, what mischief would not an advance to the Garonne do Napoleon ! What sacrifices would he not make to get rid of the danger !" " It was for the government not for him to dispose of the nation's...
Page 713 - We overlooked the enemy at stone's throw, and from the summit of a tremendous precipice. The river separated us. but the French were wedged in a narrow road with inaccessible rocks on one side and the river on the other.
Page 501 - Let him consider that the slain died not all suddenly, nor by one manner of death ; that some perished by steel, some by shot, some by water; that some were crushed and mangled by heavy weights, some trampled upon, some dashed to atoms by the fiery explosions; that for hours this destruction was endured without shrinking, and that the town was won at last; let any man consider this, and he must admit that a British army bears with it an awful power.
Page 620 - Yet the necessity for retreat existing, none was ever made in which the troops made such short marches ; none on which they made such long and repeated halts ; and none in which the retreating armies were so little pressed on their rear by the enemy.
Page 692 - The fact is, that, if discipline means habits of obedience to orders, as well as military instruction, we have but little of it in the army. Nobody ever thinks of obeying an order...
Page 619 - ... but I am concerned to have to observe that the army under my command has fallen off in this respect in the late campaign to a greater degree than any army with which I have ever served, or of which I have ever read.
Page 622 - I have frequently observed and lamented in the late campaign, the facility and celerity with which the French soldiers cooked, in comparison with those of our army. " The cause of this disadvantage is the same with that of every other description, the want of attention of the officers to the orders of the army, and to the conduct of their men, and the consequent want of authority over their conduct.