The Military Adventures of Charles O'Neil Who was a Soldier in the Army of Lord Wellington during the Memorable Peninsular War and the Continental Campaigns from 1811 to 1815

16 January 1809

Battle of Corunna

CHAPTER II.

Origin of the War in the Peninsula.--Siege of Saragossa.--Murderous Character of the War.--Success of the French in Portugal.--Battle of Rolica.--Battle of Vimiero.--Convention of Cintra.--The French evacuate Portugal.--Preparations of Napoleon for another Campaign.--He subdues the Country, and enters Madrid.--Address to the Spanish People.--Napoleon recalled by the War with Austria.--Soult and Ney intrusted with the Command of the French Army in Spain.--Retreat of Sir John Moore.--Battle of Corunna.--Death of Sir John Moore.--The British Army sail for England, 50

CHAPTER II.

Origin of the War in the Peninsula.--Siege of Saragossa.--Murderous Character of the War.--Success of the French in Portugal.--Battle of Rolica.--Battle of Vimiero.--Convention of Cintra.--The French evacuate Portugal.--Preparations of Napoleon for another Campaign.--He subdues the Country, and enters Madrid.--Address to the Spanish People.--Napoleon recalled by the War with Austria.--Soult and Ney intrusted with the Command of the French Army in Spain.--Retreat of Sir John Moore.--Battle of Corunna.--Death of Sir John Moore.--The British Army sail for England.

CHAPTER II.

Sir David Baird, with a force of ten thousand men, landed at Corunna, and also advanced to the contest; but they soon found that they were to meet an enemy with whom they were little able to cope.

CHAPTER II.

He also endeavored to send despatches to Sir David Baird, directing him to Corunna, instead of Vigo; but his messenger became drunk and lost his despatches, and this act cost the lives of more than four hundred men, besides a vast amount of suffering to the rest of the army.

5–6 July 1809

Battle of Wagram

CHAPTER VII.

These four years thus spent to me were days of quiet, unmarked by aught that would interest my readers; but four years more eventful, more fraught with heavy consequences of good or ill to Europe, have seldom--perhaps never--been numbered in her eventful history. The victorious banners of France were waving on every battle-field on the continent. Wagram and Jena, Austerlitz and Friedland, echoed back the glory of the conqueror’s name; and kings and emperors, in whose veins flowed the blood of the Cæsars, had esteemed it an honor to claim alliance with the plebeian child of Corsica. But the Russian bear and the English lion had not yet yielded to his claims; and, gathering his vast and victorious armies, he led them to face a sterner enemy and a more subtle foe than they had ever yet contested. Half a million of men, firm and confident in their own resources, had crossed the Niemen under Bonaparte’s approving eye. A few months later, and the remnant of that scattered army, in rags, wan and ghastly, staggered, like a band of spectres, over that same river. No human might had struck them down; but the ice of winter and the deep snows of the north, which the fur-clad Russian glories in, had been the signal of death to the light-hearted child of vine-clad France. He who had left France at the head of such glorious armies had returned to his capital alone with his own brave heart and iron courage, to find there that the arms and gold of the allies had done their work.

CHAPTER VII.

Then, as after the battle of Austerlitz, as after the battle of Wagram, we were too generous.

27–28 July 1809

Battle of Talavera

CHAPTER III.

Joseph Bonaparte again King of Spain.--His Difficulties with Soult.--Second Siege of Saragossa.--Another English Army, under Sir Arthur Wellesley, lands at Lisbon.--Battle of Talavera.--The English retire into Portugal.--Siege of Gerona.--Principal Events of the Campaign of 1810.--The English Troops make a Stand at Torres Vedras.--Retreat of Massena.--Siege of Cadiz.--Escape of French Prisoners.--Opening of the Campaign of 1811, 99

CHAPTER I.

My mother’s fears were but too well founded; for he, too, fell dead upon the field of battle, while fighting bravely for his country, in his first engagement, in the bloody battle of Talavera.

CHAPTER III.

Joseph Bonaparte again King of Spain.--His Difficulties with Soult.--Second Siege of Saragossa.--Another English Army, under Sir Arthur Wellesley, lands at Lisbon.--Battle of Talavera.--The English retire into Portugal.--Siege of Gerona.--Principal Events of the Campaign of 1810.--The English Troops make a Stand at Torres Vedras.--Retreat of Massena.--Siege of Cadiz.--Escape of French Prisoners.--Opening of the Campaign of 1811.

CHAPTER III.

The English had by no means relinquished their designs upon the Peninsula. The successes of Napoleon and his victorious army but served to stimulate their hatred of the French, and spur them on to further efforts. Another army was accordingly collected, and placed under the command of Sir Arthur Wellesley, who landed in Lisbon on the 22d of April, 1809. The force under his command was fourteen thousand five hundred infantry, fifteen hundred cavalry, and twenty-four pieces of artillery. The passage of the river Dwero was his first contest with the French. In this he was successful, and his success opened to him the gates of Oporto. Soon after occurred the celebrated battle of Talavera. King Joseph was himself nominally at the head of his troops; but Marshal Victor was, in reality, the leader. Victor and Soult had both laid their plans before the king, and urged them with all the eloquence they were capable of. So sure was Victor of the victory, should his advice be followed, that he said that, if his plans should fail, all military science was useless. The event proved, however, that Soult was correct.