2)•) <L^ -^ HISTORY THE CAMPAIGNS BRITISII FORCES IS SPAIN AND PORTUGAL, Unde rlaken to relicvc tbose Countries FROM THE PRENCH USURPATION ; COSI I» R £ II X N DIK O MEMOIRS OFTHE OPERATIONS OF THIS INTERESTING WAR, CUARACTERI5TIC REPORTS OF THE t SPJNISIIAND PORTUGUESE TROOPS, AVO ILLUSTRATIVE ANECOOTES OF Distingnished Military Conduct in Individuais, Whalever llieir Rnnk in lhe Army. Troii tyriujvc inilii nuilo discrimine agetur. ViR6. J VOL. I. POLICY OFTJIE WAR. MILITARY VIEW OF THE PENÍNSULA. PREUMINARIESTOTHEOPERATIONSOFTHEBRITISHA LONDON: PRINTED FOR T. GODDARD, MILITARY UBRARY, 1, PALL-MALL. 1812. Ga)ahin and Marchant, Frinter», IngramCourt Londoii. FIELD-MARSHAL HIS ROYAL H1CIINESS TBI SDufte of gorft, COMAfANDER-IN-CHIEF OF ALL IIIS AfAJESTY'S FORCES, SfC ê[c. ftc. SIR, IN eondeseending to grant your Royal IIighness's most gracious permission to dignify the present Work by the sanetion of your name, it would be mat- ter of great regret to tbc Writer that it should not be more worthy of that lionour were it not for the additional opportunity it affords of evineing your Royal Highncss's ÍV DEDÍCATION. unfailing dcsire to eneourage evcry object of military utility. The Great Frederic, Sir, whosc school of war you so early emulated, for the purpose of rcndcring your eountry,— already great in every thing else,—as powerful in the use of its modem mili- tary resources as it had been antiently great in arms, was amongst the earlfcst favourers of military mcmoirs in modcrn times; he was also, Sir, one of the greatest authors of th em, for, whilc he excelled the ehief warriors of his age, he set the glorious example of aeknowledging, for the benefit of others, errors from which, as a philosophical general, he knew lie could not be exempt. DED1CAT10N. Manj officers, particularly those lindei the patronagc of your Royal Highness, and some, whilc yct in an inferior grade of rank, liave yieldcd, for the instruc- tion of their country, cminent examples of judgcment and industry, in the ac- quisition and diffusion of knowledgc nc- ccssary to military opcrations in the prcscnt as wcll as othcr theatrcs of war. None, Sir, howevcr, have yct had the op- tunity, in modera times, of sketching the bold though irregular cfTorts of opprcsscd hnmanity against a forcign tyrant, unwca- redly maintained against cvery species of advcrsity, and subsiding into the stcady measurcs of scientific war undcr the influ- ence and aid of a British force,—a compa- VI DEDICAT10N. ratively small force, opposcd to the whole grand French army of the península,— whose generais, under wise principies and the eommand of a Wellington, have set at nought the highest talents of France! To render, Sir, the plans of military memoirs, laid down by those great authorities in the modem system . of ivar, more familiar, and more extensivdy useful, is the mtention of the present endeavour, though it cannot be presumed to approaeh but at the.humblest distance to such cxemplars, and its intention is ali for whieh it dares to shelter itself beneath your illustrious namc. The eommand of your Royal Highness DEDICATION. Vil has becn so propitious to thc military system of Great Britain tliat it inspires hope ia thc humblcst objcct of your pa- tronagc :—the superior facilitics ofoffiee; the uew vigour of military enterprise; the benevolent consideration of thc soldicr; the ready reward of merit; the dissemina- tion of that noble principie of justice which prefers the prevention to the punish- ment of crimes; the munificent cstablish- ments every where forined or improved for the care of the fricndless orphan, the solacc of the afflictcd, or the repose of declining age!—these, Sir, are sueh uu- obtrusive objects of it, that the military pub- lie looks naturally to thc aeeomplishment of every great and good end in your com- mand of the military force of Great Britain. VIU DEDICATIOX. That your Royal Highness may be loug preserved for this purpose is the ardcnt prayer of, Sir, Your Royal Highness's Most humblc And most d u ti fui Servant, lanioa, Januury, 1812. TUE AUTUOU, PREFACE. TO urge any thing in proof of the utility of military mcmoirs, or of military histo- ries in general, would bc highly imper- tinent, after tlic manner in whieh they have becn reccived in Europc during thc. last eentury, and even in England, sinee thc translation of Thiclckc*s Account of Evcnts in thc Scvcn Years' War;* not that it is to be inferred that England was belúnd hand, cither in heroic deeds or in gratcful euriosity to record them, but that her heroes, like Suwarrow, kncw better how to fight than write, and thc bulky fólios and * By the Messrs. Craufurds. X PREFACE. quartos on thc wars of Eugene and Marlbo- ro ugh, and tbosc wbich succcedcd, down to that of tlie 1'rcneh revolution, are little adaptcd to tlic rapid glancc of thc soldier, intent to seízc thc spirit of a campaign and aclapt it to bis future purpose. The rcmark of lord Bolingbroke that history is philosophy tcaebing by exam- plc, will bc found particnlarly to apply to that of war, insomucb tliat one of the grcatest writers on the military art, among thc antients, found it necessary to thc complction of a scientific treatise,* to compile, froin the Greck and Roman his- toriaus, cxainplcs of the conduet of the grcatest warriors in every military opera- tion, in a series agrecablc to the progress of war;—a work whicb of itself, as ob- served by Aiidreossi.-j- yields a systcm * This work is lost, exeept as far as ineorporated with Yegetius on Military Affairs. + In the Philosophieal Decades, Paris, 1802. PREFACE. xl ( of military science founded solcly ou the experience of the greatest generais.* The Mcmoirs of campaigiis liave been seldom written till the conelusion of the wars in wliicli they liave oecured ; but the multiplications of public journals, many of whieh are excellent, yet not ali solely directed by the love of trutli, nor ali eal- eulated to yiekl a jnst view of every mili- tary operation,f but which, nevertheless, * The Stratagematicon of S. Jnltus Frontinus.—Of th ia work, iiotwitbstanding the interest it must aequire with Englishmen, from the eclebrated eoinmand of that Ko- man general in Britam, (A.D.75,) it is singular that no English translation ever oceurred till a few months sinee. f The eoinmunieations which form the intclligenee of some of these, though not illaudably intended, certainly remind one often of the fly whieh marshal Saxe somewhere eoudeseends to make exclaim, a9 it whirled round the vortex of a earriage-wheel, '* What adust rce niake!" and, what is worse, liave sometimes been found injuriou* at the seat of war. x,! PUEFACE. ftimish variety of cotcmporary dcscriptions, would sccm to dcmand that thcy should be more speedily followed with somcthing in tlie coolcr mcthod of history, to which thc soldier can apply with eonfidcnce for tliosc facts and rcsults which forni bis bcst instruction. There is also much relativo matter of a secondary naturc which may be incorpo- rated with such a history, and whicb, tliough not obvious, perhaps, to the un- military reader, niay be of high progres- sivo value to thosc who are to recruit thc armies, whose operations are the subject. Such is,— a view of thosc grounds on which are founded the policy of thc war, and which have a tendeney to supply the original inspirations of heroic ardour, by ajust spirit arising from due sense of thc cxpcdicncy of an object in the compli- ca ted polities of highly-civilizcd states, P RE FACE. Xlii when tlie repulsion of wrong, or thc dc- fence of innocencc, can no longer bc thc sole causes of war. Thc topography and general history of the theatre of war, also, is obviously an object of immediate utility to ali wh o are destined to act upon it. , On thc trite principie, fas est ab hoste doceri, thc laborious rescarches, which so successfully precede the operations of the cneniy in every part of the world, would scem at lcast to call for some exertion in this respect ainong ourselves. To say nothing of our obvions dcfi- ciencies, with respect to Spain, it is long since general Dumouriez complinientarily complained that,—" The English travel- lers, those diligent observers of men and things, scem to liavc ncglectcd Portugal, . or to liave despaired of íinding iu it any object that could repay their trouble, or XIV PREFACE. satisfy thcir spirit of pliilosophical re- scurch/'* And th is ncglect lias not bcen * Account of Portugal, (1775,) Preface, p. 2, M. Du- monriez thus justly coniinues: "Nooc visit Portugal but mereantilc ínen and those absorbed in eoinmeree, who, eonfined to thcir desk or the exchange, sce no plaee but Lisbon or Oporto, and Hve entirely ainong thcm- sclvcs; they, therefore, ean obtain but a scanty know- ledge of the country." Of the Spaniards, thc equal «ruth of bis reinarks is still more surprising : " ThcSpa- niarcfs," says lie, " though they have a thousand motives of policy, rivalship, and hatred, to urge them to a seru- pulous cxamination of the neighbouring kingdom, are yet more indiflerent than the English; they have no map of ita no plan of its fortresses, no aeeount of its iirmed force, its resource, or of the eharaeter and tem- per of its inhahiiaiits; if such exist itean only be within. tiie impcnetnible scrutoires of ministers, out of whieh not cven the exigencies of war ean draw them. It muit he fresh in thc recollection of many offieers how, ín the cainpaign of \7dQf while the army was encamped at Zamora, with the intc-ntion of petietrating into Portu- gal, the general, mar quis of Sarria, stood in bis hall surrounded by li is siaff-ofíiecrs, like the figure of Pcr- plexity and Diffidenee, eraving information concerning lheroads of Portugal frum persons as ignoram as hiinself j how one mao had beard frotn a pedlar that betweea such PREFACE.