C a m pa i g n s a n d B at t l e s
C a m pa i g n s a n d B at t l e s
present with the Regiment, but the Light Infantry, under Lieut. Cathcart, was detached and under Colonel Howe. Townshend, on the day succeeding the battle and up till the day of capitulation, worked hard in pushing on the works against the city. By the evening of 17th September he had no less than 118 guns mounted in the batteries and ready to open fire, and the whole fleet was in the basin waiting the order to bombard the town. The enemy had tried in vain to delay proceedings by keeping up a constant fire with every available gun, but the annoyance they caused was slight. On 17th September, at mid-day, an officer arrived with a flag of truce from the French lines, bearing proposals of surrender from De Ramsay, the Governor of Quebec, and he was conducted in the pouring rain to Townshend’s tent. Townshend sent back the officer with the answer that he would give them four hours in which to surrender, failing which he would take the town by assault. In the early morning on 18th September, Quebec surrendered. The keys of the city were delivered up to Townshend, who marched in with the Grenadiers of Louisburg, preceded by a detachment of Artillery and one gun, with the British flag hoisted on a staff on the gun carriage.
As a result of the French Revolution the First Coalition had been formed on 26th June 1792. The French revolutionaries executed Louis XVI on 21st January 1793 and Spain joined the Coalition against France; however, the Spanish army was defeated and Spain signed a peace treaty with France, and declared war on Britain in 1797. Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of France on 18th May 1804. In 1807, Spain and France agreed to attack Portugal, taking Lisbon in December 1808, the Portuguese Royal family fled to Brazil. In March 1808 Napoleon forced King Charles IV of Spain to give up his throne and gave the crown to Joseph Bonaparte, his brother. The Spanish rose up in revolt and defeated the French army on 19th July 1898, King Joseph and the French army evacuated Madrid. Wellington landed in Portugal in March 1808 and defeated the French at Rolica and Vimiero, liberating Lisbon on 21st August. In September 1808, General Baird landed a force at Corunna, as
Emperor Napoleon led a force of 200,000 men over the Pyrenees to retake Spain and Portugal. General Baird’s force met up with General Moor’s force at Benevente in December 1808 as Napoleon, having retaken Madrid, turned his attention on Portugal. On 23rd December, Moore heard that a large French force was advancing from Madrid and ordered a withdrawal to Vigo and Corunna, ordering the British fleet to meet them. The retreat was carried out in terrible conditions amidst slushy snow and ice and matters were made worse by the total breakdown of the Commissariat which in turn led to widespread indiscipline amongst the men. The roads quickly turned into quagmires beneath the tramping of thousands of feet and the troops suffered dreadful hardships in the bitterly cold winter weather. Hundreds of men – as well as the women and children that had accompanied the army – gave up the will to live and, unable or unwilling to go on, simply lay down to die in the bleak Galician mountains or were captured by the pursuing French. And there was little help forthcoming from the local Spanish people who were naturally reluctant to help a so-called `friendly’ army that had left behind in its wake a trail of burning, pillaged hamlets, the sprawling, bloody bodies of the occupants bearing testament to the lawlessness of some units of the army. The retreat continued with all but the most disciplined units of the army – the Guards and the rearguard – suffering a total breakdown of order. On 31st December the Light Brigade, under Robert Craufurd, which had distinguished itself during the trials of the retreat, was detached from the army supposedly to ease the burden on the commissariat. Craufurd pushed his men on to Vigo, unhindered by any French pursuit, where his brigade eventually embarked safely in ships bound for England. This move, however, deprived Moore of one of his better units and the Light Brigade was certainly missed throughout the rest of the campaign and during the battle fought on 16th January. Having been pursued across most of Castile and Galacia Sir John Moore’s army, representing most of Britain’s effective land forces, finally reached the sea and a rendezvous with an evacuation fleet at Corunna. However, needing time to embark his forces, Moore elected to offer battle a few miles down the main road south from Corunna. The position he chose was on a hill called ‘Monte Mero’, his line ran east to west from a point north of the village of Piedralonga to a point north of the village of Elvina.
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The Corunna Campaign September 1808 to 16th January 1809
