BATTLE OF CORUNNA. 16th. January, 1809.
Reading edition
Sir John Moore concentrated his army near Lugo, where he determined to give battle. About twelve o’clock in the morning of the 6th. of January, the French appeared on the opposite heights. The British soldiers, full of the national spirit, desired nothing better than to confront them. The troops were immediately under arms, but each looked at the other until evening set in, and it became evident that the day of battle was to be postponed. On the following morning the enemy at daybreak opened a cannonade, which was forthwith returned, and in the space of a few minutes the French fire was silenced. Towards sunset a French column commenced the ascent of the rising ground, and was met by a wing of the 76th.; this regiment gradually retired until joined by the 51st. In the latter Sir John Moore had served as an ensign, and he addressed them briefly, reminding them of that circumstance, and expressing his reliance on their gallantry. The speech, short as it was, produced its effect, and after a few discharges of musketry, they rushed onward with the bayonet, when the enemy was beaten back, leaving on the ground several killed and wounded.
At dark, when large fires illumined the heights, the British re-commenced their retreat, undiscovered by the French until daylight. But little was seen of the enemy until the army arrived at Corunna, where the leading brigades marched in during the afternoon of the 11th. of January, the adjacent villages and suburbs being occupied by the troops. The trying retreat was completed; but there was a disappointment to be experienced. No transports were there to receive the troops. In the evening the foe came up, and occupied a position on the other side of the river Mero. The battle-ground was not marked out until the 12th of January, and this was the range of hills round the village of Elvino, about a mile from Corunna, on which Sir John Moore resolved to place his army. 90Before the arrangements were completed, the French were observed moving along the opposite bank of the river. Nothing occurred until the 14th., when a fire of artillery was kept up for a short time. A terrible explosion occurred on that day; a magazine of four thousand barrels of gunpowder, which had been sent from England for the use of the Spaniards, being destroyed, to prevent its falling into the hands of the French. This caused quite a panic in both armies, and, although occurring three or four miles from Corunna, many of the windows in the town were broken.
Fine weather enabled the soldiers to dry their clothes, and to make themselves comparatively comfortable; and during the afternoon of the 14th. the whole fleet of transports, convoyed by numerous ships of war, appeared in sight. Some slight skirmishing occurred to the right on the 15th. During the afternoon and night of the 15th. the sick, wounded, women, and children were embarked, and on the following day the greater proportion of the artillery was placed on board, the ground not being adapted for that arm. Before going on board the cavalry had to destroy the remainder of their horses, and the sight was naturally most painful. All animals were left on the beach at Corunna;[31] but the wife of Sergeant Monday, the orderly-room clerk of the 28th regiment, is stated to have carried a lap-dog in a basket over her arm throughout the retreat, and brought it to England with her.
About one o’clock in the afternoon of the 16th. of January, the enemy, who had early that day received reinforcements, and who had placed some guns in front of the right and left of his line, was observed to be moving his troops towards his left flank, and forming various columns of attack at that extremity of the strong and commanding position which on the morning of the 15th. he had taken in the immediate front of the British. This indication of his intention was immediately succeeded by a rapid and determined attack upon Lieutenant-General 91Sir David. Baird’s division, which occupied the right of the position. The first effort of the enemy was met by the 42nd. regiment, and the brigade under Major-General Lord William Bentinck. The village on the right then became an object of obstinate contest. Lieutenant-General Sir David Baird was severely wounded, and shortly after Sir John Moore fell by a cannon-shot. The troops though not unacquainted with the irreparable loss they had sustained, were not dismayed, and by the most determined bravery, not only repelled every attempt of the enemy to gain ground, but actually forced him to retire, although fresh troops had been brought up in support of those originally engaged.
Finding himself foiled in every attempt to force the right of the position, the enemy endeavoured by numbers to turn it. A judicious and well-timed movement, which was made by Major-General the Honourable Edward Paget with the reserve, that corps having moved out of its cantonments to support the right of the army, by a vigorous attack defeated this intention. The Major-General, having pushed forward the 95th., (rifle corps,) and the first battalion of the 52nd. regiment, drove the foe before him, and in his rapid and judicious advance threatened the left of the enemy’s position. This circumstance, with the position of Lieutenant-General Fraser’s division, which was calculated to give still further security to the right of the line, induced the enemy to relax his efforts in that quarter. They were then, however, more forcibly directed towards the centre, where they were again successfully resisted by the brigade under Major-General Manningham, forming the left of Sir David Baird’s division, and a part of that under Major-General Leith.
Upon the left the enemy at first contented himself with an attack upon the pickets, which in general maintained their ground. Seeing, therefore, his efforts unavailing on the right and centre, he appeared determined to render the attack upon the left more serious, and succeeded in obtaining possession of the village through which the great road to Madrid passes, and which was situated in front of that part of the line. From this post he was soon expelled, with considerable loss, by a gallant attack of some companies 92of the second battalion of the 14th., regiment, under Lieutenant-Colonel Nicolls. Before five in the evening, not only had every attack upon the British position been successfully repelled, but ground had been gained in all points, a more forward line being occupied than at the commencement of the action. Eventually the enemy confined his operations to a cannonade, and the fire of his light troops, with a view to draw off his other corps. At six o’clock the firing entirely ceased. The different brigades were re-assembled on the ground they occupied in the morning, and the pickets and advanced posts resumed their original stations.
The corps chiefly engaged were the brigades under Major-Generals Lord William Bentinck, Manningham, and Leith, and the brigade of guards under Major-General Warde, Major-General Hill, and Brigadier-General Catlin Crauford, with their brigades on the left of the position, ably supported their advanced posts. The brunt of the action fell upon the 4th., 42nd., 50th., and 81st. regiments, with parts of the brigades of guards, and the 28th. regiment.
About ten at night the troops quitted their position, and marched to their respective points of embarkation in the town and neighbourhood of Corunna. The pickets remained at their posts until five in the morning of the 17th., when they were withdrawn unperceived by the French. The embarkation proceed rapidly, and, with the exception of the brigades under Major-Generals Hill and Beresford, which were destined to remain on shore until the movements of the enemy should become manifest, the whole were afloat before daylight. The brigade of Major-General Beresford, which was alternately to form the rear-guard, occupied the land front of the town of Corunna, whilst that of Major-General Hill was stationed in reserve on the promontory behind the town.
Soon after eight o’clock in the morning of the 17th. of January, the French light troops moved towards the town, and almost immediately occupied the heights of St. Lucia, which command the harbour. Notwithstanding this circumstance, and the manifold defects of the place, there being no apprehension that the rear-guard could be forced, and the disposition of the Spaniards appearing to be good, the embarkation 93of Major-General Hill’s brigade was commenced and completed by three in the afternoon. Major-General Beresford withdrew his corps from the land front of the town soon after dark, which, with all the wounded that had not been previously moved, were embarked before one on the morning of the 18th.
Sir William Napier has thus described the British general’s death:—
“Sir John Moore, whilst earnestly watching the result of the fight about the village of Elvino, was struck on the left breast by a cannon-shot. The shock threw him from his horse with violence, but he rose again in a sitting posture, his countenance unchanged, and his stedfast eye still fixed upon the regiments engaged in his front, no sign betraying a sensation of pain. In a few moments, when he was satisfied that the troops were gaining ground, his countenance brightened, and he suffered himself to be taken to the rear. Being placed in a blanket for removal, an entanglement of the belt caused the hilt of his sword to enter the wound, and Captain Hardinge attempted to take it away altogether, but with martial pride the stricken man forbade the alleviation,—he would not part with his sword[32] in the field.”
Wrapped in a military cloak the warrior’s remains were consigned to their resting-place, by the officers of his staff, in the citadel of Corunna. The guns of the enemy paid his funeral honours, and Marshal Soult evinced the respect he bore to departed valour, by chivalrously raising a monument to his memory. It may be added that the soldiers of the 9th. Foot dug his grave on the rampart, and the well-known lines by the Rev. Charles Wolfe are as truthful as they are poetic. The several regiments, and their commanding officers, composing the army under Lieutenant-General Sir John Moore at Corunna, were as follows:—
7th. Light Dragoons, Lieutenant-Colonel Vivian; 10th. Light Dragoons, Lieutenant-Colonel Leigh; 15th. Light Dragoons, Lieutenant-Colonel Grant; 18th. Light Dragoons, Lieutenant-Colonel 94Jones; 3rd. Light Dragoons, (King’s German Legion,) Major Burgwesel; Artillery, Colonel Harding; Engineers, Major Fletcher; Waggon Train Detachment, Lieutenant-Colonel Langley; 1st. Foot Guards, first battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel Cocks, third battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel Wheatley; 1st. Foot, third battalion, Major Muller; 2nd.,[33] first battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel Iremonger; 4th., first battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel Wynch; 5th., first battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel Mackenzie; 6th., first battalion, Major Gordon; 9th., first battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel Cameron; 14th., second battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel Nicolls; 20th., Lieutenant-Colonel Ross; 23rd., second battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel Wyatt; 26th., first battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel Maxwell; 28th., first battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel Belson; 32nd., first battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel Hinde; 36th., first battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel Burn; 38th., first battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel the Honourable Charles Greville; 42nd., first battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel Stirling; 43rd., first battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel Gifford, second battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel Hull; 50th., first battalion, Major Charles James Napier;[34] 51st., Lieutenant-Colonel Darling; 52nd., first battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel Barclay, second battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel John Ross; 59th., second battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel Fane; 60th., second battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel Codd, fifth battalion, Major Davy; 71st., first battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel Denis Pack; 76th., first battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel Symes; 79th., first battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel Cameron; 81st., second battalion, Major Williams; 82nd., Major M‘Donald; 91st., first battalion, Major Douglas; 92nd, first battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Napier; 95th., (rifle regiment,) first battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel Beckwith, second battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel Wade; Staff Corps Detachment, Lieutenant-Colonel Nicolay; first light battalion King’s German Legion, Lieutenant-Colonel Leonhart, second battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel Halkett.[35]
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