The battles of the British Army : $b being a popular account of all the principal engagements during the last hundred yearsBlackwood, Robert Melvin
History
The battles of the British Army : $b being a popular account of all the principal engagements during the last hundred years
Blackwood, Robert Melvin
Battles -- Great Britain; Great Britain -- History, Military; Great Britain. Army -- History
The whole baggage and field equipage of three distinct armies fell on
this occasion into the hands of the conquerors. One hundred and fifty
pieces of cannon, four hundred caissons, twelve thousand rounds of
ammunition, and two millions of musket-cartridges, with a thousand
prisoners, were taken. The casualties on both sides were heavy. The
British lost five hundred killed, two thousand eight hundred wounded;
the Portuguese one hundred and fifty killed, nine hundred wounded; and
the Spaniards eighty-nine of the former, and four hundred and sixty of
the latter. The French loss, of course, was infinitely greater, and
even by their own returns it was admitted to amount to eight thousand;
but, prisoners included, it must have exceeded that number considerably.
On the morning of the 22nd, the field of battle, and the roads for
some miles in the rear, exhibited an appearance it seldom falls within
human fortune to witness. There lay the wreck of a mighty army; while
plunder, accumulated during the French successes, and wrung from every
part of Spain with unsparing rapacity, was recklessly abandoned to any
who chose to seize it. Cannon and caissons, carriages and tumbrels,
waggons of every description, were overturned or deserted--and a
stranger _mélange_ could not be imagined, than that which these
enormous convoys presented to the eye. Here, was the personal baggage
of a king; there, the scenery and decorations of a theatre. Munitions
of war were mixed with articles of _virtù_, and scattered arms and
packs, silks, embroidery, plate, and jewels, mingled together in wild
disorder.
One waggon would be loaded with money, another with cartridges, while
wounded soldiers, deserted women, and children of every age, everywhere
implored assistance, or threw themselves for protection on the humanity
of the victors. Here, a lady was overtaken in her carriage--in the next
calash was an actress or fille-de-chambre--while droves of oxen were
roaming over the plain, intermingled with an endless quantity of sheep
and goats, mules and horses, asses and cows.
That much valuable plunder came into the hands of the soldiery
is certain; but the better portion fell to the peasantry and
camp-followers. Two valuable captures were secured--a full military
chest, and the baton of Marshal Jourdan.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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