Produced by Brian Coe, David E. Brown, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) [Illustration: WHIPPING AT GIBRALTAR. PAGE 47.] 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; INCLUDING FULL HISTORIES OF THE BLOODY BATTLE OF BAROSSA, AND THE MEMORABLE SIEGE OF BADAJOS; TOGETHER WITH A GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO, TERMINATING WITH THE OVERTHROW OF NAPOLEON; IN ALL OF WHICH HE WAS AN ACTOR. ILLUSTRATED BY SIX SPLENDID ENGRAVINGS. WORCESTER: PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR BY EDWARD LIVERMORE. 1851. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1851, BY CHARLES O’NEIL, In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. Stereotyped by HOBART & ROBBINS; NEW ENGLAND TYPE AND STEREOTYPE FOUNDERY, BOSTON. PREFACE. The history of times and events, of men and their characters, must ever be replete with interest and instruction. Chronicles of the great and wise, the noble and the learned, are often presented to the world; and the military hero and chieftain finds everywhere his biographer. We read of campaigns that his mind has traced out, of battles which his plans have won; and we forget, in our admiration of his skill and power, those by whom the heroic deeds were done, the victory gained. Generals, says one author, “often calculate upon men as though they were blocks of wood, or movable machines.” Yet every one of these nameless soldiers has feelings as acutely alive to suffering and to honor as those who look upon them thus. It is well sometimes to turn away from the glare and tinsel of rank, from the glitter of arms and the pageantry of war, to follow the common soldier in his partings and wanderings, to cast the glance of pity upon his sufferings, and allow the heart to be moved with compassion while regarding the temptations which must ever beset his path. It is only thus that a true knowledge of the evils and miseries of war can be obtained; and only when this knowledge is spread far and wide, that we may hope to see the banner of peace unfurled, and the olive-branch waving in quiet, where now the sword spreads its desolation, and the vulture feasts on the unburied dead. Thoughts like these may, perhaps, lend interest to the unpretending narrative of one who now presents himself and the scenes of his times before an indulgent public, with none of the advantages of rank, or birth, or fame, to recommend him to its notice. Simply one of the rank and file, he was an actor and participator in the scenes he has endeavored faithfully to represent.