The Story of a Peninsular Veteran: Sergeant in the Forty-Third Light Infantry, during the Peninsular WarAnonymous
History
The Story of a Peninsular Veteran: Sergeant in the Forty-Third Light Infantry, during the Peninsular War
Anonymous
Peninsular War, 1807-1814 -- Personal narratives, British
(1746–1766) is extremely beautiful, scarcely inferior to
Bath. It consists of an octagon, containing four uniform
and elegant buildings of hewn stone, and of four broad
streets leading to it in opposite directions. Part of Copenhagen,
which is called Christianshafen, is built upon the
isle of Amak.
The British commander, unwilling to injure the city,
had hitherto confined his offensive operations to the adjacent
suburbs. It was, however, notified to the Danes in occupation
as a garrison, that unless the terms proposed for the
surrender of the fleet were immediately accepted, an attack
might be expected. On the 31st of August the platform
was raised, and the mortar batteries were ready for action.
General Pieman, the governor, having refused to listen to
the proposals forwarded, a vigorous fire was opened from
the batteries and bomb-vessels, and in a few hours it was
observed that the city was on fire in several places: the
bombardment continued with little intermission till the
evening of the 7th of September. By that time extensive
injury had ensued, and it became evident that if the bombardment
39continued much longer, the city would be reduced
to ashes. A flag of truce was in this extremity despatched,
requesting a suspension of hostilities for twenty-four hours,
to afford time for proposing terms of capitulation. The
reply of Lord Cathcart was that nothing of the kind could
be entertained, unless grounded on the entire and unconditional
surrender of the Danish fleet. This was a bitter
pill; but necessity, which has often laid the mighty in the
dust, compelled the besieged to take it; and in the night
of the 7th of September the articles of capitulation were
settled, to be ratified the following morning. According to
these, the British were put into possession of the citadel
and dockyards, all the ships of war and naval stores were
to be delivered up, a mutual restoration of prisoners was
to take place, private property to be respected, and in the
space of six weeks the citadel to be restored to the King
of Denmark, and the whole island of Zealand to be evacuated
by the British army. In consequence of this capitulation,
we were put into possession of sixteen sail of the
line, fifteen frigates, six brigs, and twenty-five gunboats,
all of which were nearly ready for sea. A vast abundance
of stores of all kinds necessary to equip or build a fleet
were found in the arsenals. It was therefore necessary to
load all the ships of the line and frigates which were
delivered up with masts, spars, and timber; so that ninety-two
transports were employed to bring the property to
England.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account