Under Wellington's Command: A Tale of the Peninsular WarHenty, G. A. (George Alfred)
General
Under Wellington's Command: A Tale of the Peninsular War
Henty, G. A. (George Alfred)
Historical fiction; Peninsular War, 1807-1814 -- Juvenile fiction
"Lord Wellington expresses his great satisfaction at the
exceptional services rendered by the Minho Portuguese regiment,
under its commander Captain T. O'Connor, of the headquarter staff,
bearing the rank of colonel in the Portuguese army. He has had
great pleasure in recommending him to the commander-in-chief for
promotion in the British army. He has also to report very
favourably the conduct of Lieutenant Ryan, of the Mayo Fusiliers,
and Ensigns Bull and Macwitty, all attached for service to the
Minho regiment; and shall bring before General Lord Beresford that
of Lieutenant Colonel Herrara, of the same regiment."
In the divisional orders of the day appeared the words:
"In noticing the arrival of the Minho Portuguese regiment, under
the command of Colonel Terence O'Connor, to join the division
temporarily under his command, General Crawford takes this
opportunity of congratulating Colonel O'Connor on the most
brilliant services that his regiment has performed, in a series of
operations upon the Spanish side of the frontier."
Four days later, Terence received two letters from home. These were
written after the receipt of that sent off by him on his arrival at
Cadiz, narrating his escape. His father wrote:
"My dear Terence,
"Your letter, received this morning, has taken a heavy load off our
minds. Of course, we saw the despatches giving particulars of the
battle of Fuentes d'Onoro--which, by the way, seems to have been
rather a confused sort of affair, and the enemy must have blundered
into it just as we did; only as they were all there, and we only
came up piecemeal, they should have thrashed us handsomely, if they
had known their business. Well, luck is everything and, as you have
had a good deal more than your share of it since you joined, one
must not grumble if the jade has done you a bad turn this time.
"However, as you have got safely out of their hands, you have no
reason for complaint. Still, you had best not try the thing too
often. Next time you may not find a good-looking girl to help you
out. By the way, you don't tell us whether she was good looking.
Mention it in your next; Mary is very curious about it.
"We are getting on capitally here and, I can tell you, the old
place looks quite imposing, and I was never so comfortable in my
life. We have as much company as I care for, and scarce a day
passes but some young fellow or other rides over, on the pretence
of talking over the war news with me. But I am too old a soldier to
be taken in, and know well enough that Mary is the real attraction.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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