The Rise of Wellington |
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Common terms and phrases
Abrantes advance Allies appointed artillery Assaye attack Badajoz battle battle of Assaye Berar Beresford Blucher Bombay brigade British army British force British Government British officers British soldiers British troops campaign captured cavalry chief command Ciudad Rodrigo Colonel Wellesley Commander-in-Chief corps crossed defeated defence depôts Douro Duke East India Company enemy enemy's engaged flank fortress France French army French Emperor French troops front frontier garrison Government of India Governor-General guns Holkar infantry killed and wounded Lisbon Lord Castlereagh Madras Madrid Mahratta Mahratta chiefs Marmont Marshal Masséna ment military movement Mysore Napoleon Nizam's occupied operations Oporto Peninsula Peninsular War Peshwa Poona Portugal Portuguese position Prussian Quatre Bras Raja of Berar regiment reinforcements retreat Salamanca Seringapatam shortly afterwards siege Sindhia Sir Hew Dalrymple Sir John Soult Spain Spaniards Spanish staff Tagus Tagus valley Talavera tion Tippoo Torres Vedras treaty victory Waterloo Wavre Wellesley's Wellington
Popular passages
Page 91 - Nothing could stop that astonishing infantry. No sudden burst of undisciplined valour, no nervous enthusiasm, weakened the stability of their order ; their flashing eyes were bent on the dark columns in their front ; their measured...
Page 91 - ... like a loosened cliff", went headlong down the steep : the rain flowed after in streams discoloured with blood, and eighteen hundred unwounded men, the remnant of six thousand unconquerable British soldiers, stood triumphant on the fatal hill ! CHAPTER VII.
Page 121 - The army behave terribly ill. They are a rabble who cannot bear success any more than Sir John Moore's army could bear failure. I am endeavouring to tame them ; but if I should not succeed, I must make an official complaint of them, and send one or two corps home in disgrace. They plunder in all directions.
Page 124 - That the British infantry soldier is more robust than the soldier of any other nation, can scarcely be doubted by those who, in 1815, observed his powerful frame, distinguished amidst the united armies of Europe ; and notwithstanding his habitual excess in drinking, he sustains fatigue and wet, and the extremes of cold and heat, with incredible vigor.
Page 68 - I do not know what Sir Hew Dalrymple proposes to do, or is instructed to do ; but if I were in his situation I would have 20,000 men at Madrid in less than a month from this time.
Page 122 - It is quite impossible for me or any other man to command a British army under the existing system. We have in the service the scum of the earth as common soldiers...
Page 44 - I intend to ask to be brought away with the army if any civil servant of the Company is to be here, or any person with civil authority who is not under my orders, for I know that the whole is a system of job and corruption from beginning to end, of which I and my troops would be made the instruments.
Page 107 - Tis enough to make one thoughtful ; but no matter : my die is cast, they may overwhelm me, but I don't think they will outmanoeuvre me. First, because I am not afraid of them, as everybody else seems to be ; and secondly, because if what I hear of their system of manoeuvres be true, I think it a false one as against steady troops. I suspect all the continental armies were more than half beaten before the battle was begun. I, at least, will not be frightened beforehand.
Page 125 - Never was a more stupid calumny uttered ! Napoleon's troops fought in bright fields where every helmet caught some beams of glory, but the British soldier conquered under the cold shade of aristocracy, no honours awaited his daring, no despatch gave his name to the applauses of his countrymen, his life of danger and hardship was uncheered by hope, his death unnoticed.
Page 121 - I did everything in my power to prevail upon them not to go, but in vain ; and I acknowledge that it has given me satisfaction to find that they have been roughly handled in the newspapers. The consequence of the absence of some of them has been, that in the late operations I have been obliged to be General of Cavalry, and of the advanced guard, and the leader of two or three columns, sometimes on the same day.