Memoirs of Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Picton, G.B.C. &c. Including His Correspondence: From Originals in Possession of His Family ...R. Bentley, 1836 |
Common terms and phrases
Adour advance aid-de-camp allied army amongst appeared artillery assailants assault attack attempt Badajoz bastion battalion battle battle of Orthes battle of Vittoria bayonet brave breach bridge brigade British Captain castle cavalry centre Ciudad Rodrigo Colonel Napier columns command commenced confidence continued corps DEAR SIR defeat defend Duke Duke of Wellington enemy enemy's English fighting fire flank force fortress forward fourth division French army front gallant garrison ground heights honour horse immediately infantry inhabitants letter light division Lord Wellington Macpherson Major-general Marmont Massena ment military morning moved movement Napoleon never night numbers observed occasion occupied officers operations ordered Pamplona passed Portuguese position possession Pyrenees rear received regiments retreat river seventh division shot siege sion Sir Rowland Hill Sir Stapleton Cotton Sir Thomas Picton sixth division soldiers Soult Spain Spanish success third division thousand tion town Trinidad troops Tyler Vittoria whole wounded
Popular passages
Page 78 - The conduct of all parts of the third division, in the operations which they performed with so much gallantry and exactness on the evening of the 19th, in the dark, afford the strongest proof of the abilities of LieutenantGeneral Picton and Major-General M'Kinnon, by whom they were directed and led...
Page 268 - ... 5. To revenge this conduct on the peaceable inhabitants of France would be unmanly and unworthy of the nations to whom the Commander of the Forces now addresses himself...
Page 129 - Shameless rapacity, brutal intemperance, savage lust, cruelty, and murder, shrieks and piteous lamentations, groans, shouts, imprecations, the hissing of fires bursting from the houses, the crashing of doors and windows, and the reports of muskets used in violence, resounded for two days and nights in the streets of Badajoz!
Page 268 - ... recollect that their nations are at war with France solely because the Ruler of the French nation will not allow them to be at peace, and is desirous of forcing them to submit to his yoke: and they must not forget that the worst of...
Page 249 - Parliament assembled, deliver to you their unanimous thanks for your great exertions upon the 21st of June last near Vittoria, when the French army was completely defeated by the allied forces under the Marquis of Wellington's command ; and also for the valour, steadiness, and exertion so successfully displayed by you in repelling the repeated attacks made on the position of the allied army, by the whole French forces under the command of Marshal Soult, between the 25th of July and the 1st of August...
Page 244 - as one of the strongest and most difficult of access that he had ever seen occupied by troops.
Page 77 - I descended into the street again with my prisoner; and, finding the current of soldiers setting towards the centre of the town, I followed the stream, which conducted me into the great square, on one side of which the late garrison were drawn up as prisoners, and the rest of it was filled with British and Portuguese intermixed, without any order or regularity. I had been there but a very short time, when they all commenced firing, without any ostensible cause ; some fired in at the doors and windows,...
Page 129 - Now commenced that wild and desperate wickedness which tarnished the lustre of the soldier's heroism. All indeed were not alike, hundreds risked and many lost their lives in striving to stop the violence, but madness generally prevailed, and as the worst men were leaders here all the dreadful passions of human nature were displayed. Shameless rapacity, brutal intemperance, savage lust, cruelty and murder, shrieks and piteous...
Page 210 - You may tell Lord Wellington from me, sir, that the third division under my command shall in less than ten minutes attack the bridge and carry it, and the fourth and sixth divisions may support if they choose.
Page 440 - GENTLEMEN, IT affords me great satisfaction to have it in my power to inform you, that my negotiations with the Chinese high officers who have been appointed by the Emperor to treat for peace, have advanced to that stage that authorizes me to beg that you will consider hostilities suspended.