Have You Read This?

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 677, 31 May 1929, Page 16

Have You Read This?

ALBUERA. SIR WILLIAM NAPIER. —“History of the Peninsular War.” Sir William Napier (1785-1860), a member of one of our most illustrious military families, entered the British Army at the age of 15 and was only 28 when lie commanded a regiment which formed part of the Light Brigade. He was present at the siege of Copenhagen in 1807 and the Battle of c orunna (where Sir John Moore was 1 tiled) in 1801, served through the I‘eninsular War with great distinction, was knighted in 1818, and promoted to general in 1859. and died in the following year. Gallant soldier though he was. his principal claim to immortality is his “History of the Peninsular War.” The following extract is from his description of the Battle of Albuera. AT this time six guns -were in the enemy’s possession, the whole o£ Werle’s reserves were coming forward to reinforce the front column of the French, the remnant of Houghton’s brigade could no longer maintain its ground, the field was heaped with carcases, the lancers were riding furiously about the captured artillery on the upper parts of the hill, and behind all, Hamilton’s Portuguese and Alten’s (Germans, now withdrawing from the bridge, seemed to be in full retreat. Soon, however, Cole’s fusiliers, flanked by a battalion of the Lusitanian legion under Colonel Hawkshawe, mounted the hill, drove off the lancers, recovered five of the captured guns and one colour. . . . Such a gallant line, issuing from the midst of the smoke and rapidly separating itself from the confused and broken multitude, startled the enemy’s masses, which were increasing and pressing onwards as to an assured victory; they wavered, hesitated, and them vomiting forth a storm of fire, hastily endeavoured to enlarge their front, while a fearful discharge of grape from all their artillery whistled through the British ranks. Myers was killed, Cole and the three colonels, Ellis, Blakeney and Hawkshawe, fell wounded, and the t'usilier battalions, struck by the iron tempest, reeled and staggered like sinking ships; but suddenly and sternly recovering they closed on their terrible enemies, and then was seen with what a strength and majesty the British soldier fights. In vain did Soult with voice and gesture animate his Frenchmen, in vain did the hardiest veterans break from the crowded columns and sacrifice their lives to gain time for the mass to open out on such a fair field; in vain did the mass itself bear up, and, fiercely striving fire indiscriminately upon friends and foes, while the horsemen hovering on the flank threatened to charge the advancing line. 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 mea sured tread shook the ground, their dreadful volleys swept away the head of every formation, their deafening shouts overpowered the dissonant cries that broke from all parts of the tumultuous crowd, as slowly and with a horrid carnage it was pushed by the incessant vigour of the attack to the farthest edge of the hill#