Download or read book A History of the Peninsular War Vol 3 of 7 written by Charles Oman and published by AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. This book was released on with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This, the third volume of the History of the Peninsular War, covers a longer period than either of its predecessors, extending over the sixteen months from Wellington’s arrival at Badajoz on his retreat from Talavera (Sept. 3, 1809) to the deadlock in front of Santarem (Dec. 1810), which marked the end of Masséna’s offensive campaign in Portugal. It thus embraces the central crisis of the whole war, the arrival of the French in front of the Lines of Torres Vedras and their first short retreat, after they had realized the impossibility of forcing that impregnable barrier to their advance. The retreat that began at Sobral on the night of Nov. 14, 1810, was to end at Toulouse on April 11, 1814. The armies of the Emperor were never able to repeat the experiment of 1810, and to assume a general and vigorous offensive against Wellington and Portugal. In 1811 they were on the defensive, despite of certain local and partial attempts to recover their lost initiative. In 1812 they had to abandon half Spain—Andalusia, Estremadura, Asturias, La Mancha, and much more,—despite of Wellington’s temporary check before Burgos. In 1813 they were swept across the Pyrenees and the Bidassoa; in 1814 they were fighting a losing game in their own land. Rightly then may Masséna’s retreat to Santarem be called the beginning of the end—though it was not for a full year more that Wellington’s final offensive commenced, with the investment of Ciudad Rodrigo on Jan. 8, 1812. The campaign of Bussaco and Torres Vedras, therefore, marked the turning-point of the whole war, and I have endeavoured to set forth its meaning in full detail, devoting special care to the explanation of Wellington’s triple device for arresting the French advance—his combination of the system of devastation, of the raising of the levée en masse in Portugal, and of the construction of great defensive lines in front of Lisbon. Each of these three measures would have been incomplete without the other two. For the Lines of Torres Vedras might not have saved Portugal and Europe from the domination of Napoleon, if the invading army had not been surrounded on all sides by the light screen of irregular troops, which cut its communications, and prevented it from foraging far afield. Nor would Masséna have been turned back, if the land through which he had advanced had been left unravaged, and if every large village had contained enough food to subsist a brigade for a day or a battalion for a week. The preparations, the advance, and the retreat of Masséna cover about half of this volume. The rest of it is occupied with the operations of the French in Northern, Eastern, and Southern Spain—operations which seemed decisive at the moment, but which turned out to be mere side-issues in the great contest. For Soult’s conquest of Andalusia, and Suchet’s victories in Aragon, Catalonia, and Valencia only distracted the imperial generals from their central task—the expulsion of Wellington and his army from the Peninsula. Most readers will, I think, find a good deal of new information in the accounts of the siege of Gerona and the battle of Ocaña. The credit due to Alvarez for the defence of the Catalonian city has never been properly set forth before in any English history, nor have the details of Areizaga’s miserable campaign in La Mancha been fully studied. In particular, the composition and strength of his army have never before been elucidated, and Appendices V, VI of this volume consist of absolutely unpublished documents. To be continue in this ebook...
Download or read book A History of the peninsular war written by and published by Clarendon Press. This book was released on 1908 with total page 646 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book History of the Peninsular War written by Robert Southey and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2023-07-21 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reproduction of the original.
Download or read book A History of the Peninsular War written by Charles Oman and published by . This book was released on 1902 with total page 726 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book History of the Peninsular War In Six Volumes written by Robert Southey and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2023-08-12 with total page 577 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reproduction of the original.
Download or read book A History of the Peninsular War Vol III by Charles Oman written by Charles Oman and published by . This book was released on 2017-09 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Title: A History of the Peninsular War, Vol. III Sep. 1809 - Dec. 1810. Oca�a, Cadiz, Bussaco, Torres VedrasAuthor: Charles OmanLanguage: English
Download or read book History of the Peninsular War written by Robert Southey and published by . This book was released on 1832 with total page 962 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book History of the Peninsular War Vol 3 of 3 Classic Reprint written by Robert Southey and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2017-05-27 with total page 954 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from History of the Peninsular War, Vol. 3 of 3 D. Ventura Ximenez 52 Guerrilla banditti ih. Crimes of Pedrazuela and his wife 53 Alcalde of Brihuega 54 Joseph's escape from the Empecmado 55 Desertion of the J uramentados 56 Junta of Guadalaxara The Medico Fourscore French burnt m a chapel Cruelties and retaliations ih. Old Castille 68 The Cura 69. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
Download or read book A History of the Peninsular War Vol 3 Sep 1809 Dec 1810 Oca a Cadiz Bussaco Torres Vedras written by Charles Oman and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A History of the Peninsular War Vol 1 of 7 written by Charles Oman and published by AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. This book was released on with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is many years since an attempt has been made in England to deal with the general history of the Peninsular War. Several interesting and valuable diaries or memoirs of officers who took part in the great struggle have been published of late, but no writer of the present generation has dared to grapple with the details of the whole of the seven years of campaigning that lie between the Dos Mayo and Toulouse. Napier’s splendid work has held the field for sixty years. Meanwhile an enormous bulk of valuable material has been accumulating in English, French, and Spanish, which has practically remained unutilized. Papers, public and private, are accessible whose existence was not suspected in the ’thirties; an infinite number of autobiographies and reminiscences which have seen the light after fifty or sixty years of repose in some forgotten drawer, have served to fill up many gaps in our knowledge. At least one formal history of the first importance, that of General Arteche y Moro, has been published. I fancy that its eleven volumes are practically unknown in England, yet it is almost as valuable as Toreño’s Guerra de la Independencia in enabling us to understand the purely Spanish side of the war. I trust therefore that it will not be considered presumptuous for one who has been working for some ten or fifteen years at the original sources to endeavour to summarize in print the results of his investigations; for I believe that even the reader who has already devoted a good deal of attention to the Peninsular War will find a considerable amount of new matter in these pages. My resolve to take in hand a general history of the struggle was largely influenced by the passing into the hands of All Souls College of the papers of one of its most distinguished fellows, the diplomatist Sir Charles Vaughan. Not only had Vaughan unique opportunities for observing the early years of the Peninsular War, but he turned them to the best account, and placed all his observations on record. I suppose that there was seldom a man who had a greater love for collecting and filing information. His papers contain not only his own diaries and correspondence, but an infinite number of notes made for him by Spanish friends on points which he desired to master, and a vast bulk of pamphlets, proclamations, newspapers, and tables of statistics, carefully bound together in bundles, which (as far as I can see) have not been opened between the day of his death and that on which they passed, by a legacy from his last surviving relative, into the possession of his old college. Vaughan landed at Corunna in September, 1808, in company with Charles Stuart, the first English emissary to the Central Junta. He rode with Stuart to Madrid and Aranjuez, noting everything that he saw, from Roman inscriptions to the views of local Alcaldes and priests on the politics of the day. He contrived to interview many persons of importance—for example, he heard from Cuesta’s own lips of his treasonable plot to overthrow the Junta, and he secured a long conversation with Castaños as to the Capitulation of Baylen, from which I have extracted some wholly new facts as to that event. He then went to Aragon, where he stayed three weeks in the company of the Captain-General Joseph Palafox. Not only did he cross-question Palafox as to all the details of his famous defence of Saragossa, but he induced San Genis (the colonel who conducted the engineering side of the operations) to write him a memorandum, twelve pages long, as to the character and system of his work. Vaughan accompanied Palafox to the front in November, but left the Army of Aragon a day before the battle of Tudela. Hearing of the disaster from the fugitives of Castaños’s army, he resolved to take the news to Madrid. To be continue in this ebook...
Download or read book History of the Peninsular War written by Anonymous and published by Palala Press. This book was released on 2018-02-18 with total page 966 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Download or read book A History of the Peninsular War Vol 2 of 7 written by Charles Oman and published by AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. This book was released on with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The second volume of this work has swelled to an even greater bulk than its predecessor. Its size must be attributed to two main causes: the first is the fact that a much greater number of original sources, both printed and unprinted, are available for the campaigns of 1809 than for those of 1808. The second is that the war in its second year had lost the character of comparative unity which it had possessed in its first. Napoleon, on quitting Spain in January, left behind him as a legacy to his brother a comprehensive plan for the conquest of the whole Peninsula. But that plan was, from the first, impracticable: and when it had miscarried, the fighting in every region of the theatre of war became local and isolated. Neither the harassed and distracted French King at Madrid, nor the impotent Spanish Junta at Seville, knew how to combine and co-ordinate the operations of their various armies into a single logical scheme. Ere long, six or seven campaigns were taking place simultaneously in different corners of the Peninsula, each of which was practically independent of the others. Every French and Spanish general fought for his own hand, with little care for what his colleagues were doing: their only unanimity was that all alike kept urging on their central governments the plea that their own particular section of the war was more critical and important than any other. If we look at the month of May, 1809, we find that the following six disconnected series of operations were all in progress at once, and that each has to be treated as a separate unit, rather than as a part of one great general scheme of strategy—(1) Soult’s campaign against Wellesley in Northern Portugal, (2) Ney’s invasion of the Asturias, (3) Victor’s and Cuesta’s movements in Estremadura, (4) Sebastiani’s demonstrations against Venegas in La Mancha, (5) Suchet’s contest with Blake in Aragon, (6) St. Cyr’s attempt to subdue Catalonia. When a war has broken up into so many fractions, it becomes not only hard to follow but very lengthy to narrate. Fortunately for the historian and the student, a certain amount of unity is restored in July, mainly owing to the fact that the master-mind of Wellesley has been brought to bear upon the situation. When the British general attempted to combine with the Spanish armies of Estremadura and La Mancha for a common march upon Madrid, the whole of the hostile forces in the Peninsula [with the exception of those in Aragon and Catalonia] were once more drawn into a single scheme of operations. Hence the Talavera campaign is the central fact in the annals of the Peninsular War for the year 1809. I trust that it will not be considered that I have devoted a disproportionate amount of space to the setting forth and discussion of the various problems which it involved. The details of the battle of Talavera itself have engaged my special attention. I thought it worth while to go very carefully over the battle-field, which fortunately remains much as it was in 1809. A walk around it explained many difficulties, but suggested certain others, which I have done my best to solve. To be continue in this ebook...
Download or read book SIR CHARLES OMANS HIST OF THE written by Sir Charles Oman and published by Naval & Military Press. This book was released on 2017-02-13 with total page 624 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Volume III covers the period from September 1809 to December 1810, when the French were consolidating their hold on Spain, crushing resistance and attempting to drive the British out of Portugal. The forces of the Spanish Regency Council, with British and Portuguese aid, held out against the siege of Cadiz.
Download or read book A History of the Peninsula War written by Charles William Chadwick Oman and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2018-05-23 with total page 498 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reproduction of the original: A History of the Peninsula War by Charles William Chadwick Oman
Download or read book A History of the Peninsular War Vol III written by Charles Oman and published by . This book was released on 2018-03-06 with total page 692 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Sir Charles Oman s History of the Peninsular War Volume III written by Sir Charles Oman and published by . This book was released on 2021-04-09 with total page 624 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ocaña, Cadiz, Bussaco, Torres Vedras Volume III covers the period from September 1809 to December 1810, when the French were consolidating their hold on Spain, crushing resistance and attempting to drive the British out of Portugal. However, they could not wholly defeat their opponents. The forces of the Spanish Regency Council, with British and Portuguese aid, held out against the siege of Cadiz. Wellington's Allied army fought a model defensive battle at Bussaco, stalling the French drive into Portugal and enabling the British and Portuguese forces to retire to the shelter of the Torres Vedras fortifications. Here the Allies' defence led to a strategic victory, blunting the French offensive, and ultimately forcing the French to abandon their invasion of Portugal.
Download or read book History of the Peninsular War Vol 1 of 3 Classic Reprint written by Robert Southey and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2017-10-21 with total page 828 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from History of the Peninsular War, Vol. 1 of 3 A list of the printed documents which have been consulted in this work will be appended to the last volume. For the private sources of information which have been open to him, the author must content himself here with making a general acknowledgement. They are such as might entitle him to assert, that since the publication of Strada's Decades, no history com posed by one who was not an actor in it, has appeared with higher claims to authority. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
