MOORE, SIR JOHN, a consummate British general, a brave soldier, and an accomplished gentleman, was born at Glasgow on the 13th of November 1761. He was a son of Dr Moore, the author of Zeluco and other works, noticed in the preceding article, and received the principal part of his education on the Continent, whilst his father attended the Duke of Hamilton in his travels. In 1776 the Duke of Hamilton procured him an ensign in the 51st regiment, then quartered in Minorca; and he afterwards obtained a lieutenantcy in the 82d, with which he served in America until 1783, when he was reduced with his regiment. By the interest of his former patron he was subsequently brought into Parliament for the Lanark district of
burghs, which he for a short time represented. In 1787 or 1788 he obtained the rank of major in the fourth battalion of the 60th regiment, then quartered at Chatham, but afterwards negotiated an exchange into the 51st. In 1790 he succeeded by purchase to the lieutenant-colonelcy of the same regiment, which, the following year, he accompanied to Gibraltar. After some other movements, he was sent to Corsica, where, owing to a misunderstanding between the military and naval commanders, General d'Aubant resigned the command to him under the most critical circumstances; and here, though still a young officer, and without parliamentary friends, he was called to fight the battles of the army against a domineering old admiral, Hood, who possessed great influence at home, and who had shown himself capable of the most outrageous violence. By dint of firmness, however, he succeeded in controlling this daring, obstinate, clever man; and was at length relieved from the difficult and embarrassing situation in which he had been placed by the arrival of Sir Charles Stuart, who having assumed the command of the army in 1794, appointed Moore to command the reserve. At the siege of Calvi which followed, the latter particularly distinguished himself, and received his first wound in storming the Mozzello fort. He gave his opinion against besieging Bastia, which afterwards surrendered after a very feeble defence, though the place was strong and the garrison numerous; but this, as a military judgment before the event, was nevertheless sound and just, for Moore never could have anticipated that General Gentili would neglect to avail himself of the means in his power, "because he wished to do his duty and no more," and had property in England.
Sir Charles Stuart having been recalled in consequence of a disagreement with the viceroy, Colonel Moore returned to England in 1795, and being immediately appointed a brigadier-general in the West Indies, he was attached to a brigade of foreign troops, consisting of Choiseul's hussars, and two corps of emigrants. On the 25th of February 1796 he received orders to take charge of and embark with Perryn's brigade, destined to join the expedition to the West Indies under Sir Ralph Abercromby. Having hurried to Portsmouth, where he had scarcely time to prepare a few necessaries, he sailed for the West Indies on the 28th, with no other baggage than a small portmanteau. He arrived at Barbadoes on the 13th of April 1796, and there waited on the commander-in-chief, who had preceded him in the Vengeance line-of-battle ship. That calm and sagacious observer soon appreciated his merit; and in the operations against St Lucia, which immediately followed, employed him in every arduous and difficult service. During the siege of Morne Fortune, his conduct, as expressed in general orders, was the admiration of the whole army; and after the capitulation he was appointed to the government of the island, notwithstanding he had earnestly requested permission to accompany the commander-in-chief and the troops in the reduction of the other islands. In this situation, beset with all manner of difficulties, his conduct was not less admirable than in the field, and, tempering justice with humanity, the severity of military examples with a due consideration of the circumstances which palliated the conduct of the Negroes and republicans, he subdued discontent, restored order, and re-established security.
Having completely re-established tranquillity in St Lucia, Moore was relieved from the command of the island, and returned to England in August 1797. In November, Sir Ralph Abercromby having received the command of the forces in Ireland, desired that General Moore should be placed on his staff, and the latter accordingly accompanied him to Dublin in the beginning of December. During the period immediately preceding the rebellion he held an important command in the south of Ireland, which, being much disaffected, was considered as the quarter where the enemy were, in the
event of an invasion, likely to attempt a landing. His headquarters were at Bandon, and the troops under his command, amounting to 3000 men, formed the advanced guard of the south. When the insurrection broke out in 1798, he was at first employed under Major-General Johnstone at New Ross, but was afterwards detached towards Wexford, at that time in the hands of the insurgents. On this occasion he had only the 60th sharpshooters, 500 light infantry, 50 of Hompesch's dragoons, and 6 pieces of artillery; and with these troops he had not proceeded above a mile when a large body of insurgents appeared on the road advancing to attack him. The rebels, amounting to about 6000 men, headed by one Roche, attacked with great spirit, and maintained the conflict with much obstinacy, but were at length defeated, driven from the field, and pursued with great loss. After the action he was joined by two regiments from Duncannon, and took post for the night upon the ground where the combat had commenced. Next day, when he had resumed his march, he was met by two men from Wexford with proposals on the part of the insurgents to lay down their arms and submit on certain conditions; but General Moore, having no power to treat, declined entertaining these proposals, and continued his march to Wexford, which he delivered from the power of the insurgents. He was afterwards employed to suppress a remnant of the rebellion in Wicklow, where many of the insurgents had taken refuge amongst the mountains and bogs, whence they issued to wage a sort of desultory warfare. Speaking of this affair in his journal, he says, that moderate treatment by the generals, and the preventing of the troops from pillaging and molesting the people, would soon restore tranquillity; that the latter would certainly be quiet if the gentlemen and yeomen would only behave with tolerable decency, and not seek to gratify their ill-humour and revenge upon the poor; and he adds, that he judged their harshness and violence had originally driven the farmers and peasants to revolt, and that they were as ready as ever to renew their former ill-usage of them.
These and other similar observations on the insurrection of 1798, extracted and published from General Moore's journal, do equal honour to his head and heart, evincing the discriminating and unimpassioned sagacity of the statesman, united with that high and liberal feeling which forms the greatest ornament in the character of the accomplished soldier.
Immediately after quitting Ireland, General Moore engaged in the memorable expedition to Holland. The Dutch, whom we sought to rescue from the alleged tyranny of the French government, made common cause with the enemy. They received the French as friends and deliverers, because the House of Orange, aided by Prussia, had destroyed their republic, suppressing their constitution and liberties; and hence, after a short struggle, the Duke of York was obliged to capitulate. But the troops displayed their usual gallantry, particularly those under the command of General Moore, who, after being wounded in the hand and thigh, received a musket-ball in the face, and was with difficulty brought from the ground. Being carried back to his quarters, a distance of 10 miles, he was taken thence to the Helder as soon as he could be moved, and embarked on board the Amethyst frigate, which arrived at the Nore on the 24th of August. Soon after his return to England the King conferred on him the command of a second battalion which had just been added to the 52d regiment; and his wounds having closed in the course of five or six weeks, he joined his brigade at Chelmsford on the 24th of December.
Early in 1800 it had been resolved to send a body of troops to the Mediterranean under the command of Sir Charles Stuart, and General Moore willingly consented to serve under that officer, whom he greatly esteemed. The
first intention was, that the expedition should consist of 15,000 men; but it afterwards turned out that the regiments destined for the service, part of which had lately been employed in Holland, mustered only 10,000 effective soldiers. About the middle of March the first division, amounting to 5000 men, embarked under General Pigott. But at this time a change took place in the plan, if not in the destination, of the expedition. Sir Charles Stuart, having some misunderstanding with ministers, resigned his command; and Sir Ralph Abercromby being appointed to succeed him, named as one of his major-generals, Moore, who, along with Pigott and Hutchinson, sailed about the end of April with the second division of the troops. During this expedition, which a variety of causes conspired to render abortive, General Moore had little opportunity of signalizing his exertions; nor was it until the following year, when his troops were ordered to proceed to Egypt under Sir Ralph Abercromby, that a theatre of action opened for the display of his talents. On his arrival at Malta he was sent forward to Jaffa to inspect the Turkish army, and judge as to the amount of co-operation which might be expected from it; but his report being unfavourable, Sir Ralph determined to land in the Bay of Aboukir, and to march immediately upon Alexandria. In the affair of the landing on the 4th of March 1801, in the combat of the 13th, and again in the battle of the 21st, where he received a wound in the leg, General Moore was actively engaged, and as usual, greatly distinguished himself. On recovering from his wound, which occasioned him much suffering, he continued to serve with the army in Egypt until the surrender of Alexandria, when he returned to England, where he received the honour of knighthood and the Order of the Bath.
Soon after his return to England, we find Sir John Moore actively occupied in the camp at Shorncliffe, where his skill in training troops was proved to be equal to his courage in leading them. Many persons have been led to suppose that he was a harsh and odious disciplinarian; but this calumny has been refuted by the most irrefragable proof. "The officers of the regiments which were formed by his care," says Sir William Napier (Edinburgh Review, vol. lix.), "were ever after his warmest admirers. His discipline it has been their object to maintain; his maxims have been their guide; his reputation has been by them considered as a part of their own; his memory is cherished in their hearts to this day, and will be as long as those hearts retain an atom of a soldier's pride and honour." Such is the testimony of one who knew him thoroughly; and who, besides his pre-eminent qualifications for judging rightly, had the best opportunities of understanding his views and appreciating his real character.
On the renewal of the war after the short peace of Amiens, Sir John Moore's talents and services pointed him out as deserving of some important employment. He was accordingly sent to Sicily as second in command to Sir John Stuart; and when that officer had been superseded by General Fox, he virtually acquired the chief command in that island. Associated with such a nominal superior, Moore had full scope for the exercise of his ability and sagacity; and indeed his whole proceedings showed that his sense and judgment in civil matters were in no degree inferior to his talents in war.
When Sir John Moore arrived in England from Sicily, he was immediately sent with an expedition to Gottenburg, to aid Gustavus Adolphus IV., King of Sweden, against the encroachments of Napoleon. While engaged on this expedition, he became involved in a grave dispute with the unreasonable Swedish king; and had it not been for the ability and resolution which he displayed on that occasion, 10,000 of the finest soldiers of England would have been sacrificed.
We come now to the expedition to Spain, which terminated Sir John Moore's earthly career. In 1808 he was appointed to the chief command of an army to be employed in Spain; and Galicia, or the borders of Leon, were fixed upon as the place for assembling the troops. He was ordered to send the cavalry by land, but it was left to his own discretion to transport the infantry and artillery either by sea or land; and being at the same time informed that 15,000 men were ordered to Coruña under General Sir David Baird, he was directed to give such instructions to that officer as should facilitate the junction of the whole force. Before he commenced his advance from Portugal, he was assured that his entry into Spain would be covered by from 60,000 or 70,000 men; and Burgos was the place fixed on for the junction of the different divisions. But he soon discovered that these assurances were fallacious, that little or no reliance could be placed upon the Spaniards, and that the patriotic enthusiasm which he had been taught to expect in the people had either never existed at all, or had entirely evaporated. Not only Burgos, but Valladolid, was in possession of the enemy; and he found himself, with an advance corps, in an open town, at the distance of only three marches from the French army, without even a Spanish piquet to cover his front. At this time he had only three brigades of infantry, without a single gun in Salamanca; and although the remainder were coming up in succession, the whole could not be assembled in less than ten days. At this critical moment the Spanish armies, instead of concentrating or uniting in a common effort with the British, were disseminated all over the Peninsula; Blake had been defeated, and his army totally dispersed; Romana, equally weak and obstinate, proved incapable of undertaking anything; and Sir David Baird, informed that the French were advancing upon him in two directions, was preparing to retreat upon Coruña, a movement which was countermanded by Sir John Moore, upon learning that the report was unfounded. (See Sir William Napier's History of the Peninsular War, vol. i.) Never was a general commanding an army placed in a more critical position than Sir John Moore; for, whilst he received information that there was now no army remaining in the field except his own, which was thus exposed to attack on all sides by overwhelming numbers, he was called upon to repel the most irritating interference, to guard against open treachery, and to counteract folly, equal in its effects to treachery. Yet, even in these circumstances, he was willing to attempt something for the cause, and even to risk the danger of an advance on the capital. With this view he commenced a forward movement from Salamanca on the 12th of December, intending to attack Soult on the Carrion, draw the mass of the French force towards the north of Spain, and thus afford the Spanish armies time to rally and adopt some new plan of operations. This movement, in a strategic point of view, was ably conceived, and it proved to be well-timed and successful; but Sir John Moore, with 23,000 men, could not maintain himself against the whole French army; and as Napoleon, having secured the capital, was now rapidly advancing at the head of from 60,000 to 70,000 men, a retreat became inevitable. It was now the depth of winter, and the retreat had to be effected through the mountainous region of Galicia, which necessarily led to much suffering and disorder. There were not wanting many who blamed this retreat for precipitancy, but this charge has long since been shown by the best authorities to be unfounded. (See Napier's History, vol. i.)
The rear-guard quitted Astorga on the 1st January; on the 3d it repulsed the enemy in a sharp skirmish at Calcabelos; on the 6th it rejoined the main body at Lugo, having three times checked the pursuers during the march. It suffered no misfortune; and the whole army offered battle at Lugo for two successive days without being accepted. The
retreat recommenced; the troops reached Betanzos on the morning of the 10th, and Coruña on the 11th; and five days afterwards fought and won that celebrated battle in which their brave commander fell.
After the fight the British troops embarked and steered home directly from Coruña; a terrible storm scattered it; many ships were wrecked, and the remainder, driving up the Channel, were glad to put into any port. The soldiers, thus thrown on shore, were spread from the Land's End to Dover. Their haggard appearance, ragged clothing, and dirty accoutrements, things common enough in war, struck a people only used to the daintiness of parade with surprise; the usual exaggerations of men just escaped from perils and distresses were increased by the uncertainty in which all were as to the fate of their comrades; a deadly fever, the result of anxiety, and of the sudden change from fatigue to the confinement of a ship, filled the hospitals at every port with officers and soldiers; and thus the miserable state of Sir John Moore's army became the topic of every letter, and a theme for every country newspaper along the coast. The nation, at that time unused to great operations, forgot that war is not a harmless game, and judging of the loss positively instead of comparatively, was thus disposed to believe the calumnies of interested men, who were eager to cast a shade over one of the brightest characters that ever adorned the country. Those calumnies triumphed for a moment; but Moore's last appeal to his country for justice will be successful. And if authority be sought for in a case where reason speaks so plainly, future historians will not fail to remark, that the man whose talents called forth the praises of Soult, of Wellington, and of Napoleon, could be no ordinary soldier.
"Sir John Moore," says Soult, "took every advantage that the country afforded to oppose an active and vigorous resistance, and he finished by dying in a combat that must do credit to his memory." Napoleon more than once affirmed, that if Moore committed a few trifling errors, they were to be attributed to his peculiar situation, for that his talents and firmness alone had saved the English army from destruction. "In Sir John Moore's campaign," said the Duke of Wellington, "I can see but one error; when he advanced to Salagun he should have considered it as a movement of retreat, and sent officers to the rear to mark and prepare the halting-places for every brigade; but this opinion I have formed after long experience of war, and especially of the peculiarities of a Spanish war, which must have been seen to be understood; finally, it is an opinion formed after the event."
The fall of Sir John Moore is thus described by Captain (now Sir Henry) Hardinge:—"I had been ordered by the commander-in-chief to desire a battalion of the Guards to advance, which battalion was at one time intended to have dislodged a corps of the enemy from a house and garden on the opposite side of the valley; and I was pointing out to the general the situation of the battalion, and our horses were touching, at the moment that a cannon-shot from the enemy's battery carried away his left shoulder and part of the collar-bone, leaving the arm hanging by the flesh. The violence of the stroke threw him off his horse on his back. Not a muscle of his face altered, nor did a sigh betray the least sensation of pain. I dismounted, and, taking his hand, he pressed mine forcibly, casting his eyes anxiously towards the 42d regiment, which was hotly engaged; and his countenance expressed satisfaction when I informed him that the regiment was advancing. Assisted by a soldier of the 42d, he was removed a few yards behind the shelter of a wall. Colonel Graham of Balgowan (Lord Lyndoch) and Captain (now Sir John) Woodford about this time came up, and perceiving the state of Sir John's wound, instantly rode off for a surgeon. The blood flowed fast, but the attempt to stop it with my
cash was useless, from the size of the wound. Sir John assented to being removed in a blanket to the rear. In raising him for that purpose, his sword, hanging on the wounded side, touched his arm, and became entangled between his legs. I perceived the inconvenience, and was in the act of unbuckling it from his waist, when he said, in his usual tone and manner, and in a very distinct voice, 'It is as well as it is; I had rather it should go out of the field with me.' When the surgeons arrived, he said to them, 'You can be of no service to me; go to the soldiers, to whom you may be useful.' As he was carried slowly along in the blanket, he made the soldiers by whom he was borne frequently turn him round to view the field of battle, and listen to the firing, and he seemed pleased when the sound grew fainter. On arriving at his lodgings he suffered great pain, and could speak but little; at length, however, he said to Colonel Anderson, who for more than twenty years had been his friend and companion in arms, 'Anderson, you know that I always wished to die in this way.' He frequently asked, 'Are the French beaten?' and when he was told that they had been defeated at every point, he said, 'It is a great satisfaction for me to know that we have beaten the French;' adding, 'I hope the people of England will be satisfied; I hope my country will do me justice.' To Major Stanhope he said, 'Stanhope, remember me to your sister;' and having mentioned the name of his venerable mother, for whom he seemed anxious to offer up his last prayers, he lost all power of utterance, and in a few minutes afterwards expired without a struggle."
Thus fell, on the 16th of January 1809, in the forty-seventh year of his age, after gaining a victory which saved the remainder of the army from destruction, and which, in all its circumstances, was perhaps unparalleled in the annals of war, Lieutenant-General Sir John Moore, a perfect model of a British soldier at a time when such models were few, and a hero cast in the true classical mould. He was equally a stranger to fear and reproach, yet one whom the malignity of faction basely attempted to deprive of his just fame, whilst venal pens endeavoured to depreciate his achievements, and servile poets vainly sought to exclude his name from the list of the brave who had fought and fallen in the same struggle. But his country was well disposed to acknowledge his merits, and history has already placed his character and actions beyond the reach of contemporary injustice. (J. B.—E.)