HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



21 



the army might have been em- 

 barked : Vigo, Ferrol, and Co- 

 runna. The distance from Astor- 

 ga to Vigo was too great; and, 

 besides, there was not at Vigo 

 any military position. The jea- 

 lousy of the Spaniards would not 

 have admitted the English into 

 Ferrol, and farther, the roads 

 were too narrow and winding for 

 transports to ride in safety from 

 an enemy on shore. The penin- 

 sula of Betanzos, Sir John Moore 

 had reason to hope would afford 

 a position for defending the em- 

 barkation, and was also so 

 much nearer, that had not con- 

 trary winds detained the transports 

 two days longer at Vigo, the army 

 would have been embarked unmo- 

 lested. As this was not the case, 

 the general prepared for action, 

 by occupying a small chain of 

 bills, a short distance from Co- 

 runna. The enemy occupied a 

 more extended chain in his front; 

 and a valley, with the village of 

 Elvina, separated the two armies. 

 From the 13th to the 15th, the 

 embarkation of the sick, the artil- 

 lery, horses, &c. was going on : 

 the enemy in the meantime, gra- 

 dually drawing round, and skir- 

 mishing with our out-posts. 



On the 16th of January, 1809, 

 when orders had been issued for the 

 embarkation of the whole army, 

 General Hope reported from his 

 post, that the enemy's line were 

 getting under arms: Sir John flew 

 to the field, where the pickets 

 were engaged, and beheld the 

 French descending from the hills 

 in four columns, two of which 

 threatened the right of the British 

 -line, composed of Sir David Baird's 

 division; upon whose right the 

 rifle corps formed a chain across 



the valley, which united it with 

 General Frazer's division : the 

 whole stretching in an oblique 

 direction towards Corunna. 



Sir John Moore perceiving that 

 the great effort of the enemy would 

 be directed against Lord W. Ben- 

 tinck's brigade, and General Man- 

 ningham's, which composed Sir 

 David Baird's right wing; had or- 

 dered General Frazer to move up, 

 and General Paget to support 

 Lord W. Bentinck with the re- 

 serve. The two lines moved on 

 under a shower of balls, and on 

 their closing, the general, per- 

 ceiving his right to be outflanked, 

 ordered the 4th regiment which 

 composed it, to refuse itself, and 

 form an obtuse angle with the 

 other half of the regiment ; a 

 manoeuvre which was performed 

 to the general's entire satisfac- 

 tion ; the soldiers at the same time 

 commencing a heavy flanking fire. 

 The 50th and 42nd, which com- 

 posed the remainder of Lord W. 

 Bentinck's brigade, charged gal- 

 lantly, and drove the enemy from 

 the village of Elvina with great 

 slaughter. Sir John Moore was 

 in the act of ordering up the guards 

 to support the brave Highlanders, 

 when he received his death wound 

 by a cannon ball on the shoulder, 

 and was conveyed from the field, 

 in a blanket, by six soldiers of the 

 42nd. Sir David Baird had already 

 left the scene of action from a 

 severe wound in his arm. Tlie 

 soldiers, however, undismayed by 

 the loss of their leaders, main- 

 tained the advantages they had 

 gained on the right, and continued 

 to repulse the repeated attacks of 

 the enemy on their center and left, 

 until night left them masters of 

 the field. Not more than 15,000 



British 



