242 Naval War of 1812 



the fell destruction and nameless woe that awaited 

 their city should the English take it at the sword's 

 point. They feared not for themselves; but in the 

 hearts of the bravest and most careless there lurked 

 a dull terror of what that day might bring upon 

 those they loved. 42 The Tennesseeans were troubled 



of sight of their officers, I might almost say out of sight of 

 the commanding officers of the regiments, that outrages are 

 not committed. . . . There is not an outrage of any descrip- 

 tion which has not been committed on a people who have 

 uniformly received them as friends." "I really believe that 

 more plunder and outrages have been committed by this 

 army than by any other that ever was in the field." "A 

 detachment seldom marches . . . that a murder, or a high- 

 way robbery, or some act of outrage is not committed by the 

 British soldiers composing it. They have killed eight people 

 since the army returned to Portugal." "They really forget 

 everything when plunder or wine is within reach." 



4S That these fears were just can be seen by the following 

 quotations, from the works of a British officer, General 

 Napier, who was an eye-witness of what he describes. It 

 must be remembered that Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajos, and 

 San Sebastian were friendly towns, only the garrisons being 

 hostile. "Now commenced that wild and desperate wicked- 

 ness which tarnished the lustre of the soldiers' heroism. All 

 indeed were not alike, for hundreds risked and many lost 

 their lives in striving to stop the violence ; but the 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, cru- 

 elty, and murder, shrieks and piteous lamentations, groans, 

 shouts, imprecations, the hissing of fires bursting from the 

 houses, the crashing of doors and windows, the reports of 

 muskets used in violence, resounded for two days and nights 

 in the streets of Badajos. On the third, when the city was 

 sacked, when the soldiers were exhausted by their own ex- 



