Literary cadet and Rhode-Island statesman. [volume] (Providence, R.I.) 1827-1829, 1828-06-21
PROVIDENCE, SATURDAY MORNING, JUNE 81, 1926.

a spectacle more appalling than those bw pre-
sented, who having came up with the column,
bleeding and cat in numerous places, were, by
order Of the general, paraded through the
ranks, as a warning TO their comrades we
reached Villa Franco on the I'd, having per-
formed distance Of upwards of sixty miles m
two days, where the greater part Of the cavai-
ry took up its quarters, only small detach-
ment remaining with the reserve at Cacabelos.
Like Benivedre, it was filed with drunken and
disordery men, belonging to the divisions
which had preceded; by whom the most vio-
lent outrages had been committed, not upoa
the natives only, but upon our own magazines.
A store of wine had been broken open, and
the wine either drank or wantonly spt; and
a considerable quantity Of forage, Of which we
stood sorely in need, destroyed One man
was executed here, being detected in the act
Of mauro udng; but the discipline Of the army
was by this time too much impaired to be very
seriously affected, even by such an example.
Similar deeds were performed, wherever op-
portunites occurred, and that with the open
ness of men who saw, that their case was dcs-
perate."
The cavalry were sent on TO Lugo, whith-
er the infantry and artillery followed, as fast
as extreme exhaustion and the nature Of the
road by which they travelled, would allow
But they followed both painfully and slowly;
for though as many as forty miles were per-
formed in one march, that march comprehen-
ded not the day only, but the night also. This
was moro than men, reduced to the low ebb
to which our soldiers had fallen, could endure
They dropped down by whole sections in tho
way-side, and died, some with curses, and 9TH
ers with the voice Of prayer in their mouths
1t was dreadful likewise, TO know, that not
men only, but women and children were sub
jected 10 this miserable fate. BY some strange
neglect, or by the indulgence Of a mistaken
humanity, Sir John Moore's army had carried
along with il, more than the too large proper
ton Of women allotted by the rules of our ser
vice to the armies in the field and these poor
wretches were now heightening the horror Of
passing events. 10y display Of sufTerings even
more acute than that endured by their hus-
bands. Some wero taken in labour on the
road; and in the open air, amidst showers of
slcet and snow, gave birth to infants, which,
with their mothers, perishod as soon as they
had seen the light. Others, carrying perhaps
| each Of them two children upon their acks,
would toll on, and when they came to look to
the condition of their precious burdens, they
would find one or both, frozen to death. Then
the depths Of moral degradation to which they
sank:-their oaths and cries, uttered under the
influence OF intoxication, were hardly less ap-
palling than the groans which burst from them,
as all hope abandoned them, and they sat
down 10 die. | am well aware, that the hor-
rors of this retreat have been again and again
described, in terms calculated 10 freeze the
blood of such as read them; but have no hes
itation in saying, that the mos, narrowing c.
counts which have yet been laid before the
public, fall short Of the roality.''