The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1896-06-25
SPANISH GUERRILLAS.
They Laughed at The Formations o
Regular Warfare.

| Regular Warfare.
| The Napoleonic strategy had laughed
| at the military formation of Frederick
| the Greats system; the guerrillas OF
| Spain laughed at the formations of reg
ular warfare in any shape. They rose
! TO fight and dispersed for safety, leav-
| ing their smarting foe unable to strike
| for lack of billet The occasional sue
| cesses of the Spanish regulars showed,
| moreover, that the generals were not
| entirely ignorant of Napoleons own
| system. When Joseph entered Madrid
| the whole land was already in open re-
| bellion, except where French forces
| compelled a sullen dcQuiesence i'll
| French rule The long inactive. slug
| gish ecclesiastics suddenly seemed to
! feel the yigor to resist and the power
to lead. They joined the insurgents
| and recalled the orthodoxy of the ma
ton to inf1ame the passions against the
| prosecutor of the pope.
| Irregular and underlined as were the
| elements of the uprising, it was never
| theless essentially popular movement
| AS Napolen himself late admitted, Il
| was the people themselves who refused
| TO ratify his new Institutions and who
| declared for Ferdinand VII. The Sc
| quel furnished ample illustration; the
| mountaineers of Asturias rose in united
| rebellion the inhabitants of Cartagena
| threw open her arsenals to the volun-
| teers Of the neighborhood; the citizens
| Of Saragossa beat off their besiegers,
| while those of Valencia first ma sacred
| the French who took refuge in their
| citadel and then repulsei Money In a
desperate conflict When the Spanish
| leaders ventured into IN open battle
| field they were DEBATED; on the other
hand, when they kept the hills and
| fought like bandits they were victo-
| rious.
So quick and general was the Span
| ish rising that the various French army
| divisions shut themselves up for safe
| ty in whatever towns they could hold.
| pretending to defy the national guards,
| who seemed to spring from the ground
| without, they were In reality awe
! stricken before the wrath of the armed
citizens within. A quick burst of Span
| ish anger, sharp stab of the Spanish
| poniard-the frequency of such incl
| dents began to create a panic among
| the French boy-soldiers. The seizure
and sack of a city had for years been
| a traditional amusement of the grand
army, accompanied in Italy and Ger
] many with little or no loss of life, and
| by the acquisition of enormous booty
The young conScripts, who had heard
| the oft-told tale from their fathers
| lips, found to their bitter disappoint
| ment that in Spain sack meant much
| bloodshed and little, If any, booty.
| Sometimes the tables were more than
turned. \ French squadron put in at
| Cadiz to cooperate with the force dis
| patched by Napoleon, under the pre-
tense Of resisting an invasion threat
! ened by the English, but really for the
| purpose of terrOriZing southern Spain.
| The arrival of the troops having been
| delayed by the outbreak of rebellion
| farther north, the townsiolk of that an
cient city rose and seized the fleet
| The corpses of French soldiers, wher-
ever found throughout the country,
were mutilated by the furious Span
1ards, and the wounded received no
| quarter of Napoleon" by Prof.
| w. M. Sloane in the April Century.