Iowa state bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1894-1916, 1896-04-24
SPANISH GUERRlLLAS.
They Laughed at the Formations OF
Regular Warfare.

hebuAF bVar'hTe'
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, leay-
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 Napoleon's own
system When Joseph entered Madrid
the whole land was already in open re-
bellion, except where French forces
compelled sullen acquiesence in
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
zion to infiame 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 later admitted, it
was the people themselves VINO 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 massacred
the French who took refuge in their
citadel and then repulsed Money in a
desperate conflict When the Spanish
leaders ventured into ;tn oIen battle-
field they were DEBATED: on the other
hand, when they kept the hills and
fought like bandits they were victo-
rioua
So quick and general was the Span
ish rising that the various French army
divisions shut themselves up for safe
ty i'll whatever towns they could hold,
pretending to defy the national guards,
who seemed to spring from the ground
Without, they we're 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 panic among
the French boy-soldiers. The seizure
and sack of 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 a sack meant much
bloodshed and little, il any, booty.
Sometimes the tables were more than
turned. A 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 townstolk OF that an
cient city rose and seized the fleet.
The corpses OF French soldiers, wher-
ever found throughout the country,
we're mutilated by the furious Span
iards, and the wounded received no
quarter" Life of Napoleon" by Prof
w. M. Sloane in the April Century.