In the
Peninsula With a French Hussar : Memoirs of |
| This memoir of the Peninsular War is a rarity for readers
accustomed to reading of the campaigns from the Duke of Wellington's and the British point of view. Here is an exciting, vivid narrative of two years, from 1808 to 1810, by a French officer in Napoleon's army and written immediately after the campaign, with all the vigour of a participant. He was an unusual soldier: he was a patriot, but nevertheless realised the justice of the Spanish cause, acknowledged the cruelty inflicted by both sides, and appreciated the character, both good and bad, of the enemy who made the task of the French army so continuously fraught with danger, not only on the field of battle but every moment it was in Spain. This is a memoir, not only of a brave and compassionate man, but of an intelligent and objective observer of the military situation. A hussar officer in Napoleon's army, the author was sent to Spain in 1808 from Germany where the French found a very different kind of war; here they were fighting not only the disciplined troops of the English under Sir John Moore, and the Spanish army, but also a civilian population desperately fighting to regain their freedom against Napoleon whose brother Joseph ruled Spain as a puppet king. De Rocca gives vivid accounts of military operations such as the march to Madrid and Napoleon's entry into the city and the subsequent battles in which he took part, the pursuit of Sir John Moore's army to Corunna, the battle at Talavera, which took place while he was away from Spain for a few months, and the battles that followed against the English under General Sir Arthur Wellesley, now in command in the Iberian peninsula. He also describes the enormous personal dangers he faced in every Spanish village that the French army entered, where every man, woman and child was intent on their death, yet he still pays tribute to the character of their enemies even when his own life was at risk from them. De Rocca personally faced danger time and time again, which he escaped by his wits, only to fall seriously wounded in an ambush. He was cared for, now that he was no longer personally a danger to their country, by his Spanish hosts. His memoir makes exciting, evocative reading, full of the flavour of what it must have been like to fight in Napoleon's army in hostile territory and packed with anecdotes and detail of this famous war.
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