In 1808 he was sent to Spain to reinforce the
British Army during the Peninsular War (1808 - 14), and took command
in the same year. However by December of 1808 defeat was imminent,
the French having taken Madrid. Moore led a winter retreat under
terrible conditions across the mountains from Astorga to the coast
at Corunna, with the intention of evacuating his army by sea.
However, the French attacked with greatly superior numbers and a
desperate battle ensured. Although the British were eventually
triumphant, Moore was killed in the last stages of the battle.
Burial
of Sir John Moore at Corunna,
by Rev. Charles Wolfe (1791-1823)
Not a drum was heard, not a
funeral note,
As his corse to the rampart we hurried;
Nor a solider discharged his farewell shot
O'er the grave where our hero was buried.
We buried him darkly at the
dead of night,
The sods with our bayonets turning,
By the struggling moonbeam's misty light,
And the lantern dimly burning.
No useless coffin enclosed his
breast,
Nor in sheet nor shroud we wound him;
But he lay like a warrior taking his rest,
With his martial cloak around him.
Few and short were the prayers
we said,
And we spoke not a word of sorrow;
But we steadfastly gaz'd on the face that was dead;
And we bitterly thought of the morrow.
We thought, as we hollow'd his
narrow bed,
And smooth'd down his lonely pillow,
That the foe and the stranger would tread o'er his head,
And we far away on the billow!
Lightly they'll talk of the
spirit that's gone,
And o'er his cold ashes upbraid him;
But little he'll reck, if they let him sleep on
In the grave where a Briton has laid him.
But half of our heavy task was
done
When the clock struck the hour for retiring;
And we heard the distant and random gun
Of the enemy, sullenly firing.
Slowly and sadly we laid him
down,
From the field of his fame fresh and gory;
We carved not a line and we raised not a stone -
But we left him along with his glory.
Taken from 'Coast of
Conflict' by Michael & Martin George.
