WHIPPING AT GIBRALTAR. PAGE 47.
THE
MILITARY ADVENTURES
OF
CHARLES O’NEIL,
WHO WAS A SOLDIER IN THE ARMY OF LORD WELLINGTON DURING THE
MEMORABLE PENINSULAR WAR AND THE CONTINENTAL
CAMPAIGNS FROM 1811 TO 1815;
INCLUDING FULL HISTORIES OF
THE BLOODY BATTLE OF BAROSSA,
AND
THE MEMORABLE SIEGE OF BADAJOS;
TOGETHER WITH A GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF THE
BATTLE OF WATERLOO,
TERMINATING WITH THE OVERTHROW OF NAPOLEON;
IN ALL OF WHICH HE WAS AN ACTOR.
ILLUSTRATED BY SIX SPLENDID ENGRAVINGS.
WORCESTER:
PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR BY EDWARD LIVERMORE.
1851.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1851,
By CHARLES O’NEIL,
In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.
Stereotyped by
HOBART & ROBBINS;
NEW ENGLAND TYPE AND STEREOTYPE FOUNDERY,
BOSTON.
PREFACE.
The history of times and events, of men and their characters,must ever be replete with interest and instruction.Chronicles of the great and wise, the noble and the learned,are often presented to the world; and the military hero andchieftain finds everywhere his biographer. We read of campaignsthat his mind has traced out, of battles which his planshave won; and we forget, in our admiration of his skill andpower, those by whom the heroic deeds were done, the victorygained. Generals, says one author, “often calculate uponmen as though they were blocks of wood, or movable machines.”Yet every one of these nameless soldiers has feelingsas acutely alive to suffering and to honor as those wholook upon them thus.
It is well sometimes to turn away from the glare and tinselof rank, from the glitter of arms and the pageantry of war, tofollow the common soldier in his partings and wanderings, tocast the glance of pity upon his sufferings, and allow theheart to be moved with compassion while regarding the temptationswhich must ever beset his path. It is only thus thata true knowledge of the evils and miseries of war can beobtained; and only when this knowledge is spread far and[IV]wide, that we may hope to see the banner of peace unfurled,and the olive-branch waving in quiet, where now the swordspreads its desolation, and the vulture feasts on the unburieddead.
Thoughts like these may, perhaps, lend interest to the unpretendingnarrative of one who now presents himself and thescenes of his times before an indulgent public, with none of theadvantages of rank, or birth, or fame, to recommend him toits notice. Simply one of the rank and file, he was an actorand participator in the scenes he has endeavored faithfully torepresent.
It is his ardent wish, by this little volume, to awaken moreinterest in this class of his fellow-beings, so often forgottenin the lustre of that halo which rarely fails to surround thevictor’s name.
The work, such as it is, he cheerfully commends tothe public, lo