An Cosantóir

An Cosantóir June 2019 www.dfmagazine.ie 30 | BY STEPHEN MCGARRY Napoleon's Blackguards The British Army's epic fighting retreat across Spain in 1808 dur- ing The Napoleonic Wars provides the inspiration for Stephen McGarry's début novel, Napoleon's Blackguards. The Peninsular War, Battle of Corunna, Galicia, Northern Spain, January 1809. The French have been doggedly pursuing a retreat- ing British Army across Northern Spain for three weeks. The British have fought a desperate rearguard action at great cost and have finally made it to the Spanish coastal town of Corunna and begin loading up their cavalry onto their transport ships to ferry them safely back to England. But there is not enough time to load up the infantry, and they are forced to make a stand and fight the French with their backs to the sea... 'The French divisions finally arrived and an order of battle was hastily drawn up. Captain James Ryan, Voltigeur Company, 2nd battalion, Irish Legion and his Irish voltigeurs waited in front of the column as the order to advance was sounded. A raucous roar rose as the French assault columns stalked out, followed by platoons of drummers vigorously beating out the pas de charge. Ryan listened as the men waited for the pause between the drum rolls to unleash their war cry, 'Vive l'Empereur!' He smiled as he chimed in with them. He knew that from four-hundred yards away, the British could now make out the French blue uniforms, the outlines of the men's shakos and the battle standards of their glistening golden Eagles hoisted high in the sun. 'En avant! En avant!' the French officers yelled. 'Tuez! Tuez!'—'Forward! Forward! Kill! Kill!' Ryan heard Cor- poral McGowan, skirmishing beside him, singing 'Whiskey in the Jar'. Ryan sang along with him before he ran for cover to reload. Ryan had just shot another British officer when he spotted a highland regiment advancing. He recognised their uniforms and their tam o' shan- ters as the Black Watch regiment as he had fought against them in Ireland. The Scot- tish Highlanders streamed out with bagpipes skirling. The sergeants thumped the men forwards, cursing in Gaelic, as pipers strained out the Jacobite lament; 'Johnny Cope, are ye waking yet?' A flame- haired Highlander hadn't seen Ryan when a ball lodged into his chest and an ensign spun around violently from the force of Ryan's musket ball hitting him in the shoulder. The wounded ensign cursed back loudly in Gaelic 'Mac diolain!' which Ryan knew to mean 'son of a bastard.' Suddenly, he heard shouts of joy coming from the French behind him and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the British retreating. He looked around, paused, and listened and took out his lucky charm, and vigorously rubbed the bog oak amulet for comfort. He couldn't see any of his men. He rubbed his eyes and peered through the smoke. The British were counter-attacking! He saw what looked like a battalion of redcoats running with fixed bayonets towards him, he momentarily froze in horror. As he reached nervously for a cartridge from his hip bag, he cursed as his clay pipe fell and snapped. 'Huzza! Huzza!' the red-coats shouted. The war cry buzzed in Ryan's ear and he turned and saw the French troops behind him retreat....' The above passage is an extract from Napoleon's Blackguards, an action-filled adventure story about an élite unit of Napoleon's Irish Legion campaigning in Northern Spain. It is set along the ancient pilgrimage route of the Camino de Compostela during The Peninsu- lar War; this was a part of the Napoleonic Wars, which was fought for control of the Iberian Peninsula. The Peninsular War began when Napoleon invaded Portugal and sent his Grand Army through Spain, but the Spaniards soon learned that Napoleon had plans to invade Spain herself. This sparked the Spanish War of Independence against the hated invader, while in England, it became known as The Peninsular War. In 1808, the British Expeditionary Force landed in Portugal to help remove Napoleon's grip on the Iberian Peninsula. A 30,000 strong British Army, commanded by Sir John Moore, marched through Spain, intending to make battle in the north of the country with the French II Army Corps under Marshal Soult. The British were con- fident of victory, their light cavalry had recently defeated several squadrons of French cavalry at Sahagún and their blood was up and they were ready for a fight. However, the situation soon changed dramatically for the Brit- ish. Moore was close to making battle with Soult, when Spanish guerrillas supplied him with critical intelligence on the enemy's movements. He was told that a larger French army under the per- sonal command of Emperor Napoleon was coming up from Madrid, while Soult's army was advancing to his north. Moore feared that he would be caught in a pincer movement and decided to retreat. So began the British 250-mile harrowing retreat across Spain, over mountains and narrow paths in the depths of winter. The 2nd Irish battalion of Napoleon's Irish Legion were garrisoning the town of Pamplona at the time and were ordered to join the race to catch Irish Legion flag reverse

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