of Wexford from the rebels, earning Abercromby’s writ-
ten praise again. Moore was then named to command
a brigade invading Helder, in Holland. Landing at
Egmont-op-Zee on 2 October 1799, once again Moore
showed his propensity for brilliant tactics, although he
was wounded in the battle.
Two years later, Moore was sent to Egypt to fight
the French, seeing action at Aboukir (21 March 1801),
where he was again wounded, and at Alexandria. Back
in England, he was named as commander of the force at
Shorncliffe, the possible location of an invasion by the
French under naPoleon. Although the invasion never
took place, Moore impressed his superiors with his train-
ing of the troops, with the assistance of Colonel (later
General) Kenneth Mackenzie, these forces were to be-
come the first light infantry regiments. Sir William Pitt,
the prime minister, made Moore a Knight of the Bath
(KB). Promoted to lieutenant-general, Moore saw action
in the Mediterranean and rose to become commander in
chief of British forces in the region.
In 1808, Moore was sent to the Baltic region to
offer military assistance to King Gustavus IV of Sweden
in his war against Denmark, France, and Russia. When
Gustavus rejected all his advice and even arrested him,
Moore was forced to escape in a disguise. Returning to
England, he was sent to Portugal during the Peninsular
War to work under commanders Sir Hew Dalrymple
and Sir Harry Burrard. However, when he arrived, he
found that Dalrymple had been recalled and Burrard
had resigned. Consequently, Moore was named as com-
mander of British forces in Portugal on 25 September
- Ordered to proceed into Spain to head off a Na-
poleonic invasion, he wrote to Lord Castelreagh, “At this
instant, the army is without equipments of any kind,
either for the carriage of the light baggage of regiments,
military stores, commissariat stores, or other append-
ages of an army, and not a magazine is formed in any of
the routes by which we are to march.” Nonetheless, he
made his way as commanded. He awaited backup forces
from Sir David baird, but, with those not coming, he
retreated from Salamanca in the face of heavy pressure
from the larger French forces. However, in a brilliant
move to delay Napoleon, Moore marched north with
his force of 15,000 troops, then west to Corunna (also
known as La Coruña). Fearing a flank attack, Napoleon
stopped his advance into Spain and followed Moore. On
16 January 1809 at the battle of Corunna, Moore was
hit in the left side by a large shot, which nearly tore off
his left arm and caused a gaping wound on his left side.
He refused to loosen his sword to be treated and was
carried off the field with a mortal wound, suffering in
horrendous agony until he died later that night. Men of
the 60th Foot secretly wrapped his body in a blanket and
buried him in an unmarked grave.
Sir John Moore’s name has become synonymous
with gallantry and consideration for the soldiers under
his command. He trained officers and men to think for
themselves, and this was his finest legacy. The House of
Commons posthumously thanked him for his service,
and statues were erected in his memory in both St. Paul’s
Cathedral in London and in Glasgow. Irish poet Charles
Wolfe (1791–1823) penned the immortal The Burial of
Sir John Moore, which was published anonymously in
1817.
Historian D. W. Davies writes: “ ‘Sir John Moore
is certainly a most unlucky fellow,’ said the Duke of
Wellington, and he certainly was. An example of
his bad luck is that he was Britain’s foremost general
immediately before Wellington took over that distinc-
tion. Moore’s career lay in the trough between Marlbor-
ough and Wolfe on the one side and Wellington on the
other.... Moore has been saved from obscurity first, be-
cause he conducted one of the longest retreats in British
army history, and second, because a poem was written
upon his death.”References: Brownrigg, B., The Life & Letters of Sir John
Moore (Oxford, U.K.: Blackwell, 1923); “Moore, Sir
John,” in The Oxford Companion to Military History, ed-
ited by Richard Holmes (New York: Oxford University
Press, 2001), 599; Anderson, J., Spanish Campaign of Sir
John Moore (London: R. J. Leach, 1990); Small, Harold
A., The Field of His Fame: A Ramble on the Curious His-
tory of Charles Wolfe’s Poem ‘The Burial of Sir John Moore’
(Berkeley: University of California, 1953); Wolfe, Charles,
The Burial of Sir John Moore, and Other Poems (London:
Sidgwick and Jackson, 1909), 59; Davies, D. W., Sir John
Moore’s Peninsular Campaign (The Hague: Martinus Ni-
joff, 1974).Murat, Joachim (Prince Murat) (1767–1815)
French cavalry commander, king of Naples
Joachim Murat had a long and distinguished career in
the French army, tied mainly to the fate of his friend and
brother-in-law, naPoleon bonaParte. The son of an muRAt, JoAchim