Marshal Nicholas Soult at Alba de Tormes, 1812, reconnoitering cannon positions
Original illustration from British Battles on Land and Sea circa 1880. Info from text: "While all was silence and expectation among the forlorn few in Alba, a staff officer, wearing a cocked hat and green uniform, trotted his horse, a white one, leisurely towards the town, and had the temerity to reconnoitre it, accompanied by an orderly, who was on foot. Nearly twenty of the Gordon Highlanders levelled their muskets to fire, when Cameron, their colonel, called to them sternly Recover your arms ! recover ! I will by no means permit an individual to be fired on. This daring officer, who proved to be no other than Marshal Soult, ascended each of the heights in succession, where his orderly, by his directions, was seen to place eighteen stones at intervals equidistant, nine upon each, after which they disappeared to the rear. In a few minutes after , nine pieces of artillery were galloped up to each height, the horses were untraced, the limbers cast off, and the magazines opened, and a cannonade was poured upon the troops in Alba, who had not a gun wherewith to reply ; and it continued without a moment's cessation, from ten o'clock on the morning of the loth of November till five in the afternoon, the gunners only pausing to cool their guns and await the completion of a plan formed by Soult for cutting off all in Alba."
Size: 4961px × 3357px
Photo credit: © Historical Images Archive / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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