1805: Napoleon's Invasion of England by Nigel Seed

1805: Napoleon's Invasion of England by Nigel Seed

Author:Nigel Seed [Seed, Nigel]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2023-04-27T00:00:00+00:00


Chapter 50

Waterford

The ships of the invasion fleet sailed alongside the army as it marched the coast road through Dungarvan and on towards Bunmahon. The villagers were universally welcoming, but none volunteered to take up arms despite the entreaties of Declan Murphy.

At Bunmahon, Bessières ordered the column to turn north-east to take the more direct road to Wexford. The cavalry reported that the British were aware of the column, and had their own cavalry out keeping watch.

The marshal turned his horse to one side to allow the infantry to march past him as he saw riders galloping towards him. From their dress he could see that they were from the Irish volunteer contingent. He waited with Murphy by his side as they rode breathlessly up to them.

“Calm yourselves, gentlemen, before you make your report.”

The two riders took a moment to get their breath back before speaking. “Sir, we have seen the English, hundreds, maybe thousands of them, all coming this way.”

Bessières held up his hand. “I realise this is exciting, but I need a coherent report. Start again and tell me all you know.”

The older of the two men nodded. “Right, sir. Well now, Declan here sent us off to look for the damned Redcoats. We were to ride to Waterford and then report back what we had seen. We rode all the way there and saw nothing but a few cavalrymen doing the same as us. So we went into Waterford town and there was no English soldiers there. The people we spoke to had seen only a few riders pass through, so they had. We thought we’d better go on a bit, so we took the Dublin road and sure enough we found their army marching down the road they were, bold as brass, bands playing and everything.”

Bessieres sighed. “All very interesting, but not dreadfully helpful. How many infantry? How many guns? What size of guns were they? How many cavalry? How far from the town were they when you saw them?”

“Sure, we don’t know exactly. There was lots of foot soldiers. Hundreds maybe. They have guns with them, but not too many that we saw. Horsemen, I don’t know. It looked a lot to us, but we never thought to count them.”

“Thank you for your report, you may return to your unit., You must be hungry and they have just eaten. There should be rations for you.”

He watched the two men ride slowly away and sighed before calling his aide forward. “I need a proper report of what we can expect and when. Send out a proper reconnaissance patrol. The English are reported to be beyond Waterford. I need to know their strength.”

The aide saluted and cantered his horse to where the cavalry stood waiting. Moments later a lieutenant and five men were on their way along the Waterford road.

Declan Murphy rode his horse closer to the marshal. “Sir, the men are not soldiers. They did their best for you.”

“That I know, Mister Murphy. My people will be back soon with the information I really need.



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