The Trial at Large of Lieut. Gen. Whitelocke, Late Commander in Chief of the Forces in South America, by a General Court Martial, Held at Chelsea Hospital, on Thursday, January 28, 1808, and Continued by Adjournment to Tuesday, March 15: Taken by Blanchar

Excerpt from The Trial at Large of Lieut. Gen. Whitelocke, Late Commander in Chief of the Forces in South America, by a General Court Martial, Held at Chelsea Hospital, on Thursday, January 28, 1808, and Continued by Adjournment to Tuesday, March 15: Taken by Blanchard and Ramsay, Short-Hand Writers to the Court, and Published From Their Notes

Ayres, pursued measures ill calculated to facilitate that conquest that when the Spanish Commander had shown such symptoms of a disposition to treat, as to express a desire to communicate with major-general Gower, the second in command, upon the subject of terms, the said lieutenant-general Whitelocke did return a message, in which he demanded, amon t other articles, the' surrender of all ersons holding civil O ces in the go vernment of Buenos X 'rcs, as prisoners of war: that the said lieutenant-general itelocke in making such an Offensive and unusual demand, tending to exasperate the inhabitants of Buenos Ayres, to produce and encourage a spirit of resistance to his Majesty's arms, to exclude the hope of amicable aecom modation, and to increase the difficulties of the service with which he was intrusted, acted in a manner unbecoming his dut as an officer, prejudicial to military discipline, and contrary to t e Articles of 'ar.

Second charge - That the said lieutenant-general White locke, after the landing of the troops at Ensenada, and during the march from thence to the town of Buenos Ayres, did not make the military arrangements best calculated to ensure the success of his Operations against the town, and that having known, previously to his attack upon the town of Buenos Aires upopothe sth July 1807, as appears from his public dis ate of the th of Jul that the enem meant to occupy the at roofs of the houses, e did neverthe ess, in the said attack, divide his forces into several brigades and parts, and ordted the whole to be unloaded, and no tiring to be permitted on apy account; and, under this order, to march into the principal streets of the town unprovided with proper and-sufliclent means for forcin the barricadoes, whereby the troops were unnecessarily exposed to destruction, without the possibility of making effectual oppo aition; such conduct betraying great professional incapacity On the part of the said lieutenant-general W'hitclockc, tending to lessen the confidence of the troops in the i ud' ement Of their officers, being derogatory to the honour of his iiajesty's arms, contrary to his duty as an Officer, prejudicial to good order and military discipline, and contrary to the Articles of War.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.