On 16 January 1809 Marshal Soult's French corps attacked Sir John Moore's British army outside Corunna (A Coruña) in northwest Spain, where it was waiting to embark after a hard winter retreat. The British held their ground and sailed for home over the next two days, but Moore was mortally wounded.
A retreat to the sea
In late 1808 Moore led the British army sent to help Spain against Napoleon into the interior of the country. When Napoleon himself marched against him, Moore turned back from Sahagún on 24 December and made for the coast, with the French in pursuit.1
The retreat ran through the mountains of León and Galicia in the depth of winter, in foul weather, with long marches, constant skirmishing and widespread drunkenness in the ranks. The army reached Corunna on 11 January 1809 and blew up the bridge over the river Mero behind it, which held the French back for several days. When the transports arrived and the sick and wounded, the horses and almost all the guns were being embarked, Moore drew up his infantry on high ground outside the town, above the village of Elviña.2
The fight for Elviña
Soult attacked on the afternoon of 16 January. His main blow fell on the British right above Elviña, and the village changed hands more than once. Moore was there himself and led two regiments, the 42nd and the 50th, down into the village.3
While directing the fight, Moore was hit by a French cannonball; Oman, following the account of Moore's aide-de-camp, says it struck his left shoulder. He was carried back to Corunna and lived for several hours, long enough to learn that the French attack had been beaten off. The fighting died down at dusk.4
Evacuation and losses
The British did not renew the battle and went on with the embarkation. The troops left their positions at night and boarded the ships that night and the next day; the last brigade, Beresford's, embarked on 18 January. General Alcedo, commanding the Spanish garrison, held the town until the fleet had sailed and then surrendered it to the French.5
The losses are uncertain, because most British regiments reported the battle and the retreat together. Sir John Hope, who took command after Moore fell, estimated the British loss at 700 to 800, a figure the historian Charles Oman thought too high rather than too low; Oman put Soult's losses at about 1,500.6
Defeat or deliverance
The battle is judged in different ways. The National Army Museum calls it a skillful rearguard action that kept the French from attacking the embarking army; the city of A Coruña describes it as a battle with no clear victor, since the British got away by sea and the French gained the territory. Moore was buried on the ramparts of Corunna, and Soult ordered a monument raised where he fell. Britain kept fighting in the Peninsula, where Sir Arthur Wellesley, later the Duke of Wellington, made his name against Napoleon's marshals.7
