“ Moore’s advance paralysed the Emperor’s victorious armies. Napoleon himself turned against the British army, which was soon in grave danger, but Spain was saved. Under these circumstances took place the famous retreat on Corunna. The indiscipline of a large proportion of the troops made it painful and almost disastrous, but the reserve under Edward Paget, in which served Moore’s old Shorncliffe regiments, covered itself with glory in the ceaseless rearguard fighting which marked every step of the retreat. ”

“ For many years controversy, largely political, raged over the events of the Corunna campaign, and only at a later period has any examination of Sir John Moore’s merits and services been made in a dispassionate spirit. Mistakes were doubtless made in the retreat, but it is sufficient to accept Napoleon’s view that they were probably inseparable from the difficulties with which Moore was surrounded. His greatest claim to renown is, however, independent of his conduct of armies in the field. He was the finest trainer of men that the British army has ever known. ”

“ On his return to office Pitt caused Moore to be made a Knight of the Bath, and about the same time came his promotion to the rank of lieutenant-general. Fox, when he succeeded to office, showed the same appreciation of Moore, and in 1806 sent him to the Mediterranean as second-in-command to his brother, General H. E. Fox. In the various minor expeditions of the time Moore had a share, at first as a subordinate, but soon, when Fox went home on account of ill-health, as commander-in-chief of the British army employed in the Mediterranean. ”