Authors: John Sugden
57
. Nelson summed his five opponents as 170 guns and 1,600 men, against his own 64 guns and 345 men (Nelson to Maurice, 8/11/1793, Monmouth MSS, E602) but this ignores the fact that the
Agamemnon
engaged only one vessel, the
Melpomene
. He also made the
Melpomene
a forty-four-gun ship. As Hoste admitted this was ‘a fine forty-gun frigate’, and it had only eighteen-pounders to deploy against the British twenty-fours. All the French ships were later captured by the British, and I have taken their armaments from reports made at that time (list of prizes, ADM 1/391, enclosed with no. 145a; Hood to Stephens, 2/6/1794, 9/8/1794, ADM 1/392; Hood to Dundas, 2/6/1794, NMM: Hoo/9;
NLTHW
, p. 169; and letter of Nicholas Hardinge, 1794, in William Henry Wyndham-Quin,
Sir Charles Tyler
, p. 44).
58
.
The Times
, 13/12/1793; Matcham,
Nelsons of Burnham Thorpe
, p. 108.
59
. Nelson to Fanny, 16/1/1794, Monmouth MSS, E806; Linzee to Hood, 24/10/1793, 9/11/1793, ADM 1/391; Udny to Grenville, 5/12/1793, FO 79/9.
60
. Journal,
NLTHW
, p. 138.
61
. Journal,
NLTHW
, pp. 139–40; Nelson to Fanny, 1/12/1793, Monmouth MSS, E802; Nelson to Maurice, 8/11/1793, Monmouth MSS, E602; Nelson to Clarence, 2/12/1793, NMM: AGC/27; Nelson to Suckling, 5/12/1793,
D&L
, 1, p. 340. The main accounts of this mission are Linzee to Hood, 9/11/1793 and Perkins Magra to Hood, 10/11/1793, ADM 1/391.
62
. Nelson to Fanny, 25/3/1796, Monmouth MSS, E888.
63
. Hamilton and Laughton,
Above and Below Hatches
, pp. 130–2.
64
. Nelson to Locker, 1/12/1793,
D&L
, 1, p. 337.
65
. Hood to Nelson, November 1793, Add. MSS 34937; Nelson to Fanny, 1/12/1793, Monmouth MSS, E802; Linzee to Hood, 7/10/1793, Rose,
Lord Hood
, p. 141; Drake to Grenville, 22/12/1793, FO 28/6.
66
. For these activities the
Agamemnon
logs are supported by those of the
Lowestoffe
(ADM 51/535),
Mermaid
(ADM 51/597) and
Tartar
(ADM 51/1123). On the captains see Wyndham-Quin,
Sir Charles Tyler
; Campbell to Nelson, 18/7/1804, NMM: CRK/3; Mary C. Innes,
William Wolseley
; and Wolseley to Nelson, 18/3/1794, Add. MSS 34903.
67
. Hood to Linzee, 15/12/1793, NMM: Hoo/9.
68
. Nelson to Clarence, 2/12/1793, NMM: AGC/27.
69
. Edmund Nelson to Fanny, 13/12/1793, NMM: AGC/18/2;
NLTHW
, p. 175; and Matcham,
Nelsons of Burnham Thorpe
, pp. 100, 102, 103.
70
. Fremantle to William Fremantle, 1794 and 13/4/1794, CBS, D-FR/45/2/97 and D-FR/45/2.
71
. Nelson to William, 27/12/1793, Add. MSS 34988, and Nelson to Fanny, 27/12/1793, Monmouth MSS, E804.
72
. Nelson to Clarence, 2/12/1793, NMM: AGC/27; Nelson to Locker, 1/12/1793,
D&L
,
1, p. 337; Nelson to Fanny, 27/12/1793, Monmouth MSS, E804; and Fanny to Nelson, 10/12/1794,
NLTHW
, p. 261.
73
. Nelson to Clarence, 27/12/1793, NMM: AGC/27.
74
. Udny to Grenville, 29/12/1793, and Udny to Nelson, 29/12/1793, FO 79/9; Nelson to Stephens, 26–27/12/1793, ADM 1/2224; Udny to Drake, 27 and 28/12/1793, Add. MSS 46826.
75
. Hood to Nelson, 15/12/1793, Add. MSS 94937; Hervey to Grenville, 3/1/1794, FO 79/10.
XVIII Corsica (pp. 458–93)
1
. Nelson to Fanny, 13/2/1794, Monmouth MSS, E808.
2
. Nelson to Fanny, 28/2/1794, Monmouth MSS, E809. Desmond Gregory,
Ungovernable Rock
, surveys the history of the British Corsican protectorate. For Paoli see Peter Adam Thrasher,
Paoli
.
3
. Reports of Edward Cooke and Thomas Nepean, 7, 8/1/1794, FO 20/2.
4
. Moore’s report, January 1794, in J. F. Maurice, ed.,
Diary of Moore
, 1, p. 48, and Elliot to Henry Dundas, 14/2/1794, FO 20/2.
5
. Hood to Elliot, 26/1/1794, NMM: ELL/140; Hood to Nelson, 4/2/1794, Add. MSS 34937; and
Tartar
log, ADM 52/3104.
6
. Nelson to Locker, 17/1/1794,
D&L
1, p. 347; Nelson to Fanny, 16/1/1794, Monmouth MSS, E806; Hood to Nelson, 7/1/1794, Add. MSS 34937; Nelson journal,
NLTHW
, p. 144.
7
. Nelson to Fanny, 16/1/1794, Monmouth MSS, E806; Hood to Stephens, 22/2/1794, ADM 1/392; St Michel to the French Convention, 22/1/1794, in Maurice Jollivet, ‘
Revolution Française
’, p. 209.
8
. The logs of the
Agamemnon
(chap. 17, n. 2) are relevant for the whole of this chapter, but Nelson’s blockade is also illustrated by the logs of the
Leda
(ADM 51/1163),
Amphitrite
(ADM 51/21) and
Lowestoffe
(ADM 51/4470).
9
. British sources say that eight boats carried a thousand French soldiers through the shallows from St Fiorenzo, but St Michel, commanding at Bastia, reported (n. 7 above) that an armed felucca and a sloop from St Fiorenzo took troops to the mill, while additional grenadiers arrived from Bastia.
10
. Nelson journal,
NLTHW
, p. 145; David to Henry Dundas, 21/2/1794, HO 50/456.
11
. Nelson to Suckling, 1/3/1794,
D&L
, 1, p. 362.
12
. Nelson’s journal and letters contain several allusions to the fortifications of Bastia, for example Nelson to Hoste, 3/5/1794, Monmouth MSS, E302. Among valuable visual pieces of evidence are a contemporary printed French map in NMM, reproduced in Anthony Deane,
Nelson’s Favourite
, p. 104; D’Aubant’s view of Bastia from the hills, 26/2/1794, and Koehler’s map and views, March 1794, in HO 50/456: 180, 181; and the British map in HO 28/15: 313.
13
. Hood to Nelson, 20/2/1794, Add. MSS 34937; Hood to Sutton, 20/2/1794, NMM: Hoo/9; McArthur to Nelson, 21/2/1794, Add. MSS 34937; Hood to Henry Dundas, 22/2/1794, HO 28/15. The logs of the ships, such as that of the
Romulus
, 5/2/1794, ADM 51/1151, supply details, but Nelson’s journal (
NLTHW
, p. 128 following) is the best source of information on this phase.
14
. Nelson to Hood, 8/2/1794, Add. MSS 70948; Nelson to Hood, 19/2/1794,
D&L
, 1, p. 356;
Tartar
log, ADM 52/3104.
15
. Nelson to Udny, 12/2/1794, Monmouth MSS, E194.
16
. Nelson journal,
NLTHW
, p. 147; Nelson to Udny, 24/2/1794, NMM: AGC/18/3.
17
. Udny, 7/3/1794, NMM: AGC/18/3.
18
. Nelson to Hood, 19/2/1794,
D&L
, 1, p. 356.
19
. This account of the February attacks on Bastia largely depends upon Nelson’s journal; Nelson to Hood, 22/2/1794, Monmouth MSS, E500; Nelson to Udny, 24/2/1794, NMM: AGC/18/3; and Anne Fremantle, ed.,
Wynne Diaries
(1952), p. 252.
20
. Dundas to Hood, 23/2/1794, HO 28/15; Nelson to Fanny, 28/2/1794, Monmouth MSS, E809.
21
. Nelson to Fanny, 28/2/1794, Monmouth MSS, E809.
22
. Nelson journal,
NLTHW
, p. 148. The main printed sources for the Corsican sieges are the letters and journals in
D&L
, vols 1 and 2;
NLTHW
; J. H. Godfrey, ed., ‘Corsica, 1794’; Countess of Minto, ed.,
Sir Gilbert Elliot
, 2, chaps 6–7;
The Times
, 3/9/1794 (Hood and Stuart’s dispatches covering the fall of Calvi); and Maurice,
Diary of Moore
. The manuscript materials are richer, and include the logs of the
Agamemnon
and other relevant ships; ADM 1/392 (Hood’s correspondence with the Admiralty); HO 28/15 (correspondence between Hood and Henry Dundas); NMM: Hoo/3–4, 9 (Hood letters); NMM: CRK/7 (Hood’s letters to Sir William Hamilton); FO 20/2 (Elliot’s official dispatches); NMM: ELL/138, 140, 149 and 162 (respectively Elliot’s correspondence with Nelson, Hood, the military, and his journal of March 1794); the Minto (Elliot) papers, National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh, MSS 11209–11214, 11221; WO 1/302 and HO 50/456 (military dispatches); Add. MSS 34902–34903, 34937, 34941 (Nelson papers); Add. MSS 20107 (the diary of an army officer eager to expose any ‘mismanagement of the navy’); Add. MSS 22688 (Paoli papers); and Add. 57320 and 57325 (Moore’s journal and letters). For reports from Bastia, written by Lacombe St Michel on 14/3/1794 and 20/4/1794, see Archives Nationales, Paris, AF/II/94, dossier 693: 26, and AF/II/252, dossier 2141: 2. Other sources are plentiful and cited as used.
The secondary accounts have reproduced contemporary divisions. Nelson’s biographers have generally repeated his (and the navy’s) viewpoint without considering it necessary to consult other official letters and dispatches, although in recent years a new orthodoxy – the uncritical reproduction of Moore’s opinions – appears to be developing. John W. Fortescue, a man notorious in some quarters for his prejudices, shows contempt for any but military opinions in his
History of the British Army
, 4, pt I, chap. 8, and both James Carrick Moore (Moore’s brother),
Life of Sir John Moore
, vol. 1, chaps 4–5, and Maurice,
Diary of Moore
, follow their subject, in the latter case with considerable cogency. It needs to be understood, however, that there were different army opinions about the practicability of attacking Bastia, though relatively few have survived in extensive form. As I have argued here, the detailed history of the siege reveals the corrosive interplay of powerful personalities and serious flaws in all the major participants. Somewhat less narrowly partisan assessments are Carola Oman,
Sir John Moore
, chap. 3, and Gregory,
Ungovernable Rock
. Maurice Jollivet, ‘
Revolution Française
’, pp. 213–23, uses French sources to produce a laudatory description of the defence of Bastia.
Corsica features strongly in considerations of Nelson’s operations on shore, though assessments continue to vary. Nelson’s failure to grasp essential differences between military and naval operations needed more attention in Colin White’s admiring ‘Nelson Ashore, 1780–1797’, but Joel Hayward’s
For God and Glory
, which appeared as the present book was being prepared for the press, overstates the weaknesses in Nelson’s amphibious operations. Indeed, in this respect Hayward’s otherwise not inconsiderable account comes close to disparagement. His description of Nelson’s service on the San Juan expedition as ‘merely adequate’ (p. 205) would have astonished Captain Polson, while the analysis of the Corsican campaign uncritically follows Moore and Fortescue. His statement that Nelson’s ‘relations with army officers were seldom collegial, often tense, and sometimes bad and counterproductive’ (p. 164) is untrue and greatly under-rates
his diplomatic abilities. Nelson’s relations with Polson and Villettes, with whom he conducted his first two sieges, were exemplary, and those with Duncan and De Burgh, with whom he principally cooperated in 1794 to 1797, were also good. Nelson even managed to remain on reasonable terms with Stuart at Calvi, though that general was difficult enough to drive the emollient Elliot close to distraction. In Corsica, Nelson disliked Moore precisely because he considered the lieutenant colonel divisive and detrimental to interservice relations, and he had no more respect for Generals Dundas and D’Aubant than Moore did himself. The singular breach in the relations between the services that occurred at that time was due to Hood and Dundas, not Nelson. A detailed study of Nelson’s actual and projected joint and shore-based operations between 1780 and 1800 would be welcome.
23
. Hood to Nelson, 8 and 9/3/1794, Add. MSS 34937.
24
. Elliot to his wife, 13/3/1794, Minto,
Sir Gilbert Elliot
, 2, p. 232; Hood to Henry Dundas, 24/5/1794, HO 28/15; Henry to David Dundas, 20/12/1793, Fortescue,
British Army
, 4, p. 176.
25
. T. A. Thorp, ‘George Thorp’, p. 187; Bowen to Hamilton, 18/2/1794, Warren R. Dawson, ed.,
Nelson Collection
, p. 49.
26
. Elliot journal, NMM: ELL/162; Fremantle to William Fremantle, 13/4/1794, CBS, D-FR/45/2; Hood to Dundas, 8/3/1794, and Elliot to Hood, 9/3/1794, HO 50/456.
27
. Maurice,
Diary of Moore
, I, p. 66.
28
. Hood to Dundas, 23/2/1794, Dundas to Hood, 23/2/1794, and Dundas to Hood, 26/2/1794, HO 28/15. Copies of many of these letters are also filed in NMM: Hoo/3 and Hoo/9.
29
. Hood to Dundas, 2/3/1794, and Dundas to Hood, 5/3/1794, HO 28/15; Hood to Dundas, 6/3/1794, HO 50/456.
30
. Dundas to Hood, 7/3/1794, NMM: Hoo/3; Drake to Grenville, 10/3/1794, with enclosures,
Dropmore MSS
, 2, p. 523; Hood to Hamilton, 28/2/1794, NMM: CRK/7.
31
. McArthur to Nelson, 3/3/1794 and Hood to Nelson, 5, 9/3/1794, Add. MSS 34937; Hood to Drake, 3/3/1794, Godfrey, ‘Corsica, 1794’, p. 368; Hood to Dundas, 6/3/1794, HO 50/456; Nelson to Hood, 5/3/1794,
D&L
, 1, p. 368; intelligence, 26/2/1794, NMM: CRK/7.
32
. Elliot journal, NMM: ELL/162; Maurice,
Diary of Moore
, I, p. 68; Hood to Dundas, 9/3/1794, NMM: Hoo/9; Moore to Hood, 15/3/1794, NMM: Hoo/3.
33
. Hood to Dundas, 6, 7/3/1794, HO 50/456.
34
. Dundas to Hood, 8/3/1794, NMM: Hoo/3; Dundas to Hood, 9/3/1794, HO 28/15; Dundas to Dundas, 10/3/1794, HO 50/456; Elliot journal, NMM: ELL/162. Interestingly, this same David Dundas would head a procession of ten thousand soldiers at Nelson’s funeral in 1806.
35
. Oman,
Sir John Moore
, p. 119; Elliot to his wife, 28/3/1794, Minto,
Sir Gilbert Elliot
, 2, p. 234.
36
. Maurice,
Diary of Moore
, I, p. 71; Elliot journal, NMM: ELL/162.
37
. For the use of small boats see the logs of the
Agamemnon
; Hood to Nelson, 9, 16, 22/3/1794, Add. MSS 34903; and Hood to Nelson, 8/3/1794, and McArthur to Nelson, 11/3/1794, Add. MSS 34937.