"‘The sacking of a town is an abomination’: siege,..." Topic

… sack and violence to civilians in British officers' writings on the Peninsular War – the case of Badajoz.

"For all its notoriety, the 1812 British sack of Badajoz during the Peninsular War has been surprisingly overlooked as a subject of historical investigation, symptomatic of a broader neglect of European sieges and sacks for this period. This article explores British officers' reactions to the sack through their letters and memoirs. It suggests rethinking Badajoz as a site not only of excess and atrocity, but also one of constraint, outrage, shame and censure. In so doing, it investigates sieges as an important place for examining changes and continuities in customary laws of war, cultures of war, and moral, humanitarian and sentimental discourses over the long eighteenth century…."
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Amicalement
Armand

Those pesky Brits yet again.

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand

'Those pesky Brits yet again'

When the French do anything negative the sheep cry evil, cruel, bad, but when anyone else does anything negative, especially the British, they're just 'pesky' LOL

That was actually really interesting Armand, thanks very much.

It was interesting to note that the civilian death toll for the sack of Badajoz is put at about 100, compared to 2000 for Suchet's sack of Tarragona. It is even six times less than the estimated civilian casualties in the First Battle for Fallujah, for example.

It was interesting also to note that the author puts much of the responsibility for the return of the sack of besieged cities to Napoleon's order in 1809 that governors must resist at least one assault before capitulation, rejecting the more civilized practices of the C18 – although reviving an order of Louis XIV's, which his commanders seem to have given a stiff ignoring!