In the poem The Female Vagrant by the romantic poet William Wordsworth a woman and her family have travelled with her husband (a soldier) to America to fight for the British in the American war of Independence. I found the description of warfare offered in the poem quite interesting:
"Ah! how unlike those late terrific sleeps!
And groans, that rage of racking famine spoke:
The unburied dead that lay in festering heaps!
The breathing pestilence that rose like smoke!
The shriek that from the distant battle broke!
The mine's dire earthquake, and the pallid host
Driven by the bomb's incessant thunder-stroke
To loathsome vaults, where heart-sick anguish toss'd,
Hope died, and fear itself in agony was lost!"
Now since Wordsworth was never present at an actual war (aside from being in France for some of the Terror) his description may be highly innacurate, but I was most interested in what the "bombs" and "mines" he refers too are, since these seem more in keeping with later conflict, unless I am misunderstanding either Wordsworth or the armaments used in the American War of Independence. However, I am also interested in how accurately this presents warfare at that time as a whole, or if it is a demonised version, since Wordsworth was known to be very anti-war.
Thanks so much for any help with interpreting this.
At the time, "bombs" referred to explosive shells fired from mortars. Because they fired projectiles in a ballistic arc, they could lob shells over walls into a fort. (Mortars aboard the HMS Meteor would very famously fire bombs into Fort McHenry in 1814, a sight recorded by Francis Scott Key.)
"Mines" were stores of gunpowder placed in tunnels underneath an enemy's fortifications and then detonated to breach them.
Just to pick up on your point about Wordsworth not being 'present at an actual war' and being 'very anti-war', it's important to note that his attitude towards conflict changed substantially throughout this life.
His youthful writings display his enthusiasm for revolution and he truly believed that France could liberate her people; his distaste for the situation stemmed from the Reign of Terror and what he saw as unnecessary violence for the revolutionary cause.
The Female Vagrant was published as part of the Lyrical Ballads in 1798, and was probably written in 1794. By this time, Wordsworth had grown disillusioned with the war but not with revolutionary spirit. His ideals didn't change, rather his optimism did.
While he observed the French Revolution with growing alarm (to the extent that he enlisted to join British forces in 1803), he observed it in great detail; his illegitimate daughter resided in France, and he ensured he was updated about the progress by any means possible.
The key aspect of the passage you quoted is 'hope died'; Wordsworth truly hoped that the French could attain independence, and this sense of disappointment underpins all of his work on the subject.
Mines or 'moles' have been used have been used in warfare for the longest time; in this context, the Mine he refers to is probably a tunnel dug under a fort, and packed with gunpowder, to blow up part of the walls.
'bombs' would probably refer to grenades, small, hand held, fused bombs that would be used to clear fortifications; for reference, the marching song the British Grenadier.