It can be difficult to fully gage Wolfe's abilities since he only had one independent campaign at Quebec. But here is a rough recount of the events there.

When Wolfe set out for Quebec he had about 9000 men with him. He expected there to be 12 000 but the expected reinforcements did not arrive in time. The French on the other hand had about 13500 local troops which were mostly made up of poorly trained militia. He could also add about 3500 French regulars and about 1500 First Nations warriors. Laying siege to a city is difficult when your opponet outnumbers you, which means that Wolfe probably could not take it by storm, while Montcalm knew that he could not defeat the British in a open battle when the majority of his men were, at best unreliable. Which meant that the two were at a stalemate. Wolfe however made a very risky choice when he occupied the Montmorency heights. If the French had attacked then it is doubtful whether the British could reinforce their troops there. Luckily for Wolfe the French were largely playing on the defensive with the exception of some minor skirmishes.

A month into the siege Wolfe was no closer to victory then when he arrived. Wanting to end the siege quickly Wolfe came up with the poorly planned attack on the French camp at Beauport, this led to 400 British deaths to the French 20. Part of the reason why the British lost was because of Wolfe's disdain towards the Canadian militia, which meant that there were only 5000 British regulars left to attack the 12000 regulars and militia. It was a rather pointless battle. Wolfe also issued a document called Wolfe's Manifesto, which was an attempt to scare the local populace, but all it seemed to do is scare the local populace (many of them neutral) to side with the French. Wolfe's postion was now desperate. If he did not break the French then he would be forced to retreat or else be frozen in the St. Laurence. This was when he came up with the idea of scaling the heights and force the French out, he did so and of course the British won, Wolfe was killed and Quebec was taken.

So Wolfe's action there can be described as good, but not great. He was liked by his men and was always busy, but many of his decisions were questionable at best which cost many men their lives and extended the siege. Never the less he had to fight a numerically superior force, which is difficult enough in a open battle let alone a siege.

Apologies for the delay but here we go!

Moore will always be known best as a innovator and organizer. He helped to crate the famous light infantry regiments which includes the 95th Rifles. He was also a humane commander, which stands in stark contrast to the other commanders of his day.

Like Wolfe it is hard to fully realize Moore's abilities since he also only commanded one campaign. This is accentuated by the fact that he had to face one of the best commanders of history against a larger army and with some poor intelligence which would doom him.

General Moore left a garrison of 10 000 men in Lisbon and set out with 20 000 into Spain. He was very quickly set upon with logistical difficulties which almost every army in Iberia was stricken by. When Moore reached Salamanca he learned that the Spanish had recently been utterly defeated, Moore ggave the command to retreat. But he received news from the Spanish general La Romana in which he said that he had rallied 23 000 Spanish troops from the recently defeated armies. Moore had also received news that Madrid had offered resistance to Napoleon. Moore then about-faced and marched out to link up with La Romana and Baird. When he did so he quickly learned that Madrid had not resisted Napoleon's attack and had in fact surrendered. Moore soon learned through a captured French dispatch that Marshal Soult was isolated and decided to attack Soult and then retreat from Napoleon's larger force. But he soon got information that Napoleon was rushing North to encircle the British and destroy them in his usual way. Moore realizing that he would not have enough time to attack Soult fled Northwards and sent word to Portugal for them to send his transport ships to the Northern coast to pick up the Anglo-Spanish armies.

Luckily for Moore he had the Spanish irregulars on his side. Moore knew where the French were all the time while Napoleon had a lot of difficulties figuring out where the British were.

Morale plummeted amongst the British as the full retreat began. Wagons were left behind and large amounts of ammunition had to be destroyed. With the exception of some rear echelon troops and the guards (as well as few others) dicipline broke, and the entire region was looted not by the French but the British. Learning of a possible war with Austria Napoleon rode straight home soon to be fighting Archduke Charles. It was his last time in Spain.

Soult was now in command of the 19000 infantry and cavalry continued to pursue the British, but did not take any risks in his pursuit. La Romana suggested to Moore that he make a stand at the mountain passes but Moore dismissed this. It is possible that the British could have held the French forces there since they did outnumber the French at this point.

The British could evacuate but the Spanish could not. Moore also promised that he would defend a town but he did not plus the looting by the British soldiers did not warm the Spanish to their allies and the two armies seperated. More on the battle of Corunna tommorow.