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CHAPTER 1
In the Beginning
The first special correspondent employed by a newspaper to gather information about a current war was Henry Crabb Robinson. In 1807, the proprietor of The Times, John Walter II, employed this thirty-two-year-old lawyer to act as their 'man in Germany', ostensibly to follow and report on the movements of Napoleon's Grande Armée. Robinson, known as 'Old Crabby', was a gregarious bachelor with a gift for languages who was able to fit into any sort of company or situation; this made him the archetypal foreign correspondent.
Robinson was born in Bury St Edmunds in 1775 and articled as an attorney. Between 1800 and 1805, he spent three years as a student at Jena University and studying elsewhere in Germany, where he met with the flower of German literature including Johann Goethe, Friedrich Schiller, Johann Gottfied Herder and Christopher Martin Wieland. John Walter recognised that Robinson was not only literate but could pass himself off as a German and would therefore be able to pick up more accurate information about Napoleon's advance through Prussia and Poland. It was not expected that the fledgling correspondent would accompany the Grande Armée, but he could learn more about their movements by being stationed on the border with Germany, something no other British newspaper had considered. He travelled to Altona, the capital of Holstein on the left bank of the River Elbe. Facing Altona on the right bank was the German port of Hamburg, then occupied by the French. Nowadays, Altona is a suburb of Hamburg but, until 1864, the provinces of Schleswig and Holstein were ruled by Denmark. The Danes enjoyed uneasy neutrality with Bonaparte's France who threatened a take-over once their war with Russia was ended.
Crabby recalled: 'In January 1807 I received, through my friend J.D. Collier, a proposal from Mr Walter that I should take up residence at Altona, and become The Times correspondent. I was to receive from the editor of the Hamburger Correspondenten all the public documents at his disposal, and was to have the benefit also of a mass of information of which the restraints of the German press did not permit him to avail himself ... I gladly accepted the offer, and never repented having done so.'
Crabby soon made friends but was under no illusion about how long his situation in Holstein would last. 'I am of the opinion that it cannot possibly last long. In all probability we shall soon hear of a peace with Russia, or a general engagement, which is ten to one, will end in the defeat of the Allies. In either event I have no doubt the French will take possession of Holstein ... the northern maritime powers will be forced to shut up the Baltic and perhaps arm their fleets against us.'
In June, his first report appeared in The Times with a romantic-sounding introduction: 'From the Banks of the Elbe: In my attention to the incidents of the day I was unremitting. I kept up a constant intercourse with England. On my arrival I learned that, notwithstanding the affected neutrality of Denmark, the post from Altona to England was stopped, and in consequence, all letters were sent by Mr Thornton, the English minister there [Altona].' Crabb Robinson's reports were included in Thornton's letters to the Foreign Office which had to be sent via Copenhagen.
On 20 June, Crabby received news of Napoleon's overwhelming victory at the Battle of Friedland on 14 June and sent a lively account, albeit second-hand, of the French victory.
Ten days later he learned of the armistice and, on 7 July, the peace signing at Tilsit. The political settlements at Tilsit were regarded as the height of Napoleon's empire because now there was no longer any continental power challenging French dominance in Europe.
Intelligence was received in London that convinced the Government that the French intended to occupy Holstein in order to use Denmark against Britain. Some reports suggested that the Danes had secretly agreed to this. This was largely reinforced by the Tilsit Treaty in which Napoleon tried to persuade Tsar Alexander to form a maritime league with Denmark and Portugal against Britain.
Spencer Perceval, the Chancellor of the Exchequer wrote a memorandum setting out a case for sending forces to Copenhagen: 'The intelligence from so many and such varied sources that Napoleon's intent to force Denmark into war against Britain could not be doubted ... Under such circumstances it would be madness, it would be idiotic to wait for an overt act.'
The British demanded that the Danes surrender their fleet until Napoleon had been defeated. The Danes were caught in between two determined protagonists but decided against the humiliation of surrendering their fleet; this amounted to a declaration of war. Crabby wrote: 'I find it was on the 12th that Lord Cathcart, with a force of 20,000 men, joined the Admiral off Elsinore, and on the 16th, the army landed on the island of Zealand, eight miles from Copenhagen.'
The Second Battle, or Bombardment, of Copenhagen lasted from 16 August to 5 September 1807, during which the Royal Navy seized or destroyed the Danish fleet. Having given the population prior warning, the British ships began bombarding the city, destroying over 1,000 buildings and killing 195 citizens. The British Army kept any Danish reinforcements reaching the capital before re-embarking and returning to England. The destruction of the Danish fleet was an act which would bear similarities to the destruction of the French fleet at Mers-el-Kebir, Algeria, in 1940. Although the British had prevented Napoleon seizing the Danish ships, they had turned a potential ally into an enemy.
With the withdrawal of Mr. Thornton, Robinson's conduit for sending his reports was now closed and daily his position became increasingly precarious. Despite reassurances from a friendly Danish officer, Crabby started to prepare for a swift departure. With the news of the bombardment of Copenhagen, the Altona Bürgomeister ordered the arrest of all Englishmen. 'Disguising myself by borrowing a French hat,' Robinson later recalled, 'and having arranged my own little matters, I resolved to give notice to all my fellow-countrymen with whose residences I was acquainted. And so effectual were my services in this respect, that no one whom I knew was arrested.'
Finally, Crabby made his escape across the Elbe to Hamburg, where he was less likely to be known. After a few days of anonymously fitting in with the citizens, he was recognised by the postman who carried letters between Hamburg and Altona. The Bonapartist mailman promptly alerted some nearby French gendarmes who pursued Crabby into a market place, where he was able to lose them. Crabby realised that he was regarded as a spy and it was now obviously time to quit Hamburg. Through his connections he obtained a passport that would take him to Sweden. An overnight ride brought him to Rostock on the Baltic coast, where he had to wait over a week before he could find a vessel to take him to Stockholm. After a dreadful voyage of five days, he arrived at a port near the Swedish capital. Even here he was not entirely safe: 'This anti-English feeling was so general in Sweden at this time that I was advised to travel as a German through the country.' On 21 September, Crabby set off for Gothenburg, which he reached on the 27th. Two days later, he boarded a ship for England and reached Harwich on 7 October.
John Walter had been impressed by Crabby's reports and his efforts to obtain accurate information, despite the verbose and leaden style of writing which was typical of the period. Walter was one of the great innovators of British press history. He was still only thirty years old when he inherited The Times from his father in 1803. The daily circulation at the time was only 1,500 copies but, through his determination and innovative ideas, he would increase this figure to 30,000 by the time he retired in the 1820s.
Soon after Crabby's return, Walter offered him the job of foreign editor, which largely required Robinson to translate foreign newspapers and write about European politics. His period in London proved to be fruitful for his future involvement with the literati. He met and became friendly with writers and poets such as William Wordsworth, Charles Lamb, Robert Southey and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. This pleasant interlude was, however, interrupted when, in 1808, John Walter once again called upon his special correspondent to go travelling again:
'The Spanish revolution had broken out, and as soon as it was likely to become a national concern, The Times, of course, must have its correspondent in Spain; and it was said who so fit to write from the shores of the Bay if Biscay as he who had successfully written from the banks of the Elbe? I did not feel at liberty to reject the proposal of Mr Walter that I should go, but I accepted the offer reluctantly ...
'I left London by the Falmouth mail on the night of July 19th, reached Falmouth on the 21st, and in a lugger belonging to the Government – the Black Jake. The voyage was very rough and, as I afterwards learnt, even dangerous. We were for sometime on a lee shore and obliged to sail with more than half the vessel under water; a slight change of wind would have overset us; but of all this I was happily ignorant. I landed at Corunna on the evening of Sunday, July 31st and was at once busily employed. I found the town in a state of great disorder; but the excitement was a joyous one, the news having just arrived of the surrender of a French army in the south under Marshal Dupont.'
Crabby's job was to collect news and forward reports to his paper by every vessel that left the port. His first report was dated 2 August and was upbeat to the extent of believing the French were on the point of being pushed out of Spain.
'When we consider, as is officially stated, that not a Frenchman exists in all of Andalusia save in bonds; that in Portugal, Junot remains in a state of siege; that all the South of Spain is free; and that in the North the late victories of the patriots in Aragon have broken the communication between the French forces in Biscay and Catalonia, we need not fear the speedy emancipation of the capital, and the compression of the French force within the provinces adjoining Bayonne.'
These reports were followed up on 4 August with news of Dupont's surrender and on 8 August with the flight of Joseph Napoleon from Madrid.
In October, a small force of British soldiers commanded by General Craufurd arrived in Corunna. They soon marched off to the interior to join the British army, under the command of Sir John Moore, who had crossed the Portuguese border into Spain. He set about attacking the French lines of communication, attempting to rally and co-ordinate the fragmented Spanish resistance. The French were forced to leave the subjugation of the country and go in pursuit of the British.
Crabby had been several months in Corunna and news was thin at best. Deciding to travel to Madrid he learned through his military contacts 'the information, that is a great secret, that it was not advisable to advance, for the English army was on its retreat! This was 22nd November.'
This was followed by worsening news which he reported to The Times: 'The intelligence brought by the Lady Pellow packet is of an unfavourable complexion, yet such as we might perhaps have expected from the first appearance of Bonaparte upon the theatre of war. General Blake's army, after sustaining repeated attacks, is said at last to have been completely defeated, while the advanced body of the French have even reached Valladolid.
'The news from the English army on its way from Portugal is no less distressing. It is said that 3,000 of the men under Sir John Moore are sick.'
On 10 December, Crabby wrote: 'A tale is current which, if not true, has been invented by an Arragonese, that Bonaparte has sworn that on the 1st of January his brother shall be in Madrid, Marshal Bessieres at Lisbon and himself at Saragossa.'
In dreadful winter conditions and heavily outnumbered, the British retreated north and managed to reach Vigo. They then had to stagger on to the north-western port of Corunna where evacuation ships were waiting. Moore's men were ill-equipped and starving. Their boots had fallen apart and they had resorted to wrapping their frozen feet in rags. In an epic fighting retreat, the British managed to fend off the French and reach their destination. Old Crabby had remained in Corunna, but he could see the results of this ill-planned British expedition. His reports were reflected decades later in William Russell's stinging attacks from the Crimea on the inefficiency and failure of the commissariat and the indifference to the common soldier's plight.
By 11 January 1809, the British were dug in at Corunna. In his report of the same day, Crabby wrote: 'In the course of this day the whole English army has either entered within, or planted itself before the walls of this town. The French army will not fail to be quick in the pursuit; and as the transports which are so anxiously expected from Vigo are still out of sight, and according to the state of the wind, not likely soon to make their appearance, this spot will most probably become the scene of a furious and bloody contest.
'The late arrivals have, of course, made us far better acquainted than we possibly could be before with the circumstances of this laborious and dishonourable campaign, which has had all the suffering, without any of the honours of war. Without a single general engagement – having to fight an enemy who always shunned the contest – it is supposed that our army has lost upwards of 3,000 men, a larger number of whom perished by the usual causes, as well as labours of a retreating soldiery.'
The Times reported on 15 January: 'The last two days have materially changed the appearance of things. Yesterday evening, the fleet of transports, which had been dispersed in their passage from Vigo, began to enter the harbour, and the hearts of thousands were relieved by the prospect of deliverance. I beheld this evening the beautiful bay covered with our vessels, both armed and mercantile, and I should have thought the noble three-deckers, which stood on the outside of the harbour, a proud spectacle, if I could have forgotten the inglorious service they were called to perform.'
Transport ships waited in the harbour to evacuate the army, while the Royal Navy offered protection outside. The French army held back and waited for the British to begin embarkation before launching their attack.
On the afternoon of the 16th, Crabby decided to walk out of the town towards the gunfire. 'I noticed several French prisoners, whose countenances expressed rather rage and menaces than fear. They knew very well what would take place. I walked with some acquaintances a mile or more out of the town and remained there until dark – long enough to know that the enemy was driven back; for the firing evidently came from a greater distance.'
The cannonading seemed to be in the hills some three miles distant. It was during this phase of the Battle of Corunna that Sir John Moore was killed.
Robinson boarded his vessel at about five o'clock, which did not then leave the bay but waited until the last minute before sailing. The expected arrival of the French did not materialise the following morning.
'Early in the forenoon my attention was drawn to the sound of musketry, and by a glance it could be ascertained that the soldiers were shooting such of their fine horses as could not be taken on board. This was done, of course, to prevent their strengthening the French cavalry. One very large explosion brought us all on deck. There was on the shore a large powder magazine, which had often been the boundary of my walk. When the cloud of smoke which had been raised was blown away, there was an empty space where there had been a solid building a few moments before; but this was less exciting than when, about one o'clock, we heard a cannonading from the shore at the inland extremity of the bay. It was the French army. They were firing at the ships which were quietly waiting for orders. I remarked the sudden movement in the bay – the ships before lying in anchor were instantly in motion. I myself noticed three vessels which had lost their bowsprits. The Captain told me that twelve had cut their cables.
'We were not anxious to quit the spot and therefore sailed about in the vicinity all night. Two vessels were on fire and next day I was shocked at beholding the remains of a wreck.'
Robinson has been criticised by later generations of reporters for not remaining in Corunna and sending home second-hand reports of the campaign. In fact, there was little else he could have done. With no fixed battle lines, atrocious roads and appalling weather conditions he would not have been able to get his reports away even if he could have made sense of the chaos and confusion that beset the retreating army. Instead, he was able to piece together the jigsaw and his reports are now a primary source for this harsh campaign. The fact that he remained within French artillery range until the last moment spoke of his courage and determination to observe the battle until it was obviously time to depart.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Fighting for the News"
by .
Copyright © 2016 Brian Best.
Excerpted by permission of Pen and Sword Books Ltd.
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