precipitate retreat and evacuate by sea." Also, "Madrid and the Northern half of Spain were under occupation by French troops". Fremont-Barnes, in The Napoleonic Wars: The Peninsular War 1807–1814, writes that the then British Foreign Secretary Canning: " ... privately condemned Moore's failed campaign in increasingly stronger terms," while in public he " ... in the great British tradition of characterizing defeat as victory, insisted that although Moore's army had been pushed out of Spain his triumph at the battle of Corunna had left 'fresh laurels blooming upon our brows'". A more charitable view is offered by W. H. Fitchett in How England Saved Europe: "... it is also a dramatic justification of Moore's strategy that he had drawn a hostile force so formidable into a hilly corner of Spain, thus staying its southward rush". Napier similarly speculates: "The second sweep that [Napoleon] was preparing to make when Sir John Moore's march called off his attention from the south would undoubtedly have put him in possession of the remaining great cities of the Peninsula". Nevertheless, back in England the reaction to news of the Battle of Corunna and the safe evacuation of the army was a storm of criticism over Moore's handling of the campaign, while back in Corunna his adversary Marshal Soult took care of Moore's grave and ordered a monument to be raised in his memory. Notes References ; The Online Books Page: Campaign de l'empereur Napoléon en Espagne (1808–1809) Harris, Benjamin, Recollections of Rifleman Harris, Old 95th, London: H. Hurst, 27, King William Street, Charing Cross, 1848, OCLC 22331925. Further reading External links Conflicts in 1809 1809 in Spain Battles of the Peninsular War Battle of Corunna 1809 King's German Legion Battles involving France Battles involving Spain Battles involving the United Kingdom Battles in Galicia (Spain) January 1809 events Battles inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe