Sir John Moore - Discussing his record.
I want to start a discussion regarding Moore's military record.
At first (when I just had a general surface level understanding of him), I thought of him as being similar to Barclay de Tolly in terms of achievements; Like Barclay, being involved in military reforms and saving an army from destruction for it to triumph in the end under another commander (with their respective Russia and Corunna retreats).
Now however, my estimation of him has gone down. Firstly, he was the overseer of the Light Infantry training at Shorncliffe and not the creator nor implementer of the training program (that was chiefly Colonel Kenneth Mackenzie). Secondly, Charles Esdaile has made multiple points regarding the Corunna campaign which make him out to be a bungler whose army survived through luck.
So, how does everyone else rate him? Am I wrong? Is there something I've missed? Feel free to make your opinions known.
Good points. Since I posted this my judgement has softened. He had a multitude of constraints and difficulties attached to that campaign as you say. Also I agree with your point on a better understanding of LI evolution being needed.