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Home / People / John Moore

Historical person

John Moore

1761–1809

Sir John Moore was a British army officer and reformer who trained light infantry and commanded during the Napoleonic Wars. Sent to the Iberian Peninsula in 1808, he advanced into Spain to threaten French communications but was forced into a difficult winter retreat to Corunna.

Moore organised an effective evacuation and defeated the pursuing French army, but he was mortally wounded during the battle in January 1809. His training methods influenced later British success. John Moore was born in Glasgow and died in A Coruña.

Adrian Goldsworthy’s Beat the Drums Slowly follows Sir John Moore’s retreat through northern Spain to Corunna, making his attempt to save the army from Soult the strategic framework around the fictional soldiers’ exhaustion and losses. Dewey Lambdin’s A Hard, Cruel Shore begins with the naval evacuation after Moore’s final battle, so the dead general’s campaign determines the battered army Aubrey helps embark. Griff Hosker’s 1808 pairs Moore’s retreat with Wellesley’s earlier successes in Iberia, while G. A. Henty’s With Moore at Corunna follows fictional participants through the march and battle under Moore’s command. Saul David’s All the King’s Men places Moore within the longer development of the British army, treating his training methods, command and death at Corunna as part of the professional tradition inherited by Wellington.

Periods

Periods linked to John Moore

Peninsular War1807–1814 CE

Series

Historical novels and book series featuring John Moore (4 series)

Alan Lewrie Naval Adventures in Order

by Dewey Lambdin 25 books 4.3(61,103)

The Alan Lewrie Naval Adventures follow a reluctant young rake forced into the Royal Navy in 1780 and carried through the final years of the American Revolutionary War, the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. Alan Lewrie develops from an inexperienced midshipman into a resourceful captain, commodore…

All books in this series

Napoleonic Horseman in Order

by Griff Hosker 10 books 4.4(12,740)

Napoleonic Horseman follows a cavalryman through the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. The series moves between French and British service, espionage, the Peninsular War, sieges and Waterloo, using mounted warfare to show how individual soldiers are pulled through the largest conflicts of the age.

All books in this series

Napoleonic Wars in Order

by Adrian Goldsworthy 6 books 4.3(4,354)

The Napoleonic Wars series follows officers and soldiers of the fictional 106th Regiment of Foot through Wellington’s campaigns. The novels move from the first British intervention in Spain through Moore’s retreat to Corunna, Talavera, Ciudad Rodrigo, Cádiz and Albuera, showing the war through ordinary officers rather than generals…

All books in this series

Matthew Hervey in Order

by Allan Mallinson 14 books 4.2(11,911)

The Matthew Hervey novels follow an English cavalry officer from the final campaign against Napoleon into the unsettled decades after Waterloo. Beginning as a young cornet in the 6th Light Dragoons, Hervey advances through command while trying to reconcile professional duty, personal honour, family obligations and the often…

All books in this series

Standalone books

Standalone books featuring John Moore (2 books)

Non Fiction

Non Fiction featuring John Moore (1 book)

Biographies, histories and other non-fiction are listed separately from the historical novels above.