(eBook PDF) Introduction to Chemical Principles

11th Edition install download

https://ebookluna.com/product/ebook-pdf-introduction-to-chemical-
principles-11th-edition/

Download more ebook from https://ebookluna.com

 Instant digital products (PDF, ePub, MOBI) ready for you
Download now and discover formats that fit your needs...

(eBook PDF) Introduction to Chemical Engineering Fluid

Mechanics (Cambridge Series in Chemical Engineering)

https://ebookluna.com/product/ebook-pdf-introduction-to-chemical-
engineering-fluid-mechanics-cambridge-series-in-chemical-engineering/

ebookluna.com

(eBook PDF) Introduction to Chemical Engineering

Thermodynamics 9th Edition

https://ebookluna.com/product/ebook-pdf-introduction-to-chemical-
engineering-thermodynamics-9th-edition/

ebookluna.com

(eBook PDF) Introduction to Chemical Engineering

Thermodynamics 8th Edition

https://ebookluna.com/product/ebook-pdf-introduction-to-chemical-
engineering-thermodynamics-8th-edition/

ebookluna.com

Introduction to Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics 9th

Edition - eBook PDF

https://ebookluna.com/download/introduction-to-chemical-engineering-
thermodynamics-ebook-pdf/

ebookluna.com
(eBook PDF) Introduction to Bioorganic Chemistry and
Chemical Biology

https://ebookluna.com/product/ebook-pdf-introduction-to-bioorganic-
chemistry-and-chemical-biology/

ebookluna.com

(eBook PDF) Introduction to Chemical Graph Theory by

Stephan Wagner

https://ebookluna.com/product/ebook-pdf-introduction-to-chemical-
graph-theory-by-stephan-wagner/

ebookluna.com

Introduction to Sociology 11th Edition (eBook PDF)

https://ebookluna.com/product/introduction-to-sociology-11th-edition-
ebook-pdf/

ebookluna.com

(eBook PDF) Introduction to Mass Communication 11th

Edition

https://ebookluna.com/product/ebook-pdf-introduction-to-mass-
communication-11th-edition/

ebookluna.com

(eBook PDF) Introduction to Financial Accounting 11th

Edition

https://ebookluna.com/product/ebook-pdf-introduction-to-financial-
accounting-11th-edition/

ebookluna.com
 CONTENTS
Preface xiii
Acknowledgments xvi

Chapter 1 The Science of Chemistry 1

1.1 Chemistry—A Scientific Discipline 1
1.2 Scientific Research and Technology 3
1.3 The Scope of Chemistry 4
1.4 How Chemists Discover Things—The Scientific Method 4
Experiments, Observations, and Data 5
Scientific Facts 6
Scientific Laws 7
Scientific Hypotheses 7
Scientific Theories 8
1.5 The Limitations of the Scientific Method 10
1.6 Application Limitations for methods of Science 11
Concepts to Remember 11 • Key Terms Listing 12
Practice Problems By Topic 12 • Multiple-Choice Practice Test 15

Chapter 2 Numbers From Measurements 17

2.1 The Importance of Measurement 17
2.2 Exact and Inexact Numbers 18
2.3 Accuracy, Precision, and Error 18
2.4 Uncertainty in Measurements 20
2.5 Significant Figures 22
2.6 Significant Figures and Mathematical Operations 27
Rounding Off Numbers 27
Operational Rules for Mathematical Operations 29
Significant Figures and Exact Numbers 33
Multiplication by a Small Whole Number 33
2.7 Expressing Numbers in Scientific Notation 35
Exponents 36
Converting from Decimal to Scientific Notation 37
Significant Figures and Scientific Notation 38
Converting from Scientific to Decimal Notation 39
Uncertainty and Scientific Notation 40
2.8 Mathematical Operations in Scientific Notation 42
Multiplication in Scientific Notation 42
Division in Scientific Notation 44
Addition and Subtraction in Scientific Notation 45
Concepts to Remember 48 • Key Terms Listing 49
Practice Problems By Topic 49 • Multi-Concept Problems 57
Multiple Choice Practice Test 58

Chapter 3 Unit Systems and Dimensional Analysis 60

3.1 The Metric System of Units 60
SI Units 61
Metric System Prefixes 62
3.2 Metric Units of Length 63
3.3 Metric Units of Mass 64
3.4 Metric Units of Volume 65
3.5 Units in Mathematical Operations 68

v
vi Contents

3.6 Conversion Factors 68

English-to-English Conversion Factors 69
Metric-to-Metric Conversion Factors 69
Metric-to-English and English-to-Metric Conversion Factors 70
3.7 Dimensional Analysis 72
Metric-to-Metric Conversion Factor Use 72
English-to-English Conversion Factor Use 77
English-to-Metric and Metric-to-English Conversion Factor Use 78
Units Involving More Than One Type of Measurement 82
3.8 Density 83
Using Density as a Conversion Factor 86
3.9 Equivalence Conversion Factors Other than Density 88
Concentration and Dosage Relationship Conversion Factors 88
Rate Relationship Conversion Factors 89
Cost Relationship Conversion Factors 90
3.10 Percentage and Percent Error 91
Using Percentage as a Conversion Factor 92
Percent Error 95
3.11 Temperature Scales 96
Temperature Readings and Significant Figures 101
Concepts to Remember 101 • Key Terms Listing 102
Practice Problems By Topic 102 • Multi-Concept Problems 108
Multiple Choice Practice Test 109

Chapter 4 Basic Concepts About Matter 111

4.1 Chemistry—The Study of Matter 111
4.2 Physical States of Matter 112
4.3 Properties of Matter 113
Physical and Chemical Properties 114
Intensive and Extensive Properties 115
4.4 Changes in Matter 116
Use of the Terms Physical and Chemical 118
4.5 Pure Substances and Mixtures 119
4.6 Heterogeneous and Homogeneous Mixtures 120
Use of the Terms Homogeneous and Heterogeneous 121
4.7 Elements and Compounds 123
4.8 Discovery and Abundance of the Elements 126
■ THE HUMAN SIDE OF CHEMISTRY 1: Joseph Priestley (1733–1804) 127
4.9 Names and Chemical Symbols of the Elements 127
■ THE HUMAN SIDE OF CHEMISTRY 2: Jöns Jakob Berzelius (1779–1848) 128
Concepts to Remember 131 • Key Terms Listing 132
Practice Problems By Topic 132 • Multi-Concept Problems 136
Multiple Choice Practice Test 137

Chapter 5 Atoms, Molecules, and Subatomic Particles 140

5.1 The Atom 140
■ THE HUMAN SIDE OF CHEMISTRY 3: John Dalton (1766–1844) 141
5.2 The Molecule 143
5.3 Natural and Synthetic Compounds 146
5.4 Chemical Formulas 147
5.5 Subatomic Particles: Protons, Neutrons, and Electrons 149
Arrangement of Subatomic Particles Within an Atom 150
Charge Neutrality of an Atom 151
Size Relationships within an Atom 151
Additional Subatomic Particles 152
 Contents vii

5.6 Atomic Number and Mass Number 152

Atomic Number 153
Mass Number 153
Subatomic Particle Makeup of an Atom 154
5.7 Isotopes 155
5.8 Atomic Masses 159
Relative Mass 159
Average Atom 161
Weighted Averages 162
Mass Spectrometry Experiments 165
5.9 Evidence Supporting the Existence and Arrangement of Subatomic Particles 166
Discharge Tube Experiments 166
Metal Foil Experiments 168
■ THE HUMAN SIDE OF CHEMISTRY 4: Ernest Rutherford (1871–1937) 169
Concepts to Remember 170 • Key Terms Listing 171
Practice Problems By Topic 171 • Multi-Concept Problems 178
Multiple Choice Practice Test 180

Chapter 6 Electronic Structure and Chemical Periodicity 182

6.1 The Periodic Law 182
6.2 The Periodic Table 183
■ THE HUMAN SIDE OF CHEMISTRY 5: Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev (1834–1907) 185
Periods and Groups of Elements 185
The Shape of the Periodic Table 187
6.3 The Energy of an Electron 188
■ THE HUMAN SIDE OF CHEMISTRY 6: Erwin Schrödinger (1887–1961) 190
6.4 Electron Shells 190
6.5 Electron Subshells 191
6.6 Electron Orbitals 193
Electron Spin 195
6.7 Electron Configurations 195
Aufbau Principle 195
Aufbau Diagram 196
Writing Electron Configurations 197
Condensed Electron Configurations 199
6.8 Electron Orbital Diagrams 201
6.9 Electron Configurations and the Periodic Law 204
6.10 Electron Configurations and the Periodic Table 205
6.11 Classification Systems for the Elements 211
6.12 Chemical Periodicity 213
Metallic and Nonmetallic Character 214
Atomic Size 215
Concepts to Remember 217 • Key Terms Listing 218
Practice Problems By Topic 218 • Multi-Concept Problems 225
Multiple Choice Practice Test 226

Chapter 7 Chemical Bonds 228

7.1 Types of Chemical Bonds 228
7.2 Valence Electrons and Lewis Symbols 229
■ THE HUMAN SIDE OF CHEMISTRY 7: Gilbert Newton Lewis (1875–1946) 232
7.3 The Octet Rule 233
7.4 The Ionic Bond Model 233
7.5 The Sign and Magnitude of Ionic Charge 236
Isoelectronic Species 238
7.6 Lewis Structures for Ionic Compounds 239
viii Contents

7.7 Chemical Formulas for Ionic Compounds 241

7.8 Structure of Ionic Compounds 243
7.9 Polyatomic Ions 244
7.10 The Covalent Bond Model 246
7.11 Lewis Structures for Molecular Compounds 247
7.12 Single, Double, and Triple Covalent Bonds 250
7.13 Valence Electron Count and Number of Covalent Bonds Formed 251
7.14 Coordinate Covalent Bonds 252
7.15 Resonance Structures 254
7.16 Systematic Procedures for Drawing Lewis Structures 255
7.17 Molecular Geometry 261
Electron Pairs versus Electron Groups 263
Molecules with Two VSEPR Electron Groups 263
Molecules with Three VSEPR Electron Groups 264
Molecules with Four VSEPR Electron Groups 265
7.18 Electronegativity 268
■ THE HUMAN SIDE OF CHEMISTRY 8: Linus Carl Pauling (1901–1994) 268
7.19 Bond Polarity 270
7.20 Molecular Polarity 273
Concepts to Remember 276 • Key Terms Listing 278
Practice Problems By Topic 278 • Multi-Concept Problems 287
Multiple Choice Practice Test 289

Chapter 8 Chemical Nomenclature 291

8.1 Classification of Compounds for Nomenclature Purposes 291
8.2 Types of Binary Ionic Compounds 292
8.3 Nomenclature for Binary Ionic Compounds 294
Fixed-Charge Binary Ionic Compounds 295
Variable-Charge Binary Ionic Compounds 297
8.4 Chemical Formulas for Polyatomic Ions 301
8.5 Nomenclature for Ionic Compounds Containing Polyatomic Ions 303
8.6 Nomenclature for Binary Molecular Compounds 306
Common Names for Binary Molecular Compounds 308
8.7 Nomenclature for Acids 309
8.8 Systematic Procedures for Using Nomenclature Rules 314
Concepts to Remember 317 • Key Terms Listing 318
Practice Problems By Topic 318 • Multi-Concept Problems 324
Multiple Choice Practice Test 325

Chapter 9 Chemical Calculations: The Mole Concept

and Chemical Formulas 327
9.1 The Law of Definite Proportions 327
■ THE HUMAN SIDE OF CHEMISTRY 9: Joseph-Louis Proust (1754–1826) 328
9.2 Calculation of Formula Masses 331
9.3 Significant Figures and Formula Mass 333
9.4 Mass Percent Composition of a Compound 335
9.5 The Mole: The Chemist’s Counting Unit 337
■ THE HUMAN SIDE OF CHEMISTRY 10: Lorenzo Romano Amedeo Carlo Avogadro
(1776–1856) 339
9.6 The Mass of a Mole 341
Summary of Mass Terminology 346
9.7 Significant Figures and Avogadro’s Number 347
9.8 Relationship Between Atomic Mass Units and Gram Units 347
9.9 The Mole and Chemical Formulas 348
 Contents ix

9.10 The Mole and Chemical Calculations 351

9.11 Purity of Samples 358
9.12 Empirical and Molecular Formulas 361
9.13 Determination of Empirical Formulas 362
Empirical Formulas from Direct Analysis Data 363
Empirical Formulas from Indirect Analysis Data 366
9.14 Determination of Molecular Formulas 370
Concepts to Remember 375 • Key Terms Listing 375
Practice Problems By Topic 376 • Multi-Concept Problems 384
Multiple Choice Practice Test 385

Chapter 10 Chemical Calculations Involving Chemical Equations 387

10.1 The Law of Conservation of Mass 387
■ THE HUMAN SIDE OF CHEMISTRY 11: Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (1743–1794) 388
10.2 Writing Chemical Equations 389
10.3 Chemical Equation Coefficients 390
10.4 Balancing Procedures for Chemical Equations 392
10.5 Special Symbols Used in Chemical Equations 397
10.6 Classes of Chemical Reactions 398
Synthesis Reactions 398
Decomposition Reactions 399
Single-Replacement Reactions 399
Double-Replacement Reactions 400
Combustion Reactions 401
10.7 Chemical Equations and the Mole Concept 403
10.8 Balanced Chemical Equations and the Law of Conservation of Mass 406
10.9 Calculations Based on Chemical Equations—Stoichiometry 407
10.10 The Limiting Reactant Concept 413
10.11 Yields: Theoretical, Actual, and Percent 418
10.12 Simultaneous and Sequential Chemical Reactions 421
Combining Sequential Chemical Reaction Equations into a Single Overall Chemical
Reaction Equation 423
Concepts to Remember 425 • Key Terms Listing 425
Practice Problems By Topic 426 • Multi-Concept Problems 435
Multiple Choice Practice Test 436

Chapter 11 States of Matter 439

11.1 Factors that Determine Physical State 439
11.2 Property Differences among Physical States 441
11.3 The Kinetic Molecular Theory of Matter 442
11.4 The Solid State 443
11.5 The Liquid State 444
11.6 The Gaseous State 444
11.7 A Comparison of Solids, Liquids, and Gases 445
11.8 Endothermic and Exothermic Changes of State 446
11.9 Heat Energy and Specific Heat 447
Heat Energy Units 447
Specific Heat 449
11.10 Temperature Changes as a Substance is Heated 453
11.11 Energy and Changes of State 454
11.12 Heat Energy Calculations 457
11.13 Evaporation of Liquids 461
Rate of Evaporation and Temperature 462
Evaporation and Equilibrium 463
x Contents

11.14 Vapor Pressure of Liquids 464

11.15 Boiling and Boiling Points 465
Factors that Affect Boiling Point 466
11.16 Intermolecular Forces in Liquids 467
Dipole–Dipole Interactions 468
Hydrogen Bonds 468
London Forces 471
Ion–Dipole Interactions 472
Ion–Ion Interactions 472
11.17 Hydrogen Bonding and The Properties of Water 473
Vapor Pressure 473
Thermal Properties 473
Density 475
Surface Tension 477
Concepts to Remember 477 • Key Terms Listing 478
Practice Problems By Topic 479 • Multi-Concept Problems 485
Multiple Choice Practice Test 486

Chapter 12 Gas Laws 488

12.1 Properties of Some Common Gases 488
12.2 Gas Law Variables 489
Pressure Readings and Significant Figures 493
12.3 Boyle’s Law: A Pressure–Volume Relationship 494
■ THE HUMAN SIDE OF CHEMISTRY 12: Robert Boyle (1627–1691) 494
12.4 Charles’s Law: A Temperature–Volume Relationship 498
■ THE HUMAN SIDE OF CHEMISTRY 13: Jacques Alexandre César Charles (1746–1823) 499
12.5 Gay-Lussac’s Law: A Temperature–Pressure Relationship 502
■ THE HUMAN SIDE OF CHEMISTRY 14: Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (1778–1850) 502
12.6 The Combined Gas Law 504
12.7 Avogadro’s Law 507
12.8 An Ideal Gas 511
12.9 The Ideal Gas Law 511
12.10 Modified Forms of the Ideal Gas Law Equation 516
The Molar Mass of a Gas 516
The Density of a Gas 518
Using Density to Calculate Molar Mass 519
12.11 Volumes of Gases in Chemical Reactions 520
12.12 Volumes of Gases and the Limiting Reactant Concept 523
12.13 Molar Volume of a Gas 525
Standard Temperature and Standard Pressure Conditions 527
Using Molar Volume to Calculate Density 528
12.14 Chemical Calculations Using Molar Volume 530
12.15 Mixtures of Gases 537
12.16 Dalton’s Law of Partial Pressures 538
Concepts to Remember 547 • Key Terms Listing 548
Practice Problems By Topic 549 • Multi-Concept Problems 560
Multiple Choice Practice Test 561

Chapter 13 Solutions 564

13.1 Characteristics of Solutions 564
13.2 Solubility 566
Effect of Temperature on Solubility 566
Effect of Pressure on Solubility 567
Terminology for Relative Amount of Solute in a Solution 567
Aqueous and Nonaqueous Solutions 568
 Contents xi

13.3 Solution Formation 568

Factors Affecting the Rate of Solution Formation 569
13.4 Solubility Rules 569
13.5 Solution Concentrations 571
13.6 Percentage Concentration Unit 571
Using Percent Concentrations as Conversion Factors 575
13.7 Parts Per Million and Parts Per Billion Concentration Units 578
13.8 Molarity Concentration Unit 581
Using Molarity as a Conversion Factor 582
13.9 Molarity and Chemical Reactions in Aqueous Solution 588
13.10 Dilution Calculations 592
13.11 Molality Concentration Unit 596
Concepts to Remember 602 • Key Terms Listing 603
Practice Problems By Topic 603 • Multi-Concept Problems 612
Multiple Choice Practice Test 613

Chapter 14 Acids, Bases, and Salts 616

14.1 Arrhenius Acid–Base Theory 616
■ THE HUMAN SIDE OF CHEMISTRY 15: Svante August Arrhenius
(1859–1927) 617
14.2 Brønsted–Lowry Acid–Base Theory 618
Generalizations about Brønsted-Lowry Acids and Brønsted-Lowry Bases 620
14.3 Conjugate Acids and Bases 621
Amphiprotic Substances 623
14.4 Mono-, Di-, and Triprotic Acids 623
14.5 Strengths of Acids and Bases 625
14.6 Salts 628
14.7 Reactions of Acids 629
Reaction with Metals 629
Reaction with Bases 629
Reaction with Carbonates and Bicarbonates 631
14.8 Reactions of Bases 631
14.9 Reactions of Salts 631
Reaction with Metals 632
Reaction with Acids 632
Reaction with Bases 633
Reaction of Salts with Each Other 633
14.10 Self-Ionization of Water 635
Ion Product Constant for Water 636
Effect of Solutes on Water Self-Ionization 636
Effect of Temperature Change on Water Self-Ionization 637
Acidic, Basic, and Neutral Solutions 638
14.11 The pH Scale 638
Integral pH Values 639
Nonintegral pH Values 640
14.12 Hydrolysis of Salts 644
Types of Salt Hydrolysis 645
Chemical Equations for Salt Hydrolysis Reactions 646
14.13 Buffers 648
Chemical Equations for Buffer Action 649
14.14 Acid–Base Titrations 651
Concepts to Remember 653 • Key Terms Listing 654
Practice Problems By Topic 654 • Multi-Concept Problems 661
Multiple Choice Practice Test 663
xii Contents

Chapter 15 Chemical Equations: Net Ionic and Oxidation–Reduction 665

15.1 Types of Chemical Equations 665
15.2 Electrolytes 666
15.3 Ionic and Net Ionic Equations 667
15.4 Oxidation–Reduction Terminology 671
15.5 Oxidation Numbers 673
15.6 Redox and Nonredox Chemical Reactions 678
15.7 Balancing Oxidation–Reduction Equations 680
15.8 Oxidation Number Method for Balancing Redox Equations 681
15.9 Half-Reaction Method for Balancing Redox Equations 686
15.10 Disproportionation Reactions 692
15.11 Stoichiometric Calculations Involving Ions 696
Concepts to Remember 699 • Key Terms Listing 700
Practice Problems By Topic 700 • Multi-Concept Problems 706
Multiple-Choice Practice Test 707

Chapter 16 Reaction Rates and Chemical Equilibrium 710

16.1 Collision Theory 710
Molecular Collisions 711
Activation Energy 711
Collision Orientation 711
16.2 Endothermic and Exothermic Chemical Reactions 712
16.3 Factors that Influence Chemical Reaction Rates 713
Physical Nature of Reactants 714
Reactant Concentration 714
Reaction Temperature 714
Presence of Catalysts 715
16.4 Chemical Equilibrium 716
16.5 Equilibrium Mixture Stoichiometry 717
16.6 Equilibrium Constants 719
16.7 Equilibrium Position 722
16.8 Temperature Dependency of Equilibrium Constants 723
16.9 Le Châtelier’s Principle 724
Concentration Changes 724
■ THE HUMAN SIDE OF CHEMISTRY 16: Henri-Louis Le Châtelier (1850–1936) 725
Temperature Changes 726
Pressure Changes 726
Addition of a Catalyst 727
16.10 Forcing Chemical Reactions to Completion 728
Concepts to Remember 729 • Key Terms Listing 729
Practice Problems By Topic 730 • Multi-Concept Problems 735
Multiple Choice Practice Test 736
Glossary 739
Answers to Odd-Numbered Practice Problems 748
Credits 763
Index 764
 PREFACE
Introduction to Chemical Principles is a text for students who have had little or no previous instruction in
chemistry or whose instruction was so long ago that a thorough review is needed. The text’s purpose is to
give students the background (and confidence) needed for a subsequent successful encounter with a main
sequence, college-level, general chemistry course.
Many texts written for preparatory chemistry courses are simply watered-down versions of general
chemistry texts: They treat almost all topics found in the general chemistry course, but at a superficial
level. Introduction to Chemical Principles does not fit this mold. My philosophy is that it is better to treat
fewer topics extensively and have the student understand those topics in greater depth. I resisted the very
real temptation to include lots of additional concepts in this new edition. Instead, my focus for this edition
was on rewriting selected portions to improve the clarity of presentation.

NEW FEATURES OF THE ELEVENTH EDITION

• “Chemical Insights” are used to bridge the gap between mathematics and chemistry. This
new “insight” feature, which is appended to many of the worked-out example problems in the text that
involve calculations, focuses on the element or compound that is the subject of the calculation. These
insights give information on the subject element’s/compound’s occurrence, its properties and uses, its
relationship to the environment, its relationship to living systems (biochemistry), and so on. It is easy
for students to become so involved in the mathematics of problem solving that they completely forget
about the “realness” of the type of matter that is the subject of the calculation. There are 85 total insights
which address this “realness” issue.
• A “Student Learning Focus” feature is used as a mini study guide for students. These learning
objectives, found at the start of all sections of all chapters, “pinpoint” for the student what it is hoped
they will gain by study of the given section.
• New Worked-Out Example Problems. Nineteen of the 236 worked-out example problems in the
text are new. Worked-out-in-detail example problems with their extensive commentary constitute
one of the greatest strengths of the text.
• Extensive revision of “End-of-Chapter Problem Sets.” Although the total number of end-of-
chapter problems, which already exceeds that of most other similar texts, has not increased signifi-
cantly, almost 500 of the previous edition’s 2200 problems have been replaced with new problems.
A special effort was made to create new problems that address specifically the “core concepts” as-
sociated with a given chapter section’s subject matter. In most chapters several of the newly added
problems involve presentation of data in a “visual form” rather than in a “sentence form.” Many of the
“visual problems” involve situations where reasoning, with little or no calculation, is needed to test a
student’s grasp of a key concept.
Content changes to individual chapters. After ten successful editions of Introduction to Chemical
Principles, the need for drastic alterations in chapter ordering and chapter content does not exist. Changes
that have been made relate to “fine tuning” of the presentation of the subject matter. Among the most impor-
tant changes to this edition are the following:
• Chapters 4 and 5: The last four sections of chapter 4 of the previous edition (atoms, molecules,
and chemical formulas) has been moved to the start of Chapter 5. Material concerning unstable
nuclei previously found in chapter 5 has been deleted
• Chapter 13: Material dealing with the use of the molarity concentration unit in chemical calculations
now immediately follows the introduction of the concept of molarity. Previously this material was
found at the end of the chapter.

xiii
xiv Preface

IMPORTANT CONTINUING FEATURES IN THE ELEVENTH EDITION

1. Development of each topic starts out at ground level. Because of the varied degrees of under-
standing of chemical principles possessed by students taking a preparatory chemistry course, each
topic is developed step by step from ground level until the level of sophistication required for a
further chemistry course is attained.
2. Problem-solving pedagogy is based on dimensional analysis. Over forty years of teaching
experience suggest to me that student “troubles” in general chemistry courses are almost always cen-
tered on the inability to set up and solve problems. Whenever possible, I use dimensional analysis in
problem solving. This method, which requires no mathematics beyond arithmetic and elementary al-
gebra, is a powerful and widely applicable problem-solving tool. Most important, it is a method that
an average student can master with an average amount of diligence. Mastering dimensional analysis
also helps build the confidence that is so valuable for future chemistry courses.
3. Detailed commentary accompanies all worked-out example problems. In all chapters, one or
more worked-out example problems follow the presentation of key concepts. These examples walk
students through the thought processes involved in solving the particular type of problem. Detailed
commentary accompanies all of the steps involved in solving a problem.
4. “Answer Double Check” feature. Over half (60%) of the text’s worked-out examples are enhanced
by the feature called “answer double check.” The purpose of this feature, which is appended to the end
of the worked-out example discussion, is to encourage students to consider whether the answer they
obtain in working a problem is a reasonable answer in terms of items such as numerical magnitude,
number of significant figures present, sign convention (plus or minus), and direction of change (increase
or descrease). An unreasonable answer is often a sign that a calculator error has been made.
5. Significant-figure concepts are emphasized in all problem-solving situations. Routinely,
electronic calculators display answers that contain more digits than are needed or acceptable. In all
worked-out examples, students are reminded about these unneeded digits by the appearance of two
answers to the example: the calculator answer (which does not take into account significant figures)
and, in color, the correct answer (which is the calculator answer adjusted to the correct number of
significant figures).
6. Operation rules for standardizing uncertainty in numbers are used. Students often experi-
ence a relatively high degree of frustration when they correctly solve a problem and yet obtain an
answer that differs slightly from the one given in the answer section at the back of the book. They
want to get the exact number shown in the answer section. Most often the discrepancy is due to
differing degrees of uncertainty in the input numbers used for the calculation, for example, in mo-
lecular mass values. To minimize such frustration, operational rules have been introduced for stan-
dardizing uncertainty in input numbers. The standard mode of operation is always (1) to round all
atomic masses to hundredths before using them in molecular mass calculations, and (2) to specify
frequently used numbers, such as Avogadro’s number, molar volume, and the ideal gas constant to
four significant figures. Using these operational rules for input numbers, student answers will match
the back-of-the-book answers to the last significant digit.
7. Defined terms always appear in self-standing complete sentences. All definitions are high-
lighted in the text when they are first presented, using boldface and italic type. Each defined term
appears as a complete sentence; students are never required to deduce a definition from context. In
addition, the definitions of all terms appear in a separate glossary found at the end of the text. All
defined terms have been reexamined to see if they could be stated with greater clarity. The result is
a rewording of many defined terms. In addition, the number of defined terms has been increased.
There are 29 new or modified definitions in this new edition of the text.
8. All end-of-chapter exercises occur in matched pairs. In essence, each chapter has two inde-
pendent, but similar, problem sets. Counting subparts to problems, there are over 5000 questions
and problems available for students to use in their journey to proficient problem solving. Answers
to all of the odd-numbered problems are found at the end of the text. Thus, two problem sets exist,
one with answers and one without.
 Preface xv

9. “Multiple-Choice Practice Test” feature. The emphasis in this text has always been and still is
on working problems from scratch. Some, but certainly not all instructors, use this same approach
when giving class examinations. A multiple-choice question examination is another common type
of examination given. To aid students whose examinations involve multiple-choice examinations,
a 20-question “multiple-choice practice test” in included as the last feature in each chapter. It is in-
tended that students use this feature as an aid in reviewing subject matter for an upcoming multiple-
choice examination.
10. Historical vignettes are used to address some of the “people aspects” of chemistry. These
vignettes, entitled “The Human Side of Chemistry,” are brief biographies of scientists who helped de-
velop the foundations of modern chemistry. In courses such as the one for which this text is written,
it is very easy for students to completely lose any feeling for the people involved in the development
of the subject matter they are considering. If it were not for the contributions of these people, many
of whom worked under adverse conditions, chemistry would not be the central science that it is
today.
11. Marginal notes are used extensively. The two main functions of the marginal notes are (1) to
summarize key concepts and often give help for remembering concepts or distinguishing between
similar concepts, and (2) to provide additional details, links between concepts, or historical informa-
tion about the concepts under discussion.

SUPPLEMENTS
For the Instructor
Instructor Solutions Manual (download only): (ISBN: 0321815130) by Nancy J. Gardner, California
State University–Long Beach. Contains full solutions to all of the end-of-chapter problems in the text.
TestGen Computerized Test Bank: (ISBN: 0321815319) by Pamela Kerrigan, Mount Saint Vincent.
Contains approximately 1000 multiple-choice and short-answer questions, all referenced to the text.
CourseSmart: (ISBN: 0321815149) Access your college textbook in online format at www.coursesmart.com.

For the Student

Student Solutions Manual: (ISBN: 0321815122) by Nancy J. Gardner, California State University–
Long Beach. Includes full solutions to all odd-numbered end-of-chapter problems and answers to all mul-
tiple choice practice test questions in the text.
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I’d like to gratefully acknowledge the valuable contributions of my accuracy reviewer Andreas Lippert of
Weber State University.
Every effort has been made to rid this text of any typographical errors. I encourage my read-
ers who notice anything suspicious, or who have other questions or comments, to e-mail me at the
address below.

H. Stephen Stoker
e-mail: [email protected]

Reviewers of the Eleventh Edition of Introduction to Chemical Principles, Stoker

Joel Case Kiran Kuar
University of Wisconsin Solano Community College
Lisa Devane Kent Lau
Bladen Community College San Francisco State University

Reviewers of the Tenth Edition of Introduction to Chemical Principles, Stoker

John M. Allen, Ann van Heerden,
Indiana State University Lonestar College–CyFair
Ashton T. Griffin, Virginia Lea Miller,
Wayne Community College Montgomery College
Lisa DeVane, Douglas S. Cody,
Bladen Community College Nassau Community College
Charles Spillner, Andreas Lippert,
Solano Community College Weber State University
Todd M. Johnson,
Weber State University

xvi
 C H A P T E R

1
The Science of Chemistry

1.1 Chemistry—A Scientific Discipline

1.2 Scientific Research and Technology
1.3 The Scope of Chemistry
1.4 How Chemists Discover Things—The Scientific Method
1.5 The Limitations of the Scientific Method
1.6 Application Limitations for Methods of Science

1.1 CHEMISTRY—A SCIENTIFIC DISCIPLINE

Student Learning Focus: Understand the relationship of the scientific discipline called chemistry to
other scientific disciplines and be familiar with the sub-structuring that occurs with the discipline
of chemistry.

Chemistry is part of a larger body of knowledge called science. Science is the study in
which humans attempt to organize and explain, in a systematic and logical manner,
knowledge about themselves and their surroundings.
Because of the enormous scope of science, the sheer amount of accumulated
knowledge, and the limitations of human mental capacity to master such a large and
diverse body of knowledge, science is divided into smaller subdivisions called scientific
disciplines. A scientific discipline is a branch of science limited in size and scope to
make it more manageable. Examples of scientific disciplines are chemistry, astronomy,
botany, geology, physics, and zoology.
Figure 1.1 shows an organizational chart, with emphasis on chemistry, for the vari-
ous scientific disciplines. These disciplines can be grouped into physical sciences (the
study of matter and energy) and biological sciences (the study of living organisms).
Chemistry is a physical science.
Rigid boundaries between scientific disciplines do not exist. All scientific disciplines
borrow information and methods from each other. No scientific discipline is totally inde-
pendent. Environmental problems that scientists have encountered in the last two decades

1
2 Chapter 1 • The Science of Chemistry

FIGURE 1.1 An
organizational
Science
chart showing the
relationship of the Scientific Disciplines
scientific discipline
called chemistry
to other scientific
disciplines and also
the sub-structuring Physical Sciences Biological Sciences
that occurs within the Study of Matter and Energy Study of Living Organisms
discipline of chemistry.

Astronomy Geology Physics Chemistry Botany Zoology

(plants) (animals)

Astrochemistry Geochemistry Chemical Biochemistry

Physics

Analytical General Inorganic Organic Physical

Analysis Fundamental Noncarbon- Carbon- Energy

and laws containing containing changes
composition and concepts substances substances

particularly show the interdependence of the various scientific disciplines. For example,
chemists attempting to solve the problems of chemical contamination of the environment
find that they need some knowledge of geology, zoology, and botany. It is now common
to talk not only of chemists, but also of geochemists, biochemists, chemical physicists,
and so on. The middle portion of Figure 1.1 shows the overlap of the other scientific dis-
ciplines with chemistry.
Discipline overlap requires that scientists, in addition to having in-depth knowledge
of a selected discipline, also have limited knowledge of other disciplines. Discipline over-
lap also explains why a great many college students are required to study chemistry. One
or more chemistry courses are required because of their applicability to the disciplines in
which the student has more specific interest.
The body of knowledge found within the scientific discipline of chemistry is itself
vast. No one can hope to master completely all aspects of chemical knowledge. However,
the fundamental concepts of chemistry can be learned in a relatively short period of time.
The vastness of chemistry is sufficiently large that it, like most scientific disciplines,
is partitioned into subdisciplines. The lower portion of Figure 1.1 shows the five funda-
mental branches of chemistry: analytical, general, inorganic, organic, and physical. Most
of the subject matter of this textbook falls within the realm of general chemistry, the fun-
damental laws and concepts of chemistry.
The American Chemical Society (ACS) is the largest scientific organization in the
world. Examination of the names of the 33 subdivisions of ACS (see Table 1.1) further
 Chapter 1 • The Science of Chemistry 3

TABLE 1.1 Names of the Divisions of the American Chemical Society

Agricultural and Food Chemistry Fluorine Chemistry

Agrochemicals Fuel Chemistry
Analytical Chemistry Geochemistry
Biochemical Technology History of Chemistry
Biological Chemistry Industrial and Engineering Chemistry
Business Development and Management Inorganic Chemistry
Carbohydrate Chemistry Medicinal Chemistry
Catalysis Science and Technology Nuclear Chemistry and Technology
Cellulose and Renewable Materials Organic Chemistry
Chemical Education Petroleum Chemistry
Chemical Health and Safety Physical Chemistry
Chemical Information Polymer Chemistry
Chemical Toxicology Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering
Chemistry and the Law Professional Relations
Colloid and Surface Science Rubber
Computers in Chemistry Small Chemical Businesses
Environmental Chemistry

illustrates the wide diversity of subject matter and activities encompassed within the dis-
cipline of chemistry.

1.2 SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY

Student Learning Focus: Understand how the fields of basic scientific research and applied sci-
entific research differ from each other and how the concepts of applied chemical research and
technology are related.

The basic activity through which new knowledge is added to the various scientific disci-
plines, including chemistry, is that of scientific research. Scientific research is the pro-
cess of methodical investigation into a subject in order to discover new information about
the subject. There are two general types of scientific research—basic and applied. Basic
scientific research is research whose major focus is the discovery of new fundamental
information about humans and other living organisms and the universe in which they
live. The number of scientists involved in basic scientific research is small compared to
those involved in applied scientific research. Most scientists function in the area of ap-
plied scientific research. Applied chemical research is research whose major focus is the
discovery of products and processes that can be used to benefit humankind.
In many ways, basic scientific research is the precursor to applied scientific research.
The former is the lifeline that supplies the latter with new ideas on which to work. No
change in quality of life results from basic scientific research endeavors unless something
is done with the body of information that accumulates. Use of this information for the
betterment of humankind is the role of applied chemical research and the ensuing tech-
nology that results from it. Technology is the application of applied chemical research to
the production of new products to improve human survival, comfort, and quality of life.
4 Chapter 1 • The Science of Chemistry

Whether or not a given Technological advances began affecting our society more than 200 years ago, and new
piece of scientific knowl- advances still continue, at an accelerating pace, to have a major impact on human society.
edge is technologically
used for beneficial or
Both benefits and detriments can be obtained from the same piece of scientific
detrimental purposes de- knowledge, depending on the technology used to put it to work. For example, knowledge
pends on the motives of concerning the closely related structures of the naturally-occurring substances morphine
those men and women, and codeine, obtained through basic research, has led to the development of several im-
whether in industry or portant codeine-derivatives currently used in modern medicine as prescription painkillers
government, who have
the decision-making
(hydrocodone and oxycodone) as well as the synthesis of the illegal drug heroin, whose
authority. In democratic structure parallels closely that of morphine.
societies, citizens (the
voters) can influence
many technological 1.3 THE SCOPE OF CHEMISTRY
decisions. It is important
for citizens to become Student Learning Focus: Be able to list several areas in which chemistry applications are important
informed about scientific to human beings.
and technological issues.
Although chemistry is concerned with only a part of the scientific knowledge that has
been accumulated, it is in itself an enormous and broad field. Chemistry touches all parts
of our lives.
Many of the clothes we wear are made from synthetic fibers produced by chemical
processes. Even natural fibers, such as cotton or wool, are the products of naturally occur-
ring chemical reactions within living systems. Our transportation usually involves vehicles
powered with energy obtained by burning chemical mixtures such as gasoline or diesel
and jet fuels. The drugs used to cure many of our illnesses are the result of chemical re-
search. The paper on which this textbook is printed was produced through a chemical
process, and the ink used in printing the words and illustrations is a mixture of many
chemicals. Almost all of our recreational pursuits involve objects made of materials pro-
duced by chemical industries. Skis, boats, basketballs, bowling balls, musical instruments,
and television sets all contain materials that do not occur naturally, but are products of
human technological expertise.
Our bodies are a complex mixture of chemicals. The principles of chemistry are
fundamental to an understanding of all processes of the living state. Chemical secretions
(hormones) produced within our bodies help determine our outward physical character-
istics such as height, weight, and appearance. Digestion of food involves a complex series
of chemical reactions. Food itself is an extremely complicated array of chemical sub-
stances. Chemical reactions govern our thought processes and how knowledge is stored
in and retrieved from our brains. In short, chemistry runs our lives.
A formal course in chemistry can be a fascinating experience because it helps us
understand ourselves and our surroundings. We cannot truly understand or even know
very much about the world we live in or about our own bodies without being conversant
with the fundamental ideas of chemistry.

1.4 HOW CHEMISTS DISCOVER THINGS—THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD

Student Learning Focus: List procedural steps associated with the problem-solving approach called
the scientific method and distinguish among the terms experiment, scientific fact, scientific law,
scientific hypothesis, and scientific theory.

There is no one single correct way to do scientific research, be it basic or applied

(Sec. 1.2). Different scientists often have different approaches to solving the same
problem. However, the various approaches used always have embodied within them
a number of common characteristics that constitute the problem-solving approach
known as the scientific method.
 Chapter 1 • The Science of Chemistry 5

The scientific method is a set of general procedures based on experimentation and

observation used to acquire scientific knowledge and explain natural phenomena. The
procedural steps in the scientific method are as follows:

1. Identify the problem, break it into small parts, and carefully plan procedures to ob- Although two different
tain information about all aspects of this problem. scientists rarely approach
the same problem in ex-
2. Collect data concerning the problem through observation and experimentation (see actly the same way, there
Figure 1.2). are always similarities in
3. Analyze and organize the data in terms of general statements (generalizations) that their approaches. These
summarize the experimental observations. similarities are the proce-
4. Suggest probable explanations for the generalizations. dures associated with the
scientific method.
5. Experiment further to prove or disprove the proposed explanations.

On occasion, a great discovery is made by accident, but the majority of scientific

discoveries are the result of the application of these five steps over long periods of
time. There are no instantaneous steps in the scientific method: applying them requires
considerable amounts of time. Even in those situations where luck is involved, it must
be remembered that chance favors the prepared mind. To take full advantage of an
accidental discovery, a person must be well trained in the procedures of the scientific
method.
The imagination, creativity, and mental attitude of a scientist using the scientific
method are always major factors in scientific success. The procedures of the scientific
method must always be enhanced with the abilities of a thinking scientist.
There are special vocabulary terms associated with the scientific method and its use.
This vocabulary includes the terms experiment, scientific fact, scientific law, scientific
hypothesis, and scientific theory. An understanding of the relationships among these terms
is the key to a real understanding of how to obtain chemical knowledge.

Experiments, Observations, and Data

The beginning step in the search for chemical knowledge is the identification of an as-
pect of a chemical system that needs study. After determining what other chemists have
already learned about the selected situation, a chemist sets up experiments for obtaining

FIGURE 1.2 Chemistry

is an experimental
science. Most
discoveries in
chemistry are made
through analysis of
data obtained from
experiments carried
out in laboratories.
(iStockphoto)
6 Chapter 1 • The Science of Chemistry

more information. An experiment is a well-defined, controlled procedure for obtaining

information about a system under study.
Performing an experiment involves making careful observations about a system
under study. An observation is a statement that describes something we see, hear, smell,
taste, or feel. Instrumentation is most often used as an aid in making observations.
Observations obtained while performing an experiment are called data. Such data may
be qualitative or quantitative, with the latter being preferred. Qualitative data is non-
numerical data consisting of general observations about a system under study. The ob-
servation that ice is less dense than liquid water is an example of qualitative information
about a system. Quantitative data is numerical data obtained by various measurements
on a system under study. The information that ice has a density of 0.9170 grams per cubic
centimeter at 0°C whereas liquid water has a density of 0.9999 grams per cubic centimeter
at the same temperature represents quantitative data. Quantitative observations are more
useful than qualitative ones because they can be compared with each other and trends or
patterns in information can be seen.
An experiment typically involves study of at least two quantities, that is, variables
that have changing values. Usually, the effect of change in one variable on another vari-
able, with all other variables held constant, is measured. For example, the effect that
temperature change has on the density of a fixed quantity of a gas, with pressure held
constant, can be measured.
A well-designed experiment is always performed under controlled conditions, that
is, the values of all variables are always noted, not just those that are changing. When
such is the case, the experimental data can be reproduced, if needed, by repeating the
experiment.

EXAMPLE 1.1 Distinguishing between Qualitative

and Quantitative Data
Classify each of the following pieces of information as qualitative data or quan-
titative data.
a. The patient’s high fever has reached 105.3°F.
b. The cricket is chirping more loudly tonight than last night.
c. The package of candy contains about 200 gummi bears.

SOLUTION
a. Quantitative data—the temperature was measured with a thermometer.
b. Qualitative data—no measurement was made.
c. Qualitative data—even though a number is specified, it is an estimated number
rather than a measured number.

Scientific Facts
The individual pieces of new information (data) about a system under study, obtained
by carrying out experimental procedures, are called scientific facts. A scientific fact
is a reproducible piece of data about some natural phenomenon that is obtained from
experimentation. Note the word reproducible in this definition. If a given experiment is
repeated under exactly the same conditions, the same results (scientific facts) should be
obtained. To be acceptable, all scientific facts must be verifiable by anyone who has the
time, means, and knowledge needed to repeat the experiments that led to their discovery.
Other documents randomly have
different content
unnecessary. The men were directed to carry the fort at the
bayonet’s point, and this was all that was said or that was necessary
to be said. The troops were then put in motion, and this was the
signal for another burst of enthusiasm from the Spaniards, several of
whom joined our ranks. The vivas now became so tremendous that
nothing else could be heard, and the leading platoons had made
some progress through the shrubberies before the order to halt was
known; owing to this a few men were killed and wounded, and those
old and tried soldiers lost their lives or were disabled in a mere
bagatelle, for the French general commanding in the fort displayed
the white flag in token of submission the moment he saw the 3rd
Division in movement towards the Retiro.
The fall of this place was of vast importance to us. In it was found
a large supply of provisions, as well as one hundred and eighty-nine
pieces of cannon, including a complete battering train. There was
likewise a great quantity of powder and ball, and some clothing, as
likewise twenty thousand stand of arms. The garrison, consisting of
three thousand veteran soldiers, were made prisoners and sent to
Lisbon, and the fort was converted into a state prison for disaffected
or suspected Spaniards.
Thus ended our operations for the present, and we had leisure to
make our observations upon Madrid, and avail ourselves of the
hospitality of such of our patrons as were disposed to show us
attention.
Madrid stands in a flat uninteresting country, devoid of scenery;
fields of tillage encompass the city up to the mud wall that
surrounds it, and the rivulet that meanders round it is in summer so
insignificant as to be barely able to supply the few baths on its
banks with a sufficiency of water; nevertheless this side of the town,
which is next the Grand Park, and the regal cottage called Casa del
Campo, is far from uninteresting, and as the Park, which abounds
with game of all sorts, was open to the British officers, we had
abundance of sport when we wished to avail ourselves of it. The
streets are wide, and the principal ones, generally speaking, clean,
but the part of the town possessing the greatest interest is the great
street called Puerto del Sol. Some centuries ago it was the eastern
gate of the town, but as the city became enlarged from time to time,
it is now, like the University College of Dublin, in the heart of the
metropolis, instead of at the verge of it. Half a dozen or so of the
principal streets empty, in a manner, their population into this
gangway, where the Exchange is held, and all public business carried
on, so that any one desirous of hearing the news of the day, the
price of the funds, or any other topic discussed, has but to station
himself here and his curiosity will be satisfied, as almost the entire of
the population of Madrid pass and repass under his eye during the
day. Merchants, dealers, higglers, charcoal venders, fellows with
lemonade on their backs, girls with pannellas of water incessantly
crying out “Quien quiere agua?” all congregate to this focus, where
everything is to be known.
Next to the Puerto del Sol must be placed the Prado or public
walk, which is decidedly the most agreeable lounge that Madrid can
boast of; but as the promenade never commences before five in the
evening, while, on the contrary, the bustle of the Puerto lasts during
the forenoon, it must have from me the precedence though not the
preference. By five o’clock, as I before said, the walk begins to be
frequented, the great heat having by this time subsided, and the
siesta over. At seven it is crowded almost to suffocation, and groups
of singers with guitars slung across their shoulders enliven the
scene. At each side of the walk are tables at which sit groups of
people enjoying the scene, but you rarely see men and women
seated at the same table; indeed, it would seem as if the men totally
shunned the company of the fairer sex, and engrossed themselves
more with the news of the day than the gaiety of the Prado. Much
has been said of the jealousy of the Spaniards, and in England it is a
generally received opinion that they are a jealous race, but I never
found them such—quite the contrary. In Madrid a married woman
may go to any house she pleases, or where and with whom she
wishes. They might have been a different people when Spanish
romances and Spanish plays—old ones, I mean—were written, but if
the manners and habits of the people were then truly narrated, I can
with truth say that no nation in the world has undergone a more
wholesome, thorough, and radical reform than Spain.
 In some instances we experienced much hospitality from the
people, but those occurrences were rare; for the Spaniards are
naturally a lofty and distant people, and most unquestionably our
officers did not endeavour by any act on their part to do away with
this reserve, and in fact after a sojourn of nearly three months in the
Spanish capital they knew nearly as little of its inhabitants as they
did of the citizens of Pekin. This is a fatal error, and I fear one that it
will be difficult to counteract, for it is not easy to correct national
habits and national prejudices; but if the officers of the British army
were to reflect upon the effect their conduct must have on the
people of a different nation, and if they could be made to
understand how different, how far different, their reception in
foreign countries would be if they unbent themselves a little, and
conformed themselves to the modes of those nations amongst
whom they were sent by their sovereign, they would at once come
to the resolution of changing their tone, and they would by so doing
get themselves not only respected and regarded, but the British
nation as much beloved as it is respected.
While we thus continued to pass our time in gaiety and idleness,
other divisions of the army had moved onwards towards Burgos,
which was strongly held by a chosen garrison under the command of
an experienced and skilful general of the name of Dubreton.
Meanwhile we continued at Madrid, and either enjoying the
amusement of the theatres, the luxuries of the hotel called El Fuente
d'Oro, the hospitality of the good citizens, or the gay but noisy
scenes at the Calle de Baimos, we passed our time as agreeably as
men could do, considering the scanty amount of pay which was
issued to us; for from the difficulty of getting a supply of animals
sufficient to bring up specie from Lisbon, where there was an
abundance, the army was at this period five months in arrear of pay,
and except for the commissaries and some paymasters who cashed
our bills (at seven shillings the dollar!) many of us would have been
in a sad plight. Those who were enabled to raise money at this
enormous percentage got on well enough, but others, who were
limited in their resources, were obliged, per force, to be lookers-on
at all that was passing.
 An event was now about to take place that engrossed much of the
conversation of all Madrid, and created amongst the army no little
curiosity. It was the condemnation to death, by the garrotte, of a
Spanish priest named Diego Lopez. This ill-fated man, it appears,
had been, for some time previously to his arrest, in the pay of King
Joseph; he acted as a spy, and gave circumstantial information of all
that was passing in our army. Accurately acquainted with his
proceedings, the police agents narrowly watched his motions. For
some days he had been missing from his lodgings in the Calle de
Barrio Nuevo. No inquiry was made after him by the police, they
being too conversant in their calling to raise any suspicion in his
breast by a step that they knew would be abortive; but his return
was eagerly looked for, carefully watched, and his apprehension
made more certain. At length he did return.
It was midnight when he reached the barrier at the Toledo gate,
where a police agent was stationed. He was asked but few questions
and was allowed to pass, and mounted as he was on a jaded horse,
fatigued by a long journey, it was not difficult for the agent to keep
near enough to him to track him unobserved to his dwelling. The
trampling of his horse was soon recognised by an old woman who
kept watch for his return. A light was placed at the window as a
beacon that all was safe within, and he was about to dismount when
he was seized by three police agents who hurried him away to the
bureau of the director, while another entered his house for the
purpose of seizing his papers. He underwent an immediate
examination, but nothing could be elicited from him to criminate
himself, and no papers, excepting commonplace ones, were found at
his lodgings. He was then stripped of his clothes, and another suit
given him in their stead. Every part of his dress was examined, the
linings carefully parted, his clothes in fact cut into shreds, when at
last, after a scrutiny of an hour, was found, folded up in a button,
covered with cloth, which corresponded with the rest, a note from
King Joseph to some person in Madrid, briefly detailing the
information he had received from Lopez, and asking his advice as to
the plans to be pursued.
 No more was required, or indeed necessary, to confirm his guilt,
and the next day he was, by the orders of Don Carlos de España,
Governor of Madrid, hurried before a military tribunal summoned
together to try him. The only evidence brought forward against him
was the concealed note; and nothing could induce him to betray the
name of his confederate. The trial was, therefore, of but short
duration, and when called upon by the president to make his
defence, he calmly stood forward, and looking his judges full in the
face, prepared to address them.
Every eye was fixed upon him, and it would be difficult to look
upon a man of a more imposing figure. In stature he was about five
feet eleven inches, and his make was in proportion to his height; his
lank black hair lay flat on his forehead, and hung behind over the
cape of his coat in loose but neglected masses; his face bore the
marks of care, and his fine dark eye was sunk and wan—he was, in
short, the outline of a once fine, but now broken-down man. Having
wiped away the drops of sweat that covered his forehead, caused by
the heat of the weather, the crowded state of the court, and, no
doubt, the agitation of his mind, he spoke as follows:—
“It is now something more than two years since I first attached
myself to the service of His Majesty King Joseph: during that period
I have served him faithfully, and with the utmost diligence. I have
rendered him some service, and he will be, I doubt not, sorry when
he learns my fate. I have said that I served His Majesty faithfully:
the expression is too weak—I but lived for him; and the only regret I
feel in now laying down my life, while endeavouring to promote his
interests, is, that I have not been able to succeed in this, my last
mission, which is the only one I ever failed in. Gentlemen, I have
done.” He then bowed to the court, and resumed his former place.
During the delivery of this short but impressive speech the court
and spectators were silent. When it was concluded, a buzz of
admiration and pity burst forth from almost every person present,
and there were many who would, if they dared, have expressed their
sentiments more fully, but the strong guard which occupied the hall
was sufficient to maintain order; and though no lives were lost,
many arrests took place. When order was restored, the chief of
police conducted the prisoner, under a strong escort, back to his
dungeon; and the court being cleared, the president asked the
opinion of the members as to the guilt of Lopez. They were
unanimous—indeed there could be but one opinion, and by that his
life became the forfeit. The sentence pronounced against him was,
that he should suffer death by strangulation on the following day at
two o’clock; and the Plaza Mayor, or Great Square, where a vast
market is daily held, was the spot decided upon as most fitting for
the execution.
It was thought necessary to augment some of the British Guards
in the neighbourhood of the Plaza; and the barrack occupied by the
88th being close to it, I, as the next subaltern for duty, was ordered
to repair there to take charge of thirty soldiers, lest any rioting
should take place during the night. It was five o’clock in the
afternoon when I reached the square on my way to the barrack. It
was already much crowded with people of all classes; some led by
curiosity to see if any, and what, preparations had been made
towards erecting the platform upon which the garrotte was to be
fixed; others bargaining for and cheapening seats either at the
windows of the shopkeepers, or on the tops of the market stalls;
others calling out a sort of programme of the offences, etc., for
which Lopez was to suffer; and, though last not least in the list, a
host of beggars, who assailed the bystanders with entreaties for
charity in the name of the soul about to depart!
The arrival of several carts carrying planks for the formation of the
platform, the presence of a large body of police, and the appearance
of the workmen entering the square, dissipated anything like
apprehension of a disappointment. This circumstance, or
announcement, had an instant and powerful effect on the price of
seats—the same as the intelligence of a great victory would have on
the funds in London. “Omnium was above par,” and “much business
was effected.” Every person seemed pleased with the bargain he had
made, and I myself was among the number. I paid, by way of
deposit, half a dollar to ensure my place, the remaining half to be
handed down the following morning. All being settled, so far as
related to myself, I left the square to look after my guard. I found all
quiet in the quarters of our barrack, and towards nightfall I again
returned to the Plaza. It was quite deserted except by the workmen,
who were busily employed in marking out and completing the rude
platform for the scaffold, in which they had made considerable
progress. Its height from the ground was about four feet; the square
or area was fourteen by twenty; and from the quantity of materials,
and their grossness, it might be supposed that it was meant to
sustain, at one and the same moment, half the population of Madrid.
But it yet wanted that terrible instrument of death—the iron clasp—
to complete its structure.
It was three o’clock before I lay down to rest, but I slept little. The
din of hammers and the creaking of waggons put sleep out of the
question. I took up a volume of Gil Blas and attempted to read and
laugh, but in vain: I could do neither the one nor the other—the
garrotte was still in perspective, and nothing could banish it from my
thoughts. At length the stillness which prevailed terribly told that all
was prepared, and I went once more to the spot. I found it deserted
by the workmen, who had done their part, and these preparations
now wanted nothing to complete them but the presence of the man
who was to die by the pressure of the clasp, which hung from a
beam of wood placed in the centre of the platform.
I have before described the height and dimensions of this
platform; at each side of it was a flight of four steps—one for the
criminal, the other for the two executioners. In the centre was a
beam, to which was attached a chair or stool; through the beam a
clasp was introduced, and behind was a screw, or sort of vice, which
at one turn crushes the neck. Having so far satisfied my curiosity, I
once more returned to my post, and waited with impatience for the
coming of the hour destined for the arrival of the priest. So early as
ten o’clock the square was thronged with Spanish troops, and the
platform upon which the scaffold stood surrounded by a strong
guard. Vast multitudes already began to congregate towards the
spot, in order to take possession of the places they had paid for, or
to secure those which would give them an opportunity of witnessing
the execution. All business was at a standstill, and every idea,
except that connected with the coming event, seemed to be extinct.
By mid-day the square, the market-sheds in its centre, and the
houses which formed it, were filled nearly to suffocation; and the
other streets leading from the prison to the Plaza were thronged
with people of all ranks. At length the shouts raised in the streets
nearest the prison announced the removal of the criminal, and the
huzzas from that quarter were rapidly taken up as they passed
onward towards the square: they increased by degrees, and, like a
vast torrent which is formed by tributary streams, each stream
contributed its quota to the current, until at length it reached the
vast vortex, the Plaza Mayor. At this place the shouts were so
deafening that for some minutes it was impossible to ask a question,
much less hear one. At length the head of the cavalcade was in
sight, and a death-like silence followed the tumult that had preceded
it. The soldiers stationed in the square, as also those that
surrounded the platform, resumed their firelocks; the words “Las
armas a l’ombro” was quickly obeyed, and the entire procession was
soon within the precincts of the Plaza.
The convict, Lopez, dressed in black, with a loose cloak covering
his shoulders, was on horseback, attended by two priests, also
mounted, one at each side of him. He wore a hat of large
dimensions turned up in the front, and his demeanour was the same
as at his trial—firm, collected, and calm. Arrived at the foot of the
scaffold he dismounted with ease, and throwing a rapid glance, first
at the vast crowd and then at the garrotte itself, he ascended the
flight of steps leading to it. The two priests followed but did not
speak to him, his wish being that they should not. He then, without
flurry or agitation, took off his hat and cloak, and handed them to
the assistant executioner, to whom he said something. He wished to
address the people, but was prevented by the officer commanding
the Spanish troops. He bowed obedience, and instantly took his seat
upon the stool under the clasp. His arms were then bound with
cords, and the iron collar passed through the stake and placed upon
his throat. This scene had a strong effect upon the multitude: the
quiet but determined self-possession of the man, his extraordinary
resolution, devoid of any bravado, was enough to check any
indecent ebullition of patriotism; but the sight of that terrible collar
seemed to awaken feelings, and to call forth that sympathy which, a
few moments before, was nowhere to be found. Women who, to
their shame be it told, waved their handkerchiefs with joy upon his
arrival at the scaffold, now might be seen covering their eyes to hide
from their view the horrid sight, or to wipe away the tears that
traced their cheeks.
All was now in readiness: the executioner stood behind, holding
the screw with both hands; at each side was a confessor, and behind
one was the assistant executioner, with a square piece of cloth in his
hand; one of the priests read from a book, while the other held the
hand of Lopez. This ceremony occupied but a few moments; and
when the priest had finished reading he stooped down to kiss the
cheek of the ill-fated Lopez. He then closed the book; the man
behind him threw the cloth over the culprit’s face; the executioner
turned the screw—and Lopez was dead! The two priests hurried
down the steps, and, in their confusion and fright, ran headlong
under the horses of the cavalry which were posted round the
scaffold. One of them, a corpulent man—as indeed most priests are
—was dreadfully lacerated, but the other escaped uninjured.
During the entire of this scene the vast crowd preserved the most
profound silence; but the sight they had just witnessed was
succeeded by another of a more disgusting nature. The assistant
executioner removed the cloth from the face of the dead man: it was
perfectly black; the eyeballs were forced from their sockets; the
throat was pressed quite flat, and the mouth, with the tongue
hanging down on the chin, was dragged under the right ear.
The troops then defiled out of the square, the multitude
dispersed, and by six o’clock in the evening not more than twenty
persons were near the scaffold upon which the dead priest was still
bound. The body was at length put into a cart, the platform was
removed, and the spot which so short a time before was the theatre
of this tragedy now bore no evidence of the horrid scene that had
been acted upon it.
 CHAPTER XXIII

Arrests at Madrid—Advantages of speaking French—Seizure of Don Saturio de

Padilla by the police—The author effects his liberation—A bull day at Madrid—
Private theatricals—French and English soldiers—Blowing up the Retiro—
Retreat from Madrid—A pig hunt.

The execution of the priest Lopez, narrated in the last chapter,

was followed by many arrests. In eight days no fewer than one
hundred and forty-nine persons were thrown into prison; some on
good grounds, others on trivial circumstances, and many on the
charge alone of having held employment under the late government.
The consequence of this ill-judged severity was that all those who
escaped arrest in the first burst of tyranny practised by the local
authorities fled from Madrid, and scarcely a family was to be found
who had not to lament the loss of some individual belonging to it,
either by flight or imprisonment. Had the siege of Burgos been
successful, and the French troops driven to Pampeluna, which would
have been the natural result, a tragical scene would have been
enacted, not only at Madrid, but throughout the whole of Spain. Yet
all the time nothing but forgiveness for the past and promises for the
future were to be heard of—except the daily and nightly
imprisonments that took place!
Two evenings after the execution of Lopez I met a number of
Spaniards at the house of my padron, Don Miguel de Inza, who had
himself been an engineer in the employment of the late King Charles
IV.; different topics, as a matter of course, were discussed—the
sieges of Rodrigo and Badajoz, the battle of Salamanca, and the
triumphant entry of our troops into the capital of Spain. Most of the
party seemed well inclined towards us, and towards the king we
proclaimed, Ferdinand VII.; but there was little confidence amongst
the party themselves, and there was some who would, if they dared,
have spoken in favour of the French.
One old Donna in particular was rather severe in her observations
on the dress of the British officers, and remarked that not one in
fifty of them could speak French. Whether it was that she was
piqued at my paying much attention to a lady who sat near her, or
that she wished to display her wit at my expense, I being nearer to
her than any other Englishman, I can’t say, but she turned round
and asked if I spoke the French language. I replied that I
understood it tolerably, but that I spoke it but indifferently. “I
thought so,” was her reply; “I knew by that young fellow’s
appearance he was a booby (sot),” said she, addressing one of her
friends. This she spoke in the very worst French that ever came from
the mouth of a Bastan peasant. I was determined to have my
revenge. I mustered up all my resolution, made a rapid repasser of
all I had ever learned of French grammar, and took the first
opportunity that presented itself to attack her. In a word, I
completely out-talked her, out-spoke her, and out-crowed her in the
estimation of her friends; and she who had been so short a time
before the “leader of the opposition,” was mum for the remainder of
the evening.
Harmony was once more restored, and we were beginning to
forget the bickerings that party feeling had introduced amongst us,
when a violent knocking at the door from the street threw the
company into consternation and dismay. Every one looked
confounded; some were for barring the door, others wished to
escape; but this was easier said than done, for in front stood the
police agents (for it was them and none other), and in the rear—if
rear it could be called—was nothing but a pile of buildings, to the full
as lofty as the house we inhabited. “What is to be done?” was a
demand much easier made than answered; though in fact the
proper and only reply to be made was, “Open the door, and see who
the gentlemen are looking after.” Several persons, who had nothing
to dread, loudly called out for this proceeding, but it was far from
palatable to the majority of the company. It was idle, however, to
talk, and, in fine, the massive door was heard to creak on its rusty
hinges. At the same moment six ill-looking fellows entered the
saloon, and having taken a hasty but scrutinising survey of the
company, seized the son-in-law of my patron and rudely carried him
away.
Saturio de Padilla was the name of this gentleman, and his only
crime was that of holding the situation of Juiz de Fora, under the
government of King Joseph. Nothing could be more unjust or
impolitic than this arrest: it was, however, idle to reason so with the
police agents; Saturio was taken off to the Fort of La China and
thrown into a dungeon, without bed or any other comfort which a
gentleman of his rank might have expected. At an early hour the
following morning I was awoke by his father-in-law, the venerable
Don Miguel de Inza; he begged of me to allow my servant to convey
some bedding to him, which I not only consented to do, but, at the
entreaties of his daughter, Donna Maria Ignatia de Inza (whose
sister was married to Padilla, and who, by the way, was one of the
most beautiful women in Madrid), went to the prison myself. All
entreaties to allow us to see the prisoner were in vain, and had it
not been for the kindness of Colonel Manners of the 74th, who was
the Governor of the Fort, we should not have been allowed to send
even a change of linen to this gentleman.
A week passed away, and no tidings were heard of Padilla; and his
friends, fearing that he might be made away with, became
extremely uneasy. Without mentioning my intention, I waited upon
Colonel Manners, who was much interested in his behalf when I told
him the circumstances; and, owing to his intercession, I had the
happiness of seeing my friend, Don Saturio, at liberty the day but
one following. I need scarcely say that this exploit of mine, for so my
Spanish friends termed it, raised me considerably in the estimation
of the ladies, and all of them, my old formidable antagonist not
excepted, were lavish in their praises of my conduct. Nothing but
balls, concerts, and parties to the theatre and the Prado were
thought of, until the announcement in the newspapers, and the
never-ceasing cries of affiche venders in the streets, that the bull-
fights were to take place, put a stop to all thoughts on any other but
this, to a Spaniard at least, momentous affair.
This national amusement is of so old a standing, and has been so
often related in novels and romances, that a description of it may, in
the present day, be thought ill-timed. The day’s fighting which I
witnessed was considered specially good, and a tremendous day’s
sport it was. Nine bulls were killed, seven horses shared the same
fate, and one of the fighters was dreadfully injured. More than
twenty people were hurt by the last bull, who leaped the barriers
and got among the audience, but fortunately, and indeed
miraculously, no person was killed. Thus the “casualties” of the day
may be summed up as follows:—Killed, nine bulls, seven horses:
total, sixteen; wounded, twenty-three men and women: grand total
of killed and wounded, thirty-nine.
The bull-fights once over, the execution of the Priest Lopez
forgotten, and the probability of our soon leaving Madrid taking
place, were not things to be passed over lightly by the ladies of that
city; and no matter what may be said or written of their being “a
grave people,” I saw, during my sojourn amongst them, no
symptoms of “gravity,” except when they thought we were about to
leave their capital. It was palpably evident that something should be
done to drive away the gloom that had in a great measure already
begun to take a fast hold of our friends; and the officers of the Light
Division, aided by some of the other regiments in the garrison,
resolved to treat the inhabitants with a specimen of their dramatic
powers. The play selected was the Revenge, and “Zanga” was well
personated by Captain Kent of the Rifles; but whether it was that the
other characters were ill cast, or that the tragedy was too dull for
the Spaniards to relish, it is a positive fact that, long before the
second act was ended, the audience were heartily tired of the play;
and, notwithstanding the fine acting of Kent, the play would have
never been allowed to proceed had not the performers been British
officers, and the object the relief of the poor of the capital. The
Mayor of Garrett followed, and this amusing farce was a set-off
against the Revenge, and put the audience quite at ease; for from
the moment “Zanga” (or El Preto, as they styled him) appeared,
there was one universal buzz of disapprobation. It is not possible for
me to say why they were so averse to the play; it might have been
their dislike to the Moors; but be this as it may, I would advise my
friends in the army never to try the same play before a Madrid
audience—that is, which is a hundred to one, should they ever have
the same opportunity we had. This was the first and last play ever
attempted by us to be got up at Madrid.
The season was on the wane, summer was almost over, and it was
well known that Lord Wellington meditated an attack on the town of
Burgos; nevertheless all was tranquillity and gaiety with the troops
at Madrid, and many of the sick and wounded from Salamanca
reached us. Amongst the number was my friend and companion,
Frederick Meade of the 88th. He had been badly wounded in the
action of the 22nd, and with his arm in a sling, his wounds still
unhealed, and his frame worn down by fatigue and exhaustion, his
commanding officer was surprised to see him again so soon with his
regiment; but various rumours were afloat as to the advance of the
Madrid army upon Burgos, and Meade was not the kind of person
likely to be absent from his corps when anything like active service
was to be performed by it. Endowed with qualities which few young
men in the army could boast of, he soon made his way into the very
best society that the capital of Spain could be said to possess. A
finished gentleman in the fullest acceptation of the word; young,
handsome, speaking the Castilian language well, the French fluently,
a first-rate musician, endowed by nature with a fine voice, which had
been well cultivated, it is not surprising that he soon became a
general favourite. In a word, wherever he went he was the magnet
of attraction, and when we quitted Madrid it would have required a
train of vehicles much more numerous than would have suited our
order of march to convey those ladies who were, and would like to
be more closely, attached to him. Poor fellow! he was greatly to
blame, but it was not his fault; if the ladies of Madrid liked his face,
or his voice, how could he help that? My man, Dan Carsons—and
here I must say a word of apology to my friend Meade for coupling
their names together—told me when we were on the eve of quitting
Madrid, “that he (Carsons) didn’t know how the devil he could get
away at-all-at-all, without taking three women, besides his wife Nelly
with him.”
So far all went on gaily at Madrid; but Lord Wellington was deeply
occupied with matters of a different nature, although he joined in
the amusements that took place. The capture of Burgos was what
he aimed at, and his stay at Madrid was but a cloak to cover his real
intentions. On the 1st of September he quitted the capital, and took
upon himself the direction of that part of the army which he had
decided was to march upon Burgos. He crossed the Douro on the
6th, and arrived at Valladolid on the same day, and from thence he
followed the enemy on their retreat to Burgos. On the 16th he was,
with a portion of his army, before that fortress, which he soon
invested and laid siege to. The result of that siege, its failure, and
the circumstances which led to it, have nothing to do with my
adventures; they are the property of Colonel Napier—the only writer
that, I believe, can be held up as a standard to refer to on the
Peninsular War.
I have to bring forward to the public eye, and the eye of posterity,
too, the character of the Peninsular soldiers, whether they be shown
up as men who were able to conquer the choicest legions of France,
or as men who would sell the most essential part of their dress for a
glass of brandy. No matter; they would have done both. Perfection is
nowhere to be found; and if the British soldier equalled the
Frenchman in habits of sobriety and caution, there could be no
possible comparison between them; but the retreat from Madrid and
Burgos, which I am about to relate, will give the reader a clearer
insight into what I have just now written: and I will here say, without
the least fear of contradiction, that the French soldier as far
surpasses the British soldier in the essential qualities requisite for
general operations, as the latter excels the Frenchman in a pitched
battle. Let two armies of the two nations be placed in circumstances
the same, in advance or retreat. The supply of provisions may be
scanty or abundant—no matter which; both armies, for argument
sake, we will say, are placed in the same position as to food. It may
be asked what, then, is the great difference between the soldiers of
two nations who have been opposed to each other for so many
campaigns, and who ought to have profited by the better system
followed by either? It is this: the British soldier is not so moderate in
his appetites as his neighbour, and he wants the head, which the
other possesses, to control him. Give to a British regiment ten days',
nay five days' bread at a time, and, as may be necessary, five days'
rations of spirits; at the end of the second day—not the fifth, to
which period it ought to last—what quantity will be forthcoming? Not
one half ounce of bread, or half pint of spirits—half pint did I say!
not one thimbleful, nay, less than that, not one drop! Should the
ration be limited to bread, and in all armies, even the most
temperate, a large advance of spirits ought to be avoided, the
danger would be the same in any British army, because the soldiers
would barter their bread for spirits or wine, and would become quite
as inefficient, as if they had been supplied with both by our
commissaries. Added to this, what means had the soldiers of the
Peninsular army to compete with the French in celerity of cooking?
None. The latter carried their cooking utensils on their backs, while
the camp-kettles for our troops were often leagues distant when the
meat arrived. This was the state of our army when the retreat from
Burgos on the one side, and Madrid on the other, commenced, and it
will be seen in the following pages how that retreat was conducted,
and how the subordinate officers of the army were blamed for not
performing a duty which was impossible; and for this reason was it
impossible, that the means did not rest with them. Our system was
altogether faulty, and no exertions of the junior, or even senior,
officers could remedy it. Lord Wellington at length discovered this,
and in his next campaign profited by the example which the enemy
showed him, and which ought to have been followed long before.
On the 20th of October, 1812, the siege of Burgos was raised, and
the troops before it retired towards the Douro, while the portion of
the army which occupied Madrid made arrangements to join them
when the proper time should arrive. Accordingly, the fort of La China
was mined, the battering train found there removed, and all the
necessary arrangements for retreat were completed. On the 31st of
October the army quitted Madrid, and bivouacked in the Royal Park
near the palace.
 The conflagration of La China continued all night, and story after
story fell in until it became a heap of ruins. The following day, the
1st of November, the advance of the French entered Madrid, and on
that day our army commenced its retreat upon Rodrigo and
Portugal. On the side of Burgos matters were in the same state. The
attack against the citadel, having failed, in default of means to carry
it on, the army before it broke up on the 20th of October, and by the
admirable arrangements of Lord Wellington, who took the command
in person, gained two marches on the enemy before he was aware
of it. Nevertheless a vigorous pursuit took place, and the Burgos
army was closely pressed, until it reached the heights of San
Christoval, where it was joined by the troops that had occupied
Madrid.
Up to this time no serious disaster had occurred, although from
the heavy rains that had fallen, which rendered the roads nearly
impassable, and the scanty supply of rations which the troops
received, it was feared that, if Soult pressed on vigorously, our army
would shortly become much disorganised; but the Marshal took six
days, that is to say, from the 10th to the 16th of November, to
examine the ground occupied by the British General. On the 14th,
our army was in battle array close to the spot where we had fought
the battle of Salamanca the July before, but Soult, although at the
head of 90,000 soldiers, and two hundred pieces of cannon, declined
the offer, and confined his operations to the sending a brigade or
two on the line of our communication with Rodrigo. On the 17th,
Lord Wellington commenced his march for the frontiers of Portugal,
and from that moment he was closely pursued by Marshal Soult. The
rain fell in torrents, almost without any intermission; the roads could
no longer be so called, they were perfect quagmires; the small
streams became rivers, and the rivers were scarcely fordable at any
point. In some instances the soldiers were obliged to carry their
ammunition boxes strapped on their shoulders to preserve them,
while passing a ford which on our advance was barely ankle deep.
The baggage and camp-kettles had left us; the former we never saw
until we reached Rodrigo, and the latter rarely reached us until two
o’clock in the morning, when the men, from fatigue, could make but
little use of them. The wretched cattle had to be slaughtered, as our
rations seldom arrived at their destination before the camp-kettles,
and when both arrived, there was not one fire in our bivouac
sufficient to boil a mess.
Officers as well as soldiers had no covering except the canopy of
heaven; we had not one tent, and the army never slept in a village.
We thus lay in the open country; our clothes saturated with rain, half
the men and officers without shoes, nothing to eat, or, at all events,
no means of cooking it. What then could be much worse than the
situation in which the army was placed? But this was not the worst,
because, from the nature of the retreat, and the pursuit, neither the
cavalry nor artillery horses could be supplied with forage. The retreat
each day generally began at four in the morning, in the dead dark of
night; towards eight the army had gained perhaps six miles',
perhaps not five, start of the enemy. At ten they were at our heels.
The rear, as a matter of necessity, for the preservation of the whole,
was then obliged to face about and show a front, to enable the
remainder to proceed on their retreat. The position taken up was, as
a matter of course, according to the urgency of the moment,
sometimes in a vast tract of ploughed land, where the troops were
drawn up ankle deep in mud. In this position, those who were not
fighting were obliged to remain, in their tattered uniforms, worn to
rags after two years' service, scarcely a good pair of shoes or
trousers on any, and the greater part without the former. The ague
had also attacked the bulk of the army, and as the soldiers picked up
the acorns that fell from the oak trees (these, by the way, are the
property of the pigs in Spain, but the pigs, fortunately for
themselves, had not yet appeared in the woods we now traversed),
many were unable to eat them, so much were they enfeebled by the
disorder.
Yet under all these privations, the soldiers, at least the
“Connaught Rangers,” never lost their gaiety. Without shoes they
fancied themselves “at home,” and there were few, I believe, who
would not have wished themselves there in reality. Without food
they were nearly at home, and without a good coat to their backs
equally so! My man, Dan Carsons, came up to me, and with a broad
grin said, “By gor, Sir, this same place” (at the time we were, and
had been for hours before, standing in a wet ploughed field) “puts
me greatly in mind iv Madrid.”—“Of Madrid! why, Dan, no two places
can be more unlike.”—“By Jasus, Sir, the’re as like as two paise, only
that we want the houses, and the fires, and the mate, and the
dhrink, and the women! But, excepting that, don’t the jaws iv the
boys with the ague, when they rattle so, put your honour greatly in
mind iv the castonetts?” Dan’s joke was not quite so palatable as it
might have proved at a more fitting opportunity, or in a more fitting
place, for at that moment I felt a queer sort of motion about my own
jaws, which in less than an hour proved itself to be a confirmed
attack of ague. On this night the rain never ceased; the rations could
not be cooked, having arrived too late, and the army had no food
except biscuit.
What I have related took place on the 16th. The following day
matters became worse, the rain continued to come down in torrents,
and in the passage of one river, out of ten that we forded, a woman
and three children were lost, as likewise some baggage mules, which
the women of the army, in defiance of the order against it, still
contrived to smuggle into the line of retreat. The rations arrived alive
(I mean the meat), as usual after midnight, but no kettles reached
us for an hour after the poor famished brutes had been knocked on
the head. Each man obtained his portion of the quivering flesh, but
before any fires could be re-lighted, the order for march arrived, and
the men received their meat dripping with water, but little, if
anything, warmer than when it was delivered over to them by the
butcher. The soldiers drenched with wet, greatly fatigued, nearly
naked, and more than half asleep, were obliged either to throw
away the meat, or put it with their biscuit into their haversacks,
which from constant use, without any means of cleaning them, more
resembled a beggarman’s wallet than any part of the appointments
of a soldier. In a short time the wet meat completely destroyed the
bread, which became perfect paste, and the blood which oozed from
the undressed beef, little better than carrion, gave so bad a taste to
the bread that many could not eat it. Those who did were in general
attacked with violent pains in their bowels, and the want of salt
brought on dysentery. A number of cavalry and artillery horses died
on this night, and fatigue and sickness had already obliged several
men and officers to remain behind, so that our ranks were now
beginning to show that we had commenced, in downright earnest, a
most calamitous retreat.
Lord Wellington wished for a battle, if he could fight one on
advantageous terms, before his army became disorganised; but this
was not to the interest of the French army; and the Duke of
Dalmatia, who could at any time make choice of his own field from
his vast superiority in horsemen, was too experienced a tactician to
be led into so fatal an error as that of fighting. Experience had
shown him that a retreat, such as the one I am describing, would
cost him little trouble to inflict as great a loss upon our army as if he
gained the advantage in a battle, and that it would be a bloodless
victory to him; whereas, if a general action took place, and the
entire of the two armies were thrown into the fight, he could not
expect to get off with a loss of less than six or eight thousand men,
with the chance, perhaps the probability, of being defeated.
No Marshal in the French army knew the good and the bad
qualities of the soldiers he now followed better, few so well, as Soult.
He had pursued them to Corunna, and fought them at Albuera.
Knowing then, as he did, their imperfection in retreat, and their
superlative perfection in a pitched battle, it would have been strange
had he risked by a battle, what it was as clear as the noon-day he
would gain without one, namely, the loss to us of several thousand
men and horses, who, if they did not fall into his hands, or die on
the retreat, were sure to be lost to our ranks in consequence of its
effects. The game was in his hands, and if he lost it by bad play, the
fault would be his, and his only. He did not do so, but played a safe
game, and when battle was offered him near Salamanca, he
reneged. He finessed well, and though he did not drive us before
him at the point of the bayonet, his flank movement on the Rodrigo
line, by a side wipe, effected his purpose just as well for him.
A circumstance occurred on this day that so strongly marks the
difference between the British soldiers and the soldiers of any other
nation on such a retreat as we were engaged in, that I cannot avoid
noticing it. I have already said that we had no means of cooking our
meat, and that the soldiers and officers, for all shared the same
privations alike, carried their meat raw, or nearly raw; consequently
it was not an additional supply of “raw material” that we so much
needed as the means of dressing what we had. Nevertheless,
towards noon, while a portion of the army was engaged in a warm
skirmish with the enemy’s advance, which lay through a vast forest
of oak, some hundreds of swine, nearly in a wild state, were
discovered feeding upon the acorns which had fallen from the trees
the autumn before. No flag of truce ever sent from the advance post
of one army to the advance of another had a more decisive effect.
Our soldiers immediately opened a murderous fire upon the pigs,
who suffered severely on the occasion, being closely pursued on the
route, which they followed with that stupid—and for them, on this
occasion, fatal—pertinacity which the pig tribe are so proverbial for,
namely, going to the rear when they ought to go straight forward.
Had this herd of swine deviated from the old beaten track of pigs in
general—had they, in short, gone forward instead of rearward—
many valuable lives, in the eyes of the owners at least, would have
been saved, because they would have soon reached the French
advance, and our fellows, once more placed vis à vis with the
riflemen of the grande nation, would have left off the pursuit—if for
nothing else but to save their bacon! This rencontre, one of the most
curious that came within my knowledge during my Peninsular
campaigns, or indeed during my sojourn in this world, led to
consequences the most comic as well as tragic. Colonel O‘Shea, who
commanded the cavalry of the French advance ordered to support
the tirailleurs, was astounded when he saw the direction which the
British fire took. He could not be mistaken; the fire of the advance of
his own soldiers had slackened—ceased. It immediately occurred to
him that some corps must have got in rear of our advance, and he
galloped up to the tirailleurs to ascertain the real state of affairs. He
was soon undeceived; but when he learned the cause of the
retrograde movement on the part of our men, he could not avoid—
and who could?—laughing heartily.
 Meanwhile the discomfited and routed pigs fled, and soon got out
of the clutches of the advanced guard. The bulk of the fugitives took
the road to their rights but here they were again wrong. Had those
ill-fated animals known anything of the “rules of the road,” they
would have kept to the left. On the right they were encountered by
a nearly famished brigade that had received no rations at all in the
preceding twenty-four hours; and when they were, as has been
seen, so roughly handled by men whose haversacks were amply
stocked with meat, what chance had they—I ask the question
fearlessly—of any mercy from a body of famished, ferocious fellows?
The question I have just put is easily answered. They had none to
expect, and none did they receive. Neither age nor sex was spared;
and out of this fine herd of swine, scarcely one in one hundred
escaped unhurt. No victory was ever more complete; and the
grunting and squeaking of the wounded pigs and hogs throughout
the forest was a sad contrast with the merriment of the soldiers,
who toasted, on the points of their bayonets—intended for other and
more noble game—the mangled fragments of their former
companions.
Day was drawing to its close, and the 3rd Division, commanded by
Sir Edward Pakenham, was about to retire from the ground it had
held during several hours in face of the enemy, when a warm fire of
musketry on our left led us to suppose we were outflanked. The
officers of the staff galloped in the direction from whence the firing
proceeded. Sir Edward did the same, but it was some time before
they reached the scene of action. In the meantime the different
regiments were so arranged as to be ready either to advance or
retreat, as circumstances might require; and the French corps in our
front made demonstrations of a similar kind. In this state of
suspense we remained for nearly an hour, when at last Sir Edward
returned, with the news that the firing was caused by a fresh attack
on the pigs that had escaped the first brunt of the attack against
them. He ordered the different advance posts to be placed, which he
superintended in person; the soldiers then prepared to fell timber for
fires, and some ran to an uninhabited village—they were all
uninhabited on the line of our march for that matter—for the
purpose of getting dry wood, that is to say, the doors and roofs of
the houses, to enable us to light up the green timber, which was the
only fuel we could command. The soldiers and officers of all ranks
were nearly exhausted from cold and wet; and had the village in
question belonged to the king of England, much less to a parcel of
Spanish peasants, it would have shared the same fate as the one in
question.
The party from the village soon arrived, some bringing doors,
others articles of different kinds of household furniture, such as
chairs, tables, and bedsteads; but nothing in the shape of food was
to be found. No doubt, had it been day, something might be got at,
but warmth was what we stood in need of more than food. Several
of us still carried the parboiled beef of the night before, and, when
the fires were lighted, we made a shift to roast it either on our
swords, bayonets, or bits of sticks, which we formed into respectable
skewers. This operation finished, the fire around which each group
sat or stood, in order of companies, their arms regularly piled behind
them, was replenished with green and dry timber, according to our
supply of each or both. The soldiers then placed their knapsacks
round the outer part of the circle, and, having given the best place
to their officers inside the circle, all lay down together, or at their
own choice, with their feet towards the heat of the fire. Some
arranged in this manner, others did not lie down at all; and those
who had captured a door, propped it up as a defence against the
rains and winds. There were others who got a blanket and fixed it
with branches of trees and stones against some uneven spot, and
lay down in the mud. It was, in fact, all mud and wet; and in
whatever manner we accommodated ourselves, according to
circumstances, whether walking, standing, or sleeping, it was of little
difference. No matter what mood any of us might have been
disposed to follow, the imperative had the call; and, as has been
seen, we could not decline it. Verbum sat sapienti.
Thus ended the operations of this day; officers and soldiers were
placed exactly, or nearly, as I have described. Many were so feeble
as not to be capable of the least exertion; others, on the contrary,
were hale and stout, and I myself was amongst the number of the
latter. I had lain some time with my feet near the fire, but I dreaded
an attack of ague, and I walked about to keep my body warm, which
was but thinly clad. I had not been long on my legs, and I was at
the moment standing near the small tent where Sir Edward
Pakenham lay in his wet clothes, when a rush of pigs—the remnant,
I suppose, of those that had escaped in the day—disorganised
several piles of arms. The soldiers stood up, and every man seized
his firelock. A Portuguese regiment near us, thinking the enemy
were at their heels, began to fire right and left, without knowing
what they fired at. Sir Edward Pakenham ran out of his tent, and
while in the act of mounting his horse and giving directions to his
orderly dragoon, the man was shot dead by the side of the General.
It required some time before the confusion that prevailed could be
remedied; but the soldiers never for a moment lost their presence of
mind, and the 3rd Division was formed with astonishing celerity in
battle array. The error into which the Portuguese had fallen was with
some difficulty remedied, and, except a few men who were
wounded, nothing serious happened. The pigs, who were the cause
of all, escaped without any loss, but whether they ever found their
way back to their original owners I know not. Trifling as the affair
was, with troops less accustomed and less ready to face an enemy
than those that composed the 3rd Division, it might have had a
different result.
The march was continued the following morning. The troops
commenced the retreat some hours before day. Towards ten o’clock
the enemy’s advance were at the heels of the rear-guard, which, as
before, disputed the ground. A rapid stream on the Rodrigo side of
the village of San Munoz was to be passed before the rear could be
considered safe. Many regiments had already forded the river, but
one entire brigade was missing, and the haze was so great that it
was difficult to distinguish any object clearly.
Pakenham’s division was already on the left bank of the stream,
while the brigade of nine-pounders, commanded by that admirable
officer, Captain Douglas, opened its fire on the French advance. This,
for a moment, arrested their progress; but O‘Shea, at the head of
fifteen hundred dragoons, passed between the French infantry and
the river, and, disregarding the fire of our artillery, overtook the
brigade before it had passed the ford. The confusion at this point
was great; some men were sabred; but the fire of Douglas’s guns
caused the French dragoons many casualties, and they galloped
back to their former ground. The safety of the brigade which was
missing was thus ensured; but Sir Edward Paget, who had gone in
quest of it, and who knew nothing of what had taken place at the
river’s edge, was taken prisoner by O‘Shea. We thus lost our second
in command, as also many men; and the cavalry and artillery horses
had become so enfeebled for want of forage, that it was manifest
our retreat, if vigorously followed by Soult, would, as a matter of
necessity, have been protected by the infantry alone; but Soult
either could not or would not press us, and the remainder of the day
passed over languidly.
 CHAPTER XXIV

Sufferings of the army on the retreat—Jokes of the Connaught Rangers—Letter of

Lord Wellington—The junior officers—Costume of the author during the
retreat—An unusual enjoyment.

Notwithstanding the attitude of Pakenham’s troops, and the

excellent arrangement of the park of artillery under Douglas, the
troopers of O‘Shea still menaced the ford. A brigade of French guns
ascended the heights, and opened their fire upon the 3rd Division,
but they were replied to with vigour by Douglas, who on this day
surpassed himself; and the decided superiority which his fire had
over that of the enemy was so palpable that, after a short trial, the
French left the heights. Day was drawing to its close, and our march,
as usual, commenced soon after dark. The entire day had been one
of drizzling wet, but, towards evening, the rain came down in
torrents; the army had to march two leagues ere they reached the
point marked out for them on the line of retreat, and it would be
difficult to describe the wretched state of the troops. The cavalry
half dismounted; the artillery without the requisite number of horses
to draw the ammunition-cars, much less the guns; the infantry
without shoes, or nearly so; and the roads, even in the broad day,
nearly impassable, made the march of this night one of great loss.
When a halt occurred, which was often unavoidable in consequence
of the guide mistaking the way, or because of the narrowness of a
part of the road, or the difficulty of ascertaining the pass of a river,
those in the rear fell down asleep, and it was next to impossible to
awaken them, so much were they exhausted; it then became
incumbent on every man who was awake to rouse those in his front,
who impeded the line of march, not only of the individual himself,
but of the army in general. Nevertheless, many were obliged to stay
behind, and were abandoned to their fate. None but the stout and
hale could bear up against the inclemency of the weather and the
want of food; but the worst of all was the wretched state of the
horses of the cavalry and artillery. These poor animals, when they
reached the place marked out for our resting for the night, had not
one morsel to eat, for it was absolutely impossible to forage for
them at such an hour and under such circumstances, and the
consequence was that many died from cold and famine, either in the
harness of the artillery or under the saddles of the dragoons.
It was nine o’clock this night of the retreat before we reached the
ground where we were to rest, and we had scarcely lit our fires
when the bullocks and kettles arrived. This circumstance—a rare one
—put us in good spirits, and by the time we had eaten our first meal
that day we became more gay, and the “boys” of the 88th had their
joke about the slaughter of the pigs by the 4th Division, of which I
have made some slight mention in the last chapter. That I might
have said more on the subject I am aware, for it was a subject that
much might be said upon; but, had I done so, my readers, perhaps,
would consider me a bore. However, the Connaught Rangers would
have, and had, their joke at the expense of the defunct pigs. Jack
Richardson, of the light infantry company, said, “The poor craturs
must be blind intirely when they run into the mouth of the 4th
Division.”—“No,” replied my man, Dan Carsons, “they wern’t blind all
out, but perhaps they had a stye in their eye!” This sally of Dan was
loudly applauded; and this kind of gaiety of spirit never forsook the
men of the 88th under any circumstances. It was well for
themselves, and for the service also; for I believe no regiment in the
Peninsula had more uphill work to contend against than the ill-fated
88th. No matter!—all that is past and gone now; and those who
survive, and recollect the events that took place during their stay in
the 3rd Division, are now changing positions; they had uphill work
then—now they are going down the hill. It is, nevertheless, a galling
reflection to those who bravely earned notice and promotion, to find
themselves passed over, while others, of regiments in the same
division, and under the same General, and placed in circumstances
the same, and sometimes less hazardous, have been lauded and
promoted, when we of the 88th were not even noticed!
But I am digressing. After Carsons' pun we soon fell asleep, and
were again on our legs at four in the morning; but our appearance
was greatly changed for the worse: several soldiers had died during
the night from exhaustion and cold, and those who had shoes on
them were soon stripped of so essential a necessary; and many a
young fellow was too happy to be allowed to stand in a “dead man’s
shoes.” Others were so crippled as to be scarcely able to stand to
their arms. Ague and dysentery had, more or less, affected us all;
and the men’s feet were so swollen that they threw away their shoes
in preference to wearing them.
Scarcely any provisions were to be found, but an abundance of
wine could have been easily procured from the different wine-caves
in each village. The troops, once let loose in this kind of way, could
not be restrained, and all discipline would have been at an end;
therefore, no one ought to be surprised that Lord Wellington forbade
the occupation of a town. He did his part in the grand scale, but
those who acted under him were deficient in every way. Sometimes
the troops were bivouacked in a muddy swamp, when dry ground, in
comparison at least, was nigh. The consequence of all this bungling
was fatal: the troops became ill and inefficient; they became
discontented; and, to wind up all, the junior officers of the army
were blamed for those things over which they had as much control
as they had over the actions of the Dey of Algiers or the Great
Mogul. The officers divided the misery of the retreat with their men,
and it is well known that many of them had scarcely a covering to
their backs. Scarcely a subaltern in the army had a dollar in his
pocket, the troops being four months in arrear of pay; but, even
supposing he had money in abundance, what use could he make of
it? There was nothing to be had for love or money—we had no
money, and few of us were inclined to make love; but even if we
were, there was no one (the worst of it) to make love to.
Such was the end of a campaign, the commencement of which
augured the most fortunate results. The men who composed this
fine army—which, at Rodrigo, Badajoz, and Salamanca, carried all
before them—were now greatly changed for the worse. Scarcely a
man had shoes; not that they were not amply supplied with them
before the retreat commenced, but the state of the roads, if roads
they could be called, was such, that so soon as a shoe fell off or
stuck in the mud, in place of picking it up again, the man who had
thus lost one kicked its fellow-companion after it. Yet the infantry
was efficient, and able to do any duty. No excesses were committed,
for Lord Wellington having taken the precaution of keeping the army
away from the different villages, no man had an opportunity of
obtaining wine or spirits, and thus drunkenness and insubordination
were not added to the list of our misfortunes.
But the cavalry and artillery were in a wretched state indeed. The
artillery of the 3rd, 6th, and 7th Divisions, the heavy cavalry,
together with the 7th and 12th Light Dragoons, were nearly a wreck;
and the artillery of the 3rd Division lost seventy horses between
Salamanca and Rodrigo. It was next to impossible that the artillery
and cavalry could have made, if vigorously pursued, three marches
beyond the latter place. What force, then, was to arrest the enemy
in his pursuit?—The infantry, and the infantry alone; yet this main-
prop of the army was, by mismanagement, left without the means of
nourishment! Had not the infantry, by their firmness in bearing up
against all the evils they had to surmount—such as bad clothing, no
tents to shelter them from the heavy rains that fell, and no means of
dressing their food—presented the front they did, the army must
have been lost before it could have reached Gallegos; and, if equal
zeal had been exhibited by the general officers in providing for the
wants of their troops, as was shown by the subordinate officers in
the maintenance of discipline amongst them, the well-known letter
of Lord Wellington would never have been written.[36]

36. Almost every officer of the Peninsular army who has written on the Burgos
retreat, from William Napier downward, joins in the protest against
Wellington’s objurgatory general order against his regimental officers,
published at the end of this retreat. Grattan’s murmurs are but a sample of
the rest.
 The officers asked each other, and asked themselves, how or in
what manner they were to blame for the privations the army
endured on the retreat? The answer uniformly was—in no way
whatever. The junior officers had nothing to do with it at all. Their
business was to keep their men together, and, if possible, to keep up
with their men on the march, and this was the most difficult duty
they had to perform; for many, very many, of these officers were
young lads, badly clothed, with scarcely a shoe or boot to their feet
—some attacked with dysentery, others with ague, and more with a
burning fever raging through their system, they had scarcely
strength left to hobble on in company with their more hardy
comrades, the soldiers. Nothing but a high sense of honour could
have borne them on; and there were many who would have
remained behind, and run all risks as to the manner in which they
would be treated as prisoners, were it not for this feeling. The
different bivouacs each morning presented a sad spectacle—worn-
out veterans, or young lads unable to move, were abandoned to
their fate. Some were thrown across the backs of the commissariat
mules, and conveyed to the rear; but this was rare, for the drivers
were obliged to make all haste to reach their destination, and the
frames of the men, worn down by sickness, unhealed wounds, or old
ones breaking out afresh, were unable to bear the jolting of the
mules, and these men generally preferred taking their chance on the
line of march to submitting to such an uneasy mode of conveyance.
Thus ended the year 1812, and thus ended our retreat upon
Portugal. The details I have given of that retreat have not been the
least exaggerated. It had, nevertheless, but little effect on my
regiment, the 88th, for we scarcely lost a man by fatigue or
sickness. The “boys of Connaught” were not much put out of their
way by the want of shoes, a good coat to their backs, or a full
allowance of rations: they took all those wants aisy! In short, it was
astonishing to see the effective state of the regiment, as compared
with others, when we reached our cantonments.
Since I commenced these pages, I have endeavoured to impress
my readers with the idea—and I hope I have succeeded—that the
88th were none of those humdrum set of fellows that ought to be
classed with other regiments; they, in fact, had a way of their own!
There are many who will agree—cordially on this point, at least—
with me; but their reading and mine of the text may be widely
different, nevertheless.
The 88th was a regiment whose spirit it was scarcely possible to
break, and the many curious incidents which occurred during this
retreat afforded them ample food for that ready humour for which
they were proverbial, and for which they got full credit; but,
nevertheless, they still are in arrear, and they owe a debt to
themselves which they must pay off—no matter what the price may
be. It was well for them that they had food for their humour, for
they had little for their stomachs; but that did not cause them much
uneasiness. The state in which some of the officers were placed was
quite pitiable. Many were obliged to throw off their boots, their feet
having become so swollen that they could not bear them. Those so
circumstanced were necessitated to look to the soldiers for a new fit-
out. But where could that be found? The men themselves, not caring
much whether they had or had not shoes, left those they had worn
in the muddy roads, and it would not be an easy matter to find on
this same retreat a second pair with any man. However, by hook or
by crook, those who wanted shoes were supplied; yet, though the
soldiers might be termed the shoemakers of their officers, they
never got the upper hand of them!
 SERGEANT AND PRIVATE
IN WINTER MARCHING ORDER 1813.
London, Edward Arnold, 1902

To describe the state of the officers would be impossible; for

myself, I can truly say I was in rags. I wore a frock-coat, made out
of a dress belonging to a priest that was captured by my man Dan
Carsons at Badajoz. I wore it during our sojourn at Madrid: it was
lined with silk, and might be termed a good turn-out there; but, as it