The Prisoners of Cabrera: Napoleon's Forgotten Soldiers 1809-1814

Andersonville, Stalag Luft III, Hanoi Hilton: the annals of military history are full of dreadful prisons in which captured soldiers suffered and died. Denis Smith adds Cabrera to that unholy list with this study of a little- known episode of Napoleonic history.

In 1809 some 12,000 French troops, defeated by Spanish and British forces at the Battle of Bailen, were promised parole to France on condition that they not return to Spain. The British command reneged on the terms of surrender, and the French were marooned on the almost uninhabited island of Cabrera, off the coast of Majorca. Forgotten by their captors--and, it seems, by Napoleon--many of the French prisoners took up a Robinson Crusoe-like life in the hills. Others, including elements of the elite imperial guard, organized mostly ill-fated attempts at escape, some with the aid of sympathetic British sailors. Thousands died. Many of the survivors, Smith writes, suffered from the symptoms of what today is called post-traumatic stress disorder. This vivid narrative tells their story and honors their memory, and it is of considerable interest to students of military history. --Gregory McNamee