An Account of the expedition to Carthagena, with explanatory notes and observations — A Closer Reading

A Voice of Professional Critique

Knowles writes from within the expedition, but his tone is that of an informed critic rather than a neutral chronicler. He describes the army's reaction when the enemy quickly repaired a battery: 'the Army began to reflect, and say, the Battery was not effectually destroyed.' The phrasing implies that soldiers complained without understanding the difficulty. Knowles then delivers a cutting verdict: 'the Army was not accustomed to work in that brisk Manner: No! Working was no Part of their Trade.' This is not a dry report; it is a professional naval officer judging the army's work ethic. He also praises the 'Tars' (sailors) who fought the guns in the battery, explicitly crediting seamen with both building and manning the fortifications. The excerpts show that Knowles's account is as much about who performed labor competently as about what happened.

Engineering Under Fire

The excerpts dwell on the construction and placement of a battery meant to bombard the Castillo San Felipe. Knowles is scathing about the engineers' choices: 'the Battery was constructed in a Wood! and no more Ground was cleared, than a Space necessary for so stupendous a Building (lest the Enemy should see the Army!).' The sarcastic parenthesis underscores his view that excessive caution undermined the battery's effectiveness. He notes that the battery could not fire on enemy ships, and that without an epaulment (a protective bank) every shot from the ships would have raked it. Knowles reports that 'the most impartial Judges in the Navy and Army agree' that clearing more woods would have made the undertaking 'so difficult, as to have shocked the Science of all the Engineers.' The passage suggests that Knowles is not merely complaining but citing consensus among knowledgeable observers.

Friction Between Services

A recurring theme in the excerpts is the tension between naval and army command. Knowles recounts that the general requested ships to cannonade the castle even though a land battery of twenty guns was already firing. The result: ships had 'their Masts and Yards shot to pieces, and Numbers of Men killed and wounded, without doing any other Damage than beating down the Rubbish.' Knowles implies the request was militarily pointless, noting the land battery was 'twice as near' and could have done the job in half the time. He also describes how the enemy's ships, positioned advantageously, 'failed not to play as briskly (as Spaniards will do when there is no body to hurt them).' The parenthetical jab reinforces Knowles's view that the army's failures gave the enemy free rein. These passages show the account functioning as a brief for naval competence against army mismanagement.

Readers should approach Knowles's text as a partisan document, not an impartial history. The excerpts contain no praise for the army's leadership; the catalog subjects list General Wentworth, but the text treats him and his engineers as objects of criticism. The work's value lies in its detailed, opinionated observations of siegecraft and interservice dynamics. The footnotes (lettered A–Z, then repeating) suggest a layered commentary that may reward close reading. For those interested in eighteenth-century military operations or the rhetoric of professional blame, this pamphlet offers a vivid, if one-sided, insider's view.

That rainy afternoon, I lost myself in Knowles’s bitter account of Cartagena, the salt-stained frustration of men digging trenches while their leaders dithered. Afterwards, idly, I picked up Secret Chambers and Hiding Places Historic, Romantic, & Legendary Stories & Traditions About Hiding-Holes, Secret Chambers, Etc. — Reading Companion. Odd pairing, but both speak of walls that hold secrets, of what men hide behind them. The weather never really cleared.