As I pointed out above in the post that started this string, some armies, notably the British and American, did punish soldiers who harmed unoffending civilians. I identified two exceptions to that statement involving large numbers of troops and, of course, there were always individual crimes by lawless individuals. In British and American service, if these individuals were caught, they were generally punished.

I am not sure the same applied in the French army. I am still waiting for one of that numerous legion of admirers of the Shorn One and all his works to let me know whether the troops who herded the men, women and children into the village church at Porto de Mos in February 1811 and burned them alive were ever apprehended and punished. And don't tell me that it was a justified reprisal as the French committed this atrocity when they were leaving the area.

I constantly bring up Porto de Mos as it is the worst atrocity I have yet come across for which there is good evidence.

DG