Regrettably perhaps, that is how I see the landing and the battle of Maida.

I understand your position, but, it posses a problem in my mind: Stuart.

Stuart gets harsh treatment from the English Army historians Bunbury and Butler. And Sir Sidney made it clear that, in his view, Stuart had some real honesty problems. But, I am slow to accept that Stuart would have made his proclamations to the people of Calabria -for them to revolt against the French- with no intent of ever fulfilling his written promises. Why would Stuart do such a thing? What he did was bad enough but for an English gentleman army officer to callously spur a population to revolt as some sort of hoax, to purposely lie only to see them go to their death, is outside of my understanding. If that's what he did, as you suggest, means that Stuart was certainly no gentleman, instead, he would be one of the most vile, treacherous, English generals in history. Like I've said, just have a hard time accepting that.