I remember well that soon after the unsuccessful attack of General
Whitelocke upon Buenos Ayres, it was stated that the flints had been taken
out of the muskets of some of our regiments because they were quite raw
troops, and the General thought that they might, from want of knowledge and
use of fire-arms, do more mischief to themselves than to the enemy, and
that they had better trust to the bayonet alone. The consequence was, that
when they entered the streets of the town, they found no enemy in them to
whom they could apply the bayonet. The inhabitants and troops were in the
strong stone houses, and fired on and killed our men with perfect impunity,
as not a shot could be fired in return: to surrender was their only chance
of life. A reference to a file of newspapers of that date (which I am too
lazy to make myself) will show whether this was understood at the time to
be a fact or not.