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The document is a promotional overview of the third edition of 'Qualitative Data Analysis: A Methods Sourcebook' by Matthew B. Miles, A. Michael Huberman, and Johnny Saldaña, which provides comprehensive methods for qualitative research. It includes chapters on research design, ethical issues, data analysis techniques, and writing about qualitative research. Additionally, it offers links to download the ebook and other related resources.

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100% found this document useful (1 vote)
21 views

Qualitative Data Analysis: A Methods Sourcebook Third Edition instant download

The document is a promotional overview of the third edition of 'Qualitative Data Analysis: A Methods Sourcebook' by Matthew B. Miles, A. Michael Huberman, and Johnny Saldaña, which provides comprehensive methods for qualitative research. It includes chapters on research design, ethical issues, data analysis techniques, and writing about qualitative research. Additionally, it offers links to download the ebook and other related resources.

Uploaded by

majanihlaoui
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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First and Second Edition Copyright © 1994 by Matthew B. Miles and A. Michael Huberman

Third Edition Copyright © 2014 SAGE Publications, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Miles, Matthew B.
Qualitative data analysis: a methods sourcebook / Matthew B. Miles, A. Michael Huberman, Johnny Saldaña, Arizona State University.
— Third edition.

pages. cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4522-5787-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. Social sciences—Research. 2. Education—Research. I. Huberman, A. M. II. Saldaña, Johnny. III. Title.

H62.M437 2014
001.4′2—dc23 2013002036

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

13 14 15 16 17 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
FOR INFORMATION:

SAGE Publications, Inc.


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Editorial Assistant: Kaitlin Perry
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Brief Table of Contents
List of Displays
Preface to the Third Edition by Johnny Saldaña
Acknowledgments From the Second Edition by Matthew B. Miles and A. Michael Huberman
About the Authors

Part One – The Substantive Start


Chapter 1 - Introduction

Chapter 2 - Research Design and Management

Chapter 3 - Ethical Issues in Analysis

Chapter 4 - Fundamentals of Qualitative Data Analysis

Part Two – Displaying the Data


Chapter 5 - Designing Matrix and Network Displays

Chapter 6 - Methods of Exploring

Chapter 7 - Methods of Describing

Chapter 8 - Methods of Ordering

Chapter 9 - Methods of Explaining

Chapter 10 - Methods of Predicting

Part Three – Making Good Sense


Chapter 11 - Drawing and Verifying Conclusions

Chapter 12 - Writing About Qualitative Research

Chapter 13 - Closure

Appendix – An Annotated Bibliography of Qualitative Research Resources


References
Author Index
Subject Index
Contents
List of Displays
Preface to the Third Edition by Johnny Saldaña
Acknowledgments From the Second Edition by Matthew B. Miles and A. Michael Huberman
About the Authors

Part One – The Substantive Start


Chapter 1 - Introduction

The Purpose of This Book


The Nature of This Book
Audiences
Approach
Our Orientation
Genres of Qualitative Research
An Approach to Qualitative Data Analysis
Analytic Methods: Some Common Features
The Nature of Qualitative Data
General Nature
Strengths of Qualitative Data
Our View of Qualitative Data Analysis
Data Condensation
Data Display
Drawing and Verifying Conclusions
Suggestions for Readers
Students and Other Novice Researchers
Experienced Researchers
Teachers of Qualitative Research Methods Courses
Closure and Transition
Chapter 2 - Research Design and Management
Introduction
Tight Versus Loose Designs: Some Trade-Offs
Building a Conceptual Framework
Description and Rationale
Examples
Advice
Formulating Research Questions
Description and Rationale
Example
Advice
Defining the Case
Description and Rationale
Examples
Advice
Sampling: Bounding the Collection of Data
Description and Rationale
Key Features of Qualitative Sampling
General Sampling Strategies
Within-Case Sampling
Multiple-Case Sampling
Example
Advice
Instrumentation
Description and Rationale
Example
Advice
Linking Qualitative and Quantitative Data
Approaches to Mixed-Methods Designs
Management Issues Bearing on Analysis
Computer and Software Use
Data Management
Staffing and Time Planning
Closure and Transition
Note
Chapter 3 - Ethical Issues in Analysis
Introduction
Agreements With Study Participants
Ethical Issues
Worthiness of the Project
Competence
Informed Consent
Benefits, Costs, and Reciprocity
Harm and Risk
Honesty and Trust
Privacy, Confidentiality, and Anonymity
Intervention and Advocacy
Research Integrity and Quality
Ownership of Data and Conclusions
Use and Misuse of Results
Conflicts, Dilemmas, and Trade-Offs
Closure and Transition
Chapter 4 - Fundamentals of Qualitative Data Analysis
Introduction
Data Processing and Preparation
First-Cycle Codes and Coding
Description
Applications
First-Cycle Coding Examples
Creating Codes
Revising Codes
Structure and Unity in Code Lists
Definitions of Codes
Levels of Coding Detail
Second Cycle Coding: Pattern Codes
Description
Applications
Examples
From Codes to Patterns
Coding Advice
Jottings
Analytic Memoing
Description and Rationale
Examples
On Visual Data
Memoing Advice
Assertions and Propositions
Within-Case and Cross-Case Analysis
Purposes of Cross-Case Analysis
A Key Distinction: Variables Versus Cases
Strategies for Cross-Case Analysis
Closure and Transition

Part Two – Displaying the Data


Chapter 5 - Designing Matrix and Network Displays
Introduction
Display Format Options
Matrices
Networks
Timing of Display Design
Formatting the Matrix Template
Entering Matrix and Network Data
Making Inferences and Drawing Conclusions From Matrices and Networks
The Methods Profiles
Closure and Transition
Chapter 6 - Methods of Exploring
Introduction
Exploring Fieldwork in Progress
Data Accounting Log
Contact Summary Form
Case Analysis Meeting
Interim Case Summary
Partially Ordered Meta-Matrix
Explanatory Effects Matrix
Exploring Variables
Checklist Matrix
Content-Analytic Summary Table
Contrast Table
Two-Variable Case-Ordered Matrix
Exploring Reports in Progress
Pre-structured Case
Sequential Analyses
Closure and Transition
Chapter 7 - Methods of Describing
Introduction
Describing Participants
Role-Ordered Matrix
Context Chart
Describing Variability
Construct Table
Conceptually Clustered Matrix
Folk Taxonomy
Describing Action
Vignettes
Poetic Display
Cognitive Maps
Closure and Transition
Chapter 8 - Methods of Ordering
Introduction
Ordering by Time
Event-Listing Matrix
Growth Gradient
Time-Ordered Matrix
Ordering Processes
Decision Modeling
Event-State Network
Composite Sequence Analysis
Ordering by Cases
Case-Ordered Descriptive Meta-Matrix
Closure and Transition
Chapter 9 - Methods of Explaining
Introduction
Explaining Interrelationship
Variable-by-Variable Matrix
Explaining Change
Effects Matrix
Case Dynamics Matrix
Explaining Causation
Causal Chains
Causal Network: Within-Case Analysis
Causal Network: Cross-Case Analysis
Closure and Transition
Chapter 10 - Methods of Predicting
Introduction
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Methods of Predicting
Making and Testing Predictions
Prediction-Outcome-Consequences Matrix
Causal-Prediction Models
Closure and Transition

Part Three – Making Good Sense


Chapter 11 - Drawing and Verifying Conclusions
Introduction
Tactics for Generating Meaning
1. Noting Patterns, Themes
2. Seeing Plausibility
3. Clustering
4. Making Metaphors
5. Counting
6. Making Contrasts/Comparisons
7. Partitioning Variables
8. Subsuming Particulars Into the General
9. Factoring
10. Noting the Relations Between Variables
11. Finding Intervening Variables
12. Building a Logical Chain of Evidence
13. Making Conceptual/Theoretical Coherence
Tactics for Testing or Confirming Findings
1. Checking for Representativeness
2. Checking for Researcher Effects
3. Triangulating
4. Weighting the Evidence
5. Checking the Meaning of Outliers
6. Using Extreme Cases
7. Following Up Surprises
8. Looking for Negative Evidence
9. Making If-Then Tests
10. Ruling Out Spurious Relations
11. Replicating a Finding
12. Checking Out Rival Explanations
13. Getting Feedback From Participants
Standards for the Quality of Conclusions
Objectivity/Confirmability
Reliability/Dependability/Auditability
Internal Validity/Credibility/Authenticity
External Validity/Transferability/Fittingness
Utilization/Application/Action Orientation
Analytic Documentation
The Problem
Illustration
Closure and Transition
Chapter 12 - Writing About Qualitative Research
Introduction
Audiences and Effects
The Reader and the Writer
Types of Effects
Voices, Genres, and Stances
Writing Example
Formats and Structures
Traditional Presentation Modes
Progressive Presentation Modes
On Theses and Dissertations
Closure and Transition
Chapter 13 - Closure
Qualitative Analysis at a Glance
Reflections
Final Advice

Appendix – An Annotated Bibliography of Qualitative Research Resources


References
Author Index
Subject Index
List of Displays
Display 1.1 Components of Data Analysis: Interactive Model

Display 2.1 A First-Draft Conceptual Framework for a Case Study Teacher and the Influences on
Her Practice

Display 2.2 Major Influences on a Language Arts Teacher’s Practice

Display 2.3 Conceptual Framework for a Multicase “School Improvement” Field Study, Initial
Version

Display 2.4 General and Specific Research Questions Relating to the Adoption Decision (School
Improvement Study)

Display 2.5 The Case as the Unit of Analysis

Display 2.6 Prior Instrumentation: Key Decision Factors

Display 2.7 Excerpts From Interview Guide, School Improvement Study

Display 2.8 Illustrative Designs Linking Qualitative and Quantitative Data

Display 2.9 Uses of Computer Software in Qualitative Studies

Display 2.10 An Excel Spread Sheet With Qualitative and Quantitative Data

Display 2.11 An NVivo 10 Screen Shot of a Coded Digital Video Interview

Display 2.12 A Model of Lifelong Confidence From High School Speech and Theatre

Display 2.13 What to Store, Retrieve From, and Retain

Display 3.1 Questions for Agreement With Study Participants

Display 4.1 Illustration of a Start List of Codes

Display 4.2 Definitions of Selected Codes From Display 4.1 (Excerpts)

Display 4.3 Smoking Cessation Patterns at Months 1 and 6

Display 4.4 A Model of Smoking Cessation Loss Transformation

Display 4.5 Interview Transcript With Jottings

Display 5.1 Effects Matrix: Assistance Location and Types (Masepa Case)

Display 5.2 A Network Model of “Lifelong Impact” From High School Speech Participation

Display 5.3 A QDA Miner 4 3-D Map of a Codes Network

Display 6.1 Data Accounting Log

Display 6.2 Contact Summary Form: Illustration (Excerpts)


Display 6.3 Contact Summary Form: Illustration With Coded Themes (Excerpt)

Display 6.4 Case Analysis Meeting Form

Display 6.5 Case Analysis Form: Exhibit With Data

Display 6.6 Summary-Aided Approach to Analysis

Display 6.7 Interim Case Summary Outline: Illustration

Display 6.8 Data Accounting Sheet: Abstract Example

Display 6.9 Case-Level Display for Partially Ordered Meta-Matrix (Format)

Display 6.10 Case-Level Display for Partially Ordered Meta-Matrix: Users’ Second Year of
Implementation at Lido

Display 6.11 Partially Ordered Meta-Matrix: User Feelings/Concerns and Other Variables (Format)

Display 6.12 Partially Ordered Meta-Matrix: User Feelings/Concerns and Other Variables (Lido
Data)

Display 6.13 Time-Ordered Meta-Matrix (Format)

Display 6.14 Summary Table: Individual and Institutional Concerns During Later Implementation

Display 6.15 Explanatory Effects Matrix: Ongoing Assistance

Display 6.16 Checklist Matrix: Conditions Supporting Preparedness at Smithson School,


Banestown Case

Display 6.17 Checklist Matrix on Preparedness (Alternative Format 1)

Display 6.18 Checklist Matrix on Preparedness (Alternative Format 2)

Display 6.19 Checklist Matrix on Preparedness (Alternative Format 3)

Display 6.20 Content-Analytic Summary Table: The Content of Organization Changes

Display 6.21 Contrast Table: Exemplary Cases Showing Different Degrees of User Change

Display 6.22 Two-Variable Case-Ordered Matrix: Relationships Between User Practice


Stabilization and Local Continuation

Display 6.23 Pre-structured Case Outline: Abbreviated Version

Display 6.24 Traditional Analysis Sequence Compared With Pre-structured Case

Display 7.1 Role-Ordered Matrix: First Reactions to the Innovation

Display 7.2 Context Chart for Tindale East High School and District

Display 7.3 Lifelong Impact: Variability of Influence

Display 7.4 Conceptually Clustered Matrix: Motives and Attitudes (Format)

Display 7.5 Conceptually Clustered Matrix: Motives and Attitudes of Users, Nonusers, and
Administrators at Masepa

Display 7.6 A Folk Taxonomy of the Ways Children Oppress Each Other

Display 7.7 A Cognitive Map of One Person’s Housecleaning Process

Display 8.1 Event Listing, Banestown Case

Display 8.2 Event History of a Case Study

Display 8.3 Growth Gradient for ECRI Innovation, Masepa Case

Display 8.4 Time-Ordered Matrix: Changes in the CARED Innovation (a Work Experience
Program)

Display 8.5 Summary Table for Verifying and Interpreting Time-Ordered Matrix: Changes in the
CARED Innovation

Display 8.6 One Person’s Decision Model for Saving Money

Display 8.7 Event–State Network, Banestown Case (Excerpt)

Display 8.8 Composite Sequence Analysis: Career Trajectory Data for 11 Cases (Huberman,
1989)

Display 8.9 Case-Ordered Meta-Matrix: Format for Student Impact Data

Display 8.10 Case-Ordered Descriptive Meta-Matrix (Excerpt): Program Objectives and Student
Impact (Direct, Meta-Level, and Side Effects)

Display 8.11 Case-Ordered Effects Matrix Template

Display 9.1 Variable-by-Variable Matrix: Coping Strategies and Problems, by Case

Display 9.2 Summary Table: Typical Consequences of Coping, by Case

Display 9.3 Effects Matrix: Organizational Changes After Implementation of the ECRI Program

Display 9.4 Case Dynamics Matrix: The IPA Innovation as a Force for Organizational Change in
the District and Its Schools

Display 9.5 Causal Chain: Illustration

Display 9.6 Causal Chain: Illustration

Display 9.7 Causal Fragment: Mastery of a New Educational Practice

Display 9.8 Excerpt From a Causal Network: Perry-Parkdale School

Display 9.9 Excerpt From an Event–State Network: Perry-Parkdale School

Display 9.10 List of Antecedent, Mediating, and Outcome Variables: School Improvement Study

Display 9.11 Causal Network for Perry-Parkdale CARED Program

Display 9.12 Narrative for Causal Network: Perry-Parkdale CARED Program


Display 9.13 Subnetwork: Variable Streams Leading to High Job Mobility, Perry-Parkdale Case

Display 9.14 Subnetwork for Job Mobility, Calston Case

Display 9.15 Subnetwork for Job Mobility, Banestown Case

Display 9.16 Subnetwork for Job Mobility, Plummet Case

Display 10.1 Prediction Feedback Form

Display 10.2 Factors Supporting “Institutionalization” Prediction

Display 10.3 Factors Working Against “Institutionalization” Prediction

Display 10.4 Filled-Out Response Form From Case Informant for “Institutionalization” Prediction

Display 10.5 Predictor-Outcome-Consequences Matrix: Antecedents and Consequences of


Assistance

Display 10.6 Causal-Prediction Model Tracing User Practice Changes

Display 10.7 Predictor-Outcome Matrix: Predictors of Magnitude of User Practice Change

Display 11.1 Reasons Given for Adoption by Users

Display 11.2 Two-Variable Relationship

Display 11.3 Two-Variable Relationship With Intervening Variables

Display 11.4 Example of a Chain of Evidence Supporting an Observed Outcome

Display 11.5 Possible Explanation of a Spurious Relationship

Display 11.6 Display for Testing Explanations in Display 11.5

Display 11.7 Qualitative Analysis Documentation Form

Display 11.8 Code List for Analysis Operations

Display 13.1 Overview of Qualitative Data Analysis Processes


Preface to the Third Edition
Johnny Saldaña

his new edition of Matthew B. Miles and A. Michael Huberman’s classic 1994 text, Qualitative
T Data Analysis: An Expanded Sourcebook, updates and streamlines the late authors’ unique work
for a new generation of qualitative researchers as well as for the dedicated followers of their
methods over the past three decades. I have been honored to join them, in spirit, as the third author of
this revised text.
To this day, qualitative data analysis seems to remain a somewhat mysterious and elusive process
for newcomers to the field. This is due in part to the wide variety of genres, methodologies, and
methods available to researchers, making it sometimes difficult to choose the “best” ones for the
particular study in hand. In addition, qualitative research has a solid foundation of analytic traditions
but no current standardization of practice—there is no official qualitative executive board out there
mandating exactly how analysis must be conducted. Ours is “designer research,” customized to the
particular goals and needs of the enterprise and interpreted through each researcher’s unique analytic
lens and filter. Books on research methods can no longer require; they can only recommend.
This book offers its readers practical guidance in recommended methods for assembling and
analyzing primarily text-based data. Qualitative Data Analysis: A Methods Sourcebook is designed
for researchers in virtually all fields and disciplines that honor what their human participants have to
say, treasure the products and artifacts they create, and respect the complexity of social action as it
happens all around us. It is intended for students in graduate degree programs who are learning how
to investigate the human condition through qualitative research coursework and for established
scholars and practitioners continuing their professional development by reading the literature on
current methods.

A Note on This Revision


For this third edition, SAGE Publications charged me to maintain the general spirit and integrity of
the core contents of Miles and Huberman’s (1994) authoritative work, while making their text more
accessible and relevant to contemporary researchers. I have added information on the newer
computing technology and software available today, and reorganized and streamlined the original
authors’ classic methods. Readers familiar with the previous edition will notice that in this edition I
have re-envisioned the primary display chapters, not organizing them by within-case and cross-case
divisions but by Miles and Huberman’s five primary purposes of display: to explore, describe,
order, explain, and predict. I have reduced the number of displays from the second edition and, when
possible, reformatted them using mainstream software. SAGE Publications’ art production staff have
redrawn many of the original figures.
I have also added selected coverage of additional genres of qualitative inquiry, such as narrative
inquiry, autoethnography, mixed methods, and arts-based research, that have emerged prominently
over the past 20 years. I have smoothed down the second edition’s semiquantitative edges to align
and harmonize the original authors’ approach with that of current qualitative inquirers. And I have
brought my own analytic signature to the text, respecting some of the original authors’ traditions
while adapting others into a newer, evolving research culture. Overall, I have scaled back the
impressive, if sometimes overwhelming, size of Miles and Huberman’s original work to present and
re-present their insightful analytic methods in a more focused and useful manner.
In certain problematic sections of the second edition, I struggled with deciding whether to delete,
maintain, or revise the text. Since my charge as third coauthor was to adapt Miles and Huberman’s
work, not to write my own book on qualitative data analysis, I have respected the original authors’
contributions to the field by maintaining the conceptual approaches and most of the analytic methods
of their book. Nevertheless, I have, without guilt, mercilessly deleted most of its early references,
second-source displays, duplicate and overextended discussions, and some more convoluted
sections.
I have brought my own working knowledge of the book’s second edition into my revision efforts
because, as a student, I was enrolled in two courses where Miles and Huberman’s text was required
reading. This revision is based on what I wish the book had offered me as a novice to qualitative
research and what I believe today’s graduate students need from a textbook on qualitative data
analysis. My reorganizing decisions are based on pedagogical knowledge of how most university
graduate students learn and on how I personally prefer to teach: progressing in a highly organized,
systematic way, one building block at a time, toward a spiraled, cumulative synthesis—a process I’m
almost certain Miles and Huberman would have appreciated and found compatible with their own
approach.
I also brought my knowledge of Miles and Huberman’s book to my work as author of SAGE
Publications’ The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers (Saldaña, 2013), in which I included
a few of their coding and analysis methods. And I incorporated some of The Coding Manual’s
content into this book, further integrating the three coauthors’ work. In addition, I supplemented a few
of the original authors’ display methods and discussions with examples from my own research
projects and incorporated The Coding Manual’s method profile structure (Description,
Applications, Example, Analysis, Notes) into this revision.
Finally, as the third coauthor of this edition, I have been in the position, both privileged and
awkward, of “speaking” for the late Miles and Huberman. When I am in agreement with their
original premises and assertions, I deliberately use “we” in writing, as I do when making some
informed assumptions that my own opinions would be similar to theirs. Occasionally, when our
opinions seem to diverge, subtly or greatly, I specify whose belief is being discussed.

Acknowledgments
I am honored that Helen Salmon, acquisitions editor of SAGE Publications’ College Division,
commissioned me to adapt Miles and Huberman’s text for its third edition. Her editorial assistant
Kaitlin Perry was a tremendous resource for manuscript and display preparation. I also thank Laura
Barrett, Kalie Koscielak, Judith Newlin, Nicole Elliott, and Janet Kiesel of SAGE Publications for
their production work on this book. Betty Miles offered me not only her support but also her keen eye
and editorial prowess for this revision. My initial contact with SAGE began with their London office
editor, Patrick Brindle, who encouraged me to develop The Coding Manual for Qualitative
Researchers, and for his welcoming invitation I am truly grateful.
My own qualitative research methods professors at Arizona State University significantly
influenced my growth as a scholar and writer. I am indebted to Tom Barone, Mary Lee Smith, Amira
De la Garza, and Sarah J. Tracy for their life-changing impact on my academic career. Coleman A.
Jennings from The University of Texas at Austin served as my graduate school artistic mentor; Lin
Wright from Arizona State University started me as an assistant professor on my research trajectory;
and Mitch Allen, Joe Norris, Laura A. McCammon, Matt Omasta, and Angie Hines are my research
colleagues and loyal supporters. I also extend thanks to my long-distance mentors, Harry F. Wolcott,
Norman K. Denzin, and Yvonna S. Lincoln, for their insightful writings, wisdom, and guidance.
In the second edition of Qualitative Data Analysis, Miles and Huberman thanked a large number
of individuals and organizations. Their contributions continue to enrich this revised edition of the
book, and they have my gratitude as well. For this particular edition, I also thank Oxford University
Press for their permission to reprint selected excerpts from my text Fundamentals of Qualitative
Research (Saldaña, 2011b); Teachers College Record and Taylor & Francis for article excerpt
permissions; and Normand Péladeau of Provalis Research/QDA Miner and Katie Desmond of QSR
International/NVivo for their permission to use qualitative data analysis software screenshots.

My final thanks go to Matthew B. Miles and A. Michael Huberman themselves. To my knowledge,


My final thanks go to Matthew B. Miles and A. Michael Huberman themselves. To my knowledge,
I never met them or heard them speak at professional conferences, but their data-analytic methods,
which I learned intimately in my qualitative research courses, have been part of my work ever since.
I always strive to meet their rigorous standards, and I frequently quote their now classic advice to
“think display.” I owe much of my career trajectory to the legacy of scholars before me whose
methods books and articles helped shape my own ways of working as a qualitative researcher and
data analyst. Miles and Huberman are two of those esteemed scholars, and I am honored to be
connected with them in this new way. I hope that this third edition of their book pays proper tribute
and homage to their significant level of scholarship.

Publisher’s Acknowledgments
SAGE Publications and Johnny Saldaña are grateful for feedback on the draft manuscript of the
third edition from the following reviewers: James H. Banning of Colorado State University–Fort
Collins, Carolyn M. Garcia of the University of Minnesota, Madelyn Iris of Northwestern University,
Mary Madden of The University of Maine–Orono, Sharon M. Ravitch of the University of
Pennsylvania, Patricia Somers of The University of Texas–Austin, and Mildred E. Warner of Cornell
University.
Acknowledgments From the Second Edition
Matthew B. Miles and A. Michael Huberman

he first edition of this book grew out of our (Miles and Huberman’s) experience in two linked
T research projects. One, beginning in 1978, was the field study component of the Study of
Dissemination Efforts Supporting School Improvement (Department of Education Contract 300-
78-0527), led by David P. Crandall of The Network, Inc. We are indebted to him for his steady
encouragement and support, and that of Ann Bezdek Weinheimer, project officer from the Office of
Planning, Budgeting and Evaluation.
In the field study itself, Beverly Loy Taylor and Jo Ann Goldberg were strong colleagues; their
fieldwork and case study analysis, along with ours, led to Volume 4 of the DESSI final report,
People, Policies, and Practices: Examining the Chain of School Improvement, later published as
Innovation Up Close (Huberman & Miles, 1984).
The second project, “The Realities of School Improvement Programs: Analysis of Qualitative
Data” (NIE grant G-81-001-8), gave us the opportunity to develop our methodological ideas further
and to write the first edition of this book. Rolf Lehming, of the Program on Dissemination and
Improvement of Practice, was our project officer; we valued his sustained interest and advice.
The ideas in the first edition—and indeed in this one—do not necessarily reflect the views or
policies of the Department of Education. But we remain grateful for its sponsorship of these studies.
In the past 10 years, many people have contributed to our understanding of qualitative data
analysis and to the development of the second edition. We have experimented in the company of
colleagues with studies that expanded, tested, and refined the methods described in the first edition.
We are indebted to Ann Lieberman, Ellen Saxl, Myrna Cooper, Vernay Mitchell, and Sharon Piety-
Jacobs, who joined Miles in a study (1983–1985) of school “change agents”; to the late Eleanor
Farrar, Karen Seashore Louis, Sheila Rosenblum, and Tony Cipollone, in a study with Miles (1985–
1989) of urban high school reform; to Per Dalin, Adriaan Verspoor, Ray Chesterfield, Hallvard
Kuløy, Tekle Ayano, Mumtaz Jahan, and Carlos Rojas, whom we assisted in a World Bank study
(1988–1992) of educational reform in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Colombia; to Marie-Madeleine
Grounauer and Gianreto Pini, Huberman’s associates in a teachers’ life cycle study (1982–1986);
and to Monica Gather-Thurler and Erwin Beck, associates in Huberman’s study of research use
(1984–1988).
As always, the process of teaching from the book taught us a great deal. There are too many
participants to list, but we were fortunate to have led an extended series of seminars at the
universities of Nijmegen and Utrecht (strong thanks to Rein van der Vegt) and at many other
universities as well: Geneva, Zürich, Paris, Dijon, Leuven, Göteborg, Montreal, Toronto, Queen’s,
Utah, Monash, Melbourne, and Adelaide.
During 1990–1991, we sent an informal survey to a wide range of people engaged in qualitative
research, asking for collegial advice and examples of their work. Our warm thanks to the 126
researchers who responded; they provided a wide range of ideas, papers, advice, and cautions that
were immensely helpful. Many of these colleagues are quoted or cited in this book. Grants
supporting the extensive retrieval and synthesis work for this edition came to us from the John D. and
Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, where Peter Gerber provided thoughtful support, and from
SAGE Publications. Sara Miller McCune and David McCune of SAGE took a keen interest in the
project. We are grateful for the active, intelligent guidance that our editor, Mitch Allen, provided
throughout the work.
We owe a very special debt to Carolyn Riehl. Her ability to locate and extract interesting ideas—
both substantive and methodological—from a wide range of qualitative studies is remarkable. She
was a strong third colleague during our extended period of retrieval and ordering.
Drafts of this edition were reviewed by many people: Our warm thanks for the thoughtful advice
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accompany him; had I foreseen the annoyance and danger which his
presence caused I certainly should have refused the request. In
proceeding through the Spanish frontier we passed through the
same towns which Gerard occupied during his foraging, or rather
marauding excursion immediately before; and it required all my
exertions to protect the commissary from being torn to pieces. The
peasantry collected round the houses where we halted for the night,
loudly demanding the commissary; and although I harangued them
and pointed out the national disgrace that would attend any outrage
committed on the prisoners, and the insult it would be to England
whose prisoners they were and consequently under her protection,
still I felt it always prudent to make the guard load in their presence,
and to place double sentries over the house, with orders, loudly
delivered, to shoot any who should attempt a forcible entrance.
ESCORTING Although the escort consisted but of ten persons,
PRINCE the corporal and his party of six, my servant, batman,
D’ARENBERG.
and self, and the prisoners amounted to the same
number—viz., the prince, a captain of his regiment, his secretary,
two cooks, his Swiss coachman, three other servants and the
commissary—still I allowed them all to carry arms. I felt no dread of
their escaping, being fully convinced that they were much more
inclined to remain my prisoners than think of escape, for they were
fully aware that they would be torn to atoms by the enraged
peasantry; moreover the prince, in whose honour I confided, held
himself responsible for all. I remarked to the prince with a smile in
the presence of the whole party, that I felt certain his pledge was
not endangered, stating the reasons above mentioned; yet I told
him plainly that if his authority were not sufficient to oblige the
commissary (who was present) to keep more retired, and not with
imprudent gasconade to present himself at the doors and windows
and thus irritate an enraged population, I should reluctantly be
compelled to make him a close prisoner and place a sentry over him,
not so much for his safety as for that of others, whom I held in
higher consideration. But although I gained my point, yet until I got
across the Spanish frontier I was in continual alarm, all owing to our
graminivorous companion. Albeit though this commissary certainly
was as impertinent and forward a fellow as I ever met with, still he
could not in justice be held personally responsible for the outrages
which drew upon him this general odium; for when he robbed the
peasantry of all their grain, cattle and provisions of every kind, and
as much specie as he could grasp, he acted under superior
command; he was therefore but a simple machine. But the lower
orders, solely interested in present good or evil, rarely investigate
the remote cause which produces the present effect.
The last Spanish town through which we passed was Valencia de
Alcantara; and here I had the honour of reporting our arrival to the
captain-general of the province, General Castanos, a fine fat jolly-
looking fellow. Being about to quit the Spanish territory next day, the
prince and I entered into a conversation about the general character
of the inhabitants.
In allusion to the late action and the movements which led to
that event, I warmly expatiated on the praiseworthy fidelity of the
Spaniards, particularly those of Arroyo Molinos and Alcuescar, in
never having communicated our near approach to the French army.
The prince replied that they did not use such fidelity as I imagined,
for the night previous to the action two Spaniards came to his
quarters in Arroyo Molinos and informed him that we were much
nearer than the French general seemed to be aware of; that upon
this he immediately imparted the information to Gerard, who replied:
“Prince, you are a good and active soldier, but you always see the
English in your front, rear and flank. I tell you they are eight leagues
distant, for I know to a certainty that they were seen in the morning
marching hastily towards Caceres, thinking to find us there; and so
confident do I feel as to the certainty of what I tell you that I shall
delay the march to-morrow an hour later to give the men more time
for repose.” Much hurt at the general’s remark, which had the
appearance of insinuating that he entertained a dread of
encountering the English, the prince returned to his quarters. About
an hour before dawn next morning the general sent for him,
according to custom, to take a glass of old rum; this he declined, the
conversation of the previous evening being still painfully in his
recollection. In less than an hour afterwards he heard a loud and
confused cry in the streets, when instantly his adjutant darted
breathless into the room holloaing out, “Mon prince! mon prince!
nous sommes attrapés!” The English were driving through the town.
At the heels of the adjutant in rushed Gerard, aghast and foaming at
the mouth, and exhorted the prince to use every exertion to get the
cavalry out of the town. “Ha!” said the prince, “do I always see the
English where they are not?” “For the love of God,” replied Gerard,
“do not add to my distraction. This is not a time for badinage or
reproof; exert yourself to the utmost or we are undone. The English
are forcing their way through the town. Get the cavalry out and form
on the plain as quickly as possible.” The rest I knew.
FROM SPAIN Next morning we left Valencia before dawn and
TO PORTUGAL. were soon in the Portuguese territory. The prisoners
now breathed freely, not having felt very secure
during our route through Spain. The mountains we had now to cross
were very steep and excessively difficult of ascent, especially with a
wheeled vehicle. The prince travelled very comfortably in a
handsome carriage taken at Arroyo Molinos, in which fortunately he
was always accompanied by his graminivorous friend, whom the
prince and I used facetiously to call Bucephalus. Four large Spanish
mules which drew the carriage being insufficient to haul it up those
hills, I directed that a couple of bullocks which were ploughing
alongside the road should be added to the team. The harnessing
was attempted in a violent manner by the Swiss coachman, an
immensely stout and large person; but one of the animals becoming
very restive, severely wounded him with one of his horns. The
wound was excessively severe and dangerous, but being ignorant of
technical terms I must decline attempting a description. The
coachman, becoming furious from pain, drew his sabre, and cutting
and slashing right and left so wounded the bullock that I ordered the
guard to disarm him, and never after allowed him to carry any other
weapon than his whip, although he frequently entreated the prince
to intercede for the recovery of his sabre. The owners having
interposed, the animals were quietly harnessed, and after a long pull
we at last reached the summit. Owing to its great height and the
season being rather advanced (the middle of November), the
atmosphere was excessively cold. We halted on this our first
Portuguese mountain for some hours, and I cannot forget our
delicious repast upon roasted chestnuts and goats’ milk, plentifully
supplied by the Portuguese shepherds. Thunderstruck on hearing
that one of their guests was no less a personage than a prince, they
crowded round the blazing fire before which we were feasting to
have the illustrious stranger pointed out, no doubt expecting to see
in a person of such exalted rank something superhuman.
Continuing our route tranquilly and without any adventure, we
arrived at Portalegre, which again became General Hill’s
headquarters. Here we halted for a few days, during which we were
visited by Prince Pierre d’Arenberg, who had procured General Hill’s
permission to come and see his brother, in whose regiment he was a
cornet. Prince Prosper felt some delicacy in conversing with him
except in my presence; but as I received no decisive instructions on
the subject, I declined intruding on their conversation; and feeling in
no way anxious to pry into their family concerns, I remarked to
Prince Prosper that he had nothing of military consequence to
communicate, and as to the treatment which he met with from the
British it was but just that he should have an opportunity of
declaring it to his brother, free of all restraint which my presence
might impose. The princes expressed their thanks in the warmest
manner; and Prince Prosper remarked that it was well that he should
have a private opportunity of telling his brother of the kind and
generous manner in which he had been treated, which was of such a
nature that, recounted in the presence of an Englishman, it must
have the appearance of exaggeration and flattery, and more
particularly if told in my presence, who stood first in courtesy and
generous conduct. I imbibed the potion and retired to the next
room.
Before we continued our route towards Lisbon, Colonel
Abercrombie sent me a message from Albuquerque to say that, not
being present at what took place with the light company in the late
action, it being detached from the battalion, he could not directly
recommend me for my conduct on the occasion; but he requested
me to forward a memorial of my general services through him, thus
giving him an opportunity of giving his testimony to my services
throughout. This generous communication I of course acted upon
immediately; and I wrote to Lord Lynedoch on the subject, from
whom I shortly after received the following letter:—
A LETTER OF
GENERAL “Legiora, November 19th, 1811.
GRAHAM.
“My Dear Blakeney,—I did you all justice, I
assure you, before at the Horse Guards, and have just written
again to Colonel Torrens to remind him of all I said after
Barossa, and to request that he will state my testimony to the
Duke of York in aid of your memorial. Excuse this hasty
scrawl, And believe me truly yours
“Thomas Graham.
“Lieutenant Blakeney, 28th Foot.”

However flattering such a letter was to me, or must be to any


officer however high his rank, when coming from such a person as
Lord Lynedoch, yet it is not from motives of vanity that I give it
publicity, but rather to reflect its true merit back to the pure fount
whence it sprung. Any attempt at eulogy from so humble an
individual as myself could add but little to the brilliancy which his
splendid achievements throw around Lord Lynedoch. I shall
therefore confine myself to saying, in the unsophisticated phrase of
an old campaigner, that the zealous officer who willingly and
conscientiously discharges his duty, though naked of other
patronage or support, will always find in his lordship his most willing
supporter and unswerving friend. Here will be seen an officer, high in
rank and still higher in reputation, commanding a corps of the most
uniformly victorious army which ever graced the military annals of
any nation whatever, writing in familiar language to a subaltern
officer, showing anxiety for his interests and using every exertion to
forward his promotion from no other motive than the belief that he
had fully discharged his duties to his king and country to the utmost
of his abilities. I had no introduction from influential friends to his
lordship, nor had I the honour of his acquaintance previous to the
expedition from Tarifa and the occurrences which took place in the
battle of Barossa. No doubt generals in high or chief command
willingly forward the claims of officers whom they consider deserving
while they continue to serve under them; but I am ignorant of any
other instance where claims on patronage have been invited and
called for, such as in the letter written by Lord Lynedoch to Colonel
Browne at Tarifa, requesting the name of any officer of the flank
battalion under his command who had distinguished himself at the
battle of Barossa. How much more in unison with the genius of
Britain and with the spirit of her free and liberal institutions, and how
much more nobly is the general employed who, like Lord Lynedoch,
diligently and openly seeks through his ranks for objects worthy his
protection, than he who indefatigably searches for pretexts for a
clandestine representation, generally a misrepresentation! And it is
not a little to be wondered at that England, which ever was and ever
will be inimical to the introduction of the inquisition in any country,
should harbour that wicked and degrading institution throughout
every branch of her Service which is smoothly termed “confidential
reports,” thus turning the Army in particular, whose constitution is
based on the most scrupulous adherence to the highest and nicest
principles of honour, into a graduated corps of spies from the ensign
up to the general. Great Britain does not reflect that by encouraging
these confidential or clandestine reports she is inflicting an insulting
and severe censure on the laws and morals of the nation, as not
being sufficient to govern by open and legitimate means.
AGAINST To remove an officer from the Service upon a
CONFIDENTIAL confidential report is both unjust and impolitic, and
REPORTS.
answers no good end. It is but natural to suppose
that when a senior officer accuses a junior by means of clandestine
reports, with the hope of having him removed from the Service
without trial, that this dark mode of procedure arises from
inadequacy of matter to bear him out, or for reasons still darker than
the foul means adopted. But supposing even that it should be made
evident to His Majesty that the officer so reported is unworthy of
continuing in the Service, is it politic to remove him from it without
assigning a cause or making his delinquency public? When a robber
or even murderer is executed, it is not from a vindictive motive, it
takes place as a dreadful warning to deter others from committing a
similar crime; therefore due punishment cannot be made too public,
or its imperative necessity too strongly impressed on the minds of
the people. The injustice of these secret proceedings was clearly
shown at Malta in 1821, at which time I was quartered there. A
commanding officer in the garrison so blackened the characters of a
large portion of his officers through confidential reports that it was
determined to have the greater number of them removed from the
Service. This was discovered by means of a lady of the regiment,
who carelessly said to another that she would soon see the junior
captain become the senior; this being repeated soon became known
throughout the corps, when the officers fortunately arrived at the
true cause of the threatened removal. Consequently, and very
naturally, they spoke openly. To avert the evil they asserted that
tyranny, oppression and falsehood had been used towards them.
This coming to the knowledge of the commanding general, Sir
Thomas Maitland, he ordered a court of inquiry. He clearly stated
that from the reports which he had received from the commanding
officer he had intended to recommend that many officers of the
regiment should be removed from the Service; but in consequence
of its coming to his knowledge that the commanding officer was far
from immaculate, and that oppression or unfounded reports might
have been resorted to, he thus gave the officers an opportunity not
only to exonerate themselves from the charges alleged against
them, but also to declare their grievances. What was the
consequence? One subaltern was brought to court-martial by the
commanding officer and was acquitted; but the commanding officer
was brought to trial upon two-and-twenty grave charges, on one-
and-twenty of which he was found guilty, and as a matter of course
publicly dismissed the Service.
So much for confidential reports. Who can count the number of
high-spirited noble and gallant youths who have fallen victims, or
whose prospects have been blasted through this dastardly mode of
proceeding? It is the noble-minded and high-spirited alone who call
for protection against such an iniquitous system; the fawning and
servile are sure to escape, and not unfrequently with rewards. The
duties of a commanding officer are manifold; and he who does not
execute them with temperance, justice and impartiality is not for
that responsible post.
GENERAL ROSS I had the good fortune of being intimately
AND SIR E. acquainted with that gallant and sterling soldier,
BLAKENEY.
General Ross, who should be held up as a model for
commanding officers of regiments. He at once was the father and
brother of every officer in his corps, and was on the most familiar
and intimate terms with every officer down to the junior ensign; yet
none ever dared or attempted to take the slightest liberty which
could be considered, even by the severest martinet, as derogatory in
the slightest degree to the respect due to the commanding officer or
injurious to the maintenance of the strictest discipline. The respect
entertained by all for Colonel Ross was entirely matter of sentiment
and good feeling. The lively, though sometimes imprudent sallies of
a glowing mind were by him rather laughed away than harshly or
even seriously chided; the feelings of a gentleman were never
wounded in cooling the fervid ebullitions of youth. He felt fully
sensible that the military laws, as sanctioned by his country, were
sufficient for the ends desired, and therefore never resorted to the
cowardly subterfuge of stabbing in the dark by means of clandestine
reports, which are never resorted to except by those who from
meanness of capacity or want of resolution shudder at a fearless and
open discharge of their duty, or whose vicious and vindictive natures
induce them to strike the deadly blow unseen. Such a liberal and
just commanding officer did exist, I know, in the person of the late
General Ross when commanding the 20th Regiment; and such a
commanding officer does exist, I have been told, in the person of Sir
Edward Blakeney, commanding the Royal Fusiliers.
CHAPTER XXII.

I CONTINUE TO PLAY THE GAOLER.

A
fter a short halt at Portalegre Prince Pierre returned to his
regiment, and we continued our route to Lisbon. On arriving
at Abrantes Prince Prosper was splendidly entertained by
Colonel Buchan, who commanded there. The roads being here
impassable for a carriage, that in which the prince travelled was left
behind; and we proceeded in a comfortable boat down the Tagus to
Lisbon, where we safely arrived.

The orders which I received immediately on my arrival were that


the prince should never leave the Duke de Cadoval’s palace, in which
we were lodged, except in my company; and I was never to go out
with him in other than my scarlet uniform. These orders came direct
from the Duke of Wellington. The strictness with which I was
directed to attend so particularly upon the prince did not arise from
any want of confidence in his parole; it was the better to protect
him, for such was the state of public ferment at the time in Lisbon
that nothing but British protection could save him from public and
most probably serious insult and outrage. This state of general
excitement was caused by reports in the Spanish papers, as also by
the assertions of many Spaniards then in Lisbon, that when
Ballesteros was defeated by the French at Ayamonte, the prince,
who served there with his regiment of cavalry, cut many hundred
Spaniards to pieces who were unarmed and who never carried arms
in their lives. At his own particular request I showed him the Spanish
gazettes in which his alleged cruelty was most severely reprobated.
On perusing the papers he remarked with a laugh, “How stupid
these Spaniards in thinking that by thus abusing me they do me
injury! The fools are not aware that the more they accuse me of
cruelty the stronger will be the conviction in the breast of the
emperor that I did my duty zealously.” I merely asked if the emperor
required such mode of performing duty. A momentary reserve
ensued; it was but of short duration. In truth, from the
commencement of our acquaintance to our parting we lived on the
most friendly and intimate terms, and seemed more like two
intimate young gentlemen of equal rank than simple Mr. and a
Serene Highness.
ON The prince was entertained by all the British
NAPOLEON’S authorities in Lisbon. On one occasion he was invited
IDEA OF ZEAL.
to dine with Major-General Sir James Leith, but I was
not included in the invitation. The prince would rather have declined,
but I persuaded him to go, and accompanied him to Sir James’s
house. Asking for an aide-de-camp, I gave the prince to his care,
telling him that I expected that he would not return except
accompanied by an officer; I then immediately retired. I was very
happy at having this opportunity of going out to see some old
friends; I had many, having been twice previously in Lisbon. On my
return, which was rather late, I found the aide-de-camp asleep on
the sofa, and the prince sitting by his side laughing. On awakening
he told me that he received Sir James Leith’s positive injunctions not
to quit the prince until my return home; and he gave me a very
polite message from the general, stating his regret that he was
unacquainted with the mutual obligation that existed between the
prince and me or he would certainly have invited me to dine. Sir
James called next day, and repeated what the aide-de-camp had
previously said. A nearly similar occurrence took place the second
time we dined with Marshal Beresford.
SAD END OF A These invitations were highly honourable to me;
MOUSTACHE. but it was complete servitude, and made me as much
a prisoner as the prince, with the additional weight of
responsibility. The strict obligation of always accompanying the
prince in my uniform interfered with many amusements. In going to
the theatres he was instantly recognised and rudely stared at; and
even had we risked going in plain clothes, contrary to our
instructions, there still remained an obstacle. The prince wore
mustachios, by which he would be immediately known, and with
these he was very unwilling to part. I told him that if he shaved
them off, I should run all hazard and accompany him in plain clothes
in some of our nocturnal rambles. After urgent expostulations on my
part and profound sighs on his, he consented to have them
removed. He sat down before a mirror, determined, despite of
cavalry pride, to cut down the long, long cherished bristly curls of
war. His hand trembled. He shrank from the first touch of the razor,
yet he bore the amputation of the right wing with tolerable fortitude;
then, turning to me with a deep sigh, he held up the amputated
member clotted with lethal soap. He looked mournful and pale; but
however I may have commiserated his grief, for the life of me I
could not refrain from laughing aloud at the appearance of his face
with one mustachio only, which, deprived of its old companion,
appeared double its former length. I requested him to give the
hanger-on no quarter, but instantly to cut him down; the operation
soon followed. The mustachios were washed, cleaned and dried,
then carefully wrapped up in silver paper and forwarded with a
pathetic letter to the duchess, his wife. The prince declared that he
never again would act the soldier either for Napoleon or any other.
This determination arose entirely from his being tired of the army,
not from cutting off the mustachios, which act bore no analogy to
the story of Delilah; and although I was instrumental in cutting off
the hairs of war if not of strength, he never found in me a Philistine.
A tailor was now sent for to make him a brown-coated gentleman.
We now felt no obstacle to our enjoyment of many amusements
from which we previously were debarred. For such was the
metamorphosis from the splendid cavalry uniform, highly decorated
breast, blackened and curled whiskers and mustachios and the fierce
tout-ensemble to the simple brown coat and the plain civic face, that
had I not been present at the barbarous deed, I scarcely could have
believed him to be the same person; and such was my reliance on
his word that I felt no hesitation about his going out, even alone.
The prince entertained very liberally whilst in Lisbon; when he
was not dining out, there were twelve covers at his table for the
officers, his fellow prisoners, who were invited in rotation. One
officer alone, a lieutenant of artillery, was never invited. It was
alleged that when we attacked on the morning of the action, this
unfortunate young man, who commanded the artillery, had no
matches lit, and that had he been prepared we must have lost more
men in killed and wounded while filing through the town; in
consequence, he was cut by every French officer in Lisbon. I felt
much for him, and mentioned to the prince that where they were all
alike unfortunate, it appeared invidious to single out one for neglect;
for whatever his fault might have been, it could not have had the
slightest effect in changing the result of the action. The prince,
although a stern soldier, somewhat relented; but there was such a
person as Napoleon to be taken into consideration. However, he
mentioned the circumstance to General Le Brun, expressing an
inclination to become reconciled to the artillery officer. Le Brun
would not listen to it, alleging that it would be setting a dangerous
example to look over or in any way countenance gross neglect of
duty, at the same time casting a scowling look at me, knowing that it
was I who spoke to the prince on the subject. Annoyed at his
obduracy and a little nettled by his indignant look, I asked him if he
did not think that, had there been mounted patrols on the look-out
to give alarm in proper time, the artillery officer, thus warned, would
have had his guns in battle array; instead of which, we came
absolutely into the town without encountering a single French
dragoon. The general treated my observation with haughty silence;
but the French adjutant-general, also a prisoner, being present,
darted a fiery glance at Le Brun, and would no doubt have applied
his censure of the artillery officer to himself, had he not been
restrained out of consideration for the prince, who was second in
command of the cavalry. Le Brun was disliked by all from his
haughty and overbearing manner. When after the action the officers
made prisoners were required to sign their parole, Le Brun refused,
saying that the word of a general of the French was sufficient. Our
quartermaster-general, Colonel Offley, a gallant and determined
soldier, a German by birth, soon settled the affair in a summary way
by giving orders that if the general refused to sign his parole, he was
to be marched with the bulk of the prisoners. This order cooled the
general’s hauteur: he subscribed.
FROM LISBON On one occasion, when a large party of French
TO ENGLAND officers dined with us, the prince asked me to what
IN TWO
HOURS.
town in England I thought it likely he would be sent
as prisoner of war. This I could not possibly answer.
He then asked which I considered the second town in England. I
said that from a commercial point of view we generally ranked
Liverpool next to London; but as places of fashionable resort
Brighton, Bath and Cheltenham ranked much alike. I inadvertently
asked him which he considered the second town in France. “Rome,”
said he, “ranks the second and Amsterdam the third.” I remarked
that then we had no longer an Italy or a Holland. “Yes,” replied the
prince, “we have both; but by a late edict of the Emperor those two
towns are annexed to France, but it is not the policy of England to
recognise it.” I made a low bow. In compliment to me, I suppose,
the prince changed the topic immediately, saying that he dreaded a
ship so much that he would sooner fight the battles of Talavera and
Albuera over again than undertake so long a voyage as that to
England. I told him to quiet himself on that head, for he might get to
England in two hours. The whole company stared, but particularly Le
Brun, who was always a standing dish at the prince’s table.
Speculation ran high. A balloon was generally suggested, but the
velocity even of this was doubted. I denied the agency of a balloon,
and maintained that it was to be accomplished by wind and water
solely. As I still withheld an explanation, the prince got off his chair,
and flinging away his little foraging cap said, “If you do not tell us I
shall give you a kiss, and I know that you would sooner get a slap
on the face than be kissed by a man.” On his advancing towards me,
I requested that he would sit down and I would give him an
explanation which I felt persuaded would convince all present that
my assertion was perfectly correct. At this a general laugh followed.
The prince being re-seated, I addressed him thus: “In less than two
hours after you leave the quay, you will have got rid of all the boats
which impede your passage down the Tagus, and immediately after
you will steer clear of Fort St. Julian at the influx of the river. You are
then at sea and arrived; for by an old edict, recognised by every
sovereign in Europe, ‘All the seas are England.’” The whole company
endeavoured, although awkwardly, to force a laugh, except Le Brun,
whose scowling frown indicated his chagrin, and I fancied that I
distinguished the word bêtise muttered between his teeth. I longed
for an opportunity of paying him off; it soon occurred.
UN GROS Le Brun called next morning, as usual big with
CANARD. nothing. Perceiving that he wished to be alone with
the prince, I retired to the next room. Soon after the
prince requested me to come back. He was much excited, and
flinging his cap on the floor, “Only think,” said he, “what the general
has been telling me as an undoubted fact. Some rascally Portuguese
has persuaded him to believe that above a hundred sail of French
line of battleships have appeared before Cadiz; that the British
squadron, stationed there, were compelled to fly; that the fortress
must immediately surrender, and consequently all Spain must soon
be in our possession. In the first place,” added the prince, “all the
navy of France do not amount to the number which the general says
are before Cadiz, without taking into consideration the utter
impossibility of their being enabled to form such a junction
unmolested in the face of the British navy. If a corporal of my
regiment told me such a story, believing it, I should turn him into the
ranks.” At this remark the general became highly indignant, and the
prince’s excitement much increased. To restore tranquillity I asked
the general about the appearance of the person who gave him the
important information; and nodding assent to his description, I
exclaimed, “The very man who spoke to me this morning.” “There,”
said the general, happy to have anything like corroboration; “and
what did he tell you?” I looked round with much apparent
precaution, and after anxious pressing on his part and affected
hesitation on mine, I got quite close to the prince and the general,
who took a chair. I then in a low tone of voice, our three heads
nearly touching, said: “When I came to Lisbon this same Portuguese
was pointed out to me as a person who always possessed much
information, but sold it dearly.” All this time the prince was staring at
me, knowing that I bore no great affection for the general. “But,”
said the general, “what information did he give you?” “He told me
that he knew to a certainty, from a source which could not be
doubted—I think you said one hundred?” “Yes,” replied Le Brun,
“one hundred sail of the line.” “He told me,” I resumed, “that there
were two hundred thousand British troops absolutely on the
boulevards of Paris, but not a single soul could tell whence they
came. I gave my informant six gros sous: how much did you give,
mon général?” At this the prince absolutely became convulsed with
laughter. The general darted from his chair, snatched up his hat, and
turning his head half round gave us the most ungracious bonjour
that I ever heard escape the lips of a Frenchman, and then strode
out of the room. Scarcely had he left when the prince ran forward
and absolutely embraced me, saying that I had done him the
greatest favour which I could possibly confer, as he felt sure the
general would torment him no more. He was right; Le Brun never
again called.
CANARD AUX About this time a very laughable scene took place
BOTTES. in Lisbon. An announcement was published in the
papers that an English officer would walk across the
Tagus with cork boots. At the hour specified the concourse was
immense; twenty thousand persons at least were collected at Belem,
the place indicated. Every boat on the Tagus and every vehicle in the
town, of whatever description, was hired for several days previously.
A Portuguese guard were posted to keep the cork-boot platform
clear, and a military band attended; it was in fact a magnificent
pageant. At length the hour of execution arrived, but no cork boots;
hour after hour passed, but still the principal actor was wanting. The
spectators, wearied by fruitless expectation, began to retire; and
here the ingenuity of the hoax was displayed—for when some
thousands had moved off, a sudden rush was made towards the
platform. Those who retired instantly returned, but only to be
disappointed. This ruse, strange to be said, repeatedly succeeded;
back came the crowd, but the great Earl of Cork never came forth.
At length and after dark all retired in the worst possible temper;
many did not reach their homes until after midnight, although Belem
was not more than five miles from Lisbon, such was the throng both
on the Tagus and along the roads. Next day all Lisbon was in uproar
at being thus insulted by the English, who denied all knowledge of
the affair; and in reply to a remonstrance made by the Portuguese
Government on the subject to the English authorities, it was asked
rather acrimoniously how such an absurd article had been permitted
to appear in the public prints when the censorship of the press was
entirely in the hands of the Portuguese Government. This was rather
a poser, and the affair died away in languid laughter.
The time having arrived for the prince’s departure for England,
Captain Percy, in whose ship he was to proceed, mentioned to me
that he had some hope of procuring an exchange between the
prince and his father, Lord Beverley, who was detained in France;
requesting also that I would ascertain from the prince what he
wished put on board for his little comforts. The prince in reply
commissioned me to tell Captain Percy that as to the exchange he
felt fully persuaded that Napoleon, although the uncle of his wife the
duchess, would never consent to the exchange; that as to his
comforts on board he felt extremely obliged to Captain Percy for his
polite and kind attention, and the only thing he requested was a
little old rum. I delivered his message, but told him that it was
scarcely necessary, for there was always sufficient rum on board a
man-of-war. On parting, he told me that whenever I should come to
Brussels I should have no formal invitation to his father’s palace; I
should live there and invite whom I pleased, for I must consider
myself as a master in the house. How I treated him while we lived
together as prisoner and guard may be seen in a letter which I had
the honour of receiving some years afterwards from his late Royal
Highness the Duke of Kent.
It was at my option to accompany the prince to England; I was
strongly recommended to do so, and the prince warmly urged me to
the same effect. The bait was tempting; but although better success
would undoubtedly have attended a campaign in the luxurious Green
Park, surrounded by magnificent mansions, traversed by splendid
equipages, studded with groups of noble courtiers and glittering
flatterers, yet I preferred the uncompromising discharge of my duty
and the wild scenery and extensive plains of Spain, in company with
my gallant companions of the war, whose hearts were open as the
boundless tracts they traversed, their friendship fervid as the genial
sun which glowed over their heads, and their sincerity pure and
unsullied as the mountain breezes they inhaled. All this was good
enough for me.
CHAPTER XXIII.

I GET MY COMPANY AND PROCEED TO


BADAJOZ.

O
n the departure of the prince I immediately joined my
regiment at Albuquerque. On my arrival I had the honour of
dining with General Hill. He congratulated me on my good
fortune in carrying the prince safely to Lisbon, remarking that had I
not been able to harangue the peasantry in their native language,
sixty soldiers instead of six would scarcely have been a sufficient
guard. The general had heard from several Spanish officers of the
difficulty and danger which I had encountered. He then
congratulated me on the certainty of my immediate promotion; was
pleased to say that I should soon reap the reward which I so well
merited, and then handed me the following letter, which he
requested me to keep by me:—

“Gallegos: January 16th, 1812.


“Sir,—I am directed to transmit to you the annexed
extract of a letter from Lieutenant-Colonel Torrens, in reply to
your recommendation in favour of Lieutenant Blakeney.
“The Commander-in-Chief will take an early opportunity
of recommending Lieutenant Blakeney for promotion.
“I have the honour to be, etc.,
“Fitzroy Somerset,
“Military Secretary.
“Lieutenant-General Hill.”

Towards the latter end of February my name appeared in the


Gazette, promoted to a company in the 36th Regiment, dated
January 16th, 1812. After endeavouring in vain to accomplish an
exchange back into my old corps, I forwarded a memorial to the
Duke of Wellington applying for permission to join the 1st Battalion
36th Regiment, then in the Peninsula. His Grace answered that he
could not interfere with the appointment of an officer from one
battalion to another; that being promoted I must join the 2nd
battalion, to which I properly belonged; and that I must therefore
proceed to England and report my arrival to the adjutant-general. A
copy of this answer was forwarded from headquarters to the officer
commanding the 1st Battalion 36th Regiment, then at Almendralejo.
It was matter of surprise to many that whilst hundreds of officers
were vainly applying for leave to go to England, I could not procure
leave to keep from it; but such, no doubt, were the arrangements
between the Horse Guards and the army in the Peninsula.
THE AFFAIR OF In the beginning of March General Hill moved
MERIDA. upon Merida, endeavouring to surprise a detachment
of the enemy there stationed. He approached within a
short distance without being discovered; but an advanced guard
being at length perceived, the enemy hastily evacuated the town. As
we neared the place we saw their rearguard of cavalry crossing the
bridge. Our cavalry and light artillery had previously forded the
Guadiana, and it was confidently expected would soon come up with
the retiring foe. No longer doing duty with the 28th Regiment, I rode
over the bridge as the German dragoons were closely pressing on
the enemy’s rear, passing by their flank. I soon came in view of their
main body. They proceeded hesitatingly, having no doubt been
informed by their patrols that our cavalry had already forded the
Guadiana. They halted on a conical hill, or rather rising mound,
which they occupied from its base to its summit, apparently
expecting to be charged. I immediately wheeled round and returning
at full speed informed General Hill of what I had seen. The general,
whose coolness was never more apparent than when the full energy
of the mind was called into action, replied in his usual placid
manner: “Very well; we shall soon be with them. Gallop over the
bridge again and tell General Long to keep closer to the wood.”
Instantly setting off I soon recrossed the bridge, at the far end of
which I met Lord Charles Fitzroy returning after having delivered a
similar message. The cavalry general’s reply was that he wished to
keep clear of the skirts of the wood, when one of us remarked that
the wood must have skirts more extensive than a dragoon’s cloak to
keep them at such a distance. The enemy, perceiving how far they
kept away, descended from the mound on which they had expected
to be charged, and rapidly pushed forward without any molestation;
for as our dragoons moved they still more deviated from the
enemy’s line of march, and seemed to be en route for Badajoz. Had
our cavalry closed upon the wood and even menaced a charge, the
progress of the enemy would have been impeded; but had our
cavalry and light guns, by which they were accompanied, pushed
forward rapidly, which they could have done since the plain was flat
and level, and headed the enemy, they would have kept them until
our infantry came up. But nothing of the kind was attempted, and so
every French soldier escaped, though every one ought to have been
made prisoner, and this affair of Merida would have been more
complete than even that of Arroyo Molinos; for when I reported the
position of the enemy to General Hill, they were not more than two
miles distant from our advanced guard. This affair caused an era in
the life of General Hill; for I heard many of his oldest acquaintances
remark that before the evening of this day they never saw a cloud
upon his brow.
All hopes of being permitted to remain in the Peninsula having
vanished, I resolved to return to England. With heavy heart I parted
from the regiment in which I first drew my sword, in which my
earliest friendships were formed and my mind modelled as a soldier.
In Colonel Abercrombie’s quarters at Merida many of the officers
were assembled. Sorrowful, I bade adieu to my gallant old
comrades, and quaffed a goblet to their future success whilst I
clasped the colours to my breast—those colours which alone
throughout the British army proudly display the names of the two
bloodiest fought battles in the Peninsula, Barossa and Albuera; and
in each of these battles the regiment claimed a double share of the
glory. At Barossa, while Colonel Belson at the head of the 1st
Battalion charged and turned the chosen grenadiers forming the
right of the enemy’s line, Colonel Browne of the regiment, at the
head of their flank companies, united with those of two other corps,
commanded the independent flank battalion; and this battalion, the
first in the battle and alone, suffered more casualties both in officers
and men (I allude particularly to the flankers of the 28th Regiment)
than triple that sustained by any other battalion present in that
memorable fight. At Albuera the 2nd Battalion of the regiment were
led by a gallant officer, Colonel Patterson; and the brigade in which
they served, that which with the brigade of the gallant Fusiliers
turned the wavering fortunes of the day, were commanded by the
gallant Abercrombie, the second lieutenant-colonel of the regiment.
FAREWELL TO Next morning at parting the light bobs gave me a
THE cheer. I distinguished among them some few of the
SLASHERS.
old ventriloquists of Galicia; but on this occasion their
notes were, I believe, genuine. I bade a mournful farewell to the old
Slashers, and bent my steps towards Badajoz, then about to be
besieged. The next evening (March 15th) I came before the place;
and very opportunely Lieutenant Huddleston of the 28th Regiment,
my brother officer in the battalion company which I commanded for
a short time, arrived on the same day, being appointed to serve in
the Engineer department. He willingly shared his tent with me; and
Sir Frederick Slavin, also of the 28th Regiment, then adjutant-
general of the 3rd Division, introduced me to General Picton, who
did me the honour of saying that I should always find a cover at his
table during my stay before Badajoz. General Bowes, with whom I
had the pleasure of being acquainted at Gibraltar, gave me a similar
invitation. Thus, finding myself comparatively at home, I felt in no
way inclined to proceed too quickly to Lisbon.
During the siege I assisted generally in the trenches. On March
16th everything was finally arranged, and on the following evening
the different divisions and regiments prepared to occupy their
respective posts. All the troops being assembled, generals and
commanding officers inspected their brigades and regiments in
review order. The parade was magnificent and imposing. The colours
of each regiment proudly, though scantily, floated in the breeze; they
displayed but very little embroidery. Scarcely could the well-earned
badges of the regiments be discerned; yet their lacerated condition,
caused by the numberless wounds which they received in battle,
gave martial dignity to their appearance and animated every British
breast with national pride. The review being terminated, a signal
was given for each corps to proceed to that spot of ground which
they were destined to open. The whole moved off. All the bands by
one accord played the same tune, which was cheered with shouts
that bore ominous import and appeared to shake Badajoz to its
foundation. The music played was the animating national Irish air,
St. Patrick’s Day, when the shamrock was proudly clustered with the
laurel; and indeed, though these two shrubs are not reckoned of the
same family by proud collectors in the Cabinet, veterans hold them
to be closely allied in the field. Never was St. Patrick’s day more
loudly cheered or by stouter hearts, and never was the music more
nobly accompanied nor with more warlike bass; for all the troops
echoed the inspiring national air as proudly they marched to their
ground. Phillipon maintained an incessant fire of cannon, roared
forth in proud defiance from the destined fortress; and Badajoz
being now invested on both sides of the Guadiana, the operations of
the siege were eagerly pressed forward.
On the 19th, during the completion of the 1st parallel, a sortie
was made by the besieged soon after mid-day. Fifteen hundred of
their infantry, screened by the ravelin San Roque, formed between
that opening and the Picurina or small redoubt. They immediately
pressed forward and gained the works before our men could seize
their arms, while at the same time a party of cavalry, about fifty, the
only horsemen in the fortress, got in rear of the parallel. The
confusion was great at the first onset. Those on guard and the
working men were driven out of the trenches, and the cavalry
sabred many in the depôts at the rear; but the mischief being
quickly discovered was soon remedied. The Guards being reinforced
immediately rallied and drove the enemy out of the works at the
point of the bayonet, when many lives were lost. A part of the
embankment was thrown into the trenches, and the enemy carried
away almost all the entrenching tools found in the parallel. We lost
one hundred and fifty men in killed and wounded during this attack.
CAPTURE OF The siege was now carried on without
FORT interruption, notwithstanding the severity of the
PICURINA.
weather, which frequently filled the trenches with
water; and so great was the fall of rain on the 22nd that the
pontoon bridge was carried away by the Guadiana overflowing its
banks, and the flying bridges over that river could scarcely be
worked. This threatened a failure of the siege, from the difficulty of
supplying the troops with provisions and the impossibility of bringing
the guns and ammunition across. Fortunately for the attack of the
fortress however the disaster was remedied by the river falling
within its banks.
The morning of the 25th was ushered in by saluting the garrison
with twenty-eight pieces of cannon, opened from six different
batteries; and in the evening Fort Picurina was stormed, gallantly
carried and permanently retained. The enemy made a sortie on the
night of the 29th, on the right bank of the Guadiana against General
Hamilton’s division, who invested the fortress on that side; they were
driven back with loss, and on this occasion the besiegers had no
casualties.
On the last day of March twenty-six pieces of ordnance from the
2nd Parallel opened their fire against Fort Trinidad and the flank of
the protecting bastion, Santa Maria. This fire continued incessantly,
aided by an additional battery of six guns, which also opened from
the 2nd Parallel on the morning of April 4th against the ravelin of
San Roque. On the evening of the 6th Trinidad, Santa Maria and the
ravelin of San Roque were breached.
Preparations were made to storm the town that night; but
reports having been made by the engineers that strong works had
been erected for the defence of the two breaches, particularly in
rear of the large one made in the face of the bastion of Trinidad,
where deep retrenchments had been constructed and every means
resorted to which art and science could devise to prevent an
entrance, the attack was therefore put off. Many hundred lives were
spared, but for twenty-four hours only. All the guns in the 2nd
Parallel were now directed against the curtain of Trinidad; and
towards the following evening a third breach appeared; and the
storming of Badajoz was arranged in the following order for the
night of the 6th. The 4th division under command of Major-General
the Honourable C. Colville, and the light division under Lieutenant-
Colonel Barnard, were destined to attack the three breaches opened
in the bastion of Trinidad, Santa Maria and the connecting curtain.
Lieutenant-General Picton, with the 3rd or fighting division, was
directed to attack the castle, which, from the great height of its walls
and no breach having been attempted there, the enemy considered
secure against assault. The ground left vacant by the advance of the
4th and light divisions was to be occupied by the 5th division,
commanded by General Leith, with instructions to detach his left
brigade, under General Walker, to make a false attack against the
works of the fortress near the Guadiana, as also against the
detached work the Pardaleras. Brigadier-General Power, commanding
a Portuguese brigade on the opposite bank, was ordered to divert by
making false attacks upon a newly formed redoubt called Mon Cœur,
upon Fort St. Cristoval, upon the tête du pont and upon I forget
what else. With these instructions the troops moved forward from
the entrenchments about ten o’clock at night to attack the destined
town. The 3rd Division, under Picton, preceded the general
movement about a quarter of an hour for the purpose of drawing
away the enemy’s attention from the openings in the wall, since
these were considered the only really vulnerable points of the
fortress. The 4th and light divisions pushed gallantly forward against
these breaches, and were not discovered until they had entered the
ditch. During their advance the town was liberally supplied with
shells from our batteries, and the upper parts of the breaches were
continually fired upon by light troops placed upon the glacis to
disperse the enemy and prevent their repairing the broken defences.
This fire was but slightly answered, until the two divisions mentioned
were discovered entering the ditch, when they were assailed by an
awful cannonade, accompanied by the sharp and incessant
chattering of musketry. Fireballs were shot forth from the fortress,
which illumined the surrounding space and discovered every
subsequent movement.
NIGHT ATTACK The dreadful strife now commenced. The
ON BADAJOZ. thundering cheer of the British soldiers as they rushed
forward through the outer ditch, together with the
appalling roar of all arms sent forth in defiance from within, was
tremendous. Whenever an instant pause occurred it was filled by the
heartrending shrieks of the trodden-down wounded and by the
lengthened groans of the dying. Three times were the breaches
cleared of Frenchmen, driven off at the point of the bayonet by
gallant British soldiers to the very summit, when they were by the no
less gallant foe each time driven back, leaving their bravest officers
and foremost soldiers behind, who, whether killed or wounded, were
tossed down headlong to the foot of the breaches. Throughout this
dreadful conflict our bugles were continually sounding the advance.
The cry of “Bravo! bravo!” resounded through the ditches and along
the foot of the breaches; but no British cry was heard from within
the walls of Badajoz save that of despair, uttered by the bravest,
who despite of all obstacles forced their way into the body of the
place, and there through dire necessity abandoned, groaned forth
their last stabbed by unnumbered wounds. Again and again were
the breaches attacked with redoubled fury and defended with equal
pertinacity and stern resolution, seconded by every resource which
science could adopt or ingenuity suggest. Bags and barrels of
gunpowder with short fuses were rolled down, which, bursting at the
bottom or along the face of the breaches, destroyed all who
advanced. Thousands of live shells, hand-grenades, fireballs and
every species of destructive combustible were thrown down the
breaches and over the walls into the ditches, which, lighting and
exploding at the same instant, rivalled the lightning and thunder of
heaven. This at intervals was succeeded by an impenetrable
darkness as of the infernal regions. Gallant foes laughing at death
met, fought, bled and rolled upon earth; and from the very earth
destruction burst, for the exploding mines cast up friends and foes
together, who in burning torture clashed and shrieked in the air.
Partly burned they fell back into the inundating water, continually
lighted by the incessant bursting of shells. Thus assailed by opposing
elements, they made the horrid scene yet more horrid by shrieks
uttered in wild despair, vainly struggling against a watery grave with
limbs convulsed and quivering from the consuming fire. The roaring
of cannon, the bursting of shells, the rattle of musketry, the awful
explosion of mines and the flaring sickly blaze of fireballs seemed
not of human invention, but rather as if all the elements of nature
had greedily combined in the general havoc, and heaven, earth and
hell had united for the destruction alike of devoted Badajoz and of
its furious assailants.
HELL ON In consequence of untoward disasters, which
EARTH. occurred at the very onset by the troops being falsely
led, their numbers were seriously diminished and their
compact formation disorganised. The third or last opening in the
curtain was never attempted, although this breach was the most
practicable, as it had been made only a few hours before, and thus
there had been no time to strengthen its defences. Owing to this
ruinous mistake, the harassed and depressed troops failed in their
repeated attacks.
CHAPTER XXIV.

AT BADAJOZ.

A
t length the bugles of the 4th and light divisions sounded the
recall. At this moment General Bowes, whom I accompanied
in the early part of the fight, being severely wounded, and his
aide-de-camp, my old comrade and brother officer Captain Johnson,
28th Regiment, being killed, as I had no duty to perform (my
regiment not being present), I attended the general as he was borne
to his tent. He enquired anxiously about poor Johnson, his relative,
not being aware that this gallant officer received his death-shot
while he was being carried to the rear in consequence of a wound
which he had received when cheering on a column to one of the
breaches.

Having seen the general safely lodged, I galloped off to where


Lord Wellington had taken his station. This was easily discerned by
means of two fireballs shot out from the fortress at the
commencement of the attack, which continued to burn brilliantly
along the water-cut which divided the 3rd from the other divisions.
Near the end of this channel, behind a rising mound, were Lord
Wellington and his personal staff, screened from the enemy’s direct
fire, but within range of shells. One of his staff sat down by his side
with a candle to enable the general to read and write all his
communications and orders relative to the passing events. I stood
not far from his lordship. But due respect prevented any of us
bystanders from approaching so near as to enable us to ascertain
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