by Mark Urban
– ‘a one-off gratuity of a year’s pay’: several 95th officers were to become eligible for this bounty, by virtue of serious wounds, but remain serving with their regiment. John FitzMaurice, a young subaltern who joined in 1811, on the other hand, went home for a year after being wounded at Badajoz.
70 ‘some got as much as ninepence a day’: this was William Green’s pension. There are various stories of soldiers getting less than this. The awards were usually decided by a board at somewhere like the Royal Hospital (Chelsea or Dublin).
– ‘It was a place noted for every species of skulk’: Costello.
70 ‘Late in the summer of 1810, Brigadier Craufurd wrote to Wellington estimating that’: Craufurd’s letter, 22 October 1810, cited by Spurrier.
– ‘Some of the younger soldiers, benefiting by the instruction given to them by old malingerers’: this was a surgeon called William Gibney, actually describing practices in Chelsea, where the interest in staying in hospital might well have been greater than in Portugal, where Belem barracks was a superior alternative. Gibney is quoted by Dr Martin Howard in Wellington’s Doctors, Spellmount, 2002, a very useful study of army medicine at this time.
71 ‘On 23 October, Headquarters issued a General Order’: in Wellington’s Dispatches. The narrative does not proceed in strict chronological order here, for I consider this General Order from late October, then Simmons, writing early in September, before moving on in the next chapter to Busaco in late September.
– ‘Private Billy McNabb of the 95th was one such’: his basic story is told by Costello. However, various details gleaned from regimental muster rolls have been added.
SEVEN Busaco
74 ‘the voltigeurs of the 69ème Régiment’: Campagnes du Capitaine Marcel, ed. Le Commandant Var, Paris, 1913, is the source of informtion on Marcel and his battle.
– ‘Their generals could observe all our movements and even count the number of files’: François-Nicholas Fririon, Journal Historique de la Campagne de Portugal, Paris, 1841.
75 ‘There had been a heated discussion the night before’: various French sources give different versions of this, including Fririon and J. Marbot, Mémoires du General Baron Marbot, Paris, 1892.
76 ‘preceded by its skirmishers. Arriving on the mountain’s crest it will form in [battle] line’: Masséna’s orders are reproduced in Vol. III of Oman’s History.
– ‘No cartridges, go in with the bayonet!’: Marcel.
78 ‘Simon’s six battalions, marching behind in tight, long columns little more than thirty or forty men across the front’: Leach in his MS letter home mentions the French battalions coming up in ‘column of sections’, which would mean half a company’s width, the French companies being somewhat under strength.
– ‘We must give the French their due and say that no men could come up in a more resolute manner’: Leach MS letter.
– ‘Simon had got his guns’: the British sources say little about this, but since Fririon, Marbot and other French ones are adamant, I believe that they fell briefly into the power of the French.
78 ‘I turned about to the 43rd and 52nd Regiments and ordered them to charge’: Craufurd’s account of the battle, in a letter to his wife, undated, cited by Spurrier.
– ‘An officer of the 52nd recounted’: George Napier, another of the military brothers – his account is contained in Passages in the Early Military Life, ed. Gen. W. Napier, London, 1884.
79 ‘they loosed off a ragged volley at the chargers’: George Napier.
– ‘We kept firing and bayoneting till we reached the bottom’: George Napier.
80 ‘it is clear that the six battalions taken forward by Simon suffered terrible casualties among their officers’: details from A. Martinien, Tableaux par Corps et par Batailles des officiers tués et blessés pendant les guerres de l’Empire, Paris, 1899, a monumental standard work and the starting point for much analysis of Napoleonic battles.
– ‘Colonel Bechaud of the 66ème, for example, having recovered from his chest wound in July at the Coa’: Fririon.
– ‘the English were the only troops who were perfectly practised in the use of small arms’: Marbot, a man generally regarded as something of a romancer with regard to his own exploits, but quite right in this context, even if this reflection may have been made some years later.
81 ‘The French did not want to issue rifles to their men’: Neuf Mois de Campagnes à la Suite du Maréchal Soult, by Lt Col J. B. Dumas, Paris, c. 1900. Although a history of the later (1813–14) campaign, the introductory chapter contains one of the most impressive and detailed analyses, from a French perspective, of the French Army’s failure to match British firepower.
– ‘The French also considered the rifle a very suspect thing if it just caused the soldier to sit, trying to pick off his enemy at long range’: Duhesme.
– ‘It was an unsuitable weapon for the French soldier, and would only have suited phlegmatic, patient, assassins’: Comte Jean-Jacques Gassendi, Aide-Mémoire des Officiers d’Artillerie de France, Paris, 1809. Gassendi reminds us of the deep influence of such notions of national character in this epoch.
– ‘The consumption of this munition is quite incredible’: this comment was made by General Éblé, commander of French artillery and engineers during the siege, in a letter to the Minister of War in Paris dated 20 July 1810. It is reproduced in Capt. M. Griod de L’Ain’s Le Général Éblé, Paris, 1893. Éblé later died of exhaustion having led his engineers into the freezing waters of the River Berezina, saving the remnants of Napoleon’s army during the Retreat from Moscow in 1812.
82 ‘enormous loss of officers’: Fririon.
– ‘Our heavy losses at Busaco had chilled the ardour of Masséna’s lieutenants’: Marbot.
82 ‘In his official Busaco dispatch, Wellington praised Craufurd’: Wellington’s letter to the Earl of Liverpool, 30 September 1810, in Wellington’s Dispatches.
83 ‘the 26th, 66th and 82nd are Bridge of Lodi boys, but of the heights of Busaco I daresay they will be less proud’: Leach MS Journal.
EIGHT The Corporal’s Stripes
84 ‘This day’s march was about as miserable as I wish to see’: Leach MS Journal.
– ‘lines of fortifications stretching twenty-nine miles from the Atlantic coast in the west’: details of Torres Vedras, Oman.
85 ‘After such a miserable march, Captain O’Hare’s pleasure’: Simmons.
– ‘Never was a town more completely deserted than Arruda’: Leach, Rough Sketches.
– ‘This was the only instance during the war in which the light division had reason to blush for their conduct’: John Kincaid, Adventures in the Rifle Brigade.
– ‘the rifleman, who celebrated his twenty-seventh birthday in Arruda, had become something of a friend and a personal project’: Fairfoot is mentioned in Simmons’s letters and journals, which is highly unusual for officers in this period. In a later memorandum about the Waterloo campaign, dated 15 October 1850 (Sir William Cope’s letter book, National Army Museum MSS 6804-2 Vol. I), Simmons pays Fairfoot many compliments. My own suspicion is that Simmons may even have taught Fairfoot to read and write, for Fairfoot’s promotions in the militia were only to the rank of drummer – i.e. to a station not requiring literacy.
86 ‘as great a tyrant as ever disgraced the Army’: this is Wheeler’s description in Liddell Hart, as is the following quotation about volunteering and the general description of life in the Royal Surreys.
– ‘frequent opportunities are afforded for the display of personal courage’: Sergeant William Weddeburne, Observations on the Exercise of Riflemen and the Movements of Light Troops in General, Norwich, 1804. This text is very rare, and I am grateful to Ron Cassidy for copying the one in the RGJ Museum for me.
87 ‘His company had set sail in May 1809 with six sergeants and six corp orals’: this comes from my own work, and that of Eileen Hathaway, on the regimental muster molls.
– ‘Esau Jackson … got h
imself appointed to a comfy sinecure in charge of stores at Belem’: this is borne out by both Costello and the muster rolls.
87 ‘the “Green Book” written by Colonel Coote Manningham’: a copy survives in the RGJ Museum.
88 ‘the non-commissioned officer will make the most minute inspection of the men’: this quotation comes not from the Green Book but from Manningham’s Military Lectures Delivered to the 95th (Rifle) Regiment 1803, first published in the Rifle Brigade Chronicle, 1896, and republished by Ken Trotman, 2002, under the same covers as Light Cavalry Outposts by F. de Brack.
– ‘But while bright enough, and no skulker on the battlefield, Almond’s company commander had taken against him’: Costello.
89 ‘If I ever have any occasion to observe any man of the Brigade pick his road’: these notes survived in Leach’s papers and were reproduced in Verner.
90 ‘in time enough to save us from total annihilation’: Leach MS Journal, ditto the preceding quotation.
– ‘Are you aware, General, that the whole of Junot’s corps is close’: Simmons, who clearly loved seeing Craufurd humiliated by Wellington as much as Leach did.
– ‘Craufurd had been making representations to Horse Guards for some time about the need for more troops’: Spurrier.
– ‘The company with which I had just arrived were much distressed to keep pace’: Kincaid, Random Shots.
91 ‘The early part of their evenings was generally spent in witticisms and tales’: Kincaid, Random Shots.
92 ‘Had sentence of death been pronounced, it could not have sounded more harsh’: the tales of Plunket’s grog and the still, Costello.
– ‘If a man in England … fancies that he really knows the comfort of tobacco’: Leach, Rough Sketches.
– ‘Books were in short supply’: the Gairdner diary (NAM MSS) makes clear that he was one of the French speakers who read Nouvelle Héloïse. As to Don Quixote, Costello uses the term ‘Dulcinea’ and Leach refers to his ‘Rosinante’. There are numerous references to Gil Blas in Peninsular writings, including a couple by Wellington himself. In Page’s ‘Intelligence Officer in the Peninsula’, there is a list of reading matter in the possession of Captain Edward Cocks. It includes Spenser’s Faerie Queen, Warton’s History of English Poetry, Milford’s Grecian History and a number of titles of professional military interest. Cocks, however, was an officer of unusual education and wealth.
93 ‘He wrote to them of his “miserable position”’: letter from Craufurd to his wife, 5 September 1810, cited by Spurrier.
– ‘I would beg you to reflect whether, considering the situation in which you stand in the Army’: Wellington to Craufurd, 9 December 1810, in Wellington’s Dispatches.
– ‘without reducing me to the painful alternative which I have at present to contemplate’: Craufurd’s reply to Wellington, 17 December 1810, cited by Spurrier.
94 ‘Brigadier General Craufurd has sailed for England’: Leach MS Journal, entry for 3 February.
NINE Pombal
95 ‘constant reports brought in that they cannot remain much longer in their present positions as the soldiery are suffering sad privations’: Simmons, as is the following quotation.
96 ‘looked like a city of the plague, represented by empty dogs and empty houses’: a characteristically elegant turn of phrase from Kincaid, Adventures.
– ‘sixty-five thousand when it entered Portugal, to just over forty thousand as it left’: Oman’s figures, based on careful analysis of French returns.
– ‘The Peninsular Army had become chronically short of cash during the winter’: there are various letters in Wellington’s Dispatches averting to the shortage of specie or ready money at this time. The regimental muster rolls show the 95th’s periods without pay.
97 ‘Go kill a Frenchman for yourself!’: Costello.
– ‘It was a sunshiny morning, and the red coats and pipeclayed belts and glittering of men’s arms in the sun looked beautiful’: Simmons.
– ‘The files (a pair of men in each case) would then move apart – anything from two to six paces between them’: this section is based on Rottemburg’s regulations plus some other texts of the kind.
98 ‘most of the Light Division adopted skirmishing tactics too’: the MS version of Simmons’s diary was edited by Verner and his starting copy remains in the RGJ Archive. He says of the advance ‘the remaining part of the Division [i.e. not the 95th] were nearly all advancing in skirmishing order’.
99 ‘but was refused because he had gone out of action with the wounded’: Allen’s story is told in Costello.
100 ‘He is very blind, which is against him at the head of the cavalry’: one of my favourite Iron Duke quotations, because it is so utterly dry and mordant. It comes from his letter to Beresford, 24 April 1811, in Dispatches.
– ‘checked with ninety-four casualties, including two officers and three soldiers of the 95th killed’: the officers of the 95th were Major Stewart and Lieutenant Strode. Technically they both ‘died of wounds’ rather than being killed in action.
– ‘they soon began referring to him as “Ass-skin”’: Verner is the source of this gem. Smith, rather knowingly, calls Erskine an ‘ass’ at one point in his narrative.
101 ‘pressing us harder than usual’: Marcel.
101 ‘From 5 to 15 March, that is to say in eleven days, [the corps] sped across thirty-three leagues’: Fririon.
102 ‘If you ask me whether we might not have done more than we have, I have no hesitation in answering certainly yes’: my old friend George Scovell, in a letter to Colonel Le Marchant, 11 April 1811, contained in the Le Marchant Papers, Packet 1a, Item 4.
103 ‘Our regiment gets terribly cut up’: Simmons, letter of 26 March.
– ‘Pillaging is expressly forbidden, and pillagers will be punished’: this order was dated 3 April and is reprinted in Fririon.
TEN Sabugal
104 ‘An eerie sound penetrated the early-morning fog’: Harry Smith described it.
– ‘Wellington issued orders for a large-scale attack’: the orders, written up by his Quarter Master General, are reproduced in Vol. IV of the 1852 Wellington’s Dispatches.
– ‘soon enough, they were wading up to their waists’: according to Simmons in a letter home. In his journal, oddly, Simmons says the water came up to their armpits.
105 ‘three companies of the 3rd Cacadores, generally reckoned the best Portuguese troops’: Verner argues they were not present, but they are referred to in Wellington’s Dispatches so I think we must assume they were.
106 ‘short-sighted old ass’: Smith.
– ‘A brigade of dragoons under Sir William Erskine, who were to have covered our right’: Kincaid, Adventures.
– ‘the whole of Right Wing formed one long skirmish line’: Simmons.
107 ‘the galling fire of the 95th Rifles at point blank [soon] compelled them to retire’: John Cox MS Journal, also the following quotation.
– ‘Beckwith, finding himself alone and unsupported, in close action, with only hundreds to oppose the enemy’s thousands’: Kincaid, Random Shots.
108 ‘Having come forward in columns, they could not now deploy into firing lines’: Cox and Simmons are quite specific about the French coming forward in columns. The point about not deploying into line derives from study of the ground and of the frontage that would have been required for this.
– ‘Now my lads, we’ll just go back a little if you please’: the Beckwith quotations in this section come from Simmons and Kincaid.
109 ‘Their officers are certainly very prodigal of life, often exposing themselves ridiculously’: Simmons.
– ‘Shoot that fellow, will you?’: these Beckwith quotations are from Smith.
109 ‘The regiments facing the British brigade in this part of the fight had eighteen officers shot’: Martinien and Oman.
110 ‘our loss is much less than one would have supposed possible, scarcely two hundred men’: letter of 4 April 1811 to Beresford,
in Dispatches.
– ‘Of the five French colonels who led their regiments against the Light Division’: Martinien. The colonels of the 2ème Léger and 70ème Line both died of wounds received at Sabugal, the 6ème and 17ème Léger had their colonels wounded.
– ‘If anything brilliant has been done, it will be to a certain degree mortifying’: Craufurd letter, cited by Spurrier as ‘early April’.