2nd
Battalion of Detachments 1809
When the 82nd Regiment departed from Corunna in January 1809, it left behind in
the Peninsula a number of officers and men, mostly on sick rolls. This was not
an isolated phenomenon, as many such regimental detachments were to be found
scattered over Portugal, cut off from their colours by the fortunes of war.
Because such a small British covering force had been left behind in Portugal by
Moore when he started off into Spain, it was decided by the British Commander in
Lisbon, Lt. Gen. Sir John Cradock, to organize two battalions out of these stray
groups, rather than send them home. Thus was created the 1st and 2nd Battalion's
of Detachments.
The stray soldiers of
the 82nd left in Portugal were thus attached to the 2nd Battalion of
Detachments, commanded by Lt. Colonel Edward Copeson, late of the 4th Foot. The
detachment of 82nd soldiers mustered a total of 9 officers and 96 men, enough to
form a single company. The highest ranking officer present from the corps,
Captain Robert Carew, was given the command of this unit. Due to the fact that
George Wood was part of this company, having fallen out of the march in bad
health at Lamego when the corps was moving to join Gen. Moore, there is a good
first hand account of this company, and indeed the entire battalion’s
experiences. So while the 82nd Regiment took part in the Walcheren Expedition
and recuperated in England, this detached company of the South Lancashire's
fought with Wellington during both the Douro and the Talavera campaigns of 1809
in the Peninsula. Therefore a short description of the detachments’ adventures
follows.
The
Douro Campaign, May 1809
Following the embarkation of Moore’s British army from the Peninsula,
Napoleon ordered two French armies, under Soult and Victor, to invade Portugal.
While Marshal Victor did not follow through on this order, Soult did, invading
Portugal from Galicia in the Spring of 1809, capturing Oporto on the 29th of
March. On April 22 however, Lt. Gen. Sir Auther Wellesley again took command of
the British army in Portugal and immediately set off on a campaign to evict
Soult back into Spain. Wood recalls in his memoirs the reaction of the British
soldiers upon seeing the victor of Rolica and Vimiero back commanding them:
“We
commenced our march for Oporto, to which spot our line of operations was
directed; and had only been on our route about four days, when to our great joy
we were overtaken by our former General, Sir Author Wellesley, who came to
re-assume the command. I well remember the huzzas we cheered him as he passed
our line of march; the men from that moment, as if by instinct, wore the
countenance of confidence, which never forsook our army even to the conclusion
of the contest.”[1]
The
town of Oporto, on the Douro River
The 2nd Battalion of Detachments as a whole mustered at the beginning of the
campaign 35 officers and 787 men present. For this campaign it was placed
in Brigadier Sontag’s Brigade, along with the 97th, the 2/16th Portuguese and
one rifle company of the 5/60th, which in turn formed part of Lt. Gen.
Sherbrooke’s Division. This division was part of the main column under the
command of Wellesley himself. The campaign was a quick affair. The column
departed from Coimbra on May 8 and fought minor actions against the retreating
French at Albergaria Nova and Grijon on the 10th and 11th respectively, arriving
at the Douro River opposite Oporto on May 12. Wood describes the devastation and
death caused by the retreating foe and the retribution meted out to enemy
stragglers by the Portuguese:
“As
we approached the banks of the Douro, every step brought us into scenes more
horrid. The enemies advanced posts had in these parts left numerous marks of
their ravages, and traces of their skirmishing. We now began to see the dying
and dead: some of these had been mangled in a manner too shocking to be
described, by the Portuguese female peasants, out of revenge for the brutal treatment
previously experienced from them. Now we passed clusters of inhabitants hanging
mutilated on one tree, and on the next as many French were suspended, all hacked
and gored in the same manner, by way of retaliation; such was the animosity
subsisting between these inveterate foes! The priests were busily employed in
taking down their unfortunate countrymen, praying for them and burying them.”[2]
Upon reaching the River and taking advantage of the discovery of some
undamaged boats, a crossing was quickly undertaken with success and after some
hard fighting Oporto was in British hands by nightfall: a major coup for
Wellesley. Five more days of marching followed, during which the French army
only barely escaped entrapment and destruction by abandoning all its heavy
equipment, including cannon, baggage and plunder, and setting off north across
mountain paths. By May 18, Soult’s shattered army was across the border and
the campaign at a successful conclusion. The company of the 82nd and its
battalion are not attested as having taken any casualties during these operations.
The
Talavera Campaign, July – August, 1809
Upon the successful conclusion of operations in northern Portugal, Sir
Author Wellesley lost no time in re-orienting the British army towards the
second French army threatening Portugal, the 1st Corps under Marshal Victor,
which in May was based in Estramadura. On May 18 the 2nd Battalion of
Detachments was ordered to move south and by June 14 was in camp at Abrantes on
the Tagus River. For this operation, the makeshift corps was brigaded under Maj.
Gen. James Kemmis, along with the 1/40th, 9th and one company of rifles from the
5/60th. Kemmis’s brigade in turn comprised one half of the 4th Division, under
Maj. Gen. Alexander Campbell.
On June 28, 1809, the British army began to move and on July 3 crossed
the border into Spain. It was now the height of summer and the advance in the
hot, dry regions of Estramadura caused much discomfort and sometimes sunstroke
and death among the British soldiers. George Wood describes the advance of the
company of 82nd men:
“Our
advance continued, and the weather retained its sultry heat. Many a weary step,
over many a dreary league, we dragged through the dusty way; sometimes not
seeing a house for days together, sometimes without a drop of water to wet the
parched and swollen tongue of the way-dropped soldier – for there were many
who sunk under the oppression of this excessive heat.”[3]
Finally, on July 10, the British reached the town of Placencia and were
afforded a short rest. Here some attempts were made by Wellesley to improve the
transport and commissariat of the army, which were both in a bad way. When all
that could be accomplished was undertaken and after some late-coming
reinforcements had caught up, the army set off again, reaching Oropesa on the
Tagus River on the 20th, where the British force combined with a Spanish army
under Col. Gen. Cuesta. On the 22nd, both armies marched further east, up the
Tagus valley. On July 23 they reached the town of Talavera de la Reyna. A few
days later, a large French army appeared and great battle soon followed.
The
Battle of Talavera, Aug 27 - 28
The 2nd Battalion of Detachments, as part of Kemmis’s Brigade, was posted on
the far right of the British position, where it connected to the Spanish line,
which in turn ran down to the Tagus River. In front was a small creek: the
Portina Brook. The battle lasted two days, and began at about 4pm in the
afternoon on the 27th. Wellesley was in the act of moving some
advanced divisions into their chosen places at the juncture of the two allied
armies. Kemmis’s Brigade was already settled into place, while Alexander Mackenzie's
Division was in a forward position across the Portina Brook waiting to be maneuvered,
when according to George Wood:
“…as
we had just commenced cooking, the drum beat to arms, and we distinctly heard
the advanced division, under General M’Kenzie, who so gloriously fell there, severely
engaged. We seized the meat, half-cooked as it was, out of the camp-kettles, and
arrived at the position just in time to receive the enemy. They experienced a
pretty hot reception from our British soldiers, who were a handful in comparison
of their numerous battalions…”[4]
This initial attack was carried with great élan by the French and
Donkin’s brigade of Mackenzie's division was mostly taken by surprise and
scattered with loss, until the other brigade of the Division, led by Wellesley
himself, came up and restored the situation. This opening skirmish in the battle
cost the British over 400 casualties, but the line held in the face of repeated
attacks by French columns and the fighting finally died down towards midnight.
Because of the proximity of the French army, the men were made to stand-to-arms
all night. When morning came, the battle continued:
“…ere
dawn of day, the dreadful roar of all-destructive cannon again commenced, and a
fresh attack ensured even more spirited than the former. It was a most
tremendous day; such a continual clash of arms, incessant fire of musketry,
balls whizzing, and shells exploding, that I am at a loss to describe the
consternation, yet sublimity of this great battle.”[5]
For the morning, the main French attack was further north along the British
line, as they attempted to carry a low hill called the Medellin, but were beaten
off. At 1pm, two French Divisions, about 30,000 bayonets, opposite Campbell's
division, where the 82nd Company was arrayed in a reserve line, moved forward in
great squares and after a hot fight were repulsed with great loss. Further
French attacks along other parts of the British position failed and the action petered
off into long range cannon duels. The next day, the French army was gone,
leaving the bloody field to the British and Spanish armies. Casualties by
company are not recorded, but at Talavera the 2nd Battalion of Detachments
suffered 7 men killed, 13 wounded and 1 missing. Total casualties for the
British were 5,363 and 7,268 for the French.[6]
The Allied army stayed on the field of battle for several days, with Wood noting
that at this stage in the war no effort was now made to bury the dead of either
side…
“Indeed,
the system of warfare appeared entirely changed; at the onset we used to bury
our dead, but it now became more a-la-mode to let them variegate the field with
their bleaching bones.”[7]
The
Battle of Talavera
On 3rd August the British army began to retrace it steps back down the Tagus
Valley, after finding that a large French concentration under Marshal Soult had
taken Placencia two days previous, disrupting Wellesley’s supply lines and
placing itself almost in between the British army and Portugal. This was a
delicate situation and a mistake may have meant annihilation, so Wellesley, now
given the title Wellington, prudently declined battle with Soult and crossed to
the south bank of the Tagus at Arzobispo on the 4th. The army thus managed to
avoid being caught between the two approaching French forces, but came into much
hardship now due to having been cut off from its supplies: the men were
starving. The low-point came for Wood in spending a full day on an empty stomach
hauling artillery pieces up a steep mountain after crossing the bridge at Arzobispo.
Much of the march thereafter was an exercise in searching for victuals to live
on in the hot dry weather. The danger passed before disaster fell, however, when
the army approached the Portuguese frontier at Badajoz.
From here, on September 21, the 2nd Battalion of Detachments was ordered on to
Lisbon, where it and its sister 1st Battalion were boarded onto ships and sent
home. Upon arrival, the battalion was marched to Salisbury. Here the makeshift
corps, after its many adventures, was finally disbanded, allowing the strays of
the 82nd to rejoin the regiment, now convalescing from its Walcheren debacle at
Lewes Barracks in Sussex. Six weeks later, the reconstituted 82nd was again
ordered on foreign service, this time destined for Gibraltar. But before a
description of the regiment's return to Spain is related, the experiences of the
corps at Walcheren must be undertaken.
______________________________________________
[1] G. Wood, The Subaltern
Officer (Cambridge: Ken Trotman Ltd, 1986), pg 74.
[6] Charles Oman, History of
the Peninsular War, Vol. 2 (Oxford: Clarindon Press, 1903), Pg 651 –
653.
[7] G. Wood, The Subaltern
Officer, pg 94.
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