THE SOLDIERS
WHOM WELLINGTON LED
THE SOLDIERS WHOM WELLINGTON LED
DEEDS OF DARING, CHIVALRY, AND
RENOWN
BY
EDWARD FRASER
WITH TWELVE ILLUSTRATIONS AND FIVE MAPS
This edition is published by PICKLE PARTNERS PUBLISHING
Text originally published in 1913 under the same title.
Pickle Partners Publishing 2011, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.
Publishers Note
Although in most cases we have retained the Authors original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern readers benefit.
PREFACE
"DOST thou remember, soldier old and hoary,
The days we fought and conquered side by side
On fields of battle, famous now in story,
Where Britain triumphed and where Britons died?
Dost thou remember all our old campaigning,
O'er many a field of Portugal and Spain?"
Of our old comrades few are now remaining:
How many sleep beneath the grassy plain!
"Rememberest thou the bloody Albuhera,
The deadly breach in Badajoz's walls,
Vittoria, Salamanca, Talavera,
Till Roncesvalls echoed to our balls?
Ha! how we drove the Frenchmen all before us,
As foam is driven on the stormy breeze!
We fought right on with conqu'ring banners o'er us
From Torres Vedras to the Pyrenees!"
So run the words of a splendid song of our soldiers of the fighting days of old, which may well serve here for, as it were, our text.
This book, I venture to think, should be particularly timely at the present moment, when we are in the midst of the centenaries of Wellington's victories of the Peninsular War. The events and episodes of England's Great War with Napoleon here set forth are alsoI think I am justified in claiming for the greater number of them--in their details not so well known to most of us; although, at the same time, they arc in themselves stories of outstanding merit and exceptional brilliancy, and present telling examples of what the British Army at its best, in the prime of its fighting efficiency, achieved under the leadership of ever-victorious Wellington. I would add that for general materials and incidental details I have gone rather deeply below the surface, exploring among contemporary letters, newspapers, and despatches, and the diaries, journals, memoirs, and personal accounts of adventure, of officers and men who were on the spot, on the battlefield in the thick of the fighting; so as to insure, together with description as vivid as may be, narrative faithful to fact.
E. F.
CONTENTS
PREFACE i
CONTENTS ii
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS iii
LIST OF MAPS iv
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
WELLINGTON IN THE YEAR OF SALAMANCA, 1812
Frontispiece
From a crayon drawing by the Spanish artist Goya, made during the occupation of Madrid after the victory.
FACING PAGE
A FRENCH BATTALION OF 1809: ON PARADE BEFORE A FIGHT
From "Costumes Militaires Franais."
A MARSHAL OF FRANCE, WITH HIS STAFF OFFICERS -
From "Costumes Militaires Franais."
ROYAL ARTILLERY ON THE MARCH
From Atkinson's "Costumes."
THE VICTOR OF BARROSA: GENERAL GRAHAM, LORD LYNEDOCH, G.C.B.
From an engraving by Peter Lightfoot, after the portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence, P.R.A.
THE ALBUHERA FLAG OF THE "DIE-HARDS" -
Existing fragment of the regimental colour, now in the possession of a descendant of Colonel Inglis, who commanded the "Die-Hards" at Albuhera.
IN THE BATTERIES BEFORE BADAJOZ
From an engraving in the British Museum.
THE MAN WHO STORMED THE CASTLE OF BADAJOZ: LIEUTENANT-GENERAL SIR THOMAS PICTON, G.C.B.
From an engraving by II. Cook, after the portrait by Sir W. Beechey.
ON THE BATTLEFIELD OF SALAMANCA
From an engraving by J. T. Willmore, after the drawing by G. B. Campion.
MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN GASPARD LE MARCHANT
From a drawing by J. D. Harding. Reproduced by kind permission of Sir Henry Denis Le Marchant, Bart.
ON THE BATTLEFIELD OF VITTORIA
From an engraving by Heath, after the painting by Landseer.
THE VITTORIA TROPHIES AT WINDSOR CASTLE -
Marshal Jourdan's baton (enlarged to show detail) and King Joseph Bonaparte's sword. Reproduced by permission of the Lord Chamberlain,
LIST OF MAPS
FACING PAGE
THE PASSAGE OF THE DOURO, MAY 12, 1809
THE BATTLE OF BARROSA, MARCH 5, 1811
THE BATTLE OF BARROSA, MARCH 16, 1811
THE BATTLE OF SALAMANCA, JULY 22, 1812
THE BATTLE OF VITTORIA, JUNE 21, 1813
"God of battles, God of England,
Be as Thou hast been before;
Guard us as we form and muster,
Lead us as we march to war;
Thus believing, thus achieving,
This our watchword still shall be,
'England's sons are faithful soldiers,
True to England, true to Thee!"'
From a Camp-Song of Wellington's Men.
THE SOLDIERS WHOM
WELLINGTON LED
I
THE STARTING-POINT OF VICTORY: HOW WELLINGTON AVENGED SIR JOHN MOORE
IT was between four and five in the morning, a little after sunrise, on Friday, May 12, 1809. Wellington and his staff-officers were in the act of mounting their horses after their early coffee at a convent near the little Portuguese village of Grijon, a few miles to the south of Oporto on the Douro, when Colonel John Waters, a British officer of the Intelligence Department, doing duty on special service with the Portuguese army, came hurrying up from the front to give Sir Arthur Wellesleyas Wellington then wasnews of the utmost importance. He brought with him a swarthy, olive-complexioned, black-haired little manbarber from Oporto, as the Colonel explained, who had been among the enemy.
According to the man, said Colonel Waters, the French had blown up and destroyed the great pontoon bridge over the Douro, to prevent the British crossing to Oporto; and, further, had carried all the river boats across to their sidethe opposite bank. The barber had seen hundreds of men at work, between ten at night and two in the morning, unshackling the pontoons, scuttling some, pulling the bridge to pieces, and blowing up the bridge-head. After that the plucky fellow had slipped away quietly, although there were French patrols in every street all over Oporto, and the people of the place had orders to keep indoors, on penalty of being shot at sight or bayoneted if met outside. He made his way to a small wharf, where, in a dark corner, a small rowing-boat that he knew of had been tied up. Getting quietly into this, he had let himself drift on the flood-stream up the river, keeping close in the shadow of the low cliff-banks of the Douro on that side for nearly two miles. Then, sculling across, he had run the boat ashore on a mud-bank where the rushes grew thickly. Hiding it near the spot, he, after that, struck across country toward the high road for Lisbon, along which the British army was reported to be approaching. So the barber told Colonel Waters, to whom a British cavalry patrol, who had come across him near the road, brought the man.
