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Wellington's Army 1809-1814 Wellington's Army 1809-1814 by C.W.C. OMAN M.A. OXON, HON, LL.D EDIN PROFESOR OF MODERN HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD with illustrations second impression London Edward Arnold 1913 Digitized for Microsoft Corporation by the Internet Archive in 2007, from a University of Toronto copy. PREFACE MUCH has been written concerning Wellington and his famous Peninsular Army in the way of formal history : this volume, however, will I think contain somewhat that is new to most stu- dents concerning its organization, its day by day life, and its psychology. To understand the ex- ploits of Wellington's men, it does not suffice to read a mere chronicle of their marches and battles. I have endeavoured to collect in these pages notices of those aspects of their life with which no strategical or tactical work can deal, though tactics and even strategy will not be found unnoticed. My special thanks are due to my friend Mr. C. T. Atkinson, Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, for allowing me to use the admirable list of the bri- gade and divisional organization of the Peninsu- lar Army which forms Appendix II. It is largely expanded from the article on the same topic which he printed eight years ago in the Historical Review, and enables the reader to find out the precise composition of every one of Wellington's units at any moment between April, 1808 and April, 1814. I have also to express my gratitude to the Hon. John Fortescue, the author of the great History of the British Army, for answering a good many queries which I should have found hard to solve without his aid. The index is by the same loving hand which has worked on so many of my earlier volumes. C. OMAN. OXFORD, September, 1912 CONTENTS PREFACE...........................................................................3 List of illustrations.........................................................7 WELLINGTON'S ARMY...................................................9 The old Peninsular Army...............................................9 The literature of the Peninsular War............................24 The man and the strategist...........................................85 Line versus column...................................................128 The cavalry and artillery............................................194 Hill, Beresford, Graham............................................235 Picton, Craufurd, and others......................................265 Headquarters..............................................................314 Brigades and Divisions..............................................335 The Regiments...........................................................365 The Officers...............................................................402 The Rank and File.....................................................428 The Germans and the Portuguese..............................452 Discipline and court-martials....................................485 The army on the march..............................................522 Impedimenta: the Baggage........................................548 A note on sieges.........................................................569 Uniforms and weapons..............................................595 The Commissariat......................................................627 A note on things spiritual...........................................653 APPENDIX ..................................................................... 677 I. Establishment of British Army in 1809..................677 II. Divisional and brigade organization and changes. 1809—1814...............................................................691 III. Peninsular Autobiographies, journals, letters, etc. ...................................................................................766 Index..........................................................................791 List of illustrations I.— ARTHUR WELLESLEY, DUKE OF WELLINGTON Frontispiece From a portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence II.— LORD HILL, G.C.B. III.— GENERAL THOMAS GRAHAM, BARON LYNEDOCH, G.C.B., G.C.M.G 126 From the picture by Sir George Hayter IV.— GENERAL SIR THOMAS PICTON, K.O.B. V.— OFFICER OF RIFLES, 1809 PRIVATE, INFANTRY OF THE LINE, 1809 VI. OFFICER OF LIGHT DRAGOONS, UNIFORM OF 1809 OFFICER OF LIGHT DRAGOONS, UNIFORM OF 1813 VII.— PRIVATE OF HEAVY DRAGOONS, 1809 OFFICER OF FIELD ARTILLERY, 1809 VIII.— SERGEANT AND PRIVATE OF INFANTRY IN WINTER MARCHING ORDER, 1813 WELLINGTON'S ARMY CHAPTER I Introductory — The old Peninsular Army WHILE working for the last nine years at the History of the Peninsular War, I have (as was in- evitable) been compelled to accumulate many notes, and much miscellaneous information which does not bear upon the actual chronicle of events in the various campaigns that lie between 1808 and 1814, but yet possesses high interest in itself, and throws many a side-light on the gener- al course of the war. Roughly speaking, these notes relate either to the personal characteristics of that famous old army of Wellington, which, as he himself said, "could go anywhere and do anything," or to its inner mechanism—the details of its management. I purpose to speak in these pages of the leaders and the led ; of the daily life, manners, and customs of the Peninsular Army, as much as of its composition and its organization. I shall be dealing with the rank and file no less than with the officers, and must even find space for a few pages on that curious and polyglot horde of camp followers which trailed at the heels of the army, and frequently raised problems which worried not only colonels' and adjutants, but even the Great Duke himself. There is an immense amount of interesting ma- terial to be collected, concerning the inner life of the Peninsular Army, from public documents, such as despatches, general orders, and regiment- al reports, and records of courts martial. But I shall be utilizing to a much greater extent non-of- ficial information, collected from the countless diaries, memoirs, and series of contemporary let- ters, which have come down to us from the men who took part in the great war. Nor are the controversial pamphlets to be neglected, which kept appearing for many a year, when one survivor of the old army found, in the writings of another, statements which he considered injurious to himself, his friends, his regiment, or his division. The best known and most copious of these discussions is that which centres round the publication of Napier's Peninsular War ; the successive appearance of its volumes led to the printing of many protests, in which some of the most prominent officers of Wellington's army took part—not only Lord Beresford, who was Napier's especial butt and bete noir, and replied to the historian in terms sometimes not too dignified—but Cole, Hardinge, D'Urban, and many more. This set of "strictures", as they were called, mainly relate to the Albuera campaign. But there are smaller, but not less interesting, series of controversial pamphlets relating to the Convention of Cintra, to Moore's retreat, to the campaign of 1810 (Bussaco), the storm of Badajoz, and other topics. The memoirs and autobiographies, of course, possess the greatest share of interest. And it may be noted as a remarkable fact that those coming from the rank and file are not very much less nu- merous than those which come from the commis- sioned ranks. If there are scores of diaries and re- miniscences of colonels, captains, and subalterns, there are at least dozens of little books by ser- geants, corporals, and privates. Many of these are very quaint productions indeed, printed at local presses—at Perth, Coventry, Cirencester, Louth, Ashford—even at Corfu. Very frequently some knot of military or civilian friends induced a much-travelled veteran to commit to paper the tales which had been the delight of the canteen, or of the fireside of some village inn. They are generally very good reading, but often give rather the spirit of the time and the regiment than an accurate record of its long-past exploits. One or two of these veterans' artless tales show all the characteristics of the memoirs of the prince of their tribe—the delightful but autolatrous Marbot. I have thought it worth while to give in an appendix the names and titles of the best of them. One or two, above all the little book of " Rifleman Harris " of the 95th, well deserve to be republished, but still await that honour. Perhaps regimental patriotism may some day provide us with a series of reprints of the best Soldiers' Tales.1 It is a very notable fact, which requires (but has never hitherto received) an explanation, that it is precisely with the coming in of the nineteenth century that British soldiers and officers alike began to write diaries and reminiscences on a large scale, and in great numbers. I do not, of course, mean to say that there were none such produced in the eighteenth century. Besides seri- ous military histories like those of Kane, Sted- 1 John Shipp's is the only book from the ranks which has been reprinted within the last ten years, I believe. Mr. Fitchett reproduced a few chapters of Anton and others in his rather disappointing Wellington's Men. man, or Tarleton, there do exist a certain number of narratives of personal adventure written by of- ficers, such as Major Rogers the Scout, or the garrulous and often amusing diarist (unfortu- nately anonymous) who made the campaign of Culloden with the Duke of Cumberland—not to speak of the semi-apochryphal Captain Carleton. But they are few, and the writings from the
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