WELLINGTON'S ARMY 1809-1814 BY C. W. C. OMAN M.A. OXON., HON. LL.D. BDIN. CHICHELE PROFESSOR OF MODERN HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD WITH ILLUSTRATIONS SECOND IMPRESSION LONDON EDWARD ARNOLD 1913 [All rights reserved] 23) 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 students concerning its organization, its day by day life, and its psychology. To understand the exploits 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 brigade and divisional organization of the Peninsular 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 CHAPTER PAOE I. INTRODUCTORY THE OLD PENINSULAR ARMY . 1 II. SOURCES OF INFORMATION THE LITERATURE OP THE PENINSULAR WAR 9 III. THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON THE MAN AND THE STRATEGIST 39 IV. WELLINGTON'S INFANTRY TACTICS LINE VERSUS COLUMN 61 V. WELLINGTON'S TACTICS THE CAVALRY AND ARTILLERY. 94 VI. WELLINGTON'S LIEUTENANTS HILL, BERESFORD, GRAHAM 115 VII. WELLINGTON'S LIEUTENANTS PICTON, CRAUFURD, AND OTHERS 129 VIII. THE ORGANIZATION OF THE ARMY : HEADQUARTERS . 153 IX. THE ORGANIZATION OF THE ARMY : BRIGADES AND DIVISIONS 163 X. THE ORGANIZATION OF THE ARMY : THE REGIMENTS . 178 XI. INTERNAL ORGANIZATION OF THE REGIMENT: THE OFFICERS 195 XII. INTERNAL ORGANIZATION OF THE REGIMENT : THE RANK AND FILE 208 XIII. THE AUXILIARIES: THE GERMANS AND THE PORTUGUESE 220 XIV. DISCIPLINE AND COURT-MARTIALS .... 237 XV. THE ARMY ON THE MARCH 255 XVI. IMPEDIMENTA : THE BAGGAGE : LADIES AT THE FRONT . 268 viii CONTENTS CHAPTER PAttl 2 XVII. A NOTE ON SIEGES ' 9 . 292 XVIII. UNIFORMS AND WEAPONS ... XIX. THE COMMISSARIAT ... 30? XX. A NOTE ON THE SPIRITUAL LIFE BRITISH APPENDIX I. ESTABLISHMENT AND STATIONS OF THE ARMY IN 1809 333 II. THE DIVISIONS AND BRIGADES OF THE PENINSULAR ARMY, 18091814, BY C. T. ATKINSON, M.A., FELLOW OF EXETER COLLEGE, OXFORD . 343 III. BIBLIOGRAPHY OF ENGLISH DIARIES, JOURNALS AND MEMOIRS OF THE PENINSULAR WAR . 875 INDEX 385 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PLATE I. ARTHUR WELLESLEY, DUKE OP WELLINGTON Frontispiece From a portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence FACING FAGR II. LORD HILL, G.C.B. 118 ,, 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. 138 V. OFFICER OF RIFLES, 1809 188 PRIVATE, INFANTRY OF THE LINE, 1809 . 188 ,, VI. OFFICER OF LIGHT DRAGOONS, UNIFORM OF 1809 . 194 OFFICER OF LIGHT DRAGOONS, UNIFORM OF 1813 . 194 VII. PRIVATE OF HEAVY DRAGOONS, 1809 . 284 OFFICER OF FIELD ARTILLERY, 1809 . 284 ,,VIII. SERGEANT AND PRIVATE OF INFANTRY IN WINTER MARCHING ORDER, 1813 296 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 inevitable) been com- pelled 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 general 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 any- thing," or to its inner mechanism the details of its manage- ment. 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 fre- i quently raised problems which worried not only colonels' and adjutants, but even the Great Duke himself. There is an immense amount of interesting material to be collected, concerning the inner life of the Peninsular Army, from public documents, such as despatches, general orders, and regimental reports, and records of courts martial. But I shall be utilizing to a much greater extent non-official 2 THE OLD PENINSULAR AKMY information, collected from the countless diaries, memoirs, and series of contemporary letters, 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 cam- paign 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 numerous than those which come from the commissioned ranks. If there are scores of diaries and reminiscences of colonels, captains, and subal- terns, there are at least dozens of little books by sergeants, 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 MEMOIRS OF THE RANK AND FILE 3 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 regi- mental patriotism may some day provide us with a series of reprints of the best Soldiers' Tales.* 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 re- miniscences on a large scale, and in great numbers. I do not, of course, mean to say that there were none such pro- duced in the eighteenth century. Besides serious military histories like those of Kane, Stedman, or Tarleton, there do exist a certain number of narratives of personal adventure written by officers, such as Major Rogers the Scout, or the garrulous and often amusing diarist (unfortunately 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 ranks are fewer still, though there are certain soldiers' letters which go back as far as Marlborough's time, and one or two small books like Bristow's and Scurry's Indian reminiscences, and Sergeant Lamb's Journal in the American War of Independence, which are worth mentioning. But it is quite certain that there was more writing going on in the army during the ten years 1805-1815 than in the whole eighteenth century. What was the explanation of the phenomenon ? There are, I think, two main causes to be borne in mind : the * John Shipp's is the only book from the ranks which has been reprinted within the last ten years, I believe. Mr. Fitchett repro- duced a few chapters of Anton and others in his rather disappointing Wellington's Men.