Purchasing and Supplies

present with the Regiment, but the Light Infantry, under Lieut. Cathcart, was detached and under Colonel Howe.

Townshend, on the day succeeding the battle and up till the day of capitulation, worked hard in pushing on the works against the city. By the evening of 17th September he had no less than 118 guns mounted in the batteries and ready to open fire, and the whole fleet was in the basin waiting the order to bombard the town. The enemy had tried in vain to delay proceedings by keeping up a constant fire with every available gun, but the annoyance they caused was slight.

On 17th September, at mid-day, an officer arrived with a flag of truce from the French lines, bearing proposals of surrender from De Ramsay, the Governor of Quebec, and he was conducted in the pouring rain to Townshend’s tent. Townshend sent back the officer with the answer that he would give them four hours in which to surrender, failing which he would take the town by assault.

In the early morning on 18th September, Quebec surrendered. The keys of the city were delivered up to Townshend, who marched in with the Grenadiers of Louisburg, preceded by a detachment of Artillery and one gun, with the British flag hoisted on a staff on the gun carriage.

As a result of the French Revolution the First Coalition had been formed on 26th June 1792. The French revolutionaries executed Louis XVI on 21st January 1793 and Spain joined the Coalition against France; however, the Spanish army was defeated and Spain signed a peace treaty with France, and declared war on Britain in 1797.

Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of France on 18th May 1804. In 1807, Spain and France agreed to attack Portugal, taking Lisbon in December 1808, the Portuguese Royal family fled to Brazil. In March 1808 Napoleon forced King Charles IV of Spain to give up his throne and gave the crown to Joseph Bonaparte, his brother. The Spanish rose up in revolt and defeated the French army on 19th July 1898, King Joseph and the French army evacuated Madrid.

Wellington landed in Portugal in March 1808 and defeated the French at Rolica and Vimiero, liberating Lisbon on 21st August.

In September 1808, General Baird landed a force at Corunna, as Emperor Napoleon led a force of 200,000 men over the Pyrenees to retake Spain and Portugal. General Baird’s force met up with General Moor’s force at Benevente in December 1808 as Napoleon, having retaken Madrid, turned his attention on Portugal. On 23rd December, Moore heard that a large French force was advancing from Madrid and ordered a withdrawal to Vigo and Corunna, ordering the British fleet to meet them.

The retreat was carried out in terrible conditions amidst slushy snow and ice and matters were made worse by the total breakdown of the Commissariat which in turn led to widespread indiscipline amongst the men. The roads quickly turned into quagmires beneath the tramping of thousands of feet and the troops suffered dreadful hardships in the bitterly cold winter weather. Hundreds of men – as well as the women and children that had accompanied the army – gave up the will to live and, unable or unwilling to go on, simply lay down to die in the bleak Galician mountains or were captured by the pursuing French. And there was little help forthcoming from the local Spanish people who were naturally reluctant to help a so-called `friendly’ army that had left behind in its wake a trail of burning, pillaged hamlets, the sprawling, bloody bodies of the occupants bearing testament to the lawlessness of some units of the army.

The retreat continued with all but the most disciplined units of the army – the Guards and the rearguard – suffering a total breakdown of order. On 31st December the Light Brigade, under Robert Craufurd, which had distinguished itself during the trials of the retreat, was detached from the army supposedly to ease the burden on the commissariat. Craufurd pushed his men on to Vigo, unhindered by any French pursuit, where his brigade eventually embarked safely in ships bound for England. This move, however, deprived Moore of one of his better units and the Light Brigade was certainly missed throughout the rest of the campaign and during the battle fought on 16th January.

Having been pursued across most of Castile and Galacia Sir John Moore’s army, representing most of Britain’s effective land forces, finally reached the sea and a rendezvous with an evacuation fleet at Corunna. However, needing time to embark his forces, Moore elected to offer battle a few miles down the main road south from Corunna. The position he chose was on a hill called ‘Monte Mero’, his line ran east to west from a point north of the village of Piedralonga to a point north of the village of Elvina.

The east of the line was held by Hope’s strong, three brigade, division and the west by Baird’s strong division, also of three brigades. This position was strong to its front but had some weaknesses, being lower than the Heights of Penasquedo, a long cannon shot to its south, and having a weak open right flank on the east around Elvina.

Moore positioned two weak divisions behind his right flank, Paget’s to his immediate right rear and Fraser’s further to the east and north almost as far back as Corunna’s outer fortifications. These units were out of French sight. Soult drew his forces up south of the British on the Heights of Penasquedo

Soult’s plan was that while the presence of the divisions of Delaborde and Merle held the British in place, that Mermet’s men would attack and turn the British right flank under Baird. His artillery would render direct assistance, and the cavalry under La Houssaye and Franseschi indirect assistance, La Houssaye would swing wide around the British right flank, Frenceschi wider. In the event, after bitter fighting in and around Elvina, and losing Baird to the supporting French artillery, the British right managed to hold.

Leith’s Brigade, including the 76th, was posted in rear of the centre of the British defensive position and only the 59th was engaged directly. The 76th had one killed and six wounded during the battle.

About 1600 hrs, Foy’s Voltigeurs swooped out of Palavea Abaxo and drove out the piquets of Colonel Nicholls’ 14th Regiment from Piedralonga. Lord Hill reacted by ordering the main body of the 14th into the village, supported by two Companies of the 92nd. These attacks lasted for about an hour. Moore received a mortal wound round about this time and command of the Army devolved on Sir John Hope.

Paget’s forces saw off both advanced units of Mermet’s division and La Houssaye’s cavalry. Fraser’s Brigade prevented Franceschi from succeeding in his flank effort. Tactically the British had won. Operationally they were able to get their army off during the night, somewhat more tattered, but still intact.

There is no doubt that the British were chased out of Spain and badly battered in the process, but they did escape, despite being heavily outnumbered by the best soldiers in Europe under experienced leadership. But the campaign had not been a failure. By drawing the French away to the north west Moore had given the Spaniards in the south a chance to rally.

The French losses were about 1,500 men.

The British lost about 900 men.

Background

Following Napoleon’s failed Russian campaign, the Prussians and Russians inflicted on him a decisive defeat at Liepzig. This was followed by their invasion of France and occupation of Paris in 1814. Napoleon was forced to abdicate and exiled to the Island of Elbe.

In early 1815, he escaped from exile and on the 1st March landed in the South of France with 1000 men and 2 cannon. His aim was to reconquer France and re-establish his empire. The French Army rallied to his call. The newly reinstalled French King fled and Napoleon entered Paris in triumph to declare himself Emperor once more.

The four great powers, Britain, Austria, Prussia and Russia were appalled. Their old enemy was back and they scrambled to raise armies to crush him. Napoleon realised he had to move fast if he was to hold them. He knew he was strong enough to defeat each individually but would not be able to do so if they came together. He immediately marched north to surprise the two strongest forces, the British and Prussians already gathering their armies in Belgium under the Duke of Wellington and Field Marshall Blucher respectively.

The Battle of Quatre Bras, 16th June 1815

On 15th June Napoleon marched into Belgium with the 140,000 strong Armée du Nord. The speed of his advance caught both Wellington and Blucher off guard. Napoleon’s had decided to confront the Prussian army first on 16th June at Ligny. He planned to use two columns to attack Blucher ‘s Prussian Army head on while a third column, under Ney, was to seize the Quatre Bras cross-roads. From there they could launch a decisive blow into the rear of the Prussian’s while they were fully committed dealing with the assault on their front by Napoleon’s first two columns. Despite his instructions, Ney failed to act with urgency and it was not until late in the morning of the 16th that he began his move on the cross-roads.

Meanwhile the Prince of Saxe-Weimar, one of Wellington’s senior officers, had arrived at Quatre Bras initially with only a small force of infantry and guns. He immediately recognised their importance and took up a defence of the crossroads. By the time Ney arrived a substantial number of further allied units had also arrived from Brussels while more were hastening forward. Ney would now have to fight for the crossroads.

Amongst those hastening forward were Sir Colin Halkett’s 5th Brigade including the 33rd. After hastily completing a 20-mile march they arrived around 5.30 pm and were promptly engaged by French infantry who tried to turn their flank. Lieutenant William Thain, the Regimental Adjutant, described this first engagement:

“We gave them a most beautiful volley and charged, but they ran faster than our troops (already fatigued) could do, and we consequently did not touch them with the bayonet.”

But there was a greater threat. French Cuirassiers, heavy cavalry, equipped with body armour and long straight swords and well suited to the melee of fighting infantry, charged the Brigade. Cavalry could quickly overcome infantry in line. But if allowed the time to form square, with bayonets pointing outwards on all sides,they could readily beat off cavalry as their horses would not charge onto the bayonets. Surprised by the initial cavalry charge, the 33rd just had time to form square and were able to repel the attack. But their supporting Regiment, the 69th, were caught still in line and suffered badly losing a Colour before the cavalry could be beaten off.

The 33rd then reformed into line to continue the advance. However, they were again charged by the Cuirassiers, but this time closely supported by artillery. Infantry squares were highly vulnerable to artillery fire. Private George Hemingway wrote home afterwards describing what then happened:

“The enemy got a fair view of our Regiment at that time and they sent cannon shot as thick as hailstones… we seen a large column of French cavalry called Cuirassiers advancing close upon us. We immediately tried to form square but all in vain as the cannon shot from the enemy broke down our square faster than we could, it killed nine or ten men every shot, the balls bursting down amongst us and shells bursting in a hundred pieces…”

The first regimental officer killed, Captain John Haigh, fell trying to steady the front face of the square in the teeth of this devastating cannon fire. His brother, Lieutenant Thomas Haigh, saw him die and was himself to be mortally wounded two days later at Waterloo. Having seen the fate of the 69th when caught in the open, the 33rd fell back to the cover of the trees in the nearby Bois de Bossu. Here they reformed but were held in reserve until nightfall brought the fighting to an end.

Crucially the fighting at Quatre Bras had prevented Ney from securing the crossroads and, with this, from launching the attack Napoleon had planned onto the rear of Blucher’s Prussian forces. This meant that, although defeated, the Prussians were still able to withdraw in good order. They remained a potent force with the freedom of movement that would allow them to join Wellington’s forces at Waterloo on the 18th at the critical moment of the battle.

The 33rd went into action 561 strong. Its casualties were:

Killed – 3 Officers and 13 men

Wounded – 7 Officers and 64 men

Missing – Regimental Sergeant Major (PoW) and 8 men

The 33rd Regiment of Foot

On 17th June, Wellington consolidated his forces on his chosen defensive position, the ridge line of Mont St. Jean near the village of Waterloo covering the approach to Brussels. The ridge line’s higher ground allowed him to adopt his favourite defensive tactic of using a reverse slope position to both conceal his troops from the enemy and not expose them to direct artillery fire. He had a force of 69,000 British, Dutch and Hannovarian soldiers and 156 cannon. They were a mix, not only of nationalities, but also experience between veterans of the Peninsular War and others completely still untried. Thus, for him to go on the offensive was out of the question. Facing them were Napoleon’s 74,000 men and 240 cannon – a highly motivated but still friable force having so recently been giving their allegiance to the French King who had so ignominiously fled. Wellington’s aim was to hold Napoleon until the arrival of the Prussian army. Napoleon would then be heavily outnumbered and with this he would be defeated. The 33rd had covered the 10 miles from Quatre Bras to Mont St Jean