The risings in Spain provided Britain with an opportunity that was quickly seized. Wellesley’s army had originally been organised to mount another expedition against Spain’s South American colonies. The attempt on Buenos Aires in 1806 had been a humiliating disaster for the British, but the lure of lucrative colonies was always a strong one. Instead, the government responded to an appeal for aid from a Spanish embassy. The state of war between Britain and Spain was not formally renounced until some time afterwards. In the event, however, the Galician junta that ran the war effort in north-western Spain did not want the assistance of British soldiers. So Wellesley sailed on, to receive a better welcome in Portugal.
The campaign there occurred very much as described in the story. Lieutenant Bunbury of the 95th was the first British battlefield fatality of the war. Hindsight tells us that these early encounters were the first of the succession of battles won by Wellesley’s army. None of this later success was inevitable. The record of British expeditions – especially to continental Europe – was extremely poor. So was the reputation of the British Army. Alexandria in 1801 and Maida in 1806 (which gave its name to Maida Vale in West London) were rare victories amid a long series of failures. They hinted that the reforms of the army under the aegis of the Duke of York and carried on by imaginative generals such as Abercromby and Moore were beginning to bear fruit. Yet the redcoats had yet to prove themselves. Numerically, Britain’s army was dwarfed by that of Napoleon and powers like Austria, Russia or Prussia. It was simply not large enough to confront the main strength of the Emperor’s army on its own. The Peninsular War offered a chance for it to face French forces spread very thinly as they struggled to control Spain and Portugal.
It was understandable that at first French generals like Junot underestimated their British opponents. At Roliça the forces actually engaged were similar in numbers, although overall the British outnumbered the French by more than two to one. It was therefore inevitable that the latter would be forced from their position, and it was merely a question of how long this took. At Vimeiro the French attacked a somewhat larger British Army, although again the numbers actually engaged were more equal. Junot attacked recklessly and met far tougher resistance than he had expected. It was easy afterwards for the French to blame his mistakes and the relative inexperience of much of his army. It would take several years and more British victories before French commanders learned more respect for their opponents.
I have described these actions as accurately as I could. The 106th Foot did not existfone form described here. (A unit with that number was briefly included in the Army List, but was probably never organised in reality and certainly did not see active service.) The regimental number was far more important than any name or regional affiliation until the end of the nineteenth century. Therefore, in the story the battalion is usually referred to as the 106th rather that the Glamorganshire Regiment. I chose that county simply because it happens to be my home and because there was no such regiment in reality. Wales was generally under-represented in the Army List, with only the 23rd Royal Welch Fusiliers being formally affiliated to the region. The battalions of that regiment recruited widely and actual Welshmen were never more than a significant minority. I have given the 106th red facings to their jackets in honour of the 41st Foot, one of the ancestors of the Royal Regiment of Wales (and now combined with the Royal Welch Fusiliers in the Royal Welsh). The 41st did not serve in the Peninsula, but saw considerable action in Canada during the 1812 War.
The routine of the battalion, its organisation and drill are as accurate as I can make them. It is all too easily forgotten that long periods of training underlay the success of Wellington’s army. For both officers and men the bulk of this training occurred at the battalion level. Gentlemen were expected to behave with courage and set an example to their soldiers, but as officers they also had to learn how to manoeuvre and control their men, as well as the less tangible skills of leadership. Much of this occurred in Britain and is all too easily ignored. Examples of the wooden blocks used to explain the manoeuvring of a battalion can be seen today in the National Army Museum in London.
The conditions of the men in the ranks are only glimpsed in the story to reflect the perspective of junior officers. Discipline was harsh, and could be arbitrary but then civilian justice for the poor was sometimes even worse. In some ways the lot of the redcoats’ families was even more bleak. The scene where the wives draw lots to see who will accompany the regiment is based firmly on reality – indeed, such things would be hard to invent. The prospects for those left behind were often bleak, and such ballots were carried out at the last minute to prevent desertions. Some officers’ wives did follow their husbands to the Peninsula, although there were probably very few there as early as August 1808. It is far less likely that an unmarried daughter would have gone with her mother, but I have permitted this because I wanted Jane to be there for this and future plots. I will keep looking to see whether I can find a real precedent for this, but have so far failed.
I have based the exploits of the 106th at Roliça and Vimeiro closely on those of the 29th Foot (formerly the Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters and now part of the Mercian Regiment). This is largely because the exploits of the real redcoats were in reality more impressive than almost anything a novelist could plausibly invent. I have not stuck rigidly to this in every respect, however, and this remains a novel. In the real battle Lieutenant Colonel Lake led the 29th in a premature attack and was killed when he and part of the battalion found themselves attacked by French infantry who had been bypassed as the redcoats advanced up one of the gullies. Lake had won a high reputation for himself in India and the attack appears to have been a genuine mistake. For a while the colours of the 29th were lost to the enemy. These were soon recaptured, however, and the regiment re-formed and repulsed a series of French counter-attacks. Wellesley singled them out for praise in his dispatch. The 29th would later fight with considerable distinction at Talavera and other engagements. Moss is not supposed to be a reflection of Lieutenant Colonel Lake, nor is the fictional 106th, and the tenss within its ranks are not intended in any way to be representative of the real 29th Foot. In later stories the 106th will no doubt mirror the fortunes of different regiments.
Bizarrely enough, there was a Russian fleet in the Tagus in 1808 and no one was entirely sure whether the Russians would side with their French allies. In the event they maintained an uneasy neutrality. Many Russians felt humiliated by the 1807 Treaty of Tilsit and the new friendship between Tsar Alexander and Napoleon, but it must have been very hard to guess whether or not the French Emperor would ever lose his dominance. There was also little love for Britain, however. Count Denilov is an invention, exploiting this strange situation. I needed a more personal enemy for my heroes and having a Russian seemed a greater novelty than a Frenchman.
True Soldier Gentlemen is the first in a series of novels, intended to follow the characters through the years of war with France. Much lies ahead of them. There will be more battles in Portugal and Spain, some in Canada, and in the long run they will end up on the ridge at Waterloo. Ahead of our characters lie adventure, romance, plenty of battles and powder smoke and – this being Wellington’s army – no doubt a fair amount of amateur dramatics.
Copyright
A Weidenfeld & Nicolson ebook
First published in Great Britain in
2011 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson
This ebook first published in 2011 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson
© Adrian Goldsworthy 2011
The right of Adrian Goldsworthy to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor to be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a s
imilar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
All the characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is purely coincidental.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978 0 297 86037 2
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