The diary of a cavalry officer in the Peninsular War and Waterloo Campaign, 1809-1815

PENINSULAR WAR, 1809. 1 3

■^ Henry, second son of the second Lord Braybrooke. He died in Spain in the same year, after the battle of Talavera.

PENINSULAR WAR, 181O. 21

We made two short days' marches from Coimbra to Santa CombadaO, where we found the headquarters of the i6th, seven leagues from Coimbra. The following day Sir Staple- ton moved on to Vizeu. The regiment was by no means recovered from the effects of the Talavera campaign ; but from the quantity of green forage in the neighbourhood of every quarter, great changes were evident in a short time.

PENINSULAR WAR, 1 8 12. 20I

During the battle of Talavera Sir John Sherbrooke ordered Sir Stapleton Cotton to "advance with the brigade to a rising ground, and draw off the attention of the enemy's guns whilst the infantry formed." The enemy's artillery, considering this movement as preparatory to a charge, soon got our range. The Captain of our squadron, having- been thrown by the violence of his horse as a shell burst under him. Captain Cocks sprung forward to take his place. Never shall I forget the proud look and tone of voice with which he turned round : " Steady, men ! " — he seemed to grow in his saddle — he had obtained the dearest wish of his heart — a command on the field of battle.

PENINSULAR WAR, 1 8 12. 20I

After this battle of Talavera, Captain Cocks took no rest until he had personally attended the few wounded men of the brigade as they were carried into the town ; and during the four days we remained in position, twice a day did I see him, like a second Telemachus, visiting and con- soling them. Lieutenant William Tomkinson, of Dorford Hall, near N^ntwich, if alive, can bear witness to this and many other facts of the same kind ; for, as his favourite companion, he had accompanied him.

BATTLE OF SALAMANCA.

BATTLE OF SALAMANCA.

I — II

Relating to 20th July, 1812. On the retreat from Rueda, previous to the Battle of Salamanca, and near the height of Babila-fuente, the number of eagles and vultures was very- great. They were brought together by the dead horses and men left from our position near Salamanca, and on the enemy's retreat to Rueda. They are always found to hover about an army, and I was frequently impressed with the horror of being wounded without the power to keep them off.

I — II

We see peasants who came from Valladolid ; they say the enemy has all his baggage, etc., ready to move, but have not heard any hints that he knows of our army being so near. Captain Murray has had the direction of the piquets from Valdestillas, on the right of Tordesillas. He has placed three men on duty where one would have done. The officers come on piquet once in three days, and the men can scarcely find a relief The enemy have little or no cavalry near us ; and his (Captain Murray's) piquets are much stronger than when the enemy had the whole of their army on the Duero, before the battle of Salamanca.

PENINSULAR WAR, 1 8 12. 20I

Bath, given for his services as second in command to the army during the battle of Salamanca.

PENINSULAR WAR AND WATERLOO CAMPAIGN

PENINSULAR WAR AND WATERLOO CAMPAIGN

EDITOR'S PREFACE.

Dragoons in December, 1807 ; joined his regiment in April, 1808; and in 1809 entered on that period of mihtary adventure de- scribed in this volume. He was thanked in the general orders of the day of January 22nd, 1811, and recommended for promotion in the Duke of Wellington's despatch to the Horse Guards of May 14th of the same year. In 1812 he was gazetted a Captain in the 60th Regiment, from which he exchanged back into his old regiment without leaving it. It is somewhat remarkable that, while severely wounded in four places in almost his first skirmish, he passed practically unscathed through four years' service in the Peninsula and the Waterloo campaign, although under fire, to the best of his recollection, on nearly one hundred occasions. He received the Peninsular and Waterloo medals, with clasps for the actions of Busaco, Fuentes, Salamanca, and Vittoria.

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

I have thought it due to the credit of General Sir Hussey Vivian and his Brigade, to correct in a footnote, the substance of which appeared in a letter to the Morning Post in June last, the Author's mistaken impression as to the time and spot in which the Brigade charged and overthrew the enemy in the fiei^ stage of the Battle of Waterloo.

THE WATERLOO CAMPAIGN.

THE WATERLOO CAMPAIGN.