Boys of the Light Brigade: A Story of Spain and the Peninsular War Read online

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  Boys of the Light Brigade

  A Story of Spain and the Peninsular War

  BY

  HERBERT STRANG

  AUTHOR OF "TOM BURNABY"

  With a Preface by Colonel WILLOUGHBY VERNER late Rifle Brigade

  Illustrated by William Rainey, R.I.

  BLACKIE AND SON LIMITED LONDON GLASGOW AND BOMBAY 1905

  To Spain they sent The Rifle CorpsTo teach the French the Art of War! --_Old Rifleman's Song_.

  DEDICATED BY PERMISSION TO FIELD-MARSHAL HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS

  THE DUKE OF CONNAUGHT AND STRATHEARN K.G., K.T., K.P., G.C.B., G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E, G.C.V.O.,

  COLONEL-IN-CHIEF

  AND TO THE OFFICERS OF

  THE RIFLE BRIGADE (Formerly 95th Rifles)

  *Preface*

  Mr. Herbert Strang has asked me to write a few words explanatory of thetitle he has chosen for this book.

  "The Light Brigade" was the name given to the first British Brigade ofLight Infantry, consisting of the 43rd Light Infantry, 52nd LightInfantry, and the 95th Rifles, which were trained together as awar-brigade at Shorncliffe Camp in the years 1803-1805, just a centuryago, by General Sir John Moore, the Hero of Corunna.

  These regiments subsequently saw much service together in variousquarters of the globe; they were engaged in the Expedition to Denmark in1807, the Campaign in Portugal in 1808 under Sir Arthur Wellesley,including the Battle of Vimeiro, and the famous Corunna Campaign underSir John Moore.

  In July, 1809, The Light Brigade, consisting of the same three corps,was re-formed under the gallant Brigadier-General Robert Craufurd(afterwards slain at their head at the storming of Ciudad Rodrigo in1812), at Vallada, in Portugal, and it was in the same month that itmade the forced march, famous in all history as "the March of the LightDivision", of some fifty miles in twenty-four hours to the battle-fieldof Talavera. In June, 1810, when at Almeida, in Spain, "The LightBrigade" was expanded into "The Light Division" by the addition ofRoss's "Chestnut Troop" of Horse Artillery,[#] the 14th LightDragoons,[#] the 1st King's German Hussars, and two regiments ofPortuguese Cacadores.

  [#] The present "A" Battery, R.H.A., which bears its proud title of "TheChestnut Troop" in the army lists to this day.

  [#] The present 14th (King's) Hussars. Charles Lever, the novelist,recounts some of their gallant deeds in _Charles O'Malley, the IrishDragoon_.

  It was as "_The_ Light Division", throughout the long and bloodystruggle in the Peninsula, and up to the Battle of Toulouse, fought inApril, 1814, that the regiments of the old "Light Brigade" maintainedtheir proud position, so well described by Sir John Kincaid (who wasadjutant of the 1st Battalion at the Battle of Waterloo) in hisdelightful book, _Adventures in the Rifle Brigade_. He writes of the95th Rifles in the Peninsula as follows:--

  "We were the Light Regiment of the Light Division, and fired the firstand last shot in almost every battle, siege, and skirmish in which thearmy was engaged during the war.

  "In stating the foregoing, however, with regard to regiments, I beg tobe understood as identifying our old and gallant associates, theForty-third and Fifty-second, as a part of ourselves, for they boretheir share in everything, and I love them as I hope to do my betterhalf (when I come to be divided); wherever we were, _they_ were; andalthough the nature of our arm[#] generally gave us more employment inthe way of skirmishing, yet, whenever it came to a pinch, independent ofa suitable mixture of them among us, we had only to look behind to see aline, in which we might place a _degree of confidence almost equal toour hopes in heaven_; nor were we ever disappointed. There never was acorps of Riflemen in the hands of such supporters!"

  [#] The Baker rifle, a short weapon with a flat-bladed sword-bayonetknown as a "sword", very like the present so-called "bayonet", onlylonger. Hence the Rifleman's command, "Fix swords!" The threebattalions of the 95th were (with the exception of the 5th battalion ofthe 60th Regiment) the only corps in the British army armed with riflesat the period of the Peninsular War, all others carrying longsmooth-bore muskets, known as "Brown Bess", with long three-sidedbayonets. The Baker rifle fired with precision up to 300 yards, whereas"Brown Bess" could not be depended upon to hit a mark at one-third thatrange.

  Such was the "Light Brigade" which gives its title to this book.

  The story deals with a period full of interest to Englishmen. Napoleon,having overrun Spain with some 250,000 men, swept away and defeated allthe Spanish armies, and occupied Madrid, had set his hosts in motion tore-occupy Portugal and complete the subjugation of Andalusia. At thiscritical moment in the history of Spain, Sir John Moore, who had landedin the Peninsula with a small British army only about 30,000 strong,conceived the bold project of marching on Salamanca, and thusthreatening Napoleon's "line of communications" with France--whence hedrew all his supplies and ammunition. The effect was almost magical.Napoleon was compelled instantly to stay the march of his immensearmies, whilst at the head of over 80,000 of his finest troops he hurledhimself on the intrepid Moore. The latter, thus assailed byoverwhelming numbers, was forced to order a retreat on his base atCorunna, a movement which he conducted successfully, despite theterrible privations of a rapid march in mid-winter through a desolateand mountainous country, with insufficient transport and inadequatestaff arrangements. Thrice he turned to bay and thrice did he severelyhandle his pursuers. Finally, at Corunna, after embarking his sick andwounded, he fought the memorable battle of that name, and inflicted onthe French such heavy losses that his army was enabled to re-embark andsail for England with but little further molestation. The gallant Moorehimself was mortally wounded, and died the same night. The effects ofthe Corunna campaign were to paralyse all the Emperor's plans for nighthree months, during which time the Spaniards rallied and regainedconfidence, and the war took a wholly different turn, although it wasonly after five years' constant fighting that the French invaders werefinally driven out of the country.

  The Spaniards, on the other hand, animated by the presence of theirEnglish allies, once again took up arms in all directions and made adesperate resistance. No struggle was of more appalling or sustained anature than was their second defence of Saragossa, which, in the wordsof the French soldiers engaged in the siege, was defended not bysoldiers but by "an army of madmen".

  The following story has thus a double interest. In its account ofMoore's great Retreat it illustrates what we did for Spain in her darkdays of 1808-1809; while in the pages dealing with the heroic Defence ofSaragossa it illustrates what Spain did for herself.