Wellington’s Engineers: Military Engineering on the Peninsular War 1808-1814

Contents

List of Plates

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Introduction

Chapter 1
1808 – Success, Controversy and Disaster

Chapter 2
1809 – Hard Lessons for All

Chapter 3
The Lines of Torres Vedras and the Defence of Portugal

Chapter 4
1810 – A Year of Waiting

Chapter 5
1811 – Goodbye to Lisbon

Chapter 6
1812 – Taking the Frontier

Chapter 7
1812 – Triumph and Failure

Chapter 8
1813 – The Road to France

Chapter 9
1813–14 – Into France

Conclusion

Appendix 1: Commanding Royal Engineers (CRE) with Wellington’s Army, 1808–14

Appendix 2: Engineer Officers who Served in the Iberian Peninsula

Appendix 3: Military Reconnaissance and Surveying

Appendix 4: Military Bridging

Appendix 5: Military Education

Notes

Bibliography

List of Plates

1.
Lieutenant Colonel Sir Richard Fletcher RE. Portrait in possession of Royal Engineers Mess and used with their permission.

2.
Monument at Alhandra to Sir Richard Fletcher and Neves Costa.

3.
Major General John Thomas Jones RE. Bust from the Royal Engineers Museum, Chatham.

4.
Lieutenant General Sir Stephen Chapman RE. Portrait in possession of Ronald Brighouse and used with his permission.

5.
Field Marshal John Fox Burgoyne RE.

6.
Contemporary image of Oporto from Villa Nova by Vivian.

7.
Boat bridge across the Douro at Oporto by Landmann.

8.
Flying bridge over the Tagus at Villa Velha.

9.
Main entrance to Fort La Lippe, Elvas, Portugal.

10.
Fort St Lucia, Elvas, Portugal.

11.
Fort St Julian, defending the embarkation point that the British army would have used to evacuate Lisbon.

12.
Section of the ditch of Fort San Vincente at Torres Vedras.

13.
Gun emplacement at Fort 18, Ajuda.

14.
Restored military road leading to the great redoubt at Sobral.

15.
Drawing of a Portuguese single-arm telegraph, reproduced with the permission of the Municipality of Torres Vedras.

16.
Reconstruction of a Portuguese single-arm telegraph.

17.
Reconstruction of a British balloon telegraph.

18.
Captain Charles Boothby RE, who lost a leg at Talavera.

19.
Badajoz castle from Fort San Christobal.

20.
The Tagus from the fort at Jerumenha.

21.
The castle at Campo Mayor.

22.
Defences at Almeida, Portugal.

23.
Site of the main Allied breach in the wall at Ciudad Rodrigo.

24.
Curtain wall of castle at Badajoz, Spain.

25.
Major William Nicholas RE.

26.
Bridge over the Guadiana at Badajoz seen from Fort San Christobal.

27.
Bridge over the Guadiana at Merida.

28.
Bridge over the Tagus at Almaraz.

29.
Bridge over the Tormes at Salamanca

30.
Bridge over the Tagus at Alcantara.

31.
Siege of San Sebastian by Jenkins.

32.
Passage of the Bidassoa by Jenkins.

33.
Contemporary image of an ox cart and driver.

34.
Fragment of memorial to Royal Engineer officers killed at the siege of San Sebastian.

Whilst I have always been interested in the Peninsular War, my knowledge of the Royal Engineers, like that of most people, was very limited. My interest stemmed from trying to find a topic for a PhD that had not been covered before. Ten years later, I have my bit of paper but also knowledge that I would like to share with others. There have been challenges in my research, mainly because the Corps is almost invisible in most histories of the period. Where an engineer appears in Wellington’s dispatches it is usually difficult to find any further evidence of the events mentioned. Even the official Corps history, although admittedly written over 100 years ago, has big gaps in its coverage of the Peninsular War. Fortunately we have a number of diaries and letters that we can use to reconstruct the Engineers’ story one piece at a time.

Information on the other units involved in engineering activities is even scarcer. The Royal Staff Corps, the army’s equivalent, has no history and no personal diaries; similarly the engineers of the King’s German Legion. Although almost completely ignored in the Anglo-centric writings on the Peninsular War, the Portuguese and Spanish engineers did play their part. I have not done much better, but have tried to acknowledge their presence where I found it.

In my search to rebuild the engineer’s story, I have had help from many people who have given their time, knowledge and enthusiasm freely and I thank them all. The first and foremost came from a chance encounter at the Royal Engineers’ Museum in 2004. Julia Page, known for her excellent book on Edward Charles Cocks
¹
and also for many years as an expert tour guide, shared my interest in the Royal Engineers. Later that year, with the battlefield tour group the Forlorn Hope, we spent a week going over the ground of many of the events recounted in this book. She is the only other person in the world with whom I can share my enthusiasm. Julia also planned to write a book on the Corps and had even started it. Unfortunately lack of time has interfered and it is left to me to bring this subject to the reader. This book is as much Julia’s as mine.

It is difficult to know where to start with the others who have helped me. Rory Muir is a hidden presence behind many modern works. His knowledge of the history is unparalleled and I have learnt so much from reading his books and talking to him. The other side of Rory is the man who willingly shares his knowledge with all and is always there when you have a question. He feels more like my next-door neighbour than someone who lives 10,000 miles away. I know that I am not the only person who has benefited from his generosity, so on behalf of us all, thank you.

During my research, I have made a number of visits to the Royal Engineers’ Museum and Library at Chatham. They have met with my many requests with patience and diligence and I would particularly like to thank Rebecca Nash and her team. I would also like to thank serving and retired members of the Corps for their assistance and encouragement, particularly Gerald Napier, Séan Scullion and Martin Stoneham. I first met Gerald Napier when we co-presented a session on the Lines of Torres Vedras and this led to my involvement in the Friends of the Lines of Torres Vedras (please look up our website and Facebook pages). I would also like to thank Nick Lipscombe for his advice and support.

In Portugal there are two people to I particularly need to mention. Firstly, Clive Gilbert, Chairman of the British Historical Society of Portugal. If you are ever visiting Portugal and need a local expert, you need Clive. He is heavily involved in local activities to protect and promote the Lines of Torres Vedras and is a superb interface between Portuguese and British interests. Secondly, I would like to thank Isabel Luna who works on the preservation of the Lines and is particularly heavily involved at Torres Vedras itself. She has been very supportive of my research and particularly in the efforts to identify the names of places and people in the unpublished diary of Edmund Mulcaster. There have been several others in Portugal who have contributed to my research, including José Paulo Berger, João Torres Centeno, Carlos Cunha, Flor Estavo, Moisés Gaudencio, Rui Moura, Jorge Quinta-Nova, Rui Sa Leul and Sergio Tavares. In the same group, although not Portuguese, is Anthony Gray.

From the British Commission for Military History (BCMH), I would particularly like to thank Dick Tennant and John Peaty. We have had a number of healthy debates about the war in general but particularly around bridging and military surveying. It was Dick who invited me to one of their conferences where I found myself speaking at Sandhurst next to the late, great Richard Holmes, an experience I will not forget for many reasons. The battlefield tour with them in 2012 is also a memory I will treasure.

Whilst not a regular contributor myself, I must recommend the Napoleon Series (
www.napoleon-series.org
) as a tremendous source of information both in the website content, but also the discussion forum. Over the years I have received help from many people but would particularly like to mention Bob Burnham, Howie Muir, Ron McGuigan and Tony Broughton. Bob Burnham and I have also corresponded on military bridging and he has written an excellent chapter on the subject in the book
Inside Wellington’s Peninsular Army
.
²

One constant in my life as a historian has been the presence of the British book dealer Ken Trotman, run by Richard and Roz Brown. I have been buying books from them for over thirty years and many of the books on my shelves came from them. I also owe them special thanks for allowing me to use images from some of their reprints.

I cannot end without giving my thanks to Chris Woolgar and Karen Robson at Southampton University, both for answering my questions and for arranging the Wellington Congress. I also must thank the staff of the British Library, the National Archives and the National Army Museum for their help in providing material for my research.

My final thanks are to my family who have lost me for a second time to Fletcher and his officers. Their understanding when I locked myself away for days on end and over my ‘business’ trips to London, Portugal and Spain have always been met with understanding and patience. This book and the PhD that preceded it are the result of the support of ‘Team Thompson’. The credit for this book should go to you, Trish, my wife and daughters, Ruth and Katherine.

Mark S. Thompson

October 2014