When the army went into position, Major-General Mackenzie was left with a division of infantry and a brigade of cavalry, as an advanced post, in the wood on the right of the Alberche, which covered the left flank. The French attacked this post between two and three o'clock on the 27th of July, when the Fourteenth light dragoons were ordered forward, and they crossed the Alberche river, and sent out a line of skirmishers to cover the retrograde movements of the infantry. The regiment was employed in skirmishing until night, and had nine horses killed; Lieutenant Theophilus Thomas Ellis, and one private soldier wounded.
The Fourteenth light dragoons resumed their post in the position occupied by the allied army, and supported the infantry during the severe contest on the 28th of July. The left of the British line was attacked at day-break, and when the enemy was repulsed at this point, a long pause ensued. An attack on the centre was made soon after two o'clock, and the French were again driven back; they also failed in another attack on the left. A strong body of the enemy advanced against Major-General Sherbrooke's division; this attack was repulsed by a charge of the whole division with bayonets; but the brigade of foot guards pursued so far as to be in danger of being annihilated; when the forty-eighth regiment, and the Fourteenth and sixteenth light dragoons were brought forward, and the foot guards rallied and again advanced. This was a moment of great peril to the allied army; but the steady valour of the British troops prevailed, and the French fell back.
The Fourteenth light dragoons had three men and twenty-one horses killed; Colonel Samuel Hawker, Captains John Chapman, and Peter Hawker, Lieutenants William Wainman and Thomas Smith, six rank and file, and three horses wounded; thirteen horses missing; Lieutenant Evelyn P. Dormer taken prisoner. Lieutenant-Colonel Neil Talbot, and Major Baker had each a horse killed under him.
Colonel Hawker was rewarded with a gold medal, and the regiment was subsequently authorised to bear on its guidons and appointments the word "Talavera", in commemoration of its distinguished services in this action.[10]
After this battle the enemy brought forward such very superior numbers, that the British General was forced to act on the defensive, and while the army was encamped on the banks of the Guadiana, a malignant fever proved fatal to numbers of officers and soldiers. The Fourteenth dragoons were removed to Villa Vicosa, a fortified town in the Alemtejo, from whence they marched, in December, to Santarem, a town very pleasantly situated on the right bank of the Tagus, where they were formed in brigade with the royal dragoons under Major-General Slade.
1810
In February, 1810, Badajoz and Ciudad Rodrigo were both menaced by the enemy, and in March the regiment returned to the Alemtejo, and took the advanced posts of Lieut.-General Rowland Hill's corps at Arronches, a town situate at the conflux of the Caya and the Algrette, near the Spanish frontiers. A concentration of French troops near Ciudad Rodrigo afterwards relieved the other provinces. Ciudad Rodrigo was eventually beseiged by Marshal Ney, and the British commander, hoping the enemy, by detaching troops, would furnish an opportunity for relieving this fortress, withdrew the Fourteenth light dragoons from the Alemtejo. The regiment advanced to Almeida in June; it was attached to the light division under Brigadier-General Craufurd, who was behind the Agueda river, watching the enemy's motions; and with the sixteenth light dragoons, and first hussars King's German Legion, took the out-post duty on this frontier.
No opportunity to relieve Ciudad Rodrigo occurred; but during the siege marauding parties of French soldiers entered the villages of Barquillo and Villa de Puerco on three successive nights. Brigadier-General Craufurd, thinking to cut off the next party, formed two ambuscades, one near Villa de Puerco, with six squadrons, another of three squadrons near Barquillo, and he also placed his artillery, five companies of the ninety-fifth, (Rifle-brigade) and the third Portuguese Caçadores in reserve; the Fourteenth light dragoons were employed in these ambuscades. On the morning of the 11th of July, a little after day-break, a party of French infantry was observed near Villa de Puerco, and a small body of cavalry at Barquillo; and the open country on the right would have enabled the six squadrons to place themselves between the infantry and their point of retreat; but this was circuitous, and Brigadier-General Craufurd preferred passing along a narrow defile between two stone walls. This proved difficult; in threading the defile in a long line the dragoons were separated, and the French infantry, two hundred strong, had time to form square, being hidden in high standing corn. The French dragoons coming out of Barquillo, were charged by the German hussars and a squadron of the sixteenth, and two officers and twenty-nine men were made prisoners. In the meantime the Fourteenth light dragoons had threaded the defile, and mounting the hill, rode with distinguished gallantry against the square; but the French infantry remained perfectly steady, and opened such a fire, that Lieut.-Colonel Talbot and eight men fell dead close to the bayonets, and twenty-three men were wounded.[11] The survivors withdrew a short distance to reform their ranks, and the French square commenced its retreat with singular steadiness and good order. The Fourteenth dragoons seeing this, prepared to launch against it another squadron, which was already in speed for the purpose, when Colonel Arentschildt of the hussars, observing cavalry approaching in front and flank, checked the movement. It was afterwards regretted that he took this step, as the horsemen, who alarmed him, proved to be the German hussars and sixteenth returning from the pursuit of the French dragoons, the whole of whom they had captured.
On the death of Lieut.-Colonel Talbot the command of the regiment devolved on Lieut.-Colonel F. B. Hervey, under whose directions the Fourteenth became celebrated as an efficient corps of light cavalry, remarkable for the excellent manner in which they performed the out-post duty.
Meanwhile Ciudad Rodrigo had surrendered; the Fourteenth remained in the villages near Fort La Conception until the 21st of July, when the enemy's masses approaching, they fell back to Almeida, where Brigadier-General Craufurd halted the few troops under his orders, and, with astonishing hardihood, confronted the whole French army. During the night of the 23rd of July, the videttes and patrols of the regiment were exposed to a heavy storm of wind and rain, and as daylight appeared, they discovered the approach of numerous legions of the enemy: a few shots were fired; the cavalry reserves and guns moved forward, and a skirmish ensued in which the Fourteenth had one serjeant killed; Lieutenant John Blachford, one private soldier, and four horses wounded. After opposing the superior numbers of the enemy for some time, the British withdrew beyond the river Coa; and Brigadier-General Craufurd stated in his despatch,—'The retreat of the Fourteenth light dragoons from Val-de-la-Mula to Almeida, was conducted in the most regular and soldier-like manner, though opposed to a superior force of French cavalry.'