Historical Record of the Sixty-first, or the South Gloucestershire Regiment of Foot / Containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1758, and of its subsequent services to 1844.

by Richard Cannon

Three hundred men joined from the second battalion in February, 1810, and thus restored the regiment to its former numbers. In April the second battalion proceeded from Guernsey to Ireland.

Continuing with the first division of the allied army, the regiment proceeded to the northern frontiers of Portugal to meet the French invading army, under Marshal Massena, who boasted that he would drive the English into the sea, and plant the eagles of France on the towers of Lisbon; and he possessed so great a superiority of numbers, that the allied army was forced to retreat before him. Suddenly the rugged rocks of Busaco were seen sparkling with British bayonets, assembled to oppose his advance, and the desperate attempts made by the French veterans to force the position, on the 27th of September, were met by a resistance which they could not overcome. The Sixty-first were in position on this occasion, and the light company skirmished with the French marksmen; but the regiment was not seriously engaged.

The French having turned the position by a flank movement, the British army withdrew to the fortified lines of Torres Vedras, where the invading army found its progress arrested by a barrier which it did not venture to attack, and after halting a few weeks before the lines in hopeless inactivity, retreated to a strong position at Santarem.

On arriving at the lines, the Sixty-first were removed to the fourth division, and stationed at the village of Caxaria, and it was in position every morning two hours before daylight to resist any attack the enemy might be disposed to make. The regiment was subsequently removed to the sixth division, with which its services are identified during the remainder of the war; it was united in brigade with the Eleventh and Fifty-third Regiments, commanded by Brigadier-General Hulse.

After the retreat of the French to Santarem, the regiment was stationed at the Convent of Alenquer, where several officers and men were taken suddenly ill, and the only remaining monk suggested, that it was probably occasioned by the water,—the French having, on their retreat, cast several dead men into the well in the centre of the square, to save the trouble of burying them: on examination this proved to be true,—and the sensations produced by the discovery may be easily conceived. In a few days afterwards the regiment was removed to the hamlet of Arunda.

1811

Unable to fulfil his menace of driving the English into the sea, and having consumed all the provisions he could procure, the French Marshal retreated from his position at Santarem, on the 5th of March, 1811, and the Sixty-first were engaged in following the retreat of the enemy to the frontiers of Portugal: they were afterwards employed, with their division, in the blockade of the fortress of Almeida, and were quartered at the village of Junca, from whence they furnished a daily piquet near the works.

The French army advancing to relieve Almeida, the Sixty-first quitted the blockade, and were in position when the French were repulsed at Fuentes d’Onor; but did not sustain any loss.

Resuming its quarters at Junca, the regiment again furnished piquets before Almeida. An unusual noise during the night of the 11th of May occasioned the regiment to assemble at its alarm post, and march towards Almeida; the grenadier company advanced to the walls, and Captain Furnace discovered a chasm in the works, at which he entered and ascertained that the French garrison had blown up a great part of the works, and evacuated the fortress; when Major Coghlan ordered a guard of one hundred men to take possession of the town, which was found much injured by the explosions.

Lord Wellington having undertaken the siege of Badajoz, Marshals Soult and Marmont marched the armies under their orders to the relief of that fortress, when the Sixty-first proceeded with their division to the Alemtejo, and were in position on the Caya. The French armies having separated, the regiment again traversed the country towards the Agueda; and in September the light company, under Captain Owen, distinguished itself by repulsing, by its steady fire, the attack of several squadrons of French dragoons, who had driven back a body of British cavalry near Ciudad Rodrigo, when Marshal Marmont relieved the blockade of that fortress.