After a march of fifteen miles through a rugged and mountainous country, the wearied British and Portuguese troops entered an open plain between Caudete and Almanza, where the enemy, superior in numbers and artillery, was formed in order of battle. After a short halt the attack was commenced, and the detachments of the Queen's and Essex's (now the fourth) dragoons particularly distinguished themselves; being ordered to charge a battery of guns, so placed on the brow of a hill, that the artillery mules, though concealed from sight, remained close to the guns and could be instantly attached to them. The charge was made with determined gallantry, but the guns being quickly withdrawn, ten squadrons of select Spanish cavalry charged the British dragoons, amounting only to about two hundred and ninety men, killing Lieutenant-Colonel Lawrence of the Queen's, who led the attack, also Captain Smith and Cornet Petty of the same corps, and nearly annihilating the two squadrons. The greater part of the Portuguese cavalry fled from the field in a panic, when the British infantry were nearly surrounded, but the cavalry, by a desperate charge, in which three generals (Brigadier-General Carpenter of the Queen's being one) and thirty-four officers fought in the front ranks, succeeded in breaking through the enemy. The Earl of Galway was wounded, and in danger of being taken prisoner; but the spirited conduct of the dragoons enabled him to effect his escape[19]; and he retreated with the remains of the English and Dutch cavalry to Alceira, where he received information that the greater part of the infantry, after retreating to the hills of Caudete, had been surrounded and compelled to surrender prisoners of war.
After this disaster, the few troops which remained were employed in defensive operations for the preservation of Catalonia. The Queen's dragoons were stationed a short time at Manresa on the river Cardener, to refresh their horses; and after the fall of Lerida, the army went into winter quarters. The Earl of Galway embarked for Lisbon, and Brigadier-General Carpenter remained in command of the troops in Catalonia.
1708
The Queen's dragoons had suffered so severely at the battle of Almanza, that the officers were sent to England in March 1708, and the regiment was ordered to be recruited to sixty men per troop. The recruiting was carried on with rapidity, and the difference in the state of the regiment may be seen from two different returns in one year; in the first its numbers are 150, and in the second 303.
1709
1710
1711
1712
1713
In 1709 the regiment mustered 443 men, and it continued at the same number during the two following years; but in October 1712 a reduction of ten men per troop took place. In 1713 it was quartered in North Britain, and mustered 339 men.