From Barcelona the regiment marched under the command of Lieut.-Col. Edward Pearce, to Tortosa, on the river Ebro. In the meantime the Conde de las Torres having been sent by King Philip, with a numerous force, to retake the towns which had declared for Archduke Charles, he had besieged the fortress of St. Matheo, and the Thirteenth were ordered to march to the relief of this town. The troops employed in this service were very inferior in numbers to the besieging army; but by night marches among the woods and mountains, and circulating exaggerated reports of his numbers, the British general succeeded in surprising his opponents, and the Spanish commander, being deceived by spies, made a precipitate retreat.

After this service was performed, the officers and men were so exhausted by long marches, day and night over the mountains, that the regiment was ordered into quarters of refreshment at Vinaros, where it remained a short period, while the Earl of Peterborough was making preparations for the expedition to Valencia.

1706

Early in the year 1706, Lieut.-Col. Pearce received orders to march with the Thirteenth regiment from Vinaros to Oropeso, where an extraordinary alteration took place in the character of the corps, which is without parallel in the history of the British army. The Earl of Peterborough was much in want of cavalry for his expedition to Valencia, and he procured, with great zeal and industry, about eight hundred Spanish horses; about two hundred of these horses were given to the Royal Dragoons, and other corps, to remount the men whose horses had died, and with the other six hundred he resolved to form a corps of cavalry. He had been much pleased with the conduct of the Thirteenth foot on all occasions, and he determined to constitute them a Regiment of Dragoons. This was, however, not communicated to the officers and soldiers until every preparation was made, and as the regiment approached Oropeso, it was met by the Earl of Peterborough, and reviewed on a small plain near the town. After the review the horses were produced, and the regiment was constituted a corps of dragoons of eight troops, of which Lieut.-Col. Edward Pearce was appointed colonel. The following account of this circumstance is copied from Dr. Freind’s account of the Earl of Peterborough’s campaign in Valencia:—‘No surprise, I believe, was equal to that of the officers and soldiers of Colonel Pearce’s regiment, who had orders to march from Vinaros, to a place called Oropeso, four leagues from Castillon de la Plana: at this place, by ten in the morning, they were met by the Earl of Peterborough, on a plain just bordering on the town. His Lordship having made a review, was complimenting the regiment, and wishing he had horses and accoutrements, to try whether a corps of so good a character would maintain the like reputation upon such a change. They, no doubt, concurred very heartily with his Lordship in his wishes, little expecting the execution of them in a moment: but his Lordship having ordered his secretary to give the commissions already prepared, the officers at last believed the general in earnest; when, turning to the edge of a hill, they saw eight bodies of horses, drawn up separately, and found them all ready accoutred. Among these there were three good horses for each captain, two for each lieutenant, and one for each cornet. My Lord left to the field officers the choice of their troops; the other captains drew lots: and immediately they all mounted and marched to the quarters appointed for them.’

In the ‘Annals of Queen Anne,’ it is stated:—‘He (the Earl of Peterborough) collected above six hundred horses, with which he recruited his horse, and formed a regiment of dragoons of the Lord Barrymore’s regiment of foot, the command of which new regiment he gave to Lieut.-Col. Pearce, ordering the remaining officers of the old corps to return to England to recruit the same.’

Similar statements to the above are contained in Carleton’s Memoirs, Tindal’s History of England, and other historical works. In the official records, it is stated, that twenty-seven officers and six hundred and sixty non-commissioned officers and soldiers of the Thirteenth foot, then called the Earl of Barrymore’s regiment, were formed into a corps of dragoons in Spain; that Lieut.-Col. Pearce of the Thirteenth was appointed colonel of the new regiment of dragoons, which obtained rank in the army from the 25th of February, 1706; and that 900l. levy money was paid for recruiting the Thirteenth to its establishment in England.

The regiment of dragoons thus formed proved a valuable corps, and distinguished itself on several occasions. It formed part of the force engaged in the Earl of Peterborough’s splendid campaign in Valencia, and evinced great gallantry in the capturing of the Spanish battering train near the city of Valencia. After the siege of Barcelona was raised, this regiment advanced upon Madrid, and joined the army of Portugal, under the Earl of Galway, at Guadalaxara, on the 8th of August, 1706. It subsequently took part in covering the march of the army to Valencia, and was so reduced in numbers by continual service, and the losses it sustained in numerous skirmishes, that in the spring of 1707, it only mustered two hundred and seventy three men. It was one of the corps which displayed great intrepidity and bravery at the battle of Almanza, on the 25th of April, 1707, when it had Lieut.-Col. Deloches, Cornets Cundy and Holmes, and Quarter-Master Sturges killed; Lieut. Fitzgerald and Cornet Barry wounded and taken prisoners: it also sustained a severe loss in killed and wounded. It was disbanded after the treaty of Utrecht in 1713.

The remaining officers and soldiers of the Thirteenth, who were not constituted dragoons, returned to England in 1706, and had so great success in recruiting the regiment, that in less than two years it was fit for service.

1707

While the regiment was recruiting in England, the allied army was defeated at Almanza, and a French and Spanish force invaded Portuguese Estremadura and the Alemtejo, when four regiments (the fifth, twentieth, thirty-ninth, and Stanwix’s, afterwards disbanded) embarked from Ireland for Portugal; and during the winter the Thirteenth regiment, being again fit for duty, proceeded to the same destination: it was placed on the strength of the army in Portugal on the 24th of December, 1707.