In March 1808, the battalion was removed from Limerick to Dublin.
Important events had in the meantime occurred on the Continent, which occasioned the second battalion of the THIRTY-FIRST regiment to be ordered on active service. Napoleon, having reduced Germany to submission to his will, and forced Russia to accede to his decrees, next attempted the subjugation of Spain and Portugal. The Spaniards and Portuguese rose in arms to assert their national rights, the French Emperor having conferred the crown of Spain on his brother Joseph, who relinquished the throne of Naples in favor of Marshal Murat.
In the summer of 1808, Portugal was delivered by a British army under Lieut.-General Sir Arthur Wellesley; and in the autumn Lieut.-General Sir John Moore received orders to advance with a body of British troops from Portugal into the heart of Spain; at the same time several regiments were embarked from the United Kingdom to co-operate in the enterprise.
The second battalion of the THIRTY-FIRST, which had proceeded in August to Fermoy, marched on the 8th of September to Monkstown for embarkation, and sailed in a few days afterwards to Falmouth, where a fleet was assembling with a force for service, the command of the troops being held by Lieut.-General Sir David Baird. In a short time, the fleet sailed, and arrived in the Bay of Corunna on the 23rd of October. The THIRTY-FIRST did not, however, land with the army, the battalion being despatched to Lisbon, where it arrived on the 5th of November.
Lieut.-General Sir John Cradock, who commanded in Portugal at this period, detached some regiments towards the frontier, with a view of reinforcing Lieut.-General Sir John Moore in Spain. The THIRTY-FIRST, being one of the corps destined for this service, marched with a force under the command of Brigadier-General Richard Stewart from Lisbon, on the 18th of December, upon Castello Branco, where the battalion arrived in ten days.
The communication with Lieut.-General Sir John Moore being at this period suddenly interrupted, Brigadier-General Stewart was ordered to halt, and unfavourable intelligence being received from Spain, Lieut.-General Sir John Cradock determined to concentrate his army near Lisbon, and the further advance was, therefore, countermanded.
1809
The second battalion of the THIRTY-FIRST, and the other corps of the division, commenced their march to the rear on the 1st of January 1809. On arrival at Santarem, the intelligence of Sir John Moore’s advance upon Sahagun had reached head-quarters, and the anticipated danger being thus drawn from the frontiers of Portugal, Brigadier-General Stewart was again ordered to halt. His head-quarters continued at Santarem, and the THIRTY-FIRST occupied cantonments in the neighbourhood of Bucellas. A month’s march in incessant rain had seriously damaged the appointments, and the men being indifferently provided with shoes, rendered a rest in this pleasant quarter of infinite benefit.
In the meanwhile, the army under Lieut.-General Sir John Moore had continued its retreat over two hundred and fifty miles of mountainous country, constantly repulsing the attacks of the enemy. The British army arrived at Corunna on the 11th of January, being closely followed by Marshal Soult, who occupied a position on a height above the town, in order to make an attack on the troops while proceeding to embark. This operation commenced on the 16th of January, and the French descending from the heights in three columns, a sanguinary action ensued. Lieut.-General Sir John Moore received a mortal wound from a cannon-ball, and his country was deprived of an officer, who, both in his professional and private character, had acquired universal esteem and admiration. Lieut.-General Sir David Baird lost an arm, and the command devolved on Lieut.-General Sir John Hope, who vigorously maintained the action, the British remaining masters of the field. The embarkation for England was effected on the following night, no further molestation being offered by the enemy.