Towards the end of March, Sir William Beresford arrived at Portalegre with twenty thousand infantry, two thousand cavalry, and eighteen guns, with orders to relieve Campo Mayor, and besiege Olivenza and Badajoz. The first object was effected on the 25th of March; it was an affair of cavalry only. On the 6th of April, the passage of the Guadiana took place at Jurumenha, and the army occupied a position on a strong range of hills. On the 9th of April, Olivenza was summoned, and not surrendering the army encamped round it. General Latour Maubourg having retired to Llerena, Marshal Beresford leaving the fourth division, with Colonel Madden’s cavalry, opposite Olivenza, took post on the 11th at Albuhera, the infantry being on the 16th drawn nearer to Badajoz, which place was invested on the 8th of May.
On the 8th and 10th of May, the French made two sorties, but were driven back with considerable loss. Marshal Soult’s approach to relieve Badajoz having been ascertained, the siege was raised on the night of the 12th, and moving to Albuhera, the British were in position on the 15th of May.
The second battalion of the THIRTY-FIRST was on the left of Lieut.-Colonel Colborne’s brigade, in the division under Major-General the Honorable William Stewart, which was drawn up, in one line, behind the village of Albuhera; its right on a commanding hill, over which the Valverde road passed; its left on the road to Badajoz.
On the morning of the 16th of May, the grand attack was made by the French on the right of the position, and in a line at right angles to it: this point was contested by the Spaniards without success,—they gave way, and the French columns pushing on, seized the crown of the hill, and bringing up their reserves, established their batteries in position on it. At this moment Major-General the Honorable William Stewart brought forward Lieut.-Colonel Colborne’s brigade, and arrived with it at the foot of the hill, while all was in confusion above. The Major-General rushed on in open column of companies, attempting to form his line in succession as the battalions arrived. The THIRTY-FIRST, the left of the brigade, was still in column, when four regiments of hussars and lancers, which had been concealed by the heavy rain falling at the time, passed by the right flank to the rear of the line.
“One battalion only (the THIRTY-FIRST) being still in column, escaped the storm, and maintained its ground, while the French horsemen, riding violently over everything else, penetrated to all parts.”[40]
Major-General the Honorable William Lumley sent some squadrons of cavalry to take the attention of the Lancers, but the THIRTY-FIRST continued to hold the height, while the Spaniards would not advance, and Marshal Soult still kept his columns together on the point he had assailed. Major-General Hoghton’s brigade coming up in good order, under Major-General the Honorable William Stewart, and being soon afterwards reinforced by a portion of the fourth division, relieved the second battalion of the THIRTY-FIRST from the difficulty of its position.
The THIRTY-FIRST had two serjeants and twenty-six rank and file killed; and Captains Fleming and Knox, Lieutenants Butler, Gethen, and Bolton; Ensigns Wilson and Nicholson; four serjeants, and one hundred and sixteen rank and file, wounded.
Major George Guy Carleton L’Estrange, who commanded the battalion, at the battle of Albuhera, was promoted to the rank of Lieut.-Colonel in the army for his conduct on that day, and received a medal. Viscount Wellington alluded to his gallantry in the following terms:—
“There is one officer, Major L’Estrange, of the THIRTY-FIRST, whom I must recommend, in the strongest manner, for promotion in some way or other. After the other parts of the same brigade were swept off by the Cavalry, this little battalion alone held its ground against all the ‘colonnes en masse.’”
Captain Peter Fearon, of the THIRTY-FIRST, distinguished himself on the same day in command of the Lusitanian legion, and received a medal for his conduct.