The Royal Authority was afterwards given for the THIRTY-FIRST to bear the word “Albuhera” on the regimental colour and appointments, to commemorate the distinguished conduct of the second battalion on that memorable occasion.
The army was again in position during the 17th of May, the enemy appearing to meditate another attack; the remainder of the fourth division, however, arrived by forced marches from Jurumenha, and on the 18th Marshal Soult retreated, followed by Marshal Beresford, who left the Portuguese to make a show of investing Badajoz. The infantry had no affair with the enemy during his retreat; and when he assumed a position at Llerena, the operations terminated.
Major-General Hill at this period rejoined from England, and the second siege of Badajoz commenced on the 30th of May.
The second battalion of the THIRTY-FIRST continued under Lieut.-General Hill, to which rank he was promoted on the 4th of June 1811, in the covering army, which was posted between Merida and Albuhera. Having been much reduced in the late action, it was formed, with the sixty-sixth regiment, into a Provisional Battalion, under the command of Lieut.-Colonel Colborne.
When Marshal Soult advanced, and the siege of Badajoz was raised, the covering army was once more concentrated on the position of Albuhera. The French Marshal did not, however, attack; on the 17th of June, the British crossed the Guadiana, and prepared for the probability of an engagement with the united corps of Marshals Marmont and Soult. In July, the British were relieved from their presence, and the Commander-in-Chief, Viscount Wellington, leaving Lieut.-General Hill to watch Estremadura, at Portalegre, Villa Viciosa, and Estremos, with ten thousand men, put the rest of the army into quarters near the Tagus.
The THIRTY-FIRST continued with Lieut.-General Hill in the second division: this part of the army was constantly on the alert, but nothing very important occurred until October.
On the 9th of October, Lieut.-General Hill’s force was concentrated behind Campo Mayor, and on the 22nd marched to drive Marshal Girard from Caçeres: at daylight on the 28th of October, the British General surprised the French Marshal at Arroyo dos Molinos, in which brilliant affair the second battalion of the THIRTY-FIRST was present.
The army returned to its cantonments about Portalegre immediately afterwards, and remained in them until the 24th and 25th of December, when it moved upon Merida, and arrived there on the 30th to surprise General Dombrouski, and attack General Drouet. They both retired, abandoning magazines of wheat, and Lieut.-General Hill took up his cantonments at Merida on the 6th of January, 1812.
1812
Immediately afterwards Lieut.-General Hill fell back upon the frontiers of Portugal, while the grand army was investing Ciudad Rodrigo, and occupied Portalegre.