Historical Record of the Thirty-ninth, or the Dorsetshire Regiment of Foot: containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1702, and of its subsequent services to 1853.

by Richard Cannon

2nd Batt.

The second battalion, upon its arrival in England in February 1812, was stationed at Weymouth until October following, when it proceeded to Exeter, but returned to Weymouth in December.

1813. 1st Batt.

Shortly after the arrival of the first battalion at Coria, the Thirty-ninth sustained the loss of a most gallant and distinguished officer in Colonel George Wilson, who died on the 6th of January 1813. This officer had served in the regiment upwards of twenty-nine years, and was at the period of his decease aide-de-camp to His Majesty King George III., lieut.-colonel of the second battalion, colonel on the staff of the army, and commanding the brigade to which the first battalion was attached.[28]

On the 15th of May the first battalion, still belonging to the second division, moved forward without interruption until its arrival at Vittoria on the 21st of June: it bore a considerable share in the battle on that day, in taking, defending, and maintaining the village of Subijana de Alava, a post in front of the left of the French line, which they considered of such importance as to induce them to make several vigorous attacks to repossess themselves of it, but which proved unavailing. In this glorious action the battalion lost, in killed and wounded, above one-third of its number. Captains Charles Carthew, Robert Walton, and William Hicks, were wounded. Captain Hicks died of his wounds on the 3rd of July; Lieutenant the Honorable Michael De Courcy Meade died of his wounds on the 9th of July. Lieutenants Francis C. Crotty, Coyne Reynolds, Thomas Baynes, and Alexander G. Speirs, were wounded.

Two serjeants and thirty-two rank and file were killed; six serjeants and one hundred and ninety-four rank and file were wounded.

The French, being driven from all their defences, retreated with such precipitation towards Pampeluna as to abandon all their baggage, artillery, ammunition, military chests, and the court equipage of King Joseph, whose carriage being seized, he had barely time to escape on horseback. The defeat was the most complete that the French had experienced in Spain.

The baton of Marshal Jourdan was taken by the Eighty-seventh regiment, and the Prince Regent, in the name and behalf of His Majesty, appointed the Marquis of Wellington a Field-Marshal. In a most flattering letter, the Prince Regent thus conferred the honor:—“You have sent me among the trophies of our unrivalled fame, the staff of a French Marshal, and I send you in return that of England.”

To commemorate this victory the Thirty-ninth subsequently received the royal authority to bear the word “Vittoria” on the regimental colour and appointments. A medal was granted to Colonel the Honorable Robert William O’Callaghan, of the Thirty-ninth regiment, in temporary command of the brigade, who was specially noticed in the Marquis of Wellington’s despatch, “as having maintained the village of Subijana de Alava against all the efforts of the enemy to gain possession of it;” and also to Brevet-Lieut.-Colonel Charles Bruce, in immediate command of the first battalion.

From Vittoria the first battalion moved forward with the army on the evening of the same day towards the Pyrenees. Some affairs of little importance occurred, and on the 7th of July the French occupied a position across the valley of Bastan; the second battalion of the Thirty-fourth and the first battalion of the Thirty-ninth regiments were moved through the mountains to turn their right; towards evening they fell in with a piquet of the enemy near the extremity of the valley, which was driven in, and found to be supported by a great portion of the French army, which kept up a heavy fire until night. From a thick fog, and the nature of the ground, the enemy did not perceive the comparatively small force opposed to him, nor did the battalion suffer much for the same reason. On the morning of the 8th the enemy retired within the French territory. Four days afterwards Marshal Soult, who had been sent to the seat of war by Napoleon, with the rank of “Lieutenant of the Emperor,” assumed the command of the army of Spain, when all his energies were directed to retrieve its disasters, and to drive the British across the Ebro.