The two Battalions, then stationed at Hythe, were ordered to be completed to a strength of a thousand men each; and active steps were taken to supply the losses occasioned by the retreat by obtaining volunteers from the Militia. The Regiment had already become so famous and so popular, that not only were the deficiencies filled up in a very short time, but more than a thousand volunteers presented themselves beyond the numbers required.[65] It was therefore resolved by the authorities to add a 3rd Battalion to the Regiment. Colonel M’Leod was promoted to the Lieutenant-Colonelcy of it, and soon afterwards exchanged with Colonel Andrew Barnard, of the 1st Royals, afterwards Sir Andrew Barnard: a name indelibly connected with the subsequent achievements of the Regiment. Only two or three other of the steps consequent on the formation of an additional Battalion were given in the Regiment, the services of those by whose valour and sufferings the Regiment had obtained the fame which attracted these volunteers and to whose exertions in recruiting their great number was due, being, with the usual injustice of the British Government to its military defenders, ignored. General Sir David Dundas, then Commander-in-Chief, became Colonel-in-Chief on August 31, 1809, in place of Manningham; and the Colonelcies of the three Battalions were bestowed on Major-Generals Forbes Champagné, Sir Brent Spencer, and the Honourable William Stewart, thus restoring to the roll of the Regiment the honoured name of its first Lieutenant-Colonel.
I now resume the history of the services of the 1st Battalion, which having been completed to 1,010 rank and file, marched from Hythe, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Beckwith, at two o’clock in the morning of May 25, 1809, and arriving at Dover about six, soon after embarked in three transports, the ‘Fortune,’ the ‘Malabar,’ and the ‘Laurel,’ and sailed immediately for the Downs. Here they were joined by a battalion of the 43rd and by the 52nd, which were to form the Light Brigade under Major-General Robert Craufurd, who embarked in the ‘Nymph’ frigate. Contrary winds kept them in the Downs till June 3, when they made sail; and arriving in the Tagus on the 28th anchored off Lisbon. Here they remained until July 2, when about midnight they were put into flat-bottomed boats, and towed up the river. The men and officers were very crowded, and experienced great inconvenience for twenty-four hours, until they were landed at Vallada on the right bank of the river, at or near which place they bivouacked on that night. On landing they were definitively formed, with the 43rd and 52nd Light Infantry Regiments, their constant companions in arms, into the Light Brigade, whose deeds of arms in Portugal, Spain and France, can never be forgotten while England has an army.
The Battalion marched on the 4th to Santarem, where they halted till the 7th, to allow the baggage animals, the ammunition, and the Commissariat to come up. On that day they marched to Golegão, and on the 8th to Punhete and Tancos, still on the Tagus; on the 9th they passed through Abrantes, but, not halting there, crossed by a pontoon bridge to the left bank of the river, and bivouacked in extensive woods. All these marches were, in consequence of the extreme heat of the weather, performed in the night; the Battalion generally falling in about midnight, and arriving at their bivouack about eight or nine in the morning.
It was about this time that Craufurd issued standing orders to his Brigade of extreme strictness, not to say severity. This Draconic code made him at first very unpopular; but as time went on, its usefulness in maintaining discipline and repressing offences became manifest. It produced a perfection in the Brigade which the officers and the men themselves could not but recognise; and this, added to his own personal valour and reckless daring, eventually endeared him to the soldiers who followed him.[66]
At midnight on the 10th the Battalion moved to Gavião, a march of thirteen hours, the greater part under a blazing sun. On the 12th they reached, through a bleak and high country, Niza. On the next day they marched through the pass of Villa Velha, and crossing the Tagus by a bridge of boats, bivouacked on the opposite bank. On the 14th they advanced by mountainous and difficult roads to Sernadas, and on the 15th reached Castello Branco. Here they halted on the 16th and 17th to enable the 43rd and 52nd to join them. On the 18th the Brigade thus complete marched soon after midnight and bivouacked in the woods near Ladouira; on the 19th they moved through a desolate country to Zebreira; and on the 20th, crossing the Elgas, passed into Spain and encamped near Zarza Major. On the next day, after a long and oppressive march, they reached Moralegua, and on the 22nd arrived at Coria, where they halted during the 23rd.
On the 24th the Battalion marched to Galisteo, on the river Alagon; on the 25th over a burning plain, with the Sierra de Gata, topped with snow, in view, to Malpartida, a village on the Calzones. On the next day, the 26th, crossing the river Tietar by a flying bridge, they had a most fatiguing march to Venta de Bazagona, and on the 27th arrived at Navalmoral, the heat being oppressive.
On the 28th they marched at daylight to the town of Calzada, where tidings reached Craufurd that an action was imminent between Sir Arthur Wellesley’s army, with General Cuesta’s Spanish troops, and Marshal Victor’s army, then in close proximity. He determined, therefore, if possible, to unite his Brigade to Sir Arthur Wellesley before it should take place; and undertook the forced march which has rendered the name of the Light Division famous. Accordingly, after a short rest at Calzada, he pushed on to Oropesa, two leagues, which he reached about noon. A distant cannonade began to be heard, which, increasing as they approached it, acted as an incentive to speed and endurance. They marched on under a scorching sun to Oropesa, where they halted for four hours to cook. Here Craufurd desired the commanding officers to pick out of the ranks such men as they considered unable to continue a further march. Very few men of the Battalion fell out; these were left at Oropesa in charge of a subaltern. After this was done the bugles sounded the ‘fall in,’ and the Riflemen moved onward till about ten at night; when, passing a cattle-pond, Craufurd halted to allow the men to drink. The parched soldiers eagerly drank the water, filthy and nauseous though it was. As soon as they had satisfied their thirst, the march was resumed and continued through the night, without check, through deep, sandy roads. Early on the morning of the 29th the Light Division marched across the field of Talavera, giving three hearty cheers for the victory of the day before.
They had thus, in heavy marching order, under a burning sun, and with a most insufficient supply of food, marched upwards of fifty miles, with only two short halts, in twenty-five hours. They thus arrived the morning after the fight at Talavera; but though the Battalion itself was not present, a detachment of the Regiment left in the Peninsula in 1808 took part in the action, and was mentioned in Sir Arthur Wellesley’s despatches as having particularly distinguished themselves.[67]
As soon as it arrived at Talavera the Battalion was immediately ordered to occupy some woods in advance of the British position and to furnish the picquets, the sentinels of which were facing the position of the French army. Here the Battalion remained till August 3. During that time it suffered much from want of provision, not more than one ration of bread, and but little of other food, having been issued.
On the 3rd the British army began to fall back in consequence of information that Soult with a large force was moving towards the rear of the English with a view of cutting off their communications with Portugal. Before daybreak they marched and arrived at Oropesa, the 95th forming the rear-guard with the cavalry. On the 4th they crossed the Tagus by the bridge of Arzobispo. It was during this march that Craufurd, knowing that his Division were famishing, allowed them to kill any animals which might be in the woods in which they halted that evening. A large herd of pigs being discovered was instantly set upon by the hungry soldiers, killed, cut up and eaten in an incredibly short time. About midnight they started again, thus refreshed, and pushed forward to secure the bridge of Almaraz, the rest of the army moving on Truxillo. It was of vast importance to secure this bridge, as it was feared Soult might occupy it. The Light Division, therefore, was pushed on with great rapidity. The Riflemen marched for fourteen hours through a hilly and barren country, still without food, except a kind of pea parched by the sun, and wheat found in such fields as remained ungleaned; suffering also from want of water, the streams being almost all dried up; and on the evening of the 5th the Battalion bivouacked in some woods in advance of the rest of the Division. Before dawn on the 6th they resumed their march under a burning sun, and with the same scanty provision, and after fifteen hours’ march, during which there were many stragglers, faint from heat and want, they reached the bridge of Almaraz. Two companies of the Battalion were immediately sent on picquet at a ford a little below the bridge; and the remainder bivouacked near, in order to support the picquets in case of an attack. Here they remained till August 20, the Battalion being always in advance, and bivouacking in an olive wood near Rio Gardo, and furnishing the picquets at the ford. Every evening at sunset they moved out of the olive wood, and lay down with their arms on the bank of the river, and returned to the camp at sunrise. The remainder of the Light Division were encamped near the village of Las Casas del Puerto.