Can No One Win Battles if I'm Not There by Geoffrey Watson

Author:Geoffrey Watson [Watson, Geoffrey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B00HBV0S4E
Published: 2013-12-13T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 13

The light companies from Colonel Colborne’s brigade were stretched over several miles to the north of the Sierra Morena, waiting for the French to move north once more. They were expecting Marshal Soult and his army to link up with the forces that they had been watching ever since they had followed them on their retreat from the area around Badajoz.

It was not a comfortable position for them to be in, as the first sign that the enemy was moving would be the arrival of scouting parties from the cavalry commanded by Latour Maubourg.

None of the light troops fancied being found by Soult’s cavalry. They could defend themselves from mounted troops by forming squares, but squares were not suitable for marching, when men were facing outward on each side. It could be done, but was complicated drill and it was a long way back to Badajoz.

The first French cavalry that they sighted was not at all what they had expected, but came as a considerable relief to most of them. A large, dejected, straggling party of chasseurs à cheval plodded through their lines, shepherded by Otto Fischer and his squadron of Hornissen.

Several hundred horses were driven along with them and the prisoners must have prayed that they might be allowed to ride them. Cavalry boots were not to be recommended for walking more than the smallest distance.

Captain Fischer and B Squadron had ‘found’ the chasseurs in the first place. Colonel Roffhack had deemed it only fair that he and his squadron should escort the captives back to Badajoz, while the rest of the German battalion continued with their task of trying to ensure that Blake’s Spanish army reached the allied forces, unmolested by the French.

Escorting prisoners of war was not a duty that Otto Fischer felt was suitable for his highly trained men. As a Hornet, he had been encouraged to use his initiative and his proposal to Colonel Colborne was merely an example of this.

Briefly, he suggested that he place B Squadron temporarily under Colborne’s command to conduct mounted reconnaissance for him. In return, one of Colborne’s light infantry companies could escort the prisoners back and the captured horses would then be available to carry the rest of his men away, when necessary.

It meant that three hundred light infantrymen would have to learn to ride horses in the next few days, but the advantages were so obvious that the Hornissen were welcomed with open arms.

* * *

Roffhack’s other two squadrons explored the western foothills of the Sierra Morena and over the frontier into Portugal. If the Spanish had landed safely and their army was indeed marching up the River Guadiana, it would appear that the French had not heard of it yet, or perhaps had not been able to scrape together enough troops in time to interfere.

They did encounter a few foraging parties, but they were not far enough west to be any threat to the Spanish. Most of them were infantry and Roffhack decided to ignore them,

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