I Think I Really Do Have an Ulcer by Geoffrey Watson

Author:Geoffrey Watson [Watson, Geoffrey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B00JUWWL2O
Published: 2014-04-21T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 12

Lord Wellington had received reinforcements from England. His army, gathering around Badajoz, now numbered about sixty thousand men, with considerable increases in artillery and cavalry.

Over twenty thousand of this total were Portuguese soldiers, trained by and under the command of mostly senior British officers, working with junior Portuguese counterparts, who in turn had accepted a stiffening of British officers as their seconds in command.

Additionally, he had five thousand Spaniards attached, under the command of General Villemur.

With these numbers he had little to fear from Marshals Soult or Marmont individually. Only if they combined their forces by neglecting their other commitments, could they approach the numbers he commanded and he doubted that they could equal his total even then.

Nevertheless, he knew that French strategy was dependent on such a union of forces to stop him besieging Badajoz and he resolved to do everything he could to capture the town in the quickest possible time, before they had the chance to react.

He had no great opinion of the quality of the Spanish armies, in spite of their previously superb resistance to Soult at Albuera last year. Rather than have a force of questionable steadiness with him, he agreed with Villemur that they could prove themselves a much greater asset by travelling to join General Ballesteros around Seville.

Any threat by a Spanish army to Soult’s most important base, ought to concentrate his mind on matters other than the fate of Badajoz.

Wellington then divided his force into three. He kept enough men and guns to proceed with the siege, while giving Generals Sir Rowland Hill and Sir Thomas Graham the rest of the army between them. They would contain any movement by Soult from the south and by d’Erlon, Soult’s deputy, who was lurking to the south east with a couple of divisions.

With regard to any possible aggressive moves by Marmont’s Army of Portugal, he relied on intelligence reports from MacKay and Welbeloved to keep him informed. He was getting a courier service twice a week that was giving him conflicting news of movements in and out of Salamanca, but no news of any determined southern initiative by Marmont.

No news may have been good news, but he knew how quickly the French could move when they needed to. It merely increased his determination to take the town at the first possible opportunity.

Colonel Lord Vere welcomed Major Gonçalves and the Second Battalion, the Vespãos. He had received a despatch from Welbeloved describing the way Thuner had helped the escalade of Rodrigo and thoughtfully detached a dozen of his best climbers, selected from both the German and Portuguese battalions.

It was therefore convenient that Lord Wellington’s new aide, Captain Pom Bal Li was on hand to assume temporary command of this small detachment. Depending on the form that the eventual storming of the town took, he would be well placed to remind his lordship about how valuable Thuner’s assistance had been before.

He was also left responsible for the four mortars and their crews of Vespas that had made the journey from Rodrigo with the Second Battalion.

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