Badajoz 1812 by Ian Fletcher

Author:Ian Fletcher
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Badajoz 1812: Wellington’s bloodiest siege
ISBN: 9781782001966
Publisher: Osprey Publishing

Another view of Badajoz, published by Edward Orme in 1812. British troops march towards the bridge while the familiar skyline of the town stands in the background.

Apart from the actual fortifications, Phillipon’s men worked hard at opening up new embrasures for their guns as well as constructing traverses to guard against enfilade. They also set about making the dreaded chevaux-de-frises, planks of wood bristling with sharp sword blades, which would be hauled into position immediately prior to the Allied assault. The central part of the defence was the castle. It was not really a castle in the traditional sense of the word, but merely an enclosure surrounded by walls varying from between 19 to 46 feet high. The garrison’s main powder magazine was stored here as were most of the provisions. In the event of Wellington’s men gaining the breaches, Phillipon intended to retreat to within the castle and hold it as a place of final defence. Gun batteries were overhauled and new ones constructed, whilst miners worked round the clock at the foot of the walls, hacking away at their rocky base to increase the depth of the ditch. The walls were high enough on their own, but, given the fact that they stood on top of a hill high above the Guadiana, they formed a very strong position. Indeed, the castle enclosure was considered to be the strongest and most secure part of the defences.

With Badajoz having been encircled by Wellington’s men, his engineers set about the task of deciding where the breaches would be made in the walls. During the failed sieges in May and June 1811, the Allies had chosen the castle and the San Christobal as the points of attack. This would not be repeated, however, and after careful consideration by Richard Fletcher, in consultation with both his colleagues and with Wellington, it was decided that the main focus for the attack should be the south-east front of the town at bastions 6 and 7, the Santa Maria and the Trinidad bastions. The French had strengthened the works along the south and south-west of the town, perhaps under the impression that, as they had attacked here in 1811, so Wellington would chose to do likewise. They were wrong, however, and the Santa Maria and Trinidad bastions, along with the curtain wall between them, were chosen as the site for the breaches. Naturally, this entailed the capturing of Fort Picurina, the outwork that protected this front from attack.

Before Wellington’s engineers could contemplate any of the above, however, the business of ‘breaking ground’, that is beginning the first parallel, had to be done. On the night of 17 March some 1,800 workmen, with a further 2,000 men acting as the covering party, assembled to begin digging the first parallel but it was so wet and windy that it took three hours for work to begin. The actual digging was an anxious time for the workmen as they were digging just 160 yards from Fort Picurina and it was just as well that the stormy conditions drowned the noise of both pick and shovel.

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