Wellington Against Junot: The First Invasion of Portugal 1807-1808 by David Buttery

Author:David Buttery [Buttery, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: new, fix
ISBN: 9781848841420
Amazon: 1848841426
Goodreads: 11510361
Publisher: Pen & Sword
Published: 2011-07-12T04:00:00+00:00

Map 5: Battle of Roliça, 17 August 1808

The French levelled an accurate and telling fire on the allies as they advanced, to which they had little chance to respond due to the slowness of their flanking forces getting into position. The 29th pressed forward to pursue the enemy through Columbeira but were forced to redirect their march to the left of the village because of heavy fire from sharpshooters on the hillside and artillery covering the French withdrawal. Leslie commented:

Their right was filing to the rear, masked by a cloud of skirmishers, posted on some rising ground covered with brushwood at the foot of the mountains, and warmly engaged with General Fane’s riflemen. Their left had retired through the village of Columbeira, and occupied the heights.28

Seeing many of his men fall as the attack faltered around Columbeira, Colonel Lake of the 29th felt the need to inspire his regiment, calling out: ‘Gentlemen, display the colours,’ the colours flew, and shortly afterwards he again turned … ‘Soldiers, I shall remain in front of you, and remember that the bayonet is the only weapon for a British soldier.’29 Lake had won a considerable reputation in India fighting under Wellesley and was extremely popular with his men as a fearless and experienced soldier who led from the front. Several sources attest to him having dressed in his finest uniform for the battle and remarking: ‘Egad, sir, if I am killed to-day, I mean to die like a gentleman.’30

Wellesley now deployed his artillery on Roliça Hill and they began bombarding the heights. Undeterred by his failure to envelop the enemy, he repeated his strategy, sending Trant and Ferguson up the hillsides on either flank aiming to turn the second French position in the same manner. Since they outnumbered the French by so much, there was little the enemy could do about this, though it might take some time. One weakness in this plan was the possibility of Loison’s division appearing on the eastern side of the battlefield but, should this occur, they were likely to encounter Ferguson’s force first and Wellesley had purposely made this the stronger of the two flanking columns to compensate for the risk.

Trant’s column was ordered to swing out far to the right, hoping to not only turn the French left flank but to enter the hills in Delaborde’s rear and potentially cut him off.31 Sir Arthur had chosen the Portuguese for this task partly because he may have distrusted their fighting ability, as this was their first battle, but also due to their knowledge of the local topography since manoeuvring around the deep gorge behind Columbeira would be a difficult task.

Though Delaborde had managed to withdraw successfully with only slight losses, all Wellesley needed to do was to engage and apply pressure on the French centre, then wait for Delaborde’s flanks to be assailed. The British were now deployed before the heights and sent skirmishers up the four ravines before them as their artillery began to fire upon the hill crests.

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