Chapter 36
Storming Badajoz
April 1812
| Towards
the end of January 1812 after the fall of Ciudad Rodrigo,
Wellington secretly began moving his siege guns south
towards Badajoz some partly by sea and some over the mountains.
He maintained his headquarters at Freneda, near Fuentes
de Onoro until March 5th, but starting on February 19th
he began quietly moving his whole army south. Pack’s
Brigade moved out of its cantonments near Ciudad Rodrigo
on the 31st January and took a circuitous route via Lamego
and |
 |
Coimbra,
not arriving at their final destination close to Elvas
near Badajoz until 30th March.
It may have been that they went to Lamego to escort the
siege equipment on its journey to Badajoz and maybe they
needed to collect fresh supplies from a depot at Coimbra
just as the 1st Division had done by going via Abrantes.
They halted at Viseu on their long march to receive men
from the hospital at Pinhel.
Wellington left Freneda along with the 5th Division on
5th March reaching Castello Branco on the 8th and Portalegre
on the 10th and his new headquarters at Elvas on 12th
March, the siege train having already arrived. He commenced
investing Badajoz on 16th March. The attack on Badajoz
was to be against the bastions of Santa Maria and La Trinidad
on the south eastern side of the town. Since these bastions
were covered by the Pandaleras fort, it had to be taken
first. Trenches were dug and batteries prepared in front
of the fort and on the 25th March it was stormed and taken
by the 3rd and Light Divisions. |
| More
trenches were dug between the Pandaleros Fort and Badajos
and gun batteries established. Eventually three substantial
breeches were made in the walls and an attack made at
10pm on April 6th. It had been decided to carry out two
other simultaneous attacks, one by Picton’s 3rd
Division on the Castle area and the other by the 5th Division
on the bastion of San Vincente at the opposite side of
the fort to the breeches. |
The main attacks on the breeches met
with massive resistance and failed however the two subsidiary
attacks were both successful but only after fierce fighting
and by the morning of 7th April Badajoz was in British
hands. Total British losses were 4,670 of which there
were 72 officers and 963 men killed compared with total
losses at Ciudad Rodrigo of 568 of which there were
8 officers and 117 men killed. It would appear that
Pack’s Brigade was held in reserve, defending
the area from enemy attacks.
Meanwhile back in the north, Napoleon’s instructions
to Marmont were that he should invade Portugal and thus
on 30th March (reluctantly obeying his Emperor’s
orders) he appeared in front of Ciudad Rodrigo with
4 Divisions. However, having previously lost all his
siege equipment, he was unable to seriously threaten
the fortress and Carlos de Espana left a garrison of
3,000 at Ciudad Rodrigo and headed for the Portuguese
frontier. Leaving Brennier to guard his communications
Marmont marched with three
|
|
Divisions
via Fuente Guinaldo towards Sabugal. In answer, Trant’s
and Wilson’s militias were brought up by a parallel
march to Guarda. Halting at Guarda on 8th April, Marmont
sent out flying columns as far as Penamacor, Fundao and
Cavilhao and a Division against Castello Branco and eventually
on 13th April, Marmont surprised Trant’s and Wilson’s
militias at Guarda and routed them. News of the fall of
Badajoz and that Wellington had started his march north
and was |
| |
already
at Villa Velha reached Marmont on
15th April, quickly evacuating Guarda he was back at Sabugal
by 16th April where he remained for nearly a week. Wellington,
however, was moving north fast with all his 7 Divisions
determined to relieve Ciudad Rodrigo which he knew didn’t
have provisions to outlast a long siege. On the 16th the
Light and 3rd Division had crossed the bridge at Villa
Velha and Pack and Bradford on the 17th. By the 21st the
1st German Hussars who were covering the advance had reached
Sabugal and the Light, 3rd Division, Pack and Bradford
were close behind. Marmont finally moved to Fuente Guinaldo
with 20,000 men on 22nd. By the night of the 23rd Marmont
had retreated rapidly across the swollen Aqueda river,
despite the bridge having been washed away, and was retiring
on Salamanca. Had Marmont delayed another 24 hours he
would have been cut off by Wellington’s superior
force and probably destroyed. On the 26th April having
secured its safety, Wellington paid a flying visit to
Ciudad Rodrigo. |
Maps
Photos
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