Introduction

After many years of rather haphazard reading around the subject of the Peninsular War and some research into the career of John Gomersall I thought it about time to try and close it out, read it up more thoroughly by concentrating on Oman's 'Peninsular War'and touring the sites, which I did by motorbike in May 2012. A couple of months before setting off I discovered the wonderful records left by Sir George Murray, Wellington's brilliant Quartermaster General whose detailed orders to individual Brigades and Divisions enabled me to track the movements of Brigadier General Pack's Independent Portuguese Brigade and General Sir Thomas Graham's Corp in particular and produce some illustrative maps. Thus it is possible to describe in more detail where John was in the battles he was involved in and where he spent his time during the five years or so he was in the Peninsular. There are 25 maps in chronological order covering John Gomersall's movements when he was in the 2nd Battalion 58th Rutlandshire Regiment (July 1809 to April 1810), the 16th Portuguese Regiment (April 1810 to July 1813 with the exception of the period July 1812 to September 1812 when he commanded the 21st Portuguese Regiment) and the 2nd Portuguese Regiment (July 1813 to December 1813). There are also battle plans for those in which he fought showing the position of his unit. There are 22 chapters summarising the war with an emphasis on the units in which he served so needless to say there is a lot which is not covered and it is assumed that the reader is reasonably familiar with the war in general. At the end of each chapter, there is a list of relevant maps and a selection of photographs and where he took part in a battle there is a link to a battle plan at the beginning of the chapter.
By putting all this on the web, no doubt people more knowledgeable than me will be kind enough to put me straight where I have gone astray and hopefully add to the story.