Whose Business is to Die, page 37
Colonel Benjamin D’URBAN – British staff officer attached to the army in Portugal, who in 1809 acted as observer with Cuesta’s Spanish Army of Estremadura. He is Marshal Beresford’s quarter master general and has worked hard to assist in reforming the Portuguese army. A capable officer, he is also fiercely loyal to his chief.
Major General the Hon. William STEWART – Born in 1774, he is the fourth son of the Earl of Galloway, and has had a distinguished military career. He was instrumental in forming the experimental corps of riflemen and later commanded them when they became the 95th Foot. Popular with the men, who nicknamed him ‘Auld Grog Willie’ from his habit of issuing more than the standard allowance of rum, he is brave, but impulsive.
Lieutenant Colonel William MYERS – The commander of the 1/23rd Foot or Royal Welch Fusiliers, Myers is currently in charge of the entire brigade.
Major General Daniel HOUGHTON – Commander of the second brigade of the Second Division.
Brigadier General Robert LONG – Lately arrived in Portugal, Long has received command of the cavalry with Marshal Beresford’s army. In the past he served on the staff with Sir John Moore. A few months after Albuera he wrote this mock obituary for himself – The Thanks of the Country to ROBERT LONG, Major-General and Cabbage Planter, who had luck enough to do his public duty, Sense enough to know when he had done it and WISDOM enough to prefer Cabbage Planting to DEPENDENCE upon Princes or Power for More Substantial Happiness.
Lieutenant Colonel John COLBORNE – Currently in command of the first brigade of the Second Division in place of Major General Stewart, Colborne serves in the 2/66th. He owed his step to lieutenant colonel to the recommendation of the dying Sir John Moore. Colborne is a highly gifted soldier and has immense confidence in his own abilities. Williams is currently acting as his ADC.
Captain William DUNBAR – Colborne’s brigade major and a fellow officer in the 2/66th.
Major General William LUMLEY – Commander of the third brigade of the Second Division, Lumley was originally a cavalryman.
Colonel Michael HEAD – Commander of the 13th Light Dragoons.
Major MORRES – Commander of a detachment of the 13th Light Dragoons.
Cornet MACREA – Junior officer in the 13th Light Dragoons.
Corporal STILES – A wounded member of the 23rd Light Dragoons now employed as servant and groom by Williams.
Corporal SCOTT – Experienced soldier from the 5/60th Foot who trains Hanley to fire a rifle.
Private SCHWARTZ – Rifleman from the Brunswick Oels Jaeger.
Captain VON WACHHOLTZ – Commander of the Brunswick rifle company attached to the Fusilier Brigade.
The Spanish
Captain-General Francisco CASTAÑOS – The senior Spanish general and the man credited with the great victory at Bailén in 1808. Although present at Albuera, he waived his seniority and accepted Marshal Beresford’s command on the basis that his main force was further north in Galicia.
General Joaquín BLAKE – One of many descendants of Irish exiles to rise to high rank in the Spanish army, Blake commands the army in the south. He is also a member of the Regency Council. Although his commitment to the cause is unquestioned, there is less confidence in his military ability and he has suffered a string of defeats. However, like the Spanish army in general, he continues to recover and renew the struggle.
General José Pascual de ZAYAS – The commander of one of the divisions of Spanish soldiers brought up from Cadiz. During their time in the south, the general has written a drill manual for his soldiers and had time to train them well. He was born in Cuba.
Lieutenant Colonel Andreas von SCHEPELER – A Westphalian officer serving on the staff of General Zayas.
Don Julián SANCHEZ/El CHARRO – One of the most famous of the guerrilla leaders, El Charro operated from Ciudad Rodrigo. A former soldier who had served in the ranks of the Spanish army, over time his band has developed into a regiment of irregular lancers.
GUTIÉRREZ – A farmer who supplies information to Baynes and Hanley.
The French
Capitaine Jean-Baptiste DALMAS – A former schoolteacher, Dalmas was conscripted into the army and took readily to the life of a soldier, serving in most of the Emperor’s great campaigns and winning promotion. Since 1808 he has served as a supernumerary ADC to Marshal Ney and proved himself to be both a brave and an intelligent officer. The only blemish on his career has been his failure to seize a bridge so that the French could outflank Sir John Moore’s British army as it retreated towards Corunna. On that occasion he was repulsed by a ragtag band of stragglers led by Hamish Williams. In 1810 he was tasked with capturing or killing Hanley. The British officer escaped, but during the pursuit Dalmas uncovered the vulnerability of General Craufurd’s Light Division and helped Marshal Ney drive the British back across the River Coa. After that he was sent to Marshal Soult’s staff and in early 1811 he helped to arrange the capture of the fortress of Badajoz.
Sergeant BRANDT – A Pole who has served in many different uniforms, he was discovered by Williams attempting to rape the wife of a partisan leader. Arrested, Brandt escaped, deserting to the French and enlisting with them. He is a savage man and a crack shot with a rifle.
Major James SINCLAIR – A United Irishman who refused to give up the struggle, the man who calls himself Sinclair serves as an officer in Napoleon’s Irish Legion. For more than a year he acted as a spy, pretending to be a British officer so that he can infiltrate partisan bands. Williams and Hanley unmasked him, but he remains at large.
Major Emile BERTRAND – An engineer officer and the current keeper of Jenny Dobson.
Captain GILLET – Dragoon officer commanding General La Tour-Maubourg’s escort squadron.
Major LEGROS – French garrison commander.
Marshal Jean-de-Dieu SOULT, Duke of Dalmatia – Born in 1769, he served in the ranks of the Royal Army before rising rapidly in the Revolutionary Army and was a general by 1799. He served in Italy and on the Rhine, and was chosen as one of the first batch of marshals in 1804. He played a distinguished role at Austerlitz, Jena and Eylau, before being sent to Spain. He led the pursuit of Sir John Moore’s army, but was evicted from Portugal by Sir Arthur Wellesley later in 1809. In 1810 he led the invasion of Andalusia, and has been placed in command of the French armies in the south.
General Honoré-Theodore-Maxime GAZAN – Divisional commander and acting chief of staff to Marshal Soult.
General Jean-Baptiste GIRARD – Acting commander of V Corps under Marshal Soult, he is an experienced and gifted soldier, but this is his first taste of command at this level.
General Marie-Victor Nicholas LA TOUR-MAUBOURG – Formerly in charge in Estremadura and then the commander of the cavalry in Marshal Soult’s army. As an aristocrat he had made his way through the ranks of the Revolutionary and Imperial armies by his own achievements.
General François-Jean WERLÉ – Commander of a strong brigade in Marshal Soult’s army and an old friend, the general had risen from the ranks.
KING JOSEPH Bonaparte – As Napoleon’s older brother, Joseph has reluctantly been moved from the comfort of his kingdom in Naples to Spain, where he finds himself less welcome. A man of strong literary and philosophical tastes, he has done his best to win popularity. Recently he has lifted a ban on bullfighting imposed by the chief minister of his Spanish predecessor.
Marshal Andrea MASSÉNA, Prince of Essling, Duc de Rivoli – Born in Nice in 1758 (which was then part of the Kingdom of Sardinia and not in France), Masséna was the son of a shopkeeper and served in the ranks of the French army for fourteen years, but did not become an officer until the Revolution. From then on, his rise was rapid, and he was a general by 1793. He served with great distinction, particularly in a succession of campaigns fought in Italy. Napoleon dubbed him the ‘spoiled favourite of victory’ and was willing to trust him with independent commands. In 1809 he helped to stave off utter defeat at the Battle of Aspern-Essling. The rigours of campaigning and an unhealthy lifestyle made him appear even older than his sixty-one years, and Masséna hoped to retire to the comfort of his estates. Alongside his reputation as a soldier, he had earned another as a rapacious plunderer, and loot has supplemented official rewards to make him an extremely wealthy man. Although perhaps past his best by the time he came to Spain, Wellington had immense respect for Marshal Masséna’s skill. After capturing Ciudad Rodrigo and Almeida, he advanced deep into Portugal, but was stopped at the lines of Torres Vedras and eventually forced to retreat.
Marshal VICTOR, Duke of Belluno – Victor originally served in the ranks of the artillery, and then won rapid promotion during the Revolutionary Wars so that within three years he led an entire division. He has fought and beaten the Austrians, Prussians, Russians and recently the Spanish and is a capable, if extremely aggressive, commander. However, at Talavera and Barrosa his divisions were defeated by the British.
Also by Adrian Goldsworthy
FICTION
Run Them Ashore
All in Scarlet Uniform
Send Me Safely Back Again
Beat the Drums Slowly
True Soldier Gentlemen
NON-FICTION
Augustus: From Revolutionary to Emperor
Antony and Cleopatra
The Fall of the West: The Death of the Roman Superpower
Caesar: The Life of a Colossus
In the Name of Rome:
The Men Who Won the Roman Empire
The Complete Roman Army
Cannae: Hannibal’s Greatest Victory
The Punic Wars
Roman Warfare
The Roman Army at War, 100 BC–AD 200
Copyright
A Weidenfeld & Nicolson ebook
First published in Great Britain in 2015
by Weidenfeld & Nicolson
This ebook first published in 2015
by Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Copyright © Adrian Goldsworthy 2015
The moral right of Adrian Goldsworthy to be identified as the author
of this work has been asserted in accordance with the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor to be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978 0 2978 7187 3
The Orion Publishing Group Ltd
Carmelite House
50 Victoria Embankment
London EC4Y 0DZ
An Hachette UK Company
www.orionbooks.co.uk
Adrian Goldsworthy, Whose Business is to Die
