A Bloody Day. Dan Harvey
he could blockade her; after all, it was an island and supplies could be prevented from arriving if they were stopped from being exported in the first place at their ports of origin. Napoleon attempted to extend his influence over England’s trading partners and to effect a blockade that would cut off her supplies. However, while many countries approved of his values for self-determination, interfering with their trade was another matter and seen as taking a step too far. In any event, the Spanish requested assistance from Britain. Following the French invasion and occupation of Spain in May 1808, the Spanish authorities appealed to Britain for ‘aid to rescue them from this flagrant usurpation of Bonaparte’. On receipt of this appeal it was decided that a force being assembled in Cork under Wellesley to assist the defence of the Spanish colonies in South America would go instead to Portugal, thus starting a campaign that became known as ‘the Peninsular War’. Of the force that was placed under his command, the following units assembled in Cork and were quartered on the outskirts of the city: 1st Battalion 5th Foot, 1st Battalion 40th Foot, 1st Battalion 91st Foot, 1st Battalion 9th Foot, 5th Battalion 60th Foot, 4 Companies 95th Foot, 1st Battalion 38th Foot, 1st Battalion 71st Foot, and 4th Royal Veterans’ Battalion.
On his arrival in Cork, Wellington lost little time in sending dispatches to Viscount Castlereagh, the Secretary of State; to Lieutenant General Floyd, commanding at Cork; and to Lieutenant Cheeseman, RN, Resident Agent of Transport, Cork. These dispatches concerned the equipping and transportation of 444 officers, 552 sergeants, 227 drummers, 9,505 rank and file and 215 horses, which were to embark from ‘Cove’ under his command. The force embarked on 13 July 1808 and set sail for Portugal.
The Peninsular War (1807-1814) stands as one of the longest campaigns in British military history. Irish participation was pivotal. Ireland provided Wellington with a large proportion of his infantry, which played an important part in the persistent, painstaking pushing of the French from the Iberian Peninsula of Portugal and Spain, then up into southern France. Two Irish cavalry squadrons fought in the Peninsular War but their participation was far less than the infantry. Wellington’s Irish Battalions consisted of three battalions of the 27th Foot (Inniskillings), and a battalion from each of the 83rd Foot, 87th Foot (Prince of Wales’s Own Irish), 88th Foot (Connaught Rangers), and a brief appearance from the 89th Foot (The Princess Victoria’s). In addition to these seven Irish infantry battalions continually present in the Peninsula, the non-Irish regiments had an average 35 per cent of Irishmen. The national composition of a battalion varied from year to year, according to casualties, recruitment, and transfers, so there was between 8 and 50 per cent Irish varying throughout the overall duration of the war. The 57th Foot (West Middlesex) had 34 per cent native Irish in 1809, many of whom had been recruited in the London area. The 29th Foot (Worcestershire) had 19 per cent in 1809. rising to 37 per cent in 1811. The 28th Foot (North Gloucestershire) had 40 per cent, a figure reputedly shared by the Royal Artillery. The 94th Foot (The Scots’ Brigade) at one point contained the highest percentage of Irish, just over 51 per cent. ‘Elite’ light infantry battalions, the 43rd (Monmouthshire), the 52nd (Oxfordshire), and the 95th (Rifles), had about 25 per cent Irish. Most recruits came from the Catholic population.
‘The Inniskillings’ or the 27th Inniskillings were one of the strongest units in the British army during the Napoleonic period and one of the very few from 1812 on to have three battalions simultaneously in the Peninsula, mustering 4,078 men in 1810. The 3rd Battalion was the most heavily engaged, spending 64 complete months in that theatre. The 27th is also one of the oldest regiments, raised in 1689 during the Williamite Wars for the defence of the town of Enniskillen, and was originally known as Tiffin’s Inniskilling Regiment, named after its first Colonel, Zachariah Tiffin. In 1751, the regiment became the 27th Foot and served in the Seven Years War (1756-63) in North America and the West Indies. It formed part of the British force in Alexandria (Egypt) in 1801, and in 1806 the First Battalion of the 27th fought at Maida, and with the second and third Battalions formed part of the Peninsula army, gaining battle honours at Badajoz, Salamanca, Vitoria, Pyrenees, Nivelle, Orkey, and Toulouse. The 3rd Battalion was the first of the three battalions to enter the Peninsular War in November 1808, the 1st Battalion entering in November 1812 and the 2nd Battalion a month later. The 1st Battalion, with a composition from 27 counties of origin throughout Ireland, went on to fight at Waterloo under the command of Major John Hare (6th Division, 10th Brigade). At half past six in the evening, the French, capturing the farmhouse strong-point of La Haye Sainte (‘The Holy Hedge’), brought up field horse artillery and shredded the Anglo-Allied line at a range of less than 300 metres. Deployed in square at the junction of the Ohain and the Brussels-Charleroi crossroads, the 1st Battalion 27th Foot, 747 strong at daybreak, sustained 493 casualties or 66 per cent, reportedly the highest of any battalion.
The forces which Wellington led in Portugal and Spain and up into southern France between 1808 and 1814 achieved a consistent record of victory perhaps unmatched in the history of the British army. Put together, the Irish regiments and the Irish in non-Irish regiments made up some 40 per cent of this volunteer army, a remarkable figure given the bloodshed of the recent unrest of the 1798 Rebellion in Ireland and to a far lesser extent that of 1803. The size of the Irish contingent was out of proportion to Ireland’s share of the United Kingdom’s total population, especially as most Irish troops were drawn from Ireland’s Catholic population. Officers of Irish birth or strong Irish connections, which may have been as great as one third of the officer corps, came mainly from Ireland’s Anglican community of much less than one million, or about seven per cent of the population, but Catholic officers were appearing in increasing numbers.
Why did such recruits become available? Provoked by the American and French Revolutions, the Catholic Relief Acts of 1778 and 1782 abolished many restrictions on Catholics and began to bring them into the mainstream of British and Irish life. The 1793 Act in Ireland had amongst its supporters the Member of Parliament for Trim, County Meath, Arthur Wellesley, aged 24, later 1st Duke of Wellington. This act changed Ireland dramatically by enfranchising Catholics and giving them the heretofore denied access to the professions and to higher education. It also allowed Catholics once again to bear arms and to enter the armed forces legitimately, resulting in vast numbers swelling the rank and file, and so was a major factor in providing troops for the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. It was not simple altruism or the need to reduce dissatisfaction in the wake of the French Revolution that motivated the Protestant Parliament in Dublin to restore the right to bear arms, but the pressing need to employ the well-established military talents of the Irish. As soon as the measure became law, regiment after regiment, hungry for recruits, sent parties to Ireland to recruit. It soon became impossible for a regiment to have served in Ireland not to have a strong Irish element. Recruiting parties found thousands of fit and tough young men only too eager to embrace the military life and escape the arduous living conditions and the problems caused by the lack of education, opportunity, and employment in an increasing population. Indeed, it was a policy to garrison a ‘skeleton’ battalion in Ireland after great losses from yellow fever in the West Indies to build up strength again. In 1797, for example, of the seven regular regiments of foot on the Irish establishment, five had recently returned from the West Indies, and were ‘skeleton’ units, busily recruiting.
The year 1795, two years after the outbreak of war with France, saw the formation of Ireland’s most controversial force, the Irish Militia, at a strength of 18,000, which was increased to 28,000 in 1798. With its sister forces in England and Scotland, the Irish Militia was to have a major impact on the make-up and performance of the British armed forces between 1798 and 1815. With a majority of the infantry of the line (regular army) being Irish, could their loyalty be counted on? When it came to suppressing the 1798 Rebellion, only regiments with an overwhelming proportion of non-Irish troops were sent, such as the 100th Highlanders, later the 92nd Gordon Highlanders, and the 5th Battalion of the 60th (Royal American), composed mainly of Germans. The greater part in the suppression of the rebellion was played by the Irish Militia and by Fencible regiments from Scotland, such as the Stratspey Fencibles. From 1799, various Militia Transfer Acts enabled militiamen to transfer to their chosen line regiment up to a maximum of 15 per cent of the strength of the militia unit each year. Further acts enabled extra transfers in certain years. These transfers were commonplace, and Ireland often surpassed England and Scotland in numbers of volunteers or in percentage of quota achieved. Although recruitment by other methods continued, militia transfers were far more important,