Daniel Nicol's Memoirs
with First Battalion
of Detachments

The Passage of the Douro

by Daniel Nicol

THE invalids of the 92nd left in Portugal formed a company of the first battalion of detachments, which was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Bunbury and Major Ross. The company of Gordons consisted of Captain Logie, Lieutenant Cattanach, Lieutenant Durie, Surgeon Beattie, eight sergeants, a piper, and seventy-six rank and file.

Sir Arthur Wellesley who landed on the 22nd April 1809, marched on the main road direct to Oporto, and came up on several occasions, with the enemy under Soult. The Portuguese troops under Marshal Beresford joined in the march, and a battalion of these under British officers, was added to each brigade of the British army.

The company of Gordons was associated with a battalion commanded by Colonel Doyle, formerly a lieutenant of the Gordons when in Egypt, and he found that nearly a dozen of the men in the company had already served with him there. Nicol tells us that the old comrades gladly drank the health oftheir colonel and that of his uncle Sir John Doyle, with whom they had also seen service. On 12th May 1809, at about three in the morning, an explosion was heard which made the company stand to its arms, and this Proved to be caused by the blowing up of the bridge across the Douro by the French army, which had entered Oporto and sought to cover its retreat.

Wellesley determined to force the passage of the river at all costs, and having then got the enemy 'on the retreat' to keep at them. He accordingly at once Prepared to cross the great river. The Gordons marched into Villa Nova and joined General Sherbrooke's brigade which had landed in boats from Ovar.

So close was the pursuit of the French that Nicol tells us that 'if our artillery horses had been able to drag forward the guns, they would have taken many prisoners and have entered Oporto pell-mell with the French.' The enemy, however, had taken possession of all the boats they could discover, and the British fleet moved accordingly clbse into the mouth ofthe river and provided boats for the crossing. The Gordons' detachment, with two regiments, marched in double-quick time to the Sera convent, which the French had fortified and mounted with cannon, but which had been abandoned. 'We trailed arms and ran up the riverside through a firwood to a creek, where we found some large boats manned by Portuguese.' In them they crossed the river, when the French came fiercely upon them in two large columns with cannon.

The enemy were driven from the top of the bank, which was held by the Gordons till the Guards and the Third Buffs had almost crossed the river, when Nicol's battalion charged the French columns and the 14th Dragoons attacked the French left and put them to rout with great slaughter. The inhabitants of Braga cheered the British troops as they approached, and took the opportunity of killing all the wounded Frenchmen they came upon, and stripping them.

After following the retreating Frenchmen for about a league, the British troops were recalled to Oporto. In the fighting the battalion had lost sixty men ; and when they had got to quarters Sir Arthur addressed them and expressed how thankful he was to them for the way in which they had crossed the river, and enabled the other regiments to follow so easily.

Nicol makes this remark in passing, that 'Marshal Soult was neither prepared to defend Oporto nor to retreat out of it, but seemed as if taken by surprise or confounded at our impudence in crossing the river in the face of the whole French army.

At night the city was illuminated, and the men-of-war boats formed a bridge of boats by which on the following day all the cannon and cavalry were transferred to the north side.

When the regiment marched from Oporto Lieutenant John Durie was left behind sick, and the following day the same fate befell 'the good Captain Logie, which every man in the company was sorry for, the more so as no officer of the 92nd was left with them, and they soon felt the want of him.

The French army succeeded in escaping over the mountains, to the extreme annoyance of Sir Arthur and the British troops, who blamed Marshal Beresford and the Portuguese, who had been posted in the passes to Prevent this. 'But for this,' Nicol says,'Soult's whole army would have been taken, as well as their guns and baggage. Negligence or mismanagement there was somewhere; but these things are not easily proved when committed by the higher powers. Beresford was challenged, and we heard no more of it; but General Toilson was sent back to England. This, however, is only a soldier's surmise, as we know that it was the advance of Marshal Victor which compelled Sir Arthur to turn from the pursuit of Soult and join the Spanish General Cuesta, who had now reformed his force after being heavily defeated by Victor.

By the end of the month the troops had again marched Lover the bridge of boats across the broad and rapid Douro, and bade adieu to Oporto for ever, with its churches, convents, and port wine. To the last the British troops paid more devotion than to the first.'

The Gordons had an unpleasant experience in crossing the broad, navigable lake between Ovar and Aveiro, for when they had embarked in boats which were crowded, they were very uncomfortable, and the rain came on, with a high wind, so that many of the boats were blown ashore, and the rest did not reach Aveiro till the forenoon of the fellowing day.

On landing, Sir Arthur Wellesley at their head, they were joyfully received by the inhabitants with a salute of twentyone guns. After marching through Coimbra, they reached the river Mondego on the 4th June, when the King's Birthday was celebrated by a bathe in the river and the distribution of a pint of wine to each of the men. Now began the famous march which ended in the victory at Talavera, fought on the 27th and 28th July 1809, when the combined forces under Wellesley completely defeated the French army commanded by Joseph Bonaparte, ex-King of Naples, now King of Spain.

It was for this great victory that Sir Arthur was created a peer under the title of Lord Wellington, and it is well worthy of being recorded that the Gordons had a distinct share in the honours of the day. Nicol's description of the battle is full ofinterest. He tells us that the army crossed the Guadiana and entered Spain with light hearts. He begins by giving a detailed statement of the officers commanding the various divisions and brigades, and supplies particulars of all the regiments in the army, which had an effective strength of twenty thousand men.

The approach of the Spanish army is well described by Nicol, who says: 'We got into a fine cultivated plain, when the French began to make their appearance in our front. Sir Arthur with his staff Passed us, and we halted an hour at a village, where our cavalry dismounted and cut down some fields ofripe corn for forage. At this time we began to see great clouds of dust bn the right of the plain. This was the Spanish army advancing. They had crossed the Tagus by the bridge at Almarez, and were now marching on the highroad to Madrid, driving the French outposts before them. Big words were now spoken by the boasters of taking Madrid, beating the French, and driving them out of Spain--great things that were not accomplished till years after.

'We halted on the 21st, and were ordered to appear as clean as possible, to be reviewed by the Spanish General Cuesta, commanding the army with which we were to act. Our army was drawn up in line. Sir Arthur and Cuesta, arrived on the ground, escorted by a troop of British and one of Spanish cavalry; they rode along the line, we paying them all military honours. Cuesta was a fine stout, rough looking old man. He said he was happy to see us look so well after so long a march. We got one day's biscuit served out here; this was the last regular rations served out to our brigade.

'On the 22nd we marched past the Spanish` Grand army, as the French were in front, we were going to set them an example by commencing an attack on the enemy, for we thought that General Victor would give battle in front of Talavera. The Spaniards amounting it was said, to fifty thousand men, were drawn up on both sides of the road as we passed ; they had some very heavy cannon--too unwieldly for the field--and many waggons, baggage-mules, asses, etc. This day was very warm, with much dust, and little or no water to be got. On the right side of the road was a stagnant pool ; the cavalry rode through it, and some of our men went up to the knees amongst it drinking, though it was as thick as water-gruel.

More Spanish Adventures

Part 1: Sgt. Robertson's Memoirs of the Corunna Campaign

Part 2: Daniel Nicol's Memoirs with First Battalion of Detachments

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