Part 1

[This paper was presented at the INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON THE IBERIAN PENINSULA held in Lisbon and is published here by kind permission of the organisers].

France used its population of second class prisoners of war as a source of labour on the farms and in the factories. The Spanish were sent to work on the building of roads and embankments, and on the draining of marshes on the Western coast of France. Many were sent to drain, dam and sluice the swamps at Walcheren, while others were sent to build in North Holland. Thousands of Spanish prisoners died on these projects, especially in winter. The officers were kept separate from the men and confined in fortresses in Central France. [27]

The fate of French soldiers who fell into the hands of the Spanish was usually just as bleak. In the guerrilla war few prisoners were taken by either side, although some French noted that a few guerrilla leaders were chivalrous and offered decent treatment to captives. However, the French much preferred to surrender to the British than to either the Spanish or Portuguese.

The Spanish sent their prisoners to either the hulks in Cadiz harbour (which were worse than the hulks anywhere in Europe) or to the Balearic island of Cabrera; where most died of hunger, disease and maltreatment. In June 1810, 800 French prisoners arrived at Portchester Castle, England, after having been confined for 18 months on a hulk in Cadiz Harbour.

They stated that not once during this time had they tasted fresh vegetables or meat; and scurvy, typhus and dysentery had caused a death rate of 15 men per day, reducing their numbers from an original total of 1600. This was corroborated by an English officer who described how the dead bodies of the prisoners were allowed to float about in the harbour of Cadiz, and on one occasion he had counted 30 bodies washed ashore during one day on the beach at Pontales Battery.

Of the 17,635 men of General Dupont's army who surrendered at Baylen in 1808, only some 2,500 survived the Spanish prisons. In October 1810, 80 of these survivors were disembarked at Plymouth, and it was noted that one of them lay down on the beach and 'died of dirt'. [28]

This transfer of French prisoners from Spanish to British custody was a result of the Spanish authorities being unable to cope with the large numbers of prisoners that they acquired. Great Britain had a well-established system for looking after prisoners of war, and from 1810 onwards many Frenchmen were sent from Cadiz to England, much to their relief.

However, this did not prevent many of them succumbing to the privations they suffered at the hands of the Spanish, despite British medical treatment.

ESCAPE FROM CAPTIVITY

Many soldiers marched into captivity during the Peninsular Campaign. Many of these men stayed in the various War Prisons until the war ended in 1814. Many of them died in captivity. Equally many of them were released (usually on parole), exchanged or recruited into the Armed forces that captured them. Some managed to escape or be rescued from their captors.

RELEASE ON PAROLE

This usually only applied to officers. Officers could be allowed to reside in Parole Depots in Britain or France, or sent home on the condition that they would not take up arms again until officially exchanged for an officer of equal rank. They were expected to assist in arranging with their Government for this exchange to take place [29]

RELEASE BY EXCHANGE

Throughout the Napoleonic Wars, Great Britain and France attempted to negotiate an effective prisoner of war exchange policy. These negotiations foundered because Britain would only consider British prisoners of waras being negotiable with France, while the latter, having considerably less British prisoners to bargain with, wanted to include the Spanish and Portugese in the proceedings.

A further problem arose from the insistence of France that the 17,000 Hanoverian troops who surrendered at the capitulation of General Walmoden in 1803 should be considered prisoners of war for the purpose of exchange, despite the fact that many of them had found their way to Britain and were now serving in the King's German legion in Spain.

Britain insisted that France should negotiate directly with the regional Spanish Juntas regarding the exchange of French and Spanish prisoners of war. This was impractical as there were numerous Spanish Juntas, each having it's own views regarding prisoners of war; and as this would have to be organised on a local basis in the Peninsula, the French Generals would not have the time, facilities or interest to pursue any wholesale exchange policy. The French insisted that their Spanish prisoners be exchanged for French prisoners in England. [30, 31]

These negotiations continued throughout the period, with a final attempt at settlement in 1810, but no agreement was reached. In practice only invalids and boys were sent home across the Channel via the Cartel ships. Wellington and other senior British officers in the Peninsula assisted as much as they could in effecting local exchanges of prisoners of war, and were encouraged to do so by the Transport Board.

Captain Joseph Benoit on parole in England was 'exchanged for Mr. Anscott, Paymaster 3rd Dragoon Guards in Spain' at the request of Wellington in a letter dated 1st January 1813 [32]. General Sherbrooke wrote to Captain Boothby '....if there be any officer of your rank, prisoner with us, about whom .... the French Generals feel interested, I beg you will send me his name, and that of the place he is supposed to be at, and I will use all the influence I have to effect an exchange between you.' [33]

RECRUITMENT OF PRISONERS OF WAR

Both the British and French armies recruited troops front amongst their prisoner of war population, either at the Prison Depots in England and France or from the batches of prisoners confined in Spirit].

As the Peninsular War progressed, the British Army came across a plentiful supply of these recruits. No 'Frenchmen or Italians of' dubious character' were accepted but 'Austro- Hungarians, together with all Germans north of the Rhine, particularly Hessians, are those upon which we an place the most dependence'. They were recruited into the king's German legion, the Duke of Brunswick Oel's Corps of Jager, the Chasseurs Britanniques, and the 5th Battalion 60th Foot. In 1813 'the battalion of German deserters' (part of the Cadiz garrison) became the 8th Battalion of the 60th. With all these fruits, desertion was a constant problem. [34]

Many foreign prisoners of war volunteered for service in the French army and fought in Spain. Desertion was a problem, especially after 1812, with even whole battalions deserting to the enemy. [35]

Some Irish soldiers deserted from the British to the French forces, and were recruited into the Regiment d'Irlandaise. This practice ceased at the end of' 1810 by direct command of the Emperor;

'I don't want any more English soldiers enlisted. I prefer them being kept prisoners, to set off against my men who are prisoners in England; besides the majority of' them only desert back again'. [36]

I began my story with a column of' prisoners marching into Salamanca. That mass of soldiers whose military career had come to art end represented only a part of' the prisoner of war story in the Peninsula Campaign. No doubt each of those prisoners would later have his own personal story to tell of his time spent 'Marching into Captivity '

NOTES AND SOURCES