Napoleonic Wars
"In the summer of this year (1807) Bonaparte demanded that the ports of Portugal should be shut against British shipping, and other measures were adopted injurious to British commerce, and in violation of existing treaties; and soon afterwards a French army commanded by Marshal Junot, marched into Portugal, with the object, ostensibly of enforcing obedience to Bonaparte's mandate, but, in reality, to seize and imprison the royal family of Portugal, that a division of that kingdom might be made among other persons, to suit the interests of Bonaparte. While negotiations were pending between the courts of France and Portugal relating to the measures against British commerce, "The New Expedition" - The first division of the Expedition will sail in the beginning or middle of next week; the flat bottomed boats which have been ordered,
Son from Hampshire. defending the King's Colour |
The regiment was initially raised by Daniel Houghton as the 56th Regiment of Foot but rose in rank to the 45th in 1748 after the disbandment of several Regiments.
In 1755 the Regiment was deployed to Canada and saw its first actions in North America during the Seven Years War (1754–1763) fighting the French as part of General Wolfe’s force at the Capture of the Louisborg Fortress (1758) and the city of Quebec (1759). The Regiment remained in Canada and was once again in action at the outbreak of the American War of Independence (1775-83) fighting at the Battles of Long Island, Philadelphia, Brandywine Creek and Germantown. The 45th was reduced to just 100 Officers and men after two years of fighting and returned to England to rebuild. While billeted in Nottingham the citizens successfully petition King George III to add ‘Nottinghamshire’ to the Regiment’s name in return for the recruitment of 300 local men. The Regiment was deployed twice to the West Indies in 1786 and again in 1795, both times suffering heavy losses due to disease.
The Regiment served during the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) fighting at the Battles Rolica, Vimiera, Talavera, Busaco, Fuentes d'Onor, Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajos, Salamanca, Vittoria, Pyrenees, Nivelle, Orthes, Tolouse and Peninsula. The Regiment went on to serve during the First Anglo-Burmese War (1824-26) and a detachment of 100 men were involved in the ‘battle’ of Bossenden Wood (1838) suppressing a small riot of Kentish labourers.
In the months after occupying Portugal, Napoleon undertook the conquest and control of Spain. He met much resistance but it was disorganised even when it was effective. By the end of July the Spanish had met the French a dozen times, winning, or at least not losing, at seven of those meetings. Their most spectacular victory was in southern Spain on 23 July 1808, when General Castaños surrounded and forced 18,000 French under General Dupont to surrender at Baylen. On 30 July 1808, the French General of Division Louis Henri Loison massacred the population, men, women, and children, of Évora. Both of these events were to have an effect on the future of each nation's relationships with British troops.
On the same day, Wellesley received a letter from Viscount Castlereagh, the Secretary of War. It informed Wellesley that General Jean-Andoche Junot's forces numbered more than 25,000. Castlereagh forwarded his plans to augment the British army in Portugal by another 15,000 men. General Sir John Moore was to arrive with an army from Sweden, and another force would be forwarded from Gibraltar. The command of this larger force would pass to Sir Hew Dalrymple (the Governor of Gibraltar, a 60-year-old general who had seen active service only in a failed campaign in Flanders in 1793–1794). Dalrymple would be seconded by Sir Harry Burrard, attended by five other generals, all senior to Wellesley (Dalrymple, Burrard, Moore, Hope, Fraser, and Lord Paget). The ambitious General Wellesley hoped to make something happen during the time he still commanded the army in Portugal.
On 30 July 1808, General Wellesley remet Admiral Cotton's convoy with Wellesley's troops at Mondego bay. Wellesley chose this as his landing point because students from Coimbra University had seized the fort making this a safer landing than any place nearer Lisbon. The disembarking of Wellesley's original 9,000 troops and supplies with the 5,000 they met off Portugal lasted from 1–8 August. Some landing craft capsized in the rough surf making the first British casualties in the Peninsula victims of drowning.
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