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25th of May 1809. On this date the 1/95th once again embarked for the Peninsula having returned 4 months prior after the disastrous first expedition which ended in the somewhat Pyrrhic victory at the Galician port of Corunna. Yet despite this expedition a large amount of the 1st battalion were 'Johnny Raws' with large amounts of men being sent to help form the newly created 3rd Battalion, in fact of the 10 captains who had fought in the 95th at Corunna only two would return for the long remainder of the Peninsula war, veterans exchanged for green men of the militia and old officers exchanged for new models. One such Johnny Raw was Private Robert Fairfoot who marched with Captain O'Hares 3rd company, as would be expected for a rifleman he had done his previous military experience and though it was only in the militia it was enough, just, for him to qualify for the Rifles. And though some of the grizzled veterans like Joseph Almond, whom had been in the regiment since it's conception in 1800, might think less of the new men who had not shared their struggles earlier that year Fairfoot would throughout the Battalion's service in the Peninsula prove an able hand, rising through the ranks at his own life threatening pace. He had however not always been the best man of the militia, an establishment in which discipline was overly paramount and the lash a common sight. He had in fact decamped 3 times from the Surrey militia, being locked up or flogged each time. But he was now keen to prove himself a good soldier, and it is men such as this that would become the backbone of the 1/95th throughout the five year campaign.
And so after a fitful eight day voyage the Battalion on the 3rd of July disembarked at Lisbon before taking a ride in shallow river boats up the Tagus to Vallada before starting their first march of the campaign to the town of Santarem. But though this sounds a pleasant campaign to start the Rifles had not been issued with tents nor sufficient food and so it was that men and officers alike spent the night cold, hungry and shivering under the stars. On reaching Santarem the officers and men finally found some food, and the wealthier officers their own pack horses, though all of this was paid for with their own coin thanks to the failure of the commissariat. Theoretically the men would be reimbursed for lack of food.
In pursuing the main British army, headed for the unforgettable battle of Talavera, the Brigades commander took it easy on the men given their time at sea with at most 16 miles at a time. This leniancy would not last forever with this Colonel Robert Crauford offering no respite to those who fell out of the line of march or dragged along at the rear. Crauford would constantly ride up and down the line with the slightest infraction causing him to launch in a terrific uproar at the targeted man in question. Though apparently he was something like a terrier, his actions quick, missing nothing and almost screaching at the men when angry, the greater his rage the squeakier his voice would become.
On the
29th of July the Light Brigade reached Talavera to see the grim consequences of that battle with one Rifleman saying
'The horrid sights were beyond anything I could have imagined. Thousands dead and dying in every direction....and, I am sorry to say, Spaniards butchering the wounded French at every opportunity, and stripping them naked, which gave admission to myriads of perniscious flies and the heat of the burning sun.' And so here at Talavera the British army remained for two days in which they suffered further from the Spanish letting them down in their promise to provide the British army with supplies. Once again the Rifles went hungry.
It would turn out that the Brigades dash to catch up would be for nothing, they had covered 30 miles in just twenty four hours on atrocious roads which scarcely qualified beyond goat tracks. The Brigade had not caught up in time to fight the French and now would be turning back to Portugal to avoid the army being forced into starvation.
For a single fortnight the Rifles remained at Almaraz and with the commissary situation little improved found themselves scrounging food from all manner of locations creating odd dumplings called Dough Boys with the little grain they were supplied with. The first action of the Rifles however would occur at a small place called Barba Del Puerco on the river Agueda near Ciuda
