An incredibly detailed and important intelligence report with particular accounts of Enemy troops and movements. Names mentioned: Echevarría, Kellerman, Ney, Loison as well as place names: Zamora, Salamanca, Ledesma, Valladolid, Burgos, Peñaranda, Alba, San Mañoz, Tamames, Bejar, Baños, San Felices, Bitigudiño, Yecla & Francà.

Transcription:


Almeida 11th April 1810


My dear Sir,

     I received your letter of the 7^th today.
     Echevarría informs me that he expects the Courier back about the 18^th or 20^th Inst. And that he will immediately send him here. I shall then talk to him more fully upon what you propose, and acquaint you with the result.
     I have had several accounts within the last few days from Salamanca, Ledesma and Zamora, all of which agree that several pieces of Artillery, some of them large Calibre, and a great quantity of ammunition, have lately arrived at Salamanca, and that more are expected the greater part of these have come from Valladolid & Burgos. No reinforcements of troops have lately arrived, nor are any expected, and it is pretty certain that part of the Imperial Guard which arrived at Bayonne has turn’d back.
     The greater part of Kellerman’s Division, which consists in all of about 5000, or 6000 men, is come down to Peñaranda and Alba, and is under Ney’s Command. The Division under his immediate orders consists of about 9000 men, part of them have lately march’d from Salamanca in the direction of Alba, detachments occupy San Mañoz, Tamames, Bejar, & Baños, which last point has lately been reinforced. – Loison’s division about 7000 Men occupies Ledesma, S. Felices, Bitigudiño, Yecla, & that neighborhood – Loison himself is generally at Ledesma but he arrived at Bitigudiño on the 6^th and was yesterday, I am told, at San Felices.
     It has been reported these two or three days past that Kellerman has set out for Francà.-
     The French troops, particularly Loison’s division which is composed almost entirely of recruits, are very sickly. They have got a bad species of the Itch amongst them, of which 1500 of this one division are at present laid up, and I am assured that several died of it.

                    I have the honor to be, my dear Sir,
                   Your most faithful and obedient Servant
                                                            Will’m Cox


To: Charles Stuart Esquire 

NOTES

     A rich letter documenting the movement of forces in and about Ciudad Rodrigo as Massena and Ney prepared to besiege the fortress border town in order to control one of the two key gateways into Portugal. A rare handwritten letter by the Military Governor of Almeida, Brigadier General William Cox. See map below for place references. Echevarría was the leader of a large guerilla movement north and east of Almeida and was instrumental in passing intelligence to the British.

Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo

In the Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo, the French Marshal Michel Ney took the fortified city from Governor and Field Marshal Don Andreas de Herrasti on July 9, 1810 after a siege that began on April 26. Ney's VI Corps made up part of a 65,000-strong army commanded by André Masséna, who was bent on a third French invasion of Portugal. Ney's VI Corps included Jean Marchand's 1st Division (6,500) and Julien Mermet's 2nd Division (7,400), Louis Loison's 3rd Division (6,600), Auguste LaMotte's corps light cavalry brigade (900), Charles Gardanne's mounted dragoon brigade (1,300) and 60 cannon. Herrasti commanded 3 regular battalions from the Avila, Segovia and 1st Majorca Infantry Regiments, 375 artillerymen and 60 sappers. These troops were supplemented by 3 battalions of the Volunteers of Ciudad Rodrigo and 1 battalion of the Urban Guard. Herrasti's 5,500-man Spanish garrison put up a gallant defense, surrendering only after Ney's artillery opened a breach in the walls and the French infantry were poised for an assault. The Spanish suffered 461 killed and 994 wounded, while 4,000 men and 118 cannon were captured. Ney's VI Corps lost 180 killed and over 1,000 wounded during the siege. The French soldiery then pillaged the city. The siege delayed Masséna's invasion of Portugal by over a month.

Massena then pressed on to besiege the Fortress of Almeida

In the Siege of Almeida, the French corps of Marshal Michel Ney captured the border fortress from Brigadier General William Cox's Portuguese garrison. This action was fought in the summer of 1810 during the Peninsular War portion of the Napoleonic Wars. Almeida is located in eastern Portugal, near the border with Spain. Lying on a main invasion route from Ciudad Rodrigo to Lisbon, the small fortress was invested by a 65,000-man army under Marshal André Masséna in the third French invasion of Portugal. The 50,000-man Anglo-Portuguese army of General Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington was too weak to interfere with the siege. Fresh from the successful siege of Ciudad Rodrigo, the French army laid siege to Almeida on July 25, 1810. Brigadier-General William Cox commanded a 5,000-man Portuguese garrison that included two battalions of the 24th Infantry Regiment, three battalions of militia and a squadron of the 11th Cavalry Regiment. The siege was conducted by the 14,000 infantry, 1,000 cavalry, 1,000 artillerists and 100 cannon of the VI Corps under the command of Marshal Michel Ney. When the French bombardment opened on August 26, a shell made a freak hit. It burst in the fortress courtyard, igniting a gunpowder trail that reached into the main ammunition magazine. The ensuing explosion killed 600 defenders and wounded 300 more. The castle that housed the gunpowder was razed and sections of the defenses were damaged. Unable to reply to the French cannonade without gunpowder, Cox was forced to capitulate the following day with the survivors of the blast and 100 cannon. The French lost 58 killed and 320 wounded during the operation [most from the falling debris of the fortress explosion]. During the siege, the Battle of the Côa also took place. The next action was the Battle of Buçaco.

The Situation in Spring of 1810

After the distress of Talavera de la Reine in 1809, and the failure to trap Wellington in Spain, Napoleon was determined to lead the next assault on Lisbon personally. He was however distracted by his divorce and re-marriage and instead appointed one of the great vaunted Marshals of France, André Massena, Prince of Essling. Massena took command at Salamanca in May of 1810 at the head of the 65,000 man Army of Portugal. His instructions from Napoleon were to drive from Salamanca through Ciudad Rodrigo, Almeida and on to Lisbon. Centered however, in the twin frontier border cities of Ciudad Rodrigo and Almeida are two Fortresses that dominate this line of attack. As early as April, French troops had begun amassing for the first challenge which would be to take the fortress at Ciudad Rodrigo. The city had a Spanish garrison of 5,500 men and a "governor of exceptional determination", Andreas Herrasti. Wellington positioned the Light Division at Gallegos, some twelve miles from Rodrigo; he placed Cox at the Almeida Fortress with a Portuguese contingent of about 5,000 and artillery while Craufurd's five battalions were set out along the Coa, an intervening river near the border of Portugal and Spain.

Having brought up artillery, scaling ladders, additional troops and supplies, Massena had finally completed his encirclement of the city and was finally ready to invest Ciudad Rodrigo. The first shots were fired on the night of June 24th. The above document regarding the movement of French troops and equipment in preparation of the siege is a fine example of the intelligence that flowed to Wellington and Stuart concerning its progress. There was a moment of great hope during the early days as indeed one of the great artillery battery magazines of the French blew up and curtailed the assault. But it was only two days until the Enemy had "re-established his Heavy Battery". The city itself experienced a magazine explosion and capitulated on July 9th after a gallant defense. The Agueda River runs through Ciudad Rodrigo and the Azava (Asava) is a north running tributary that joins it not far from Gallegos.

NOTES

     William Cox was a British Colonel and Brigadier General in the Anglo-Portuguese Army. He was selected by Wellington to command the Almeida Fortress. Wellington knew that he was fighting a retreat back to the Line of Torres Vedras, but what he needed was time for those defenses to be completed, and, to avoid a full encounter with Massena's Army. Even a victory over Massena would only reduce the French Army, while his own troops were much more difficult to replace. His hope was that first: Ciudad Rodrigo would slow down Massena and use up his valuable resources, and second: Almeida would be more of the same. In the event, when Massena began his siege of Almeida, a lucky, or unlucky, artillery round landed in the main castle keep and ignited a powder trail that led to the main magazine. It initially ignited some 4,000 prepared charges, which in turn ignited 150,000 pounds of black powder and 1,000,000 musket cartridges. The ensuing explosion killed 600 defenders and wounded 300 more. The castle was razed to the ground and sections of the defenses were damaged. Unable to reply to the French cannonade without gunpowder, Cox was forced to capitulate the following day with the survivors of the blast and 100 cannon. The French lost 58 killed and 320 wounded during the operation. It is said that this rivals the worst man-made, non-nuclear explosions ever known. Cox was the brother-in-law of Field Marshal William Carr Beresford, Commander in Chief of the Anglo-Portuguese Army.

William Cox served at the re-taking of Grenada in 1796; in Egypt in 1801; employed on particular service in Spain 1808-09, and was present in the action at Lugo, and battle of Corunna. He commanded the fortress of Almeida, from April 1809 to the 27^th of August 1810, after the unfortunate explosion of its magazine, he was obliged to surrender it to the army of Marshall Massena. He has the War Medal with one clasp for Corunna; and is a Knight of the Tower and Sword of Portugal.

Document Specifications:  An extremely fine handwritten ALS letter signed by William Cox as Brigadier General in the Anglo-Portuguese Army and Military Governor of Almeida and dated April 11th 1810. Folded letter measures 8⅝" tall x 6¾" wide (220mm x 172mm). On one folded sheet, (forming four pages) of batonne laid paper, watermarked ornate "MSchouten&Comp". Letter text on four sides (as shown). This is a wonderful opportunity to acquire a rare example of Cox's hand and signature, a very controversial participant in the Peninsular War, and which would handsomely enhance and help anchor a collection of Peninsular War Letters. Cox's autograph letters are virtually unknown in the market place. Even his personally published defense, written after the war, is rare and expensive if you can find it.

From the Sir Charles Stuart, Lord Rothesay, Correspondence. Stuart was His Britannic Majesty's Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Portugal during the greater part of the Peninsular War (10 January 1810 to 26 May 1814). He was a personal friend and confidante of Wellington and Nelson, a sitting member of the Portuguese Regency (the only British Subject in the war ever permitted to hold an official position in a foreign government while also representing Britain), and later ambassador to Netherlands & France. The most important foreign diplomat of the Peninsular War, his archive of diplomatic, military and intelligence dispatches are second only to Wellington's Dispatches.

 Offered by Berryhill & Sturgeon, Ltd