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NOTES
An interesting and rich
campaign letter.
In the fall of 1811, Wellington placed Hill in independent command of
16,000 men watching Badajoz. On October 28, 1811 he annihilated a French
detachment under Girard at the Battle of Arroyo dos Molinos. His
surprise attack was so successful he only suffered 65 casualties to the
French's 1300 killed, wounded and captured. In response to this victory,
he would be promoted to Lieutenant General effective January 1812 and
would be made a Knight of the Bath in March, the proclamation for which
was personally delivered by his old friend, Lieutenant General Thomas
Graham, Lord Lynedoch (see below notes for more on this relationship).
It is possible that the Lord Liverpool (then British Prime Minister)
letter referred to, was one extending the thanks of the King and
Parliament and noting his coming advancement in rank as of January.
With Wellington and Marmont (who had replaced Massena
in May of 1811) both tied down in a stalemate around Ciudad Rodrigo,
Wellington looked for another opportunity to strike. "News arrived that
a division of D'Erlon's Corps was isolated on the north bank of the
Tagus. Rowland Hill was sent against them with 10,000 men, British,
Portuguese and Spanish. A complete brigade was surprised at Arroyo dos
Molinos on 28 October. Hill returned with 1,300 prisoners and three
guns." (Glover, The Peninsular War)
This was a critical moment for Wellington who was
preparing to launch his initiative to retake first Ciudad Rodrigo and
then Badajoz. Just as Wellington knew he needed to control both fortress
gateways into Spain, Napoleon also realized the need for his Armies to
resume the initiative and ordered Marmont to attack west from Badajoz
and take the Fortress at Elvas. However, Napoleon then countermanded his
own orders and set forth the capture of Valencia on Spain's east coast
as the higher priority. So rather than reinforce Marmont at this
critical juncture, Marmont actually had to reduce his forces by 14,000,
sending 4,00 back to France and 10,000 to Suchet and the Army of Aragon.
The French Armies of the North and Centre were similarly depleted. By
Christmas Wellington realized that French troops were moving east to
Valencia and by year end ordered the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo to
commence. At this same time it was essential that Hill again
create a massive nuisance in the vicinity of Badajoz to prevent French
reinforcements from that quarter. Thus this letter finds Hill's plans to
move "upon
Alburquerque from which point I shall proceed directly on Merida, in
hopes of being able to make a diversion in favor of Gen’l Ballesteros
and Tarifa. The Enemy occupies Merida with about 1,500 men and Drouet
has his Head Quarters Almendralejo." Hill's movement would not only help
Wellington to the North, but also Spanish General Ballesteros who was
harassing Soult in Andalusia. A very scarce wardate autograph signed
letter by one of the pre-eminent Generals of the Napoleonic War.
The reference to Drouet is to
Jean-Baptiste Drouet, Count D'Erlon. D'Erlon had fought with Napoleon at
Jena and Friedland. He commanded the IX Corps in the Army of Portugal
under Massena and then Marmont. He commanded the Armies of Portugal and the
Centre alternately 1812-1813, was Commander of the Centre 1813-1814,
and was a Corps Commander at Waterloo. He later became the Governor of
Algeria and a Marshall of France. See map below for place references. |
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Biographical Note
General Rowland Hill, 1st Viscount Hill of
Almaraz, GCB, GCH
(11 August 1772 - 10 December 1842)
British general, was the second son of (Sir) John Hill, of Hawkstone,
Shropshire, and nephew of the Rev. Rowland Hill (1744-1833), was born at
Prees Hall near Hawkstone on the 11th of August 1772. He was gazetted to
the 38th regiment in 1790, obtaining permission at the same time to
study in a military academy at Strasburg, where he continued after
removing into the 53rd regiment with the rank of lieutenant in 1791. In
the beginning of 1793 he raised a company, and was promoted to the rank
of captain. The same year he acted as assistant secretary to the British
minister at Genoa, and served with distinction as a staff officer in the
siege of Toulon. It was here that he
met Sir Thomas Graham and the older man appreciated the talents the
21-year-old displayed there.
When Graham formed his own regiment he asked Hill to be its colonel and
he commanded it in Egypt. A brigade command followed in Hannover.
Hill took part in many minor expeditions in the
following years. In 1800, when only twenty-eight, he was made a brevet
colonel, and in 1801 he served with distinction in Sir Ralph
Abercromby's expedition to Egypt, and was wounded at the battle
of Alexandria. He continued to command his regiment, the 90th, until
1803, when he became a brigadier-general. During his regimental command
he introduced a regimental school and a sergeants' mess. He held various
commands as brigadier, and after 1805 as major-general, in Ireland. In
1805 he commanded a brigade in the abortive Hanover expedition. In 1808
he was appointed to a brigade in the force sent to Portugal, and from
Vimeiro to Vittoria, in advance or retreat, he proved himself
Wellington's ablest and most indefatigable coadjutor. He led a brigade
at Vimeiro, at Corunna and at Oporto, and a division at Talavera (see
Peninsular War). His capacity for independent command
as fully demonstrated in the campaigns of 1810, 1811 and 1812. In 1811
he annihilated a French detachment under Girard at Arroyo-dos-Molinos,
and early in 1812, having now attained a rank of lieutenant-general
(January 1812) and became a K.B. (March), he carried by assault the
important works of Almaraz on the Tagus. Hill led the right wing of
Wellington's army in the Salamanca campaign in 1812 and at the battle of
Vittoria in 1813. Later in this year he conducted the investment of
Pamplona and fought with the greatest distinction at the Nivelle and the
Nive. In the invasion of France in 1814 his corps was victoriously
engaged both at Orthez and at Toulouse.
On December 13, 1813, during the Battle of the Nive,
Hill performed what may have been his finest work in his defense of
St-Pierre d'Irube. With his 14,000 men and 10 guns isolated on the east
bank of the Nive by a broken bridge, Hill held off the attacks of
Marshal Nicolas Soult's 30,000 soldiers and 22 guns. He fought the
battle with great skill and "was seen at every point of danger, and
repeatedly led up rallied regiments in person to save what seemed like a
lost battle ... He was even heard to swear." Later, he fought at the
Orthez and Toulouse. Wellington said, "The best of Hill is that I always
know where to find him."
Hill was one of the general officers rewarded for their
services by peerages, his title being at first Baron Hill of Almaraz and
Hawkstone, and he received a pension, the thanks of parliament and the
freedom of the city of London. For about two years previous to his
elevation to the peerage, he had been M.P. for Shrewsbury. In 1815 the
news of Napoleon's return from Elba was followed by the assembly of an
Anglo-Allied army (see Waterloo Campaign) in the Netherlands, and Hill
was appointed to one of the two corps commands in this army. At Waterloo
he led the famous charge of Sir Frederick Adams's brigade against the
Imperial Guard, and for some time it was thought that he had fallen in
the mêlée. He escaped, however, without a wound, and continued with the
army in France until its withdrawal in 1818.
Hill lived in retirement for some years at his estate
of Hardwicke Grange. He carried the royal standard at the coronation of
George IV. and became a full general in 1825. When Wellington became
premier in 1828, he received the appointment of General
Commanding-in-Chief, and on resigning this office in 1842 he was created
a viscount. He died on the 10th of December of the same year. Lord Hill
was, next to Wellington, the most popular and able soldier of his time
in the British service, and was so much beloved by the troops,
especially those under his immediate command, that he gained from them
the title of "the soldier's friend" and "Daddy Hill". He was a G.C.B.
and G.C.H., and held the grand crosses of various foreign orders,
amongst them the Russian St George and the Austrian Maria Theresa.
A Contemporary Journal, the London Review of January 1812, featured
General Hill as its engraved frontispiece and, by way of its lead
feature article, had the following to say of his exploits to that
point.:
LIEUTENANT-GEN: ROWLAND HILL, who is Colonel of the 9th regiment of foot
is the fourth son of the Sir John Hill, baronet. He was born August
11th, 1772; and, following the military impulse of his disposition, he
entered the army at an early period of his life; his ardour in the
pursuit of professional knowledge, his suavity of manners, and general
good conduct as a soldier, have not only procured to him the approbation
and friendship of the commanders under whom, through many active and
severe campaigns, he has served, but also endeared him to the other
officers and privates ; the latter of whom not only honour and revere
him as their superior, but gratefully esteem him as a benevolent friend,
anxious to render them every service in his power, and, in every
situation and change of circumstances to which a military life is, in
active service, liable, particularly attentive to their accommodation.
The expedition to Egypt, which, in our opinion, was as ably
planned as it was courageously and vigorously executed. gave to the war,
which had before assumed every other form that is to be found in ancient
or modern history, a new character. Our brave countrymen had, already,
contended with their Gallic enemies in the north and the south of
Europe; they had conquered them on the coast of the Baltic, and at the
foot of the .Appenines: they had chased them from the plains of
Hindoostan: had captured their West Indian Islands; and it was now
destined that they should oppose them in Africa, the only quarter of the
globe wherein they had not hitherto been repulsed. The various events of
the Egyptian War have been so often before the public, and are, in more
than one historical series, so amply and correctly detailed, that it is
unnecessary more particularly to advert to them, than merely to state
that, in that arid soil, where the only flourishing productions were
British laurels, General Hill gathered his full share. He partook of the
toils, contributed to the conquests, and, with the other heroes of that
expedition, was honoured with the applause of his country.
The war of the Peninsula displayed General Hill as equally active.
In the glorious battle of Talavera he particularly distinguished
himself; and, after repulsing the French, in repeated attacks, was
wounded, though, fortunately, very slightly; the battle was,
notwithstanding, continued through the whole of the night; and, in the
general orders, issued August 18, 1809, he, with the general and other
officers, had the satisfaction to learn that their conduct was marked
with the approbation of their sovereign. On this occasion he, with the
army and navy, also received the thanks of both Houses of Parliament.
When these thanks were moved in the House of Commons, the Chancellor of
the Exchequer ( Mr. Perceval) observed, that the manner in which he
(General Hill) had repulsed the French at the point of the bayonet was
fresh in every one's memory. His Majesty, on this occasion, without any
application on the part of his friends, was pleased, in testimony of his
merit, to appoint him colonel of the 94th regiment of foot.
The late battle of Aroyo de Molino, an account of which is stated
in the despatches from Lieutenant-Gen. Hill, dated Frenada, 6th
November, 1811, published in the London Gazette, together with all the
proceedings in Parliament; where it was noticed in the Speech of his
Royal Highness the Prince Regent, in the following terms: - "The
successful and brilliant enterprise, which terminated in the surprise,
in Spanish Estremadura, of a French corps, by a detachment of the allied
army, under Lieutenant-general Hill, is highly creditable to that
distinguished officer, and to the troops under his command, and has
contributed materially to obstruct the designs of the enemy in that part
of the peninsula."
Those despatches, so truly honourable to the general, together
with the applause with which the people received them, and the effect
they have had upon the opinion of the public, are, as we have observed,
already so well known, that it is unnecessary to say more upon the
subject, than that the commander of that day has added greatly to the
laurels which he had before acquired ; and, therefore, it is the ardent
wish of his country that they may long continue to flourish and to
accumulate. |
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