All in Scarlet Uniform (Napoleonic War 4) (46 page)

Brevet Major WICKHAM
– Handsome, plausible and well connected, Wickham continues to rise in rank and spends as little time with the 106th as possible, preferring staff appointments. Williams and many others have come to doubt his honour, honesty and courage.

Their families

Jenny DOBSON
– Elder daughter from Dobson’s first marriage, Jenny has ambitions beyond following the drum and flirted with and let herself be seduced by several of the young officers. During the winter she abandoned her newborn son to the care of Williams and Miss MacAndrews and left in search of a better life. She is currently the mistress of a French officer.

Mrs DOBSON
– Herself the widow of a sergeant in the Grenadier Company, the very proper Annie Rawson carried her lapdog in a basket throughout the retreat to Corunna. The marriage to Dobson has done much to reform his conduct.

Mrs Esther M
AC
ANDREWS
– American wife of Major MacAndrews, Esther MacAndrews is a bold, unconventional character who has followed him to garrisons around the world. More recently, she managed to sneak out to Portugal, bringing her daughter with her, and the pair endured the horrors of the retreat to Corunna.

Miss Jane M
AC
ANDREWS
– Their daughter and sole surviving child, the beautiful Jane has a complicated relationship with Williams. During the retreat to Corunna, she was cut off from the main army and rescued by him, becoming involved in the desperate fight he and a band of stragglers fought to defend a vital bridge against the French under Dalmas.

Miss Ann WILLIAMS
– Eldest of Williams’ three sisters, Anne is an intelligent and prudent young woman.

Miss Kitty WILLIAMS
– The middle sister, Kitty is bright but impulsive, and has become entangled with Garland and Tilney during a visit to Bath.

Miss Charlotte WILLIAMS
– The youngest of the three girls, Charlotte is not yet sixteen.

The British

Brigadier General Robert CRAUFURD – Born in 1764, Craufurd was a serious soldier who studied his profession and spent several years with the Austrian and Russian armies on the Continent. In spite of this, he found little opportunity to distinguish himself and his rise was slow. In 1807 he was given charge of a brigade in the disastrous expedition against Buenos Aires where, through no fault of his own, he was forced to surrender. Even so, in 1809 Wellington asked for him and gave him the plum command of the Light Brigade – later the famous Light Division – over the heads of officers who were senior to Craufurd in the army list. Although he was at first unpopular with his officers, the ordinary soldiers respected and liked their tough commander from the start.

Lieutenant Colonel Frederick Shaw KENNEDY – Kennedy was one of Craufurd’s ADCs and left a journal describing the months of outpost duty on the Spanish–Portuguese frontier.

Major Frederick TILNEY, 14th Light Dragoons
– Son of a general, Tilney has recently purchased a majority in the 14th, transferring from the 12th Light Dragoons. (For more on him, and even more on his family, see
Northanger Abbey
.)

Lieutenant Robert GARLAND, 14th Light Dragoons
– The son of a mine owner who purchased his son a commission in a fashionable regiment of light cavalry, the young Garland idolised Major Tilney.

Lieutenant Colonel Neil TALBOT, 14th Light Dragoons – Talbot commanded the regiment and was killed in the charge near Barquilla on 11th July 1810.

Captain John BURGOYNE, Royal Engineers – Burgoyne was sent to Fort La Concepción to rebuild its defences and later tasked with their destruction.

Lieutenant Colonel Sidney BECKWITH, 1/95th – The commander of the 1st Battalion of the 95th was tall, powerful, extremely capable and popular with officers and soldiers alike. He encouraged a system of discipline relying more on appeals to pride and encouraging initiative than trusting to fear of punishment and enforcing blind obedience.

2nd Lieutenant George SIMMONS, 1/95th – An eager young officer serving in his first campaign. Simmons’ letters and diaries were later published.

Private William GREEN, 1/95th – Although a young soldier, Green has already survived the hard retreat to Corunna. His account of his time with the 95th was later published.

2nd Lieutenant James MERCER, 1/95th – A capable young officer, Mercer was killed at Barba del Puerco on 19th March 1810.

Captain Peter O’HARE, 1/95th – An experienced officer who had begun his service as a surgeon’s mate. His career was slow and by 1810 he had been a captain for seven years.

Private PHIPPS, 1/95th
– Phipps is a bugler.

Lieutenant Mathias PRATT, 1/95th – A young officer who received a mortal wound at the Côa.

Colonel Benjamin D’URBAN – British staff officer attached to the army in Portugal.

Mr BAYNES
– A merchant with long experience of the Peninsula, now serving as an adviser and agent of the government.

Colonel MURRAY – As Quartermaster-General, Murray served Wellesley in 1808, Sir John Moore in 1808–9, and returned with Wellesley in the spring of 1809. He contributed a great deal to making the headquarters of the army function, and in particular developing a far more effective system for the collection and processing of intelligence.

Lieutenant General Viscount WELLESLEY – After several highly successful campaigns in India, Wellesley returned to Britain and several years of frustrated ambition before being given command of the expedition to Portugal. He managed to win the battles of Roliça and Vimeiro before being superseded. Along with his superiors, Wellesley was then recalled to Britain following the public outrage at the Convention of Cintra, which permitted the defeated French to return home in British ships. Cleared of responsibility, Wellesley was given command in Portugal and honoured with a title for his victory at Talavera.

Major General Thomas PICTON – Born in Pembrokeshire in 1758, Picton was rough-mannered, hot-tempered and one of the abler divisional commanders to serve under Wellington.

Sergeant RUDDEN, 43rd Foot
– An NCO from the 43rd Light Infantry who served in the company commanded by Williams at Talavera.

LANGER
– A Swiss deserter chosen by Baynes to escort Hanley.

Lieutenant LEYNE
– An eager young officer serving as part of MacAndrews’ mission and subsequently sent with Pringle and Williams to Ciudad Rodrigo.

Colonel William COX – A British officer in the Portuguese service, Cox is the governor of the fortress of Almeida.

Captain REYNOLDS
– An officer in the 51st Foot, Reynolds forms part of MacAndrews’ mission.

Corporal ROSE
– An NCO from the 51st Foot, Rose forms part of MacAndrews’ mission.

Private (later Corporal) James RAYNOR
– An unemployed clerk, Raynor is recruited into the 106th Foot by Williams’ recruiting party.

Sergeant HARGREAVES
– An NCO from the 34th Foot serving with MacAndrews’ training mission.

Sergeant COOMBS
– A British NCO serving with MacAndrews’ training mission.

Captain the Honourable Edward Charles COCKS – An officer in the 16th Light Dragoons, the intelligent and highly capable Cocks was often employed by Wellington to gather intelligence.

The French

KING JOSEPH Bonaparte – As Napoleon’s older brother, Joseph has reluctantly been moved from the comfort of his kingdom in Naples to Spain, where he finds himself less welcome. A man of strong literary and philosophical tastes, he has done his best to win popularity. Recently he has lifted a ban imposed on bull-fighting by the chief minister of his Spanish predecessor.

Marshal Andrea MASSÉNA, Prince of Essling, Duc de Rivoli – Born at Nice in 1758 (which was then part of the Kingdom of Sardinia and not in France), Masséna was the son of a shopkeeper and served in ranks of the French army for fourteen years, but did not become an officer until the Revolution. From then on, his rise was rapid, and he was a general by 1793. He served with great distinction, particularly in a succession of campaigns fought in Italy. Napoleon dubbed him the ‘spoiled favourite of victory’ and was willing to trust him with independent commands. In 1809 he helped to stave off utter defeat at the Battle of Aspern-Essling. The rigours of campaigning and an unhealthy lifestyle made him appear even older than his sixty-one years, and Masséna hoped to retire to the comfort of his estates. Alongside his reputation as a soldier, he had earned another as a rapacious plunderer, and loot had supplemented official rewards to make him an extremely wealthy man. Although he was perhaps past his best by the time he came to Spain, Wellington had immense respect for Marshal Masséna’s skill.

Marshal Michel NEY, Duc d’Elchingen – Born in 1769, the redfaced Ney was the son of a cooper in the Saar country on the border with the German states. He enlisted in the ranks of a hussar regiment, and was another gifted leader who was rapidly promoted after the Revolution. In four years he rose from sergeant-major to general. His courage was never in doubt – Napoleon would later dub him ‘the bravest of the brave’ – but his judgement was less certain. He was certainly experienced and at times showed great skill. Yet he was also readily offended, and inclined to lose his temper or sulk, and proved a difficult subordinate.

Général Andoche JUNOT – Born in 1771, Junot was a law student who volunteered to join the Revolutionary army in 1793. He caught Napoleon’s eye at the siege of Toulon, and received successive promotions in the years that followed. Prone to outbursts of temper, he proved less capable when made a general and given charge of the invasion of Portugal in 1807, and was defeated by the British at Vimeiro a year later.

Chef de Bataillon Jean-Jacques PELET – Masséna’s senior ADC in 1810 was a thirty-three-year-old trained geographic engineer who had served in the army since in 1800. His judgement was highly valued by the marshal, and his influence sometimes resented by other officers. He later wrote a highly detailed account of the 1810–11 campaign.

Capitaine Jean-Baptiste DALMAS
– A former schoolteacher, Dalmas was conscripted into the army and took readily to the life of a soldier, serving in most of the Emperor’s great campaigns and winning promotion. Since 1808 he has served as a supernumerary ADC to Marshal Ney and proved himself to be both a brave and an intelligent officer. The only blemish on his career has been his failure to seize a bridge so that the French could outflank Sir John Moore’s British army as it retreated towards Corunna. On that occasion he was repulsed by a ragtag band of stragglers led by Hamish Williams.

Général de Brigade Claude-François FEREY – Aged thirty-nine when he led his men against the British outpost at Barba del Puerco, Ferey was a highly experienced and talented commander who had fought in many of the campaigns during the Revolution and under Napoleon.

Capitaine LEGRAND
– Legrand is an ADC to General Ferey.

Major Emile BERTRAND
– An engineer officer and the current keeper of Jenny Dobson.

The Spanish

Major Luiz VELARDE
– One of Hanley’s artistic circle from Madrid, he served as a staff officer with the Spanish army in 1809. At some point he seems to have switched allegiances and defected to King Joseph’s regime.

José María ESPINOSA
– Another of Hanley’s artistic circle, who worked for Joseph Napoleon’s regime while feeding information to the Allies. He was discovered and executed by the French after Talavera.

La Doña MARGARITA de Madrigal de las Altas Torres
– Posing as a widow recently returned from the New World, whose late husband was the heir to one of the great houses of Old Castile, she was in fact the lady’s maid. Under her new guise, she won acclaim as a heroine of the siege of Saragossa and now serves as a courier and gatherer of information for the Allies.

RAMÓN – A former hussar in La Doña Margarita’s husband’s regiment in the New World, Ramón poses as her servant, but is in fact her father.

Don Julián SÁNCHEZ García /El CHARRO – One of the most famous of the guerrilla leaders, El Charro operated from Ciudad Rodrigo. A former soldier who had served in the ranks of the Spanish army, over time his band has developed into a regiment of irregular lancers.

BENITO
– A member of El Charro’s band, who serves as Hanley’s guide.

Lieutenant General Don Andrés Pérez de HERRASTI – The elderly governor of Ciudad Rodrigo, Don Andrés managed to hold down the often turbulent population of the city, and led a spirited defence.

Colonel CAMARGA – The commander of the Avila Regiment, Camarga was in charge of the Convent of Santa Cruz outside Ciudad Rodrigo.