Wellington's Brigade Commanders: Peninsula & Waterloo

Acland, Wroth Palmer

Name is also spelled Ackland, Acklin, Wrothe and William in various official documents.

Wroth Acland was born on 16 March 1770, the twelfth child of Arthur Acland and Elizabeth Oxenham, at Fairfield Somersetshire. His father died when he was 1.⁵

Wroth Acland was commissioned as an ensign in the 17th Foot in 1787 and except for two years he was on half-pay, he would spend much of the next twelve years on active service.⁶ In 1790 he served as a marine in the Channel Fleet and in 1793 he was in the West Indies. The following year he was in Flanders with the Duke of York and by March 1795 he was on his way to the West Indies. Wroth Acland would be sent to the Far East in 1796 where he was stationed in India and Ceylon. In 1799 he was struck by an unspecified illness, which forced him to return to England. This illness would plague him over the next ten years. During those twelve years he rose to lieutenant colonel and command of a battalion. Upon returning to England, Lieutenant Colonel Acland exchanged into the Coldstream Guards. In 1805 he was appointed a brigadier on the staff in the Eastern District.

In 1805 General Acland joined the staff of General Sir James Craig and sailed to the Mediterranean. He was part of the expeditions to Malta and Naples. In 1806 he commanded the 2nd Brigade at the battle of Maida, where he and his brigade distinguished themselves. He was recalled to England in late 1806 and in February 1807 was to command the light brigade in the expedition to the River Plate. General Acland arrived too late to take command and by December he was back in Ireland. In February 1808 he took command of a brigade in Harwich and was placed in Wellington’s force that was headed to Portugal.

General Acland and his brigade landed in Portugal on 20 August,⁷ too late to fight at Roliça. The brigade was present the next day at Vimeiro, but was not engaged. After the battle, command of the British forces was taken over by a senior general, Sir Hew Dalrymple. He re-organised the army on 5 September and General Acland was appointed to command a new brigade in General Sir John Hope’s 2nd Division. The government then decided to form two forces, one under General John Moore to serve in Spain, and a garrison for Portugal. Acland was chosen to serve under General Moore. On 8 October Moore re-organised his force and General Acland continued to serve as a brigade commander in General Hope’s Division, but with different battalions in his brigade. Before the newly organised army could advance into Spain, General Acland became incapacitated once again due to sickness and was sent home. On 21 November he had arrived in Portsmouth and was still extremely ill.⁸ Despite being sick, General Acland was called upon to testify at the Convention of Cintra Court of Inquiry the next month.⁹

On 22 June 1809, General Acland was appointed to command a brigade in the 3rd Division of the Right Wing in what became known as the Walcheren Expedition. He and his brigade would fight at the siege of Flushing. He would remain as part of the garrison on Walcheren until September 1809.¹⁰ Upon his return to England General Acland served on the Home Staff in the Eastern District until he was promoted to major general on 25 July 1810. He served in the South West District in 1811 and the North West District in 1812. In 1813 he was once again in the Eastern District and would remain there until 1814, when he was removed from the staff upon his promotion to lieutenant general.

Between 1806 and 1809, General Acland had fought in four different theatres of war and sailed over 25,000 kilometers. The effects of his illness in Portugal, followed within eight months by the rigors of the Walcheren Expedition, was too much for General Acland. He was unable to fully restore his health and never had another active assignment. In the winter of 1816 he had a relapse of the fever that he caught in Portugal and died on 8 March 1816. General Acland never married.

Wroth Acland is mentioned in very few memoirs so it is difficult to ascertain his personality. Ensign Robert Parker of the 76th Foot did not think very highly of him. In a letter to his father in April 1809, Ensign Parker complained that ‘Genl. Acklin of the Guards who had threaten’d to put me with some other officers in a blanket and piss on us if we did not go out of the Town of Ipswitch immediately’.¹¹ Unfortunately the young officer did not say what he had done to deserve this treatment!

General Acland served under Wellington for less than two months. They appeared to have gotten along well. When Wellington was recalled from Portugal because of the Treaty of Cintra, General Acland was one of the officers who contributed over 1,000 guineas to present him with a piece of plate.¹²

1. Promoted in exchange for recruiting men for the army. His company was disbanded in 1791 and the men were drafted into other regiments.

2. Removed from the regiment as a general officer receiving unattached pay, 25 July 1814.

3. The battalions of the 60th Foot had a colonel commandant in addition to its regimental colonelin-chief.

4. The brigade was numbered the 8th Brigade in a General Order dated 21 August 1808.

5. Kingsley; ‘(16) Palmer-Acland’.

6. He was on half-pay from 1791 to 1793, only coming off it when he exchanged into the 3rd Foot in 1793.

7. Brown, Steve; ‘All Bound for Lisbon’.

8. Glover, Gareth (ed.); Wellington’s Voice , page 12.

9. Oman; A History of the Peninsular War ; Vol. 1, page 294.

10. Burnham; ‘The British Expeditionary Force to Walcheren: 1809’.

11. French; page 121.

12. Muir, Rory; Wellington: The Path to Victory, 1769–1814 , page 262.

Adam, Frederick William

Name is sometimes spelled Adams.

Frederick Adam was born in 1784, the fourth son of the Right Hon. William Adam and Hon. Eleanora Elphinstone of County Kinross, Scotland. His mother was the daughter of the 10th Lord Elphinstone. He was the younger brother of Admiral Sir Charles Adam. His father was a Member of Parliament for twenty-six years, the Solicitor General for Scotland, Attorney General to the Prince of Wales, and the Lord Lieutenant of Kinross. He was also a ‘close personal friend of the Prince of Wales’.⁴ These political connections would serve Frederick Adam well.

Frederick Adam was commissioned at the age of 11 as an ensign in the 26th Foot, which was stationed in Canada. Because of his age, he was sent to study at Woolwich for two years prior to joining his regiment. Lieutenant Adam never served with his regiment and did not see active service until he was 14. In 1799, he was attached to the 27th Foot and fought with them in Holland. In August of that year, he became a captain-lieutenant in the 9th Foot. Four months later he was a lieutenant and captain in the Coldstream Guards and went with them to Egypt. In 1802 he took a leave of absence and studied German in Dresden.⁵ By 1803 he was back in England and was appointed a major in the 5th Garrison Battalion. The following year, at the age of 20, he was appointed lieutenant colonel of the battalion. Five months later he exchanged into the 21st Foot. Someone was looking after his interests for there is no record of him purchasing any promotion. All appear to have been appointments.

Lieutenant Colonel Adam sailed with his battalion in 1806 to the Mediterranean, where he would serve much of the next six years. Some sources state that he fought at Maida, however, the battle was over before he arrived. He fought in Calabria and at the siege of Scylla; during the battle of Mili he commanded a brigade. In 1809 he participated in the British expedition to the Ionian Islands. Lieutenant Colonel Adam went on home leave in 1811 and while there he was appointed an ADC to the Prince Regent. His duties to the Prince were cut short when he went back to Sicily that autumn in anticipation of future operations.

In February 1812 Lieutenant Colonel Adam was promoted to colonel and was appointed the DAG for the British forces in Sicily. He arrived on the east coast of Spain in July as part of the British expedition under General Frederick Maitland. He would remain in Alicante, Spain through the winter and was appointed a brigade commander. His brigade fought in the Castalla Campaign and Colonel Adam commanded the rearguard when the French counter-attacked at Biar on 12 April 1813. His performance at the combat of Biar was observed by the British general commanding the Spanish troops in the campaign, who wrote that it was ‘a beautiful field-day, by alternate battalions: the volleys were admirable, and the successive passage of several ravines conducted with perfect order and steadiness. From the heights occupied by my troops it was one of the most delightful panoramas that I ever beheld.’⁶ Colonel Adam was wounded in the left shoulder, but continued to command throughout the action.

On 12 September 1813 Colonel Adam and his brigade were once again in the van of the army and had orders to defend the pass at Ordal. He was very careless with his troop dispositions and did not take basic precautions, including neglecting to send a cavalry vidette to provide early warning and not fortifying a bridge leading into his position. He was caught by surprise by a French attack and forced from the pass with heavy casualties. Colonel Adam was severely wounded in the left arm, which was broken, and the left hand, which was mutilated. He never regained the use of his hand again.⁷

Colonel Adam returned to Great Britain to recover from his wounds and on 4 June 1814 he was promoted to major general. He was 29 years old and the youngest general in the British Army.⁸

On 28 March 1815, he was appointed to the staff of the British Army forming in the Netherlands. He was assigned to command the 3rd Brigade on 11 April.⁹ His brigade was also known as the Light Brigade. At Waterloo his brigade saw little action through much of the day, however, it made its reputation for its actions against the French Imperial Guard that evening. During the attack by the French, the 3rd Brigade swung around so it could fire into the column’s right flank. This, along with the attack on the left flank of the column by the British Guards, was enough to cause the final French assault to fail. General Adam and his brigade pursued the defeated French until they came across three battalions of the Imperial Guard formed in squares. They engaged in a sharp fight with the French and eventually forced them to retire.

General Adam’s brigade was instrumental in the defeat of the French Imperial Guard, but there is considerable evidence that he personally had little to do with it. It was Lieutenant Colonel John Colborne, the commander of the 52nd Light Infantry, who took the initiative to wheel his battalion to the left to catch the French column in its flank without waiting for orders from General Adam to do so. Wellington saw what the 52nd Light Infantry was doing and ordered the 2nd Battalion 95th Rifles up to support it. As this was going on, General Adam was on the far right ordering the 71st Foot and the 3rd Battalion 95th Rifles to move to support the rest of the brigade. Before long, the French began to waiver and Lieutenant Colonel Colborne, once again on his own initiative, ordered his battalion to charge the French.¹⁰

General Adam was badly wounded in the leg at Waterloo.¹¹ When it occurred is unknown. It was most likely in the late evening during the fight with the French Imperial Guard. His wound was severe enough to keep him from participating in the pursuit of the defeated French. He initially remained in Brussels and since he was the least wounded of all the British generals, he served as the commander of the numerous British wounded left there. While he was in Brussels, his brigade would be the first British unit to enter Paris. General Adam returned to England to recuperate and by September had recovered from his wounds and rejoined his brigade. On 30 November 1815, the British Army in France was re-organised and General Adam’s brigade was disbanded. He was not given another command. By the winter of 1816 he had returned to his home in Scotland.

In 1817, General Adam returned to the Mediterranean. He commanded the British forces in the Ionian Islands and in 1824 became the Lord High Commissioner there. He served there until 1831. As governor he supported the Greek revolution against the Ottoman Empire and made many charitable contributions to the welfare of the people of Corfu. He is honoured by a statue that was erected on the Greek island.¹² While he was in Greece, General Adam was appointed to the Consolidated Board of General Officers in 1819. Although he served on the Board for several years, his duties in Greece prevented him from taking an active part in its proceedings. On 25 October 1832 he became governor of Madras, India, and served there until 4 March 1837. Upon returning to England he retired from public office due to poor health.

General Adam was married three times. The first was to Amelia Thompson on 19 July 1811. He brought her back to Sicily, but she died shortly after arriving there. He married Diamantina Pallatiano of Corfu on 23 June 1820: she died in 1844. He remarried on 24 July 1851 to Ann Lindsay Maberly and in 1853 his only heir, a son, was born. General Adam died from a heart attack in the Greenwich Railroad Station on 17 August 1853.¹³

Frederick Adam’s meteoric rise in rank was due to his father’s political connections rather than his own merit. His father, a Member of Parliament and friend of the Royal Family, used his influence to ensure his son had a successful career. Frederick Adam received his commission as an ensign and his lieutenancy in the 26th Foot because his father was a friend of General Sir Charles Stuart, who was also a Member of Parliament. In 1799 he was appointed as a lieutenant and captain in the Coldstream Guards by the Duke of York, whom his father knew. In late 1804, his father heard that there was to be a vacancy in the 21st Foot, which he mentioned to the Duke of York who arranged his exchange to fill it. His father did not just limit his requests to his friends in England. In late 1812 he even contacted Wellington, asking him to find a position for his son should the army on the East Coast of Spain join the main field army!¹⁴ In 1815, the Duke of York promised General Adam a brigade in the army being formed in the Netherlands and thus he commanded the 3rd Brigade of the 2nd Division during the Waterloo Campaign.¹⁵ After Waterloo, the Duke of York proposed that General Adam be placed upon the staff of the Army of Occupation in France. However, he was not appointed to a brigade command in the General Order of 30 November 1815.

There is very little evidence that Wellington had ever met Frederick Adam prior to the Waterloo Campaign. In a letter dated 31 March 1815 that announced General Adam’s appointment to the British Army in the Netherlands, General Torrens, the Military Secretary to the Horse Guards, wrote to Wellington that ‘He is a very distinguished and intelligent officer, and I have not the least doubt but that he will give you satisfaction.’¹⁶ William Napier crucified General Adam’s performance at Ordal, stating that ‘whoever relies upon the capacity of Sir Frederick Adam either in peace or war will be disappointed.’¹⁷ Charles Oman is a bit more generous in his appraisal of Colonel Adam. He believed that the combat of Biar ‘was one of the most creditable rearguard actions fought during the whole Peninsular War.’¹⁸ Yet Oman was scathing of Adam’s performance at Ordal, claiming that ‘he and his whole force went to sleep … he neither kept a cavalry vidette a mile or two out along the road, nor placed a picket at the bridge.’¹⁹ John Fortescue is kinder with his evaluation. Rather than criticising his poor tactics he blames Colonel Adam’s superiors for leaving him in such an exposed position at Ordal.²⁰ He further tries to exonerate him by saying that Frederick Adam’s ‘fortunes, unluckily for him, had been linked to John Murray and William Bentinck.’²¹ Neither Generals John Murray nor Lord William Bentinck were overly successful commanding on the East Coast of Spain.

1. Renamed 5th Garrison Battalion 30 October 1804 and disbanded 24 February 1805.

2. He was removed from the 21st Foot as a general officer receiving unattached pay in 1814.

3. All other promotions were by appointment.

4. ‘Adam, William (1751–1839)’.

5. Von Reumont; page 12.

6. Whittingham; page 216.

7. RMC ; Vol. 3, page 386. Von Reumont; page 20.

8. To put this in perspective, the Duke of Wellington was 32 years old when he was promoted to major general in 1802.

9. General Order, 11 April 1815.

10. Siborne; pages 272–295. Glover, Gareth; Letters from the Battle of Waterloo ; pages 178–97.

11. Glover, Gareth; Waterloo , page 168.

12. Bromley; Vol. 1, page 3.

13. Von Reumont; page 54.

14. WD ; Vol. 6, page 226.

15. RMC 1820; Vol. 3, pages 385–78.

16. WSD ; Vol. 10, page 10.

17. Napier; Vol. 6, page 61. John Fortescue (Vol. 9, page 81) claims that Napier’s criticism ‘… was plainly dictated by personal animosity arising out of a matter utterly unconnected with the campaigns in the Peninsula.’

18. Oman; History of the Peninsular War , Vol. 6, page 288.

19. Oman; History of the Peninsular War , Vol. 7, page 100.

20. Fortescue; Vol. 9, page 81.

21. Fortescue; Vol. 10, page 240.

Alten, Victor Baron

His real name was Adolph Viktor Christian Jobst von Alten. While in Hanoverian service he was known as Viktor von Alten. While in British Service he was known as Victor Baron Alten.

Victor Baron Alten was born at his family home, Willenburg, near Burgwedel, on 2 November 1755 to August Eberhard Alten and Henriette Philippine Marie Hedwig von Vincke. He was the older brother of Major General Charles Baron Alten (Karl von Alten).

Victor Alten was commissioned as an ensign in the Hanoverian Army at the age of 15 in 1770. Promotion was slow and it was not until 1802 that he received a brevet to lieutenant colonel. After the annexation of Hanover by Napoleon and the subsequent disbanding of the Hanoverian Army in 1803, Lieutenant Colonel Alten fled to England and joined the newly formed King’s German Legion (KGL) as a lieutenant colonel. In 1804 he helped form the 1st KGL Light Dragoons and by the end of the year he was a colonel and the commander of the 2nd KGL Light Dragoons. His first active service with the British Army came when he and his regiment participated in the Baltic Expedition and the siege of Copenhagen in 1807. By the end of the year they had returned to England. In 1809 Colonel Alten and his regiment were part of the Walcheren Expedition and like the rest of the force took heavy losses to disease.⁶

Colonel Alten was promoted to major general in July 1810, but it was not until the following year that he was sent to Wellington’s Army in the Peninsula. His appointment was announced to Wellington in a letter dated 9 April, from Lieutenant Colonel Torrens. ‘The Prince has directed that Baron Alten should be placed upon the Staff as a M. General in Portugal to command the Cavalry of the Legion … Alten is an excellent Officer!’⁷ The initial announcement of his orders placing him on the staff was made in a General Order dated 27 July 1811, but backdated to 16 April 1811. To add further confusion, in the General Orders of 12 September 1811, the date he was placed on the staff was changed to 13 April 1811.⁸

When General Alten arrived in Portugal is unknown, however, on 18 July 1811 he took command of a cavalry brigade in the 1st Cavalry Division. The regiments in his brigade would change several times and occasionally he would be on detached duty; however, during the thirty months he spent in command his brigade was always assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division.

In early August 1811, General Alten and his brigade moved towards the Spanish border and began screening Ciudad Rodrigo. On 25 September, the brigade and General Charles Colville’s brigade of the 3rd Division were surprised in a forward position at El Boden by a large French force under Marshal Marmont. The French forces included almost 2,000 cavalry. Despite being outnumbered four to one, General Alten was able to hold off the French cavalry, allowing the British infantry to retreat to safety. It was General Alten’s finest hour.

During the autumn of 1811, General Alten’s forces were deployed along the Agueda River, a disease-ridden area that caused the death and hospitalisation of thousands of British troops.⁹ By late October, his brigade would be down to less than 520 effectives, only 55 per cent of its actual strength. The rest were either sick or on detached duty. By early October, General Alten was stricken with Agueda Fever and had to relinquish command to his senior regimental commander. He would not return until 8 January 1812.¹⁰

After successfully taking the border city of Ciudad Rodrigo in January, Wellington began shifting his army south to Badajoz. While the bulk of the army was gone, the 5th Infantry Division and General Alten’s brigade were to protect the newly captured city. His brigade had been reduced to the 1st KGL Hussars which had an effective strength of less than 400 men. They were deployed 16 kilometers east of Ciudad Rodrigo and ordered to screen the city from the French forces in Salamanca, about 80 kilometers away. In late March, the French moved out of Salamanca towards Ciudad Rodrigo. General Alten immediately pulled his forces back to the west of Ciudad Rodrigo along the Agueda River. On 1 April, when two squadrons of French cavalry approached the only passable ford on the river, he again pulled his troops back and continued to retreat. Five days later he was in Castello Branco, 160 kilometers away from the area he was supposed to protect. He did not stop there. Even though the enemy was 80 kilometers away, he continued to retreat until he reached Vila Velha, a strategic crossing site of the Tagus River. He began preparations to destroy the bridge, but was stopped by orders from Wellington.

General Alten’s panicky withdrawal endangered the other forces covering Ciudad Rodrigo. They had to retreat and soon the French had the city under blockade. Before long the French moved back into Portugal, threatening Almeida and the British logistical points at Celorico and Guarda. They also began to move on Castello Branco. When he received word of what General Alten had done, Wellington was furious. He had just captured Badajoz and instead of moving into southern Spain as he had planned, he had to order the army back north to relieve Ciudad Rodrigo. Fortunately for the British, poor logistics forced the French to retreat back to Salamanca before they could do serious harm.

On 11 April Wellington wrote to General Alten that

in case the enemy followed your march to Ciudad Rodrigo, you were to move gradually, and you were not directed to proceed farther than Castello Branco without further orders. I cannot consider movements to be gradual which brought you from Val de Lobos to Castello Branco in two days. You have now crossed the Tagus at Villa Velha without orders … If upon receipt of this letter you have no positive intelligence that the enemy are actually in Castello Branco, you will march there, and act according to the orders contained in the letter from the Quarter Master General …¹¹

Wellington did not let the matter drop. He forwarded the correspondence between him and General Alten to the Earl of Liverpool, the Secretary of State, on 24 April.¹² However, Wellington did not take steps to remove him from command.

On 13 June Wellington set his army in motion and headed into central Spain. General Alten’s brigade formed the advance guard of the centre column. They distinguished themselves at Castrillo on 18 July where they mauled a French dragoon brigade and then pursued a broken infantry regiment. The brigade was credited with capturing 350 prisoners including the commander of the French dragoons.

At the Battle of Salamanca on 22 July 1812, General Alten’s brigade was deployed on the right flank of the army. Early in the day he could see the movements of French columns to his front, but could not determine what exactly they were doing because they were obscured by a skirmish screen and woods. About 8 a.m. he rode forward for a better view and was promptly shot. The bullet hit him in the thigh, grazed the bone, and started to bleed heavily. He was evacuated to the rear where his wound was dressed. Before he left he told his ADC, Captain Ernest Baron Linsingen, to stay with his replacement and if the situation began to deteriorate to send word. General Alten was adamant that he did not want to become a prisoner of the French. About 3 p.m. a message arrived from Captain Linsingen that the outcome of the battle was in doubt. General Alten, despite the protests of his surgeon who was worried that General Alten would re-open his wound and possibly bleed to death, called for his horse, and rode away towards Ciudad Rodrigo. He was about 2 kilometers down the road when another messenger caught up to him and told him that the army was about to attack the French and there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that they would win. The general, however, refused to believe the messenger. General Alten returned to his quarters in Salamanca only after he heard the firing of the 3rd Division, which convinced him that the army was indeed attacking. He had spent almost two hours on his horse before getting back to his sickbed.¹³ Dr James McGrigor, the senior surgeon in the army, personally checked on him a few days later and reported back to the Duke of Wellington that General Alten had ‘some unpleasant symptoms … but I still do not conceive [him] to be in danger.’¹⁴

Two months later General Alten had still not returned to his brigade. Wellington, possibly influenced by Dr McGregor’s report, might have thought General Alten was shirking his duties. On 21 September, Wellington wrote to General Charles Alten, to tell his brother that ‘He desired his brother to take command of his brigade.’¹⁵ General Victor Alten took the hint and was back with his brigade by the end of the month. During the retreat to the Portuguese border that began in October, he and his brigade would serve in the rearguard. Despite six months of ceaseless campaigning, his brigade still had twothirds of its men fit for duty by the time they reached the Portuguese border.

By 2 December Wellington had had enough of General Alten. He wrote to Colonel Torrens at the Horse Guards that ‘I should wish, if possible, to get rid of Sir Wm. Erskine, General Slade & General Long, particularly the first and the last … I think also that it would be an advantage to the army to get rid of Victor Alten.’¹⁶ On 30 December, Colonel Torrens notified Wellington that General Alten would be recalled. Wellington was not pleased with the news for he realised that he had made a mistake. On 22 January 1813 Wellington wrote back to Colonel Torrens that he was concerned that he forgot to request that General Alten be employed on the home staff. Thus he did not want to have any of his officers removed unless they were given a job elsewhere.¹⁷ Since Colonel Torrens could not guarantee further employment for him, General Alten was left in command of his brigade.

By late April 1813 General Alten had still not been recalled. Wellington sought General Stapleton Cotton’s advice on re-organising the cavalry and in a letter dated 7 April he told him, ‘I have received discretionary orders to send to England Slade, Alten and Long … I have not sent home any of these officers, because I am not quite certain what your wishes and opinions are, and because I doubt whether you would mend matters very materially by their removal.’¹⁸ Wellington also asked him which of the three generals he wished to have recalled in order to make room for General Henry Fane, who was coming out. General Alten was not selected to go home.

In April 1813, General Alten was in trouble with Wellington once again. A Staff Corps of Cavalry was being formed and commanders were told to allow their soldiers to volunteer. The commander of the 1st KGL Hussars complained and General Alten supported him in a letter to Wellington, who dismissed his protests. In the same letter, Wellington took General Alten to task for sympathising with the 2nd KGL Hussars for being ordered to leave their horses with the army when the regiment returned to England the following month. The regiment were quite vocal in their dissatisfaction of losing their mounts and General Alten had to intervene. He advised the regiment to ‘bear their fate quietly, and as good disciplined and brave soldiers ought to do …’¹⁹ Wellington’s response was quite terse. ‘I had believed the 2nd Hussars would certainly behave in such a manner on all occasions and under all circumstances; and that, if there should be any doubt on the subject, something more forcible than advice would have been given to ensure their good behavior.’²⁰

The Vitoria Campaign of 1813 would see General Alten in the advance guard once again. However, they saw little action and took no casualties at the Battle of Vitoria on 21 June. After the battle, the brigade led the pursuit of the retreating French Army and was part of the force blockading the French in Pamplona. By November the brigade was in France.

Soon after his arrival in France, General Alten requested to be allowed to return to England. He turned over command on 28 December to Colonel Richard Vivian. There is some question on whether he was expected to return, because the general orders announcing his departure stated that Colonel Vivian would command in his absence, implying that he would be back.²¹ This was his last command under Wellington. In April 1814 he was appointed to the staff of the British Forces in Holland; however, hostilities had ceased by the time he arrived. By the summer, the KGL cavalry in Wellington’s Army were sent to Holland. The two brigades were formed into a division and General Alten was placed in command of it. Despite this, a year later, during the Waterloo Campaign, General Alten was not given a command under Wellington. Instead he was given the responsibility for all of the Hanoverian cavalry in the army, but in a staff role only.²²

In December 1815, General Alten returned to Hanover. He went on half-pay from the British Army in February 1816 and took command of the 3rd Cavalry Brigade of the Hanoverian Army. He commanded it until his death in 1820.

Victor Alten married Charlotte Louise Wilhelmine Freiin Kinsky von Wchinitz und Tettau in 1796. They had two sons and two daughters. He probably spoke fluent English. A review of his letters show that he was fluent in writing English.

1. British Army rank recognised when KGL officers entered new Hanoverian Army.

2. Temporary rank in British Army.

3. Permanent rank in British Army, 18 August 1812.

4. The 2nd Light Dragoons were renamed the 2nd Hussars on 25 December 1813. A regimental colonel in the KGL was called a colonel commandant.

5. There is some confusion on whether or not General Alten was present at Waterloo. Although he is shown as receiving the Waterloo Medal in the British Army lists, he is not recorded as receiving it in Hanoverian sources. He may have been on the frontier with the 2nd Hussars KGL during the battle. [ Hannoverscher und Churfürstlich-Braunschweigisch-Lüneburgischer Staatskalender 1819.]

6. The August 1809 monthly strength report showed over 30 per cent of the regiment listed as sick or in the hospital.

7. Unpublished letter provided by Dr Rory Muir.

8. General Orders ; Vol. 3, pages 187–8.

9. This disease was known as Agueda Fever and was either typhus, malaria, or a combination of both.

10. Beamish; Vol. 2, page 19; Oman, Wellington’s Army, page 359.

11. WD ; Vol. 9, pages 53–4.

12. Ibid; pages 87–8.

13. Beamish; Vol. 2, page 70.

14. Muir; Salamanca , page 74.

15. WD ; Vol. 9, page 424.

16. WSD ; Vol. 7, page 485. General Alten’s name was suppressed in the published Dispatches .

17. WD ; Vol. 10, page 33.

18. WD (enlarged ed.); Vol. 6, page 406.

19. WD ; Vol. 10, page 257.

20. Ibid.

21. General Orders ; Vol. 5, page 412. The General Order was dated 28 December 1813.

22. General Order, 31 May 1815.

Anson, George

Until 1773 the family name was Adams.

George Anson was the second son of George Anson and Mary Vernon. His mother was the daughter of 1st Lord Vernon. He was brother of General Sir William Anson 1st Baronet, Lieutenant Colonel Sambrooke Anson, and Captain Edward Anson. He was named after his uncle, Admiral George Lord Anson, who had circumnavigated the globe and became the 1st Lord of the Admiralty in 1751. George’s father inherited two estates and his family was quite wealthy, which enabled him to purchase all of his promotions. He grew up in Shugborough Hall, Staffordshire and attended Eton from 1779 to 1785.

George Anson was commissioned as a cornet in the 16th Light Dragoons in 1786 but exchanged into the 20th Light Dragoons six years later. He went with his regiment to Jamaica in 1792 and over the next two years was able to purchase first a captaincy and then the rank of major. He returned to England in 1797 after exchanging back into the 16th Light Dragoons. He was not long in England before he purchased his lieutenant colonelcy in the 20th Light Dragoons. He did not, however, return to Jamaica to serve with them. Nine months later he exchanged into the 15th Light Dragoons and served with them in the 1799 expedition to Holland. While there, he served as the regiment’s 2nd lieutenant colonel and did not command it. He was with the regiment until 1805, when exchanged back into the 16th Light Dragoons, where he served as its commander. That same year he was appointed an ADC to the King and was promoted to colonel.

In early April 1809, Colonel Anson and the 16th Light Dragoons embarked at Falmouth for Portugal. They sailed on 7 April and arrived in Lisbon on the 15th.³ They were the advance guard of the army during the Oporto Campaign and, after the French were ejected from the city, were part of the pursuit of the fleeing French. This would be the last time Colonel Anson commanded the regiment in action.

Colonel Anson was the senior colonel in the Peninsula and Wellington offered to appoint him a colonel on the staff so that he could command an infantry brigade, the only vacancy available. Colonel Anson declined the offer, preferring to stay in command of his cavalry regiment. Unbeknownst to either of them, on 25 May, His Majesty appointed George Anson a brigadier general on the staff. Word reached the army within a few weeks and in a General Order dated 22 June, Wellington appointed him brigade commander of the infantry brigade. The new general would not command his infantry brigade long. On 16 July, Wellington gave General Anson command of General James Erskine’s Cavalry Brigade⁴ while General Erskine was sick. Although the composition of the brigade would change over the years, he would command it until 1813.

General Anson had less than twelve days to get to know his brigade and to meld it into a cohesive fighting force. He was not up to the task. On 28 July he was positioned on a large plain on the left flank of the British Army at Talavera. No reconnaissance of the area was made by him or his subordinate commanders. A French infantry division and cavalry brigade approached about a kilometer away. Wellington sent a staff officer, Lieutenant Colonel John Elley, with orders for General Anson to charge the French. The two regiments were formed with the 23rd Light Dragoons on the right and the 1st KGL Light Dragoons on the left. As soon as they were formed, the 23rd Light Dragoons began their charge and were at a gallop shortly after that. Lieutenant Colonel Elley led them in their headlong charge. The 1st KGL Light Dragoons followed but at a slower pace. Neither General Anson or Lieutenant Colonel Elley, nor either of the regimental commanders, knew there was a wide ditch less than 150 metres from the French infantry, who had formed themselves into squares. By the time they saw, it was too late to stop the charge. The first line of the 23rd Light Dragoons tumbled into it and the second line landed on top of them. Many men and horses were killed or seriously injured. About one third of the 23rd Light Dragoons were able to make it across the ditch, reform, and charge the waiting French squares. Unable to break the squares, they soon found themselves surrounded by the French cavalry. Less than ten of the men who continued the charge after the disaster at the ditch made it back to the British lines.

The 1st KGL Light Dragoons, who were on the left and moving at a slower speed, were able to navigate the ditch without much mishap. But they too were repelled by fire from the French squares. Their casualties were significantly lighter than the other regiment’s.

The charge at Talavera was a disaster for General Anson’s brigade. He lost control almost as soon as he gave the orders for them to charge. Instead of moving in unison the two regiments charged separately and the results were dire. In less than an hour the brigade had suffered 25 per cent casualties with the 23rd Light Dragoons losing 40 per cent of its strength. The regiment was so badly cut up that it was sent back to England three months later. There is also a question about what did General Anson did once the charge began: he did not lead it, for all the accounts state that it was led by Lieutenant Colonel Elley, the staff officer who had brought the orders. Furthermore none of the accounts left by the survivors of the charge mentioned him going forward or trying to bring the 23rd Light Dragoons back under control.

After the retreat back to Portugal, General Anson’s brigade was stationed in the vicinity of Ciudad Rodrigo, along the River Agueda. It would work closely with the Light Division during June and July 1810 and would cover the British Army as it retreated deeper into Portugal. The brigade was not engaged at Busaco on 27 September.

After the Battle of Busaco, General Anson’s Brigade formed part of the rearguard of the army as it retreated to the Lines of Torres Vedras. For ten days the brigade was in constant contact with the French cavalry, fighting to delay their advance. The brigade took heavy casualties before it reached the safety of the Lines. Although the individual regiments of the brigade performed admirably, the retreat was marked by poor coordination between the overall cavalry commander and his subordinate brigade commanders, including General Anson. The staff work at the brigade level was not much better. In one of the more memorable incidents of the retreat, Captain Bull’s Royal Horse Artillery troop attached to the brigade was billeted in a village between the advancing French and the rest of the brigade. The duty squadron had to ride over a kilometer to its rescue.⁵

In late May 1811 General Anson led the vanguard of the British Army as it marched south from Ciudad Rodrigo. By early June they were in the vicinity of Badajoz screening the besieging forces. Two months later they returned to the vicinity of Ciudad Rodrigo. The brigade was engaged at Caprio on 25 September and a few days later went into winter quarters at Freixadas. In 1812, the brigade was part of the advance guard of the British Army that was moving into central Spain. However, General Anson had been on home leave in England and did not reunite with his command until 1 July. They fought at Castrejon on 18 July, but was in reserve at Salamanca on 22 July. After the defeat of the French, the brigade was part of the pursuit and was present at Garcia Hernandez the next day. During the epic retreat back to the Portuguese border in the fall, the brigade would be part of the rearguard of the army. It was in daily contact with the pursuing French cavalry. On 23 October the French caught up with the rearguard at Venta Del Poza. The two brigades of British cavalry were outnumbered four to one. A British diplomat saw the desperate fight:

I twice thought that Anson’s brigade (which is weak in numbers and much exhausted by constant service) would have been annihilated and I believe we owed the preservation of that and of the German heavy brigade to the admirable steadiness of Hackett’s [sic] two light German battalions.⁶ In talking of brigades, however, it is necessary to state that Anson’s brigade had only 460 swords in the field, which is not more than one strong regiment, and that the German heavy brigade consists of two weak squadrons. On the other hand the French had from 1600 to 2000 swords against them. We literally had to fight our way for four miles; retiring, halting, charging, and again retiring … notwithstanding all our difficulties we made some prisoners, and destroyed at least three times as many as we lost.⁷

The French eventually broke off their pursuit and the British Army made it back to the Portuguese border. General Anson spent the winter of 1813 with his brigade in central Portugal. In late May, the British Army was on the move again. General Anson’s brigade was assigned to the northern column, which was commanded by General Thomas Graham. On 27 May it crossed into Spain. The brigade fought at Vitoria on 21 June and led the pursuit of the French convoy that was trying to escape via the road to Bayonne. It was General Anson’s last battle. On 2 July he turned over command of the brigade to General John Vandeleur.

George Anson returned to England from the Peninsula several times between January 1810 and July 1812 to take up his duties in Parliament. He was absent from his command over 25 per cent of the time he commanded it. These absences totaled over twelve months and caused him to miss key battles and campaigns. They included February through April 1810, where he missed the opening moves of the French invasion of Portugal; four months in early 1811, by the time he returned it was too late to lead his brigade at the battle of Fuentes d’Oñoro; and the first six months of 1812, during which he missed the opening stages of the Salamanca Campaign. Although there were valid reasons for him to return to England, his absences were noted by his subordinates.⁸ This could not have been good for morale.

By December 1812, Wellington was tired of General Anson spending so much time in England. In a letter to Colonel Torrens of the Horse Guards, he wrote that, ‘I think also that it would be an advantage to the army to get rid of … Anson, who spends the greatest part of his time in England, and is not very energetic when he is here.’⁹ On 3 February 1813, General Anson requested in a letter to Wellington that he be sent back to England to serve on the Home Staff. Wellington forwarded his request while noting that he was sorry that General Anson was thinking of leaving.¹⁰ It was not until 2 July that permission was granted for him to return home. The next day Wellington requested passage for him to sail home on the first warship returning to England.¹¹

Upon his return to England in 1813, General Anson was assigned to the Home Staff of the Kent and then Sussex Districts until 1814. George Anson was a Member of Parliament from 1806 to 1841 and included the time he served in the army. He was Whig. His official biography described him as a ‘very lax attender, who was no orator and seldom spoke …’¹² He retired from Parliament in 1841.

In addition to his military awards, George Anson received numerous other honours. These included ADC to King George III on 1 January 1805, Groom of the Bedchamber to the Duke of Kent in 1800, Equerry to the Duke and Duchess of Kent from 1810–20, and Groom of the Bedchamber to Prince Albert, the Royal Consort, from 1840 to 1841.¹³ On 23 February 1846, he was appointed the Lieutenant Governor of the Royal Hospital at Chelsea and its Governor on 18 May 1849. He died a few months later.

George Anson married Frances Hamilton on 27 May 1800. They had eight sons and six daughters. One son went into the army, one into the RN, and one into the military service of the HEIC.¹⁴

In 1812, Wellington referred to George Anson as a friend in a letter to Colonel Torrens.¹⁵ They were the same age and both attended Eton at the same time as teenagers, although Wellington was a year behind him. Since this is the only time in their life prior to the Peninsular War that their paths crossed, it is likely that this was where their friendship was formed. Wellington did not let their friendship prevent him from requesting that General Anson be recalled to England in late 1812. However, when General Anson went back to England for the last time, Wellington took steps to ensure he received a berth on the next ship home.¹⁶ Wellington continued to look after George Anson in the post-war years. In 1827 he interceded with King George IV on his behalf to ensure that Anson was appointed the regimental colonel of the 4th Dragoon Guards. The King was considering giving it to Lord George Beresford, who, despite being a major general, had never seen active service. Wellington also pointed out in the letter that he was doing this for the good of the army, even though George Anson was a Whig and opposed his government.¹⁷

In addition to being friends, there was a strong possibility that Wellington kept George Anson in command for as long as he did for political reasons. The Anson family was politically well connected, having virtually their own seat in Parliament from 1761 to 1868.¹⁸ George Anson held that seat while he was Wellington’s subordinate. Although he was a Whig and rarely supported the Tory Government, Wellington might have kept George Anson in command to demonstrate that as the army commander he was above politics, and to give the army a supporter in Parliament. Not to be discounted was the fact the Ansons were a noble family. George Anson had earls and lords on both his father’s and mother’s side, while his oldest brother was a viscount. He also had strong connections to the royal family. In addition