The Battle of Almanza
The Regiment was split in the summer of 1706 when three troops were ordered to join a force of eight thousand commanded by Earl Rivers for a special operation. The other three troops remained at home under Major George Holgate. The Earl of Essex joined the expedition himself and the three troops were his own, Lieutenant-Colonel Dormers and Captain Henry Hawley’s.
River’s expedition was planned as a promising combined operation. The force was made up of sixteen battalions of Foot; nine English, six French Huguenot and one German, with three hundred and eighty Dragoons. The Dragoons were a composite force made up of three troops each from Carpenter’s (The 3rd Hussars) and Essex’s regiments. The convoy was to be escorted by a strong fleet commanded by Admiral Sir Cloudsley Shovel.
The planned expedition to the French coast did not go according to plan. At first, there was a contrary wind, and when the convoy was able to sail the raid was cancelled. Instead, the fleet was ordered to Spain to attack Cadiz. However, the fleet ran into a gale and had to put in at Torbay, where it lay storm-bound for eleven weeks. In August it put to sea again, but ran into more storms and was dispersed. The Bay of Biscay was in its most violent mood, but eventually, the ships collected together in Lisbon. By that time the attack on Cadiz had been cancelled and the ships lay in Lisbon for more than two months.
The men in the transports were crowded together appallingly and they suffered greatly. Men died in the hundreds. They were kept aboard the disease-infested ships at Lisbon for two months, with the death toll mounting. At last, orders came for the fleet to sail around the coast of Spain to Alicante.
In February 1707, the long and macabre voyage came to an end. Eight thousand had embarked in England six months before; only four thousand four hundred survived to go ashore at Alicante.
It was at Alicante where the Allied army had wintered. This army, English, Spanish and Portuguese, Dutch and French Huguenots was commanded by Lord Galway. Lord Rivers’ expeditionary force joined Galway’s army and Rivers and Essex both went home. The three troops of Essex’s, however, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Dormer, joined Galway’s army.
Galway marched on Madrid, with a force of fifteen thousand men, half of which were Portuguese and half British, with some Dutch and German and French Huguenots. He advanced into Murcia and destroyed several magazines which the French had established, and then laid siege to the town of Villena. Reports from French deserters claimed that eight thousand reinforcements were expected and were only four hours’ march from Villena.
Galway accordingly decided to go to meet the French at once, before the reinforcements arrived, and on the morning of the 25th of April he set off from Villena.
After a march of twenty-five miles across the country Galway came upon the enemy drawn up in battle order in front of Almanza in the conventional two lines, the infantry in the centre and the cavalry on the flanks. The French army, commanded by the Earl of Berwick, an English Jacobite, consisted of twenty-five thousand men; Galway had fifteen thousand.
After a very short rest, Galway formed his line of battle. The Portuguese claimed the right of the line, and the English and Dutch cavalry were posted on the left flank of the line, facing the Spanish cavalry, with battalions of English infantry interspersed between them. The three troops of Essex’s, commanded by their Lieutenant Colonel, Charles Dormer, were on the right of the left flank, with Carpenter’s and Guiscard’s Dragoons. With them were two battalions of infantry.
Galway attacked first with the cavalry on his left, and Essex’s and Carpenter’s advanced at the trot towards an enemy battery on a hill in front of them. They galloped swiftly across some low ground and ascended the hill upon the gunners. The French gunners limbered up instantly and the guns retired hurriedly, pursued by the dragoons.
Then they were in trouble, for three regiments of enemy cavalry charged, and for a while, a desperate battle was fought. They fought gallantly but the odds against them proved too much and they lost heavily, Lieutenant Colonel Dormer being among the killed.
The Remnant from the massacre withdrew and with others that had been badly handled, reformed and charged again and threw the enemy back. All this fighting, however, had been in vain, for the Portuguese troops which were on the right flank, collapsed and as a consequence the battle was lost.
In the two hours on that afternoon, nine thousand men were killed and wounded of the thirty-three thousand who fought. The Commanding Officers of all six English cavalry regiments were killed. The survivors of Essex’s, less than half their number before the battle, remained in service. Towards the end of the year the men and horses still fit for duty were transferred to Peppers Dragoons (8th Hussars) and the officers went home to rejoin the regiment.
