The Battle of Almanza 1707

The Battle of Almanza

In April 1706, the Queen’s Dragoons moved south from Yorkshire to Hampshire in order to conduct some training. Two hundred and forty of them were soon to go into action.

The Queen’s Dragoons were led by their new Colonel, Lord George Carpenter, Lieutenant-Colonel Lawrence, ten other officers, four troop quartermasters, a surgeon, a gunsmith and his mate, fifteen N.C.O.s, seven drummers, ten hautboys and 190 privates.

They were to join a force of eight thousand commanded by Earl Rivers for a special operation.

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 and Essex’s (The 4th Hussars) 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. Brigadier-General Carpenter agreed to serve under Galway and he fought with his troopers to the end of the expedition.

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, 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.

Galway attacked first with cavalry in which the Queen’s and Essex’s Dragoons 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 Lawrence 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 were the cause of the humiliation that followed.

The greater part of their cavalry had fled from the field in panic on the first shot being fired. Their infantry stood firm for a while, but they were very soon routed and in flight, following their own cavalry, who had paused only long enough to loot the English baggage wagons on the way.

Out of their army of 15,000 at Almanza, the Allies had lost about 4,000 killed and wounded, and 3,000 prisoners. There is no clear record of the losses of the Queen’s Dragoons but the regimental strength was only 150 when the officers went out to seek recruits, early in the following year.

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