Berryhill & Sturgeon Archives

MARSHAL BERESFORD'S TEN PAGE INTELLIGENCE REPORT ON MASSENA'S SIEGE OF CIUDAD RODRIGO GENERAL SIR ROBERT ARBUTHNOT, THEN COLONEL AND BERESFORD'S MILITARY SECRETARY, WRITES TO THE BRITISH ENVOY, SIR CHARLES STUART, IN LISBON, WITH THE LATEST INTELLIGENCE REPORTS FROM THE SIEGE OF CIUDAD RODRIGO BY MASSENA AND THE RE-DEPLOYMENT OF THE ENEMY'S FORCES FROM LEON TO SUPPORT THAT ACTION. AN EXTREMELY FINE , DETAILED, INTELLIGENCE ACTION REPORT WHICH INCLUDES COPIES OF COLONEL BENJAMIN D'URBAN'S ACCOUNT FROM GALLEGOS AND GENERAL WILLIAM COX'S ACCOUNTS FROM THE FORTRESS AT ALMEIDA "The Enemy is ... marching towards the army in front of Cuidad Rodrigo" "The fire commenced last night from the Enemy’s Batteries against Cuidad Rodrigo" "a violent explosion, which was felt here, took place it is said in one of the Enemy’s Batteries" "The Enemy drove in Gen'l Crauford’s Picquets this morning" “Cuidad Rodrigo still holds out, & the fire ... was very brisk this morning." "The Town was on fire in two places last night" THIS DOCUMENT IS COVERED BY OUR WRITTEN, SIGNED AND SEALED LIFETIME GUARANTEE OF AUTHENTICITY
Page 1		Page 2
page 3	page 4	page 5	page 6
page 7	page 8	page 9	page 10
Transcription pages 1 and 2: Trancoso 28 June, 1810 Dear Sir, Altho’ Marshal Beresford thinks that Col. D’Urban, who at present is at the out Posts, may have communicated to you the operations of the Enemy before Cuidad Rodrigo. He has desired me to transmit the annexed copies of the letters which He has just received, but which He begs you will consider as Private to him from Brig. General Cox and Col. D’Urban. The intelligence the Marshal has received from the North is that the Enemy is again evacuating Leon and marching towards the army in front of Cuidad Rodrigo leaving as before small Garrisons behind them. I beg you will believe me Very Faithfully Yours, Rob't Arbuthnot To His Excellency Chas Stuart ______________________________________________________________________________________________ Transcription pages 3 and 4: (Copy) Almeida 25th June 1810 My dear General, The fire commenced last night from the Enemy’s Batteries against Cuidad Rodrigo, and continued very active till between 9 and 10 this morning when a violent explosion, which was felt here, took place it is said in one of the Enemy’s Batteries; and it was followed by two others some time afterwards, the accounts we have received state that the Enemy’s fire ceased, and that of the Place continued for about two hours after, and there has been none heard since. The Enemy drove in Gen'l Crauford’s Picquets this morning with three Regiments of Cavalry the same number of Infantry, & 7 Pieces of Artillery, & has occupied the Right Bank of the little River which runs in front of the Gallegos. I remain My dear General etc (Signed) William Cox To His Excellency Marshal Beresford ______________________________________________________________________________________________ Transcription pages 5 and 6: Extract of a letter from Brig Gen'l Cox Almeida 27th June 1810 My dear General, “Cuidad Rodrigo still holds out, & the fire both from the Place, & from the Enemy’s Batteries was very brisk this morning. A Person who escaped from thence last night brings an account that they are much distressed for Provisions, & have lost a good many men, 150 killed, & 500 wounded. The first explosion heard the day before yesterday was the blowing up of a Magazine in one of the Enemy’s principal Batteries, which completely destroyed it, there was also an explosion of a Magazine on the Ramparts of the Place, which killed 14 men, & did some damage; the Enemy have constructed another Battery in rear of the one which was blown up, & have mounted heavier guns upon it, which have been brought into Play this morning.” My dear General etc (Signed) William Cox [To His Excellency Marshal Beresford] ______________________________________________________________________________________________ Transcription pages 7 to 10: (Copy) Gallegos Wednesday Night 27th June 1810 My dear Sir, The firing continued both from the Town, & Trenches all yesterday, & last night, & in the morning, the atmosphere being clear the whole face of the works parallel to the line of the Enemy’s Batteries could be distinctly seen, & it was evident that although a few stones had been knocked out of the Parapet above the cordon, nothing like a Breach had been made, or serious damage occasioned. This morning the increased weight of the Enemy’s fire, & the additional extent of the line of it, prove that He has re-established his Heavy Battery, which the explosion of the day before yesterday had silenced, & which, till this morning at day break had not again opened. The Town was on fire in two places last night, but it is not so this morning. It’s exertions seem to have increased with those of the Enemy, & its guns are very actively served. The French out Posts are as when I wrote you last, but they have strengthened their Pickets on the left, & increased their Vedettes towards the Fords of the Agueda below the confluence of the Asava. They are of course rather more jealous since they saw the Head Quarter Staff looking at them yesterday. Believe me my dear Sir, etc (Signed) B. D’Urban To His Excellency Marshal Beresford
The Situation in June of 1810 After the distress of Talavera de la Reine in 1809, and the failure to trap Wellington in Spain, Napoleon was determined to lead the next assault on Lisbon personally. He was however distracted by his divorce e and re-marriage and instead appointed one of the great vaunted Marshals of France, André Massena, Prince of Essling. Massena took command at Salamanca in May of 1810 at the head of the 65,000 man Army of Portugal. His instructions from Napoleon were to drive from Salamanca through Ciudad Rodrigo, Almedia and on to Lisbon. Centered however, in the twin frontier border cities of Ciudad Rodrigo and Almedia are two Fortresses that dominate this line of attack. As early as April, French troops had begun amassing for the first challenge which would be to take the fortress at Ciudad Rodrigo. The city had a Spanish garrison of 5,500 men and a "governor of exceptional determination", Andreas Herrasti. Wellington positioned the Light Division and D'Urban at Gallegos, some twelve miles from Rodrigo; he placed Cox at the Almeida Fortress with a Portuguese contingent of about 5000 and artillery while Craufurd's five battalions were set out along the Coa, an intervening river near the border of Portugal and Spain. Having brought up artillery, scaling ladders, additional troops and supplies, Massena had finally completed his encirclement of the city and was finally ready to invest Ciudad Rodrigo. The first shots were fired on the night of June 24th. The above accounts document the harrowing first days of this siege and the intelligence that flowed to Wellington and Stuart concerning its progress. There was a moment of great hope during the early days as indeed one of the great artillery battery magazines had blown up and curtailed the assault. But it was only two days until the Enemy had "re-established his Heavy Battery". The city itself experienced a magazine explosion and capitulated ion July 9th after a gallant defense. The "Place" referred to is not a random place but the name of a part of the Fortress of Ciudad Rodrigo. The Agueda River runs through Ciudad Rodrigo and the Azava (Asava) is a north running tributary that joins it not far from Gallegos. This is a superb condition intelligence report connecting most of the main participants and directly relating action reports of the battleground. Recommended reading; Horward, Donald, Napoleon and Iberia: The Twin Sieges of Ciudad Rodrigo and Almeida, 1810, London : Greenhill Books; 1994.

Some Brief Biographical Notes General Sir Robert Arbuthnot, KCB, was born at Rockfleet, County Mayo, Ireland, on 19 November 1773. He was a General in the British Army, a Colonel in the 76th Regiment and a Brigadier General in the Portuguese Service where he served as Marshall General William Carr Beresford's Military Secretary. He was Knighted KCB (Knight Commander Order of the Bath) and later appointed a KTS (Knight of the Tower and Sword) by Portugal. Sir Robert died in Hanover Lodge, Regents Park on 6 May 1863. He was brother to Charles Arbuthnot, Ambassador Extraordinary at Constantinople and a Member of Parliament and General Sir Thomas Arbuthnot, who also served in the Peninsula. Wellington placed the defense of the Almeida Fortress, on the road from Madrid to Lisbon, in the hands of Colonel William Cox a English officer who also held a commission as a Brigadier General in the Portuguese Army. Brigadier-General William Cox, Governor of Almeida, and also Marshal Beresford's brother-in-law, commanded a 5,000-man Portuguese garrison that included two battalions of the Portuguese 24th Infantry Regiment of the Bragança (1200 men), and three Portuguese Militia Regiments from Arganil, Trancoso and Guarda (about 3000 men). The garrison also held three Companies of the 4th Artillery Regiment (400 men) and a Squadron of the 11th Cavalry Regiment (61 men). Colonel Benjamin D'Urban was Beresford's Quartermaster General, his Second in Command and his Head of Intelligence. D'Urban's intelligence despatches come from all over the theater of the Peninsular War, quite often being first hand accounts. Beresford knew of D'Urban's high reputation as a staff officer, and he was immediately selected by Beresford in 1809 to fill the important post of Quartermaster-General of the Portuguese Army, with the rank of Colonel in the Portuguese army. He most ably seconded Beresford's efforts, and served in that capacity throughout the Peninsular war without once going on leave, and was successively promoted Brigadier-General and Major General in the Portuguese Army, and Colonel in the English Army on 4 June 1813. He was with Beresford at all the great battles of the Peninsular war, and at its close was made one of the first KCB.'s (Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath) on the extension of the order of the Bath, he also received the KTS (Knight of the Tower and Sword) by the Portuguese, and received a gold cross and five clasps for the nine pitched battles and sieges at which he had been present, namely: Busaco, Albuera, Badajoz, Salamanca, Vittoria, the Pyrenees, the Nivelle, the Nive, and Toulouse. He led the Portuguese Cavalry Brigade at Salamanca and Vitoria. D'Urban later led a far ranging and varied military/colonial administrative career, being at different times the Governor of Antigua, Demerara-Essequibo, Barbadoes, British Guiana and finally the Cape of Good Hope where the leading Port City of Natal (now Kwa-Zulu-Natal) was named in his honour. He finished his career as Commander in Chief of the British North American Forces and is buried in Montreal.
Document Specifications: A superb handwritten ALS letter signed by Sir Robert Arbuthnot as Marshal Beresford's Military Secretary in Trancoso and dated June 28th 1810. Folded letter measures 9¼" tall x 7¼" wide (236mm x 185mm). On three folded sheets (forming twelve pages, ten with writing) of gilt-edged, heavy cream stock, batonne laid paper, watermarked with heraldic device, with only the slightest toning on the last page which has no writing. Writing on ten pages as shown. This is a beautiful, comprehensive, handwritten intelligence action field report by eyewitnesses regarding the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo and which fell shortly thereafter. Here is an excellent opportunity to acquire at one time a sweeping intelligence despatch that connects: Beresford, D'Urban, Cox, Arbuthnot and Stuart with the Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo. From the Stuart Correspondence. Offered by Berryhill & Sturgeon, Ltd

End of Item - BSL - 1810 Arbuthnot Trancoso		Tel: 573-335-7720