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1811 battle during the Peninsular War
The Battle of Arroyo dos Molinos took place on 28 October 1811 during the Peninsular War. An allied force under General Rowland Hill trapped and defeated a French force under General Jean-Baptiste Girard, forcing the latter's dismissal by the Emperor Napoleon. A whole French infantry division and a brigade of cavalry were destroyed as viable fighting formations.
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The Battle of Arroyo dos Molinos took place on 28 October 1811 during the Peninsular War. An allied force under General Rowland Hill trapped and defeated a French force under General Jean-Baptiste Girard, forcing the latter's dismissal by the Emperor Napoleon. A whole French infantry division and a brigade of cavalry were destroyed as viable fighting formations.
In the middle of October, 1811 a French Imperial Army division under the command of Jean-Baptiste Girard crossed the River Guadiana at Mérida and campaigned in Northern Extremadura. Major-General Rowland Hill consulted with Lieutenant-General Lord Wellington and received permission to use his 2nd Division to pursue Girard. Upon learning that the French had halted at the village of Arroyo dos Molinos, near Alcuéscar, Hill force-marched his troops for three days in poor weather so as to catch the French before they moved on.
By the evening of the 27 October, Hill's forces had reached a point four miles from the French at Arroyo dos Molinos, and had the area around the enemy surrounded. The 71st (Highland) Regiment of Foot was ordered to occupy the village of Alcuéscar, three miles from Arroyo. During the night there was a violent hail-storm, and on the following morning the weather was still so foul that the French pickets on duty had their backs turned so as to gain some reprieve from the wind and rain - it was from this direction that Hill's forces attacked at dawn on the 28th.
The French 34th and 40th Line Infantry Regiments suffered extremely heavy losses during the battle, although to Marshal Jean-de-Dieu Soult's relief the French Imperial Eagles of the two regiments were not captured. He wrote to Napoleon: "L'honneur des armes est sauvé; les Aigles ne sont pas tombés au pouvoir de l'ennemi". ["The honour of the army is saved; the Eagles did not fall into the hands of the enemy".]
Robert Ballard Long's cavalry charged, the 2nd Hussars King's German Legion particularly distinguishing themselves, and broke the French cavalry. Over 200 of them were captured plus three pieces of artillery. The attackers suffered only 37 killed and 64 wounded. In contrast, reports of total French casualties vary, with estimates of between 600 and 900 killed or wounded and between 700 and 1,300 captured.
On 5 November a jubilant Hill (who would be made a Knight of the Bath for Arroyo dos Molinos) wrote to his sister:
I have time merely to inform you that on the morning of the 28th at daybreak I succeeded in surprising, attacking, and annihilating the French corps under General Girard at Arroyo dos Molinos. The enemy's force, when attacked, consisted of about 3,000 infantry, 1,600 cavalry and artillery. The result is the capture of one general, one colonel, 35 lieutenant-colonels and inferior officers, 1,400 prisoners, and probably 500 killed. The others dispersed, having thrown away their arms; we have also got all the enemy's artillery, baggage, and magazines—in short, everything that belonged to the corps.
Though the French Imperial Eagles may "not have fallen into the hands of the enemy", however, the 34th (Cumberland) Regiment of Foot captured six side-drums of the 34th Line Infantry Regiment together with the regimental drum major's staff, which was seized by Sergeant Moses Simpson of the 34th's Regiment of Foot's grenadier company. Included in the haul was the drum of the 34th Line Infantry Regiment's grenadier company, the shell of which was emblazoned with three flaming grenade emblems. The drums and drum major's staff are on display in Cumbria's Museum of Military Life at Carlisle Castle.
In no order;
Spanish (2600)
Artillery: one 8-pdr, one 4-pdr, one Lgt Howitzer.
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