The Diary of Private Sharkey: 25th august 1812

Sunday 25 November 2012

25th august 1812

Location: Santa Maria de las Hoyas, Castile, Spain

The light is only just beginning to darken, but already I am camped for the night in another clearing near the village of Santa Maria de las Hoyas no more than a morning's journey by waggon from the site where Major General Ellis-Jones is camped.

This morning we packed up our camp and set off through the Spanish countryside. We journeyed for quite some hours before we finally arrived at the great manor and estates of the Duc de Beale in Ayllon. He is a known supporter of his most catholic majesty Ferdinand VII and I was here to bring him the news of Wellington's capture of Madrid. However the Duc refused to see us and we were sent away with the knowledge that "the Duc would be informed".

We continued on our way and set up camp within sight of Santa Maria de las Hoyas, which only the day before had been the site of a clash between Major General Ellis-Jones' force and a band of French Guerrillas.

We are within easy reach of the camp at Navaleno now and tomorrow we shall arrive and make ready for the last push towards Burgos. We are still ahead of much of the company.

I have just returned from collecting water and as I was walking through the trees I stumbled across a camp of deserters from the 95th rifles. The men are all equipped with Baker rifles and all I can think is that they are heading for the river in an attempt to find shelter with Marmont's men. They are within one hundred paces of where I am now lying. Tomorrow we will need to set off early so as not to be discovered, for we will most certainly be shot with our red jackets and kilts.

We went down to the local public house this evening for what could possibly be me last supper. I stayed late into the evening savouring the warmth of the fire and of life. Tomorrow I will be added to those other individuals, nought but numbers on the lists of greater men.

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February 1813

After defeat at Burgos the 42^nd highland regiment went into winter quarters at the town of Ceia, but their quarters had to be shared with other regiments.

"There were so many men sent to each house. We had no beds; the floor of the house was the bed of the poor soldier: each man had a blanket. We rolled down on the floor, and usually lay by fours, if there were four in a house. We had always straw to lay on, when we could get it, and the cavalry needed it not; here we could get none."

Not surprisingly, disease soon broke out. The hardships of the retreat, combined with the lingering effects of Walcheren Fever among those who arrived in Portugal 1812 and the close living quarters, soon took its toll. According to one soldier

". . . we were not one month in quarters when a malignant fever broke out in the 42nd, and the men were dropping away very fast. We had funerals every day for a long time. More than half of the regiment was in the hospital., and the fever was still increasing."

The regiment took months to recover. By mid-April 1813, the 1st Battalion still only carried 464 men as "effective"!

In an effort to prevent the disease from spreading, the regiment was dispersed to small villages in the area. Most companies were billeted separately, with two or three miles between each. Lieutenant Dickinson commanded the company that was ordered to the village of Aldea de Serra. The village was situated in the mountains and the troops, in the words of one soldier "had good quarters here, plenty of clean straw to lay on, and the inhabitants were very kind to us." The duty was light and the food was good. It must have been paradise after the hardships of the previous campaign!

http://www.napoleon-series.org/