10. A Prisoner of Albuera (1)
The Journal of Major William Brooke from May 18 to September 28, 1811
The manuscript Journal here printed was found among the papers of Sir James Stevenson Barnes, one of the best known of Wellington’s Peninsular brigadiers, who executed five days after Sauroren an attack which Wellington called the best and boldest that he had ever seen in his life. Sir James’s heirs supposed that the Journal, which is without signature or title, belonged to their relative, but this is clearly not the case, as he never served in the 2nd Division nor in Colborne’s brigade. Internal evidence makes it certain that the author was Major William Brooke of the 2/48th. He mentions that he was a major, that he served in the 2/48th, and (of course) that he was taken prisoner at Albuera.
Now, Brooke of the 48th was the only major among the fifteen unfortunate officers who were captured by the charge of the Polish Lancers at the commencement of that bloody fray. He must undoubtedly have been a close friend of Barnes, and have either given him or lent him this manuscript. It consists of eighty-eight sheets of foolscap, partly with the watermark of B.W. 1810, partly with that of a lion statant reguardant in a crowned garter. They are bound together in a limp mottled cover. The writing is large, very slanting, and difficult to read, owing to the faded ink. The narrative was undoubtedly written immediately after the author’s return to England as an invalid, in the September that followed his escape from Seville. In no year after 1811 would it have been natural for him to use so much paper bearing the watermark of 1810.
I know no more of Major Brooke than may be gathered from the “Army List”. He entered the service in 1782, at the end of the old American War, was a captain in the 48th by 1795, and a major by 1810. After the adventures recorded in these pages, he recovered completely from his wounds, rejoined his regiment, and was promoted to a lieutenant-colonelcy in 1815, in which year he went on half-pay. If this narrative meets the eye of any relative or descendant, I should be glad to have further information about him.
It may help the reader to comprehend the story of Major Brooke’s travels with his companions in captivity to Seville, if we give the names of the whole fifteen. They were Captains Spedding and Phillips of the 4th Dragoons, Lieutenant Blumenbach of the Artillery of the King’s German Legion, Captain Cameron and Lieutenants Hill and Annesley of the 3rd Foot (Buffs), and from the 2/48th Brooke himself, Captains Campbell and Allman, Lieutenants Elwood, Marshall, Sark, Wood, and Brother-idge, and Ensign Gilbert. The first, second, fourth, eighth, and ninth of them will be found mentioned in the narrative. Cameron escaped from his captors at Ribera on May 19th; the other officers, all I believe wounded, were brought to Seville. Of the rank and file of the same regiments 504 in all were captured at the same time as their officers, of whom 193 belonged to Brooke’s battalion. More than half of them were wounded; but of the remainder the greater part escaped by the way, in twos and threes, between Almendralejo and Llerena.
It will be noted that Brooke nowhere gives the names of the Spanish friends who behaved so kindly towards him. This was done in their interest, in case his narrative should by any chance get into the English newspapers. For by indiscreet publication of names in this fashion several good patriots had been ruined. On one occasion an English officer’s letter, printed in a London journal, disclosed the identity of some inhabitants of Salamanca who had sent Wellington secret intelligence. A copy got to Paris, and the writer’s indiscretion nearly caused the death of these valuable correspondents.
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