The
Walcheren Expedition 1809
The Corunna campaign was hard on the 82nd Regiment, but in time the
corps was able to recruit itself back to strength for further operations later
in 1809. The Commanding Officer of the regiment remained Lt. Colonel George
Smith, who had first joined the 82nd on Nov. 14, 1804. The next major campaign
the regiment took part in was the Walcheren expedition. This was another of the
amphibious enterprises the British Army has been undertaking periodically in
support of its hard-pressed continental allies. This time, the objectives were
to relieve pressure on the Austrian army, at the time fighting hard against
Napoleon and also to strike a fatal blow at a concentration of French naval power
located in the Scheldt estuary, that posed a latent threat to England. On July
30, 1809, a large army of 44,000 men, including the 82nd, was put ashore on
Walcheren Island under the command of Lt. Gen. Sir John Pitt.
The 82nd Regiment was brigaded for the expedition with the 2/14th and
51st under Maj. Gen. Houston, forming a reserve for a ‘Left’ Division under
the regiment's old master from the Corunna campaign, Lt. Gen. Alexander
Mackenzie Fraser.[1]
This Division sailed from England and landed at the north end of Walcheren
Island on July 30, 1809, preceded by an effective bombardment from the fleet.
Only a scattered and ineffective opposition was made against the landing and the
enemy soon absconded inland. The next morning, the drums beat reveille and the
82nd at the front of its brigade marched south towards Middleburg, which
capitulated without a fight. Passing through the town, the 82nd continued on
towards Flushing, enduring nothing more than scattered sniping from the enemy. At the town of West Souberg, the advance guard, including the
light company of the 82nd, dashed into the houses and chased the enemy away,
seizing two guns in the process. Following this, the regiment took up a position
outside Flushing by the town of East Souberg. Here the regiment worked to build
the necessary entrenchments and batteries, while turning back several small
sallies by the enemy.
John
Bull delivers a Volley
Providentially for the 82nd, there was no regular siege and
storm at Flushing; such enterprises usually entailed very high casualty rates
along with the glory of the enterprise. After a very fierce bombardment, the town surrendered on August 15.
Thereafter, the army on Walcheren moved over to South Beveland Island, joining
another British force already there. There, the next step to attack Antwerp and
the French naval squadron never developed, as in the
interval from the first landing French reinforcements had come up and prepared a
strong defense of the city and its approaches. These were judged by Gen. Pitt to be too
risky to attack. Now, what had hitherto been a successful operation rapidly
devolved into a disaster, as the heat of the summer in the wetlands and swamps
of the Scheldt estuary produced a wicked pestilence in the form of Malaria. Four
and a half months later, 4,066 men were dead from ‘Walcheren Fever’ with
innumerably more lastingly debilitated from its lingering effects...for many
until the end of their days it is said.
So
the 82nd for a second time since its days in the West Indies suffered death and
misery not from battle, but from the invisible hand of disease. Indeed, it is a
general fact that
many times more 82nd men died by sickness, hunger and disease than by shot and
shell. It was said by Lt. George
Wood in his memoirs that the flower of the old veteran corps of 1808 perished from Walcheren Fever and afterwards
the regiment had to be built almost anew from raw
levies before being sent back to the Peninsula in 1810. Only in 1813 was the
82nd to reach its previous fighting form. No returns as yet have been found to give
proof to the 82nd's casualties or strengths on this expedition. As
George Wood was not there, having been left behind in Portugal during the
Corunna Campaign, we have no anecdotes
of the regiment’s experiences. The Walcheren campaign in the end achieved none
of its objectives, as the French fleet was safely preserved in Antwerp harbour,
while England’s Austrian allies had been defeated before the expedition even
landed. The last units of the army sailed for home on December 9, 1809.
[1] Fraser like so many was to
die from Walcheren Fever following this expedition.
Back
to Top | Main Index| Next
Chapter