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SHARPE’S Ordeal
Richard Sharpe and the
Coruña Campaign in Spain 1808
This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents and dialogues are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead is entirely coincidental.
SHARPE’S ORDEAL. Copyright © 2025 by Paul Kaster
Sharpe’s Ordeal is for
Chapter 10
JANUARY 1, 1089 1809 1 1 This date: 1809 January 1: Bembibre, Spain. For the entire first day of the new year, Paget’s rear guard, collected kicked and shoved derelict, drunken soldiers from the town to send back to their regiments. The French pursuit is only cavalry and keeps distant from Paget’s infantry. Baird’s division marches out. Bembibre has been ransacked. At least a thousand bodies lie about as if on a battlefield, but victims of drink. By end of the day, Moore’s main body reached Villafranca. The rearguard remained at Bembibre until the following day. Although Villafranca contained fourteen days of biscuit and large stocks of salt meat and rum, few of the regiments benefited. The first to arrive refused to follow orders. They took what they wanted. Moore rode into the mob and caught one plunderer in the act. He ordered that the soldier should be shot immediately. From that point, the officers were able to restore some order. Sharpe's caravan of mules, carts and bullocks plods on with the other quartermasters. He is disgusted by how the regiments misbehave. With the other quartermasters, he forms a defensive perimeter to protect his charges. 1809 1 2 This date: 1809 January 2: Bembibre, Spain. General Edward Paget’s rearguard (20th, 28th, 52nd, 91st and the 1/95th Rifles) addresses as many of the stragglers and camp followers as they can before they move on. The 20th and his cavalry wait until the last minute to collect as many stragglers as they can. When the French cavalry came on in force, the 20th withdrew. In the town, the French cavalry, indiscriminately cuts down any that resist. Hundreds died. Sharpe rested in Villafranca for the day. He had learned that the next march would begin towards Lugo. 1809 1 3 This date: 1809 January 3: Cacabellos, Spain. During the day, the rearguard reached Cacabelos. Paget is determined to restore order. He orders three plunderers to be executed. With their regiment formed in square around them, the three are prepared to be hanged. Three times Paget asks the regiment if they will assure to behave if he will spare the three. The regiment loudly replies that they will. For the remainder of the march, they do behave AND fight. The French cavalry under General Auguste Colbert closed on them to several hundred yards, but halted when they saw that the British were defending the town. Colbert called for infantry support. When the British began to withdraw, Colbert sent some of his cavalry into the town. They caught the Rifles who suffered about a third of their number as casualties before repelling the cavalry. Moore rode in while the British were reforming. He moved his defenders to near the town’s bridge. Colbert decided to wait for the infantry, but came forward to see the field. Moore saw Colbert and called out to the Rifles for someone to shoot Colbert. Rifleman Thomas Plunkett came forward, dropped into the snow, faced his feet towards Colbert, wrapped the strap of his rifle over his foot and shot the general from about 300 yards (rumor says 800). When Colbert’s ADC came to assist, Plunkett shot him too. Moore congratulated Plunkett, then set about sending the rearguard away before the engineers would blow the bridge. The rearguard would march through the night through the burning remains of supplies in Villafranca. Sharpe marched with his caravan towards Lugo. 1809 1 4 This date: 1809 January 4: Nogales. Spain. After Villafranca, Galician mountains. Winding roads. Easy to defend. Cold, fatigue, misery. Dead men and women frozen beside the road. Behind them, the road disintegrated such that the French pursuit march was even more difficult. Through the mountain passes, horses, mules and bullocks die. Wagons, carts and guns are discarded. Wagons of stores brought forward from Coruña scattered throughout the town. Ammunition, shoes and clothing, but no food. Men helped themselves to whatever they could carry. But, the rearguard still destroyed large quantities to avoid them falling to the French. Not only was the greater part of the baggage-train of the army lost between Villafranca and Lugo, but other things of more importance. A battery of Spanish guns was left behind on the crest of Monte Oribio for want of draught animals. The military chest of the army was abandoned between Nogales and Cerezal. It contained about £25,000 in dollars, and was drawn in two ox-wagons, which gradually fell behind the main body as the beasts wore out. Bullocks pulling the two Paymaster’s carts that contain barrels of silver dollars collapsed to go no further. A sentry stood guard as soldiers marched by. General Paget was angry that the Paymaster was so inept that his cards had fallen back to the rear of the army. Sharpe sympathizes with the Paymaster. Paymaster intends to prevent the French getting the coins. He can try to send them on horses with the cavalry or on mules with quartermasters like Sharpe. His last resort is to dump the wagons down a steep ravine. General Paget angered by Paymaster who has insisted rearguard help. One cavalry regiment and Sharpe help to take coins in backpacks taken from the dead. The men load coins from the barrels into the backpacks and then onto the cavalry and Sharpe's mules to take to Moore. Paget refused to fight a rearguard action to cover any further recovery and ordered the 28th Regiment to hurl the small kegs containing the money over a precipice. The silver shower lay scattered among the rocks at the bottom. Part was gathered up by Lahoussaye’s dragoons, but in the following spring, the local peasantry collected all that they could find. 1809 1 5 This date: 1809 January 5: Nogales. Spain. Although the road that they followed was ideal to defend and to hold, Moore chose to continue to withdraw. The bad discipline of the army and carriage convinced him his best choice was to go to the Navy. He marched away to leave sick and wounded behind again. At Cerezal and Constantino, the army was astounded to meet a long train of fifty bullock-carts moving southward. It contained clothing and stores for La Romana’s army, which the Junta of Galicia, with incredible carelessness, had sent forward from Lugo, though it had heard that the British were retreating. Had the convoy gone a few miles more, it would likely have been taken by the French. Seeing an opportunity, Moore s soldiers stripped the wagons of the contents and claimed them and the bullocks to haul their own baggage. To those of the ragged and shoeless battalions who could claim them. the shoes and garments were a godsend. The next days many of the Reserve were clad in whole- or half-Spanish uniforms. Sharpe arrives at Lugo, but is unable to find Moore. He hears that Baird, who is second in command, has arrived and is camped on the north side of town. He takes his mule team to find Baird. He had decided in favour of Coruña at Herrerias (near to Villafranca). This meant that the advance guard heading for Vigo needed to change direction, and make for Lugo, but Moore’s orders did not reach them promptly, and one division spent most of 5 January marching and countermarching through the mountains before finally reaching Lugo.
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