"Memoirs of Sir Richard Henegan" Topic

I've just been reading Volume One of this book (called "Seven Years Campaigning in the Peninsula and the Netherlands") and it contains plenty of inspiration for wargamers.

The author was Military Commissary in the Field Train, basically in charge of supplying ammunition to the British and Portugese Armies.

He was TWICE almost executed by Spanish guerillas when away from his unit on account of his blue uniform (basically the same as the Royal Artillery). They thought he was French!

He gives an interesting description of the Battle of Barossa. This action is perfect for wargaming.

A large section of the book is a description of a journey to the guerillas in the mountains of Andalusia. He went with a Spanish officer who had a 'fact-finding' type mission with them. There is a brilliant description of an ambush on a French convoy at the village of Teba – it could have been written with 'Sharp Practice' in mind!
A couple of excerpts as an example:
"A body of French hussars were seen ascending a ravine, that bound the sight within a narrow confine, from the wide range of mountain scenery beyond. A detachment of infantry brought up the rear, its centre closing round a convoy that might have been provisions, ammunition, or wounded comrades."
"The movement brought down a scampering reinforcement from the hills, in which the women, and even children joined. The hussars here suddenly wheeled round, and charging with energy the disordered multitude, made a fearful slaughter of the panic-struck mountaineers, who dispersed in every direction."

He also provides some interesting statistics from the Battle of Vittoria. The Anglo-Portugese army fired 3,675,000 musket rounds at the French during the battle and the artillery fired 6,870 rounds. The effect of all this was 8,000 French casualties. Henegan calls this "an immense waste of powder and shot"!

I have volume 2, scored from a charity shop. It is interesting, his details of the siege of San Sebastian are fascinating, dealing with the nitty gritty.

I'm waiting for a cheap copy of that to turn up!

Hi,
you can get both volumes from Google Books for free!
Search – inauthor:henegan
This will give you both volumes
Paul

I'd be interested to know how that figure of musket rounds expended was calculated. With 105,000 or so men, 3.5 million rouns works out at 35 per man – and the figure includes cavalry and artillerymen, while by no means all the infantry were closely engaged. The figure sounds rather like the number of rounds distributed before the battle than expended during it.
I'd guess that a hundred guns firing around seventy rounds each is closer to the mark, but still a long period of firing.

One of the points he makes at the start of Volume 2 is that whole units were unable to join the pursuit after Vittoria as they had no powder etc, having expended it all in the battle, and he as Train was unable to bring up enough to resupply them in time.

Vol. I – link

Vol. II – link

He was in charge of ammunition supply! Like people working in stores and logistics today, he knew what quantities of stuff he had and where it was going.

Thanks for the link John. I still prefer old fashioned paper books though. They hurt less when you fall asleep reading and flop on your face!

The ammunition expenditure at Vittoria is problematic, as I note here: link

He makes several mistakes, most notably he assumes the whole of the infantry ended the battle completely bereft of ammunition, and he assumes that every round that was issued, including those returned, was fired.