"Where is "Castrahao"?" Topic

Just looking through some documents of a man from the British 12th Light Dragoons and it commends him for valour whilst under a severe cannonade at "Castrahao" or possibly "Castlehon"?

This is presumanly a mispelling of somewhere in Portugal or Spain. Any ideas?

Hi there,

The village alluded might well be Castrejón de Trabancos.

A fight happened there in July 18, 1812 as a part of the Salamanca campaign: http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/combat_castrejon.html.

Cheers,
Lluís

I think it's likely to be Castrejón, or Castrejón de Trabancos, which is to the east of the river Guareña.

In Gallantry and Discipline: The 12th Light Dragoons at War with Wellington, Andrew Bamford notes that on 18 July 1812 during the manoeuvering in the run up to Salamanca, Anson's brigade, of which the 12th LD was a part, were driven from the village by French artillery with all three regiments incurring losses. He also comments that the regiment's Registry of Service states ‘a very heavy Cannonade took place in which the Brigade suffered'. There's no mention of anyone being specially commended though.

Tomkinson has quite a bit about the affair in Diary of a Cavalry Officer but naturally concentrates on his regiment, the 16th LD.

Dammit – I see I've been beaten to it.

Superb! Thank you both!
That really is excellent.

While we're here – would you know of another "Fuentes"?

Another document refers to a man being wounded at "Fuentes ****" in 1812 – it's illegible but definitely not "D'Onor". Looks like it might end in …lds or …ldo

Fuentes de Oñoro, I guess. I think this roughly falls in that very same area – close to the Portuguese border.

Sorry, Luis, I wasn't clear – it's not Fuentes D'Onoro, it's another place, also beginning "Fuentes"

From Napoleon Series Archive "Notes on Wellington's Cavalry in the Peninsula: 12th Light Dragoons (Prince of Wales's)" by Ray Foster at link The only Fuente appears to be "Fuente Guinaldo" – see entry for 25th August 1811 [on the Azava River Line]

I don't know what sources Ray Foster was basing it on (anyone know what PAB and PUA stand for?) but Oman didn't mention anyone from the 12th LD being wounded in his account of El Bodon, which is what this was part of. He gives the total cavalry losses as "1st Hussars K.G.L. 5 killed, 2 officers and 32 men wounded, 5 men missing; 11th Light Dragoons 8 killed, 2 officers and 14 men wounded." This was while they were covering the gap between Wellington's position at Fuente Guinaldo and Picton's dispersed infantry to allow them to withdraw. As the infantry approached Guinaldo further reinforcements moved out of the village with De Grey's heavy dragoon brigade leading and, presumably, Slade's brigade behind them. The French then withdrew with no further fighting. That's not to say Oman is necessarily correct and Foster wrong but Bamford doesn't mention the 12th having any losses on the 26th either. In fact he doesn't go into the action at all which makes me think that Slade's brigade wasn't actively engaged.

If they did have any wounded it would have been much more likely to have been during Wellington's withdrawal from Guinaldo, which he left shortly after dusk on the 26th leaving a rearguard provided by the Light Division and 1st Hussars KGL. During the afternoon of the 27th, Slade's brigade had frequent skirmishes with Wathier's chasseurs but this was at Aldea da Ponte. Oman doesn't give losses for this but merely states "neither party had any appreciable losses, nor gained any marked advantage." Bamford gives this as the occasion when the 12th lost four men as prisoners, quoting the notes to the Monthly Return of 25 October 1811, TNA, WO17/35 but doesn't mention any wounded.

All that was during 1811 rather than 1812 though and for somewhere with a similar name close to an action in that year where this particular casualty might have been, I think the closest is Fuente del Maestre, which is also seen as Maestro in Tomkinson's account. After being transferred to Anson's brigade in February, it, along with the rest of the brigade was based there in April for the siege of Badajoz and afterwards as part of Graham's covering force. The action didn't take place there though but about 12 miles to the east at Villagarcia on the 11th and was a purely cavalry affair with the British force commanded by Stapleton Cotton. At the time, Anson was back in the UK and the brigade was commanded by the 12th's CO, Lt Col Frederick Ponsonby. Bamford doesn't give details of the wounded but states that the 12th LD had Troop Sergeant Major Robertson and three privates killed while Oman gives total British casualties as 14 killed and 2 officers and 35 men wounded.