The Soldiers of Gloucestershire Museum Message Board

The Duke of Wellington described Salamanca as the battle of the Peninsular War of which he was most proud, and the 61st Regiment could certainly make the same claim, although during the early stages of the battle it was in reserve with the rest of the 6th Division of which it formed part.

The battlefield was dominated by two steep-sided hills known as the Greater and the Lesser Arapiles, the former in French hands and the latter in British. During the course of the battle our 4th Division was sent to attack the Greater Arapile, but scarcely had they reached it when the French launched a successful counter attack with a fresh formation against their flank. Immediately the 6th Division was ordered to regain the ground thus lost, and the 61st with the 11th Foot (later the Devonshire Regiment) on its right, was directed to capture the feature. After three ringing cheers they advanced steadily on their enemy and gradually drove them backwards up the slopes of the hill. The men of both British regiments went down by scores as battalion after battalion of Frenchmen attempted to halt their progress. Having at last gained their objective they came under the fire of a battery of twelve guns and a swarm of sharpshooters, but they stood awaiting further orders with perfect discipline in the gathering darkness.

Elsewhere the French were withdrawing, leaving a division as rearguard along the top of a steep escarpment, and once more the 6th Division was called upon to attack. As it came within range of the French muskets the 61st received a devastating volley, but closing its ranks to fill the gaps thus made, it pressed on, answering shot for shot. In the gathering darkness the hill was one vast sheet of flame, for the dry grass had caught fire, and it looked to an observer as though the British were attacking a burning mountain.

During the final charge all the officers and the sergeants with the Colours fell together under the enemy’s fire but they were seized by two privates, Crawford and Coulston, who bore them triumphantly to the summit. No less than six reliefs of officers and sergeants had been shot under the Colours during this fierce day of battle. The Regiment went into action with a strength of 27 officers and 420 men, and of these 24 officers including Colonel Barlow, the C.O., and 342 men were either killed or wounded. The Regiment received unstinted praise for its gallantry on this occasion and an officer of the 32nd Foot who was present throughout wrote "The 61st which was almost annihilated in this severe action, was by far the finest Regiment in the 6th Division." The 11th had suffered almost as severely and for a while the remnants of the two Regiments were formed into one.