Beresford and his Fighting Cocks
In 1809, under Wellington, Beresford regenerated the Portuguese Army which, Michael Glover writes, had suffered from years of neglect.
Not the least of Britain’s problems during the long war against Napoleon was the size of her army. The French army, drawing recruits from most of Europe, could field more than a million men. The British army in 1808 was 250,000 strong. Of these 85,000 were needed for the overseas garrisons, including Sicily, and as many more to secure the home base, including Ireland. The remainder, even if they could be concentrated in one expeditionary force, were too few to make a decisive impression on any substantial fraction of the Grande Armée.
It was only because of bungling in the French command in Paris and Madrid that the British were able to gain a footing in Portugal by defeating Junot’s overstretched and isolated corps at Vimeiro. Moore’s campaign, ending at Coruna, proved that even 40,000 British troops in the Peninsula could achieve no more than a diversion.
If the British army there was to be made up to an effective strength, a large body of indigenous troops would have to act with it and, since effective co-operation with the Spaniards became daily more improbable, the Portuguese would have to supply the numbers required.
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