On 21 August 1808, at Vimeiro on the Portuguese coast north of Lisbon, General Junot's French army attacked the British army of Sir Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington. Column after column came up the hills and was driven back, while a wide French flanking march to the north was held up by a deep ravine and was beaten as well. By about noon the fighting was over, but Wellesley's newly arrived superior, Sir Harry Burrard, refused to let him pursue. The next day the French asked for terms. Under the agreement known as the Convention of Cintra they left Portugal in British ships with their arms and baggage, and the news provoked fury in Britain.
Battle of Vimeiro
21 August 1808 · 218 years ago
Superseded on the eve of battle
In the summer of 1808 Britain sent an army to drive Junot's French out of Portugal, and Sir Arthur Wellesley began landing it at Mondego Bay, north of Lisbon, on 1 August. On 17 August he fought General Delaborde at Roliça, and Delaborde retreated. Wellesley then moved to Vimeiro, near the mouth of the river Maceira, to cover the landing of two more brigades under Anstruther and Acland.1
He no longer held the command. Orders of 15 July gave it to Sir Hew Dalrymple, with Sir Harry Burrard second, and Wellesley ranked below Sir John Moore as well. Burrard arrived off Maceira on the evening of 20 August and ordered the army to halt until Moore's troops joined it. He spent the night on board ship, so Wellesley still commanded when the French attacked the next morning.2
Columns against the hill
Junot had marched from Torres Vedras through the night. Oman counts about 13,000 French with 23 guns, Napier nearly 14,000 with 23 guns, and Baron Thiébault, Junot's chief of staff, only 9,200 combatants. Oman gives Wellesley 16,778 British troops and some 2,000 Portuguese; Wellesley himself, writing at 6 a.m. that day, put his army at 20,000 including the Portuguese. He reported that the enemy first appeared about 8 o'clock. In Oman's account their dust came into view at nearly nine; Napier writes that dust was seen at seven and horsemen at eight and that Junot opened the battle at ten, and Thiébault that Junot set his divisions marching at ten.3
Junot sent a force wide to the north to turn the British left, and Wellesley moved Ferguson's brigade and others across the valley to the ridge along the road to Lourinhã. On that flank the French lost touch with the main attack. Thiébault writes that a ravine forced Brenier's brigade into a very long detour, so that its attack came nearly an hour after the attack on the center; Oman describes a long sweep to the north, and Napier writes that the brigade got entangled among the rocks and water courses.4
The main attack went straight at the hill in front of the village, held by Fane's and Anstruther's brigades. Oman describes the French coming on behind a thick screen of skirmishers with battalion columns close behind, against Anstruther's 52nd and 97th, drawn up in line on the slope. Foy, on the French side, describes lines of British infantry ranged on the plateau and attacking columns that lacked depth. Wellesley's report says the attackers on the left came close to the 50th Regiment and were driven back only by its bayonets; Napier writes that the 50th fired into them at half pistol shot before they were charged in front and flank. Rifleman Harris of the 95th watched the British guns fire into a column: "I saw regular lanes torn through their ranks as they advanced, which were immediately closed up again as they marched steadily on".5
Junot then sent in his reserve of grenadiers. Foy, who commanded artillery there and was wounded, writes that eighteen British guns fired at once and that their hollow shot "carried away with their first strike the files of one platoon, then burst like shells in the next platoon" (our translation). General Kellermann led the last grenadiers toward the village; the 43rd and Acland's brigade struck them from the flanks, and after close fighting they fell back.6
"Now, Twentieth!"
Sergeant Norbert Landsheit of the 20th Light Dragoons remembered General Fane riding up with "Now, Twentieth! now we want you", and, moments later, Sir Arthur shouting "Now, Twentieth! now!". The dragoons charged the retreating French, rode too far and were hit by French cavalry; their commander, Lieutenant Colonel Taylor, was killed.7
On the northern ridge Ferguson's brigade met Solignac's brigade and drove it back, taking guns. Brenier came up late, fell on the 71st and 82nd and retook the guns, then was beaten off, wounded and captured. Foy and Napier both put the end of the fighting at noon, and Foy adds that it had lasted two and a half hours.8
No pursuit
Burrard had come ashore during the battle. His dispatch says he found the attack already under way and approved every disposition Wellesley made, and Wellesley wrote that Burrard told him to continue his own operations. When the French broke, Wellesley wanted to push on and cut Junot off from Torres Vedras and Lisbon; Burrard refused and chose to wait for Moore. The Oxford Companion to British History notes that without his intervention the French retreat might have become a rout. Napier, though, writes that at one moment Wellesley himself had forbidden pursuit in the center, and Foy that Wellesley ordered his troops to hold their positions and let the moment pass.9
Wellesley wrote to the Secretary of State, Lord Castlereagh, the next day: "It was impossible for troops to behave better than ours did; we only wanted a few hundred more cavalry to annihilate the French army".10
Counting the cost
Oman counts British losses of four officers and 131 men killed, 37 officers and 497 men wounded, and two officers and 49 men missing, 720 in all. Foy puts the British loss at 800 men. Thiébault writes that the battle cost the French 1,800 men, 1,000 of them killed or captured, and ten dismounted Portuguese guns, and Foy also gives close to 1,800 killed, wounded or taken. Oman treats 1,800 as a minimum, Napier writes that the loss was certainly above 2,000, and Wellesley thought it could not be far short of 3,000. Wellesley reported 13 guns taken, as do Oman and Napier.11
An armistice and a convention
On 22 August Dalrymple arrived and took command, and General Kellermann rode in from the French army to ask for terms. The same day Wellesley and Kellermann signed a suspension of arms, by Dalrymple's direction; Oman writes that Wellesley signed after a protest. Wellesley told Captain Pulteney Malcolm of the navy: "Although I signed these conditions, I beg that you will not believe that I entirely approve of the manner in which the instrument is worded".12
The convention itself was signed by Kellermann and Colonel George Murray, the quartermaster general, and settled on 30 August. Oman writes that at the later court of inquiry Wellesley proved he had opposed many details of both the armistice and the convention, and that he was in no way responsible for the final shape of either. The French were not treated as prisoners of war and were to be carried to France in British ships with their arms and baggage; Gurwood notes that they landed at La Rochelle in October. The name Convention of Cintra came only from Dalrymple's dispatch sending it home, which was dated at Cintra.13
In Britain the news set off a storm of anger in the press. A court of inquiry at Chelsea heard Dalrymple, Burrard and Wellesley and found that no further proceedings were needed. According to Oman, Dalrymple and Burrard never commanded in the field again, while Wellesley took over the army in Portugal again in April 1809.14
His later campaigns are told in our biography of the Duke of Wellington, and his victory at Salamanca in our page for 22 July, the Battle of Salamanca. Older British accounts spell the village in several ways: Oman and Napier write Vimiero, the Gazette Vimiera.15
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