The very fine Siege of Burgos night of the 19th September 1812 Storming of the Hornwork Casualty’s Military General Service Medal 1793-1814, 9 Clasps: Busaco, Fuentes D’Onor, Ciudad Rodrigo, Salamanca, Pyrenees, Nivelle, Nivel, Orthes, Toulouse, awarded to Private Paul Peattie, 1st formerly 2nd Battalion, 42nd Royal Highlanders Regiment of Foot - the Black Watch. Peattie from Saint Andrews, Fife, was a linen weaver and Fencible with some seven years service when he volunteered for the 42nd Foot and enlisted in August 1803. After garrison service in Ireland at Armagh and Dublin, he then saw service in southern Spain and was present with the 2nd Battalion at the Battle of Busaco in September 1810, the Battle of Fuentes d’Onor in May 1811, and the siege and storming of Ciudad Rodrigo in January 1812. He then transferred to the 1st Battalion in May 1812, and then fought in the brilliant victory over the army of Marshal Marmont at the Battle of Salamanca on 22nd July 1812. It was however in the siege and storming of Burgos from the 19th September to 21st October 1812 that Peattie would find himself in the thick of it, being wounded in the right side when participating in the sanguine and ultimately futile night attack on the Hornwork which guarded the northeast approach to Burgos, when some 200 of his comrades, unsupported by artillery, were spotted in the moonlight by the French defenders, and mowed down. Having recovered from his wound, he returned to action during the forcing of the Pyrenees in July to August 1813, and then fought in southern France, at the Battle of Nivelle in November 1813, the Battle of Nive in December 1813, and then in the last two actions of the Peninsular War, the Battle of Orthes in February 1814 and the Battle of Toulouse in April 1814. In these last two actions his battalion suffered heaving casualties. Peattie who is one on only 21 men entitled to the Military General Service Medal with this exact clasp combination, all of whom served with the 42nd Foot, was also one of the last surviving veterans of the war, and died in Edinburgh in March 1875, when 90 years old.
Military General Service Medal 1793-1814, 9 Clasps: Busaco, Fuentes D’Onor, Ciudad Rodrigo, Salamanca, Pyrenees, Nivelle, Nive, Orthes, Toulouse; (PAUL PEATTIE. 42ND. FOOT)
Condition: lightly polished, Good Very Fine.
Provenance: ex W.E. Gray Collection 1898; Glendining’s May 1920, June 1925, and September 1990; and Dix Noonan and Webb, April 1994.
Paul Peattie was born in 1785 in Saint Andrews, Fife, Scotland, and having worked as a linen weaver and seen service in the Fencibles, then enlisted into the British Army on 10th August 1803 as a Private in the 42nd Royal Highlanders Regiment of Foot - the Black Watch. Posted to the 2nd Battalion, he then transferred to the 1st Battalion on 25th November 1803, before transferring back to the 2nd Battalion on 25th January 1804.
Back in early 1803 the Peace of Amiens had been disrupted and the 42nd Foot, which had been in Edinburgh, embarked at Leith for Harwich. Owing to the Peace of Amiens, some 470 men had been discharged from the regiment, and its strength was down to 400 men. The 2nd Battalion was raised from reserve quotas provided by the counties of Perth, Elgin, Nairn, Cromarty, Ross, Sutherland, Caithness, Argyle and Bute, with Peattie being amongst these men, they being placed on the establishment on 9th July 1803 with a strength of 1,343 men, and commanded by Lord Blantyre. They then embarked at Fort George and followed the 1st Battalion who were now camped at Weeley in Essex. The reserves had option of volunteering themselves into the regulars and 500 did so to join the 1st Battalion, Peattie being one of those who volunteered.
With the outbreak of the Peninsular War in 1808, the 2nd Battalion of which Peattie was then still a part, initially remained on home service in Ireland, with Peattie being garrisoned variously at Armagh and Dublin, but was then dispatched from Ireland to southern Spain, and fought at the Battle of Busaco on 27th September 1810. In this action they formed part of the British and Portuguese forces that withstood Marshal Victor’s attack on the ridge along which they were positioned. The 42nd were in the 1st Division as part of the 2nd Brigade, and were not prominent in this battle, only suffering 7 men wounded.
Peattie was next in action at the Battle of Fuentes d’Onor on 3rd to 5th May 1911. Wellington had invaded Spain from his lines at Torres Vedras and blockaded the two of Almeida. Massena came out of Ciudad Rodrigo to relieve the French garrison in Almeida and attacked Wellington’s position at Fuentes de Onoro. On 3rd May 1811 they fought against 5 battalions, the 42nd being one of them, and the 2nd Battalion lost two soldiers killed, and Captain Macdonald, one sergeant and 5 men wounded. The next action of this continuing battle was on 5th May, in which the 2/42nd were brigaded with the 2/24th and 1/79th in Major General Nightingall’s 1st Division. The 7th Division under Major General Houston was cut off and Captain Norman Ramsay’s troop of horse artillery made a famous charge to break out of the French cavalry’s encirclement. Craufurd’s Division was pursued by French cavalry but were halted by the 2/42nd who repulsed their charge. The 71st and 79th also fought off the enemy cavalry and sustained 127 and 256 casualties respectively. The 2/42nd lost one sergeant and one private killed, and one sergeant and 22 men wounded.
Peattie’s final action with the 2nd Battalion was ate the siege and storming of Ciudad Rodrigo from 7th to 20th January 1812. For this action the army marched through snow to reach the fortress and the siege started on 8th January. The French made a sortie on 14th January which was beaten off, the work continued on the parallels. Two breaches were made in the walls for simultaneous attacks at 7 pm on the 19th January by Picton’s Division and Craufurd’s Lightt Division. This time the 42nd were not in the forefront of the storming of the breaches and sustained casualties of only one man killed and 14 wounded.
Peattie transferred to the 1st Battalion on 25th May 1812 when the 2nd Battalion was orders back home to Perth in Scotland, and Peattie had formed part of the drafts of men used to bring the 1st Battalion up to strength. He was then present in action at the Battle of Salamanca on 22nd July 1812. This being a brilliant victory over the army of Marshal Marmont, though the 42nd Foot only had three men wounded.
Peattie was present in action at the siege and storming of Burgos from the 19th September to 21st October 1812, and he is confirmed as having been wounded in the side during the night attack and storming of the Hornwork, which guarded the northeast approach to Burgos on the 19th September. After Salamanca the French evacuated Madrid and Wellington entered the capital in triumph. The French were thrown on the back foot and General Bertrand Clausel pulled troops out of the Castilian city of Burgos, leaving only 1,800 men under General Dubreton to garrison the castle against Wellington’s 35,000 strong army. The 1st/42nd, having been sidelined for glory at Salamanca, were given the chance to live up to their reputation in the siege of Burgos. They were under the command of Major Summers Cox who was ordered to attack the San Miguel Hornwork, an outpost of the city. On the night of 19th September, Wellington ordered the assault on the Hornwork, which guarded the approach to Burgos. The Highlanders were led by an Engineer officer named Pitt, and carried ladders that were spliced together to allow them to scale the tall grassy slope up to the palisades. Launched without the benefit of artillery support, the battalion was spotted by the French in the moonlight and over 200 men were mowed down. Brigadier General Denis Pack’s Portuguese Brigade suffered an additional 100 losses. Fortunately for the British, the flank companies of the 1st/42nd, 1st/24th, and 1st/79th were able to gain access to the rear of the hornwork via the gorge between the castle and San Miguel, thus cutting the enemy off. From there they opened a scattered fire on the French. The defenders suddenly stampeded, leaving the hornwork in the Allie’s possession. The 1st Battalion of the French 34th Line Regiment lost 138 killed and wounded, plus 60 men and seven guns captured. Allied losses numbered 421 killed and wounded in this action, Peattie amongst them. Unfortunately Cox’s force was unsupported and the capture of the hornwork was wasted. The siege of Burgos dragged on for a month before Wellington gave up and ordered a secret withdrawal on the night of 21st October. The British lost 550 killed and 1,550 wounded, and the losses to the 1st/42nd were 4 officers, 2 sergeants, and 44 men killed, 66 officers, 11 sergeants, one drummer and 230 men wounded.
Peattie spent the remainder of the year recovering in the rear of the army, but subsequently went on to see service in the forcing of the Pyrenees from 25th July to 2nd August 1813, and having entered southern France, was then present at the Battle of Nivelle on the 10th November 1813, the Battle of Nive from 9th to 13th December 1813, the Battle of Orthes on 27th February 1814, in which action, the 1st/42nd advanced as part of Picton’s central thrust through marshy ground under heavy fire and suffered significant casualties. Peattie was ultimately present in the final battle of he Peninsular War, the Battle of Toulouse on 10th April 1914, where his battalions losses were once again severe, and suffered the greatest losses of any unit present, with 433 casualties.
With the French surrender, he was posted with the 1st Battalion for garrison duty in Ireland, and was discharged on 31st October 1814. By the time of the 1851 Census, he was living Cupar, Fife, and married to Jean Peattie, and once again working as a linen weaver. Peattie was admitted as an out-pensioner of the Royal Hospital Chelsea on 23rd March 1852 whilst living in Perth, and having moved to Edinburgh, died there on 15th March 1875, he being then 90 years old, and presumably amongst the last survivors of his regiments actions in Spain and southern France during the Peninsular War.
Peattie is one of only 21 men to claim the Military General Service Medal with this exact clasp combination, all of those entitled being from the 42nd Foot.