Thomas Picton
Encyclopedia
Lieutenant General
Sir Thomas Picton GCB (August 1758 – 18 June 1815) was a Welsh British Army
officer who fought in a number of campaigns for Britain, and rose to the rank of lieutenant general
. According to the historian Alessandro Barbero
, Picton was "respected for his courage and feared for his irascible temperament." He is chiefly remembered for his exploits under the Duke of Wellington
in the Iberian Peninsular War
and at the Battle of Waterloo
, where he was mortally wounded while his division stopped d'Erlon's corps attack against the allied centre left, and as a result became the most senior officer to die at Waterloo.
, Wales. In 1771 he obtained an ensign
's commission in the 12th Regiment of Foot, but he did not join until two years later. The regiment was then stationed at Gibraltar
, where he remained until he was made captain
in the 75th
in January 1778, at which point he then returned to Britain.
The regiment was disbanded five years later, and Picton quelled a mutiny amongst the men by his prompt personal action and courage, and was promised the rank of major
as a reward. He did not receive it, and after living in retirement on his father's estate for nearly twelve years, he went out to the West Indies in 1794 on the strength of a slight acquaintance with Sir John Vaughan, the commander-in-chief, who made him his aide-de-camp and gave him a captaincy in the 17th foot. Shortly afterwards he was promoted major in the 58th foot
.
, who succeeded Vaughan in 1795, he was present at the capture of St Lucia (after which he was promoted to lieutenant colonel
of the 56th Foot
) and then that of St Vincent
.
After the reduction of Trinidad
, Abercromby made Picton governor of the island. For the next 5 years he held the island with a garrison he considered inadequate against the threats of internal unrest and of reconquest by the Spanish. He ensured order by vigorous action, viewed variously as rough and ready justice or as arbitrary brutality. In October 1801 he was gazetted
brigadier-general. During the negotiations leading to the Peace of Amiens, many of the British inhabitants petitioned against the return of the island to Spain; this together with Picton's and Abercromby's representations, ensured the retention of Trinidad as a British possession.
By then, reports of arbitrariness and brutality associated with his governorship had led to a demand at home for his removal. (Picton was also making money from speculation in land and slaves and his mulatto
mistress was believed to be corruptly influencing his decisions.) Furthermore, Trinidad no longer faced any external threat, the Pitt
ministry had fallen and the new Addington
administration did not want Trinidad to develop the plantation
economy Picton favoured. In 1802, William Fullarton
(1754–1808) was appointed as the Senior Member of a commission to govern the island, Samuel Hood became the second member, and Picton himself the junior.
Fullarton had a very different background from Picton. He came from a wealthy and long-established Scots land-owning family and was a Whig MP
, a Fellow of the Royal Society
, an improving landlord, and a patron of Robert Burns
. He had been a junior diplomat, before in the course of the American War of Independence raising a regiment of which he naturally became the Colonel. He ended that war in India commanding an army of 14,000 men in operations against Tippu Sultan. following which he had written an influential pamphlet arguing that the East India Company
had brought trouble on itself by its unprincipled treatment of native princes and native subjects and that a more humane policy than "let them hate so long as they fear" would be more effective in securing its position. The new Secretary of State for the Colonies (Lord Hobart)
had served as Governor of Madras soon after the pamphlet came out, knew Fullarton, and had been influenced by his views.
Picton's policy with respect to various sections of the island population had effectively been "let them hate so long as they fear" and he and Fullarton rapidly fell out. (This, of itself, further worsened the rift: Fullarton's Indian pamphlet had also reported adversely on conflicts of interest and dissension between the English having weakened their ability to govern well, to negotiate effectively, and to effectively defend their possessions.) Fullarton commenced a series of open enquiries on allegations against Picton and reported his unfavourable views on Picton's past actions at length to meetings of the commission. Picton thereupon tendered his resignation and was soon followed by Hood (1803).
Picton joined Hood in military operations in St Lucia and Tobago
, before returning to Britain
to face charges brought by Fullarton. In December 1803 he was arrested by order of the Privy Council
and promptly released on bail set at £40,000 (Picton was able to give surety for half of this; two West Indies plantation owners covered the remainder).
The majority of the charges against Picton were dealt with by the Privy Council. They related principally to excessive cruelty in the detection and punishment of practitioners of obeah
, severity to slaves, and of execution of suspects out of hand without due process. Only the latter class of charge seems to have seriously worried the Privy Council, and here Picton's argument that either the laws of Trinidad, then still the laws of the former Spanish colonial power, or 'the state of the garrison' justified the immediate execution in the cases specified eventually carried the day.
He was, however, tried in the court of King's Bench before Lord Ellenborough
in 1806 on a single charge; the misdemeanor
of having in 1801 caused torture to be unlawfully inflicted to extract a confession from Luisa Calderon, a young free mulatto girl suspected of assisting one of her lovers to burgle the house of the man with whom she was living, making off with about £500. Torture (but not the specific form) had been requested in writing by a local magistrate and approved in writing by Picton. The torture applied ("picketing
") was a version of a British military punishment and consisted in principle of compelling the trussed up suspect to stand on one toe on a flat-headed peg for one hour on many occasions within a span of a few days. In fact Luisa was subjected to one session of 55 minutes, and a second of 25 minutes the following day.
The period between Picton's return and the trial had seen a pamphlet war between the rival camps, and the widespread sale of engravings showing a curious British public what a personable 14-year-old mulatto girl being trussed up and tortured in a state of semi-undress might look like. The legal arguments, however, revolved on whether Spanish law permitted torture of suspects: on the evidence given, the jury decided that it did not and Picton was found guilty.
Picton promptly sought a retrial, which he got in 1808. At this, other credible witnesses were brought forward by Picton's supporters to testify to the (Spanish) legality of torture, its application in the recent past, and that Luisa Calderon had been old enough to be legally tortured. The jury reversed the verdict of the earlier trial but asked for the full court to consider the further argument of the prosecution that torture of a free person was so repugnant to the laws of England that Picton must have known he could not permit it, whatever Spanish law authorised. (The full court never reached a decision on this; there were legal precedents to this general effect from the British occupation of Minorca
—and a practical precedent from the British seizure of the Cape of Good Hope
from the Dutch, but it remained to demonstrate that Picton should have known this, and by now Fullarton was dead and Picton a war hero.)
Friends of Picton in the military and among slave owners subscribed towards his legal expenses. Picton contributed the same sum to a relief fund after a widespread fire in Port of Spain
. He had meanwhile been promoted major-general, and in 1809 he had been governor of Flushing
in the Netherlands during the Walcheren expedition.
and Robert Craufurd
. But in the resolute, thorough and punctual execution of a well-defined task Picton had no superior in the army. His debut, owing partly to his naturally stern and now embittered temper, and partly to the difficult position in which he was placed, was unfortunate. On the River Coa in July 1810 Craufurd's division became involved in an action, and Picton, his nearest neighbour, refused to support him, as Wellington's direct orders were to avoid an engagement. Shortly after this, however, at Busaco
, Picton found and used his first great opportunity for distinction. Here he had a plain duty, that of repulsing the French attack, and he performed that duty with a skill and resolution, which indicated his great powers as a troop-leader.
After the winter in the lines of Torres Vedras
, he added to his reputation and to that of his division, the 'Fighting' 3rd, at the Battle of Fuentes de Onoro
. In September he was given the local rank of lieutenant-general, and in the same month the division won great glory by its rapid and orderly retirement under severe pressure from the French cavalry at El Bodon. In October Picton was appointed to the colonelcy of the 77th Regiment of Foot
.
In the first operations of 1812 Picton and Craufurd, side by side for the last time, stormed the two breaches of Ciudad Rodrigo, Craufurd and Picton's second in command, Major-General Henry Mackinnon
, being mortally wounded. At Badajoz
, a month later, the successful storming of the fortress was due to his daring self-reliance and penetration in converting the secondary attack on the castle, delivered by the 3rd Division, into a real one. He was himself wounded in this terrible engagement, but would not leave the ramparts, and the day after, having recently inherited a fortune, he gave every survivor of his command a guinea. His wound, and an attack of fever, compelled him to return to Britain to recoup his health, but he reappeared at the front in April 1813. While in Britain he was invested with the collar and badge of a Knight of the Order of the Bath by the Prince Regent George
, and in June he was made a lieutenant-general in the army.
At the Battle of Vitoria
, Picton led his division across a key bridge under heavy fire. According to Picton, the enemy responded by pummeling the 3rd with 40 to 50 cannon
and a counter-attack on their right flank (which was still open because they had captured the bridge so quickly) causing the 3rd to lose 1,800 men (over one third of all Allied losses at the battle) as they held their ground. The conduct of the 3rd division under his leadership at the battle of Vittoria and in the engagements in the Pyrenees
raised his reputation as a resolute and skilful fighting general to a still higher point. Early in 1814 he was offered, but after consulting Wellington declined, the command of the British forces operating on the side of Catalonia. He thus bore his share in the Orthez campaign and in the final victory before Toulouse
.
On the break-up of the division the officers presented Picton with a valuable service of plate, and on 24 June 1814 he received for the seventh time the thanks of the House of Commons
for his great services. Somewhat to his disappointment he was not included amongst the generals who were raised to the peerage, but early in 1815 he was made a G.C.B
.
When Napoleon returned from Elba
, Picton, at Wellington's request, accepted a high command in the Anglo-Dutch army. He was severely wounded at Quatre Bras
on 16 June, but concealed his wound and retained command of his troops. At Waterloo
two days later, while in command of the 5th Infantry Division, while repulsing with impetuous valour "one of the most serious attacks made by the enemy on our position," he was shot through the temple by a musket ball, making him the highest ranking victim of the battle on the allied side. Since his luggage had not arrived in time, he had fought the battle wearing civilian clothes and a top hat
. Welsh folklore says that his top hat was shot off by a cannon-ball
moments before his death, but this is not known to be backed by any historical source. Family folklore contends that he did not ride out in tails but in his night shirt and top hat because he had overslept, and he died at the hands of one of his own men who shot him in the back of the head because they hated him so much. Again this is not backed by any historical source.
Announcing his death in a rather laconic style, Lord Wellington, wrote to Minister of War, Lord Bathurst:
His body was brought home to London, and buried in the family vault at St George's, Hanover Square. A public monument was erected to his memory in St Paul's Cathedral
, by order of parliament, and in 1823 another was erected at Carmarthen
by subscription, the king contributing a hundred guineas.
Lieutenant General
Lieutenant General is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages where the title of Lieutenant General was held by the second in command on the battlefield, who was normally subordinate to a Captain General....
Sir Thomas Picton GCB (August 1758 – 18 June 1815) was a Welsh British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
officer who fought in a number of campaigns for Britain, and rose to the rank of lieutenant general
Lieutenant General
Lieutenant General is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages where the title of Lieutenant General was held by the second in command on the battlefield, who was normally subordinate to a Captain General....
. According to the historian Alessandro Barbero
Alessandro Barbero
Alessandro Barbero is an Italian historian, novelist and essayist. He attended the University of Turin where he studied literature and Medieval history. He won the 1996 Strega Prize, Italy's most distinguished literary award, for Bella vita e guerre altrui di Mr. Pyle gentiluomo. His second novel,...
, Picton was "respected for his courage and feared for his irascible temperament." He is chiefly remembered for his exploits under the Duke of Wellington
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS , was an Irish-born British soldier and statesman, and one of the leading military and political figures of the 19th century...
in the Iberian Peninsular War
Peninsular War
The Peninsular War was a war between France and the allied powers of Spain, the United Kingdom, and Portugal for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war began when French and Spanish armies crossed Spain and invaded Portugal in 1807. Then, in 1808, France turned on its...
and at the Battle of Waterloo
Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815 near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands...
, where he was mortally wounded while his division stopped d'Erlon's corps attack against the allied centre left, and as a result became the most senior officer to die at Waterloo.
Early life
Picton was the younger son of Thomas Picton, and was born in Poyston, PembrokeshirePembrokeshire
Pembrokeshire is a county in the south west of Wales. It borders Carmarthenshire to the east and Ceredigion to the north east. The county town is Haverfordwest where Pembrokeshire County Council is headquartered....
, Wales. In 1771 he obtained an ensign
Ensign
An ensign is a national flag when used at sea, in vexillology, or a distinguishing token, emblem, or badge, such as a symbol of office in heraldry...
's commission in the 12th Regiment of Foot, but he did not join until two years later. The regiment was then stationed at Gibraltar
Gibraltar
Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...
, where he remained until he was made captain
Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)
Captain is a junior officer rank of the British Army and Royal Marines. It ranks above Lieutenant and below Major and has a NATO ranking code of OF-2. The rank is equivalent to a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy and to a Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force...
in the 75th
75th Regiment of Foot
Four regiments of the British Army have been numbered the 75th Regiment of Foot:*75th Regiment of Foot , formed 1758 and disbanded 1763*75th Regiment of Foot , renumbered from the 118th in 1763...
in January 1778, at which point he then returned to Britain.
The regiment was disbanded five years later, and Picton quelled a mutiny amongst the men by his prompt personal action and courage, and was promised the rank of major
Major
Major is a rank of commissioned officer, with corresponding ranks existing in almost every military in the world.When used unhyphenated, in conjunction with no other indicator of rank, the term refers to the rank just senior to that of an Army captain and just below the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...
as a reward. He did not receive it, and after living in retirement on his father's estate for nearly twelve years, he went out to the West Indies in 1794 on the strength of a slight acquaintance with Sir John Vaughan, the commander-in-chief, who made him his aide-de-camp and gave him a captaincy in the 17th foot. Shortly afterwards he was promoted major in the 58th foot
58th Regiment of Foot
Three regiments of the British Army have been numbered the 58th Regiment of Foot:* 47th Regiment of Foot, 58th Regiment of Foot, numbered as the 58th Foot in 1747 and renumbered as the 47th in 1751...
.
Career in the New World
Under Sir Ralph AbercrombyRalph Abercromby
Sir Ralph Abercromby was a Scottish soldier and politician. He rose to the rank of lieutenant-general in the British Army, was noted for his services during the Napoleonic Wars, and served as Commander-in-Chief, Ireland.He twice served as MP for Clackmannanshire and Kinross-shire, and was...
, who succeeded Vaughan in 1795, he was present at the capture of St Lucia (after which he was promoted to lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officer in the armies and most marine forces and some air forces of the world, typically ranking above a major and below a colonel. The rank of lieutenant colonel is often shortened to simply "colonel" in conversation and in unofficial correspondence...
of the 56th Foot
56th Regiment of Foot
The 56th Regiment of Foot was an infantry regiment in the British Army, active from 1755 to 1881. It was originally raised in Northumbria as the 58th Regiment, and renumbered the 56th the following year when two senior regiments were disbanded...
) and then that of St Vincent
Saint Vincent (island)
Saint Vincent is a volcanic island in the Caribbean. It is the largest island of the chain called Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. It is located in the Caribbean Sea, between Saint Lucia and Grenada. It is composed of partially submerged volcanic mountains...
.
After the reduction of Trinidad
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...
, Abercromby made Picton governor of the island. For the next 5 years he held the island with a garrison he considered inadequate against the threats of internal unrest and of reconquest by the Spanish. He ensured order by vigorous action, viewed variously as rough and ready justice or as arbitrary brutality. In October 1801 he was gazetted
London Gazette
The London Gazette is one of the official journals of record of the British government, and the most important among such official journals in the United Kingdom, in which certain statutory notices are required to be published...
brigadier-general. During the negotiations leading to the Peace of Amiens, many of the British inhabitants petitioned against the return of the island to Spain; this together with Picton's and Abercromby's representations, ensured the retention of Trinidad as a British possession.
By then, reports of arbitrariness and brutality associated with his governorship had led to a demand at home for his removal. (Picton was also making money from speculation in land and slaves and his mulatto
Mulatto
Mulatto denotes a person with one white parent and one black parent, or more broadly, a person of mixed black and white ancestry. Contemporary usage of the term varies greatly, and the broader sense of the term makes its application rather subjective, as not all people of mixed white and black...
mistress was believed to be corruptly influencing his decisions.) Furthermore, Trinidad no longer faced any external threat, the Pitt
William Pitt the Younger
William Pitt the Younger was a British politician of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He became the youngest Prime Minister in 1783 at the age of 24 . He left office in 1801, but was Prime Minister again from 1804 until his death in 1806...
ministry had fallen and the new Addington
Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth
Henry Addington, 1st Viscount Sidmouth, PC was a British statesman, and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1804....
administration did not want Trinidad to develop the plantation
Plantation
A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...
economy Picton favoured. In 1802, William Fullarton
William Fullarton
William Fullarton was a Scottish colonial administrator and Member of Parliament.-Early life:He was only son of William Fullarton of Fullarton, a wealthy Ayrshire gentleman. After spending some time at the Edinburgh University he was sent to travel on the continent with Patrick Brydone, at one...
(1754–1808) was appointed as the Senior Member of a commission to govern the island, Samuel Hood became the second member, and Picton himself the junior.
Fullarton had a very different background from Picton. He came from a wealthy and long-established Scots land-owning family and was a Whig MP
Parliament
A parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French , the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at which...
, a Fellow of the Royal Society
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
, an improving landlord, and a patron of Robert Burns
Robert Burns
Robert Burns was a Scottish poet and a lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and is celebrated worldwide...
. He had been a junior diplomat, before in the course of the American War of Independence raising a regiment of which he naturally became the Colonel. He ended that war in India commanding an army of 14,000 men in operations against Tippu Sultan. following which he had written an influential pamphlet arguing that the East India Company
East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
had brought trouble on itself by its unprincipled treatment of native princes and native subjects and that a more humane policy than "let them hate so long as they fear" would be more effective in securing its position. The new Secretary of State for the Colonies (Lord Hobart)
Robert Hobart, 4th Earl of Buckinghamshire
Robert Hobart, 4th Earl of Buckinghamshire PC , styled Lord Hobart from 1793 to 1804, was a British Tory politician of the late 18th and early 19th century.-Background:...
had served as Governor of Madras soon after the pamphlet came out, knew Fullarton, and had been influenced by his views.
Picton's policy with respect to various sections of the island population had effectively been "let them hate so long as they fear" and he and Fullarton rapidly fell out. (This, of itself, further worsened the rift: Fullarton's Indian pamphlet had also reported adversely on conflicts of interest and dissension between the English having weakened their ability to govern well, to negotiate effectively, and to effectively defend their possessions.) Fullarton commenced a series of open enquiries on allegations against Picton and reported his unfavourable views on Picton's past actions at length to meetings of the commission. Picton thereupon tendered his resignation and was soon followed by Hood (1803).
Picton joined Hood in military operations in St Lucia and Tobago
Tobago
Tobago is the smaller of the two main islands that make up the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. It is located in the southern Caribbean, northeast of the island of Trinidad and southeast of Grenada. The island lies outside the hurricane belt...
, before returning to Britain
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
to face charges brought by Fullarton. In December 1803 he was arrested by order of the Privy Council
Privy Council of the United Kingdom
Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, usually known simply as the Privy Council, is a formal body of advisers to the Sovereign in the United Kingdom...
and promptly released on bail set at £40,000 (Picton was able to give surety for half of this; two West Indies plantation owners covered the remainder).
The majority of the charges against Picton were dealt with by the Privy Council. They related principally to excessive cruelty in the detection and punishment of practitioners of obeah
Obeah
Obeah is a term used in the West Indies to refer to folk magic, sorcery, and religious practices derived from West African, and specifically Igbo origin. Obeah is similar to other African derived religions including Palo, Voodoo, Santería, rootwork, and most of all hoodoo...
, severity to slaves, and of execution of suspects out of hand without due process. Only the latter class of charge seems to have seriously worried the Privy Council, and here Picton's argument that either the laws of Trinidad, then still the laws of the former Spanish colonial power, or 'the state of the garrison' justified the immediate execution in the cases specified eventually carried the day.
He was, however, tried in the court of King's Bench before Lord Ellenborough
Edward Law, 1st Baron Ellenborough
Edward Law, 1st Baron Ellenborough PC KC was an English judge. After serving as a Member of Parliament and Attorney General, he became Lord Chief Justice.-Early life:...
in 1806 on a single charge; the misdemeanor
Misdemeanor
A misdemeanor is a "lesser" criminal act in many common law legal systems. Misdemeanors are generally punished much less severely than felonies, but theoretically more so than administrative infractions and regulatory offences...
of having in 1801 caused torture to be unlawfully inflicted to extract a confession from Luisa Calderon, a young free mulatto girl suspected of assisting one of her lovers to burgle the house of the man with whom she was living, making off with about £500. Torture (but not the specific form) had been requested in writing by a local magistrate and approved in writing by Picton. The torture applied ("picketing
Picquet
The picquet was a method of torture used as military punishment in vogue in late medieval Europe.The punishment of the picquet required placing a stake in the ground with the exposed end facing upward. The exposed end had a rounded point. The malefactor was typically a junior officer who had...
") was a version of a British military punishment and consisted in principle of compelling the trussed up suspect to stand on one toe on a flat-headed peg for one hour on many occasions within a span of a few days. In fact Luisa was subjected to one session of 55 minutes, and a second of 25 minutes the following day.
The period between Picton's return and the trial had seen a pamphlet war between the rival camps, and the widespread sale of engravings showing a curious British public what a personable 14-year-old mulatto girl being trussed up and tortured in a state of semi-undress might look like. The legal arguments, however, revolved on whether Spanish law permitted torture of suspects: on the evidence given, the jury decided that it did not and Picton was found guilty.
Picton promptly sought a retrial, which he got in 1808. At this, other credible witnesses were brought forward by Picton's supporters to testify to the (Spanish) legality of torture, its application in the recent past, and that Luisa Calderon had been old enough to be legally tortured. The jury reversed the verdict of the earlier trial but asked for the full court to consider the further argument of the prosecution that torture of a free person was so repugnant to the laws of England that Picton must have known he could not permit it, whatever Spanish law authorised. (The full court never reached a decision on this; there were legal precedents to this general effect from the British occupation of Minorca
Minorca
Min Orca or Menorca is one of the Balearic Islands located in the Mediterranean Sea belonging to Spain. It takes its name from being smaller than the nearby island of Majorca....
—and a practical precedent from the British seizure of the Cape of Good Hope
Cape of Good Hope
The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa.There is a misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa, because it was once believed to be the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In fact, the...
from the Dutch, but it remained to demonstrate that Picton should have known this, and by now Fullarton was dead and Picton a war hero.)
Friends of Picton in the military and among slave owners subscribed towards his legal expenses. Picton contributed the same sum to a relief fund after a widespread fire in Port of Spain
Port of Spain
Port of Spain, also written as Port-of-Spain, is the capital of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago and the country's third-largest municipality, after San Fernando and Chaguanas. The city has a municipal population of 49,031 , a metropolitan population of 128,026 and a transient daily population...
. He had meanwhile been promoted major-general, and in 1809 he had been governor of Flushing
Flushing, Netherlands
Vlissingen is a municipality and a city in the southwestern Netherlands on the former island of Walcheren. With its strategic location between the Scheldt river and the North Sea, Vlissingen has been an important harbour for centuries. It was granted city rights in 1315. In the 17th century...
in the Netherlands during the Walcheren expedition.
Europe service
In 1810, at Wellington's request, he was appointed to command a division in Spain. For the remaining years of the Peninsular War, Picton was one of Wellington's principal subordinates. The commander-in-chief, it is true, never reposed in him the confidence that he gave to Beresford, HillRowland Hill, 1st Viscount Hill
General Rowland Hill, 1st Viscount Hill of Almaraz GCB, GCH served in the Napoleonic Wars as a trusted brigade, division and corps commander under the command of the Duke of Wellington. He became Commander-in-Chief of the British Army in 1829.-Early career:Educated at a school in Chester, Hill was...
and Robert Craufurd
Robert Craufurd
Major-General Robert Craufurd was a Scottish soldier and Member of Parliament . After a military career which took him from India to the Netherlands, he was given command of the Light Division in the Napoleonic Peninsular War under the Duke of Wellington...
. But in the resolute, thorough and punctual execution of a well-defined task Picton had no superior in the army. His debut, owing partly to his naturally stern and now embittered temper, and partly to the difficult position in which he was placed, was unfortunate. On the River Coa in July 1810 Craufurd's division became involved in an action, and Picton, his nearest neighbour, refused to support him, as Wellington's direct orders were to avoid an engagement. Shortly after this, however, at Busaco
Battle of Buçaco
The Battle of Bussaco resulted in the defeat of French forces by Lord Wellington's Anglo-Portuguese Army, in Portugal during the Peninsular War....
, Picton found and used his first great opportunity for distinction. Here he had a plain duty, that of repulsing the French attack, and he performed that duty with a skill and resolution, which indicated his great powers as a troop-leader.
After the winter in the lines of Torres Vedras
Lines of Torres Vedras
The Lines of Torres Vedras were lines of forts built in secrecy to defend Lisbon during the Peninsular War. Named after the nearby town of Torres Vedras, they were ordered by Arthur Wellesley, Viscount Wellington, constructed by Sir Richard Fletcher, 1st Baronet and his Portuguese workers between...
, he added to his reputation and to that of his division, the 'Fighting' 3rd, at the Battle of Fuentes de Onoro
Battle of Fuentes de Onoro
In the Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro , the British-Portuguese Army under Viscount Wellington checked an attempt by the French Army of Portugal under Marshal André Masséna to relieve the besieged city of Almeida.-Background:...
. In September he was given the local rank of lieutenant-general, and in the same month the division won great glory by its rapid and orderly retirement under severe pressure from the French cavalry at El Bodon. In October Picton was appointed to the colonelcy of the 77th Regiment of Foot
77th Regiment of Foot
77th Regiment of Foot may refer to:*77th Regiment of Foot *77th Regiment of Foot *77th Regiment of Foot...
.
In the first operations of 1812 Picton and Craufurd, side by side for the last time, stormed the two breaches of Ciudad Rodrigo, Craufurd and Picton's second in command, Major-General Henry Mackinnon
Henry MacKinnon
Major-General Henry MacKinnon , was a British soldier. He commanded the 45th, 74th, and 88th regiments in the Napoleonic Peninsular War under the Duke of Wellington...
, being mortally wounded. At Badajoz
Badajoz
Badajoz is the capital of the Province of Badajoz in the autonomous community of Extremadura, Spain, situated close to the Portuguese border, on the left bank of the river Guadiana, and the Madrid–Lisbon railway. The population in 2007 was 145,257....
, a month later, the successful storming of the fortress was due to his daring self-reliance and penetration in converting the secondary attack on the castle, delivered by the 3rd Division, into a real one. He was himself wounded in this terrible engagement, but would not leave the ramparts, and the day after, having recently inherited a fortune, he gave every survivor of his command a guinea. His wound, and an attack of fever, compelled him to return to Britain to recoup his health, but he reappeared at the front in April 1813. While in Britain he was invested with the collar and badge of a Knight of the Order of the Bath by the Prince Regent George
George IV of the United Kingdom
George IV was the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and also of Hanover from the death of his father, George III, on 29 January 1820 until his own death ten years later...
, and in June he was made a lieutenant-general in the army.
At the Battle of Vitoria
Battle of Vitoria
At the Battle of Vitoria an allied British, Portuguese, and Spanish army under General the Marquess of Wellington broke the French army under Joseph Bonaparte and Marshal Jean-Baptiste Jourdan near Vitoria in Spain, leading to eventual victory in the Peninsular War.-Background:In July 1812, after...
, Picton led his division across a key bridge under heavy fire. According to Picton, the enemy responded by pummeling the 3rd with 40 to 50 cannon
Cannon
A cannon is any piece of artillery that uses gunpowder or other usually explosive-based propellents to launch a projectile. Cannon vary in caliber, range, mobility, rate of fire, angle of fire, and firepower; different forms of cannon combine and balance these attributes in varying degrees,...
and a counter-attack on their right flank (which was still open because they had captured the bridge so quickly) causing the 3rd to lose 1,800 men (over one third of all Allied losses at the battle) as they held their ground. The conduct of the 3rd division under his leadership at the battle of Vittoria and in the engagements in the Pyrenees
Pyrenees
The Pyrenees is a range of mountains in southwest Europe that forms a natural border between France and Spain...
raised his reputation as a resolute and skilful fighting general to a still higher point. Early in 1814 he was offered, but after consulting Wellington declined, the command of the British forces operating on the side of Catalonia. He thus bore his share in the Orthez campaign and in the final victory before Toulouse
Battle of Toulouse (1814)
The Battle of Toulouse was one of the final battles of the Napoleonic Wars, four days after Napoleon's surrender of the French Empire to the nations of the Sixth Coalition...
.
On the break-up of the division the officers presented Picton with a valuable service of plate, and on 24 June 1814 he received for the seventh time the thanks of the House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
for his great services. Somewhat to his disappointment he was not included amongst the generals who were raised to the peerage, but early in 1815 he was made a G.C.B
Order of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
.
Death
Elba
Elba is a Mediterranean island in Tuscany, Italy, from the coastal town of Piombino. The largest island of the Tuscan Archipelago, Elba is also part of the National Park of the Tuscan Archipelago and the third largest island in Italy after Sicily and Sardinia...
, Picton, at Wellington's request, accepted a high command in the Anglo-Dutch army. He was severely wounded at Quatre Bras
Battle of Quatre Bras
The Battle of Quatre Bras, between Wellington's Anglo-Dutch army and the left wing of the Armée du Nord under Marshal Michel Ney, was fought near the strategic crossroads of Quatre Bras on 16 June 1815.- Prelude :...
on 16 June, but concealed his wound and retained command of his troops. At Waterloo
Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815 near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands...
two days later, while in command of the 5th Infantry Division, while repulsing with impetuous valour "one of the most serious attacks made by the enemy on our position," he was shot through the temple by a musket ball, making him the highest ranking victim of the battle on the allied side. Since his luggage had not arrived in time, he had fought the battle wearing civilian clothes and a top hat
Top hat
A top hat, beaver hat, high hat silk hat, cylinder hat, chimney pot hat or stove pipe hat is a tall, flat-crowned, broad-brimmed hat, predominantly worn from the latter part of the 18th to the middle of the 20th century...
. Welsh folklore says that his top hat was shot off by a cannon-ball
Round shot
Round shot is a solid projectile without explosive charge, fired from a cannon. As the name implies, round shot is spherical; its diameter is slightly less than the bore of the gun it is fired from.Round shot was made in early times from dressed stone, but by the 17th century, from iron...
moments before his death, but this is not known to be backed by any historical source. Family folklore contends that he did not ride out in tails but in his night shirt and top hat because he had overslept, and he died at the hands of one of his own men who shot him in the back of the head because they hated him so much. Again this is not backed by any historical source.
Announcing his death in a rather laconic style, Lord Wellington, wrote to Minister of War, Lord Bathurst:
Your lordship will observe, that such a desperate action could not be fought, and such advantages could not be gained, without great loss; and, I am sorry to add, that our's has been immense. In Lieutenant-general Sir Thomas Picton, his majesty has sustained the loss of an officer who has frequently distinguished himself in his service; and he fell, gloriously leading his division to a charge with bayonets, by which one of the most serious attacks made by the enemy of our position was defeated.
His body was brought home to London, and buried in the family vault at St George's, Hanover Square. A public monument was erected to his memory in St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral, London, is a Church of England cathedral and seat of the Bishop of London. Its dedication to Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on this site, founded in AD 604. St Paul's sits at the top of Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London, and is the mother...
, by order of parliament, and in 1823 another was erected at Carmarthen
Carmarthen
Carmarthen is a community in, and the county town of, Carmarthenshire, Wales. It is sited on the River Towy north of its mouth at Carmarthen Bay. In 2001, the population was 14,648....
by subscription, the king contributing a hundred guineas.
Namings in his honour
- The town of PictonPicton, OntarioPicton is an unincorporated community located in Prince Edward County in southern Central Ontario, Canada. It is the county seat and largest community. Picton is located at the south-western end of Picton Bay, a branch of the Bay of Quinte, which is along the northern shoreline of Lake Ontario...
in Prince Edward CountyPrince Edward County, OntarioPrince Edward County is a single-tier municipality and a census division of the Canadian province of Ontario.-Geography:Prince Edward County is located in Southern Ontario on a large irregular headland or littoral at the eastern end of Lake Ontario, just west of the head of the St. Lawrence River...
, OntarioOntarioOntario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, Canada was named in his honour. - The town of Picton, New ZealandPicton, New ZealandPicton is a town in the Marlborough region of New Zealand. It is close to the head of Queen Charlotte Sound near the north-east corner of the South Island. The population was 2928 in the 2006 Census, a decrease of 72 from 2001...
was named in his honour. - Picton, New South WalesPicton, New South WalesPicton is a small town in the Macarthur Region of New South Wales, Australia, in the Wollondilly Shire. The town is located 80 kilometres South-west of Sydney, close to Camden and Campbelltown. It is also the administrative centre of Wollondilly Shire....
is a town named in his honour by his military colleague, Lachlan MacquarieLachlan MacquarieMajor-General Lachlan Macquarie CB , was a British military officer and colonial administrator. He served as the last autocratic Governor of New South Wales, Australia from 1810 to 1821 and had a leading role in the social, economic and architectural development of the colony... - Picton RoadPicton Road, New South WalesPicton Road is a New South Wales highway linking Picton and Wollongong. It provides an important link between the Hume and Southern freeways. From Picton, the highway runs in the southeastern direction, crosses the Hume Highway and continues over grass-forested ranges east of Wilton until it meets...
is a Highway in Australia - Picton Road is located in the LaventilleLaventille-Etymology:The name Laventille hearkens back to colonial times, especially when the French dominated the cultural traditions of the island. One etymological derivation of the name is due to the fact that the northeast trade winds come to this part of the Island of Trinidad before it reached any...
area of Port of SpainPort of SpainPort of Spain, also written as Port-of-Spain, is the capital of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago and the country's third-largest municipality, after San Fernando and Chaguanas. The city has a municipal population of 49,031 , a metropolitan population of 128,026 and a transient daily population...
, in TrinidadTrinidadTrinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...
. - Picton Barracks, Bulford, Wiltshire is HQ of UK 3 Div
- The Picton, a boys boarding house at Wellington CollegeWellington College, Berkshire-Former pupils:Notable former pupils include historian P. J. Marshall, architect Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, impressionist Rory Bremner, Adolphus Cambridge, 1st Marquess of Cambridge, author Sebastian Faulks, language school pioneer John Haycraft, political journalist Robin Oakley, actor Sir Christopher...
, Crowthorne, UK which is an English co-educational public school founded by Queen Victoria and Prime Minister The Earl of Derby in 1859 as the national monument to Britain's greatest military figure, the Duke of Wellington. - A First World WarWorld War IWorld War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
Royal NavyRoyal NavyThe Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
Lord Clive-classLord Clive class monitorThe Lord Clive class, sometimes referred to as the General Wolfe class, of monitors were ships designed for shore bombardment and were constructed for the Royal Navy during the First World War.-Design:...
monitor was named HMS Sir Thomas PictonHMS Sir Thomas PictonHMS Sir Thomas Picton was a First World War Royal Navy Lord Clive-class monitor. Sir Thomas Picton was the only Royal Navy ship ever named for Sir Thomas Picton, a British general of the Peninsula War who was killed at the Battle of Waterloo...
in his honour. - Sir Thomas Picton SchoolSir Thomas Picton SchoolSir Thomas Picton School is a secondary school in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, Wales, with around 1250 students, 200 of whom are in Years 12 and 13...
(Ysgol Sir Thomas Picton) is a mixed comprehensive school in HaverfordwestHaverfordwestHaverfordwest is the county town of Pembrokeshire, Wales and serves as the County's principal commercial and administrative centre. Haverfordwest is the most populous urban area in Pembrokeshire, with a population of 13,367 in 2001; though its community boundaries make it the second most populous...
, PembrokeshirePembrokeshirePembrokeshire is a county in the south west of Wales. It borders Carmarthenshire to the east and Ceredigion to the north east. The county town is Haverfordwest where Pembrokeshire County Council is headquartered....
, Wales. - Picton Street, Montpelier, Bristol was built and named in honour of Sir Thomas Picton who, as mere Captain Picton, in 1783 endeared himself to Bristolians by bravely facing the rebellious 75th Battalion on College Green, BristolCollege Green, BristolCollege Green is a public open space in Bristol, England. The Green takes the form of a segment of a circle with its apex pointing east, and covers...
and averting a military mutinyMutinyMutiny is a conspiracy among members of a group of similarly situated individuals to openly oppose, change or overthrow an authority to which they are subject...
. There is also a fine double-bayed villa in the street named after him, Picton Lodge. - There is a General Picton Inn in PorthcawlPorthcawlPorthcawl is a town on the south coast of Wales in the county borough of Bridgend, 25 miles west of the capital city, Cardiff and 19 miles southeast of Swansea...
, a General Picton public housePublic houseA public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
in Picton Place, Nantyffyllon, MaestegMaestegMaesteg is a town and community in Bridgend County Borough, Wales. Maesteg lies at the northernmost end of the Llynfi Valley, close to the border with Neath Port Talbot. In 2001, Maesteg had a population of 17,859, but it is now at an estimate of 20,000....
, Mid Glamorgan. The public house sign contains an image of Thomas Picton. The area also contains a Picton Street also named after him. He owned a large amount of land very close to The General Picton public house. - The Picton is public house on Commercial Road in Newport, Gwent. The sign outside depicts Sir Thomas in military uniform resting the blade of his sword upon his left shoulder.
Sources
- See Robinson's Life of Sir Thomas Picton (London, 1836), with which, however, compare Napier's and Oman's histories of the Peninsular War as to controversial points.
- Barbero, Alessandro, The Battle of Waterloo, Walker & Co., New York, 2005, p. 14.
- Epstein, James Politics of Colonial Sensation: The Trial of Thomas Picton and the Cause of Louisa Calderon ; The American Historical Review, June 2007, Vol. 112, No. 3: pp. 712–741
- Michelena, Carmen L.,Luces revolucionarias:De la rebelión de Madrid (1795) a la rebelión de La Guaira (1797),Caracas: CELARG, 2010
External links
- Sir Thomas Picton at the Classic Encyclopedia, based on the 1911 Edition of the Encyclopædia BritannicaEncyclopædia Britannica Eleventh EditionThe Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition is a 29-volume reference work, an edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. It was developed during the encyclopaedia's transition from a British to an American publication. Some of its articles were written by the best-known scholars of the time...
- www.napoleonguide.com Picton
- BBC: Picton past examined
- text of Epstein reference
- narrative - not transcript - of Picton's King's Bench trial