Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Picton 1758 1815 Welsh British Army officer rank courage Peninsular War Battle of Waterloo command
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. 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, Hill 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.
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