The Forlorn Hope

Colin Campbell¹ leading the 'forlorn hope' at the Siege of San Sebastián, 1813.
William Barnes Wollen (PD)

I may have first encountered the term forlorn hope while reading the excellent Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell. (Though it's more than possible that I encountered the term in David Chandler's masterful work, The Campaigns of Napoléon.)

Collins English dictionary defines the term as follows -

forlorn hope

1. a group of soldiers detached from the main group for a very dangerous mission
2. a desperate undertaking; enterprise with very little chance of success
3. a faint hope

During the Napoleonic wars the term usually was associated with a group of men selected to be the first into the breach at a siege. To explain, cannon fire (usually large, purpose-design siege cannon) would open a bombardment on the enemy walls along a stretch deemed most practical for breaking into the town. The guns would fire until a breach was made in the wall. That's when the forlorn hope went to work.

"The Devil's Own"
88th Regiment at the Siege of Badajoz.²
Richard Caton Woodville Jr.

The forlorn hope was considered nearly a suicide assignment. Men  (usually the officers) were promised promotions if they survived. In the French Army they were known as les Enfants Perdus, the lost children. Contrary to British practice, all of the survivors in les Enfants Perdus in the French Army were promoted.

Why were they known as the forlorn hope? Well, a siege was a nasty business. Ordinarily a town (or fortress, most of the big cities and towns in Spain were fortresses) would be offered the opportunity to surrender, sparing the citizens of the place from any slaughter or looting. The garrison would be allowed the "honors of war," allowed to march off with colors flying and still bearing arms.

Refusal to surrender could lead to a long siege, starvation was a possibility for the besieged. Due to time constraints the Peninsular War saw a number of sieges where the artillery would open after entrenchments were dug bringing the besieging army closer to the walls.

Once a breach was opened, the place would again be offered the chance to surrender, if they did not, the forlorn hope would go in, at night if possible, to engage the defenders of the breach. If a foothold was gained, then the rest of the army would make its assault. Once they got into the town, all bets were off.

The garrison would be cut down without mercy, the citizens were liable to be robbed, beaten, raped, and murdered. This would last until the attacking troops were either brought under control by their officers or sheer exhaustion rendered them hors de combat.

Losses in the assault parties were heavy. The Siege of Badajoz in 1812 provides an example -

When dawn finally came on 7 April, it revealed the horror of the slaughter all around the curtain wall. Bodies were piled high and blood flowed like rivers in the ditches and trenches. Surveying the destruction and slaughter Wellington wept openly at the sight of British dead piled upon each other in the breaches and bitterly cursed the British Parliament for granting him so few resources and soldiers. The assault and the earlier skirmishes had left the allies with some 4,800 casualties. The elite Light Division had suffered badly, losing some 40 percent of their fighting strength.

After the capture of the city, the victorious British troops became drunk on stocks of captured alcohol and began rampaging through the city. During the sack of Badajoz, numerous homes were broken into, private property was vandalized or stolen, civilians of all ages and backgrounds raped and many British officers shot by the men they were trying to bring to order. (Source)

Very few of the forlorn hope would survive such a bitterly contested assault. Still and all, they were necessary to make that initial push into the defenses. The cost could be high, but the rewards might well be worth it.

I'm thinking of twenty conservatives who opposed Kevin  McCarthy’s bid for speaker of the House, a forlorn hope perhaps?  Will some good finally come out of Washington, DC?

Who knows?

¹ Sir Colin Campbell also fought in the Crimean War, commanding the Highland Brigade. The term "Thin Red Line" came from this war at the Battle of Balaclava when a two-deep line of Scotsmen stood off a massive Russian cavalry attack. (Same battle where the Charge of the Light Brigade took place.)

² It should be noted that the 88th Foot was an Irish regiment.