Family Card - Person Sheet
Family Card - Person Sheet
NameJames Marshall STOKES, 2C6R
Birthabt 1789
Baptism6 Jul 1789, Alveley, Shropshire
Death6 Apr 1812, Badajos, Spain
FatherWilliam Smith STOKES (~1760-)
MotherNancy FREEMAN (~1752-1838)
Notes for James Marshall STOKES
England Select Births and Christenings Alveley, SHropshire
Baptism July 6 1789, James Marshall Stokes, parents William Smith Stokes and Nancy Stokes
James Marshall the eldest was a Lieutenant in the army died Badajos, Spain April 6, 1812 age 23.
From https://www.napoleonguide.com/medical_ukofficers5.htm
Lieutenant James Stokes,
95th Foot, killed at the storming of Badajoz, 6 April 1812.
from from The Gentleman’s Magazine February 1827 [his brother’s obituary]
near Badajos he saw for the last time his eldest brother Lieut. James Marshal Stokes, who shortly after, on the 6th of April, in leading the 1st battalion of the 95th regiment of foot to the entrenchments before the town, fell gloriously among the slain immediately prior to its being taken
Note: The 95th Foot was raised as an experimental Corps of Rifleman, wore the Green Jackets and were armed with the Baker rifle. They were trained along with the 43rd and 52nd Regiments of Foot as light infantry. During the Peninsular War the were part of the 1st Brigade of the Light Division. After the Peninsular War they were renamed the Rifle Brigade.
From Wikipedia -Siege of Badajoz (1812)
Storm
With three large gaps in the curtain wall and with Marshal Soult marching to the town's aid, Wellington ordered his regiments to storm the town so at 22:00 on the 6th and the troops made their way forward with scaling ladders and various tools. Three attacks would be mounted. The first men to assault the breaches were the men of the Forlorn Hope, who would lead the main attack by the 4th Division on two of the breaches. The third breach would be assaulted by Craufurd's Light Division while diversionary attacks were to be made to the north and the east by Portuguese, and British soldiers of the 5th Division and Picton's 3rd Division would assault the Castle from across the river.
Just as the main Forlorn Hope were beginning their attack, a French sentry was alerted and raised the alarm. Within seconds the ramparts were filled with French soldiers, who poured a lethal hail of musket fire into the troops at the base of the breach. The British and Portuguese surged forward en masse and raced up to the wall, facing a murderous barrage of musket fire, complemented by grenades stones, barrels of gunpowder with crude fuses and bales of burning hay to provide light.
The furious barrage devastated the British soldiers at the wall and the breach soon began to fill with dead and wounded, over whom the storming troops had to struggle. The carnage, rubble and loss of guiding Engineering officers led the Craufurd’s Light Division to become confused; assaulting an outlying ravelin that led nowhere, the troops got mixed up with those of the 4th Division. Despite the carnage the redcoats continued to surge forward in great numbers, only to be mown down by endless volleys and shrapnel from grenades and bombs. The French could see they were holding the assault and the British were becoming stupefied and incapable of more exertion. In just under two hours, some 2,000 men had been killed or badly wounded at the main breach, while countless more men of the 3rd Division were shot down as they made their diversionary assault.
. . .
Aftermath
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. Numbers differ between 4,924 and 4,760. The elite Light Division had suffered badly, losing some 40 percent of their fighting strength.
end of quote
Baptism July 6 1789, James Marshall Stokes, parents William Smith Stokes and Nancy Stokes
James Marshall the eldest was a Lieutenant in the army died Badajos, Spain April 6, 1812 age 23.
From https://www.napoleonguide.com/medical_ukofficers5.htm
Lieutenant James Stokes,
95th Foot, killed at the storming of Badajoz, 6 April 1812.
from from The Gentleman’s Magazine February 1827 [his brother’s obituary]
near Badajos he saw for the last time his eldest brother Lieut. James Marshal Stokes, who shortly after, on the 6th of April, in leading the 1st battalion of the 95th regiment of foot to the entrenchments before the town, fell gloriously among the slain immediately prior to its being taken
Note: The 95th Foot was raised as an experimental Corps of Rifleman, wore the Green Jackets and were armed with the Baker rifle. They were trained along with the 43rd and 52nd Regiments of Foot as light infantry. During the Peninsular War the were part of the 1st Brigade of the Light Division. After the Peninsular War they were renamed the Rifle Brigade.
From Wikipedia -Siege of Badajoz (1812)
Storm
With three large gaps in the curtain wall and with Marshal Soult marching to the town's aid, Wellington ordered his regiments to storm the town so at 22:00 on the 6th and the troops made their way forward with scaling ladders and various tools. Three attacks would be mounted. The first men to assault the breaches were the men of the Forlorn Hope, who would lead the main attack by the 4th Division on two of the breaches. The third breach would be assaulted by Craufurd's Light Division while diversionary attacks were to be made to the north and the east by Portuguese, and British soldiers of the 5th Division and Picton's 3rd Division would assault the Castle from across the river.
Just as the main Forlorn Hope were beginning their attack, a French sentry was alerted and raised the alarm. Within seconds the ramparts were filled with French soldiers, who poured a lethal hail of musket fire into the troops at the base of the breach. The British and Portuguese surged forward en masse and raced up to the wall, facing a murderous barrage of musket fire, complemented by grenades stones, barrels of gunpowder with crude fuses and bales of burning hay to provide light.
The furious barrage devastated the British soldiers at the wall and the breach soon began to fill with dead and wounded, over whom the storming troops had to struggle. The carnage, rubble and loss of guiding Engineering officers led the Craufurd’s Light Division to become confused; assaulting an outlying ravelin that led nowhere, the troops got mixed up with those of the 4th Division. Despite the carnage the redcoats continued to surge forward in great numbers, only to be mown down by endless volleys and shrapnel from grenades and bombs. The French could see they were holding the assault and the British were becoming stupefied and incapable of more exertion. In just under two hours, some 2,000 men had been killed or badly wounded at the main breach, while countless more men of the 3rd Division were shot down as they made their diversionary assault.
. . .
Aftermath
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. Numbers differ between 4,924 and 4,760. The elite Light Division had suffered badly, losing some 40 percent of their fighting strength.
end of quote