VIII Zamora, the Faithful (p2)
— 545 —
The province of Mondoñedo gave existence, name, and equipment to the second of these esteemed corps on July 22, 1705.
Raised to the category of a regiment and under the orders of its first colonel, Don Alonso Correa, it went to gird the Portuguese border, positioning itself along the banks of the Miño. The details of its services are not recorded, but they must have been considerable, given how intense the hostilities were in that area and how inconstant fortune proved to be.
Compostela is entirely contemporary with Mondoñedo. It arose under the same pressures, was regularized through the vigilant care of the Duke of Híjar, then captain general of Galicia, drew its ranks from the provincial militias, and was entrusted to the field master Don Baltasar Ramón de Aldao (1). Its conduct was likewise spirited, and even exemplary in very critical moments, extending its operations beyond the territory in which it was born.
Zamora experienced no extraordinary change until the ravages of the War of Independence were felt in the most painful manner. The creation of the regiment known under the title “Volunteers of Castile” had been ordered, and to complete it the regency of the kingdom decreed that the 3rd Battalion of the Zamora Regiment and the Provincial Regiment of Toro be added to it, both being assigned to form the 2nd Battalion. However, the officers of the Zamora unit—considering themselves offended in the very core of their honor, because they were made to appear as a secondary element in the reorganization of a modern corps—submitted to the regency a petition in which, reconciling decorum with the noblest resolve, they set forth the just right that assisted them to preserve their original designation and to be constituted as an independent corps.
The supreme authority deemed the reasons presented to be valid and acceptable, and ordered that that battalion be constituted separately…
(1) Ordinance of 28 February 1707.
Tome VIII, p. 44.
Comments
Post a Comment