'Storming of Cuidad [sic] Rodrigo by the Light Division on the night of the 19th January 1812...the Forlon Hope led by Captain Gurwood'

Coloured aquatint by J H Clark and H Merke after a sketch by an officer, published by E Orme, February 1815.

Sir Arthur Wellesley's army took Ciudad Rodrigo, a fortified town on the main road from Portugal to Salamanca, by storm on the night of 19 January 1812. The Forlorn Hope was the name given to the men who were first into the breach made in a fortress' walls. As the name suggests the chances of surviving the initial assault on a breach were slim.