Exploring Officers
By Robert Burnham & Gareth Glover
An exploring officer often went on solo reconnaissance missions deep within French occupied Spain.
Bunbury, Thomas. Reminiscences of a Veteran. Uckfield: Naval and Military Press in association with the National Army Museum, 2009. 3 volumes.
Notes: Only the first volume covers the Napoleonic Wars; spent 1808 – 1809 in 3rd Foot. served as the adjutant of the 1st Battalion of Detachments after Talavera; captain in the 20th Portuguese Regiment in October 1809, served as a brigade major for for a year from July 1811 – September 1812, during which he also served as an exploring officer in southern Spain; commanded a company in the 5th Caçadores, commanded the 6th Caçadores at Toulouse, and would end the war serving as a major in the 3rd and then the 4th Caçadores.
Cocks, Edward C. Intelligence Officer in the Peninsula: Letters & Diaries of Major the Hon. Edward Charles Cocks 1786 – 1812. Julia Page (ed.) New York: Hippocrene Books; 1986. 255 pages.
Notes: 1808 – 1812; served also with 16th Light Dragoons and 79th Foot.
Grant Colquhoun The First Respectable Spy. by Jock Haswell. London. Hamish Hamilton 1969.
Hay, Andrew Leith. A Narrative of the Peninsular War. 2 vols.Godmanchester: Ken Trotman, 2008. 636 pages.
Notes: In the Peninsula with the 29th Foot from July 1809 to March 1810; ADC to his uncle, General Leith, from April 1810 to April 1814; also served as an exploring officer in 1813.