As a first move, the British seized the swampy island of
Walcheren at the mouth of river
Scheldt, as well as
South Beveland island, both in the present-day
Netherlands. The British troops soon began to suffer from "Walcheren fever", due to the symptoms present most likely a combination of
malaria,
typhus,
typhoid and
dysentery. Within a month of seizing the island, they had over 8,000 fever cases. The medical provisions for the expedition proved inadequate despite reports that an occupying French force had lost 80% of its numbers a few years earlier, also due to disease. Once it had been decided to garrison Walcheren Island in September 1809, Pitt was replaced by Lieutenant-general
Eyre Coote who in October was replaced by Lieutenant-general
George Don. The British were divided into three columns: "Walcheren" (whose task was to capture Walcheren Island and the fortifications of
Flushing), "
Schouwen", and "
Cadzand". On 31 July the Walcheren Column seized the
Veere fortification and moved to Flushing. On 1 August, the Schouwen Column landed at
Wemeldinge, taking the
Bath fortification (which blocked the entrances to both branches of the Scheldt) without a fight the next day, while a misunderstanding led the Cadzand Column to land on South Beveland on 31 July, allowing the French to reinforce Flushing via a
pontoon bridge between Walcheren and Cadzand until 8 August. It is incomprehensible why Lord Chatham, having an entire
squadron, was unable to break this connection in time. With the capture of Bath, the British opened the road to
Antwerp through the eastern arm of the Scheldt, accessible to small
frigates and
gunboats, and to South Beveland. Despite a 40,000-man
corps, Lord Chatham's decision to besiege Flushing for two weeks rather than advancing directly to Antwerp left a 21,000-man force idle at Bath, stalling the expedition. On 30 July, the French
garrisons in the
Low Countries were distributed as follows: • Flushing4,000; • Cadzand300; • Antwerp2,400; •
St. Omer6,000; •
Ghent3,0004,000; • the rest of the Low Countries3,000. At the time of the initial landings, the French forces were characterized by a divided command over a motley crew of units manned by soldiers of many nationalities spanning
French-occupied Europe. There were a few French units among those present considered to be of inferior quality as they were manned by the physically infirm and dregs of the training depots. However, on 10 August 1809, as reinforcements began flowing into the invasion zone, Napoleon approved the appointment of Marshal
Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, the Prince of
Ponte Corvo, who had recently resigned his command after incurring Napoleon's displeasure at the
Battle of Wagram as overall commander of the invasion zone. Bernadotte had returned to Paris and was sent to defend the Netherlands by the council of ministers. His arrival gave the French a much-needed unity of command and he brought with him a genius for organization and training. Bernadotte led the reinforced and reorganized French forces competently and although the British had captured Flushing on the day of his arrival to the war zone after
a ferocious bombardment, and the surrounding towns on 15 August, he had already ordered the French fleet to Antwerp and heavily reinforced the city. By this time the French had already managed to concentrate up to 40,000 men in Antwerp and put the main forts of the Upper Scheldt into a defensive state. A rapid and decisive forward movement might still have saved the expedition, but instead, Lord Chatham confined himself to aimless skirmishing with the forts of the Upper Scheldt, bombarded Cadzand and Fort
Terneuzen, and finally, on 26 August, convened a
council of war. At this council, it became clear that an advance on Antwerp was utterly impossible, as the French (under Bernadotte) had already managed to concentrate nearly 100,000 men there. Both the French numbers and defences were such that the main objective for the British, Antwerp, was now out of reach. The British began a staged withdrawal to Walcheren. The expedition was called off in early September. Around 12,000 troops stayed on Walcheren, but by October only 5,500 remained fit for duty. The French had no great opportunity to eliminate Chatham's army, since the
waterbodies were defended by the
dominant British navy; and it is also worth noting that Bernadotte was generally a cautious army commander, as his subsequent actions in the
German campaign of 1813 showed. It was precisely in the first half of September that Bernadotte was replaced by Marshal
Jean-Baptiste Bessières, the Duke of
Istria. Earlier, at
Auerstedt in 1806, Bernadotte had let Napoleon down by omitting this battle, allowing the Prussians to inflict greater losses on
Davout's French and the opportunity to escape. Bernadotte missed
Eylau in 1807; he also launched two unsuccessful attacks at
Wagram in 1809, and there would have been no need for the second one at all if not for his actions. Napoleon's distrust of Bernadotte even led him to dispatch General
Reille to keep a keen eye on him in Antwerp. When Bernadotte stated in his news bulletin that "his 15,000 men would be enough to repel any British number," Napoleon said: "This is the first occasion on which a General has been known to betray his position by an excess of vanity."
(The implication here is that Bernadotte ostensibly revealed his strength because this information could easily fall into enemy hands.) On 24 December, the remnants of Chatham's army, encircled by superior French forces, having destroyed the port facilities of Flushing, boarded ships. == Aftermath ==