Military garrison

The military garrison of Madeira consists of the 27th Infantry Regiment (Infantaria n.º 27), No. 3 Mountain Artillery Battery, a company of the Republican Guard and No. 1 Company of the Revenue Guard (Guarda Fiscal, customs and excise corps) (1921). Before this garrison was assigned to the island, however, other military forces were stationed here, many of which appear in the list we publish below:

Infantry No. 5

The 5th Infantry Regiment was organised by the decree of 21 July 1834 for the defence of Madeira.

Infantry No. 11

The 11th Infantry Battalion garrisoned Madeira from 1837 to 1847, although part of it left for Portugal in 1843. It was forces of the 11th Infantry and the 4th Artillery that staged the pronouncement of 29 April 1847. For this reason they left the island in August of the same year, once the queen’s government had been restored.

Caçadores No. 6

The 6th Battalion of Caçadores (Portuguese light infantry), 400 men strong, arrived in Madeira in 1847. However, having mutinied on the night of 30–31 July 1852, it was immediately transferred to Lisbon, where it arrived on 15 August. It was disarmed on board, the other ranks being sent to the frigate Diana and the officers to the frigate D. Fernando. (See Lapierre.)

Infantry No.

7. The 2nd Battalion of the 7th Infantry, 241 men strong, arrived in Funchal on 29 August 1852 and remained here until 19 April 1853.

Infantry No. 13

The 2nd Battalion of the 7th Infantry was relieved by a force of 250 men of the 13th Infantry, which remained in Madeira until 27 July 1854. The steamer Duque da Terceira, which carried this force to Portugal, was wrecked near Aveiro.

Caçadores No. 2

From 24 July 1854 to August 1855 four companies of the 2nd Battalion of Caçadores were stationed in Madeira.

Infantry No. 4

The 2nd Battalion of the 4th Infantry Regiment was stationed in Madeira from 24 August 1855 until July 1856.

Infantry no.

1. The 1st Battalion of the 1st Infantry Regiment (Infantaria n.º 1) arrived in Madeira on 28 June 1856 and left for Portugal on 6 August 1858. It was this force that brought us the epidemic of cholera morbus, which was then raging with great intensity in Portugal. Infantry no. 16. A force of 306 men of the 16th Infantry Regiment relieved the preceding force, remaining in Madeira until 17 August 1859.

Infantry no. 10

Madeira was garrisoned by forces of this regiment from the time the 16th Infantry left the island until 1860.

Infantry no. 2

It replaced the 10th Infantry and remained in Madeira until 19 June 1861.

Caçadores no. 1

It arrived on 16 June 1861 and left for Portugal in July 1862.

Caçadores no. 5

A force of 218 men of the 5th Caçadores Battalion arrived in Madeira on 17 July 1862 and left for Portugal on 1 August 1864.

Caçadores no. 12

In July 1864, 10 officers and 72 other ranks came to Madeira to form the new 12th Caçadores Battalion, which, according to the plan published on 23 June 1864, was to have its barracks in Funchal. The new battalion was brought up to strength with men recruited on the island.

The 12th Caçadores Battalion was intended to be stationed in Funchal. However, because it was transferred to Tomar in December 1869 as a result of political intrigues, the 5th Caçadores Battalion came to replace it. The 12th did not return to the island until 1870, and it has never left since.

Under the military reorganisation of 30 November 1884, the 12th Caçadores Battalion became a regiment.

Caçadores no. 5

The 5th Caçadores Battalion arrived in Madeira in December 1869. However, because two of its companies mutinied on 2 August 1870, following an inspection of arms, the entire battalion was transferred to Portugal, and the aforementioned 12th Caçadores Battalion was ordered back to the island.

Infantry no. 27

Since 9 October 1899 the 12th Caçadores Regiment has been called the 27th Infantry Regiment, in accordance with the provisions of the decree of 14 September of the same year. (1921).

Besides the forces we have just mentioned, there are others to record, but these came to this island only temporarily, to reinforce the troops serving here. Thus in 1847 the 4th Caçadores Battalion (Portuguese light infantry) and a detachment of the 2nd Artillery were in Madeira, brought from the Azores by the governing board (junta governativa). In 1887 the 1st Infantry Regiment and a company of the 5th Caçadores were sent to this island because of the popular riots provoked by the elections to the parish councils (juntas de paróquia). And in 1911 the 6th Caçadores Battalion was charged by the Government of the Republic with keeping order in Madeira, together with the garrison troops, for as long as the cholera epidemic lasted here. From the beginning of 1918 to March 1919 a company of position artillery was stationed in Funchal to defend this island against any German attack.

Before the proclamation of the Constitution on 5 June 1834, we know of only the following regular army forces having been in Madeira: the 7th Infantry Regiment and a detachment of the 2nd Artillery, which arrived here on 23 August 1823, the former returning to Lisbon in 1826 after provoking several conflicts in Funchal; a force of the 7th Artillery, which was in Madeira in 1823; a battalion of the 1st Infantry, another of the 2nd Infantry, a contingent of the 11th Caçadores, a detachment of artillery and another of engineer artificers, which garrisoned the island during the Miguelite (supporter of the absolutist King Miguel) government; the 13th Infantry Regiment, which was also here during the same government and left for Lisbon at the end of 1829 after mutinying; and finally four companies of the Beira Alta Caçadores Regiment and the 1st Battalion of the Lagos Infantry Regiment, which were on this island in 1831.

In 1815 there was in Madeira a battalion of first-line artillery with six companies, as recorded in the Estatística Histórico-geográfico da ilha da Madeira by Casado Giraldes. During the rule of the Philips there was in Madeira the so-called Spanish garrison, made up of permanent, paid troops whose purpose was to secure possession of this island and the authority of the governor-general of war. ‘The said garrison,’ says Dr Azevedo, ‘was composed of four companies, each with its captain, the captain of the first being commander of the whole garrison, and in his authority independent of the Portuguese governor.’

As regards second- and third-line troops, it is known that Madeira had the militia, the territorial militia (ordenanças), the lookouts (vigias), the auxiliary artillery and the National Guard (see those entries), as well as the auxiliary terços, approved by the royal resolution of 27 November 1784; the Volunteer Battalion of Pedro IV and the Battalion of Urban Royalist Volunteers, the latter created in the time of Miguel I and the former during the government of José Lúcio Travassos Valdez; the National Battalion of Funchal Volunteers, established on 28 August 1836; the National Caçadores Battalion of the Prince Royal, created on 6 March 1847 and dissolved on 29 April of the same year; the National Battalion of Funchal, organised by the governing board in 1847, etc., etc.

In the time of Peter II an artillery company was instituted, and a building was begun to house it, but it was consumed by fire before it was finished. On 5 September 1661 the creation of a corps of 100 gunners to defend the fortresses was ordered, each of them earning 50 réis (old Portuguese money of account; 1$000 = 1,000 réis, 1:000$000 = one conto = 1,000,000 réis) a day. In 1762 there was a cavalry company in Madeira, in 1780 an infantry company of the governor’s guard, and in 1799 there were infantry troops receiving pay, although it is to be believed that all these forces belonged to the second line.

Major Alberto Artur Sarmento, in his Alicerces para a historia militar, in various articles published in the Heraldo da Madeira (‘Madeira Herald’) and in other writings, provides valuable information on the military forces that have garrisoned this island at different times.