On the 1st of January, 1812, the first battalion mustered upwards of thirteen hundred officers and soldiers, and it was immediately afterwards employed in the siege of _Ciudad Rodrigo_, which was undertaken in the winter. This fortress was captured by storm during the night of the 19th of January, 1812, while the French marshal was assembling an army to advance to its relief. The loss of the ROYAL FUSILIERS, during the siege, was limited to two men killed and eight wounded. After the capture of Ciudad Rodrigo the regiment remained at the village of Cileçes el Chico, where it was detained several days by the swelling of the Agueda from heavy rains: it subsequently retired and went into cantonments. After withdrawing from before Ciudad Rodrigo, the regiment was allowed only a short period of repose before it was called upon to march to Spanish Estremadura, to take part in wresting the strong fortress of _Badajoz_ from the enemy. Leaving its cantonments near Fuentes d'Onor on the 27th of February, it proceeded southwards; boats were laid over the Guadiana on the 15th of March, and on the following day Badajoz was invested by the third, fourth, and light divisions; the ROYAL FUSILIERS, forming part of the fourth division, were engaged in the siege. The batteries were opened, and, notwithstanding the sallies of the French garrison under the resolute General Phillipon, inundations from heavy rains, and other obstructions, practicable breaches were ready in the early part of April; and on the evening of the 6th of that month the ROYAL FUSILIERS were under arms to take part in the storming of that stupendous fortress. The fourth and light divisions were to march against the breaches; the light division was to assault the bastion of Santa Maria, and the fourth, the Trinidad, with the breach in the curtain connecting the two bastions; one body of the grenadiers of the fourth division, under Captain John Mair, of the ROYAL FUSILIERS, led the attack against the bastion of Trinidad; and another body, under Captain William Francis Cholwick, also of the SEVENTH, led the assault on the breach in the curtain.