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MEMOIR
OF THE EARLY CAMPAIGNS OF THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON, IN PORTUGAL AND SPAIN,
BY AN OFFICER EMPLOYED IN HIS ARMY.
LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE-STREET.
1820.
London: Printed by W. CLOWES,
Northumberland-court.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
A
MEMOIR,
_&c._
The following sheets pretend to no merit in composition, the writer
pretends to no reputation as an author; the subject must be interesting
to every British reader, and if the events are faithfully recorded, the
work will deserve some attention.
Unaccustomed for a series of years to any great or continued exertion
upon the continent, the people of England almost doubted their power or
means of supporting one. The genius of Lord Wellington, the bravery of
British troops, have removed this doubt.
To the detail of the brilliant exploits by which the early campaigns in
Portugal and Spain were distinguished, this work is dedicated. The
author has undertaken it, emboldened by the consideration, that from the
opportunities which he enjoyed of observing the transactions in the
Peninsula, in most of which he was personally engaged, he has the means
of relating them correctly.
In the summer of 1808 the first deputies from the Asturias arrived in
England; they were so rapidly succeeded by others from every part of the
Peninsula, that after a very short time there remained no doubt that the
great people, whom they came to represent, were determined to struggle
for independence.
The British ministers did no more than echo the sentiments of the nation
when they decided to give every support to this people; and Sir Arthur
Wellesley, who had been appointed to the command of a corps destined for
a different service, was selected to lead the first armament which
should carry assistance to Portugal and Spain.
The force under his orders sailed from Cork in the beginning of July;
Sir Arthur Wellesley himself proceeded in a single ship to Corunna. The
state of things upon his arrival at that port was unfavourable to the
Spaniards. The Gallician army under Blake, and that of Castile under
Cuesta, had been defeated by a French corps commanded by Marshal
Bessières, in the neighbourhood of Rio Seco; and there appeared no
obstacle to the march of the enemy to Corunna. In this situation of
affairs Sir Arthur Wellesley hinted to the Junta, that if a request to
land his army for the protection of Gallicia should be made to him, he
would not hesitate in acceding to it. The Junta, however, actuated by a
feeling of pride and jealousy which has so often brought the affairs of
Spain to the brink of ruin, neglected to make this proposal. Sir Arthur
consequently proceeded to the coast of Portugal, and arrived in Mondego
Bay on the 26th of July. Leaving there the expedition he commanded, he
went to the mouth of the Tagus, to procure information, and to combine
his operations with Admiral Sir C. Cotton. When these objects were
accomplished, he returned to the Mondego, determining to land his troops
as soon as the corps which he expected, either from Cadiz, under General
Spencer, or from England, under General Ackland, should have arrived.
The former joined on the 2d of August; and Sir Arthur Wellesley
immediately disembarked his army. At this moment three-fourths of
Portugal were in insurrection against the French. Junot, who had entered
the country in the November preceding, had commanded a corps of 40,000
men, of which about 10,000 were Spaniards; Oporto was occupied by a part
of the Spanish troops, the rest of them were at Lisbon.
At the commencement of the revolution in Spain, Junot entertained so
great a suspicion of the Spaniards in that capital, and in its
neighbourhood, that, under pretence of sending them to other quarters,
he succeeded in surrounding and disarming them, and afterwards in
placing them as prisoners on board ships provided for that purpose in
the Tagus. As soon as the intelligence of this event reached Oporto, the
Spanish garrison seized the few French officers who were in the town;
invited the inhabitants to follow the example of Spain, and resist the
French; and themselves marched off to join their companions in Gallicia.
The Portuguese had, however, before this time, raised the standard of
their prince. The Bishop of Oporto assumed the government of the
northern provinces of Portugal; and General Frere and other persons took
the lead in the insurrection in the other parts of that country. The old
soldiers, who had been disbanded by the French, were called to arms; and
in a short time three armies were formed; one at Oporto, another at
Coimbra, and the third at Viseu. Officers had already been despatched
from England to ascertain the state of the Oporto and Coimbra corps; and
Sir Arthur Wellesley sent an officer to Viseu to report to him the state
of the force assembled there under General Barcellar. It is needless to
observe, that an army formed as the Portuguese had been, could not be
very effective; such as it was, however, it was hearty in the cause of
its country, and most anxious for an opportunity of revenging the wrongs
which had been inflicted upon the nation.
The corps of Oporto was joined to that of Coimbra, and was destined to
act with Sir Arthur Wellesley. The corps of Viseu was sent to Guarda;
whence, in conjunction with some Spaniards under the orders of the
Marquis of Valadares, it was directed to march upon Abrantes, and from
thence co-operate in the meditated attack on Lisbon. There was also a
corps of Spaniards of some force collected at Badajos under General
Galluzzo, which it was hoped might have given some assistance to these
combinations, by a simultaneous operation in the Alemtejo.
Such was the state of the allied force when Sir Arthur Wellesley first
landed his army on the banks of the Mondego. The French were in
possession of Lisbon, and the country north of it as far as Leyria,
which had been recaptured from the Portuguese by a force under the
orders of General Margaron. On the entry of the French into this town,
they committed the most atrocious acts of cruelty[1]. As an instance of
the brutality of a superior officer, the —— of —— related of himself,
that upon entering the town, he met a woman with a child at her breast,
that the appearance of the infant excited his pity, but “_se rapellant
qu’il était soldat_,” he pierced the two bodies with a single thrust of
his sword. When the English advanced guard arrived there, it found in
one of the convents the dead bodies of several Monks, who had been
killed by the French soldiers; some of whom had dipped their hands in
the blood of their unfortunate victims, and had daubed with it the walls
of the convent.
Footnote 1:
The cruelties committed by the French army in this instance, and
throughout the whole of its campaigns in Portugal, had their origin in
the nature of the war in which it was now for the first time engaged.
Till this period, wherever the French soldiers had established
themselves, whether by the defeat of the armies which defended the
country invaded, or otherwise, they found the people submitting to
their rule; when, in Portugal, therefore, the nation rose in hostility
against them, they considered such resistance as rebellion, and looked
upon the inhabitants taken in arms, as disturbers of the public peace,
and therefore entitled to no mercy or consideration. The officers also
hoped, by inflicting vengeance on the patriots, to arrest the progress
of an insurrection which menaced their total overthrow. It would not
be fair to argue, from the conduct of the French in Portugal, that in
other situations they would be led to adopt similar proceedings.
To the southward of the Tagus, the French had been unable to retain any
part of the Alemtejo.
About the end of July, Junot detached a corps, under the orders of
General Loison, to repress, in the first instance, the insurrections of
that province; next, to give whatever assistance might be wanted by the
garrison of Elvas; and, lastly, to return by Abrantes to the north of
the Tagus, and to wreak a signal vengeance upon Coimbra. General Loison,
in execution of these directions, marched to Evora, where the Portuguese
had collected the force of the provinces, and, assisted by some
Spaniards, resolved to defend the town. General Loison attacked it, and
after meeting with a considerable resistance, entered it, and delivered
it over to pillage. The inhabitants, threatened with indiscriminate
massacre, endeavoured to shelter themselves in the churches and
convents, where they had been accustomed to look for protection; but
this was of no avail against their merciless enemies; thousands of them
were drawn from their places of refuge, and fell victims to a licentious
soldiery, excited by the unrestrained desire of plunder and revenge.
From Evora, General Loison marched to Elvas, and from thence returned by
Abrantes to Thomar, where he was arrested in the further execution of
his instructions, by the news that Sir Arthur Wellesley had landed, and
was at Leyria, upon his march towards Lisbon.
During this period Sir Arthur had prepared for the campaign he was about
to undertake.
He had 13,000 British infantry and 300 cavalry; he selected 5,000 of the
best Portuguese troops that were assembled at Coimbra, and with an army
so composed, determined to move forward. He was in daily expectation of
a corps of 5,000 men from England, and he was also apprized that the
body of men who had been under Lieut.-General Moore in Sweden, had
received orders to proceed to the Peninsula.
The Commissariat, under Sir Arthur Wellesley, was defective; an army
just landed must necessarily be without the means of transport; it was,
therefore, evident that it must depend entirely upon its communication
with the shipping for its support throughout its operations: Sir Arthur
Wellesley upon these considerations determined to advance by the road
nearest the coast; by that movement he secured to himself the advantages
of being able to receive his reinforcements at any time they should
arrive; and in addition, he was not cramped by any line of communication
which it would be necessary for him to maintain, or which he must have
defended, had the enemy (as was once contemplated) made any
demonstrations upon his rear.
Before he quitted the Mondego, he left instructions for the corps under
General Ackland to proceed along the coast to join him. He also left a
statement of the information he had obtained, and of the opinions he had
formed, to be delivered to Sir John Moore upon his arrival. Sir Arthur
Wellesley recommended, that the corps under that officer should be
landed in the Mondego, and marched to Santarem, so as to operate to the
southward of the Tagus, if necessary, and to prevent the enemy from
retiring through the province of Alemtejo, in case he should be beaten
by the force which Sir Arthur was leading against him. Other objects
were in contemplation, but these were the principal.
This proposed system of operations was afterwards subjected to
considerable discussion; it was objected to, and set aside. The mind,
however, which conceived it, would have executed it with success, though
in other hands it might appear impracticable. The battle of Vimiera, in
which only half the force under Sir Arthur Wellesley was engaged, proved
the correctness of his calculations, and warrants a belief that if the
whole campaign had been directed according to his views, the result
would have proved more advantageous than it did under a different
arrangement.
On the 9th of August, Sir Arthur Wellesley made his first movement from
the Mondego, and reached Leyria on the 10th; he halted two days to make
the necessary arrangements for his advance, and to bring up the
Portuguese who were at Coimbra. On the 13th he moved to the ground about
Batalha, where a patrole of French, from the corps under General La
Borde, at Alcobaça, was first discovered. General Frere, who commanded
the Portuguese, here made an objection to advance any further, stating,
as his reason, the improbability of finding provisions. Sir Arthur
Wellesley was not disconcerted by this defection: after attempting in
vain to alter General Frere’s determination, he decided to move forward,
taking with his army a detachment of 1,600 men, from the force under
that officer’s command, which he placed under the orders of Colonel
Trant, and which Sir Arthur undertook to provision. These arrangements
being made, he advanced to attack the corps that occupied Alcobaça; the
enemy had, however, abandoned it in the night, and the British army took
up its position upon the heights beyond it. The next day the army moved
forward to Caldas; the advance, under Brigadier General Fane, to Obidos;
where some skirmishing took place between the light troops under his
orders, and the French rear.
On the 17th Sir Arthur Wellesley moved to attack General La Borde, who
had not as yet been joined by the force under General Loison, which was
marching by Alemquer, to effect that object. General La Borde was posted
at Roliça, in a strong position upon some heights which covered the road
from Obidos to Lisbon.
Sir Arthur first formed his army in columns of battalions, behind
Obidos, from thence he detached the light troops, under
Brigadier-General Fane, supported by Major General Ferguson’s brigade,
along some heights which led to the right of the enemy’s position. The
rest of the army passed through Obidos, and advanced along the plain
towards Roliça.
The enemy was first discovered, drawn up at the foot of the hill, and in
front of the position; but upon seeing our advance he retired to the
heights.
Sir Arthur, upon a close examination of the ground thus taken up, and
wishing to prevent the possibility of General La Borde’s retiring upon
the fortress of Peniche, determined to advance the right of his army as
well as the left, and thus to attack both flanks of the enemy’s
position. The attack on the enemy’s left was led on by the brigade under
Major General Hill, while the 45th and 29th Regiments under Major
General Nightingale were ordered to advance upon the centre; Major
General Ferguson’s brigade was brought from the heights on the left into
the plain, to support this movement; by continuing however its original
direction, that corps might have rendered more essential service, since
it would have fallen upon the French right, and in conjunction with
Brigadier General Fane’s corps, would have decided the fate of the
action sooner: but some mistake having arisen in an order delivered to
it, this advantage was not obtained.
The 29th Regiment ascended the hill, by a hollow way which led to the
summit, and encountered a most determined resistance on the height where
the enemy was formed. The path along which the regiment moved was so
narrow, as to admit but three or four men abreast; so that when it had
reached the ground upon which it was to deploy, the soldiers were
exposed to the fire of the French corps which occupied the vineyards,
while they were unable to form any front, from which to return it; the
grenadier company, however, charged that part of the enemy which was
upon the open, and by that act of heroism, (although it was afterwards
driven back by the fire from the vineyards), gave time to some of the
companies behind it to form, and to maintain the ground they had got
possession of. In the mean time, the light troops, under Brigadier
General Fane, had got upon the right of the position, and Major General
Hill had ascended the hill upon its left; so that the enemy was obliged
to abandon his first line, and retire into the village of Zambugera in
the rear.
From this he was driven by a most gallant charge under the direction of
Major General Spencer, which terminated the action.
General La Borde continued to make some resistance upon a height beyond
the village, only for the purpose of collecting, and forming his troops
in the plain behind it, which he executed with considerable ability.
After having formed them, upon two lines he retired, filing from his
left upon the road to Torres Vedras.
Such was the first battle fought by British troops in the great cause of
the Peninsula: it cost us some valuable lives, among whom Colonel Lake,
and Captain Bradford were the most distinguished; but it gave a sample
of that bravery and good conduct which have since marked the progress of
our arms, and have raised the military renown of England to the glorious
eminence on which it at present stands. The advantage which resulted
from this action was great. General Loison was marching to join General
La Borde, in the position of Roliça; his columns, the next day, were
distinctly perceived in the direction of Torres Vedras, to which place
he was forced to retire, in consequence of the action of the preceding
morning; but if the two corps had been at the battle of Roliça, the
British loss must have been considerably greater, and the general
operations of the campaign proportionally delayed.
The following day, the 18th, Sir Arthur Wellesley marched the army to
Lourinhal, for the purpose of bringing supplies from the shipping, as
also to receive the reinforcements which were understood to be upon the
coast from England.
The 19th he moved to Vimiera, on which day, the brigade under the orders
of General Anstruther, landed, and on the morning of the 20th marched up
to the army. Sir Arthur Wellesley had during the last two days supplied
his army with provisions, had received part of his reinforcements, and
directed the rest which were in the offing, under Major General Ackland,
to land in the course of the night; he determined, therefore, to move
forward to Mafra, and the orders to that effect were given.
The enemy was known to have collected his force at Torres Vedras; his
cavalry had patroled about the British army during the preceding days,
without being opposed; the superiority of numbers in that arm was
decided.
But Sir Arthur Wellesley conceived that by moving along the coast road
to Mafra, he should turn the position which the French occupied, and by
that operation force them to retire upon Lisbon. He was also of opinion,
that from the rapidity of his own march, he should arrive in the
neighbourhood of that town, before the enemy would be able to occupy,
with advantage, the ground which would defend it, and upon which he
should force them to give him battle. On the evening of this day,
however, a frigate, on board which was Sir Harry Burrard, arrived in
Marciera Bay; Sir Arthur Wellesley immediately waited on that officer,
to receive his orders, and to communicate to him the plans he was about
to pursue. Sir Harry Burrard disapproved of them, directed counter
orders to be issued to the army, to prevent its march in the morning,
and determined to await the arrival of the corps under the orders of Sir
John Moore. Sir Arthur Wellesley represented that the French army was
now so near, that it was impossible to prevent an action; that the corps
under his orders was equal to the contest with it; that the army of Sir
John Moore would be of infinitely more service by marching upon
Santarem; and that the greatest disadvantage would arise, from our
changing at once from an offensive to a defensive line of operations.
Sir Harry Burrard remained, however, fixed to his first intention; the
counter orders were given, and a messenger was despatched to Sir John
Moore, to direct him to move down in his transports, to Marciera Bay.
Thus was the whole system of our campaign changed in a moment. With the
enemy collected within three leagues of us, we were directed to remain
stationary, till a corps of which we had, as yet, no tidings, should
arrive.
The event, however, proved what Sir Arthur Wellesley had foretold. At
nine in the morning of the 21st, our advanced posts were attacked, and
the glorious battle of Vimiera evinced that the British army was worthy
of the confidence which its General had reposed in it, in the discussion
of the preceding evening.
Early on this day, Sir Arthur Wellesley had been to the advanced posts,
and had returned to his quarters, when the first shots were exchanged
with the advance of the enemy, who had passed from Torres Vedras,
through the defile in front of it, and had been marching during the
whole of the night.
Sir Arthur Wellesley had posted the light troops and the 50th Regiment,
under Brigadier General Fane, upon a height near a windmill, in front of
the village of Vimiera. Brigadier General Anstruther was upon the right
of this corps, but a part of his brigade was detached during the action,
to occupy Vimiera; the left of the army was placed upon a ridge of
heights, which run eastward into the country, and across which the
brigades of Major General Ferguson and Major General Nightingale were
placed in position. The rest of the army was in reserve, upon heights in
rear of Vimiera, which in reality formed the position, the one in which
the action was fought being only the advance of it. The French army was
divided into two divisions, under Generals La Borde and Loison, and the
reserve, composed of the grenadiers and light infantry, together with
the cavalry, under General Kellerman.
Junot separated his army, to attack the positions of our right and left
at the same moment, connecting his two wings by the force under General
Kellerman; they were, however, at too great a distance from each other,
and their attacks were unconnected.
The left column was first engaged with the brigade of Brigadier General
Anstruther; it attempted to turn his right, but after a contest of some
duration, in which the superiority of the British fire, in the first
instance, and afterwards of British bayonets, was completely proved, the
enemy was repulsed with great slaughter, and forced to abandon his
undertaking. The right column (which had moved to the left of the
British) began its attack upon the brigades of Major Generals Ferguson
and Nightingale, at the time that the left had been beaten by Brigadier
General Anstruther. It commenced with considerable vigour, but the
steadiness with which it was received, soon stopped its career; in less
than half an hour the column was beaten, and pursued beyond the heights;
General Bregnier and six guns taken. A French regiment afterwards
rallied near the village of Ventoso, at the extremity of the hill, and
made an attack, in column of mass, to recover the guns; but it was
completely routed, with great loss. The attack upon the village of
Vimiera, as the decisive effort, was made by the reserve, in close
column, supported by artillery, but was most gallantly resisted by the
50th and part of the 43d Regiments, who charged the flank of the column
and totally defeated it. Two squadrons of the 20th Regiment of cavalry
moved upon it when broken, and cut down and took prisoners a
considerable number of those composing it, who were escaping from the
infantry.
A short time before the victory was decided, Sir Harry Burrard arrived
from the frigate, on board which he had remained during the night; Sir
Arthur Wellesley was preparing to follow up the advantages he had
gained; and had already brought up Brigadier General Bowes’ and Major
General Ackland’s brigades, (who had as yet been in the reserve and
unengaged) with which he had intended to pursue the enemy. He had also
directed Major General Hill to be ready to move from his right along a
road which he was in possession of, and which led by the nearest line to
Torres Vedras. But Sir Harry Burrard, conceiving that such a movement
would be attended with risk, desired Sir Arthur Wellesley to discontinue
the pursuit, and to rest satisfied with the advantages that had been
gained.
Sir Arthur Wellesley remonstrated on the field against the order to
halt, but it was of no avail; the decision was not to be changed or
modified; the enemy retired at his leisure; our light troops even were
not ordered to attend his movements, and a part of the rear-guard
remained upon a hill within a short distance of our position till the
following morning.
Without wishing to cast any reflection upon the conduct of Sir Harry
Burrard, admitting that (called upon to take the command of an army
already considerably advanced in the operations it had undertaken, and
so nearly in contact with the collected force of the enemy as to make an
action inevitable), he was placed in a situation of great difficulty;
yet it is impossible not to regret that the person, in whose mind the
plan of the campaign originally was formed, was not allowed to execute
it throughout.
The system which Sir Arthur Wellesley had laid down had now been altered
in three most essential points. First, the not proceeding on the morning
of the 21st to turn the left of the enemy, by the movement he had
ordered upon Mafra; thereby changing the operations of the army from the
offensive to the defensive. Secondly, the not pursuing the enemy after
the victory of Vimiera; and, lastly, the having changed the direction of
Lieutenant General Sir John Moore’s corps, from its march upon Santarem
to its junction with the army of Sir Arthur Wellesley.
It may not be uninteresting to trace the probable effects which these
movements would have produced.
General Junot had taken the command of the whole disposable force under
his orders in Portugal (amounting to 14,000 men), at Torres Vedras on
the 20th; and presuming upon the boasted superiority of French troops to
those of any other nation, he had resolved to attack the left of the
British army, thereby leaving it no retreat if defeated, but to the
sea-shore, and to its transports, if it could effect its embarkation.
With this intention he marched on the night of the 20th by a road
leading through a most difficult defile, which brought him to the
eastward of Vimiera, near which place he arrived soon after nine o’clock
on the 21st. The order which had been issued the day before for the
British army was to march at five o’clock, by the road to the Ponte de
Roll, and from thence direct upon Mafra. This road was separated about
two leagues from that upon which the French army was advancing, and
leading in a totally different direction; divided also from it by a
woody and almost impervious tract of country; so that if the movement
had been executed, the British army would have been considerably
advanced towards Mafra, before the enemy had arrived at Vimiera.
If indeed this march had been discovered by the French patroles, it
would still have been impossible to arrest our progress, from the
difficulty of getting to us; and in all probability, the enemy would
have had no other resource than to have returned to Torres Vedras (where
the whole of his baggage had remained), and from thence tried to attack
us at Mafra, which would have been attempted under many disadvantages;
or to have marched in the greatest haste by the Cabeça de Montachique to
have covered Lisbon. To those who are acquainted with the country I am
speaking of, the difficulty of such movements (with an army which had
already been marching since the morning of the 20th), will be duly
appreciated: if the attempt to cover the capital had been made, the
confusion and hurry with which a position must have been taken up would
have bid fair for the success of our attack upon it, which could not
have been delayed beyond the 23d; the proximity of Lisbon, which was
ripe for insurrection, must have added to the difficulties of the enemy;
and upon a review of all the circumstances of the case, together with
the great talents which Sir Arthur Wellesley has since displayed, we may
be warranted in believing that complete success would have attended his
operation; and that the possession of Lisbon would have been effected
with a smaller loss, with greater advantages, and at a much earlier
period, than it was obtained by the system which was adopted.
The next point to be considered is the effect which would have been
produced by following up the enemy after the victory of Vimiera. General
Junot had advanced from Torres Vedras by a circuitous road to Vimiera;
and after his defeat the corps under Major General Hill, which had taken
no part in the action, was in possession of the direct road to that
place. The ground about Torres Vedras is extremely strong; and it is the
only good pass by which the French army could have retired to Lisbon.
Sir Arthur Wellesley was convinced that Major General Hill might have
occupied the town before the enemy could have reached it; and that he
might have defended the positions about it, till the army which was to
have followed the French should have been able to communicate with him.
The great objection that was raised to this project was, that the
British army was almost destitute of cavalry, whilst the French had of
that arm a force of at least 1,200 men; but Sir Arthur Wellesley relied
upon his own genius to provide a remedy to this objection; our infantry
was in the best order, and it has too often since been tried in presence
of a superior cavalry, to leave doubt in the mind of any British
officer, that (if judiciously managed and supported with artillery), it
is competent to advance in the face of cavalry. If, therefore, Sir
Arthur Wellesley’s intentions had been carried into effect, the
probability is, that General Hill would have taken the enemy’s baggage
at Torres Vedras; that pursued by the British army, General Junot would
have been unable to force the positions about that town; that he must,
consequently, have retired by some other road, and his army have been
subjected to considerable loss.
There remains only for us to consider the effects produced, by bringing
the corps under the orders of Sir John Moore to Marceira Bay, instead of
allowing it to proceed to Santarem.
Sir Arthur Wellesley had from the first conceived, that the corps under
his immediate command was as considerable as could conveniently be
employed upon the advance to Lisbon, and was of sufficient force to
secure the success of that operation; but he foresaw that it would be
impossible for him to prevent the French army from retiring through the
Alemtejo, to Elvas, unless he could bring a separate corps to intercept
it; with that view he had recommended the march of Sir John Moore upon
Santarem, and that excellent officer, upon his arrival in Mondego Bay,
disembarked a considerable portion of his troops with the view of
executing that movement.
From the moment Sir Arthur Wellesley was apprized of the determination
of Sir Harry Burrard to prevent that operation, and found himself
arrested in his pursuit of the enemy after the battle of Vimiera, he
gave up all hope of enclosing the French in Lisbon, or of preventing
their protracting the campaign (if they thought fit to do so) by a
movement into the southern provinces of Portugal.
We must now proceed to the relation of the events which took place after
the battle of Vimiera.
Sir Arthur Wellesley employed himself, in the evening of the 21st, in
getting stores and provisions landed for the troops, and strenuously
urged an advance on the 22d; but on the morning of that day, he was
informed that Sir Hew Dalrymple was arrived in Marceira Bay, and was
landing, to take the command. This officer soon afterwards reached
Vimiera; he gave directions for the advance of the army on the next day;
but about three o’clock in the afternoon, General Kellerman arrived at
the advanced posts, and requested a conference with the English
commander-in-chief. Some officers were directed to conduct him to
head-quarters, with the persons who formed his suite; and soon
afterwards he proposed the terms to Sir Hew Dalrymple, upon which
General Junot was prepared to conclude an armistice, with a view to his
total evacuation of Portugal.
General Kellerman insisted much upon the still remaining strength of the
French army; that 10,000 Russians were prepared to land from the
squadron which was in the port of Lisbon, and to assist in the defence
of Portugal; that General Junot (in possession of the fortresses, and
with his movements upon Elvas undisturbed) was not in a situation to be
dictated to, as to the terms upon which he was willing to evacuate the
country; that although a part of the French army had been repulsed from
the position of the British, it still possessed considerable resources;
that it had the opportunity of occupying, undisturbed, the positions
which had been marked out for the defence of Lisbon; it therefore
commanded respect; but that General Junot was willing to surrender the
entire kingdom, with the ports and fortresses, upon condition that the
French army should be sent, with its whole military baggage, and at the
expense of England, to its own country.
Sir Arthur Wellesley had conceived from the first, that the policy of
Great Britain was, to bring as early as possible to the assistance of
the Spaniards, who were now upon the Ebro, the British army that was
occupied in Portugal.
The plan upon which he had commenced the campaign was formed with that
intention; the hope of seeing it accomplished, by force of arms, was now
nearly at an end. The march of the French Emperor into Spain was already
talked of; and there seemed to be no hope, if the French were determined
to protract the campaign in Portugal, that a British army, after having
beaten them in the field, and besieged the fortresses they occupied in
the country, could arrive in time to be of any assistance to the
Spaniards. If, on the contrary, the terms proposed for the evacuation of
Portugal were, agreed to, the embarkation of the enemy might be
immediately effected, and the British army might in a short time be
marched to the assistance of the Spaniards.
With this view of the various circumstances of the moment, Sir Arthur
Wellesley gave his voice in favour of the principle of the armistice
proposed; the minor details of it were objected to by him, particularly
the wording of the article which related to the baggage, and which might
be construed into a permission to carry off the plunder of Portugal; but
it was thought, (after an understanding with General Kellerman, that it
included only the baggage “_purement militaire_,”) that the most proper
moment for its correction, would be, in the arrangement of the
convention.
With this explanation Sir Arthur Wellesley, in pursuance of Sir Hew
Dalrymple’s directions, signed the Armistice.
It would be needless to relate here the terms of a document, which gave
rise afterwards to so much discussion in England, and which must
consequently be in the recollection of every Englishman. The period of
the armistice was two days, with twenty-four hours’ notice of its
rupture, and it precluded the British army from advancing beyond the
line of the Zizandra. To give an opinion upon its merits would be
presumption; but if the opportunity which it afforded of preparing the
British army for its advance into Spain, had been properly made use of,
and if the execution of this object had not been so considerably
delayed, by the tardiness of the embarkation of the French, it is
probable that greater advantages would have resulted from it, than have
generally been brought into consideration, in the discussions which it
has occasioned.
The morning after the signature of the armistice, the British army
advanced to Ramalhal. Colonel Murray was sent into the French
head-quarters, to discuss the terms of the convention, and the French
retired from Torres Vedras, to their positions in the vicinity of
Lisbon. After the lapse of some days, the corps of Sir John Moore
arrived in Marceira bay, and was landed near Vimiera. The following days
it was advanced, and the whole army moved into Torres Vedras. The second
day from its entrance into that place, Sir Arthur Wellesley was directed
to proceed with the corps with which he originally landed, to the town
of Sobral, which commanded one of the great passes to Lisbon; on his
march to that place he received a message from Sir Hew Dalrymple,
informing him that Colonel Murray had arrived with the convention which
he had signed, and that Sir Hew was prepared to ratify it.
The feeling of the army which had fought the battle of Vimiera, was at
this time most hostile to the armistice which had been agreed upon.
The expression of a private in one of the regiments which had most
gallantly asserted the superiority of the British arms, deserves to be
recorded: whilst marching in his column to Sobral, he appeared to be
looking for something which he had lost; and upon being asked what he
was in search of, replied, _ten days_, which he believed he should never
find again.
Sir Arthur Wellesley took up the ground about Sobral, with the corps
which he commanded; a patrole of French fired upon one of his piquets,
but upon its being returned, retired. The second day, Sir Arthur
Wellesley moved on to Bucellas, where a line of demarcation was drawn
between the British and French posts.
The corps under the orders of Sir John Moore marched from Torres Vedras
to Mafra. The leading division, under Major General the Honourable
Edward Paget, had nearly reached that place, when a French officer, who
commanded a piquet in the town, desired that the English army would not
advance, as he had no orders to retire; the circumstance was reported to
Sir Hew Dalrymple, who attempted to persuade the French officer to
evacuate, but finding his efforts ineffectual, and being desirous to
avoid engaging in any fresh hostilities, he ordered his troops to
bivouaque, for the night, on the ground they occupied. The next morning
the French officer sent word, that he had received orders to retire with
his 100 men, and that the British army was at liberty to enter the town.
This story was the occasion of much witticism among the soldiers.
From Mafra, Sir Hew Dalrymple removed his head-quarters to Cintra; from
thence to the village of Acyras, near Fort St. Julian’s; and from thence
to Aquinto, between Paço d’Aquas and Lisbon, where he remained till the
embarkation of the French army had been completed.
After the signature of the convention by Sir Hew Dalrymple, at Torres
Vedras, and not at Cintra, as has generally been supposed, two officers,
Major General Beresford and Lord Proby, were sent into Lisbon to
superintend its execution. The history of their disputes with the French
would hardly be believed. It would be interesting to record them, as
instances from which the characters of many of the individuals belonging
to the French army might be collected, and the value of their point of
honour appreciated.
The first object to which the attention of the British commissioners for
the execution of the convention was drawn, was to enforce the spirit of
that instrument, by preventing the French from carrying off the plunder
of Portugal. With this view General Junot, after much opposition on his
part, was constrained to issue an order to his army, requiring it to
deliver up, into the hands of the commissioners appointed for that
purpose, every species of plundered property which it retained in its
possession. Within a few hours, however, of the issuing of this order,
information was brought to Major General Beresford, that Colonel
Cambyse, aide-de-camp to General Junot, had seized upon the Prince
Regent’s horses, had carried them from the royal stables, and was
embarking them as the property of General Junot.
The statement, upon being inquired into, was found to be correct, and
General Kellerman was applied to, to prevent this robbery; he
immediately attacked Colonel Cambyse with great severity of language,
and ordered the horses to be restored.
The next day an attempt of the same sort, by the same officer, was made
upon one of the carriages belonging to the Duke of Sussex, which was
actually embarked; Major General Beresford, upon being made acquainted
with it, sent his aide-de-camp to Colonel Cambyse, to remonstrate with
him (in terms not very agreeable) upon the repetition of a conduct so
disgraceful to the character of an officer. This lecture was, however,
of but little avail, for during the time that Major General Beresford’s
aide-de-camp was speaking, the second carriage belonging to the Duke of
Sussex was removed to the river, for the same purpose of embarkation;
both carriages were afterwards recovered, and Colonel Cambyse threatened
with a voyage to England as a prisoner, if he continued a line of
conduct such as he had till then pursued. Various other traits might be
related of this officer, but an act of General J——’s will be more
interesting, and more worthy of record: he had carried off a
considerable number of pictures, and embarked them on board his own
vessel, from the house of the Marchioness of Anjija; upon being required
to give them up, he answered, that they had been given to him. This
having been found to be incorrect, he denied all knowledge of the
transaction, and impeached a relation of his who was on board the ship
with him, but who immediately proceeded to one of the transports, where
he hoped to remain concealed. A threat of preventing the General from
sailing, till the pictures were disgorged, soon brought this gentleman
back to the frigate, and Captain Percy directed him to go on shore to
give an account of the transaction; he refused, however, to acknowledge
the jurisdiction of the commissioners, and declared his determination
not to land. The bayonets of the marines were called for, to persuade
him; they proved effectual, the gentleman was landed, and soon after,
the pictures were returned. Another general officer, on the day of his
embarkation, carried off, from the office of the commissioners, all the
papers and documents which he was able to collect, in a short visit he
made to it while the commissioners were absent; and if he had not been
driven back to Lisbon by contrary winds, (when he was forced to return
them) would have involved their proceedings in complete confusion.
On the 10th of September the French garrison evacuated Lisbon, and
General Hope was appointed Governor.
The joy of the inhabitants, when the national flag was hoisted, is
beyond any description; an universal shout re-echoed through the town;
innumerable banners, emblems of a new life of liberty, were displayed
from every corner of the capital. The ships in the river, decorated with
the proud symbols of national independence, proclaimed the triumph of
the day, by repeated discharges of artillery; and for nine nights the
town was universally illuminated, in token of the joy of the inhabitants
at their deliverance, and of hatred to the oppressors, who still
witnessed from their transports the detestation which was manifested of
them.
Thus was ended the campaign in Portugal. Parts of it are to be
regretted, but the great object for which it was undertaken was
accomplished. Portugal was freed from the enemy by the genius of Sir
Arthur Wellesley, and the bravery of British troops. Those means have
preserved it independent, and have since accomplished the deliverance of
the Peninsula. The succession of general officers to the command of an
army considerably advanced in the operations of a campaign, will rarely
be attended with advantage; to cast any blame upon those who succeeded
in this instance to the command of the British army in Portugal, would
be unjust; but we may be permitted to observe, that the genius of a
great commander was marked in the first operations of the campaign;
whilst a cold calculating policy conducted it to its final issue. Sir
Arthur Wellesley soon after embarked for England; Sir Hew Dalrymple and
Sir Harry Burrard were recalled; and the British army was intrusted to
the command of Sir John Moore.
The events of the campaign in Spain had been various, during the period
of which we have been speaking.
When the revolution first broke out in that country, when the massacre
of the 2d of May had roused every patriot to revenge the murder of his
countrymen, the force of the French in Spain was unprepared to repress
so universal an insurrection. A corps of 20,000 men was, however, soon
despatched, under the orders of General Dupont, to relieve the French
fleet at Cadiz, and to seize upon that important post. General Dupont
was too late; the Governor Solano, suspected of some attachment to the
French, was murdered by the people, and the revolution was organized
throughout Andalusia. General Castanos was appointed Captain-General,
and was invested with the command of all the troops in the south of
Spain.
He had a considerable number of veteran regiments, besides the
volunteers who had at that time hastened to enrol themselves under the
banners of their country. With an army so composed, General Castanos
marched to oppose the progress of General Dupont. This officer was
waiting, at Cordova and Andujar, the junction of a corps under General
Wedel, which was marching to his assistance from Madrid; for although
General Dupont had not as yet been opposed by any regular force, yet the
universal hostility he had met with from the peasants, as well as the
loss he had sustained by their desultory warfare, made it dangerous for
him to attempt a further advance into the country.
General Castanos resolved to meet the French force before it should
receive its expected reinforcements; he arrived with rapidity upon the
Guadalquivir, opposite Cordova, and advanced upon Andujar. At the same
time he detached a considerable corps, under Generals Coupigni and
Reding, to pass the river higher up, to place itself in rear of Dupont,
and to intercept his communications with Madrid. This object was
effected; the corps reached Baylen on the 19th of July, and was placed
between the army of Dupont and the reinforcement of 6,000 men under
General Wedel. General Dupont had on the same evening determined to
break up from his position near Andujar, where he had suffered
considerably from the hostility of the peasants, as well as from the
army of Castanos, which was engaged in continual skirmishes with his
troops. He marched during the whole night towards Baylen, and arrived
there in the morning; he found, however, the Spanish corps in position
to receive him. General Dupont made immediate dispositions for attack;
but he was foiled in all his attempts to penetrate the Spanish lines. He
expected the arrival of General Wedel; but being at last exhausted, and
dreading an attack both in front and rear, (as the corps of Castanos was
following him), he sent a flag of truce to the Spaniards about two
o’clock in the afternoon, and desired to capitulate. While the terms
were discussing, but after some advantages had been seized over General
Dupont’s army, the corps of General Wedel began to appear in rear of the
Spaniards; it soon after made an attack upon them, but was repulsed; and
General Dupont was told, that unless General Wedel was ordered to
desist, and unless his corps was included in the capitulation, the whole
of his army would be put to the sword. General Dupont was obliged to
agree, and General Wedel was ordered to remain quiet, and to consider
his corps as a part of the army which was to surrender. General Wedel
feigned obedience to this order, but finding his communication with
Madrid was open, he moved off in the course of the night, and
endeavoured to reach La Mancha. When his march was discovered, the
Spaniards announced to Dupont, that his whole army should pay for the
atrocities committed by the French throughout Spain, and be immolated in
the morning, unless Wedel was brought back. General Dupont had no means
of preventing the execution of so alarming a menace, but complying with
the alternative; he sent a senior officer in quest of Wedel, and brought
him back from Carolina, which he had already reached: the whole of the
two corps laid down their arms the same day, in conformity to a
capitulation entered upon for that purpose.