Opening of the year 1811 -- Surrender of Olivencia and Badajoz to
the French under Soult -- The French followed up in their retreat
from Santarem -- Engagements on the route -- Pombal -- Redinha --
Condexo -- Casal Nova -- Fatal results of having too large a head
-- Miranda de Corno -- Poz de Aroce -- Halt at Moira while the
French take refuge in Celorico -- The fourth division ordered to
Badajoz -- Halt at Portalegre -- Shameful instance of plunder and
sacrilege by Lawrence and his comrades -- Campo Mayor --
Outrageous theft from an unprotected female -- A stolen bird
turns evidence against its purloiner.
The remainder of the year 1810 was spent in these cantonments, the
French still lying in their position at Santarem. But the beginning of
1811 brought on us more and fatal work, for Soult's army had invested
Olivencia and Badajoz, and obliged them, not being garrisoned by the
British, but only by the Spaniards, to surrender. The way was thus
paved for one of the worst engagements in the whole Peninsular war; I
mean the storming of Badajoz.
The French did not move from Santarem till the beginning of March,
which we discovered on the 6th, and Lord Wellington, having received
fresh reinforcements from England, determined on following them up.
They had taken three routes, and consequently our army had to be
divided too. Our division, which was the Fourth, with the First and
Sixth divisions, commanded by Marshal Beresford, was to follow by way
of Thomar, and the main body of the army by way of Leiria and Pombal,
and so again to unite.
On our route we came up with the French at Thomar, but on our
appearance they retreated to Espinal, a short distance off Pombal, and
took up a strong position between these two latter places. We followed
them up and combined ourselves again into one body. At Pombal the
French had tried, but in vain, to retain the old castle situated
there, and some slight skirmishing had taken place between them and
some of our light troops. At Redinha the third, fourth, and light
divisions attacked the enemy's left, and after a stout engagement we
compelled them to retire upon their main body, and being likewise
attacked on the right, their whole body was thrown into retreat on
Condexo. On our appearance there, they set fire to the place, and
again retreated; their object in burning such a little town being
probably to prevent our cavalry, cannon, and ammunition from following
them up too closely. We were, however, delayed but a very short time,
for we marched through the burning town, certainly not letting the
grass grow under our feet, as the ground was much too hot. It appeared
once to have been a beautiful town, but after this it was one sad mass
of ruin.
The French proceeded from this place to Casal Nova, but were so
quickly followed up that Picton's division overtook them and nearly
captured their leader. Next day we came up with the enemy, posted in a
strong position at Casal Nova, and on the 14th of March the light
division attacked them and obliged them to retreat to a neighbouring
height, whence after another attack they again found it best to retire
on Miranda de Corno. Part of our division was in this engagement, and
I never saw cannon play with better or more deadly effect on any body
of men than ours did on the enemy, situated as they were on the
heights of Casal Nova. Yet they left very few dead or wounded on the
field; I think they must have carried most of them away, as the ground
was strewn with muskets and swords.
The thing I noticed most particularly in this fight was the singular
death of a man in our regiment, who was named William Halfhead, but
considering the size of his head, which must have gone a very great
way towards filling half a bushel measure, it was wrongly so, and he
was the sport of the whole regiment, who named him Bushelhead. His
head was indeed so large that he had to have two caps to make him one.
This poor fellow was standing within five yards of me when a shot from
the enemy's cannon took this same head clean off. I heard one of the
men exclaim, "Hullo, there goes poor Bushelhead," and that was all the
sympathy he got.
One division, under General Cole, proceeded after the enemy to
Panella, where it was joined by another, under General Nightingale,
and on the enemy seeing how closely they were followed they retreated
from Miranda de Corno, setting fire to that town also. We again fell
in with them on the banks of a river near the village of Poz de Aroce,
where a brisk attack was made on them by the British, and they were
driven from the river in great confusion with a loss of some four
hundred men or more. It has been reported that numbers were even
killed by their own side, through the darkness of the night and the
confusion arising from their not having expected an attack then.
We encamped there one day, and then again pursued the enemy, coming up
with them where they were posted behind the river Alva. There they had
sent out four or five hundred foragers in search of provisions: and
indeed they must have wanted them badly, for even we that had come
from the land of plenty at Torres Vedras were at that time in great
want. We did not, however, let them stay there long enough for the
suppliers to return, for we opened fire on them, and forced them to
retreat to Moira, leaving their foraging parties to the mercy of the
English and Portuguese, most of them sooner or later falling into our
hands. We crossed the Alva on a floating bridge and halted near Moira,
as the enemy had now retreated to Celorico; but here Lord Wellington
was obliged to stay the pursuit through want of provisions.
On hearing of the state of Badajoz he had already determined to send
reinforcements to that place, so our division and one of the
Portuguese under General Hamilton, with a brigade of cavalry, were
directed to march southward again and invest Badajoz before that
place's defences could be repaired by the enemy. Accordingly, on the
17th of March, our divisions crossed the Tagus at Tancos, whence we
advanced to Portalegre, halting there for about two days.
Here I think I ought to relate an incident just to show that the
English often committed depredations on the inhabitants almost as bad
as the enemy. We are often too prone to see other people's and
nations' faults, whilst if our own had but the light thrown on them,
they would often come up to, if not exceed, those of our adversaries.
We, at least my company, were billeted in a chapel, at night lying on
straw, which in the morning had to be rolled up neatly in our blankets
so as to make the place look comfortable during the day, a separate
lot of straw being allowed for every two men. Very close to this
chapel there was situated a farmyard, inhabited by a quantity of pigs:
and pork being a thing which the company had not tasted for some time,
we made up our minds to have a treat. So one of our number was chosen
to steal a pig, being, I suppose, one whose fingers were thought well
adapted to the purpose. He pitched on a very novel plan of proceeding,
for, taking a sergeant's pike, he stuck the pig with it, and then
escaped till the poor animal had died; on which, not being long
afterwards, we conveyed it to the chapel.
We thought that we had done this all unobserved, but the farmer had
either watched our movements, or must have seen the blood and gone to
count, and so missed the pig, and we soon saw that all was not to pass
off so nicely as we expected, for presently he put in an appearance at
the chapel too. Finding, however, that we were too strong for him,
and seeing nothing of the missing pig, he went off and reported the
circumstance to our colonel.
Meanwhile we lost no time in making our plans for a place of security
for our prize. At first we thought of our straw beds, that is, of
wrapping the pig in the blanket, but our afterthoughts told us that
that would not be safe. At one end of the chapel, however, there was a
large statue of the Virgin Mary, having on a robe with a long train,
and it was under this train that we concealed our prize in the best
possible manner, so as to baffle any chance of detection by the
appearance of the train being altered. And sure enough, it proved to
be the safest place we could have hit upon for our desired end, for
very soon in came the farmer with a priest, and the first thing they
did was to make their obedience to the monument, whilst we were all
the time laughing in our sleeves to think how they were likewise
honouring the pig.
Something more serious was soon to happen, however, for a very few
minutes afterwards the captain and colonel both came in and ordered
every berth to be examined; but they searched in vain, and pronounced
it to be some mistake on the farmer's part, as in that short time we
could not have cooked, eaten, or otherwise got rid of the pig. The
farmer, however, still felt certain that we had it, but it could not
be found anywhere in the chapel, so he was obliged to retire without
any compensation for his unfortunate pig. Then we breathed a little
more freely at last, for if we had been found out, we most likely
should have had our grog stopped for some time, and that goes in such
times very much against the heart of a soldier.
Early next morning our kettles were at work in the usual way, cooking
our breakfasts, but that particular morning every man of the chapel
company had a small extra portion in the pot, being his allowance of
the pig, not much certainly, when it came to be divided amongst so
many, about one pound for each man; but even that, and the more
especially as it was pork, was thought no little of in such times of
short diet, for we were not over abundantly stocked with provisions.
In fact it was chiefly for that reason, and to refresh ourselves from
the long continued marches, that we were now delaying on our southward
route.
On again resuming our march, we arrived in four or five days at a
place called Campo Mayor, where we caught sight of the enemy, but only
in marching order towards Badajoz. Here I have again to relate another
shameful instance of plunder which happened on the same march. We were
encamped near a village of no particular note, and of which therefore
I did not arrive at the exact name: and a party of men, perhaps to the
number of about twenty, including myself, were out on the forage, when
we arrived at the house of a poor woman, who evidently kept a kind of
general shop, though we could not see any other houses near. Four or
five with myself went into the shop and asked the woman if she had
any bread for sale, to which she replied that there was some baking
which would be done in about an hour, if we could wait, which we
consented to do; but meanwhile a signal was given to the remaining
part of our company, who, observing that the oven was built out from
the house, immediately set to work to make a hole with their bayonets
so as to be able to get the bread out. While this operation was going
on out at the back we were amusing the woman with some of our
Peninsular tales in front until the hour had passed; when, on her
going to draw the bread she found much to her amazement that every
loaf was missing, and daylight gleaming in on her through a hole in
the back of the oven. The poor woman was then in a terrible stew, and
we did all we could to reconcile her to her loss, making out that we
knew nothing of the sad business; but this pity did not detain us
long, for we pretty quickly made for the camp and made a first rate
meal off the bread, which was to us then a greater luxury than meat,
as we were very seldom supplied with bread, more especially so fresh
as this, which was smoking hot, though not very well done; but if it
had been dough we could have eaten it at that time.
On another occasion, on the same march, I caught another cock, or
rather took it from a farmyard; but not feeling inclined to be
troubled with a second live one, as I had still got Tom campaigning
with me, I gave it three swings by the head, which I thought broke
its neck, and put it away out of sight in my high cap. On my return to
camp, the company had just fallen in on parade, and no sooner had the
captain passed close to me, than my cap-tenant crew, or made a
terrible noise of some sort, much to the astonishment both of myself
and the captain, who said, "Hullo, Lawrence, what have you got there?"
I told him a cock, which I had bought when out foraging. "Yes," he
said, "you offered four, but took it with five," meaning, I suppose,
my fingers. He was perfectly right, but I did not think it would have
passed off quite so smoothly, as many in the Peninsula were hanged for
plunder; all we were allowed to forage for at this place being
provisions for the horses and mules.