Lawrence's division marched south to invest Badajoz -- Small
choice allowed by the fortunes of war -- In the trenches -- A
fort taken -- The town walls breached -- Refusal of the garrison
to surrender -- An assault ordered -- Lawrence in the forlorn
hope -- A somewhat premature assignation -- Fighting in the
breach -- Lawrence wounded -- Fearful scenes on his way to the
rear -- He reports on the state of affairs to Lord Wellington --
The story of Filer -- The castle carried after severe fighting,
and the English enter the town -- Dreadful excesses on the part
of the victorious troops -- Great losses on both sides in the
assault -- The end of Lawrence's assignation.
Our stay at Rodrigo was of short duration, for we were soon ordered
south to invest Badajoz, which gave us another long and tedious march
of a hundred and fifty miles or more. We arrived there at the
beginning of March, and the third, ours, that is the fourth, and the
light divisions, under the command of Marshal Beresford and General
Picton, invested the town.
We soon broke ground before the town by commencing to throw up
breastworks and batteries. Very heavy rains had just lately set in,
but our troops still pursued their undertaking and persevered in the
trenches. A cannonade was kept up from the town, which fortunately,
however, did not do much damage; but on the 19th of March the garrison
attacked us, and were only driven back with a loss on our side of a
hundred men killed and wounded, and a still greater loss on their
part.
I killed a French sergeant myself with my bayonet in this action. I was
at the time in the trenches when he came on the top and made a dart at
me with his bayonet, having, like myself, exhausted his fire; and while
in the act of thrusting he overbalanced himself and fell. I very soon
pinioned him to the ground with my bayonet, and the poor fellow soon
expired. I was sorry afterwards that I had not tried to take him
prisoner instead of killing him, but at the time we were all busily
engaged in the thickest of the fight, and there was not much time to
think about things. And besides that, he was a powerful-looking man,
being tall and stout, with a beard and moustache completely covering his
face, as fine a soldier as I have seen in the French army, and if I had
allowed him to gain his feet, I might have suffered for it; so perhaps
in such times my plan was the best--kill or be killed.
About eight hundred of us were every night busily engaged in the
trenches, whilst a large number, who were called the covering party,
were on the look out in case of an attack from the enemy. The rain
poured down so fast that balers were obliged to be employed in places,
and at times the trenches were in such a state of mud that it was over
our shoes. We were chiefly employed during the day in finishing off
what we had done in the night, as very little else could be done then
owing to the enemy's fire. We had not been to work many days before we
got within musket shot of a fine fort situated a little distance from
the town, and garrisoned with four or five hundred of the enemy, who
annoyed us rather during our operations. One night as I was working in
the trenches near this place, and just as the guard was about to be
relieved, a shell from the town fell amongst them and exploded,
killing and wounding about thirty. I never saw a worse sight of its
kind, for some had their arms and legs, and some even their heads,
which was worse, completely severed from their bodies. I remember my
comrade, Pig Harding, who was working near me at the time, and had,
like myself, become hardened to the worst of sights during our sojourn
in the Peninsula, saying as a joke, "Lawrence, if any one is in want
of an arm or a leg he can have a good choice there;" little thinking,
poor fellow, that soon he would himself be carried out, numbered with
the slain. On the morning after this explosion a terrific scene of our
mangled comrades presented itself, for their remains strewed the
ground in all directions.
Of course our next thought was how to clear ourselves of this
troublesome fort. Some suspicions were entertained that it was
undermined, so in the dead of night some engineers were sent between
it and the town to search for a train, and finding that the earth had
been moved, they dug down and found the train and cut it off. Then, on
the next night, the Eighty-seventh and Eighty-eighth regiments were
ordered up to storm the fort, and succeeded after a brisk action in
gaining the place, the most of the garrison escaping into the town.
Next morning I entered the fort with the rest, where we found the
wounded Frenchmen lying. We relieved their pain a little by giving
them some of our rum and water, and then conveyed them to the rear;
most of their wounds being bad, evidently from the bayonet, but not
mortal.
Owing to the success of taking this fort we were enabled to carry on
our works much nearer to the town, and by the beginning of April two
batteries were formed within three or four hundred yards of the place:
and in about five days, through the effects of our twenty-four
pounders, three practicable breaches were made in the walls.
Lord Wellington then ordered the town to be attacked on the night of
the 6th, having previously sent to know if it would surrender: and the
answer being "No," he asked for the inhabitants to be allowed to quit,
as he intended to take the town by assault. In consequence of this
some thousands of the inhabitants quitted the city.
A storming-party was selected from each regiment, and each of the
third, fourth, and light divisions was told off to a breach. I joined
the forlorn hope myself.
Before, however, that I proceed further in my account of this
sanguinary affair, I will relate an engagement that myself, Pig
Harding, and another of my comrades, George Bowden by name, entered
into before we even started on our way, of which the result showed
what a blind one it was. Through being quartered at Badajoz after the
battle of Talavera, all three of us knew the town perfectly well, and
so understood the position of most of the valuable shops: and hearing
a report likewise that if we succeeded in taking the place, there was
to be three hours' plunder, we had planned to meet at a silversmith's
shop that we knew about, poor Pig even providing himself with a piece
of wax candle to light us if needed.
But all this was doomed to disappointment. We were supplied with
ladders and grass bags, and having received and eaten our rations, and
each man carrying his canteen of water, we fell in at half-past eight
or thereabouts to wait for the requisite signal for all to advance.
During the interval our men were particularly silent: but at length
the deadly signal was given, and we rushed on towards the breach.
I was one of the ladder party, for we did not feel inclined to trust
to the Portuguese, as we did at Ciudad Rodrigo. On our arriving at the
breach, the French sentry on the wall cried out, "Who comes there?"
three times, or words to that effect in his own language, but on no
answer being given, a shower of shot, canister and grape, together
with fire-balls, was hurled at random amongst us. Poor Pig received
his death wound immediately, and my other accomplice, Bowden, became
missing, while I myself received two small slug shots in my left knee,
and a musket shot in my side, which must have been mortal had it not
been for my canteen: for the ball penetrated that and passed out,
making two holes in it, and then entered my side slightly. Still I
stuck to my ladder, and got into the entrenchment. Numbers had by this
time fallen: but the cry from our commanders being, "Come on, my
lads!" we hastened to the breach; but there, to our great surprise and
discouragement, we found a _chevaux de frise_ had been fixed and a
deep entrenchment made, from behind which the garrison opened a deadly
fire on us. Vain attempts were made to remove this fearful obstacle,
during which my left hand was dreadfully cut by one of the blades of
the _chevaux de frise_, but finding no success in that quarter, we
were forced to retire for a time.
We remained, however, in the breach until we were quite weary with our
efforts to pass it. My wounds were still bleeding, and I began to feel
very weak; my comrades persuaded me to go to the rear; but this proved
a task of great difficulty, for on arriving at the ladders, I found
them filled with the dead and wounded, hanging some by their feet just
as they had fallen and got fixed in the rounds. I hove down three lots
of them, hearing the implorings of the wounded all the time; but on
coming to the fourth, I found it completely smothered with dead
bodies, so I had to draw myself up over them as best I could. When I
arrived at the top I almost wished myself back again, for there of the
two I think was the worse sight, nothing but the dead and wounded
lying around, and the cries of the latter, mingled with the incessant
firing from the enemy, being quite deafening.
I was so weak myself that I could scarcely walk, so I crawled on my
hands and knees till I got out of reach of the enemy's musketry. After
proceeding for some way I fell in with Lord Wellington and his staff,
who seeing me wounded, asked me what regiment I belonged to. I told
him the Fortieth, and that I had been one of the forlorn hope. He
inquired as to the extent of my wounds, and if any of our troops had
got into the town, and I said "No," and I did not think they ever
would, as there was a _chevaux de frise_, a deep entrenchment, and in
the rear of them a constant and murderous fire being kept up by the
enemy. One of his staff then bound up my leg with a silk handkerchief,
and told me to go behind a hill which he pointed out, where I would
find a doctor to dress my wounds; so I proceeded on, and found that it
was the doctor of my own regiment.
Next after me Lieutenant Elland was brought in by a man of the name of
Charles Filer, who had seen him lying wounded at the breach with a
ball in the thigh, and on his asking him to convey him from the
breach, had raised him on his shoulders for that object. But during
his march a cannon-ball had taken the officer's head clean off without
Filer finding it out on account of the darkness of the night, and the
clamour of cannon and musketry mingled with the cries of the wounded.
Much it was to Filer's astonishment, then, when the surgeon asked him
what he had brought in a headless trunk for; he declared that the
lieutenant had a head on when he took him up, for he had himself asked
him to take him from the breach, and that he did not know when the
head was severed, which must have been done by one of the bullets of
which there were so many whizzing about in all directions. Some may
doubt the correctness of this story, but I, being myself both a hearer
and an eyewitness to the scene at the surgeon's, can vouch for the
accuracy of it. Certainly Filer's appearance was not altogether that
of composure, for he was not only rather frightened at the fearful
exposure of his own body at the breach and across the plain, but he
was evidently knocked up, or rather bowed down, by the weight of his
lifeless burden, which he must, if he came from the breach, have
carried for upwards of half a mile, so that, under these
disadvantages, the mistake might easily have been made even by any one
of harder temperament than his. But the tale did not fail to spread
through the camp, and caused great laughter over Filer, sentences
being thrown at him such as "Who carried the man without a head to the
doctor?" &c.
After Lord Wellington had found it useless to attempt to face the
breach with the _chevaux de frise_, he altered his plans of attack.
More success had fortunately been achieved in the other breaches, so
he withdrew the men from our fatal breach to reinforce the others, but
not till at least two thousand had been killed or wounded in this
single assault. He had ordered the castle to be attacked, and a
quantity of troops had been supplied for the purpose with long
ladders, which had been raised against the walls and filled with men:
but the enemy showered down a mass of heavy substances, such as trees
and large stones, and amongst all a number of deadly bursting shells,
and thus broke the ladders and tumbled the men down from top to
bottom, crushing still more underneath.
Yet more men were found ready to push on to the sanguinary scene. More
ladders had indeed to be procured, which caused another great delay,
but as soon as they arrived they were quickly hoisted, and the
precaution was taken this time to fix them farther apart, so that if
more beams were waiting to be rolled over, they might not take such a
deadly sweep.
The second attempt was more successful, for the ramparts were gained
and the French driven back: and a single piece of ground being thus
gained, a footing was soon established for many more, who succeeded in
turning round some guns and firing them along the ramparts, soon
sweeping the enemy off them.
Fresh reinforcements on both sides shortly arrived at this for us
successful spot, but the garrison was soon forced back into the town.
The ramparts were then scoured, the breaches cleared, and the _chevaux
de frise_ pulled down, and the main body of the English entered the
town. Some opposition had to be overcome in the streets, but that was
soon cleared away, and the French escaped to Fort San Cristoval.
Our troops found the city illuminated to welcome them, but
nevertheless then began all the horrors that generally attended a
capture by assault--plunder, waste, destruction of property,
drunkenness, and debauchery. I was myself exempt from all this, owing
to my wounds, which kept me in camp at the time the town was taken;
but though I was at least a mile off, I could distinctly hear the
clamour of the rabble, as the guns and musketry had ceased; and next
morning I hobbled as well as I could into the town with the help of
the handle of a sergeant's pike chopped up so as to form a stick, and
there sure enough I found a pretty state of affairs. Pipes of wine had
been rolled into the streets and tapped by driving the heads in, for
any one to drink of them who liked, and when the officers tried to
keep order by throwing all of these over that they could, the men that
were in a state of drunkenness lay down to drink out of the gutters,
which were thus running with all sorts of liquors; doors were blown
open all through the city, both upstairs and down, by placing muskets
at the keyhole and so removing the locks. I myself saw that morning a
naked priest launched into the street and flogged down it by some of
our men who had a grudge against him for the treatment they had met at
a convent, when staying in the town before. I happened to meet one of
my company, and asked him how he was getting on, to which he replied
that he was wounded in the arm, but that he had got hold of something
that compensated for that a little, showing me a bag of about a
hundred dollars that he had succeeded in obtaining, and saying that I
should not want whilst he had got it.
But whilst all this debauchery was going on amongst some of our
soldiers, I will give a word of credit to a great many of the more
respectable, who were trying as much as lay in their power to stop the
ferociousness of the same. That morning I met many about, who said
they were sorry to think that the soldiers could not carry it on
without going to such excesses as they did, respectable houses being
ransacked from top to bottom, with no regard to the entreaties of the
few inhabitants who remained within the walls. Things that could not
be taken were often destroyed, and men were threatened if they did not
produce their money, and the women sometimes the same. Comparatively
few murders were, I believe, committed, but some no doubt occurred.
It was not till the drunken rabble had dropped into a sound slumber or
had died in consequence of their excesses, that the unhappy city
became at all composed; but in the morning some fresh troops were
placed on guard, and a few gallows were erected, but not much used.
Two or three officers had been killed in the act of keeping order, and
I have been given to understand that some of the fifth division,
having arrived after most places had been ransacked, plundered their
drunken fellow-comrades, and it was likewise reported that a few were
even murdered. Lord Wellington punished all offenders by stopping
their grog for some time; but in these times such scenes as these were
generally found to occur after a place had had to be so hardly fought
for. No doubt in the present day, at least half a century later, more
discipline is observed in similar circumstances, which must be owned
as a great improvement.
This same morning the garrison surrendered. Before the assault it had
numbered about five thousand, but we found that some twelve hundred of
these had been slain, and now the rest were prisoners; while upwards
of one hundred and fifty guns, eighty thousand shots, and a great
quantity of muskets and ammunition were taken in the place. Ours was a
much severer loss, for nearly five thousand of our men, including
three or four hundred officers, were either killed or wounded. But it
must be observed that with the circumstances under which our troops
had to fight it was a wonder that they entered the town at all that
night, every obstacle that a cunning enemy could devise being there to
be overcome. Every kind of combustible deadly in its action was thrown
amongst the men; placed in readiness along the ramparts were trees,
stones, and beams; and the worst of all was the fearful _chevaux de
frise_; in fact nothing had been wanting to discourage the men, who,
however, pushed on, being as anxious as Lord Wellington himself to get
into the town.
All being now over, thoughts of Pig Harding, George Bowden, and our
engagement, ran in my head, and how it had all failed, poor Pig having
received seven shots in his body, and George Bowden having had both
thighs blown off. Both must have met with instant death, and I myself
had four wounds and was disabled for some time from getting about. I
resolved then that I would never make any more engagements under the
same fearful circumstances. We missed poor Pig more than any man of
the regiment, for he passed many an hour away pleasantly with his
jokes, being a thoroughbred Irishman, and not only that, but he
supplied us with many an extra piece of tommy by his roguish tricks.