motion, and when I raised my head from its stone pillow in the morning,
it was a subject of speculation to guess within a league of its next
resting place, although we were revolving within a very limited space.
Nothing clings so tenaciously to my mind as the remembrance of the
different spots on which I have passed a night. Out of six years
campaigning it is probable that I slept at least half the period under
the open canopy of heaven, (barring latterly a sheet of canvas,) and
though more than twenty years have since rolled over my head, I think I
could still point out my every resting place.
On the night of the 1st of May I was sent from Alameda with thirty
riflemen and six dragoons to watch a ford of the Agueda. The French
held a post on the opposite side--but at daylight in the morning I
found they had disappeared. Seeing a Spanish peasant descending on the
opposite bank--and the river not being fordable to a person on foot,
while its continuous roaring through its rugged course drowned every
other voice--I detached one of the dragoons, who brought him over
behind him, and as he told me that the French were, at that moment, on
the move to the left, I immediately transmitted the information to head
quarters. I was soon after ordered to join my battalion, which I found
lodged in a stubble field about half way between Gallegos and Alameda,
on a piece of rising ground which we had christened Kraüchenberg's
hill, in compliment to that gallant captain of German hussars, who,
with his single troop, had made a brilliant and successful charge from
it the year before on the enemy's advancing horsemen.
The following night we had gone to bed in the village of Espeja, but
were called to arms in the middle of it, and took post in the wood
behind.
With the enemy close upon us, our position was any thing but a safe
one; but, as it included a conical hill, which commanded a view of
their advance, Lord Wellington was anxious to retain it until the last
possible moment.
The chief of the German hussars, who covered the reconnoitring party,
looked rather blank when he found, next morning, that the infantry
were in the act of withdrawing, and tried hard to persuade Beckwith to
leave two companies of riflemen as a support, assuring him that all the
cavalry in the world were unable to harm them in such a cover; but as
the cover was, in reality, but a sprinkling of the Spanish oaks, our
chief found it prudent to lend his deaf ear to the request. However,
we all eventually reached the position of Fuentes unmolested--a piece
of good luck which we had no right to expect, considering the military
character of our adversaries, and the nature of the ground we had to
pass over.
Having been one of the combatants in that celebrated field, and having
already given a history of the battle such as the fates decreed, it
only remains with me, following the example of other historians, to
_favour_ the public with my observations thereon.
In the course of my professional career several events have occurred
to bother my subaltern notions on the principles of the art of war,
and none more than the battle of Fuentes; but to convey a just idea
of what I mean to advance, it is necessary that I should describe
the ground, and while those who choose, may imagine that they see it
sketched by one who never before drew any thing but the cork out of a
bottle, or a month's pay out of the hands of the pay-master, others,
whose imaginations are not so lively, must be contented in supposing
themselves standing, with an army of thirty thousand men, between the
streams of the Tourones and Dos Casas, with our right resting on Nava
d'Aver, and our left on Fort Conception, a position extending seven
miles.
The French advanced from Rodrigo with forty-five thousand men to
relieve their garrison, which we had shut up in Almeida, which is
in rear of our left--and in place of going the straight road to it,
through Alameda and Fort Conception, Massena spreads his army along our
whole front, and finally attacks the most distant part of it, (Nava
d'Aver.)
That, I believe, was all strictly according to rule, for the purpose
of preserving his base of operations; but I am labouring to shew that
it was an occasion on which Massena might and ought to have set every
rule at defiance, for, in possession of a strong fortress under his own
lee, and another under that of his adversary, with an army in the field
exceeding ours by a fourth, he ought to have known that no possible
cast of the dice could have enabled us to do more than maintain the
blockade--that, if we gave him a defeat it was impossible for us to
follow it up, and if he defeated us our ruin was almost inevitable--in
short, had I been Prince of Essling, I would have thrust every thing
but my fighting men under the protection of the guns of Rodrigo, and
left myself, free and unfettered, to go where I liked, do what I could,
and, if need be, to change bases with my adversary; and it is odd to me
if I would not have cut such capers as would have astonished the great
Duke himself.
From Fuentes to Alameda, a distance of between two and three miles,
trusting to the ruggedness of the banks of the Dos Casos, the position
was nearly altogether unoccupied on our side, and had Massena but
taken the trouble to wade through that stream as often as I had,
sometimes for love and sometimes for duty, he would have found that
it was passable in fifty places--and, as the ground permitted it, had
he assembled twenty thousand infantry there, to be thrust over at
day-light, and held the rest of his army in readiness to pounce upon
the wing to be attacked--and, had he prayed too, as did the Scottish
knight of old, (who had more faith in his good sword than in the
justice of his cause,) in these words, "O, Lord, we all know that
the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong, and that,
whichever side you take, will be sure to win; but, if you will, for
this once, stand aside, and leave us two to fight it out, I shall be
for ever obliged to you"--he might then have commenced the day's work
with a tolerable prospect of success--for, if half the twenty thousand
men, on reaching the top of the hill, remained to keep the one wing in
check, and the remainder turned against the flank of the devoted one,
while his main army took it in front, they would have had good cause to
feel ashamed of themselves if they did not dispose of it long before
human aid could have reached, and odd would it have been if the others
had not then considered it high time to be off.
What alterations Lord Wellington would have made in his dispositions
had he found himself opposed to one who held such fighting views as
I do, it is not for me to say; but it is evident that he estimated
Massena at his full value when he persisted in holding such an extended
position with an inferior army, while the other, with his superior
force, was satisfied with battering a portion of his best regimental[E]
brains out against the stone walls about Fuentes, and retiring, at
last, without attaining the object of his advance.
[E] The most formidable attack there on the 5th was made
by his most choice troops, and they succeeded in
penetrating to the high ground behind the church,
where they were met by a brigade of the 3d division,
and routed with great slaughter. One of the wounded
prisoners pointed out to me the body of a captain of
grenadiers, (whose name I forget,) who was renowned in
their army for his daring.
The foregoing reflections will, no doubt, to many, appear wild; but,
with a tolerable knowledge of the ground, and of the comparative
strength, I am not the less satisfied that my plan may be often tried
with success.
In speaking of distance, however, it must not be forgotten that
in war the opposing bodies come together with wonderful celerity;
for, although soldiers do not see so far as severed lovers, who,
by transmitting their looks at each other through the moon or some
favoured star, contrive to kill space more quickly, yet the soldier,
who has no great stomach for the battle, and sees his enemy in the
morning almost out of sight, begins to reckon himself secure for that
day, must be rather astonished when he finds how soon a cannon-ball
makes up the difference between them!
Packenham, (the gallant Sir Edward,) who was then adjutant-general, led
the brigade of the third division, which restored the battle in the
village. He came to us immediately after, faint with excitement, where
we were standing in reserve, and asked if any officer could oblige him
with some wine or brandy--a calabash was unslung for his use, and after
taking a small sip out of it, and eulogizing, in the handsomest manner,
the conduct of the troops, he left us to renew his exertions wherever
they might be wanted. He was as gallant a spirit as ever went into a
field!
Lord Wellington, in those days, (as he was aware,) was always
designated among the soldiers by the name of _Old Douro_. The morning
after the battle, the celebrated D. M. of the guards, rode up to a
group of staff officers, and demanded if any of them had seen Beau
Douro this morning? His Lordship, who was there reclining on the ground
in his boat-cloak, started up, and said, "Well! by ---- I never knew
I was a beau before!" The same morning that officer came galloping
to us with an order--our chief, (Sidney Beckwith,) who was never on
horseback except when his duty required it, had the greatest horror
of the approach of a staff officer, who generally came at full speed
until within a yard or two--seeing M. coming on as usual on his fiery
dark chesnut, he began waving his hand for him to stop before he had
got within fifty yards, and calling out, "Aye, aye, that will do! we'll
hear all you have got to say quite well enough!"
Among the many great and goodly names of general officers which the
Army-list furnished, it was lamentable to see that some were sent
from England, to commands in that army, who were little better than
old wives,[F] and who would have been infinitely more at home in
feeding the pigs and the poultry of a farm-yard than in furnishing
food for powder in the field; yet so it was:--the neglect of such an
one to deliver an order with which he had been entrusted, lost us the
fame and the fruits of our victory, it prevented a gallant regiment
from occupying the important post intended for it, and it cost that
regiment its gallant chief, whose nice sense of honour could see no way
of removing the stain which the neglect of his superior had cast upon
his reputation, than by placing a pistol to his own head. His fate was
sadly and deeply deplored by the whole army.
[F] No allusion to the last-mentioned officer, who was one
of another stamp.
As this particular period furnished few occurrences to vary the
monotony of the hammer-and-tongs sort of life we led, I shall take
advantage of the opportunity it affords to fire a few random shots for
the amusement of my readers.
SHOT THE FIRST.
_The Duel._
On reaching Paris, after the battle of Waterloo, we found Johnny Petit
in very bad humour; and that three out of every four of the officers
in each army were not disposed of by private contract, with pistols
and small swords, must be ascribed to our ignorance alike of their
language and their national method of conveying offence; for, in regard
to the first, although we were aware that the _sacre boeuftake_ and
_sacre pomme de terre_, with which we were constantly saluted, were
not applied complimentarily, yet, as the connecting offensive links
were lost to most of us, these words alone were not looked upon as
of a nature requiring _satisfaction_; and, with regard to practical
insults, a favourite one of theirs, as we afterwards discovered, was to
tread, as if by accident, on the toe of the person to be insulted. Now,
as the natural impulse of the Englishman, on having his toe trodden
on, is to make a sort of apology to the person who did it, by way of
relieving him of a portion of the embarrassment which he expects to be
the attendant of such awkwardness, many thousand insults of the kind
passed unnoticed:--the Frenchman flattering himself that he had done a
bold thing,--the Englishman a handsome one; whereas, had the character
of the tread been distinctly understood, it would, no doubt, have been
rewarded on the spot by _our_ national method--a douse on the chops!
However, be that as it may, my business is to record the result of one
in which there was no misunderstanding; and, as some one has justly
remarked, "when people are all of one mind, it is astonishing how well
they agree."
It occurred at an early hour in the morning, at one of those seminaries
for grown children so common in Paris, and the parties (a French
officer and one of ours) agreed to meet at day-light, which left
them but brief space for preparation, so that when they arrived on
the ground, and their fighting irons were paraded, the Frenchman's
were found to consist of a brace of pocket-pistols, with finger-sized
barrels,--while our officer had a huge horse pistol, which he had
borrowed from the quarter-master, and which looked, in the eyes of the
astonished Frenchman, like a six-pounder, the bore of it being large
enough to swallow the stocks, locks, and barrels of his brace, with the
ball-bag and powder-horn into the bargain; and he, therefore, protested
vehemently against the propriety of exposing himself to such fearful
odds, which being readily admitted on the other side, they referred the
decision to a halfpenny whether they should take alternate shots with
the large, or one each with the small.
The Fates decreed in favour of the small arms; and, the combatants
having taken their ground, they both fired at a given signal, when
the result was that the Frenchman's pistol burst, and blew away his
finger, while our man blew away his ramrod; and as they had no longer
the means of continuing the fight, they voted that they were a brace
of good fellows, and after shaking the Frenchman by his other three
fingers, our officer accompanied him home to breakfast.
SHOT THE SECOND.
_Cannon-Law._
While stationed, in the province of Artois, with the Army of
Occupation, one of our soldiers committed a most aggravated case
of highway-robbery upon a Frenchwoman, for which he was tried by a
court-martial, condemned, and suffered death within three days. About
a fortnight after, when the whole affair had nearly been forgotten
by us, the French report of the outrage, after having gone through
its routine of the different official functionaries, made its
appearance at our head-quarters, describing the atrocious nature of
the offence, and calling for vengeance on the head of the offender.
The commander-in-chief's reply was, as usual, short, but to the
purpose:--The man was hanged for it ten days ago.
SHOT THE THIRD.
_Civil Law._
Whilst on the station mentioned in the foregoing anecdote, two of our
medical officers went in a gig, on a short tour, in the neighbourhood
of our cantonments, and having unconsciously passed the line of
demarkation, they were pulled up on their entrance into the first town
they came to, for the payment of the usual toll; but they claimed a
right to be exempted from it on the score of their being officers of
the Army of Occupation. The collector of the customs, however, being
of a different opinion, and finding his oratorical powers thrown away
upon them, very prudently called to his aid one of those men-at-arms
with which every village in France is so very considerately furnished.
That functionary, squaring his cocked hat, giving his mustachoes a
couple of twists, and announcing that he was as brave as a lion, as
brave as the devil, and sundry other characters of noted courage,
he, by way of illustration, drew his sword, and making half-a-dozen
furious strokes at the paving stones, made the sparks fly from them
like lightning. Seeing that the first half dozen had failed to extract
the requisite quantity of sous, he was proceeding to give half-a-dozen
more, but his sword broke at the first, and our two knights of the
lancet, having fewer scruples about surrendering to him as an unarmed
than an armed man, made no further difficulty in accompanying him to
the municipal magistrate.
That worthy, after hearing both sides of the case with becoming
gravity, finally sentenced our two travellers to pay for the repairs
of the sword which had been so courageously broken in defence of their
civic rights.
SHOT THE FOURTH.
_Sword Law._
At the commencement of the battle of Waterloo, three companies of our
riflemen held a sand bank, in front of the position, and abreast of La
Haye Saint, which we clung to most tenaciously, and it was not until
we were stormed in front and turned in both flanks that we finally
left it. Previous to doing so, however, a French officer rushed out of
their ranks and made a dash at one of ours, but neglecting the prudent
precaution of calculating the chances of success before striking the
first blow, it cost him his life. The officer he stormed happened to
be a gigantic highlander about six feet and a half--and, like most big
men, slow to wrath, but a fury when roused. The Frenchman held that in
his hand which was well calculated to bring all sizes upon a level--a
good small sword--but as he had forgotten to put on his spectacles,
his first (and last) thrust passed by the body and lodged in the
highlander's left arm. Saunders's blood was now up (as well as down)
and with our then small regulation half-moon sabre, better calculated
to shave a lady's-maid than a Frenchman's head, he made it descend on
the pericranium of his unfortunate adversary with a force which snapped
it at the hilt. His next dash was with his fist (and the hilt in it)
smack in his adversary's face, which sent him to the earth; and though
I grieve to record it, yet as the truth must be told, I fear me that
the chivalrous Frenchman died an ignominious death, viz. by a kick. But
where one's own life is at stake, we must not be too particular.
SHOT THE FIFTH.
_Love Law._
Of all the evils with which a sober community can be cursed, there is
none so great as a guard-house; for while the notable house-wife is
superintending the scouring of her kitchen coppers, and the worthy
citizen is selling his sweets, the daughters are as surely to be found
lavishing their's upon their gaudy neighbour, while the nursery-maid
standing a story higher is to be seen sending her regards a step
lower--into the sentry-box.
Though many years have now passed away, I remember as if but yesterday,
my first guard mounting, in a certain garrison town which shall be
nameless. After performing the first usual routine of military duties,
my next was, as a matter of course, to reconnoitre the neighbourhood;
for if a house happened to be within range of the officer's beat,
he seldom had to look for an adventure in vain,--nor had I on the
occasion alluded to. The station was in the centre of a populous city,
the purlieus were genteel, and at the window of one of the opposite
houses I soon descried a bevy of maidens who seemed to be regarding me
with no small curiosity.
Eyes met eyes which looked again, and as all seemed to go merry as a
marriage bell, I took out my pencil and motioned as if I would write,
which meeting with an approving smile, I straightway indited an epistle
suitable to the occasion, and shewing it to them when ready, I strolled
past the door, where, as I expected, I found a fair hand which seemed
to belong to nobody, in readiness to receive it.
In the course of a few minutes I received a note from the same
mysterious hand, desiring to be informed for which of the group my last
effusion was intended; and though the question was rather a puzzler to
a person who had never seen them before, and, even then, too far off to
be able to distinguish whether their eyes were green or yellow, yet I
very judiciously requested that my correspondent would accept it on her
own account. It was arranged accordingly, and her next epistle, while
it preached prudence and discretion, desired that I should come to the
door at eleven at night when she would have an opportunity of speaking
to me.
It may be imagined that time flew on leaden wings until the arrival
of the appointed hour, when proceeding as directed, I found the door
ajar, and the vision of the hand, now with a body in the back ground,
beckoning me to enter. Following the invitation the door was gently
closed, and I was soon in a large dimly lighted hall, by the side of my
fair incognita, with my hand clasped in hers. But ah me! I had barely
time to unburthen myself of a hurricane of sighs (enough to have blown
a fire out) and to give one chaste salute, when papa's well-known knock
was heard at the door and dissolved the charm.
In an agony of affright my fair friend desired me to run up stairs to
the first landing, and as I valued my life, not to stir from it until
she should come to fetch me.
Misfortunes they say seldom come single, and so I found it, for I
had scarcely reached the desired place when the voice of the sentry
thundered, "Guard, turn out!" and conveyed to me the very pleasant
information that the grand rounds approached, while I, the officer of
the guard, was absent, the captive of a damsel. I was in a precious
scrape; for, prior to the arrival of the other evil, I held it to be
somewhat more than doubtful whether I was reserved for a kiss or a
kick, but the odds were now two to one in favour of the latter, for
if I did not find my way outside the walls within three quarters of a
minute, it was quite certain that if I failed to receive what was due
to me inside the house I should catch it outside, by getting kicked
from the service. My case was therefore desperate, and as the voice of
papa was still heard at the stair-foot and precluded the possibility
of bolting undetected by the door, my only alternative was the stair
window.
The field officer was passing under it as I threw up the sash, and
though the distance to the ground loomed fearfully long there was no
time for deliberation, but bundling out, and letting myself down by the
hands as far as I could, I took my chance of the remainder and came
down on the pavement with such a tremendous clatter that I thought I
had been shivered to atoms. The noise fortunately startled the field
officer's horse, so that it was as much as he could do to keep his seat
for the moment, which gave me time to gather myself up; when, telling
him that in my hurry to get to my place before him, I had stumbled
against a lamp post and fallen, the affair passed away without further
notice, but my aching bones, for many an after-day, would not permit me
to forget the adventure of that night.
In my next turn for guard at the same place I got a glimpse of my fair
friend, and but for once. I saw on my arrival that the family were in
marching order, and my old acquaintance, the hand, soon after presented
me with a billet announcing their immediate departure for the season,
to a distant watering place. She lamented the accident which she feared
had befallen me, and as she thought it probable that we would never
meet again, she begged that I would forgive and look upon it merely as
the badinage of a giddy girl.
SHOT THE SIXTH.
_At a sore subject._
"They who can feel for other's woes should ne'er have cause to
mourn their own!" so sayeth the poet, and so should I say if I saw
them feeling; but I have found such a marvellous scarcity of those
tender-hearted subjects on the field of battle, that, in good sooth, if
the soldier had not a tear to shed for his own woes, he stood a very
good chance of dying unwept, which may either be considered a merry or
a dreary end, according to the notion of the individual.
In taking a comparative view of the _comforts_ attending a sea and land
fight, I know not what evils our nautical brethren may have to contend
against, which we have not; but they have this advantage over us--that,
whatever may be the fate of the day, they have their bed and breakfast,
and their wounds are promptly attended to. This shot, be it observed,
is especially fired at the wounded.
When a man is wounded the corps he belongs to is generally in action,
and cannot spare from the ranks the necessary assistance, so that he is
obliged to be left to the tender mercies of those who follow after, and
they generally pay him the attention due to a mad dog, by giving him as
wide a berth as they possibly can--so that he often lies for days in
the field without assistance of any kind.