their feet over the loose stones with shoes full of sand, and
expending their valuable wind, which is so much wanted towards the end
of the day, in scrambling over uneven ground, let me recommend the
advanced guard to confine itself to the high road until patrolling
becomes necessary, which, in a forest, will be from the time they
enter until they leave it, unless they can trust to the information
that the enemy are otherwise engaged. And in the open country every
officer commanding a regiment, troop, or company, who has got half a
military eye in his head, will readily see when it is advisable to
send a patrole to examine any particular ground; and in so doing his
best guide is to remember the amount of the force which he covers;
for while he knows that the numbers necessary to surprize an army of
fifty thousand men cannot be conveniently crammed within the compass
of a nutshell, he must, on the other hand, remember that there are
few countries which do not afford an ambuscade for five or ten
thousand--_ergo_, if there be any truth in Cocker, the man covering
five thousand men must look exactly ten times sharper than the man who
covers fifty thousand.
With an army of rough and ready materials such as ours had now become,
the usual precautions were scarcely necessary, except in the immediate
vicinity of the foe, for they had by this time discovered that it was
more easy to find than to get rid of us; but they ought, nevertheless,
to be strictly observed at all times, unless there are good and
sufficient reasons why they need not.
In an open country a few squadrons of dragoons shoved well to the front
will procure every necessary information; but, in a close country, I
hold the following to be the best advanced guard.
1st. A subaltern with twelve hussars, throwing two of them a hundred
yards in front, and four at fifty.
2d. A section of riflemen or light infantry at fifty yards.
3d. The other three sections of the company at fifty yards.
4th. Four companies of light infantry at a hundred yards, with
communicating files, and followed closely by two pieces of horse
artillery, and a squadron of dragoons.
On falling in with the enemy, the advanced videttes will fire off their
carabines to announce it, and if their opponents fall back they will
continue their onward movement. If they do not, the intermediate four
will join them, and try the result of a shot each; when, if the enemy
still remain, it shews that they decline taking a civil hint, which,
if they are infantry, they assuredly will; and dispositions must be
made accordingly. While the remaining hussars are therefore dispatched
to watch the flanks, the leading section of infantry will advance in
skirmishing order, and take possession of the most favourable ground
near the advanced videttes. The other three sections will close up to
within fifty yards, one of them, if necessary, to join the advanced
one, but a subdivision must remain in reserve. The guns will remain
on the road, and the dragoons and infantry composing the main body of
the advanced guard will be formed on the flanks, in such manner as the
ground will admit, so as to be best ready for either attack or defence;
and in that disposition they will wait further orders, presuming that
the officer commanding the division will not be a hundred miles off.
The foregoing applies more particularly to the following of an enemy
whom you have not lately thrashed, whereas, if following a beaten one,
he ought never to be allowed a moment's respite so long as you have
force enough of any kind up to shove him along. He ought to be bullied
every inch of the way with dragoons and horse artillery, and the
infantry brought to bear as often as possible.
However much additional celerity of movement on the part of the latter
force may be desirable, I must impress upon the minds of all future
comptrollers of knapsacks, that on no consideration should an infantry
man ever be parted from his pack. He will not move a bit faster without
than he does with it, nor do I think he can do a yard further in a
day's walking; they become so accustomed to the pace, and so inured
to the load, that it makes little difference to them whether it is on
or off,[H] while the leaving of them behind leads, at all times, to
serious loss, and to still more serious inconvenience.
[H] Lightly however as they felt the load at the time, it
was one that told fearfully on the constitution, and I
have seen many men discharged in consequence, as being
worn out, at thirty-five years of age.
The rifles during the war were frequently, as an indulgence, made to
fight without them, but on every occasion it proved a sacrifice, and
a great one. For although they were carried for us by the dragoons,
who followed after, yet as our skirmishing service took us off the
road, the kit of every man who got wounded was sure to be lost, for
while he was lying kicking on his back in the middle of a field, or
behind a stone wall, impatiently waiting for assistance, his knapsack
had passed on to the front, and was never heard of more, (for every
one has quite enough to do to take care of his own affairs on those
occasions,) and the poor fellow was thus deprived of his comforts at a
time when they were most needed. A dragoon, too, carrying several of
them would sometimes get hit, and he of course pitched them all to the
devil, while he took care of himself, and the unfortunate owners after
their hard day's fighting were compelled to sleep in the open air for
that and many succeeding nights, without the use of their blankets or
necessaries. On one occasion I remember that they were left on the
ground, and the battle rolled four miles beyond them, so that when it
was over, and every one had already done enough, the soldiers were
either obliged to go without, or to add eight or ten miles walk to a
harassing day's work.
The secretary at war eventually came in for his share of the trouble
attendant on those movements, for many were the claims for compensation
which poured in upon the War-Office in after years, by the poor fellows
who had bled and lost their all upon those occasions, nor do I know
whether they have ever yet been set at rest.
So much for advanced guards and people in a hurry, and as I happen to
have a little leisure time and a vacant leaf or two to fill up, I shall
employ it in taking a shot at field fortification; and in so doing, be
it remarked, that I leave science in those matters to the scientific,
for I am but a practical soldier.
The French shewed themselves regular moles at field work, for they had
no sooner taken post on a fresh position, than they were to be seen
stirring up the ground in all directions. With us it was different.
I have always understood that Lord Wellington had a dislike to them,
and would rather receive his enemy in the open field than from behind
a bank of mud. How far it was so I know not; but the report seemed to
be verified by circumstances, for he rarely ever put us to the trouble
of throwing up either redoubts or breast works, except at particular
outposts, where they were likely to be useful. At Fuentes indeed he
caused some holes to be dug on the right of the line, in which the
enemy's cavalry might have comfortably broken their necks without
hurting themselves much; but I do not recollect our ever disturbing the
ground any where else--leaving the lines of Torres Vedras out of the
question, as containing works of a different order.
If time and circumstances permitted common field works to be so
constructed as to prevent an enemy from scrambling up the walls, they
would indeed be a set of valuable pictures in the face of a position;
but as with mud alone they never can, I, for one, hold them to be worse
than nothing, and would rather go against one of them, than against the
same number of men in the open field.
It is true that in such a place they will suffer less in the first
instance, but if they do not repulse their assailants or make a speedy
retreat, they are sure to be all netted in the long run, and the
consequence is, that one rarely sees a work of that kind well defended,
for while its garrison is always prepared for a start, its fire is not
so destructive as from the same number of men in the field, for in the
field they will do their duty, but in the redoubt they will not, and
half of their heads will be well sheltered under the ramparts, while
they send the shot off at random. I know the fellows well, and it is
only to swarm a body of light troops against the nearest angle, to get
into the ditch as quickly as possible, to unkennel any garrison of
that kind very cleverly, unless there be other obstacles than their
bayonets to contend against.
From field works I return to our work in the field, to state that after
several days march under a broiling hot sun, and on roads of scorching
dust, which makes good stiff broth in winter, we found ourselves on the
banks of the Tormes, near the end of the bridge of Salamanca; but as
the gatekeeper there required change for twenty-four pound shot, and
we had none at the moment to give him, we were obliged to take to the
stream.
I know not what sort of toes the Pope keeps for his friends to kiss,
but I know that after a week's marching in summer I would not kiss
those of the army for a trifle; however, I suppose that walking feet
and kissing ones wear quite different pairs of shoes. The fording of
the clear broad waters of the Tormes at all events proved a luxury in
various ways, and considerably refreshed by that part of the ceremony,
we found ourselves shortly after in the heart of that classical
city, where the first classics which we were called upon to study,
were those of three forts, of a class of their own, which was well
calculated to keep their neighbours in a constant supply of hot water.
They were not field works such as I have been treating of in the last
few pages, but town ones, with walls steep enough and ditches deep
enough to hold the army, if packed like herrings. For ourselves we
passed on to the front, leaving the seventh division to deal with them;
and a hard bargain they drove for a time, though they finally brought
them to terms.
I rode in from the outposts several times to visit them during the
siege, and on one occasion finding an officer, stationed in a tower,
overlooking the works and acting under rather particular orders, it
reminded me of an anecdote that occurred with us in the early part
of the war. One of our majors had posted a subaltern with a party of
riflemen in the tower of a church, and as the place was an important
one, he ordered the officer, in the event of an attack, never to quit
the place alive! In the course of the evening the commanding officer
went to visit the picquet, and after satisfying himself on different
points, he demanded of Lieut. ---- what dispositions he had made for
retreat in the event of his post being forced?--To which the other
replied, "None." "None, Sir," said the commanding officer, "then let
me tell you that you have neglected an important part of your duty."
"I beg your pardon," returned the officer, "but my orders are never to
quit this spot alive, and therefore no arrangements for retreat can be
necessary!" It may be needless to add that a discretionary power was
then extended to him.
In a midnight visit which I paid to the same place in company with
a staff friend, while the batteries were in full operation, we were
admiring the splendour of the scene, the crash of the artillery, and
the effect of the light and shade on the ruins around, caused by the
perpetual flashes from the guns and fire-balls, when it recalled to
his remembrance the siege of Copenhagen, where he described a similar
scene which was enacted, but in a position so much more interesting.
The burying-grounds in the neighbourhood of that capital, were
generally very tastefully laid out like shrubberies with beds
of flowers, appropriate trees, &c., and intersected by winding
gravel-walks, neatly bordered with box. One of the prettiest of
these cemeteries was that at the Lecton suburb, in which there was
a profusion of white marble statues of men and women--many of them
in loose flowing drapery, and also of various quadrupeds, erected in
commemoration or in illustration of the habits and virtues of the
dead. These statues were generally overshadowed by cypress and other
_lugubrious_ trees.
Closely adjoining this beautiful cemetery, two heavy batteries were
erected, one of ten-inch mortars, and the other of twenty-four pound
battering guns.
In passing alone through this receptacle of the dead, about the hour of
midnight, the rapid flashes of the artillery seemed to call all these
statues, men, women, and beasts, with all their dismal accompaniments,
into a momentary and ghastly existence--and the immediate succession
of the deep gloom of midnight produced an effect which, had it been
visible to a congregation of Scotch nurses, would in their hands have
thrown all the goblin tales of their ancestors into the shade, and
generations of bairns yet unborn would have had to shudder at the
midnight view of a church-yard.
Even among the stern hearts to whose view alone it was open, the
spectacle was calculated to excite very interesting reflections. The
crash of the artillery on both sides was enough to have awakened the
dead, then came the round shot with its wholesale sweep, tearing up the
ornamental trees and dashing statues into a thousand pieces,--next came
the bursting shell sending its fragments chattering among the tombs and
defacing every-thing it came in contact with. These, all these came
from the Danes themselves, and who knew but the hand that levelled the
gun which destroyed that statue was not the same which had erected it
to the memory of a beloved wife? Who knew but that the evergreens which
had just been torn by a shot from a new-made grave, were planted there
over the remains of an angelic daughter, and watered by the tears of
the man who fired it? and who knew but that that exquisitely chiseled
marble figure, which had its nose and eye defaced by a bursting shell,
was not placed there to commemorate the decease of a beauteous and
adored sweetheart, and valued more than existence by him who had caused
its destruction!
Ah me! war, war! that
"Snatching from the hand
Of Time, the scythe of ruin, sits aloft,
Or stalks in dreadful majesty abroad."
I know not what sort of place Salamanca was on ordinary occasions,
but at that time it was remarkably stupid. The inhabitants were yet
too much at the mercy of circumstances to manifest any favourable
disposition towards us, even if they felt so inclined, for it was far
from decided whether the French, or we, were to have the supremacy, and
therefore every one who had the means betook himself elsewhere. Our
position, too, in front of the town to cover the siege was anything
but a comfortable one--totally unsheltered from a burning Spanish sun
and unprovided with either wood or water, so that it was with no small
delight that we hailed the surrender of the forts already mentioned,
and the consequent retreat of the French army, for in closing up to
them, it brought us to a merry country on the banks of the Douro.
Mirth and duty there, however, were, as they often are, very much
at variance. Our position was a ticklish one, and required half the
division to sleep in the field in front of the town each night fully
accoutred, so that while we had every alternate night to rejoice in
quarters, the next was one of penance in the field, which would have
been tolerably fair had they been measured by the same bushel, but it
could not be, for while pleasure was the order of the evening we had
only to close the window-shutters to make a summer's night as long
as a winter's one--but in affairs of duty, stern duty, it told in an
inverse ratio; for our vineyard beds on the alternate nights were not
furnished with window-shutters, and if they had been, it would have
made but little difference, for in defiance of sun, moon, or stars, we
were obliged to be on our legs an hour before day-break, which in that
climate and at that season, happened to be between one and two o'clock
in the morning.
Our then brigadier, Sir O. Vandeleur, was rigorous on that point,
and as our sleeping, bore no proportion to our waking moments, many
officers would steal from the ranks to snatch a little repose under
cover of the vines, and it became a highly amusing scene to see the
general on horseback, threading up between the rows of bushes and
ferreting out the sleepers. He netted a good number in the first cast
or two, but they ultimately became too knowing for him, and had only
to watch his passing up one row, to slip through the bushes into it,
where they were perfectly secure for the next half hour.
I have already mentioned that Rueda was a capital wine country. Among
many others there was a rough effervescent pure white wine, which I had
never met with any where else, and which in warm weather was a most
delicious beverage. Their wine cellars were all excavated in a sort of
common, immediately outside the town; and though I am afraid to say the
extent, they were of an amazing depth. It is to be presumed that the
natives were all strictly honest, for we found the different cellars
so indifferently provided with locks and keys, that our men, naturally
inferring that good drinkers must have been the only characters in
request, went to work most patriotically, without waiting to be
pressed, and the cause being such a popular one, it was with no little
difficulty that we kept them within bounds.
A man of ours, of the name of Taylor, wore a head so remarkably like
Lord Wellington's, that he was dubbed "Sir Arthur" at the commencement
of the war, and retained the name until the day of his death. At
Rueda he was the servant of the good, the gallant Charley Eeles, who
afterwards fell at Waterloo. Sir Arthur, in all his movements for
twenty years, had been as regular as Shrewsbury clock; he cleaned his
master's clothes and boots, and paraded his traps in the morning, and
in the evening he got blind drunk, unless the means were wanting.
In one so noted for regularity as he was, it is but reasonable to
expect that his absence at toilet time should be missed and wondered
at; he could not have gone over to the enemy, for he was too true-blue
for that. He could not have gone to heaven without passing through the
pains of death--he was too great a sinner for that. He could not have
gone downwards without passing through the aforesaid ceremony, for
nobody was ever known to do so but one man, to recover his wife, and
as Sir Arthur had no wife, he had surely no inducement to go there;
in short the cause of his disappearance remained clouded in mystery
for twenty-five hours, but would have been cleared up in a tenth part
of the time, had not the rifleman, who had been in the habit of
sipping out of the same favourite cask, been on guard in the interim,
but as soon as he was relieved, he went to pay his usual visit, and
in stooping in the dark over the edge of the large headless butt to
take his accustomed sip, his nose came in contact with that of poor
Sir Arthur, which, like that of his great prototype, was of no mean
dimensions, and who was floating on the surface of his favourite
liquid, into which he must have dived deeper than he intended and got
swamped. Thus perished Sir Arthur, a little beyond the prime of life,
but in what the soldiers considered, a prime death!
Our last day at Rueda furnished an instance so characteristic of the
silence and secrecy with which the Duke of Wellington was in the habit
of conducting his military movements, that I cannot help quoting it.
In my former volume I mentioned that when we were called to arms that
evening, our officers had assembled for one of their usual dances.
Our commanding officer, however, Colonel Cameron, had been invited
to dine that day with his lordship, and in addition to the staff, the
party consisted of several commanding officers of regiments and others.
The conversation was lively and general, and no more allusion made to
probable movements than if we were likely to be fixed there for years.
After having had a fair allowance of wine, Lord Wellington looked at
his watch, and addressing himself to one of his staff, said, "Campbell,
it is about time to be moving--order coffee." Coffee was accordingly
introduced, and the guests, as usual, immediately after made their bow
and retired. Our commandant in passing out of the house was rather
surprised to see his lordship's baggage packed, and the mules at the
door, saddled and ready to receive it, but his astonishment was still
greater when he reached his own quarter, to find that his regiment was
already under arms along with the rest of the troops, assembled on
their alarm posts, and with baggage loaded in the act of moving off, we
knew not whither!
We marched the whole of the night, and day-light next morning found
us three or four leagues off, interposing ourselves between the enemy
and their projected line of advance. It was the commencement of the
brilliant series of movements which preceded the battle of Salamanca.
Pass we on, therefore, to that celebrated field.
It was late in the afternoon before it was decided whether that
day's sun was to set on a battle or our further retreat. The army
all stood in position with the exception of the third division,
which lay in reserve beyond the Tormes. Its commander, Sir Edward
Packenham, along with the other generals of divisions, attended on the
commander-in-chief, who stood on an eminence which commanded a view of
the enemy's movements.
The artillery on both sides was ploughing the ground in all directions,
and making fearful gaps in the ranks exposed--the French were fast
closing on and around our right--the different generals had received
their instructions, and waited but the final order--a few minutes must
decide whether there was to be a desperate battle or a bloody retreat;
when, at length, Lord Wellington, who had been anxiously watching
their movements with his spy-glass, called out, "Packenham, I can stand
this no longer; now is your time!" "Thank you," replied the gallant
Packenham, "give me your hand, my lord, and by G--d it shall be done!"
Shaking hands accordingly, he vaulted into his saddle, and the result
of his movement, as is well known, placed two eagles, several pieces of
artillery, and four thousand prisoners in our possession.
Packenham afterwards told a friend of mine who was on his staff, that,
while in the execution of that movement, he saw an opportunity in
which, by a slight deviation from his original instructions, he might
have cut off twenty thousand of the enemy, without greater risk to
his own division than he was about to encounter; but he dreaded the
possibility of its compromising the safety of some other portion of the
army, and dared not to run the hazard.
I have, in the early part of this volume, in speaking of individual
gallantry in general, given it as my opinion that if the merits of
every victory that had been hotly contested could be traced to the
proper persons, it would be found to rest with a very few--for to those
who know it not, it is inconceivable what may be effected in such
situations by any individual ascending a little above mediocrity.
The day after the battle of Salamanca a brigade of heavy German
dragoons, under the late Baron Bock, made one of the most brilliant
charges recorded in history.
The enemy's rear guard, consisting of, I think, three regiments of
infantry, flanked by cavalry and artillery, were formed in squares on
an abrupt eminence, the approach to which was fetlock deep in shingle.
In short, it was a sort of position in which infantry generally think
they have a right to consider themselves secure from horsemen.
The Baron was at the head of two splendid regiments, and, as some of
the English prints, up to that period, had been very severe upon the
employment of his countrymen in the British service, he was no doubt
burning with the desire for an opportunity of removing the unjust
attack that had been made upon them, and he could not have even dreamt
of one more glorious than that alluded to.