Tolerable quarters—Beguiling of time on picquet duty—The
army again in motion—A critical position—French cunning, and
occasional politeness—Skirmishing affairs preceding the battle of
the Nive—Details of that engagement—Its advantageous consequences
to our army—Acts of complaisance between the vanguards of the
opposed forces—Christmas festivities.
The weather continued variable, intermixed with cold winds, sleet, and
heavy rains. However, as we were pretty well housed, the hardships of
other campaigns ceased, for we had no longer fatiguing marches, the
rations were regularly served out, and, as long as our money lasted,
the hordes of congregated suttlers at Saint Jean de Luz supplied us
in abundance with every article of domestic comfort. When on picquet,
our time was occupied chattering with the peasantry, a sort of
_demi-basque_ tribe. They had no decided costume: the females twisted
striped handkerchiefs of various patterns round their heads according
to the French custom, and wore wooden shoes or _sabots_,—an article
well adapted to keep out the mud in the execrable roads of this country.
On the 9th of December the army was put in motion, and the second
division forded the river near Cambo, with little opposition from the
enemy. Our division advanced against the French in front of Bassussary,
and drove in some of their picquets; while the left under General
Hope advanced on the road leading from St. Jean de Luz, nearly up
to the entrenched camp in front of Bayonne. During the whole day a
good deal of desultory skirmishing took place, and our army formed a
sort of half-circle, the river Nive cutting through the right centre,
which made the distance from right to left at least twenty miles, by
roads scarcely passable. Towards evening the left of the army retired
to their former line of picquets, and the main body to Saint Jean
de Luz and its environs; but our division kept its ground more than
half a mile in front of the village of Arcangues. The enemy seemed
determined not to quit the fortified house near the little bridge,
or Pont d'Urdains, and as we passed north of it, we had overlooked
its enclosure, occupied by a French brigade, congregated in a noisy
assemblage, while their rations were served out. Apprehensive that
the sight of the loaves and wine casks might excite us to desperate
expedients, one or two hundred of the enemy's tirailleurs extended
themselves, and advanced, without much firing, to clear the ground.
After dark our sentinels were withdrawn, for the purpose of taking post
on our original picquet ground. The company I commanded held a small
promontory, or tongue of land, which jutted out considerably beyond all
the other line of picquets; and, without doubt, was a most precarious
post, as neither flank was secure: and the sentinels were planted on a
half-circle, to shield the main body of the picquet. Notwithstanding
the ground was so disadvantageous, it was necessary to hold it, as it
commanded the debouché of the road from Bayonne by Bassussary. During
the night we heard confused sounds, like the rumbling of artillery,
intermixed with a good deal of hallooing and barking of dogs; but two
hours before daybreak all the sounds died away, and every thing was
hushed and tranquil. The suspicion, however, of the field officer of
the picquets was awakened, and he ordered me to feel my way towards
the house of Oyhenart usually held by the French, to ascertain whether
they had taken up the ground from which they had been driven on the
previous day. Four soldiers accompanied me, but, as good luck would
have it, I could not pass the abattis, composed of trees, which had
been cut down to stop up the broad road, and to cover our picquet-house.
We then crossed into a field, and, stealing along close to the right
of the road, as cautiously as possible, waited the French sentinels'
well-known _qui vive_. Suddenly I felt the serjeant pulling at the
skirts of my jacket, (for I had thrown off my cloak as an incumbrance,)
and he whispered me to cast my eyes to the left, where I saw about
a dozen Frenchmen, within six yards of us, gliding along the road
towards our _abattis_, I think, without shoes, for they did not make
the least noise. A small hedge screened us; the serjeant was about to
fire, but I put his fusee down with my hand, and we all squatted in
the mud, anxiously awaiting the result. Time hung on leaden wings,
and they were almost entangled in the branches of the felled trees
before our sentry discovered and challenged them; but not being
quite certain of the cause of the slight noise, he did not fire, and
presently these grey-coated phantom-looking figures came running past
us, with noiseless footsteps: we then made good haste back, having
been, according to our calculation, within ten or twelve yards of their
sentry, who was usually planted behind a hedge which flanked their
picquet-house, distant from ours two hundred yards.
At daybreak, on the 10th December, we perceived the advance of the
enemy within one hundred yards of our picquet, loitering about as
usual, without any outward display of any thing extraordinary going
on, or any signs indicating that they were about to assume offensive
movements. At eight o'clock, Sir James Kempt came to my picquet-house,
and, having seated himself by the fire, the assembled party consisted
of Lieut. Col. Beckwith (a staff officer) of the Rifle Corps, Lieut.
Col. William Napier, Major Sir John Tylden, Lieut. Maclean[14], and
the Honorable C. Monck, of our regiment, who all entered into an
indifferent conversation, without contemplating that an attack was
meditated by the enemy. Lieut. Col. Napier remarked, that he thought
the French loiterers seemed very busy, which induced us to approach the
window, which commanded a full view of the enemy's picquet-house, and
having looked at them some time, without seeing the cause of alarm,
some of the party burst into a loud laugh, and declared that it was
only Napier's fancy; but he still persisted, and would not give up
his point, saying, that he had seen them very often before, in a like
manner, walking off by ones and twos, to assemble at given points,
before making some rapid and simultaneous assault; and, sure enough,
before the expiration of half an hour, these ones and twos increased
considerably all along the hedges.
Although Sir James Kempt was always on the alert, (no general could
be more so,) still he persisted that nothing would take place, and
ordered the first brigade to return to its quarters at Arbonne, a
distance of more than two miles, and over a very bad road. Lieut.-Col.
Beckwith remarked, that he now agreed that the French seemed to be
eyeing the post, and advised Sir James to rescind the order, as it
would be better to conceal the troops, and to wait until the enemy
should develope their intentions. The field-officer rode off to warn
the other companies in advance to be in readiness. These were formed
disadvantageously, on a gentle concave acclivity, which could not be
helped, from the nature and shape of the country.
Lieut.-Col. Beckwith alone remained, and, before he rode off, walked
round the sentinels with me, as I was ordered to defend the post,
should the enemy come on, to oblige them fully to develope their
intentions. Shortly after this, one of the sentinels stationed on the
most rising ground, turned his back to the French and beckoned me. On
my reaching his post, he informed me that he had seen a mountain-gun
brought on a mule's back, and placed behind a bush. In a few minutes
the Duke of Dalmatia, with about forty staff officers, came within
point-blank range of my picquet to reconnoitre the ground. During this
interval, I fancied that I could hear the buzz of voices behind a
small hillock, and, on clambering a fruit-tree near my picquet-house,
I could just descry a column of the enemy lying down, in readiness to
pounce on us. There being no longer any doubt that they were about to
attack, I instantly mounted my horse, (leaving the company in charge
of the next senior officer,) and rode at full speed in search of the
general, whom I met within a quarter of a mile, and told him there
would be a general action fought that day, and there was no time to be
lost. Sir James Kempt ordered me to send a mounted officer from the
picquet to Gen. Baron C. Alten, and to be sure not to begin the firing
until the very last moment. He sent also the greater part of another
company to my assistance. In two or three minutes after I had returned
to the picquet, some French soldiers, headed by an officer, issued from
behind the hedges, and moved round our left flank, within one hundred
yards. The officer naturally thought we should fire at him; therefore,
to feign indifference, he placed his telescope to his eye, looked
carelessly about in all directions, and made a bow to us. Further to
the left, we could also see a body of French cavalry debouching from
the small thicket of la Bourdique, three miles distant, near the great
Bayonne road.
The French soldiers, witnessing our civility to their small party, were
determined not to be outdone in _politesse_, and called out to our
sentinels to retire, in French and Spanish. At half-past nine o'clock,
A. M., the enemy's skirmishers, in groups, came forward in a careless
manner, talking to each other, and good-naturedly allowed our sentinels
to retire without firing on them. They imagined, from their superiority
of numbers, to gain this post by a _coup de main_; and the more
effectually by this means to surprise, if possible, the whole line of
outposts. However, when they were within twenty yards of our abattis,
I said, "Now fire away."[15] The first discharge did great execution.
These were the first shots fired, and the beginning of the battle of
the _Nive_. The enemy then debouched from behind the thickets in
crowds; our flanks were turned right and left, and the brisk French
voltigeurs rushed impetuously forward, (covered by two mountain-guns,)
blowing their trumpets, and shouting "_En avant, en avant Français;
vive l'Empereur!_"
The atmosphere was clouded, and the bright flashing and pelting of
musketry sprang up with amazing rapidity. One of our companies, having
held its ground too long in front of the village of Arcangues, was
surrounded. The officer commanding it, asked the soldiers if they would
charge to the rear, and they rushed into the village with such a loud
huzza, that an officer commanding a French regiment was so surprised at
their sudden appearance, as to halt the column for a few moments; and
the fugitives sprang across the single street and escaped.
Two battalions of the rifle corps being formed in columns of grand
divisions, or single companies, behind the various houses, developed
their skirmishers in admirable order, and fought in and round the
scattered houses of Chau with great skill. So close was the combat,
that Lieut. Hopwood and a serjeant of the rifle corps, were both shot
through the head by a single Frenchman putting the muzzle of his piece
quite close to them, while they were engaged with others in front.
In the meantime the whole of our picquets now ceased firing and
retired leisurely, unengaged, took their station with the rest of the
regiment, and formed in a churchyard, on our main position, more than
half a mile behind the village of Arcangues,[16] a sort of neutral
post for reserve picquets; but the village was not entrenched, was not
intended to be defended, and formed no part of our main position, owing
to the ground on both flanks of it being badly adapted for defence. The
isolated church and the château called Arcangues, have been the cause
of those numerous mistakes made relatively to the distant village of
that name being the supposed scene of a severe conflict. The rest of
the brigade already lined the breastwork of a château, two hundred
yards to the right.
After a protracted struggle the rifle corps retired, and formed on
the position marked out for defence, but left a number of skirmishers
behind some stone walls, at the bottom of the slope, from which the
enemy could never dislodge them, owing to our overpowering fire from
the high ground.
The second brigade was now sharply engaged, having been in echelon to
our left and obliquely to the rear, following the undulating nature of
the ground. The plateau of Arcangues and Bassussarry being gained by
the enemy, now became the pivot of the French marshal's operations,
which enabled his right wing to attack the fifth division, on the high
road to St. Jean de Luz, where there was some very hard fighting, in
front of the batteries; and it was some hours before the first division
and Lord Aylmer's brigade could come to their assistance, these troops
having been peaceably in their quarters, and far to the rear, when this
sudden irruption took place. The enemy's attack ceased opposite to us,
with the exception of a firing of artillery within about a thousand
yards, which continued to play into the churchyard, and knocked about
the tombstones during the greater part of the day. In one spot a small
green mound was carried away, and also the lid of an infant's coffin,
leaving the putrid remains of the child exposed to view. However, we
kept up an incessant discharge of small-arms, which so annoyed the
French gunners, that, during the latter part of the day, they ceased to
molest us. The walls of the stone church were cannon-proof; I saw many
balls break large pieces out of the edifice, and fall harmlessly on
the sod.
The assembled enemy on the neighbouring heights seemed now to meditate
an assault. Two companies lined the interior of the building, the
windows of which were surrounded with wooden galleries; water was
taken into the church, and a strong traverse was erected opposite the
door, so that, if by any accident the enemy had attacked and gained
possession of it, the fire from the galleries would have driven them
out again.
The rest of the battalion were stationed behind a stone-wall, which
encircled the churchyard, and in reserve behind the edifice, ready to
make a charge of bayonets should the enemy succeed in breaking through
this enclosure. Their advance were stationed behind a house, within two
hundred yards of us, covered by their cannon at the brow of the hill,
while we only possessed two mountain three-pounders, which were placed
to the left of the church, to fire down a narrow lane which threatened
our left flank. For some days previously, trifling working parties
had been employed, of twenty or thirty men, in cutting down a small
plantation in front of the church, which was so intersected by the
trees entangled together, that the enemy never could have penetrated
them; but the other entrenchments consisted of a few shovels of earth,
negligently thrown up, which the French voltigeurs might have hopped
over; and as for flank defences, they seemed not to have been thought of.
At about one o'clock, P. M., the fourth division came to our support,
and crowned a hill six hundred yards behind the château occupied by the
rifle corps.
During the night the whole of our regiment were hard at work, in
throwing up a formidable battery in front of the churchyard, and
before morning it was finished, with embrasures, regular _épaulements_,
(filled up with small bushes, to make the enemy believe that it was a
masked battery,) and traverses. Both our flanks were secured by felled
trees, strewed about, and even at the back of the burial-ground, which
was now impregnable against any sudden assault; nor do I believe six
thousand men could have taken it. So much for the ingenuity of infantry
soldiers, with their spades, shovels, pickaxes, bill-hooks, and
hatchets.
On the 11th, it was supposed that the Duke of Dalmatia intended
to break the centre, by advancing against the church and château,
(commonly called Arcangues); accordingly General Hope detached the
right part of his force nearer to the left of our division; but the
enemy again attacked, and obliged him to resume his original ground,
where there was a good deal of firing, and many brave men fell on
both sides, without any decided result. During this day, although the
French advance was quite close to us, there was no firing; and we
industriously profited by every moment of tranquillity to strengthen
our position. At this juncture, two battalions of Nassau troops
deserted into the British lines.
On the 12th, a fusillade on the left continued the greater part of
the day; every now and then there was a cessation of small-arms;
then a sudden rush and burst of firing, and so on. On calling the
roll in the afternoon, a dozen men of our regiment were missing, and
an officer being sent with a patrole to a small house enclosed in
an apple-orchard, he found the enemy's soldiers and our men mixed
together, in a room full of apples. The French soldiers, considering
themselves prisoners, brought forth the whole of their apples as a
peace offering to the officer, who merely pointed to the door, from
whence they effected their escape; while, on the other hand, the
culprits belonging to us were brought back, with downcast heads, and
their haversacks crammed with apples.
In the evening the enemy formed a strong mass of troops, within
cannon range, and in front of our second brigade, but made no further
movement; while those opposite to us were employed in throwing up
the earth, as if to construct batteries. During the night, some of
the rifle corps on picquet, being close to the French, observed, by
the reflection of a bright fire, about thirty stand of the enemy's
firelocks piled in front of their picquet-house, which the rifles
determined to possess themselves of, and darted forward with such
rapidity that the French sentinel had only time to discharge his piece
and run away. The rest of the picquet bolted the front, and escaped,
without arms, by the back door.
On the 13th, in the morning, it was found that the French Marshal had
disappeared from our front, and during the night had again marched in
a half-circle through Bayonne, for the purpose of attacking the second
division before sufficient support or assistance could be given them,
finding the three previous days' fighting and demonstrations had failed
to force the lines, or oblige Field Marshal Wellington to withdraw his
right flank from the right bank of the Nive.
The sixth and third divisions supported the right of the army; the
fourth division the centre; and the seventh the left centre: these
four divisions being in reserve, and occasionally in motion towards
those points threatened.
The company I commanded was again for outpost duty, at the identical
spot which we had been driven from. We relieved a company of the
rifle corps which had felt its way, _au point du jour_, to our old
picquet-house. The officer whom I relieved, in a merry mood, bade
us good morning, and pointed, at the same time, towards the French
infantry, with knapsacks on, bayonets fixed, and aided by a squadron
of hussars. The old _abattis_ had been entirely removed, and as it was
quite uncertain at what moment the enemy might make a forward movement,
I ordered another abattis to be constructed at the turn of the road;
and I never saw the men work with better humour. In a few minutes a
sufficient number of trees were cut down, and collected, to stop any
sudden ebullition of the cavalry; it would have been any thing but
agreeable to be attacked on both flanks, while the dragoons charged up
the road.
This little defence was barely finished, when some straggling shots
took place in front of General Hill's corps, occupying a concave
position of about four miles in extent, between the rivers Adour
and Nive; the right centre occupying the village of St. Jean vieux
Monguerre. The day was fine, and in a short time the white smoke
ascended in clouds, amidst peals of musketry, and the rapid and
well-served artillery. The battle was well contested on both sides,
and there was no break in the musketry. Both bodies fought as if this
struggle was to wind up, in brilliant style, the battle of the Nive.
As fast as the grape-shot mowed down, and split the enemy's columns,
they again closed up, and strenuously endeavoured to break through the
brave lines of the second division, who repulsed all their attacks, and
crowned the day by forcing the enemy into their entrenchments with such
decision, that they no more resumed the offensive, nor was the army
further disturbed by petty affairs.
The right of the French army now confined itself to the usual outposts
in front of Bayonne; its right centre extended on the right of the
Adour to Port de Lanne, and its left flank on the right bank of the
river Bidouze, and their cavalry filled up the intermediate country as
far as the small fortress of Saint Jean Pied de Port, which position
embraced our army, and formed two sides of a square,—our right face
being on the river Joyeuse, and supported by the light cavalry.
Various acts of complaisance now passed between the vanguards of the
hostile armies. A lady from Bayonne, with a skipping poodle dog, one
day came to see _les habits rouges of les Anglais_; and while she was
going through those little elegancies, so peculiarly characteristic
of the French, the poodle dog came towards us, and from an over
officiousness, some of the French soldiers whistled to keep it within
bounds, which so frightened the little creature, that at full speed it
entered our lines, and crouched at our feet. Without a moment's delay
we sent it back by a soldier to its anxious mistress, who was highly
delighted, and with her own delicate hand presented a goblet of wine to
the man, who, with an unceremonious nod, quaffed the delicious beverage
to the dregs, touched his cap, and rejoined us, with a pipe in his
mouth and a store of tobacco,—the latter having been presented to him
by the French soldiers.
With the exception of a trifling change of quarters, and a few other
occurrences, the year closed without any thing to interrupt our
little Christmas festivities, which were always kept in due form. On
Christmas-day I was on picquet, but we partook of the usual fare, and
some mulled wine, with as much tranquillity as if afar removed from
hostile alarms. Just before dark, while passing a corporal's picquet,
an officer and myself stood for a few minutes, to contemplate a poor
woman, who had brought her little pudding, and her child, from her
distant quarters, to partake of it with her husband, by the side of a
small fire kindled under a tree.
[Footnote 14: Now Captain Maclean.]
[Footnote 15: Probably such a word of command may astonish _some
adjutant-major_, but I give it as it occurred: in rough ground, in
rough times, and in a rough country, such expedients are resorted to in
war.]
[Footnote 16: On assembling in the churchyard behind Arcangues, an
athletic soldier of this company being without his knapsack, told
us, that while passing through the village three French soldiers had
surrounded him, and one had hold of his collar; but he throwing his
knapsack on the ground, knocked one man down, and the others seized his
knapsack, and by this means he effected his escape.]