The city of Barcelona, one of the most populous and important in Spain,
is not naturally a place of great strength. It is situated on a plain
close to the sea, and its defenses, although extensive, were not very
formidable against a strong army provided with a siege train. To hold
them fully required a much larger force than was disposable for the
defense. The garrison was, however, fully equal in strength to the force
of Peterborough, and should have been able to defend the city against
an army vastly exceeding their own numbers. Ten bastions and some old
towers protected the town toward the north and east; between the city
and the sea was a long rampart with an unfinished ditch and covered
way; while to the west, standing on a lofty elevation, the castle of
Montjuich overlooked and guarded the walls of the city.
From the center of the sea face a mole projected into the water,
guarding a small harbor. The country round the town was fertile and
beautiful, carefully cultivated and watered by streams flowing from the
neighboring mountains. At the distance of about a league from the shore
the land rises into an amphitheater of hills thickly dotted with small
towns, villages, and country seats.
As soon as the allied fleet had anchored the garrison commenced a
cannonade from the mole and from a battery close to the sea upon some
of the transports nearest to the shore; but their shot did not reach the
vessels, and the fire soon ceased. The east wind, however, proved more
troublesome than the enemy's fire, and the ships rolled heavily from the
sea which came in from the east.
The Prince of Hesse Darmstadt with two frigates put into the harbor of
Mataro for the purpose of obtaining intelligence. He found that in the
neighboring town of Vich the people had risen for King Charles, and
putting himself in communication with their leaders he advised them to
march upon the coast and cooperate with the forces about to land. On his
way to rejoin the fleet the prince chased two Neapolitan galleys, which
managed to get safely into Barcelona.
They had on board the Duke and Duchess of Popoli, M. d'Abary, a French
officer of distinction, and forty other young gentlemen, partisans of
the Duke d'Anjou, and destined for employment in different parts of
Spain. They were now, however, detained in the city by the governor to
assist in its defense.
The first glance into the state of affairs gave the Earl of Peterborough
such an unfavorable impression that he at once objected to the proposed
attack.
The governor, Don Francisco Velasco, was a brave and distinguished
officer, the garrison equaled his own force in numbers, the town was
well supplied with provisions and stores, and, in order to add to the
difficulties of the besiegers, orders had been given to destroy all the
forage in the surrounding country which could not be conveyed within
the walls. Any Austrian sympathies the inhabitants might possess were
effectually suppressed by the power and vigilance of the governor.
The besieging army was far too small to attempt a blockade, while the
chances of an assault upon an equal force behind well armed defenses
seemed almost desperate.
The engineers declared that the difficulties of a regular siege were
enormous, if not insurmountable, and that the only vulnerable point
was covered by a bog, where the transport of cannon or the formation
of works would be impossible. Above all, the principal hope of the
expedition had failed. The adherents of Charles had assured him that the
whole country would rise in his favor on the arrival of the fleet, and
that the town itself would probably open its gates to receive him. These
promises had, like all others he had received from his Spanish friends,
proved delusive. Few of the peasantry appeared to receive them on the
coast, and these were unarmed and without officers.
The earl's instructions, although generally quite indefinite, were
stringent upon one point. He was on no account to make the slightest
alteration in the plans of the expedition, or to take any decisive step
for their accomplishment, without the advice of the council of war. This
would have been in any case embarrassing for a general; in the present
instance it was calculated altogether to cripple him. There was but
little harmony among the chief officers. The English military officers
were by no means on good terms with each other, while the naval officers
regarded almost as an insult Lord Peterborough's being placed in command
of them. The English hated the German officers and despised the Dutch.
Lord Peterborough himself disliked almost all his associates, and
entertained a profound contempt for any one whose opinion might differ
from that which he at the moment might happen to hold.
It was impossible that good could come from a council of war composed
of such jarring elements as these. However, Lord Peterborough's
instructions were positive, and on the 16th of August, 1705, he convened
a council of war on board the Britannia, consisting of nine generals and
a brigadier, with two colonels on the staff. The king and the Prince
of Hesse Darmstadt were present, but took no part in the deliberations.
Singularly enough the council proved unanimous in their opinion that
Barcelona should not be attacked. The reasons for the decision were
drawn up and put on record. The council pointed out all the difficulties
which existed, and declared the strength of the allied army to be only
nineteen battalions of foot and two cavalry regiments, of whom no more
than seven thousand men were fit for action, and only one hundred and
twenty dragoon horses had survived the voyage in serviceable condition.
The decision of the council was most opposed to the hopes and wishes of
Charles and the Prince of Hesse Darmstadt, and they addressed letters
of strong remonstrance to Lord Peterborough, urging that to abandon the
expedition at this juncture would be alike fatal to the common cause and
discreditable to the British arms.
Meanwhile, however, the greater part of the troops had landed without
opposition; but the sea broke with such force on the beach that much
difficulty had been experienced in getting ashore. The landing place had
been well chosen by Lord Peterborough and Sir Cloudesley Shovel. It
was about two miles east of the city, near a place called Badalona, and
close to the mouth of the little river Basoz. The transports were
moored in as close as possible, and the boats of the fleet carried three
thousand men ashore each trip.
In five hours fifteen battalions were landed without the loss of a man.
A strong natural position about a mile from the city was chosen for the
encampment; its left rested on the sea, its right was covered by several
abrupt hills and defiles through which the river Basoz flowed. The front
was, however, much extended, but this mattered the less, as the people
from the neighboring villages began to assemble when the landing took
place, and welcomed the allies of King Charles with joy. A number of
these were employed by Lord Peterborough in guarding the advanced posts
and covering the numerous roads leading from the city toward the camp.
On the 22d another council of war was held at the Dutch General
Schratenbach's quarters in the camp to consider two letters of the
king, in which he again urged the allied generals to attack the city.
He proposed that a battery of fifty guns should be erected to breach
the wall between two of the bastions, and that the whole strength of the
army should be thrown upon an assault. He acknowledged the force of the
several objections to the attack, but urged that in such a case vigorous
action was the safest. He dwelt upon the ruin that must fall upon such
of his subjects as had declared for him if abandoned to their fate, and
concluded by declaring that he at least would not desert them.
The appeal failed to move any of the council with the exception of
Peterborough himself, and he alone voted, although in opposition to his
own judgment, in compliance with the king's plan. Notwithstanding the
adverse decision of the council the horses and dragoons were landed on
the 24th.
On the 25th, the 26th, and the 28th the council again assembled to
deliberate upon an earnest request of the king that they should attempt
the siege for a period of eighteen days. The first decision was adverse,
two only voting with Lord Peterborough for the siege. At the second
council, his influence succeeded in obtaining a majority; but at the
third, they agreed to abandon the attempt, even the commander in chief
concurring.
The cause of this sudden reversal of their opinion was that none of the
workmen whom they had demanded from the leaders of the Catalan peasantry
had appeared, and they felt it impossible to carry on the works and
erect the siege batteries without such assistance. Nevertheless
the peasantry gave effectual aid in landing the artillery, tents,
ammunition, and stores. On the 28th the king landed amid a great
concourse of people, who received him with every demonstration of
enthusiasm, and he could with difficulty make his way through them to
the camp prepared for him near San Martino.
The presence of the king on shore added to the difficulties of the
situation. He and his following of German courtiers complained bitterly
of the disinclination of the allies to undertake the siege, while
the allies were incensed against those who reproached them for not
undertaking impossibilities. Dissension spread between the allies
themselves, and the Dutch general declared that he would disobey the
orders of the commander in chief rather than vainly sacrifice his men.
Peterborough was driven nearly out of his mind by the reproaches and
recrimination to which he was exposed, and the quarrels which took place
around him. He was most anxious to carry out his instructions, and as
far as possible to defer to the opinion of Charles, but he was also
bound by the decisions of the councils of war, which were exactly
opposite to the wishes of the king.
The Prince of Hesse Darmstadt enraged him by insisting that fifteen
hundred disorderly peasants whom he had raised were an army, and should
be paid as regular soldiers from the military chest, while they would
submit to no discipline and refused to labor in the trenches, and an
open rupture took place, when the prince, in his vexation at the results
of the councils of war, even went so far as to accuse the earl of having
used secret influence to thwart the enterprise.
To add to the difficulties of the commander in chief the English
troops were loud in their complaints against him for having landed
and committed them to this apparently hopeless enterprise; but they
nevertheless clamored to be led against the town, that they might not be
said to have “come like fools and gone like cowards.”
Lord Peterborough confided his trouble and vexation freely to his young
secretary. Jack was sincerely attached to his generous and eccentric
chief, and the general was gratified by the young officer's readiness at
all times and hours to come to him and write from his dictation the
long letters and dispatches which he sent home. He saw, too, that he
was thoroughly trustworthy, and could be relied upon to keep absolute
silence as to the confidences which he made him.
In the midst of all these quarrels and disputes the siege was carried
on in a languid manner. A battery of fifty heavy guns, supplied by the
ships and manned by seamen, was placed upon a rising ground flanked
by two deep ravines, and on several of the adjacent hills batteries of
light field guns had been raised. Three weeks were consumed in these
comparatively unimportant operations, and no real advance toward the
capture of the place had been effected. Something like a blockade,
however, had been established, for the Catalan peasants guarded
vigilantly every approach to the town.
The officers of the fleet were no less discontented than their brethren
on shore at the feeble conduct of the siege, and had they been consulted
they would have been in favor of a direct attack upon the city with
scaling ladders, as if they had been about to board a hostile ship.
But Peterborough and his officers were well aware that such an attack
against a city defended by a superior force would be simple madness, and
even an attack by regular approaches, with the means and labor at their
disposal, would have had no chance of success. But while all on shore
and in the fleet were chafing at the slowness and hopelessness of the
siege, Jack Stilwell was alone aware that the commander in chief did not
share in the general despair of any good arising from the operations.
Lord Peterborough had little communication with the other generals; but,
alone in his tent with Jack and an interpreter, he occupied himself
from morning till night in examining peasants and spies as to every
particular of the fortifications of the city, of the ground near to the
walls, and of the habits and proceedings of the garrison. At last he
resolved upon an attempt which, in its daring and enterprise, is almost
without parallel. Indeed its only hope of success lay in its boldness,
for neither friend nor foe could anticipate that it would be attempted.
It was no less than the surprise of the citadel of Montjuich.
This formidable stronghold covered the weakest part of the defenses,
that toward the southwest, and far exceeded in strength any other part
of the lines. It had been most skillfully designed. The ditches were
deep, and the walls firm; the outworks skillfully planned; the batteries
well armed, and the inner defenses formidable in themselves. It was,
in fact, by far the strongest point in the position of the besieged.
Standing on a commanding height, it was abundantly capable of defense
even against a regular siege, and its reduction was always regarded as
a most formidable enterprise, to be undertaken at leisure after the
capture of the town. Its only weakness lay in the fact that surrounding
it on every side were numerous ravines and hollows, which would afford
concealment to an assailant, and that trusting to the extraordinary
strength of their position the garrison of Montjuich might neglect
proper precautions.
One morning before daybreak the earl, accompanied only by Jack and a
native guide, left the camp on foot, having laid aside their uniforms
and put on the attire of peasants, so that the glitter of their
accouterments might not attract the attention of the enemy's outposts.
Making a long detour they approached the castle, and ascending one of
the ravines gained a point where, themselves unseen, they could mark all
particulars of the fortifications. Having carried out his purpose the
earl returned to camp with his companion without his absence having been
observed. The observations which Peterborough had made confirmed the
reports of the peasants, that the garrison kept but a negligent watch,
and he at once resolved upon making the attempt; but to none of his most
intimate friends did he give the slightest hint of his intentions.
To disguise his views he called councils of war both in the camp and
fleet, wherein it was resolved, with his full consent, that the siege of
Barcelona should be abandoned, and that the army should be immediately
re-embarked and conveyed to Italy. Accordingly the heavy artillery was
conveyed on board ship, the warlike stores collected, and the troops
warned to be ready for embarkation. A storm of reproaches was poured
upon the earl by Charles and his courtiers. The officers of the fleet
protested openly, declaring that an assault ought to be attempted, and
that it was too late in the season to attempt operations elsewhere.
To Jack's surprise his commander, usually so hasty, irritable, and
passionate, bore with the greatest calmness and patience the reproaches
and accusations to which he was exposed. No one dreamed that behind
these preparations for embarkation any plan of attack was hidden.
On the 13th of September the army received orders to embark on the
morrow, while within the town the garrison and the inhabitants, who
were, or pretended to be, well affected to the Bourbons held high
rejoicing at the approaching departure.
On the afternoon of that day a detachment of English and Dutch troops
twelve hundred strong was ordered to assemble in the allied camp for the
purpose, as was supposed, of covering the embarkation. Scaling ladders
and everything necessary for an assault had already been privately
prepared by the Catalan peasants under Peterborough's instructions.
About six o'clock in the evening four hundred grenadiers of the party
assembled under the command of Hon. Colonel Southwell, and were ordered
to march by the Serria road, as if en route to Taragona to meet the
fleet and embark in that harbor. The remainder of the detachment
followed in support at some little distance. At nightfall the Prince of
Hesse Darmstadt was surprised by Lord Peterborough's entrance into his
quarters. Since their rupture all intercourse had ceased between them.
“I have determined,” the earl said, “to make this night an attack upon
the enemy. You may now, if you please, be a judge of our behavior, and
see whether my officers and soldiers really deserve the bad character
which you of late have so readily imputed to them.” He then explained
that the troops were already on their march to Montjuich.
The prince immediately ordered his horse, and the two gallant but
impulsive and singular men rode off, followed only by Jack Stillwell and
the prince's aide de camp. At ten o'clock they overtook the troops, and
Peterborough ordered a total change of route, he himself leading.
The roads were winding, narrow, and difficult. For a great part of the
way there was only room for the men to march in single file. The night
was very dark, and the detachment many hours on the march, so that
daylight was just breaking when they reached the foot of the hill on
which the fort of Montjuich stood.
The troops under Peterborough's command now perceived the object of
their march, and imagined that they would be led to the attack before
the day had fairly broke; but the general had well considered the
subject, and had determined to avoid the risk and confusion of a night
assault. He called his officers together and explained to them why he
did not mean to attack till broad daylight.
His examination of the place had shown him that the ditches could be
crossed, no palisades or barriers having been erected. He had noticed,
too, that the inner works were not sufficiently high to enable their
guns properly to command the outer works should these be carried by an
enemy. He had therefore determined to carry the outworks by assault,
judging that if he captured them the inner works could not long resist.
In case of a reverse, or to enable him to take advantage of success, he
told them that he had ordered Brigadier General Stanhope to march during
the night with a thousand infantry and the handful of cavalry to a
convent lying halfway between the camp and the city, and there to hold
himself in reserve.
Peterborough now silently and coolly completed his arrangements for the
assault. He divided the body of troops into three parties; the first of
these, two hundred and eighty strong, were to attack the bastion facing
the town, which was the strongest part of the defense. He himself and
the Prince of Hesse accompanied this party. A lieutenant and thirty men
formed the advance, a captain and fifty more were the support, and the
remaining two hundred men were to form in the rear.
The orders were that they should push forward in spite of the enemy's
fire, leap into the ditch, drive the garrison before them, and if
possible enter the works with them; but, if not, to obtain at least
a firm footing on the outer defenses. The second party, similar in
strength and formation, under the command of the Hon. Colonel Southwell,
were to attack an unfinished demibastion on the extreme western point
of the fort and furthermost from the town. The remainder of the little
force, under a Dutch colonel, were to be held in reserve, and to assist
wherever they might be most useful. They occupied a position somewhat
in rear of and halfway between the two parties who were to make the
assault.
Soon after daylight Peterborough gave the order to advance, and in the
highest spirits, and in excellent order, the soldiers pushed up the
hill toward the fort. Some irregular Spanish troops were the first to
perceive them. These fired a hasty volley at the British troops as they
ascended the crest and then retreated into the fort. Seizing their arms
the garrison rushed to the ramparts and manned them in time to receive
the assailants with a sharp fire. The grenadiers who formed the leading
party did not hesitate for a moment, but leaped into the unfinished
ditch, clambered up the outer rampart, and with pike and bayonet
attacked the defenders.
The captain's detachment speedily joined them. The defenders gave way,
broke, and fled, and in wild confusion both parties rushed into the
bastion. Peterborough and the prince with their two hundred men followed
them quickly and in perfect order, and were soon masters of the bastion.
The earl at once set his men to work to throw up a breastwork to cover
them from the guns of the inner works; and as there was plenty of
materials collected just at this spot for the carrying out of some
extensive repairs, they were able to put themselves under cover before
the enemy opened fire upon them.
The attention of the garrison was wholly occupied by this sudden and
unexpected attack, and the Prince della Torrella, a Neapolitan officer
in temporary command of the fort, ordered all his force to oppose the
assailants. This was what Peterborough had expected. He at once sent
orders to Colonel Southwell to commence his attack upon the now almost
undefended west bastion. The order was promptly obeyed. At the first
rush the ditch was passed, the rampart gained, the outer walls scaled,
and three guns taken without the loss of a man.
The defenders hastened at once to meet this new danger. They opened a
heavy fire upon the British, and sallying out, endeavored to retake the
outer rampart with the bayonet. A desperate contest ensued; but though
many of the English officers and soldiers fell, they would not yield
a foot of the position they had captured. Colonel Southwell, a man of
great personal strength and daring, was in the struggle three times
surrounded by the enemy; but each time he cut his way out in safety.
The sally was at last repulsed, and the English intrenched their
position and turned their captured guns against the fort. While both the
assaulting columns were occupied in intrenching themselves there was a
lull in the battle. The besieged could not venture to advance against
either, as they would have been exposed to the fire of the other, and to
the risk of a flank attack.
Peterborough exerted himself to the utmost. He ordered up the thousand
men under General Stanhope and made prodigious exertions to get some
guns and mortars into position upon the newly won ramparts.
Great was the consternation and astonishment in Barcelona when a loud
roar of musketry broke out round the citadel, and Velasco, the governor,
was thunderstruck to find himself threatened in this vital point by an
enemy whose departure he had, the evening before, been celebrating. The
assembly was sounded, and the church bells pealed out the alarm.
The troops ran to their places of assembly, the fortifications round the
town were manned, and a body of four hundred mounted grenadiers under
the Marquis de Risbourg hurried off to the succor of Montjuich. The earl
had been sure that such a movement would be made. He could not spare men
from his own scanty force to guard the roads between the city and the
castle, but he had posted a number of the armed Spanish peasants who
were in the pay of the army in a narrow gorge, where, with hardly any
risk to themselves, they might easily have prevented the horsemen from
passing. The peasants, however, fired a hurried volley and then fled in
all directions.
Lord Peterborough learned a lesson here which he never forgot, namely,
that these Spanish irregulars, useful as they might be in harassing an
enemy or pursuing a beaten foe, were utterly untrustworthy in any plan
of combined action. The succor, therefore, reached Montjuich in safety;
two hundred of the men dismounted and entered the fort; the remainder,
leading their horses, returned to Barcelona.
The Marquis de Risbourg had no sooner entered the fort and taken the
command than he adopted a stratagem which nearly proved fatal to the
English hopes of success. He ordered his men to shout “Long live Charles
the Third!” and threw open the gates of the fort as if to surrender. The
Prince of Hesse Darmstadt, who commanded at this point, was completely
deceived, and he ordered Colonel Allen to advance with two hundred
and fifty men, while he himself followed with a company in reserve,
believing that the Spanish garrison had declared for King Charles.
The British advanced eagerly and in some disorder into the ditch, when
a terrible fire of musketry was suddenly opened upon them from the front
and flank. In vain they tried to defend themselves; the brave prince was
struck down by a mortal wound while endeavoring to encourage them,
and was carried to the rear, and Allen and two hundred men were taken
prisoners. The prince expired a few minutes later before there was time
for a doctor to examine his wound.
Peterborough, who had come up just at the end of the struggle, remained
with him till he died, and then hurried off to retrieve the fortune of
the day, which, during these few minutes, had greatly changed. Velasco
had dispatched three thousand men, as fast as they could be got
together, to follow Risbourg's dragoons to the succor of the fort, and
these were already in sight. But this was not all. One of the strange
panics which occasionally attack even the best troops had seized the
British in the bastion.
Without any apparent cause, without a shot being fired at them from the
fort, they fell into confusion. Their commander, Lord Charlemont, shared
the panic, and gave orders for a retreat. The march soon became a rout,
and the men fled in confusion from the position which they had just
before so bravely won.
Captain Carleton, a staff officer, disengaged himself from the throng
of fugitives and rode off to inform the earl, who was reconnoitering
the approaching Spaniards, of what had taken place. Peterborough at once
turned his horse, and, followed by Carleton and Jack Stilwell, galloped
up the hill. He drew his sword and threw away the scabbard as he met
the troops, already halfway down the hill, and, dismounting, shouted to
them:
“I am sure all brave men will follow me. Will you bear the infamy of
having deserted your post and forsaken your general?”
The appeal was not in vain. Ashamed of their late panic the fugitives
halted, faced about, and pressed after him up the hill, and, on reaching
the top, found that, strangely enough, the garrison had not discovered
that the bastion had been abandoned, for in their retreat the English
were hidden from the sight of those in the inner works.
The Marquis de Risbourg, instead of following up his advantage, had at
once left Montjuich at the side near the city, taking Colonel Allen and
the prisoners with him, and pushed on toward Barcelona. Halfway down
he met the reinforcement of three thousand men. The prisoners, on being
questioned, informed the Spanish commander that Lord Peterborough and
the Prince of Hesse led the attack in person.
Thereupon the officer commanding the reinforcements concluded that the
whole of the allied army was round the castle, and that he would be
risking destruction if he pushed on. He therefore turned and marched
back to the city. Had he continued his way Peterborough's force must
have been destroyed, as Stanhope had not yet come up, and he had with
him only the little force with which he had marched out from camp, of
whom more than a fourth were already captured or slain. Such are the
circumstances upon which the fate of battles and campaigns depend.