Lord Wellington having collected his troops in the Alentejo, marched
against Badajos, and commenced the siege on the 16th of March, 1812.
On the 29th, previous to the opening of the breaching-batteries, the
enemy made a sortie upon the Portuguese troops under General Hamilton,
who invested the place on the right of the Guadiana; but they were
immediately repulsed with some loss.
On the 31st, the English began to fire upon the face of the bastion to
the south-west of the angle of the fort of Trinidad, and upon the flank
of the bastion Santa Maria, with twenty-six pieces of artillery formed
in two batteries in the second parallel. The fire of the batteries was
constant and tremendous from the 31st to the evening of April 3rd,
not less than sixty-four shots per minute being thrown. On the 4th
of April, a battery of six pieces was opened upon the ravelin of St.
Roque.
On the evening of the 5th, the breaches were declared practicable; but
as the enemy appeared to be making most formidable preparations to
repel any assault, Lord Wellington determined to wait till the third
breach was also practicable. This being deemed to be so by the evening
of the 6th, it was resolved to storm the place without an hour’s delay.
The arrangements made for this purpose were as follows: The third
division under General Picton was directed to attack the castle by
escalade, while the guards in the trenches, which were furnished from
the fourth division, should attack the ravelin of St. Roque, on the
left of the castle. The fourth division, under Major-General Colville,
and the light division, under Colonel Bernard, were ordered to attack
the breaches in the bastions of Trinidad and Santa Maria. Major-General
Walker, with his brigade, was to make a false attack upon the fort of
Pardileras and other works on the banks of the Guadiana; and General
Power, with the Portuguese troops under his command, had orders to
attack the _tête-du-pont_ and fort of San Cristoval on the right of
that river.
The attack commenced exactly at ten o’clock at night. The breaches were
attacked in the most gallant manner by the fourth and light divisions,
who got almost to the covered way before they were perceived by the
enemy. But General Phillipon had brought the bravest of his troops to
that point, and every obstacle that the shortness of the time would
admit of was opposed to their advance; and notwithstanding the most
determined and almost desperate efforts which were made by the British
to overcome these obstacles, they were three times repulsed, and were
unable to effect an entry by the breaches. Many a gallant man fell a
victim to his bravery, and success had almost become hopeless, when the
commander was informed that General Picton was in possession of the
castle.
This cheering information soon spread through the ranks, and the allied
troops returned to the charge with an impetuosity that nothing could
oppose, and in ten minutes more they were in possession of the place.
General Walker succeeded in his attack upon the Pardileras, which was
taken possession of by the 15th Portuguese infantry, under Colonel de
Regoa, and the 8th Caçadores, under Major Hill. General Walker also
forced the barrier on the Olevença road, and entering the covered way
on the left of the bastion of St. Vincent, he descended into the ditch,
and scaled the face of the bastion. Phillipon fled with a few troops
to the fort of San Cristoval, but at the break of the following day he
surrendered the fort and garrison.
We have here set down the prominent facts of this siege with the
brevity our space commands; but if we had the opportunity for going
into the details enjoyed by the elegant historian of the Peninsular
war, what a world of stirring instances of devotion, bravery, and
suffering we should have to relate!
Although we are bound to hold the work of a contemporary sacred, we
cannot resist offering a picture of the horrors of war, given by one
evidently, on other occasions, fond and proud of his profession. At the
close of this siege, Sir William Napier says:--
“Now commenced that wild and desperate wickedness which tarnishes the
lustre of the soldier’s heroism. All indeed were not alike; hundreds
risked and many lost their lives in striving to stop the violence; but
madness generally prevailed, and as the worst men were leaders, here
all the dreadful passions of human nature were displayed. Shameless
rapacity, brutal intemperance, savage lust, cruelty and murder, shrieks
and piteous lamentations, groans, shouts, imprecations, the hissing
of fire bursting from the houses, the crashing of doors and windows,
and the reports of muskets used in violence, resounded for two days
and nights in the streets of Badajos! On the third, when the city was
sacked, when the soldiers were exhausted by their own excesses, the
tumult rather subsided than was quelled: the wounded men were _then_
looked to, and the dead disposed of!
“Five thousand men fell in this short siege--three thousand five
hundred in the assault--in a space of less than a hundred square yards!
“When the extent of the night’s havoc was made known to Lord
Wellington, the firmness of his nature gave way for a moment, and the
pride of conquest yielded to a passionate burst of grief for the loss
of his gallant soldiers.”