Soon after the capture of Badajos the command of the Light Division
was given to Baron Charles Alten, and the two Brigades of which it
consisted were commanded, one by Barnard, and afterwards by Sir James
Kempt, and the other by General Vandeleur. On Craufurd’s death and
Vandeleur’s wound at Ciudad Rodrigo, the command of the Division had
devolved on Barnard. How well he handled it, and how gallantly he led
it at Badajos, has already been recorded.
I may here note that Barnard, who had hitherto commanded the 3rd
Battalion, soon after this period was transferred to the command of
the 1st Battalion, in Beckwith’s place, who had, as already noted,
gone home on account of his health, and did not again return to the
Peninsula. He was one of the original officers of the Regiment, and
a most excellent Rifleman. In here parting from him as a regimental
officer, I may add Kincaid’s testimony to his merits. ‘He was,’ he
says, ‘one of the ablest of outpost generals. Few officers knew so
well how to make the most of a small force. His courage, coupled with
his thorough knowledge of the soldier’s character, was of that cool,
intrepid kind, that would at any time convert a routed rabble into
an orderly, effective force. A better officer probably never led a
brigade into the field.’[117]
On April 11, the Regiment broke up from the camp before Badajos and
marched to the north. Before doing so the men were ordered to give
up the articles which they had plundered in Badajos; and to prevent
their secreting any of them, their packs were examined. Whatever was
found was collected in heaps and burned. But for two or three days
before, the men had been selling what they had taken; crowds of
country people thronged the camp to purchase; and it presented almost
the appearance of a fair. On the 11th, however, the Regiment marched
to Campo Major. On the next day they proceeded to Arronches and
bivouacked in a wood. The 13th they marched to Portalegre, and on the
14th to Niza. On the next day they crossed the Tagus at Villa Velha,
the 1st Battalion being in Monte de Senhora and the 3rd Battalion at
Sernadas. On the 16th the Regiment marched to Castello Branco. Here
they halted one day to allow the supplies to come up and to rest the
troops, and the day following moved to As Caldas de Cima and Loisa.
Here they came very close to the rear-guard of the French; and as
they were informed by the peasants at S. Miguel d’Arch, which they
reached on the 20th, that the enemy were in force, they moved with
great caution to Penamacor on the 21st, San Bartolomeo on the 22nd,
and passing through Sabugal on the 23rd, bivouacked near Alfayate.
The British force on the north of the Tagus being as yet small, and
the enemy falling back in force, their march had to be conducted with
great caution.
On the 24th they proceeded to Ituera, where they halted for two days,
and from thence the Regiment occupied cantonments on the Agueda; the
1st Battalion being between Ituera and Castellejo de Azarva; and the
3rd Battalion at La Encina. Here every exertion was made to get the
Regiment equipped for taking the field; the clothing was repaired,
and shoes provided; and everything was done that could be done to
turn the men out in good order for a summer campaign. Nevertheless,
when the Regiment was reviewed by Lord Wellington on May 27 between
Guinaldo and El Bodon, the clothing of the Riflemen was patched with
pieces of many colours, and the dress of many of the officers was
little better. But Lord Wellington, whose soldier’s eye measured not
the spic-and-span appearance, but the endurance and daring of the
men, told them that they ‘looked well and in good fighting order.’
On June 6 the 1st Battalion moved to El Bodon, and on the 11th the
whole Regiment left their cantonments on the Agueda, and bivouacked
in a wood near Ciudad Rodrigo; on the 13th, moving on Salamanca,
they advanced to Alba de Yeltes; on the 14th to Sancho Bueno; and
on the 15th to Matilla. On the next day they marched to within
about five miles of Salamanca; and having crossed the Rio Valmusa,
bivouacked near some low hills extending from that stream to the
city. On the 17th they moved towards Salamanca; but the enemy having
constructed forts which commanded the bridge over the Tormes, they
were obliged to cross by a deepish ford about a mile further up the
river, and bivouacked in a wood on the plain a little way from the
ford.
On the 18th the Regiment moved from this bivouac to Aldea Seca, about
a league and a half from Salamanca; and the enemy fell back after
skirmishing with our cavalry.
On the following day the Regiment was suddenly called to arms,
the enemy having appeared in force in front of the position; but
no fighting took place, and the Regiment moved from the plain and
occupied Monte Rubio.
Here they remained some days. And one evening about this time
stormers were called for from the Light Division to lead the assault
on San Vincente, the strongest of the three forts constructed by
the French near Salamanca. Two men per company, the first for duty,
were selected for this service; but after being marched down to
the fort, they were countermanded. An assault had been attempted,
and had failed on the 23rd, and on the 27th the forts surrendered.
On the fall of the forts, the enemy fell back; and the Regiment
made a forward movement, and marched to Castillonos. On the 29th
they bivouacked at Prada de Rubiales; on the next day at Castrillo
d’Aquarino; and on July 1, marching through Alejos, they were
billeted in the town of Nava del Rey, where the beds in their billets
were the first they had occupied for a very long time. On the 2nd
they moved forward to Rueda. A pretty strong force of the enemy,
of all arms, was evacuating Rueda as the Regiment entered it. This
was in fact the rear-guard, which was to hold us in check till his
column could file over the bridge, across the Douro, at Tordesillas.
But our cavalry and Horse Artillery coming up, the latter fired some
shrapnells, which did much execution, and the cavalry had a slight
affair with them. Our Regiment also sent out some skirmishers, who
made a few prisoners, amongst them a Sergeant-Major of hussars,
whose abject terror, even to tears, excited the surprise of those
who saw him. Yet this man must have been a good and probably a brave
soldier; for his exchange for one of our sergeants in their hands,
was asked for by a flag of truce, on the ground that he was about to
become adjutant of his corps. He was accordingly exchanged a few days
afterwards.
All the march hitherto from the frontier of Portugal to this place
had been through an open country, devoid of trees, abounding
indeed with corn, and near the rivers with vines; but with little
water except in the great rivers, which were far apart. The men
had therefore suffered much, marching under the full blaze of a
Peninsular mid-summer sun. Their occupation of the town of Rueda,
and the delicious coolness of its great wine-vaults, excavated in
the sides of the hills, were a great refreshment. Unhappily the wine
these vaults contained was as great a temptation, to which many
yielded. So had their enemies, who had preceded them; for many of
their bodies were found in the cellars: some hideously mutilated by
the Spaniards.
The Regiment remained here for a fortnight; the only movement in that
time being that they were on July 3 moved opposite to Tordesillas,
on the left bank of the Douro, the enemy being massed in large force
on the opposite bank. This movement was probably a feint, and they
returned to their cantonments at Rueda.
On July 16 the Regiment marched from Rueda about nine in the evening
and halted next day near Castrejon. On the evening of the 17th
Kincaid had a picquet in front of the Division. Soon after sunrise a
smart cannonade began behind a hill to the right of the picquet. In
fact Marmont had recrossed the Douro at Tordesillas, and was making
an attack on our position at Castrejon. While the picquet, alert at
the sound of cannon, were earnestly watching the ground in front
of them, no enemy being visible, a terrific turmoil suddenly arose
behind some rising ground on their left. Uncertain whence this noise
might proceed, Kincaid at once placed his picquet behind a deep ditch
about a hundred yards in his rear. He had scarcely done so when a
confused _mêlée_ of horsemen dashed over the hill: two squadrons of
our cavalry, two guns of Horse Artillery, and a strong body of the
enemy’s cavalry, all cutting at each other; and among the rush Lord
Wellington, Lord Beresford, General Bock, and their Staffs. These and
the two guns took shelter behind our picquet, who could not fire, for
friends and foes were mixed up in an inextricable tangle. The cavalry
swept past the front of the picquet; but finding a reserve squadron
of heavy dragoons, they returned again at a gallop, the French now
flying before those they had lately pursued.
Some companies of the Regiment were thrown out as skirmishers to
support the 14th Light Dragoons. One of these brought in a French
prisoner, badly wounded, who in conversation with Lieutenant
Gardiner, who was a proficient in French, was vehement in asserting
that he would not have been taken, had he had a better horse. On this
being repeated to his captor, he said to Gardiner: ‘Then, sir, tell
him if he had the best horse in France I would bring him prisoner if
he stood to fight me.’ The prisoner assured Gardiner that his horse
had not been unsaddled for a week; and the state of his back, when
the saddle was removed, too surely corroborated his assertion.
The army was now ordered to retire; and the country being an open
plain was very favourable for cavalry. The British troops therefore
were formed in quarter-distance column ready to form square at any
moment. The Regiment marched in this way for upwards of ten miles,
with all the regularity and steadiness of a field-day; taking up
distant points to march on; and avoiding the villages in order not
to lose time in passing through them. For it was a race between the
two armies to gain some high land beyond the Guareña. And the French
moved on our right during the whole day; often coming within 500
yards of our flank. Occasionally the enemy opened a cannonade; but on
the whole this day’s march was effected without fighting. The men,
oppressed by the heat, and suffocated by the clouds of dust which
arose from the sandy plain, were tormented with thirst. But there was
no time to halt, nor water at hand to quench it. At last, arriving at
the edge of this table-land, they looked down into the vale of the
Guareña, and the Riflemen hurried their pace to reach the water. The
French instantly unlimbered their guns on the height above and sent
some round shot among them. But our men drank of the muddy stream as
they passed through it, and suffered little from the cannonade; and
they bivouacked on the high ground beyond the river.
During the early part of the 19th the Regiment continued at rest on
the ground of their bivouack; but in the afternoon (with the rest
of the Division) they were suddenly called to arms, and commenced
a movement to the right, in order to defeat Marmont’s plan of
interrupting our communications with Salamanca. During this march
the enemy cannonaded sharply, and one shot knocked off the head of
a Rifleman, who had but just joined. When night put a stop to the
march and the firing, the Regiment lay by their arms, close to the
enemy’s columns. On the morning of the 20th no enemy was to be seen;
as Marmont had moved forward to turn Lord Wellington’s right flank;
and some intervening ground hid his troops from the Riflemen; they
were put in motion and soon came in sight and in close proximity to
them. Thus they marched as they had done on the two preceding days
with all the regularity of a barrack-square drill, parallel to the
enemy, and close to him. There was a short halt in the afternoon to
refresh the men: for the heat was sultry, and the dust suffocating.
With this exception they continued to march till a late hour in the
evening.
On the 21st they again started at dawn, and continued to march as
before till about two o’clock, when they halted near the village of
Villa Moresco. A little before dark they were again in motion; and
they forded the Tormes about two miles above Salamanca. The river
here was very deep, and the men were nearly up to their shoulders.
Hardly had they got across when rain began to fall in torrents;
the night grew suddenly dark; the lightning flashed with unusual
vividness, and played on the men’s arms; and the thunder crashed so
close and so loud, that scared horses broke from their picquet-ropes,
and rushed into the ranks of the enemy. In this turmoil the Riflemen
groped their way through the murky night, up to their knees in mud,
to their bivouack in a field not far from the Tormes; where they lay
by their arms, without any shelter from the rain which fell heavily
and incessantly during the whole night.
On the 22nd occurred the Battle of Salamanca, the only one of
Wellington’s great victories in which the Regiment did not bear a
prominent part. They were under arms at daylight and occupied a
position on the extreme left of the British position; and during
the greater part of the day the only duty they were called upon
to perform was to keep the French right in check. But about five
o’clock, after Lord Wellington had taken advantage of his enemy’s
blunder and driven him from the field, the Regiment was ordered to
advance in pursuit. They did so, and continued to press on the rear
of the retreating foe till about eleven at night, when they halted
near the village of Huerta. Had there been a few hours more daylight,
or had the Spaniards held, as Don Carlos de España was directed to
do, Alba de Tormes, Marmont’s whole army must have fallen into our
hands. In this action the losses of the Regiment were inconsiderable;
being 2 men of the 1st Battalion wounded, and 2 missing; and a
sergeant and 4 men of the 2nd Battalion wounded.
During the pursuit on this evening a partridge was started, and
ran between the line of the retreating and pursuing forces. George
Simmons caught it, and committing it to his havresack, found it an
agreeable addition to his supper at Huerta.
On the first streak of daylight on the 23rd the Regiment was again in
pursuit; and fording the Tormes, came up with the French rear-guard
of cavalry and infantry, commanded by General Foy. The infantry
immediately formed three squares, which their cavalry covered; but
these flying on the advance of General Bock’s German cavalry, and
leaving the squares unprotected and unprepared, the Germans dashed
into two of them, and, not without terrible loss, broke them and cut
them up. The third square being at an elbow of roads leading to high
ground, retired in good order. The Regiment was ordered to advance;
but the enemy’s rear-guard having been thus disposed of by Bock’s
Germans, their only office was to follow in pursuit; and soon after
they found the rear-guard, consisting of the three arms, posted on
some high ground near a village. Lord Wellington, who then happened
to be with the Regiment, gave immediate orders for an attack; but on
their advance the French broke up and melted away before they reached
them.
On the 24th the Regiment moved to Flores d’Avila, passing on the way
through Penaranda. After halting during the 25th to refresh the men,
as this march had been extremely hot and fatiguing, they proceeded on
the 26th to Aldea Seca; on the 27th to Montejo Viejo; on the 28th to
Pedrajo de Portellio; and on the 29th to Olmedo. A little beyond this
place was buried the body of General Ferey, who had died at Olmedo
on this retreat, of wounds received at Salamanca. This was the same
man who had attacked the 1st Battalion at Barba del Puerco in March
1810. He had been interred apparently with honour, and a canopy of
laurel had been erected over his grave. But the Spaniards, as soon as
the French were gone, had dug up his body, and mutilated it, severing
his head--noble and soldierlike even in death--from it. But his old
foes of Barba del Puerco were more generous. They re-interred his
remains, replaced the canopy of laurel which had covered his grave,
and exacted a promise from the people of the place that they would
respect the remains and the tomb of the fallen warrior.
On the 30th the Regiment forded the Douro and halted on its right
bank about six miles from Valladolid until August 1. This halt on the
bank of a large river where they could bathe and have their clothes
washed, was a great boon to men and officers; for from July 16 they
had been almost daily on the march or in action.
On August 1 they proceeded to Tudela del Douro; and passing through
Aldea Major, where they recrossed the Douro, and Matta de Qualiaz,
bivouacked on the 7th on the right bank of the Penrone.
Marching at daylight on the 8th and passing through Carbonero, they
bivouacked on the Eresma not far from Yangues. On the 9th they
marched by Madrona and bivouacked at or near a hunting place of the
kings of Spain, El Palacio del Rio Frio. On the next day they marched
to near Otiro and Madrona-Segovia, not far from the city of the
latter name.
On the 11th they crossed the Guadarrama mountains, by the Puerto de
Guadarrama, and by an excellent winding road leading over the Sierra
and descending the southern slope, and bivouacked in the Park of the
Escurial.
Scarcely had the Riflemen taken off their knapsacks when two wild
boars made their appearance; and scared at the number and the noise
of the men, dashed in among them and knocked over several. But in a
moment they had received stabs or cuts from a hundred swords, and in
a very few minutes their carcases were cut up and distributed.
On the 12th they halted; and on the 13th Lord Wellington made his
entry into Madrid, amidst the congratulations and acclamations of its
inhabitants of all ranks. On that day the 1st Battalion marched to
Rosas; and a day or two after to Gatafe, about eight miles from the
capital. Here, in or about Madrid, the Regiment remained for more
than two months.
I have now to resume the account of the two companies (Cadoux’s
and Jenkins’) of the 2nd Battalion, which we left at Cadiz. These
embarked there and landed with Colonel Skerrett at Huelvas. Thence
advancing to San Lucar la Major on August 24, and having driven the
French corps of observation from that place, they took post there. On
the 26th they marched to the heights of Castileja de la Cuesta, near
Seville, where they arrived on the morning of the 27th, about six
o’clock. They advanced to the bridge of Seville under a heavy fire of
grape and musketry, the two companies of the 2nd Battalion forming
the advanced guard. Captain Cadoux, who commanded the Riflemen, with
great judgment made a flank movement to the left; and the result
was that the enemy fled through the streets of Seville, which were
strewn with their dead and wounded. The conduct of this Detachment
of the Regiment is mentioned with praise by Colonel Skerrett in his
despatch.[118]
These companies subsequently effected a junction with the force under
General Hill, near Toledo, in October; and were engaged in repelling
the attack made by a large body of troops under Soult on Sir Lowry
Cole’s Division at the Puente Larga, near Aranjuez, on October
29. This gallant defence of the bridge fell entirely on the 47th
Regiment and our two companies; and their loss in it was 1 sergeant
and 2 rank and file killed; and Lieutenant Budgen and 8 rank and file
wounded.
After these companies joined the army under Lord Wellington, the 2nd
Battalion in the Peninsula consisted of six companies.
On October 21 the 1st Battalion marched to Rivas, and on the 22nd to
Villa Coaxa. And as a large force of the enemy was approaching, at
four o’clock on the morning of the 23rd, the Regiment was ordered to
form on its alarm post, and marched to the city of Alcalá de Henares.
On the 27th it proceeded to Arganda; but assembling at dark, marched
back during the night to Alcalá, which it reached at daylight; and
after resting in the streets made another march; and on the 30th
again moved to near Madrid and halted near the Segovia gate. It
was now determined to evacuate Madrid and to retreat on Salamanca,
as Soult’s army was approaching in force. On the 31st, therefore,
they left the neighbourhood of Madrid to the great regret of its
inhabitants; the men showing by gloomy sullenness, and the women by
contemptuous sneers, their opinion of our leaving them to the tender
mercies of the French. The regret was shared by officers and men of
the Regiment, to whom the sojourn in the capital was long one of the
most pleasing recollections of their Peninsular service. They halted,
on November 2, in the park of the Escurial, and on the 3rd recrossed
the Sierra de Guadarrama and bivouacked near Villa Castin. Here
General Hill took the command of the retreating army, Lord Wellington
being engaged on the siege of Burgos. On the 4th they bivouacked near
Lanza, and on the 5th marched to near Fuente de Baños. The next day
they fell back to the heights between Flores de Avila and Penaranda.
On the 7th the Regiment bivouacked about a league from Alba de
Tormes, and next day crossing the river at the bridge of Alba,
bivouacked in a wood. During this portion of the retreat their march
had been without any circumstances of note; and the advanced guard of
the French had not come up with them. The weather however broke up,
and rain set in, and continued during the remainder of the retreat,
with great violence.
At this time the portion of the army which had retreated from Burgos
on the unsuccessful attempts to storm it, effected a junction with
the troops falling back from Madrid, and Lord Wellington resumed the
command.
On November 10 the Regiment moved into the city of Salamanca, and
was quartered in the Irish College. While they remained here, on
the evening of the 13th, about eight o’clock, George Simmons, being
orderly officer, was ascending the stairs in order to see the men’s
lights out. He met Lieutenant Firman, of the 3rd Battalion, who was
on the same duty. As the stairs were extremely slippery, and the men
had torn out portions of the balustrade for fuel, he advised Firman
not to move further until he returned with a light. He fetched one,
and as he was ascending the stairs, he was horrified at hearing
a slip, and a crash below. Firman had fallen a great depth, and
Simmons found him with his skull frightfully fractured and several
ribs broken. He was immediately removed to his billet, where, after
continuing insensible for two days, he died.
On the 14th the Regiment left Salamanca, and crossing the Tormes,
took post on the heights near the Arapiles, and occupied the ground
of the great victory of July 22. It was thought indeed that a second
battle would be fought on the same spot; but the enemy’s forces being
greatly superior to ours, Lord Wellington resolved to continue the
retreat. And on the 15th, about three o’clock, the Regiment resumed
its march and bivouacked that night in a wood about four miles from
Salamanca. The weather still was dreadful; the rain had made the
roads ankle-deep with mud; and streams, which in better weather
might have been stepped over, had swollen to torrents which the men
had to pass through knee-deep. They were also without provisions;
and ravenous with hunger, they searched for something to eat. They
found some bullocks, dead or half dead, which had fallen on the
road, unable to drag the carts any further. These were immediately
cut up with their swords and eaten half-toasted at the camp fires.
For the soldiers were famished, and the wet wood kindled too slowly
for them to wait. Some, too, groped about the wood on their hands
and knees, searching for the acorns which had fallen from the
oaks and cork trees, and devoured them voraciously; and though
bitter and unpalatable, they stayed the pangs of hunger. Nor were
these wants confined to the men; few of the officers had even a
biscuit; and Costello relates how he saw Lord Charles Spencer, then
a Second-Lieutenant in the Regiment, standing on some branches to
keep him out of the wet, and earnestly watching a few acorns which
he was trying to roast in the embers. As the only means of keeping
themselves dry, the men cut down the branches of the trees and lay
on them. And as the Regiment formed part of the rear-guard on this
retreat, it was of course among the first under arms in the morning
and the last at night, often not reaching the bivouack till some
hours after the other regiments were in theirs.
On this and the preceding day, the French appeared in force on their
right flank, threatening the communication of the army with Ciudad
Rodrigo.
On the 16th the retreat was resumed in the same weather and under
the same privations. Many of the men lost their shoes in the sticky
slime of the roads, and had to march barefoot. The French cavalry
hovered close behind the Regiment, but did not attack; and after dark
the Riflemen bivouacked, again glad that in a wood they had at least
acorns to assuage their hunger.
On the 17th they fell in before dawn. The rain still fell in
torrents. Early in the day the French cavalry pressed the rear-guard,
and the 1st Battalion took possession of some high and broken ground
on each side of the road, and one or two companies were thrown out
as skirmishers to check their advance. But as the enemy continued
to press on, and were very numerous, the skirmishers were called
in. When running in on the Battalion they passed Lord Wellington;
he called out to them: ‘Be cool, my lads; don’t be in a hurry.’
But the French were close upon them; and they, as well as the
Commander-in-Chief, were obliged to retire.
While this was happening the Riflemen were surprised to hear the
sharp crack of rifles in their rear. The occasion of this was that
some of the French dragoons crept, under shelter of a wood, near the
baggage and made a dash across the road at it, took some, and made
prisoner Lieutenant Cameron, who was on the baggage-guard. But as
the head of the Division appeared almost immediately, they let him
go. Riflemen were immediately sent into the wood on each side of the
road, and a few shots from them soon drove off the dragoons. This was
the same party which afterwards made a similar dash at Sir Edward
Paget as he was riding alone in an interval between the 5th and 7th
Divisions, and took him prisoner.
In the afternoon the Regiment reached the edge of the table-land,
whence the ground fell with a long open slope to the Huebra. As soon
as they began to descend it, the enemy, who had assembled a large
force of infantry and artillery under cover of the wood, opened a
severe fire of cannon and musketry, while their cavalry hovered on
the flank, watching for an opportunity of dashing at them, if any
confusion had occurred. Nevertheless the Light Division went down
that hill with all the deliberation and all the steadiness of a
field-day. They forded the Huebra, which was rapid and breast-high,
near San Munoz, under this fire; followed down the slope by the
French skirmishers, whom one company of the 1st Battalion, extended,
kept in check; and these were the last men who passed the Huebra
on that day. On reaching the other side the Division formed column
of battalions, and showed such a front that the enemy evinced
no disposition to venture further. The loss of the Regiment was
considerable, and would no doubt have been larger, but the ground
was so soft from the continued rain that many of the shells buried
themselves in the mud and were harmless.
This day’s march was even more harassing than the preceding ones. The
constant marching in slushy mud, and continuance in wet shoes, had
made the men’s feet very sore; and they often struck them against the
stumps of small trees, which had been felled, but, being covered with
mud, were not seen. This added much to their sufferings: many men
fell out from sheer inability to march, and were made prisoners; and
some died.
When the Regiment had passed over, it was discovered that Lieutenant
Joseph Simmons, who was sick, was absent; and he was seen sitting
on the ground on the other side of the Huebra, too weak to walk or
to mount the mule which was beside him. His brother George at once
dashed into the ford; lifted him on the mule, and led him over,
under the fire of shot and shell which still continued from the
height.
In a forest near the steep bank of the Huebra the Regiment bivouacked
that night; the picquets being only divided by the river from those
of the enemy. The rain and the discomforts of the preceding nights
still continued. But at last the commissaries brought in a few
half-starved bullocks, and the Riflemen looked forward to a meal,
albeit a scanty one. The animals were very soon slaughtered and
divided; fires were lighted, and, with much persuasion, even the damp
wood began to burn. Then men and officers gathered round their fires,
and endeavoured to toast the meat on the points of their swords; but,
just then, the wind rose; the gusts shook the heavy drops from the
loaded leaves, and most of the fires were extinguished; and they were
obliged to resort to the now familiar food of acorns.
The other divisions were to have marched in the night, and the
Regiment being part of the rear-guard could not move till they
were on the road. But such was the state of the roads and such the
fatigue of the men, that these troops had made scarce any way when
the Riflemen stood to their arms at dawn. A thick haze hung over the
river and the high ground beyond; and they were momentarily expecting
an attack which they must have resisted at all hazards to enable the
army to make good its retreat. But none took place; and it was not
till they had retired some distance, and found no foe in pursuit,
that they ascertained that the French, overcome by the fatigue
and want which they had borne, had fallen back from the Huebra to
Salamanca.
However, though they had no material enemy to contend with, their
fatiguing march through slimy roads, and their want of food
continued; only the weather improved. The rain ceased; and the sun,
which they had not seen for many days, shone out. After a long march
they bivouacked on the side of a hill near Santi Spiritus.
During this retreat the casualties of the Regiment were: in the 1st
Battalion, 1 sergeant and 1 private killed, and 5 rank and file
wounded; in the 2nd Battalion, 1 private killed, and 5 wounded, 1
bugler and 8 rank and file missing; in the 3rd Battalion, 1 private
wounded and 9 missing.
On the 19th they marched to near Ciudad Rodrigo, and bivouacked on
the banks of the Agueda. And this put a period to their sufferings.
For bags of biscuit and other provisions were brought out to them.
Yet such was the ravenous hunger of the starved soldiers, that
sentries with swords fixed had to be posted over the provisions
during their distribution.
Great was the relief officers and men experienced by rest, and by
being able to change their clothes, which they had not done since
they left Salamanca, a week before. So swollen were the feet, and so
hard the boots from constant moisture, that some officers and men had
to cut them from their feet.
On the 25th the 1st Battalion moved to Villa de Puerco, and on the
next day to Alameda, while the 3rd Battalion were cantoned at Espeja.
These villages on the Agueda, so often occupied by them, had come to
be looked upon as a home by the Riflemen (at least by those of the
1st Battalion); and in these cantonments they continued during the
winter.
Thus closed the campaign of 1812, in which the Regiment had taken
part in the storm of two fortresses; in one general action; in three
combats, and in many skirmishes and affairs of outposts.
A good deal of sickness, the unfailing consequence of exposure, want
and fatigue, prevailed among the Riflemen on their going into winter
quarters. And the Record of the 1st Battalion makes special mention
of ‘the indefatigable exertions of Surgeon Burke’ during this time.
Many of the men, and some of the officers, suffered from a numbness
in the limbs and extremities, which was said to result from the
change from exposure to comfort, and from want to plenty.
Soon after their entering their cantonments a circular was issued by
Lord Wellington to Officers Commanding Divisions and Brigades[119]
commenting in very strong terms on the bad conduct of the men, and
the neglect of duty of the officers, during the late retreat. This
caused great dissatisfaction and regret in the Regiment, for it was
felt to be undeserved. That many irregularities took place, and much
duty was neglected in some divisions and corps, may be as freely
admitted, as that armies become disorganised in retreats. But in the
Light Division Craufurd’s strict orders were still observed. ‘Being
dead he yet spoke:’ and in the Regiment, Manningham and Stewart’s
standing orders so strictly defining the duties of company officers
were still observed; and Beckwith’s and Barnard’s admirable system
prevailed; and among them no such irregularities took place. The
circular also stated that the army had ‘suffered no privations which
but trifling attention on the part of the officers could not have
prevented,’ and had ‘not suffered any hardships but those resulting
from the inclemencies of the weather.’ Yet anyone who reads the last
few pages, compiled from Journals of Riflemen who were present, may
think the sufferings of the troops are under-estimated by their great
Leader. Still less did the sweeping accusations of want of discipline
and neglect of duty seem deserved. Both Leach and Kincaid state that
not a man of the Regiment (nor, as they believe, of the Division)
was left behind, except those too badly wounded at San Munoz, or too
utterly exhausted and moribund from hunger or fatigue, to be brought
over the Huebra. Had the great Commander, like Moore, exempted from
censure those who deserved praise, he would not have wounded the
feelings and the _esprit de corps_ of men who had so bravely fought
and suffered, and were yet to fight and suffer, under his eye and at
his side.
While on the subject of discipline I may perhaps mention an incident
which occurred while the Regiment was in these cantonments, as
well because it shows the confidence of the officer in the right
judgment of the men, as because it evinces the opinion of the soldier
concerning deserved punishment.
A man of the 1st Battalion, a _vaurien_, had robbed his comrades and
deserted. He was intercepted and brought back by some guerillas; and
having been tried by a regimental Court-Martial was sentenced to
receive 150 lashes. As soon as the Adjutant had read the proceedings
of the court, Colonel Cameron, who then commanded the Battalion,
observing on the infrequency of corporal punishment in it (Costello
says that not more than six men were punished in the six years they
were in the Peninsula), said that he would forgive the culprit if the
Battalion would be answerable for his good behaviour. After a pause,
during which not a man spoke or made a sign, Cameron ordered him to
strip, and he received twenty-five lashes. Before the next bugler
began, Cameron again addressed the men: ‘If,’ said he, ‘this man’s
company will speak for him, he shall be no further punished.’ Still
not a word was said, nor a man moved; and twenty-five more lashes
were inflicted. A third bugler was about to begin, when Cameron again
spoke, and said that if one man of the Battalion would come forward
in his behalf he would forgive him. No one answered, and the bugler
laid on three or four strokes, when a man called out: ‘Forgive him,
sir;’ and, being ordered, stepped out of the ranks. ‘Is it you,
Robinson?’ said Cameron; ‘I thought as much; a man no better than
himself. But I will keep my word. Take him down.’ When the prisoner
had been released, Cameron spoke again: ‘Your bravery in the field,
men,’ he said, ‘is known to me and to the army. Your moral worth
I know now. I am glad that not a man of the Battalion would come
forward for that prisoner, except one; and what he is you know as
well as I do.’
At Alameda the officers of the 1st Battalion, for the first time for
some years, resumed their Battalion mess. A large barn formed the
mess-room, in which they constructed two fire-places and chimneys;
and dishes, plates, platters, and cups, which had been used by the
different company messes in the field, brought into common stock,
formed a sufficient if not a very magnificent service.
About this time a number of Spaniards joined the Regiment as
recruits. An order had been issued in the May preceding[120] to
enlist 100 Spaniards in each Battalion, and Surtees had been sent
into the country about to endeavour to obtain these recruits. But
unsuccessfully; for though many gave their names, and promised to
come in and be attested, yet none appeared. But now it seems they
were obtained. They told Costello that they were compelled by their
government to serve, and that they preferred enlisting with us. They
were divided among the different companies, furnishing about ten
or twelve to each company. They made excellent Riflemen, and were
distinguished for their bravery, degenerating often into ferocity,
prompted by revenge for the injuries they and their families had
suffered from the French. Some of them were made corporals; and
all these men, according to the terms of their enlistment, were
discharged when the Regiment passed the Spanish frontier in 1813.
Great exertions were made to equip the Regiment for the ensuing
campaign. The clothing was got up from Abrantes; not before needed;
for the Regiment had become, during the campaign and after the
retreat, ‘a thing of shreds and patches.’
For the first time, too, in this war tents were provided for the
Regiment, three per company for non-commissioned officers and
privates, and one for the officers of the company. In the last
campaign indeed a sort of ‘_tente d’abri_’ had been extemporised
by making the men sew loops on the corners of their blankets. Two
blankets being looped together, and the ends fixed to stands of arms,
four men could creep under them. But with this disadvantage, that as
two blankets were used for the covering, the four men had only two
blankets to wrap themselves in. Yet they were ordered to pitch these
new company tents always behind rising ground and out of sight of the
enemy.
The Light Division was divided into two brigades. The 1st and 3rd
Battalions of the 95th, consisting respectively of six and five
companies, with the 43rd and some Portuguese, formed the 1st brigade
under the command of Major-General Kempt.
The 2nd Battalion, consisting of six companies, were with the 52nd,
and some Portuguese regiments in the 2nd brigade, commanded by
Major-General Vandeleur.
On May 21 the Regiment broke up from its cantonments, and marching
to Molina des Flores and fording the Agueda near the mill, encamped
that night near San Felices el Chico. Marching at daylight next
morning, they passed S. Espiritus and Martin del Rey, and encamped
near it on the banks of the Yeltes. On the 23rd, after a long march,
they encamped on the left bank of the Huebra at San Munoz, which
they repassed by the very ford where they had their hard fight with
the French six months before. But the face of nature and their own
feelings were indeed different. The slushy swamps were now green
meadows; the then sullen, swollen river now glistened under a
bright sun; the constant, chilling rain was replaced by warm spring
sunshine. And they, then fatigued and faint, now rested and restored;
then famishing with want, now amply supplied; then depressed by the
pursuit of an enemy, now gallantly going to seek that enemy, and
exulting at the prospect of driving him before them. Here they halted
during the 24th; and on the 25th, passing through Aldea Quella de
Penida and Castro, and crossing the Matillo, encamped near Robleza.
On the next morning they marched to the banks of the Valmusa, where
about mid-day they halted and cooked. And then resuming their march,
arrived in the evening at the ford of El Canto on the Tormes, about
two leagues below Salamanca, where they encamped that night and
remained during the following day. On the 28th they moved, and having
forded the Tormes, passed through Monte Rubio, and after a march of
twenty-four miles encamped at Aldea Nueva de Figueira, where they
remained until June 2. On that day marching early they arrived at
Villa Buena, where they cooked and rested; and in the afternoon
proceeded to Toro; where finding that the enemy had blown up the
principal arch of the bridge, they encamped in some fields on the
left bank. Marshal Jourdan now abandoned the line of the Douro, and
fell back on Palencia. And in order to follow the line of retreat of
the enemy, the Regiment on June 3 crossing the Douro by the bridge
of Toro, which had been hastily made passable by planks laid across
the broken arch, advanced to Terra Buena, where they encamped. On the
next day they moved by Casa Sola and La Mota de Toro, and after a
march of about eighteen miles encamped at night on some high ground
overhanging the Convent of Espinaz.
On the 5th, passing through Castromonte, where they halted an hour,
they encamped at Muderra; and on the next day they marched through
Villa Alba to Ampudia, their camping place. On the 7th, marching
early, they reached the city of Palencia, and passing through it
amidst the acclamations and rejoicing of its inhabitants, encamped
close under the walls on the banks of the river Carrion. On the 8th,
advancing through Valdepero and Mongen, they encamped at Tamara.
The weather now broke up, and from having been hot and fine, now
became chilly with much rain. The next day they moved to La Peña de
Campos, and encamped near the Rio Cieza. On the 10th they crossed the
river by a stone bridge, and passing by the villages of La Peña and
Francoen, and across the canal of Castile, encamped near Lantadilla
on the right bank of the Pisuerga. During the last few marches the
weather had been unfavourable, and the supply of food scanty. The
country was devoid of wood, and fuel was with difficulty procured
for cooking. The peasantry, too, seemed poor, and their dwellings
inferior to those in other parts of Spain. Yet the villagers
everywhere welcomed our men with shouts of joy, and the women danced
before them, in their national manner doubtless, but it seemed absurd
and ridiculous to our people. Yet this amused the tired soldiers,
whose heavy load and rapidity of march were lightened by the antics
of the rejoicing peasantry.
On the 11th they crossed the Pisuerga by a stone bridge, and passing
by Pallacio encamped near Villa Sandino on the river Brullo.
Since leaving Toro in pursuit of the enemy they had never seen a
French soldier; but on the 12th, after marching a few miles, and when
near the village of Isar, they came upon a rear-guard, composed of
a pretty large body of cavalry drawn up on some high ground, and a
division of infantry formed in squares. On the cavalry attached to
the Light Division advancing, the enemy’s cavalry at once withdrew.
The Regiment was drawn up on some high ground over the river Hormaza,
and when the squares of the infantry were cannonaded by our guns,
though without much effect, they retired towards Burgos. But when
passing under the height our men were on, they halted and gave them
a volley. This they could do, being in square, and the 95th so much
above them. Yet their fire was ineffectual by reason of distance.
They moved across the plain, and as soon as they were clear of their
guns, these opened a smart cannonade, without, however, doing any
harm. The Regiment then continued its route, and encamped at Hornilla
de Camino, near the river. On the 13th, as the Regiment was starting
early on the march, a tremendous explosion, which seemed to shake the
ground on which they stood, and which the soldiers fancied was an
earthquake, was heard. This was, as they subsequently found, caused
by the enemy blowing up the castle of Burgos, on their evacuating
that place. Continuing their march through Villa Nueva, Organda and
Villa Rejo, they encamped that night at Tovar.
On the next day, passing through Guermathes, Quintanaleia sobre la
Sierra, to Quintanajuar and Poza, they encamped in a wood near these
two villages.
On the 15th, after a long and wearisome march through Villa Alta,
Pesados and El Almune, and over a most uninteresting country, they
came to the edge of the heights overlooking the vale of the Ebro.
And the sight of that noble river, fringed with verdant meadows
and fruitful orchards, and dotted with farms and country-houses,
inspirited them. For from the day they had left the neighbourhood of
Salamanca till now, their route had lain through an unwooded, arid
country, sometimes indeed bearing great crops of corn, but always
uninteresting. Wood for firing could scarcely be found; provisions
ran short, and when they were issued, consisted only of tough ration
beef and hard biscuit. But now they were descending into a fruitful
valley, teeming with everything which could supply their wants. The
spirits of the men were elated, and coming to the village of Puente
Arenas, they crossed its long stone bridge, the band of the 1st
Battalion playing ‘The Downfall of Paris,’ and encamped close to the
village.
At dawn of the 16th they started again, and winding along the left
bank of the river for about a league, and then ascending the heights
which shut it in, marched through a mountainous country, the rugged
hills clothed with wood to their summits, and passing the villages
of Encinillas and Bisquesas, and crossing the river Nela, encamped a
little beyond Medina de Pomar, on the Trueba river.
On the 17th their march was through mountain tracks impassable for
artillery. They were in fact striking across the country to the great
road from Burgos to Vittoria, in order to intercept the enemy who
were proceeding by that road; and after a fatiguing march encamped
in a woody height near the river Loza. Picquets were thrown out, as
the enemy was supposed to be not far distant, and the Regiment was
placed in thick wood, where there was hardly room to pitch the tents.
On the 18th they moved very early. A troop of German hussars led,
and then came the 1st Battalion, one company being in advance. After
marching about two leagues they arrived at the point where the road
by which they were moving struck into the great road, which by a
steep descent between high banks, enters the village of San Millan.
Here they came upon a strong rear-guard of the enemy who were coming
down the hill towards San Millan. The German cavalry first attacked
a force of cavalry which was with the rear-guard, and which made a
stand; but they soon routed them, and brought in many prisoners. Then
Barnard extending the 1st Battalion came down upon the infantry,
through the wooded height which overhung the road, and with a sharp
and destructive fire put them into confusion. The 3rd Battalion also
became actively engaged; and the enemy being broken, retired rapidly,
through San Millan and up the hill beyond it, closely pursued by our
people. When the Riflemen were beginning the attack Lord Wellington
rode up, and directed their movements. As he had another division
ready to intercept the French, at Espejo, some distance in advance
towards Vittoria, he desired Quartermaster Surtees to go and fetch
a peasant who was supposed to be with the 1st Battalion, to guide
him to Espejo. But the guide not liking the fire, was nowhere to be
found; and on Surtees reporting this to him, Lord Wellington galloped
off towards Espejo, without a guide. The Riflemen continued the
pursuit of the enemy; who on getting on the height above San Millan,
again showed front, and formed up some battalions. But the inexorable
Riflemen again pressed them so hard, that they fled through Villa
Nueva and Villa Naña; and the country being admirably suited for
Riflemen, they inflicted on them great loss.
During this fight an officer of the 3rd Battalion was chased round
and round a tree by a French hussar, who cut at him repeatedly,
and would undoubtedly have cut him down had he not spied the rifle
of a man who had been killed; and as it was fortunately loaded, he
shot his antagonist. 1 sergeant and 2 privates of the 1st Battalion
were killed; Lieutenant Haggup was desperately, and it was thought
mortally wounded, being shot through the belly; yet he recovered; and
10 privates of the 1st and 2 of the 3rd Battalion were wounded.
While the 1st and 3rd Battalions were pursuing the enemy, the second
brigade of the Light Division came up to San Millan; and as the rear
brigade of the French rear-guard, following their companions, arrived
there at the same time, they were attacked by the 2nd Battalion, and
handled much as their first brigade had been by the 1st and 3rd.
They broke and fled at once, abandoning their baggage, and took to
the mountains, where they were pursued and many of them taken by the
Spaniards. The 2nd Battalion had 1 sergeant killed and 1 private
wounded, in this affair. This was the first time the Regiment had
been actually engaged in this campaign.
The 1st and 3rd Battalions having returned from their pursuit, the
Regiment encamped on the Jumillo, between San Millan and Villa Nueva.
On the 19th they proceeded by the same road by which their opponents
on the preceding day had fled; and halted at the village of Salinas.
The day was hot; the march ascending the hill fatiguing; and the
clear sparkling rills at Salinas were eagerly resorted to. Every
man dipped his mess-tin; every man, when he had tasted it, made
a wry face. The water was salt. The earth all around is strongly
impregnated with saline matter. And one of the men observed: ‘We must
be near the sea now; for we have got to the salt water.’
Continuing their march they encamped that night, after crossing the
river Bayas by a moveable bridge, at Pobes, on the bank of that river.
On the 20th the Regiment did not move, but continued in the same
encampment.
[Illustration:
BATTLE OF VITTORIA
21^{ST} JUNE 1813
_E. Weller, lith., London._
_London: Chatto & Windus._
]
General Alten directed the baggage taken from the French at San
Millan to be sold by auction, and the proceeds to be divided among
the soldiers. Not only horses, mules and carts, and the usual baggage
of an army were thus disposed of, but a variety of female attire was
also found and sold; several Spanish ladies, the wives or _chères
amies_ of French officers, having been among the prisoners taken.
The proceeds of this sale were divided only among the men of the
second brigade, who were in fact the actual captors; very much to
the discontent of the soldiers of the 1st and 3rd Battalions, who
maintained that, if it had not been for their attack and discomfiture
of the first French brigade, this booty would never have been taken.
On the 21st the Regiment fell in at daylight and advanced, the 1st
Battalion leading, over some high ground; and having arrived early
near the river Zadorra, which flowing from near Vittoria turns at
nearly a right angle towards Miranda, were ordered to pile arms.
The river was thus in their front, flowing from their left to
their right, and then again turning round their right flank. While
they were thus resting with piled arms, Lord Wellington rode up,
and advancing to the very bank of the river, observed the enemy’s
position. This was not unnoticed by the French, who detached a
cloud of voltigeurs, who, rushing across a bridge at the village of
Villodas, seized a woody height on the side of the river our men
occupied, and opened a fire on the Staff. The 3rd Battalion and
two companies of the 1st Battalion which stood next to them, were
immediately ordered to stand to their arms, and drive them back.
This they did in a very short time; and thus they, and not General
Hill’s division, as has been generally said, began that memorable
battle.[121] They drove the French out of the woody height, through
the village and over the bridge; but not having orders to cross,
they extended along the river’s bank, as did the voltigeurs on
their side, and many men fell; for the river was not broad, and a
desultory fire was kept up. And as soon as the French were clear of
the village a cannonade was opened from a battery on some high ground
beyond the Zadorra, by which many men were killed. For the ground was
rocky, and our men were dispersed among the rocks, and the fragments
splintered off by the cannon-balls wounded them almost as much as
the balls themselves. One shot took some Riflemen, who were lining a
garden-wall, in flank and swept off several men at once.
Their task having been accomplished by clearing the village, some
of the officers and half a company of the 3rd Battalion took post
at the church of Villodas, and observed the course of the battle.
General Hill’s force had now possession of the range of hills on the
enemy’s left; while the smoke and booming of cannon on the right of
their position showed that Sir Thomas Graham had commenced his attack
on that flank. At this moment, about twelve o’clock, a peasant gave
information that one of the bridges over the Zadorra was undefended,
and the 1st and 3rd Battalions, moving to their left along the bank
of the river, crossed by it (the bridge of Tres Puentes) at the
point where the Zadorra bends with a right angle, and ascending the
high ground halted just under the brow of the hill. While they were
there the 3rd Division were seen advancing to the bridge of Mendoza
next on the left to that by which the Riflemen had crossed; and the
French observing them sent down some cavalry and light troops to
oppose them, while a battery of French guns opened fire upon them.
At this moment Barnard, with great promptitude, led his Battalion
to the left, between the French cavalry and the river, and took the
light troops and artillerymen in flank with such a severe fire, that
he drove them off and enabled the 3rd Division to cross the river
without opposition or loss. But the English gunners, who from the
opposite bank were replying to the fire of the French battery, not
distinguishing the dark dress of our men, who were in close contest
with the enemy’s skirmishers, continued to pound them, and several
men thus fell by the fire of our own guns. Nor was it till the head
of Picton’s Division came over the bridge and joined the Riflemen
that they ceased their fire.
The Light Division covered by the skirmishers of the 1st and 3rd
Battalions, and the 3rd Division covered by two companies of the
1st Battalion, now advanced and pushed up the conical hill in front
of Arinez, the centre of the enemy’s position. In this advance Lord
Wellington rode close behind the two 1st Battalion companies, which
were heading the 3rd Division,[122] calling out to the men ‘That’s
right, my lads; keep up a good fire.’ The Battalion soon cleared the
hill, and were going down the other side, when they were stopped by
a wall at the entrance of the village of Arinez, behind which the
enemy had posted some battalions of infantry, who on our men coming
over the hill opened a sudden blaze of fire, which checked them.
But only for a moment; for running forward they occupied one side
of the wall while the enemy held the other. And in the few minutes
they were there two officers and thirty men of the Battalion fell.
Then some of the 3rd Division, having deployed into line, gave the
French a volley, which dislodged them; and the Riflemen clearing the
wall, rushed into and through the village, and took three guns, the
first which were captured that day. The first of these was taken
by Lieutenant Fitz-Maurice and two privates of the 1st Battalion.
Observing that the French artillery, a battery of six guns, was
retreating, and believing that he could intercept it, Fitz-Maurice
started with his company; but they being in heavy marching order,
were not able to keep up with him. Five guns had passed before he
reached the road; he caught the leading horses of the sixth, and
stopped them. The driver drew a pistol and fired at him, but the
bullet passed through his cap. He called on the two men who were with
him to fire, and one of the horses fell, which completely checked the
gun. Then the rest of the company came up, cut the traces, and made
the three drivers and four gunners prisoners. However, just beyond
Arinez the enemy rallied a strong battalion, who advancing on the
Riflemen forced them to retreat about a hundred yards, and to give up
possession of the captured guns. But as our men had cut the traces
with their swords, taken away the horses, and killed many of the
gunners, when they saw the head of the 3rd Division advancing, they
went forward again; and thus reinforced, drove the enemy finally from
the village, and recaptured and retained possession of the guns.
In the meantime the 2nd Battalion with the 2nd brigade of the Light
Division were hotly engaged at the village of Margarita, to the left
of Arinez; but that village being carried and the enemy being driven
off, they also advanced on the left of the other two Battalions.
The whole Regiment then continued to advance in the direction of
Vittoria. On their right a large body of the enemy, which had been
driven by General Hill from the high ground on that flank, were
marching in a parallel direction. They were at first supposed to be
Spaniards; and on its being ascertained that they were French, it was
a question with the commanding officer of one of the Rifle Battalions
whether he should not attack them. But his orders were to make the
best of his way to his front; and he did not like to depart from
them. Moreover the intervening ground was bad, and it might not have
been easy to close with them. So hurrying on and outstripping our
people, they joined their main army in retreat.
As the Riflemen advanced they came to a village where there was a
French battery which cannonaded them severely. They formed lines of
Battalions and lay down in some ploughed fields, still exposed in
some degree to the enemy’s fire. In about half-an-hour they moved
on; and with little check passed through the city of Vittoria and
proceeded about three miles beyond it, the enemy having abandoned all
their positions and flying before them. Here they bivouacked, having
been on foot since three o’clock in the morning, and having fought
almost all that time, over about twenty miles of ground.
Surtees being the only quartermaster up with the Regiment, was sent
back to look for its baggage. He repassed Vittoria, and after a long
search amongst the carriages of all descriptions which blocked up the
road, at last found it. But it was impossible to get it forward, or
to extricate it from that wonderful tangle of every kind of vehicle
and impediment which blocked the road to and through Vittoria.
Wherefore, directing those in charge of it where to find the Regiment
next morning, he returned through Vittoria and joined the bivouack.
For the tents had not come up. And men and officers slept by the camp
fires, having supped on provisions obtained from the well-filled
stores of the flying foe.
On this day 1 sergeant and 3 rank and file of the 1st Battalion were
killed; and Lieutenant-Colonel Cameron, Lieutenants Cox, Hopwood, and
Gairdner were severely, and Lister slightly, wounded; 1 sergeant and
36 privates were also wounded: of the 2nd Battalion, Captain Jenkins
and 8 men were wounded: of the 3rd Lieutenant Campbell and 7 privates
were killed, and 16 wounded.
One of the first who fell was Lieutenant Leckie Campbell, who was
shot through the forehead at the affair in the early morning at
Villodas. Colonel Cameron was so severely wounded in the thigh that
he was obliged to proceed to England.
A man of the name of Hudson of the 1st Battalion (one of the
deserters found in Ciudad Rodrigo, who had been pardoned) received a
shot in the mouth, which knocked out several teeth, and passed out
at the back of the ear; yet from this wound he recovered. I have
mentioned the Spanish recruits who joined the Regiment. One of them,
by name Blanco, in this battle was distinguished not only for his
bravery, but for his cruelty; stabbing and cutting the wounded French
whenever he came upon them. This so exasperated an old Rifleman that
he felled him with the butt-end of his rifle. The other men could
scarce withhold Blanco from stabbing him on the spot.
On the 22nd, about mid-day, the Regiment moved in pursuit of the
French, but did not come up with them; and they bivouacked that night
near Salvatierra.
On the 23rd the Regiment again started in pursuit at daylight, and
arriving at the river Borunda, found the enemy posted on it. The
wooden bridge over it had been set on fire. But some shrapnell shells
fired by Ross’ guns soon made them move off. The Regiment then
forded the river, and pressed the rear-guard so hard that they could
not destroy the bridges they passed. They now set every village on
fire, with a view of delaying our pursuit; the passage through the
flaming villages and falling houses not being easy, and the country
round them being generally enclosed. But this did not much delay the
Riflemen. At Echarri-Aranaz they had a skirmish with the enemy’s
voltigeurs; but they soon moved off. They came up with them again at
the village of La Cuenca; here they drew up, but our Horse Artillery
having opened upon them, they resumed their retreat through Huarte.
The Regiment encamped at La Cuenca.
On the 24th at daylight they marched, the 3rd Battalion leading; and
after proceeding eight or ten miles found the French rear-guard in a
strong position on the side of a mountain behind the river Araquil.
The banks were rocky and rugged, and the stream swollen by recent
rains. A narrow bridge, therefore, afforded the sole passage. The
1st and 3rd Battalions of the Regiment were the only infantry up at
the time. The two Battalions were halted; and the men were ordered
to put their knapsacks behind the troopers of the German Legion (who
accompanied them) in order that they might move more rapidly. Then
the 3rd Battalion were ordered by General Alten to mount a hill to
the left of the road in order to fire down upon the right of the
French, while the 1st Battalion lined the banks of the river and
opened a smart fire. Under this attack the enemy gave way; and our
people crossing the bridge, pursued them in a kind of desultory
skirmish for about two miles. But they retired slowly, and fighting
hard, to enable the troops behind them to make good their retreat.
The road by which they were moving soon struck the great road, the
‘Camino real,’ leading from Madrid to Pamplona. The enemy detached
one battalion to the right, which moved down a valley and was soon
out of sight. It was ascertained afterwards that they fancied that
this valley had an outlet to the road further on, where they might
take up a position to receive our people. At the end of about two
miles, where there was a narrow pass between two overhanging rocks,
the enemy halted, and soon advanced upon our two Battalions. A
sharp attack now again took place; and the battalion which had left
the road emerged from a wood among our skirmishers. It was roughly
handled, and suffered severely before it regained the road. It
seems that, finding no way out of the valley they had entered, they
returned to help their companions.
At this moment two of Ross’ guns came up, and opened on them; and a
general fight of all three arms (the Riflemen, the German hussars,
and Ross’ guns) took place, which drove the French from their
position, through the pass and on to the open country beyond. Here
the road is carried on an embankment with very steep sides. And when
they had proceeded about two miles, the fire of Ross’ guns killed two
and wounded one of the horses of the French gun, an 8-pounder.[123]
They were so hard pressed that they had no time to disentangle the
horses, and they flung the gun, with the horses, over the embankment,
here about fifteen feet deep. Thus the Riflemen, who had taken
the first gun at Vittoria, took the last and only gun which the
French carried off from that field. ‘The French entered Pamplona,
therefore, with one howitzer only.’[124] The Riflemen (some of them
mounted behind the troopers of the Royal Dragoons)[125] continued
to pursue them till they were under the walls of that fortress; and
they occupied that night the villages of Aldava, Santa Barafra, and
Berrioplano.
On the 25th, at an early hour, the Regiment advanced towards
Pamplona, and arriving about a mile and-a-half from it, they moved to
the left, just out of range of the guns of the place, and proceeding
by a mountain road to Villaba, encamped near that village.
On the 26th Lord Wellington intending to intercept General Clausel,
who having learnt the rout of the main French army at Vittoria, was
endeavouring to make good a retreat into France by the east of Spain,
the Regiment (with some other divisions of the army) moved to Noain
and past the aqueduct of Pamplona, and encamped near Muro, at the
junction of the roads from Tudela and Zaragoza.
Next day they started early, and near Barasoain halted to cook and
refresh. Then passing through Tafalla, where they crossed the Zadacos
river by a stone bridge, and where the inhabitants received them with
acclamations of joy, they encamped in an olive-grove near Olite.
On the 28th passing through the town of Olite and striking out of
the Zaragoza road they took that to San Martin. And after crossing a
barren plain, halted to cook in a pine-wood near Murillo del Fruto.
They had then marched about four leagues; but their labours were not
nearly over. For starting again they skirted the river and got to
Gallepienza, where they crossed it by a stone bridge; and proceeding
by a mountain track, where darkness overtook them, they encamped in
a ploughed field, near Caseda, about midnight in tremendous rain.
The whole march had been about twenty-four miles; and they had been
pushed on in the hope of intercepting Clausel; but it was here
reported that the Alcalde of Tudela had given Clausel notice of the
movements of the column, and that he had effected his retreat by
another road.
Therefore the Regiment halted on the 29th; and on the 30th beginning
its return to Pamplona, crossed the Aragon at Caseda and marched to
Sanguessa, near which they encamped, and halted during July 1.
On the 2nd they resumed their march towards Pamplona; passing Narden
and Andoain, and encamped near Monreal.
On the 3rd the Regiment returned by Noain to Villaba, and moving past
it, encamped at the village of Berissa near Pamplona. On the next
day it furnished working parties to throw up works to shelter our
picquets from the fire of the place, or from a sortie of the garrison.
On the 5th the Regiment commenced its march into the Pyrenees; and
proceeding up a narrow valley to Ostiz, encamped near a rivulet.
And on the 6th, penetrating into the mountains, they marched by
Olague to Lanz, which is situated at the foot of the Pyrenean range.
At daybreak on the 7th the Regiment began to climb the mountains and
halted on a mountain side near Gustella and Lagassa, where they were
about to encamp for the night. But in three hours they got a fresh
route and were ordered to move into San Esteban.
Here they halted in very pleasant quarters until the 14th. During
this time Major-General Skerrett was appointed to the command of the
second brigade of the Light Division, in which was the 2nd Battalion,
in succession to General Vandeleur, who was transferred to the
command of a cavalry brigade.
On the afternoon of the 14th the Regiment marched from San Esteban,
and encamped on the heights above Sumbilla.
On the 15th at daylight they marched down the Bidassoa, by a road
which sometimes skirted its bank, and sometimes rose upon the
mountain side over it. On getting near the bridge of Lezaca the
enemy’s advanced post was discovered near it, on the heights of Sta.
Barbara. And the 1st Battalion was ordered to dislodge them. They
climbed the mountain slowly; for it was very steep, and they were
obliged to husband their strength for the fight which might take
place at the top. The French gave them some shots; but when they
arrived on the crest, they quickly drove them down the other side.
And as they stood on the top the Riflemen had a view of the enemy’s
position; and of the Bidassoa, which here makes a sharp bend to the
left, and flows thence through a rocky channel to the sea. Below them
was the town of Vera and the road which, leading into France through
Vera, is called La Puerta de Vera. To defend this pass the French had
thrown up strong works. And here also the Riflemen looked, far to the
left, upon the sea; and a simultaneous cheer burst forth at the sight
of that ocean which seemed to connect them with their native land,
and which, for some years, most of them had not seen.
The 43rd drove the enemy out of the town of Vera; but they still kept
a picquet in some outhouses near it, and our picquets were posted in
Vera. The Regiment encamped on the heights they had gained.
It remained in this position, furnishing the picquets, and keeping up
the communication between the army under Sir Thomas Graham, which was
besieging St. Sebastian, and that under Sir Rowland Hill, which was
investing and covering Pamplona.
On July 25 Marshal Soult, who had assumed command of the French
army, attacked the positions of Roncesvalles and Maya, with a view
to raising the siege of Pamplona or throwing provisions into it; and
after several hardly-contested fights had obliged Hill to fall back.
It therefore became necessary for the Light Division also to retire,
though the enemy in front made no sign of advancing. Accordingly on
the 26th the Regiment marched from their encampment, and crossing
the Bidassoa, and passing through Lezaca and Jansi, encamped for the
night on high ground near Sumbilla.
They did not move from this till nightfall on the 27th, when they
resumed their retrograde movement; and marching all night did not
reach Zubieta (a march of only two leagues and-a-half) till after
daylight. For the route was by mountain tracks and in the dark, and
was accomplished with difficulty and fatigue. So dark and dangerous
was the way, that at a stream on the road, which dashed down from
the mountain side, a Corporal of the Regiment placed himself in
mid-stream, and taking each passer by the hand guided him to the
other side. On arrival at Zubieta, about a league to the right of San
Esteban, their late quarter, they encamped for the day; and starting
again at nine in the evening arrived at Salin next morning. This
night march, though not so harassing as the last, for the road was
less difficult, was yet not free from danger. For Lieutenant William
Eeles, the Adjutant of the 3rd Battalion, having had his cap knocked
off by the bough of a tree, in endeavouring to catch it as it fell,
pulled his horse off the road, and both rolled down a precipitous
declivity. Fortunately it was not very deep; and horse and man were
recovered unhurt. At Salin they encamped for the day. And on the 30th
proceeded by a long march, by day, to Lecumberri, and were moved
into a wood _à cheval_ on the great road from Pamplona to Bayonne,
and about equidistant from the former and Tolosa. They were again
to keep up the communication between Hill’s corps and that before
St. Sebastian; and also to bar the way to any of the enemy’s troops
which might move by that road. During the last few days they had
heard heavy firing in the direction of Pamplona, but were without
intelligence of the result of the fight. But late on the 31st, their
anxiety was relieved by the arrival of a staff officer, who informed
them of the complete defeat and repulse of the French in the battles
of the Pyrenees; and who also conveyed orders that they were to
advance over the ground by which they had retired. Wherefore, falling
in on the evening of that day, they marched to Larissa and encamped
there.
On the 1st August they marched early, and passing by Esema, Zubieta
and Irurlia, heard that they were to push forward to intercept the
retreat of the French. They proceeded by a mountainous and rough
road, under a burning sun, and about three o’clock reached some high
ground on the left bank of the Bidassoa. It was a long march and the
heat was oppressive. They had marched about thirty miles, when, about
three o’clock, they arrived on the heights overhanging the river
near the bridge of Jansi. Then the knowledge that they were near the
enemy revived the spirits of the wearied Riflemen; and declaring that
they ‘would knock the dust out of their hairy knapsacks,’ the 1st
Battalion descended the hill on the left, while the 3rd Battalion
held a wood above. Then the disordered column of the enemy was seen
approaching on the opposite bank, faint and weary; and the 1st
Battalion, concealed among the brushwood at the foot of the hill,
received them with a raking fire. Many, pointing to the wounded who
were borne with them, by their gestures implored quarter, and the
generous Riflemen withheld their fire, and called to one another to
spare them. Yet many, as they passed, fired at our men, but without
much effect; for they were so effectually concealed in the brushwood,
that the flash of their rifles was the only guide for the aim of the
enemy. Thus pursued by the 4th Division, they had to pass this fiery
ordeal. Some throwing off their knapsacks, and casting away their
arms, strove to climb a hill on their right; but it was inaccessible;
and on the hill-side the fire of our men picked them off. Then they
pushed some light troops across the river, who became engaged with
the 3rd Battalion; but they were soon driven down, and across the
bridge. In the evening two of our companies got possession of the
bridge, and then the rear of the column had to pass in front of their
fire. At last they got a battalion into line behind a stone wall
beyond the river; this somewhat checked our fire, and the remainder
of the flying enemy passed with less loss. Yet arms, knapsacks,
baggage and wounded were abandoned.
In this affair the Regiment lost but few men. Captain William
Percival of the 3rd Battalion was wounded, being at the very close of
the day shot through the right wrist. The left hand had been before
contracted by a wound in that wrist; and he was also lame from a
wound in the hip.
This day’s march was most fatiguing, being made under a hot sun,
and with frequent want of water. The whole distance was about eight
leagues; and considering that it was made in the heat of an August
sun, and that at the end of the march the men had four or five
hours’ hard fighting, it may hold its place with the famous march
from Calzada to Talavera. Napier gives a frightful picture of the
sufferings of the men. It was said that 200 men of one regiment of
the second brigade of the Light Division fell out. But the Riflemen
had a resolution to excel; and many held on till they died. Yet when
the roll of the 3rd Battalion was called just before the fight began,
only _nine_ men were absent.
On the 2nd, the 1st and 3rd Battalions moved after the French by the
road to the pass of Vera; the 2nd Battalion by Jansi and Lezaca; and
the Regiment took up the line of picquets it had held a week before
without firing a shot. On the march they met Lord Wellington, who,
in recognition of their long march and hard fight of the day before,
honoured them with an approving nod and smile, which much pleased the
soldiers.
In the afternoon, it being observed that the enemy held the mountain
of Echalar, which standing on the right of our position was in fact
in our line of posts, it was resolved to dislodge them. And the
1st and 3rd Battalions supported by the 43rd were ordered to take
the position. The 1st Battalion extended to the right, and the 3rd
advanced up the face of the hill. A thick fog came on, and though the
French kept up a pretty brisk fire they did the Riflemen no harm. For
their aim being probably rendered uncertain by the mist, they fired
over their heads, and any of their shot which took effect, fell on
the 43rd, who were much lower on the hill-side. The 3rd Battalion,
advancing up the hill in the fog, found themselves against a rock
the top of which was thronged with Frenchmen, who gave them a biting
fire. As the Riflemen were unable to climb the precipitous face of
the rock, the Frenchmen called upon them with gibes, in the Spanish
language, to come on. The Riflemen retreated for an instant to the
rocks around, among which finding cover, they kept up a telling fire
on the occupants of the rock. And one of the Spanish recruits before
mentioned, enraged at the insults of the French, replied to their
sneers in most bitter words, which he accompanied with constant
shots. But he was soon killed. Now gathering courage they made an
advance against the 1st Battalion; but the Riflemen with a shout of
defiance repelled them, and they turned and fled; and descending
their side of the mountain retreated to their own position.
The men, while the Regiment remained in the neighbourhood, called
this mountain ‘Barnard’s Hill;’ in memory of the valour with which
Sir Andrew, who commanded on the occasion, had carried it.
An officer of the 1st Battalion had a strange escape in this fight.
When the enemy advanced on that Battalion, they made a rush at him,
which in trying to avoid, he fell into a bush. They seized his sword,
which was not drawn, to drag him out; but it broke away from the
belt, and he escaped.
A Portuguese regiment took up the ground the Riflemen had gained; and
they encamped near Vera and the Bidassoa.
On the 3rd another division having relieved them, the Regiment
returned to their old encampment on the heights of Sta. Barbara,
where they remained for about two months.
On August 25, the three Battalions being together, it was resolved
to commemorate the anniversary of the formation of the Regiment. A
trench was dug round a parallelogram of greensward, which served
for the table, while the _convives_ sat on the opposite bank, with
their legs in the trench. Many patriotic toasts and many healths
were drunk. And the cheering that followed them must have astonished
their French neighbours. Indeed they are said to have remained under
arms part of the night, expecting an immediate attack. This was, I
believe, the first ‘Regimental Dinner.’
On the 31st the storming of St. Sebastian took place. Fifty men
under a subaltern of each Battalion of the Regiment were allowed
to volunteer for this duty. Lieutenant James Perceval of the 1st
Battalion claimed this duty by right of seniority, but William
Hamilton, a Second Lieutenant, obtained Sir Andrew Barnard’s
permission to accompany the stormers also. Lieutenant Eaton commanded
the stormers of the 2nd Battalion. I regret that I am unable to
ascertain who led those of the 3rd.
About noon, they moved forward from the trenches, and after five
hours’ desperate fighting--for the breaches were found to have
fallen in such large fragments as to be almost impregnable, and the
resistance of the enemy was most gallant--they entered and took
possession of the place. Perceval was severely wounded at the foot of
the breach; and Hamilton was also desperately wounded in two places;
one ball entered the eye, passed down through the mouth, and was cut
out at the shoulder-blade. Both recovered; but Hamilton was never
again able to join the Regiment, and was placed on full-pay of it
(as First Lieutenant) some time afterwards. Of the 1st Battalion,
besides these officers, 2 Riflemen were killed, and 2 sergeants and 4
Riflemen were wounded; of the 2nd Battalion, 3 Riflemen were killed,
and 6 wounded; and of the 3rd Battalion, 2 Riflemen were killed and
2 wounded.[126]
But on that same day the Battalions from which these volunteers had
been detached had also hard fighting. They had, as usual, been under
arms before daybreak; but after dawn the mountains were covered with
a thick mist, and as nothing appeared they broke up, and had just
returned to their encampment, when the bugles sounded the ‘assembly;’
and a breeze having carried off the mist, the hills on the French
side of the river were seen covered with troops. These soon began to
descend, and forded the Bidassoa a little below Vera. Some columns
also approached Vera in order to cross by that bridge; but the 2nd
Battalion were posted here, having two companies at the bridge and
in a loop-holed house near it, and the other four in the town. They
resisted and defeated the attempt to cross at that point. Meanwhile
the 1st and 3rd Battalions, seeing the enemy advancing, thought the
attack would be on them. For the French crossed in force, preceded
by numbers of skirmishers under cover of the fire of some mountain
guns. This fell short at first; and instead of reaching our people
some shells fell among their own skirmishers, and caused no little
confusion; while the Riflemen, who were looking down upon them, burst
forth into a loud and derisive cheer, as each shell fell among them.
But when they came across, and our people were to receive them,
they turned to their right, and proceeded towards St. Sebastian to
attack some Spanish troops on the left of the position the Riflemen
occupied, leaving some troops about Vera to keep them in check.
Thus matters remained till the afternoon; the 1st and 3rd Battalions
suffering, but a little, from the fire of the enemy’s mountain guns.
About three o’clock three companies of the 1st Battalion with part
of the 43rd, crossed by the bridge of Lezaca, and proceeded along
the heights above the river, in a direction parallel to the French;
they were afterwards followed by the remainder of Kempt’s brigade,
and moved from hill to hill, in the evening occupying a height above
Lezaca where they remained for the night. But a picquet was left on
the heights of Sta. Barbara, with orders, as soon as it was relieved
by a Spanish regiment, to follow the Battalion across the Bidassoa.
But this was no easy matter. For a tremendous storm of wind, thunder
and lightning came on; and it was extremely difficult for the picquet
to thread their way by mountain paths along the hill-side.
The rain also fell in torrents. And as is always the case in these
mountains every rill rapidly became a torrent, and the Bidassoa rose
and ere long became unfordable. That portion of the enemy to the
left of the British position had, on being defeated, recrossed the
river. But General Clausel’s force, which was nearer to Vera, was
unable to do so. Clausel himself, indeed, with two brigades, did
repass the river early in the evening, leaving General Vandermaesen
with the other divisions on the left bank. Then the Bidassoa rose
rapidly, and night set in. Some of his troops attempted to ford the
angry river, but were swept away and drowned. Then the only chance
was to force the bridge of Vera. Here Cadoux’s company and part
of Hart’s company of the 2nd Battalion were posted under command
of the former, in a loop-holed house about thirty yards from the
bridge, having double sentries posted on the bridge itself. Thomas
Smith, the Adjutant of the 2nd Battalion, having reported to General
Skerrett that the bridge was held by this detachment, Skerrett sent
his Brigade-Major, who was sleeping in the same room with him, to
Cadoux, desiring him to evacuate it, probably in consequence of
Vandermaesen’s overwhelming numbers. This Cadoux refused to do;
saying that he could hold the bridge-house. Meanwhile, about two
o’clock in the morning, the French, silently drawing near the bridge,
made a rush. The two sentries on the bridge snapped their rifles to
give the alarm; but the priming was wet from the heavy rain, and
they were at once shot down or bayoneted. Cadoux, by his fire from
the bridge-house, kept the head of the advancing column in check. At
this fatal moment General Skerrett sent a fresh order to Cadoux, and
in such terms as he could not disobey, to leave the bridge-house and
join his Battalion. He of course complied; but with the memorable
words that ‘but few of his party would reach the camp.’ Even so
it was. They at once became exposed not only to the fire of the
troops on the bridge, but to a cannonade from the guns of the French
reserve on a height near Vera. Cadoux was killed; 2 sergeants and 14
rank and file were killed; and Captain Hart, Lieutenants Llewellyn
and R. Cochrane, 9 sergeants and 34 rank and file were wounded. So
that every officer present was either killed or wounded besides 11
sergeants and 48 rank and file, out of a total strength of about 100
men. And it is to be noted that until the party left the bridge-house
Cadoux had not lost a man, except the double sentries on the
bridge.[128] The opposition being thus withdrawn the French crossed
the bridge, and returned to their position. Whereas had Skerrett
not only left Cadoux at the bridge-house, but supported him with
the remainder of the Battalion, or with the 52nd, who were close at
hand, not a man of Vandermaesen’s division could have recrossed the
Bidassoa. One company of the 3rd Battalion indeed and some Portuguese
troops came up about daylight, but it was then too late, and the
passage had been effected.[129]
For this neglect and for the sacrifice of Cadoux and his gallant band
General Skerrett has been greatly and deservedly blamed; in which
censure Sir William Napier (though apparently not fully aware of
Skerrett’s fault) concurs.
[Illustration:
ACTION NEAR VERA
7^{TH} OCTOBER 1813
_Drawn by Capt^n H. M. Moorsom, Rifle Brig^e_
_E. Weller, lith., London._
_London: Chatto & Windus._
]
Besides the great loss of Cadoux’s party at the bridge-house,
Lieutenant Nicholas Travers, who commanded the company of the 3rd
Battalion which came up at dawn, was also wounded; and 2 men of it
were killed and 10 wounded.
But if the Riflemen suffered, the loss they inflicted on their
assailants was enormous. The bridge next morning was strewn with
their bodies; and the river full of them; while many wounded had been
removed. General Vandermaesen, who commanded the force, was killed.
In the course of the following day the Regiment returned to their
former encampment, and took up the line of picquets they had
previously furnished. Here they remained in quiet until October 6,
on which evening Barnard arrived from head-quarters with the welcome
intelligence that they were to force the pass of Vera on the ensuing
morning. Early in the night a thunderstorm set in; but it rolled
away in the course of the night, and the morning was fine when the
Regiment fell in. Leaving the tents standing to deceive the enemy
as to the object of the movement, the three Battalions, with the
other regiments of the Division, formed at the foot of the heights
behind the town of Vera. A little to the right was an isolated hill,
standing out in front of the great Pyrenean chain on the north of the
valley of the Bidassoa, to which the soldiers had given the name of
‘the Boar’s back.’ This was to be occupied as a preliminary measure.
And Colonel Ross, extending the 3rd Battalion, began to ascend it.
Without firing a shot, though exposed to the fire of the enemy who
crowned the crest, the Riflemen climbed to a pine-wood more than
half-way up the mountain side; whence, after they had rested for
a few minutes, they issued again. At this time the French crowded
behind the crest; and it was thought by their brother Riflemen in the
plain below, who could see the ground beyond, that the enemy would
charge down the slope. But it was not so; for pursuing their way with
all the steadiness of a field-day, Ross and his gallant Battalion
gained the ridge. Then its defenders turned and fled; and then the
Riflemen plied their rifles, which they had not before discharged,
and poured a fire into them as they hurriedly descended the reverse
slope. This exploit and the manner in which it was executed excited
the admiration not only of their own comrades still standing in the
plain below, but of the whole 4th Division, which had been moved up
as a support to the Light Division.
This being accomplished, the other two Battalions moved forward. The
1st, with General Kempt’s brigade, advanced into the pass, and though
at first sight their task seemed a difficult one, yet the steadiness
and gallantry of the men carried all before them; and with little
loss they stood on the top of the pass. Some descended the other
side. For George Simmons and Cox with about sixty Riflemen, following
the retreating enemy down the pass, took some prisoners, among whom
were a commissary and two bandsmen. These the soldiers ordered to
play some French tunes; but from the alarm and the pace at which they
had retreated, their music was neither very coherent nor melodious.
But the 2nd Battalion had a more difficult task to perform. The
second brigade was on that day under the command of Colonel
Colborne[130] of the 52nd (Skerrett being absent from the field on
account of ill-health), and to them was allotted the duty of carrying
a high hill on the left called La Bayonette, which bristled with the
enemy’s entrenchments. The Riflemen ascended the lower slopes of the
hill, and coming out of a wood which there girded it, advanced with a
quick fire to a redoubt. The French who filled it, waiting until the
Battalion was within a few yards, then opened a murderous fire, which
checked the Riflemen and obliged them for a moment to retire. But the
52nd at that moment coming up in support, they again advanced, and
together they cleared the redoubt of its defenders and drove them
before them to a second line of works. Here they did not experience
any serious resistance. But at the crest the enemy had constructed
a formidable work, from which they not only poured forth a blaze of
fire, but rolled great pieces of rock on the climbing soldiers. While
these were endeavouring to storm the work, the 1st Battalion, with
the first brigade, gained the top of the pass on their right; and the
enemy’s left flank being thus turned, and his retreat threatened, he
abandoned the entrenchment and retired down the reverse slope of the
mountain.
As the French were retiring a curious circumstance took place.
Colonel Colborne, accompanied by a small escort of Riflemen of the
2nd Battalion, came suddenly on a battery of mountain guns and some
three hundred men, who were retreating from the right flank of the
French position. He called to them peremptorily to lay down their
arms, which they did, thinking he had a large force at hand.
The loss of the 2nd Battalion was very severe, amounting to nearly
one-third of its strength. They fell principally at the Star redoubt,
which they first attacked. Captain Gibbons, Lieutenants Alexander
Campbell and John Hill, 4 sergeants, and 23 rank and file were
killed; Captain Hart, Lieutenants Budgen, Ridgeway, Fry and Madden,
6 sergeants, and 128 rank and file were wounded; and 1 Rifleman was
returned ‘missing.’ The 1st Battalion had 10 Riflemen wounded; and
the 3rd Battalion 4 killed and Lieutenant Vickers and 17 wounded.
The Regiment, now encamped on the ridge, looked over the steppes of
the Pyrenees and the vast plain at their feet. St. Jean-de-Luz seemed
also beneath them, and Bayonne could be seen in the distance; while
the Bay of Biscay bounded their view to the left, and a richly-tilled
and well-wooded country stretched away far to their right.
Towards evening the 3rd Battalion went down into the plain below on
outpost duty, relieving Longa’s Spanish troops.
The whole range of mountains was now in our occupation, except one:
the extreme projection on the right called La Montagne d’Arrhune.
This the French retained till the 8th; the Spaniards not having
succeeded in dislodging them. On that day the second brigade of the
Light Division having been sent to assist in carrying it, the enemy
evacuated it, and it was thenceforth occupied by a picquet of three
companies of the Light Division.
Beyond it was an outlier separated by a valley, and called ‘La Petite
Arrhune,’ though itself a mountain of very considerable elevation.
This the French occupied; and their advanced sentries were posted at
the foot of the slope, and ours on the opposite slope of the valley,
not more than 200 yards apart.
FOOTNOTES:
[117] ‘Adventures,’ 143.
[118] ‘Supplementary Despatches,’ Appendix xiv. 108-9.
[119] See it in ‘Wellington Despatches,’ ix. 582, Nov. 28, 1812.
Leach and Kincaid both mention this regret and dissatisfaction.
[120] ‘Wellington Despatches,’ xi. 153.
[121] Surtees, 203, 4. Costello, 153.
[122] See his private letter to Sir Thomas Picton, ‘Despatches,’ x.
529. He says, ‘The Riflemen of the Light Division were the first to
ascend the hill, and I went up immediately after them.’ He mentions
that these were the 95th.
[123] Letter from Field-Marshal Sir Hew D. Ross, G.C.B.
[124] ‘Wellington Despatches,’ x. 456.
[125] Letter from Sir Hew D. Ross.
[126] ‘London Gazette.’ Either, however, this list is incomplete,
or the Record of the 2nd Battalion erroneous: for that Record gives
the names of Sergeant-Major Adams, Corporal Port and 14 privates
who volunteered on the forlorn hope. Of these Corporal Port and
5 Riflemen were killed and 6 wounded: 12 disabled out of 16.
Nevertheless, even this list is not perfect. For Mr. Kenneth Stewart
Mackenzie of Seaforth is in possession of a medal with clasp granted
to Sergeant John Himbury of the 2nd Battalion for gallant conduct
on the forlorn hope at St. Sebastian. This medal was presented to
him by the General commanding his brigade. It bears on the _obverse_
‘ST. SEBASTIAN, 31 DE AGOSTO DE 1813;’ on the _reverse_, a bugle,
the cords attached to a crown, ‘95’ in the centre, ‘RIFLE CORPS’ on
a ribbon above.[127] And the clasp is inscribed ‘FORLORN HOPE’ J. H.
SERGEANT.
[127] This was the old badge of the Regiment before the Maltese cross
was adopted.
[128] The particulars of this affair of the bridge of Vera have been
related to me by Colonel Thomas Smith.
[129] Lord Wellington, in his despatch (‘Despatches,’ xi. 69) states
that the passage of the bridge ‘was made under the fire of a great
part of Major-General Skerrett’s brigade.’ This mistake has been
pointed out by Napier (Book xxii. chap. 3); the truth is, only the
two 2nd Battalion companies resisted it.
[130] Afterwards Lord Seaton; and Colonel-in-Chief.