January 8th, 1812.
The campaign of 1812 commenced with the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo, which
was invested by our division on the 8th of January.
There was a smartish frost, with some snow on the ground; and, when we
arrived opposite the fortress, about midday, the garrison did not
appear to think that we were in earnest, for a number of their
officers came out, under the shelter of a stone-wall, within half
musket-shot, and amused themselves in saluting and bowing to us in
ridicule; but, ere the day was done, some of them had occasion to wear
the laugh on the opposite side of the countenance.
We lay by our arms until dark, when a party, consisting of a hundred
volunteers from each regiment, under Colonel Colborne, of the
fifty-second, stormed and carried the Fort of St. Francisco, after a
short sharp action, in which the whole of its garrison were taken or
destroyed. The officer who commanded it was a chattering little
fellow, and acknowledged himself to have been one of our saluting
friends of the morning. He kept, incessantly, repeating a few words of
English which he had picked up during the assault, and the only ones,
I fancy, that were spoken, viz. "dem eyes, b--t eyes!" and, in
demanding the meaning of them, he required that we should, also,
explain why we stormed a place without first besieging it; for, he
said, that another officer would have relieved him of his charge at
daylight, had _we_ not _relieved_ him of it sooner.
The enemy had calculated that this outwork would have kept us at bay
for a fortnight or three weeks; whereas, its capture, the first night,
enabled us to break ground at once, within breaching distance of the
walls of the town. They kept up a very heavy fire the whole night on
the working parties; but, as they aimed at random, we did not suffer
much; and made such good use of our time that, when daylight enabled
them to see what we were doing, we had dug ourselves under tolerable
cover.
In addition to ours, the first, third, and fourth divisions were
employed in the siege. Each took the duties for twenty-four hours
alternately, and returned to their cantonments during the interval.
We were relieved by the first division, under Sir Thomas Graham, on
the morning of the 9th, and marched to our quarters.
Jan. 12th.--At ten o'clock this morning we resumed the duties of the
siege. It still continued to be dry frosty weather; and, as we were
obliged to ford the Agueda, up to the middle, every man carried a pair
of iced breeches into the trenches with him.
My turn of duty did not arrive until eight in the evening, when I was
ordered to take thirty men with shovels to dig holes for ourselves, as
near as possible to the walls, for the delectable amusement of firing
at the embrasures for the remainder of the night. The enemy threw
frequent fire-balls among us, to see where we were; but, as we always
lay snug until their blaze was extinguished, they were not much the
wiser, except by finding, from having some one popt off from their
guns every instant, that they had got some neighbours whom they would
have been glad to get rid of.
We were relieved as usual at ten next morning, and returned to our
cantonments.
January 16th.--Entered on our third day's duty, and found the
breaching batteries in full operation, and our approaches close to the
walls on every side. When we arrived on the ground I was sent to take
command of the highland company, which we had at that time in the
regiment, and which was with the left wing, under Colonel Cameron. I
found them on piquet, between the right of the trenches and the river,
half of them posted at a mud-cottage, and the other half in a ruined
convent, close under the walls. It was a very tolerable post when at
it; but it is no joke travelling by daylight up to within a stone's
throw of a wall, on which there is a parcel of fellows who have no
other amusement but to fire at every body they see.
We could not show our noses at any point without being fired at; but,
as we were merely posted there to protect the right flank of the
trenches from any sortie, we did not fire at them, and kept as quiet
as could be, considering the deadly blast that was blowing around us.
There are few situations in life where something cannot be learnt, and
I, myself, stand indebted to my twenty-four hours' residence there,
for a more correct knowledge of martial sounds than in the study of my
whole life time besides. They must be an unmusical pair of ears that
cannot inform the wearer whither a cannon or a musket played last, but
the various _notes_, emanating from their respective mouths, admit of
nice distinctions. My party was too small, and too well sheltered to
repay the enemy for the expense of shells and round shot; but the
quantity of grape and musketry aimed at our particular heads, made a
good concert of first and second whistles, while the more sonorous
voice of the round shot, travelling to our friends on the left, acted
as a thorough bass; and there was not a shell, that passed over us to
the trenches, that did not send back a fragment among us as soon as it
burst, as if to gratify a curiosity that I was far from expressing.
We went into the cottage soon after dark, to partake of something that
had been prepared for dinner; and, when in the middle of it, a round
shot passed through both walls, immediately over our heads, and
garnished the soup with a greater quantity of our parent earth than
was quite palatable.
We were relieved, as usual, by the first division, at ten next
morning; and, to avoid as much as possible the destructive fire from
the walls, they sent forward only three or four men at a time, and we
sent ours away in the same proportions.
Every thing is by comparison in this world, and it is curious to
observe how men's feelings change with circumstances. In cool blood a
man would rather go a little out of his way than expose himself to
unnecessary danger; but we found, this morning, that by crossing the
river where we then were, and running the gauntlet for a mile, exposed
to the fire of two pieces of artillery, that we should be saved the
distance of two or three miles in returning to our quarters. After
coming out of such a _furnace_ as we had been frying in, the other
fire was not considered a fire at all, and passed without a moment's
hesitation.