January 19th, 1812.--We moved to the scene of operations, about two
o'clock this afternoon; and, as it was a day before our regular turn,
we concluded that we were called there to lend a hand in finishing the
job we had begun so well; nor were we disappointed, for we found that
two practicable breaches had been effected, and that the place was to
be stormed in the evening by the third and light divisions, the former
by the right breach, and the latter by the left, while some Portuguese
troops were to attempt an escalade on the opposite sides of the town.
About eight o'clock in the evening our division was accordingly formed
for the assault, behind a convent, near the left breach, in the
following order:--viz.
1st. Four companies of our battalion, under Colonel Cameron, to
line the crest of the glacis, and fire upon the ramparts.
2d. Some companies of Portuguese, carrying bags filled with hay
and straw, for throwing into the ditch, to facilitate the passage
of the storming party.
3d. The _forlorn hope_, consisting of an officer and twenty-five
volunteers.
4th. The _storming party_, consisting of three officers and one
hundred volunteers from each regiment, the officers from ours
were Captain Mitchell, Mr. Johnstone, and myself, and the whole
under the command of Major Napier, of the fifty-second.
5th. The main body of the division, under General Crawford, with
one brigade, under Major-General Vandeleur, and the other under
Colonel Barnard.
At a given signal the different columns advanced to the assault; the
night was tolerably clear, and the enemy evidently expected us; for,
as soon as we turned the corner of the convent-wall, the space
between us and the breach became one blaze of light with their
fire-balls, which, while they lighted us on to glory, lightened not a
few of their lives and limbs; for the whole glacis was in consequence
swept by a well directed fire of grape and musketry, and they are the
devil's own brooms; but our gallant fellows walked through it, to the
point of attack, with the most determined steadiness, excepting the
Portuguese sack-bearers, most of whom lay down behind their bags, to
wait the result, while the few that were thrown into the ditch looked
so like dead bodies, that, when I leapt into it, I tried to avoid
them.
The advantage of being on a storming party is considered as giving the
prior claim to be _put out of pain_, for they receive the first fire,
which is generally the best, not to mention that they are also
expected to receive the earliest salutation from the beams of timber,
hand-grenades, and other missiles, which the garrison are generally
prepared to transfer from the top of the wall, to the tops of the
heads of their foremost visitors. But I cannot say that I, myself,
experienced any such preference, for every ball has a considerable
distance to travel, and I have generally found them equally ready to
pick up their man at the end, as at the beginning of their flight;
luckily, too, the other preparations cannot always be accommodated to
the moment, so that, on the whole, the _odds_ are pretty _even_, that,
all concerned come in for an equal share of whatever happens to be
going on.
We had some difficulty at first in finding the breach, as we had
entered the ditch opposite to a ravelin, which we mistook for a
bastion. I tried first one side of it and then the other, and seeing
one corner of it a good deal battered, with a ladder placed against
it, I concluded that it must be the breach, and calling to the
soldiers near me, to follow. I mounted with the most ferocious intent,
carrying a sword in one hand and a pistol in the other; but, when I
got up, I found nobody to fight with, except two of our own men, who
were already laid dead across the top of the ladder. I saw, in a
moment, that I had got into the wrong box, and was about to descend
again, when I heard a shout from the opposite side, that the breach
was there; and, moving in that direction, I dropped myself from the
ravelin, and landed in the ditch, opposite to the foot of the breach,
where I found the head of the storming party just beginning to fight
their way into it. The combat was of short duration, and, in less than
half an hour from the commencement of the attack, the place was in our
possession.
After carrying the breach, we met with no further opposition, and
moved round the ramparts to see that they were perfectly clear of the
enemy, previous to entering the town. I was fortunate enough to take
the left-hand circuit, by accident, and thereby escaped the fate which
befel a great portion of those who went to the right, and who were
blown up, along with some of the third division, by the accidental
explosion of a magazine.
I was highly amused, in moving round the ramparts, to find some of the
Portuguese troops just commencing their escalade, on the opposite
side, near the bridge, in ignorance of the place having already
fallen. Gallantly headed by their officers, they had got some ladders
placed against the wall, while about two thousand voices from the rear
were cheering, with all their might, for mutual encouragement; and,
like most other troops, under similar circumstances, it appeared to me
that their feet and their tongues went at a more equal pace after we
gave them the hint. On going a little further, we came opposite to the
ravelin, which had been my chief annoyance during my last days'
piquet. It was still crowded by the enemy, who had now thrown down
their arms, and endeavoured to excite our pity by virtue of their
being "Pauvres Italianos;" but our men had, somehow, imbibed a
horrible antipathy to the Italians, and every appeal they made in that
name was invariably answered with,--"You're Italians, are you? then,
d--n you, here's a shot for you;" and the action instantly followed
the word.
A town taken by storm presents a frightful scene of outrage. The
soldiers no sooner obtain possession of it, than they think themselves
at liberty to do what they please. It is enough for them that there
_had_ been an enemy on the ramparts; and, without considering that the
poor inhabitants may, nevertheless, be friends and allies, they, in
the first moment of excitement, all share one common fate; and nothing
but the most extraordinary exertions on the part of the officers can
bring them back to a sense of their duty.
We continued our course round the ramparts until we met the head of
the column which had gone by the right, and then descended into the
town. At the entrance of the first street, a French officer came out
of a door and claimed my protection, giving me his sword. He told me
that there was another officer in the same house who was afraid to
venture out, and entreated that I would go in for him. I, accordingly,
followed him up to the landing-place of a dark stair, and, while he
was calling to his friend, by name, to come down, "as there was an
English officer present who would protect him," a violent screaming
broke through a door at my elbow. I pushed it open, and found the
landlady struggling with an English soldier, whom I immediately
transferred to the bottom of the stair head foremost. The French
officer had followed me in at the door, and was so astonished at all
he saw, that he held up his hands, turned up the whites of his eyes,
and resolved himself into a state of the most eloquent silence. When
he did recover the use of his tongue, it was to recommend his landlady
to my notice, as the most amiable woman in existence. She, on her
part, professed the most unbounded gratitude, and entreated that I
would make her house my home forever; but, when I called upon her, a
few days after, she denied having ever seen me before, and stuck to it
most religiously.
As the other officer could not be found, I descended into the street
again with my prisoner; and, finding the current of soldiers setting
towards the centre of the town, I followed the stream, which conducted
me into the great square, on one side of which the late garrison were
drawn up as prisoners, and the rest of it was filled with British and
Portuguese intermixed, without any order or regularity. I had been
there but a very short time, when they all commenced firing, without
any ostensible cause; some fired in at the doors and windows, some at
the roofs of houses, and others at the clouds; and, at last, some
heads began to be blown from their shoulders in the general hurricane,
when the voice of Sir Thomas Picton, with the power of twenty
trumpets, began to proclaim damnation to every body, while Colonel
Barnard, Colonel Cameron, and some other active officers, were
carrying it into effect with a strong hand; for, seizing the broken
barrels of muskets, which were lying about in great abundance, they
belaboured every fellow, most unmercifully, about the head who
attempted either to load or fire, and finally succeeded in reducing
them to order. In the midst of the scuffle, however, three of the
houses in the square were set on fire; and the confusion was such that
nothing could be done to save them; but, by the extraordinary
exertions of Colonel Barnard, during the whole of the night, the
flames were prevented from communicating to the adjoining buildings.
We succeeded in getting a great portion of our battalion together by
one o'clock in the morning, and withdrew with them to the ramparts,
where we lay by our arms until daylight.
There is nothing in this life half so enviable as the feelings of a
soldier after a victory. Previous to a battle, there is a certain sort
of something that pervades the mind which is not easily defined; it is
neither akin to joy or fear, and, probably, _anxiety_ may be nearer to
it than any other word in the dictionary: but, when the battle is
over, and crowned with victory, he finds himself elevated for awhile
into the regions of absolute bliss! It had ever been the summit of my
ambition to attain a post at the head of a storming party:--my wish
had now been accomplished, and gloriously ended; and I do think that,
after all was over, and our men laid asleep on the ramparts, that I
strutted about as important a personage, in my own opinion, as ever
trod the face of the earth; and, had the ghost of the renowned
Jack-the-giant-killer itself passed that way at the time, I'll venture
to say, that I would have given it a kick in the breech without the
smallest ceremony. But, as the sun began to rise, I began to fall from
the heroics; and, when he showed his face, I took a look at my own,
and found that I was too unclean a spirit to worship, for I was
covered with mud and dirt, with the greater part of my dress torn to
rags.
The fifth division, which had not been employed in the siege, marched
in, and took charge of the town, on the morning of the 20th, and we
prepared to return to our cantonments. Lord Wellington happened to be
riding in at the gate at the time that we were marching out, and had
the curiosity to ask the officer of the leading company, what regiment
it was, for there was scarcely a vestige of uniform among the men,
some of whom were dressed in Frenchmen's coats, some in white
breeches, and huge jack-boots, some with cocked hats and queues; most
of their swords were fixed on the rifles, and stuck full of hams,
tongues, and loaves of bread, and not a few were carrying bird-cages!
There never was a better masked corps!
General Crawford fell on the glacis, at the head of our division, and
was buried at the foot of the breach which they so gallantly carried.
His funeral was attended by Lord Wellington, and all the officers of
the division, by whom he was, ultimately, much liked. He had
introduced a system of discipline into the light division which made
them unrivalled. A very rigid exaction of the duties pointed out in
his code of regulations made him very unpopular at its commencement,
and it was not until a short time before he was lost to us for ever,
that we were capable of appreciating his merits, and fully sensible of
the incalculable advantages we derived from the perfection of his
system.
Among other things carried from Ciudad Rodrigo, one of our men had the
misfortune to carry his death in his hands, under the mistaken shape
of amusement. He thought that it was a cannon-ball, and took it for
the purpose of playing at the game of nine-holes, but it happened to
be a live shell. In rolling it along it went over a bed of burning
ashes, and ignited without his observing it. Just as he had got it
between his legs, and was in the act of discharging it a second time,
it exploded, and nearly blew him to pieces.
Several men of our division, who had deserted while we were blockading
Ciudad Rodrigo, were taken when it fell, and were sentenced to be
shot. Lord Wellington extended mercy to every one who could procure
any thing like a good character from his officers; but six of them,
who could not, were paraded and shot, in front of the division, near
the village of Ituera. Shooting appears to me to be a cruel kind of
execution, for twenty balls may pierce a man's body without touching a
vital spot. On the occasion alluded to, two of the men remained
standing after the first fire, and the Provost-Marshal was obliged to
put an end to their sufferings, by placing the muzzle of a piece at
each of their heads.