April 6th, 1812.
Our division formed for the attack of the left breach in the same
order as at Ciudad Rodrigo; the command of it had now devolved upon
our commandant, Colonel Barnard. I was then the acting adjutant of
four companies, under Colonel Cameron, who were to line the crest of
the glacis, and to fire at the ramparts and the top of the left
breach.
The enemy seemed aware of our intentions. The fire of artillery and
musketry, which, for three weeks before, had been incessant, both
from the town and trenches, had now entirely ceased, as if by mutual
consent, and a deathlike silence, of nearly an hour, preceded the
awful scene of carnage.
The signal to advance was made about nine o'clock, and our four
companies led the way. Colonel Cameron and myself had reconnoitred the
ground so accurately by daylight, that we succeeded in bringing the
head of our column to the very spot agreed on, opposite to the left
breach, and then formed line to the left, without a word being spoken,
each man lying down as he got into line, with the muzzle of his rifle
over the edge of the ditch, between the pallisades, all ready to open.
It was tolerably clear above, and we distinctly saw _their_ heads
lining the ramparts; but there was a sort of haze on the ground which,
with the colour of our dress, prevented them from seeing us, although
only a few yards asunder. One of their sentries, however, challenged
us twice, "_qui vive_," and, receiving no reply, he fired off his
musket, which was followed by their drums beating to arms; but _we_
still remained perfectly quiet, and all was silence again for the
space of five or ten minutes, when the head of the forlorn hope at
length came up, and we took advantage of the first fire, while the
enemy's heads were yet visible.
The scene that ensued furnished as respectable a representation of
hell itself as fire, and sword, and human sacrifices could make it;
for, in one instant, every engine of destruction was in full
operation.
It is in vain to attempt a description of it. We were entirely
excluded from the right breach by an inundation which the heavy rains
had enabled the enemy to form; and the two others were rendered
totally impracticable by their interior defences.
The five succeeding hours were therefore past in the most gallant and
hopeless attempts, on the part of individual officers, forming up
fifty or a hundred men at a time at the foot of the breach, and
endeavouring to carry it by desperate bravery; and, fatal as it proved
to each gallant band, in succession, yet, fast as one dissolved,
another was formed. We were informed, about twelve at night, that the
third division had established themselves in the castle; but, as its
situation and construction did not permit them to extend their
operations beyond it at the moment, it did not in the least affect our
opponents at the breach, whose defence continued as obstinate as ever.
I was near Colonel Barnard after midnight, when he received repeated
messages, from Lord Wellington, to withdraw from the breach, and to
form the division for a renewal of the attack at daylight; but, as
fresh attempts continued to be made, and the troops were still
pressing forward into the ditch, it went against his gallant soul to
order a retreat while yet a chance remained; but, after heading
repeated attempts himself, he saw that it was hopeless, and the order
was reluctantly given about two o'clock in the morning. We fell back
about three hundred yards, and re-formed all that remained to us.
Our regiment, alone, had to lament the loss of twenty-two officers
killed and wounded, ten of whom were killed, or afterwards died of
their wounds. We had scarcely got our men together when we were
informed of the success of the fifth division in their escalade, and
that the enemy were, in consequence, abandoning the breaches, and we
were immediately ordered forward to take possession of them. On our
arrival, we found them entirely evacuated, and had not occasion to
fire another shot; but we found the utmost difficulty, and even
danger, in getting in in the dark, even without opposition. As soon as
we succeeded in establishing our battalion inside, we sent piquets
into the different streets and lanes leading from the breach, and kept
the remainder in hand until day should throw some light on our
situation.
When I was in the act of posting one of the piquets, a man of ours
brought me a prisoner, telling me that he was the governor; but the
other immediately said that he had only called himself so, the better
to ensure his protection; and then added, that he was the colonel of
one of the French regiments, and that all his surviving officers were
assembled at his quarters, in a street close by, and would surrender
themselves to any officer who would go with him for that purpose. I
accordingly took two or three men with me, and, accompanying him
there, found fifteen or sixteen of them assembled, and all seeming
very much surprised at the unexpected termination of the siege. They
could not comprehend under what circumstances the town had been lost,
and repeatedly asked me how I had got in; but I did not choose to
explain further than simply telling them that I had entered at the
breach, coupling the information with a look which was calculated to
convey somewhat more than I knew myself; for, in truth, when I began
to recollect that a few minutes before had seen me retiring from the
breach, under a fanciful overload of degradation, I thought that I had
now as good a right as any man to be astonished at finding myself
_lording_ it over the officers of a French battalion; nor was I much
wiser than they were, as to the manner of its accomplishment. They
were all very much dejected, excepting their major, who was a big
jolly-looking Dutchman, with medals enough, on his left breast, to
have furnished the window of a tolerable toy-shop. His accomplishments
were after the manner of Captain Dougal Dalgetty; and, while he
cracked his joke, he was not inattentive to the cracking of the corks
from the many wine-bottles which his colonel placed on the table
successively, along with some cold meat, for general refreshment,
prior to marching into captivity, and which I, though a free man, was
not too proud to join them in.
When I had allowed their chief a reasonable time to secure what
valuables he wished, about his person, he told me that he had two
horses in the stable, which, as he would no longer be permitted to
keep, he recommended me to take; and, as a horse is the only thing on
such occasions that an officer can permit himself to consider a legal
prize, I caused one of them to be saddled, and his handsome black mare
thereby became my charger during the remainder of the war.
In proceeding with my prisoners towards the breach, I took, by
mistake, a different road to that I came; and, as numbers of Frenchmen
were lurking about for a safe opportunity of surrendering themselves,
about a hundred additional ones added themselves to my column, as we
moved along, _jabbering_ their native dialect so loudly, as nearly to
occasion a dire catastrophe, as it prevented me from hearing some one
challenge in my front; but, fortunately, it was repeated, and I
instantly answered; for Colonel Barnard and Sir Colin Campbell had a
piquet of our men, drawn across the street, on the point of sending a
volley into us, thinking that we were a rallied body of the enemy.
The whole of the garrison were marched off, as prisoners, to Elvas,
about ten o'clock in the morning, and our men were then permitted to
fall out, to enjoy themselves for the remainder of the day, as a
reward for having kept together so long as they were wanted. The whole
of the three divisions were, by this time, loose in the town; and the
usual frightful scene of plunder commenced, which the officers thought
it necessary to avoid for the moment, by retiring to the camp.
We went into the town on the morning of the 8th, to endeavour to
collect our men, but only succeeded in part, as the same extraordinary
scene of plunder and rioting still continued. Wherever there was any
thing to eat or drink, the only saleable commodities, the soldiers had
turned the shopkeepers out of doors, and placed themselves regularly
behind the counter, selling off the contents of the shop. By and bye,
another and a stronger party would kick those out in their turn, and
there was no end to the succession of self-elected shopkeepers, until
Lord Wellington found that, to restore order, severe measures must be
resorted to. On the third day, he caused a Portuguese brigade to be
marched in, and kept standing to their arms, in the great square,
where the provost-martial erected a gallows, and proceeded to suspend
a few of the delinquents, which very quickly cleared the town of the
remainder, and enabled us to give a more satisfactory account of our
battalion than we had hitherto been able to do.
It is wonderful how such scenes as these will deaden men's finer
feelings, and with what apathy it enables them to look upon the
sufferings of their fellow creatures! The third day after the fall of
the town, I rode, with Colonel Cameron, to take a bathe in the
Guadiana, and, in passing the verge of the camp of the 5th division,
we saw two soldiers standing at the door of a small shed, or outhouse,
shouting, waving their caps, and making signs that they wanted to
speak to us. We rode up to see what they wanted, and found that the
poor fellows had each lost a leg. They told us that a surgeon had
dressed their wounds on the night of the assault, but that they had
ever since been without food or assistance of any kind, although they,
each day, had opportunities of soliciting the aid of many of their
comrades, from whom they could obtain nothing but promises. In short,
surrounded by thousands of their countrymen within call, and not more
than three hundred yards from their own regiment, they were unable to
interest any one in their behalf, and were literally starving.
It is unnecessary to say that we instantly galloped back to the camp
and had them removed to the hospital.
On the morning of the 7th, when some of our officers were performing
the last duties to their fallen comrades, one of them had collected
the bodies of four of our young officers, who had been slain. He was
in the act of digging a grave for them, when an officer of the guards,
arrived on the spot, from a distant division of the army, and demanded
tidings of his brother, who was at that moment lying a naked lifeless
corpse, under his very eyes. The officer had the presence of mind to
see that the corpse was not recognized, and, wishing to spare the
other's feelings, told him that his brother was dangerously wounded,
but that he would hear more of him by going out to the camp; and
thither the other immediately bent his steps, with a seeming
_presentiment_ of the sad intelligence that awaited him.
April 9th.--As I had not seen my domestic since the storming of the
town, I concluded that he had been killed; but he turned up this
morning, with a tremendous gash on his head, and mounted on the top of
a horse nearly twenty feet high, carrying under his arm one of those
glass cases which usually stand on the counters of jewellers' shops,
filled with all manner of trinkets. He looked exactly like the ghost
of a horse pedler.
April 10th.--The devil take the man who stole my donkey last night.
April 11th.--Marched again for the neighbourhood of Ciudad Rodrigo,
with the long-accustomed sounds of cannon and musketry ringing in my
fanciful ears as merrily as if the instruments themselves were still
playing.
Sir Sidney Beckwith, one of the fathers of the rifles, was, at this
time, obliged to proceed to England for the recovery of health, and
did not again return to the Peninsula. In his departure, that army
lost one of the ablest of its 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!