Reach Salamanca. Retreat from it. Pig Hunting, an Enemy to
Sleep-Hunting. Putting one's Foot in it. Affair on the 17th of
November. Bad Legs sometimes last longer than good ones. A Wet
Birth. Prospectus of a Day's Work. A lost _dejune_ better than a
found one. Advantages not taken. A disagreeable Amusement. End of
the Campaign of 1812. Winter Quarters. Orders and Disorders
treated. Farewell Opinion of Ancient Allies. My House.
November 7th.--Halted this night at Alba de Tormes, and next day
marched into quarters in Salamanca, where we rejoined Lord Wellington
with the army from Burgos.
On the 14th, the British army concentrated on the field of their
former glory, in consequence of a part of the French army having
effected the passage of the river, above Alba de Tormes. On the 15th,
the whole of the enemy's force having passed the river, a cannonade
commenced early in the day; and it was the general belief that, ere
night, a second battle of Salamanca would be recorded. But, as all the
French armies in Spain were now united in our front, and out-numbered
us so far, Lord Wellington, seeing no decided advantage to be gained
by risking a battle, at length ordered a retreat, which we commenced
about three in the afternoon. Our division halted for the night at the
entrance of a forest about four miles from Salamanca.
The heavy rains which usually precede the Spanish winter had set in
the day before; and, as the roads in that part of the country cease to
be roads for the remainder of the season, we were now walking nearly
knee deep, in a stiff mud, into which no man could thrust his foot,
with the certainty of having a shoe at the end of it when he pulled it
out again; and, that we might not be miserable by halves, we had, this
evening, to regale our chops with the last morsel of biscuit that
they were destined to grind during the retreat.
We cut some boughs of trees to keep us out of the mud, and lay down to
sleep on them, wet to the skin; but the cannonade of the afternoon had
been succeeded, after dark, by a continued firing of musketry, which
led us to believe that our piquets were attacked, and, in momentary
expectation of an order to stand to our arms, we kept ourselves awake
the whole night, and were not a little provoked when we found, next
morning, that it had been occasioned by numerous stragglers from the
different regiments, shooting at the pigs belonging to the peasantry
which were grazing in the wood.
November 16th.--Retiring from daylight until dark through the same
description of roads. The French dragoons kept close behind, but did
not attempt to molest us. It still continued to rain hard, and we
again passed the night in a wood. I was very industriously employed,
during the early part of it, feeling, in the dark, for acorns, as a
substitute for bread.
November 17th.--At daylight this morning the enemy's cavalry advanced
in force; but they were kept in check by the skirmishers of the 14th
light dragoons, until the road became open, when we continued our
retreat. Our brigade-major was at this time obliged to go to the rear,
sick, and I was appointed to act for him.
We were much surprised, in the course of the forenoon, to hear a sharp
firing commence behind us, on the very road by which we were retiring;
and it was not until we reached the spot that we learnt that the
troops who were retreating, by a road parallel to ours, had left it
too soon, and enabled some French dragoons, under cover of the forest,
to advance unperceived to the flank of our line of march, who, seeing
an interval between two divisions of infantry, which was filled with
light baggage and some passing officers, dashed at it, and made some
prisoners in the scramble of the moment, amongst whom was
Lieutenant-General Sir Edward Paget.
Our division formed on the heights above Samunoz to cover the passage
of the rivulet, which was so swollen with the heavy rains, as only to
be passable at particular fords. While we waited there for the passage
of the rest of the army, the enemy, under cover of the forest, was, at
the same time, assembling in force close around us; and the moment
that we began to descend the hill, towards the rivulet, we were
assailed by a heavy fire of cannon and musketry, while their powerful
cavalry were in readiness to take advantage of any confusion which
might have occurred. We effected the passage, however, in excellent
order, and formed on the opposite bank of the stream, where we
continued under a cannonade and engaged in a sharp skirmish until
dark.
Our loss on this occasion was considerable, but it would have been
much greater, had not the enemy's shells buried themselves so deep in
the soft ground, that their explosions did little injury. It appeared
singular to us, who were not medical men, that an officer and several
of our division, who were badly wounded on this occasion, in the leg,
and who were sent to the rear on gun-carriages, should have died of a
mortification in the limb which was _not_ wounded.
When the firing ceased, we received the usual order "to make ourselves
comfortable for the night," and I never remember an instance in which
we had so much difficulty in obeying it; for the ground we occupied
was a perfect flat, which was flooded more than ankle deep with water,
excepting here and there, where the higher ground around the roots of
trees, presented circles of a few feet of visible earth, upon which we
grouped ourselves. Some few fires were kindled, at which we roasted
some bits of raw beef on the points of our swords, and eat them by way
of a dinner. There was plenty of water to apologize for the want of
better fluids, but bread sent no apology at all.
Some divisions of the army had commenced retiring as soon as it was
dark, and the whole had been ordered to move, so that the roads might
be clear for us before daylight. I was sent twice in the course of the
night to see what progress they had made; but such was the state of
the roads, that even within an hour of daylight, two divisions,
besides our own, were still unmoved, which would consequently delay us
so long, that we looked forward to a severe harassing day's fighting;
a kind of fighting, too, that is the least palatable of any, where
much might be lost, and nothing was to be gained. With such prospects
before us, it made my very heart rejoice to see my brigadier's servant
commence boiling some chocolate and frying a beef-steak. I watched its
progress with a keenness which intense hunger alone could inspire, and
was on the very point of having my desires consummated, when the
general, getting uneasy at not having received any communication
relative to the movements of the morning, and, without considering how
feelingly my stomach yearned for a better acquaintance with the
contents of his frying-pan, desired me to ride to General Alten for
orders. I found the general at a neighbouring tree; but he cut off all
hopes of my timely return, by desiring me to remain with him until he
received the report of an officer whom he had sent to ascertain the
progress of the other divisions.
While I was toasting myself at his fire, so sharply set that I could
have eaten one of my boots, I observed his German orderly dragoon, at
an adjoining fire, stirring up the contents of a camp-kettle, that
once more revived my departing hopes, and I presently had the
satisfaction of seeing him dipping in some basins, presenting one to
the general, one to the aide-de-camp, and a third to myself. The mess
which it contained I found, after swallowing the whole at a draught,
was neither more nor less than the produce of a piece of beef boiled
in plain water; and, though it would have been enough to have
physicked a dromedary at any other time, yet, as I could then have
made a good hole in the dromedary himself, it sufficiently satisfied
my cravings to make me equal to any thing for the remainder of the
day.
We were soon after ordered to stand to our arms, and, as day lit up, a
thick haze hung on the opposite hills, which prevented our seeing the
enemy; and, as they did not attempt to feel for us, we, contrary to
our expectations, commenced our retreat unmolested; nor could we quite
believe our good fortune when, towards the afternoon, we had passed
several places where they could have assailed us, in flank, with great
advantage, and caused us a severe loss, almost in spite of fate; but
it afterwards appeared that they were quite knocked up with their
exertions in overtaking us the day before, and were unable to follow
further. We halted on a swampy height, behind St. Espiritu, and
experienced another night of starvation and rain.
I now felt considerably more for my horse than myself, as he had been
three days and nights without a morsel of any kind to eat. Our
baggage-animals, too, we knew were equally ill off, and, as they
always preceded us a day's march, it was highly amusing, whenever we
found a dead horse, or a mule, lying on the road-side, to see the
anxiety with which every officer went up to reconnoitre him, each
fearing that he should have the misfortune to recognize it as his own.
On the 19th of November we arrived at the convent of Caridad, near
Ciudad Rodrigo, and once more experienced the comforts of our baggage
and provisions. My boots had not been off since the 13th, and I found
it necessary to cut them to pieces, to get my swollen feet out of
them.
This retreat terminated the campaign of 1812. After a few days' delay,
and some requisite changes about the neighbourhood, while all the
world were getting shook into their places, our battalion finally took
possession of the village of Alameida for the winter, where, after
forming a regimental mess, we detached an officer to Lamego, and
secured to ourselves a bountiful supply of the best juice of the
grape which the neighbouring banks of the Douro afforded. The quarter
we now occupied was naturally pretty much upon a par with those of the
last two winters, but it had the usual advantages attending the march
of intellect. The officers of the division united in fitting up an
empty chapel, in the village of Galegos, as an amateur theatre, for
which, by the by, we were all regularly cursed, from the altar, by the
bishop of Rodrigo. Lord Wellington kept a pack of foxhounds, and the
Hon. Captain Stewart, of ours, a pack of harriers, so that these, in
addition to our old _Bolero_ meetings, enabled us to pass a very
tolerable winter.
The neighbouring plains abounded with hares; it was one of the most
beautiful coursing countries, perhaps, in the world; and there was,
also, some shooting to be had at the numerous vultures preying on the
dead carcasses which strewed the road-side on the line of our last
retreat.
Up to this period Lord Wellington had been adored by the army, in
consideration of his brilliant achievements, and for his noble and
manly bearing in all things; but, in consequence of some disgraceful
irregularities which took place during the retreat, he immediately
after issued an order, conveying a sweeping censure on the whole army.
His general conduct was too upright for even the finger of malice
itself to point at; but as his censure, on this occasion, was not
strictly confined to the guilty, it afforded a handle to disappointed
persons, and excited a feeling against him, on the part of
individuals, which has probably never since been obliterated.
It began by telling us that we had suffered no privations; and, though
this was hard to be digested on an empty stomach, yet, taking it in
its more liberal meaning, that our privations were not of an extent to
justify any irregularities, which I readily admit; still, as many
regiments were not guilty of any irregularities, it is not to be
wondered if such should have felt, at first, a little sulky to find,
in the general reproof, that no loop-hole whatever had been left for
them to creep through; for, I believe I am justified in saying that
neither our own, nor the two gallant corps associated with us, had a
single man absent that we could not satisfactorily account for. But it
touched us still more tenderly in not excepting us from his general
charge of inexpertness in camp arrangements; for, it was _our belief_,
and in which we were in some measure borne out by circumstances, that,
had he placed us, at the same moment, in the same field, with an equal
number of the best troops in France, that he would not only have seen
our fires as quickly lit, but every Frenchman roasting on them to the
bargain, if they waited long enough to be _dressed_; for there,
perhaps, never was, nor ever again will be, such a war-brigade as that
which was composed of the forty-third, fifty-second, and the rifles.
That not only censure, but condign punishment was merited, in many
instances, is certain; and, had his lordship dismissed some officers
from the service, and caused some of the disorderly soldiers to be
shot, it would not only have been an act of justice, but, probably, a
necessary example. Had he hanged every commissary, too, who failed to
issue the regular rations to the troops dependent on him, unless they
proved that they were starved themselves, it would only have been a
just sacrifice to the offended stomachs of many thousands of gallant
fellows.
In our brigade, I can safely say, that the order in question excited
"more of sorrow than of anger;" we thought that, had it been
_particular_, it would have been just; but, as it was _general_, that
it was inconsiderate; and we, therefore, regretted that he who had
been, and still was, the god of our idolatry, should thereby have laid
himself open to the attacks of the ill-natured.
Alameida is a Spanish village, situated within a stone's throw of the
boundary-line of the sister-kingdom; and, as the head-quarters of the
army, as well as the nearest towns, from whence we drew our supplies,
lay in Portugal, our connexions, while we remained there, were chiefly
with the latter kingdom; and, having passed the three last winters on
their frontier, we, in the month of May, 1813, prepared to bid it a
final adieu, with very little regret. The people were kind and
hospitable, and not destitute of intelligence; but, somehow, they
appeared to be the creatures of a former age, and showed an indolence
and want of enterprise which marked them born for slaves; and,
although the two cacadore regiments attached to our division were, at
all times, in the highest order, and conducted themselves gallantly in
the field, yet, I am of opinion that, as a nation, they owe their
character for bravery almost entirely to the activity and gallantry of
the British officers who organized and led them. The veriest cowards
in existence must have shown the same front under such discipline. I
did not see enough of their gentry to enable me to form an opinion
about them; but the middling and lower orders are extremely filthy
both in their persons and in their houses, and they have all an
intolerable itch for gambling. The soldiers, though fainting with
fatigue on the line of march, invariably group themselves in
card-parties whenever they are allowed a few minutes' halt; and a
non-commissioned officer, with half-a-dozen men on any duty of
fatigue, are very generally to be seen as follows, viz. one man as a
sentry, to watch the approach of the superintending officer, one man
at work, and the non-commissioned officer, with the other four, at
cards.
The cottages in Alameida, and, indeed, in all the Spanish villages,
generally contain two mud-floored apartments: the outer one, though
more cleanly than the Irish, is, nevertheless, fashioned after the
same manner, and is common alike to the pigs and the people; while the
inner looks more like the gun-room of a ship-of-war, having a
sitting-apartment in the centre, with small sleeping-cabins branching
from it, each illuminated by a port-hole, about a foot square. We did
not see daylight "through a glass darkly," as on London's
Ludgate-hill, for there the air circulated freely, and mild it came,
and pure, and fragrant, as if it had just stolen over a bed of roses.
If a man did not like _that_, he had only to shut his port, and remain
in darkness, inhaling his own preferred sweetness! The outside of my
sleeping-cabin was interwoven with ivy and honeysuckle, and, among the
branches, a nightingale had established itself, and sung sweetly,
night after night, during the whole of the winter. I could not part
from such a pleasing companion, and from a bed in which I had enjoyed
so many tranquil slumbers, without a sigh, though I was ungrateful
enough to accompany it with a fervent wish that I might never see them
again; for I looked upon the period that I had spent there as so much
time lost.