A Review. Assembly of the Army. March to Salamanca. To Aldea
Nueva. To Toro. An Affair of the Hussar Brigade. To Palencia. To
the Neighbourhood of Burgos. To the Banks of the Ebro. Fruitful
sleeping place. To Medina. A Dance before it was due. Smell the
Foe. Affair at St. Milan. A Physical River.
May, 1813.--In the early part of this month our division was reviewed
by Lord Wellington, preparatory to the commencement of another
campaign; and I certainly never saw a body of troops in a more
highly-efficient state. It did one's very heart good to look at our
battalion that day, seeing each company standing a hundred strong, and
the intelligence of several campaigns stamped on each daring, bronzed
countenance, which looked you boldly in the face, in the fullness of
vigour and confidence, as if it cared neither for man nor devil.
On the 21st of May, our division broke up from winter-quarters, and
assembled in front of Ciudad Rodrigo, with all excepting the left wing
of the army, which, under Sir Thomas Graham, had already passed the
Douro, and was ascending its right bank.
An army which has seen some campaigns in the field, affords a great
deal of amusement in its assembling after winter-quarters. There is
not only the greeting of long-parted friends and acquaintances in the
same walks of life, but, among the different divisions which the
nature of the service generally threw a good deal together, there was
not so much as a mule or a donkey that was not known to each
individual, and its absence noticed; nor a scamp of a boy, or a common
Portuguese trull, who was not as particularly inquired after, as if
the fate of the campaign depended on their presence.
On the 22d, we advanced towards Salamanca, and, the next day, halted
at Samunoz, on our late field of action. With what different feelings
did we now view the same spot! In our last visit, winter was on the
face of the land, as well as on our minds; we were worn out with
fatigue, mortification, and starvation; now, all was summer and
sunshine. The dismal swamps had now become verdant meadows; we had
plenty in the camp, vigour in our limbs, and hope in our bosoms.
We were, this day, joined by the household brigade of cavalry from
England; and, as there was a report in the morning that the enemy were
in the neighbourhood, some of the life-guards concluded that every
thing in front of their camp must be a part of them, and they,
accordingly, apprehended some of the light dragoon horses, which
happened to be grazing near. One of their officers came to dine with
me that day, and he was in the act of reporting their capture, when my
orderly-book was brought at the moment, containing an offer of reward
for the detection of the thieves!
On the 27th, we encamped on the banks of the Tormes, at a ford, about
a league below Salamanca. A body of the enemy, who had occupied the
city, suffered severely before they got away, in a brush with some
part of Sir Rowland Hill's corps; chiefly, I believe, from some of his
artillery.
On the 28th, we crossed the river, and marched near to Aldea Nueva,
where we remained stationary for some days, under Sir Rowland Hill;
Lord Wellington having proceeded from Salamanca to join the left wing
of the army, beyond the Douro.
On the 2d of June, we were again put in motion; and, after a very long
march, encamped near the Douro, opposite the town of Toro.
Lord Wellington had arrived there the day before, without being
opposed by the enemy; but there had been an affair of cavalry, a short
distance beyond the town, in which the hussar brigade particularly
distinguished themselves, and took about three hundred prisoners.
On the morning of the 3d, we crossed the river; and, marching through
the town of Toro, encamped about half a league beyond it. The enemy
had put the castle in a state of repair, and constructed a number of
other works to defend the passage of the river; but the masterly eye
of our chief, having seen his way round the town, spared them the
trouble of occupying the works; yet, loth to think that so much labour
should be altogether lost, he garrisoned their castle with the three
hundred taken by the hussar brigade, for which it made a very good
jail.
On the 4th, we were again in motion, and had a long, warm, fatiguing
march; as, also, on the 5th and 6th. On the 7th, we encamped outside
of Palencia, a large rickety looking old town; with the front of every
house supported by pillars, like so many worn out old bachelors on
crutches.
The French did not interfere with our accommodation in the slightest,
but made it a point to leave every place an hour or two before we came
to it; so that we quietly continued our daily course, following nearly
the line of the Canal de Castile, through a country luxuriant in
corn-fields and vineyards, until the 12th, when we arrived within two
or three leagues of Burgos, (on its left,) and where we found a body
of the enemy in position, whom we immediately proceeded to attack; but
they evaporated on our approach, and fell back upon Burgos. We
encamped for the night on the banks of a river, a short distance to
the rear. Next morning, at daylight, an explosion shook the ground
like an earthquake, and made every man jump upon his legs; and it was
not until some hours after, when Lord Wellington returned from
reconnoitring, that we learnt that the castle of Burgos had been just
blown up, and the town evacuated by the enemy.
We continued our march on the 13th, through a very rich country.
On the 14th, we had a long harassing day's march, through a rugged
mountainous country, which afforded only an occasional glimpse of
fertility, in some pretty little valleys with which it was
intersected.
We started at daylight on the 15th, through a dreary region of solid
rock, bearing an abundant crop of loose stones, without a particle of
soil or vegetation visible to the naked eye in any direction. After
leaving nearly twenty miles of this horrible wilderness behind us, our
weary minds clogged with an imaginary view of nearly as much more of
it in our front, we found ourselves, all at once, looking down upon
the valley of the Ebro, near the village of Arenas, one of the
richest, loveliest, and most romantic spots that I ever beheld. The
influence of such a scene on the mind can scarcely be believed. Five
minutes before we were all as _lively_ as stones. In a moment we were
all fruits and flowers; and many a pair of legs, that one would have
thought had not a kick left in them, were, in five minutes after, seen
dancing across the bridge, to the tune of "the downfal of Paris,"
which struck up from the bands of the different regiments.
I lay down that night in a cottage garden, with my head on a melon,
and my eye on a cherry-tree, and resigned myself to a repose which
did not require a long courtship.
We resumed our march at daybreak on the 16th. The road, in the first
instance, wound through orchards and luxurious gardens, and then
closed in to the edge of the river, through a difficult and formidable
pass, where the rocks on each side, arising to a prodigious height,
hung over each other in fearful grandeur, and in many places nearly
met together over our heads.
After following the course of the river for nearly two miles, the
rocks on each side gradually expanded into another valley, lovely as
the one we had left, and where we found the fifth division of our army
lying encamped. They were still asleep; and the rising sun, and a
beautiful morning, gave additional sublimity to the scene; for there
was nothing but the tops of the white tents peeping above the fruit
trees; and an occasional sentinel pacing his post, that gave any
indication of what a nest of hornets the blast of a bugle could bring
out of that apparently peaceful solitude.
Our road now wound up the mountain to our right; and, almost satiated
with the continued grandeur around us, we arrived, in the afternoon,
at the town of Medina, and encamped a short distance beyond it.
We were welcomed into every town or village through which we passed,
by the peasant girls, who were in the habit of meeting us with
garlands of flowers, and dancing before us in a peculiar style of
their own; and it not unfrequently happened, that while they were so
employed with one regiment, the preceding one was diligently engaged
in pulling down some of their houses for firewood--a measure which we
were sometimes obliged to have recourse to, where no other fuel could
be had, and for which they were, ultimately, paid by the British
Government; but it was a measure that was more likely to have set the
poor souls dancing mad than for joy, had they foreseen the
consequences of our visit.
June 17th.--We had not seen any thing of the enemy since we left the
neighbourhood of Burgos; but, after reaching our ground this evening,
we were aware that some of their videttes were feeling for us.
On the morning of the 18th, we were ordered to march to San Milan, a
small town, about two leagues off; and where, on our arrival on the
hill above it, we found a division of French infantry, as strong as
ourselves, in the act of crossing our path. The surprise, I believe,
was mutual, though I doubt whether the pleasure was equally so; for we
were red hot for an opportunity of retaliating for the Salamanca
retreat; and, as the old saying goes, "there is no opportunity like
the present." Their leading brigade had nearly passed before we came
up, but not a moment was lost after we did. Our battalion dispersing
among the brushwood, went down the hill upon them; and, with a
destructive fire, broke through their line of march, supported by the
rest of the brigade. Those that had passed made no attempt at a stand,
but continued their flight, keeping up as good a fire as their
circumstances would permit; while we kept hanging on their flank and
rear, through a good rifle country, which enabled us to make
considerable havoc among them. Their general's aide-de-camp, amongst
others, was mortally wounded; and a lady, on a white horse, who
probably was his wife, remained beside him, until we came very near.
She appeared to be in great distress; but, though we called to her to
remain, and not to be alarmed, yet she galloped off as soon as a
decided step became necessary. The object of her solicitude did not
survive many minutes after we reached him. We followed the retreating
foe until late in the afternoon. On this occasion, our brigade came in
for all the blows, and the other for all the baggage, which was
marching between the two French brigades; the latter of which, seeing
the scrape into which the first had fallen, very prudently left it to
its fate, and dispersed on the opposite mountains, where some of them
fell into the hands of a Spanish force that was detached in pursuit;
but, I believe, the greater part succeeded in joining their army the
day after the battle of Vittoria.
We heard a heavy cannonade all day to our left, occasioned, as we
understood, by the fifth division falling in with another detachment
of the enemy, which the unexpected and rapid movements of Lord
Wellington was hastening to their general point of assembly.
On the early part of the 19th, we were fagging up the face of a
mountain, under a sultry hot sun, until we came to a place where a
beautiful clear stream was dashing down the face of it, when the
division was halted, to enable the men to refresh themselves. Every
man carries a cup, and every man ran and swallowed a cup full of
it--it was salt water from the springs of Salinas; and it was truly
ludicrous to see their faces after taking such a voluntary dose. I
observed an Irishman, who, not satisfied with the first trial, and
believing that his cup had been infected by some salt breaking loose
in his haversack, he washed it carefully and then drank a second one,
when, finding no change, he exclaimed,--"by J----s, boys, we must be
near the sea, for the water's getting salt!" We, soon after, passed
through the village of Salinas, situated at the source of the stream,
where there is a considerable salt manufactory. The inhabitants were
so delighted to see us, that they placed buckets full of it at the
doors of the different houses, and entreated our men to help
themselves as they passed along. It rained hard in the afternoon, and
it was late before we got to our ground. We heard a good deal of
firing in the neighbourhood in the course of the day, but our division
was not engaged.
We retained the same bivouac all day on the 20th; it was behind a
range of mountains within a short distance of the left of the enemy's
position, as we afterwards discovered; and though we heard an
occasional gun, from the other side of the mountain in the course of
the day, fired at Lord Wellington's reconnoitring party, the peace of
our valley remained undisturbed.