Battle of Buzaco. Flag of truce. General Simon’s baggage brought in.
Wounded of the two armies removed from the field. Terrible carnage
in and near Sula. The light troops constantly engaged. Deserters
come over to us. Their reports of Massena’s intentions. The French
army breaks up, and marches away to our left. Lord Wellington
retires from Buzaco to the lines of Torres Vedras. Occurrences on
the march. Stores destroyed at Pombal. King John’s coffin in the
cathedral at Battalha. Affair between our rear-guard and the French
advanced guard. Our habitation takes fire, and we are nearly burnt
out of it,—horses, mules, donkeys, and baggage. Affair of cavalry
near Alcoentre. Speculations on Massena not having pursued us more
vigorously in the retreat. The Light Division reaches Alemquer. The
French turn us out of it without our dinners. We retire to Arruda in
bad humour and in dreadful weather. An agreeable surprise. A word or
two relative to the lines of Torres Vedras. Gun-boats on the Tagus.
Jack Tar’s zeal. Great sufferings of the Portuguese from the French
invasion. Reconnoissances made by Massena, and skirmishes brought on
by it. Sharp affair between Sir Brent Spencer’s division and the
enemy. Scarcity of provisions in the country in our front. Our
employments whilst we remained in the lines. The French army falls
back to a position behind the Rio Maior. Sentries of straw. We march
in pursuit and take some prisoners. Dead Frenchmen, horses, mules,
and donkeys, on the road-side. The Light Division comes up with the
enemy near Cartaxo. We are preparing to attack, when Lord Wellington
arrives and countermands it. Causes thereof. The French retire
across the Rio Maior. Rough sketch of their position. General Hill
crosses the Tagus. The Light Division bivouac in a pine-wood. Washed
out of a water-course by the rain. Lord Wellington makes
demonstrations against the French position. The Light Division
engaged with the enemy’s light troops on the left. The troops are
withdrawn.
BATTLE OF BUZACO.
_27th._—Day had scarcely made its appearance when Massena inundated the
valley with light troops, with whom we were soon warmly engaged; and, as
their columns of attack moved forward to their support, we were driven
gradually up the face of the mountain on our reserves. A considerable
portion of the infantry of Marshal Ney’s corps advanced steadily and in
excellent order by the road leading to the crest of that part of the
position where the Light Division was drawn out in line. General
Loison’s division, which led the attack, was allowed by General Crawford
to reach nearly the summit of the ridge, when he ordered a volley from
his division, and a charge with the bayonet. The effect was
instantaneous and most decisive; and it is impossible to describe the
confusion and carnage which instantly ensued in the enemy’s ranks.
It can be readily conceived, that so large a column, wedged close in a
road of no great width, being once broken and forced back, those
pressing on from the rear to support it were literally borne back down
the mountain by the tide of fugitives, in spite of any exertions of
theirs to retrieve matters.
The instant the attacking columns were turned back, they were exposed to
the fire of our whole division; whilst our battalion and some caçadores
were ordered to pursue, and to give them a flanking fire, and the horse
artillery continued to pour on them a murderous fire of grape, as they
were struggling through the narrow streets of Sula, and trampling each
other to death in their great haste to escape. Men, muskets, knapsacks,
and bayonets, rolled down the side of the mountain in such a confused
mass, as it is impossible to convey a just idea of.
The village of Sula, and the ground on each side of it, as also the road
by which the columns of attack advanced, were heaped with killed and
wounded, all lying within a small space of ground. Whilst we were thus
employed, General Regnier made an attack equally desperate on Generals
Picton, Leith, and Pack, far to our right. Those troops served Regnier’s
corps with much the same description of sauce which the Light Division
had administered to Marshal Ney’s. We were at too great a distance to
distinguish what passed between the troops of Picton, Leith, and
Regnier; but we were near enough to witness the gallant manner in which
General Pack’s Portuguese brigade charged and drove back with the
bayonet a formidable attack made on it by the enemy, covering the ground
with their dead. This was the first trial made of the new Portuguese
levies, organised by British officers, and it proved most satisfactory.
The 32d and 70th French regiments, both of high renown, were stated to
have been nearly destroyed by Picton’s division. The French general,
Simon, whose brigade was at the head of the column which attacked the
Light Division, was wounded and made prisoner, with three hundred of his
men, near the summit of the Sierra. No further attack was made by
Massena after these failures, except by his light troops, who, like
swarms of bees, filled the valley, and kept us constantly employed until
towards evening, when the firing ceased on both sides, and a flag of
truce came in, bringing General Simon’s baggage, and with it a pretty
little Spanish woman, part of his establishment. The fair one was in
tears, and appeared much agitated. During this cessation of hostilities,
unarmed parties of both armies were employed in bringing away their
wounded.
I went down into the village of Sula, and had some conversation with
several French officers and soldiers. They acknowledged their loss to
have been very severe; and one man assured me, that his company, which
numbered one hundred men in the morning, could only muster twenty-two
effective men after their repulse. Amongst the dead in the immediate
front of the Light Division, I found men belonging to the following
French regiments, and I cut some buttons off their coats:—the 6th, 26th,
66th, and 82d, the Legion du Midi, and a regiment of Germans.
The time agreed on for the cessation of hostilities having expired, and
the French evincing a disposition to hold the village of Sula with a few
men, Lord Wellington, who was with our division at the moment, ordered a
company of the 95th to drive them from it, which was speedily
accomplished, and we established strong pickets in it for the night.
Thus ended the battle of Buzaco, a day in which the Marshal Prince of
Esling was completely foiled in all his attempts, and was defeated with
severe loss.
_28th._—The next morning we were in expectation of another attack, as
several deserters, who had come over to us in the night, agreed in the
report that General Junot, whose corps had not been engaged the day
before, had volunteered to storm, with fifteen thousand grenadiers, that
point of the position where the Light Division stood.
No general attack, however, was made on the 28th; but Massena let slip
swarms of light troops, as heretofore, and kept us eternally at work
with them, until night put an end to the contest. The French erected a
half-moon battery on a hill immediately fronting us, and our artillery
endeavoured to throw shells on their working parties, but the distance
was rather too long. Being on picket with my company in Sula, seven
deserters came in during different periods of the night, all agreeing in
the same story, that the French army had broken up, and was marching
away to turn our left.
When day dawned on the 29th, we found that the reports of the deserters
were correct, and that the whole allied army, except the Light Division
and a small force of light cavalry, which were left on the position as a
rear-guard, was already retiring on Coimbra. About nine o’clock in the
morning we followed the main body, and bivouacked at night in a wood
some miles from Buzaco.
Despairing of forcing the allied army from its formidable position,
Massena had recourse to a wide movement, by which he was enabled to
outflank us, and to advance on Coimbra by a road far to our left. It was
now pretty evident that, having given up the position at Buzaco, the
next spot on which Lord Wellington would challenge his opponent would be
in the lines of Torres Vedras; nor were we deceived. At Pombal, near
which we bivouacked on the night of the 3d of October, some provisions
and stores which the commissariat could not remove in time, were ordered
to be destroyed. The streets flowed with rum, many casks of which had
been staved, and the contents spilt, that the French might not benefit
by them. So inveterate is the propensity of drink in the soldier, that,
in spite of every precaution, many of them contrived to get drunk by
dipping the rum out of the streets, on our march through the town, in
tin cups, or in any vessel nearest at hand.
The 5th brought us to Battalha, where there was a magnificent cathedral,
which was in some measure destroyed the following year in Massena’s
retreat out of Portugal. In the cathedral were buried many of the royal
family of Braganza, and amongst the number a King John, in whose reign,
I think, the cathedral was built. I know not who the culprits were, nor
to what division of the army they belonged; but in going into the
cathedral, I saw the coffin of the said King John open, and the body,
which was of course embalmed, exposed to view, wrapped in rich robes of
crimson velvet and gold. By way of a relic, I cut off a button and some
gold fringe from his majesty’s robes; whilst others, more ambitious,
could be satisfied with nothing less than a royal finger.
On the same day, our cavalry of the rear-guard had an affair with the
enemy’s advanced guard, which it drove back in a spirited manner, and
took some prisoners.
On the 6th, 7th, and 8th, we continued the retreat in unceasing rains,
and halted one night in an uninhabited cottage with only half a roof on
it, in which four of us, besides our servants, horses, mules, and
donkeys, were huddled together. In endeavouring, by dint of a fire, to
dry our clothes, which were fairly rusted on us by constant exposure to
the weather by day and night, the remnant of the cottage, as the devil
would have it, caught fire; and with great difficulty we succeeded in
dragging forth from the flames and smoke our miserable quadrupeds and
the baggage, and depositing them in the street, under as tremendous a
torrent of rain as would have satisfied old Noah himself. With the
assistance of the soldiers, aided also by the continued rain, the flames
were got under, and we re-entered our hut, where we passed the night,
and started the following morning, in another delicious day of rain, to
Alemquer.
Near Alcoentre our rear-guard was again attacked on the 8th, and beat
back the French with loss. It has ever been a matter of surprise, that
Massena did not press more closely on the rear-guard from Coimbra to the
lines of Torres Vedras. No doubt that able chief had sufficient reasons
for not doing so; but that he might sometimes have come up with us, had
he been determined to do so, there can be no doubt, as the allied army
did not make any forced marches in its retreat.
Our division entered Alemquer on the 9th, a good town, commanding a
pretty view of the Tagus. Here we enjoyed the supreme luxury of a roof
over our heads, and made up for lost time by a good night’s sleep. The
town was deserted by the inhabitants, through fear of the invading army.
On the 10th, as we were anticipating with great glee an attack on a
turkey, that by some extraordinary piece of good fortune had found its
way into the camp-kettle of our company’s mess, we were suddenly called
to arms by sound of bugle; for, in spite of the rain, those miscreants
of the French advanced guard would not remain quiet;—I suppose because
they envied us the glorious feast which was nearly ready for use. A few
shots from the pickets soon explained how matters stood; and in less
than ten minutes the whole division was under arms, and some companies
engaged with the French advanced guard at the outside of the town. We
were forthwith put in march towards Arruda, where, after wading through
oceans of mud and water, and with an incessant shower-bath from above,
we arrived after nightfall. The raging of the elements rendered our
retreat comparatively quiet and comfortable; as the French were glad
enough, no doubt, to shelter themselves from the storm in our late
quarters at Alemquer, and to allow us to proceed unmolested. We were,
nevertheless, in an exceedingly bad humour at being obliged to vacate in
their favour, and to lose our dinners into the bargain. I think there is
an old saying about “might giving right;” and as the French were by far
the stronger party, I do not blame them for turning us adrift in the
manner they did.
It sometimes happens, when we are anticipating every sort of evil and
mishap, that a bright gleam of sunshine appears when least expected.
This was just the case when we reached Arruda, in a dark tempestuous
night, soaked with rain, half-famished with hunger, bitterly cursing the
fellows who had, a few hours before, turned us out of our comfortable
quarters, and expecting neither more nor less than to bivouac in some
snipe-marsh. Our joy may be conceived, at finding, not only a roof over
our heads in Arruda, but a prospect of not going to bed supperless. We
consoled ourselves for the loss of the turkey at Alemquer with some
fowls, and a good allowance of capital wine, which we found in the house
allotted to myself and my subalterns.
Never was a town more completely deserted than Arruda. The inhabitants,
dreading the approach of the French, had taken flight to Lisbon, leaving
their houses, many of which were magnificently furnished, without a
human being in them. The chairs and tables were subsequently carried up
to the camp, which was formed on the fortified ridge of hills running
from the Tagus to the sea, so well known by the name of the lines of
Torres Vedras, and they proved highly useful to us in our canvass
habitations.
The army had now reached those far-famed lines, which have been already
so often described. The right rested on the Tagus, at or near the
village of Alhandra, and the left somewhere near Torres Vedras on the
sea. Gun-boats, manned from our fleet at Lisbon, gave additional
strength to the right; and Jack Tar never lost an opportunity of
bombarding with great zeal any party of the French which happened to
heave in sight. On one occasion, a French general officer, whose name I
have forgotten, was killed by a round shot from the gun-boats.
At certain parts of the chain of hills which were not scarped by nature,
and therefore accessible, works of different kinds had been constructed,
to impede the enemy in his attack. Numerous redoubts and field-works,
mounting heavy ship-guns, had also been formed along the summit of the
position. In addition to these defences, immediately on the arrival of
the army each division had some hundreds of men constantly employed
throughout the day, fair or foul, to give additional strength to that
part of the position allotted it to defend. It was therefore evident
that every day Massena delayed the attack was much in our favour, as our
position was increasing in strength hourly.
Thousands of the unfortunate inhabitants of the provinces through which
our army had recently retreated, had abandoned their homes, and were
endeavouring to exist between Lisbon and the lines. There was,
therefore, an immense population hemmed up in a small space of country,
hundreds of them without a house to cover them, or food to eat, except
what was afforded by the bounty of the rich at Lisbon, and by the
liberal subscriptions raised for them in England.
In the course of the winter, the number of Portuguese who actually died
of want was quite dreadful. It was not unusual to see hordes of those
poor wretches, old and young, male and female, in rags, the very
pictures of death, seated in despair on the wet ground, round a
miserable fire, on which was placed an earthen vessel, full of such
herbs as could be gathered in the fields and hedges. Thousands contrived
to drag on a miserable existence on this vile sustenance. Their
death-like, emaciated faces were sufficient to have touched the heart of
the most callous and unfeeling. The British soldiers assisted them by
every means in their power; and in the Light Division (as well as, I
conclude, in every other) soup was made from the heads and offal of the
cattle killed for the troops, and distributed amongst the starving
inhabitants.
I have a thousand times wished it were possible that every man, woman,
and child, of all ranks, in England, could have been transported to this
heart-rending scene only for five minutes; that by having had an insight
into the various miseries to which the ill-fated inhabitants of the
theatre of war are inevitably subjected, they might return satisfied,
and bless their stars that an army of Frenchmen were not riding
rough-shod over old England, and inflicting on its people similar
miseries to those which I have attempted to describe.
As soon as tents were sent up from Lisbon, we encamped in due form near
the summit of the lines, daily expecting a general attack, and wondering
why it was so long delayed.
From the period of our arrival in the lines, on the 10th of October, to
the 15th of November, when Massena fell back behind the Rio Maior, the
rains, which never ceased falling, soon found their way through the
tents, so that we were seldom dry. Massena frequently made
reconnoissances on the position, which brought on various affairs with
the pickets; and, on the 13th of October, a sharp affair took place
between the light troops of Sir Brent Spencer’s division and those of
the enemy, who were repulsed with loss. On this occasion a company of
our 3d battalion, which had recently arrived from England, and was
attached to Sir Brent Spencer’s division, had its captain and a
lieutenant severely wounded, and lost many men.
A wide open valley, which divided the pickets of the two armies, in the
immediate front of the Light Division, the French frequently made
foraging parties into; but after the first week, I do not believe as
much provision could have been found for man or horse, in the whole
valley, as would have rationed half a squadron of Lilliputian
cuirassiers for twenty-four hours.
Deserters were constantly coming over to us from the French lines,
bringing all sorts of reports, vague and contradictory, but which,
nevertheless, served us to speculate on. Thus, between constantly
strengthening our position; endeavouring to keep off agues by dint of
cigars, and of such fluids as were sometimes attainable from the sutlers
who paid us a visit from Lisbon; reconnoitering our French neighbours
with telescopes; trying to keep our horses, mules, and donkeys alive
during the inclement weather, with chopped straw, or what little herbage
the hills afforded, with, now and then, a very diminutive allowance of
barley or Indian corn; and the occasional arrival of letters and
newspapers from England,—we passed some five or six weeks, wondering
whether Massena would attack us, or walk away from our front.
The 15th of November put to rest all surmises on this point. I happened
to be on picket in front of Arruda on the night of the 14th; and
looking, as usual, with all our eyes, in the twilight of the following
morning, towards our opponents, the French sentries, we thought, could
be discovered as heretofore: but when day broke thoroughly, we found
that the cunning rogues had played us an old trick of theirs, by placing
figures of straw upright, with a soldier’s cap on each, and a pole by
their side to represent a musket. Their whole army had retired, during
the night, in the direction of Santarem; and we were sent in pursuit
some hours afterwards.
We now began to think that the “frightened leopard” would have a
respite; and that the operation of “driving him into the sea,” as
Massena had promised the Portuguese a few months before, was likely to
be postponed for a time. Our division did not come up with the French
rear-guard this day, and at night we bivouacked on a heath near
Alemquer. Sir Brent Spencer’s column took seventy prisoners near Sobral.
On the 16th, the Light Division made a movement to the right, which
brought it close to the Tagus. We pushed on through Villa Nova and
Azimbuja; and although we could not reach their rear-guard, we took many
prisoners, who, from sickness, fatigue, or in search of plunder, had
straggled from their ranks. The road from Alemquer to Azimbuja was
covered with horses, mules, and asses, belonging to the French, which
had died from want of forage. We passed many French soldiers lying dead
by the road-side, whose appearance indicated that disease and want of
food had carried them off. Every house in every town or village which
lay in their line of retreat was thoroughly ransacked. Desolation and
devastation marked their track.
On the 17th, long before day dawned, we were on the move, and about
mid-day came up with the enemy, posted on some rising ground near
Cartaxo, having a large plain, covered with short heath, in their front.
They shewed only a few squadrons of cavalry and about three battalions
of infantry; concealing their main force, as it was afterwards
ascertained, behind the brow of the hill. General Crawford, conceiving
it to be only a small rear-guard, the whole of which was exposed to
view, instantly made dispositions for the attack, by forming the Light
Division into a single line, which, with the troop of Horse Artillery
and one squadron of the 14th Light Dragoons, constituted his whole
force.
We were just about to advance across the plain when Lord Wellington
arrived on the ground, and instantly put a stop to our proceedings; as
the force in our front consisted of one whole French corps, numbering,
it was believed, eighteen thousand infantry, and from two to three
thousand cavalry, with a due proportion of artillery. We could,
undoubtedly, have given a good account of the troops which the French
general thought proper to expose to our view; but that we could have
also mastered the remainder which were in reserve behind the brow, I
will not undertake to say. Had other divisions of our army been
sufficiently advanced to have aided in the attack, it is more than
probable that Lord Wellington would have tried his hand at them. We were
stationed for the night with the 4th and 14th Dragoons, in Cartaxo,
where General Cotton and the cavalry head-quarters were also. This town
had shared the same fate as every other through which we marched.
Before daylight on the 18th, we groped our way forward, and shortly
after came up with the French rear-guard near the Rio Maior, which it
was about to cross by a bridge and causeway. After some skirmishing,
they passed the river, and we had then an opportunity of examining the
formidable position on which Massena had fallen back, whereby he was
brought nearer his communication with the frontier and his resources,
and, moreover, was enabled to canton his army in an infinitely more
secure position than that which he occupied whilst fronting us in the
lines of Torres Vedras.
The outline of this new position, which he held nearly four months, may
be given in a few words. The front was covered by the river Maior,
which, during the winter months, is not fordable. The bridge and
causeway, leading across it to the foot of the heights of Santarem, are
exceedingly long and narrow; and a smaller hill, detached as if it had
been placed there for the express purpose, looks down on the causeway,
which the French artillery and musketry stationed there completely
enfiladed. The French formed breast-works for their infantry in various
places near the head of the causeway, and abattis on it.
Rising boldly, and somewhat abruptly, from their end of the causeway, is
a high hill, on the top of which stands Santarem, already mentioned in
my journal of 1809. In that town were Massena’s head-quarters during the
whole winter.
The extensive woods of olive which clothed the sides and summit of the
hill the year before, when we passed through on our route to Talavera,
were cut down in less than forty-eight hours by the French, who
constructed with them a double row of most formidable abattis across the
whole of the ridge.
The right extended towards a country difficult of approach in the winter
months, from the wretched state of the roads in the neighbourhood.
General Hill’s division crossed the Tagus in boats at or near Azimbuja,
and occupied Chamusca and other villages on the left bank of the river.
The Light Division, on the night of the 18th, was pushed close to the
bridge, at which we had strong pickets; and those who were not on that
duty turned into some roofless hovels near at hand, drenched with the
never-ceasing rain.
Lord Wellington was employed on the 19th in reconnoitering the French
position. The same day the First Division closed up from the rear, and
joined us at Vallé, a straggling sort of village near the causeway. At
night our division was ordered into a large pine-wood, to make ourselves
as comfortable as we could; but in which we passed as cheerless a night
as one uninterrupted deluge of rain might be supposed to produce. Hoping
to escape in some measure from the fury of the storm, many of us crept
into an old water-course in the wood, in which, rolled up in our cloaks,
and doubled up with wet and cold, we did contrive, nevertheless, to fall
asleep. But it is impossible to forget being suddenly awoke, a short
time afterwards, and feeling myself all at once buoyed up and floating
down the little ravine, in the same plight as if I had been dragged
under a ship from stem to stern. There was a general outcry from all the
party who had sought refuge in this water-course, and a scramble to get
on _terra firma_ took place. Taking a few mouthsful of rum and a cigar,
the remainder of the night was spent at the foot of a fir-tree, smoking,
shivering, and cursing our stupidity for having taken up so injudicious
a position.
Daylight was never more welcome than when it broke next morning,
although the rain rather increased. We had, however, something in
perspective, which was likely to call into exertion both body and mind,
and that pretty quickly.
A general attack, as we then understood, was forthwith to be made on the
French position. The First Division made demonstrations near the
causeway, as in like manner did other troops further to their left. The
Light Division and some cavalry at the same moment crossed the Rio
Maior, by a narrow bridge behind Vallé, and advanced along the marshy
plain towards the extreme left of the enemy’s position, which rested on
the Tagus. We were soon engaged with their pickets, with whom we kept up
a skirmish for some hours, and in such rain as might be supposed to have
rendered fire-arms useless. Numbers of their light troops were scattered
along the base of the position, ready for our reception, if we should
advance to the attack; but Massena concealed his masses behind the brow.
Towards evening we were ordered to fall back again towards Vallé; and it
was generally understood, that the object of the demonstrations which
Lord Wellington had made, was to ascertain whether the whole French army
was really there, or only a rear-guard. Finding a strong force
concentrated, and posted in a most formidable position, no attack was
made.