Battle of Vittoria. The Light Division and some cavalry pursue the
French rear-guard on the road to Pampeluna. Engaged with them
several days. Two French ladies restored to their husbands. Baron
Alten directs the movements of the advanced guard with great
judgment and effect. We take the last piece of artillery but one in
possession of the French rear-guard. The country between Salvaterra
and Pampeluna favourable for a retreating army. Reflections on
approaching the Pyrenees. Lord Wellington marches with the 3d, 4th,
and Light Divisions against General Clausel. A Spanish priest
apprises that general of our movements, and mars our plans. Our
benedictions on the said padre. We return to Pampeluna, and assist
in the blockade. March into the Pyrenees. Splendid scenery. Sir
Rowland Hill’s corps engaged in the passes. Vale of San Estevan. A
week spent there. Dress, language, &c. of the Spanish Basques.
Trout-fishing on the Bidassoa. The Light Division advances to Vera.
Drives the French out of it into the pass. The first view of the
ocean for four years. Cheers of the soldiers on seeing it. Rough
sketch of the position of our army in the Pyrenees. Quadrilles
danced by our French neighbours in their encampment opposite to us.
Sir Thomas Graham besieges St. Sebastian. The French entrench
themselves in our front. An attempt to storm St. Sebastian fails.
Marshal Soult attacks our right wing. It falls back towards
Pampeluna. Defeats the French, and drives them again into France,
with great slaughter. The 7th and Light Divisions fall back from
Vera and Echelar. Soult’s proclamation to his army before he
attacked the allies in the Pyrenees. The Light Division makes forced
marches to reach the bridge of Yanci. The Riflemen inflict a severe
loss on the retreating columns of the French. General Kempt’s
brigade drives the enemy from a high mountain into France. Gallant
attack made by General Barnes’ brigade. The hostile armies occupy
their former positions.
BATTLE OF VITTORIA.
On the 21st Lord Wellington made a grand attack on the French position
near Vittoria, and gained a splendid victory, which those who took a
part in are vain enough to suppose will be remembered long after old
Charon has crossed the Styx with them, unassisted by a pontoon bridge. A
minute detail of the great struggle between two such large armies, on
which the fate of Spain depended, I do not presume to give; but a rough
sketch I shall attempt. The French right and centre were covered by the
Zadora, and their left extended towards, and rested on, a mountainous
ridge overlooking the less rugged ground on which the centre was posted.
The scene of action has been termed “the plains of Vittoria;” but
although compared with the left of their position it was level, there
was no lack of hill and dale, and, in some parts, of enclosures. Sir
Rowland Hill’s corps commenced the action by attacking the left of the
French position, on which a perceptible impression was soon made,
notwithstanding that the enemy offered a stout resistance, and
occasioned our troops a heavy loss.
This success of the right wing was soon followed by a general attack
with the 3d, 4th, 7th, and Light Divisions, directed by Lord Wellington
in person. Those troops crossed the Zadora by different bridges opposite
the French centre, against which they immediately advanced, under a
tremendous cannonade, and in such beautiful and imposing style, as no
one who was an eye-witness is likely to forget. Long before the centre
of our army passed the Zadora, the 1st and 3d battalions of our corps
were pushed forward to its banks, and warmly engaged with the French
light troops posted on the opposite side amongst the rocks. The passage
of the Zadora was effected, and some companies of our battalion had
crowned the heights not many hundred yards from it, when a murderous
fire of musketry was opened on us, from several battalions of infantry
at its foot placed behind stone walls. This sudden blaze of fire checked
the skirmishers, and prevented our descending the hill until the
supporting columns arrived; which, with a part of the 3d Division, who
opened a flanking fire, dislodged the French from the walls. We then
followed them through a village near at hand, where our battalion took
three pieces of artillery and some prisoners.
The French now opened a terrible fire of artillery on the village and
the troops about it, under cover of which they re-entered it, and
endeavoured to retake the guns. But our men had cut the traces; and as
many of the gunners and artillery-drivers, with their horses, had been
shot, the guns remained in our possession. Except in after-days, at
Waterloo, I do not remember to have experienced a more furious cannonade
than at this point. Whilst this was going forward, Sir Rowland Hill was
driving the French left before him, and the British centre was fast
closing with theirs. They soon, therefore, commenced a general retreat
towards Vittoria, taking advantage of every favourable piece of ground
to check us with their numerous artillery, and covered also by a swarm
of light troops.
About this period of the day,—(as a regimentalist, and tied to my
battalion, I do not pretend to accuracy as to moments or minutes,)—the
troops under Sir Thomas Graham, consisting of the 1st and 5th Divisions,
with some cavalry and Spaniards, attacked, in the most resolute and
spirited style, the French right, and, after a succession of sanguinary
contests, drove the enemy from their ground on the higher part of the
Zadora; and thus completed one of the most brilliant victories ever
gained. That the French lost all their artillery, baggage, stores,
military chest, and the whole material of their army, is universally
known. The greater part of the French army was obliged to retreat,
without delay, by the Pampeluna road, into the “sacred territory of
France.”
It was a fine sight, shortly before dark, to behold the French cavalry
formed in one dense mass, to cover the retreat of their discomfited
army. I conclude, that if daylight had lasted a short time longer, we
should have seen the cavalry of the two armies measure their strength.
Such, however, was not the case. From the moment of crossing the Zadora,
early in the day, until night put an end to the contest and pursuit, we
had been constantly engaged.
We bivouacked about a league from the city of Vittoria, amidst
waggon-loads of captured baggage of all kinds, consisting of boxes of
gold and silver belonging to the military chest, clothes, trinkets,
horses, mules, ammunition-waggons, guns, commissariat stores, and
waggons belonging to French general officers, where we found fresh
bread, Swiss cheese, wine, brandy, &c. &c., of which we made good use,
having tasted nothing since daybreak. Two officers of my company were
severely wounded in this battle, and were a great loss to our little
mess in the bell tent. This signal victory was gained by seven
divisions; one (the 6th) having been left near the Ebro, and
consequently taking no share in the battle. Joseph Bonaparte narrowly
escaped being made prisoner; and many fair ones, both French and
Spanish, who could not contrive to escape with their husbands or lovers,
were left in Vittoria, or amongst the baggage on the field. Men and
officers were so occupied with discussing the events of the day over the
camp fires, smoking cigars, and making free with the wines and other
good things found amongst the spoils, that daylight arrived, and
summoned us again to move, almost before we could take any repose.
On the 22d, the Light Division and the 4th, with some cavalry, followed
by the remainder of the army, marched in pursuit of the enemy by the
road to Pampeluna; and Sir James Graham’s corps advanced in the
direction of Tolosa. We did not reach the French rear-guard; and
encamped at night near Salvaterra, a town with a wall round it.
Next morning, at daybreak, the Light Division, with the 1st German
Hussars and 14th Light Dragoons, went in pursuit, and came up with their
rear-guard early in the day, just after they had set fire to a wooden
bridge over a small river. We found a ford, by which our battalion,
forming the advance of the Light Division, passed, and immediately
commenced an attack, supported by the cavalry and horse artillery. We
continued a running fight until the afternoon, driving them through
Lacanza, and taking many prisoners. It rained tremendously the whole
day.
The French set fire to several villages in a wanton and cruel manner;
and when we reached them, they were half consumed. With great difficulty
we were able to get through the streets, as the burning rafters were
falling into them every instant. For a moment it was a matter of doubt
whether the horse artillery, with their ammunition, should venture to
pass; but the ardour of pursuit overcame all other feelings, and they
rattled through at a brisk pace, fortunately without any mischief
occurring.
Late in the afternoon a carriage was seen coming up from the rear with
two ladies. These proved to be the Countess Gazan, wife of the chief of
the French staff, and the wife of some other French officer, who had
fallen into our hands in the late battle. Lord Wellington lost no time
in restoring them to their husbands, and they were handed over to their
countrymen at the advanced posts.
On the 24th, the Light Division, with the German Hussars and the 14th
Light Dragoons, started again at daybreak, and came up with a rear-guard
of several thousand infantry, occupying a formidable position behind a
mountain river called the Araquil. The banks being extremely rocky and
difficult of approach, and the fords impracticable from the heavy rains,
which still descended, they could not be attacked but by a narrow
bridge. The only infantry advanced thus far were the 1st and 3d
battalions of the 95th Riflemen, with which, however, General Alten
immediately set to work, before the remainder of the division arrived.
Our 3d battalion climbed a mountain on the left, which enabled them to
throw a fire on the enemy’s right, whilst the 1st battalion blazed at
them in front across the river. This, with the appearance of the
remainder of the Light Division approaching, caused the French gradually
to melt away and to continue their retreat.
We lost many men in this desultory fight. Coming up with them again soon
afterwards, in a more open country, the horse artillery cannonaded them
with considerable effect, and the cavalry charged and sabred many men.
At this moment there was a strange mixed fight of the three arms,
cavalry, infantry, and artillery, all scuffling and pounding their
adversaries simultaneously. Never did the commandant of an advanced
guard bring into play more quickly, and with better judgment and effect,
the different description of troops under his command than Baron Alten,
and, moreover, without the least confusion or delay. He was always with
the most advanced party, whether it happened to be cavalry or infantry;
and in his quiet, cool manner, did the business to admiration. We stuck
close to the heels of the enemy, and captured from them the last piece
of artillery but one which remained out of the whole of their immense
train before the battle of Vittoria. They took refuge under the guns of
Pampeluna; and our advanced guard occupied for the night some
farm-houses and villages within a few miles of it. The country from
Salvaterra to Pampeluna is highly favourable for a retreating army, as
it affords various positions amongst the defiles and woods, and behind
the rivulets, to stop its pursuers, without the aid of artillery.
At an early hour on the 25th we advanced towards Pampeluna, and began to
think it possible, nay, probable, that ere long we should not only
behold from the Pyrenees “the great, the grand, the beautiful France,”
but tread its soil. Contrasting the present situation and position of
our army with what it had been three years before, when shut up in the
lines of Torres Vedras, it appeared like a dream. Then Marshal Massena
threatened to kick us into our ships; whereas now, the “Leopard,” having
cleared the Peninsula of its invaders, was advancing with rapid strides
to threaten in his turn. We threw out strong pickets towards the
fortress, and occupied Villa Alba, and other small villages near it.
The appearance of Pampeluna, standing in a large plain not far from the
base of the Pyrenees, and watered by the Arga, is very imposing. It is a
place of considerable strength; but to the engineer department, or those
better versed in fortification than myself, I leave the task of
describing its weakest and strongest points.
Lord Wellington, taking with him, on the 26th June, the 3d, 4th, and
Light Divisions, and some cavalry, marched in pursuit of General
Clausel, who, with three French divisions, was endeavouring to reach
France by some of the Pyrenean passes, in a more easterly direction. The
brave, patriotic, and indefatigable Spanish General, Mina, had, by
destroying bridges, breaking up roads, and in various other manners,
obstructed General Clausel’s movements, and obliged him to make
considerable _détours_ to reach different points.
We encamped near Muro on the 26th, and on the 27th marched through a
good town called Tafala, where the people greeted us with joy and
enthusiasm. After a long march through a fertile and beautiful country,
we encamped near Olite, an old town with a wall round it. The whole of
the 28th was spent in following the route by which it was expected we
should come up with General Clausel; and worse or more rugged roads no
one need wish to travel over. At midnight we bivouacked in some ploughed
land on the banks of the Arragon, without baggage or provisions, and in
tremendous rain.
We were ordered to halt on the 29th in our bivouac, it having been
ascertained that a Spanish priest had given General Clausel information
of the march of the three British divisions. This, by causing him to
change his direction, prevented our taking him by surprise, and, in all
probability, giving a good account of him. Clausel effected his retreat
into France; and we returned on the 30th towards Pampeluna, bestowing
sundry benedictions on the padre for having marred our plans, and given
us three long marches to no purpose.
On the 3d of July we found ourselves within a few miles of Pampeluna
again, where we remained until the 5th, assisting in the blockade. We
then commenced penetrating into the Pyrenees, and on the 6th reached
Lanz, amidst the most lovely scenery imaginable. The valleys, watered by
the clearest streams, are well cultivated with Indian corn, and the
mountains clothed to their summits with the most luxuriant woods.
A sharply contested affair between the advance of Sir Rowland Hill’s
corps and the enemy took place this day at or near the pass of Maya, in
which the French were driven from the mountains into their own country.
At daybreak, on the 7th, we quitted our beautiful encampment; but it was
only to exchange it for one equally so. No country in the known world
can afford scenery more interesting or more truly splendid. Here is all
the wild magnificence of the Alps, without the eternal monotonous fir
and larch. Oak, beech, birch, box, and various trees, flourish on the
sides and summits of the mountains, in a manner which I have never seen
in other regions of the kind, except on the Ebro.
We had scarcely taken up our ground for the night, near Gostello, when
an order was sent for our battalion to move to San Estevan, a town about
one league in front of the bivouac of the division, whence we were to
push pickets on the roads leading to Vera and Echelar. If we were struck
with astonishment and delight at suddenly looking down on the Ebro on
the 15th of June, we were equally so, when, on crowning a mountain, we
all at once beheld the vale of San Estevan beneath, with the Bidassoa
flowing through it. But a truce with descriptions of scenery. Simply let
me observe, that I consider this valley unequalled in romantic and
picturesque beauty.
Our arrival excited great curiosity, as we were the first British troops
that had ever visited this secluded spot. The inhabitants received us
hospitably and kindly, although they at first doubted our being English,
as we were not clothed in scarlet. The French had fortified San Estevan
against any sudden attempt from the guerillas of Mina and Longa, who
eternally hovered about the mountains, and threatened the garrison. The
complexions of the women in this part of Spain are very unlike those of
the southern provinces, where the heat is so much more intense. Here you
see the bloom of the northern Europeans; and their features also are
dissimilar to those of the south. The women wear their fine long hair
plaited, which hangs down the back to a great length, and is tied at the
bottom with ribands of the most gaudy colours. The peasantry are a
remarkably handsome race. Of the Basque language I know nothing, further
than that it is, in print, unlike any other I have seen. Half a dozen
consonants without a vowel, is nothing uncommon; but it does not strike
one as being inharmonious or harsh. The Spanish is as little understood
by the peasantry as German or English; and even the better classes do
murder the Castilian most cruelly.
We remained a week in San Estevan; and as it was the first halt of any
consequence which we had made since the 21st of May, we enjoyed beyond
measure our short sojourn there. We had dances every night, and received
the greatest attention from the people of all classes. The tune of one
of their provincial dances we converted into a quick march for the band;
and I have never since heard it, without being instantly reminded of the
few happy days which I passed in that delightful spot. Whilst there, I
caught some uncommonly fine trout in the Bidassoa, which abounds with
them.
On the 14th July, the Light Division marched towards Vera; and on the
15th approached that town, which the French occupied, as well as some
walls and enclosures in its front. A part of the 43d regiment attacked
the village, whilst our battalion was ordered to ascend the heights of
Santa Barbara, and to drive off their pickets. From its summit we had a
distant view of the ocean, which for several years we had not seen. A
spontaneous and universal shout was raised by the soldiers, which must
have astonished our French neighbours, who were separated from us only
by a valley.
The French held the pass of Vera with a strong force, and had thrown up
field-works of different kinds for its defence. The 1st and 5th
Divisions were near St. Sebastian; on the left bank of the Bidassoa was
the Light Division, fronting the pass of Vera, the 7th Division at the
pass of Echelar, and the other four divisions further to the right,
occupying Maya, Roncesvalles, and other passes. The greater part of the
cavalry were cantoned towards Vittoria and the Ebro, it being impossible
either to feed or to employ them in the mountains where the army was now
posted, and whence we looked down on, and cast a longing eye at, France.
A few days after we had encamped near Vera, we saw a gay assemblage of
French officers and well-dressed females dancing to the music of a band
in front of their tents, on the other side of the valley. The distance
across was so trifling, that we distinctly made out the tunes to which
they capered away, and, with our telescopes, could see their faces. Here
were two large armies so near to each other, that an order for either
party to advance would have brought on an engagement in a few minutes.
Still, so much were they at their ease, that one party looked on at the
other quadrilling!
Sir Thomas Graham had commenced the siege of St. Sebastian with the 5th
Division. The French army was entrenching itself in an extended
position, with its right on the sea near the mouth of the Bidassoa, and
the left stretching along the lower Pyrenees in front of the western
passes. On the 25th, a breach in the walls of St. Sebastian was stormed
by a party of the 5th Division, but unfortunately the attack did not
succeed, and the assailants lost many men in their gallant attempt. On
the same day, Marshal Soult, who had recently joined the French army
from the north of Europe, and superseded Marshal Jourdan, attacked, with
a heavy force, Sir Rowland Hill’s corps at the pass of Maya; which,
after a desperate resistance, and having suffered severely from numbers
very superior, was obliged to fall back in the direction of Pampeluna.
The other divisions also, which formed the right of the army, retired
through the mountains, from position to position, after a variety of
skirmishes, during several days in succession, and ultimately defeated
Marshal Soult with great loss, in a desperate conflict in front of
Pampeluna.
The 1st and 5th Divisions, during those operations remained near St.
Sebastian, and the 7th and Light were ordered, on the 26th of July, to
fall back from the passes of Echelar and Vera. But as, in the various
intricate mazes and sheep-paths of the Pyrenees, through which we
marched day and night, and floundered in the dark amongst precipices,
from the 26th to the afternoon of the 30th, a man had quite enough to do
to be able to ascertain the route taken by his own division, I shall not
venture, to detail the movements of the 7th Division.
Soon after we had arrived at Lecumbra, on the 30th, we received the
glorious intelligence of Marshal Soult’s army having sustained a signal
defeat in its repeated attacks on the right wing near Pampeluna,
consisting of the 2d, 3d, 4th, and 6th Divisions, which four alone, and
at a great distance from the others, had beaten Marshal Soult to his
heart’s content, and driven the remnant of his army back into France.
The brunt of the battle was understood to have fallen on the 4th
Division, which supported the high character it had acquired on various
former occasions.
Marshal Soult, who had in his proclamation to the French army, a few
days before, promised them that the English should be driven back over
the Ebro, and the birth-day of the Emperor celebrated in the city of
Vittoria, was obliged, for the present, to renounce his intentions, and
to beat a rapid retreat into his own country. His loss during those
operations has been rated as high as 15,000 men. He was followed by the
right wing from Pampeluna, over the same ground nearly by which he had
advanced; whilst the Light Division was directed to retrace its steps to
the Bidassoa by forced marches, and to reach the bridge of Yanci. This
was effected late in the afternoon of the 1st of August, after some
harassing marches over the worst possible roads, impracticable for
artillery. Many hundreds of men were left on the road thoroughly
exhausted.
On arriving at the top of the mountain, which looks down on the
Bidassoa, we found a large body of infantry strongly posted behind walls
and rocks, opposite the bridge of Yanci, so as to render the passage of
it impracticable. We perceived also a large French column marching,
without much order, in great haste, and evidently much jaded, for the
passes of Echelar and Vera, by the road which runs close along the bank
of the river. Some companies of our regiment were instantly sent down
the side of the mountain, with orders to blaze across the river at them.
Our fire threw them into great confusion, which was increased by their
being aware that the advanced guard of the 4th Division was following
their track. Many of the French threw away their arms and knapsacks, and
scrambled up the face of the mountain on their right, to get out of the
scrape in which they found themselves, and for which there was no other
remedy. They lost many men killed and wounded, and a great lot of
baggage; but their troops posted for the defence of the bridge still
held their ground, and did not abandon it until long after dark, when
they followed their discomfited comrades to Echelar and Vera.
The next morning at daybreak, the Light Division crossed by the bridge
of Yanci, and advanced to Vera, where we found the French occupying
precisely the same ground as they had done a week before. General
Kempt’s brigade was ordered to drive from a high mountain above the
heights of Santa Barbara several French battalions. The 1st and 3d
battalions of the 95th Riflemen, supported by the 43d regiment, climbed
the mountain, and were soon warmly engaged. A thick fog suddenly came
on, which obscured every thing from view; but the enemy kept up a
continual fire at random. As soon as the mist cleared away, we again
advanced, and finally succeeded in clearing the mountain, and hunting
them down the opposite side of it into their own country.
Whilst we were thus engaged, the 4th Division was driving before it
another body of the enemy from a mountain on our right. A brigade of the
7th Division, under General Barnes, consisting of the 51st and 68th
regiments, made a gallant attack this day on a French corps, very
superior in numbers and strongly posted, and drove them from their
position in admirable style. It was asserted that General Barnes had
twenty musket-shots through his clothes, hat, and saddle, without one of
them touching his body. If, after such extraordinary escapes, that
general should be a fatalist, who could wonder at it?
Soult’s army was now fairly over the Pyrenees again, and re-occupied its
former positions; and in this manner terminated his expedition to raise
the blockade of Pampeluna and the siege of St. Sebastian, and to drive
the English over the Ebro.