Victory Abroad, and Displeasure at Home
(1808-9)
“_From the sublime to the ridiculous is but a step._”
NAPOLEON.
With a mere handful of soldiers, Junot, big with ideas of a future
kingship, and underestimating the strength and fighting powers of the
enemy, left Lisbon and entered the field against Wellesley, whose
troops were now encamped at Vimiero to cover the landing of 4000
additional men under Generals Anstruther and Acland. Having joined
forces with the unfortunate Loison and Delaborde and thereby brought up
the total strength of his army to 13,056 men, the Marshal prepared to
attack.
Wellesley, who had over 18,000 troops, including 2000 Portuguese, was
well prepared, nay eager, for the encounter, but, unfortunately for
him, Burrard arrived on the evening of the 20th August. When Wellesley
explained to him his scheme of operations he showed no disposition to
fall in with it. Wellesley had wished Sir John Moore to proceed to
Lisbon by land in order to cut off Junot’s retreat, but the less-active
Burrard would have none of it, and ordered him to wait until Moore’s
arrival. “Whether we advance or not,” replied the General, “we shall
have to fight. For the French will certainly attack us if we do not
attack them.”
This prophecy was fulfilled about 8 o’clock on the morning of the
21st August 1808, when squadrons of the enemy’s cavalry appeared. An
attack was made on the British advanced guard. The French were driven
back at the point of the bayonet, while other troops, stationed in the
churchyard of Vimiero, prevented them from reaching the village of that
name, and Acland’s brigade attacked them in flank. “A most desperate
contest” was necessary before the enemy recoiled in confusion, during
which they lost heavily in killed and wounded, and in _material_
seven pieces of cannon. Other French troops, supported by a large
body of cavalry, turned their attention to the heights on the road to
Lourinhão, where Ferguson’s brigade was stationed. The latter charged
with praiseworthy coolness, and again there was a tale of disaster to
tell when the enemy fell back, while half a dozen guns were captured.
An attempt to recover part of the lost artillery resulted in the French
being obliged to retire “with great loss.”
Burrard, who had slept on the vessel which had brought him out, did
not arrive on the field till late in the day, and took no part in
the direction of the battle until Wellesley wished to pursue the
enemy to Torres Vedras and cut them off from Lisbon. “Sir Harry,” he
said, “now is your time to advance, the enemy is completely beaten,
and we shall be in Lisbon in three days.” This his senior officer
absolutely forbade. Had the former been allowed to follow his own
wishes he believed that, “in all probability, the whole would have
been destroyed.” As it was, at least 1800 of the enemy were rendered
_hors de combat_, including 300 or 400 troops who were made prisoners.
The British lost in killed and missing 186 men, and 534 were wounded.
The General was again delighted with the behaviour of his men, and in
communicating with the Duke of York, he averred that “this is the
only action I have ever been in, in which every thing passed as it was
directed and no mistake was made by any of the Officers charged with
its conduct.”
One splendid incident, one altogether human touch, affords relief
to the story of the battle of Vimiero. A piper of the gallant 71st
Highlanders, severely wounded in the thigh and deeply in need of
surgical aid, continued to blow his pibroch for the encouragement of
his colleagues, until exhaustion finally conquered his determined
spirit. Seated on the ground he declared that “the lads should nae
want music to their wark,” and went on with his weird music as though
parading within the walls of Edinburgh Castle.
“I afterwards saw him,” relates Lieut.-General Sir William Warre, “in
a hovel, where we collected the wounded ... both French and English. I
shook him by the hand, and told him I was very sorry to see so fine a
fellow so badly hurt; he answered, ‘Indeed, captain, I fear I am done
for, but there are some of those poor fellows,’ pointing to the French,
‘who are very bad indeed.’”
Such coolness, typified in successive instances, although not always
under such conditions,[44] has made our Empire what it is to-day. The
“common” British soldier, sowing the highway with his bones, enables a
later generation to reap a golden harvest.
[Illustration: The Gallant Piper at Vimiera
Thomas Maybank]
It is due to the French to record that they were not without men
equally as cool as Piper Mackay. A typical example is furnished by
Major Ross-Lewin, who fought in the 32nd, and it occurred immediately
after the battle of Vimiero:
“An officer of my regiment,” he relates, “happened to pass near an old
French soldier, who was seated by the roadside, covered with dust,
and desperately wounded; a cannon-shot had taken off both his feet
just above the ankles, but his legs were so swollen that his wounds
bled but little. On seeing the officer, the poor fellow addressed him,
saying, ‘_Monsieur, je vous conjure donnez moi mes pieds_.’ and at the
same time pointed to his feet, which lay on the road beyond his reach.
His request met with a ready compliance. The pale, toilworn features of
the veteran brightened up for an instant on receiving these mutilated
members, which had borne him through many a weary day, and which it
grieved him to see trampled on by the victorious troops that passed;
and then, as if prepared to meet his fast-approaching fate becomingly,
by the attainment of this one poor wish, he laid them tranquilly
beside him, and, with a look of resignation, and the words, ‘_Je suis
content_,’ seemed to settle himself for death.”
Many years afterwards, when in a reminiscent mood, the Duke of
Wellington recapitulated the events of the 21st August 1808. “The
French,” he told his guests, “came on at Vimiero with more confidence,
and seemed to _feel their way_ less than [smiling] I always found them
to do _afterwards_. They came on in their usual way, in a very heavy
column, and I received them in line, which they were not accustomed to,
and we repulsed them there several times, and at last they went off
beaten on all points, while I had half the army untouched and ready to
pursue; but Sir H. Burrard--who had joined the army in about the middle
of the battle, but seeing all doing so well, had desired me to continue
in the command now that he considered the battle as won, though I
thought it but half done--resolved to push it no further. I begged very
hard that he would go on, but he said enough had been done. Indeed,
if he had come earlier, the battle would not have taken place at all,
for when I waited on him on board the frigate in the bay the evening
before, he desired me to suspend all operations, and said he would do
nothing till he had collected all the force which he knew to be on the
way. He had heard of Moore’s arrival, but the French luckily resolving
to attack us, led to a different result. I came from the frigate about
nine at night, and went to my own quarters with the army, which, from
the nearness of the enemy, I naturally kept on the alert. In the dead
of the night a fellow came in--a German sergeant, or quartermaster--in
a great fright--so great that his hair seemed actually to stand on
end--who told me that the enemy was advancing rapidly, and would be
soon on us. I immediately sent round to the generals to order them
to get the troops under arms, and soon after the dawn of day we
were vigorously attacked. The enemy were first met by the (50th ?),
not a good-looking regiment, but devilish steady, who received them
admirably, and brought them to a full stop immediately, and soon drove
them back; they then tried two other attacks ... one very serious,
through a valley on our left; but they were defeated everywhere, and
completely repulsed, and in full retreat by noon, so that we had time
enough to have _finished them_ if I could have persuaded Sir H. Burrard
to go on.”
On the day following the battle of Vimiero, Dalrymple arrived.
While pondering over the situation he received a proposal for an
armistice from Junot, which developed into the Convention of Cintra,
preliminarily signed on the 30th August 1808. The most important
conditions were--the surrender of all places and forts in Portugal
occupied by the French troops, the evacuation of the country, and the
transport of the army, its munitions and “property,” to France in
British ships. By a strange oversight the important question of future
service was overlooked, consequently there was nothing to prevent an
early return of the troops to the Peninsula should Napoleon think fit
for them to do so.
We have now to consider Wellesley’s part in this much discussed
transaction. The Convention was definitely signed on the 30th August
1808, but previous to this a meeting of the General Officers was
called to deliberate upon it. “The result of the meeting,” Wellesley
writes on the 29th inst., “was a proposal to make certain alterations,
which I acknowledge I do not think sufficient, although the treaty
will answer in its amended form.... At the same time I must say that
I approve of allowing the French to evacuate Portugal, because I see
clearly that we cannot get them out of Portugal otherwise, under
existing circumstances, without such an arrangement; and we should
be employed in the blockade or siege of the places which they would
occupy during the season in which we ought and might be advantageously
employed against the French in Spain. But the Convention, by which they
should be allowed to evacuate Portugal, ought to be settled in the
most honorable manner to the army by which they have been beaten; and
we ought not to be kept for 10 days on our field of battle before the
enemy (who sued on the day after the action) is brought to terms.
“I am quite annoyed on this subject.”
Wellesley signed the preliminary Memorandum at the request of
Dalrymple, but had nothing to do with the final settlement. “I lament
the situation of our affairs as much as you do,” he writes on the 5th
September, “and I did every thing in my power to prevent it; but my
opinion was overruled. I had nothing to do with the Convention as it
now stands; and I have never seen it to this moment.... I have only to
regret that I put my name to an agreement of which I did not approve,
and which I did not negotiate: if I had not done it, I really believe
that they would not have dared to make such a Convention as they have
made: notwithstanding that that agreement was never ratified, and is
now so much waste paper.”[45]
His letters at this period teem with allusions to the unfortunate
treaty. He tells Castlereagh that “It is quite impossible for me to
continue any longer with this army; and I wish, therefore, that you
would allow me to return home and resume the duties of my office, if I
should still be in office, and it is convenient to the Government that
I should retain it; or if not, that I should remain upon the Staff in
England; or, if that should not be practicable, that I should remain
without employment. You will hear from others of the various causes
which I must have for being dissatisfied, not only with the military
and other public measures of the Commander-in-Chief, but with his
treatment of myself. I am convinced it is better for him, for the army,
and for me, that I should go away; and the sooner I go the better.”
On the 6th October Wellesley was in London, and at once resumed his
office as Chief Secretary for Ireland. The newspapers teemed with
unsavory references to the unpopular Convention; the caricaturists, not
to be rivalled by their journalistic brethren, produced the grossest
lampoons for the benefit of the indignant public. In one of them
Wellesley and his colleagues are hanging on gibbets, in another the
former is shown urging his troops to glory:
_This is Sir Arthur (whose valour and skill, began so well, but
ended so ill)
Who beat the French, who took the Gold, that lay in the City of
Lisbon._
Windham, writing in his Diary under date of the 16th September,
probably sums up the thoughts of most British statesmen of the time:
“At Chesterford heard report of news; said to be excellent, but without
particulars. Feasted upon the hopes of what I should meet at Hockrill.
Alas! _quanti de spe decidi!_ it was the news of the convention with
Junot. _There never was surely such a proceeding in the history of wars
or negotiations._ There is no bearing the thought of it.”
A Court of Inquiry was instituted. Dalrymple and Burrard were recalled,
and together with Wellesley, were examined before a board of officers,
which included General David Dundas and Lord Moira, at Chelsea
Hospital. The finding of the Court was non-committal “respecting
the fitness of the Convention in the relative situation of the two
armies,” doubtless because a unanimous “verdict” could not be arrived
at, but the members definitely declared “that unquestionable zeal and
firmness appear throughout to have been exhibited by Lieut.-Generals
Sir Hew Dalrymple, Sir Harry Burrard, and Sir Arthur Wellesley....”
In commenting on the judgment thus expressed, Sir Herbert Maxwell
notes that the two senior officers were never employed again, adding,
“Similar eclipse might have fallen upon Sir Arthur, but for the efforts
of Castlereagh and other powerful friends, whose confidence in their
General was never shaken.”
In the following January (1809) the House of Lords and the House of
Commons expressed their thanks to General Wellesley for the victories
of Roliça and Vimiero.
“It is your praise,” said the Speaker in the Commons, “to have inspired
your troops with unshaken confidence and unbounded ardour; to have
commanded, not the obedience alone, but the hearts and affections of
your companions in arms; and, having planned your operations with the
skill and promptitude which have so eminently characterized all your
former exertions, you have again led the armies of your country to
battle, with the same deliberate valour and triumphant success which
have long since rendered your name illustrious in the remotest parts of
this Empire.
“Military glory has ever been dear to this nation; and great military
exploits, in the field or upon the ocean, have their sure reward in
Royal favour and the gratitude of Parliament. It is, therefore, with
the highest satisfaction, that, in this fresh instance, I now proceed
to deliver to you the thanks of this House....”
Wellesley’s reply was made in three well-chosen sentences, without the
slightest attempt at rhetoric. In the House of Lords Vimiero was spoken
of as “a signal victory, honorable and glorious to the British arms.”
The resolutions of the peers, which included high appreciation of the
behaviour of the non-commissioned officers and privates, were conveyed
to Sir Arthur by the Lord Chancellor, and acknowledged by their
recipient in a short letter, the most important paragraphs of which are
as follows:
“I have received the mark of distinction which the House of Lords
have conferred upon me with sentiments of gratitude and respect
proportionate to the high sense I entertain of the greatness of the
honor which it carries with it; and I shall have great pleasure in
communicating to the Officers and the troops the distinguished reward
of their exemplary conduct which their Lordships have conferred upon
them.
“I beg leave, at the same time, to express to their Lordships my thanks
for the expressions of personal civility with which your Lordship has
conveyed to me the commands of the House.”
These signs of approval must have been entirely satisfactory to
Sir Arthur after the bitter criticisms of the previous months, but
what he particularly valued was a handsome service of plate, worth
intrinsically £1000, but sentimentally beyond price, presented to him
by the brigadier and field officers who were associated with him in
the victory at Vimiero. They, at any rate, had implicit faith in their
General.