The British Army cross the Garonne--Advance on
Toulouse--Prepare for the Attack--The Attack--Spaniards driven
back--Battle very hot--French completely defeated--Soult
evacuates Toulouse, and tardily adheres to the Bourbons.
On the 28th or 29th, we were moved forward, and after a short march we
reached a beautiful plain, with Toulouse appearing most magnificent in
the distance. Here we went into cantonments, in the different villages
and chateaux in the neighbourhood, the greater part of which were
completely deserted, and many of them most wofully sacked and plundered,
which could have been done only by their own troops. A noble and stately
mansion, belonging to a Mr Villeneuve, stood immediately in front of our
outposts, which had shared the same fate with all the others, every
article of furniture having been entirely destroyed. The cloth had been
torn from the billiard-table, the splendid pier-glasses shivered into a
thousand atoms, and, in short, every article of luxury or splendour
which a man could wish for, might have been found in this princely
habitation previous to its desertion by its owner; but now devastation
and destruction had laid its unhallowed hands on all in which its
possessor had formerly delighted. I, with my messmates, took the liberty
of visiting Mr V.'s fish-ponds, where we found some fine-looking carp;
and having some hooks by me, we caught a considerable quantity, which we
imagined would be a great treat to our messmates; but we found them
excessively muddy, and not worth eating. Here also we rejoiced in being
able to procure some good provender for our still half-starved horses
and mules. The grass and cinquefoil which we found in this beautiful and
luxuriant plain, in a few days began to make a wonderful improvement in
our poor fellow-travellers. I know not a more gratifying feeling than we
experienced in thus being able to feed the hungry; for although they
were but of the inferior creation, yet so much did our own comforts,
and, indeed, efficiency for service, depend on their being capable of
performing the task allotted to them, and so much did the circumstance
of our having passed through trials and dangers together attach us to
them, that I very frequently would have preferred getting them a meal
even at the expense of wanting one myself. Here my little Portuguese
horse, which I had originally brought from Lisbon, and who had been my
companion in all my wanderings, (except when he was left for a while
owing to his bad foot,) began to look quite brisk and lively again; for
hitherto his spirits had been very low indeed since he happened by his
misfortune, and had been literally starved into the bargain.
A pontoon bridge having been constructed some distance above the town,
and which our engineers had been able to accomplish on account of its
being thrown over above the junction of the Ariege with the Garonne, on
the 31st we moved down towards this point, and crossing it, my battalion
was left as its guard in a village on the bank of the river. The
remainder of the division, and the ---- division,[3] moved up the Ariege
river with the intention of crossing, and thus approaching Toulouse in
that direction; but, from the heavy rains, the river was too much
flooded, which, together with the dreadful state of the roads, these
troops were unable to effect this operation, and were consequently
recalled.
By the 2d of April the whole had recrossed the Garonne, when we again
went into our cantonments on the plain, but now farther down the river
than before. We remained here a few days, and I cannot help recording a
remarkable circumstance which took place at this time. For want of
dwelling-houses we had been obliged to put a certain number of the men
of my battalion into a sort of wine-house; it was not a vault, for it
was above ground, but had a considerable number of barrels of wine in
it, amongst which the men were obliged to sleep. It will scarcely be
credited, but not one of these men ever appeared the least intoxicated
during the whole time they lay there. Whether they were completely tired
of wine, or whether their having been placed in such a situation
produced a feeling of honour and pride among them, I know not, but I
verily believe less wine was drunk by these men during the time they
remained here, than would have been had they had to pay most
exorbitantly for it. With soldiers I believe it is as with mankind in
general; what is prohibited always appears more valuable or more
pleasurable in our eyes, than what we may with freedom enjoy.
On the 6th we moved down the river till within a short distance of
Grenade, about twelve miles below Toulouse. We halted near a small
village, and encamped. A pontoon bridge had been thrown over the Garonne
here, and one division (I believe the 3d) had crossed; but now, owing to
the swollen state of the river, together with several attempts which
were now made by the enemy to destroy the bridge, by floating down
trees, &c. which might eventually carry it away, it loosened at the
farther end, and the anchors being taken up, the whole was allowed to
float down to our side of the river, keeping fast the end next our own
bank. We remained in this situation for several days, one division only
being on the opposite side, with which it was impossible to communicate,
or, if attacked, to afford it almost any support. Now was the time for
the enemy to bestir himself; for had he marched out of Toulouse with
half his force, and been met at this place by the force he had at
Montauban, they must have annihilated this division, or taken them
prisoners. It is true we might have rendered them some little assistance
by our artillery from the bank we occupied, but the distance was so
great that a determined enemy would not have held back from the dread of
it.
I took a trip from hence to Grenade, where the paymaster-general had
established the military chest, as I had not yet quite finished my
paymaster's duty. It is a good-sized town, but contains nothing
remarkable, only here I remember I got some excellent wine of the
Champagne kind, and which my friend poured out of an immense magnum
bottle. I understood our Chief was most anxious to have the bridge
re-established by the 9th, which was Easter eve, the weather having now
somewhat taken up, and the river of course had fallen; but although the
engineer thought he could effect it, and had promised his lordship it
should be ready by that time, it was not passable till the morning of
the 10th. Early on that morning, my division crossed to the other side,
together with the 4th and 6th divisions, and a whole host of Spaniards.
I omitted to mention, that these latter gentry, on their entering
France, had behaved most wantonly, and had committed numerous
atrocities; on which, his lordship, as Generalissimo, had ordered them
back to their own country again; but upon the promise of good behaviour,
and an anxious desire to participate in the honourable achievements of
the allied troops, he had granted them permission to rejoin the army,
and they were to have a post of honour assigned them at the ensuing
battle. Such was the current report which prevailed among our army
newsmongers: be it as it may, however, they were here in number, I
should think, about 6000 or 8000. The whole army now present having
crossed, except General Hill with the 2d division, advanced upon the
town of Toulouse. We here found a beautiful country and excellent roads,
along which we got on rapidly. The town stands close to the right bank
of the river, along which there are numerous quays, and over which there
is an excellent bridge, communicating with the suburb on the opposite
side, called St Cyprian. From the river on the north side of the town
runs the famous canal of Languedoc, with which it communicates by locks,
and which, encircling the town on that and on the east sides, with the
river on the west, almost entirely encloses it. On the east side of the
town, and just beyond the canal, a considerable eminence arises, forming
a sort of chain or ridge, on the top of which numerous redoubts and
batteries had been constructed, and which, both from the nature of the
ground and by the great labour bestowed upon them, had been rendered, as
the Frenchman told me, nearly impregnable.
The 6th division, supported by the 4th, had been ordered to move
considerably to the left, and, after crossing the Garonne, to attack
this formidable position on the outer side, while the Spaniards were to
attack it immediately in front. My division was ordered to communicate
with the right of the Spaniards, and, extending down to the great
Montauban road, was to press upon the town in this direction, in order
to aid the attack upon the height before mentioned. The 3d division
joined our right at the Montauban road, and extended from thence down to
the river, and were ordered to act similarly to us. The 2d division,
under General Hill, remained on the other side of the river, and was to
co-operate by attacking the suburb before mentioned, together with the
works for the protection of the bridge, and for the same purpose of our
attack, namely, to keep the troops in these parts of the town employed,
while the 6th division and Spaniards attacked the height. Immediately in
front of our division, we found considerable bodies of troops, at some
distance from the town, occupying the houses all along the road, and
which it took us a considerable time to drive in. They had also
constructed a battery on the bridge over the canal, where the great road
passes, and from which they kept up an almost incessant fire. At the
hither end of the bridge also there stood a very large convent, which
they had fortified in a very strong manner, having loopholed the whole
of the surrounding wall, which was twenty feet high, and had also looped
the upper part of the convent, which contained a garrison of probably
1000 or 1200 men.
We commenced operations in conjunction with the 3d division on our
right, in driving these people in, and with whom a smart firing was kept
up during the whole day. The French had also other troops beyond the
canal, and on the Moorish or Roman wall which encircled the town inside
the canal, and both of which they had fortified; so that, had it been
intended we should force the town on this side, we should have found it
a difficult undertaking: we were, however, merely (as said before) to
press upon them without committing ourselves; but unfortunately, in the
eagerness of some of our people to push forward, they got immediately
under the muzzles of the pieces of the men who were defending the
convent, and from the loopholes several of our poor fellows were shot
without being able to see their antagonists. A good number fell here;
for it was not more than thirty yards distant where they had taken up
their post, and an unpleasant one it was as well as dangerous; for they
were obliged to stand in a drain which ran from a jakes, and which of
course emitted no very desirable flavour; or, if they had left it for a
moment, they were immediately shot. Our adjutant escaped here as by a
miracle, the bole of a very small tree having stopped the ball that
would have pierced his body. When, however, we had got them fairly
driven in, we had then time to look about us, and the first thing we saw
was the Don moving on to the attack of the height with all due ceremony.
They gained the first or lower ridge without much opposition, and here
getting up some artillery, a pretty heavy fire was opened on the enemy;
but the French remained quite passive, not offering to resist the
approaching Spaniards till they got within a certain distance of their
works on the top of the hill.
The Spaniards, elated by having gained the first ridge so easily, pushed
on too rapidly, and without having taken time to re-form their columns
after the first conquest. They were not aware either that a rather deep
ravine separated them from the enemy's works; however, on they pushed,
in a very disorderly manner, till they reached the point the French
intended they should reach, when a fire was opened out upon them, such
as they had never witnessed before. Few troops would have remained
unshaken by such a reception, but to the Spaniards it was intolerable;
consequently they broke into a thousand parties, and, turning tail, it
was who should be first away from such unpleasant doings. I am told that
Lord Wellington at this moment could scarcely hold his sides for
laughing, and cried out he "wondered whether the Pyrenees would bring
them up again, they seemed to have got such a fright." He did not indeed
depend on their valour, or he would have made a bad winding up of his
Peninsular campaign. The moment they left the height, every man took the
way that seemed to him best, and they soon after literally covered the
whole plain, and set to work with all expedition to plunder at least, if
they would not fight. Some of the villains had the audacity to come and
take a poor man's horse out of the stable of the very house which we
were then, as it were, defending, and had nigh got off with it; but
having been perceived, it was taken from them, and restored again to its
owner.
The left of our division was now obliged to be moved up to fill the
space vacated by these vagabonds; and in doing which a good deal of hard
fighting took place. This also made the people in front of us rally
again, and coming out in great numbers hurraing and shouting, we had
something to do to drive them back. But by this time we heard, in the
distance behind the hill, a dropping and now brisker fire; by and by,
approaching the summit, it became quite animated. We could plainly
perceive now the different appearance which the French assumed; they no
longer lay supine and passive till their enemy approached their works,
but fought for every inch of ground, and all was now animation and
bustle among them, hurrying to the support of those troops who defended
the redoubts, &c. on the point assailed. The battle now raged with great
fury, each party with all their might for the mastery, and the French,
we could perceive, when compelled by sheer force to yield ground, did
it with the utmost reluctance. At length, we saw the British colour
waving on the summit of the hill, with the most deadly warfare raging on
each side of it; but every move we saw was in favour of the British.
The 42d regiment had by this time gained possession of the principal
redoubt, which they held till their ammunition was all expended, and
which the enemy perceiving, or suspecting, again advanced, and gained
possession of it. Things did not now wear quite so favourable an aspect;
but being promptly supported by other troops behind them, a movement was
again made in advance, and again the French were expelled from the
redoubt. Great was the slaughter in and about this place, as I saw next
day when I visited it.
The enemy were now reluctantly compelled to yield up all those famous
works, on which so much time and labour had been expended, and on which
they so much relied, and were obliged to abandon (slowly indeed) this
long disputed ridge; but they fought till they were fairly forced down
into the town, where they still kept up a feeble fire; at length it
gradually subsided. This was the principal part of the drama; but it had
many subordinate plots. On our right, General Picton, with that ardour
which ever characterised him, was scarcely well satisfied to play an
under part on this occasion; and, instead of merely keeping his
opponents in play, as I before hinted, he was for effecting a forcible
entry into the town. He accordingly attacked with his division a strong
and well-secured battery, near the canal, in doing which his brave
Connaught Rangers, who had scarcely ever hitherto known a reverse, met
with a severe and bloody repulse, in which they lost a great number of
excellent officers and men. The other corps of his division, who
co-operated, also suffered greatly. General Hill strictly obeyed his
instructions, and, as he always did, effected every object at which he
aimed.
In this action I had another opportunity of witnessing the effect of
presentiment. Early in it I was sent forward by my commanding-officer
with some orders to a company of ours, which was in front skirmishing,
and which had taken possession of a house, which partly screened them
from the enemy's battery on the bridge. Behind this house, one of the
men was sitting on a heap of stones with the most woe-worn countenance
possible. He had separated from the rest of the men, and was sitting
here apparently ruminating on his fate, and appeared to be quite
absorbed in his meditations. I remarked him most particularly, wondering
what could render him so different from the rest of his comrades, who
were all life and animation, and from what he had formerly been himself
in action. He presently went forward with some of the other men, and
soon after fell to rise no more. The poor man's melancholy look made a
deep impression upon me at the time, together with his fate soon after.
Thus terminated the battle of Toulouse; our troops maintaining the
ground they had gained, while the enemy had retired into the town
completely beaten. Soult seemed undetermined how to act, whether to
endeavour to hold the town, (which indeed he might have done for a day
or two perhaps,) or to leave it by the road towards the south, the only
one now open to him. We rested on the field all night, the enemy sending
an occasional shot or shell in the direction of our camp. Next morning
we still found the enemy retaining possession of the town; and nothing
being likely to be done, I rode up with another officer to see the
bloody field, with all its redoubts and batteries, and also to see, if
I could, in what situation the enemy now appeared. Just as we reached
the summit, a cry was given by the 42d sentry, "Turn out the picquet."
There was a good deal of firing going on in the suburbs nearest to the
position, which this Highlander thought it right to apprize his people
of. We looked a considerable time with our glasses, and observed a good
number of troops on a green and open space in that part of the suburbs,
and who every now and then would fire their muskets. I thought it must
either be a sort of _feu-de-joie_, or a funeral, and it turned out to be
the latter. They were burying a general officer, who had fallen the day
before, and to whom they were paying the last melancholy honours; but it
was conducted in a quite different manner from our military funerals,
for they did not fire in volleys like us; but every few minutes
apparently a few men only fired, and by and by some others. This had the
effect, however, of turning out our whole line in the neighbourhood of
the position; and as I was afterwards returning, I met Colonel Barnard
and Colonel Colborne (than whom there were not two better officers in
the army) riding up to see what was the matter. Colonel Barnard asked me
what it was. I told him what I thought it was. He said the whole line
had fallen in, thinking it was an attack.
Towards evening we heard that the inhabitants of the city had been most
urgent on Soult to withdraw from it; and that he had promised to do so.
Indeed, had he not, Lord Wellington might, if he chose, have soon
reduced the town to ashes; for the heights we had taken were not 500
yards distant from the city, and completely overlooked it. On the
morning of the 12th, therefore, Soult marched out, and was not molested
by our troops. He took the road to Villefranche and Carcassonne, up the
canal of Languedoc, our cavalry following their track. Now all the
loyalists came rushing out of the town to meet and welcome us; every one
wearing white scarfs or favours to denote his attachment to the
Bourbons. Now all was joy and festivity, and nothing but shaking of
hands and embracing was to be seen in all directions. This day also
arrived Lord Stewart from Paris with the account of Bonaparte's
abdication, and of the Bourbons having been reinstated. It was also
rumoured that Soult had received this news previous to the battle; but
not being inclined to yield obedience to that dynasty, he had allowed
the warfare to proceed. Indeed, what almost puts this beyond a doubt,
was his still continuing for many days after this to refuse sending in
his submission to the Bourbon government. We also heard afterwards that
the courier bringing the official information of Bonaparte's fall, &c.
had been detained by the postmaster of Montauban by Soult's direction;
for although he had had private intelligence of the fact, he imagined
the detention of the official information might screen him hereafter.
Such are the surmises of the wise heads respecting this affair, which,
as it turned out, is to be regretted; for the sacrifice of so many
valuable lives on both sides was a thing of no trifling importance; but
I believe Soult felt sore at his having been so often worsted, and hoped
here in some measure to retrieve his lost honours; for it cannot be
doubted, I believe, that he expected to be able to repel our attack at
least, if not to force us to retire from Toulouse.
On the 13th, the divisions marched into the town; my battalion having
the fauxbourg adjoining the lately disputed position assigned to it, and
in which we found very comfortable quarters. To show that the French
people of this place took Lord Wellington either for a very generous
person, or a great fool, a man who owned a house on the border of the
position, and which the French had fortified by loopholing it, and
otherwise rendering it unfit for occupation by its owner, sent in a
memorial to his lordship, praying him to order that he might receive out
of the military chest a sufficient sum to enable him to put his house in
its former state; and this, although it had been done by his own
countrymen. I suppose his lordship would laugh at it when he saw it. I
should have been inclined to be angry with the fellow. The man showed
the memorial to the adjutant and myself before he sent it in--a step
which of course we dissuaded him from taking.
Notwithstanding it was notorious that Bonaparte's career was at that
time finished, Soult still made a show of holding out for him; in
consequence of which the army was again put in motion to compel him
either to send in his adhesion to the new government, or to resign his
command of troops who had not now a master. He had taken up a position
near Villefranche. Accordingly, we marched, I think, on the 15th or
16th, the which rather alarmed him; and in consequence he despatched
Count Gazan with terms to offer to his lordship, the which, after some
alterations, were finally agreed upon, and the army returned once more
to Toulouse, where we resumed our former quarters.
Thus finished the Peninsular War, the last campaign of which had been
the most active probably that is recorded in history. In ten months and
a half we had marched from the frontiers of Portugal, had completely
traversed Spain, which we had cleared of its long troublesome and
insidious invaders; had penetrated far into the interior of that
country, which three years before gave law to most of the continental
nations; and had worsted, in various actions, those troops, which,
except when encountering the British, had been accustomed almost
invariably to conquer.
FOOTNOTE:
[3] Some obscurity is occasioned here and elsewhere, by blanks being
left in the MS., which the death of the good-humoured and kindly author
has rendered it now impossible to fill up.--ED.