Transcriber’s Note
Superscripts are indicated with a circumflex: M^cKenzie. Italics are
enclosed in _underscores_.
[Illustration: W Napier
Lieu^t.-General Sir W. Napier. Pinx^t. W.H. Egleton, sculp^t.]
ENGLISH
BATTLES AND SIEGES
IN THE
PENINSULA.
EXTRACTED FROM HIS ‘PENINSULA WAR.’
BY
LIEUT.-GEN. SIR WILLIAM NAPIER, K.C.B.,
&c. &c.
LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
1855.
LONDON: PRINTED BY W. CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET,
AND CHARING CROSS.
NOTICE.
In this publication, the combats of Roriça, Vimiero, and Coruña, and
the character of Sir John Moore, have been entirely recomposed. The
other battles and sieges are, with more or less compression of details,
transcripts from the History of the Peninsula War. Thus arranged they
will perhaps most effectually exhibit the constant energy of the
British soldier, and draw attention in their neighbourhoods to the
veterans who still survive. Few of those brave men have more than
a scanty provision, many have none; and nearly all, oppressed with
wounds, disease, and poverty, sure attendants on an old soldier’s
services, feel life a burthen, so heavy as to make them envy the lot of
comrades who threw it off early on the field of battle.
For the authenticity of the events the reader has this guarantee.
The author was either an eye-witness of what he relates, or acquired
his knowledge from those who were. Persons of no mean authority.
Commanders-in-chief, generals, and other officers on both sides;
private official correspondence of the English envoys; military
journals and reports of the French leaders; the correspondence of the
intrusive King Joseph, and his ministers, and the private military
notes and instructions of the Emperor Napoleon, have all contributed to
establish the truth of the facts and motives of action.
For the great Captain who led the British troops so triumphantly,
this record gives no measure of ability. To win victories was the
least of his labours. Those who desire to know what an enormous
political, financial, and military pressure he sustained, what wiles
he circumvented, what opposing skill he baffled, what a powerful
enemy he dealt with and overcame, must seek the story in the original
History from which this work has been extracted. For the soldiers it
is no measure of their fortitude and endurance: it records only their
active courage. But what they were, their successors now are--witness
the wreck of the Birkenhead, where four hundred men, at the call of
their heroic officers, Captain Wright and Lieutenant Girardot, calmly
and without a murmur, accepted death in a horrible form rather than
endanger the women and children already saved in the boats. The records
of the world furnish no parallel to this self-devotion!
CONTENTS.
BOOK I.
Page
Combat of Roriça--Battle of Vimiero--Coruña--Battle of
Coruña--Heroic Death and Character of Sir John Moore 1
BOOK II.
Douro--Passage of the Douro--Talavera--Combat of Salinas--First
Combat of Talavera--Second Combat of Talavera--Battle
of Talavera 18
BOOK III.
Combats on the Coa and Agueda--Barba de Puerco--Combat of
Almeida on the Coa--Anecdotes of British Soldiers--Battle of
Busaco 44
BOOK IV.
Matagorda--Battle of Barosa--Massena’s Retreat--Combat of
Redinha--Combat of Cazal Nova--Combat of Foz d’Aronce--Combat
of Sabugal--Extraordinary Escape of Colonel Waters--Combat
of Fuentes Onoro--Battle of Fuentes Onoro--Evacuation
of Almeida 61
BOOK V.
Combat of Campo Mayor--First English Siege of Badajos--Battle
of Albuera--Renewed Siege of Badajos--First Assault of
Christoval--Second Assault of Christoval 86
BOOK VI.
Blockade of Ciudad Rodrigo--Combat of Elbodon--Guinaldo--Combat
of Aldea Ponte--Surprise of Arroyo de Molinos--Defence
of Tarifa--English Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo--Third
English Siege of Badajos--Assault of Picurina--Assault of
Badajos 109
BOOK VII.
Beira--Extraordinary Escape of Major Grant--Surprise of
Almaraz--Siege of the Salamanca Forts--Combats between the
Duero and the Tormes--Combats of Castrejon and the Guarena--
Battle of Salamanca--Combat of La Serna 157
BOOK VIII.
Madrid--Siege of Burgos--First Assault--Second Assault--Third
Assault--Fourth Assault--Fifth Assault--Retreat from Burgos--
Combat of Venta de Pozo--Combat on the Carion--Pisuerga--
Duero--Retreat from Madrid--Tormes--Matilla--Combat of the
Huebra 202
BOOK IX.
March to Vittoria--Battle of Vittoria 237
BOOK X.
Battle of Castalla--English Siege of Tarragona--Siege of San
Sebastian--Storming of San Bartolomeo--First Storm of San
Sebastian 262
BOOK XI.
Pyrenees--Combat of Roncesvalles--Combat of Linzoain--Combat
of Maya--Combat of Zabaldica--First Battle of Sauroren--Combat
of Buenza--Second Battle of Sauroren--Combat of
Doña Maria--Combats of Echallar and Ivantelly 287
BOOK XII.
Catalonia--Combat of Ordal--Renewed Siege of San Sebastian--
Storm of San Sebastian--Battles on the Bidassoa--Combat of
San Marcial--Combat of Vera 325
BOOK XIII.
English Passage of the Bidassoa and Second Combat of Vera--The
Passage of the Lower Bidassoa--Second Combat of Vera--Battle
of the Nivelle; Characters of Colonel Lloyd and
Lieutenant Freer 352
BOOK XIV.
Passage of the Nive--Battles in front of Bayonne--Combat of
Arcangues--First Battle of Barrouilhet--Second Battle of
Barrouilhet--Third Combat of Barrouilhet--Battle of St.
Pierre--Operations beyond the Nive 385
BOOK XV.
Passages of the Gaves and the Adour--Passage of the Gaves--
Combat of Garris--Passage of the Adour--Passage of the Gaves
continued--Battle of Orthes--Combat of Aire 412
BOOK XVI.
Garonne--Adour Combat of Vic Bigorre--Death and Character of
Colonel Sturgeon; Surprising Feat of Captain Light--Combat
of Tarbes--Operations on the Garonne--Major Hughes; Battle
of Toulouse--Sally from Bayonne 440
BATTLES AND SIEGES
OF THE
PENINSULA.
BOOK I.
Combat of Roriça--Battle of Vimiero--Coruña--Battle of Coruña.
In the year 1808 Sir Arthur Wellesley marched from the Mondego river
with twelve thousand three hundred men, and eighteen guns, to attack
General Junot who was in military possession of Portugal. The French
troops were scattered, but General Laborde had been detached with a
division to cover their concentration, and watch the English movements.
This led to the first fight between the French and English in the
Peninsula.
COMBAT OF RORIÇA. (Aug. 1808.)
Fourteen hundred Portuguese, under Colonel Trant, a military agent,
joined the British on the march, and the French were felt the 15th
of August at Brilos, in front of Obidos, where some men fell in a
skirmish. Sir A. Wellesley then entered the Valley of Obidos, in the
middle of which Laborde occupied isolated ground of moderate elevation,
near the village of Roriça; he had only five thousand men and six guns,
little more than one-third of the English numbers, but he had five
hundred cavalry, had chosen his position well, and could handle troops
with dexterity.
On his right was a lofty mountain ridge, on his left lower but very
rough ground, and the valley behind him was closed, not only by
the commingling of the hills in a mountainous knot, but by a rocky
projection called the Zambugeira or Columbeira heights, which, at less
than a mile, stood like a citadel in his rear, and was so covered with
copses, wild evergreens and forest trees, and so rugged that only by
paths leading up deep clefts and hollows could it be ascended.
The British general marched from the town of Obidos on the 17th with
fourteen thousand men and eighteen guns in order of battle. His right,
composed of Trant’s Portuguese, turned the French left; his centre,
nine thousand infantry with twelve guns, moved against their front;
his left, one division with six guns, having gained the crest of the
mountain ridge by a wide movement from Obidos, turned the French right,
and was to oppose any counter attack from General Loison, who had
been heard of on that side, and might come up during the action with
a division six thousand strong of all arms. Such an order of battle,
with such superior numbers, forbade Laborde to maintain his ground at
Roriça, and after a cannonade, during which his skirmishers vigorously
disputed the approaches, he, with a nice calculation of time and
distance, retreated under the protection of his cavalry to the rocks
of Zambugeira, and then turned to fight, still hoping to be joined by
Loison.
This masterly movement compelled Sir Arthur Wellesley to show all
his forces, and imposed a change in disposition. His left was then
reinforced on the mountain, because each passing hour rendered Loison’s
arrival more likely; Trant was more closely to menace the French
heights on the right, and the centre was to break in on the front when
the strength of the position should be shaken by the progress of the
wings.
In war, however, error is the rule not the exception. Some mistake
caused the left to move directly against the French right instead of
passing the flank to take them in rear, and as Trant was distant and
too feeble to give uneasiness, the centre dashed prematurely against
the crags of Zambugeira on a front of less than a mile. The advantage
of superior numbers was thus lost, and that of ground was entirely with
the enemy. Only four thousand British could be thrust into the fight,
and though the remainder were at hand, the foremost combatants had
to win their way against an equal force of brave and active troops,
defending rocks which vigorous men only could scale unopposed. Very
crowded also were the assailing columns in the narrow paths, which only
admitted a few men abreast, and hence no positive connection could be
maintained between the different attacks, nor could any unity of power
be insured: but the skirmishers soon covered the face of the ascent,
and the noise and flashing of their musketry, with the smoke bursting
up through the foliage, enabled the English general to mark the
progress of the battle and govern his masses: it was soon manifest that
the position would be finally forced, but within that flame-shooting,
smoking labyrinth, rough work was being done and various turns of
fortune had place.
Laborde, unable to hold his ground alone against the great force
opposed, sought to gain time for Loison’s junction by clinging
tenaciously to the side from whence that general was expected,
and gradually drawing off his troops from the left as the battle
approached. While thus operating, two English regiments, the 9th and
29th, were by a false movement suddenly thrown into his hands. Forming
with the 5th regiment one column of attack, they were to have united
with Trant on the left of the French, but with a fierce neglect of
orders had taken a path leading more directly to the enemy: the head of
the 29th thus reached the table-land above at a point where Laborde was
concentrating his left wing on his centre, and as some of the former
were still coming in, the regiment was assailed in front and flank.
Colonel Lake fell, many men went down with him, and the French on the
English right, few in number and thinking they should be cut off,
furiously broke through the disordered mass, carrying with them a major
and many other prisoners.
Then, dropping below the brow of the hill, the oppressed troops
rallied on their left wing and on the 9th Regiment, and all rushing up
together, regained the table-land, presenting a confused front, which
Laborde vainly endeavoured to destroy: yet many brave men he struck
down, and mortally wounded Colonel Stewart of the 9th, fighting with
great vehemence. Soon the 5th Regiment, which had not deviated from the
true path, appeared on his left, while the skirmishers of the other
attacks emerged thickly from the crags and copses of the ascent: the
left flanking column had now also turned his right, had cut off the
line of communication with Loison, and was so rapidly advancing, as to
render a retreat imperative and difficult. His situation was indeed
critical in the extreme, and he was wounded, but with unyielding
resolution he made the movement along a narrow table-land leading from
his position to the knot of mountains behind, checking pursuit by
partial charges of cavalry, until he reached the village of Zambugeira:
there the ground opened, and the danger from the flanking force being
fended off by deep ravines, he turned and made another stand, but was
finally forced to seek refuge in the higher mountains, having lost
three guns and six hundred men killed and wounded: the British loss
being nearly five hundred.
BATTLE OF VIMIERO. (Aug. 1808.)
Laborde was not pursued, his retreat was inland, and to keep near
the coast was essential to the English general, because he expected
reinforcements by sea, and desired to insure their disembarkation and
receive provisions from the ships. In this view he designed to march by
his right on Torres Vedras, which would bring him near the ocean, give
command of the great road to Lisbon, and throw off Loison and Laborde
from that capital; but in the night came intelligence that a large
fleet, conveying two brigades of infantry, was on the coast, and to
protect their landing he made for Vimiero, a village near the sea, nine
miles from Torres Vedras: there the brigades from the ocean augmented
his force to sixteen thousand British soldiers. Junot, meanwhile,
having rallied Laborde’s and Loison’s troops, had forestalled him at
Torres Vedras, with fourteen thousand good soldiers and twenty-three
guns of small calibre; and while his powerful cavalry prevented the
scouts from making observations, he prepared to march in the night of
the 20th and attack on the 21st. Sir Arthur had also projected a march
for the night of the 20th, to turn Junot’s left and gain Mafra in his
rear, without assailing Torres Vedras, which, though shrouded by the
horsemen, was known as a strong position. The armies would thus have
changed places without encountering, if the English ministers had not
appointed three generals senior to Sir Arthur to act in Portugal, one
of whom, Sir Harry Burrard, had arrived. He did not land and assume
command, but he forbade the projected march, and thus deprived the
English army of the initiatory movement, giving it to the French:
moreover, as the ground at Vimiero had been taken temporarily and for
ease, the troops were not in fighting order, thus violating the maxim
which prescribes constant readiness for battle when near an enemy. It
was thus posted.
On the right a mountain ridge, trending from the sea inland, ended
abruptly on a small plain in which the village of Vimiero was situated,
and the greater part of the army was heaped on the summit.
On the other side of the plain the same line was continued by a ridge
of less elevation, narrow, yet protected by a ravine almost impassable,
and being without water had only one regiment and some picquets posted
there.
In front of the break between these heights and within cannon-shot, was
an isolated hill of inferior elevation, yet of good strength, masking
the village and plain of Vimiero, and leaving only narrow egress from
the latter on the right. On this hill six guns and two brigades of
infantry, Fane’s and Anstruther’s, were posted, the former on the left:
behind them in the plain the commissariat and artillery stores were
parked.
All the cavalry with the army--a single squadron under Col. Taylor--was
placed at the egress from the plain, on the direct road to Torres
Vedras; but from the counter hills, facing the position, another road,
running from Torres Vedras to Lourinham, led at the distance of two
miles round the left, and by it an enemy could gain the ridge where the
picquets were posted, seize the artillery and commissariat stores in
the plain, and take the central hill and right-hand mountain in reverse.
In the night of the 20th a German officer of cavalry aroused Sir Arthur
Wellesley, saying the French army, twenty thousand strong, was within
an hour’s march. Incredulous of this tale, the bearer of which was in
evident consternation, he merely took some additional precautions;
and at sunrise all eyes were turned southward, seeking an enemy who
was not to be seen. Nevertheless the German’s report was only an
exaggeration.[1] Junot had been in march all night with fourteen, not
twenty, thousand men, designing to fall on at daybreak; but the rugged
ways had retarded his progress, and his vanguard of cavalry did not
crown the hills facing the English position before eight o’clock--the
dust of its march having been discovered an hour before. Had he arrived
by daybreak this dust could not have been observed, and an hour of
preparation would have been lost to the English general, which, with
a good plan of battle, would have enabled the French to gain the
left-hand ridge, by the Lourinham road, before the troops on the right
could cross to occupy that part of the position.
Junot employed little time to note his adversary’s ground and
dispositions, and entirely neglected the mountain on the English right,
as being refused to his line of march; but as the left-hand ridge
appeared naked of troops, he resolved to seize it by a detachment, and
take the English central hill in reverse while he attacked it in front
with his main body, thinking he should find the bulk of the army there.
In this view he directed General Brennier with a brigade across the
ravine covering the ridge, and Laborde with another against the central
hill, supporting the latter with Loison’s division, a reserve of
grenadiers under Kellermann, and the cavalry, thirteen hundred strong,
under Margaron.
To act on conjecture is dangerous in war. Junot conjectured falsely,
and his entire disregard of the English right was a great error; for
when his cavalry crowned the counter hills, Sir A. Wellesley, seeing
the movements did not menace that part of his position, retained there
one brigade under General Hill to serve as a support to the centre,
while four other brigades were sent across the plain to occupy the
left-hand ridge, and a fifth, reinforced with Trant’s Portuguese, moved
to a parallel ridge in rear, where they could watch the Lourinham road.
All these movements were hidden from Junot by the central hill, and two
brigades reached their ground before the action commenced; yet, knowing
the ravine in front to be impracticable, they looked for an attack from
the left, and formed two lines across the ridge, trusting to a chain
of skirmishers to protect their right. The two other brigades were
to have furnished a third line, but while they were passing the plain
below the battle was begun in the centre with great fury.
In front of the English position the ground was so broken and wooded
that the movements of the French, after they passed the counter hills,
could not be discerned until they burst upon the centre in attack;
and though their artillery was most numerous, the tormented ground
impeded its action, while the English guns, of heavier metal, had
free play: their infantry, inferior in number, would therefore have
fought at great disadvantage, even if Junot’s combinations had not
failed; but soon that general discovered the mischief of over-haste
in war. Brennier found the bottom of the ravine impracticable, and
floundering amidst rocks and the beds of torrents was unable to
co-operate with Laborde; hence Junot had to reinforce the latter with
Loison’s infantry, and detach another column of all arms under General
Solignac to turn the English flank by the Lourinham road. But he did
not perceive that Sir Arthur, anticipating such an effort, had there,
not a flank but a front, three lines deep, while the fifth brigade and
Trant’s Portuguese were so disposed, that Solignac, whose movement was
isolated, could be cut off and placed between two fires.
Laborde and Loison opened three attacks, one principal, with minor
bodies on the flanks. The first, being well led and covered by
skirmishers, forced its way up with great vehemence and power, but with
great loss also; for General Fane had called up the reserve artillery
under Colonel Robe to reinforce the six guns already on the platform,
and while they smote the column in front, another battery, belonging to
one of the brigades then ascending the left-hand ridge, smote it in the
right flank, and under this conjoint fire of artillery and a wasting
musketry the French reached the summit, there to sustain a murderous
volley, to be charged by the 50th Regiment, overturned, and driven down
again.
Of the other two columns, the one assailing Anstruther’s brigade was
beaten quickly, and that general had time to reinforce Fane’s left
with the second battalion of the 43rd in opposition to Kellermann’s
grenadiers, half of whom now reinforced the third column on that side.
This regiment, posted in a churchyard on the edge of the declivity,
had one or two companies in advance amongst some trees, and from thence
the first burst of the grenadiers drove them upon the main body; but
then Robe’s battery so smote the left of the French that they dipped
into the ravine on their right, where the battery from the ridge
caught them on the other flank; the moment was happily seized by the
43rd to pour down in a solid mass, and with ringing shouts it dashed
against the column, driving it back with irrecoverable disorder: yet
not without the fiercest fighting. The loss of the regiment was a
hundred and twenty, and when the charge was over, a French soldier and
the Sergeant Armourer, Patrick, were found grimly confronting each
other in death as they had done in life, their hands still clutching
their muskets, and their bayonets plunged to the sockets in each manly
breast! It is by such men that thousands are animated and battles won.
Broken by these rough shocks, the French, to whom defeat was amazement,
retired in confused masses and in a slanting direction towards the
Lourinham road, and while thus disordered Colonel Taylor rode out upon
them doing great execution; but as suddenly Margaron came down with
his strong cavalry, and the gallant Englishman fell with most of his
horsemen. However, half of Junot’s army was now beaten with the loss
of seven guns, and though Margaron’s powerful cavalry, and that moiety
of Kellermann’s grenadiers which had not been engaged, interposed to
prevent pursuit, the line of retreat left the shortest road to Torres
Vedras uncovered--a great fault which did not escape the English
general’s rapid comprehension.
Brennier, unable to emerge from the rocks and hollows where he was
entangled, had been of no weight in this action, but Solignac, having
turned the ravine, appeared on the left about the time Taylor’s
charge terminated the fight in the centre, and his division, strongly
constituted with all arms, was advancing impetuously along the narrow
ground, when General Ferguson, who was there in opposition, met him
with a counter attack, so fierce, so rapid and sustained, that the
French, though fighting stubbornly, bent to the strong pressure.
Solignac was wounded, his cavalry, artillery and infantry, heaped
together and out-flanked, were cut off from their line of retreat
and forced into low ground on their right with a loss of six guns.
These pieces, placed under guard of the 71st and 82nd while Ferguson
continued his course, were again lost by one of those events which make
battles the property of fortune; for Brennier, after long struggling,
having worked up the ravine by his right to an accessible place, had
ascended the ridge, and, unexpectedly falling upon the two regiments
in charge of the captured guns, beat them back. He thus got behind
Ferguson, and had time been given to reform his troops and assail that
general’s rear mischief would have ensued; but the English regiments
were disordered only for a moment; they rallied on higher ground,
poured in their fire, broke the French brigade with a charge and made
Brennier, who was wounded, a prisoner. Solignac’s division was then
without resource, when suddenly another and more decisive change came
over this fitful battle.
Junot’s left wing and centre had been so discomfited, that only half
of Kellermann’s grenadiers and Margaron’s cavalry remained unbroken,
and the road of Torres Vedras, the shortest to Lisbon, was uncovered;
Brennier’s column was entirely broken; Solignac’s division was in
confusion on low ground, cut off from Junot, and menaced front and
rear. But of the English army, Hill’s brigade had not fired a shot;
neither had the brigade conjoined with Trant’s Portuguese, and it was
then marching to take Solignac’s division in rear. The two brigades of
Ferguson’s third line had lost only a few men, and those on the central
hill had not been hardly handled; there was therefore a powerful force
in hand for further operations. Now Brennier, when first taken, eagerly
asked if the reserve had attacked, and the other prisoners being
questioned on this point replied in the affirmative,[2] wherefore the
English general, judging the French power exhausted, and the moment
come for rendering victory decisive, with the genius of a great captain
resolved to make it not only decisive on the field but of the fate of
Portugal.
Expecting Solignac’s division to lay down its arms, he designed to
push his own right wing and centre, under Hill, on Torres Vedras, to
which they were two miles nearer than any part of the French army;
that stroke was sure, and Junot would have been cut off from Lisbon.
Meanwhile Sir Arthur meaned in person vigorously to drive him across
the Baragueda mountain on to the Tagus, by which he would lose his
remaining artillery, and have with disorganised and dispirited troops
to seek refuge under the guns of one of the frontier fortresses. This
great project was stifled as soon as conceived. General Burrard had
arrived on the field of battle, he could not comprehend such a stroke
of war, and not only stopped the execution but ordered Ferguson to
halt. Then Solignac’s division, with the alacrity which distinguished
Napoleon’s soldiers, instantly rejoined Junot, who as promptly
recovered his original ground, and being joined by twelve hundred fresh
men from Lisbon regained Torres Vedras. The battle of Vimiero thus
terminated impotently. Nevertheless, Burrard’s decision, with exception
of the unaccountable order to arrest Ferguson’s career, was not without
a military justification, admitted to be of weight by Sir Arthur, but
it was that of an ordinary general in opposition to a great captain.
CORUÑA. (Jan. 1809.)
The battle of Vimiero, in which the French lost thirteen guns and
about two thousand killed or wounded, the British eight hundred, was
followed by a convention which relieved Portugal, and the English
Government then sent an army into Spain under Sir John Moore. Great
success was looked for by the ministers, yet they took no measures to
render it even probable; and the incredible absurdity of the Spaniards,
who were overthrown in every quarter before the English could reach
them, made that which was improbable impossible. Moore found himself
alone in the midst of a French army commanded by Napoleon, of which
the cavalry alone counted twelve thousand more than the whole British
force! Compelled to retreat, he was pursued by the Emperor, who made
a prodigious march to cut him off at Astorga, and failing of that,
launched Marshal Soult on his traces with one army, supported by
another under Marshal Ney. Through the mountains of Gallicia the three
armies passed like a tempest, yet Moore, with unflinching resolution,
amidst winter rains and appalling difficulties, and without one gleam
of good fortune to nourish energy, reached Coruña with a gain of two
marches on his pursuers. His retreat was one of suffering, of privation
and fatigue, but he met with no disaster in arms, and in many combats
taught the enemy to beware of his sword. At Rueda his cavalry, under
C. Stewart,[3] surprised a French post and made eighty prisoners. Near
Valladolid Major Otway[4] in a sharp action took a colonel, and more
prisoners than he had men to guard them with. At Sahagun Lord Paget[5]
overthrew six hundred dragoons, killed twenty, and took thirteen
officers and one hundred and fifty men. At Mayorga the same nobleman
killed as many, and took a hundred prisoners; and at Benevente defeated
the light cavalry of the Imperial Guard, capturing General Lefebre and
seventy men. At Calcavallos Moore, in person, repulsed a serious attack
in which the French general Colbert was killed. At Constantino he
repulsed another attack, and at Lugo checked the enemy with a loss of
four hundred men.
At Coruña his design was to embark without fighting, but the ships did
not arrive in time, and he had to accept battle in a bad position.
The ground he desired to take was a rocky range abutting on the Mero,
a tidal river, but it being too extensive for his troops, he was
compelled to adopt a similar yet lower range, likewise abutting on the
Mero, yet inclosed on two sides by the greater heights, which were
left for the enemy. Neither of these ranges were crested, and on the
inferior one Moore had to display a front in opposition to the superior
range, from whence the French not only commanded most of the English
line in front within cannon-shot, but could flank it also on the right.
Soult’s ground was indeed in every way advantageous. His left rested
on a clump of rocks overlooking both ranges, and all the country
immediately about; and in the night of the 15th he placed there eleven
heavy guns which, from their elevation, could oppress the right of the
English line and send their bullets raking even to the centre.
Between the two positions the ground was comparatively easy of passage,
though broken and laced with stone inclosures; and as both ridges
ended abruptly on a narrow valley running perpendicular to their range,
there was a seeming facility from their proximity at that flank for
the French to envelop the British right with superior numbers. On the
far side of this valley also was a mountainous chain of hills on which
all Soult’s cavalry were posted, his light horsemen being pushed far
behind the British rear, while his heavy dragoons dismounted to act as
infantry. Thus the French army seemed to be surrounding the English,
but Moore, comprehending all the defects of his position, had adopted a
counteracting order of battle, evincing his own martial vigour, and the
confidence a long career of glorious and successful service had given
him in the stern valour of the British soldier.
To receive battle on the inferior ridge was of necessity, but to extend
his line athwart the narrow valley on his right to the height occupied
by the French cavalry would only have placed more men under the rock
battery, and his flank would still be exposed to the dismounted French
dragoons. Wherefore he merely stretched a thin line of skirmishers
across, and placed a battalion on the lower falls of the hills on their
right, to check the horsemen on the summit. This disposition, and a
scanty manning of the main ridge, where he posted only two divisions,
Hope’s and Baird’s, the latter on the right, gave him two divisions of
reserve, Paget’s and M^cKenzie Frazer’s. The last he placed on rising
ground closely covering Coruña, to watch a road leading round the
heights where the French cavalry were, and which Soult, whose movements
could not be seen, might use to turn the British and cut them off from
the town and harbour.
Paget’s division, the best in the army, remained, and with it Moore
resolved to strike for victory. He kept it in mass behind the right
of his main line, on a moderate elevation, from whence it commanded a
full view of the narrow valley, and could support the screen of light
troops without being exposed to the fire of the eleven-gun battery.
Thus, while the main ridge, strong in itself though ill presented to
the enemy, was offered in defence, with protected flanks, two other
divisions remained in hand to meet the changes of battle--a fine result
to obtain for an inferior army occupying unfavourable ground. But Moore
meaned more than defence. Confident that Baird and Hope would repel
every attack on the ridge, he designed, when time should be ripe, if
the French did not join infantry to their cavalry on the other side of
the valley, to pour down the latter with Paget’s division, reinforcing
it with Frazer’s, and thus carry in one course the rock battery; then
changing from the defensive to the offensive with all his troops,
to drive the enemy into the Mero: it was the conception of a daring
man and a great commander, and only with such potent soldiers as the
British could a like stroke be made. And only a general who had proved
their quality in many a desperate fight could have expected this effort
from his men, after a distressing winter retreat, with a strong enemy
in front and the sea behind! But general and soldiers were of England’s
best. No suffering, no danger could quell their courage, or shake his
confidence in them: and it was so proved in that hour, for many of the
principal officers, appalled at the superior force of the enemy, the
disadvantage of ground, and the difficulty of embarkation, proposed
negotiations, which Moore rejected with cold disdain, trusting as he
had ever done to his gallant troops.
Belonging to the French position, and occupied by them in force, were
two villages, Palavia Abajo in front of their right, Portosa in front
of their centre.
Belonging to the English position, though rather too much advanced,
the village of Elvina covered the right flank, and was occupied by the
picquets of the 50th Regiment.
These features dictated Soult’s order of attack. Forming three columns
of infantry, which he supported with all his light artillery, he
directed two by Palavia and Portosa against the left and centre of
Moore’s line--those villages serving as intermediate supports in case
of disaster--while the third and strongest column was destined to carry
Elvina and then lap round Baird’s right.
BATTLE OF CORUÑA. (Jan. 1809.)
On the 16th of January, 1809, at two o’clock in the afternoon, twenty
thousand French veterans opened this battle against fourteen thousand
British, who, having but nine six-pounders to oppose to a numerous
light artillery, were also galled by eleven heavy guns on the rocks:
and soon that formidable battery opened the fight with a slaughtering
fire, sending its bullets crashing through the English ranks from
right to centre. Then the columns of infantry, throwing out clouds of
skirmishers, descended from their strong ridge to the fight. Those
coming from Palavia and Portosa, having some distance to march, did not
immediately engage, but the third dashed at once against Elvina, and
there was the stress of battle; the picquets were driven in heaps out
of the village, and when that was passed the French mass divided, one
portion advancing against Baird’s front, the other turning his right by
the valley, where it was only opposed by the screen of light troops.
Sir John Moore sent the 42nd and 50th Regiments against the half column
at Elvina, and wheeling back the 4th Regiment on the extremity of his
right, poured a fire into the flank of the mass penetrating by the
valley, where it was also stoutly opposed by the light troops, and
soon abated of its vehemence in attack. Then the English general knew
that his adversary’s whole force and order of battle was unfolded.
No infantry menaced the valley from where the French cavalry stood,
and the number in front showed that no body of strength for mischief
was behind those heights: it was evident that Soult offered a close
rough trial of arms, without subtlety, trusting to the valour of his
veterans. Eagerly the gallant Moore accepted the challenge. The moment
for his counter-stroke had arrived, and at once he called up Frazer’s
division in support of Paget, giving the latter, who was previously
well instructed, the signal to descend into the valley: the French
column on his flank being thus provided with opponents, he turned to
observe the progress of the fight at Elvina, for as yet the battle had
but slightly touched his centre and left.
The 42nd and 50th had driven the enemy back into the village, and the
last-named regiment, entering the streets with the repulsed disordered
mass and giving no respite, forced it through and broke out, still
fighting, on the other side. To support this advance the general now
sent a battalion of the Guards down, whereupon the 42nd, thinking
it a relief and not a reinforcement, retired, with exception of the
grenadier company. Some confusion thus occurred, the village was not
occupied, and the 50th, still accompanied by the 42nd Grenadiers, were
engaged without support beyond the houses, their array being quite
broken by stone inclosures and the disorder of the street fight. At
that critical moment the French were strongly reinforced, retook the
offensive and forced the regiment back into Elvina, having killed
beyond it the second Major, Stanhope, a nephew of Mr. Pitt, and made
prisoner the commanding officer, Major Napier, known since as the
conqueror of Scinde; encompassed by enemies, and denied quarter, he
received five wounds, but he still fought and struggled for life
until a French drummer with a generous heat and indignation forcibly
rescued him from his barbarous assailants. Meanwhile Sir John Moore,
observing the error of the 42nd, had galloped down and with a fiery
exhortation sent it back to the village, where the 50th notwithstanding
the loss of their commander was successfully sustaining a very violent
conflict: then with heroic anticipations from the development of his
counter-combination, he returned to the ridge from whence he could view
the whole action.
Elvina was now his centre of battle and pivot of movements, for on
his left the battle had then become general and furious, yet the
French made no progress against Hope’s division; and on the right,
in the valley, the attacking column was at bay, wavering under a
double fire in front and flank: everywhere the signs of coming victory
were bright, when the gallant man, the consummate commander, who had
brought the battle to this crisis, was dashed from his horse to the
earth. A cannon-shot from the rock battery had torn away all the flesh
from his left breast and shoulder, and broken the ribs over a heart
undaunted even by this terrible this ghastly mortal hurt; for with
incredible energy he rose to a sitting posture, and with fixed look and
unchanged countenance continued to regard the fight at Elvina until the
Frenchmen’s backward steps assured him the British were victorious:
then sinking down he accepted succour.
Being placed in a blanket for removal, an entanglement of his belts
caused the hilt to enter the wound and Captain Hardinge[6] attempted to
take away the weapon altogether; but with martial pride the stricken
man forbade the alleviation--_he would not part with his sword in the
field_! Epaminondas, mortally wounded at Mantinea, was anxious for the
recovery of his shield. Moore, mortally wounded at Coruña, sustained
additional torture rather than part with his sword!
The Theban hero’s fall dismayed and paralyzed his victorious troops.
It was not so with the British at Coruña. They saw Baird, second in
command, carried from the field as the General-in-Chief had been,
and they would have seen all their generals fall one after another
without abating their battle; hence it was not long before the French
were entirely driven from Elvina, while on the left, they were not
only repulsed from the ridge, but pursued and assailed in their own
villages; that of Palavia, defended by the since celebrated General
Foy, was taken. Meanwhile Paget, pouring into the valley with
conquering violence, overthrew everything in his front, and driving off
the dismounted French dragoons who had descended to the lower falls on
his right, made for the great rock battery, which he would certainly
have stormed if the counter-attack had been continued, and Frazer’s
division been thrown, as Moore designed, into the fight. The French
would thus have been wrecked; for their ammunition of which the rapid
marches through Gallicia had only allowed them to bring up a small
supply, was exhausted, the river Mero was in full tide behind them, and
only one bridge remained for retreat. But this want of ammunition was
unknown to the English general Hope, on whom the command had devolved,
and he, judging a night action, for it was then dark, too hazardous,
profited from the confusion of the French to embark the army without
loss and sailed for England. The heroic spirit of Moore went with the
troops, his body rested with the enemy.
For some hours after receiving his hurt that great man had lived
painfully, but with a calm fortitude that excited the admiration of
those about him. Several times he expressed his satisfaction at having
won the battle, and his last words were to express a hope “_that his
country would do him justice_!”
Full justice has not been done, because malignant faction has strived
hard to sully his reputation as a general--but thus he died, and the
record of his worth will be as a beacon to posterity so long as heroic
virtue combined with great capacity is reverenced, for in any age, any
nation, any conjuncture, Sir John Moore would have been a leading man.
Tall he was and vigorous of person, and of a very comely noble aspect,
indicating penetration which no subtlety could deceive, valour which no
danger could appal, and withal a dignity of mind which awed while it
attracted admiration and confidence. With him indeed, all commanding
qualities seemed to be united to and inseparable from estimable
sentiments. Integrity, honour, generosity, patriotism, adorned the
whole course of his existence, and his death furnished an irrefragable
test of the sincerity of his life: for both he may claim a place with
the greatest men of antiquity.