Combat of Campo Mayor--First English Siege of Badajos--Battle
of Albuera--Renewed Siege of Badajos--First Assault of
Christoval--Second Assault on Christoval.
COMBAT OF CAMPO MAYOR. (May, 1811.)
It has been shown how Beresford was sent to oppose Soult beyond the
Tagus, but the latter, disturbed by the battle of Barosa, which put all
Andalusia in commotion, had returned to Seville, leaving Mortier to
continue the operations. Campo Mayor surrendered the 21st of March, and
four days after, Latour Maubourg, having to bring away the battering
train and a convoy of provisions, issued from the gates with nine
hundred cavalry, three battalions of infantry, some horse-artillery and
sixteen heavy guns, all in column of march, just as Beresford emerged
from an adjacent forest with twenty thousand infantry, two thousand
cavalry and eighteen field-pieces. An astonishing apparition this was
to the French, for so adroitly had Wellington, while seemingly absorbed
in the pursuit of Massena, organized this army, that its existence was
only made known by its presence.
All Beresford’s cavalry, supported by a field battery and a detachment
of infantry under Colonel Colborne,[19] were close up ere the enemy
knew of their approach, and the horsemen, sweeping by their left round
the town and moving along gentle slopes, gradually formed a crescent
about the French, who were retreating along the road to Badajos.
Colborne was then coming up at a run, a division was seen behind him,
and the French infantry formed squares, supported by their cavalry,
while their battering guns and baggage hurried on. General Long,
holding back his heavy cavalry, directed some Portuguese squadrons,
and the 18th Light Dragoons under Colonel Head, to charge. Head,
galloping forward under a fire from the square, was met half-way by
the French hussars with loose reins, and fiercely they came together,
and many went down on both sides, yet those who kept the saddle drove
clean through each other, re-formed, and again charged in the same
fearful manner! Desperately all struggled for victory, but Head’s
troopers riding close and on better chargers overthrew horse and man,
and the hussars dispersed, yet still fighting in small bodies with the
Portuguese, while the British squadron, passing under the fire of the
square without flinching, rode forward, hewing down the gunners of the
battering train and seeking to head the long line of convoy.
They thought the heavy dragoons, the infantry and the artillery,
marching behind them, would suffice to dispose of the enemies they
passed, but Beresford took a different view. He stopped a charge of
the heavy dragoons; he suffered only two guns to open when six were
at hand; he even silenced those two after a few rounds, and let the
French recover their battering train, rally their hussars, and retreat
in safety. Meanwhile the 13th and some of the Portuguese dragoons
reached the bridge of Badajos and there captured more guns, but were
repulsed by the fire of the fortress, and being followed by Mortier and
met by Latour Maubourg’s retreating column lost some men, but passing
by the flanks they escaped, to be publicly censured by Beresford! The
admiration of the army consoled them. One hundred of the allies were
killed, or hurt, and seventy taken; the French lost only three hundred
and a howitzer, but the colonel of hussars, Chamorin, a distinguished
officer, fell in single combat with a trooper of the 13th Dragoons, an
Irishman of astonishing might, whose sword went through helmet and head
with a single blow.
FIRST ENGLISH SIEGE OF BADAJOS. (May, 1811.)
Mortier now resigned the command to Latour Maubourg, who spread his
foragers fifty miles abroad to gather provisions for Badajos, which
General Phillipon, one of the best governors that ever defended a
fortress, was with scanty means striving to prepare for a siege.
Beresford, by adopting a wrong line of operations, lost time, his
first bridge was swept away by floods, he passed the Guadiana with
some difficulty at Jerumenha, and a squadron of the 13th Dragoons
was carried off bodily by the French at that place; but he reduced
Olivenza, drove Latour Maubourg into the Morena, and defeated two
regiments of cavalry near Usagre: he however neglected to restrain
the garrison of Badajos, by which he gave Phillipon time and license
to prepare for resistance--a great error and pregnant with terrible
consequences. His field operations were inadequate to his means, for
he was not only master of the open country with his own troops, but
had been joined by the captain-general Castaños with the fifth Spanish
army, and was in communication with Ballesteros and Blake, co-operating
Spanish generals, at the head of considerable bodies. In this state he
was first reinforced with a German brigade from Lisbon under General
Alten, and then Wellington arrived from the north.
He came the 21st of April and immediately changed the direction of
the warfare. Looking to Badajos, and feeling the value of time, he
instantly forded the Guadiana and pushed close to it with the German
troops and some Portuguese cavalry, to take a convoy going into the
place, but the governor sallied, the convoy escaped, and the allies
lost a hundred men. Beresford had been contemptuous of Soult’s power
and resolution to disturb the siege; but Wellington had learned to
respect that marshal’s energy and resources, and knowing well he would
come with strength and danger, refused to invest the place until the
Spanish generals consented to the following co-operation. Blake to
bring his army from Ayamonte, and in concert with Ballesteros and
the cavalry of Castaños to watch the passes of the Morena. Castaños,
furnishing three battalions for the siege, to support the other Spanish
generals. The British covering troops to be in second line having their
point of concentration for battle at Albuera, a village centrically
placed with respect to the roads leading from Andalusia to Badajos.
While awaiting the Spaniards’ consent he prepared the means of siege,
yet under great difficulties.
The Portuguese government had reported that guns, provisions, boats,
stores and means of carriage had been actually collected for the
operation: this was false. The battering train and stores for the
attack had therefore to be taken from Elvas, and as it was essential
for the safety of the fortress to preserve its armament, and the
Guadiana had again carried away the bridge at Jerumenha, that direct
line of communication was given up for the circuitous one of Merida,
where a stone bridge rendered all safe. But then political difficulties
arose. The Portuguese government was on the point of declaring war
against Spain, which made the Spanish generals delay assent to the plan
of co-operation, and in the midst of this confusion Massena’s advance
recalled Wellington to fight the battle of Fuentes Onoro.
As Latour Maubourg still held on to Estremadura and foraged the fertile
districts, Colonel Colborne, a man of singular talent for war, was
sent with a brigade of infantry, some horsemen and guns to curb his
inroads. In concert with Count Penne Villemur, a commander of Spanish
cavalry, he intercepted several convoys, forced the French troops to
quit many frontier towns, and acted with so much address, that Latour
Maubourg went into the Morena, thinking a great force was at hand.
Colborne then attempted to surprise the fortified post of Benelcazar.
Riding on to the drawbridge in the grey of the morning, he summoned the
commandant to surrender, as the only means of saving himself from a
Spanish army which was coming up and would give no quarter; the French
officer was amazed at the appearance of the party, yet hesitated,
whereupon Colborne, perceiving he would not yield, galloped off under
a few straggling shot and soon after rejoined the army without loss.
During his absence, the Spanish generals had acceded to Wellington’s
proposition, Blake was in march, the Guadiana had subsided and the
siege was undertaken.
General William Stewart invested Badajos the 5th of May, on the left
bank of the Guadiana, where the principal features were an ancient
castle and some out-works.
On the 8th General Lumley invested Christoval, an isolated fort or
citadel, on the other bank of the Guadiana, which commanded the bridge;
but this operation was not well combined, and sixty French dragoons,
moving under the fire of the place, maintained a sharp skirmish beyond
the walls.
Thus the first serious siege undertaken by the British army in
the Peninsula was commenced, and, to the discredit of the English
government, no army was ever worse provided for such an enterprise. The
engineers were zealous, and some of them well versed in the theory of
their business, but the ablest trembled at their utter destitution.
Without sappers and miners, or a soldier who knew how to carry on an
approach under fire, they were compelled to attack a fortress defended
by the most practised and scientific troops of the age; hence the best
officers and boldest soldiers were forced to sacrifice themselves in a
lamentable manner, to compensate for the negligence and incapacity of
a government _always_ ready to plunge into war without the slightest
care for what was necessary to obtain success. The sieges carried on
by the British in Spain were a succession of butcheries, because the
commonest materials and means necessary for their art were denied to
the engineers.
To breach the castle, while batteries established on the right bank of
the Guadiana took it in reverse, and false attacks were made against
the out-works, was the plan adopted; but San Christoval was to be
reduced before the batteries against the castle could be constructed;
wherefore on the night of the 8th, the captain of engineers, Squire,
was ordered to break ground there at a distance of four hundred yards.
The moon shone bright, he was ill provided with tools, and exposed to
a destructive fire of musketry from the fort, of shot and shells from
the town; hence he worked with loss until the 10th, and then the French
in a sally entered his battery; they were driven back, but the allies
pursued too hotly, were caught with grape and lost four hundred men.
Thus five engineers and seven hundred officers and soldiers of the line
were already inscribed upon the bloody list of victims offered to this
Moloch, and only one small battery against an outwork was completed!
On the 11th it opened, and before sunset the fire of the enemy had
disabled four of its five guns and killed many soldiers. No other
result could be expected. The concert essential to success in double
operations had been neglected by Beresford. Squire was exposed to the
undivided fire of the fortress before the approaches against the castle
were even commenced, and the false attacks scarcely attracted the
notice of the enemy.
To check future sallies a second battery was erected against the
bridge-head, yet this was also overmatched, and Beresford, having
received intelligence that the French army was again in movement, then
arrested the progress of all the works. On the 12th, believing this
information premature, he directed the trenches to be opened against
the castle; but the intelligence was confirmed at twelve o’clock in the
night, and measures were taken to raise the siege.
BATTLE OF ALBUERA. (May, 1811.)
Soult had resolved to succour Badajos the moment he heard that
Beresford was in Estremadura, and the latter’s tardiness gave him
time to tranquillise his province and arrange a system of resistance
to the allied army in the Isla during his absence. Beresford believed
he was trembling for Andalusia. Nothing could be more fallacious. He
had seventy thousand fighting men there, and Drouet, who had quitted
Massena immediately after the battle of Fuentes Onoro, was in march for
that province with eleven thousand, by the way of Toledo.
On the 10th of May Soult quitted Seville with three thousand heavy
dragoons, thirty guns, and two strong brigades of infantry under the
generals Werlé and Godinot.
The 13th a junction was effected with Latour Maubourg, who assumed the
command of the heavy cavalry, resigning the fifth corps to General
Girard.
On the 14th, having reached Villa Franca, thirty miles from Badajos,
Soult caused his heaviest guns to fire salvos in the night to notify
his approach to the garrison. This expedient failed, but on the evening
of the 15th the whole French army was concentrated at Santa Marta.
Beresford had raised the siege in the night of the 12th, against the
wish of the chief engineer, who promised him the place in three days!
This promise was nought, and had it been good Soult would yet have
surprised him in his trenches: his firmness therefore saved the army,
and his arrangements for carrying off the stores were well executed. By
twelve o’clock on the 15th the guns and stores were on the left bank of
the Guadiana, the gabions and fascines were burnt, the flying-bridge
removed; all being so well masked by the fourth division, which in
concert with the Spaniards continued to maintain the investment, that
a sally on the rear-guard, in which some Portuguese picquets were
roughly treated, first told the French the siege was raised--of the
cause they were still ignorant.
Beresford held a conference with the Spanish generals at Valverde on
the 13th, and the chief command was ceded to him by the management of
Castaños, to the discontent of Blake, who soon showed his ill-will. It
was agreed to receive battle at the village of Albuera. Ballesteros’
and Blake’s corps had then united, and Blake engaged to bring them
into line before twelve o’clock on the 15th. Meanwhile, Badajos being
the centre of an arc sweeping through Valverde, Albuera and Talavera
Real, it was arranged that Blake should watch the roads on the right;
the British and fifth Spanish army those leading upon the centre, and
Madden’s Portuguese cavalry those on the left. The main body of the
British could thus reach Albuera by a half march, as no part of the arc
was more than four leagues from Badajos, and the enemy was still eight
leagues from Albuera: Beresford therefore, thinking he could not be
forestalled on any point of importance, kept the fourth division in the
trenches.
On the 14th Colborne rejoined the army, Madden took post at
Talavera Real, Blake was in march and his dragoons had joined the
Anglo-Portuguese cavalry under General Long, who was at Santa Marta.
In the morning of the 15th the Anglo-Portuguese army occupied the left
half of the Albuera position, a ridge four miles long, having the
stream of the Aroya Val de Sevilla in rear and the Albuera in front.
The ascent from the last river was easy for cavalry and artillery, and
in advance of the centre were the bridge and village of Albuera--the
former commanded by a battery, the latter occupied by Alten’s Germans.
Behind Alten, the second division, under William Stewart, formed one
line, the right on a commanding hill over which the Valverde road
passed, the left on the road of Badajos, beyond which the array was
continued on two lines by the Portuguese troops under Hamilton and
Collins.
The right of the ground being roughest, highest, and broadest, was left
open for Blake, because Beresford, thinking the hill on the Valverde
road the key of the position as covering the only line of retreat, was
desirous to secure it with his own troops. The fourth division and the
infantry of the fifth Spanish army were still before Badajos, but had
orders to march on the first signal.
About three o’clock on the evening of the 15th, Beresford being on the
left, the whole mass of the allied cavalry, closely followed by the
French light horsemen, came pouring in from Santa Marta, and finding
no infantry beyond the Albuera to support them passed that river in
retreat. The wooded heights on the right bank being thus abandoned
to the enemy, his force and dispositions were effectually concealed
and the strength of the position was already sapped. Beresford was
disquieted, he formed a temporary right wing with his cavalry and
artillery, stretched his picquets along the road by which Blake was
expected, and sent officers to hasten his movements; that general had
only a few miles of good road to march and promised to be in line at
noon, yet did not even bring up his van before eleven at night, nor his
rear before three in the morning.
Cole and Madden were now called up. The order failed to reach Madden;
but Cole brought the infantry of the fifth army, two squadrons of
Portuguese cavalry, and two brigades of his own division to Albuera
between eight and nine o’clock on the morning of the 16th: his third
brigade having invested San Christoval was unable to pass the Guadiana
above Badajos, and was in march by Jerumenha. Cole’s Spanish troops
joined Blake on the right, the two brigades of the fourth division
were drawn up in columns behind the second division, the Portuguese
squadrons reinforced Colonel Otway, whose horsemen, of the same nation,
were pushed forwards in front of the left wing: all the rest of the
allied cavalry was concentrated behind the centre, and Beresford,
dissatisfied with General Long, gave Lumley the chief command.
Thirty thousand infantry, more than two thousand cavalry, and
thirty-eight pieces of artillery, eighteen being nine-pounders, were
now in line; but one brigade of the fourth division was still absent,
the British infantry, the pith and strength of battle, did not exceed
seven thousand, and already Blake’s arrogance was shaking Beresford’s
authority. The French had forty guns, four thousand veteran cavalry and
nineteen thousand chosen infantry: obedient to one discipline, animated
by one national feeling, their composition compensated for the want of
numbers, and their general’s talent was immeasurably greater than his
adversary’s.
Soult examined Beresford’s position without hindrance on the evening of
the 15th. He knew the fourth division was then before Badajos, heard
that Blake would not arrive before the 17th, and resolved to attack
next morning, having detected all the weakness of the English order
of battle. The hill in the centre, commanding the Valverde road, was
undoubtedly the key of the position if an attack was made parallel to
the front; but Soult saw that on the right, the rough broad heights
trended back towards the Valverde road, looking into the rear of
Beresford’s line, and if he could suddenly place his masses there he
might roll up the right on the centre and push it into the valley of
the Aroya: the Valverde road could then be seized, the retreat cut, and
his strong cavalry would complete the victory.
Beresford’s right and Soult’s left were only divided by a hill about
cannon-shot from each. Separated from the allies by the Albuera, from
the French by a rivulet called the Feria, this height was neglected by
Beresford: but Soult in the night placed behind it the greatest part
of his artillery under General Ruty, the fifth corps under Girard,
the heavy cavalry under Latour Maubourg; thus concentrating fifteen
thousand men and thirty guns within ten minutes’ march of Beresford’s
right wing: and yet that general could not see a man, or draw a sound
conclusion as to the plan of attack. The light cavalry, the brigades
of Godinot and Werlé, and ten guns remained. These were placed in
the woods which lined the banks of the Feria towards its confluence
with the Albuera. Werlé was in reserve, Godinot was to attack the
village and bridge, bear strongly against Beresford’s centre, attract
his attention, separate his wings, and double up his right when the
principal attack should be developed.
Blake and Cole brought up more than sixteen thousand men, the first
joining in the night, the second at nine o’clock in the morning after
the action was begun; yet so defectively had Beresford occupied his
position that Soult, though he saw how the allied army had been
reinforced, made no change of disposition. At nine o’clock Godinot
emerged from the woods with his division in one heavy column, preceded
by a battery of ten guns; he was flanked by the light cavalry, followed
by Werlé’s division, and made straight for the bridge of Albuera,
attempting with a sharp cannonade and musketry to force a passage.
General Briché, being on his right, now led two hussar regiments down
the river in observation of Otway’s horsemen, while the French lancers
passed the stream above bridge. The 3rd Dragoon Guards drove the
lancers back, and Dickson’s Portuguese guns, from a rising ground above
the village, ploughed through Godinot’s column, which crowded towards
the bridge although the water was fordable above and below.
These feints along the front did not deceive Beresford, he saw Werlé
did not follow Godinot closely, and felt the principal effort would be
on the right; he therefore desired Blake to throw part of his first
and all his second line across the broad part of the hills, at right
angles to their actual front. Then drawing the Portuguese infantry of
the left wing to the centre, he sent a brigade to support Alten at the
bridge, and directed Hamilton to hold the others in hand as a general
reserve. The 13th Dragoons he posted near the river above bridge, and
sent the second English division to support Blake. The horse-artillery,
and cavalry under Lumley, and Cole’s division, took ground to their
right, the two first on a small plain behind the Aroya stream, the last
about half musket-shot behind them. This done, Beresford galloped to
Blake, who had refused to change his front, and with great heat told
Colonel Hardinge, the bearer of the order, the real attack was at the
village and bridge; he was entreated to obey, but was obstinate until
Beresford arrived in person, and then only assented because the enemy’s
columns were appearing on his flank, acting however with such pedantic
slowness, that Beresford, impatient of his folly, took the direction in
person.
Great was the confusion and delay thus occasioned, and ere the troops
were formed the French were amongst them. For scarcely had Godinot
engaged Alten’s brigade, when Werlé, leaving only a battalion of
grenadiers to support the former, and some squadrons to watch the 13th
Dragoons and connect the attacks, countermarched and gained the rear
of the fifth corps as it was mounting the hill on the right of the
allies. The light cavalry, also quitting Godinot, crossed the Albuera
above bridge, ascended the left bank at a gallop, and sweeping round
the rear of the fifth corps joined Latour Maubourg, who was already in
face of Lumley’s squadrons! Half-an-hour had thus sufficed to render
Beresford’s position nearly desperate; for two-thirds of the French
had been thrown in order of battle across his right, while his army,
disordered and of different nations, was still in the act of changing
its front. Vainly he strove to get the Spaniards forward and make room
for Stewart’s division, the French guns opened, their infantry threw
out a heavy musketry fire, their cavalry menaced different points, and
the Spaniards, falling fast, drew back. Soult thought the whole army
was yielding, he pushed forward his columns, his reserves came up the
hill, and General Ruty placed all the French batteries in position.
At this moment William Stewart reached the foot of the height with the
brigade under Colborne, and that able officer, seeing the confusion
above, desired to form in order of battle previous to mounting; but
Stewart, whose boiling courage generally overlaid his judgment,
heedlessly led up in column of companies, passed the Spanish right and
attempted to open a line as the battalions arrived: he could not do it,
for so galling was the French fire that the foremost troops impatiently
charged, heavy rain obscured the view, and four regiments of hussars
and lancers, which, unseen, had gained the right flank, immediately
galloped upon the rear of the disordered brigade and slew or took
two-thirds: the 31st only, being still in column, escaped this charge
and maintained its ground, while the French horsemen, riding violently
over everything else, penetrated to all parts and captured six guns.
The tumult was great, and a lancer fell upon Beresford, but he, a man
of great strength, putting the spear aside, cast the trooper from his
saddle, and then a shift of wind blowed aside the smoke and mist,
whereupon Lumley, seeing the mischief from the plain below, sent four
squadrons up against the straggling hussars and cut many off. Penne
Villemur’s Spanish cavalry was at the same time directed to charge some
French horsemen in the plain, but when within a few yards of their foes
they turned and shamefully fled.
Great was the disorder on the hill. The shrinking Spaniards were
in one part blindly firing, though the British troops were before
them, and in another part, flying before the lancers, would have
broken through the 29th, then advancing to the succour of Colborne;
but, terribly resolute, that regiment smote friends and foes without
distinction in their onward progress: meanwhile Beresford urging the
main body of the Spaniards to advance in his heat seized an ensign by
the breast and bore him and his colours by main force to the front, yet
the troops did not follow, and the coward ran back when released from
the marshal’s iron grasp.
In this crisis, the weather, which had ruined Colborne’s brigade, saved
the day, for Soult could not see the whole field of battle and kept his
troops halted in masses when the decisive blow might have been struck.
His cavalry indeed, began to hem in that of the allies, yet the fire of
the horse-artillery enabled Lumley, covered by the bed of the Aroya and
supported by the fourth division, to check them; Colborne still kept
the height with the 31st Regiment, and the British artillery, under
Julius Hartman, was coming fast into action; William Stewart, also,
having escaped the lancers, was again mounting the hill with Houghton’s
brigade, which he brought on with the same vehemence but in a juster
order of battle. The day now cleared and a dreadful fire poured into
the thickest of the French columns taught Soult the fight was yet to be
won.
Houghton’s regiments reached the height under a heavy cannonade, and
the 29th, after breaking through the fugitive Spaniards, was charged in
flank by the French lancers, but two companies, wheeling to the right,
foiled this attack; and then the third brigade of Stewart’s division
came up on the left, and the Spaniards under Zayas and Ballesteros
moved forward. Hartman’s artillery had made the enemy’s infantry
recoil, yet, soon recovering, they renewed the battle with greater
violence than before, and the cannon on both sides discharged showers
of grape at half-range, while the play of musketry was incessant
and often within pistol-shot; but the crowded columns of the French
embarrassed their battle, and the British line would not yield them an
inch of ground or a moment of time to open their ranks. Their fighting
was however fierce and dangerous. Stewart was twice wounded, Colonel
Duckworth was slain, and the gallant Houghton, having received many
wounds without shrinking, fell and died in the act of cheering on his
men.
Still the struggle continued with unabated fury. Colonel Inglis,
twenty-two officers, and more than four hundred men, out of five
hundred and seventy, fell in the 57th alone, and the other regiments
were scarcely better off, not one-third were standing in any; their
ammunition failed, and as their fire slackened the enemy established
a column in advance upon the right flank, which the play of the
artillery could only check for a time, and in that dreadful crisis
Beresford wavered! Destruction stared him in the face, his personal
resources were exhausted and the unhappy thought of a retreat rose in
his agitated mind. He had before posted Hamilton’s Portuguese with a
view to a retrograde movement, and now sent Alten orders to abandon the
bridge of Albuera, to rally the Portuguese artillery on his Germans,
and take ground to cover a retreat by the Valverde road. But while the
commander was thus preparing to resign the contest, Colonel Hardinge,
using his name, had urged Cole to bring up the fourth division, and
then riding to the third brigade of Stewart’s division, which, under
Colonel Abercrombie, had hitherto been only slightly engaged, directed
it also to push forward. The die was thus cast, Beresford acquiesced,
Alten received orders to retake the village, and this terrible battle
was continued.
Two brigades of the fourth division were present, one of Portuguese
under General Harvey, the other under Sir William Myers, composed of
the 7th and 23rd Regiments, was called the fusileer brigade. Harvey,
pushing between Lumley’s cavalry and the hill, was charged by some
French horse and beat them off, while Cole led the fusileers up the
contested height. At this time six guns were in the enemy’s possession,
Werlé’s reserve was pressing forward to reinforce the French front, and
the remnant of Houghton’s brigade could no longer maintain its ground,
the field was heaped with carcasses, the lancers were riding furiously
about the captured artillery on the upper parts of the hill, and
Hamilton’s Portuguese and Alten’s Germans, withdrawing from the bridge,
seemed to be in full retreat. Soon however Cole’s fusileers, flanked
by a battalion of the Lusitanian legion under Colonel Hawkshawe,
surmounted the hill, drove off the lancers, recovered five guns and
one colour, and passed the right of Houghton’s brigade, precisely as
Abercrombie passed its left.
Such a gallant line, issuing from the midst of the smoke and rapidly
separating itself from the confused and broken multitude, startled the
enemy’s masses, then augmenting and pressing onwards as to an assured
victory; they wavered, hesitated, and vomiting forth a storm of fire
hastily endeavoured to enlarge their front, while a fearful discharge
of grape from all their artillery whistled through the British ranks.
Myers was killed, Cole, the three colonels, Ellis, Blakeney and
Hawkshawe fell wounded, and the fusileer battalions, struck by the iron
tempest, reeled and staggered like sinking ships: but suddenly and
sternly recovering they closed on their terrible enemies, and then was
seen with what a strength and majesty the British soldier fights. In
vain did Soult with voice and gesture animate his Frenchmen; in vain
did the hardiest veterans, breaking from the crowded columns, sacrifice
their lives to gain time for the mass to open out on such a fair
field; in vain did the mass itself bear up, and fiercely striving fire
indiscriminately upon friends and foes, while the horsemen hovering on
the flank threatened to charge the advancing line. Nothing could stop
that astonishing infantry. No sudden burst of undisciplined valour,
no nervous enthusiasm weakened the stability of their order, their
flashing eyes were bent on the dark columns in their front, their
measured tread shook the ground, their dreadful volleys swept away
the head of every formation, their deafening shouts overpowered the
dissonant cries that broke from all parts of the tumultuous crowd, as
slowly and with a horrid carnage it was pushed by the incessant vigour
of the attack to the farthest edge of the height. There the French
reserve, mixing with the struggling multitude, endeavoured to restore
the fight but only augmented the irremediable disorder, and the mighty
mass giving way like a loosened cliff went headlong down the steep:
the rain flowed after in streams discoloured with blood, and eighteen
hundred unwounded men, the remnant of six thousand unconquerable
British soldiers, stood triumphant on the fatal hill!
While the fusileers were battling above, the cavalry and Harvey’s
brigade advanced, and Latour Maubourg’s dragoons, battered also
by Lefebre’s guns, retired before them, yet still threatening the
fusileers with their right, and with their left preventing Lumley
falling on the defeated infantry. The crisis was however past, and
Beresford, seeking to profit from the circumstances of the moment, made
Alten retake Albuera, supported him with Blake’s first line, which
had not been engaged, and quickly brought up Hamilton’s and Collins’s
Portuguese, ten thousand fresh men, to strengthen the fusileers and
Abercrombie’s brigade. But so rapid was the execution of the last,
the enemy was never attained by these reserves, which yet suffered
severely, for Ruty having set the French guns altogether, worked them
with prodigious activity while the fifth corps was still making head,
and when the day was irrevocably lost, he regained the other side of
the Albuera and protected the passage of the broken infantry.
Beresford, too hardly handled to pursue, now formed a front with the
Portuguese parallel to the heights where Soult’s troops were rallying,
and though the action continued a short time after at the bridge, all
was terminated before three o’clock. The serious fighting had endured
only four hours, and in that time seven thousand allies and above eight
thousand of their adversaries were struck down. Three French generals
were wounded, two slain, and eight hundred soldiers so badly hurt as to
be left on the field. On Beresford’s side only two thousand Spaniards
and six hundred Germans and Portuguese were killed or wounded, and with
what resolution the pure British fought was thus made manifest, for
they had but eighteen hundred men left standing! The laurel is nobly
won when the exhausted victor reels as he places it on his bleeding
front. The French took five hundred unwounded prisoners, a howitzer and
several stand of colours. The British had no trophy to boast of, but
the horrid piles of carcasses within their lines told with dreadful
eloquence who were the conquerors, and all that night the rain poured
down, and the river and the hills and the woods resounded with the
dismal clamour and groans of dying men.
Beresford was oppressed with the number of his wounded, far exceeding
the sound amongst the British soldiers. When the picquets were posted
few remained to help the sufferers, and in this cruel distress he sent
Hardinge to demand assistance from Blake; but wrath and mortified
pride were predominant with that general; he refused, saying, it was
customary with allies for each to take care of their own men. Yet the
British had fought for Spain.
Morning came and both armies remained in their respective situations,
the wounded still covering the field of battle, the hostile lines still
menacing and dangerous. The greater number had fallen with the French,
the best soldiers with the allies, and Soult’s dark masses of cavalry
and artillery, covering all his front, seemed able alone to contend
again for victory. The right of the French appeared also to threaten
the Badajos road, and Beresford in gloom and doubt awaited another
attack; soon however the third brigade of the fourth division came up
from Jerumenha, and then the second division retook its old ground
between the Valverde and Badajos roads: on the 18th Soult retreated.
He left to English generosity several hundred men too deeply wounded
to be removed, but all those who could travel he had, in the night
of the 17th, sent by the royal road of Monasterio to Seville; and
now, protecting his movements with his horsemen and six battalions of
infantry, he filed his right on to the road of Solano. When this flank
march was completed, Latour Maubourg covered the rear with the heavy
dragoons, while Briché protected the march of the wounded men by the
royal road.
Beresford sent Hamilton to re-invest Badajos, and the whole of his
cavalry, supported by Alten’s Germans, after the French; but soon
Wellington, hurrying from the north, reached the field of battle and
directed him to follow the enemy cautiously in person, while the third
and seventh divisions, just come down from the Coa, completed the
reinvestment of the fortress.
Soult now took a permanent position at Llerena, to await the junction
of Drouet’s division and reinforcements from Andalusia, resolved to
contend again for Badajos. Meanwhile his cavalry advanced to Usagre
designing to scour the country beyond; but the only outlet from that
place was a bridge over a river with steep banks, which the French
general Bron passed rashly with two regiments and being charged by
General Lumley lost two hundred men. This terminated Beresford’s
operations. The miserable state to which the Regency had reduced the
Portuguese troops required his presence at Lisbon and General Hill
succeeded to his command.
RENEWED SIEGE OF BADAJOS. (May, 1811.)
Lord Wellington had left General Spencer with an army to straiten
Ciudad Rodrigo and watch Marmont, who had succeeded Massena; but
Marmont could from the Salamanca country cross the mountains and join
Soult to disturb the siege of Badajos, and in that case Spencer, who
had a shorter line, was to join Wellington. With this precaution it was
hoped the place might be taken. But though no operation in war is so
certain as a modern siege, if the rules of art are strictly followed,
no operation is less open to irregular daring: the engineer can
neither be hurried nor delayed without danger. Now the time required
by the French to gather in force depended on Marmont, whose march from
Salamanca by the mountain passes could not be stopped by Spencer: it
was also possible for him to pass the Tagus on the shortest line by
fords near Alcantara. But Beresford’s siege had damaged the carriages
of the battering guns, eleven days were required to repair them, and
the scanty means of transport for stores was diminished by carrying the
wounded from Albuera: hence more than fifteen days of open trenches,
including nine days of fire, could not be expected. With good guns,
plentiful stores and regular sappers and miners, this time would have
sufficed; but none of these things were in the camp, and it was a
keen jest of Picton to say, “_Lord Wellington sued Badajos in formâ
pauperis_.” His guns were of soft brass, false in their bore, and the
shot of different sizes, the largest being too small; the Portuguese
gunners were inexperienced, there were few British artillery-men, few
engineers, no sappers or miners, and no time to teach the troops of the
line how to make fascines and gabions.
Regular and sure approaches against the body of the place, first
reducing the outworks, could not now be attempted; yet Beresford’s
lines against the castle and Fort Christoval might be renewed, avoiding
his errors; that is to say, by pushing the attacks simultaneously
and with more powerful means. This plan was adopted, and something
was hoped from the inhabitants, something from the effect of Soult’s
retreat after Albuera. The battering train was of fifty pieces, a
convoy of engineers’ stores came up from Alcacer do Sal, and a company
of British artillery was on the march from Lisbon to be mixed with the
Portuguese, making a total of six hundred gunners. Volunteers from
the line acted as assistant engineers, and a draft of three hundred
intelligent infantry soldiers, including twenty-five artificers of the
staff corps, were employed as sappers.
Hamilton’s Portuguese first invested the place on the left bank, and,
the 24th of May, General Houston, having five thousand men, invested
San Christoval; a flying bridge was then laid down on the Guadiana
below the town, and Picton, crossing that river by a ford above, joined
Hamilton. Hill commanded the covering army, all the cavalry was pushed
forward in observation of Soult, and when intelligence of Drouet’s
junction was obtained, two regiments of cavalry and two brigades of
infantry, which had been quartered at Coria as posts of communication
with Spencer, were called up to reinforce Hill.
Phillipon had during the interval of siege levelled Beresford’s
trenches, repaired his own damages, mounted more guns and obtained a
small supply of wine and vegetables from the people of Estremadura, who
were still awed by the presence of Soult’s army. Within the place all
was quiet, the citizens did not now exceed five thousand souls, and
many of them were seen, mixed with soldiers, working at the defences;
hence, as retrenchments in the castle behind the intended points of
attack would have prolonged the siege beyond the calculated period,
Lord Wellington to obtain timely notice of such works had a large
telescope placed in the tower of La Lyppe near Elvas, by which the
interior of the castle could be searched.
In the night of the 29th the engineers broke ground for a false attack,
and the following night sixteen hundred workmen, with a covering party
of twelve hundred, sunk a parallel against the castle without being
discovered; at the same time twelve hundred workmen, covered by a guard
of eight hundred, opened a parallel four hundred and fifty yards from
San Christoval and seven hundred yards from the bridge-head. On this
line, one breaching and two counter batteries were raised against the
fort and bridge-head, to prevent a sally from the last point; a fourth
battery was also commenced to search the defences of the castle, but
the workmen were discovered and a heavy fire struck down many.
On the 31st the attack against the castle, where the soil was soft,
advanced rapidly; but Christoval being on a rock, earth had to be
brought from the rear and the attack proceeded slowly and with
considerable loss. This day the British artillery company came up on
mules from Estremos, the engineer hastened his work, and, to save time,
prematurely traced a work for fourteen twenty-four pounders with six
large howitzers to batter the castle.
On the Christoval side the batteries were not finished until the night
of the 1st of June, for the soil was so rocky the miner had to level
ground for platforms, while mortars, of eighteen inches’ diameter,
sent shells from the castle unerringly amongst the workmen; these
huge missiles would have ruined the works on that side if they had
not been on the edge of a ridge, down which most of the shells rolled
before bursting: yet so difficult is it to judge rightly in war,
that Phillipon stopped this fire, thinking it was thrown away![20]
The progress of the works was so delayed by bringing up earth, that
woolpacks purchased at Elvas were adopted as a substitute, and on the
2nd, all the batteries being completed and armed with forty-three
pieces of different sizes, twenty were pointed against the castle. The
shot being too small for the guns the fire was very ineffectual at
first, and five pieces became unserviceable; but towards evening the
practice became steadier, the fire of Christoval was nearly silenced,
and the covering of masonry fell from the castle-wall, discovering a
perpendicular bank of clay.
In the night of the 3rd a fresh battery for seven guns was traced
against the castle, about six hundred yards from the breach, but the
4th the garrison’s fire was also increased by additional guns, six of
the besiegers’ pieces were disabled, principally by their own fire, and
the batteries only slightly marked the bank of clay. At Christoval, the
fort was much injured, and some damage done to the castle also from
the batteries on that side, yet the guns were so soft that the rate of
firing was much reduced. In the night the new battery was armed, the
damaged works repaired, and next day, as the enemy had caused a gun
from Christoval to plunge into the trenches on the castle side, the
parallel was deepened and traverses constructed to protect the troops.
Fifteen uninjured pieces still played against the castle, and the bank
of clay fell away in flakes, yet it remained perpendicular.
In the night the parallel against the castle was extended, a fresh
battery was traced out five hundred and twenty yards from the breach,
and on the Christoval side new batteries were opened and some old ones
abandoned. The garrison now began to retrench the castle breach, and
their workmen were soon covered, while from Christoval two pieces of
artillery plunged directly into the trenches with great effect: on the
other hand the clay bank took a slope nearly practicable, and stray
shells set fire to the houses nearest the castle.
On the 6th, one of two breaches in Christoval being judged practicable,
a company of grenadiers with twelve ladders was ordered to assault, a
second turned the fort to divert the enemy’s attention, three hundred
men cut the communication between the fort and the bridge, and a
detachment with a six-pounder moved into the valley of the Gebora to
prevent any passage of the Guadiana by boats.
FIRST ASSAULT OF CHRISTOVAL. (June, 1811.)
Major M‘Intosh of the 85th Regiment led the stormers, preceded by
a forlorn hope under Lieutenant Dyas of the 51st, and that gallant
gentleman, guided by the engineer Forster, a young man of uncommon
bravery, reached the glacis and descended the ditch without being
discovered; but the French had cleared the rubbish away, seven feet of
perpendicular wall remained, carts and pointed beams of wood chained
together were placed above, and shells were ranged along the ramparts
to roll down. The forlorn hope finding the opening impracticable was
retiring, when the main body, which had been exposed to a flank fire
from the town as well as a direct fire from the fort, came leaping into
the ditch with ladders and strove to escalade; but the ladders were too
short, the garrison, seventy-five men besides the cannoneers, made a
stout resistance, the confusion and mischief occasioned by the bursting
of the shells was great, and the stormers were beaten off with the loss
of more than a hundred men.
Bad success produces disputes. The failure was attributed by some
to the breach being impracticable from the first, by others to the
confusion which arose after the main body had entered. French writers
affirm that the breach, practicable on the night of the 5th was not
so on the 6th, because the besiegers did not attack until midnight
and thus gave the workmen time to remove the ruins and raise fresh
obstacles: the bravery of the soldiers, who were provided with three
muskets each, did the rest. The combinations for the assault were
however not well calculated: the storming party was too weak, the
ladders too few and short, the breach not sufficiently scoured by the
fire of the batteries, and the leading troops were repulsed before
the main body had descended the ditch. In such attacks the supports
should almost form one body with the leaders, for the sense of power
derived from numbers is a strong incentive to valour, and obstacles,
insurmountable to a few, vanish before a multitude.
During the storm six iron guns were placed in battery against the
castle, but two brass pieces became unserviceable, and the following
day three others were disabled. However the bank of clay seemed to
offer now a good slope, and in the night the engineer Patton examined
it closely; he was mortally wounded in returning, yet lived to report
it practicable. At Christoval the garrison continued to clear away the
ruins at the foot of the breach, made interior retrenchments with bales
of wool and other materials, ranged huge shells and barrels of powder
with matches along the ramparts, and gave the defenders, chosen men,
four muskets each. In this state of affairs news came that Drouet was
close to Llerena, and Marmont on the move from Salamanca, wherefore
Wellington ordered another assault on Christoval at both breaches.
Four hundred men, carrying sixteen long ladders, were employed, the
supports were better closed up, the appointed hour was nine instead of
twelve, and more detachments were planted on the right and left to cut
off communication with the town; but Phillipon, in opposition, made the
garrison two hundred strong.
SECOND ASSAULT OF CHRISTOVAL. (June, 1811.)
Major M‘Geechy commanded the stormers, the forlorn hope, again led by
the gallant Dyas, was accompanied by the engineer Hunt, and a little
after nine o’clock the leading troops bounded forward, followed by the
support, amidst a shattering fire of musketry which killed M‘Geechy,
Hunt, and many men upon the glacis. Loudly shouted the British as
they jumped into the ditch, but the French scoffingly called them on,
and rolling down the barrels of powder and shells made fearful and
rapid havoc. A column had been designed for each breach, yet both
came together at the main breach, where some confusion about the
ladders caused only a few to be reared, and the enemy, standing on the
ramparts, bayoneted the foremost assailants, overturned the ladders,
and again poured their destructive fire upon the crowd below until one
hundred and forty fell and the rest retired.
The castle breach remained for assault, yet the troops could not
form between the top and the retrenchments behind the opening unless
Christoval was taken, and its guns used to clear the interior of the
castle; but to take Christoval required several days; hence, as Soult
was ready to advance, the stores were removed and the attack turned
into a blockade, the allies having lost four hundred men and officers:
the process of siege had been altogether false and irregular.
Marmont now joined Soult, Spencer joined Wellington, and the 19th of
June the French armies entered Badajos. The allies were only a few
miles off holding both sides of the Caya, a small river flowing between
Elvas and Campo Mayor into the Guadiana: yet their disposition was
so skilfully concealed by undulating ground and woods, that on the
23rd the French marshals were forced to send out two exploring bodies
of cavalry to obtain information. One column cut off a squadron of
the 11th Light Dragoons, and the 2nd German Hussars escaped it with
difficulty; the other column was checked by the heavy dragoons and
Madden’s Portuguese cavalry with a sharp skirmish, in which happened a
single combat similar to that between Ariosto’s Rogero and Mandricardo.
An English horseman, standing high in his stirrups with raised sword,
encountered a French officer who pierced him under the arm; slowly the
weapon was driven through his body, yet no shrinking motion could be
observed; he seemed only to give more force to his descending weapon,
which bit into the Frenchman’s brain and both fell dead together.
Soult and Marmont had above sixty thousand men in line, seven thousand
being cavalry, with ninety guns. Wellington had only twenty-eight
thousand sabres and bayonets, and the country, a cavalry one, furnished
no position to compensate for inferior numbers: a battle gained would
certainly have terminated the war. Yet the crisis passed without
mischief, because Wellington so concealed his weakness, and outfaced
his enemies with such audacity, such a blending of resolution and
genius that the French marshals retired and separated without striking!
The political and military difficulties supported and overcome by the
English general at this period were indeed most extraordinary, and must
be sought for in my History of the War, from which this work, treating
only of combats, is extracted.