Catalonia--Combat of Ordal--Renewed Siege of San Sebastian--Storm
of San Sebastian--Battles on the Bidassoa--Combat of San
Marcial--Combat of Vera.
CATALONIA. (Sept. 1813.)
While Wellington was thus victorious in Navarre, Lord W. Bentinck,
having reorganized Murray’s army at Alicant, was pushing the war in
Catalonia; for to that province Suchet retired after the battle of
Vittoria, relinquishing Valencia and Aragon, though he knew Clausel was
at Zaragoza. But in every way his determination to act independently,
however injurious it might prove to the emperor’s interest, was
apparent. Had he joined Clausel, forty-five thousand men, well based
on fortresses, would have menaced Wellington’s right flank when Soult
took the command: neither Sebastian nor Pampeluna could then have been
invested, and Soult’s recent defeats would have been spared.
Lord William Bentinck had command of the Spanish armies as well as his
own, and Lord Wellington had planned a cautious scheme for renewed
operations, with reference to his own position in the Pyrenees: but
Lord William, whose thoughts were running on Sicily and an invasion of
Italy, pushed headlong into Catalonia, and though a brave and able man
he did not meet with much success. Having passed the Ebro late in July,
leaving the fortress of Tortoza behind him, he on the 30th sat down
before Tarragona with his own and Del Parque’s armies.
Up to this time the Spaniards, giving copious but false information
to Lord William, and none to Suchet, had induced a series of errors
on both sides. The Englishman thinking his adversary weak had pressed
forwards rashly; the Frenchman, deeming the other’s boldness the result
of strength, thought himself weak, and awaited reinforcements from
Upper Catalonia. Suchet first recognised his own superior force, and
advanced on the 16th of August to attack with thirty thousand men; and
then Lord William, also discovering the true state of affairs, refused
the battle he had provoked and retired. He had indeed equal numbers,
yet of a quality not to be put in competition with his opponents.
During the retreat, his brother, Lord Frederick, being on the left,
defeated the French hussars with a loss of fifty men, and it was
said either General Habert or Harispe was taken but escaped in the
confusion. This checked the enemy, and in the mountains above Tortoza
the allies halted. Suchet would not assail them there, but he destroyed
the works of Tarragona and took a permanent position behind the
Llobregat, thus giving up the fertile Campo de Tarragona, allowing
the allies to invest Tortoza, and isolating himself entirely from the
operations in Navarre, where he might have decided the war. Seeing
this timidity, Lord William again moved forward, but again misled by
false information, detached Del Parque’s army by the way of Tudela to
Navarre: meanwhile going himself beyond Tarragona to Villa Franca, he
placed Colonel Adam with twelve hundred men ten miles in advance, at
the strong pass of Ordal.
In this position, having lost Del Parque’s army, and left Whittingham’s
Spanish division in the rear for the sake of subsistence, Lord William
was exposed to a formidable attack from Suchet, who had more than
thirty thousand men on the Llobregat, a few miles off. But he could
only be approached on two lines--one in front, from Molino del Rey, by
the royal road; the other on his left by Martorel and San Sadurni. The
first he blocked with Adam’s corps, at Ordal, which he now reinforced
with three battalions and a squadron of Spanish cavalry; the second, a
rugged and difficult way, he guarded by two Catalan corps under Eroles
and Manso, reinforced with a Calabrese battalion: there was indeed a
third line on his right by Avionet, but it was little better than a
goat-path.
He had designed to push his main body close to Ordal on the evening of
the 12th, yet from some slight cause, and in war slight causes often
determine the fate of nations, he delayed it until next day. Meanwhile
he viewed the country in front of that defile without discovering an
enemy, his confidential emissaries assured him the French were not
going to advance, and he so expressed himself to Adam on his return. A
report of a contrary tendency was made by Colonel Reeves of the 27th,
on the authority of a Spanish woman who had before proved her accuracy
and ability as a spy, but she was now disbelieved: this incredulity
was unfortunate. Suchet thus braved, and his communication with Lerida
threatened by Manso on the side of Martorel, was in person actually
marching to attack Ordal, and Decaen and Maurice Mathieu were turning
the left by San Sadurni.
COMBAT OF ORDAL. (Sept. 1813.)
The heights occupied by Adam rose gradually from a magnificent
bridge, by which the main road was carried over a deep impracticable
ravine. The second battalion of the 27th British Regiment was on the
right, some Germans and Swiss with six guns defended a dilapidated
fort commanding the main road; the Spaniards were in the centre; the
Anglo-Calabrese on the left; a British squadron of cavalry in reserve.
A bright moonlight facilitated the movements of the French, three
daring scouts sent in advance discovered the state of affairs, and
a little before midnight, the leading column under General Mesclop
passed the bridge without let or hindrance, mounted the heights with
a rapid pace and driving back the picquets gave the first alarm. The
first effort was against the 27th, the Germans and Spanish battalions
were then assailed in succession as the French masses got free of the
bridge, but the Calabrese were too far on the left to take a share in
the action. The combat was fierce and obstinate. Harispe, commanding
the French, constantly outflanked the right of the allies, and at the
same time pressed their centre, where the Spaniards fought gallantly.
Adam was wounded early, Reeves succeeded him, and seeing his flank
turned and his men falling fast, in short, finding himself engaged
with a whole army on a position of which Adam had lost the key by
neglecting the bridge, resolved to retreat. He first ordered the guns
to fall back, but seeking to cover the movement by charging a column of
the enemy, which was pressing forward on the high-road, he also fell
severely wounded, and there was no recognised commander on the spot to
succeed him. Then the affair became confused. For though the order
to retreat was given, the Spaniards continued to fight desperately,
the 27th thought it shame to abandon them, and as the Germans and
Swiss still held the old fort the guns came back. The action was thus
continued with great fury, and Colonel Carey, bringing his Calabrese
into line from the left, menaced the right flank of the French. He was
too late. The Spaniards, overwhelmed in the centre, were by that time
broken, the right was completely turned, the old fort was lost, the
enemy’s skirmishers got into the rear, and at three o’clock the allies
dispersed, the most part in flight: the Spanish cavalry were then
overthrown on the main road by the French hussars, and four guns were
taken in the tumult.
Captain Waldron with the 27th, reduced to eighty men, being joined by
Captain Müller with about the same number of Germans and Swiss, broke
through small parties of the enemy and effected a retreat in good order
by the hills on each side of the road. Colonel Carey endeavoured to
gain the road of Sadurni on the left, but meeting with Decaen’s people
on that side retraced his steps, crossed the field of battle in the
rear of Suchet’s columns and made for Villa Nueva de Sitjes, where he
finally embarked without loss, save a few stragglers. The overthrow was
complete, and the prisoners were at first very numerous, yet darkness
enabled many to escape, and two thousand men took refuge with Manso and
Eroles.
Suchet, continuing his career, closed about nine o’clock on Lord W.
Bentinck, who retired skirmishing behind Villa Franca. He was there
assailed by the French horsemen, some of which fell on his rear-guard
while others edged to their right to secure the communication with
Decaen; the latter was looked for by both parties with great anxiety,
but he had been delayed by the resistance of Manso and Eroles in the
rugged country between Martorel and Sadurni. Suchet’s cavalry however,
continued to infest the rear of the retreating army until it reached
a deep baranco, where, the passage being dangerous and the French
horsemen importunate, that brave and honest soldier, Lord Frederick
Bentinck, charged their right, and fighting hand to hand with the
enemy’s general Myers, wounded him and overthrew his squadron. They
rallied indeed upon their dragoons and endeavoured to turn the flank,
but were stopped by the fire of two guns; and meanwhile the French
cuirassiers on the left, while pressing the Brunswick hussars and
menacing the infantry, were roughly checked by the fire of the 10th
Regiment. This cavalry action was vigorous, and the allies lost more
than ninety men, but the baranco was safely passed, and about three
o’clock the pursuit ceased. The Catalans meanwhile had retreated
towards Igulada and the Anglo-Sicilians retired to Tarragona.
Lord William Bentinck then returned to Sicily, leaving the command to
Sir William Clinton. He had committed errors, but the loss at Ordal was
due to the folly of Colonel Adam, and whoever relies on his capacity in
peace or war will be disappointed.
RENEWED SIEGE OF SAN SEBASTIAN. (Aug. 1813.)
After the combats of Echallar and Ivantelly Soult resumed his former
defensive positions, that is to say, from the mouth of the Bidassoa
up its right bank to Vera, and from thence by the lower ranges of the
Pyrenees to St. Jean Pied de Port. Lord Wellington also reoccupied his
old positions on the main spine, and on the advanced counter ridges,
which gave him the command of the Bastan and the valley of San Estevan.
Many causes had concurred to deter him from pushing his success, and
though this termination was, perhaps, scarcely defensible on high
military principles, the difficulties were so great that he contented
himself with renewing the siege of San Sebastian, the blockade of which
had been always maintained.
On the 8th of August the attack there was renewed by sinking a shaft
and driving a gallery to countermine the enemy, who was supposed to be
working under the cask redoubt; but water rose to the height of twelve
feet, the work was discontinued, and the siege itself was vexatiously
delayed by the negligence of the English government in providing guns
and stores, and by the astounding insulting refusal of the Admiralty to
supply the necessary naval aid. To use Lord Wellington’s expression,
“_Since Great Britain had been a naval power, a British army had never
before been left in such a situation at a most important moment._”
During this forced inactivity the garrison received supplies and
reinforcements by sea, repaired the damaged works, raised new defences,
filled the magazines, and put sixty-seven pieces of artillery in
a condition to play. Eight hundred and fifty men had been killed
and wounded since the commencement of the siege; but more than two
thousand six hundred good soldiers, still under arms, celebrated
the emperor’s birth-day by crowning the castle with a splendid
illumination--encircling it with a fiery legend to his honour in
characters so large as to be distinctly read by the besiegers.
On the 19th of August, a battering train demanded by Wellington three
months before, did arrive from England, and in the night of the 22nd
fifteen heavy pieces were placed in battery. A second battering train
came on the 23rd, augmenting the number of pieces to a hundred and
seventeen; but with characteristic official negligence, this enormous
armament brought shot and shells for only one day’s consumption!
On the 24th the Chofre batteries were enlarged, and two batteries were
begun on the heights of Bartolomeo, designed to breach the faces of the
horn-work of St. John and the end of the high curtain, which rose in
gradation one above another in the same line of shot. The approaches
on the isthmus were pushed forward by the sap, but the old trenches
were still imperfect, and at daylight on the 25th a sally from the
horn-work swept the left of the parallel, injured the sap, and made
some prisoners.
On the 26th fifty-seven pieces opened with a general salvo, and
continued to play with astounding noise and rapidity until evening. The
firing from the Chofres destroyed the revêtment of the demi-bastion
of St. John, and nearly ruined the towers at the old breach, together
with the wall connecting them; but from the isthmus, the batteries only
injured the horn-work, and Wellington, who was present at this attack,
ordered a new one of six guns to be constructed amongst some ruined
houses on the right of the parallel, and only three hundred yards from
the main front: two shafts were also sunk for driving galleries to
protect this battery against the enemy’s mines.
In the morning of the 27th the boats of the squadron, carrying a
hundred soldiers, put off to attack the island of Santa Clara, and
landed with some difficulty under a heavy fire, yet took the island
with a loss of twenty-eight men and officers, eighteen being seamen.
In the night of the 27th the French sallied against the new battery on
the isthmus, but on the edge of the trenches the 9th Regiment met and
checked them with the bayonet.
At daybreak the besiegers’ fire was extremely heavy, and the shrapnel
shells were supposed to be destructive; the practice was however
very uncertain, the shells frequently flew amongst the guards in the
parallel, and one struck the field-officer of the day. To meet sallies
the trenches were furnished with banquettes and parapets; yet the work
was slow, because the Spanish authorities of Guipuscoa neglected to
provide carts to convey materials from the woods, and this hard labour
was performed by the Portuguese soldiers.
Lord Wellington again visited the works on the 28th, and in the night
the advanced battery, which at the desire of the chief engineer
Fletcher had been constructed for only four guns, was armed and opened
the 29th; an accident kept back one gun, the enemy’s fire dismounted
another, and thus only two instead of six guns, as Wellington had
designed, smote St. John and the end of the high curtain. The general
firing however damaged the castle and the town-works, their guns were
nearly silenced, and as sixty-three pieces, of which twenty-nine threw
shells or spherical case-shot, were now in play from the Chofres, the
superiority of the besiegers was established.
At this time the Urumea was discovered to be fordable by Captain
Alexander Macdonald of the artillery, who had voluntarily waded across
in the night, passed close under the works to the breach and returned.
Hence, as a few minutes would suffice to bring the enemy into the
Chofre batteries, to save the guns from being spiked their vents were
covered with iron plates fastened by chains; and this was also done
at the advanced battery on the isthmus. The materials for a battery
to take the defences of the Monte Orgullo in reverse were now sent to
the island of Santa Clara, and some pieces on the Chofres were turned
against the retaining wall of the horn-work, in the hope of shaking
down any mines there without destroying the wall itself, which offered
cover for the troops advancing to the assault.
On the isthmus the trenches were wide and good, the sap was pushed to
the demi-bastion of the horn-work, and the sea-wall, supporting the
high road into the town, which had cramped the formation of the columns
in the first assault, was broken through, giving access to the strand
and shortening the way to the breaches.
In this state a false attack was ordered in the night to make the enemy
spring his mines, a desperate service, executed by Lieutenant Macadam.
The order was sudden, no volunteers were demanded, no rewards offered,
no means of excitement resorted to; yet such is the inherent bravery
of British soldiers, that seventeen men of the Royals, the nearest at
hand, immediately leaped forth ready and willing to encounter what
seemed certain death. With a rapid pace, all the breaching batteries
playing hotly at the time, they reached the foot of the breach
unperceived and rushed up in extended order shouting and firing, but
the French musketry laid the whole party low with exception of their
commander.
On the 30th, the sea flank of the place being opened from the
half-bastion of St. John to the most distant of the old breaches, five
hundred feet, the Chofre batteries were turned against the castle and
defences of Monte Orgullo, while the advanced battery on the isthmus
demolished, in conjunction with the fire from the Chofres, the face of
St. John and the end of the high curtain above it. The whole of that
quarter was now in ruins, for the San Bartolomeo batteries had broken
the demi-bastion of the horn-work and cut away the palisades. Then
Wellington, again coming to the siege, resolved to make a lodgement on
the breach, and ordered an assault for the next day at eleven o’clock,
when the ebb of tide would leave full space between the horn-work and
the water.
The galleries on the isthmus had now been pushed close up to the sea
wall, and three mines were formed, with the double object of opening
an easy way for the troops to reach the strand, and rendering useless
any subterranean defensive works of the enemy. At two o’clock in the
morning they were sprung and opened three wide passages, which were
immediately connected, and a traverse, six feet high, was run across
the mouth of the main trench on the left, to screen the opening
from the grape-shot of the castle. Everything was then ready for the
assault, but ere that terrible event is told the French state of
defence must be made known.
General Graham had been before the place fifty-two days, during thirty
of which the attack was suspended. All that time the garrison had
laboured incessantly, and though the heavy fire of the besiegers since
the 26th appeared to have ruined the defences of the enormous breach in
the sea flank, it was not so. A perpendicular fall behind of more than
twenty feet barred progress, and beyond that, amongst the ruins of the
burned houses, was a strong counter wall fifteen feet high, loopholed
for musketry and extending in a parallel direction with the breaches,
which were also cut off from the sound part of the rampart by traverses
at the extremities. The only really practicable road into the town was
by the narrow end of the high curtain above the half bastion of St.
John.
In front of the loopholed wall, about the middle of the great breach,
stood the tower of Los Hornos, still capable of some defence, and
beneath it a mine was charged with twelve hundred weight of powder.
The streets were all trenched and furnished with traverses to cover
a retreat to Monte Orgullo; and before the main breach could be
even reached a lodgement was to be effected in the horn-work; or,
as in the former assault, the advance made under a flanking fire of
musketry for two hundred yards, the first step being close to the sea
wall at a salient angle, where two mines charged with eight hundred
pounds of powder were prepared to overwhelm the advancing columns.
To support this system of retrenchments and mines there was still
one sixteen-pounder at St. Elmo, flanking the left of the breaches
on the river face; a twelve and an eight-pounder in the casemates of
the cavalier, to sweep the land face of St. John; many guns from the
Monte Orgullo, also especially those at the Mirador, could play on the
advancing columns, and there was a four-pounder hidden on the horn-work
to open during the assault. Neither the resolution of the governor
nor the courage of the garrison was abated, but the overwhelming fire
had reduced the fighting men, and Rey, who had only two hundred and
fifty in reserve, demanded of Soult whether his brave garrison should
be exposed to another assault. “_The army would endeavour to succour
him_,” was the reply, and he abided his fate.
This assault, before the defences were ruined, was obviously a
repetition of the former fatal error; and the same generals who had
before publicly disapproved of the operations now more freely dealt
out censures, which, not ill-founded, were most ill-timed, because
doubts descend from the commanders to the soldiers. Lord Wellington
thought the fifth division had been thus discouraged, and incensed at
the cause, demanded fifty volunteers from each of the fifteen regiments
composing the first, fourth, and light divisions, “_men who could show
other troops how to mount a breach_.” That was the phrase employed,
and seven hundred and fifty gallant soldiers instantly marched to San
Sebastian in answer to the appeal. Colonel Cooke and Major Robertson
led the Guards and Germans of the first division; Major Rose commanded
the men of the fourth division; Colonel Hunt, an officer who had
already won his promotion at former assaults, led the fierce rugged
veterans of the light division, yet there were good officers and brave
soldiers in the fifth division.
At first a simple lodgement on the great breach was designed, and
the volunteers and one brigade of the fifth division only were to be
employed; but in a council held at night, the engineer Smith maintained
that the orders were misunderstood, as no lodgement could be formed
unless the high curtain was gained; General Oswald was of the same
opinion; wherefore the remainder of the fifth division was brought to
the trenches, and General Bradford, having offered the services of
his Portuguese brigade, had a discretion to ford the Urumea from the
Chofres and assail the farthest breach.
General Leith, commanding the fifth division, directed the attack from
the isthmus, and being offended at the arrival of the volunteers would
not suffer them to lead the assault; some he spread along the trenches
to keep down the fire of the horn-work, the remainder he kept in
reserve with Hay’s British and Sprye’s Portuguese brigades. Robinson’s
brigade was to assault in two columns, one at the old breach between
the towers, the other at St. John and the end of the high curtain. The
small breach was left for Bradford, and some large boats filled with
troops were to menace the back of Monte Orgullo from the ocean: Graham
overlooked all the operations from the Chofres.
STORMING OF SAN SEBASTIAN. (Aug. 1813.)
The morning of the 31st broke heavily, and as a thick fog hid every
object the batteries could not open until eight o’clock, but from that
hour a constant shower of heavy missiles poured upon the besieged until
eleven: then Robinson’s brigade got out of the trenches, passed through
the openings in the sea-wall and was launched against the breaches.
While this column was gathering on the strand, near the salient angle
of the horn-work, twelve men under a sergeant, whose heroic death has
not sufficed to preserve his name, running violently forward, leaped on
the covered way to cut the sausage of the enemy’s mines, and the French
fired the train prematurely; the sergeant and his brave followers were
destroyed, and the high sea-wall was thrown with a dreadful crash
upon the head of the advancing column, but not more than forty men
were crushed and the rush was scarcely checked. The forlorn hope had
previously passed beyond the play of the mine, speeding along the
strand amidst a shower of grape and shells, the leader, Lieutenant
Macguire of the 4th Regiment, conspicuous from his long white plume,
his fine figure, and his swiftness, bounding far ahead of his men in
all the pride of youthful strength and courage, but at the foot of the
great breach he fell dead, and the stormers swept like a dark surge
over his body: many died with him and the trickling of wounded men to
the rear was incessant.
A broad strand had been left by the retreating tide, and the sun had
dried the rocks, yet they still broke the ranks and the main breach
was two hundred yards off; the French also, seeing the first mass of
assailants pass the horn-work without attacking, crowded to the river
face and poured their musketry into the flank of the second column
as it rushed along a few yards below them: yet still running forward
the British returned this fire without slackening their speed. Then
the batteries of the Monte Orgullo and the St. Elmo sent showers of
shot and shells down on them, the two pieces on the cavalier swept
the breach in St. John, and the four-pounder in the horn-work, being
suddenly mounted on the broken bastion, poured grape-shot into their
rear.
Although scourged thus with fire, and their array broken by shot and
by the rocks, the stormers reached the great breach and the head of
the first column mounted; but the unexpected gulf beyond could only be
passed at a few places where meagre parcels of the burned houses were
still attached to the rampart, and the deadly clatter of the French
muskets from the loop-holed wall beyond soon strewed the narrow crest
of the ruins with dead. In vain the following multitude, covering the
ascent, sought an entrance at every part; to advance was impossible and
the mass slowly sunk downwards, yet remained stubborn and immoveable
on the lower part. There they were covered from the musketry in front,
yet from several isolated points, especially the tower of Los Hornos
under which the great mine was placed, the French still struck them
with small arms, and the artillery from Monte Orgullo poured shells and
grape without intermission.
Meanwhile at the St. John affairs were worse. To reach the top of the
high curtain was quite practicable, and the effort to force a way there
being strenuous and constant, the slaughter was in proportion; for
the traverse on the flank was defended by French grenadiers who would
not yield, the two guns on the cavalier swept the front face, and the
four-pounder and the musketry from the horn-work swept the river face.
In the midst of this destruction some sappers and a working party
attached to the assaulting columns endeavoured to form a lodgement; but
no artificial materials had been provided, and most of the labourers
were killed before they could raise cover.
During this time the British batteries kept up a constant counter-fire,
which killed many French, and the reserve brigades of the 5th division
gradually fed the attack until the left wing of the 9th Regiment only
remained in the trenches. The volunteers who had been with difficulty
restrained in the parallel, calling out to know, “_why they had been
brought there if they were not to lead the assault_,”--these fierce and
terrible men, whose presence had given such offence to Leith that he
would have kept them altogether from the assault, being now perforce
let loose, went like a whirlwind to the breaches and swarmed up the
face of the ruins; but on the crest the stream of fire struck and they
came down like a falling wall; crowd after crowd were seen to mount,
to totter, to sink, and when the smoke floated away the summit bore no
living man.
Graham, standing on the nearest of the Chofre batteries, beheld this
frightful destruction with a stern resolution to win at any cost, and
he was a man to have put himself at the head of the last company and
died sword in hand rather than sustain a second defeat: but neither
his confidence nor his resources were yet exhausted. He directed a new
attack on the horn-work, and concentrating the fire of fifty heavy
pieces upon the high curtain sent his shot over the heads of the troops
gathered at the foot of the breach; a fearful stream of missiles,
which pouring along the upper surface of the high curtain broke down
the traverses, shattering all things, and strewing the rampart with
the mangled limbs of the defenders. When this flight of bullets
first swept over the heads of the soldiers a cry arose from some
inexperienced people, “_to retire because the batteries were firing on
the stormers_;” but the veterans of the light division, being at that
point, were not to be so disturbed, and in the very heat and fury of
the cannonade effected a solid lodgement in some house ruins actually
within the rampart, on the right of the great breach.
For half an hour the horrid tempest smote upon the works and the houses
behind, and then suddenly ceased, when the clatter of French muskets
was again heard, showing that the assailants were still in activity.
At the same time the 13th Portuguese Regiment under Major Snodgrass,
followed by a detachment of the 24th under Colonel Macbean, entered
the river from the Chofres. The ford was deep, the water rose above
the waist, and when the soldiers reached the middle of the stream, two
hundred yards wide, a shower of grape struck the column with terrible
havoc, yet the survivors closed and moved on; a second discharge tore
the ranks from front to rear; still the regiment moved on, and amidst
a confused fire of musketry from the ramparts, and artillery from
St. Elmo, the castle, and the Mirador, landed and rushed against the
third breach, while Macbean’s men reinforced the great breach. The
fighting then again became fierce and obstinate at all the breaches;
yet the French musketry rolled with deadly effect, the heaps of slain
increased, and once more the great mass of stormers sunk to the foot of
the ruins unable to win: the living sheltered themselves as they could,
and the dead and wounded lay so thickly that hardly could it be judged
whether the hurt or unhurt were most numerous.
It was now evident the assault must fail unless some accident
intervened; for the tide was rising, the reserves all engaged, and no
greater effort could be expected from men whose passionate courage
had been already pushed to the verge of madness. Fortune intervened.
A number of powder barrels, live shells, and combustible materials
accumulated behind the traverses caught fire, a bright consuming flame
wrapped the high curtain, a succession of explosions followed, hundreds
of the French grenadiers were destroyed; the rest were thrown into
confusion, and while the ramparts were still involved with suffocating
eddies of smoke the British soldiers broke in at the first traverse.
The French, bewildered by this terrible disaster, yielded for a moment,
yet soon rallied, and a close desperate struggle took place along
the summit of the high curtain, but the fury of the stormers, whose
numbers increased every moment, could not be stemmed; the colours on
the cavalier were torn away by Lieutenant Gethin of the 11th Regiment;
the horn-work, the land front below the curtain, and the loop-holed
wall behind the great breach, all were abandoned, and then the light
division soldiers, already established in the ruins on the French left,
penetrated into the streets; and at the same moment the Portuguese at
the small breach, mixed with British who had wandered to that point
seeking for an entrance, burst in on their side.
Five hours this dreadful battle had lasted at the walls, and now the
stream of war went pouring into the town; yet the undaunted governor
still disputed the victory at his barricades, although several hundreds
of men had been cut off in the horn-work, and his garrison was so
reduced that even to retreat behind the line of defence separating the
town from Monte Orgullo was difficult: however the troops, flying
from the horn-work on the harbour flank, broke through a body of the
British near the fortified convent of Santa Téresa, and that post was
still retained by the French within the town. It was thought Monte
Orgullo might have been then carried if a commander of rank to direct
the troops had been at hand; but, as in the first assault, whether
from wounds or accident no general entered the place until long after
the breach had been won, the battalion officers were embarrassed for
want of orders, and a thunder-storm, coming down the mountains with
unbounded fury just as the place was carried, added to the confusion of
the fight--the opportunity was lost.
This storm seemed to be a signal from hell for the perpetration of
villany which would have shamed the most ferocious barbarians of
antiquity. At Ciudad Rodrigo intoxication and plunder had been the
principal objects; at Badajos lust and murder were joined to rapine
and drunkenness; at San Sebastian, the direst, the most revolting
cruelty was added to the catalogue of crimes: one atrocity, of
which a girl of seventeen was the victim, staggers the mind by its
enormous, incredible, indescribable barbarity. Some order was at first
maintained, but the resolution to throw off discipline was quickly
made manifest. A British staff-officer was pursued with a volley of
small arms and escaped with difficulty from men who mistook him for
a provost-marshal; a Portuguese adjutant, striving to prevent some
ruffianism, was put to death in the market-place, not with sudden
violence but deliberately. Many officers exerted themselves to preserve
order, many men were well-conducted, yet the rapine and violence
commenced by villains soon spread, the camp-followers crowded into the
place, and the disorder continued until fire, following the steps of
the plunderer, put an end to his ferocity by destroying the whole town.
Three generals, Leith, Oswald, and Robinson, had been hurt in the
trenches; Sir Richard Fletcher, a brave man, was killed; Colonel
Burgoyne, next in command of the engineers, was wounded. The carnage
at the breaches was appalling. Nearly half the volunteers were struck
down, the fifth division suffered in the same proportion, and the
whole loss since the renewal of the siege exceeded two thousand five
hundred men and officers. Amongst the last may be mentioned Lieutenant
John O’Connel of the 43rd, in blood nearly related to the celebrated
turbulent agitator. He was gentle, amiable, and modest, and brave as
man could be, and having previously been in several storming parties
here again sought in such dangerous service the promotion he had earned
before without receiving--he found death.
Monte Orgullo was now to be attacked. Steep and difficult to assail
it was, and just below the castle four batteries connected with
masonry were stretched across its face; from their extremities, also,
ramps protected by redans led to the convent of Santa Téresa, the
most salient part of the defence. Towards the harbour and behind the
mountain were sea batteries, and if all these works had been of good
construction and defended by fresh troops the siege would have been
difficult; but the garrison was shattered by the recent assault, most
of the engineers were killed, the governor wounded, five hundred men
sick or hurt, and the soldiers fit for duty, only thirteen hundred, had
four hundred prisoners to guard. The castle was small, the bomb-proofs
filled with ammunition and provisions, and but ten guns were left for
service, three being on the sea line. There was little water, and the
soldiers had to lie on the naked rock, exposed to fire, or only covered
by asperities of ground; they were however still resolute to fight, and
received nightly, by sea, supplies of ammunition in small quantities.
Lord Wellington arrived the day after the assault, and judging regular
approaches up the naked rock impracticable, doubting also the power of
vertical fire, he resolved to breach the remaining line of defence and
then storm the Orgullo. Meanwhile from the Santa Téresa convent, which
was actually in the town, the French killed many men; and when, after
several days, it was assaulted, they set the lower parts on fire and
retired by a communication from the roof to a ramp on the hill behind.
All this time the flames were licking up the houses, and the Orgullo
was overwhelmed with vertical fire.
On the 3rd of September the governor was summoned, he was unshaken,
and the vertical fire was continued day and night, the British
prisoners suffering as well as the enemy; for the officer in the
castle, irritated by the misery of the garrison, cruelly refused to
let the unfortunate captives make trenches to cover themselves. The
French however complain, that their wounded and sick men, placed in an
empty magazine with a black flag flying, were fired upon, although the
English prisoners, in their uniforms, were posted around to strengthen
the claim of humanity.
New breaching batteries were now commenced and armed with guns, brought
from the Chofres at low water across the Urumea, at first in the night,
but the difficulty of labouring in the water during darkness finally
induced the artillery officers to transport them in daylight under the
enemy’s batteries, which did not however fire. In the town labour was
impeded by the flaming houses, but near the foot of the Orgullo the
ruins furnished shelter for musketeers to gall the garrison, and the
Santa Clara Island battery was actively worked by the seamen. With
the besieged ammunition was scarce, and the horrible vertical fire,
contrary to Lord Wellington’s expectation, subdued their energy; yet
the action was prolonged until the 8th of September, when fifty-nine
heavy battering pieces opened at once from the island, the isthmus, the
horn-work and the Chofres. In two hours the Mirador and Queen’s battery
were broken, the French fire extinguished, and the hill furrowed
in a frightful manner; the bread-ovens were destroyed, a magazine
exploded, and the castle, small and crowded with men, was overlaid
with the descending shells. Then proudly bending to fate the governor
surrendered. On the 9th this brave man and his heroic garrison, reduced
to one-third of their original number, and leaving five hundred wounded
behind, marched out with the honours of war. The siege thus terminated,
after sixty-three days’ open trenches, and just as the tempestuous
season, then beginning to vex the coast, would have rendered a
continuance of the sea blockade impossible.
The excesses committed in the storming of San Sebastian caused great
indignation in Spain, and justly; but they were used by the Spanish
government to create a hatred of the British army, and, horrible as
were the facts, it is certain the atrocities were the work of a few.
Writers have not been wanting however to excuse them on the insulting
ground, that no soldiers can be restrained after storming a town and
British soldiers least of all, because they are brutish and insensible
to honour! Shame on such calumnies! What makes the British soldier
fight as no other soldier ever fights? His pay! Soldiers of all nations
receive pay. At the period of this assault, a sergeant of the 28th,
named Ball, being sent with a party to the coast from Roncesvalles to
make purchases for his officers, placed two thousand dollars entrusted
to him with a commissary, secured his receipt and persuaded his party
to join in the storm. He survived, reclaimed the money, made his
purchases, and returned to his regiment. And these are the men, these
the spirits who are called too brutish to work upon except by fear! It
is to fear they are most insensible!
BATTLES ON THE BIDASSOA. (Aug. 1813.)
While Sebastian was being stormed Soult fought a battle with the
covering force, not willingly, nor with much hope of success; but
being averse to let it fall without another effort, he thought a bold
demeanour would best hide his real weakness. Guided however by the
progress of the siege, which he knew through his sea communication,
he awaited the last moment of action, striving meanwhile to improve
his resources and revive public confidence. Of his dispersed soldiers
eight thousand had rejoined, and he was promised a reinforcement of
thirty thousand conscripts; but these last were yet to be enrolled, and
neither the progress of the siege nor the panic along the frontier,
which recurred with increased violence after the late battles, would
suffer him to wait.
He knew his enemy’s superior strength in positions, number and military
confidence, yet expected, as his former effort had interrupted the
siege, another would produce a like effect; and he hoped, by repeating
the disturbance, as long as he could by sea reinforce and supply
the garrison, to render the siege a wasting operation. To renew the
movement against Pampeluna was most advantageous, but it required
fifty thousand infantry for attack, twenty thousand for observation
on the Lower Bidassoa, and he had not so many. His supplies also were
uncertain, the loss of all the military carriages at Vittoria was still
felt, the resources of the country were reluctantly yielded by the
people, and to act on the side of St. Jean Pied de Port was therefore
impracticable.
To attack the allies’ centre was unpromising. Two mountain-chains were
to be forced before the movement could seriously affect Wellington,
and as the ways were impracticable for guns success would not give any
decisive result. To attack the left of the allies by the great road
of Irun remained. He could there employ forty-five thousand infantry,
but the positions were of perilous strength. The Upper Bidassoa was
in Wellington’s power, because the light division, occupying Vera and
the heights of Santa Barbara on the right bank, commanded all the
bridges. The Lower Bidassoa, flowing from Vera with a bend to the left,
separated the hostile armies, and against that line, of nine miles, the
attack was necessarily directed. From the broken bridge of Behobia,
in front of Irun, to the sea, the river, broad and tidal, offered no
apparent passage; from the fords of Biriatu up to those of Vera, three
miles, there was only the one passage of Andarlassa, two miles below
Vera, and there steep craggy mountain-ridges without roads lining
the river forbade great operations. Thus the points of attack were
restricted to Vera itself and the fords between Biriatu and Behobia.
To gain Oyarzun, a small town eight miles beyond the Bidassoa and close
to Passages, was Soult’s object, and a royal road led directly to it
by a broad valley between the Peña de Haya and Jaizquibel mountains;
but the Peña de Haya, called also the four-crowned mountain, filled all
the space between Vera, Lesaca, Irun and Oyarzun, and its staring head,
bound with a rocky diadem, was impassable: from the bridges of Vera
and Lesaca, however, roads, one of them not absolutely impracticable
for guns, passed over its enormous flanks to Irun on one side, to
Oyarzun on the other, falling into the royal road at both places. Soult
therefore proposed to drive the light division from Santa Barbara, and
use the bridges of Lesaca and Vera to force a passage over the Peña
de Haya on his own right of its summit, pushing the heads of columns
towards Oyarzun and the Upper Urumea, while Reille and Villatte,
passing the Bidassoa at Biriatu, forced their way by the royal road.
Soon he changed this plan, and with great caution and subtilty brought
his left from St. Jean Pied de Port to his right, masking the movement
by his cavalry, and thus formed two columns of attack on the Lower
Bidassoa. One under Clausel, of twenty thousand men with twenty pieces
of artillery, was concentrated in the woods behind the Commissari
and Bayonette mountains above Vera. The other under Reille, eighteen
thousand strong, was placed on the Lower Bidassoa, having Foy’s
division and some light cavalry in the rear ready to augment it to
twenty-five thousand. Thirty-six pieces of artillery and two bridge
equipages were disposed near Urogne, on the royal road, all being
secreted behind the lower ridge of the mountains near Biriatu.
Soult’s first design was to attack at daybreak on the 30th, but his
preparations being incomplete he deferred it until the 31st, taking
rigorous precautions to prevent intelligence passing over to the
allies; Wellington’s emissaries had, however, told him in the night
of the 29th that the French were in movement, and the augmentation of
troops in front of Irun was observed in the morning of the 30th. In the
evening the bridge equipage and the artillery were discovered on the
royal road, and thus warned he prepared for battle with little anxiety;
for a fresh brigade of English foot-guards, most of the marauders and
men wounded at Vittoria, and three regiments from England, forming a
new brigade under Lord Aylmer, had recently joined.
His extreme left was on the Jaizquibel, a narrow mountain-ridge
seventeen hundred feet high, running along the coast and abutting at
one end on the Passages harbour, at the other on the navigable mouth
of the Bidassoa. Offering no mark for attack, it was only guarded
by some Spaniards; but the small fort of Figueras, commanding the
entrance of the river at its foot, was garrisoned by seamen from the
naval squadron, and Fuenterabia, a walled place, also at its base, was
occupied.
The low ground between Fuenterabia and Irun was defended by large field
redoubts, connecting the Jaizquibel with some heights covering the
royal road to Oyarzun.
On the right of Irun, between Biriatu and the burned bridge of Behobia,
a sudden bend in the river presented the convex to the French, who thus
commanded the fords; but beyond those fords was a stiff and lofty
ridge, called San Marcial, terminating one of the great flanks of the
Peña de Haya. The water flowed round the left of this ridge, confining
the road from the Behobia bridge to Irun, one mile, to the narrow space
between the channel and the foot of the height; Irun itself, defended
by a field-work, blocked this way; and hence the French, after passing
the river, had to win San Marcial before they could use the great
road; but six thousand Spaniards occupied that strong ridge, which was
strengthened by abbattis and temporary field-works.
Behind Irun the first British division was posted under General Howard,
and Lord Aylmer’s brigade supported the left of the Spaniards.
San Marcial, receding from the river on the right, was exposed to an
enemy passing above Biriatu; but Longa’s Spaniards, drawn off from
those slopes of the Peña de Haya descending towards Vera, were posted
on those descending towards Biriatu, where they supported the right of
the Spaniards on San Marcial.
Eighteen thousand fighting men were thus in position, and as the fourth
division was still disposable, a Portuguese brigade was detached from
it to replace Longa near Vera, and cover the roads from that place over
the flanks of the Peña de Haya. The British brigades of that division
were stationed up the mountain, near the foundry of San Antonio,
commanding the intersection of the roads coming from Vera and Lesaca,
and furnishing a reserve to the Portuguese brigade, to Longa, and to
San Marcial--tying all together. The Portuguese brigade being however
too weak to guard the enormous slopes near Vera, Inglis’s brigade was
drawn from Echallar to reinforce it; yet the flanks of the Peña de Haya
were so rough and vast the troops seemed sprinkled rather than posted.
In the night of the 30th Soult placed his guns, and gave his orders.
Reille was to storm San Marcial, to leave a strong reserve there to
meet troops coming from Vera or descending the Peña de Haya, and with
the rest of his force drive the allies from ridge to ridge, until he
gained the slope of the mountain which descends upon Oyarzun. When
the royal road was thus opened, Foy’s infantry, with the cavalry and
artillery in one column, were to cross by bridges to be laid during the
fight.
To aid Reille’s progress and provide for a general concentration at
Oyarzun, Clausel was to make a simultaneous attack from Vera; not as
first designed, by driving the allies from Santa Barbara, but, leaving
one division and his guns to keep the light division in check, to
cross the river by fords just below the town of Vera and assail the
Portuguese brigade and Inglis, forcing his way upwards to the forge
of Antonio, from whence he was to fall down again on the rear of San
Marcial, or move on Oyarzun.
COMBAT OF SAN MARCIAL. (Aug. 1813.)
At daylight on the 31st, Reille forded the Bidassoa above Biriatu
with two divisions and two pieces of artillery, to seize a detached
ridge just under San Marcial. Leaving there one brigade as a reserve,
he detached another to attack the Spanish left, while in person he
assailed their right. The side of the mountain was covered with
brushwood and very steep, the French troops preserved no order, the
supports and skirmishers got mixed in one mass, and the charging
Spaniards drove them headlong down.
During this action two bridges were thrown below the fords, by which
Villatte’s reserve crossed and renewed the fight; one of his brigades
reached the chapel San Marcial above, and the left of the Spanish line
was shaken; but then the 85th, from Lord Aylmer’s brigade, advanced to
support, and at that moment Wellington rode up with all his staff. He
exhorted the Spaniards, and they, with a noble instinct which never
abandons the poor people of any country, acknowledged real greatness
without reference to nation; for, shouting in reply they dashed their
adversaries down with so much violence that many were driven into the
river, and some of the French pontoon boats coming to the succour
were overloaded and sunk. It was several hours before the broken and
confused masses could be rallied, or the bridges, which were broken
up to let the boats save the drowning men, be replaced. When that was
effected, Soult sent the whole of Villatte’s reserve over the river,
called up Foy, and prepared a better attack: with greater hope of
success, also, because Clausel was now making good way up the Peña de
Haya.
COMBAT OF VERA. (Aug. 1813.)
Clausel had descended the Bayonette and Commissari mountains at
daybreak in a thick fog, but at seven o’clock the weather cleared,
and three heavy columns were seen by the troops on Santa Barbara
making for the fords below Vera. A fourth column and the guns remained
stationary on the mountains, the artillery opening now and then upon
Vera, from which the picquets of the light division were recalled, with
the exception of one post in a fortified house commanding the bridge.
At eight o’clock the French passed the fords, covered by a fire of
artillery, but the first shells thrown fell into the midst of their own
ranks, and the British troops on Santa Barbara cheered their battery
with a derisive shout. Their march was however sure, and their light
troops, without knapsacks, soon commenced battle with the Portuguese
brigade, forcing it to retire up the mountain. Inglis fed his line of
skirmishers until the whole of his brigade was engaged, but Clausel
menaced his left flank from the lowest ford, and the French skirmishers
still forced their way upwards in front until the contending masses
disappeared fighting amidst the asperities of the Peña de la Haya. The
British lost two hundred and seventy men and twenty-two officers, and
were driven up to the fourth division at the foundry of San Antonio.
This fight, from the great height and asperity of the mountain,
occupied many hours, and it was past two o’clock before even the head
of Clausel’s column reached Antonio. Meanwhile, his reserve in front
of Santa Barbara made no movement, and as Wellington had directed the
light division to aid Inglis, a wing of the 43rd, three companies
of riflemen and three weak Spanish battalions, drawn from Echallar,
crossed the Bidassoa by the Lesaca bridge and marched towards some
lower slopes on the right of Inglis. This covered a knot of minor
communications coming from Lesaca and Vera, and the remainder of
Kempt’s brigade occupied Lesaca itself. Thus the chain of connection
and defence between Santa Barbara and the positions of the fourth
division on the Peña de la Haya was completed.
Clausel seeing these movements, thought the allies at Echallar and
Santa Barbara were only awaiting to take him in flank and rear by the
bridges of Vera and Lesaca, wherefore he abated his battle and informed
Soult of his views, and his opinion was well-founded. Wellington was
not a general to have half his army paralyzed by D’Erlon’s divisions in
the centre, and had on the 30th, when Soult first assembled in front
of San Marcial, ordered attacks to be made upon D’Erlon from Echallar,
Zagaramurdi and Maya; Hill also had been directed to show the heads of
columns towards St. Jean Pied de Port; and on the 31st, when the force
and direction of Clausel’s columns were known, the seventh division was
called to Lesaca.
Following these orders, Giron’s Spaniards skirmished on the 30th with
the advanced posts in front of Sarre, and next day the whole line was
assailed. Two Portuguese brigades drove the French from their camp
behind Urdax and burned it, but Abbé who commanded there, collecting
all his force on an intrenched position made strong battle and repulsed
the attack. Thus five combats besides the assault on Sebastian were
fought in one day at different points of the general line, and D’Erlon
who had lost three or four hundred men, seeing a fresh column coming
from Maya, as if to turn his left, judged that a great movement against
Bayonne was in progress and sent notice to Soult. He was mistaken.
Wellington only sought by these demonstrations to disturb the French
plan of attack, and the seventh division marched towards Lesaca.
D’Erlon’s despatch reached Soult at the same time that Clausel’s report
arrived. All his arrangements for a final attack on San Marcial were
then completed, but these reports and the ominous cannonade at San
Sebastian, plainly heard during the morning, induced him to abandon
this project and prepare to receive a general battle on the Nivelle.
In this view he sent Foy’s infantry and six troops of dragoons to
the heights of Serres, behind the Nivelle, as a support to D’Erlon,
and directed Clausel to repass the Bidassoa in the night, to leave a
division on the Bayonette mountain and join Foy at Serres.
Reille’s troops were not recalled from San Marcial and the battle
went on sharply; for the Spaniards continually detached men from the
crest to drive the French from the lower ridges into the river until
about four o’clock, when, their hardihood abating, they desired to be
relieved; but Wellington, careful of their glory, and seeing the French
attacks were exhausted, refused to relieve or aid them. It would not be
just to measure their valour by this fact; the English general blushed
while he called upon them to fight; knowing they had been previously
famished by their vile government, and that there were no hospitals to
receive, no care for them when wounded. The battle was however arrested
by a tempest, which commenced about three o’clock and raged for several
hours with wonderful violence, tearing huge branches from the trees,
and whirling them through the air like feathers on the howling winds,
while the thinnest streams swelling into torrents dashed down the
mountains, rolling innumerable stones along with a frightful clatter.
Amidst this turmoil and under cover of night the French re-crossed the
river at San Marcial.
Clausel’s retreat was more unhappy. The order to retire reached him
when the storm had put an end to all fighting, and he repassed the
fords in person before dark at the head of two brigades, ordering
General Vandermaesen to follow with the remainder of the troops.
Expecting no difficulty, he neglected to seize the bridge of Vera and
the fortified house covering it, occupying himself with suggesting new
projects to Soult. Meanwhile Vandermaesen’s situation became desperate.
Many of his soldiers were drowned by the rising waters, and finally,
unable to effect a passage at the fords, he marched up the stream to
seize the bridge of Vera, which Clausel should have done before. His
advanced guard surprised a corporal’s picquet and rushed over, but was
driven back by a rifle company posted in the fortified house. This
happened at three o’clock in the morning, and the riflemen defended
the passage until daylight, when a second company and some Portuguese
Caçadores came to their aid. But then the French reserve left at Vera,
seeing how matters stood, opened a fire of guns against the house from
a high rock just above, and their skirmishers approached it on the
right bank, while Vandermaesen plied his musketry from the left bank:
the two rifle captains and many men fell under this cross fire and the
passage was forced; but Vandermaesen, urging the attack in person, was
killed, and more than two hundred of his soldiers were hurt.
Meanwhile Soult, who was preparing a new attack on San Marcial, got
Rey’s report of the assault on San Sebastian, and also heard that
Hill was moving on the side of St. Jean Pied de Port. San Sebastian
was lost, an attempt to carry off the garrison of the castle would
cost five or six thousand men, and the whole army would be endangered
amongst the terrible asperities of the crowned mountain; for Wellington
could now throw his right and centre, thirty-five thousand men, upon
the French left during the action, and would be nearer to Bayonne
than their right when the battle was beyond the Lower Bidassoa. Three
thousand six hundred men had been lost, one general had been killed,
four wounded; a fresh attempt would be very dangerous, and serious
losses might cause an immediate invasion of France. Reflecting on these
things, he resolved to adopt defensive measures at once, for which
his vast knowledge of war, his foresight, his talent for methodical
arrangement, and his firmness of character, peculiarly fitted him.
Twelve battles or combats in seven weeks he had delivered to regain
the offensive, unsuccessfully; yet willing still to strive, he called
on Suchet to aid him, and demanded fresh orders from the emperor; but
Suchet helped him not, and Napoleon’s answer indicated at once his own
difficulties and his reliance upon the Duke of Dalmatia’s capacity and
fidelity. “_I have given you my confidence and can add neither to your
means nor to your instructions._”
In this straggling battle the loss of the allies had been one thousand
Anglo-Portuguese and sixteen hundred Spaniards: hence the cost of men
on the day, including the assault, exceeded five thousand; but the
battle in no manner disturbed the siege; the French army was powerless
against such strong positions.