Siege of the Col de Balaguer--A Reconnoitering Party--Raising
of the Siege of Tarragona--Lieutenant-General Sir John and Lady
Murray--Rear-Admiral Benjamin Hallowell--Viscount and Viscountess
Mahon--Palermo, Veniros; upset in a boat--Valencia--Holland.
Towards the end of May, 1813, embarking 300 men of the 67th Regiment,
under Colonel Prevost, an officer who had distinguished himself at the
battle of Barrosa, we sailed with the expedition from Alicant to lay
siege to the castle of the Col de Balaguer and the city of Tarragona.
The land forces, under the command of Lieut.-General Sir John Murray,
consisted of about 20,000 men, but, unfortunately, not more than 5000
were British and Germans, the rest being Spaniards and Sicilians. The
naval part was under the orders of that intelligent and indefatigable
officer, Rear-Admiral Benjamin Hallowell.
On the 3rd of June, when off the castle of the Col de Balaguer, the
whole of the 67th Regiment, with Rolle’s and Dillon’s, and a company of
artillery, making together about 900 men, were ordered to invest it.
The navy was placed under the command of the gallant Captain Charles
Adams, of the _Invincible_ (74), by whose great exertions the troops,
guns, and stores were soon landed, and who personally superintended
every difficult and dangerous undertaking during the siege. Captain
Carroll, of the _Volcano_, was landed to assist troops, and a more
intrepid and excellent officer could not have been selected.
The fortress was situated on a high hill, in a most difficult pass,
through which winds the main road from Tortosa to Tarragona. It was
armed with twelve heavy pieces, two ten-inch mortars, two howitzers,
and had a garrison of more than a hundred men. Its elevated position,
and surrounding heights, difficult of access, required the greatest
labour to drag up the guns and mortars necessary to establish our
batteries. No time, however, was to be lost; Marshal Suchet, with
10,000 men, being in full march from the neighbourhood of Valencia to
relieve it, and succour Tarragona.
After a siege of five days the place surrendered. I had the pleasure of
assisting, with a party of seamen, to form the mortar battery, which
was no sooner opened than the shells were thrown with such precision
by the artillery that an expense magazine was blown up in the castle,
which, just as our breaching battery was about to open, capitulated.
An artilleryman and myself had a most providential escape. Being very
busy placing sand bags on the battery, on the morning of the 8th, just
before day-break, down came three of the enemy’s shells. I ordered the
working party to get behind the sand bags, and lie flat on their faces
to avoid the splinters. One shell from an howitzer exploded behind us;
two ten-inch followed, one fell about a couple of yards in front of me
and the artilleryman, which made us both jump to get out of its way,
when down came the second on the other side of us. The man called out
very coolly--“I’ll be d---- if we are not done now!” After falling on
the ground both fuses went out, and, much to our satisfaction, the
shells, of course, did not explode.
Captain Stodart, of the _Strombolo_, a brave officer, was employed to
form the breaching battery, and Lieutenants Corbyn and P----, of H.M.S.
_Invincible_, worked like slaves with their party to drag the heavy
guns up hills, or what in England would be called mountains, by tackles
and purchases.
The commander of the French fort was perfectly astonished to see the
places the guns had been dragged up in so short a time; and Suchet, who
calculated upon its holding out ten days, was in a great rage when he
heard it had been taken in five. I have his address to his corps upon
the subject by me now, in which he informs his army “that a military
commission will sit upon the conduct of the commander of the fortress
of Balaguer.”
We had done our part, and were looking for intelligence from our army
before Tarragona with anxiety, as we could at night see the shells in
the air, and hear the firing on both sides.
Colonel Prevost, and Captain Charles Adam, of the _Invincible_,
thinking it advisable to make a reconnaissance towards Tortosa to
gain intelligence of the advance of the French marshal (for the
information we got from the Spaniards was so vague that we could place
no dependence upon it), on the morning of the 9th of June they,
in company with Lieutenant-Colonel Hamilton, Captain Arabin (Royal
Artillery), Captain Du Cane, of the 20th Light Dragoons, with four of
his men and myself, started from the castle we had taken, at three in
the morning, all well mounted, to try and get a peep into Tortosa,
about twenty miles from Balaguer, and where it was reported Suchet was
to arrive in the course of the day.
After a pleasant ride of about sixteen miles, and as we had just got
a glimpse of Tortosa, on reaching the summit of a hill we all at once
entered a serpentine road, surrounded by high banks and ravines, which
completely prevented our seeing beyond a short distance. Jogging on
quietly, we met an old Spanish woman thumping two mules past us as hard
as she could, calling out, “Los Franceses, los Franceses,” but not a
word more could we get out of the _signora_. We, therefore, rode on
to the next turn of the road, when, just at the corner, plump we came
upon the advance guard of the French army, a regiment of cuirassiers.
They for a moment stopped their horses, being as much surprised to see
us as we were to meet them. With one glance they saw who we were--out
came their carbines and swords--pop, pop, and a charge, which knocked
over one of our dragoons, and “_sauve qui peut_,” or the devil take the
hindmost, became the order of the day. Away we scampered--they after
us, with a regular view halloa, and a flourish of French fashionable
words, but not of the most select phraseology. Reader, if you wish
to know them, I refer you to the scene of Madame Rambouillet and
the Novice in Sterne’s “Sentimental Journey.” After a capital gallop
of four miles, we regularly beat them, with the loss of only one of
our party, who in the charge was knocked head over heels and taken
prisoner. Luckily for us we had left a corporal’s guard of the 20th
Light Dragoons about four miles in our rear upon a steep eminence,
which commanded a good view of part of the road. The corporal, seeing
how matters stood, and that we were coming back a deuced deal faster
than we went, with a French regiment of cavalry after us, very cleverly
came trotting up, and showed himself at the top of the hill with his
men. The enemy, thinking we had a strong body of cavalry there, pulled
up their horses and gave over the chase.
Our ride had not been for nothing--we had had a good gallop, and found
out where our neighbours were, who towards evening drove in our picket
of dragoons, and established themselves not far from us.
News was immediately sent to Lieutenant-General Sir John Murray,
who was before Tarragona, of the arrival of the French army in our
neighbourhood.
Our situation was strong, and having the castle, which commanded the
road, neither cannon nor cavalry could pass from Tortosa. Marshal
Suchet came the next day and had a peep at the fortress, sent some
light troops across the mountains to feel us, and halted his army a few
miles off.
Lieutenant-General Sir John Murray, as I said before, had nearly
20,000 men, but, unfortunately for him, only 5000 were British and
Germans--the rest Spaniards and Sicilians, on whom he could place no
dependence in the hour of need--otherwise no general ever had a better
opportunity of beating a divided army.
We had stopped Suchet, with his 10,000 men, from advancing on the
Valencia side by the capture of the castle of Col de Balaguer:
therefore he would only have had to cope with the Barcelona corps of
8000, and the Lerida of 2000 men, so that, after leaving a sufficient
number of men to carry on the siege for a day or two, which the
rear-admiral even offered to do with the sailors and marines alone, he
might have beaten the enemy in detail. I am speaking, supposing he had
had 16,000 or 20,000 British or German soldiers; but really with such a
set, strong in point of numbers, but wanting the vigour and bottom of
English troops, it certainly would have been running a great risk, and
he had not the nerve to attempt it.
Great blame was attached to the general for embarking in such a hurry,
and leaving his guns and stores behind. The gallant, clever naval chief
felt it most severely, fearing lest any blame should be attached to
him for not taking on board the stores and artillery: he, therefore,
remonstrated very warmly upon the subject, but it was in vain.
The whole may be summed up in a few words. Marshal Suchet retired to
Tortosa--the Lerida corps back to their old quarters--the Barcelona
retrograded also--the Anglo-Spanish and Sicilian army embarked in a
hurry--we blew up the castle of Balaguer that had been taken--the
French garrison of Tarragona sallied forth, took all our battering
train and stores, which we had been collecting, at a great expense, for
months before, into the town, and played checkmate with the guns that
had taken Badajos, for it was the same train. In short, all the troops
ran away from each other the same day.
No sooner was the army embarked than the commander of the forces,
learning that the French corps had retired, requested they might be
re-landed the next day, which was complied with, but it was then too
late--we had lost our battering guns and stores, and nothing could be
done.
Lieutenant-General Lord William Bentinck arrived shortly afterwards,
the troops were again embarked, and I was ordered to proceed to Alicant
and take on board Sir John and Lady Murray, and convey them to Palermo,
he being appointed to the command of the forces there.
I found the Honourable Lady John Murray a most agreeable, clever,
sensible, pleasant woman, and Lieutenant-General Sir John Murray a
very amiable man in private life, and although much condemned at the
time for not fighting Marshal Suchet and taking Tarragona, yet neither
those who had the command of the army previous to him, nor General Lord
William Bentinck, who took the command of the troops from Sir John
Murray, gained more laurels or succeeded much better than he did.
To move and manage a Spanish army in those days was next to an
impossibility. They were too proud to be taught, and too ignorant and
obstinate to do anything of themselves.
Having landed my passengers at Palermo, I embarked three hundred of the
44th Regiment to join the army of Lord William Bentinck on the coast
of Catalonia. I met at the above city Viscount and Viscountess Mahon,
with their two children, fine boys of ten and eleven years’ old. His
lordship wished to go to Minorca, and, as we had orders to touch there,
I had much pleasure in giving them a passage.
On our arrival at Port Mahon we were placed under quarantine, which
prevented my landing Lord and Lady Mahon and family. The accommodation
being not suited to ladies at the lazaretto, I was delighted when my
amiable passengers made up their minds to remain on board.
Having received orders to proceed to the coast of Catalonia with the
troops, we sailed at the end of August for the mouth of the river
Ebro, but, not finding the expedition there, we shaped our course for
Tarragona, and on the 4th of September joined the admiral, who directed
me to land the 44th Regiment at Villa Nova. The town of Villa Nova and
the village of Veneros nearly join. There is an open roadstead for
ships, and the winds from the S.E. to S.W. throw in a heavy swell upon
the bar and beach. The holding ground is good, and numerous vessels
during many parts of the year arrive for the purpose of shipping wine,
which is either rafted off or taken on board in the country boats.
The wine is most excellent, and of different kinds, both white and
red. The latter is so good, and so much resembles port, that when I
was there ten ships and brigs were lying in the roads taking it in,
to be landed at Oporto, and converted into port wine for the English
market. I was informed that there were annually sent from this place
to Portugal ten thousand pipes. Another very pleasant wine there was,
“Alba Flora,” besides sweet wines of various kinds, one of which had
the sparkling qualities of champagne.
It had been blowing strong from the southward previous to our arrival,
and the swell had not gone down.
Between the ships and the landing-place was a bar, on which the sea
broke with great violence, and which boats had to pass. Those belonging
to the country being well calculated for going through the breakers,
and whose crews were acquainted with the place, dashed through the surf
extremely well.
I thought that by following them in my shell of a gig, and waiting for
a smooth, after three successive waves had broken upon the bar, I might
get safe also; but I was soon taught a different lesson--the sea was
more nimble than the gig, and although the men pulled to the utmost
to go faster than the breakers, yet they beat us hollow, and taking
the boat up on one of their white tops, spun us over in a moment.
Fortunately we had not far to swim, and as soon as the waves had beaten
us over the bar we got into quite smooth water, when, sticking to the
boat and oars, we soon reached the shore, though not without a precious
good ducking. We had, unfortunately, the viscountess’s poor abigail in
the boat, who never before had had such a swim in salt water, so it was
something new to her, and gave her an opportunity of adding a paragraph
to her letter when she wrote home, describing her foreign travels by
sea, land, and _under the water_. She was nearly drowned, poor thing!
but keeping her on her back we swam with her ashore. She was carried to
a Spanish house, wrapped up in blankets, where a few drops of comfort
in the shape of brandy, and some hours’ repose, made her as lively as a
lark again.
By the way of drying myself, and getting the salt water out of me, I
mounted a mule, and rode to Villa Franca, the head-quarters of our
army, distant about thirteen miles, to see some old military friends.
The country around was very pretty, and we had a fine view of the
celebrated Mount Serrat, rising from a plain in numerous mountains and
spires,[L] with convents upon them; but the whole of that part of the
country was forbidden ground, being occupied by the French army. On my
return in the evening I visited my water-nymph, and was happy to find
her quite recovered from the severe morning’s ducking. I offered to
take her off again with me in the gig, which she, like a wise woman,
declined; being a novice in the art of swimming, and not liking the
first lesson I gave her, she preferred returning to the ship next day
in a country boat. The day having turned out fine, the swell towards
evening had somewhat gone down, though it was still so great that I was
nearly swamped going back to the ship.
On taking leave of the gallant Rear-Admiral Benjamin Hallowell next
day, he gave me a letter of thanks, and did me the honour to say he was
sorry to part with me; the regrets were mutual, for it was a pleasure
to be under the command of an officer of his abilities and experience.
He has not many months ago paid the debt of nature, full of years and
honours, beloved and respected by all who knew him, and generally
regretted by the service. He was one of those
“Who take them for all in all,
We ne’er (I fear), shall see their like again.”
Such men as Lords Howe, Duncan, St. Vincent, Nelson, Saumarez, Keats,
Hallowell, &c., are not mushrooms of a day’s growth, but the experience
of a long and hazardous service in all parts of the world had braced
their nerves and trained their minds to the task, which they performed
with such _credit_ to themselves and _honour and glory to their
country_.
On the 8th September we sailed from this anchorage for Tarragona, which
place the French had evacuated, having first destroyed most of the guns
and blown up part of the fortifications. Everything looked miserable
and wretched in the extreme. Many of the houses were knocked to pieces,
and the poor inhabitants, returning back to view the birthplaces of
themselves and ancestors, found them reduced to a heap of ruins. I rode
with my agreeable passengers to Reus, the second largest town in the
province of Catalonia, where we dined after the Spanish fashion upon
olla podrida, and other messes, stuffed full of garlic and bad oil.
After walking about the town, and looking at a handsome church, the
windows of which were of stained glass, we returned on board and sailed
for Valencia. The peasantry of this province and of Catalonia are as
fine a race of men as I ever saw in any country--tall, strong, and well
made.
On the 15th September we anchored off the Grao de Valencia, and the
next morning communicated with our consul according to orders, and
landed Viscount and Viscountess Mahon and family, who took up their
abode with Mr. Tupper, our representative, who was very civil and
polite, and showed us the lions of the city. The cathedral was very
fine, from the top of which we had a most magnificent view of a very
fertile valley, producing rice, maize, flax, and other grain, besides
almond and vine trees, the latter covered with beautiful purple and
white grapes.
A small river runs past Valencia, over which are two tolerably fine
stone bridges. We had a view also of the lake of Albufera, from which
the French marshal, Suchet, derives his dukedom.
Valencia is one of the best towns I have seen in Spain, and the road
from the grao, or beach, is extremely pretty, having trees planted
on each side, to afford shelter from the sun. Neat little thatched
cottages, scattered here and there, put me for a short time in mind of
England.
After dinner at the consul’s, which was served up in the Spanish
style, we went to the opera, and sat in a box with some pretty Spanish
ladies, friends of Mr. Tupper. The opera was in honour of the Marquis
of Wellington. It represented the Spaniards driving the Moors out of
Spain; afterwards we had a fandango, and the whole concluded with a
farce, the subject taken from Gil Blas, where he entertains at supper
the sycophant.
Having re-embarked Viscount and Viscountess Mahon, I sailed for Altea
Bay to complete our water. Altea has an export trade of almonds and
raisins; several vessels during the summer and autumn months call there
for a cargo. The anchorage is good, and sheltered from most winds,
except those from south-east by east to south-south-west, which seldom
blow direct on shore. I rode out several heavy gales there in the
frigate I commanded, by giving her nearly two cables.
From this place we proceeded to Alicant, where we landed some stores
for the garrison; and after showing the Viscount and his amiable lady
the celebrated castle, we went to Gibraltar, where we unfortunately
found the yellow fever raging to that degree amongst the inhabitants,
that all intercourse was forbidden. The garrison was encamped on Europe
Point, for the benefit of more air.
On the 5th October we sailed for England, touching at Lisbon on our
way, and after a stormy passage of three weeks anchored in Plymouth
Sound, from which place we were sent to the Motherbank to perform three
weeks’ quarantine. On the 20th of November we moved to Spithead, where
I landed my most agreeable and pleasant passengers with very great
regret. I had had them on board for more than three months, so that my
cabin felt quite a desert without their society.
After being detained at Portsmouth a few days, we proceeded to the
Downs, and on the 14th December between six and seven hundred of His
Majesty’s 37th and 56th Regiments were sent on board, with orders
from Admiral Foley for me to land them at Goree, or the Brill, or
Helveot Sluys; but owing to the winds and tide we were unable to fetch
either. I therefore anchored off Schevelling, and communicated with our
ambassador, Lord Clancarty, at the Hague, who desired the troops to be
landed at the village of Schevelling. His excellency wishing to see me
at the Hague, I went there to wait upon his lordship.
The little I was enabled to see of Dutchland, gave me a favourable
opinion of the cleanliness of its people; and the neat pretty cottages
from the beach to the city struck me as being particularly picturesque.
Schevelling itself is nothing but a fishing place amongst sand hills;
but the town of the Hague was neat, and in summer must be a pleasant
place. But as the severe winter of 1813 was just commencing, I was
obliged to hurry off from the coast as fast as possible, for fear of
being caught upon a lee shore.
On our passage back to the Downs, the two branch pilots very nearly ran
the ship upon the Galloper Sands in a fog, which obliged us to anchor
off the light for a tide. The next day, however, we arrived safely in
the Downs, and from thence we were sent to Sheerness to be docked and
refitted.