History of the war in the Peninsula and in the south of France from the year 1807 to the year 1814, vol. 6

by William Francis Patrick Napier

CHAPTER II.

Soult having lost the Nivelle, at first designed to1813. November. leave part of his forces in the entrenched camp of Bayonne, and with the remainder take a flanking position behind the Nive, half-way between Bayonne and St. Jean Pied de Port, securing his left by the entrenched mountain of Ursouia, and his right on the heights above Cambo, the bridge-head of which would give him the power of making offensive movements. He could thus keep his troops together and restore their confidence, while he confined the allies to a small sterile district of France between the river and the sea, and rendered their situation very uneasy during the winter if they did not retire. However he soon modified this plan. The works of the Bayonne camp were not complete and his presence was necessary to urge their progress. The camp on the Ursouia mountain had been neglected contrary to his orders, and the bridge-head at Cambo was only commenced on the right bank. On the left it was indeed complete but constructed on a bad trace. Moreover he found that the Nive in dry weather was fordable at Ustaritz below Cambo, and at many places above that point. Remaining therefore at Bayonne himself with six divisions and Villatte’s reserve, he sent D’Erlon with three divisions to reinforce Foy at Cambo. Yet neither D’Erlon’s divisions nor Soult’s whole army could have stopped lord Wellington at this time if other circumstances had permitted the latter to follow up his victory as he designed.

The hardships and privations endured on the mountains by the Anglo-Portuguese troops had been beneficial to them as an army. The fine air and the impossibility of the soldiers committing their usual excesses in drink had rendered them unusually healthy, while the facility of enforcing a strict discipline, and their natural impatience to win the fair plains spread out before them, had raised their moral and physical qualities in a wonderful degree. Danger was their sport, and their experienced general in the prime and vigour of life was as impatient for action as his soldiers. Neither the works of the Bayonne camp nor the barrier of the Nive, suddenly manned by a beaten and dispirited army, could have long withstood the progress of such a fiery host, and if Wellington could have let their strength and fury loose in the first days succeeding the battle of the Nivelle France would have felt his conquering footsteps to her centre. But the country at the foot of the Pyrenees is a deep clay, quite impassable after rain except by the royal road near the coast and that of St. Jean Pied de Port, both of which were in the power of the French. On the bye-roads the infantry sunk to the mid leg, the cavalry above the horses’ knees, and even to the saddle-girths in some places. The artillery could not move at all. The rain had commenced on the 11th, the mist in the early part of the 12th had given Soult time to regain his camp and secure the high road to St. Jean Pied de Port, by which his troops easily gained their proper posts on the Nive, while his adversary fixed in the swamps could only make the ineffectual demonstration at Ustaritz and Cambo already noticed.

Wellington uneasy for his right flank while the French commanded the Cambo passage across the Nive directed general Hill to menace it again on the 16th. Foy had received orders to preserve the bridge-head on the right bank in any circumstances, but he was permitted to abandon the work on the left bank in the event of a general attack; however at Hill’s approach the officer placed there in command destroyed all the works and the bridge itself. This was a great cross to Soult, and the allies’ flank being thus secured they were put into cantonments to avoid the rain, which fell heavily. The bad weather was however not the only obstacle to the English general’s operations. On the very day of the battle Freyre’s and Longa’s soldiers entering Ascain pillaged it and murdered several persons; the next day the whole of the Spanish troops continued these excesses in various places, and on the right Mina’s battalions, some of whom were also in a state of mutiny, made a plundering and murdering incursion from the mountains towards Hellette. The Portuguese and British soldiers of the left wing had commenced the like outrages and two French persons were killed in one town, however the adjutant-general Pakenham arriving at the moment saw and instantly put the perpetrators to death thus nipping this wickedness in the bud, but at his own risk for legally he had not that power. This general whose generosity humanity and chivalric spirit excited the admiration of every honourable person who approached him, is the man who afterwards fell at New Orleans and who has been so foully traduced by American writers. He who was pre-eminently distinguished by his detestation of inhumanity and outrage has been with astounding falsehood represented as instigating his troops to the most infamous excesses. But from a people holding millions of their fellow-beings in the most horrible slavery while they prate and vaunt of liberty until all men turn with loathing from the sickening folly, what can be expected?

Terrified by these excesses the French people fled even from the larger towns, but Wellington quickly relieved their terror. On the 12th, although expecting a battle, he put to death all the Spanish marauders he could take in the act, and then with many reproaches and despite of the discontent of their generals, forced the whole to withdraw into their own country. He disarmed the insubordinate battalions under Mina, quartered Giron’s Andalusians in the Bastan where O’Donnel resumed the command; sent Freyre’s Gallicians to the district between Irun and Ernani, and Longa over the Ebro. Morillo’s division alone remained with the army. These decisive proceedings marking the lofty character of the man proved not less politic than resolute. The French people immediately returned, and finding the strictest discipline preserved and all things paid for adopted an amicable intercourse with the invaders. However the loss of such a mass of troops and the effects of weather on the roads reduced the army for the moment to a state of inactivity; the head-quarters were suddenly fixed at St. Jean de Luz, and the troops were established in permanent cantonments with the following line of battle.

The left wing occupied a broad ridge on bothPlan 7. sides of the great road beyond Bidart, the principal post being at a mansion belonging to the mayor of Biaritz. The front was covered by a small stream spreading here and there into large ponds or tanks between which the road was conducted. The centre posted partly on the continuation of this ridge in front of Arcangues, partly on the hill of San Barbe, extended by Arrauntz to Ustaritz, the right being thrown back to face count D’Erlon’s position, extended by Cambo to Itzassu. From this position which might stretch about six miles on the front and eight miles on the flank, strong picquets were pushed forwards to several points, and the infantry occupied all the villages and towns behind as far back as Espelette, Suraide, Ainhoa, San Pé, Sarre, and Ascain. One regiment of Vandeleur’s cavalry was with the advanced post on the left, the remainder were sent to Andaya and Urogne, Victor Alten’s horsemen were about San Pé, and the heavy cavalry remained in Spain.

In this state of affairs the establishment of the different posts in front led to several skirmishes. In one on the 18th, general John Wilson and general Vandeleur were wounded; but on the same day Beresford drove the French from the bridge of Urdains, near the junction of the Ustaritz and San Pé roads, and though attacked in force the next day he maintained his acquisition. A more serious action occurred on the 23d in front of Arcangues. This village held by the picquets of the light division was two or three miles in front of Arbonne where the nearest support was cantoned. It is built on the centre of a crescent-shaped ridge, and the sentries of both armies were so close that the reliefs and patroles actually passed each other in their rounds, so that a surprise was inevitable if it suited either side to attempt it. Lord Wellington visited this post and the field-officer on duty made known to him its disadvantages, and the means of remedying them by taking entire possession of the village, pushing picquets along the horns of the crescent, and establishing a chain of posts across the valley between them. He appeared satisfied with this project, and two days afterwards the forty-third and some of the riflemen were employed to effect it, the greatest part of the division being brought up in support. The French after a few shots abandoned Arcangues, Bussussary, and both horns of the crescent, retiring before the picquets to a large fortified house situated at the mouth of the valley. The project suggested by the field-officer was thus executed with the loss of only five men wounded and the action should have ceased, but the picquets of the forty-third suddenly received orders to attack the fortified house, and the columns of support were shewn at several points of the semicircle; the French then conceiving they were going to be seriously assailed reinforced their post; a sharp skirmish ensued and the picquets were finally withdrawn to the ground they had originally gained and beyond which they should never have been pushed. This ill-managed affair cost eighty-eight men and officers of which eighty were of the forty-third.

Lord Wellington, whose powerful artillery and cavalry, the former consisting of nearly one hundred field-pieces and the latter furnishing more than eight thousand six hundred sabres, were paralysedOriginal Morning States, MSS. in the contracted space he occupied, was now anxious to pass the Nive, but the rain which continued to fall baffled him, and meanwhile Mina’s Spaniards descending once more from the Alduides to plunder Baigorry were beaten by the national guards of that valley. However early in December the weatherDecember. amended, forty or fifty pieces of artillery were brought up, and other preparations made to surprize or force the passage of the Nive at Cambo and Ustaritz. And as this operation led to sanguinary battles it is fitting first to describe the exact position of the French.

Bayonne situated at the confluence of the NivePlans 7 and 8. and the Adour commands the passage of both. A weak fortress of the third order its importance was in its position, and its entrenched camp, exceedingly strong and commanded by the fortress could not be safely attacked in front, wherefore Soult kept only six divisions there. His right composed of Reille’s two divisions and Villatte’s reserve touched on the Lower Adour where there was a flotilla of gun-boats. It was covered by a swamp and artificial inundation, through which the royal road led to St. Jean de Luz, and the advanced posts, well entrenched, were pushed forward beyond Anglet on this causeway. His left under Clauzel, composed of three divisions, extended from Anglet to the Nive; it was covered partly by the swamp, partly by the large fortified house which the light division assailed on the 23d, partly by an inundation spreading below Urdains towards the Nive. Thus entrenched the fortified outposts may be called the front of battle, the entrenched camp the second line, and the fortress the citadel. The country in front a deep clay soil, enclosed and covered with small wood and farm-houses, was very difficult to move in.

Beyond the Nive the entrenched camp stretching from that river to the Adour was called the front of Mousseroles. It was in the keeping of D’Erlon’s four divisions, which were also extended up the right bank of the Nive; that is to say, D’Armagnac’s troops was in front of Ustaritz, and Foy prolonged the line to Cambo. The remainder of D’Erlon’s corps was in reserve, occupying a strong range of heights about two miles in front of Mousseroles, the right at Villefranque on the Nive, the left at Old Moguerre towards the Adour. D’Erlon’s communications with the rest of the army were double, one circuitous through Bayonne, the other direct by a bridge of boats thrown above that place.

After the battle of the Nivelle Soult brought general Paris’s division from St. Jean Pied de Port to Lahoussoa close under the Ursouia mountain, where it was in connection with Foy’s left, communicating by the great road to St. Jean Pied de Port which ran in a parallel direction to the river.

The Nive, the Adour, and the Gave de Pau which falls into the latter many miles above Bayonne, were all navigable, the first as far as Ustaritz, the second to Dax, the third to Peyrehorade, and the great French magazines were collected at the two latter places. But the army was fed with difficulty, and hence to restrain Soult from the country beyond the Nive, to intercept his communications with St. Jean Pied de Port, to bring a powerful cavalry into activity, and to obtain secret intelligence from the interior of Spain were Wellington’s inducements to force a passage over the Nive. Yet to place the troops on both sides of a navigable river with communications bad at all times and subject to entire interruptions from rain; to do this in face of an army possessing short communications good roads and entrenched camps for retreat, was a delicate and dangerous operation.

On the 7th orders were issued for forcing the passage on the 9th. On that day sir John Hope and Charles Alten, with the first, fifth, and light divisions, the unattached brigades of infantry, Vandeleur’sOriginal States, MSS. cavalry and twelve guns, in all about twenty-four thousand combatants, were to drive back the French advanced posts along the whole front of the entrenched camp between the Nive and the sea. This movement was partly to examine the course of the Lower Adour with a view to subsequent operations, but principally to make Soult discover his dispositions of defence on that side, and to keep his troops in check while Beresford and Hill crossed the Nive. To support this double operation the fourth and seventh divisions were secretly brought up from Ascain and Espelette on the 8th, the latter to the hill of St. Barbe, from whence it detached one brigade to relieve the posts of the third division. There remained the second the third and the sixth divisions, Hamilton’s Portuguese, and Morillo’s Spaniards, for the passage. Beresford leading the third and sixth reinforced with six guns and a squadron of cavalry, was to cross at Ustaritz with pontoons, Hill having the second division, Hamilton’s Portuguese, Vivian’s and Victor Alten’s cavalry, and fourteen guns, was to ford the river at Cambo and Larressore. Both generals were then to repair the bridges at these respective points with materials prepared beforehand; and to cover Hill’s movement on the right and protect the valley of the Nive from Paris, who being at Lahoussoa might have penetrated to the rear of the army during the operations, Morillo’s Spaniards were to cross at Itzassu. At this time Foy’s division was extended from Halzou in front of Larressore, to the fords above Cambo, the Ursouia mountain being between his left and Paris. The rest of D’Erlon’s troops remained on the heights of Moguerre in front of Mousserolles.

PASSAGE OF THE NIVE
AND
BATTLES IN FRONT OF BAYONNE.

At Ustaritz the French had broken both bridges, but the island connecting them was in possession of the British. Beresford laid his pontoons down onPlans 7 and 8. the hither side in the night of the 8th and in the morning of the 9th a beacon lighted on the heights above Cambo gave the signal of attack. The passage was immediately forced under the fire of the artillery, the second bridge was laid, and D’Armagnac’s brigade was driven back by the sixth division; but the swampy nature of the country between the river and the high road retarded the allies’ march and gave the French time to retreat with little loss. At the same time Hill’s troops, also covered by the fire of artillery, forced the passage in three columns above and below Cambo with slight resistance, though the fords were so deep that several horsemen were drowned, and the French strongly posted, especially at Halzou where there was a deep and strong mill-race to cross as well as the river.

Foy seeing, by the direction of Beresford’s fire, that his retreat was endangered, retired hastily with his left leaving his right wing under general Berlier at Halzou without orders. Hence when general Pringle attacked the latter from Larressore, the sixth division was already on the high road between Foy and Berlier, who escaped by cross roads towards Hasparen, but did not rejoin his division until two o’clock in the afternoon. Meanwhile Morillo crossed at Itzassu, and Paris retired to Hellette where he was joined by a regiment of light cavalry belonging to Pierre Soult who was then on the Bidouse river. Morillo followed, and in one village near Hellette his troops killed fifteen peasants, amongst them several women and children.

General Hill having won the passage, placed a brigade of infantry at Urcurray to cover the bridge of Cambo, and to support the cavalry which he despatched to scour the roads towards Lahoussoa, St. Jean Pied de Port, and Hasparen, and to observe Paris and Pierre Soult. With the rest of his troops he marched to the heights of Lormenthoa in front of the hills of Moguerre and Villefranque, and was there joined by the sixth division, the third remaining to cover the bridge of Ustaritz. It was now about one o’clock, and Soult, coming hastily from Bayonne, approved of the disposition made by D’Erlon, and offered battle, his line being extended so as to bar the high road. D’Armagnac’s brigade which had retired from Ustaritz was now in advance at Villefranque and a heavy cannonade and skirmish ensued along the front, but no general attack was made because the deep roads had retarded the rear of Hill’s columns. However the Portuguese of the sixth division, descending from Lormenthoa about three o’clock, drove D’Armagnac’s brigade with sharp fighting and after one repulse out of Villefranque. A brigade of the second division was then established in advance connecting Hill’s corps with the troops in Villefranque. Thus three divisions of infantry, wanting the brigade left at Urcurray, hemmed up four French divisions; and as the latter, notwithstanding their superiority of numbers, made no advantage of the broken movements of the allies caused by the deep roads, the passage of the Nive may be judged a surprize. Wellington thus far overreached his able adversary, yet he had not trusted to this uncertain chance alone.

The French masses falling upon the heads of his columns at Lormenthoa while the rear was still labouring in the deep roads, might have caused some disorder, but could not have driven either Hill or Beresford over the river again, because the third division was close at hand to reinforce the sixth, and the brigade of the seventh, left at San Barbe, could have followed by the bridge of Ustaritz, thus giving the allies the superiority of numbers. The greatest danger was, that Paris, reinforced by Pierre Soult’s cavalry, should have returned and fallen either upon Morillo or the brigade left at Urcurray in the rear, while Soult, reinforcing D’Erlon with fresh divisions brought from the other side of the Nive, attacked Hill and Beresford in front. It was to prevent this that Hope and Alten whose operations are now to be related pressed the enemy on the left bank.

The first-named general having twelve miles to march from St. Jean de Luz before he could reach the French works, put his troops in motion during the night, and about eight o’clock passed between the tanks in front of Barrouilhet with his right, while his left descended from the platform of Bidart and crossed the valley towards Biaritz. The French outposts retired fighting, and Hope sweeping with a half circle to his right, and being preceded by the fire of his guns and many skirmishers, arrived in front of the entrenched camp about one o’clock. His left then rested on the Lower Adour, his centre menaced a very strong advanced work on the ridge of Beyris beyond Anglet, and his right was in communication with Alten. That general having a shorter distance to move, halted about Bussussary and Arcangues until Hope’s fiery crescent was closing on the French camp, and then he also advanced, but with the exception of a slight skirmish at the fortified house there was no resistance. Three divisions, some cavalry, and the unattached brigades, equal to a fourth division, sufficed therefore to keep six French divisions in check on this side.

When evening closed the allies fell back towards their original positions, but under heavy rain, and with great fatigue to Hope’s wing, for even the royal road was knee-deep of mud and his troops were twenty-four hours under arms. The whole day’s fighting cost about eight hundred men for each side, the loss of the allies being rather greater on the left bank of the Nive than on the right.

Wellington’s wings being now divided by the Nive the French general resolved to fall upon one of them with the whole of his forces united; and misled by the prisoners who assured him that the third and fourth divisions were both on the heights of Lormenthoa, he resolved, being able to assemble his troops with greater facility on the left of the Nive where also the allies’ front was most extended, to choose that side for his counter-stroke. The garrison of Bayonne was eight thousand strong, partly troops of the line partly national guards, with which he ordered the governor to occupy the entrenched camp of Mousserolles; then stationing ten gun-boats on the Upper Adour to watch that river as high as the confluence of the Gave de Pau, he made D’Erlon file his four divisions over the bridge of boats between the fortress and Mousserolles, directing him to gain the camp of Marac and take post behind Clauzel’s corps on the other side of the river. He thus concentrated nine divisions of infantry and Villatte’sImperial Muster-rolls, MSS. reserve, a brigade of cavalry and forty guns, furnishing in all about sixty thousand combatants, including conscripts, to assail a quarter where the allies, although stronger by one division than theOriginal Morning States. French general imagined, had yet only thirty thousand infantry with twenty-four pieces of cannon.

The French marshal’s first design was to burst with his whole army on the table-land of BussussaryCorrespondence with the minister of war, MSS. and Arcangues, and then to act as circumstances should dictate; and he judged so well of his position that he desired the minister of war to expect good news for the next day. Indeed the situation of the allies although better than he knew of gave him some right to anticipate success. On no point was there any expectation of this formidable counter-attack. Lord Wellington was on the left of the Nive preparing to assault the heights where he had last seen the French the evening before. Hope’s troops, with the exception of Wilson’s Portuguese now commanded by general Campbell and posted at Barrouilhet, had retired to their cantonments; the first division was at St. Jean de Luz and Ciboure more than six miles distant from the outposts; the fifth division was between those places and Bidart, and all exceedingly fatigued. The light division had orders to retire from Bussussary to Arbonne a distance of four miles, and part of the second brigade had already marched, when fortunately general Kempt, somewhat suspicious of the enemy’s movements, delayed obedience until he could see what was going on in his front, he thus as the event proved saved the position.

The extraordinary difficulty of moving through the country even for single horsemen, the numerous enclosures and copses which denied any distinct view, the easy success of the operation to cross the Nive, and a certain haughty confidence the sure attendant of a long course of victory, seems to have rendered the English general at this time somewhat negligent of his own security. Undoubtedly the troops were not disposed as if a battle was expected. The general position, composed of two distinct parts was indeed very strong; the ridge of Barrouilhet could only be attacked along the royal road on a narrow front between the tanks, and he had directed entrenchments to be made; but there was only one brigade there, and a road made with difficulty by the engineers supplied a bad flank communication with the light division. This Barrouilhet ridge was prolonged to the platform of Bussussary, but in its winding bulged out too near the enemy’s works in the centre to be safely occupied in force, and behind it there was a deep valley or basin extending to Arbonne.

The ridge of Arcangues on the other side of this basin was the position of battle for the centre. Three tongues of land shot out from this part to the front, and the valleys between them as well as their slopes were covered with copse-woods almost impenetrable. The church of Arcangues, a gentleman’s house, and parts of the village, furnished rallying points of defence for the picquets, which were necessarily numerous because of the extent of front. At this time the left-hand ridge or tongue of land was occupied by the fifty-second regiment which had also posts in the great basin separating the Arcangues position from that of Barrouilhet; the central tongue was held by the picquets of the forty-third with supporting companies placed in succession towards Bussussary, where was an open common across which troops in retreat would have to pass to the church of Arcangues. The third tongue was guarded, partly by the forty-third, partly by the riflemen, but the valley between was not occupied, and the picquets on the extreme right extended to an inundation, across a narrow part of which, near the house of the senator Garrat, there was a bridge: the facility for attack was there however small.

One brigade of the seventh division continued this line of posts to the Nive, holding the bridge of Urdains, the rest of the division was behind San Barbe and belonged rather to Ustaritz than to this front. The fourth division was several miles behind the right of the light division.

In this state of affairs if Soult had, as he first designed, burst with his whole army upon Bussussary and Arcangues it would have been impossible for the light division, scattered as it was over such an extent of difficult ground, to have stopped him for half an hour; and there was no support within several miles, no superior officer to direct the concentration of the different divisions. Lord Wellington had indeed ordered all the line to be entrenched, but the works were commenced on a great scale, and, as is common when danger does not spur, the soldiers had laboured so carelessly that beyond a few abbatis, the tracing of some lines and redoubts, and the opening of a road of communication, the ground remained in its natural state. The French general would therefore quickly have gained the broad open hills beyond Arcangues, separated the fourth and seventh divisions from the light division, and cut them off from Hope. Soult however, in the course of the night, for reasons which I do not find stated, changed his project, and at day-break Reille marched with Boyer’s and Maucune’s divisions, Sparre’s cavalry and from twenty to thirty guns against Hope by the main road. He was followed by Foy and Villatte, but Clauzel assembled his troops under cover of the ridges near the fortified house in front of Bussussary, and one of D’Erlon’s divisions approached the bridge of Urdains.

Combat of the 10th.—A heavy rain fell in the night yet the morning broke fair, and soon after dawn the French infantry were observed by the picquets of the forty-third pushing each other about as if at gambols, yet lining by degrees the nearest ditches; a general officer was also seen behind a farm-house close to the sentinels, and at the same time the heads of columns could be perceived in the rear. Thus warned some companies of the forty-third were thrown on the right into the basin to prevent the enemy from penetrating that way to the small plain between Bussussary and Arcangues. General Kempt was with the picquets, and his foresight in delaying his march to Arbonne now saved the position, for he immediately placed the reserves of his brigade in the church and mansion-house of Arcangues. Meanwhile the French breaking forth with loud cries, and a rattling musquetry, fell at a running pace upon the picquets of the forty-third both on the tongue and in the basin, and a cloud of skirmishers descending on their left, penetrating between them and the fifty-second regiment, sought to turn both. The right tongue was in like manner assailed and at the same time the picquets at the bridge near Garrat’s house were driven back.

The assault was so strong and rapid, the enemy so numerous, and the ground so extensive, that it would have been impossible to have reached the small plain beyond Bussussary in time to regain the church of Arcangues if any serious resistance had been attempted; wherefore delivering their fire at pistol-shot distance the picquets fell back in succession, and never were the steadiness and intelligence of veteran soldiers more eminently displayed; for though it was necessary to run at full speed to gain the small plain before the enemy, who was constantly outflanking the line of posts by the basin, though the ways were so deep and narrow that no formation could be preserved, though the fire of the French was thick and close, and their cries vehement as they rushed on in pursuit, the instant the open ground at Bussussary was attained, the apparently disordered crowd of fugitives became a compact and well-formed body defying and deriding the fruitless efforts of their adversaries.

The fifty-second being about half a mile to the left, though only slightly assailed fell back also to the main ridge, for though the closeness of the country did not permit colonel Colborne to observe the strength of the enemy he could see the rapid retreat of the forty-third, and thence judging how serious the affair was, so well did the regiments of the light division understand each other’s qualities, withdrew his outposts to secure the main position. And in good time he did so.

On the right-hand tongue the troops were not so fortunate, for whether they delayed their retreat too long, or that the country was more intricate, the enemy moving by the basin, reached Bussussary before the rear arrived, and about a hundred of the forty-third and riflemen were thus intercepted. The French were in a hollow road and careless, never doubting that the officer of the forty-third, ensign Campbell, a youth scarcely eighteen years of age, would surrender; but he with a shout broke into their column sword in hand, and though the struggle was severe and twenty of the forty-third and thirty of the riflemen with their officer remained prisoners, reached the church with the rest.

D’Armagnac’s division of D’Erlon’s corps now pushed close up to the bridge of Urdains, and Clauzel assembled his three divisions by degrees at Bussussary, opening meanwhile a sharp fire of musquetry. The position was however safe. The mansion-house on the right, covered by abbatis and not easily accessible, was defended by a rifle battalion and the Portuguese. The church and church-yard were occupied by the forty-third who were supported with two mountain-guns, their front being covered by a declivity of thick copse-wood, filled with riflemen, and only to be turned by narrow hollow roads leading on each side to the church. On the left the fifty-second now supported by the remainder of the division, spread as far as the great basin which separated the right wing from the ridge of Barrouilhet, towards which some small posts were pushed, but there was still a great interval between Alten’s and Hope’s positions.

The skirmishing fire grew hot, Clauzel brought up twelve guns to the ridge of Bussussary, with which he threw shot and shells into the church-yard of Arcangues, and four or five hundred infantry then made a rush forwards, but a heavy fire from the forty-third sent them back over the ridge where their guns were posted. Yet the practice of the latter, well directed at first, would have been murderous if this musquetry from the church-yard had not made the French gunners withdraw their pieces a little behind the ridge, which caused their shot to fly wild and high. General Kempt thinking the distance too great, was at first inclined to stop this fire, but the moment it lulled the French gunners pushed their pieces forwards again and their shells knocked down eight men in an instant. The small arms then recommenced and the shells again flew high. The French were in like manner kept at bay by the riflemen in the village and mansion-house, and the action, hottest where the fifty-second fought, continued all day. It was not very severe but it has been noticed in detail because both French and English writers, misled perhaps by an inaccurate phrase in the public despatch, have represented it as a desperate attack by which the light division was driven into its entrenchments, whereas it was the picquets only that were forced back, there were no entrenchments save those made on the spur of the moment by the soldiers in the church-yard, and the French can hardly be said to have attacked at all. The real battle was at Barrouilhet.

On that side Reille advancing with two divisions about nine o’clock, drove Campbell’s Portuguese from Anglet, and Sparre’s cavalry charging during the fight cut down a great many men. The French infantry then assailed the ridge at Barrouilhet, but moving along a narrow ridge and confined on each flank by the tanks, only two brigades could get into action by the main road, and the rain of the preceding night had rendered all the bye-roads so deep that it was mid-day before the French line of battle was filled. This delay saved the allies, for the attack here also was so unexpected, that the first division and lord Aylmer’s brigade were at rest in St. Jean de Luz and Bidart when the action commenced. The latter did not reach the position before eleven o’clock; the foot-guards did not march from St. Jean until after twelve, and only arrived at three o’clock in the afternoon when the fight was done; all the troops were exceedingly fatigued, only ten guns could be brought into play, and from some negligence part of the infantry were at first without ammunition.

Robinson’s brigade of the fifth division first arrived to support Campbell’s Portuguese, and fight the battle. The French spread their skirmishers along the whole valley in front of Biaritz, but their principal effort was directed by the great road and against the platform of Barrouilhet about the mayor’s house, where the ground was so thick of hedges and coppice-wood that a most confused fight took place. The assailants cutting ways through the hedges poured on in smaller or larger bodies as the openings allowed, and were immediately engaged with the defenders; at some points they were successful at others beaten back, and few knew what was going on to the right or left of where they stood. By degrees Reille engaged both his divisions, and some of Villatte’s reserve also entered the fight, and then Bradford’s Portuguese and lord Aylmer’s brigade arrived on the allies’ side, which enabled colonel Greville’s brigade of the fifth division, hitherto kept in reserve, to relieve Robinson’s; that general was however dangerously wounded and his troops suffered severely.

And now a very notable action was performed by the ninth regiment under colonel Cameron. This officer was on the extreme left of Greville’s brigade, Robinson’s being then shifted in second line and towards the right, Bradford’s brigade was at the mayor’s house some distance to the left of the ninth regiment, and the space between was occupied by a Portuguese battalion. There was in front of Greville’s brigade a thick hedge, but immediately opposite the ninth was a coppice-wood possessed by the enemy, whose skirmishers were continually gathering in masses and rushing out as if to assail the line, they were as often driven back, yet the ground was so broken that nothing could be seen beyond the flanks and when some time had passed in this manner, Cameron, who had received no orders, heard a sudden firing along the main road close to his left. His adjutant was sent to look out and returned immediately with intelligence that there was little fighting on the road, but a French regiment, which must have passed unseen in small bodies through the Portuguese between the ninth and the mayor’s house, was rapidly filing into line on the rear. The fourth BritishManuscript note by lieutenant-general sir John Cameron. regiment was then in close column at a short distance, and its commander colonel Piper was directed by Cameron to face about, march to the rear, and then bring up his left shoulder when he would infallibly fall in with the French regiment. Piper marched, but whether he misunderstood the order, took a wrong direction, or mistook the enemy for Portuguese, he passed them. No firing was heard, the adjutant again hurried to the rear, and returned with intelligence that the fourth regiment was not to be seen, but the enemy’s line was nearly formed. Cameron leaving fifty men to answer the skirmishing fire which now increased from the copse, immediately faced about and marched in line against the new enemy, who was about his own strength, as fast as the rough nature of the ground would permit. The French fire, slow at first, increased vehemently as the distance lessened, but when the ninth, coming close up, sprung forwards to the charge the adverse line broke and fled to the flanks in the utmost disorder. Those who made for their own right brushed the left of Greville’s brigade, and even carried off an officer of the royals in their rush, yet the greatest number were made prisoners, and the ninth having lost about eighty men and officers resumed their old ground.

The final result of the battle at Barrouilhet was the repulse of Reille’s divisions, but Villatte still menaced the right flank, and Foy, taking possession of the narrow ridge connecting Bussussary with the platform of Barrouilhet, threw his skirmishers into the great basin leading to Arbonne, and connecting his right with Reille’s left menaced Hope’s flank at Barrouilhet. This was about two o’clock, Soult, whose columns were now all in hand gave orders to renew the battle, and his masses were beginning to move when Clauzel reported that a large body of fresh troops, apparently coming from the other side of the Nive, was menacing D’Armagnac’s division from the heights above Urdains. Unable to account for this, Soult, who saw the guards and Germans moving up fast from St. Jean de Luz and all the unattached brigades already in line, hesitated, suspended his own attack, and ordered D’Erlon,Soult’s Official Report, MSS. who had two divisions in reserve, to detach one to the support of D’Armagnac: before this disposition could be completed the night fell.

The fresh troops seen by Clauzel were the third fourth sixth and seventh divisions, whose movements during the battle it is time to notice. When lord Wellington, who remained on the right of the Nive during the night of the 9th, discovered at daybreak, that the French had abandoned the heights in Hill’s front, he directed that officer to occupy them, and push parties close up to the entrenched camp of Mousseroles while his cavalry spread beyond Hasparen and up the Adour. Meanwhile, the cannonade on the left bank of the Nive being heard, he repaired in person to that side, first making the third and sixth divisions repass the river, and directing Beresford to lay another bridge of communication lower down the Nive, near Villefranque, to shorten the line of movement. When he reached the left of the Nive and saw how the battle stood, he made the seventh division close to the left from the hill of San Barbe, placed the third division at Urdains, and brought up the fourth division to an open heathy ridge on a hill about a mile behind the church of Arcangues. From this point general Cole sent Ross’s brigade down into the basin on the left of Colborne, to cover Arbonne, being prepared himself to march with his whole division if the enemy attempted to penetrate in force between Hope and Alten. These dispositions were for the most part completed about two o’clock, and thus Clauzel was held in check at Bussussary, and the renewed attack by Foy, Villatte, and Reille’s divisions on Barrouilhet prevented.

This day’s battle cost the Anglo-Portuguese more than twelve hundred men killed and wounded, two generals were amongst the latter and about three hundred men were made prisoners. The French had one general, Villatte, wounded, and lost about two thousand men, but when the action terminated two regiments of Nassau and one of Frankfort, the whole under the command of a colonel Kruse, came over to the allies. These men were not deserters. Their prince having abandoned Napoleon in Germany sent secret instructions to his troops to do so likewise, and in good time, for orders to disarm them reached Soult the next morning. The generals on each side, the one hoping to profit the other to prevent mischief, immediately transmitted notice of the event to Catalonia where several regiments of the same nations were serving. Lord Wellington failed for reasons to be hereafter mentioned, but Suchet disarmed his Germans with reluctance thinking they could be trusted, and the Nassau troops at Bayonne were perhaps less influenced by patriotism than by an old quarrel; for when belonging to the army of the centre they had forcibly foraged Soult’s district early in the year, and carried off the spoil in defiance of his authority, which gave rise to bitter disputes at the time and was probably not forgotten by him.

Combat of the 11th.—In the night of the 10th Reille withdrew behind the tanks as far as Pucho, Foy and Villatte likewise drew back along the connecting ridge towards Bussussary, thus uniting with Clauzel’s left and D’Erlon’s reserve, so that on the morning of the 11th the French army, with the exception of D’Armagnac’s division which remained in front of Urdains, was concentrated, for Soult feared a counter-attack. The French deserters indeed declared that Clauzel had formed a body of two thousand choice grenadiers to assault the village and church of Arcangues, but the day passed without any event in that quarter save a slight skirmish in which a few men were wounded. Not so on the side of Barrouilhet. There was a thick fog, and lord Wellington, desirous to ascertain what the French were about, directed the ninth regiment about ten o’clock to open a skirmish beyond the tanks towards Pucho, and to push the action if the French augmented their force. Cameron did so and the fight was becoming warm, when colonel Delancy, a staff-officer, rashly directed the ninth to enter the village. The error was soon and sharply corrected, for the fog cleared up, and Soult, who had twenty-four thousand men at that point, observing the ninth unsupported, ordered a counter-attack which was so strong and sudden that Cameron only saved his regiment with the aid of some Portuguese troops hastily brought up by sir John Hope. The fighting then ceased and lord Wellington went to the right, leaving Hope with orders to push back the French picquets and re-establish his former outposts on the connecting ridge towards Bussussary.

Soult had hitherto appeared undecided, but roused by this second insult, he ordered Darricau’s division to attack Barrouilhet along the connecting ridge, while Boyer’s division fell on by the main road between the tanks. This was about two o’clock and the allies expecting no battle had dispersed to gather fuel, for the time was wet and cold. In an instant the French penetrated in all directions, they outflanked the right, they passed the tanks, seized the out-buildings of the mayor’s house, and occupied the coppice in front of it; they were indeed quickly driven from the out-buildings by the royals, but the tumult was great and the coppice was filled with men of all nations intermixed and fighting in a perilous manner. Robinson’s brigade was very hardly handled, the officer commanding it was wounded, a squadron of French cavalry suddenly cut down some of the Portuguese near the wood, and on the right the colonel of the eighty-fourth having unwisely engaged his regiment in a hollow road where the French possessed the high bank, was killed with a great number of men. However the ninth regiment posted on the main road plied Boyer’s flank with fire, the eighty-fifth regiment of lord Aylmer’s brigade came into action, and sir John Hope conspicuous from his gigantic stature and heroic courage, was seen wherever danger pressed rallying and encouraging the troops; at one time he was in the midst of the enemy, his clothes were pierced with bullets, and he received a severe wound in the ankle, yet he would not quit the field and by his great presence of mind and calm intrepidity restored the battle. The French were finally beaten back from the position of Barrouilhet yet they had recovered their original posts, and continued to gall the allies with a fire of shot and shells until the fall of night. The total loss in this fight was about six hundred men of a side, and as the fifth division was now considerably reduced in numbers the first division took its place on the front line. Meanwhile Soult sent his cavalry over the Nive to Mousseroles to check the incursions of Hill’s horsemen.

Combat of the 12th.—The rain fell heavily in the night, and though the morning broke fair neither side seemed inclined to recommence hostilities. The advanced posts were however very close to each other and about ten o’clock a misunderstanding arose. The French general observing the fresh regimentsSoult’s Official Despatches, MSS. of the first division close to his posts, imagined the allies were going to attack him and immediately reinforced his front; this movement causing an English battery to fall into a like error it opened upon the advancing French troops, and in an instant the whole line of posts was engaged. Soult then brought up a number of guns, the firing continued without an object for many hours, and three or four hundred men of a side were killed and wounded, but the great body of the French army remained concentrated and quiet on the ridge between Barrouilhet and Bussussary.

Lord Wellington as early as the 10th had expected Soult would abandon this attack to fall upon Hill, and therefore had given Beresford orders to carry the sixth division to that general’s assistance by the new bridge and the seventh division by Ustaritz, without waiting for further instructions, if Hill was assailed; now observing Soult’s tenacity at Barrouilhet he drew the seventh division towards Arbonne. Beresford had however made a movement towards the Nive, and this with the march of the seventh division and some changes in the position of the fourth division, caused Soult to believe the allies were gathering with a view to attack his centre on the morning of the 13th; and it is remarkable that the deserters at this early period told him the Spaniards had re-entered France although orders to that effect were not as we shall find given until the next day. Convinced then that his bolt was shot on the left of the Nive, he left two divisions and Villatte’s reserve in the entrenched camp, and marched with the other seven to Mousseroles intending to fall upon Hill.

That general had pushed his scouting parties to the Gambouri, and when general Sparre’s horsemen arrived at Mousseroles on the 12th, Pierre Soult advanced from the Bidouze with all the light cavalry. He was supported by the infantry of general Paris and drove the allies’ posts from Hasparen. Colonel Vivian, who commanded there, immediately ordered major Brotherton to charge with the fourteenth dragoons across the bridge, but it was an ill-judged order, and the impossibility of succeeding so manifest, that when Brotherton, noted throughout the army for his daring, galloped forward, only two men and one subaltern, lieutenant Southwell, passed the narrow bridge with him, and they were all taken. Vivian then seeing his error charged with his whole brigade to rescue them, yet in vain, he was forced to fall back upon Urcuray where Morillo’s Spaniards had relieved the British infantry brigade on the 11th. This threatening movement induced general Hill to put the British brigade in march again for Urcuray on the 12th, but he recalled it at sunset, having then discovered Soult’s columns passing the Nive by the boat-bridge above Bayonne.

Lord Wellington now feeling the want of numbers, brought forward a division of Gallicians to St. Jean de Luz, and one of Andalusians from the Bastan to Itzassu, and to prevent their plundering fed them from the British magazines. The Gallicians were to support Hope, the Andalusians to watch the upper valley of the Nive and protect the rear of the army from Paris and Pierre Soult, who could easily be reinforced with a strong body of national guards. Meanwhile Hill had taken a position of battle on a front of two miles.

His left, composed of the twenty-eighth, thirty-fourth, and thirty-ninth regiments under general Pringle, occupied a wooded and broken range crowned by the chateau of Villefranque; it covered the new pontoon bridge of communication, which was a mile and a half higher up the river, but it was separated from the centre by a small stream forming a chain of ponds in a very deep and marshy valley.

The centre placed on both sides of the high road near the hamlet of St. Pierre, occupied a crescent-shapedPlan 8. height, broken with rocks and close brushwood on the left hand, and on the right hand enclosed with high and thick hedges, one of which, covering, at the distance of a hundred yards, part of the line, was nearly impassable. Here Ashworth’s Portuguese and Barnes’s British brigade of the second division were posted. The seventy-first regiment was on the left, the fiftieth in the centre, the ninety-second on the right. Ashworth’s Portuguese were posted in advance immediately in front of St. Pierre, and their skirmishers occupied a small wood covering their right. Twelve guns under the colonels Ross and Tullock were concentrated in front of the centre, looking down the great road, and half a mile in rear of this point Lecor’s Portuguese division was stationed with two guns as a reserve.

The right under Byng was composed of the third, fifty-seventh, thirty-first, and sixty-sixth. One of these regiments, the third, was posted on a height running nearly parallel with the Adour called the ridge of Partouhiria, or Old Moguerre, because a village of that name was situated upon the summit. This regiment was pushed in advance to a point where it could only be approached by crossing the lower part of a narrow swampy valley which separated Moguerre from the heights of St. Pierre. The upper part of this valley was held by Byng with the remainder of his brigade, and his post was well covered by a mill-pond leading towards the enemy and nearly filling all the valley.

One mile in front of St. Pierre was a range of counter heights belonging to the French, but the basin between was broad open and commanded in every part by the fire of the allies, and in all parts the country was too heavy and too much enclosed for the action of cavalry. Nor could the enemy approach in force, except on a narrow front of battle and by the high road, until within cannon-shot, when two narrow difficult lanes branched off to the right and left, and crossing the swampy valleys on each side, led, the one to the height where the third regiment was posted on the extreme right of the allies, the other to general Pringle’s position on the left.

In the night of the 12th the rain swelled the Nive and carried away the allies’ bridge of communication. It was soon restored, but on the morning of the 13th general Hill was completely cut off from the rest of the army; and while seven French divisions of infantry, furnishing at least thirty-five thousand combatants, approached him in front, an eighth under general Paris and the cavalry division of Pierre Soult menaced him in rear. To meet the[Appendix 7], sect. 4. French in his front he had less than fourteen thousand, men and officers with fourteen guns in position; and there were only four thousand Spaniards with Vivian’s cavalry at Urcuray.

Battle of St. Pierre.—The morning broke with a[ See Plan 8.] heavy mist under cover of which Soult formed his order of battle. D’Erlon, having D’Armagnac’s Abbé’s and Daricau’s divisions of infantry, Sparre’s cavalry and twenty-two guns, marched in front; he was followed by Foy and Maransin, but the remainder of the French army was in reserve, for the roads would not allow of any other order. The mist hung heavily and the French masses, at one moment quite shrouded in vapour, at another dimly seen or looming sudden and large and dark at different points, appeared like thunder-clouds gathering before the storm. At half-past eight Soult pushed back the British picquets in the centre, the sun burst out at that moment, the sparkling fire of the light troops spread wide in the valley, and crept up the hills on either flank, while the bellowing of forty pieces of artillery shook the banks of the Nive and the Adour. Darricau marching on the French right was directed against general Pringle. D’Armagnac, moving on their left and taking Old Moguerre as the point of direction, was ordered to force Byng’s right. Abbé assailed the centre at St. Pierre, where general Stewart commanded, for sir Rowland Hill had taken his station on a commanding mount in the rear, from whence he could see the whole battle and direct the movements.

Abbé, a man noted for vigour, pushed his attack with great violence and gained ground so rapidly with his light troops, on the left of Ashworth’s Portuguese, that Stewart sent the seventy-first regiment and two guns from St. Pierre to the latter’s aid; the French skirmishers likewise won the small wood on Ashworth’s right, and half of the fiftieth regiment was also detached from St. Pierre to that quarter. The wood was thus retaken, and the flanks of Stewart’s position secured, but his centre was very much weakened, and the fire of the French artillery was concentrated against it. Abbé then pushed on a column of attack there with such a power that in despite of the play of musquetry on his flanks and a crashing cannonade in his front, he gained the top of the position, and drove back the remainder of Ashworth’s Portuguese and the other half of the fiftieth regiment which had remained in reserve.

General Barnes who had still the ninety-second regiment in hand behind St. Pierre, immediately brought it on with a strong counter-attack. The French skirmishers fell back on each side leaving two regiments composing the column to meet the charge of the ninety-second; it was rough and pushed home, the French mass wavered and gave way. Abbé immediately replaced it and Soult redoubling the heavy play of his guns from the height he occupied, sent forward a battery of horse artillery which galloping down into the valley opened its fire close to the allies with most destructive activity. The cannonade and musquetry rolled like a prolonged peal of thunder, and the second French column, regardless of Ross’s guns, though they tore the ranks in a horrible manner, advanced so steadily up the high road that the ninety-second yielding to the tempest slowly regained its old position behind St. Pierre. The Portuguese guns, their British commanding officer having fallen wounded, then limbered up to retire and the French skirmishers reached the impenetrable hedge in front of Ashworth’s right. General Barnes now seeing that hard fighting only could save the position, made the Portuguese guns resume their fire, and the wing of the fiftieth and the Caçadores gallantly held the small wood on the right; but Barnes was soon wounded, the greatest part of his and general Stewart’s staff were hurt, and the matter seemed desperate. For the light troops overpowered by numbers were all driven in except those in the wood, the artillerymen were falling at the guns, Ashworth’s line of Portuguese crumbled away rapidly before the musquetry and cannonade, the ground was strewed with the dead in front, and the wounded crawling to the rear were many.

If the French light troops could then have penetrated through the thick hedge in front of the Portuguese, defeat would have been inevitable on this point, for the main column of attack still steadily advanced up the main road, and a second column launched on its right was already victorious, because the colonel of the seventy-first had shamefully withdrawn that gallant regiment out of action and abandoned the Portuguese. Pringle was indeed fighting strongly against Daricau’s superior numbers on the hill of Villefranque, but on the extreme right the colonel of the third regiment had also abandoned his strong post to D’Armagnac, whose leading brigade was thus rapidly turning Byng’s other regiments on that side. And now Foy’s and Maransin’s divisions, hitherto retarded by the deep roads, were coming into line ready to support Abbé, and this at the moment when the troops opposed to him were deprived of their reserve. For when general Hill beheld the retreat of the third and seventy-first regiments he descended in haste from his mount, met, and turned the latter back to renew the fight, and then in person leading one brigade of Le Cor’s reserve division to the same quarter sent the other against D’Armagnac on the hill of Old Moguerre. Thus at the decisive moment of the battle the French reserve was augmented and that of the allies thrown as a last resource into action. However the right wing of the fiftieth and Ashworth’s Caçadores, both spread as skirmishers, never lost the small wood in front, upholding the fight there and towards the high road with such unflinching courage that the ninety-second regiment had time to reform behind the hamlet of St. Pierre. Then its gallant colonel Cameron once more led it down the road with colours flying and music playing resolved to give the shock to whatever stood in the way. At this sight the British skirmishers on the flanks, suddenly changing from retreat to attack, rushed forward and drove those of the enemy back on each side; yet the battle seemed hopeless for Ashworth was badly wounded, his line was shattered to atoms, and Barnes who had not quitted the field for his former hurt was now shot through the body.

The ninety-second was but a small body comparedPublished Memoir on the battle by captain Pringle, engineers. with the heavy mass in its front, and the French soldiers seemed willing enough to close with the bayonet; but an officer riding at their head suddenly turned his horse waved his sword and appeared to order a retreat, then they faced about and immediately retired across the valley to their original position, in good order however and scarcely pursued by the allies, so exhausted were the victors. This retrograde movement, for there was no panic or disorder, was produced partly by the gallant advance of the ninety-second and the returning rush of the skirmishers, partly by the state of affairs immediately on the right of the French column. For the seventy-first indignant at their colonel’s conduct had returned to the fight with such alacrity, and were so well aided by Le Cor’s Portuguese, generals Hill and Stewart each in person leading an attack, that the hitherto victorious French were overthrown there also in the very moment when the ninety-second came with such a brave shew down the main road: Le Cor was however wounded.

This double action in the centre being seen from the hill of Villefranque, Daricau’s division, already roughly handled by Pringle, fell back in confusion; and meantime on the right, Buchan’s Portuguese, detached by Hill to recover the Moguerre or Partouhiria ridge, crossed the valley, and ascending under a heavy flank fire from Soult’s guns rallied the third regiment; in happy time, for D’Armagnac’s first brigade having already passed the flank of Byng’s regiments at the mill-pond was actually in rear of the allies’ lines. It was now twelve o’clock, and while the fire of the light troops in the front and the cannonade in the centre continued the contending generals restored their respective orders of battle. Soult’s right wing had been quite repulsed by Pringle, his left was giving way before Buchan, and the difficult ground forbad his sending immediate succour to either; moreover in the exigency of the moment he had called D’Armagnac’s reserve brigade to sustain Abbé’s retiring columns. However that brigade and Foy’s and Maransin’s divisions were in hand to renew the fight in the centre, and the allies could not, unsuccoured, have sustained a fresh assault; for their ranks were wasted with fire, nearly all the staff had been killed or wounded, and three generals had quitted the field badly hurt.

In this crisis general Hill seeing that Buchan was now well and successfully engaged on the Partouhiria ridge, and that Byng’s regiments were quite masters of their ground in the valley of the mill-pond, drew the fifty-seventh regiment from the latter place to reinforce his centre. At the same time the bridge above Villefranque having been restored, the sixth division, which had been marching since daybreak, appeared in order of battle on the mount from whence Hill had descended to rally the seventy-first. It was soon followed by the fourth division, and that again by the brigades of the third division; two other brigades of the seventh division were likewise in march. With the first of these troops came lord Wellington who had hurried from Barrouilhet when the first sound of the cannon reached him, yet he arrived only to witness the close of the battle, the crisis was past, Hill’s day of glory was complete. Soult had, according to the French method, made indeed another attack, or rather demonstration, against the centre, to cover his new dispositions, an effort easily repulsed, but at the same moment Buchan drove D’Armagnac headlong off the Partouhiria ridge. The sixth division then appeared on the commanding mount in the rear of St. Pierre, and though the French masses still maintained a menacing position on the high road, and on a hillock rising between the road and the mill-pond, they were quickly dispossessed. For the English general being now supported by the sixth division, sent Byng with two battalions against the hillock, and some troops from the centre against those on the high road. At this last point the generals and staff had been so cut down that colonel Currie, the aid-de-camp who brought the order, could find no superior officer to deliver it to and led the troops himself to the attack, but both charges were successful; and two guns of the light battery sent down in the early part of the fight by Soult, and which had played without ceasing up to this moment, were taken.

The battle now abated to a skirmish of light troops, under cover of which the French endeavoured to carry off their wounded and rally their stragglers, but at two o’clock lord Wellington commanded a general advance of the whole line. Then the French retreated fighting, and the allies following close on the side of the Nive plied them with musquetry until dark. Yet they maintained their line towards the Adour, for Sparre’s cavalry passing out that way rejoined Pierre Soult on the side of Hasparen. This last-named general and Paris had during the day menaced Morillo and Vivian’s cavalry at Urcuray, however not more than thirty men of a side were hurt, and when Soult’s ill success became known the French retired to Bonloc.

In this bloody action Soult had designed to employ seven divisions of infantry with one brigade of cavalry on the front, and one brigade of infantry with a division of cavalry on the rear; but the state of the roads and the narrow front he was forced to move upon did not permit more than five divisions to act at St. Pierre, and only half of those were seriously engaged. His loss was certainly three thousand, making a total on the five days’ fighting of six thousand men with two generals, Villatte and Maucomble, wounded. The estimate made by the British at the time far exceeded this number, and one French writer makes their loss ten thousand including probably the Nassau and Frankfort regiments. The same writer however estimates the loss of the allies at sixteen thousand! Whereas HillLapene. had only three generals and about fifteen hundred men killed and wounded on the 13th and Morillo lost but twenty-six men at Urcuray. The real loss of the allies in the whole five days’ fighting was only five thousand and nineteen, including however five generals, Hope, Robinson, Barnes, Lecor, and Ashworth. Of this number five hundred were prisoners.

The duke of Dalmatia, baffled by the unexpected result of the battle of St. Pierre, left D’Erlon’s three divisions in front of the camp of Mousseroles, sent two others over the Nive to Marac, and passing the Adour himself during the night with Foy’s division, spread it along the right bank of that river as far as the confluence of the Gave de Pau.

OBSERVATIONS.

1º. The French general’s plan was conceived with genius but the execution offers a great contrast to the conception. What a difference between the sudden concentration of his whole army on the platforms of Arcangues and Bussussary, where there were only a few picquets to withstand him, and from whence he could have fallen with the roll of an avalanche upon any point of the allies’ line! what a difference between that and the petty attack of Clauzel, which a thousand men of the light division sufficed to arrest at the village and church of Arcangues. There beyond question was the weak part of the English general’s cuirass. The spear pushed home there would have drawn blood. For the disposition and movements of the third fourth and seventh divisions, were made more with reference to the support of Hill than to sustain an attack from Soult’s army, and it is evident that Wellington, trusting to the effect of his victory on the 10th of November, had treated the French general and his troops, more contemptuously than he could have justified by arms without the aid of fortune. I know not what induced marshal Soult to direct his main attack by Anglet and the connecting ridge of Bussussary, against Barrouilhet, instead of assailing Arcangues as he at first proposed; but this is certain, that for three hours after Clauzel first attacked the picquets at the latter place, there were not troops enough to stop three French divisions, much less a whole army. And this point being nearer to the bridge by which D’Erlon passed the Nive, the concentration of the French troops could have been made sooner than at Barrouilhet, where the want of unity in the attack caused by the difficulty of the roads ruined the French combinations.

The allies were so unexpectant of an attack, that the battle at Barrouilhet which might have been fought with seventeen thousand men, was actually fought by ten thousand. And those were not brought into action at once, for Robinson’s brigade and Campbell’s Portuguese, favoured by the narrow opening between the tanks, resisted Reille’s divisions for two hours, and gave time for the rest of the fifth division and Bradford’s brigade to arrive. But if Foy’s division and Villatte’s reserve had been able to assail the flank at the same time, by the ridge coming from Bussussary, the battle would have been won by the French; and meanwhile three divisions under Clauzel and two under D’Erlon remained hesitating before Urdains and Arcangues, for the cannonade and skirmishing at the latter place were the very marks and signs of indecision.

2º. On the 11th the inactivity of the French during the morning may be easily accounted for. The defection of the German regiments, the necessity of disarming and removing those that remained, the care of the wounded, and the time required to re-examine the allies’ position and ascertain what changes had taken place during the night, must have given ample employment to the French general. His attack in the afternoon also was well judged because already he must have seen from the increase of troops in his front, from the intrenched battery and other works rapidly constructed at the church of Arcangues, that no decisive success could be expected on the left of the Nive, and that his best chance was to change his line of attack again to the right bank. To do this with effect, it was necessary, not only to draw all lord Wellington’s reserves from the right of the Nive but to be certain that they had come, and this could only be done by repeating the attacks at Barrouilhet. The same cause operated on the 12th, for it was not until the fourth and seventh divisions were seen by him on the side of Arbonne that he knew his wile had succeeded. Yet again the execution was below the conception, for first, the bivouac fires on the ridge of Bussussary were extinguished in the evening, and then others were lighted on the side of Mousseroles, thus plainly indicating the march, which was also begun too early, because the leading division was by Hill seen to pass the bridge of boats before sun-set.

These were serious errors yet the duke of Dalmatia’s generalship cannot be thus fairly tested. There are many circumstances which combine to prove, that when he complained to the emperor of the contradictions and obstacles he had to encounter he alluded to military as well as to political and financial difficulties. It is a part of human nature to dislike any disturbance of previous habits, and soldiers are never pleased at first with a general, who introduces and rigorously exacts a system of discipline differing from what they have been accustomed to. Its utility must be proved and confirmed by habit ere it will find favour in their eyes. Now Soult suddenly assumed the command of troops, who had been long serving under various generals and were used to much license in Spain. They were therefore, men and officers, uneasy at being suddenly subjected to the austere and resolute command of one who, from natural character as well as the exigency of the times, the war being now in his own country, demanded a ready and exact obedience, and a regularity which long habits of a different kind rendered onerous. Hence we find in all the French writers, and in Soult’s own reports, manifest proofs that his designs were frequently thwarted or disregarded by his subordinates when circumstances promised impunity. His greatest and ablest military combinations were certainly rendered abortive by the errors of his lieutenants in the first operations to relieve Pampeluna, and on the 31st of August a manifest negligence of his earnest recommendations to vigilance led to serious danger and loss at the passage of the Lower Bidassoa. Complaint and recrimination were rife in all quarters about the defeat on the 10th of November, and on the 19th the bridge-head of Cambo was destroyed contrary to the spirit of his instructions. These things, joined to the acknowledged jealousy and disputes prevalent amongst the French generals employed in Spain, would indicate that the discrepancy between the conception and execution of the operations in front of Bayonne was not the error of the commander-in-chief. Perhaps king Joseph’s faction, so inimical to the duke of Dalmatia, was still powerful in the army and difficult to deal with.

3º. Lord Wellington has been blamed for putting his troops in a false position, and no doubt he under-valued, it was not the first time, the military genius and resources of his able adversary, when he exposed Hill’s troops on the left of the Nive to a species of surprize. But the passage of the Nive itself, the rapidity with which he moved his divisions from bank to bank, and the confidence with which he relied upon the valour of his troops, so far from justifying the censures which have been passed upon him by French writers, emphatically mark his mastery in the art. The stern justice of sending the Spaniards back into Spain after the battle of the Nivelle is apparent, but the magnanimity of that measure can only be understood by considering lord Wellington’s military situation at the time. The battle of the Nivelle was delivered on political grounds, but of what avail would his gaining it have been if he had remained enclosed as it were in a net between the Nive and the sea, Bayonne and the Pyrenees, unable to open communications with the disaffected in France, and having the beaten army absolutely forbidding him to forage or even to look beyond the river on his right. The invasion of France was not his own operation, it was the project of the English cabinet and the allied sovereigns; both were naturally urging him to complete it, and to pass the Nive and free his flanks was indispensable if he would draw any profit from his victory of the 10th of November. But he could not pass it with his whole army unless he resigned the sea-coast and his communications with Spain. He was therefore to operate with a portion only of his force and consequently required all the men he could gather to ensure success. Yet at that crisis he divested himself of twenty-five thousand Spanish soldiers!

Was this done in ignorance of the military glory awaiting him beyond the spot where he stood?

“If I had twenty thousand Spaniards paid and fed,” he wrote to lord Bathurst, “I should have Bayonne. If I had forty thousand I do not know where I should stop. Now I have both the twenty thousand and the forty thousand, but I have not the means of paying and supplying them, and if they plunder they will ruin all.”

Requisitions which the French expected as a part of war would have enabled him to run this career, but he looked further; he had promised the people protection and his greatness of mind was disclosed in a single sentence. “I must tell your lordship that our success and every thing depends upon our moderation and justice.” Rather than infringe on either, he sent the Spaniards to the rear and passed the Nive with the British and Portuguese only, thus violating the military rule which forbids a general to disseminate his troops before an enemy who remains in mass lest he should be beaten in detail. But genius begins where rules end. A great general always seeks moral power in preference to physical force. Wellington’s choice here was between a shameful inactivity or a dangerous enterprise. Trusting to the influence of his reputation, to his previous victories, and to the ascendancy of his troops in the field, he chose the latter, and the result, though he committed some errors of execution, justified his boldness. He surprised the passage of the Nive, laid his bridges of communication, and but for the rain of the night before, which ruined the roads and retarded the march of Hill’s columns, he would have won the heights of St. Pierre the same day. Soult could not then have withdrawn his divisions from the right bank without being observed. Still it was an error to have the troops on the left bank so unprepared for the battle of the 10th. It was perhaps another error not to have occupied the valley or basin between Hope and Alten, and surely it was negligence not to entrench Hill’s position on the 10th, 11th, and 12th. Yet with all this so brave so hardy so unconquerable were his soldiers that he was successful at every point, and that is the justification of his generalship. Hannibal crossed the Alps and descended upon Italy, not in madness but because he knew himself and his troops.

4º. It is agreed by French and English that the battle of St. Pierre was one of the most desperate of the whole war. Lord Wellington declared that he had never seen a field so thickly strewn with dead, nor can the vigour of the combatants be well denied where five thousand men were killed or wounded in three hours upon a space of one mile square. How then did it happen, valour being so conspicuous on both sides, that six English and Portuguese brigades, furnishing less than fourteen thousand men and officers with fourteen guns, were enabled to[Appendix 7], Sect. 4. withstand seven French divisions, certainly furnishing thirty-five thousand men and officers with twenty-two guns? The analysis of this fact shows upon what nice calculations and accidents war depends.

If Hill had not observed the French passing their bridge on the evening of the 12th, and their bivouac fires in the night, Barnes’s brigade, with which he saved the day, would have been at Urcuray, and Soult could not have been stopped. But the French general could only bring five divisions into action, and those only in succession, so that in fact three divisions or about sixteen thousand men with twenty-two guns actually fought the battle. Foy’s and Maransin’s troops did not engage until after the crisis had passed. On the other hand the proceedings of colonel Peacocke of the seventy-first, and colonel Bunbury of the third, for which they were both obliged to quit the service, forced general Hill to carry his reserve away from the decisive point at that critical period which always occurs in a well-disputed field and which every great general watches for with the utmost anxiety. This was no error, it was a necessity, and the superior military quality of the British troops rendered it successful.

The French officer who rode at the head of the second attacking column might be a brave man, doubtless he was; he might be an able man, but he had not the instinct of a general. On his right flank indeed Hill’s vigorous counter-attack was successful, but the battle was to be won in the centre; his column was heavy, undismayed, and only one weak battalion, the ninety-second, was before it; a short exhortation, a decided gesture, a daring example, and it would have overborne the small body in its front, Foy’s, Maransin’s, and the half of D’Armagnac’s divisions would then have followed in the path thus marked out. Instead of this he weighed chances and retreated. How different was the conduct of the British generals, two of whom and nearly all their staff fell at this point, resolute not to yield a step at such a critical period; how desperately did the fiftieth andPublished Memoir by Captain Pringle of the Royal Engineers. Portuguese fight to give time for the ninety-second to rally and reform behind St. Pierre; how gloriously did that regiment come forth again to charge with their colours flying and their national music playing as if going to a review. This was to understand war. The man who in that moment and immediately after a repulse thought of such military pomp was by nature a soldier.

I have said that sir Rowland Hill’s employment of his reserve was no error, it was indeed worthy of all praise. From the commanding mount on which he stood, he saw at once, that the misconduct of the two colonels would cause the loss of his position more surely than any direct attack upon it, and with a promptness and decision truly military he descended at once to the spot, playing the soldier as well as the general, rallying the seventy-first and leading the reserve himself; trusting meanwhile with a noble and well-placed confidence to the courage of the ninety-second and the fiftieth to sustain the fight at St. Pierre. He knew indeed that the sixth division was then close at hand and that the battle might be fought over again, but like a thorough soldier he was resolved to win his own fight with his own troops if he could. And he did so after a manner that in less eventful times would have rendered him the hero of a nation.