FOOTNOTES:
[12] Frederick, Duke of York.
[13] ‘Memoirs of the Court and Cabinet of George III.,’ vol. iii. 88.
[14] Major-General Sir Robert Travers, C.B., K.C.M.G., died at Cork, December 24, 1834.
[15] Sir James Pulteney’s Despatch, August 27.
[16] ‘Handbook of Spain.’
[17] It was popularly known as ‘Manningham’s Sharpshooters.’
[18] ‘Cumloden Papers,’ 23.
[19] ‘Regulations for the Rifle Corps formed at Blatchington Barracks by Colonel Manningham:’ London, 1801. Stewart also published ‘Outlines of a Plan for the General Reform of the British Land Forces:’ a pamphlet, of which a second edition, enlarged, appeared in octavo. London, 1806.
[20] ‘Life of Sir C. J. Napier,’ i. 19.
[21] Lieutenant-General Sir T. Sidney Beckwith, K.C.B., died January 19, 1831.
[22] Lieutenant-Colonel Stewart’s Despatch, ‘Cumloden Papers,’ 41.
[23] ‘Cumloden Papers,’ 50, 51, 52. This service seems to have established a friendship between Stewart and Nelson, which terminated only with the great admiral’s life. Several letters from him, written in very affectionate terms, to Stewart, are printed in the ‘Cumloden Papers;’ the last dated only thirteen days before his death off Trafalgar. Stewart also mentions incidentally that his son Horatio (who served in the Regiment) bore that name ‘by the express wish of that great man who fell off Trafalgar.’ He must have wished him to call his first son after him, for Horatio Stewart was not born till after Nelson’s death.
[24] ‘Life of Sir Charles Napier,’ i. 58, 59.
[25] ‘Military Lectures delivered to the officers of the 95th (Rifle) Regiment, at Shorn-Cliff Barracks, Kent, during the Spring of 1803.’ By Coote Manningham, Colonel of the 95th (Rifle) Regiment. Octavo, London, 1803, pp. 70. And see [p. 7].
In the same year appeared ‘Regulations for the Exercise of Riflemen and Light Infantry in the Field,’ octavo, pp. 70, with diagrams and two pages of bugle sounds. What share, if any, Manningham or Stewart had in these books, I am unable to trace. A preface (signed by the Adjutant-General) states that it is founded on a work written by a German officer of distinction.
[26] Hamlet Wade was one of the original members of the Regiment, having been promoted to a majority on its formation, from captain in the 25th Foot. He was an extraordinary, gallant, dashing Irishman (he was one of the Wades of Clonabraney, County Meath), and anecdotes of him were still rife when I was in the Regiment. Surtees mentions Wade’s praise and his rewards to him for his good shooting, when he joined as a volunteer. He was an admirable shot with the rifle himself. He and a private of the name of Smeaton used to hold a target for each other at 150 yards; and it is said (Smith’s ‘List of Officers,’ 58) that he and John Spurry, a private in the Regiment, held the target for each other at 200 yards: a wonderful feat, while the Baker rifle was still in use. There used to be a story of him at an inspection by the old Earl of Chatham, who expressed a wish to see some practice with the rifle; and having made some remark on the danger of the markers, Wade said: ‘There is no danger;’ and calling one of the men (no doubt Smeaton or Spurry), bade him hold a target, and he himself taking a rifle fired and hit it. Lord Chatham’s horror at this was extreme, on which Wade said: ‘Oh, we all do it.’ And bidding the other to take a loaded rifle, he ran out himself and held the target for the soldier’s fire. Probably no other men in the Regiment but themselves could have done this. Colonel Wade, C.B., died February 13, 1821, having retired from the army.
[27] Surtees gives the story at length, 53-55.
[28] Major-General Sir Amos G. R. Norcott, K.C.H., died January 8, 1838.
[29] Major O’Hare was killed at Badajos.
[30] The five 1st Battalion companies had thus been eleven months on board ship.
[31] The three companies of the 2nd Battalion at Monte Video had been engaged, on June 7, at San Pedro, when Major Gardner and Assistant-Surgeon Turner, 1 sergeant and 26 rank and file were wounded. I find no particulars of this affair beyond the mention of it, and the casualties, in the Record of the 2nd Battalion.
[32] ‘Brigadier Craufurd’s Evidence on Whitelocke’s Court-martial,’ p. 335-6.
[33] Two majors, 5 captains, 19 subalterns, 3 staff, 24 sergeants, 12 buglers, and 495 rank and file of the Rifle Corps (including the wounded) surrendered to the enemy. ‘Return in Whitelocke’s Court-Martial,’ Appendix, p. 45.
[34] Lieutenant Patrick Turner died of his wounds.
[35] Major-General Sir Dudley St. Leger Hill, K.C.B., died February 21, 1851.
[36] ‘Annual Register,’ xlix.; ‘London Gazette,’ September 13, 1807; and Record of the 1st Battalion. This narrative is evidently drawn up by an eye-witness: no doubt Sir Amos Norcott, by whom the regimental Record is signed.
[37] ‘Wellington Despatches,’ iv. 4.
[38] ‘Supplementary Despatches,’ vi. 10. It is strange that no mention of their services in this expedition appears in the 1st Battalion Record. That of the 2nd Battalion mentions only the casualties on the 17th before Copenhagen.
[39] ‘Wellington Despatches,’ iv. 4.
[40] Surtees, 60-72. Leach, 28-38. ‘Wellington Despatches,’ iv. and: Supplementary Despatches,’ vi.
[41] Major-General Sir John Ross, K.C.B., died April 31, 1835.
[42] Major-General Sir Alexander Cameron, K.C.B., died July 20, 1850.
[43] ‘Wellington Despatches,’ iv. 28.
[44] Ibid. iv. 27.
[45] Ibid. iv. 77.
[46] ‘Wellington Despatches,’ iv. 94.
[47] Afterwards Major-General Sir Hercules R. Pakenham, K.C.B. The Duke of Wellington, applying for his promotion on October 15 following, mentions his being wounded in this affair, and adds ‘that he is really one of the best officers of Riflemen that I have seen.’ (‘Supplementary Despatches,’vi. 160.) He was his brother-in-law. He remained in the Regiment till 1810.
[48] ‘Wellington Despatches,’ iv. 95.
[49] ‘Supplementary Despatches,’ vi. 115.
[50] Properly Roliça. I retain the name granted to the Regiment, and borne on its badge.
[51] Leach, 47.
[52] At Kinsale, where is this inscription in the church:
SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF
LIEUTENANT THOMAS COCHRANE
OF THE RIFLE BRIGADE.
HE DIED IInd OF JULY MDCCCXXIII., AGED XXXIV. YEARS.
AS A SOLDIER
HIS ZEAL, GALLANTRY, AND INTELLIGENCE
RENDERED HIM VALUABLE TO HIS COUNTRY;
AS A MAN
HIS PRIVATE VIRTUES, EMBRACING EVERY ENNOBLING AND ENDEARING
QUALIFICATION,
SECURED TO HIM THE ESTEEM AND LASTING ATTACHMENT OF HIS BROTHER
OFFICERS, WHO HAVE RAISED THIS MONUMENT TO HIS MEMORY.
[53] Leach, 50, who was on this picquet.
[54] ‘Wellington Despatches,’ iv. III; and ‘Supplementary Despatches,’ vi. 121.
[55] Surtees, 74. I take the dates from Surtees, who was with this force. The dates in the 2nd Battalion Record are here in inextricable confusion.
[56] Harris, 160.
[57] Surtees, 80.
[58] Surtees mentions that he crossed the Esla, at a ford a little way from Castro Gonzalo, in a bullock-cart loaded with biscuit, while the brigade were occupied in destroying the bridge. The time lost in its destruction might have been saved had Moore or Craufurd known the river was fordable.
[59] I note Costello’s assertion that General Paget offered his purse to any Rifleman who would bring down the French General, only to point out its improbability, not to say its impossibility. No one who knew the gallant Sir Edward Paget will believe that he bribed a soldier to slay a chivalrous and brave enemy; of whom Napier writes, ‘his fine martial figure, his voice, his gestures, and, above all, his great valour, had excited the admiration of the British, and a general feeling of sorrow was predominant when the gallant soldier fell.’ It is quite possible that, as Costello says, General Paget flung his purse (or some of its contents) to Tom Plunket, in admiration of two such unerring shots in the midst of a hot fight. But this is a very different matter from the previous offer of it. It is to be observed that Costello was not at Cacabelos, but was then a recruit at the Depôt; and no doubt the story did not lose, in the barrack-room or at the camp-fire, where he probably had heard it.
[60] ‘Napier,’ Book iv. chap. v.
[61] ‘Life of Sir John Moore,’ ii. 210.
[62] ‘Life of Sir John Moore,’ ii. 201.
[63] His grandfather was Bishop of Chichester. See a full account of the family in Nichols’ ‘Literary Anecdotes,’ i. 207-11.
[64] He had married the daughter of the Reverend George Pollen, Rector of Little Bookham.
[CHAPTER II.]
The two Battalions, then stationed at Hythe, were ordered to be completed to a strength of a thousand men each; and active steps were taken to supply the losses occasioned by the retreat by obtaining volunteers from the Militia. The Regiment had already become so famous and so popular, that not only were the deficiencies filled up in a very short time, but more than a thousand volunteers presented themselves beyond the numbers required.[65] It was therefore resolved by the authorities to add a 3rd Battalion to the Regiment. Colonel M’Leod was promoted to the Lieutenant-Colonelcy of it, and soon afterwards exchanged with Colonel Andrew Barnard, of the 1st Royals, afterwards Sir Andrew Barnard: a name indelibly connected with the subsequent achievements of the Regiment. Only two or three other of the steps consequent on the formation of an additional Battalion were given in the Regiment, the services of those by whose valour and sufferings the Regiment had obtained the fame which attracted these volunteers and to whose exertions in recruiting their great number was due, being, with the usual injustice of the British Government to its military defenders, ignored. General Sir David Dundas, then Commander-in-Chief, became Colonel-in-Chief on August 31, 1809, in place of Manningham; and the Colonelcies of the three Battalions were bestowed on Major-Generals Forbes Champagné, Sir Brent Spencer, and the Honourable William Stewart, thus restoring to the roll of the Regiment the honoured name of its first Lieutenant-Colonel.
I now resume the history of the services of the 1st Battalion, which having been completed to 1,010 rank and file, marched from Hythe, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Beckwith, at two o’clock in the morning of May 25, 1809, and arriving at Dover about six, soon after embarked in three transports, the ‘Fortune,’ the ‘Malabar,’ and the ‘Laurel,’ and sailed immediately for the Downs. Here they were joined by a battalion of the 43rd and by the 52nd, which were to form the Light Brigade under Major-General Robert Craufurd, who embarked in the ‘Nymph’ frigate. Contrary winds kept them in the Downs till June 3, when they made sail; and arriving in the Tagus on the 28th anchored off Lisbon. Here they remained until July 2, when about midnight they were put into flat-bottomed boats, and towed up the river. The men and officers were very crowded, and experienced great inconvenience for twenty-four hours, until they were landed at Vallada on the right bank of the river, at or near which place they bivouacked on that night. On landing they were definitively formed, with the 43rd and 52nd Light Infantry Regiments, their constant companions in arms, into the Light Brigade, whose deeds of arms in Portugal, Spain and France, can never be forgotten while England has an army.
The Battalion marched on the 4th to Santarem, where they halted till the 7th, to allow the baggage animals, the ammunition, and the Commissariat to come up. On that day they marched to Golegão, and on the 8th to Punhete and Tancos, still on the Tagus; on the 9th they passed through Abrantes, but, not halting there, crossed by a pontoon bridge to the left bank of the river, and bivouacked in extensive woods. All these marches were, in consequence of the extreme heat of the weather, performed in the night; the Battalion generally falling in about midnight, and arriving at their bivouack about eight or nine in the morning.
It was about this time that Craufurd issued standing orders to his Brigade of extreme strictness, not to say severity. This Draconic code made him at first very unpopular; but as time went on, its usefulness in maintaining discipline and repressing offences became manifest. It produced a perfection in the Brigade which the officers and the men themselves could not but recognise; and this, added to his own personal valour and reckless daring, eventually endeared him to the soldiers who followed him.[66]
At midnight on the 10th the Battalion moved to Gavião, a march of thirteen hours, the greater part under a blazing sun. On the 12th they reached, through a bleak and high country, Niza. On the next day they marched through the pass of Villa Velha, and crossing the Tagus by a bridge of boats, bivouacked on the opposite bank. On the 14th they advanced by mountainous and difficult roads to Sernadas, and on the 15th reached Castello Branco. Here they halted on the 16th and 17th to enable the 43rd and 52nd to join them. On the 18th the Brigade thus complete marched soon after midnight and bivouacked in the woods near Ladouira; on the 19th they moved through a desolate country to Zebreira; and on the 20th, crossing the Elgas, passed into Spain and encamped near Zarza Major. On the next day, after a long and oppressive march, they reached Moralegua, and on the 22nd arrived at Coria, where they halted during the 23rd.
On the 24th the Battalion marched to Galisteo, on the river Alagon; on the 25th over a burning plain, with the Sierra de Gata, topped with snow, in view, to Malpartida, a village on the Calzones. On the next day, the 26th, crossing the river Tietar by a flying bridge, they had a most fatiguing march to Venta de Bazagona, and on the 27th arrived at Navalmoral, the heat being oppressive.
On the 28th they marched at daylight to the town of Calzada, where tidings reached Craufurd that an action was imminent between Sir Arthur Wellesley’s army, with General Cuesta’s Spanish troops, and Marshal Victor’s army, then in close proximity. He determined, therefore, if possible, to unite his Brigade to Sir Arthur Wellesley before it should take place; and undertook the forced march which has rendered the name of the Light Division famous. Accordingly, after a short rest at Calzada, he pushed on to Oropesa, two leagues, which he reached about noon. A distant cannonade began to be heard, which, increasing as they approached it, acted as an incentive to speed and endurance. They marched on under a scorching sun to Oropesa, where they halted for four hours to cook. Here Craufurd desired the commanding officers to pick out of the ranks such men as they considered unable to continue a further march. Very few men of the Battalion fell out; these were left at Oropesa in charge of a subaltern. After this was done the bugles sounded the ‘fall in,’ and the Riflemen moved onward till about ten at night; when, passing a cattle-pond, Craufurd halted to allow the men to drink. The parched soldiers eagerly drank the water, filthy and nauseous though it was. As soon as they had satisfied their thirst, the march was resumed and continued through the night, without check, through deep, sandy roads. Early on the morning of the 29th the Light Division marched across the field of Talavera, giving three hearty cheers for the victory of the day before.
They had thus, in heavy marching order, under a burning sun, and with a most insufficient supply of food, marched upwards of fifty miles, with only two short halts, in twenty-five hours. They thus arrived the morning after the fight at Talavera; but though the Battalion itself was not present, a detachment of the Regiment left in the Peninsula in 1808 took part in the action, and was mentioned in Sir Arthur Wellesley’s despatches as having particularly distinguished themselves.[67]
As soon as it arrived at Talavera the Battalion was immediately ordered to occupy some woods in advance of the British position and to furnish the picquets, the sentinels of which were facing the position of the French army. Here the Battalion remained till August 3. During that time it suffered much from want of provision, not more than one ration of bread, and but little of other food, having been issued.
On the 3rd the British army began to fall back in consequence of information that Soult with a large force was moving towards the rear of the English with a view of cutting off their communications with Portugal. Before daybreak they marched and arrived at Oropesa, the 95th forming the rear-guard with the cavalry. On the 4th they crossed the Tagus by the bridge of Arzobispo. It was during this march that Craufurd, knowing that his Division were famishing, allowed them to kill any animals which might be in the woods in which they halted that evening. A large herd of pigs being discovered was instantly set upon by the hungry soldiers, killed, cut up and eaten in an incredibly short time. About midnight they started again, thus refreshed, and pushed forward to secure the bridge of Almaraz, the rest of the army moving on Truxillo. It was of vast importance to secure this bridge, as it was feared Soult might occupy it. The Light Division, therefore, was pushed on with great rapidity. The Riflemen marched for fourteen hours through a hilly and barren country, still without food, except a kind of pea parched by the sun, and wheat found in such fields as remained ungleaned; suffering also from want of water, the streams being almost all dried up; and on the evening of the 5th the Battalion bivouacked in some woods in advance of the rest of the Division. Before dawn on the 6th they resumed their march under a burning sun, and with the same scanty provision, and after fifteen hours’ march, during which there were many stragglers, faint from heat and want, they reached the bridge of Almaraz. Two companies of the Battalion were immediately sent on picquet at a ford a little below the bridge; and the remainder bivouacked near, in order to support the picquets in case of an attack. Here they remained till August 20, the Battalion being always in advance, and bivouacking in an olive wood near Rio Gardo, and furnishing the picquets at the ford. Every evening at sunset they moved out of the olive wood, and lay down with their arms on the bank of the river, and returned to the camp at sunrise. The remainder of the Light Division were encamped near the village of Las Casas del Puerto.
During this whole fortnight the scarcity, or rather the absolute want, of provision continued. Scanty rations of goat-flesh were issued during this time; and a coarse kind of pea-flour, with bran and chopped straw, provided by the Commissariat, which the officers and men made into a kind of cake with water, and cooked on a camp-kettle lid or on a stone, was the only provision. Unless when the men found some ears of corn in a field, and by rubbing them in their hands and grinding the grains between stones, in this way supplemented the Commissariat allowance.
On the 12th the French picquets appeared on the heights opposite the bridge and the ford, but no shots were exchanged between them and the two companies of Riflemen always posted at the ford. And indeed then, as throughout the war in the Peninsula, the best understanding existed between the Riflemen on outpost duty and the advanced posts of the French; the officers frequently saluting each other. And so far did this go that the Riflemen, when ordered to advance to drive in the French picquets, used to hold up their rifles and tap the brass bullet-box in the stock of the Baker rifle then in use, to show their opponents that they were in earnest, and that their adversaries were to stand on their defence.
The insufficient food and the unwholesome position of their camp near the Bridge of Almaraz, in a damp situation, with poisonous vapours arising from vegetable matter decaying, and swamps half-dried under a burning sun, soon began to tell on the men of the Battalion; and fever and dysentery became prevalent among them.
At midnight on August 20 the Light Division marched from Almaraz and arrived at Deletosa on the following day, where a large portion of Sir Arthur Wellesley’s force was encamped. This and the whole British army (except the Light Division) marched on the 21st for Truxillo. On that evening the Battalion marched; and about midnight lay down with their arms until daybreak, when they started again for Caceres, where they arrived on the 23rd. And on the three following days they continued their march towards the Portuguese frontier, starting in the night and proceeding during many hours of the day. During this march the men suffered much both from the heat of the sun in a barren, treeless country, and the constant insufficiency of provisions. And it was not until they reached Valencia de Alcantara on the 26th, where they halted during the 27th, that they were able to procure bread, and the luxury of fruit and vegetables from the neighbouring gardens. Late on the 28th they started again, and marching during most of the night crossed the rivulet which here divides Spain from Portugal on the 29th, and proceeding by Maravão, after a march of many miles encamped at Castello de Vide, where the Battalion halted for a week. On September 7 they marched to Portalegre, where they halted two days, after which, resuming their march, they arrived at Arronches on the 10th, whence one more march on the next day brought them to Campo Major, their winter quarter, where they remained three months. During these, sickness and death ravaged the Battalion; fever, ague and dysentery, the fruits of exposure, of want, and of the proverbially unhealthy climate of Alemtejo, in which Campo Major is situated, sent numbers into hospital; and it is said[68] that nearly three hundred men of the 1st Battalion died during their stay there.
I now return to the narrative of the services of the 2nd Battalion, which we left at Hythe barracks; whence, after a rest of five months after the fatigues of Moore’s retreat, their losses being replaced by volunteers from the Militia, and their clothing and accoutrements renewed, they marched, about July 20, 1809,[69] about a thousand strong, under Colonel Wade, to Deal, and there embarked in the ‘Superb,’ 74, to join the expedition destined for Holland, under the Earl of Chatham. Subsequently they were shifted into the ‘Namur,’ on the 22nd, and formed part of the brigade of their former Lieutenant-Colonel, the Honourable William Stewart, with the 2nd Battalions of their constant companions in arms, the 43rd and 52nd. They sailed on July 30, and arrived off Flushing on the following day. Two companies were immediately detached to act with the force under Major-General Baron de Rottenberg; and on that night Lieutenant William Humbley, being in charge of an advanced picquet, while going his rounds, was informed by a peasant that a party of French soldiers were at that moment plundering his house. Humbley, with great promptness, suspecting that while intent on plunder the look-out would not be very good, at once took with him a corporal and eight men of his picquet; and, under the guidance of the peasant, the night being very dark, made his way to the house, about 200 yards from his post. They moved in perfect silence, and arrived at the place without a ‘qui vive’ from the only sentry there posted. Him a Rifleman knocked down at once with the butt of his rifle; the others instantly surrounded the house, and made prisoners the whole picquet, consisting of 2 sergeants, 2 corporals, and 20 privates. The officer in command of it alone escaping, by getting out of a back window, and in the darkness of the night getting away. The Riflemen broke the whole of the muskets of the French picquet, and conveyed their twenty-four prisoners into the British lines and forwarded them to head-quarters.[70]
The two companies to which Humbley’s picquet belonged, on the next day repulsed a sortie made from the place; and in this affair Humbley received a severe wound in the head from a musket ball, and 1 sergeant and 9 rank and file were also wounded.
During the subsequent siege, a Rifleman named Jackman got close up to the walls of Flushing, and scooping out a pit with his sword, entrenched himself in it, and began to fire deliberately at the French gunners. He is said to have picked off eleven artillerymen, as they showed themselves at the embrasures; and having done so, he sprang out of his pit, ran across the open, and rejoined his Battalion unhurt.[71]
Five companies, with the rest of Stewart’s brigade, were not landed till the 9th, when they disembarked on the Island of South Beveland. The other companies, on the Island of Walcheren, took an active part in the siege operations until the capitulation on the 15th. During these operations the Battalion lost 11 rank and file killed, and Lieutenants Manners and Clarke, and 21 rank and file wounded. But the casualties from engines of war were trifling compared to the devastating effects of the climate of Walcheren and South Beveland. The officers and men were struck down by fevers; and on the 27th Stewart writes that the increase of the sickness in the 95th was at the rate of twenty cases daily. On September 8 the Battalion re-embarked, and this useless, abortive and mismanaged expedition came to an end. They landed at Dover on the 14th, and on the 18th the Battalion which had left Hythe barracks less than six weeks before, a thousand stalwart and hale men, staggered into them a gaunt and fever-stricken band of about seven hundred: many to be carried at once to hospital, and not a few to their grave. Thus in the space of nine months had the Battalion been twice more than decimated by fatigue, want and pestilence.[72]
The 1st Battalion having remained at Campo Major three months marched on December 12, forming the advance of the Light Division, to Arronches; and thence by Portalegre, Crato, Ponte de Sor, Abrantes and Punhete, to Thomar, which they reached on the 23rd. They continued their march through Leiria, Pombal, Condeixa, and arrived at Coimbra on the 29th, and halted there during the next day. Resuming their march on the 31st, they passed through Ponte da Murcella, to Venda and Gallizes, in which villages they were quartered on January 1, 1810, arrived at Celorico on the 3rd, and at Pinhel on the next day; and crossing the Coa on the 6th, occupied the villages of Villar Torpim, Regada and Cinco Villas. In this position, with occasional shifting of quarters with the other regiments of the Division, they continued during the remainder of January, February and the early part of March. The Riflemen, with a few German hussars, were the only troops pushed across the Coa to observe the French outposts at St. Felices, immediately opposite the bridge and pass of Barba del Puerco; the remainder of the army being quartered on the left bank of the Coa.
On February 27 Captain Creagh’s company was ordered to reconnoitre the village of Barba del Puerco, which he found occupied by a strong detachment of French cavalry; and after a skirmish with them fell back, according to his orders, to Escarigo, where he was joined by Captain Leach’s company, while a third was moved in support from Villar Torpim to Vermiosa. On the 28th Leach[73] made a fresh reconnaissance; and finding that the enemy had left Barba del Puerco, occupied it, sending a party to the bridge which spanned the Agueda at the foot of the pass. It was ascertained that the French occupied St. Felices with about 3,000 men of all arms, under General Ferey, having a picquet of cavalry and infantry at their side of the bridge. Thus it continued, three companies being posted in the village, and one on picquet at the bridge, on which were double sentries. At the same time the whole of the Battalion was pushed up to the Agueda, the whole line of which they (with the German hussars) occupied, with four companies at Villa de Ciervo on the left, one company at Almofela, and another at Escalhao on the right of the position of Barba del Puerco.
On March 19 the French General Ferey attempted to surprise the post of Barba del Puerco. About midnight, leaving a strong force in support, at the head of six hundred grenadiers, chosen for this service, he approached the bridge, as the moon, rising behind him, threw a shadow from the high ground and made his approach invisible. The roaring torrent of the Agueda, swollen by recent rains and melting snow, overpowered the tread of the advancing column. Thus he came, unperceived, on the double sentries on the bridge. They had just time to fire their rifles, when they were both wounded and made prisoners. Ferey at once dashed across the bridge with his grenadiers, sweeping before him a sergeant’s party at the bridge, and made for the pass. Here he was met and checked by O’Hare,[74] whose company happened to be on picquet, who defended the face of the hill, step by step and muzzle to muzzle, as overpowering numbers forced him up it. Meanwhile the three companies in the village sprung from their sleep, seized their arms, and without waiting for regular formation, fought hand to hand with their enemies as they met them. One company, Colonel Sidney Beckwith, who was in command of the post, immediately sent away to the right, thinking that the enemy might attempt to climb the hill by a pathway there and turn his flank; with the other two he reinforced O’Hare’s picquet; and so they fought for half an hour, with such daring and such fury that the French turned and fled across the bridge, leaving 2 officers and 7 men killed, 6 prisoners and 30 muskets in the hands of their opponents.
In this affair great deeds of valour were done. Beckwith, while lowering a piece of rock to hurl down on the advancing Frenchmen, received a musket-ball through his shako, without its wounding him. And James Stewart, then the Adjutant, was engaged in a hand-to-hand fight with two of the grenadiers, when a Rifleman named Ballard shot one, on which the other was overpowered by, and surrendered to, Stewart, who was specially mentioned by Sir Arthur Wellesley in his Despatches, and recommended by Beckwith for promotion; but it never came, and he was killed a year after in the advance from Santarem. Lieutenant Mercer and 3 Riflemen were killed, and 10 were wounded.
In repelling this night attack the Riflemen stood against more than double their numbers. Six hundred grenadiers crossed the bridge, and only three companies repulsed them, O’Hare’s picquet and two under Beckwith; the fourth company occupying the post being detached to defend the path on the right, which was not attempted, never having been engaged.
This fight opened the campaign of 1810. The stern Craufurd, ever sparing of praise, issued the following divisional order:
Villa de Ciervo: March 25, 1810.
D. O.
Brigadier-General Craufurd has it in command from the Commander-in-Chief to assure Lieutenant-Colonel Beckwith and the officers of the 95th Regiment who were engaged at Barba del Puerco that their conduct in this affair has augmented the confidence he has in the troops when opposed to the enemy in any situation.
Brigadier-General Craufurd feels peculiar satisfaction in noticing the first affair in which any part of the Light Brigade were engaged during the present campaign. That British troops should defeat a superior number of the enemy is nothing new; but the action reflects honour on Lieutenant-Colonel Beckwith and the Regiment, inasmuch as it was of a sort which the riflemen of other armies would shun. In other armies the rifle is considered ill-calculated for close action with an enemy armed with a musket and bayonet; but the 95th Regiment has proved that the rifle in the hands of a British soldier is a fully sufficient weapon to enable him to defeat the French in the closest fight, in whatever manner they may be armed.
(Signed) V. Graham, D. A. G.
Sir Arthur Wellesley also repeatedly mentions this gallant fight in his Despatches and letters. Besides the message thus conveyed by Craufurd, he tells Admiral the Honourable G. Berkeley that the French were ‘repulsed in fine style’ by the 95th; and in his Despatch reporting it to the Earl of Liverpool, he adds that ‘this affair was highly creditable to Colonel Beckwith, and displayed the gallantry and discipline of the officers and troops under his command.’
But this discipline, which thus elicited the approval of the great commander, was not enforced by Beckwith with sternness or severity. It is recorded how, during their halts at Campo Major and near the Coa, during the preceding winter, he had let his Battalion repose from the fatigues of their long marches, and their sufferings from famine and disease; not worrying the soldiers with drills or barrack-yard parades; but rather encouraging amusements and sports which refreshed and reanimated them. This it was, added to their knowledge of his valour and experience when leading them in the field, that made him loved by the Officers and Riflemen of his Battalion, made them ready to ‘follow him through fire and water when the day of trial came; for they well knew that he was the last man on earth who would give them unnecessary trouble, or, on the other hand, would spare either man or officer when the good of the service demanded their utmost exertions.’[75]
About this time the 1st and 3rd Caçadores of the Portuguese army were added to Craufurd’s Division; the latter commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Elder, one of the original officers of the Rifle Corps.[76] At the same time Ross’[77] troop of Horse Artillery and the 14th and 16th Light Dragoons were attached to the Light Division.
Soon after the attack on Barba del Puerco the troops (which had been reinforced with some of the 43rd and 52nd) were withdrawn to Villa de Ciervo.
Early in April, in compliance with orders from home, the ten companies of which the Battalion on service had hitherto consisted were reduced to eight, two captains with subalterns, non-commissioned officers, and a few men returning to England to form a Depôt. These eight companies were of about a hundred men each, as the Battalion which embarked a thousand and ten rank and file, had been reduced in about nine months, principally by disease, to about eight hundred men in all.
Craufurd now maintained a long line of posts on the right bank of the Agueda, from Fuentes Guinaldo on the right to the junction of the Agueda and the Douro, near Escalhao, on the left. In May the French began the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo, distant a few miles from Gallegos, then the head-quarters of the Light Division. The 1st Battalion had picquets at Carpio, Molina das Flores, and Marialva. The Battalion itself was every evening under arms, and took up a position in a wood situated on some high ground behind Gallegos, and towards Duas Casas; here they remained during the night, returning for the day to their quarters. It seems that Massena observed this movement, and supposed that these troops were reinforcements to Craufurd’s Division. He therefore ordered Junot with a considerable force to cross the Azarva at the bridge of Marialva. This he did at daybreak on July 4, driving in the picquet at Marialva; the passage of his cavalry was gallantly disputed and checked by the German hussars; but Junot advancing in force, Craufurd resolved to fall back behind the Duas Casas. The Battalion, with some cavalry, covered this movement, and skirmishing with the French advanced troops, held them back until Craufurd had established himself behind the river. Junot, probably thinking Craufurd’s force to be much larger than it was, did not follow up this advance; and the Battalion took up a position at Val de la Mula, behind the River Turon, here the boundary between Spain and Portugal, detaching two companies to Fort Concepcion in front of the position. On July 10 Craufurd resolved by a night march to surprise the French posts at Gallegos and Barquillo. Accordingly, seven companies of the 95th with two of the 52nd got under arms late on that night, together with the 14th Light Dragoons and some German hussars. The Riflemen were ordered to load, to march in silence, and not to light their pipes. The wheels of two of Ross’ guns, which formed part of the column, were muffled. Thus they marched through a good part of the night, Craufurd himself accompanying them. On reaching some high ground, the Riflemen were ordered to lie down in some high standing corn. Here they waited for dawn; when it appeared, the orders to fall in and to advance to the edge of the height were given, and the French appeared in the plain below. They consisted of about two companies of infantry and a troop of cavalry. Craufurd ordered Colonel Talbot to charge them with the 14th; this he did gallantly, sabreing or making prisoners the cavalry; but the infantry formed square, and receiving the charge, brought down Talbot himself and several of his troopers, and then made good their retreat. Why Craufurd did not use his guns, or let loose the Riflemen at the French infantry, seems inexplicable. But so it was: and after remaining on the hill inactive spectators of the combat, they marched back to their position at Val de la Mula. But Ciudad Rodrigo having surrendered, Craufurd fell back on July 16 to Junça, about a mile and a half from Almeida, in Portugal, and on the right bank of the Coa.
At daybreak on the 21st the Battalion, with Ross’ battery, advanced towards the Turon to support the cavalry who were driven from Val de la Mula and across the Turon by an advance of the enemy in great force. On this advance the mines which our engineers had formed under Fort Concepcion were fired. The two companies of Riflemen posted there, under Captain O’Hare, proceeded to rejoin the Battalion, and had not long left their position when the work fell with a tremendous explosion. On the 22nd Craufurd fell back to near Almeida, his left protected by the guns of that place, and his right resting on the Coa.
During the night of the 23rd the Division was exposed to a violent storm of thunder, lightning and torrents of rain. Day had just begun to dawn on the morning of the 24th, and the troops, which had assembled at their alarm posts, were expecting an order to retire, as all seemed quiet, when the crack of the rifle of one of the advanced sentries announced the approach of the enemy. Marshal Ney, with an overwhelming force, was advancing by the road from Val de la Mula, and attacked and drove in the outlying picquet under Captain the Honourable Keith Stewart, which occupied that road. In resisting this attack, and falling back on the supports, Lieutenant M’Cullock, who was on this picquet, was sabred, and, with several men, taken prisoner.[78]
O’Hare’s company were at once ordered in support, and he disposed them behind some walls. Here they waited till Stewart’s picquet, slowly retreating and disputing their ground, came in upon them, followed by a swarm of French tirailleurs. A wing of the 43rd were about a hundred yards in the rear of these Riflemen; and at this moment a shell from Almeida, thrown of course at the French, burst close by, and killed and wounded several Riflemen.
O’Hare’s company was now ordered to retire. Half the company did so; the remainder, under Lieutenant Johnston, were still engaged with the French advanced troops, when a troop or squadron of the enemy’s hussars, whom our men, on account of the similarity of the uniform to that of the German hussars, had not noticed, swept round their left flank, and galloping between the Riflemen and their support the 43rd, sabred and rode down many, and caused great confusion.
Drawn by Lieut. G. Goodall, R.E. E. Weller, lith., London.
London: Chatto & Windus.
ACTION
ON THE
COA
24TH JULY 1810.
It was but for a moment: for the 43rd, recovering from their surprise, fired a volley which emptied many saddles. The action now became general along the whole line. The French advance was for a time checked in the broken ground; but Ney’s overwhelming force bore back the English towards the rocky defile which led to the one narrow bridge over the Coa. The ground was disputed inch by inch by the Battalion, the 43rd and the 52nd, while the cavalry, the guns, the baggage, and the two Portuguese regiments attached to Craufurd’s Division, descended the steep defile and crossed the bridge, about a mile to the rear.
Thus the unequal contest had long and arduously to be maintained. As they fell back to the hill which overlooked the Coa, it was perceived that some of the cavalry and artillery had not yet got across the bridge. Craufurd unhappily ordered a number of Riflemen, who occupied a position which prevented the enemy from cutting off the passage to the bridge, to evacuate it, before the 52nd, who were far on the right of the position, had made good their retreat. Beckwith at once saw the mistake, and ordered the Riflemen to retake the hill and the wall. This they did in fine style; but not without many officers and men falling. And about this time some skirmishers of the Battalion and a wing of the 43rd, led on by Major McCleod of that regiment, the senior officer on the spot, not only held their ground, but, mixed together and gallantly headed, rushed against the French advanced troops, and checked them until the bridge was clear and the 52nd over; then, rushing down at speed, they got across the bridge. As soon as the regiment got over they formed along the bank of the river, among rocks, walls, and any ground that could afford cover. The Coa, swollen by the rain of the preceding night, and by that which had been incessantly pouring since noon, was not fordable, so that the only point to be defended was the narrow bridge. Twice it was attempted by a valiant assault of French grenadiers; twice they were sent reeling back under our fire, almost all killed or wounded; the few who got across falling on the other side. Still a constant fire was kept up till about five o’clock; when the French ceased, apparently giving up all hope of forcing the bridge; and our men ceasing fire from exhaustion after about twelve hours’ hard fighting.
The loss of the Battalion in this engagement was very severe. Lieutenant Donald M’Leod and 11 rank and file were killed; Captains Creagh, Samuel Mitchell, Lieutenants Matthew Pratt, Peter Reilly, Alexander Coane, Thomas Smith, and Second Lieutenant George Simmons were severely, and Lieutenant Harry Smith slightly, wounded; and 1 sergeant and 54 rank and file were wounded; and Lieutenant M’Cullock wounded and prisoner, 1 sergeant and 52 rank and file missing.
Of these, Captain Creagh died the night of the fight; Reilly died the following day at Celorico; Pratt,[79] shot in the neck, died from the bursting of the carotid artery on August 1, on the Mondego river, near Fordaso; and many of the wounded men also died on their way to Lisbon.
In O’Hare’s company alone, which, as we have seen, bore the brunt of the hussar charge, Lieutenant Alexander Coane was dangerously wounded, 11 men were killed and wounded, and 45 prisoners. Indeed, it is said that O’Hare’s company only mustered 11 men on parade next morning.
A Rifleman, named Charity, in the cavalry charge received a sabre cut in the head, another in the body, and a musket shot through the arm; yet recovered and died a Chelsea pensioner many years afterwards.
In the Despatch reporting this action to the Earl of Liverpool, Lord Wellington states: ‘I am informed that throughout this trying day the Commanding Officers of the 43rd, 52nd, and 95th Regiments, Lieutenant-Colonel Beckwith, Lieutenant-Colonel Barclay, and Lieutenant-Colonel Hall, and all the officers and soldiers of these excellent regiments, distinguished themselves.’[80]
As soon as night had fallen Craufurd withdrew his Division from the Coa, and the Battalion bivouacked late on that night in some rocky ground near Valverde, the men suffering from the heavy rains of the preceding night and day.
Late in the night of the 25th they marched from Valverde, the rain still continuing to fall in torrents, and bivouacked near Freixadas. Here they were met by Lord Wellington, who came up from head-quarters at Alverca early in the morning, on hearing of the affair at the Coa. By him the Battalion were ordered into the village of Freixadas, where they were housed until the 28th.
On that day they arrived at Celorico, and hutted themselves by cutting down branches of the trees in a wood. Here, on August 4, Craufurd’s Division was divided into two brigades; one under Colonel Sidney Beckwith, consisting of the right wing of the 95th, the 43rd and the 3rd Portuguese Caçadores; the other, under Colonel Barclay of the 52nd, consisting of his own regiment, the left wing of the 95th and the 1st Caçadores. The Battalion remained at Celorico until August 5, when it was ordered to the front to support cavalry; and for about a fortnight or three weeks it was constantly on the move, the latter part of the time in heavy and continuous rain for three or four days. Early in September the army began its retreat, being covered by the Battalion and the other regiments of Craufurd’s Division as a rear-guard. On the 20th they marched before daylight from Celorico, and crossing the Mondego by a ford, fell back by the road from Viseu to Coimbra. On the 23rd, the enemy’s advanced guard pressing the cavalry of the rear-guard, Lord Wellington, who was present, ordered Craufurd to retire by the road leading to Busaco. This was effected during the two following days; on both of which the French pressed the rear-guard, composed of some companies of Riflemen and the 52nd and of some cavalry, with cavalry and infantry skirmishers intermixed, and some light guns; but the retreat was effected in good order and with little loss. The Battalion on both those nights threw forward picquets to support the cavalry.
On the 25th, when about a league and a half from Busaco, the enemy pressed the British cavalry so hard that the rear company of the Battalion had to face about and check them; and soon after the left wing of the Battalion was halted in a fir-wood, behind the village of Mora Morta, and effectually stopped them until the Light Division drew into the Sierra of Busaco, where the rest of the army were at this time assembled in position. This was an important and well-performed service; for Craufurd had kept his Division too long in an advanced position; and it was not without some difficulty that, protected by these four companies of Riflemen, he moved the Division into its position on the heights.
The right wing of the Battalion under Beckwith was halted in the village of Sula, at the foot of the hill of Busaco, where they were smartly cannonaded from the opposite heights, but without loss; and at night they were withdrawn from Sula, leaving a picquet in that village, and stationed among the rocks on the face of the hill, right and left of the road leading to Coimbra.
On the 26th Massena was engaged in bringing up his forces. Some infantry was pushed into a wood close to Sula, and skirmishing took place between them and the picquet of the Battalion there; and the companies attached to Barclay’s brigade, in an adjacent village, were also attacked. This continued all the day; and as this constant interchange of fire was very harassing, the companies on picquet were relieved about every two hours. At last, at nightfall this skirmishing and fire ceased, and nothing indicated the presence of the vast hosts but the numerous watch-fires, which illuminated the sides of the mountains, divided only by a narrow valley.
E. Weller, Litho.
London, Chatto & Windus.
BATTLE of BUSACO.
27TH SEPR 1810.
It is not for me to describe the position of Busaco, or the particulars of the fight. It is enough for this record to note that in the centre of the side of the Sierra projects a hill forming a sort of natural bastion, and connected with the mountain itself by a neck, depressed below the level of the projecting hill. Among the rocks and broken ground on the sides of this hill were disposed the Riflemen of this Battalion; while in the hollow behind it Craufurd had concealed the 43rd and 52nd. Scarcely had day dawned on the 27th, when the enemy made his advance. Loison’s division climbed the road leading up the face of the projecting hill, though galled by the fire of the Riflemen and Ross’ guns. Yet they came on, the Riflemen, as the French pressed up the hill, running in on their supports and forming in the hollow between the spur and the mountain. At last the leading section topped the hill, and then, and not till then, Craufurd gave the signal; the bugles sounded, and eighteen hundred men sprang as from the earth. Instantaneously they gave a volley; the head of the column after one destructive fire from the leading section reeled; Craufurd ordered a charge; and soldiers, arms, knapsacks and caps rolled in a confused mass down the precipitous hill. The French column was wedged in the road, the leading sections were driven back on the still advancing rear, and all turned back in utter confusion. Then they came under the fire of the whole Division which far overlapped their flanks; and through the narrow street of Sula they fled, trampling the living and the dead. The Battalion and some Caçadores were ordered to pursue them; and General Simon, who commanded the attacking brigade, and many others were made prisoners by the Light Division.
No further attack was made on this position; but the enemy’s skirmishers swarmed in the valley, and kept the Battalion employed till the afternoon, when Craufurd received a flag of truce with General Simon’s baggage, and granted a temporary cessation of arms. Leach mentions that, during that time, he went down into Sula, and met officers and men of Loison’s division, who acknowledged their loss to be very heavy; one of them asserting that his company, which mounted the hill 120 strong, could only muster 27 men after their repulse.
The time limited for the truce having expired, the French seemed disposed to keep possession of the village of Sula; but Lord Wellington, who happened to be at hand, ordered a company of the Battalion to go down and drive them out: which they did in a very short time, and established a picquet there.
On the 28th no movement took place; but on the morning of the 29th, owing to an attempt on Massena’s part to turn Lord Wellington’s position by getting round by Coimbra, the English army broke up and fell back at a very early hour. About nine the Battalion followed, forming, as usual, part of the rear-guard, with some cavalry; and at night halted in a wood some miles from Busaco. On October 3 they reached Pombal; on the 5th Batalha; and on the succeeding days, in incessant rains, proceeded to Alemquer, where they arrived on the 9th. On the 10th they were pressed by the French advanced guard, and after a little skirmishing fell back to Arruda in a tempest of rain.
Thus they reached the Lines of Torres-Vedras, of which no description is needed here. The portion of the lines this Battalion occupied was on the right centre of the position, and on the fortified heights immediately behind Arruda, having advanced posts in front of the town. In very wet weather the Battalion were allowed to shelter themselves in Arruda during the day, but always returned to their bivouack on the heights during the night.
While the Battalion remained in these lines the enemy made several reconnaissances, which occasionally brought on affairs of picquets. On one of these occasions, on October 14, a sharp affair took place near Sobral between the advanced guard of the 8th Corps d’Armée and the light troops of Sir Brent Spencer’s division. In this skirmish a company of the 3rd Battalion, which had lately arrived from England and had been detained on its way to Cadiz by Sir Brent Spencer, as the Regiment was his,[81] was engaged, and Captain Percival and Lieutenant Eeles were severely wounded, and several men killed and wounded. These young soldiers (as George Simmons observes) ‘behaved like Riflemen, and were complimented.’
On the 23rd, Simmons and Hopwood, being on picquet with Mitchell’s company near Villa Matos, observed two French soldiers entering a house in their front in search of provisions. Taking three men of the picquet with them, they crawled to an avenue which screened them from a vedette who was stationed on a rising ground to give the foragers notice of any danger. Entering the house they seized the men, who were armed, and one of whom snapped his musket at his assailants, but it missed fire. The Riflemen found a large barrel of wine in the house; and the officers sending back one of the men for all the canteens he could find at the picquet while the others kept a good look-out, filled sixty, destroyed the rest of the barrel, and led off their two prisoners to the picquet.
The army remained in the lines of Torres-Vedras till November 15. Leach’s company, which furnished the picquet in front of Arruda on the night of the 14th, discovered at daybreak on the next morning that the French army had fallen back during the night; leaving dummies of straw topped with a shako, and with a pole to look like a musket, to represent their advanced sentries. Soon after this was known at head-quarters the Battalion was ordered in pursuit; but did not come up with the French rear-guard, and halted that night near Alemquer. On the 16th the Battalion continued the pursuit through Villa Nova and Azambuja; and though they never got sight of the rear-guard, they took many stragglers prisoners. They first got sight of the French near Cartaxo, where they found them posted on some rising ground, having a heathy plain in their front. Craufurd, believing that a rear-guard only was opposed to him, was on the point of attacking; but Lord Wellington, who came up at the moment, forbade this attack, a whole Corps d’Armée being, in fact, concealed behind the heights on which the small force visible was posted. The Battalion halted that night in Cartaxo, and before dawn on the 18th again started in pursuit, and came up with the enemy’s rear-guard, which retired before them across a plain to the Rio Mayor, which they crossed by a narrow bridge at the end of a long causeway. A company of the Regiment was pushed on as a picquet near the bridge. The enemy were occasionally exchanging shots with some dismounted dragoons whom the Riflemen relieved; and Simmons, who was on the picquet, taking three men with him, crept on the bridge; and lying down behind a dead mule, which gave them a good rest for their rifles, they took deliberate aim and evidently hit some of their adversaries, who became very chary of showing themselves. As the Riflemen had had a long march and a hard day’s work, they were relieved at night by a company of the 52nd; and retreating to a grove of olive-trees near at hand, for they were to remain as a reserve, they kindled their fires and made themselves as comfortable as a rainy night allowed. But they were not long undisturbed. For Craufurd, fancying or hoping that the enemy were moving off, and ever anxious to be the first in pursuit, took two or three soldiers with him, and walked cautiously along the causeway so far that the French sentry challenged and fired; Craufurd ordered his escort to return it. And this alarmed the enemy; who, fancying probably that the English were crossing the bridge in force, opened a heavy fire, the balls of which rattled among the olive trees where the weary Riflemen were bivouacked, and rudely disturbed their rest. However, at last the uproar ceased; and when day broke on the 19th it was found that during the remainder of the night the French had formidably increased the strength of their position by placing abattis on the causeway and breastworks at the end of it. They had also placed guns on the high ground which rose behind, and which they had also fortified with abattis. The position, in fact, was a very strong one: in front the Rio Mayor, and swampy ground crossed only by the bridge and causeway; on the left the Tagus, with ground rising in bold and hilly eminences; and the considerable town of Santarem about a league in the rear. After bivouacking in a pine-wood near Valle, where, as in the previous night, they suffered from torrents of rain, they were ordered on the 20th to cross by a bridge near Valle to the left of the enemy’s position and to attack his picquets. The Battalion was employed to drive in the enemy’s advanced party, which they effected in fine style, and with but slight loss, though under sharp fire from the French light troops for about two hours. The object of this reconnaissance was to ascertain whether Massena’s whole force occupied the position or only a rear-guard; though, as Beckwith observed in his north-country phrase to a staff officer who asserted his certainty that it was but the latter, ‘It was a gay rear-guard that built that abattis in a night.’
However, it being evident that the whole of Massena’s army held this strong position, the Battalion was withdrawn and placed in houses, cottages and sheds, near the bridge. On it they had double sentries; close to it an outlying picquet of three hundred men; a large inlying picquet close by; and the rest of the Battalion, sleeping always by their arms, were ready, in case of an alarm, to turn out at a minute’s notice.
As the Battalion remained thus posted at Valle, near the bridge to Santarem, during the winter, and there is nothing to record of them for four months, I shall return to trace the services of the 2nd and 3rd Battalions; observing only that General Craufurd at this time went on leave of absence to England, and that Sir William Erskine succeeded to the command of the Light Division during his absence.
We left the 2nd Battalion at Hythe on its return from Walcheren. Its sufferings and casualties there prevented its taking part in any operations of the war for some time. But its losses were supplied with energy; and within a space of five months after its return from Flanders, two companies (Captain Cadoux’s and Captain Jenkins’) embarked on February 12, 1810, and formed part of the force assembled at Tarifa on February 25, under Lieutenant-General Graham, being then attached to Brigadier-General Dilkes’ brigade. They served at Cadiz, and under the command of Colonel Norcott distinguished themselves at the Battle of Barrosa, as I shall more particularly mention when I come to detail the part taken by the 3rd Battalion in that action. Meanwhile, to trace the services of these companies.
One of these (Captain Jenkins’) was detached to act with Ballesteros’ Spanish force, and disembarked at Algeçiras early in September, and marched to Ximena; whence on the 18th they advanced to Alcalá de Gazules, and after some smart skirmishing with a French detachment from Chiclana, retired to Ximena. It remained in the neighbourhood of Algeçiras for two months; and after being constantly engaged with the enemy, it retreated (with Ballesteros’ army) to Gibraltar.[82]
This company subsequently formed part of the garrison of Tarifa.
On December 20 it was engaged in Colonel Skerrett’s attempt to resist the investment of the place, and both companies took part in successfully repelling the assault on the breach which was made on the 31st, when their distinguished gallantry was very conspicuous. On the former of these occasions they lost 2 men killed, and had 10 men wounded. In the fight at the breach 1 man was killed and 1 wounded.
After taking their share in this ‘great and splendid exploit,’[83] this company rejoined the other at Cadiz.
In July 1810, another company (Charles Beckwith’s) embarked at Portsmouth, and, having landed at Lisbon, marched to join the army, then on its retreat from Busaco to Torres-Vedras. It joined at Coimbra, and was attached to the 1st Battalion in the Light Division.
This company thenceforward took part in the movements and actions of the 1st Battalion during the remainder of this and the first half of the following year.
On July 5, 1811, another company (Captain Hart’s) embarked at Portsmouth and joined the Light Division on the frontiers of Portugal in September. These two companies then, as we shall see, acted with the 1st Battalion and the Light Division, and distinguished themselves at the two great sieges (Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajos) of the next year.
A further reinforcement of two companies (Captains Duncan’s and Ferguson’s) left England in May 1812, and landed at Lisbon at the latter end of that month. They joined the army in July, shortly before the battle of Salamanca, and were attached to the Light Division. At Salamanca and during the advance to Madrid the four companies of this Battalion were commanded by Major Wilkins; but soon after they reached Madrid, Colonel Wade arrived from England with the Staff of the Battalion, and took command. And on the retreat from Madrid, the other two companies (Cadoux and Jenkins’), which had been in Andalusia with Skerrett, having, as we have seen, joined Lord Wellington’s army early in November, the strength of the 2nd Battalion in the Peninsula consisted (as did the 1st Battalion) of six companies until the close of the war.
I have thus brought down the details of the movements of this Battalion to this period, because being enfeebled by the results of the disastrous Walcheren campaign, they were enabled only to join the army in the field by single, or at most by two, companies at a time, as their numbers were recruited and their health was restored. Its marches, its actions and its glories will henceforward form part of the general history of the Regiment, as will that of the 3rd Battalion, which, until its junction with the other Battalions, I will now proceed to particularise. But I will in as far as record or other information enables me to do so, distinguish the feats of arms and the losses of each Battalion.
The 3rd Battalion on its formation in 1809 was stationed at Brabourn Lees; and the drill and discipline of this new levy were carried on so vigorously and effectively that it was able early in 1810 to send three companies to Cadiz. And on July 11 in that year two more companies and the head-quarters, under the command of Colonel Barnard, embarked at Portsmouth on board the ‘Mercury’ frigate, and landed at Cadiz on the 29th. Cadiz was at this time besieged by the army under command of Marshal Victor; who occupied all the surrounding towns and villages except Cadiz itself and the Isla de Leon, their advanced posts being pushed forward to near the river Santi-Petri, except near the bridge of Zuazo, the only communication with the mainland. Here the English picquets were thrown forward beyond the bridge and on the road to Seville, which forms a causeway across the marshy plain intersected with saltpans. And so well was it defended by our picquets, that, as Ford observes, this bridge was the pons asinorum of the French; for they never could get over it.
Here the 3rd Battalion, and the two companies of the 2nd under Norcott, remained until February 1811, when they embarked under the command of General Graham on the 18th, and landed at Algeçiras on the 24th. Having bivouacked on a height near Algeçiras, they moved the next day to Tarifa, where they halted until the 26th. The two companies of the 2nd Battalion were attached to the brigade of Guards commanded by Brigadier-General Dilkes, and the four companies of the 3rd Battalion,[84] with two companies of the 47th, were brigaded under Colonel Barnard.[85]
On March 1 they marched about twelve miles and bivouacked on some high ground; and the following day reached Casas Viejas, where they bivouacked on a hill, and suffered much from the bitterly cold weather. On the 3rd, having started before daylight, they reached about mid-day a lagoon through which was a ford. The Spaniards, who led the column, hesitated so long in attempting to cross, that General Graham, out of all patience, proposed to General La Peña to let the British troops advance. The 3rd Battalion was the leading regiment, and at once entered the ford in column of sections, and marched straight through it, the water reaching about to their waist. The rest of the English force followed; and the Spaniards, shamed into imitation, followed their example. The troops marched forward, and halted that night in an olive-wood on very high ground, near Vejer; the soldiers suffering from the extreme cold, which was severely felt in consequence of their wetting in crossing the lagoon, and the scarcity of wood for firing. They halted here until the evening of the 4th, when a little after dark they marched to the village of Conil, and on the morning of the 5th reached the plain of Chiclana, and halted on the eastern slope of the knoll of Barrosa. This is a ridge running in from the sea-coast about a mile and a half, and overlooking the plain, which is bounded on one side by the shore, and on the other by the forest of Chiclana. In our front was a pine-wood. About twelve o’clock General Graham put his troops in motion, and the 3rd Battalion were ordered down the hill and into the wood in order to take possession of the height of Bermeja. But they had not long moved, when Graham was informed that the enemy had debouched from the forest, and having forced the troops left on the height, were ascending the hill of Barrosa. The 3rd Battalion were instantly countermarched, and ordered to get to the plain and engage the enemy as soon as possible. On emerging from the pine-wood they found themselves in front of two battalions of the 8th Regiment, one of grenadiers, the other of voltigeurs. Two companies under Barnard were left to cover and protect the guns; while the other Riflemen of this Battalion, inclining to the left, and extending as they came up the hill, soon became engaged with their opponents. In the same way Norcott, in command of the two 2nd Battalion companies forming the rear-guard, as soon as he heard from a sergeant of the German hussars of the appearance of the enemy, put his column to the right about, and extending his two companies, made his way out of the wood; and on getting out of it and seeing the enemy advancing, he put his right to the cliffs to cover the British regiments then filing out of the wood, and was soon engaged with the enemy’s voltigeurs; and the Guards and 67th having advanced, he placed his Riflemen on the flanks of the brigade, and with them advanced against the enemy’s line.[86]
E. Weller, Litho.
London, Chatto & Windus.
BATTLE
of
BARROSA.
March 5, 1811.
About this time the grenadiers of the 8th French Regiment advanced, with drums beating, and the 54th (French) entered the pine-wood to endeavour to turn our left. Notwithstanding the fire of the 3rd Battalion on them in column, and at a short range, the grenadiers of the 8th pushed on and drove in our skirmishers; when the 87th, with some companies of the Guards, charging them with the bayonet, they gave way, and in a short time fled routed and in disorder; pursued by the Riflemen, who were engaged with the light troops which attempted to cover their retreat. However, as is well known, the Spaniards giving no help, but looking on as unconcerned spectators, Graham was unable to follow up his victory, and the Riflemen were recalled.
‘In all my fighting,’ says Surtees, ‘I never saw an action in which the chances of death were so numerous as in this.’[87] And so the Duke calls it ‘the hardest action that has been fought yet.’[88]
In the hour and a half during which it lasted, the two 2nd Battalion companies lost 6 rank and file killed, and Lieutenants Hope[89] and Thomas Cochrane (severely) and 1 sergeant, 1 bugler, and 26 rank and file wounded; and the four 3rd Battalion companies had Captain Knipe and 13 rank and file killed, and Lieutenant-Colonel Barnard, Lieutenants William Campbell (severely) and Hovenden, 3 sergeants, and 45 rank and file wounded. Barnard was severely wounded about the middle of the action, and was carried to the rear; and while the wound was being dressed, another shot struck him, and inflicted a wound more severe than the first. Surtees, who went to the rear to bring up fresh ammunition, says that the ground there was ploughed up by the enemy’s round shot and musketry. The 3rd Battalion had four mounted officers in the field: the horses of two were killed; of another wounded.
In his despatch reporting this action General Graham says: ‘Lieutenant-Colonel Barnard and the officers of his Battalion executed the duty of skirmishing in advance with the enemy in a masterly manner.’ And he specially mentions Lieutenant-Colonel Norcott, whom he recommends for promotion.[90]
Soon after the action the British forces moved off, and crossed to the Isla, except the 3rd Battalion, which was left on the field to protect the wounded, and to give notice of any return of the enemy. But none appeared; and after dark Major Ross, who had succeeded to the command on Barnard’s being wounded, moved the Battalion across the field, thickly strewn with dead and wounded of both armies, and formed it into square on a sand-hill on the beach, where they rested on their arms during the remainder of the night. It was severe service which fell to the lot of this young battalion; a march of sixteen hours in the preceding night; three hours’ manœuvring, and half of it hard fighting; and all this without food; remaining under arms on the field till dark; and now only resting on their arms.
General Rousseau, who had been made prisoner, badly wounded, died in the course of the night, and was buried on the beach by the 3rd Battalion. In his pocket they found a leave of absence to return to France on account of ill-health, which his appearance clearly indicated, but of which this brave soldier had not availed himself.
Towards morning Ross moved off his weary and famished Battalion; and passing by the beach and over the Santi-Petri river, they returned to their former quarters in the Isla de Leon.
Here they remained till June 30, when, embarking at Cadiz, they reached Lisbon (after an unusually slow passage) on July 19, and marched up the country to join Lord Wellington’s army. They arrived on August 21, and were attached to the Light Division, then cantoned in villages near the Agueda. At the same time the company of this Battalion which had been attached to Sir Brent Spencer’s division was withdrawn from it, and joined the Battalion.[91]
Plate II.
THE 95TH