FOOTNOTES:
[65] This return will show the actual numbers:
Return of 95th, May 10, 1809.
| Effective April 1, previous to Militia volunteering | Volunteers from Militia | Remaining in Portugal | Total | Left in Spain | Grand total | ||
| English | Irish | ||||||
| 1st Battalion | 799 | 641 | None | 8 | 1448 | 88 | 1536 |
| 2nd Battalion | 863 | 641 | None | 37 | 1541 | 38 | 1579 |
Thus leaving an excess of more than eleven hundred men, after completing the two Battalions to a thousand men each. This excess formed the 3rd Battalion.
[66] For twenty years and upwards after the end of the war, every officer of the Regiment was required to learn and to know these standing orders.
[67] 1st Battalion Record. I do not find this in the ‘Wellington Despatches’ or in the ‘Supplementary Despatches.’ It was probably noticed in Divisional Orders. The detachments under Colonel Bunbury are, however, mentioned with praise in the despatch of Talavera (‘Wellington Despatches,’ iv. 537). It may have formed part of these, for it appears by the return ([p. 42], note) that 88 men of the 1st Battalion and 38 of the 2nd Battalion had been ‘left in Spain;’ and 8 men of the 1st Battalion and 37 of the 2nd Battalion ‘left in Portugal.’
[68] Costello, 24. He was himself in hospital and dangerously ill.
[69] The 2nd Battalion Record says that they embarked on the 23rd, but as Stewart (‘Cumloden Papers,’ 56) notes that they changed to the ‘Namur’ on the 22nd, this must be an error.
[70] Humbley’s Letter, January 31, 1838, in Adjutant-General’s Office.
[71] Harris, 131.
[72] There died between the date of their return, and January 10, 1810, 5 sergeants and 128 rank and file. On February 10, 1810, the Battalion had 161 sick; on February 25, 140 sick. The strength on embarkation was 70 sergeants, 988 rank and file.
[73] Lieutenant-Colonel Leach retired from the army 1821.
[74] Captain O’Hare was very ill and in bed; but at the first alarm placed himself at the head of his company, which was previously in the charge of Lieutenant Mercer.
[75] Leach, 121.
[76] Major-General Sir George Elder, K.C.B., died December 3, 1836.
[77] Afterwards Field-Marshal Sir Hew Dalrymple Ross, G.C.B.
[78] M’Cullock refused to give his parole, and was marched towards the French frontier; and at Valladolid, being confined in a private house, his handsome person and his wounds excited the pity, or that which is akin to pity, of a young lady of the family. The old story: she laid plans for his escape; she procured him a disguise; she gave him a supply of money; and he succeeded in rejoining the Battalion.
[79] ‘As noble a fellow and as worthy a man as I ever met with.’—George Simmons’ MS.
[80] ‘Wellington Despatches,’ vi. 293.
[81] ‘Wellington Despatches,’ viii. 218. He was Colonel-Commandant of a Battalion.
[82] 2nd Battalion Record.
[83] ‘Napier,’ Book xv. chap. v.
[84] The other company of this Battalion had joined the army under Lord Wellington (‘Wellington Supplementary Despatches,’ vi. 569, 575), and was no doubt the company with Sir Brent Spencer’s Division. See [p. 62].
[85] ‘Napier,’ vol. ii. appendix ix. 2.
[86] Norcott’s Report: ‘Wellington Supplementary Despatches,’ vii. 128.
[87] P. 127.
[88] ‘Wellington Despatches,’ vii. 400.
[89] Lieutenant-Colonel John Charles Hope, K. H., died October 12, 1842.
[90] ‘Wellington Despatches,’ vii. 396.
[91] ‘Wellington Despatches,’ viii. 218; and see [p. 62].
[CHAPTER III.]
On the night of March 5 it was ascertained that Massena had evacuated his position at Santarem, and had commenced a retreat, and the Light Division were ordered immediately in pursuit; and at three in the morning on the 6th they marched. The 1st Battalion, being in advance, on crossing the bridge came upon the dummy straw sentries (the old trick of the retreating enemy), and pushing on, arrived at Santarem at midday. This was found quite deserted; and after an hour’s halt the Riflemen resumed their march, and that night occupied Pernes.
On the 7th they followed the retreating enemy to Torres Novas; and halted at night at Arga and La Marosa. Starting at daybreak on the 8th, the Riflemen first caught sight towards evening of the enemy’s rear-guard, which occupied the village of Paialvo. The 1st Battalion were at once ordered to dislodge them, which, with the help of a couple of 6-pounders, they did very speedily. On the 9th they advanced early, and after five hours’ march came up with the enemy’s rear-guard at the junction of the roads from Leiria and Lisbon and that to Coimbra. Here a large body of cavalry was posted, and infantry in force was halted in rear. An advanced squadron of the 11th Grenadiers à Cheval was charged by the German hussars, and some prisoners taken by them and the Royal Dragoons. About 40 prisoners, mostly stragglers, also fell into the hands of the Riflemen.
During these marches O’Hare’s company were pushed forward, by mounting them behind the dragoons, and were on the 9th engaged all day in skirmishing; but without any loss.
On the 10th, the enemy having shown himself in great strength, in order to check the advance and to take up a position, the Battalion retired about half a league, and bivouacked in a pine-wood. On moving forward on the 11th it was found that the French had taken up a strong position at Pombal, occupying the old castle situated on an eminence and the town with infantry; the rest of their force being posted on the heights behind the town. Two companies of the 1st Battalion, O’Hare’s and another, with Elder’s Caçadores, dashed over the bridge leading to the town, and found the enemy in some houses near the bridge, from which they kept up a brisk fire; which the Riflemen, entering the opposite houses, returned for some time. Till at last Sergeant Fleming and a few men rushed into one of the houses held by the enemy and made several prisoners. Then the Riflemen drove them out of the houses. Lieutenant Hopwood, as he was entering one of them, got a bad wound in the thigh; pushing on they carried the castle, the key of the position; and pursuing the enemy, after some sharp fighting with their voltigeurs, who obstinately disputed ground which from its nature was very defensible, drove them completely out of Pombal. But continuing their pursuit too far, some were taken prisoners, and others escaped with difficulty. The combat continued till dark, which fell before Lord Wellington could bring up a sufficient body of troops to make a general attack. After this hard day’s fighting the Battalion bivouacked in a ploughed field, exposed to torrents of rain.
In this skirmish the two companies captured a grey horse, which carried the baggage of Colonel Soult, the nephew of the Marshal; and the contents were sold by auction by the captors in the bivouack; except his medals, which the men presented to Captain O’Hare, whose company had been actively engaged.
They stood to their arms before daylight, and found that the enemy had retired in the night. They immediately followed; and found the enemy posted in front of the town of Redinha; his right protected by some wooded heights; his left resting on the river Soure beyond Redinha, and well protected by ravines. In front was a large plain, which, when the Riflemen emerged from the defile leading to it, they found occupied by large bodies of troops. It was a bright Spring day, and the sight of the one army advancing over the plain the other in position on it, was splendid. The woods on the right of the position were immediately attacked by the left wing (four companies) of the 95th, under Major Stewart, which carried them and cleared them from the enemy in gallant style. This enabled Lord Wellington to form his line in front of the defile. At the same time the left of the position was attacked by the right wing of the 95th, under Major Gilmour, while the other regiments of the Light Division supported their attacks. The French rear-guard made gallant attempts to check their advance; but after a stubborn resistance they were driven through the town of Redinha and over the bridge; the Riflemen pressing them so hard, that they and the flying enemy passed over mixed together. Many of the enemy were forced over the battlements of the bridge; many threw themselves over to escape from their pursuers; and not a few were slain in the hand-to-hand fight on the bridge. On passing the bridge the rear-guard attempted to form on the height beyond; but the Light Division allowed them no respite, and they were driven towards Condeixa. The enemy’s guns occasionally gave our skirmishers some discharges of grape; but they pressed on till dark, when they were recalled, and bivouacked for the night on a height; the French army in the valley beneath, and the advanced sentries not more than two hundred yards from each other.
On this day Lieutenants Robert Beckwith and Chapman, of the 1st Battalion, were wounded; and of the 2nd Battalion, 4 rank and file were killed, and 9 wounded.
Lord Wellington, in his despatch, highly praises the conduct of the Regiment on this day, specially naming Majors Gilmour and Stewart; and in reference to driving the enemy’s right out of the wood, he says: ‘I have never seen the French infantry driven from a wood in a more gallant style;’[92] but by some mistake in Sir William Erskine’s report, he gives the credit of this exploit to the 52nd, while it was really performed, ‘to the admiration of the whole army,’ by four companies of the 1st Battalion.[93]
After some of the 1st Battalion skirmishers had towards evening driven the French before them, the officer commanding the latter held up his sword with a white handkerchief tied to it; and on coming to a parley, he told the officer commanding the Riflemen that he thought both parties needed some rest after a hard day’s work, and proposed a truce for the night. To this the Riflemen agreed; and asked him and his subalterns to share their rations. They very readily accepted the invitation; and after a scanty dinner of ration beef, and a little rum for beverage, they separated; one party to resume their retreat, the other their pursuit, next morning.
Three months after, Lieutenant Fitz-Maurice of the 95th, who had been present, was on picquet at Duas Casas, near the Agueda, when he saw a French officer limping towards him, who saluted him as an acquaintance. ‘Est-ce que vous ne me reconnaissez pas? I was one of your guests at Redinha. One of your men wounded me next morning. No matter. I come now not as a spy; but we have heard that you are short of rations; and I come, in return for your kindness, to offer you a share of ours.’ Fitz-Maurice was too old a soldier to admit that they were in want of supplies; though indeed they were; so, thanking him for his proffered kindness, which he declined (with great inward longing and regret, no doubt), they parted as good friends as they had been on the night of the fight at Redinha.
O’Hare’s and Balvaird’s companies being on picquet, an alarm was created by a Rifleman, Humphrey Allen, shooting a French sentry, in the hope of finding something in his mess-tin, because his own company had refused to share their provisions with him in consequence of his having skulked to the rear, carrying wounded, during the day. A general alarm took place, which brought Beckwith to the front.
On the 13th the Regiment marched to Condeixa and were left comparatively quiet on the roadside. For while some manœuvring took place to turn the enemy’s position, he evacuated it, having set the town of Condeixa on fire. As Lord Wellington was superintending these dispositions to turn the enemy’s flanks from a knoll close to the Regiment, some French tirailleurs crept near unperceived and fired at him and his Staff without success. Several Riflemen ran up to shoot or capture them, but they fled on their approach.
On the 14th at dawn the Light Division advanced against the enemy, who was posted on ground presenting many obstacles near the village of Casal-Nova. Other divisions of the army were sent to turn the flanks, while the Light Division attacked Ney’s centre. The ground was much intersected with stone walls, which enabled the enemy to dispute every foot of ground. And this Battalion was skirmishing from early morning until night; but they drove the enemy from one post of advantage to another in spite of many checks, and eventually Ney’s rear-guard fell back upon the main body at Miranda de Corvo. Early in the day a section of one of the companies was thrown forward among the skirmishers, and some rising ground being in front, Kincaid was ordered to take a man with him and occupy it, and to give notice of any movements of the enemy. He and the man who accompanied him, John Rouse, an old Rifleman, on getting to the top, ensconced themselves behind two large stones; but every time Rouse put his rifle over the stone to get a shot, a shower of French bullets rattled near them. After several attempts he gave it up, observing, ‘There will be no moving among them till this shower ceases.’ Kincaid observes that ‘this was the hardest day’s fighting he had ever known.’
As the French were retreating before our skirmishers, one man was observed to remain behind, deliberately loading and firing. Costello covered him and shot him. On coming up with him, a French sergeant, who lay wounded beside him, said: ‘Hélas! vous avez tué mon pauvre frère.’ The cause of his having remained behind was evident; it was in the hope of protecting his wounded brother. Costello, much to his credit, as soon as the fighting was over, returned to look for the brothers; both were dead, stripped by camp-followers, by whom they had probably been murdered.
Major John Stewart was killed in this fight, and Lieutenant Strode received wounds of which he died. Stewart was a most admirable officer of light troops, skilful in handling them, experienced in outpost duty, and (after Beckwith’s example), while strictly maintaining discipline, never harassing the men with matters of minute detail. Strode, who was also an excellent officer, always carried a rifle in action, and in the accurate use of it he excelled.
This day’s fighting lasted till sunset, when the picquets of the 1st Battalion occupied the village of Illama, which had been set on fire by the French; and the officers and men of the picquets saved many of the inhabitants and their children, who were too exhausted from famine to extricate themselves, from perishing in their burning houses. Some, however, were only saved from one death to die, when brought out, from want and exhaustion. Lord Wellington, in his despatch, specially mentions the conduct of the Regiment and the names of Colonel Beckwith and Majors Gilmour and Stewart.
The Battalion on going over the field after the action found that they had been opposed by the French 95th Regiment; and many buttons with that number were cut off the coats of the killed and preserved as trophies.
On the morning of the 15th a thick fog prevented the army starting early in pursuit. When it cleared it was found that the enemy had evacuated their position, and the Battalion passed through Miranda de Corvo, which was in flames, having been set on fire by Marshal Ney’s rear-guard, which had occupied it the night before.
The Battalion were halted beyond the village on a gentle slope, when Lord Wellington rode up; and Beckwith took occasion in conversation with him to mention that the Battalion were suffering much from having outmarched their supplies, and that some of his men from want and weakness had been unable to keep up. The Commander-in-Chief at once told them that they should have the first rations that came up. The men were just setting about cooking some provisions they had found abandoned by the French, when they were ordered to fall in at once and advance. The truth is that Lord Wellington on going to the front had observed that the enemy were in a strong position behind the river Ceira, but had committed the fatal mistake of leaving the rear-guard under Ney in front of Foz d’Aronce on our side of the river, here crossed only by a narrow bridge. The Battalion at once attacked them, and after a short but hot engagement drove them over the river. By some mistake the bridge was destroyed before the whole of the rear-guard had passed; and these being hotly pressed, endeavoured to cross the river, and a large number of them were drowned in the attempt. It was almost dark before the action commenced and it was quite dark before it was ended. The Battalion occupied for the night the camping-ground thus suddenly vacated by the French rear-guard, and at their camp-fires resumed the cooking of their suppers which had been interrupted by the hasty advance from Miranda de Corvo; or, rather, they continued the cooking begun by the French, for they found their pots on the fire, and a good supply of biscuit.
In this affair Lieutenant M’Cullock was severely, and Kincaid slightly, wounded. The general orders of the 16th contain, besides expressions of approbation and thanks to the army in general, the following clause: ‘The Commander of the Forces requests the Commanding Officers of the 43rd, 52nd and 95th Regiments, to name a sergeant of each Regiment to be recommended for promotion to an ensigncy, as a testimony of the particular approbation of the Commander of the Forces of these three Regiments.’[94]
In compliance with this order, Sergeant Simpson, then acting Sergeant-Major, was recommended, and was appointed an Ensign in the 2nd (Queen’s) Regiment of Foot.
The 16th was a day of rest. The Light Division had outmarched their supplies; the men were fatigued and weak from hunger; and the bridge over the Ceira being destroyed Lord Wellington gave them a day’s halt.
On reaching the banks of the Ceira the Riflemen came upon a sight of such wanton cruelty as seemed to stand out in horrid prominence in a retreat where cruelty, rapine and slaughter were of daily occurrence. Nearly 500 donkeys were standing in mute agony, hamstrung by the inhuman enemy who had fled the preceding night. That they should prevent their falling into the hands of their pursuers was natural; that they should choose this alternative of rendering them useless, instead of killing them, was brutal.
On the morning of the 17th the Battalion crossed the Ceira at the ford of Alça Perna; the ford was so deep that the men with difficulty kept their legs; and having passed it they halted on high ground covered with wood, a little short of the Alva. The next morning the enemy was found in a strong position on the rugged banks of the Alva, behind the Ponte da Murcella. They had broken down the bridge. However, the Battalion was formed up opposite the enemy, and some 9-pounders being brought up, their fire and the advance of the Riflemen ‘put them all in a bustle,’ to use Lord Wellington’s characteristic language;[95] and George Simmons says he never saw them go off in such confusion.[96] The Battalion halted on a swampy height covered with pine-woods, and bivouacked.
On the 19th, a temporary wooden bridge having been constructed, they crossed the Alva, and passing through Sabriera, halted for the night in a wood of pines.
On this day, amongst many other prisoners, an Aide-de-Camp of General Loison was taken, with a very handsome Spanish girl, dressed in a hussar uniform, who was said to be his wife. He was a Portuguese, a traitor to his country.
On the 20th, the Battalion advanced through Gallizes and halted in a fir-wood near Venda Nova. Here they found quantities of carts and waggons which had been abandoned by the enemy. On the following day they continued their advance and halted in fir-woods near Marusa. On the 22nd the Battalion went into houses in the town of Momenta de Serra in consequence of the inclemency of the weather. Here, as indeed during this whole advance, they found the dead and mutilated bodies of the people, and heard from the survivors heartrending accounts of the cruelties perpetrated by the retreating enemy. On the 23rd they advanced to S. Paio and bivouacked in a wood in front of it; on the next day they marched to and were quartered in the village of Mello, and on the 25th bivouacked in a wood near it.
During these days the Battalion was obliged to make these short marches in order to let the supplies come up. The men and officers suffered the greatest privation, only one ration of bread being given out in four days, and the country behind the retreating French being stripped of everything.
On the 26th the Battalion marched to Celorico, which the enemy had evacuated, and halted there the next day.
On the 28th the right wing of the Battalion by a forced march reached Avalans de Ribeira, and 100 men under Captain Charles Beckwith were sent to dislodge a strong rear-guard of the enemy from a mill in front of Freixadas. They found the French busily at work, grinding corn, and soon drove them out of the mill and the village; taking several prisoners. In this affair the Adjutant, Lieutenant James Stewart, having dashed into the village with a few Riflemen, was shot, from a window, through the left breast and heart. He was acting as Brigade-Major to Colonel Beckwith, and was universally esteemed in the Regiment. ‘It is not too much to say,’ Leach observes, ‘that no man in any corps ever filled the situation of adjutant better than he did, and very few half so well. He was open-hearted, manly, friendly and independent; a most gallant and zealous officer, and much devoted to his own Corps. He neither cringed to, nor worshipped any man, but did his duty manfully, and with impartiality: two qualities inestimable in adjutants. By the soldiers he was idolised, and very justly. When his duties as adjutant did not interfere, he was amongst the first to enter into any frolic and fun; and a more jovial soul never existed.’[97]
On the next morning at dawn the whole of the advanced guard, Riflemen, cavalry, and artillery, attended his funeral; and his body, wrapped in his cloak, and deposited in a chest, was buried in front of Colonel Beckwith’s quarter, in the village of Alverca.
The left wing of the Battalion, with the rest of the Light Division, had on the 28th crossed the Mondego, and occupied the villages of Baracal and Mavashal.
On the 29th the army moved forward on the front and flanks of the strong position of Guarda, which stands perched on a high hill, and is said to be the most elevated town in Portugal.[98] Notwithstanding the strength of his position the enemy did not await our onset, but moved off in the direction of Sabugal, pursued by cavalry and artillery only. The Light Division was not now handled by the fiery Craufurd; and the enemy escaped with the loss of barely 200 prisoners, which fell into the hands of the pursuing cavalry.
The Battalion halted in Carapeta and other villages at the foot of the hill on which Guarda is placed.
On April 1 the Battalion marched by Adão to Pega, where they halted about an hour in very heavy rain; and then proceeded to Quintas de S. Bartolomeo on the banks of the Coa, and nearly opposite Sabugal, where the 2nd Corps of the French army, under Regnier, were posted in great force, having picquets on our side of the river.
The Battalion furnished the picquets, which were ordered to be extremely vigilant; not to interfere with the enemy if he did not molest them; but if attacked, to hold their post and never to quit it.
It was a very dark and stormy night, with heavy rain. George Simmons and Kincaid were on this picquet, and the latter relates a curious instance of the impossibility of a man’s walking quite straight in the dark. On going to visit one of his sentries about midnight, he found the man absent from his post. Being an excellent old soldier he felt assured that he had not deserted, and after searching for him in vain he called him by name. The man’s answer was instantly followed by the discharge of a French sentinel’s musket; and it then appeared that on every successive walk up and down his beat he had verged nearer and nearer to the French lines, which he was close to when called. The man, convinced that he had kept on his post, was astounded and incredulous that he had in the pitchy darkness edged away from it.
On the 2nd the Battalion moved towards the right, and nearer to the bridge in front of Sabugal, and during this movement had some slight skirmishes with the enemy’s advanced posts.
Drawn by Captn Moorsom, C.E. E. Weller, lith., London
London: Chatto & Windus.
ACTION
AT
SABUGAL
3RD APRIL 1811
On the morning of the 3rd a thick fog hung over the banks of the Coa. Beckwith’s Brigade of the Light Division was drawn up in close column behind the heights on the left bank of the river (in compliance with the disposition for the attack[99]), when a staff officer rode up and asked him ‘why he did not cross?’ Beckwith was not the man to whom such a question should have been addressed, nor one to hesitate in giving a practical answer to it. He immediately ordered his brigade to advance. Four companies (the right wing) of the 1st Battalion led. The banks were steep and the ford at which they crossed deep, the water nearly up to the men’s armpits. As soon as the Riflemen had climbed the opposite bank they advanced in skirmishing order. The officer in command of the French picquet ordered his men to fire as they retreated. Following the picquet, they soon came upon a regiment, and continued skirmishing till the rest of the brigade came up. Then they pushed the enemy through a chestnut-wood and up the hill; a blinding rain came on, and on advancing Beckwith found himself, when the shower ceased, confronted by the whole of Regnier’s Corps d’Armée. Their fire and overwhelming numbers forced back the four companies of the Battalion on the 43rd who were in support. Regnier followed with three strong columns; but the 43rd received them with such a fire that they fell back, and the 43rd charging them, drove them down the hill and into their position. Here the enemy made a stand, and being reinforced, again obliged Beckwith to retire. He got his Riflemen behind some walls, where he not only held and checked the enemy, but again drove the French back and pursued them; but on reaching their original position, Beckwith was attacked by infantry on the left, while cavalry on the right charged the skirmishers. A third time the handful of men were forced back by overwhelming numbers; but now the other brigade of the Light Division, attracted by the fire, came up; and the fog clearing off, the 3rd Division, under Picton, which had crossed the river lower down, came up on the enemy’s right; and the 5th Division, having crossed the bridge, appeared debouching from the town of Sabugal; thus reinforced, Beckwith drove the enemy at the point of the bayonet into and through his original position, and the French retreated in confusion. Unfortunately, Sir William Erskine with the cavalry had lost his way in the fog, and had gone too far to the right; so that advantage could not be taken of the loose manner in which the enemy left the field; yet some prisoners were made.
In this action, in which, as Lord Wellington states, ‘the operations of the day were, by unavoidable accidents, not performed in the manner he intended they should be,’ nothing could be more daring or more characteristic of British courage, than the way in which Beckwith, with a handful of men (the Riflemen, Elder’s Caçadores, and the 43rd), withstood and thrice repulsed and pursued a whole Corps d’Armée placed in a strong position. And deservedly does the great captain go on to say that he considered ‘the action fought by Colonel Beckwith’s brigade principally, to be one of the most glorious the British troops were ever engaged in.’[100]
Beckwith’s own coolness and gallant bearing in it are recorded by all the narrators of the action. When obliged by the overwhelming numbers and fury of the French to give the order to retire, he rode among his own Riflemen; and seeing some disposition to quicken the pace he would say: ‘Don’t run; I did not mean that; we will go steadily, and give them a shot as we retire.’ When he had reached his supports and could make a stand, he faced them about, and led them forward again, and was obeyed and followed as calmly and steadily as if he was marching them up and down the barrack square.
In this affair Lieutenant the Hon. Duncan Arbuthnot and 1 Rifleman were killed. Beckwith was wounded in the forehead, and had a horse shot under him; and Second Lieutenant William Haggup and 12 rank and file were wounded.
And of the company of the 2nd Battalion present in this action, 1 man was killed and 2 wounded.
During the fight, as the Riflemen were driving the enemy’s skirmishers through a chestnut-wood, a man of the 1st Battalion of the name of Flinn, was aiming at a Frenchman, when a hare started out of the fern with which the hill was covered. Flinn, leaving the Frenchman, covered the hare, and fired and killed his game. On the officer commanding the company remonstrating with him, his reply was, ‘Ah! your honour, sure we can kill a Frenchman any day; but it isn’t always I can bag a hare for your supper.’[101]
The fight was hardly over, when the fog dissolved in torrents of rain; and Lord Wellington, riding up at the moment, directed the Light Division, as an express recognition of its prowess during the day, to house themselves in the town of Sabugal. They arrived just in time to anticipate the 5th Division, who yielded the much-coveted shelter, not without much murmuring. Thus the Riflemen had a roof over their heads; but the houses were mostly shared with the former occupants, who were dying of hunger or of ill-usage.
On the next day the Light Division moved through Quadrazaes, Valdespina, and Alfayates, and halted for the night at the frontier village of Forcalhos.
On the 5th the Battalion marched to Albergueria (in Spain); Massena having crossed the Agueda, and evacuated Portugal, with the exception of a garrison in Almeida, which was immediately blockaded.
On the 8th they marched to Fuentes d’Onor, and on the next day took up their old line of outposts on the Agueda, at Gallegos, Espeja, and Fuentes d’Onor.
On the 10th two companies of Riflemen, consisting of 150 men, under Captain Cameron, were detached to San Pedro near Almeida, to shoot the cattle grazing on the glacis of that fortress. Daily until the 15th, before dawn, they marched to near Almeida, and taking a position among rocks, and firing at the cattle, compelled the garrison to withdraw them. They were daily saluted with the fire of the guns of the place, by which, on the 12th, 1 sergeant (McDonald) was killed. At dusk they returned to San Pedro, to resume their watch on the next morning.
On the 23rd, a force consisting of two battalions of French infantry and a squadron of cavalry, marched by Carpio to the heights above the bridge of Marialva, on the Azarva, and halting there, sent forward a party to attack the picquets of the Light Division stationed at the bridge, then furnished by the 52nd. The pass was gallantly defended; and another company of the 52nd and some of the 1st Battalion coming to the assistance of the picquet, the enemy were repulsed, and retired towards Ciudad Rodrigo. Lord Wellington, in his ‘Despatches,’ mentions Lieutenant Charles Eeles as having distinguished himself on this occasion.[102]
On the 27th the Battalion marched early in the morning from the villages of Sesmero, Barquella and Villar de Puerco, which they occupied, to Alameda, and thence in rear of Gallegos, on which occasion another attack was made on the picquets, and again the enemy were repulsed.
And again, on May 1, six squadrons of French cavalry and a column of infantry appeared on the old ground of the heights of Carpio and Marialva; but after making a demonstration for some hours, withdrew.
On the 2nd the French army was concentrated, and advanced with a view evidently of raising the blockade of Almeida, or of throwing supplies into it; and as Lord Wellington was not disposed to dispute their advance until they approached his position at Fuentes d’Onor, the Light Division fell back without firing a shot, and passing through the village of Fuentes d’Onor, took post behind the village of Alameda.
But though the 1st Battalion were not actually engaged on this day, the company of the 3rd Battalion which was attached to the 1st Division took part in resisting the furious attack made by the enemy’s light troops on the village of Fuentes d’Onor; Lieutenant Uniacke was severely wounded, and 9 Riflemen were wounded.
On the evening of the 4th, the Battalion were moved to the rear of the centre of the British position. On this day General Craufurd rejoined from England, where he had been on leave, to the great satisfaction of his Division, which had experienced the want of his leading on more than one occasion during his absence.
Drawn by Captn Moorsom, C.E. E. Weller, lith., London
London: Chatto & Windus.
BATTLE
OF
FUENTES d’ONOR
5TH MAY 1811
On the 5th took place the Battle of Fuentes d’Onor. In the morning the Battalion was moved to the right and posted in a wood of oaks, throwing out skirmishers in front. Here they were hotly engaged for some time with the French skirmishers, who, however, did not attempt to drive them through the wood; till a large body of cavalry appearing on their right, and the French skirmishers pressing them sharply through the wood, they were compelled to retire, as the flank of the 7th Division being turned, they were in great danger of being cut off. Then it was that Craufurd moved them in close column, ready to form square in an instant had the cavalry charged them, across a plain nearly a mile in extent. This manœuvre was executed with all the precision and deliberateness of a field-day, while an enormous force of hostile cavalry hovered around them, but did not dare to charge, so formidable was their formation, and so steady their movement; and while a furious cannonade assailed them. They marched to that part of the position where the Guards were formed in line, and they wheeling back a company, the Battalion marched through, and halting in column acted as a support to that part of the position. They were afterwards placed at a right angle to the right of the British position, with their own right resting on the river Turones; and getting behind and among some rocks and broken ground, they were menaced by a large force of French infantry, which endeavoured to push in between the 1st and 7th Divisions, but finding the position unassailable, and being vigorously attacked by four companies of the Battalion under Major O’Hare,[103] withdrew. Then a tremendous fire of artillery was opened upon the Riflemen.
About two o’clock, as the enemy did not seem to threaten any further attack on this position, the Battalion were withdrawn, and placed in reserve in rear of the centre. Here they remained, lying down, until near dusk, when the Battalion moved down into Fuentes d’Onor, to relieve the troops which had been engaged there.
While the Battalion were in position near the Turones, and the French infantry which threatened them kept out of rifle range, Flinn, whose sporting propensities at Sabugal I have recorded, was observed to leave the ranks, and, with his comrade, advance towards the enemy. The officer in immediate command, fancying they were deserting, asked the sergeant of the company what it meant. ‘Oh no, sir,’ he replied, ‘they are only gone for some amusement.’ Accordingly, ‘on nobler game intent’ than the hares at Sabugal, after stopping to drink at the Turones (for the May day was hot) they crept up to the French, and taking good aim, brought down each his man. Then, putting their caps on their rifles to receive the return fire, while they were well under cover, they deliberately walked back, and fell into their places in the Battalion.[104]
In this action 1 sergeant and 6 Riflemen of the 1st Battalion were wounded; of the company of the 2nd Battalion, 2 were killed and 4 wounded; and of the company of the 3rd Battalion, attached to Sir Brent Spencer’s Division, Lieutenant Westby and 1 private were killed, 2 were wounded, and 1 sergeant and 1 private were missing.
Shortly after the Battalion occupied the village of Fuentes d’Onor, the French, whose picquets were at the other side of the bridge which spans the Duas Casas, sent over a flag of truce, with a request to be allowed to carry off their wounded. This was of course acceded to. Three French officers crossed the bridge, and while the wounded on both sides were being carried off had much friendly conversation with our officers, preceded by polite offers of ‘une prise de tabac.’ They were loud in their praises of the gallantry of our troops, and presaged hard fighting on the morrow. One of them, alluding to the name of the place, observed to George Simmons that of that ‘Fountain of Honour’ many of their comrades and of ours had drank deep. The wounded having been removed, they politely wished our officers ‘good night,’ and returned to their side of the river.
They had a captain’s picquet posted near the bridge, and a strong column of infantry near a church, and two of their sentries were at the foot of the bridge, while ours were stationed on our side of it. Great vigilance was necessary, and was exercised by our officers of the picquet, in consequence of the proximity of the posts.
A man of the Battalion of the name of Tidy, a blacksmith by trade, having found a forge in the village, set to work to shoe some of the officers’ horses. A French grenadier, attracted by the light, crossed the bridge, and asked to be allowed to light his pipe, and having done so remained talking to our men. Craufurd, who had come down to visit the picquet (Costello says to see after the shoeing of his horse), caught sight of the red epaulette, and sternly asked ‘What the man was doing there;’ and being informed that he only came to light his pipe, ordered him to begone.[105]
In the course of the night the Riflemen on picquet in the village threw up earthworks in the gardens, and a strong breastwork across the street. Before dawn they stood to their arms, but when day broke they found that the French did not renew the attack; nor did any change occur in the position of the two armies until the 10th, when it was ascertained at daybreak, by the Riflemen on picquet, that the French had retired, leaving only a small cavalry picquet at various points in the line of posts they had occupied. The Light Division and cavalry pursued them; but the superiority of the enemy in cavalry, which covered their retreat, effectually checked the pursuit; and the Battalion bivouacked in its old quarters at Gallegos and Espeja.
On the 12th three regiments of French cavalry moved from Ciudad Rodrigo by the heights of Carpio, and our cavalry picquets fell back, followed by a squadron towards Espeja. Beckwith at once turned out his brigade, and sent forward some Riflemen as skirmishers; and the enemy retired across the Azarva with the loss of a few horses.
On the 26th, the Battalion marched to Nave d’Aver and Aldea de Ponte, fully expecting to proceed to the Alemtejo; but the next day they were countermanded, and resumed from the 5th Division the line of outposts in front of Espeja, Gallegos, &c.
On June 3, Beckwith, having heard that the French cavalry were collecting on the Agueda, and not knowing where an attack might be made, moved his brigade before dawn out of Espeja, and occupied a wood in rear of it; but no attack being made he returned to his former post at noon.
On the 5th, the Light Division broke up from the line of posts it had occupied since the battle of Fuentes d’Onor, and marching by Aldea de Ponte, bivouacked in a wood near Alfayates. On the next day the Battalion crossed the Coa by the very same ford near Sabugal by which they had advanced to the fight of April 3, and bivouacked in a neighbouring wood of chestnut-trees. The night was very dark, and about midnight there occurred one of those strange panics which excite the terror even of those who never flinched in battle. Some bullocks straying among the piled arms knocked them over. Those awakened by the crash of the falling rifles raised the cry, ‘The French are upon us!’ In a moment all was confusion; the officers trying to assemble their companies; even Craufurd himself, it is said,[106] ordering the men to fall in and load; and the camp followers flying to the rear. After a time the panic died out; and on the morning of the 8th the Battalion marched to Memoa, and halting there to cook, proceeded to Penamacor in the evening.
On the 9th to S. Miguel d’Arch, and halted on the 10th.
On the 11th, by some blunder of the Staff, they were ordered to commence their march under a burning sun, and a great many men fell out, necessitating frequent halts. By some further mistake the baggage and supplies did not come up, and the men were without provisions for forty hours. At night they arrived at As Caldas de Cima, and bivouacked in a wood.
On the 12th the Battalion passed through Castello Branco, and halted during the heat of the day at As Cornadas de Rodão, and in the evening advanced to the pass of Villa Velha.
On the next day, crossing the Tagus by a bridge of boats, they marched to Niza, and bivouacked in a wood; on the 14th marched to Alpalhão, and on the following day to Portalegre, where they halted until the 19th, when they moved to Arronches.
On the 23rd they took up their position with the army which Lord Wellington had concentrated, encamping on a most arid plain near Monte Raguinga on the Caya, and about three miles from Campo Major.
Here the Battalion remained for about a month, during which time Craufurd did not allow his Division to be idle, but frequently took it out for drill and exercise. During the time it remained here the Battalion suffered much from the baneful climate of the Alemtejo; and fever, ague and dysentery were rife amongst the officers and men. To add to the discomfort of this camp, it was infested with snakes, scorpions and other reptiles; yet it is strange that among so many men occupying it, no fatal or serious accident ever occurred from this nuisance, at least among the Riflemen.
At last, on July 21, they were released from the life, to them after active service, so monotonous and every way so disagreeable; and on that day marching about a league and a half only, bivouacked, and on the next day marched into Portalegre. On the 23rd they proceeded to Castello de Vide, where they occupied several quintas round the town. Thence they marched northward by much the same route by which they had moved to the Alemtejo, passing Niza on the 29th, and on the next day crossing the Tagus at Villa Velha, by a pontoon bridge, and bivouacking in an olive-grove. Thence to Castello Branco on August 1, to Lausão on the 2nd, Bemposta on the 3rd, Mauras on the 4th, whence they moved to the neighbouring heights on the 6th, and continued their march towards the northern frontier of Portugal on the 7th. On the 10th the Battalion crossed the Agueda at the ford of Vado de Carros, and occupied the villages of Martiago with the right wing, and Langella with the left. On the 11th they started, with Lord Wellington, to make a reconnaissance on Ciudad Rodrigo. On their approaching it some hundred infantry with a few field-guns, came out of the town, but did not venture beyond the protection of the guns of the place. The reconnaissance having been effected, the Riflemen returned to their cantonments.
During the march from the Alemtejo the men of the Battalion had suffered much from the heat, and many of the marches had to be performed in the evening, or before sunrise, or during the night. On August 21 the four companies of the 3rd Battalion which had been at Barrosa, joined the Light Division, and a fifth company, which, as has been mentioned, was attached to Sir Brent Spencer’s Division at his request, as a Colonel Commandant of the Regiment, also joined, thus forming five companies of the Battalion, under the command of Colonel Barnard. They were placed in Beckwith’s brigade of the Light Division. About the same time another company of the 2nd Battalion, which had embarked at Portsmouth on July 5, and had landed at Lisbon on the 14th, under the command of Captain Hart, also joined the Light Division.
Sickness, no doubt contracted in the Alemtejo while encamped on the Caya, still made great ravages among the troops of the Light Division; three officers and many men of the Regiment having died while it occupied these cantonments on the Agueda.
At the end of August the Regiment (or at least the 1st Battalion) marched to Villa Rejo, on the 28th to Zamarra, and on the 29th to Atalaya.
On that evening George Simmons was sent forward with a company, and a corporal and three men of the German hussars, with orders, by moving through a woody country and by a circuitous route, to strike on the road leading from Salamanca; and then to proceed at his discretion, in order to ascertain, if possible, whether any convoy was on its way to throw provisions into Ciudad Rodrigo. He reconnoitred Tenebrun, and bivouacked for the night in a wood.
The next morning he moved to Boca de Carro and S. Spiritus, and ascertained from Don Julian Sanchez’s guerillas that a convoy had left Salamanca for Ciudad Rodrigo, but had been compelled to return, several parties of guerillas having formed across the road and attacked it. The company therefore returned to its quarters at Atalaya.
On September 9, Leach with his company and one of Portuguese Caçadores was sent over the Sierra de Gata to occupy two villages, Las Herrias and Aldea Juella, in the heart of the mountains, to observe some roads by which it was thought that Marmont might attempt to move light cavalry or infantry, and to obtain information as to the movements of the enemy. Here they remained a fortnight, daily patrolling and reconnoitring, but unable to ascertain anything of the enemy’s doings.
Marmont having determined to throw provisions into Ciudad Rodrigo, assembled his whole army and crossed the mountains from Plasencia. The Regiment, as part of the Light Division, was posted on the heights near Horquira. The enemy’s cavalry watched them, and entered Atalaya on September 23. Here the Riflemen remained three days; and on the 25th the combat at El Bodon took place between the Hon. General Colville’s brigade and the enemy’s cavalry. At this time the Riflemen were on the right bank of the Agueda, occupying the line of the Vadillo, a tributary flowing through a rocky channel into the Agueda, and falling into it about three miles from Rodrigo. Their position was a most dangerous one; for unless the troops on the left bank of the Agueda could hold the French in check they would have been cut off. Their safety was further endangered by the obstinacy of Craufurd; who though he received orders to retire, and join the rest of the army at or near Guinaldo, at two o’clock in the afternoon of the 25th, marched only to Cespedosa, one league from the Vadillo. On the next morning, however, at daybreak, they marched; and crossing the Agueda by a ford, and taking a circuitous route joined the 3rd and 4th Divisions near Guinaldo about three o’clock in the afternoon.
On that night the whole army retired, leaving the Light Division as a rear-guard. The Riflemen having made up their fires to deceive the enemy, and to lead them to believe that they were still in bivouack, followed about midnight. They marched through Casillas de Flores to Forcalhos, and were on the march during the whole of the 27th, with the exception of a short halt. General Craufurd having remained behind with a troop of cavalry to reconnoitre, was sharply pressed and pursued by the enemy’s chasseurs, and came galloping into the middle of the Riflemen with the enemy’s troopers at his heels. But the Riflemen, throwing themselves into rocky ground and cover, which fortunately was on each side of the road, soon brought the French cavalry to a check; but these dismounting and acting as infantry skirmishers, a smart skirmish took place between some companies of the Regiment and these dismounted men, which continued the greater part of the day. In the evening the Regiment joined the other Divisions at Aldea de Ponte.
Again forming the rear-guard, the Regiment marched at midnight, and about eight o’clock on the morning of the 28th reached a position on the height near Soita in a wood of enormous chestnut-trees, many of which were hollow from age and of such dimensions that men might have been and were sheltered in them. Lord Wellington was here in a very strong position; and Marmont having effected his principal object of re-victualling Ciudad Rodrigo, declined to give battle, and retired.
The Regiment on October 1 marched to Aldea Velha, and resumed its cantonments on the Agueda at Castellejo de Duas Casas, Martiago, Atalaya, Robleda, etc.
The Regiment now (with the Light Division) maintained the blockade of Ciudad Rodrigo, and there is little to record of its movements until the commencement of the more active operations of the siege.
On November 2, however, information having been received that a considerable body of French troops were in motion to escort a new governor to Rodrigo (the former one, General Renaud, having been taken prisoner near the place by Don Julian Sanchez and his guerillas), the Regiment moved up nearer to the fortress on this morning; but it having been ascertained that the governor had succeeded in entering the place, and that the escort was bivouacked two leagues in its rear, the Regiment fell back to its former cantonments.
On the 20th Lord Wellington inspected the Regiment (with the rest of the Division) between El Bodon and Fuente Guinaldo. The Regiment had marched from its cantonments in the morning and returned to them after the inspection.
About this time, or rather earlier, Colonel Beckwith went to England on account of his health, and Barnard (commanding the 3rd Battalion) took command of his brigade.
On January 4 the troops intended to carry on the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo were moved up near the place. In an incessant fall of cold rain the Riflemen forded the Agueda; the water being nearly up to their shoulders, the men were obliged to put their pouches on the top of their knapsacks and to hold on to one another to prevent their being swept away by the current. The Light Division occupied Pastores, La Encina, and El Bodon. No sufficient arrangements having been made for their quarters, houses were with difficulty obtained, and officers and men were huddled together wherever they could find shelter. Next day, however, better arrangements were made, and the companies of Riflemen were housed separately.
On the 8th the Regiment crossed the Agueda before daylight on a bitterly cold morning at the ford of Cantarona, near the Convent of La Caridad; the water was about knee-deep; and passing round a hill to the north of the town near San Francisco and out of range of the enemy’s guns, they halted. Several French officers appeared and spoke to the officers of the 95th with great politeness, being anxious to ascertain, as it seemed, what this movement meant.
It was not long before they learned; for at nine o’clock that evening a party of 300 men of the Light Division, under Colonel Colborne of the 52nd, stormed the detached fort of San Francisco. Captain Crampton’s company of the 1st Battalion first formed upon the crest of the glacis, followed by Travers’s company of the 3rd Battalion, and another company, commanded by Lieutenant Macnamara, of the 1st Battalion. In a moment they were in the ditch and swarming over the parapet. Three guns were taken, 2 captains and 48 men made prisoners, and the rest of the garrison were killed. In this attack Second Lieutenant Rutherford Hawksley, ‘a most promising young man,’ was severely wounded, and died of his wounds. The officer commanding this outwork, a smart, talkative little Frenchman, was, when made prisoner, brought to General Craufurd. He had been stripped by the Portuguese and had nothing on but trousers, and was bleeding from the nose and mouth. Craufurd having expressed regret that he could not furnish him with clothing, Tom Crawley, a well-known private in the 1st Battalion, stepped forward, and saluting, said, ‘He may have my great coat, your honour.’ Craufurd, who was much pleased, said,’You are very good, Rifleman; let him have it.’ Almost at the same time a sergeant was brought in, stripped naked by the Portuguese; he embraced his captain and burst into tears. Harry Smith, then on Craufurd’s Staff, gave him his handkerchief to cover his nakedness.[107]
The capture of this work enabled the working parties immediately to begin the first parallel. The garrison kept up an incessant fire of shot and shell, but by daylight the men were well covered. Early on the 9th the Light Division were relieved by the 1st. The French from the old square tower of the cathedral had a good view of this relief, and a furious fire was kept up on the advancing and retiring Divisions.
On the 12th the Light Division again occupied the trenches, fording the Agueda up to their waists, and continuing in this wet state, half-frozen, till relieved next day. Some worked at the approaches; some kept up a fire on the works of the place; and in the evening, under cover of a fog, thirty men of the 1st Battalion, under Kincaid, were sent forward to dig holes as near as possible to the crest of the glacis, in which to shelter themselves, and to pick off the gunners. This was not difficult for a good marksman; as, by having his rifle ready, he was able to aim at an embrasure and fire at it the moment he saw the flash of the gun. But the garrison threw fire-balls among them; however, the men crouching in their rifle-pits, lay hid until the fire-balls burned out, and then springing up again, picked off their gunners in the embrasures.
At ten the next morning the Division was relieved, and marched back to its cantonments. The fording of the Agueda, now partly frozen, on coming to and returning from the trenches, was very trying to the men. Not only the depth and the cold of the river; but now large blocks of ice carried down by the current bruised and incommoded them. In some measure to obviate this, cavalry were ordered to form across the ford above the infantry, and under this shelter the Riflemen crossed, if in the cold, at least unmolested by the floating ice.
On the 16th they again resumed their place in the trenches. The enemy had now got the range so accurately that their shells literally dropped into the trenches. So murderous and incessant was the fire from the place, that on their relief the next morning a new expedient was devised to escape its effect. The relieving division came up by small parties and the Light Division in like manner retired a few men at a time. But strange is the confidence given by constant exposure to danger: the Riflemen having discovered that by crossing the river close to where they then were, and running the gauntlet of the enemy’s fire for about a mile, instead of going round behind the hill near San Francisco, they would save both time and distance in getting to their cantonments, they did so.
Two breaches having been pronounced practicable on the 18th, the troops were ordered to assemble on the 19th for the assault of the place. The storming party consisted of a hundred men from each Regiment of the Division. The officers of the Regiment who volunteered for this duty were Captain Mitchell[108] of the 2nd Battalion, and Lieutenants William Johnston and Kincaid of the 1st Battalion. The Regiment forded the Agueda as usual, and halted for about an hour near the Convent of La Caridad. Thence they moved forward, and halted again behind the Convent of San Francisco.
The order of attack was as follows:
Four companies of the 1st Battalion, commanded by Major Cameron, who were to line the crest of the glacis and keep down the fire of the place;
Portuguese, carrying hay-bags, which they were to throw into the ditch, and ladders;
The forlorn hope;
The storming party, commanded by Major George Napier, of the 52nd;
The main body of the Division, commanded by Craufurd.
While waiting behind the Convent for the order to advance, Harry Smith came up to the Regiment, and said, ‘Some of you must come and take charge of some ladders;’ George Simmons at once stepped out and offered to go; and, having picked out the number of men required, followed Smith to the Engineer camp and obtained them. When he returned, Craufurd fiercely attacked him; ‘Why did you bring these short ladders here?’ ‘Because I was ordered by the Engineers to do so, General.’ ‘Go back, Sir, and get others; I am astonished at such stupidity.’ Simmons returned and procured others; and on his way back finding a Portuguese Captain wishing to be useful with his company, he handed over the ladders to him with strict injunctions as to how to place them, and rejoined his Battalion.
It is pleasanter to record Craufurd’s last address to his Division, almost his last words, as they stood waiting to attack; words never forgotten by some who heard them.
‘Soldiers,’ he said, in a voice which seemed to be peculiarly impressive, ‘the eyes of your country are upon you. Be steady; be cool; be firm in the assault. The town must be yours this night. Once masters of the wall, let your first duty be to clear the ramparts, and in doing so keep well together.’
At last the signal was given, and the leading Riflemen issued from behind the Convent of San Francisco and turned to the left to ascend the glacis. The night was clear enough to enable the defenders to perceive them; and no sooner had the head of the column appeared, than a furious fire of shot, shell and musketry lit up the ramparts in a sheet of flame, while fire-balls enabled the enemy to direct their aim on the advancing columns. Cameron’s Riflemen extended along the glacis, and opened their fire. The stormers rushed up to the ditch, and without waiting for the hay-bags or ladders carried by the Portuguese, who were nowhere, leaped into the ditch, a descent of ten or twelve feet, and made for the breach. Kincaid, by mistake, turned to a ravelin which he fancied to be a bastion, and finding one angle of it a good deal battered, thought it was the breach, and mounted it; but soon perceiving his error, was about to return, when a shout from the other side of the ditch announced that the breach had been found. He dropped from the ravelin, and on coming to the breach found the head of the storming party just ascending it.
But not the stormers only: the rest of the Regiment were pouring into the ditch. George Simmons finding ladders reared against the fausse-braye (for the Portuguese by this time had found their way to the ditch) mounted it with many others, fancying it to be the breach; but discovering his mistake, slid down the other side and mounted the breach. As he was ascending the ladders, Uniacke of the 1st Battalion accosted him. ‘This is the way.’ ‘Impossible,’ replied Simmons, ‘here are the ladders.’ Uniacke left him, turned to the left, and just as he reached the rampart an expense magazine exploded, and blew him and many others up.[109]
Then was there furious fighting at this breach; but it was soon won. The men, true to Craufurd’s orders, cleared the ramparts, and within an hour the place was in our hands. Then began that furious tumult, and that loosening of all the bands of discipline which mark the sack of a place captured by assault. The town was set on fire, but by the exertions of Barnard, Cameron and others it was extinguished. Barnard and Cameron with some of their officers seized broken gun-barrels, of which many French ones were found, and by force and even blows compelled the men to refrain from brutality and madness. By one o’clock in the morning Barnard had got the Regiment together and formed them on the ramparts, where, kindling fires, they lay down and slept soundly after this din of arms.
And many slept to wake no more. Captain Uniacke, as I have said, was blown up on reaching the rampart; his arm was torn from the socket, and he was fearfully scorched. He was carried to Gallegos, where he died a few hours after, surrounded by the men of his company, by whom he was beloved.’ ‘Though young in years,’ says Costello, who served in his company, ‘he was gallant, daring, and just to all whom he commanded. His affability and personal courage had rendered him the idol of the men of his company.’ Fairfoot, who was Pay-sergeant of his company, was resolved that he should be buried in consecrated ground; but he found an obstacle in the prejudices of the clergy, who considered him a heretic. However, Fairfoot (with pardonable equivocation) assured the priests that his Captain was an Irishman, which to the Spanish priests implied that he was a Catholic. Their scruples gave way; ‘and I chose,’ said Fairfoot afterwards, ‘the finest tree in the church-yard of Gallegos.’ At its foot he was laid; the whole of his company attending, under the command of Thomas Smith, his subaltern. Lieutenants John Cox and Hamilton, of the 1st Battalion, were also severely wounded, 1 Rifleman was killed, 1 sergeant and 15 rank and file wounded; in the 2nd Battalion, Captain Mitchell, and Lieutenants Bedell and M’Gregor were wounded, the two former severely; 8 rank and file were killed, and 22 wounded;[110] and 2 sergeants and 7 rank and file of the 3rd Battalion were wounded.
Besides these losses in the Regiment they had to regret the loss of their leader in so many glorious fields, Major-General Robert Craufurd, who, soon after starting them from the San Francisco Convent with the inspiriting words, ‘Now, lads, for the breach,’ was struck down mortally wounded, and died on the 24th. He was buried with military honours at the foot of the breach his Division had so gallantly carried, borne to the grave by four Sergeant-Majors of his Division, and followed by Lord Wellington, his Staff, and the officers of his Division. Though not of the Regiment, he had led them in so many a glorious field that he seemed to be of them. At Buenos Ayres, in the retreat to Corunna, and now in Portugal and Spain, he had been their Brigadier or divisional General. At first dreaded and disliked for his strict rules of discipline and for his unswerving punishment of all breaches of them, he had come to be beloved by men and officers, who saw to what a pitch of excellence that code and that enforcement of it had brought the Division he commanded, making it the admiration or the envy of the whole army; who recognised that if he was exacting, he always was just; who felt that he cared for their wants or their comfort; and who knew that he always led them bravely, always to conquer.
I am not writing a memoir of General Craufurd; yet two anecdotes connected specially with the Regiment I may here record.
On one occasion he was riding in front of the lines when two Riflemen rushed out of a house, pursued by a Spanish woman calling out ‘Ladrone! ladrone!’ They had stolen bread. Craufurd with his orderly immediately pursued them, the guard was turned out, and they were made prisoners. The next day they were tried by a brigade Court-Martial, found guilty, and sentenced to a punishment of a hundred-and-fifty lashes. One, a Corporal Miles, was of course to be reduced to the ranks. They were brought out to a wood to be punished. As soon as the Brigade Major had read the proceedings, Craufurd addressed the men on their cruelty to the Spaniards. Then, turning to the Regiment, he upbraided them in no measured terms: ‘You think that because you are Riflemen, and more exposed to the enemy’s fire than other troops, you may rob the inhabitants with impunity; but while I command you, you shall not.’ Then addressing Corporal Miles, he said in a stern voice, ‘Strip, sir.’
When Miles was tied up to a tree to receive his punishment, he turned his head and said: ‘General Craufurd, I hope you will forgive me.’ Craufurd answered: ‘No; your crime is too great.’
On this Corporal Miles, in a quiet and most respectful voice and manner, addressed the General: ‘Do you remember, sir, when you and I were taken prisoners, when under the command of General Whitelocke at Buenos Ayres? We were marched prisoners to a sort of pound, surrounded with a wall. There was a well in the centre, from which I drew water in my mess-tin, by means of canteen-straps which I collected from the men who were prisoners like myself. You sat on my knapsack; and I parted my last biscuit with you. You then told me that you would never forget my kindness to you. It is now in your power, sir. You know how short of rations we have been for some time.’
These simple words, and the soldier’s respectful manner, affected not only Craufurd but every man in the square. Meanwhile the Bugle-Major gave the fatal nod, and Miles received a lash. But before a second fell, Craufurd called out: ‘What’s that? who taught that bugler to flog? send him to drill; he cannot flog. Stop, stop, take him down; I remember it well; I remember it well!’ Then he paced up and down the square, evidently much moved. In a dead silence Miles was untied; and at last the General said to him: ‘Why does a brave soldier like you commit these crimes?’ and calling his orderly, he mounted, and rode off without a word more. The other man was pardoned, and Miles had his corporal’s stripes restored in a few days.
On one occasion during Moore’s retreat, Lieutenant Thomas Smith, then a very young officer who had but lately joined, was accompanying ammunition which was in charge of a Quartermaster (Ross). On their arrival at Craufurd’s head-quarters, the wily Quartermaster advised Smith to go and report their arrival to the General. The other demurred; saying that he was not in charge of the ammunition, but only accompanying it. However, the Quartermaster urged him, reminding him that he must be hungry; they had not, in fact, tasted food for twenty-four hours; and that the General would probably ask him to dinner. Thus counselled by his senior and impelled by his hunger, he presented himself at the General’s quarter and saw his Aide-de-Camp, who going upstairs returned with an order to proceed at once a further march of some three leagues. Smith returned to the Quartermaster with this woful order, adding that as he was in charge of it, he might remain with it, for that he should go on and overtake his Battalion. The Quartermaster declared he should do no such thing; and after a sharp argument they both started and joined the Battalion. In the morning as Smith was sitting down to breakfast, an order came from Craufurd, who had come up, that he and the Quartermaster should attend him. On being ushered into the General’s presence they found him warming himself before a comfortable brazier, while breakfast stood on the table. In a voice of great severity he asked which of the two had received his order the night before.
‘I did, sir,’ said Smith, ‘but’—
‘No but, sir,’ interrupted Craufurd; ‘consider yourself under arrest; and,’ adding a tremendous oath, ‘I will smash you.’
Poor Smith—for Craufurd would not hear a word more—returned in dismay to his brother officers, whom he found at breakfast; but hungry as he was and pressed by them to be of good heart, food had now no charms for him.
Eventually Beckwith represented to Craufurd that the offender was but a boy just joined; and his pleadings, coupled perhaps with the fact that they were just going to fight, when every available officer would be wanted, induced Craufurd, contrary to his wont, to relax his severity and to release Smith from his arrest.
Long afterwards as Craufurd was standing talking with the officers of the Battalion, round a camp fire, he turned to him.
‘Smith,’ said he, ‘did I not once put you under arrest?’
‘Yes, sir, you did.’
‘And do you know,’ he continued, ‘what became of the ammunition? I found it steadily going towards the French lines, and had but just time to put spurs to my horse and to turn it back. So that through your default I had nearly lost my ammunition.’[112]
On the 20th the Regiment marched back to its cantonments. Nothing could exceed the extraordinary appearance it presented. The men were dressed in every possible variety of costume which they had found in the houses. Some wore French uniforms, some breeches and jack-boots, some cocked hats; many had pieces of salt beef, hams and any provisions they could lay hands on stuck on their swords fixed to their rifles. In fact so strange was their appearance that Lord Wellington, who saw them on their march, asked ‘What regiment that could be.’
One of the Riflemen, a day or two after, playing the game of ‘nine-holes’ with what he fancied to be a cannon-ball brought from the place, was blown to pieces. It proved to be a live shell, which passing over some hot ashes, exploded just as he had it between his legs.
The Regiment soon after the fall of Rodrigo moved to Ituera. And while here a military execution took place of some deserters of the Light Division who had been found in the place. They had been tried by a Court-Martial, of which General Sir James Kempt was president, and were shot in the presence of the whole Division. Two of them were Riflemen; one was in the highland company, which was then kept up in the 3rd Battalion, of the name of M’Guinniss, a shoemaker by trade. He had once been a man of good character, but had been led away by another, named Hudson, of Uniacke’s company.
To conclude this painful subject I will add here that a month later when the Regiment was at Castello de Vide another man of the 1st Battalion was shot for desertion. His name was Arnal, and he was, or had been, a Corporal. When Ciudad Rodrigo was taken he in some way escaped and endeavoured to join the French troops at Salamanca; but in crossing the country he fell in with some Spanish soldiers, who made him prisoner and marched him back to the Regiment. He had been a man of good character, and it was hoped that this might have weighed in his favour; but discipline had to be vindicated, and so great a crime as desertion to the enemy could not be condoned. This man met his death with amazing firmness; settling his accounts with the Pay-sergeant of his company, and distributing his balance among his comrades the night before his death. When brought out to execution he refused to have his eyes bound, saying to the Provost Sergeant: ‘There is no occasion; I shall not flinch;’ nor did he.
On February 14 the Regiment marched to Portalegre, on the 15th to Arronches, and on the 17th to Elvas.
On March 17 the Regiment marched out of Elvas, the band playing ‘St. Patrick’s Day,’ to take up their position before Badajos, and after dusk began to break ground. A very heavy rain came on, and the weather continued very broken during the whole time of the siege operations. The ground to be occupied being extensive, and the force employed comparatively small, the men were required to be in the trenches six hours by day, and as many in the night; and this amount of time, with the addition of the marches to and from their camp, and the continued inclemency of the weather, made the period of the siege one of unusual hardship to the men and officers of the Regiment.
On the 19th the enemy made a sortie with about 1,500 infantry and some cavalry at the moment when the relief of the working parties in the trenches was taking place. The weather being, as usual, dull, and a drizzling rain falling, these troops got very close before they were perceived; and their cavalry, being mistaken for Portuguese, made their way through the camp of the Light Division. The men flew to their arms, and the sortie was repulsed; but the enemy succeeded in carrying off intrenching tools from the Engineers’ camp, and in injuring the works of the approaches. In this sortie Lieutenant Freer, of the 1st Battalion, was wounded.
On the 22nd, the enemy having brought some field-guns out of San Cristobal, and placed them in position enfilading the trenches, some Riflemen were ordered out, to get as near the Guadiana as possible, and to fire across the river, and shoot their gunners. This they did so effectually that the guns were soon withdrawn, many of the men working them being killed or wounded.
On the 26th Fort Picurina was attacked and carried a little after dark; and a party of Riflemen, taken from the working party, was ordered to carry the ladders. Lieutenant Stokes, then of the 3rd Battalion, who was in command of this party, was the first man in the fort; and it was owing to these men (with others of the Light Division) that, according to Napier, the capture of the place was effected. They were provided with axes, and broke down the palisades and gates of the fort. It being evident that the enemy, as soon as they knew the place was in our hands, would redouble their fire, the working parties were urged by their officers to work hard to cover themselves. The Riflemen did so; and so effectually, that when at daybreak the enemy opened a furious fire of shell and grape, the men had made such good cover that they were comparatively uninjured.
On April 4 George Simmons with a party was in an advanced sap, and observing that some large guns of the place were doing much injury to our artillery in an advanced battery, he selected some of the best shots and directed them to fire steadily into the embrasures. In half-an-hour he found that the guns were not fired so regularly as before; and soon gabions were brought and stuffed into the embrasures. These were withdrawn when the guns were about to be fired. The Riflemen took note of this, and the moment the gabions were removed fired steadily into the embrasure. Very soon the gabions began to be replaced without the guns having been discharged. They were thus effectually silenced. And from daylight till dark Simmons kept up this practice with ‘forty as prime fellows as ever pulled trigger.’ A French officer, probably a celebrated marksman, half hidden, lying on the grass of the parapet, set up his cocked hat some way in front of him to deceive our people, and to draw their fire. Some soldiers by him handed him loaded muskets to enable him to fire more rapidly. Simmons, leaning over the top of the trench, got a good view of this man; he selected a good shot, and being anxious that he should see the Frenchman, desired him to lay his rifle over his shoulder and steady his aim. The Rifleman fired; and nothing more was seen of the Frenchman, whom, no doubt, he killed or wounded, though the cocked hat remained in position until dark. But Simmons, in his anxiety, had forgotten that the priming of the old Baker rifle was close to his ear, which was much burnt and the whole side of his head singed.
Some of the best shots in the Regiment were selected also to occupy pits which had been dug between our approaches and the crest of the glacis, in order to pick off the gunners. This was most arduous and dangerous work; for not only were the men exposed to a deadly fire in running out to the pits, and in returning when relieved, but sometimes a man was wounded or killed in the pit, and the relieving Rifleman had to pull him or help him out before he could shelter himself, all the time exposed to a murderous fire from the place.
E. Weller, Litho.
London, Chatto & Windus.
Assault
of
BADAJOS
6TH April, 1812.
The breaches being reported practicable on the 6th, the assault was ordered to take place on that evening. It is needless, after Napier’s magnificent description of this combat, to do more than specify what part the Regiment took in it. The Light Division, under the command of Barnard, formed at about eight o’clock in close column of companies, left in front, about 300 yards from the ditch. They were detailed to attack the breach in the Santa Maria bastion. Four companies (the left wing) of the 1st Battalion, under Major Cameron, were in front, with orders to extend to the left on reaching the covered way, in order (as at Ciudad Rodrigo) to keep down the fire from the ramparts. Next came six volunteers of that Battalion, under Lieutenant William Johnston, provided with ropes, to endeavour to pull the chevaux-de-frise, with which it was known the garrison had defended the breaches, out of their place. Then followed the forlorn hope;[113] and then the storming party, consisting of 100 men from each regiment of the Division. The officers of the Regiment with this party were Captains Crampton of the 1st Battalion; Hart of the 2nd; and Diggle of the 3rd; and Lieutenants Bedell, Manners, Coxen, and M’Gregor, of the 2nd Battalion. The rest of the Division followed. So noiselessly did Cameron’s four companies advance, and so accurately had he reconnoitred the ground, that he reached the place indicated for the head of his column, and extended along the covered way to his left, without being perceived by the garrison. Every man as he got into his place, silently lay down, placing the muzzle of his rifle through the palisades, and at the edge of the ditch. The men could see the heads of the troops lining the rampart; for the night was clear, though a sort of haze rising from the ground and the dark dress of the Riflemen enabled them to get into position unperceived. Yet a French sentry challenged twice; and his ‘qui vive’ being unanswered, he fired, and drums were heard, beating to arms. Yet Cameron reserved his fire for about ten minutes, till the forlorn hope coming up, he began while the heads of the troops lining the rampart could still be seen immovable. Then began from the place that murderous and unceasing fire of grape, shell, and musketry which has been compared by more than one of those who saw it, to the central fires of the earth, or even hell itself, vomiting forth their fury. Surtees, who as Quartermaster of the 3rd Battalion and a non-combatant (though he wished to be in the fray and was hardly restrained) witnessed it from the quarries, between the Picurina and the Pardeleras, says that it was so bright and so incessant that he could plainly see the faces of the defenders, though nearly a mile off. Yet Johnston with his volunteers, the forlorn hope and the stormers advanced, slid down the ladders or leaped into the ditch. The rest of the Division followed, tore up the palisades and ran up the glacis. There Captain Charles Gray was shot in the mouth, and many officers and men fell. Yet all pressed on; even the firing party in the covered way, carried away by frenzy, seeing their comrades fall, and their aim baffled by the smoke, leaped into the ditch, and passing, how they could, the drain cut in it and filled with water, in which not a few were drowned, they surged like the wave of a raging sea up the breach. But as the wave is repelled from the rock, so were they checked by the insuperable obstacles; the chevaux-de-frise of sword-blades fixed in beams; the murderous fire from behind the wall of sand-bags; the planks studded with nails and fixed at the upper end; the shells, powder-barrels, grenades and even cart-wheels, which were hurled down upon them. Again and again as one wave fell or melted away under that slaughtering shower, another took its place. O’Hare fell in the breach, shot through the breast with two or three musket balls. His sergeant, Fleming, who had stood by him in many a bloody field, fell at his side. Many officers of the Regiment and many valiant Riflemen lay dead or wounded, or pressed down by those who were so, in that heap which extended from the top of the breach to the counterscarp. At last, after two hours of this murderous work, Lord Wellington gave orders for the Light Division to draw off. Still the intrepid Barnard, who had more than once himself ascended the breach, was unwilling to give way; and it was not till after renewed attempts had been made, and till he saw all hopeless, that he gave the order for his Division to withdraw. Even then in that deafening turmoil the order was imperfectly heard; and many officers were keeping their men from retiring. At last, however, almost all that lived and could move came away, and the remnant of the Regiment was formed a little distance from the place between midnight and one o’clock. Here Surtees found them, having posted off as soon as he knew (for he was near Lord Wellington when Picton’s hurried note was brought to him) that the 3rd Division had stormed, and was in possession of, the Castle. He was scarcely believed; so incredible did it seem to the assailants of these impregnable breaches, that any troops could have entered the place. The men and the officers were lying down, in gloomy sullenness, after their terrible conflict. A staff officer brought word, ‘Lord Wellington desires the Light Division to return immediately and attack the breach.’ The men leaped up, resumed their formation, and advanced as cheerfully and as steadily as if it had been the first attack. Proceeding past, and often over, their fallen comrades, they again mounted the breach; but now the defenders having been called away, the resistance was slight, and they soon established themselves on the ramparts. Then Cameron formed his Regiment there; and told them that when all danger from the enemy was over, he would let them fall out; but that, until then, if a man left the ranks he would have him put to death on the spot. They remained under arms and perfectly steady till between nine and ten next morning; when, as the whole garrison were prisoners and being marched out, he dismissed them, and they joined in that madness of intemperance, rapine and lust, on which it is more agreeable to their historian to draw a veil.
Great were the losses of the Regiment. Twenty-three officers and 292 non-commissioned officers and Riflemen fell, killed and wounded in that fatal night.
In the 1st Battalion (eight companies), Major O’Hare and Lieutenant Stokes, 3 sergeants, and 24 rank and file were killed; Captains Crampton, Balvaird, Charles Gray, and M’Dermid, Lieutenants William Johnston, Gardiner, McPherson (who died of his wounds), Forster, and FitzMaurice, 15 sergeants, 3 buglers, and 136 rank and file were wounded. In the 2nd Battalion (two companies), Captain Diggle, 1 sergeant and 20 rank and file were killed; Lieutenants Bedell and Manners, 3 sergeants, and 31 rank and file were wounded. In the 3rd Battalion (five companies), Lieutenants Hovenden, Cary, Allix, and Croudace, and 9 rank and file were killed; and Lieutenants Macdonell (who died of his wounds), Worsley, Duncan Stewart, Farmer, and volunteer Lawson,[114] 2 sergeants, and 45 rank and file were wounded.
Well may Sir William Napier sum up his glowing description of the assault with this stirring appeal: ‘Who shall measure out the glory of ... O’Hare, of the ninety-fifth, who perished on the breach at the head of the stormers, and with him nearly all the volunteers for that desperate service? Who shall describe ... the martial fury of that desperate soldier of the ninety-fifth who, in his resolution to win, thrust himself beneath the chained sword-blades, and there suffered the enemy to dash his head to pieces with the ends of their muskets?’[115]
O’Hare, a gallant soldier, beloved by his men, had a foreboding of his death. As the stormers assembled, he observed, in conversation to Captain Jones of the 52nd, that ‘he thought that night would be his last.’ To George Simmons, with whom he shook hands as the stormers were moving off, his last words were: ‘A Lieutenant-Colonel or cold meat in a few hours.’ He was found the next morning by Simmons on the breach, naked. Cary was found by Surtees next day under one of the ladders, shot through the head. He had, no doubt, been wounded in ascending it, and fallen from it. He also was stripped. He still breathed; and Surtees pressed some of the soldiers about the place to carry him to the camp. They were so drunk that they let him fall; but he was past all feeling, and died soon after he was laid in his tent. Croudace also was brought out alive, but died almost immediately. Of the wounded officers, McPherson died a few days after. He was a man of herculean stature, and great bravery. ‘He had been true to man and true to his God, and he looked his last hour in the face like a soldier and a Christian.’[116]
Macdonell died a few months after he received his wound.
Some personal anecdotes of the storm may be given. George Simmons, on going into the town, went into a house, the Spanish owner of which told him that the French Quartermaster-General had been billeted there. He showed him the room he had occupied; and there he found on the table a paper on which he had made a sketch of the two breaches, showing the line by which our columns would probably move to attack, and the spot where our ladders might best be planted to avoid the fire from the place and the inundation in the ditch. The owner of the house informed him that the French officers had left it in great alarm, on being informed of our attack. There were also a bottle of wine and some glasses on the table; and, as Theodore Hook somewhere observes, eating and drinking must go on, whatever the vicissitudes of life, George Simmons sate down, ordered some eggs and bacon to be fried, and drank the French officers’ bottle of wine.
Kincaid was acting Adjutant with Cameron’s four companies who lined the glacis. When they were established in the place, he went to post picquets in streets leading to the ramparts. While so engaged, a Rifleman brought him a French officer prisoner, who he said was the Governor. The officer at once said that he was not; but that he had passed himself off as such to ensure the soldier’s protection and better treatment. He added that he was Colonel of a regiment in the garrison; that his officers were all assembled in a house near at hand, to which he would conduct Kincaid, and who would give themselves up as prisoners to anyone who would ensure their safety. Taking a few men with him to guard against surprise, Kincaid accompanied him, and found fifteen or sixteen officers assembled, who professed great astonishment at our being in possession of the town. As in Simmons’ case refreshment was to be thought of; and Kincaid and his prisoners discussed some cold meat, and sundry bottles of wine which their chief placed upon the table. At last Kincaid marched them off; and before parting the French Colonel told him that he had two good horses in the stable, of which he advised him to take possession. This counsel was not lost on Kincaid, who thus became the owner of a black mare, which carried him till the end of the war. As he was making his way to the ramparts, many French soldiers, who were skulking in out-of-the-way corners to escape the fury of the British troops already in the town, joined him. And marching at the head of this party, he was very nearly fired on by a picquet of our men whom Barnard was placing across a street, and who, seeing so many French uniforms together, fancied it was a rallied party of the enemy. Happily the challenge of the picquet, which owing to the noise of his prisoners he had not heard, was repeated and answered; and he handed over his prisoners to be marched with others to Elvas.
Surtees was occupied in a more benevolent work. Directly the place was in our hands, he and Percival, who was in command of the 3rd Battalion, set about finding and removing the wounded of the Regiment. This was an arduous work; for the wounded were numerous, and their claims for assistance incessant. And Percival was lame, from his wound at Sobral, and not well able to move about; yet they were obliged to carry the wounded themselves; for of the soldiers they called on to help them many were drunk; and even those whose help they secured, soon went off to share in the rapine of the town. Many are the heartrending details Surtees relates; and many are the horrors he and all the Riflemen who were present record of the plunder of the town. No doubt the men were furious with the inhabitants, who had here assisted the French, while at Rodrigo they had resisted them; no doubt they were frenzied with the difficulty of the assault, and savage at the wholesale slaughter of their comrades. These envenoming motives, added to the usual and (so to say) admitted license in a town taken by storm, have made the sack of Badajos one of exceptional violence. Yet all that men could do to resist it was done. Barnard, commanding the Division, opposed not only his commands but even his great personal strength to the plunderers. He endeavoured to prevent the men from entering the town; but they rushed past him, and while striving to wrest a musket from a soldier of the 52nd, he fell and was very nearly thrown into the ditch. He then, with others, went into the streets, and strove to check the madness of his men; but in vain.
Cameron, as I have said, got the men of the 1st Battalion together after the assault and kept them formed on the ramparts till between nine and ten; he then thanked them for their conduct throughout. ‘And now, men,’ he added, ‘you may fall out and amuse yourselves; but I expect you all to be in camp at tattoo to-night.’ It was a vain hope; and it was two days before the absentees returned, and discipline was restored.
On the day after the assault two officers of the 1st Battalion were talking over the events of the past night at the door of a tent, when two ladies approached from Badajos, and claimed their protection. They were evidently, from their appearance and manner, of the upper class of Spanish society. Both were handsome; and the younger, then about fourteen, very beautiful. The elder, though still young, addressed the Riflemen, and said that she was the wife of an officer in the Spanish service, who was in a distant part of Spain; that the young lady with her was her sister, who, having just completed her education in a convent, had been placed under her charge; that yesterday she had a comfortable house and home; that now it was in the possession of an infuriated and insane soldiery; that they had already suffered violence, as their bleeding ears, from which the ear-rings had been rudely torn, bore witness; and that to escape greater violence and dishonour worse than death, they had fled; and had resolved (however strange the step might seem) to throw themselves upon the honour and the protection of the first English officers they might meet. It need not be told that it was freely given, and chivalrously observed, and that they were conveyed to a place of safety. Nor will it seem strange to add that the acquaintance begun in so romantic a manner ripened into a warmer feeling; and that within two years, the younger of them, Donna Juana Maria de los Dolores de Leon, became the wife of him who had saved her, Harry Smith, then a Captain in the Regiment, and was long known in English society as Lady Smith, the honoured wife of the conqueror of Aliwal.