FOOTNOTES:
[92] ‘Wellington Despatches,’ vii. 356-7.
[93] MS. Record 1st Battalion.
[94] ‘Supplementary Despatches,’ vii. 82.
[95] Letter to Marshal Beresford: ‘Wellington Despatches,’ vii. 372.
[96] MS. Journal.
[97] ‘Leach,’ 204-5.
[98] It is said to be more than 4,000 feet above the level of the sea.
[99] ‘Supplementary Despatches,’ xiii. 609.
[100] ‘Despatches,’ vii. 445. He adds: ‘The 43rd Regiment particularly distinguished themselves; as did part of the 95th Regiment under Major Gilmour.’
[101] I am indebted for the particulars of this anecdote (which I had heard old officers of the Regiment mention) to Mrs. Fitz-Maurice’s ‘Recollections of a Rifleman’s Wife.’
[102] ‘Wellington Despatches,’ vii. 515.
[103] This gallant repulse is mentioned by Lord Wellington: ‘Despatches,’ vii. 532.
[104] ‘Recollections of a Rifleman’s Wife.’
[105] ‘Adventures of a Soldier,’ 82.
[106] Costello, 87.
[107] Costello, 93.
[108] Colonel Samuel Mitchell died June 3, 1833.
[109] Just before the attack he had been twitted by a brother officer (Fitz-Maurice) with having dressed himself in a new pelisse for such a night’s work. ‘Never mind,’ he said, ‘I shall be the better worth taking.’ ‘Recollections of a Rifleman’s Wife.’
[110] The following nine non-commissioned officers of the 2nd Battalion volunteered for the forlorn hope:
| Sergeant Bowley, wounded | Sergeant Spencer |
| ” Comerford, ” | ” Tuite |
| ” Derby, killed | Corporal Larkins, wounded |
| ” Ecke, ” | ” Nesbitt, ” |
| ” Fairfoot, [111] wounded |
[111] Afterwards Quartermaster.
[112] This anecdote, which I had often heard in the 1st Battalion, was related to me with graphic distinctness by Colonel Smith. As may be imagined, his relation differed somewhat from the story, which, passing through many mouths, I had heard in the Battalion. It was strange to hear it from the lips of one of the actors in it, when the other had slept more than sixty years in the breach at Rodrigo.
[113] The following non-commissioned officers of the 2nd Battalion volunteered for the forlorn hope:
| Sergeant Cairns | Corporal Coward, wounded |
| ” Fairfoot, wounded | ” Derby, killed |
| ” Kennedy, ” | ” McCordell, wounded |
| ” Taggart, ” | ” Nesbitt. |
| ” Tuite |
[114] He was appointed to a second-lieutenancy in the Regiment May 9 following. He left it in 1814, and died at Sligo, March 1874.
[115] Book xvi. chap. v. This incident is also mentioned by Kincaid. It is to be regretted that the name of this heroic Rifleman has not been preserved.
[116] Kincaid, ‘Random Shots,’ p. 288.
[CHAPTER IV.]
Soon after the capture of Badajos the command of the Light Division was given to Baron Charles Alten, and the two Brigades of which it consisted were commanded, one by Barnard, and afterwards by Sir James Kempt, and the other by General Vandeleur. On Craufurd’s death and Vandeleur’s wound at Ciudad Rodrigo, the command of the Division had devolved on Barnard. How well he handled it, and how gallantly he led it at Badajos, has already been recorded.
I may here note that Barnard, who had hitherto commanded the 3rd Battalion, soon after this period was transferred to the command of the 1st Battalion, in Beckwith’s place, who had, as already noted, gone home on account of his health, and did not again return to the Peninsula. He was one of the original officers of the Regiment, and a most excellent Rifleman. In here parting from him as a regimental officer, I may add Kincaid’s testimony to his merits. ‘He was,’ he says, ‘one of the ablest of outpost generals. Few officers knew so well how to make the most of a small force. His courage, coupled with his thorough knowledge of the soldier’s character, was of that cool, intrepid kind, that would at any time convert a routed rabble into an orderly, effective force. A better officer probably never led a brigade into the field.’[117]
On April 11, the Regiment broke up from the camp before Badajos and marched to the north. Before doing so the men were ordered to give up the articles which they had plundered in Badajos; and to prevent their secreting any of them, their packs were examined. Whatever was found was collected in heaps and burned. But for two or three days before, the men had been selling what they had taken; crowds of country people thronged the camp to purchase; and it presented almost the appearance of a fair. On the 11th, however, the Regiment marched to Campo Major. On the next day they proceeded to Arronches and bivouacked in a wood. The 13th they marched to Portalegre, and on the 14th to Niza. On the next day they crossed the Tagus at Villa Velha, the 1st Battalion being in Monte de Senhora and the 3rd Battalion at Sernadas. On the 16th the Regiment marched to Castello Branco. Here they halted one day to allow the supplies to come up and to rest the troops, and the day following moved to As Caldas de Cima and Loisa. Here they came very close to the rear-guard of the French; and as they were informed by the peasants at S. Miguel d’Arch, which they reached on the 20th, that the enemy were in force, they moved with great caution to Penamacor on the 21st, San Bartolomeo on the 22nd, and passing through Sabugal on the 23rd, bivouacked near Alfayate. The British force on the north of the Tagus being as yet small, and the enemy falling back in force, their march had to be conducted with great caution.
On the 24th they proceeded to Ituera, where they halted for two days, and from thence the Regiment occupied cantonments on the Agueda; the 1st Battalion being between Ituera and Castellejo de Azarva; and the 3rd Battalion at La Encina. Here every exertion was made to get the Regiment equipped for taking the field; the clothing was repaired, and shoes provided; and everything was done that could be done to turn the men out in good order for a summer campaign. Nevertheless, when the Regiment was reviewed by Lord Wellington on May 27 between Guinaldo and El Bodon, the clothing of the Riflemen was patched with pieces of many colours, and the dress of many of the officers was little better. But Lord Wellington, whose soldier’s eye measured not the spic-and-span appearance, but the endurance and daring of the men, told them that they ‘looked well and in good fighting order.’
On June 6 the 1st Battalion moved to El Bodon, and on the 11th the whole Regiment left their cantonments on the Agueda, and bivouacked in a wood near Ciudad Rodrigo; on the 13th, moving on Salamanca, they advanced to Alba de Yeltes; on the 14th to Sancho Bueno; and on the 15th to Matilla. On the next day they marched to within about five miles of Salamanca; and having crossed the Rio Valmusa, bivouacked near some low hills extending from that stream to the city. On the 17th they moved towards Salamanca; but the enemy having constructed forts which commanded the bridge over the Tormes, they were obliged to cross by a deepish ford about a mile further up the river, and bivouacked in a wood on the plain a little way from the ford.
On the 18th the Regiment moved from this bivouac to Aldea Seca, about a league and a half from Salamanca; and the enemy fell back after skirmishing with our cavalry.
On the following day the Regiment was suddenly called to arms, the enemy having appeared in force in front of the position; but no fighting took place, and the Regiment moved from the plain and occupied Monte Rubio.
Here they remained some days. And one evening about this time stormers were called for from the Light Division to lead the assault on San Vincente, the strongest of the three forts constructed by the French near Salamanca. Two men per company, the first for duty, were selected for this service; but after being marched down to the fort, they were countermanded. An assault had been attempted, and had failed on the 23rd, and on the 27th the forts surrendered. On the fall of the forts, the enemy fell back; and the Regiment made a forward movement, and marched to Castillonos. On the 29th they bivouacked at Prada de Rubiales; on the next day at Castrillo d’Aquarino; and on July 1, marching through Alejos, they were billeted in the town of Nava del Rey, where the beds in their billets were the first they had occupied for a very long time. On the 2nd they moved forward to Rueda. A pretty strong force of the enemy, of all arms, was evacuating Rueda as the Regiment entered it. This was in fact the rear-guard, which was to hold us in check till his column could file over the bridge, across the Douro, at Tordesillas. But our cavalry and Horse Artillery coming up, the latter fired some shrapnells, which did much execution, and the cavalry had a slight affair with them. Our Regiment also sent out some skirmishers, who made a few prisoners, amongst them a Sergeant-Major of hussars, whose abject terror, even to tears, excited the surprise of those who saw him. Yet this man must have been a good and probably a brave soldier; for his exchange for one of our sergeants in their hands, was asked for by a flag of truce, on the ground that he was about to become adjutant of his corps. He was accordingly exchanged a few days afterwards.
All the march hitherto from the frontier of Portugal to this place had been through an open country, devoid of trees, abounding indeed with corn, and near the rivers with vines; but with little water except in the great rivers, which were far apart. The men had therefore suffered much, marching under the full blaze of a Peninsular mid-summer sun. Their occupation of the town of Rueda, and the delicious coolness of its great wine-vaults, excavated in the sides of the hills, were a great refreshment. Unhappily the wine these vaults contained was as great a temptation, to which many yielded. So had their enemies, who had preceded them; for many of their bodies were found in the cellars: some hideously mutilated by the Spaniards.
The Regiment remained here for a fortnight; the only movement in that time being that they were on July 3 moved opposite to Tordesillas, on the left bank of the Douro, the enemy being massed in large force on the opposite bank. This movement was probably a feint, and they returned to their cantonments at Rueda.
On July 16 the Regiment marched from Rueda about nine in the evening and halted next day near Castrejon. On the evening of the 17th Kincaid had a picquet in front of the Division. Soon after sunrise a smart cannonade began behind a hill to the right of the picquet. In fact Marmont had recrossed the Douro at Tordesillas, and was making an attack on our position at Castrejon. While the picquet, alert at the sound of cannon, were earnestly watching the ground in front of them, no enemy being visible, a terrific turmoil suddenly arose behind some rising ground on their left. Uncertain whence this noise might proceed, Kincaid at once placed his picquet behind a deep ditch about a hundred yards in his rear. He had scarcely done so when a confused mêlée of horsemen dashed over the hill: two squadrons of our cavalry, two guns of Horse Artillery, and a strong body of the enemy’s cavalry, all cutting at each other; and among the rush Lord Wellington, Lord Beresford, General Bock, and their Staffs. These and the two guns took shelter behind our picquet, who could not fire, for friends and foes were mixed up in an inextricable tangle. The cavalry swept past the front of the picquet; but finding a reserve squadron of heavy dragoons, they returned again at a gallop, the French now flying before those they had lately pursued.
Some companies of the Regiment were thrown out as skirmishers to support the 14th Light Dragoons. One of these brought in a French prisoner, badly wounded, who in conversation with Lieutenant Gardiner, who was a proficient in French, was vehement in asserting that he would not have been taken, had he had a better horse. On this being repeated to his captor, he said to Gardiner: ‘Then, sir, tell him if he had the best horse in France I would bring him prisoner if he stood to fight me.’ The prisoner assured Gardiner that his horse had not been unsaddled for a week; and the state of his back, when the saddle was removed, too surely corroborated his assertion.
The army was now ordered to retire; and the country being an open plain was very favourable for cavalry. The British troops therefore were formed in quarter-distance column ready to form square at any moment. The Regiment marched in this way for upwards of ten miles, with all the regularity and steadiness of a field-day; taking up distant points to march on; and avoiding the villages in order not to lose time in passing through them. For it was a race between the two armies to gain some high land beyond the Guareña. And the French moved on our right during the whole day; often coming within 500 yards of our flank. Occasionally the enemy opened a cannonade; but on the whole this day’s march was effected without fighting. The men, oppressed by the heat, and suffocated by the clouds of dust which arose from the sandy plain, were tormented with thirst. But there was no time to halt, nor water at hand to quench it. At last, arriving at the edge of this table-land, they looked down into the vale of the Guareña, and the Riflemen hurried their pace to reach the water. The French instantly unlimbered their guns on the height above and sent some round shot among them. But our men drank of the muddy stream as they passed through it, and suffered little from the cannonade; and they bivouacked on the high ground beyond the river.
During the early part of the 19th the Regiment continued at rest on the ground of their bivouack; but in the afternoon (with the rest of the Division) they were suddenly called to arms, and commenced a movement to the right, in order to defeat Marmont’s plan of interrupting our communications with Salamanca. During this march the enemy cannonaded sharply, and one shot knocked off the head of a Rifleman, who had but just joined. When night put a stop to the march and the firing, the Regiment lay by their arms, close to the enemy’s columns. On the morning of the 20th no enemy was to be seen; as Marmont had moved forward to turn Lord Wellington’s right flank; and some intervening ground hid his troops from the Riflemen; they were put in motion and soon came in sight and in close proximity to them. Thus they marched as they had done on the two preceding days with all the regularity of a barrack-square drill, parallel to the enemy, and close to him. There was a short halt in the afternoon to refresh the men: for the heat was sultry, and the dust suffocating. With this exception they continued to march till a late hour in the evening.
On the 21st they again started at dawn, and continued to march as before till about two o’clock, when they halted near the village of Villa Moresco. A little before dark they were again in motion; and they forded the Tormes about two miles above Salamanca. The river here was very deep, and the men were nearly up to their shoulders. Hardly had they got across when rain began to fall in torrents; the night grew suddenly dark; the lightning flashed with unusual vividness, and played on the men’s arms; and the thunder crashed so close and so loud, that scared horses broke from their picquet-ropes, and rushed into the ranks of the enemy. In this turmoil the Riflemen groped their way through the murky night, up to their knees in mud, to their bivouack in a field not far from the Tormes; where they lay by their arms, without any shelter from the rain which fell heavily and incessantly during the whole night.
On the 22nd occurred the Battle of Salamanca, the only one of Wellington’s great victories in which the Regiment did not bear a prominent part. They were under arms at daylight and occupied a position on the extreme left of the British position; and during the greater part of the day the only duty they were called upon to perform was to keep the French right in check. But about five o’clock, after Lord Wellington had taken advantage of his enemy’s blunder and driven him from the field, the Regiment was ordered to advance in pursuit. They did so, and continued to press on the rear of the retreating foe till about eleven at night, when they halted near the village of Huerta. Had there been a few hours more daylight, or had the Spaniards held, as Don Carlos de España was directed to do, Alba de Tormes, Marmont’s whole army must have fallen into our hands. In this action the losses of the Regiment were inconsiderable; being 2 men of the 1st Battalion wounded, and 2 missing; and a sergeant and 4 men of the 2nd Battalion wounded.
During the pursuit on this evening a partridge was started, and ran between the line of the retreating and pursuing forces. George Simmons caught it, and committing it to his havresack, found it an agreeable addition to his supper at Huerta.
On the first streak of daylight on the 23rd the Regiment was again in pursuit; and fording the Tormes, came up with the French rear-guard of cavalry and infantry, commanded by General Foy. The infantry immediately formed three squares, which their cavalry covered; but these flying on the advance of General Bock’s German cavalry, and leaving the squares unprotected and unprepared, the Germans dashed into two of them, and, not without terrible loss, broke them and cut them up. The third square being at an elbow of roads leading to high ground, retired in good order. The Regiment was ordered to advance; but the enemy’s rear-guard having been thus disposed of by Bock’s Germans, their only office was to follow in pursuit; and soon after they found the rear-guard, consisting of the three arms, posted on some high ground near a village. Lord Wellington, who then happened to be with the Regiment, gave immediate orders for an attack; but on their advance the French broke up and melted away before they reached them.
On the 24th the Regiment moved to Flores d’Avila, passing on the way through Penaranda. After halting during the 25th to refresh the men, as this march had been extremely hot and fatiguing, they proceeded on the 26th to Aldea Seca; on the 27th to Montejo Viejo; on the 28th to Pedrajo de Portellio; and on the 29th to Olmedo. A little beyond this place was buried the body of General Ferey, who had died at Olmedo on this retreat, of wounds received at Salamanca. This was the same man who had attacked the 1st Battalion at Barba del Puerco in March 1810. He had been interred apparently with honour, and a canopy of laurel had been erected over his grave. But the Spaniards, as soon as the French were gone, had dug up his body, and mutilated it, severing his head—noble and soldierlike even in death—from it. But his old foes of Barba del Puerco were more generous. They re-interred his remains, replaced the canopy of laurel which had covered his grave, and exacted a promise from the people of the place that they would respect the remains and the tomb of the fallen warrior.
On the 30th the Regiment forded the Douro and halted on its right bank about six miles from Valladolid until August 1. This halt on the bank of a large river where they could bathe and have their clothes washed, was a great boon to men and officers; for from July 16 they had been almost daily on the march or in action.
On August 1 they proceeded to Tudela del Douro; and passing through Aldea Major, where they recrossed the Douro, and Matta de Qualiaz, bivouacked on the 7th on the right bank of the Penrone.
Marching at daylight on the 8th and passing through Carbonero, they bivouacked on the Eresma not far from Yangues. On the 9th they marched by Madrona and bivouacked at or near a hunting place of the kings of Spain, El Palacio del Rio Frio. On the next day they marched to near Otiro and Madrona-Segovia, not far from the city of the latter name.
On the 11th they crossed the Guadarrama mountains, by the Puerto de Guadarrama, and by an excellent winding road leading over the Sierra and descending the southern slope, and bivouacked in the Park of the Escurial.
Scarcely had the Riflemen taken off their knapsacks when two wild boars made their appearance; and scared at the number and the noise of the men, dashed in among them and knocked over several. But in a moment they had received stabs or cuts from a hundred swords, and in a very few minutes their carcases were cut up and distributed.
On the 12th they halted; and on the 13th Lord Wellington made his entry into Madrid, amidst the congratulations and acclamations of its inhabitants of all ranks. On that day the 1st Battalion marched to Rosas; and a day or two after to Gatafe, about eight miles from the capital. Here, in or about Madrid, the Regiment remained for more than two months.
I have now to resume the account of the two companies (Cadoux’s and Jenkins’) of the 2nd Battalion, which we left at Cadiz. These embarked there and landed with Colonel Skerrett at Huelvas. Thence advancing to San Lucar la Major on August 24, and having driven the French corps of observation from that place, they took post there. On the 26th they marched to the heights of Castileja de la Cuesta, near Seville, where they arrived on the morning of the 27th, about six o’clock. They advanced to the bridge of Seville under a heavy fire of grape and musketry, the two companies of the 2nd Battalion forming the advanced guard. Captain Cadoux, who commanded the Riflemen, with great judgment made a flank movement to the left; and the result was that the enemy fled through the streets of Seville, which were strewn with their dead and wounded. The conduct of this Detachment of the Regiment is mentioned with praise by Colonel Skerrett in his despatch.[118]
These companies subsequently effected a junction with the force under General Hill, near Toledo, in October; and were engaged in repelling the attack made by a large body of troops under Soult on Sir Lowry Cole’s Division at the Puente Larga, near Aranjuez, on October 29. This gallant defence of the bridge fell entirely on the 47th Regiment and our two companies; and their loss in it was 1 sergeant and 2 rank and file killed; and Lieutenant Budgen and 8 rank and file wounded.
After these companies joined the army under Lord Wellington, the 2nd Battalion in the Peninsula consisted of six companies.
On October 21 the 1st Battalion marched to Rivas, and on the 22nd to Villa Coaxa. And as a large force of the enemy was approaching, at four o’clock on the morning of the 23rd, the Regiment was ordered to form on its alarm post, and marched to the city of Alcalá de Henares. On the 27th it proceeded to Arganda; but assembling at dark, marched back during the night to Alcalá, which it reached at daylight; and after resting in the streets made another march; and on the 30th again moved to near Madrid and halted near the Segovia gate. It was now determined to evacuate Madrid and to retreat on Salamanca, as Soult’s army was approaching in force. On the 31st, therefore, they left the neighbourhood of Madrid to the great regret of its inhabitants; the men showing by gloomy sullenness, and the women by contemptuous sneers, their opinion of our leaving them to the tender mercies of the French. The regret was shared by officers and men of the Regiment, to whom the sojourn in the capital was long one of the most pleasing recollections of their Peninsular service. They halted, on November 2, in the park of the Escurial, and on the 3rd recrossed the Sierra de Guadarrama and bivouacked near Villa Castin. Here General Hill took the command of the retreating army, Lord Wellington being engaged on the siege of Burgos. On the 4th they bivouacked near Lanza, and on the 5th marched to near Fuente de Baños. The next day they fell back to the heights between Flores de Avila and Penaranda. On the 7th the Regiment bivouacked about a league from Alba de Tormes, and next day crossing the river at the bridge of Alba, bivouacked in a wood. During this portion of the retreat their march had been without any circumstances of note; and the advanced guard of the French had not come up with them. The weather however broke up, and rain set in, and continued during the remainder of the retreat, with great violence.
At this time the portion of the army which had retreated from Burgos on the unsuccessful attempts to storm it, effected a junction with the troops falling back from Madrid, and Lord Wellington resumed the command.
On November 10 the Regiment moved into the city of Salamanca, and was quartered in the Irish College. While they remained here, on the evening of the 13th, about eight o’clock, George Simmons, being orderly officer, was ascending the stairs in order to see the men’s lights out. He met Lieutenant Firman, of the 3rd Battalion, who was on the same duty. As the stairs were extremely slippery, and the men had torn out portions of the balustrade for fuel, he advised Firman not to move further until he returned with a light. He fetched one, and as he was ascending the stairs, he was horrified at hearing a slip, and a crash below. Firman had fallen a great depth, and Simmons found him with his skull frightfully fractured and several ribs broken. He was immediately removed to his billet, where, after continuing insensible for two days, he died.
On the 14th the Regiment left Salamanca, and crossing the Tormes, took post on the heights near the Arapiles, and occupied the ground of the great victory of July 22. It was thought indeed that a second battle would be fought on the same spot; but the enemy’s forces being greatly superior to ours, Lord Wellington resolved to continue the retreat. And on the 15th, about three o’clock, the Regiment resumed its march and bivouacked that night in a wood about four miles from Salamanca. The weather still was dreadful; the rain had made the roads ankle-deep with mud; and streams, which in better weather might have been stepped over, had swollen to torrents which the men had to pass through knee-deep. They were also without provisions; and ravenous with hunger, they searched for something to eat. They found some bullocks, dead or half dead, which had fallen on the road, unable to drag the carts any further. These were immediately cut up with their swords and eaten half-toasted at the camp fires. For the soldiers were famished, and the wet wood kindled too slowly for them to wait. Some, too, groped about the wood on their hands and knees, searching for the acorns which had fallen from the oaks and cork trees, and devoured them voraciously; and though bitter and unpalatable, they stayed the pangs of hunger. Nor were these wants confined to the men; few of the officers had even a biscuit; and Costello relates how he saw Lord Charles Spencer, then a Second-Lieutenant in the Regiment, standing on some branches to keep him out of the wet, and earnestly watching a few acorns which he was trying to roast in the embers. As the only means of keeping themselves dry, the men cut down the branches of the trees and lay on them. And as the Regiment formed part of the rear-guard on this retreat, it was of course among the first under arms in the morning and the last at night, often not reaching the bivouack till some hours after the other regiments were in theirs.
On this and the preceding day, the French appeared in force on their right flank, threatening the communication of the army with Ciudad Rodrigo.
On the 16th the retreat was resumed in the same weather and under the same privations. Many of the men lost their shoes in the sticky slime of the roads, and had to march barefoot. The French cavalry hovered close behind the Regiment, but did not attack; and after dark the Riflemen bivouacked, again glad that in a wood they had at least acorns to assuage their hunger.
On the 17th they fell in before dawn. The rain still fell in torrents. Early in the day the French cavalry pressed the rear-guard, and the 1st Battalion took possession of some high and broken ground on each side of the road, and one or two companies were thrown out as skirmishers to check their advance. But as the enemy continued to press on, and were very numerous, the skirmishers were called in. When running in on the Battalion they passed Lord Wellington; he called out to them: ‘Be cool, my lads; don’t be in a hurry.’ But the French were close upon them; and they, as well as the Commander-in-Chief, were obliged to retire.
While this was happening the Riflemen were surprised to hear the sharp crack of rifles in their rear. The occasion of this was that some of the French dragoons crept, under shelter of a wood, near the baggage and made a dash across the road at it, took some, and made prisoner Lieutenant Cameron, who was on the baggage-guard. But as the head of the Division appeared almost immediately, they let him go. Riflemen were immediately sent into the wood on each side of the road, and a few shots from them soon drove off the dragoons. This was the same party which afterwards made a similar dash at Sir Edward Paget as he was riding alone in an interval between the 5th and 7th Divisions, and took him prisoner.
In the afternoon the Regiment reached the edge of the table-land, whence the ground fell with a long open slope to the Huebra. As soon as they began to descend it, the enemy, who had assembled a large force of infantry and artillery under cover of the wood, opened a severe fire of cannon and musketry, while their cavalry hovered on the flank, watching for an opportunity of dashing at them, if any confusion had occurred. Nevertheless the Light Division went down that hill with all the deliberation and all the steadiness of a field-day. They forded the Huebra, which was rapid and breast-high, near San Munoz, under this fire; followed down the slope by the French skirmishers, whom one company of the 1st Battalion, extended, kept in check; and these were the last men who passed the Huebra on that day. On reaching the other side the Division formed column of battalions, and showed such a front that the enemy evinced no disposition to venture further. The loss of the Regiment was considerable, and would no doubt have been larger, but the ground was so soft from the continued rain that many of the shells buried themselves in the mud and were harmless.
This day’s march was even more harassing than the preceding ones. The constant marching in slushy mud, and continuance in wet shoes, had made the men’s feet very sore; and they often struck them against the stumps of small trees, which had been felled, but, being covered with mud, were not seen. This added much to their sufferings: many men fell out from sheer inability to march, and were made prisoners; and some died.
When the Regiment had passed over, it was discovered that Lieutenant Joseph Simmons, who was sick, was absent; and he was seen sitting on the ground on the other side of the Huebra, too weak to walk or to mount the mule which was beside him. His brother George at once dashed into the ford; lifted him on the mule, and led him over, under the fire of shot and shell which still continued from the height.
In a forest near the steep bank of the Huebra the Regiment bivouacked that night; the picquets being only divided by the river from those of the enemy. The rain and the discomforts of the preceding nights still continued. But at last the commissaries brought in a few half-starved bullocks, and the Riflemen looked forward to a meal, albeit a scanty one. The animals were very soon slaughtered and divided; fires were lighted, and, with much persuasion, even the damp wood began to burn. Then men and officers gathered round their fires, and endeavoured to toast the meat on the points of their swords; but, just then, the wind rose; the gusts shook the heavy drops from the loaded leaves, and most of the fires were extinguished; and they were obliged to resort to the now familiar food of acorns.
The other divisions were to have marched in the night, and the Regiment being part of the rear-guard could not move till they were on the road. But such was the state of the roads and such the fatigue of the men, that these troops had made scarce any way when the Riflemen stood to their arms at dawn. A thick haze hung over the river and the high ground beyond; and they were momentarily expecting an attack which they must have resisted at all hazards to enable the army to make good its retreat. But none took place; and it was not till they had retired some distance, and found no foe in pursuit, that they ascertained that the French, overcome by the fatigue and want which they had borne, had fallen back from the Huebra to Salamanca.
However, though they had no material enemy to contend with, their fatiguing march through slimy roads, and their want of food continued; only the weather improved. The rain ceased; and the sun, which they had not seen for many days, shone out. After a long march they bivouacked on the side of a hill near Santi Spiritus.
During this retreat the casualties of the Regiment were: in the 1st Battalion, 1 sergeant and 1 private killed, and 5 rank and file wounded; in the 2nd Battalion, 1 private killed, and 5 wounded, 1 bugler and 8 rank and file missing; in the 3rd Battalion, 1 private wounded and 9 missing.
On the 19th they marched to near Ciudad Rodrigo, and bivouacked on the banks of the Agueda. And this put a period to their sufferings. For bags of biscuit and other provisions were brought out to them. Yet such was the ravenous hunger of the starved soldiers, that sentries with swords fixed had to be posted over the provisions during their distribution.
Great was the relief officers and men experienced by rest, and by being able to change their clothes, which they had not done since they left Salamanca, a week before. So swollen were the feet, and so hard the boots from constant moisture, that some officers and men had to cut them from their feet.
On the 25th the 1st Battalion moved to Villa de Puerco, and on the next day to Alameda, while the 3rd Battalion were cantoned at Espeja. These villages on the Agueda, so often occupied by them, had come to be looked upon as a home by the Riflemen (at least by those of the 1st Battalion); and in these cantonments they continued during the winter.
Thus closed the campaign of 1812, in which the Regiment had taken part in the storm of two fortresses; in one general action; in three combats, and in many skirmishes and affairs of outposts.
A good deal of sickness, the unfailing consequence of exposure, want and fatigue, prevailed among the Riflemen on their going into winter quarters. And the Record of the 1st Battalion makes special mention of ‘the indefatigable exertions of Surgeon Burke’ during this time. Many of the men, and some of the officers, suffered from a numbness in the limbs and extremities, which was said to result from the change from exposure to comfort, and from want to plenty.
Soon after their entering their cantonments a circular was issued by Lord Wellington to Officers Commanding Divisions and Brigades[119] commenting in very strong terms on the bad conduct of the men, and the neglect of duty of the officers, during the late retreat. This caused great dissatisfaction and regret in the Regiment, for it was felt to be undeserved. That many irregularities took place, and much duty was neglected in some divisions and corps, may be as freely admitted, as that armies become disorganised in retreats. But in the Light Division Craufurd’s strict orders were still observed. ‘Being dead he yet spoke:’ and in the Regiment, Manningham and Stewart’s standing orders so strictly defining the duties of company officers were still observed; and Beckwith’s and Barnard’s admirable system prevailed; and among them no such irregularities took place. The circular also stated that the army had ‘suffered no privations which but trifling attention on the part of the officers could not have prevented,’ and had ‘not suffered any hardships but those resulting from the inclemencies of the weather.’ Yet anyone who reads the last few pages, compiled from Journals of Riflemen who were present, may think the sufferings of the troops are under-estimated by their great Leader. Still less did the sweeping accusations of want of discipline and neglect of duty seem deserved. Both Leach and Kincaid state that not a man of the Regiment (nor, as they believe, of the Division) was left behind, except those too badly wounded at San Munoz, or too utterly exhausted and moribund from hunger or fatigue, to be brought over the Huebra. Had the great Commander, like Moore, exempted from censure those who deserved praise, he would not have wounded the feelings and the esprit de corps of men who had so bravely fought and suffered, and were yet to fight and suffer, under his eye and at his side.
While on the subject of discipline I may perhaps mention an incident which occurred while the Regiment was in these cantonments, as well because it shows the confidence of the officer in the right judgment of the men, as because it evinces the opinion of the soldier concerning deserved punishment.
A man of the 1st Battalion, a vaurien, had robbed his comrades and deserted. He was intercepted and brought back by some guerillas; and having been tried by a regimental Court-Martial was sentenced to receive 150 lashes. As soon as the Adjutant had read the proceedings of the court, Colonel Cameron, who then commanded the Battalion, observing on the infrequency of corporal punishment in it (Costello says that not more than six men were punished in the six years they were in the Peninsula), said that he would forgive the culprit if the Battalion would be answerable for his good behaviour. After a pause, during which not a man spoke or made a sign, Cameron ordered him to strip, and he received twenty-five lashes. Before the next bugler began, Cameron again addressed the men: ‘If,’ said he, ‘this man’s company will speak for him, he shall be no further punished.’ Still not a word was said, nor a man moved; and twenty-five more lashes were inflicted. A third bugler was about to begin, when Cameron again spoke, and said that if one man of the Battalion would come forward in his behalf he would forgive him. No one answered, and the bugler laid on three or four strokes, when a man called out: ‘Forgive him, sir;’ and, being ordered, stepped out of the ranks. ‘Is it you, Robinson?’ said Cameron; ‘I thought as much; a man no better than himself. But I will keep my word. Take him down.’ When the prisoner had been released, Cameron spoke again: ‘Your bravery in the field, men,’ he said, ‘is known to me and to the army. Your moral worth I know now. I am glad that not a man of the Battalion would come forward for that prisoner, except one; and what he is you know as well as I do.’
At Alameda the officers of the 1st Battalion, for the first time for some years, resumed their Battalion mess. A large barn formed the mess-room, in which they constructed two fire-places and chimneys; and dishes, plates, platters, and cups, which had been used by the different company messes in the field, brought into common stock, formed a sufficient if not a very magnificent service.
About this time a number of Spaniards joined the Regiment as recruits. An order had been issued in the May preceding[120] to enlist 100 Spaniards in each Battalion, and Surtees had been sent into the country about to endeavour to obtain these recruits. But unsuccessfully; for though many gave their names, and promised to come in and be attested, yet none appeared. But now it seems they were obtained. They told Costello that they were compelled by their government to serve, and that they preferred enlisting with us. They were divided among the different companies, furnishing about ten or twelve to each company. They made excellent Riflemen, and were distinguished for their bravery, degenerating often into ferocity, prompted by revenge for the injuries they and their families had suffered from the French. Some of them were made corporals; and all these men, according to the terms of their enlistment, were discharged when the Regiment passed the Spanish frontier in 1813.
Great exertions were made to equip the Regiment for the ensuing campaign. The clothing was got up from Abrantes; not before needed; for the Regiment had become, during the campaign and after the retreat, ‘a thing of shreds and patches.’
For the first time, too, in this war tents were provided for the Regiment, three per company for non-commissioned officers and privates, and one for the officers of the company. In the last campaign indeed a sort of ‘tente d’abri’ had been extemporised by making the men sew loops on the corners of their blankets. Two blankets being looped together, and the ends fixed to stands of arms, four men could creep under them. But with this disadvantage, that as two blankets were used for the covering, the four men had only two blankets to wrap themselves in. Yet they were ordered to pitch these new company tents always behind rising ground and out of sight of the enemy.
The Light Division was divided into two brigades. The 1st and 3rd Battalions of the 95th, consisting respectively of six and five companies, with the 43rd and some Portuguese, formed the 1st brigade under the command of Major-General Kempt.
The 2nd Battalion, consisting of six companies, were with the 52nd, and some Portuguese regiments in the 2nd brigade, commanded by Major-General Vandeleur.
On May 21 the Regiment broke up from its cantonments, and marching to Molina des Flores and fording the Agueda near the mill, encamped that night near San Felices el Chico. Marching at daylight next morning, they passed S. Espiritus and Martin del Rey, and encamped near it on the banks of the Yeltes. On the 23rd, after a long march, they encamped on the left bank of the Huebra at San Munoz, which they repassed by the very ford where they had their hard fight with the French six months before. But the face of nature and their own feelings were indeed different. The slushy swamps were now green meadows; the then sullen, swollen river now glistened under a bright sun; the constant, chilling rain was replaced by warm spring sunshine. And they, then fatigued and faint, now rested and restored; then famishing with want, now amply supplied; then depressed by the pursuit of an enemy, now gallantly going to seek that enemy, and exulting at the prospect of driving him before them. Here they halted during the 24th; and on the 25th, passing through Aldea Quella de Penida and Castro, and crossing the Matillo, encamped near Robleza. On the next morning they marched to the banks of the Valmusa, where about mid-day they halted and cooked. And then resuming their march, arrived in the evening at the ford of El Canto on the Tormes, about two leagues below Salamanca, where they encamped that night and remained during the following day. On the 28th they moved, and having forded the Tormes, passed through Monte Rubio, and after a march of twenty-four miles encamped at Aldea Nueva de Figueira, where they remained until June 2. On that day marching early they arrived at Villa Buena, where they cooked and rested; and in the afternoon proceeded to Toro; where finding that the enemy had blown up the principal arch of the bridge, they encamped in some fields on the left bank. Marshal Jourdan now abandoned the line of the Douro, and fell back on Palencia. And in order to follow the line of retreat of the enemy, the Regiment on June 3 crossing the Douro by the bridge of Toro, which had been hastily made passable by planks laid across the broken arch, advanced to Terra Buena, where they encamped. On the next day they moved by Casa Sola and La Mota de Toro, and after a march of about eighteen miles encamped at night on some high ground overhanging the Convent of Espinaz.
On the 5th, passing through Castromonte, where they halted an hour, they encamped at Muderra; and on the next day they marched through Villa Alba to Ampudia, their camping place. On the 7th, marching early, they reached the city of Palencia, and passing through it amidst the acclamations and rejoicing of its inhabitants, encamped close under the walls on the banks of the river Carrion. On the 8th, advancing through Valdepero and Mongen, they encamped at Tamara. The weather now broke up, and from having been hot and fine, now became chilly with much rain. The next day they moved to La Peña de Campos, and encamped near the Rio Cieza. On the 10th they crossed the river by a stone bridge, and passing by the villages of La Peña and Francoen, and across the canal of Castile, encamped near Lantadilla on the right bank of the Pisuerga. During the last few marches the weather had been unfavourable, and the supply of food scanty. The country was devoid of wood, and fuel was with difficulty procured for cooking. The peasantry, too, seemed poor, and their dwellings inferior to those in other parts of Spain. Yet the villagers everywhere welcomed our men with shouts of joy, and the women danced before them, in their national manner doubtless, but it seemed absurd and ridiculous to our people. Yet this amused the tired soldiers, whose heavy load and rapidity of march were lightened by the antics of the rejoicing peasantry.
On the 11th they crossed the Pisuerga by a stone bridge, and passing by Pallacio encamped near Villa Sandino on the river Brullo.
Since leaving Toro in pursuit of the enemy they had never seen a French soldier; but on the 12th, after marching a few miles, and when near the village of Isar, they came upon a rear-guard, composed of a pretty large body of cavalry drawn up on some high ground, and a division of infantry formed in squares. On the cavalry attached to the Light Division advancing, the enemy’s cavalry at once withdrew. The Regiment was drawn up on some high ground over the river Hormaza, and when the squares of the infantry were cannonaded by our guns, though without much effect, they retired towards Burgos. But when passing under the height our men were on, they halted and gave them a volley. This they could do, being in square, and the 95th so much above them. Yet their fire was ineffectual by reason of distance. They moved across the plain, and as soon as they were clear of their guns, these opened a smart cannonade, without, however, doing any harm. The Regiment then continued its route, and encamped at Hornilla de Camino, near the river. On the 13th, as the Regiment was starting early on the march, a tremendous explosion, which seemed to shake the ground on which they stood, and which the soldiers fancied was an earthquake, was heard. This was, as they subsequently found, caused by the enemy blowing up the castle of Burgos, on their evacuating that place. Continuing their march through Villa Nueva, Organda and Villa Rejo, they encamped that night at Tovar.
On the next day, passing through Guermathes, Quintanaleia sobre la Sierra, to Quintanajuar and Poza, they encamped in a wood near these two villages.
On the 15th, after a long and wearisome march through Villa Alta, Pesados and El Almune, and over a most uninteresting country, they came to the edge of the heights overlooking the vale of the Ebro. And the sight of that noble river, fringed with verdant meadows and fruitful orchards, and dotted with farms and country-houses, inspirited them. For from the day they had left the neighbourhood of Salamanca till now, their route had lain through an unwooded, arid country, sometimes indeed bearing great crops of corn, but always uninteresting. Wood for firing could scarcely be found; provisions ran short, and when they were issued, consisted only of tough ration beef and hard biscuit. But now they were descending into a fruitful valley, teeming with everything which could supply their wants. The spirits of the men were elated, and coming to the village of Puente Arenas, they crossed its long stone bridge, the band of the 1st Battalion playing ‘The Downfall of Paris,’ and encamped close to the village.
At dawn of the 16th they started again, and winding along the left bank of the river for about a league, and then ascending the heights which shut it in, marched through a mountainous country, the rugged hills clothed with wood to their summits, and passing the villages of Encinillas and Bisquesas, and crossing the river Nela, encamped a little beyond Medina de Pomar, on the Trueba river.
On the 17th their march was through mountain tracks impassable for artillery. They were in fact striking across the country to the great road from Burgos to Vittoria, in order to intercept the enemy who were proceeding by that road; and after a fatiguing march encamped in a woody height near the river Loza. Picquets were thrown out, as the enemy was supposed to be not far distant, and the Regiment was placed in thick wood, where there was hardly room to pitch the tents.
On the 18th they moved very early. A troop of German hussars led, and then came the 1st Battalion, one company being in advance. After marching about two leagues they arrived at the point where the road by which they were moving struck into the great road, which by a steep descent between high banks, enters the village of San Millan. Here they came upon a strong rear-guard of the enemy who were coming down the hill towards San Millan. The German cavalry first attacked a force of cavalry which was with the rear-guard, and which made a stand; but they soon routed them, and brought in many prisoners. Then Barnard extending the 1st Battalion came down upon the infantry, through the wooded height which overhung the road, and with a sharp and destructive fire put them into confusion. The 3rd Battalion also became actively engaged; and the enemy being broken, retired rapidly, through San Millan and up the hill beyond it, closely pursued by our people. When the Riflemen were beginning the attack Lord Wellington rode up, and directed their movements. As he had another division ready to intercept the French, at Espejo, some distance in advance towards Vittoria, he desired Quartermaster Surtees to go and fetch a peasant who was supposed to be with the 1st Battalion, to guide him to Espejo. But the guide not liking the fire, was nowhere to be found; and on Surtees reporting this to him, Lord Wellington galloped off towards Espejo, without a guide. The Riflemen continued the pursuit of the enemy; who on getting on the height above San Millan, again showed front, and formed up some battalions. But the inexorable Riflemen again pressed them so hard, that they fled through Villa Nueva and Villa Naña; and the country being admirably suited for Riflemen, they inflicted on them great loss.
During this fight an officer of the 3rd Battalion was chased round and round a tree by a French hussar, who cut at him repeatedly, and would undoubtedly have cut him down had he not spied the rifle of a man who had been killed; and as it was fortunately loaded, he shot his antagonist. 1 sergeant and 2 privates of the 1st Battalion were killed; Lieutenant Haggup was desperately, and it was thought mortally wounded, being shot through the belly; yet he recovered; and 10 privates of the 1st and 2 of the 3rd Battalion were wounded.
While the 1st and 3rd Battalions were pursuing the enemy, the second brigade of the Light Division came up to San Millan; and as the rear brigade of the French rear-guard, following their companions, arrived there at the same time, they were attacked by the 2nd Battalion, and handled much as their first brigade had been by the 1st and 3rd. They broke and fled at once, abandoning their baggage, and took to the mountains, where they were pursued and many of them taken by the Spaniards. The 2nd Battalion had 1 sergeant killed and 1 private wounded, in this affair. This was the first time the Regiment had been actually engaged in this campaign.
The 1st and 3rd Battalions having returned from their pursuit, the Regiment encamped on the Jumillo, between San Millan and Villa Nueva.
On the 19th they proceeded by the same road by which their opponents on the preceding day had fled; and halted at the village of Salinas. The day was hot; the march ascending the hill fatiguing; and the clear sparkling rills at Salinas were eagerly resorted to. Every man dipped his mess-tin; every man, when he had tasted it, made a wry face. The water was salt. The earth all around is strongly impregnated with saline matter. And one of the men observed: ‘We must be near the sea now; for we have got to the salt water.’
Continuing their march they encamped that night, after crossing the river Bayas by a moveable bridge, at Pobes, on the bank of that river.
On the 20th the Regiment did not move, but continued in the same encampment.
E. Weller, lith., London.
London: Chatto & Windus.
BATTLE
OF
VITTORIA
21ST JUNE 1813
General Alten directed the baggage taken from the French at San Millan to be sold by auction, and the proceeds to be divided among the soldiers. Not only horses, mules and carts, and the usual baggage of an army were thus disposed of, but a variety of female attire was also found and sold; several Spanish ladies, the wives or chères amies of French officers, having been among the prisoners taken. The proceeds of this sale were divided only among the men of the second brigade, who were in fact the actual captors; very much to the discontent of the soldiers of the 1st and 3rd Battalions, who maintained that, if it had not been for their attack and discomfiture of the first French brigade, this booty would never have been taken.
On the 21st the Regiment fell in at daylight and advanced, the 1st Battalion leading, over some high ground; and having arrived early near the river Zadorra, which flowing from near Vittoria turns at nearly a right angle towards Miranda, were ordered to pile arms. The river was thus in their front, flowing from their left to their right, and then again turning round their right flank. While they were thus resting with piled arms, Lord Wellington rode up, and advancing to the very bank of the river, observed the enemy’s position. This was not unnoticed by the French, who detached a cloud of voltigeurs, who, rushing across a bridge at the village of Villodas, seized a woody height on the side of the river our men occupied, and opened a fire on the Staff. The 3rd Battalion and two companies of the 1st Battalion which stood next to them, were immediately ordered to stand to their arms, and drive them back. This they did in a very short time; and thus they, and not General Hill’s division, as has been generally said, began that memorable battle.[121] They drove the French out of the woody height, through the village and over the bridge; but not having orders to cross, they extended along the river’s bank, as did the voltigeurs on their side, and many men fell; for the river was not broad, and a desultory fire was kept up. And as soon as the French were clear of the village a cannonade was opened from a battery on some high ground beyond the Zadorra, by which many men were killed. For the ground was rocky, and our men were dispersed among the rocks, and the fragments splintered off by the cannon-balls wounded them almost as much as the balls themselves. One shot took some Riflemen, who were lining a garden-wall, in flank and swept off several men at once.
Their task having been accomplished by clearing the village, some of the officers and half a company of the 3rd Battalion took post at the church of Villodas, and observed the course of the battle. General Hill’s force had now possession of the range of hills on the enemy’s left; while the smoke and booming of cannon on the right of their position showed that Sir Thomas Graham had commenced his attack on that flank. At this moment, about twelve o’clock, a peasant gave information that one of the bridges over the Zadorra was undefended, and the 1st and 3rd Battalions, moving to their left along the bank of the river, crossed by it (the bridge of Tres Puentes) at the point where the Zadorra bends with a right angle, and ascending the high ground halted just under the brow of the hill. While they were there the 3rd Division were seen advancing to the bridge of Mendoza next on the left to that by which the Riflemen had crossed; and the French observing them sent down some cavalry and light troops to oppose them, while a battery of French guns opened fire upon them. At this moment Barnard, with great promptitude, led his Battalion to the left, between the French cavalry and the river, and took the light troops and artillerymen in flank with such a severe fire, that he drove them off and enabled the 3rd Division to cross the river without opposition or loss. But the English gunners, who from the opposite bank were replying to the fire of the French battery, not distinguishing the dark dress of our men, who were in close contest with the enemy’s skirmishers, continued to pound them, and several men thus fell by the fire of our own guns. Nor was it till the head of Picton’s Division came over the bridge and joined the Riflemen that they ceased their fire.
The Light Division covered by the skirmishers of the 1st and 3rd Battalions, and the 3rd Division covered by two companies of the 1st Battalion, now advanced and pushed up the conical hill in front of Arinez, the centre of the enemy’s position. In this advance Lord Wellington rode close behind the two 1st Battalion companies, which were heading the 3rd Division,[122] calling out to the men ‘That’s right, my lads; keep up a good fire.’ The Battalion soon cleared the hill, and were going down the other side, when they were stopped by a wall at the entrance of the village of Arinez, behind which the enemy had posted some battalions of infantry, who on our men coming over the hill opened a sudden blaze of fire, which checked them. But only for a moment; for running forward they occupied one side of the wall while the enemy held the other. And in the few minutes they were there two officers and thirty men of the Battalion fell. Then some of the 3rd Division, having deployed into line, gave the French a volley, which dislodged them; and the Riflemen clearing the wall, rushed into and through the village, and took three guns, the first which were captured that day. The first of these was taken by Lieutenant Fitz-Maurice and two privates of the 1st Battalion. Observing that the French artillery, a battery of six guns, was retreating, and believing that he could intercept it, Fitz-Maurice started with his company; but they being in heavy marching order, were not able to keep up with him. Five guns had passed before he reached the road; he caught the leading horses of the sixth, and stopped them. The driver drew a pistol and fired at him, but the bullet passed through his cap. He called on the two men who were with him to fire, and one of the horses fell, which completely checked the gun. Then the rest of the company came up, cut the traces, and made the three drivers and four gunners prisoners. However, just beyond Arinez the enemy rallied a strong battalion, who advancing on the Riflemen forced them to retreat about a hundred yards, and to give up possession of the captured guns. But as our men had cut the traces with their swords, taken away the horses, and killed many of the gunners, when they saw the head of the 3rd Division advancing, they went forward again; and thus reinforced, drove the enemy finally from the village, and recaptured and retained possession of the guns.
In the meantime the 2nd Battalion with the 2nd brigade of the Light Division were hotly engaged at the village of Margarita, to the left of Arinez; but that village being carried and the enemy being driven off, they also advanced on the left of the other two Battalions.
The whole Regiment then continued to advance in the direction of Vittoria. On their right a large body of the enemy, which had been driven by General Hill from the high ground on that flank, were marching in a parallel direction. They were at first supposed to be Spaniards; and on its being ascertained that they were French, it was a question with the commanding officer of one of the Rifle Battalions whether he should not attack them. But his orders were to make the best of his way to his front; and he did not like to depart from them. Moreover the intervening ground was bad, and it might not have been easy to close with them. So hurrying on and outstripping our people, they joined their main army in retreat.
As the Riflemen advanced they came to a village where there was a French battery which cannonaded them severely. They formed lines of Battalions and lay down in some ploughed fields, still exposed in some degree to the enemy’s fire. In about half-an-hour they moved on; and with little check passed through the city of Vittoria and proceeded about three miles beyond it, the enemy having abandoned all their positions and flying before them. Here they bivouacked, having been on foot since three o’clock in the morning, and having fought almost all that time, over about twenty miles of ground.
Surtees being the only quartermaster up with the Regiment, was sent back to look for its baggage. He repassed Vittoria, and after a long search amongst the carriages of all descriptions which blocked up the road, at last found it. But it was impossible to get it forward, or to extricate it from that wonderful tangle of every kind of vehicle and impediment which blocked the road to and through Vittoria. Wherefore, directing those in charge of it where to find the Regiment next morning, he returned through Vittoria and joined the bivouack. For the tents had not come up. And men and officers slept by the camp fires, having supped on provisions obtained from the well-filled stores of the flying foe.
On this day 1 sergeant and 3 rank and file of the 1st Battalion were killed; and Lieutenant-Colonel Cameron, Lieutenants Cox, Hopwood, and Gairdner were severely, and Lister slightly, wounded; 1 sergeant and 36 privates were also wounded: of the 2nd Battalion, Captain Jenkins and 8 men were wounded: of the 3rd Lieutenant Campbell and 7 privates were killed, and 16 wounded.
One of the first who fell was Lieutenant Leckie Campbell, who was shot through the forehead at the affair in the early morning at Villodas. Colonel Cameron was so severely wounded in the thigh that he was obliged to proceed to England.
A man of the name of Hudson of the 1st Battalion (one of the deserters found in Ciudad Rodrigo, who had been pardoned) received a shot in the mouth, which knocked out several teeth, and passed out at the back of the ear; yet from this wound he recovered. I have mentioned the Spanish recruits who joined the Regiment. One of them, by name Blanco, in this battle was distinguished not only for his bravery, but for his cruelty; stabbing and cutting the wounded French whenever he came upon them. This so exasperated an old Rifleman that he felled him with the butt-end of his rifle. The other men could scarce withhold Blanco from stabbing him on the spot.
On the 22nd, about mid-day, the Regiment moved in pursuit of the French, but did not come up with them; and they bivouacked that night near Salvatierra.
On the 23rd the Regiment again started in pursuit at daylight, and arriving at the river Borunda, found the enemy posted on it. The wooden bridge over it had been set on fire. But some shrapnell shells fired by Ross’ guns soon made them move off. The Regiment then forded the river, and pressed the rear-guard so hard that they could not destroy the bridges they passed. They now set every village on fire, with a view of delaying our pursuit; the passage through the flaming villages and falling houses not being easy, and the country round them being generally enclosed. But this did not much delay the Riflemen. At Echarri-Aranaz they had a skirmish with the enemy’s voltigeurs; but they soon moved off. They came up with them again at the village of La Cuenca; here they drew up, but our Horse Artillery having opened upon them, they resumed their retreat through Huarte. The Regiment encamped at La Cuenca.
On the 24th at daylight they marched, the 3rd Battalion leading; and after proceeding eight or ten miles found the French rear-guard in a strong position on the side of a mountain behind the river Araquil. The banks were rocky and rugged, and the stream swollen by recent rains. A narrow bridge, therefore, afforded the sole passage. The 1st and 3rd Battalions of the Regiment were the only infantry up at the time. The two Battalions were halted; and the men were ordered to put their knapsacks behind the troopers of the German Legion (who accompanied them) in order that they might move more rapidly. Then the 3rd Battalion were ordered by General Alten to mount a hill to the left of the road in order to fire down upon the right of the French, while the 1st Battalion lined the banks of the river and opened a smart fire. Under this attack the enemy gave way; and our people crossing the bridge, pursued them in a kind of desultory skirmish for about two miles. But they retired slowly, and fighting hard, to enable the troops behind them to make good their retreat. The road by which they were moving soon struck the great road, the ‘Camino real,’ leading from Madrid to Pamplona. The enemy detached one battalion to the right, which moved down a valley and was soon out of sight. It was ascertained afterwards that they fancied that this valley had an outlet to the road further on, where they might take up a position to receive our people. At the end of about two miles, where there was a narrow pass between two overhanging rocks, the enemy halted, and soon advanced upon our two Battalions. A sharp attack now again took place; and the battalion which had left the road emerged from a wood among our skirmishers. It was roughly handled, and suffered severely before it regained the road. It seems that, finding no way out of the valley they had entered, they returned to help their companions.
At this moment two of Ross’ guns came up, and opened on them; and a general fight of all three arms (the Riflemen, the German hussars, and Ross’ guns) took place, which drove the French from their position, through the pass and on to the open country beyond. Here the road is carried on an embankment with very steep sides. And when they had proceeded about two miles, the fire of Ross’ guns killed two and wounded one of the horses of the French gun, an 8-pounder.[123] They were so hard pressed that they had no time to disentangle the horses, and they flung the gun, with the horses, over the embankment, here about fifteen feet deep. Thus the Riflemen, who had taken the first gun at Vittoria, took the last and only gun which the French carried off from that field. ‘The French entered Pamplona, therefore, with one howitzer only.’[124] The Riflemen (some of them mounted behind the troopers of the Royal Dragoons)[125] continued to pursue them till they were under the walls of that fortress; and they occupied that night the villages of Aldava, Santa Barafra, and Berrioplano.
On the 25th, at an early hour, the Regiment advanced towards Pamplona, and arriving about a mile and-a-half from it, they moved to the left, just out of range of the guns of the place, and proceeding by a mountain road to Villaba, encamped near that village.
On the 26th Lord Wellington intending to intercept General Clausel, who having learnt the rout of the main French army at Vittoria, was endeavouring to make good a retreat into France by the east of Spain, the Regiment (with some other divisions of the army) moved to Noain and past the aqueduct of Pamplona, and encamped near Muro, at the junction of the roads from Tudela and Zaragoza.
Next day they started early, and near Barasoain halted to cook and refresh. Then passing through Tafalla, where they crossed the Zadacos river by a stone bridge, and where the inhabitants received them with acclamations of joy, they encamped in an olive-grove near Olite.
On the 28th passing through the town of Olite and striking out of the Zaragoza road they took that to San Martin. And after crossing a barren plain, halted to cook in a pine-wood near Murillo del Fruto. They had then marched about four leagues; but their labours were not nearly over. For starting again they skirted the river and got to Gallepienza, where they crossed it by a stone bridge; and proceeding by a mountain track, where darkness overtook them, they encamped in a ploughed field, near Caseda, about midnight in tremendous rain. The whole march had been about twenty-four miles; and they had been pushed on in the hope of intercepting Clausel; but it was here reported that the Alcalde of Tudela had given Clausel notice of the movements of the column, and that he had effected his retreat by another road.
Therefore the Regiment halted on the 29th; and on the 30th beginning its return to Pamplona, crossed the Aragon at Caseda and marched to Sanguessa, near which they encamped, and halted during July 1.
On the 2nd they resumed their march towards Pamplona; passing Narden and Andoain, and encamped near Monreal.
On the 3rd the Regiment returned by Noain to Villaba, and moving past it, encamped at the village of Berissa near Pamplona. On the next day it furnished working parties to throw up works to shelter our picquets from the fire of the place, or from a sortie of the garrison.
On the 5th the Regiment commenced its march into the Pyrenees; and proceeding up a narrow valley to Ostiz, encamped near a rivulet.
And on the 6th, penetrating into the mountains, they marched by Olague to Lanz, which is situated at the foot of the Pyrenean range.
At daybreak on the 7th the Regiment began to climb the mountains and halted on a mountain side near Gustella and Lagassa, where they were about to encamp for the night. But in three hours they got a fresh route and were ordered to move into San Esteban.
Here they halted in very pleasant quarters until the 14th. During this time Major-General Skerrett was appointed to the command of the second brigade of the Light Division, in which was the 2nd Battalion, in succession to General Vandeleur, who was transferred to the command of a cavalry brigade.
On the afternoon of the 14th the Regiment marched from San Esteban, and encamped on the heights above Sumbilla.
On the 15th at daylight they marched down the Bidassoa, by a road which sometimes skirted its bank, and sometimes rose upon the mountain side over it. On getting near the bridge of Lezaca the enemy’s advanced post was discovered near it, on the heights of Sta. Barbara. And the 1st Battalion was ordered to dislodge them. They climbed the mountain slowly; for it was very steep, and they were obliged to husband their strength for the fight which might take place at the top. The French gave them some shots; but when they arrived on the crest, they quickly drove them down the other side. And as they stood on the top the Riflemen had a view of the enemy’s position; and of the Bidassoa, which here makes a sharp bend to the left, and flows thence through a rocky channel to the sea. Below them was the town of Vera and the road which, leading into France through Vera, is called La Puerta de Vera. To defend this pass the French had thrown up strong works. And here also the Riflemen looked, far to the left, upon the sea; and a simultaneous cheer burst forth at the sight of that ocean which seemed to connect them with their native land, and which, for some years, most of them had not seen.
The 43rd drove the enemy out of the town of Vera; but they still kept a picquet in some outhouses near it, and our picquets were posted in Vera. The Regiment encamped on the heights they had gained.
It remained in this position, furnishing the picquets, and keeping up the communication between the army under Sir Thomas Graham, which was besieging St. Sebastian, and that under Sir Rowland Hill, which was investing and covering Pamplona.
On July 25 Marshal Soult, who had assumed command of the French army, attacked the positions of Roncesvalles and Maya, with a view to raising the siege of Pamplona or throwing provisions into it; and after several hardly-contested fights had obliged Hill to fall back. It therefore became necessary for the Light Division also to retire, though the enemy in front made no sign of advancing. Accordingly on the 26th the Regiment marched from their encampment, and crossing the Bidassoa, and passing through Lezaca and Jansi, encamped for the night on high ground near Sumbilla.
They did not move from this till nightfall on the 27th, when they resumed their retrograde movement; and marching all night did not reach Zubieta (a march of only two leagues and-a-half) till after daylight. For the route was by mountain tracks and in the dark, and was accomplished with difficulty and fatigue. So dark and dangerous was the way, that at a stream on the road, which dashed down from the mountain side, a Corporal of the Regiment placed himself in mid-stream, and taking each passer by the hand guided him to the other side. On arrival at Zubieta, about a league to the right of San Esteban, their late quarter, they encamped for the day; and starting again at nine in the evening arrived at Salin next morning. This night march, though not so harassing as the last, for the road was less difficult, was yet not free from danger. For Lieutenant William Eeles, the Adjutant of the 3rd Battalion, having had his cap knocked off by the bough of a tree, in endeavouring to catch it as it fell, pulled his horse off the road, and both rolled down a precipitous declivity. Fortunately it was not very deep; and horse and man were recovered unhurt. At Salin they encamped for the day. And on the 30th proceeded by a long march, by day, to Lecumberri, and were moved into a wood à cheval on the great road from Pamplona to Bayonne, and about equidistant from the former and Tolosa. They were again to keep up the communication between Hill’s corps and that before St. Sebastian; and also to bar the way to any of the enemy’s troops which might move by that road. During the last few days they had heard heavy firing in the direction of Pamplona, but were without intelligence of the result of the fight. But late on the 31st, their anxiety was relieved by the arrival of a staff officer, who informed them of the complete defeat and repulse of the French in the battles of the Pyrenees; and who also conveyed orders that they were to advance over the ground by which they had retired. Wherefore, falling in on the evening of that day, they marched to Larissa and encamped there.
On the 1st August they marched early, and passing by Esema, Zubieta and Irurlia, heard that they were to push forward to intercept the retreat of the French. They proceeded by a mountainous and rough road, under a burning sun, and about three o’clock reached some high ground on the left bank of the Bidassoa. It was a long march and the heat was oppressive. They had marched about thirty miles, when, about three o’clock, they arrived on the heights overhanging the river near the bridge of Jansi. Then the knowledge that they were near the enemy revived the spirits of the wearied Riflemen; and declaring that they ‘would knock the dust out of their hairy knapsacks,’ the 1st Battalion descended the hill on the left, while the 3rd Battalion held a wood above. Then the disordered column of the enemy was seen approaching on the opposite bank, faint and weary; and the 1st Battalion, concealed among the brushwood at the foot of the hill, received them with a raking fire. Many, pointing to the wounded who were borne with them, by their gestures implored quarter, and the generous Riflemen withheld their fire, and called to one another to spare them. Yet many, as they passed, fired at our men, but without much effect; for they were so effectually concealed in the brushwood, that the flash of their rifles was the only guide for the aim of the enemy. Thus pursued by the 4th Division, they had to pass this fiery ordeal. Some throwing off their knapsacks, and casting away their arms, strove to climb a hill on their right; but it was inaccessible; and on the hill-side the fire of our men picked them off. Then they pushed some light troops across the river, who became engaged with the 3rd Battalion; but they were soon driven down, and across the bridge. In the evening two of our companies got possession of the bridge, and then the rear of the column had to pass in front of their fire. At last they got a battalion into line behind a stone wall beyond the river; this somewhat checked our fire, and the remainder of the flying enemy passed with less loss. Yet arms, knapsacks, baggage and wounded were abandoned.
In this affair the Regiment lost but few men. Captain William Percival of the 3rd Battalion was wounded, being at the very close of the day shot through the right wrist. The left hand had been before contracted by a wound in that wrist; and he was also lame from a wound in the hip.
This day’s march was most fatiguing, being made under a hot sun, and with frequent want of water. The whole distance was about eight leagues; and considering that it was made in the heat of an August sun, and that at the end of the march the men had four or five hours’ hard fighting, it may hold its place with the famous march from Calzada to Talavera. Napier gives a frightful picture of the sufferings of the men. It was said that 200 men of one regiment of the second brigade of the Light Division fell out. But the Riflemen had a resolution to excel; and many held on till they died. Yet when the roll of the 3rd Battalion was called just before the fight began, only nine men were absent.
On the 2nd, the 1st and 3rd Battalions moved after the French by the road to the pass of Vera; the 2nd Battalion by Jansi and Lezaca; and the Regiment took up the line of picquets it had held a week before without firing a shot. On the march they met Lord Wellington, who, in recognition of their long march and hard fight of the day before, honoured them with an approving nod and smile, which much pleased the soldiers.
In the afternoon, it being observed that the enemy held the mountain of Echalar, which standing on the right of our position was in fact in our line of posts, it was resolved to dislodge them. And the 1st and 3rd Battalions supported by the 43rd were ordered to take the position. The 1st Battalion extended to the right, and the 3rd advanced up the face of the hill. A thick fog came on, and though the French kept up a pretty brisk fire they did the Riflemen no harm. For their aim being probably rendered uncertain by the mist, they fired over their heads, and any of their shot which took effect, fell on the 43rd, who were much lower on the hill-side. The 3rd Battalion, advancing up the hill in the fog, found themselves against a rock the top of which was thronged with Frenchmen, who gave them a biting fire. As the Riflemen were unable to climb the precipitous face of the rock, the Frenchmen called upon them with gibes, in the Spanish language, to come on. The Riflemen retreated for an instant to the rocks around, among which finding cover, they kept up a telling fire on the occupants of the rock. And one of the Spanish recruits before mentioned, enraged at the insults of the French, replied to their sneers in most bitter words, which he accompanied with constant shots. But he was soon killed. Now gathering courage they made an advance against the 1st Battalion; but the Riflemen with a shout of defiance repelled them, and they turned and fled; and descending their side of the mountain retreated to their own position.
The men, while the Regiment remained in the neighbourhood, called this mountain ‘Barnard’s Hill;’ in memory of the valour with which Sir Andrew, who commanded on the occasion, had carried it.
An officer of the 1st Battalion had a strange escape in this fight. When the enemy advanced on that Battalion, they made a rush at him, which in trying to avoid, he fell into a bush. They seized his sword, which was not drawn, to drag him out; but it broke away from the belt, and he escaped.
A Portuguese regiment took up the ground the Riflemen had gained; and they encamped near Vera and the Bidassoa.
On the 3rd another division having relieved them, the Regiment returned to their old encampment on the heights of Sta. Barbara, where they remained for about two months.
On August 25, the three Battalions being together, it was resolved to commemorate the anniversary of the formation of the Regiment. A trench was dug round a parallelogram of greensward, which served for the table, while the convives sat on the opposite bank, with their legs in the trench. Many patriotic toasts and many healths were drunk. And the cheering that followed them must have astonished their French neighbours. Indeed they are said to have remained under arms part of the night, expecting an immediate attack. This was, I believe, the first ‘Regimental Dinner.’
On the 31st the storming of St. Sebastian took place. Fifty men under a subaltern of each Battalion of the Regiment were allowed to volunteer for this duty. Lieutenant James Perceval of the 1st Battalion claimed this duty by right of seniority, but William Hamilton, a Second Lieutenant, obtained Sir Andrew Barnard’s permission to accompany the stormers also. Lieutenant Eaton commanded the stormers of the 2nd Battalion. I regret that I am unable to ascertain who led those of the 3rd.
About noon, they moved forward from the trenches, and after five hours’ desperate fighting—for the breaches were found to have fallen in such large fragments as to be almost impregnable, and the resistance of the enemy was most gallant—they entered and took possession of the place. Perceval was severely wounded at the foot of the breach; and Hamilton was also desperately wounded in two places; one ball entered the eye, passed down through the mouth, and was cut out at the shoulder-blade. Both recovered; but Hamilton was never again able to join the Regiment, and was placed on full-pay of it (as First Lieutenant) some time afterwards. Of the 1st Battalion, besides these officers, 2 Riflemen were killed, and 2 sergeants and 4 Riflemen were wounded; of the 2nd Battalion, 3 Riflemen were killed, and 6 wounded; and of the 3rd Battalion, 2 Riflemen were killed and 2 wounded.[126]
But on that same day the Battalions from which these volunteers had been detached had also hard fighting. They had, as usual, been under arms before daybreak; but after dawn the mountains were covered with a thick mist, and as nothing appeared they broke up, and had just returned to their encampment, when the bugles sounded the ‘assembly;’ and a breeze having carried off the mist, the hills on the French side of the river were seen covered with troops. These soon began to descend, and forded the Bidassoa a little below Vera. Some columns also approached Vera in order to cross by that bridge; but the 2nd Battalion were posted here, having two companies at the bridge and in a loop-holed house near it, and the other four in the town. They resisted and defeated the attempt to cross at that point. Meanwhile the 1st and 3rd Battalions, seeing the enemy advancing, thought the attack would be on them. For the French crossed in force, preceded by numbers of skirmishers under cover of the fire of some mountain guns. This fell short at first; and instead of reaching our people some shells fell among their own skirmishers, and caused no little confusion; while the Riflemen, who were looking down upon them, burst forth into a loud and derisive cheer, as each shell fell among them. But when they came across, and our people were to receive them, they turned to their right, and proceeded towards St. Sebastian to attack some Spanish troops on the left of the position the Riflemen occupied, leaving some troops about Vera to keep them in check.
Thus matters remained till the afternoon; the 1st and 3rd Battalions suffering, but a little, from the fire of the enemy’s mountain guns. About three o’clock three companies of the 1st Battalion with part of the 43rd, crossed by the bridge of Lezaca, and proceeded along the heights above the river, in a direction parallel to the French; they were afterwards followed by the remainder of Kempt’s brigade, and moved from hill to hill, in the evening occupying a height above Lezaca where they remained for the night. But a picquet was left on the heights of Sta. Barbara, with orders, as soon as it was relieved by a Spanish regiment, to follow the Battalion across the Bidassoa. But this was no easy matter. For a tremendous storm of wind, thunder and lightning came on; and it was extremely difficult for the picquet to thread their way by mountain paths along the hill-side.
The rain also fell in torrents. And as is always the case in these mountains every rill rapidly became a torrent, and the Bidassoa rose and ere long became unfordable. That portion of the enemy to the left of the British position had, on being defeated, recrossed the river. But General Clausel’s force, which was nearer to Vera, was unable to do so. Clausel himself, indeed, with two brigades, did repass the river early in the evening, leaving General Vandermaesen with the other divisions on the left bank. Then the Bidassoa rose rapidly, and night set in. Some of his troops attempted to ford the angry river, but were swept away and drowned. Then the only chance was to force the bridge of Vera. Here Cadoux’s company and part of Hart’s company of the 2nd Battalion were posted under command of the former, in a loop-holed house about thirty yards from the bridge, having double sentries posted on the bridge itself. Thomas Smith, the Adjutant of the 2nd Battalion, having reported to General Skerrett that the bridge was held by this detachment, Skerrett sent his Brigade-Major, who was sleeping in the same room with him, to Cadoux, desiring him to evacuate it, probably in consequence of Vandermaesen’s overwhelming numbers. This Cadoux refused to do; saying that he could hold the bridge-house. Meanwhile, about two o’clock in the morning, the French, silently drawing near the bridge, made a rush. The two sentries on the bridge snapped their rifles to give the alarm; but the priming was wet from the heavy rain, and they were at once shot down or bayoneted. Cadoux, by his fire from the bridge-house, kept the head of the advancing column in check. At this fatal moment General Skerrett sent a fresh order to Cadoux, and in such terms as he could not disobey, to leave the bridge-house and join his Battalion. He of course complied; but with the memorable words that ‘but few of his party would reach the camp.’ Even so it was. They at once became exposed not only to the fire of the troops on the bridge, but to a cannonade from the guns of the French reserve on a height near Vera. Cadoux was killed; 2 sergeants and 14 rank and file were killed; and Captain Hart, Lieutenants Llewellyn and R. Cochrane, 9 sergeants and 34 rank and file were wounded. So that every officer present was either killed or wounded besides 11 sergeants and 48 rank and file, out of a total strength of about 100 men. And it is to be noted that until the party left the bridge-house Cadoux had not lost a man, except the double sentries on the bridge.[128] The opposition being thus withdrawn the French crossed the bridge, and returned to their position. Whereas had Skerrett not only left Cadoux at the bridge-house, but supported him with the remainder of the Battalion, or with the 52nd, who were close at hand, not a man of Vandermaesen’s division could have recrossed the Bidassoa. One company of the 3rd Battalion indeed and some Portuguese troops came up about daylight, but it was then too late, and the passage had been effected.[129]
For this neglect and for the sacrifice of Cadoux and his gallant band General Skerrett has been greatly and deservedly blamed; in which censure Sir William Napier (though apparently not fully aware of Skerrett’s fault) concurs.
Drawn by Captn H. M. Moorsom, Rifle Brige E. Weller, lith., London.
London: Chatto & Windus.
ACTION
NEAR
VERA
7TH OCTOBER 1813
Besides the great loss of Cadoux’s party at the bridge-house, Lieutenant Nicholas Travers, who commanded the company of the 3rd Battalion which came up at dawn, was also wounded; and 2 men of it were killed and 10 wounded.
But if the Riflemen suffered, the loss they inflicted on their assailants was enormous. The bridge next morning was strewn with their bodies; and the river full of them; while many wounded had been removed. General Vandermaesen, who commanded the force, was killed.
In the course of the following day the Regiment returned to their former encampment, and took up the line of picquets they had previously furnished. Here they remained in quiet until October 6, on which evening Barnard arrived from head-quarters with the welcome intelligence that they were to force the pass of Vera on the ensuing morning. Early in the night a thunderstorm set in; but it rolled away in the course of the night, and the morning was fine when the Regiment fell in. Leaving the tents standing to deceive the enemy as to the object of the movement, the three Battalions, with the other regiments of the Division, formed at the foot of the heights behind the town of Vera. A little to the right was an isolated hill, standing out in front of the great Pyrenean chain on the north of the valley of the Bidassoa, to which the soldiers had given the name of ‘the Boar’s back.’ This was to be occupied as a preliminary measure. And Colonel Ross, extending the 3rd Battalion, began to ascend it. Without firing a shot, though exposed to the fire of the enemy who crowned the crest, the Riflemen climbed to a pine-wood more than half-way up the mountain side; whence, after they had rested for a few minutes, they issued again. At this time the French crowded behind the crest; and it was thought by their brother Riflemen in the plain below, who could see the ground beyond, that the enemy would charge down the slope. But it was not so; for pursuing their way with all the steadiness of a field-day, Ross and his gallant Battalion gained the ridge. Then its defenders turned and fled; and then the Riflemen plied their rifles, which they had not before discharged, and poured a fire into them as they hurriedly descended the reverse slope. This exploit and the manner in which it was executed excited the admiration not only of their own comrades still standing in the plain below, but of the whole 4th Division, which had been moved up as a support to the Light Division.
This being accomplished, the other two Battalions moved forward. The 1st, with General Kempt’s brigade, advanced into the pass, and though at first sight their task seemed a difficult one, yet the steadiness and gallantry of the men carried all before them; and with little loss they stood on the top of the pass. Some descended the other side. For George Simmons and Cox with about sixty Riflemen, following the retreating enemy down the pass, took some prisoners, among whom were a commissary and two bandsmen. These the soldiers ordered to play some French tunes; but from the alarm and the pace at which they had retreated, their music was neither very coherent nor melodious.
But the 2nd Battalion had a more difficult task to perform. The second brigade was on that day under the command of Colonel Colborne[130] of the 52nd (Skerrett being absent from the field on account of ill-health), and to them was allotted the duty of carrying a high hill on the left called La Bayonette, which bristled with the enemy’s entrenchments. The Riflemen ascended the lower slopes of the hill, and coming out of a wood which there girded it, advanced with a quick fire to a redoubt. The French who filled it, waiting until the Battalion was within a few yards, then opened a murderous fire, which checked the Riflemen and obliged them for a moment to retire. But the 52nd at that moment coming up in support, they again advanced, and together they cleared the redoubt of its defenders and drove them before them to a second line of works. Here they did not experience any serious resistance. But at the crest the enemy had constructed a formidable work, from which they not only poured forth a blaze of fire, but rolled great pieces of rock on the climbing soldiers. While these were endeavouring to storm the work, the 1st Battalion, with the first brigade, gained the top of the pass on their right; and the enemy’s left flank being thus turned, and his retreat threatened, he abandoned the entrenchment and retired down the reverse slope of the mountain.
As the French were retiring a curious circumstance took place. Colonel Colborne, accompanied by a small escort of Riflemen of the 2nd Battalion, came suddenly on a battery of mountain guns and some three hundred men, who were retreating from the right flank of the French position. He called to them peremptorily to lay down their arms, which they did, thinking he had a large force at hand.
The loss of the 2nd Battalion was very severe, amounting to nearly one-third of its strength. They fell principally at the Star redoubt, which they first attacked. Captain Gibbons, Lieutenants Alexander Campbell and John Hill, 4 sergeants, and 23 rank and file were killed; Captain Hart, Lieutenants Budgen, Ridgeway, Fry and Madden, 6 sergeants, and 128 rank and file were wounded; and 1 Rifleman was returned ‘missing.’ The 1st Battalion had 10 Riflemen wounded; and the 3rd Battalion 4 killed and Lieutenant Vickers and 17 wounded.
The Regiment, now encamped on the ridge, looked over the steppes of the Pyrenees and the vast plain at their feet. St. Jean-de-Luz seemed also beneath them, and Bayonne could be seen in the distance; while the Bay of Biscay bounded their view to the left, and a richly-tilled and well-wooded country stretched away far to their right.
Towards evening the 3rd Battalion went down into the plain below on outpost duty, relieving Longa’s Spanish troops.
The whole range of mountains was now in our occupation, except one: the extreme projection on the right called La Montagne d’Arrhune. This the French retained till the 8th; the Spaniards not having succeeded in dislodging them. On that day the second brigade of the Light Division having been sent to assist in carrying it, the enemy evacuated it, and it was thenceforth occupied by a picquet of three companies of the Light Division.
Beyond it was an outlier separated by a valley, and called ‘La Petite Arrhune,’ though itself a mountain of very considerable elevation. This the French occupied; and their advanced sentries were posted at the foot of the slope, and ours on the opposite slope of the valley, not more than 200 yards apart.