GATE IN TALAVERA.
Our arrival was hailed as an auspicious omen; for though too late to take any part in the battle of Talavera, which had just been fought, our presence served to exhilarate the army, which, though victorious, required support. The fight had been well sustained on both sides. From nine o’clock in the morning until mid-day the field of battle Offered no appearance of hostility; the weather was intensely hot, and the troops on both sides descended and mingled, without fear or suspicion, to quench their thirst at the little brook which divided the positions; but at one o’clock in the afternoon the French soldiers were seen to gather round their eagles, and the rolling of drums was heard along the whole line. Half an hour later the guards of King Joseph, the reserve, and the 4th corps, were descried near the centre of the enemy’s position, marching to join the 1st corps; and at two o’clock the tableland and the height on the French right, even to the valley, were covered with the dark and louring masses. The Duke of Belluno, whose arrangements were now completed, gave the signal for battle; and eighty pieces of artillery immediately sent out a tempest of bullets before the light troops, who, coming on swiftly, and with the violence of a hailstorm, were closely followed by the broad black columns, in all the majesty of war.
Sir Arthur Wellesley, from the summit of the hill, had a clear view of the entire scene of action. He saw the 4th corps rush forward with the usual celerity of French soldiers, and, clearing the intrenched ground in their front, fall upon Campbell’s division with prodigious fury; but that general, assisted by Mackenzie’s brigade and by two Spanish battalions, withstood their utmost efforts. The English regiments putting the French skirmishers aside, met the advancing columns with loud shouts, and, breaking in on their front, and lapping their flanks with fire, and giving no respite, pushed them back with terrible carnage. Ten guns were taken; but, as General Campbell prudently forbore pursuit, the French rallied on their supports, and made a show of attacking again, but did not attempt it. The British artillery and musketry were directed with vehement accuracy against their masses, and a Spanish regiment of cavalry charging on their flank at the same time, the whole retired in disorder, and the victory was secured in that quarter. The next grand attack was directed to the English centre, which was thrown into great confusion, and for some time completely broken. The fate of the day for some moments seemed to incline in favour of the French, when suddenly Colonel Donellan with the 48th regiment, was seen advancing through the midst of the disordered masses. At first it appeared as if this regiment must be carried away by the retiring crowds; but, wheeling back by companies, it let them pass through the intervals, and then resuming its firm and beautiful line, marched against the right of the pursuing columns, plied them with such a destructive musketry, and closed upon them with a pace so regular and steady, that the forward movement of the French was checked. The Guards and the Germans immediately rallied; a brigade of light cavalry came up from the second line at a trot; the artillery battered the enemy’s flanks without intermission, and the French, beginning to waver, soon lost their advantage, and the battle was restored.
The annals of warfare often tell us that in all actions there is one critical and decisive moment which will give the victory to the general who knows how to discover and secure it. When the guards first made their rash charge, Sir Arthur Wellesley, foreseeing the issue of it, had ordered the 48th down from the hill, although a rough battle was going on there, and at the same time he ordered Cotton’s light cavalry to advance. These dispositions gained the day. The French relaxed their efforts by degrees; the fire of the English grew hotter, and their loud and confident shouts, sure augury of success, were heard along the whole line. The French army soon after retired to the position from whence it had descended to the attack. This retrograde movement was covered by skirmishers, and increasing fire of artillery; and the British, reduced to less than fourteen thousand men, and exhausted by toil and want of food, were unable to pursue. The battle was scarcely over when the dry grass and shrubs taking fire, a volume of flame passed with inconceivable rapidity across a part of the field, scorching in its course both the dead and wounded. The loss of the British in the course of this severe action and previous skirmishing was upwards of six thousand men killed and wounded. That of the French, as afterwards appeared in a manuscript of Marshal Jourdan, was rather more than seven thousand three hundred.
The following morning presented a choice of disagreeables. Having taken a position along the battlefield somewhat in advance of the British line, we were surrounded with the dying and the dead. The number of the latter was hourly increasing. Combatants who had mingled in the fray, belonging to either army, lay intermingled in frightful heaps. Many of the bodies, though exposed only for so short a time to the sun’s rays, were offensively putrid and discoloured, so that interment without ceremony or distinction became necessary for the safety of the living. Meantime provisions were scanty, the water we had to drink was stagnant, the heat of the weather increased, and the enemy was hastily concentrating in great force in the vicinity. The 30th of July was passed by Sir Arthur in establishing hospitals at Talavera, and in fruitless endeavours to procure food, and the help required to keep the wounded men from perishing. On this occasion the Spanish behaved infamously. Not an inhabitant, although possessing ample means, would render the slightest aid, nor even assist to bury the dead. The corn secreted in Talavera alone was sufficient to support the army for a month; but the troops were starving, although the inhabitants, who had fled across the Tagus with their portable effects at the beginning of the battle, had returned. This conduct left an indelible impression on the minds of the English soldiers. From that period their contempt and dislike of the Spaniards were never effaced. The principal motive in war with these people was personal rancour; hence those troops who had behaved so ill in action, and the inhabitants, who alike withheld their sympathy and their aid from the English soldiers, to whose bravery they owed the preservation of their town, were busily engaged after the battle in beating out the brains of the wounded French, as they lay upon the field; and they were only checked by the English soldiers, who, in some instances, fired upon the perpetrators of this horrible iniquity.
Hitherto the allied generals had paid little attention to the Duke of Dalmatia’s movements; but on the 30th of July information was received that he had entered Placentia at the head of an imposing force. The danger of the British on account of their numerical inferiority was extreme; in fact, the fate of the Peninsula was suspended on a thread, which the events of a few hours might dissever; and yet it was so ordered that no irreparable disaster ensued. The generals on each side at length became acquainted with each other’s strength; and this, it will be believed, was a moment of extreme peril for the British. Their progress was barred in front, the Tagus was on their left, impassable mountains on their right, and it was certain that the retreat of the Spanish would bring down the king and Victor upon their rear. In this trying moment Sir Arthur Wellesley abated nothing of his usual calmness and fortitude. He knew not the full extent of the danger; but assuming the enemy in his front to be thirty thousand men, and Victor to have twenty-five thousand others in his rear, he judged that to continue the offensive would be rash, because he must fight and defeat those two marshals separately within three days, which, with starving and tired troops, inferior in number, was scarcely to be accomplished. The movements of Sir Arthur were executed with precision and success. About noon, the road being clear, the columns marched to the bridge, and at two o’clock the whole army was in position on the other side; the present danger was therefore averted, and the combinations of the enemy baffled.
Our sufferings during these rapid transitions were almost intolerable. During the passage several herds of swine were met with, feeding in the woods, when the soldiers ran in among the animals, shooting, stabbing, and, like men possessed, cutting off the flesh while the beasts were yet alive. Well has it been said that hunger will break through stone walls. I had carried a sheaf of wheat for many miles on my knapsack, rubbing the ears when opportunity offered between my hands, and eating the extracted grain with rapture. At night, by way of a feast, I used to thrash a little more, by bruising the grain, having first laid my greatcoat on the ground for the purpose. On one occasion a comrade, by great exertion, procured a small quantity of bullock’s blood. We agreed to boil it for dinner, and halve it between us. We did so; and, though unaided even by a bit of salt, I thought it delicious. These privations occurred in our passage through an elevated and open tract of country, where shelter from the sultry heat could hardly be procured. One of these spots we called Mount Misery. Many a time we have breakfasted upon the acorns or oak-nuts beaten down by the Spanish swineherds for the use of the hogs. A goat’s offal sold at this time for four dollars, or about double the usual price of the whole animal; and men and officers strove to outbid each other in the purchase of this wretched pittance. In one word, famine raged through the camp; and it was notorious that the Spanish cavalry intercepted the provisions and forage destined for the English army, and fired upon the foragers, as if they had been enemies.
From Arzobispo the army moved towards Deleytoza; and our brigade, with six pieces of artillery, was directed to gain the bridge of Almarez by a forced march, lest the enemy, discovering the ford below that place, should cross the river, and seize the Puerto de Mirabete. The roads were rugged, and the guns could be drawn only by the force of men. The movement was, however, effected. The Spaniards under Albuquerque were not equally successful. The infantry were sleeping or loitering about without care or thought, when Mortier, who was charged with the direction of the attack, taking advantage of their want of vigilance, commenced the passage of the river. The French cavalry, about six thousand in number, were secretly assembled near the ford, and about two o’clock in the day General Caulincourt’s brigade suddenly entered the stream. The Spanish, running to their arms, manned the batteries, and opened upon the leading squadrons; but Mortier, with a powerful concentric fire of artillery, overwhelmed the Spanish gunners, and dispersed the infantry who attempted to form. On the 20th of August the main body of the British army quitted Jaraicejo, and marched by Truxillo upon Merida. Our brigade, under General Crauford, being relieved at Almarez by the Spaniards, took the road of Caceres to Valencia de Alcantara; but the pass of Mirabete discovered how much we had suffered. Our brigade, which only a few weeks before had traversed sixty miles in a single march, were now with difficulty, and after many halts, only able to reach the summit of the Mirabete, although only four miles from the camp; and the side of that mountain was covered with baggage, and the carcases of many hundred animals that died in the ascent. In this eventful campaign of two months, the loss of the army was considerable. Above three thousand five hundred men had been killed, or had died of sickness, or had fallen into the hands of the enemy. Fifteen hundred horses had perished for want of food; and, to fill the bitter cup, the pestilent fever of the Guadiana, assailing those who by fatigue and bad nourishment were predisposed to disease, made frightful ravages. Dysentery, that scourge of armies, also raged, and in a short time above five thousand men died in the hospitals.
Passing by the details of successive conflicts sustained with unequal success by the Spanish forces in opposing their invaders, it may be sufficient generally to state, that their inability to maintain the defensive positions assumed, without English co-operation, was evident. An attempt was at length made by the French forces, under Marshal Victor, to gain possession of Cadiz, situate in the Isle of Leon, in Andalusia, the finest port in Spain, with a mercantile and wealthy population of a hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants. For this purpose preparations of extraordinary magnitude were made. The assaulting army was spread quite round the margin of the harbour. Works of contravallation were constructed not less than twenty-five miles in extent, and strong batteries frowned upon the city wherever they could be erected with advantage to the besiegers. The lines of blockade were connected by a covered way concealed by thick woods, and when finished mounted three hundred guns. On the other hand, the Spanish troops under Albuquerque, composing the garrison, were in a miserable condition. The whole had been long without pay, and the greater part without arms or accoutrements. Men were placed in command destitute of energy or local influence, and private traffic was unblushingly pursued with the public stores. Albuquerque was afterwards sent ambassador to England, where he died soon after of a frenzy, brought on, it is said, by grief and passion at the unworthy treatment he received.
In this deplorable state of affairs, British troops again appeared, and the surrender of the city by that means was averted. On the 11th of February, 1810, General Stewart arrived in Cadiz with three thousand men, who were received with enthusiastic joy. On the 17th of the same month, thirteen hundred Portuguese arrived, and Spanish troops in small bodies came in daily. Two ships of war, the Euthalion and Undaunted, arrived from Mexico, with six millions of dollars; and other British troops having appeared, the whole force assembled behind the Santa Petri was not fewer than eighteen thousand effective men. The worst symptom was, that among the Spaniards there was little enthusiasm, and not a man among the citizens had been enrolled or armed, or had volunteered either to labour or fight. General Stewart’s first measure was to recover Matagorda, a most important point, about four thousand yards from the city, which the Spaniards had foolishly dismantled and abandoned. In the night of the 22nd, a detachment, consisting of fifty marines and seamen, twenty-five artillerymen, and sixty-seven of the 94th regiment, the whole under the command of Captain M’Lean, pushed across the channel during a storm and took possession of the dismantled fort, before morning effected a solid lodgment, and although the French cannonaded the work with field artillery all the next day, the garrison was immovable.