The Story of a Peninsular Veteran / Sergeant in the Forty-Third Light Infantry, during the Peninsular War

by Anonymous

The rain flowed after in streams discoloured with blood; and of six thousand British soldiers who performed these wonders, fifteen hundred unwounded men were all that remained upon the fatal hill. The serious fighting had endured only four hours; and in that space of time nearly seven thousand of the allies and above eight thousand of their antagonists were struck down. Three French generals were wounded, two slain, and eight hundred soldiers so badly hurt as to be left on the field. On Beresford’s side, beside the loss of the British already named, two thousand Spaniards and six hundred Germans and Portuguese were killed or wounded. The trophies of the French were five hundred unwounded prisoners, a howitzer, and several stand of colours; the British had nothing of that sort to display; but the piles of carcases within their lines told, with convincing eloquence, who were the conquerors; and all the night the rain poured down, and the rivers and hills and woods resounded with the groans of dying men. On the 18th Soult retreated.

Towards winter I was charged with a mission to fetch clothing from Lisbon for the use of the regiment. One description of article was flannel shirts, of which I received six hundred, for the approaching winter wear. On returning, I met with an accident, which had nearly deprived me of sight. One of our party, with consummate carelessness, placed his powder-horn upon the table, fully charged, and by some accident the whole quantity exploded; my face was sadly scorched, but providentially the organs of vision received no lasting injury. Our party consisted of six or seven persons: of these, three were corporals, of whom I was senior. Having to pass over several mountains of vast height, our progress was necessarily slow. One evening, having ascended the slope of a stupendous hill, on which the snow was deep, we were unable to move the cars on which the stores were carried. Having also but an imperfect knowledge of the pass, we found ourselves compelled to spend the night in that bleak and desolate region. All the shelter we could procure was to creep under the cars. Two of the men were soon after seized with ague, and suffered extremely. The silence which prevailed in this elevated region was singularly impressive.

After a wearisome night, which appeared almost endless, we were happy to perceive the first morning ray. We soon after discovered a man coming our way, driving two bullocks. I thought the omen a happy one; and in the spirit of the national war then raging I ordered the man to stop, and without hesitation pressed the animals into our service, by yoking them to our cars. The driver demanded my authority for so doing. I told him to look at my musket. To my dismay I afterwards found that some of the troops had been in the habit of laying violent hands upon cattle, having no other object in view than to extort money from the owners when they applied to reclaim their property. To put down this practice, Lord Wellington had issued a proclamation, of which, unfortunately, I had not heard, denouncing these excesses in terms of great severity. In fact, strange as it appeared to myself, who had no intention of violating general orders, on my arrival at quarters I was handed over to the provost-marshal, deprived of my arms and acoutrements, and thrown into confinement among some of the most ill-favoured vagabonds that ever infested man or beast. The officer in whose custody I was placed proved himself one of Job’s comforters. He gave me to understand that not long since a man in the 52nd had been shot for the exact crime of which I was guilty; he then closed the prison-door and departed. Conscious, however, that I had intended neither to rob nor injure, my mind was supported. Let me tell an old-fashioned secret: the Almighty has always been my guide and defence. What is more, He always will. But, says an objector, this is rank fanaticism. That I cannot help: such is the truth; nor can it be altered by the coinage of any term, whether of approval or reproach. On the occasion now described, I was released as if nothing had happened. After my enlargement had taken place, I found that my worthy comrades had been to the owner of the animals, and had exhausted the entire circle of a soldier’s pleading on my behalf. I was young, had not heard of the late order, knew no better, used no violence, asked for no money, was an Irishman; beside which they gave him to understand that I was a good Catholic, to which I believe they subjoined a little cash in hand. These two latter arguments were irresistible, and the matter was smoothly settled.

The new year opened with uncommon effort on the side of the British forces in Spain. Lord Wellington, whose means of collecting information were extensive and correct, had discovered that a considerable reduction had taken place in the French army. The Imperial Guards, seventeen thousand strong, were required for the Russian war, and had returned to France; so that the force in the Peninsula was diminished by sixty thousand men. Marmont was also deceived, by what appeared to him the careless winter attitude of the allies, and Ciudad Rodrigo was left unprotected. The Frenchman was mistaken; and Wellington resolved to show that he was, by grasping at that fortress. The troops disposable for the attack of Ciudad Rodrigo were about thirty-five thousand, including cavalry. From the scarcity of transports, only thirty-eight guns could be brought to the trenches, and these would have wanted their proper supply of ammunition if eight thousand shot had not been found among the ruins of Almeida. When the place was closely examined, it was found that the French, in addition to the old works, had fortified two convents. They had also constructed an enclosed and pallisadoed redoubt upon the Greater Teson; and this redoubt, called Francisco, was supported by two guns and a howitzer, placed upon the flat roof of the convent of that name. On minutely inspecting these enlarged works, it was resolved to storm Fort Francisco, and, opening the first parallel along the Greater Teson, to form counter-batteries with which to ruin the defences and drive the besieged from the convent. Meanwhile, to cover the siege, Julian Sanchez and Carlos d’Espana were posted in observation of the enemy.

On the 8th of January, the eighth division and some Portuguese forded the Agueda near Caridad, three miles above the fortress, and making a circuit took post beyond the Great Teson. As there was no regular investment, the enemy did not believe that the siege was commenced; but in the evening the troops stood to their arms, and Colonel Colborne, commanding the 52nd, having assembled two companies from each of the British regiments of the light division, stormed the redoubt of Francisco: of this party I had the honour to make one. The attack was so rapid and furious that the assailants appeared to be at one and the same time in the ditch, mounting the parapets, fighting on the top of the rampart, and forcing the gorge of the redoubt, where the explosion of one of the French shells had burst the gate open. The post was taken with the loss only of twenty-four men and officers; and working parties were set to labour on the right of it, for the fort itself was instantly covered with shot and shells from the town. This tempest continued through the night; but at day-break the parallel, six hundred yards in length, was sunk three feet deep and four wide; the communication over the Teson to the rear was completed, and the progress of the siege was hastened several days by this well-managed assault. I was exposed to the fire of the enemy for some time previous to our arrival at the fort, but sustained no injury. We were discovered when about a hundred and fifty yards from the fort.

After the redoubt had been taken, I was employed with several others in escorting the prisoners to a place of safety. The garrison, it seems, had no expectation of this unceremonious visit; and when we entered the place I observed several packs of cards, with which the men had been amusing themselves. On returning, I unexpectedly came in contact with a French soldier, who by some means or other had escaped notice. I called out instantly, desiring him to surrender, which he did; but while in the act of conducting him to the others, a British sergeant, who deserves to be named, but on whom compassionate silence shall be shown, stopped the prisoner for the sake of plunder. Enraged at this unjust and discreditable interference, I placed my gun on the ground, determined to knock down the interloper, and secure my captive. A scuffle accordingly ensued; when in an instant, we found to our dismay that further contention was needless. The Frenchman observing our quarrel, instantly took to his heels, and being exceedingly alert, was out of sight before I could fire at him.

On the 12th we were employed in the trenches, from whence we picked off the enemy’s gunners. The riflemen, also, taking advantage of a thick fog, did great execution; but in the night the weather was so cold and the besieged shot so briskly, that little progress was made. Two days afterwards, the enemy, having observed that the men in the trenches went off in a disorderly manner on the approach of the relief, made a sally, and overturned the gabions of the sap; they even penetrated to the parallel, and were upon the point of entering the batteries, when a few of the workmen getting together, checked them until a support arrived, and thus the guns were saved. This affair, together with the death of the engineer on duty, and the heavy fire from the town, delayed the opening of the breaching batteries; but at half past four in the evening, twenty-five heavy guns battered the rampart, and two pieces were directed against the convent of Francisco. The spectacle was sublime. The enemy replied by more than fifty pieces; the bellowing of eighty large guns shook the ground far and wide; the smoke rested in heavy columns upon the battlements of the place; the walls crashed to the blow of the bullet; and when night put an end to this turmoil, the quick clatter of musketry was heard like the pattering of hail after a peal of thunder; for the 40th regiment assaulted and carried the convent of Francisco, and established itself on the suburb on the left of the attack.

On the 17th the firing on both sides was very heavy, and the wall of the place was beaten down in large cantles; but several of the besiegers’ guns were dismounted, their batteries injured, and many of their men killed. General Borthwick, the commandant of the artillery, was wounded, and the sap was entirely ruined. Even the riflemen in the pits were at first overpowered with grape; yet towards evening they recovered the upper hand, and the French could fire only from the more distant embrasures. In the night the battery intended for the lesser breach was armed, and that on the Lower Teson raised, so as to afford cover in the day-time. On the 19th it was reported that both breaches were practicable, and a plan of attack was immediately formed.

All the troops reached their different posts without seeming to attract the attention of the enemy; but before the signal was given, and while Lord Wellington was still at the convent of Francisco, the attack on the right commenced, and was instantly taken up along the whole line. The space between the army and the ditch was then ravaged by a tempest of grape from the ramparts. The storming parties of the third division jumped out of the parallel when the first shout arose; but so rapid had been the movements on their right, that before they could reach the ditch three regiments had already scoured the faussebraye, and were pushing up the great breach, amid the bursting of shells, the whistling of grape and muskets, and the shrill cries of the French, who were driven fighting behind the retrenchments. There, however, they rallied, and, aided by the musketry from the houses, made hard battle for their post; none would go back on either side, and yet the British could not get forward; and men and officers, falling in heaps, choked up the passage, which was incessantly raked with grape from two guns flanking the top of the breach at the distance of a few yards. It was now our turn. We had three hundred yards to clear; but, impatient of delay, we did not wait for the hay-bags, but swiftly ran to the crest of the glacis, jumped down the scarp, a depth of eleven feet, and rushed up the faussebraye, under a smashing discharge of grape and musketry. The bottom of the ditch was dark and intricate, and the forlorn hope took too much to their left; but the storming party went straight to the breach, which was so contracted that a gun placed lengthwise across the top nearly blocked up the opening. Here the forlorn hope rejoined the stormers; but when two-thirds of the ascent were gained, the leading men, crushed together by the narrowness of the place, staggered under the weight of the enemy’s fire. Our commander, Major Napier, was at this moment struck to the earth by a grape-shot, which shattered his arm, but he called to his men to trust to their bayonets; and all the officers simultaneously sprang to the front, when the charge was renewed with a furious shout, and the entrance was gained. The supporting regiments then came up in sections abreast, and the place was won. During the contest, which lasted only for a few minutes after the faussebraye was passed, the fighting had continued at the great breach with unabated violence; but when the 43rd and the stormers of the light division came pouring down on the right flank of the French, the latter yielded to the storm; at the same moment the explosion of three wall-magazines destroyed many persons, and the third division with a mighty effort broke through the retrenchments. The garrison fought for a short time in the streets, but finally fled to the castle, where an officer, who, though wounded, had been amongst the foremost at the lesser breach, received the governor’s sword.