Beside the controversy alluded to on page 183 about the exact amount of co-operation by the Light Division in helping the 3rd to clear the French from behind the Greater Breach, there are several other vexed points concerning the storm of Ciudad Rodrigo. The one on which most dispute arose was that concerning the capture of General Barrié. Gurwood of the 52nd claimed to have been the first officer to enter the Castle, and to receive the surrender of the governor and his staff. He is mentioned as doing so in Wellington’s Rodrigo dispatch, and generally had the credit at the time. But Lieutenant Mackie of the 88th, who had led the forlorn hope of the 3rd Division, also put in a claim, and had many supporters. Many years after the war was over, Maxwell (the author of one of the several Lives of the Duke of Wellington, which came out in early Victorian times) championed Mackie’s claim with such vehemence that Gurwood issued a pamphlet defending his own credit. Considerable controversy arose in the United Service Journal for 1843, and elsewhere. Mackie’s story was that he, with some of the 88th, arrived first at the Castle, summoned the governor to surrender, and was received by several French officers, who handed him over a sword and announced that the general yielded. Some moments after, according to Mackie, Gurwood came up, spoke to the governor himself, and obtained his sword, which, when the prisoners were brought before Wellington, he presented to his commander, who gave it him back, telling him to retain it as a trophy, and entered Gurwood’s name in his dispatch as the officer who had received the surrender. Gurwood’s story, told with as much detail and circumstance as Mackie’s, is that he, with two soldiers of the 52nd, arrived at the citadel, got the gate opened by threatening the officer in charge that no quarter would be given if resistance were made, and was received by Barrié, who in a great state of nervousness, threw his arms round his neck, kissed him, and said, ‘je suis le Gouverneur de la place—je suis votre prisonnier,’ handing over his sword at the same time. He accompanied the captive staff-officers to Wellington’s presence, and presented them to him. It is difficult to come to any certain conclusion in face of two such contradictory tales, but there is a bare possibility of reconciling them, by supposing that Mackie entered first, that the door was closed behind him and his party, and that Gurwood was let in a moment later, and spoke to the governor, while Mackie had been dealing only with his aide-de-camp, whose sword he had received. But if so, it is odd that Gurwood never saw Mackie: Mackie is quite positive that he saw Gurwood, and that he came in some minutes later than himself. The dispute tended to become a controversy between Light Division and 3rd Division veterans, each backing their own man. A synopsis of the papers may be found in the last two chapters of vol. i of Grattan’s second series of Adventures with the Connaught Rangers (London, 1853). Napier, who was much interested in the discussion, put in his final definitive edition the non-committal statement that ‘the garrison fled to the Castle, where Lieutenant Gurwood, who though severely wounded had entered among the foremost at the Lesser Breach, received the governor’s sword’ (iv. p. 90). Harry Smith says (i. p. 58): ‘Gurwood got great credit here unfairly. Johnstone and poor Uniacke were the first on the ramparts, Gurwood having been knocked down in the breach, and momentarily stunned. However, Gurwood’s a sharp fellow, and he cut off in search of the governor and brought his sword to the Duke. He made the most of it.’

Another controversy is as to which troops of the 3rd Division got first into the body of the town. The 88th claimed the priority, but also the 94th. The late Mr. Andrew Lang lent me a very interesting letter of his kinsman, William Lang of the 94th, very clearly stating that a solid body of 200 men of his regiment were the first troops that penetrated in force to the Plaza Mayor, and received the surrender of the garrison there.

Still another controversy, about which there is much in the Rice Jones papers, in the possession of Commander Hon. Henry Shore, R.N., is as to what engineer officers conducted the storming-columns. Apparently some credit has been misplaced among individuals here, but to decide upon the point would take more space than a book like this can afford.

VIII

ARMY OF THE SOUTH

REORGANIZED AFTER THE DEPARTURE OF THE POLES
AND OTHER REGIMENTS

Return of March 1, 1812

[From the returns in the Archives Nationales. Lent me by Mr. Fortescue.]

Officers.Men.
1st Division: Conroux. Head-quarters: Villamartin (near Bornos).
1st Brigade, Meunier; 9th Léger (2 batts.)*, 24th Ligne (3 batts.).
2nd Brigade, Mocquery; 96th Ligne (3 batts.).
Total, including artillery1825,263
2nd Division: Barrois. Head-quarters: Puerto Real (near Cadiz).
1st Brigade, Cassagne: 16th Léger, 8th Ligne (3 batts. each).
2nd Brigade, Avril: 51st Ligne, 54th Ligne (3 batts. each).
Total, including artillery2257,551
3rd Division: Villatte. Head-quarters: Santa Maria (near Cadiz).
1st Brigade, Pécheux: 27th Léger, 63rd Ligne (3 batts. each).
2nd Brigade, Lefol: 94th Ligne, 95th Ligne (3 batts. each).
Total, including artillery2447,115
4th Division: Leval. Head-quarters: Granada.
1st Brigade, Rey: 32nd Ligne, 43rd Ligne (4 batts. each).
2nd Brigade, Vichery: 55th Ligne (4 batts.), 58th Ligne* (3 batts.).
Total, including artillery2739,131
5th Division: Drouet D’Erlon. Head-quarters: Zafra (Estremadura).
1st Brigade, Dombrowski: 12th Léger, 45th Ligne (3 batts. each).
2nd Brigade, Reymond: 64th Ligne* (2-2/3 batts.), 88th Ligne* (2 batts.)
Total, including artillery1925,927
6th Division: Daricau. Head-quarters: Zalamea (Estremadura).
1st Brigade, Quiot: 21st Léger, 100th Ligne (3 batts. each).
2nd Brigade, St. Pol: 28th Léger*, 103rd Ligne* (2 batts. each).
Total, including artillery1744,854
Total of six divisions1,29039,841