[601] The best account of all this is in the invaluable Tomkinson’s Diary (pp. 250-1). There is also an interesting narrative by Dallas, who took part in the charge, though he had no business there (pp. 92-3). The French cavalry were the 15th Dragoons and 3rd Hussars. They suffered heavily—the former regiment losing 4 officers and 53 men, the latter 4 officers and 30 men. The British dragoons got off lightly, all things considered, with 1 officer and 11 men hit in the 12th, and 1 officer and 20 men in the 10th. Tomkinson much praises the French infantry. ‘I never saw men more steady and exact to the word of command. I rode within a yard of them, they had their arms at the port, and not a man attempted to fire till we began to retire.’
[602] Cf. the reports of the Army of Portugal, Tomkinson, Hale of the 1/9th, and Graham’s very sketchy dispatch, which says that the infantry was much delayed at the bridges, but that ‘the greatest eagerness was manifested by all the corps. The Caçador battalions of both Portuguese brigades followed with the cavalry.... The enemy’s flight, however, was so rapid that no material impression could be made on them, though more than once charged by squadrons of General Anson’s brigade.’ (Supplementary Dispatches, viii. p. 9.)
[603] Gazan says in his report that he only abandoned the guns because he found the roads south of Vittoria blocked by fugitive vehicles from Vittoria.
[604] L’Estrange of the 31st says that some of the French, moving almost in the middle of advancing British brigades, were mistaken for Spaniards, and allowed to get off unharmed. Surtees of the 2/95th tells a similar story.
[605] The lancers are shown in Martinien’s lists to have lost six officers, the hussars four. The casualties of the 18th Hussars (3 officers and 37 men) and of the 10th (16 men) were certainly got in this affair, which was evidently hot while it lasted. The best account of Joseph’s last half-hour on the battlefield is in the Mémoires of Miot de Melito (iii. pp. 280-1), who was at the King’s side and shared his wild ride.
[606] Of the artillery Tirlet’s report shows that 104 were field guns actually used in the battle. The remaining 47 were partly the reserve guns of the Army of the North, left stacked at Vittoria when Clausel took his divisions to hunt for Mina, and partly guns of position from the garrisons of Burgos, Vittoria, Miranda, &c.
[607] There is a report of the regiment in the Archives Nationales setting forth that it did not lose its eagle, but the flag of the battalion reduced by Imperial orders in the spring, which was in the regimental fourgon.
[608] It inspired him with the idea of designing a British marshal’s baton on which lions were substituted for eagles. Wellington naturally got the first ever made.
[609] All this from Leith Hay (always an interesting narrator), vol. ii. pp. 203 and 208.
[610] Oddly enough, two contemporary diaries mention Mr. D.’s luck. He got by no means the biggest haul. Sergeant Costello of the 1/95th says that he got over £1,000. A private of the 23rd carried off 1,000 dollars in silver—a vast load! Green of the 68th records that two of his comrades got respectively 180 doubloons, and nearly 1,000 dollars (p. 165).