[631] See Duncan’s History of the Royal Artillery, vol. ii. pp. 356-60, an indictment of Wellington’s whole policy to the corps, and especially of his famous Waterloo letter on their conduct in 1815.
[632] Reille reported that the straggling was so portentous that only 4,200 infantry were with the eagles on July 24th. See Vidal de la Blache, i. p. 79.
[633] Which had relieved Cassagne’s division, the rearguard on the 23rd.
[634] The regiment of Nassau alone returned 76 casualties that day.
[635] And took over command on the night of the 22nd; see Pakenham Letters, June 26, 1813.
[636] Whose riotous and undisciplined conduct so irritated Wellington that he directed that all the officers in charge should miss their next step in regimental promotion, by being passed over by their juniors.
[637] I have only mentioned the movement of the 6th Division and R. Hill’s cavalry above: there is no doubt as to what they did, and on the 30th they are both at Lerin, according to the location given by Supplementary Dispatches, viii. p. 39. But there is a puzzle about Oswald’s 5th Division on the 26th-30th, which I was long unable to solve. Wellington in his dispatch to Bathurst of July 3 (Dispatches, x. p. 501) says that he moved not only Clinton from Vittoria but Oswald from Salvatierra towards Logroño, on the march to intercept Clausel. He ought to have known if any one did! But I was not able to find any trace of the 5th Division having actually gone to Logroño: to march back from Salvatierra to Vittoria, and thence to follow Clinton to Logroño and Lerin would have been a very long business. Now regimental diaries of the 3/1st and 1/9th prove that the division was at Salvatierra on the 25th, and marched back to Vittoria on the 26th. But the best of them (Hale of the 1/9th) says that from Vittoria the division was turned back towards Pampeluna, and reached a spot within two leagues of it on the third day. At this point it was turned off northward and marched by Tolosa to join Graham’s column and assist at the siege of St. Sebastian. All accounts agree that it reached the neighbourhood of that fortress on July 5th-6th. Allowing six days for the march Vittoria-St. Sebastian, we have only the 27th, 28th, 29th, 30th June for the supposed march Salvatierra-Vittoria-Logroño, and return. The solution at last came to hand in General Shadwell’s Life of Colin Campbell of the 1/9th (Lord Clyde). Here it is mentioned, apparently on some record of Campbell’s, that his brigade only got to La Guardia, one march beyond Trevino, and was then turned back and sent north (Life of Campbell, i. p. 18). This is no doubt correct.
[638] Supplementary Dispatches, viii. p. 33.
[639] Wellington’s letters to Hill, Copons, and Castaños in Dispatches, x. pp. 470-1, all state very shortly that he hopes to cut off Clausel if he tries to get back into France by Jaca. All that is said is, ‘I do not think we shall be able to do much against Clausel. He has passed Tudela on the way to Saragossa. I propose to try for him on the road to Jaca’ (to Hill). The letters to the Spanish generals do not speak of Clausel’s going through Saragossa, but of his marching across Aragon to Jaca.
[640] See ‘Dispositions for the 28th June,’ Supplementary Dispatches, viii. p. 33.