In one instance I ordered some soldiers to remove several chairs and some straw under a staircase which was then on fire. By this timely removal, the house was saved, and most likely many others.
Action of Cazal Nova
14th
As soon as the fog cleared away, we found the enemy very strongly posted, the ground for miles in their rear being one continued series of good positions. The heights and village of Cazal Nova were spiritedly attacked by Major Stewart with the left wing 95th Rifles, and the other wing soon followed. Then, soon after, the whole Light Division was engaged skirmishing, which continued from hill to hill, and a combined movement (on the enemy's flank) by the 3rd Division assisted us very materially in making the enemy quit the many strongholds which, owing to the nature of the ground, gave him repeatedly the advantage over us. About three in the afternoon a regiment formed up and hid itself. Our advanced skirmishers, going over the slope of a hill, came within a few yards of this regiment, when the men fired a volley into our faces. It was quite ridiculous; the balls went whizzing over our heads, and they scampered off. Our Horse Artillery generally gave the enemy a few rounds of shrapnel to amuse them before we gave over our day's work. These battalions of the enemy, by our rapid movements, were forced upon the main body at Miranda do Corvo, on the Deuca, and had sustained considerable loss. From the hard fighting of this day many brave fellows had fallen. Major Stewart, a fine gallant little fellow who commanded the attack so spiritedly, was wounded. Lieutenant Strode, in the company with myself, was also wounded.[18] I was placed on piquet at the entrance of the town of Lous̃a, and a little after dark patrolled into it. Houses in every direction were on fire, and a few wretched inhabitants standing about in the streets with despair and horror marked in their faces. Kincaid and I went into a house where an old man was seated; he had been lame in both legs for many years. A French soldier, on leaving the house, had given him two deep sabre wounds on the head and another on the arm. This place was a true picture of everything that was wretched.
15th
I was sent on this morning with a party of the piquet. Found near the roadside, quantities of ammunition that had been buried by the French, also a French officer and numbers of men dead; a deserter from the Brunswickers I took prisoner. The enemy had retired in the night so as to have a little start of us, as the battalions engaged yesterday had been too severely handled. At every step this morning we found sick and dead Frenchmen, gun-carriages, waggons, baggage; horses, mules, and donkeys abandoned by their masters, not being able to carry their loads farther, some from frightful sore backs, others from lameness and starvation. We passed through Miranda do Corvo in pursuit of the enemy. The town was almost filled with sick, wounded, and dying men, abandoned to their fate, and dead. The rascally French had even plundered this place and committed every sort of wanton atrocity upon the inhabitants, and then left many of their helpless countrymen for the infuriated inhabitants to wreak their vengeance upon. Luckily for these poor wretches, we followed the French so rapidly that they fell into our hands, and were put in charge of British soldiers, or they would have been butchered indiscriminately.
Combat of Foz de Aronce
After marching a league from the latter town, we found the enemy's rear-guard had taken up a position at Foz de Aronce, with their back to the river Ceira, and the bridge behind them blown up. The remainder of their army was in position on the other side, having passed by fording, but in consequence of heavy rains, the river became so swollen that it was in a few hours impassable. Our gallant chief observed with his penetrating eye the egregious mistake that the officer, Marshal Ney, who commanded the French rear-guard, had made. We were all hungry and tired. I was frying some beef and anxiously watching the savoury morsel, when an order was given by Lord Wellington himself to Colonel Beckwith: "Fall in your battalion and attack the enemy; drive in their skirmishers, and I will turn their flank with the 3rd and 1st Divisions." The whole Light Division were smartly engaged. The enemy opposed to the company (Captain Beckwith's) I was with, were behind a low wall. The approach was through a pine wood, and the branches were rattling about our ears from the enemy's bullets. Lieutenant Kincaid got shot through his cap, which grazed the top of his head. He fell as if a sledge hammer had hit him. However, he came to himself and soon rallied again. Lieutenant M'Cullock was shot through the shoulder. The attack commenced about five in the afternoon and lasted till after dark, the rain falling abundantly during part of the time. The French fought very hard, and, some finding resistance to be in vain, threw themselves upon our generosity, but the greater part rushed into the river, which was tumbling along in its course most furiously, and there soon found a watery grave. The enemy so little dreamt of being disturbed this night that their cooking utensils were left upon their fires for strangers to enjoy their contents. Such are the chances of war! I was quite exhausted and tired, and was with about fifteen of the company in the same state, when we made a great prize. One of the men found a dozen pots upon a fire, the embers of which were low and caused the place to escape notice. Here we adjourned, and soon made the fire burn brightly. We found the different messes most savoury ones, and complimented the French for their knowledge of making savoury dishes, and many jokes were passed upon them. The men looked about and found several knapsacks; they emptied them at the fireside to see their contents and added to their own kits, shoes and shirts of better quality than their own. In every packet I observed twenty biscuits nicely rolled up or deposited in a bag; they were to last each man so many days, and he must, unless he got anything else, be his own commissary. We had been very ill-off for some days for bread, so that some of these proved a great luxury.
16th
At two o'clock this morning the enemy had the arches of the bridge more effectually blown up. The weather began to clear at daylight. We saw numbers of the enemy dead in the river, and lying about near the bushes as the water had left them. It was judged about 700 or 800 had been drowned, and the 39th Regiment lost their Eagles in the water. A great quantity of baggage must have been destroyed or thrown into the water, as there were a great many mules and donkeys close to the river-side, hamstrung in the hind leg. These poor animals looked so wretched that one could not help feeling for them, and disgusted us with the barbarous cruelty of the French. To have killed and put them out of their misery at once would have been far better. We remained in bivouac.