Packenham afterwards told a friend of mine who was on his staff, that, while in the execution of that movement, he saw an opportunity in which, by a slight deviation from his original instructions, he might have cut off twenty thousand of the enemy, without greater risk to his own division than he was about to encounter; but he dreaded the possibility of its compromising the safety of some other portion of the army, and dared not to run the hazard.
I have, in the early part of this volume, in speaking of individual gallantry in general, given it as my opinion that if the merits of every victory that had been hotly contested could be traced to the proper persons, it would be found to rest with a very few—for to those who know it not, it is inconceivable what may be effected in such situations by any individual ascending a little above mediocrity.
The day after the battle of Salamanca a brigade of heavy German dragoons, under the late Baron Bock, made one of the most brilliant charges recorded in history.
The enemy's rear guard, consisting of, I think, three regiments of infantry, flanked by cavalry and artillery, were formed in squares on an abrupt eminence, the approach to which was fetlock deep in shingle. In short, it was a sort of position in which infantry generally think they have a right to consider themselves secure from horsemen.
The Baron was at the head of two splendid regiments, and, as some of the English prints, up to that period, had been very severe upon the employment of his countrymen in the British service, he was no doubt burning with the desire for an opportunity of removing the unjust attack that had been made upon them, and he could not have even dreamt of one more glorious than that alluded to.
Lord Wellington, who was up with the advanced guard, no sooner observed the dispositions of the enemy than he sent an order for the Baron to charge them. They charged accordingly—broke through the squares, and took the whole of the infantry—the enemy's cavalry and artillery having fled.
Colonel May, of the British artillery, not satisfied with being the bearer of the order, gallantly headed the charge, and fell covered with wounds, from which he eventually recovered; but Lord Wellington, however much he must have admired the action, cut him for a considerable time in consequence, by way of marking his disapproval of officers thrusting themselves into danger unnecessarily.
In an attempt so gallantly made—so gloriously executed—it would be invidious to exalt one individual above another, and yet I have every reason to believe that their success was in a great measure owing to the decisive conduct of one man.
Our battalion just rounded the hill in time to witness the end of it; and in conversing with one of the officers immediately after, he told me that their success was owing to the presence of mind of a captain commanding a squadron, who was ordered to charge the cavalry which covered a flank of the squares—that, while in full career, the enemy's horse in his front, without awaiting the shock, gave way, but, in place of pursuing them, he, with a decision calculated to turn the tide of any battle, at once brought up his outward flank, and went full tilt against a face of the square, which having until that moment been protected, was taken by surprise, and he bore down all before him!
My informant mentioned the name of the hero, but it was a severe German one, which died on the spot like an empty sound—nor have I ever since read or heard of it—so that one who ought to have filled a bright page in our history of that brilliant field, has, in all probability, passed—