Recollections of the eventful life of a soldier

by Joseph Donaldson

At length we came in sight of the rest of our army, and the main body of the French hung back, but we were escorted into the very lines by their advanced guard. Here, however, they met with a warm reception from some squadrons of our cavalry, which made them retreat. We halted in rear of Fuente Guinaldo, where an intrenched camp had been formed, and remained here that night and next day, during which the French, having brought forward their infantry, took post on a hill opposite, and we expected an engagement; but Lord Wellington, for good reasons, no doubt, deemed it more prudent to retire. When night came, we were ordered to kindle a great number of fires, for the purpose of making the French believe we still remained in our encampment. Two hours after, we commenced our retreat, leaving the fires burning brightly, and marched all night; the road we travelled was uncommonly narrow, and various impediments in the way often caused the rear to halt. The fatigue we had undergone the preceding two or three days, and the almost total want of sleep during that time, completely overcame us; the moment a halt was made, we dropped down on the ground fast asleep, and it was by the greatest exertion that we were able to rouse ourselves to proceed. So overpowering was its effects, that I would have been content to be taken prisoner, or even to suffer death, I dare say, had it been the alternative, had I been allowed to sleep. Indeed, some of the men could not resist its effects, and stepping aside off the road, threw themselves down, and yielded to its influence, although certain of being taken by the enemy, which they accordingly were. Next day we halted in a meadow, where, having our rations served out, we proceeded on to a village, near which our light division and cavalry had a severe skirmish with the French, whom they repulsed. The enemy then retreated to their old position, and we were quartered in a Portuguese village, on the frontiers, within a few leagues of Roderigo, where we remained until January, 1812. This was a miserable, dirty place, with a few poor wretched inhabitants in it. It was designated by the soldiers, the ‘Hungry Village;’ as, to answer some purpose which we were then unacquainted with, we had only half rations during the greater part of the time we were in it; to add to the rest, the officer in temporary command of the regiment at that time, was ignorant of his duty, which, in conjunction with a naturally cruel and vindictive disposition, bade fair to ruin the regiment in the few months he had the command of it. I shall not trace his pedigree to the low origin from whence he sprung, because, had he been a good man, it would only have enhanced his merit; nor shall I particularize the deformity of his person, which he could not help; but there will be no harm in giving a specimen of his mode of discipline while in command of the regiment, particularly as it forms a strong contrast to that of an officer whom I shall have occasion to mention in the course of this narrative.

Having neither the education nor the breeding of a gentleman, he felt jealous in the company of the officers, and lived in a retired and sullen manner. He generally passed his time in gossiping with his barber or his cook, or indeed any of the men, with an affectation of entering into all their concerns. By this and eavesdropping he became acquainted with little circumstances which another commanding officer would have disdained to listen to, and which he always made a bad use of. The full extent of his malevolent disposition was not known, however, until he got command of the regiment, when he introduced flogging for every trivial offence—in fact, the triangles were generally the accompaniment of every evening parade. In addition to this, he invented more disgraceful and torturing modes of inflicting the punishment; but all this was not enough,—he ordered that defaulters should have a patch of yellow and black cloth sewed on the sleeve of the regimental jacket, and a hole cut in it for every time they were flogged. The effects of this soon became visible: as good men were liable to be punished for the slightest fault, the barrier between them and hardened ill-doers was broken down, and as they had lost respect in their own eyes, they either became broken-hearted and inefficient soldiers, or grew reckless of every thing, and launched into crime; those who were hardened and unprincipled before, being brought by the prevalence of punishment nearer a level with better men, seemed to glory in misconduct. In fact, all ideas of honour and character were lost, and listless apathy and bad conduct were the prevailing features of the corps at this time.

That flogging is notoriously useless in reclaiming men where they are bad, must be evident to every one who knows anything of the service, and surely it is not politic to disgrace an individual, and break his heart for a casual error. There ought always to be an opening left for a man to retrieve a false step; but once bare his back at the halberts, and you shut it for ever.

In the regiment I belonged to, I had a good opportunity of marking its effects, and in every instance, I have observed that it changed the individual’s character for the worse; he either became broken-hearted and useless to the corps, or shameless and hardened. In two individual cases, its inefficiency to prevent the recurrence of the fault was particularly marked,—the first was desertion, and the second drunkenness. These men had received at various times upwards of two thousand lashes, but the first continued to absent himself, and the other to get drunk, periodically, although they were perfectly sure that flogging would be the result. There were men in the service to whom the excitement produced by ardent spirits seemed as necessary as food; in them this unnatural craving for liquor appeared to me to be a disease, calling for medical treatment more than punishment.

I have no doubt that many commanding officers resorted to corporal punishment from the conviction that it could not be done without; they had tried to dispense with it and could not—but I doubt much whether the experiment was fairly made. They found difficulties at the outset, and that it was more easy to exert their authority than their patience; the consequence was, that flogging was again resorted to, and they satisfied their conscience, by saying that it could not be dispensed with. The real method of accomplishing the desired end was neglected, namely, making themselves acquainted with the character and disposition of the men under their command: this, I believe, many would think incompatible with their dignity; but has not a commanding officer as good a right to make himself acquainted with the dispositions of his men, as the medical officer with their constitutions? If they did so, they would soon find other means than flogging, to make those under their command what they would wish them to be. I am aware that its frequency at one time had the effect of blinding the judgment of officers who possessed both feeling and discrimination; and I have occasionally witnessed a ludicrous waste of sympathy on some inferior animal, where nothing of the kind was felt for their fellow-creature suffering under the lash. For instance, I have known an officer shed tears when his favourite horse broke its leg, and next day exult in seeing a poor wretch severely flogged for being late of delivering an order; but I am happy to say, that the severe discipline of the old school is fast falling into disrepute, and I hope the time is not far distant when it will altogether be abolished.

The lieutenant-colonel joined when Captain L—— had been some time exercising his power in this despotic manner, and being a man of a different stamp, he was not well pleased to find the men of his regiment, whom he had always been proud of, treated in this manner. His first order was to cut off all the badges which Captain L—— had ordered on the men. The frequent punishment was next done away, and the regiment was again placed on a fair footing; but the effect of their previous ill usage did not so soon disappear.

This village was situated at the foot of a high hill, which was covered with wood, and from which the wolves were in the habit of coming down at night, and prowling about the village in quest of prey. On one post beside the field where the cattle were killed, the sentries were very much annoyed by them; but I believe they did no farther injury than devouring some pigs and an ass, which had been left out all night. Towards the end of December we were once or twice marched from our village, to within a short distance of Roderigo, for the purpose of intercepting supplies which the French attempted to throw into it, and the weather being extremely cold, we suffered much on the journey. The governor of that garrison (General Renaud) while out on a reconnoitering party about this time, was taken prisoner by the Spanish Guerilla chief, Don Julian.

In the beginning of January, 1812, we were removed for the purpose of besieging Ciudade Roderigo, and we left this miserable village in the midst of a snow storm, and marched to Morti Agua. Next day we forded the Agueda, and took up our quarters in Ceridillo del Arroyo. The siege now commenced; the light division having succeeded, on the night of the 8th January, in storming one of the principal outworks (the redoubt of St Francisco), we opened the trenches the same night, within 600 yards of the town, the outwork which they had carried forming part of the first parallel. The weather was so severe, and the cold so intense, that the army could not encamp, but the divisions employed at the siege marched from their different quarters and relieved each other alternately, every four-and-twenty hours. Our division took its turn of the duty on the 11th, and the frost was so excessive that we were almost completely benumbed, and nothing but hard working, I believe, kept us from perishing with the cold; indeed, it was said that some Portuguese soldiers actually died from its effects. Still, however, the work went on rapidly, and on the night of the 13th, another outwork (the fortified convent of Santa Cruz) was stormed by the 1st division, under General Graham. On the 14th the batteries in the first parallel were formed, and commenced firing from twenty-two pieces of cannon; that same night the fourth division carried all the remaining outworks, and we were established in the second parallel, 150 yards from the town, on the 15th, on which day it fell our turn, a second time, for the duty.

The French kept up a very destructive fire on us during the whole of our operations, and while forming the second parallel they threw out some fire balls to enable them to see where we were working, that they might send their shot in that direction; one of them fell very near where a party were working, and by its light completely exposed them to the view of the enemy. A sergeant belonging to our regiment, of the name of Fraser, seeing the danger to which they were exposed, seized a spade, and jumping out of the trench, regardless of the enemy’s fire, ran forward to where it was burning, and having dug a hole, tumbled it in and covered it with earth.

On the morning of the 18th, a battery of seven guns was opened in the second parallel, while those in the first still continued their fire upon the walls. On the 19th our division again took their turn of the duty; but as the breaches were now considered practicable, the other troops destined for the attack were also assembled, it being Lord Wellington’s intention to storm it that night.