“In spite of their fixed bayonets we got into their columns, and like birds they fell to the ground, and were thrown into confusion; and it run like wild-fire among their troops that their guards were beaten and panic-struck,—they flew in all directions. But still we had not done our part, and left those to pursue who had seen the onset. We took sixteen guns at our charge, and many prisoners, but we could see no longer, it was so dark; and at length we assembled what few we had got together of the regiment, and the general of the brigade formed us in close column, so that we might all hear him, and he addressed us in the following manner:—‘Now, Tenth,’ he said, ‘you have not disappointed me; you are just what I thought you were; you were the first regiment that broke their lines, and to you it is that we are indebted for turning the fate of the day, and depend upon it that your Prince shall know it, for nothing but the bravery and discipline of the regiment could have completed such a work.’ We then gave him three cheers, and since that he has given us at a great length in our orderly books, his thanks and praise for our conduct.”
CHAPTER X.
Fortification.—Surprise of Bergen-up-Zoom.—Six hundred British troops lay down their arms from a want of knowledge of fortification.—Fortified places in England and abroad.—On the origin of fortification.—The battering-ram.—Parapets.—Embrasures.—Square Towers.—Terraces or Ramparts.—Bastions.—Horn-works.—Curtains.—Maxims in fortification.—Old plan of fortifying a place.—Modern plan.—Periods of attack.—Investment or blockade described.—Parallels.—Circumvallation and countervallation.—What is necessary to ensure the reduction of a fortress.—Blockade of Pamplona.—A bombardment, siege, and storming party described.
“Well, now I am to describe to you a blockade and a bombardment, a siege, and a storming party; but you will understand them better if I say a word or two first about fortification.”
“Oh yes! let us know something about fortification first.”
“Many sad instances of failure and loss have occurred from a want of knowledge of fortification. Without knowledge no place of defence is secure; fortresses require to be defended by strong minds as well as by strong walls. At the surprise of Bergen-up-Zoom, in 1814, a body of six hundred British troops laid down their arms merely because they had no officer with them who knew enough of fortification to conduct their retreat by the covered way. Had such an officer been with them every man might have safely made his escape.”
“What a pity!—every officer ought to understand fortification.”
“If an officer be at home, he can if he pleases see the fortifications at Dover, Portsmouth, Chatham and Plymouth; and if abroad, he may have, perhaps, the opportunity of inspecting the splendid works at Gibraltar, or Malta, or those in the East or West Indies, or in our American colonies. Fortification is the art of strengthening a place, so that a small number of men can defend it against the attack of a great number. Whether fortification was first used as a defence against the strong, the unjust, the revengeful, and ambitious, or used by them in furtherance of their designs, might be difficult to determine. The principal engine brought to bear against fortified places in ancient times was the aries, or battering-ram, made mostly of brass. This, formed at the end like the head of a ram, was suspended from a beam, and pushed violently against the walls by soldiers, who were hid in a covered carriage on which the battering-ram rested.”
“Ay! we have seen a picture of soldiers using the battering-ram.”