“The distinguished bravery of the Eighty-Eighth Regiment at Talavera, I shall ever reflect upon with admiration; and this splendid quality has been set off, first, by the utmost patience under the greatest fatigues and privations, and latterly, by the most exemplary behaviour while in a state of repose.
“I request you will be pleased to accept for yourself and your gallant corps, my warmest acknowledgments and best wishes, and convey to it my sincere assurance that should the chance of service ever place it again under my command, it will be one of the highest gratifications that I can receive.”
Towards the end of the year (1809), the Eighty-Eighth removed from Campo Mayor, and occupied the town of Pinhel in the province of Beira: it was brigaded with the Forty-Fifth and Seventy-Fourth, under Colonel Henry Mackinnon, and formed part of the third (or what was afterwards known by the appellation of the “fighting”) division of the army commanded by Lieutenant-General Picton.
1810
The advance of Marshal Massena in the summer of 1810, preceded by the proud but vain boast, that in pursuance of the Imperial orders he would drive the English leopards into the sea, and plant the eagles of France on the towers of Lisbon; the successes with which his first operations were attended; the reduction one after another of Ciudad Rodrigo and Almeida, belong to the general history of the Peninsular war, into which the particular memoirs of the Eighty-Eighth regiment must glide on to the night of the 26th of September, the eve of the battle of Busaco.
On that night the combined British and Portuguese armies were assembled in line, on the ridge of a lofty and precipitous range of hills, taking its denomination from the village and convent of Busaco. The Second division, under Lieutenant-General Hill, formed the right; the Light division, commanded by Brigadier-General Craufurd, was posted on the left near the convent; the Third division was in the centre, while the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth occupied the intermediate spaces, and the First, together with the cavalry, were in reserve in the rear of the left. In their front, within little more than half a cannon shot distance, lay the army of Massena. The weather was calm and fine, and the dark mountains rising on either side were crowned with innumerable fires. The French were apparently all bustle and gaiety, and following their usual avocations with as much sang froid as if employed in preparing for a review, not a battle. Along the whole British line not a fire was to be seen; the soldiers in stern silence, examined their flints, cleaned their locks and barrels, and then stretched themselves on the ground to rest, each with his firelock within his grasp. In their rear, unsheltered by any covering but his cloak, lay their distinguished leader. During the night the French light troops, dropping by twos and threes into the lowest part of the valley, endeavoured to ascend the woody dells and hollows, and establish themselves near the British piquets.
An hour before day on the 27th of September, Lord Wellington passed through the ranks on foot. He passed in comparative silence, for the English soldiers seldom indulge in those boisterous demonstrations of joy so common with the troops of other nations, and indeed rarely are known to huzza, except when closing with the enemy; but wherever he was recognised, his presence was felt as the sure presage of another victory, to be gained by the men whom he had already led in so many fields of triumph. To be beaten when He commanded, seemed, in the opinion of his soldiers, next to impossible. As the light appeared, the fire of musketry commenced in the deep hollows which separated the two armies. Shortly afterwards two French columns, throwing forward a cloud of skirmishers, emerged from the hollow beneath.
On the left, Marshal Ney advanced against the Light division under Brigadier-General Craufurd, and, in spite of the fire of the riflemen, broke through all opposition, and mounted the crest of the ridge, to remain there, however, only for a moment, before the bayonets of the Forty-Third, Fifty-Second, and Ninety-Fifth drove him down again in confusion, leaving the ground covered with dead and wounded, and the French General Simon, who led the attack, together with many other officers and soldiers, prisoners.
In the mean time the left centre of the British army was assailed with equal impetuosity by the second corps of Massena’s army under General Reynier. The disposition of the Third division was as follows:—four companies of the Forty-Fifth and Eighty-Eighth occupied the crest of the hill to the left; the Seventy-Fourth was considerably to the right of these two battalions, the Eighth Portuguese a little to the right and rear, the Fifth and Eighty-Third British were to the left of all, and the Ninth and Twenty-First Portuguese on a rising ground to the right of the division. Major-General Lightburne and Colonel Mackinnon commanded the two British Brigades, and Colonel Champelmond the Portuguese, the whole division being under the orders of Major-General Picton. Lord Wellington, stationed on a rising ground near the Eighty-Eighth, had a full view of these dispositions.
The advance of Reynier’s corps was made with the impetuous rush on which the French troops so much depend, and a crowd of sharp-shooters pressed forward in front of the Eighty-Eighth; Lieutenant-Colonel Wallace saw he was about to be attacked by a column; a misty cloud had settled on the mountain, and he sent Captain Dunne to observe the movements of the enemy on his right, which was a little exposed.