When the siege of Badajoz was raised in the month of June, the Eighty-Eighth proceeded to quarters in Campo Mayor, where the second battalion, which had joined the army on the advance from the lines of Torres Vedras, was drafted into the first, making it a fine effective corps, numbering upwards of one thousand bayonets. The staff of the second battalion then returned to England to recruit.
In the autumn of this year the regiment was selected to support the outposts of the army against the attacks of the French garrison of Ciudad Rodrigo, and was cantoned in the villages of El Bodon, La Encina, and Pastores. The French had been in the habit of plundering the country around, and successful in several of their excursions previous to the arrival of the Eighty-Eighth. A few nights after the regiment occupied Pastores, its outposts were attempted by a party from the garrison, which was immediately repulsed with loss, and its commander killed on the spot by Corporal John Walsh of the light infantry company. It was the first and also the last attempt the enemy made on the Eighty-Eighth during its stay in the neighbourhood.
The blockade of Ciudad Rodrigo was completed on the 5th of September, and preparations for the siege commenced, when the junction of Marshal Marmont and Count Dorsenne obliged Lord Wellington to abandon the design for a time. On the 25th of the same month, the third division was attacked at El Bodon by General Montbrun, and fell back upon Fuente Guinaldo, in good order and with little loss, although the distance was eight miles, and the retreat was made in the face of a powerful artillery and cavalry force. The Eighty-Eighth suffered but slightly in this affair, and occupied for its winter-quarters, or rather quarters of repose, the village of Aldea da Ponte.
1812
In the depth of the ensuing winter the army was suddenly called from its cantonments to the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo, the investment of which fortress was effected on the 8th of January, 1812. The service of the trenches was carried on by the first, third, fourth, and light divisions alternately, each taking the duty for four-and-twenty hours. The weather was severe, and the troops without covering, but the men were in high health and spirits, and the siege was prosecuted with so much vigour, that on the 19th of the same month, two practicable breaches having been made in the body of the place, Lord Wellington determined to carry it by storm.
The third and light divisions had the honour to be selected for this service; the latter was directed to attack the left or smaller breach, while the assault of the grand breach was confided to the former. The fourth division was in reserve. It was half-past six in the evening when the orders for storming the town arrived; Colonel Wallace was absent from the army on account of ill-health, and the command of the Eighty-Eighth devolved upon Major Thompson. A few minutes before the brigade was formed for the attack, Major-General Mackinnon sent for Major Thompson, and told him, he wished the forlorn hope to be led by a subaltern officer of the Eighty-Eighth; adding, that in the event of such officer surviving, he should be recommended for, and as a matter of course would obtain, a company. Major Thompson felt the distinguished compliment to the Eighty-Eighth which this intimation of the General’s wish conveyed, and calling his officers together, informed them of it. Lieutenant William Mackie, then senior-lieutenant, instantly stepped forward, and dropping his sword, said, “Major, I am ready for that service.” “Go then,” replied the Major, taking him by the hand, “Go, and God bless you!” The soldiers, who were close at hand, heard what passed, and some difficulty arose in selecting, out of the numbers who pressed forward claiming on some pretence or other the preference in danger, the twenty to which the Forlorn Hope was limited. The selection, however, was quickly made from the company which Lieutenant Mackie commanded.
The regiment was formed in sections, right in front, and everything in readiness to obey the signal gun for the advance, when Lieutenant-General Picton and Major-General Mackinnon appeared accompanied by their staff. Long harangues are seldom made to British soldiers, and in the present instance Lieutenant-General Picton’s words were few, but at the same time too animating, and too characteristic of himself, not to be recorded verbatim. They were, “Rangers of Connaught! It is not my intention to expend any powder this evening: we will do this business with the cold iron.”
The troops then entered the trenches with Major-General Mackinnon at their head; on leaving the approaches they advanced rapidly over the rugged ground leading to the breach, many of the men carrying bags filled with grass to throw into the ditch and break the descent. Arrived at the foot of the breach they speedily mounted, but met with a very gallant resistance, and many men and officers fell: amongst the latter was the commander of the Brigade, Major-General Mackinnon, who was killed with many others by an explosion of gunpowder in the moment of victory. On each side the breach was a twenty-four pounder, every discharge from which swept it with a raking fire. Major Thompson of the Seventy-Fourth (acting engineer), observing the destruction occasioned by these guns, ordered the few men who were next at hand to storm the one on the left; the nearest men happened to be three of the Eighty-Eighth, Brazel, who saved Captain Dunne’s life at Busaco, Kelly and Swan. Beneath them and the gun was a deep retrenchment, which would have rendered it impossible for them to reach it in time to anticipate its next fatal discharge, if they were encumbered with their firelocks. Without a moment’s hesitation they threw aside the heavier weapon, and armed only with their bayonets, leaped the interposing barrier, rushed up to the muzzle of the piece, and after a short but terrific combat (in which Swan lost his arm by the stroke of a sabre) put all the French cannoniers to death and silenced the gun. The troops on the breach were now safe from the havock which had a few minutes before been so fatal to their comrades, and in half an hour the town was carried.
Lieutenant Mackie, guided by the fugitives of the garrison, was the first to arrive with his party at the gates of the citadel, where the enemy inquired for a General Officer to receive their surrender. The Lieutenant being a Grenadier officer, pointed to his epaulettes as a guarantee of their safety in surrendering to him, and the gate was immediately opened. The officer commanding the advance of the light division coming up at the moment, the governor and his staff were conducted to Lord Wellington, who had by this time reached the ramparts.
Lieutenant Faris was engaged during the assault in a desperate hand-to-hand conflict. Two French grenadiers, observing him far in advance of his men, attacked him. One fired and immediately ran away, his bullet passing through the Lieutenant’s coat; the other then fired, wounded him slightly in the thigh, and immediately closed upon him with the bayonet, making a thrust at the body, which Lieutenant Faris parried with his sabre, but received a severe wound in the leg; a personal struggle then took place, from which Lieutenant F. at length succeeded in disengaging himself, and killed his adversary by a sabre cut on the head. By this time he was completely exhausted, and was obliged to be carried into the next house. His wounds, however, though severe, were neither of them dangerous, and he soon recovered.