The second battalion of the Eighty-seventh regiment on this occasion behaved with great gallantry, and, continuing its march to Madrid, reached it that night, but, on the following one, commenced its retreat to Salamanca, during which the rear-guard, being formed by the third brigade, of which the Eighty-seventh then composed a part, was, on the 16th of November, attacked several times by the enemy’s cavalry. In the end of December, the regiment arrived at Salamanca, having lost during the retreat to Portugal, two officers, namely, Ensigns De Courcy Ireland and William Ireland, eight Serjeants, two drummers, and one hundred and eighty-two rank and file, by disease caused by fatigue and extreme bad weather. It rained continually for three days and nights, during which the regiment had no tents to cover them. The men were obliged to sit down in line each night to receive the enemy.
Serjeants Coppin, M’Mahon, Milligan, O’Hara, and Palmer, were promoted to be ensigns after the retreat, on account of the good conduct of the regiment.
A striking instance of intrepidity and presence of mind occurred on one of those marches in the Peninsula, which so frequently terminated in a general action. During a short halt, the Eighty-seventh took up its ground upon a hill not far from the enemy, and the men were sitting down to rest, when a howitzer, that had been masked, opened upon them; some shells fell short, but one alighted in the centre of one of the companies. The men naturally endeavoured to get out of its reach, when James Geraghty, a private grenadier, called out to the men, “that he would show them how they played foot-ball at Limerick;” and immediately kicked the live shell, with its burning fuse, over the edge of the hill: the moment it touched the ground it exploded without injuring a man of the regiment. For this gallant act the commanding officer made the man a handsome present.
1813.
The army took the field in 1813, and arrived in the neighbourhood of Vittoria on the 18th of June, and on the 21st of that month the regiment was engaged with the French army until dark, when the enemy was routed with immense loss; one hundred and fifty-one pieces of artillery, a stand of colours, with all his baggage, falling into the hands of the victors.
The Eighty-seventh formed part of the third division; the Marquis of Wellington ordered that an attack should be made on three separate points; on the right by Lieut.-General Sir Rowland Hill, with the second division, upon the French left at Puebla; while on the left, Lieut.-General Sir Thomas Graham, with the first and fifth divisions, was to make a wide detour to the left, and crossing the Zadorra at Vittoria to attack their right, and cut off their retreat by the great road to Bayonne. The centre, consisting of the fourth and light divisions (under the Marquis of Wellington himself) on the right, and the third and seventh (under Lieut.-General the Earl of Dalhousie) on the left, were to pass the bridges in front, and attack as soon as the movements on the flanks should be executed. The difficult nature of the country prevented the communication between the different columns moving to the attack from their stations on the river Bayas, at as early an hour as was expected. The fourth and light divisions, however, passed the Zadorra immediately after Lieut.-General Sir Rowland Hill had obtained possession of Subijana de Alava; and almost as soon as these had crossed, the column under the Earl of Dalhousie arrived at Mendoza. The third division, under Lieut.-General Sir Thomas Picton, crossed at the bridge higher up, followed by the seventh division under the Earl of Dalhousie. The seventh division, and the centre brigade of the third division, then attacked the French right centre, in front of the villages of Margarita and Hermandad; and the Marquis of Wellington, seeing the hill in front of the village of Arinez weakly occupied by the enemy, ordered the right brigade of the third division, under Lieut.-General Sir Thomas Picton, in close columns of battalions, at a run diagonally across the front of both armies, to that central point. The hill was carried immediately, and the French withdrew, under cover of a cannonade from fifty pieces of artillery and a crowd of skirmishers, to the second range of heights on which their reserve had been posted; they, however, still held the village of Arinez, on the great road leading to Vittoria. The brigade then advanced to the attack of the village of Arinez, and the French were finally driven back in confusion at the point of the bayonet. These four divisions, forming the centre of the army, were destined to attack the height on which the right of the enemy’s centre was placed, while Lieut.-General Sir Rowland Hill should move forward from Subijana de Alava to attack the left. The enemy, however, having weakened his line to strengthen his detachment on the hills, abandoned his position in the valley as soon as he saw the British position to attack it, and ultimately commenced his retreat in good order towards Vittoria.
Notwithstanding the difficulty of the ground, the allied troops continued to advance in admirable order. Other movements took place, the result of which terminated in a complete victory. King Joseph, whose carriage and court equipage were seized, had barely time to escape on horseback. The defeat was the most complete that the French had sustained in the Peninsula.
The Marquis of Wellington, in his despatch, stated that “Major-General the Honorable Charles Colville’s brigade of the third division was seriously attacked in its advance by a very superior force well formed, which it drove in, supported by General Inglis’s brigade of the seventh division, commanded by Colonel Grant, of the Eighty-second. These officers and the troops under their command distinguished themselves.”
In this conflict the Eighty-seventh, under Lieut.-Colonel Gough, had the honor of taking the bâton of Marshal Jourdan. The circumstance was thus alluded to upon the Marquis of Wellington being appointed a Field Marshal. In a most flattering letter, the Prince Regent, in the name and behalf of His Majesty, thus conferred the honor:—“ You have sent me among the trophies of your unrivalled fame the staff of a French Marshal, and I send you in return that of England.”
The Eighty-seventh had one ensign, four serjeants, and eighty-three rank and file killed; three captains, four lieutenants, two ensigns, seven serjeants, two drummers, and one hundred and forty-eight rank and file wounded, making a total of two hundred and fifty-four. The strength of the battalion in the field was six hundred and thirty-seven.