At length, the movements of the superior numbers of the enemy, rendered it necessary for the main army to unite with the forces under Lieutenant-General Sir Rowland Hill, and a retreat was resolved upon. Withdrawing from Burgos with great secrecy on the night of the 21st of October, the army commenced its celebrated retreat to the frontiers of Portugal, which was performed under peculiar difficulties, and in presence of an immense superiority of numbers, with the same signal ability which distinguished all the operations of the British commander, who evinced, on many occasions during this war, the sublimity of military talent.
On the 23rd of October, the army continued its retreat in two columns; the Fifth Dragoon Guards, and Third and Fourth Dragoons, covering the retreat of the column from Hormillos; the enemy menaced the rear with an immense force of cavalry, but was unable to make a serious impression, and the British troops bivouacked that night on the hills above Cordovilla. Resuming the march an hour before daylight on the following morning, the column passed the bridge of Cordovilla and crossed the Carrion, covered by Colonel Ponsonby's brigade, and the head quarters were established at Duenas, from whence two squadrons of the Fifth Dragoon Guards and Third Dragoons were detached, to cover the working parties employed in mining the bridges of Palencia for destruction; but the French advancing in great force gained possession of the bridges in an unbroken state. On the 26th the army resumed its retrograde movement, crossed the Pisuerga at Cabeçon, and occupied that town and its vicinity until the 29th, when it again retired, and, having crossed the Douro, occupied a position beyond that river several days. On the 6th of November the army retreated on Salamanca; on the 15th it resumed its march, and having crossed the Agueda, proceeded into quarters in Portugal. The Fifth Dragoon Guards halted eight days at Gallegos, in the province of Biera, and afterwards proceeded to Ervidal, where they remained until the 28th of December, and subsequently marched to Goes.
Thus ended this eventful campaign, in which the allied army, after capturing the two important fortresses of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz, gaining the glorious victory of Salamanca, and penetrating to the metropolis of Spain, was forced, by the superior number of the enemy's concentrated forces, to return to its former posts. The gigantic power to which the French revolution had given birth was, however, on the eve of being broken; Bonaparte, the tyrant of Europe, had resolved on the fatal expedition to Russia, where he lost a powerful army in the snow, and the victory at Salamanca was the precursor of greater triumphs over the disturbers of christendom. The immense distance marched by the Fifth Dragoon Guards during the year 1812, with the scarcity of forage and constant exposure to every description of weather, occasioned the loss of many horses; it has been computed that the regiment marched about two thousand miles within twelve months.
1813
The regiment was again in motion in February, 1813, and having taken post at Viride, in the valley of the Mondego, occupied that station until the middle of April, when it proceeded to Guimarers, and halted there seventeen days.
In May the army commenced operations with a prospect of more splendid results than on any former occasion; and Colonel Ponsonby's brigade, which still consisted of the Fifth Dragoon Guards, and Third and Fourth Dragoons, traversed the wild and mountainous country of Trasos-Montes, and crossed the Esla on the 26th of May. The enemy, no longer possessing that superiority of numbers by which he had formerly gained so many advantages, abandoned the line of the Douro; Ponsonby's brigade directed its march on Valencia, passed that town, and advanced on Burgos. On the 12th of June, the brigade overtook the enemy's rear-guard on the heights of Estepar, when the Third Dragoons were detached to cut off part of the enemy's force, in which they succeeded, and Captain Miles, of the Fourteenth Dragoons, charging, took some prisoners and one gun. During the succeeding night, the French blew up the castle of Burgos, and retired behind the Ebro. Colonel Ponsonby's brigade moved to the left, and after traversing a romantic tract of country, over mountains and rugged precipices, crossed the Ebro on the 15th of June, and advanced on Vittoria, where the enemy concentrated his forces and took up a defensive position.
At day-break, on the morning of the 21st of June, the allied army advanced against the enemy, and the Fifth Dragoon Guards supported the columns of attack. The British infantry dislodged their adversaries from the several eminences and strong posts at the point of the bayonet, and being supported and sustained by the cavalry, forced the enemy, after a dreadful slaughter had taken place, to retreat with the loss of his guns, ammunition, and baggage. The cavalry, having been prevented by the nature of the ground from charging during the early part of the day, was enabled to dash forward towards the close of the action, and to complete the rout and discomfiture of the French army. The Fifth Dragoon Guards had only one man wounded on this occasion. Their gallant bearing throughout the day, procured them the honour of displaying the word Vittoria on their standards and appointments, and their commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Prescott, was rewarded with a gold medal. The brigade continued the pursuit of the enemy on the following day, and on the 27th of June was detached, to endeavour to intercept the retreat of a division of the French army, under General Clausel; but this body of troops escaped to France by the pass of Jaca. The Fifth Dragoon Guards had advanced to Tafalla, where they remained fourteen days, when, forage becoming scarce, they proceeded to Miranda. In the mean time, the infantry having blockaded Pampeluna, penetrated the Pyrenean mountains. Marshal Soult advanced to relieve Pampeluna, when these celebrated mountains became the scene of several fierce and deadly contests between the English and French infantry, and the cavalry were ordered forward in support. The Fifth Dragoon Guards left Mirando on the 26th of July, and were formed up at the foot of the Pyrenees during the actions in the mountains towards the end of the month, when the French were defeated and forced to retire with great loss.
The heavy cavalry not being required in the mountain operations of the army, the Fifth Dragoon Guards marched to Estella, a city of Navarre, where they arrived on the 11th of August, and remained until the 27th of December, when, forage becoming scarce, they proceeded to the plains of Vittoria, and occupied Guérena and adjacent villages.
1814