"Such a gallant line issuing from the midst of the smoke, and rapidly separating itself from the broken multitude, startled the enemy's heavy masses, which were increasing and pressing onwards as to an assured victory: they wavered, hesitated, and then vomiting forth a storm of fire, hastily endeavoured to enlarge their front, while a fearful discharge of grape from all their artillery whistled through the British ranks. Myers was killed; Cole, the three colonels—Ellis, Blakeney, and Hawkshawe—fell wounded; and the Fusilier battalions, struck by the iron tempest, reeled and staggered like sinking ships. But suddenly and sternly recovering, they closed on their terrible enemies, and then was seen with what a strength and majesty the British soldier fights! In vain did Soult, by voice and gesture, animate his Frenchmen; in vain did the hardiest veterans, extricating themselves from the crowded columns, sacrifice their lives to gain time for the mass to open out on such a fair field; in vain did the mass itself bear up, and, fiercely striving, fire indiscriminately upon friends and foes, while the horsemen hovering on the flanks threatened to charge the advancing line. Nothing could stop that astonishing infantry! No sudden burst of undisciplined valour, no nervous enthusiasm, weakened the stability of their order; their flashing eyes were bent on the dark columns in their front; their measured tread shook the ground; their dreadful volleys swept away the head of every formation; their deafening shouts overpowered the dissonant cries that broke from all parts of the tumultuous crowd, as foot by foot, and with a horrid carnage, it was driven by the incessant vigour of the attack to the farthest edge of the hill. There the French reserve, mixing with the struggling multitude, endeavoured to sustain the fight; but the effort only increased the irremediable confusion, the mighty mass gave way, and like a loosened cliff, went headlong down the ascent. The rain flowed after in streams discoloured with blood, and fifteen hundred unwounded men, the remnant of six thousand unconquerable British soldiers, stood triumphant on the fatal hill!"
"The Fusiliers exceeded anything that the usual word 'Gallantry' can convey."—Colonel Sir Henry Hardinge.
"In this attack, and carrying the enemy's position, the Fusilier brigade lost 1000 out of 1500 men and 45 officers; among whom three were commanding officers;—and exhibited an example of steadiness and heroic gallantry which history, I believe, cannot surpass."—Major-General Sir G. Lowry Cole.
[19] Brigadier-General Kemmis's brigade, being on the north side of the Guadiana, was left in that position in order to secure the safe removal of the stores to the town of Elvas on the siege of Badajoz being raised, and was prevented, on that account, from joining the fourth division until the morning of the 17th of May.
[20] During the year 1811 the following non-commissioned officers were rewarded with commissions.
Serjeant-Major Timothy Meagher, Lieutenant Seventh Fusiliers.
Serjeant-Major William Johnson, Ensign Fifty-seventh Regiment.
Quarter-Master Serjeant Arthur Byrne, Ensign and Adjutant Twenty-seventh Regiment.
Serjeant William Gough, appointed Ensign, Second West India Regiment, on 14th November, 1811; promoted to a Lieutenantcy on 12th August, 1813; and died in September, 1817.
[21] This officer was aide-de-camp to Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Picton, and was mortally wounded on the 19th March.