The officers killed were Colonel the Honorable Henry Cadogan, Captain Henry Hall, Lieutenants Humphrey Fox and Colin Mackenzie. Those wounded were Brevet Lieut.-Colonel Charles Cother, Captains Samuel Reed, Joseph Thomas Pidgeon, William Alexander Grant, Lieutenants Alexander Duff, Loftus Richards, John McIntyre, Charles Cox, William Torriano, Norman Campbell, and Thomas Commeline.
On this occasion the French suffered a great loss of men, together with all their artillery, baggage, and stores. King Joseph, whose carriage and court equipage was seized, had barely time to escape on horseback. The defeat was the most complete that the French had sustained in the Peninsula. It was this victory which gained a bâton for the Marquis of Wellington, who was 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.” This was in allusion to the bâton of Marshal Jourdan, which was taken by the eighty-seventh regiment at Vittoria.
The Seventy-first subsequently received the Royal authority to bear the word “Vittoria” on the regimental colour and appointments, in commemoration of this signal victory.
When the Seventy-first paraded on the morning of the 22d of June, the dreadful havoc made by the action of the preceding day became painfully manifest, and an universal gloom was thrown over all, at missing from their ranks nearly four hundred brave comrades who had been either killed or wounded on the heights of La Puebla.
The enemy, having been completely beaten at all points, was forced to retreat in confusion on Pampeluna, and the British army immediately followed in pursuit. The battalion in this advance arrived at Pampeluna on the 29th of June, and shortly afterwards followed, as part of Sir Rowland Hill’s army, a large force of the enemy, who were retreating into France by the valley of Bastan. During this forward movement the Seventy-first had some skirmishing in the valley of Elizondo, but without loss. Upon the 8th of July the Seventy-first arrived at the heights of Maya, from whence, for the first time, they had the cheering prospect of beholding the empire of France extended before them in all its fertile beauty. Joy was diffused through every heart; every trial and danger were forgotten while viewing this splendid and gratifying sight. Upon these heights the battalion was encamped until the 25th of July.
Marshal Soult having been selected by Napoleon for the command of the French army in Spain, with the rank of “Lieutenant of the Emperor,” that officer used the most active exertions for its re-organization, and made immediate arrangements for forcing the British position in the Pyrenees. With this view he advanced in person with a large force against the right, stationed at Roncesvalles, and detached Count D’Erlon with about thirteen thousand men to attack the position of Maya.
The Count D’Erlon, upon the 25th of July, advanced against the right of the Maya heights, where the ridges of the mountains branched off towards his camp. The force at this point was not sufficient to resist such formidable numbers, and the reserve being posted at some distance to watch passes of importance, which could not be left wholly unguarded, was brought up by battalions as the pressure increased.
The intrepidity with which these attacks were met, and the obstinate bravery with which every inch of ground was disputed, were obliged at last to yield to overwhelming numbers; but although the troops were forced to retrograde, yet in their retreat they took advantage of every rising ground, and disputed it with the utmost tenacity. At the commencement of this attack a part of the first battalion of the Seventy-first regiment was detached to a neighbouring high peak, under the command of Major William Fitzgerald of the eighty-second regiment, and was strengthened by a company of that gallant corps. Lieut.-General the Honorable Sir William Stewart, in his report to Lieut.-General Sir Rowland Hill, thus expressed himself respecting these men:—“I cannot too warmly praise the conduct of that field officer (Major Fitzgerald) and that of his brave detachment. They maintained the position to the last; and were compelled, from the want of ammunition, to impede the enemy’s occupation of the rock by hurling stones at them.”
In another part of this communication, the Lieut.-General thus alluded to the eighty-second regiment and to the first brigade, which was composed of the fiftieth, Seventy-first, and ninety-second regiments:
“I feel it my duty to recommend to your attention, and favourable report to the Commander of the Forces, the conduct and spirit of Colonel Grant, and of his brave corps, the eighty-second regiment; also the whole of the first brigade, than which His Majesty’s army possesses not men of more proved discipline and courage. The wounds of him, and every commanding officer in that brigade, were attended with circumstances of peculiar honor to each of them, and to those under their orders.”