Lieut.-Colonel Coghlan received another honorary distinction for this battle; and the word “Orthes,” on the colours, commemorates the gallant bearing of the regiment on this occasion. Its loss was limited to one serjeant and ten men, killed and wounded.
Pursuing the retreating enemy on the following day, the regiment took some prisoners, and, being in advance, discovered part of the French army on an eminence near St. Sever; the enemy again retreated after dark, and was followed on the succeeding days. On one occasion the regiment lost a serjeant and seven men in a skirmish; and Lieutenant Furnace, of the light company, had a narrow escape, a ball having passed through the collar of his coat.
The regiment again came up with the enemy on the 16th of March, near Tarbes, and had a few men wounded. The weather was fine, the soldiers healthy, vigorous, and animated with their uninterrupted career of success, so that they were ready for any service; but the French continued their retreat without hazarding a serious engagement.
Marshal Soult concentrated the French troops under his command in a fortified position at Toulouse; and on the morning of the 10th of April, the Sixty-first Regiment was in motion with the fourth and sixth divisions, under Marshal Beresford, to turn the enemy’s right flank. The regiment being halted beyond the river Ers, while Lord Wellington and his staff reconnoitred the enemy, Lieut.-Colonel Coghlan took that opportunity to address the officers and men in a short and animated speech, which made a great impression on their minds. Immediately afterwards the regiment advanced; it crossed the river Ers, and marched along the left bank exposed to the enemy’s cannonade. On arriving at its destined point, the brigade was wheeled into line by Major-General Lambert, who led it forward to attack a formidable height occupied by French troops. The enemy descended with loud shouts to meet the advancing line, and opened a heavy fire of musketry; the Sixty-first rushed forward without firing a shot, the officers animating the men by their example, and answering the French shouts with a loud and confident huzza! They carried the height with fixed bayonets, but sustained severe loss. Many of the officers having outrun their men, who were retarded by the weight of their knapsacks, entered a French redoubt at the moment the defenders were quitting it, when a number of French soldiers turned round and fired with fatal effect: of the Sixty-first, Lieut.-Colonel Oke, Captain Charleton (who was calling to the enemy to surrender), and Lieutenant Arden, were wounded,—the latter mortally. The regiment advanced along the height until it was ordered to halt under an earthen fence, which partially sheltered it from the enemy’s guns. Early in the action its gallant commanding officer, Lieut.-Colonel Coghlan, was mortally wounded[6]. In the afternoon the regiment, much reduced in numbers, supported the attack of the Scots brigade on a range of redoubts, from which the enemy was driven with loss: and the Sixty-first were directed to occupy one of the captured redoubts. The French advanced to recover the redoubts; when Major-General Lambert directed a division of the Sixty-first to cross the road, which was commanded by the enemy’s fire, and reinforce the troops in another redoubt. This was a perilous movement; but Captain Charleton, whose wound was dressed in the field in time to enable him to rejoin and command the regiment in its second attack, placed himself in front of the division, exclaiming, “I will show the way!” Serjeant Fraser stepped to follow his captain, and, encouraged by this example, the division made the movement at a running pace; several officers and soldiers were, however, hit by the French marksmen. The regiment defended the post committed to its charge, and the French were driven from their works, and forced to take refuge in the suburbs of the city of Toulouse. At the termination of the action, the surviving men of the regiment were brought out of the field by Adjutant Bace, assisted by two ensigns and Serjeant Robert Hogg, whose name merits notice from his zealous exertions during the action.
The Sixty-first was included, in Lord Wellington’s despatch, among the corps which had sustained severe loss, and were highly distinguished throughout the day.
Lieut.-Colonel Coghlan, Lieutenant H. Arden, and Ensign W. A. Favell, were killed on this occasion; Major J. Oke, Captains W. Greene and E. Charleton, Lieutenants A. Porteus, N. Furnace[7], T. Gloster, D. O’Kearney, J. Wolfe, E. Gaynor, W. White[8], J. Harris, G. Stewart, and J. H. Ellison, Ensigns J. Wright, Cuthbert Eccles, and S. Bartlett, wounded. The regiment had also eight serjeants and one hundred and fifty-three rank and file killed and wounded.
Medals were conferred on Lieut.-Colonel Oke, Captain Charleton (who was twice wounded), and Adjutant Bace: and the word “Toulouse” was added to the inscriptions on the colours of the regiment.
The French retreated from Toulouse, followed by the British army, and at St. Felix five officers and seventy men joined the Sixty-first, from the second battalion in Ireland, under the orders of Captain Hamilton.
Hostilities were terminated a few days afterwards; the power of Bonaparte had been destroyed, and the Bourbon dynasty was restored to France. The gallant veterans of the Sixty-first were thus gratified with a complete triumph over the enemies of their country. They had traversed kingdoms, fought battles, and conquered powerful armies for the good of Europe; their valour had exalted the glory of the British arms, and preserved their native country from the presence of war: and the word “Peninsula” was added to the numerous inscriptions on their colours, to commemorate their heroic conduct.
After reposing a short period in quarters, the regiment marched for Bordeaux; and at Bazas the Portuguese brigade, which had long served with the sixth division, was separated from it to return to Portugal; a feeling of respect for these brave companions in war pervaded all ranks of the British army: many reciprocal acts of kindness had marked the estimation in which the soldiers of the British and Portuguese armies held each other.