Nothing particular occurred until the 25th of July, when Count D’Erlon attacked the pass of Maya with an overwhelming force. This pass was occupied by the piquets of the brigade, to whose support the battalion, with the brigade, moved forward; but on their arrival found the pass in possession of the enemy: this circumstance, and his great superiority of numbers, obliged the troops to retire, which they did in good order, but with great loss.
In the subsequent action near Pampeluna the battalion occupied some strong ground on the left of the British line, and was but little engaged. It again moved forward on the retreat of the enemy, and on the 31st of July, two attempts having failed to carry the heights of Donna Maria, the Thirty-ninth, being selected for a third, happily succeeded. The enemy after this made no further stand, but retreated beyond the Pyrenees.
In the operations of the army from the 25th to the 31st of July, the loss of the Thirty-ninth was as follows:—
Lieutenants John Lord, and Trevor Williams, killed in action on the 25th of July. Lieutenant Connell Scanlan was wounded and taken prisoner, and died of his wounds. Captain Joseph A. Jones, Lieutenants Francis H. Hart, Charles Cox, and Purefoy Poe, Ensigns William Allan Courtenay and Robert Rhodes were wounded on the 25th of July. Lieutenant William Johnston Hughes was taken prisoner.
Six serjeants and twenty-three rank and file were killed; five serjeants and one hundred and four rank and file were wounded; two serjeants, one drummer, and nineteen rank and file were missing.
For the several actions in the Pyrenees from the 25th to the 31st of July, His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, in the name and behalf of His Majesty, was graciously pleased to grant medals to Colonel the Honorable Robert William O’Callaghan, commanding the brigade, Brevet-Lieut.-Colonel Charles Bruce, commanding the battalion; and to Captain Duncan Campbell, of the Thirty-ninth, in command of the light companies of the brigade.
The Thirty-ninth also received the royal authority to bear the word “Pyrenees” on the regimental colour and appointments, to commemorate the services of the first battalion in these actions.
The enemy having been driven over the Pyrenees, the British remained in possession of the several passes, the Thirty-ninth occupying those of Maya, Roncesvalles, and Alduides, alternately, until the 9th of November, when the battalion entered France by the pass of Maya without opposition, except driving in the enemy’s advance-posts, until its arrival at the river Nivelle, the passage of which was contested by the French army. The battalion, however, succeeded in crossing with trifling loss on the 10th of November, and the enemy was afterwards driven from all his strong and fortified positions on the heights of Sarre, where the Thirty-ninth remained for the night. In commemoration of this service the Thirty-ninth subsequently received the royal authority to bear the word “Nivelle” on the regimental colour and appointments.
Captain George D’Arcy, of the Thirty-ninth, was promoted to the brevet rank of Major on the 22nd of November 1813.
The battalion subsequently moved forward to the Nive, the left bank of which it occupied until the 9th of December, when the army crossed that river,—the Thirty-ninth by a ford at Laressor, under great difficulties, as well from the depth of the river as the opposition made by the enemy. The passage having been effected, the enemy retired to the heights of St. Pierre, near Bayonne.