The enemy’s right, reinforced by the troops which had fled from his left, and by those which had by this time retired from the Arapiles, still continued to resist; and while other corps were directed to turn the right, the sixth division, supported by the third and fifth, attacked the front. It was dark before this point was carried by the sixth division, and the enemy then fled through the woods towards the Tormes.
Lieut.-General Sir William Napier, in his History of the Peninsular War, thus sums up the account of this victory:—
“The battle of Salamanca, remarkable in many points of view, was not least so in this, that it was the first decided victory gained by the allies in the Peninsula. In former actions the French had been repulsed, here they were driven headlong, as it were, before a mighty wind, without help or stay, and the results were proportionate.”
The Thirty-sixth had Captains William Tulloh and Alexander Middleton, Lieutenants Arthur Parker and Richard Barton, one serjeant, and fifteen rank and file killed. Brevet-Major John Fox, Lieutenants Walter Ewart, and David Price, Ensigns Richard James Bourchier, William Wainwright, with four serjeants and seventy rank and file, were wounded. Lieutenant Ewart subsequently died of his wounds.
Lieut.-Colonel Davies obtained the medal issued for the victory gained at Salamanca; and the Thirty-sixth subsequently received the Royal Authority to bear the word “Salamanca” on the regimental colour and appointments, in commemoration of the gallantry displayed in that battle.
On the 23d of July the battalion was employed in pursuit of the enemy by the route of Alba de Tormes, and in August went into cantonments at Cuellar; towards the end of that month it marched again, and encamped before Burgos, which the Marquis of Wellington (that title having been conferred upon him after the victory at Salamanca) ordered should be forthwith invested.
Major Molyneux Smith, of the Thirty-sixth, died on the 21st of August 1812, and Brevet-Major John Fox was appointed his successor on the 1st of October following. The battalion took an active share in all the operations against Burgos, from which the British army retired on the 21st of October. The Thirty-sixth, during the siege, had seven rank and file killed and eleven wounded.
After this most harassing retreat, rendered so by the severity of the weather and the dreadful state of the roads, as well as by a numerous and active-pursuing enemy, the battalion, early in December, reached Falgosa de Medelina, in Portugal, where it halted for some weeks.
1813.