1814.
The battalion was employed on this duty until the 21st of February 1814, on which day the army advanced, the Thirty-sixth being selected by Lieut.-General Sir Henry Clinton, K.B., for the important duty of protecting the artillery of the division from an apprehended attack upon it by the enemy’s garrison of St. Jean Pied de Port, which the dreadful state of the roads obliged it nearly to pass. This obstacle fortunately surmounted, by forced marches the Thirty-sixth rejoined the army on the 26th of February, and shared in the battle of Orthes on the following day.
On the day previous to the battle the third division forded the river Gave de Pau, and a pontoon bridge was afterwards laid at Bereaux, by which the fourth and sixth divisions crossed on the morning of the 27th, at which time the third division was already posted with skirmishers thrown out close upon the left centre of the French position. The sixth division, of which the Thirty-sixth formed part, was placed on the right between the third division and the river, and the light division on its left in rear as a reserve. During the whole morning there had been occasional skirmishing by the third division, but the real attack commenced at nine o’clock by the third and sixth divisions on the French left centre, and the fourth and seventh divisions on their right, which last was intended to be the principal point of attack; but it having been found, after three hours’ hard fighting, that the enemy was there too strongly posted, the Marquis of Wellington ordered an advance of the third and sixth divisions, with the Fifty-second regiment, from the centre upon the left centre of the French position, which they carried, and thus secured the victory; while Lieut.-General Sir Rowland Hill, with the second division, had crossed the river above Orthes, and nearly cut off the only line of retreat open to the enemy, who then retired from the field, but without confusion, and constantly resisting the advance. The allies followed, keeping up an incessant fire and cannonade, but lost many men, particularly of the third division, which was the most strongly opposed; this continued until the French nearly reached the Luy de Bearn river, when their retreat became a flight, and they effected their escape by the fords and one bridge, which they destroyed, having lost four thousand men and six guns.
In commemoration of this victory, the Thirty-sixth subsequently received the Royal Authority to bear the word “Orthes” on the regimental colour and appointments.
The battalion shared in the affairs of Vic Bigorre and Tarbes on the 19th and 20th of March. The movement of the sixth division under Lieut.-General Sir Henry Clinton is stated by the Marquis of Wellington, in his despatch, to have been very ably made, and it was completely successful.
During the night Marshal Soult retreated towards Toulouse, followed on the 21st of March by the allies, who continued their advance, until on the 26th they arrived in presence of the French army. The town of Toulouse is surrounded on three sides by the Canal of Languedoc and the Garonne; on the left of that river, the suburb, which the enemy had fortified with strong field-works in front of the ancient wall, formed a good tête-de-pont. The city itself was only accessible from the south, and its strong though old-fashioned walls had been rendered more defensible by redoubts, and by an exterior line of entrenchments on a strong and rugged range of heights, about two miles in length beyond the canal. On the 28th the enemy’s troops were driven within the suburb of St. Cyprien, and several attempts were made to attack them by crossing the Garonne above Toulouse. Operations were, however, impeded by the floods and rapidity of the river, until the 3d of April, when the third, fourth, and sixth divisions, with three brigades of cavalry, under Marshal Beresford, passed over by a pontoon bridge fifteen miles below Toulouse; but the crossing of the remainder of the army was again impeded by the rising of the river, which caused the removal of the bridges, until the 8th, when the Marquis of Wellington crossed, and advanced within five miles of Toulouse; Lieut.-General Sir Rowland Hill, with two divisions, remaining on the left bank.
In the battle of Toulouse, which began about six o’clock in the morning of the 10th of April, it was the good fortune of the Thirty-sixth to commence the attack of the sixth division. The Marquis of Wellington’s plan of attack was for Marshal Sir William Beresford, who was on the right of the Ers with the fourth and sixth divisions, to cross that river at the bridge of Croix d’Orade, to gain possession of Montblanc, and to march up to the left of the Ers to turn the enemy’s right, while Lieut.-General Don Manuel Freyre, with the Spanish corps under his command, supported by the British cavalry, attacked the front.
Marshal Sir William Beresford crossed the Ers, formed his corps in three columns of lines in the village of Croix d’Orade, and immediately carried Montblanc. He then moved up the Ers in the same order, over most difficult ground, in a direction parallel to the enemy’s fortified position, and as soon as he reached the point at which he turned it, he formed his lines, and moved to the attack. The gallant efforts of Lieut.-General Don Manuel Freyre did not meet with success, but they were highly applauded by the Marquis of Wellington. Meanwhile Marshal Sir William Beresford, with the fourth division under the command of Lieut.-General Sir Lowry Cole, and the sixth division under Lieut.-General Sir Henry Clinton, attacked and carried the heights on the enemy’s right, and the redoubt which covered and protected that flank; and he lodged those troops on the same heights with the enemy, who were, however, still in possession of four redoubts, and of the entrenchments and fortified houses.