The badness of the roads had induced the Marshal to leave his artillery in the village of Montblanc; some time elapsed before it could be brought up, and before Lieut.-General Don Manuel Freyre’s corps could be re-formed and led again to the attack. As soon as this was effected, the Marshal continued his movement along the ridge, and earned, with Major-General Denis Pack’s brigade of the sixth division, the two principal redoubts and fortified houses in the enemy’s centre. The enemy made a desperate effort from the canal to regain these redoubts, but they were repulsed with considerable loss; and the sixth division continuing its movement along the ridge of the height, and the Spanish troops continuing a corresponding movement upon the front, the French were driven from the two redoubts and entrenchments on the left, and the whole range of heights were gained by the British.
The Marquis of Wellington, in his despatch, added—
“We did not gain this advantage, however, without severe loss, particularly in the brave sixth division.
“The Thirty-sixth, Forty-second, Sixty-first, and Seventy-ninth regiments lost considerable numbers, and were highly distinguished throughout the day.
“I cannot sufficiently applaud the ability and conduct of Marshal Sir William Beresford throughout the operations of the day, nor that of Lieutenant-Generals Sir Lowry Cole, Sir Henry Clinton, Major-Generals Pack and Lambert, and the troops under their command.
“The fourth division, although exposed on their march along the enemy’s front in a galling fire, were not so much engaged as the sixth division, and did not suffer so much; but they conducted themselves with their usual gallantry.”
By this last paragraph it is shown, that the sixth division, of which the first battalion of the Thirty-sixth regiment had for some time formed a part, bore the brunt of this hard-fought, but, as it proved unnecessary, battle.
The killed and wounded of the Thirty-sixth were one hundred and fifty-three, of all ranks, out of two hundred and fifty; namely, Ensign James Cromie, three serjeants and thirty-five rank and file killed, Brevet Lieut.-Colonel William Cross, Brevet Major William Campbell, Lieutenants James Prendergast, Thomas L’Estrange, Peter Joseph Bone, William Henry Robertson, and Edward Lewis, Ensigns Thomas M. Taylor, and James McCabe, eight serjeants, and ninety-seven rank and file wounded.
Brevet Lieut.-Colonel Cross was so severely wounded as to oblige him to be carried off the field, and the command of the battalion devolved upon Major Martin Leggatt.
In approbation of the services of Lieut.-Colonel Cross at the battles of the Nivelle, Nive, Orthes, and Toulouse, His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, in the name and behalf of His Majesty, was graciously pleased to confer upon that officer a cross, and to nominate him a Companion of the Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath; His Royal Highness was likewise pleased to bestow on Major Leggatt a medal for the battle of Toulouse.