It cannot then be wondered at (nor can any other regiment feel jealous) that General Paget wished in the hour of trial to have his old corps near his person—not for his protection, but because wherever the enemy made their boldest attacks in the vain hope of reviving their claim to invincibility, there was he to be found triumphantly disputing such claim, confident of success when at the head of the same corps with whom he had destroyed their original title—a title which after many a gallant effort made in its support expired on March 21st, 1801, on the bayonets of the “Old Slashers.”
On the evening of the 13th the reserve fell into position with the army at Corunna; but still there was no appearance of the transports. On this night the enemy by indefatigable labour put the bridge of El-Burgo in a passable state; and early on the morning of the 14th they crossed over two divisions of infantry and one of cavalry. As it was impossible to prevent this movement, it was feebly opposed, with the object of economising our strength for a more serious event. However some gunshots were exchanged.
On this morning a large quantity of powder sent for the use of the Spaniards was destroyed, to prevent its falling into the hands of the enemy. The casks were piled up in a large and lesser magazine, built together upon a hill about three miles from the town. The smaller one blew up with a terrible noise, which startled us all; but scarcely had we attempted to account for the occurrence, when, the train igniting the larger one, the crash was dreadful. A panic seized all; the earth was agitated for miles, and almost every window in Corunna was shattered. This was the largest explosion of powder which had ever taken place in Europe—four thousand barrels.
ARRIVAL OF TRANSPORTS.
On this evening the long-expected transports hove in sight, and soon entered the harbour of Corunna. Preparations for embarkation immediately commenced; and during the night the sick, the best horses and upwards of fifty pieces of artillery were put on board ready for a start—but eight or ten Spanish guns were kept on shore ready for a fight.
On the 15th Laborde’s division arrived—a formidable reinforcement—and immediately fell into position on the extreme right of the enemy’s line.
The despondency which seized the minds of many at the long delay of the transports, and the accumulating strength of the enemy which increased the danger of embarkation, induced several general officers to recommend to the Commander of the forces that he should ask the French marshal for terms under which he might retire to his transports without molestation. Few men of sound reflection could imagine that, even should the Commander of the forces crouch to this humiliating proposition, it would be acceded to by the haughty French marshal. Besides, there was no necessity for the degrading step: the enemy, it is true, had upwards of twenty thousand men in a strong position, and we had about fourteen thousand men in an inferior position—the only one left us to occupy. But the inhabitants of Corunna were determined to stand by us to the last, and in a great measure cover our embarkation; and once embarked we were not in very great danger, for all the batteries on the sea face had been dismantled. Another great advantage was that every English soldier was furnished with a new firelock and his pouch filled with fresh ammunition, ready to be replenished from Corunna when required. These advantages compensated for more than half the difference in our numerical strength. Above all Sir John Moore was not a man who would recommend a British soldier to petition on his knees to an enemy, or to lower his national high bearing; the high-spirited Moore was the last general in His Majesty’s service who would submissively lead a gallant British force, however small, through the Caudine Forks. He rejected the ignoble proposition with feelings such as it deserved.
The conduct of the inhabitants of Corunna was doubly honourable, as they knew that in a very few days their town must fall into the hands of the enemy, whom they were now so strenuously opposing.
On the evening of the 15th a smart skirmish took place between our piquets on the left and a party sent forward on the French right, in the neighbourhood of Palavia Abaxo. Laborde sent forward two guns to strengthen his party. Lieutenant-Colonel M’Kenzie, of the 5th, with some companies rushed forward, endeavouring to seize the battery; but a strong line of infantry who lay concealed behind some walls started up and poured in such a sharp fire that the piquets were driven back, carrying their lieutenant-colonel mortally wounded.
During the night of the 15th Soult completed his arrangements. His right rested close to the Mero; and prolonging his line over rocky and woody ground, he placed his left close to a rocky eminence, upon which he planted his principal battery, consisting of eleven guns, posting several other guns as vantage-ground offered along his line. To the left, and in advance of this big battery, their cavalry were drawn up. Franceschi’s dragoons on their extreme left were nearly a mile in rear of General Baird’s division, in a diagonal direction. The rocky eminence which sustained the great French battery stood at the edge of a valley which lay on Baird’s right, extending in a semicircular direction by his rear and not far distant from the harbour of Corunna.