A boy in the Peninsular War

by Robert Blakeney

On the 19th, during the completion of the 1st parallel, a sortie was made by the besieged soon after mid-day. Fifteen hundred of their infantry, screened by the ravelin San Roque, formed between that opening and the Picurina or small redoubt. They immediately pressed forward and gained the works before our men could seize their arms, while at the same time a party of cavalry, about fifty, the only horsemen in the fortress, got in rear of the parallel. The confusion was great at the first onset. Those on guard and the working men were driven out of the trenches, and the cavalry sabred many in the depôts at the rear; but the mischief being quickly discovered was soon remedied. The Guards being reinforced immediately rallied and drove the enemy out of the works at the point of the bayonet, when many lives were lost. A part of the embankment was thrown into the trenches, and the enemy carried away almost all the entrenching tools found in the parallel. We lost one hundred and fifty men in killed and wounded during this attack.

CAPTURE OF FORT PICURINA.

The siege was now carried on without interruption, notwithstanding the severity of the weather, which frequently filled the trenches with water; and so great was the fall of rain on the 22nd that the pontoon bridge was carried away by the Guadiana overflowing its banks, and the flying bridges over that river could scarcely be worked. This threatened a failure of the siege, from the difficulty of supplying the troops with provisions and the impossibility of bringing the guns and ammunition across. Fortunately for the attack of the fortress however the disaster was remedied by the river falling within its banks.

The morning of the 25th was ushered in by saluting the garrison with twenty-eight pieces of cannon, opened from six different batteries; and in the evening Fort Picurina was stormed, gallantly carried and permanently retained. The enemy made a sortie on the night of the 29th, on the right bank of the Guadiana against General Hamilton’s division, who invested the fortress on that side; they were driven back with loss, and on this occasion the besiegers had no casualties.

On the last day of March twenty-six pieces of ordnance from the 2nd Parallel opened their fire against Fort Trinidad and the flank of the protecting bastion, Santa Maria. This fire continued incessantly, aided by an additional battery of six guns, which also opened from the 2nd Parallel on the morning of April 4th against the ravelin of San Roque. On the evening of the 6th Trinidad, Santa Maria and the ravelin of San Roque were breached.

Preparations were made to storm the town that night; but reports having been made by the engineers that strong works had been erected for the defence of the two breaches, particularly in rear of the large one made in the face of the bastion of Trinidad, where deep retrenchments had been constructed and every means resorted to which art and science could devise to prevent an entrance, the attack was therefore put off. Many hundred lives were spared, but for twenty-four hours only. All the guns in the 2nd Parallel were now directed against the curtain of Trinidad; and towards the following evening a third breach appeared; and the storming of Badajoz was arranged in the following order for the night of the 6th. The 4th division under command of Major-General the Honourable C. Colville, and the light division under Lieutenant-Colonel Barnard, were destined to attack the three breaches opened in the bastion of Trinidad, Santa Maria and the connecting curtain. Lieutenant-General Picton, with the 3rd or fighting division, was directed to attack the castle, which, from the great height of its walls and no breach having been attempted there, the enemy considered secure against assault. The ground left vacant by the advance of the 4th and light divisions was to be occupied by the 5th division, commanded by General Leith, with instructions to detach his left brigade, under General Walker, to make a false attack against the works of the fortress near the Guadiana, as also against the detached work the Pardaleras. Brigadier-General Power, commanding a Portuguese brigade on the opposite bank, was ordered to divert by making false attacks upon a newly formed redoubt called Mon Cœur, upon Fort St. Cristoval, upon the tête du pont and upon I forget what else. With these instructions the troops moved forward from the entrenchments about ten o’clock at night to attack the destined town. The 3rd Division, under Picton, preceded the general movement about a quarter of an hour for the purpose of drawing away the enemy’s attention from the openings in the wall, since these were considered the only really vulnerable points of the fortress. The 4th and light divisions pushed gallantly forward against these breaches, and were not discovered until they had entered the ditch. During their advance the town was liberally supplied with shells from our batteries, and the upper parts of the breaches were continually fired upon by light troops placed upon the glacis to disperse the enemy and prevent their repairing the broken defences. This fire was but slightly answered, until the two divisions mentioned were discovered entering the ditch, when they were assailed by an awful cannonade, accompanied by the sharp and incessant chattering of musketry. Fireballs were shot forth from the fortress, which illumined the surrounding space and discovered every subsequent movement.

NIGHT ATTACK ON BADAJOZ.

The dreadful strife now commenced. The thundering cheer of the British soldiers as they rushed forward through the outer ditch, together with the appalling roar of all arms sent forth in defiance from within, was tremendous. Whenever an instant pause occurred it was filled by the heartrending shrieks of the trodden-down wounded and by the lengthened groans of the dying. Three times were the breaches cleared of Frenchmen, driven off at the point of the bayonet by gallant British soldiers to the very summit, when they were by the no less gallant foe each time driven back, leaving their bravest officers and foremost soldiers behind, who, whether killed or wounded, were tossed down headlong to the foot of the breaches. Throughout this dreadful conflict our bugles were continually sounding the advance. The cry of “Bravo! bravo!” resounded through the ditches and along the foot of the breaches; but no British cry was heard from within the walls of Badajoz save that of despair, uttered by the bravest, who despite of all obstacles forced their way into the body of the place, and there through dire necessity abandoned, groaned forth their last stabbed by unnumbered wounds. Again and again were the breaches attacked with redoubled fury and defended with equal pertinacity and stern resolution, seconded by every resource which science could adopt or ingenuity suggest. Bags and barrels of gunpowder with short fuses were rolled down, which, bursting at the bottom or along the face of the breaches, destroyed all who advanced. Thousands of live shells, hand-grenades, fireballs and every species of destructive combustible were thrown down the breaches and over the walls into the ditches, which, lighting and exploding at the same instant, rivalled the lightning and thunder of heaven. This at intervals was succeeded by an impenetrable darkness as of the infernal regions. Gallant foes laughing at death met, fought, bled and rolled upon earth; and from the very earth destruction burst, for the exploding mines cast up friends and foes together, who in burning torture clashed and shrieked in the air. Partly burned they fell back into the inundating water, continually lighted by the incessant bursting of shells. Thus assailed by opposing elements, they made the horrid scene yet more horrid by shrieks uttered in wild despair, vainly struggling against a watery grave with limbs convulsed and quivering from the consuming fire. The roaring of cannon, the bursting of shells, the rattle of musketry, the awful explosion of mines and the flaring sickly blaze of fireballs seemed not of human invention, but rather as if all the elements of nature had greedily combined in the general havoc, and heaven, earth and hell had united for the destruction alike of devoted Badajoz and of its furious assailants.

HELL ON EARTH.

In consequence of untoward disasters, which occurred at the very onset by the troops being falsely led, their numbers were seriously diminished and their compact formation disorganised. The third or last opening in the curtain was never attempted, although this breach was the most practicable, as it had been made only a few hours before, and thus there had been no time to strengthen its defences. Owing to this ruinous mistake, the harassed and depressed troops failed in their repeated attacks.