Early in the morning one of the enemy’s corps appeared in two columns in the valley of the Duas Casas, opposite Poço Velho, having the whole of their cavalry under General Montbrun on the left. The infantry directed itself against the village; the cavalry moved through the open country between it and Navedeaver, a part circling about, under favour of the ground, to turn the right flank of the allies. Julian Sanchez was compelled to retire; and so, with some loss, were two battalions of the 7th division from Poço Velho. Houston moved with that division to protect their retreat and that of the cavalry, with which view he placed himself on a rocky height, and there formed the Chasseurs Britanniques. The first attack of their advanced cavalry was met by a few squadrons of British, who obtained a partial advantage, and took a colonel and some other prisoners; but their eagerness, and still more their inferiority, occasioned some confusion: they were in their turn pressed, and the enemy for a short time had possession of two guns belonging to our horse artillery. The main body of the French cavalry advanced rapidly, charged through the piquets of the 85th, and followed our horse up the hill: but the attack thus gallantly begun was not maintained with equal gallantry. The ground was intersected with stone walls, which protected part of our troops; those who had not that advantage stood firm. The chasseurs under Lieutenant-Colonel Eustace, and a detachment of the Brunswick corps, were somewhat concealed by a rising ground, where in many parts the rocks stood several feet above the surface: availing themselves of this, they waited till the main body of the enemy’s cavalry came in a line with their front, within threescore paces, and then rising up threw in a well-directed volley, which checked them and made them retire in disorder; yet the charge had appeared so formidable, that, it is said, Lord Wellington feared the Brunswickers were lost. Their loss was trifling; but they narrowly escaped afterward from the Portugueze, who, because of their caps, mistook them for enemies. The attack was renewed, but in vain, though some of the French dismounted and acted as light infantry to assist in it.
Lord Wellington had occupied Poço Velho and the adjoining ground for the sake of maintaining his communication across the Coa by Sabugal, while he provided at the same time for maintaining the blockade of Almeida. The danger of attempting both was now evident, and looking with just confidence rather to victory than to any likelihood of retreating, he drew in the right of the army. Placing, therefore, the light division in reserve in the rear of the left of the 1st, he ordered the 7th to cross the Turon and take post on some commanding ground, which protected the right flank and rear of the 1st, covered the communication with the Coa on that side, and prevented that of the enemy with Almeida by the roads between the Coa and the Turon. The 7th division thus covered the rear of the right, which was formed by the 1st in two lines. Colonel Ashworth’s brigade, in two lines, was in the centre, and the 3rd division, in two lines also, on the left. D. Julian’s infantry joined the 7th in Fresneda; his horse were sent to interrupt the communication with Ciudad Rodrigo. Fuentes d’Onoro was in front of the left. The right of the French infantry was opposite that village, the left and centre between it and Poço Velho, in the wood, and within 2000 yards of the British position. A part of their cavalry was on the right flank of their right; a few squadrons were with artillery opposite the 1st division, and the main body was in the open country, from whence the right wing of the allies had withdrawn.
The great object of the enemy now was to gain possession of Fuentes d’Onoro, which was defended by the 24th, 71st, and 78th; and these regiments were supported by the light infantry battalions of the 1st and 3rd divisions, and some Portugueze corps. They directed against this post several columns of their infantry supported by artillery; succeeded in turning it by the wood toward Poço Velho; gained possession by superior numbers of the point of land where the chain of piquets passed, and from thence penetrated into the village. They even advanced some little way on the road toward Villa Fermosa: but here the 21st Portugueze regiment checked them; the 74th and 78th were detached by General Picton, charged them, and retook the village. Lieutenant-Colonel Cameron was mortally wounded, by an enemy who stepped out of the ranks to aim at him. His countrymen, the Highlanders at whose head he fell, set up a shriek, and attacked the French with a spirit not to be resisted: the man who had slain their commander was pierced by many bayonets at once: the leader of the French, a person remarkable for his stature and fine form was killed, and the Highlanders in their vengeance drove the enemy before them. More than once Fuentes d’Onoro was won and lost; the contest in the streets was so severe that several of the openings were blocked up with the dead and the wounded, but they were finally driven through it by Colonel Mackinnon: they kept up a fire upon it till night closed, at which time 400 of their dead were lying there. The command of the village devolved upon Lieutenant-Colonel Cadogan.
Meantime, the enemy from the wood in front of the British line brought fifteen pieces of cannon to bear upon it, and with those above the village established a severe cross fire, under cover of which, a column of infantry attempted to penetrate down the ravine of the Turon, to the right of the 1st division: but they were repulsed by the light infantry of the guards, and some companies of the 95th. Their cavalry also charged and cut through the piquets of the guards, but were checked by the fire of the 42nd. During the night and the succeeding day, Lord Wellington strengthened his position by throwing up breast-works and batteries; and this, after the lesson he had received, deterred Massena from attempting any farther attack. He made no movement till the 8th, nor did Lord Wellington provoke an action: he had succeeded in keeping his ground, and thereby maintaining the blockade; and nothing was to be gained by attempting more with inferior numbers, and a weak and exhausted ♦The French retire.♦ cavalry. On the 8th and 9th, the French collected their whole army in the woods between the Duas Casas and the Azava, recrossed the latter river on the evening of the 9th, and retired the next day across the Agueda, having failed entirely in the object for which the movement had been undertaken, and the battle fought. The loss of the allies on both days amounted to 1378 killed and wounded, 317 prisoners. That of the French was not ascertained: they acknowledged only 400: but that number was counted in the village of Fuentes d’Onoro, and 500 of their horses were left dead on the field. Under the government of Buonaparte, truth was never to be found in any public statement, unless it was favourable to himself; and none of his generals exercised to a greater extent than M. Massena the license which all took of representing their defeats as victories. This action had severely mortified that general; he had been beaten by an army numerically inferior to his own, and weak in cavalry, upon ground which was favourable for that arm, and which Lord Wellington would not have chosen, had circumstances permitted a choice; it was an action in which the skill and promptitude of the British commander, and the gallantry and steadiness of the allied troops, had been evinced throughout.
♦Escape of the garrison from Almeida.♦
Defeated in the field, and disappointed in his intention of saving Almeida, Massena sent orders to the Governor, General Brenier, to blow up the works, and retire with the garrison upon Barba de Puerco. Brenier having previously received instructions from Bessieres and from Berthier to prepare for thus evacuating the place, should it be necessary, had made 140 cavities ready to be charged before the end of April; but knowing that Massena would make every effort to retain possession of this fortress, which was the only fruit of his six months’ campaign in Portugal, he had prepared also for a vigorous defence, hoping to hold out till the first of June. The battle of Fuentes d’Onoro put an end to his hopes; for the firing was heard in Almeida, and proved that it was a serious action; and as the communication which he every moment expected did not arrive, Brenier could be in no doubt concerning the event. Massena’s orders reached him on the 7th. Immediately the cavities were filled, the balls and cartridges thrown into the ditch, and the artillery destroyed by discharging cannon into the mouths of the pieces. Two days were thus employed; on the morning of the 10th he assembled the officers, and having read to them his instructions, told them, that when the place was once demolished, the intentions of their sovereign would be perfectly fulfilled; that that single object ought to animate them; that they were Frenchmen and must now prove to the universe that they were worthy of being so. They continued to work in destroying stores and artillery, and completing the mines till the moment of their departure; and at ten at night, all being assembled with the greatest silence, Brenier gave as a watchword, Buonaparte and Bayard, and set off (in his own words) under the auspices of glory and honour. In coupling these names, he seems not to have felt how cutting a reproach they conveyed to every honourable Frenchman.
About one, the mines exploded; at the same time the garrison attacked the piquets which observed the place, and forced their way through them. They marched in two columns, fired as little as possible, and passed between the bodies of troops which had been posted to support the piquets. Brenier had studied the ground so well that he would not take a guide; a guide, he thought, would only make him hesitate and perhaps confuse him; the moon served as his compass, the different brooks and rivers which he crossed were so many points which insured his direction, and he placed his baggage at the tail of each column, in order that it might serve as a lure to the enemy, for to save it he knew was impossible. On the part of the blockading troops there was a culpable negligence; for as the garrison had frequently attacked the nearest piquets, and fired cannon in the night during the whole blockade, but more particularly while Massena was between the Duas Casas and the Azava, they thought this attack was nothing more than one of the ordinary sallies, and did not even move at the sound of the explosion, till its cause was ascertained. General Pack, however, who was at Malpartida, joined the piquets upon the first alarm with his wonted alacrity, and continued to follow and fire upon the enemy, as a guide for the march of the other troops. The 4th regiment, which was ordered to occupy Barba del Puerco, missed the way, and to this Brenier was chiefly indebted for his escape. Regnier was at the bridge of San Felices to receive him, and there he effected his junction, having lost, in this hazardous and well-executed escape, by the French official account, only sixty men. But the loss had been tenfold of what was there stated. For though the lure of the baggage was not thrown out in vain, and too many of his pursuers stopped or turned aside to secure their booty when the horses and mules were cast loose, he was followed and fired upon by General Pack’s party, and by a part of the 36th regiment, the whole way to the Agueda, 490 of his men were brought in prisoners, and the number of killed and wounded could not have been inconsiderable.
♦Marmont succeeds Massena in the command.♦
The English and their general did full justice to the ability with which Brenier performed his difficult attempt. Massena made use of it to colour over his defeat, and represented the evacuation and not the relief of Almeida as the object for which the battle of Fuentes d’Onoro was fought. “The operation,” he said, “which had put the army in motion was thus terminated.” Shortly afterwards he returned to France, with Ney, Junot, and Loison, leaving behind them names, ever to be execrated in Portugal, and to be held in everlasting infamy. Marmont succeeded him in the command. The army, which still called itself the army of Portugal, went into its cantonments upon the Tormes, having, in Massena’s curious language, advanced into Spain that it might rest; and Lord Wellington set out for the south summoned by intelligence from Marshal Beresford that Soult, notwithstanding previous rumours, which described him as fortifying Seville, and preparing to stand on the defensive in Andalusia, was advancing into Extremadura. ♦Lord Wellington recalled to Alentejo.♦ These tidings reached him on the night of the 15th; and he set out on the following morning.
When the British commander had been recalled from Badajoz to secure the recovery of Almeida, Beresford was left waiting till the Guadiana should fall sufficiently for him to re-establish the bridge. The French under Latour Maubourg, when they had been forced to retire from Llerena, fell back to Guadalcañal; it was of importance to push them as far off as possible during the intended siege; and a combined movement of Colonel Colborne, Ballasteros, and the Conde de Penne Villamur, who commanded the cavalry of the Spanish army in Extremadura, made them, though far superior in force, retire to Constantino. This service having been performed, the investment of Badajoz was commenced on the 4th of May. But the enterprise was undertaken ♦Badajoz besieged.♦ under every possible disadvantage. For Marshal Beresford had not force enough to carry on the siege, and at the same time hold a position which should cover it from interruption. He was as inadequately supplied with other means as with men: ample stores, indeed, had been ordered from Lisbon to Elvas, and on the part of the governor at Elvas, General Leite, nothing was wanting which his zeal and activity could effect: but these could do little in an exhausted country, where carriage was not to be procured, and all that could be brought up was miserably insufficient. At that time also, the French were perfectly skilled both in the attack and defence of fortified places, while we had every thing to learn: there was not even a corps of sappers and miners attached to the army, so that all those preliminary operations to which men may be trained at home, at leisure, and in perfect safety, were here to be learnt under the fire of an enemy as well skilled in all the arts of defence as we were deficient in those of attack. In this branch of war they were as superior to us as our troops were uniformly found to theirs in the field; and it is a superiority against which courage, though carried to the highest point, can be of no avail. On the part of the besieged, courage and the high sense of duty may suffice, though outworks have fallen, walls are weak, and science wanting; this had been proved at Zaragoza and Gerona. But it is one thing to assail ramparts, and another to defend them; and the braver the assailants, the greater must be their loss, if they are not directed by the necessary skill.