Memoirs of the Late War, Vol 1 (of 2) / Comprising the Personal Narrative of Captain Cooke, of the 43rd Regiment Light Infantry; the History of the Campaign of 1809 in Portugal, by the Earl of Munster; and a Narrative of the Campaign of 1814 in Holland, by Lieut. T. W. D. Moodie, H. P. 21st Fusileers

by Sir John Henry Cooke; J. W. Dunbar Moodie; Earl of George Augustus Frederick FitzClarence Munster

The moment the division entered, a number of soldiers rushed to the right, along the ramparts, to the large breach (one hundred and fifty yards), and then engaging those of the French who were still firing on the third division, absolutely drove them over the breast-work, on to the large breach. At this time a wooden spare magazine, placed on the rampart, exploded, and blew up some French grenadiers, and many of the light division. Lieutenant Pattenson, of the 43d, and Lieut. Uniacke, of the rifle corps, were of the number. This occurred just behind the traverse, which, on the enemy's right, confined and guarded the great breach.

On ascending the small breach, directly after it was carried, I found myself with the crowd. Lieut.-Colonel M'Leod managed to collect, with the assistance of some other officers, on the rampart about two hundred soldiers of our regiment, and was exhorting them to keep together. At this time there was not any firing on us, with the exception of a few stray shots from the opposite buildings; but there was sharp musketry still at the great breach.

I ran towards the large breach, and met an officer slowly walking between two soldiers of the rifle corps. I asked who it was, when he faintly replied, "Uniacke[¹⁷]," and walked on. One of his eyes was blown out, and the flesh was torn off his arms and legs. He had taken chocolate, with our mess, an hour and a half before!

The regiment was now formed, and Colonel M'Leod immediately detached officers with guards, to take possession of all the stores they could find, and to preserve order. These parties ultimately dissolved themselves. If they had not done so, they would have been engaged in the streets with our own troops.

Colonel M'Leod caused Lieutenant Madden, of the 43d, to descend the small breach with twenty-five men, ordering him to continue at the foot of it during the night, and to prevent soldiers leaving the town with plunder. At eleven o'clock I went to see him; he had no sinecure, and had very judiciously made a large fire, which, of course, showed the delinquents to perfection, who were attempting to quit the town with plunder, in the garb of friars, nuns, or enveloped in silk counterpanes, or loaded with silver forks, spoons, and church plate, all of which was of course taken from them, and was piled up, to hand over to the proper authorities on the following day. He told me that no masquerade could, in point of costume and grotesque figures, rival the characters he stripped that night.

The fire was large, and surrounded by the dead bodies of those who fell in the first onset at the foot of the breach. The troops must have rushed up and taken the latter without hesitation: had the governor of the town only placed a few obstacles on the crest of the breach, he must have stopped the entrance of the light division altogether. He had time, as the firing from our batteries ceased two hours before the assault, and then from the rampart there was a gentle slope into the town, leading into a narrow lane, which was blocked up with a cart only, leaving a sufficient space for one person to pass at a time. The Governor was most culpable! There was no musquetry from any part of the ramparts until the head of the light division column was close to the small breach.—Amongst others lay Captain Dobbs, of the 52d, on his back, at the foot of the breach, and stripped of his uniform. An officer at first thought he was a Frenchman, who had tumbled headlong during the strife from the top of the breach; but, while he was holding a piece of lighted wood, to contemplate, with admiration, his extremely placid and handsome countenance, even in death, a captain of the 52d knew it to be the body of poor Dobbs. On lifting him up, the blood flowed copiously from his back, a musket ball having entered at the breast, and passed through his body.—A soldier of the third division came up to me and said, "Captain Hardyman, of the 45th, is killed!" for although three generals and seventy other officers had fallen, yet the soldiers fresh from the strife talked of him; and if a soldier's praise can add to a man's fame, certainly no one had a greater share than Hardyman; he was the real type of a soldier, and kind to every one.

When the troops had sipped the wine and the Cogniac brandy in the stores, the extreme disorders commenced. To restore order was impossible; a whole division could not have done it. Three or four large houses were on fire, two of them were in the market-place, and the town was illuminated by the flames. The soldiers were drunk, and many of them for amusement were firing from the windows into the streets. I was talking to the regimental barber, private Evans, in the square, when a ball passed through his head. This was at one o'clock in the morning. He fell at my feet dead, and his brains lay on the pavement. I then sought shelter, and found Colonel M'Leod with a few officers in a large house, where we remained until daylight. I did not enter any other house in Ciudad Rodrigo; and if I had not seen, I never could have supposed that British soldiers would become so wild and furious. It was quite alarming to meet groups of them in the streets, flushed as they were with drink, and desperate in mischief.

On the morning of the 20th the scene was dreary; the fires just going out; and about the streets were lying the corpses of many men who had met their death hours after the town had been taken. At eleven o'clock, I went to look at the great breach. The ascent was not so steep as that of the small one, but there was a traverse thrown up at each side of it on the rampart; hence there was no way into the town, as the wall was quite perpendicular behind the breach. When the third division had gained the top of the rampart, they were in a manner enclosed and hemmed in, and had no where to go, while the enemy continued to fire upon them from some old ruined houses, only twenty yards distant.

I counted more than sixty-three soldiers of the third division lying dead on the terre-plein of the rampart exactly between the traverses I have already described. I did not see one dead soldier of that division on the French side of those traverses; but I saw some of the light division.