Adventures in Holland and at Waterloo; and Expedition to Portugal

by Thomas Knight

On the 22nd of July we proceeded out on the Cashmere Road, to Velonga. About three days after marching to the left of the Velonga Road (from four in the morning till about twelve), the great heat had completely knocked us up. But I, not quite so bad as the rest, had to draw the companies’ rations of bread and beef; after placing them under a hedge, I told the men to fall to. They said, “Too tired, corporal; could not eat a bit.” “As you please about that; but if you don’t, I’ll make free with your share.” I then cut off a thumping beef steak, thinking I might have some hard work in the course of the day; I cooked it nicely, with the gravy in it, to make me strong and long-winded. But I might have saved myself the trouble; we soon had orders to retire back to Oporto.

One of our sergeants, not having a shot at the enemy, fired at a donkey near the road; the men were quizzing him, and I asked him what was his object for firing at the donkey; he told me to mind my own business. As we were under the retreat to Oporto, one of our men had unfortunately got drunk when near the enemy. The sergeant, who had been firing at the donkey, said he would report the circumstance to the colonel, and the man told the sergeant to mind his own business,—as he had told Corporal Knight before. We were still on our way to Oporto. The sergeant, being on the face of the hill when we halted, fired a shot down among the men. The colonel came galloping down off the hill on his mule, and asked whose piece went off. The men informed the colonel that it was Sergeant Evans’, who had been squabbling with the men, and had got very angry: he had fired a shot among the privates, luckily without doing any harm. The colonel ordered him to strip off his belts and to consider himself as a prisoner; the corporal and four men were ordered to take him on the advance; I was appointed to take him on. The colonel also ordered his arms to be pinioned back by his canteen straps, and that he was to be marched off. I took him on for about three miles: he begged hard that I would loosen the straps round his arms: I said, “I should not much mind, but you might try to bolt; and, if you were not to come back, I should send a messenger after you and order my four men to do the same. If I killed you, or winged you, they would ask me what business I had to let you loose. So, safe bind, safe find: as I have got you I will keep you.” He wanted me to let him walk free with us, but I told him to take it just as easy as he could. I lodged him in the guard-house at Oporto. He was never tried, but shipped off to England soon after, as a bad character.

We used to be originally turned out all hours of a night, and formed close columns in the town, in the Arsenal Square, and there we lay till the day approached. We would have orders from the colonels of regiments to march to our respective convents, and to lay till further orders. On the 22nd July we received orders to go out to a small village about three leagues from Oporto, having heard the enemy had been there; when we came there they were as far to our right. We took up our position there, and remained for four hours, during which period there was an order from the Colonel for a non-commissioned officer of companies to bring up a portion of the men for the purpose of bringing down the companies’ rations. I took four men with me. While bringing the rations into camp, they asked me what they were to do with them. I told them to throw them down there, and let those that liked come and cut them up; but they replied that they were not hungry. I said, “If you don’t, I will.” Accordingly I fell to eating, and very much I enjoyed it.

We heard the enemy had come back to Velonga, and we proceeded on our way to fall in with them. The Tachedores at this time had a strong engagement with them. When we came up to their assistance they were being driven up to the top part of the town, where we were coming in. We opened a smart fire on them, killing and wounding a great many of them; we kept it up for about seven hours, and took a great many field pieces of artillery, and a gun belonging to them, in the top part of the town, which carried a ninety-two pound shot, drawn by twelve working bullocks; after which, they retired and crossed the river at Ponto Ferrado.

The British lay in camp, and on the following morning advanced, and met with the enemy at Ponto Ferrado. We crossed the river up to about our middles. The enemy occupied the hill in front of us. We had about 23,000 men. It being a windy day, the colours were extended to their full size. They brought the guns to bear upon us, and our brigade of 2,000 charged to take possession of the guns. It was supposed that we lost about 1,700 men of the brigade in a very few minutes. The General was very much blamed, from what we could understand, for bringing these men into action before the others had arrived. Shortly after, the right wing of the army came over the bridge, some little way down the river, and, coming round on the back of the enemy, took possession of the artillery, spiked their guns, dismounted them from their carriages, and the whole of our army took the hill to scour the troops off. A few out-skirmishers, under the command of an officer, were beating back skirmishers. Ours were about thirty in number; fifteen out of the thirty were French volunteers. We kept the enemy moving pretty smartly, especially the skirmishers. After going for nearly half a mile, there was, rather at an incline and some little distance from the hill, a big gully in front of us. I looked over into the gully and saw a troop of cavalry belonging to the enemy; they were dismounted, holding their bridle-reins in their hands, waiting for orders to mount. I remarked to Mr. Burton, the officer, “Dangerous route to go any further, sir.” “How so, corporal?” he asked. I replied, “There is a troop of cavalry down there, right before us.” He said he could not discover them; we spoke in a very low voice, in order that the enemy’s cavalry should not hear us. “You come and look over my shoulder,” I said. When he did so, he discovered them, and gave orders to retire to where we had taken the brigade.

Before we arrived at the place where the guns had been taken possession of, the cavalry had come over the hill out of the gully to cut off our retreat. There was a Frenchman before me, just on the right; our great coats incommoded him in horse collar fashion; he had undone the strap to get it off his shoulder; he was all of a tremble and so much confused that he could not get it off, when he looked round at me and called out for me to pull it off his shoulder. As I was passing him by, I caught hold of it; and in pulling, as I thought, to pull it off, I pulled him on the broad of his back. I had no time to look about me; the cavalry were just behind charging us sword in hand. Shortly before they got up to us I told the officer to give command, and he asked, “What am I to do, corporal?” I answered, “There is no time for squabbling in words.” I told the men to form a rallying square, fifteen in kneeling position, and fifteen firing over them. They charged right up to us; and one great long soldier reached over his holster pipes, and just cut the top of my eye with his sword. We shot down about seventeen over their holster pipes; they turned their horses heads about to retire, and I jumped off, front rank kneeling, and ordered the men to form line and charge; the enemy had not proceeded far before they turned round their horses’ heads to have another turn at us. I said, “Form square.” So we formed square, and peppered a few more of them down. After the third time, they set off, leaving us master of the field. They shot four of us, and wounded three. I then proceeded on the way up to where we had captured the artillery. Major Lanson came off the hill and called out to me, “Corporal, you had a sharp attack with the cavalry;” as they had possession of the hill and had driven the enemy off. He said he had been looking at me during the time; and the colonel made the observation at the time, that the corporal had shown them gallant play. He asked, “What was Burton up to?” I replied, “I was not looking after him, but for my own safety, and also that of my men, as I was well disciplined for the field. The officer was outside of the square, and wanted me to let him come in; I told the men to keep close, and he rolled himself under the bayonets for protection.” Major Lanson said he was very thirsty, and asked if I had a drop of water in my canteen. I replied that I had. He asked, “Will you give me a drop?” “By all means,” I replied; he stooped down and took a drink, and was very thankful; he asked me if I would take a little spirits out of his flask, of which I was very glad. I returned the compliment; so we remained during the day.

Night came on: we formed camp inside a low wall on a gentleman’s estate; there we lay during the night, chopping down the trees, and anything we could come at, to make fires. We shortly afterwards rolled ourselves up in our coverings; I looked round about me, and discovered some of the French bringing legs and shins of beef over the wall; I jumped up to go and see if I could not get hold of something too, and when I arrived at the place where the cavalry had been bothering us through the day, the French were cutting up the horses to bring into camp to cook. I pulled out my knife, and cut about half-a-dozen pounds off a rump of a nice young horse; I brought it into camp, and took my ramrod out, which made me a very good skewer. After I had riddled it on the ramrod, toasted it on the fire. Some of the young officers lying round the fire, yawned out, “Who’s that cooking beef steaks on the fire?” the soldier replied, “It is Corporal Knight.” “Where did he get beefsteaks to-night?” they asked, as the commissaries were not up. I said that I was roasting some horse flesh. “Have you ventured upon eating horse flesh, corporal?” I replied, “I had better eat that than none; I am cooking it nicely with the gravy in it to make me strong and long winded.” They said, “We never did yet.” One of the officers asked me if I would give him a bit, which I did; as he was taking it off with his delicate finger and thumb, he put it between his grinders, and made a crack at it. He asked me if I would supply him with water. I told him if he would go to the river he could supply himself. After I had refreshed myself, I rolled myself up in my big coat and lay alongside of the fire. The quarter-master sergeant came round to know if any of the soldiers had any water in any of the canteens; I looked up at him, and asked him who it was that wanted water, he said, “Who is that speaking?” I said, “It is Corporal Knight;” he asked, “Have you any water, corporal, in your canteen?” I replied that I had, and was likely to keep it. He said, “I do not want it, but the colonel, who sent me round to know if you had any water.” I asked, “Where is the colonel lying?” “He is laying down under the wall, rolled up in his cloak:” I immediately jumped up, and proceeded with the quarter-master sergeant to where the colonel was laying; he observed us coming, and said, “Who is that coming?” “Quarter-master sergeant Sutherland, and Corporal Knight.” The colonel asked the quarter-master, “Has the corporal got any water in his canteen?” The quarter-master sergeant replied, “He has, but he would got give it up to me.” “He has done right enough, too,” said the colonel, and I pulled my canteen off the strap that was attached to it, and gave it to him; he drank heartily out of it, and was very thankful; I told him he was extremely welcome. I said, “Colonel, shall I get you a beefsteak for supper, as I have been taking a good supper off the same animal, off the rump of a nice young horse?” “No, never mind it, corporal, I can do very well to-night;” I said, “I will leave you the canteen, sir, to drink the remainder of the water.” He was very thankful; I wished him good night, and went back to my old residence to lie down by the fire.

I went down the following morning (the 24th July) to get my canteen, and received it from the colonel. We fell into conversation respecting the cavalry which had been charging us the previous day, and he asked me what Mr Burton, the officer of the outlying picket, had been doing. My answer was that I was not studying him, but was looking after my own interest. Shortly afterwards, we all fell in, and the aide-de-camp came round to the colonel and told him that he was to march to Oporto. Accordingly we proceeded on our way back to Oporto about three miles, when the aide-de-camp came forward and told the colonel that the regiment was to halt; so we lay there for further orders, for about two hours. We heard the enemy was advancing on us, and very shortly after discovered about twenty bullock teams coming on the road from Oporto, with bread and wine to supply the troops. When they came up, the battalion was ordered by the colonel to get their rations; so we had two days’ wine, which was a quart (a pint per day), and also two pounds of bread. After we had refreshed ourselves, we were stronger and better able to attack the enemies that came up against us. The quarter-master sergeant called out for me, and I went up a little way where they were serving out the rations; he told me to give him my canteen, which I handed to him, and he filled it full of wine (three pints); he said that was an order from the colonel. We lay there but a very short time, when we proceeded on our way to Oporto, where we arrived just before nightfall, and marched, into the town with bugles playing and all the colours we had left flying; for they were tattered and torn with shot. The inhabitants of the town gave us a hearty cheer, and had pitchers of wine ready for us as we passed along and went into our old residence at the Convent of St. Lazarus, there to lie until further orders. I threw myself down to get a little sleep which was very much required.

Waking up in the morning, I was as hearty as a trout. After breakfast, the colonel’s orderly sergeant came round (the light company), and wanted to know where Corporal Knight was; he was taken to the room where I was lying in charge of twelve men; the sergeant told me the colonel wished to see me. I asked him if he knew what it was for, and he replied that he did not; but I put on my jacket and cap and went with him. When we came to the colonel’s quarters, the sergeant knocked at the door, which being opened the colonel told me to come in: so I sat down for a few minutes, and he entered into conversation with me; he then gave me ten dollars, and told me that would do; upon which I retired and went back to the convent. I have forgotten to make mention that I asked the colonel what the ten dollars were for; and he answered, “for the water I had given on the twenty-third evening of duty at Ponto Ferrado.” He said, “Corporal, you can now go and have a good “spree.” I went into the town and had a good “sheevo” during the night.

Some few days after, the inhabitants of the town made a collection among themselves, which amounted to ten dollars a man in the British battalion. They used generally to encourage us, by giving us ten dollars, to keep them out of the town. So the whole battalion had a good flare up for a night or two,—plenty of fiddling and dancing, which strongly reminded us of dear old England.