“The French army crossed the confines of Portugal; the British took up a position near the frontiers, and blockaded Almeida. The French advanced to relieve the blockaded fortress; and on the 3d of May they attacked the post of Fuentes d’Onor. The Royal Highlanders had 2 soldiers killed on this occasion; Captain M’Donald, 1 sergeant, and 5 rank and file wounded. On the 5th of May the enemy made another attack on the British position, but was repulsed. On this occasion the Forty-Second, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Lord Blantyre, were charged by a body of French cavalry, which they defeated with signal gallantry. Lieutenant-Colonel Lord Blantyre received a gold medal; and the word ‘Fuentes d’Onor,’ displayed, by royal authority, on the regimental colour, commemorates the steady valour of the second battalion on this occasion. Its loss was 1 sergeant and 1 private soldier killed; 1 sergeant and 22 rank and file wounded. Major R. H. Dick received a medal for the battle of Fuentes d’Onor, where he commanded a flank battalion.
“In the subsequent operations of this campaign, the second battalion took an active part; but was not brought into close contact with the enemy.”[327]
On the consolidation of the two battalions, the officers and staff of the second were ordered to England, leaving the first upwards of 1160 rank and file fit for service. These were placed in the division under Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Graham. The allied army now amounted to 58,000 men, being larger than any single division of the enemy, whose whole force exceeded 160,000 men.
After a successful attack on Almarez by a division of the army under General Hill, Lord Wellington moved forward and occupied Salamanca, which the French evacuated on his approach, leaving 800 men behind to garrison the fort, and retain possession of two redoubts formed from the walls and ruins of some convents and colleges. After a gallant defence of some days, the fort and redoubts surrendered on the 27th of June 1812.
Whilst the siege was proceeding, Marshal Marmont manœuvred in the neighbourhood, but not being yet prepared for a general action, he retired across the Douro, and took up a position on the 22d from La Seca to Pollos. By the accession of a reinforcement from the Asturias, and another from the army of the centre, the marshal’s force was increased to nearly 60,000 men. Judging himself now able to cope with the allied army, he resolved either to bring Lord Wellington to action, or force him to retire towards Portugal, by threatening his communication with that country. By combining with Marshal Soult from the south, he expected to be able to intercept his retreat and cut him off. Marmont did not, however, venture to recross the Douro, but commenced a series of masterly manœuvres, with the view of ensnaring his adversary. Alluding to this display of tactics, the Moniteur remarked that “there were seen those grand French military combinations which command victory, and decide the fate of empires; that noble audacity which no reverse can shake, and which commands events.” These movements were met with corresponding skill on the part of the British general, who baffled all the designs of his skilful opponent. Several accidental encounters took place in the various changes of positions, in which both sides suffered considerably.
Tired of these evolutions, Lord Wellington crossed the Guarena on the night of the 19th of July, and on the morning of the 20th drew up his army in order of battle on the plains of Valise; but Marmont declined the challenge, and crossing the river, encamped with his left at Babila Fuentes, and his right at Villameda. This manœuvre was met by a corresponding movement on the part of the allies, who marched to their right in columns along the plain, in a direction parallel to the enemy, who were on the heights of Cabeca Vilhosa. In this and the other movements of the British, the sagacity of the commander-in-chief appeared so strange to a plain Highlander, who had paid particular attention to them, that he swore Lord Wellington must be gifted with the second sight, as he saw and was prepared to meet Marmont’s intended changes of position before he commenced his movements.
The allied army were now on the same ground they had occupied near Salamanca when reducing the forts the preceding month; but in consequence of the enemy crossing the Tormes at Alba de Tormes, and appearing to threaten Ciudad Rodrigo, Lord Wellington made a corresponding movement, and on the 21st of July halted his army on the heights on the left bank. During the night the enemy possessed themselves of the village of Calvarasa de Ariba, and the heights of Nuestra Senora de la Pena. In the course of this night Lord Wellington received intelligence that General Clausel had reached Pollos with a large body of cavalry, and would certainly join Marmont on the 23d or 24th.
The morning of the 22d, a day memorable in the annals of the Peninsular war, was ushered in with a violent tempest, and a dreadful storm of thunder and lightning. The operations of the day commenced soon after seven o’clock, when the outposts of both armies attempted to get possession of two hills, Los Arapiles, on the right of the allies. The enemy, by his numerical superiority, succeeded in possessing himself of the most distant of these hills, and thus greatly strengthened his position. With his accustomed skill, Marmont manœuvred until two o’clock, when imagining that he had succeeded in drawing the allies into a snare, he opened a general fire from his artillery along his whole line, and threw out numerous bodies of sharpshooters, both in front and flank, as a feint to cover an attempt he meditated to turn the position of the British. This ruse was thrown away on Lord Wellington, who, acting on the defensive only, to become, in his turn the assailant with the more effect, and perceiving at once the grand error of his antagonist in extending his line to the left, without strengthening his centre, which had now no second line to support it, made immediate preparations for a general attack; and with his characteristic determination of purpose, took advantage of that unfortunate moment, which, as the French commander observed, “destroyed the result of six weeks of wise combinations of methodical movements, the issue of which had hitherto appeared certain, and which everything appeared to presage to us that we should enjoy the fruit of.”[328]
The arrangements were these. Major-General Pakenham, with the third division, was ordered to turn the left of the enemy, whilst he was to be attacked in front by the divisions of Generals Leith, Cole, Bradford, and Cotton,—those of Generals Clinton, Hope, and Don Carlos de Espana, acting as a reserve. The divisions under Generals Alexander Campbell and Alten were to form the left of the line. Whilst this formation was in progress, the enemy did not alter his previous position, but made an unsuccessful attempt to get possession of the village of Arapiles, held by a detachment of the guards.
About four o’clock in the afternoon, the attack commenced. General Pakenham, supported by the Portuguese cavalry, and some squadrons of the 14th Dragoons under Colonel Harvey, carried all their respective points of attack. The divisions in the centre were equally successful, driving the enemy from one height to another. They, however, received a momentary check from a body of troops from the heights of Arapiles. A most obstinate struggle took place at this post. Having descended from the heights which they occupied, the British dashed across the intervening valley and ascended a hill, on which they found the enemy most advantageously posted, formed in solid squares, the front ranks kneeling, and supported by twenty pieces of cannon. On the approach of the British, the enemy opened a fire from their cannon and musketry, but this, instead of retarding, seemed to accelerate the progress of the assailants. Gaining the brow of the hill, they instantly charged, and drove the enemy before them; a body of them attempting to rally, were thrown into utter confusion by a second charge with the bayonet. A general rout now took place, and night alone saved the French army from utter annihilation.