The 74th was from the beginning of October mainly cantoned at Aldea de Ponte, which it left on the 4th of January 1812, to take part in the siege of Rodrigo. The third division reached Zamora on the 7th, five miles from Rodrigo, where it remained during the siege. The work of the siege was most laborious and trying, and the 74th had its own share of trench-work. The assault was ordered for the 19th of January, when two breaches were reported practicable.
The assault of the great breach was confided to Major-General M’Kinnon’s brigade, with a storming party of 500 volunteers under Major Manners of the 74th, with a forlorn hope under Lieutenant Mackie of the 88th regiment. There were two columns formed of the 5th and 94th regiments ordered to attack and clear the ditch and fausse-braie on the right of the great breach, and cover the advance of the main attack by General M’Kinnon’s brigade. The light division was to storm the small breach on the left, and a false attack on the gate at the opposite side of the town was to be made by Major-General Pack’s Portuguese brigade.
Immediately after dark, Major-General Picton formed the third division in the first parallel and approaches, and lined the parapet of the second parallel with the 83rd Regiment, in readiness to open the defences. At the appointed hour the attack commenced on the side of the place next the bridge, and immediately a heavy discharge of musketry was opened from the trenches, under cover of which 150 sappers, directed by two engineer officers, and Captain Thomson of the 74th Regiment, advanced from the second parallel to the crest of the glacis, carrying bags filled with hay, which they threw down the counterscarp into the ditch, and thus reduced its depth from 13½ to 8 feet. They then fixed the ladders, and General M’Kinnon’s brigade, in conjunction with the 5th and 94th Regiments, which arrived at the same moment along the ditch from the right, pushed up the breach, and after a sharp struggle of some minutes with the bayonet, gained the summit. The defenders then concentrated behind the retrenchment, which they obstinately retained, and a second severe struggle commenced. Bags of hay were thrown into the ditch, and as the counterscarp did not exceed 11 feet in depth, the men readily jumped upon the bags, and without much difficulty carried the little breach. The division, on gaining the summit, immediately began to form with great regularity, in order to advance in a compact body and fall on the rear of the garrison, who were still nobly defending the retrenchment of the great breach. The contest was short but severe; officers and men fell in heaps, as Cannon puts it, killed and wounded, and many were thrown down the scarp into the main ditch, a depth of 30 feet; but by desperate efforts directed along the parapet on both flanks, the assailants succeeded in turning the retrenchments. The garrison then abandoned the rampart, having first exploded a mine in the ditch of the retrenchment, by which Major-General M’Kinnon and many of the bravest and most forward perished in the moment of victory. General Vandeleur’s brigade of the light division had advanced at the same time to the attack of the lesser breach on the left, which, being without interior defence, was not so obstinately disputed, and the fortress was won.
In his subsequent despatch Wellington mentioned the regiment with particular commendation, especially naming Major Manners and Captain Thomson of the 74th, the former receiving the brevet of Lieutenant-Colonel for his services on this occasion.
During the siege the regiment lost 6 rank and file killed, and Captains Langlands and Collins, Lieutenants Tew and Ramadge, and Ensign Atkinson, 2 sergeants, and 24 rank and file, killed.
Preparations having been made for the siege of Badajos, the 74th was sent to that place, which it reached on the 16th of March (1812), taking its position along with the other regiments on the south-east side of the town. On the 19th the garrison made a sortie from behind the Picurina with 1500 infantry and a party of cavalry, penetrating as far as the engineers’ park, cutting down some men, and carrying off several hundred entrenching tools. The 74th, however, which was the first regiment under arms, advanced under Major-General Kempt in double quick time, and, with the assistance of the guard of the trenches, drove back the enemy, who lost 300 officers and men. The work of preparing for the siege and assault went on under the continuance of very heavy rain, which rendered the work in the trenches extremely laborious, until the 25th of March, when the batteries opened fire against the hitherto impregnable fortress; and on that night Fort Picurina was assaulted and carried by 500 men of the third division, among whom were 200 men of the 74th under Major Shawe. The fort was very strong, the front well covered by the glacis, the flanks deep, and the rampart, 14 feet perpendicular from the bottom of the ditch, was guarded with thick slanting palings above; and from thence to the top there were 16 feet of an earthen slope.[443] Seven guns were mounted on the works, the entrance to which by the rear was protected with three rows of thick paling. The garrison was about 300 strong, and every man had two muskets. The top of the rampart was garnished with loaded shells to push over, and a retrenched guardhouse formed a second internal defence. The detachment advanced about ten o’clock, and immediately alarms were sounded, and a fire opened from all the ramparts of the work. After a fierce conflict, in which the English lost many men and officers, and the enemy more than half of the garrison, the commandant, with 86 men, surrendered. The 74th lost Captain Collins and Lieutenant Ramadge killed, and Major Shawe dangerously wounded.
The operations of trench-cutting and opening batteries went on till the 6th of April, on the night of which the assault was ordered to take place. “The besiegers’ guns being all turned against the curtain, the bad masonry crumbled rapidly away; in two hours a yawning breach appeared, and Wellington, in person, having again examined the points of attack, renewed the order for assault.
“Then the soldiers eagerly made themselves ready for a combat, so furiously fought, so terribly won, so dreadful in all its circumstances, that posterity can scarcely be expected to credit the tale, but many are still alive who know that it is true.”[444]
It was ordered, that on the right the third division was to file out of the trenches, to cross the Rivillas rivulet, and to scale the castle walls, which were from 18 to 24 feet high, furnished with all means of destruction, and so narrow at the top, that the defenders could easily reach and overturn the ladders.
The assault was to commence at ten o’clock, and the third division was drawn up close to the Rivillas, ready to advance, when a lighted carcass, thrown from the castle close to where it was posted, discovered the array of the men, and obliged them to anticipate the signal by half an hour. “A sudden blaze of light and the rattling of musketry indicated the commencement of a most vehement contest at the castle. Then General Kempt,—for Picton, hurt by a fall in the camp, and expecting no change in the hour, was not present,—then General Kempt, I say, led the third division. He had passed the Rivillas in single files by a narrow bridge, under a terrible musketry, and then reforming, and running up the rugged hill, had reached the foot of the castle, when he fell severely wounded, and being carried back to the trenches met Picton, who hastened forward to take the command. Meanwhile his troops, spreading along the front, reared their heavy ladders, some against the lofty castle, some against the adjoining front on the left, and with incredible courage ascended amidst showers of heavy stones, logs of wood, and burning shells rolled off the parapet; while from the flanks the enemy plied his musketry with a fearful rapidity, and in front with pikes and bayonets stabbed the leading assailants, or pushed the ladders from the walls; and all this attended with deafening shouts, and the crash of breaking ladders, and the shrieks of crushed soldiers, answering to the sullen stroke of the falling weights.”[445]