Done in triplicate at Toulouse on the 18th of April, 1814.[E]
(Signed)
G. Murray,
M. G. & Q. M. G.
(Signed)
Luis Wimpffen,
Gefe de E. M. G.
De Campaña de los
Exercitos Españoles.
(Signed)
De Gazan,
Le Lieut. Général.
(Approuvé)
Le M. Duc d’Albufera.
(Confirmed)
Wellington.
(Approuvé)
M. Duc de Dalmatia.
[E]Jones’s Account of the War in Spain and Portugal, page 433.
[284] It would appear, that to some unaccountable fatality that sanguinary affair must be attributed. Rumours had already reached the outposts, that Napoleon had abdicated—and although from these reports the vigilance of the blockading army might have been naturally expected to abate, the besieged should have remained merely on the defensive, and Thouvenot’s sortie was unwarrantable. The result was not to his advantage. His casualties were admitted to reach nine hundred men, and the allied were nearly equal—both losing a general. The siege had not commenced—for neither stores nor artillery had been brought forward—hence, there was no immediate cause for apprehension; and, though nothing was known certainly, it was generally believed that Napoleon was either dead or dethroned. The operation, therefore, appears rather designed to gratify bad passions than attain any military object. It seemed to have been purely a work of slaughter—and to gain no end, men were unnecessarily lost. “On both sides the troops, broken into small bodies by the inclosures, and unable to recover their order, came dashing together in the darkness, fighting often with the bayonet, and sometimes friends encountered, sometimes foes: all was tumult and horror. The guns of the citadel, vaguely guided by the flashes of the musketry, sent their shot and shells booming at random through the lines of fight; and the gun-boats, dropping down the river, opened their fire upon the flank of the supporting columns, which being put in motion by Sir John Hope, on the first alarm, were now coming up from the side of Boucaut. Thus nearly one hundred pieces of artillery were in full play at once; and the shells having set fire to the fascine depôts and to several houses, the flames cast a horrid glare over the striving masses.”—Napier.
At best it was a sanguinary experiment. No object was gained or could be gained—much blood was idly wasted—Thouvenot, in a few hours, was as closely inclosed, as he had been before his sally—his loss exceeded that inflicted on his enemy—and many of his casualties were caused by the indiscriminating fire of his own guns.
[285] On the question of Peninsular distinctions now tardily conceded, we will not touch, inasmuch as we fear that we could not do it temperately. The subjoined is a record of the corps refused a medal. “Well, if the breast be bare, thank God, they can proudly point to their glorious colours!”
A list of regiments which served in the Peninsula that were not present at Waterloo, with the number of honorary distinctions they are permitted to bear on their colours for their services in that country and the South of France:—3rd Dragoon Guards, 4; 5th, 4; 3rd Light Dragoons, 4; 4th, 6; 14th, 6; 9th Lancers, 1; 2nd Foot, 8; 3rd. 7; 5th, 12; 6th, 8; 7th, 9; 9th, 9; 10th, 1; 11th, 7; 20th, 5; 24th, 8; 26th, 7; 29th, 5; 31st, 7; 34th, 7; 36th, 10; 37th, 1; 38th, 10; 39th, 7; 43rd, 12; 45th, 14; 47th, 4; 48th, 11; 50th, 8; 53rd, 7; 57th, 6; 58th, 6; 59th, 5; 60th, 16; 61st, 8; 62nd, 1; 66th, 9; 67th, 2; 68th, 6; 74th, 11; 76th, 3; 81st, 2; 82nd, 7; 83rd, 11; 84th, 2; 85th, 3; 87th, 7; 88th, 11; 91st, 9.
To the above may be added the 94th and 97th regiments—with others disbanded before permission to assume the badges was conceded, but equally deserving of distinction with those on whom they were conferred.
“Adjutant-General’s Office,
Bordeaux, 14th June, 1814.