The grenadiers coming on at a brisk pace, beat back the advanced companies of the forty-third; but to avoid the artillery that swept their left, they dipped a little into the ravine, and were taken on the other flank by the guns of the eighth and fourth brigades, and at the same time the forty-third rallying in a mass, broke down upon the head of the column at a moment when the narrowness of the way and the discharges of the artillery had somewhat disordered its formation, a short yet desperate fight took place; the enemy were repulsed in disorder, but the regiment suffered very severely.
The French being now wholly discomfited in the centre, and the woods and hollows filled with their wounded and straggling men, retired up the edge of the ravine in a direction almost parallel to the British line, and left the road from Vimiero to Torres Vedras open to their opponents; but sir Arthur Wellesley strictly forbade any pursuit at that moment, partly because the grenadiers in the pine wood flanked the line of the French retreat, and partly because Margaron’s horsemen, riding stiffly between the two armies, were not to be lightly meddled with. Meanwhile, (Brennier being still hampered in the ravine), general Solignac passed along the crest of the ridge above, and came upon general Ferguson’s brigade, which was posted at the left of the English position. But where the French expected to find a weak flank, they encountered a front of battle on a depth of three lines protected by steep declivities on either side; a powerful artillery swept away their foremost ranks, and on their right the fifth brigade and the Portuguese were seen marching by a distant ridge towards the Lourinham road and threatening the rear. Ferguson instantly taking the lead, bore down upon the enemy, the ridge widened as the English advanced, and the regiments of the second line running up in succession, increased the front, and constantly filled the ground. The French falling fast under the fire drew back fighting, until they reached the declivity of the ridge, and their cavalry made several efforts to check the advancing troops, but the latter were too compact to be disturbed by these attempts. Solignac himself was carried from the field severely wounded, and his retiring column, continually outflanked on the left, was cut off from the line of retreat, and thrown into the low ground about the village of Perenza. There six guns were captured, and general Ferguson leaving the eighty-second and seventy-first regiments to guard them, was continuing to press the disordered columns, when Brennier having at last cleared the ravine, came suddenly in upon those two regiments, and re-took the artillery. His success was but momentary; the surprised troops rallied upon the higher ground, poured in a heavy fire of musquetry, and with a shout returning to the charge, overthrew him and recovered the guns. Brennier himself was wounded and made prisoner, and Ferguson having completely separated the French brigades from each other, would have forced the greatest part of Solignac’s to surrender, if an unexpected order had not obliged him to halt, and then the discomfited troops re-forming under the protection of their cavalry with admirable quickness and steadiness, made an orderly retreat, and were soon united to the broken brigades which were falling back from the attack on the centre.
Brennier, who, the moment he was taken, was brought to sir Arthur Wellesley, eagerly demanded if the reserve under Kellerman had yet charged, and sir Arthur, ascertaining from other prisoners that it had, was then satisfied that all the enemy’s attacks were exhausted, and that no considerable body of fresh troops could be hidden among the woods and hollows in his front. It was only twelve o’clock, the battle was already won; thirteen guns were in his possession, for seven had been taken in the centre; the fourth and eighth brigades had suffered very little; the Portuguese, the fifth and the first brigades had not fired a shot, and the latter was two miles nearer to Torres Vedras than any part of the French army, which was moreover in great confusion. The relative numbers before the action were considerably in favour of the English; and the result of the action had increased that disparity. A portion of sir Arthur’s army had defeated the enemy when entire; a portion then could effectually follow up his victory, and he resolved with the five brigades on the left to press Junot closely, and driving him over the Sierra da Baragueda, force him upon the Tagus, while Hill, Anstruther, and Fane, seizing the defile of Torres Vedras, should push on to Montachique and cut him off from Lisbon.
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SKETCH OF THE
BATTLE OF VIMIERO.
21st August 1808.
If this able and decisive operation had been executed, Junot would probably have lost all his artillery, and several thousand stragglers, and being buffeted and turned at every point, would have been glad to seek safety under the guns of Almeida or Elvas, and even that he could only have accomplished because sir John Moore’s troops were not landed at the Mondego. But sir Harry Burrard, who was present during the action, although partly from delicacy, and partly from approving of sir Arthur’s arrangements, he had not hitherto interfered, now assumed the chief command. From him, the order which arrested Ferguson in his victorious career had emanated, by him further offensive operations were forbidden, and he resolved to wait in the position of Vimiero until the arrival of sir John Moore. The adjutant-general Clinton and colonel Murray, the quarter-master-general, supported sir Harry Burrard’s views, and sir Arthur’s earnest representations could not alter his determination.
Sir Harry’s decision was certainly erroneous, but error is common in an art which at best is but a choice of difficulties. The circumstances of the moment were imposing enough to sway most generals; for although Proceedings of the Board of Inquiry. the French were beaten in the attacks, they rallied with surprising quickness under the protection of a strong and gallant cavalry; sir Harry knew that his own artillery carriages were so shaken as to be scarcely fit for service; that the draft horses were few and bad, and that the commissariat parc on the plain was in the greatest confusion. The hired Portuguese carmen were making off with their carriages in all directions; the English cavalry was totally destroyed, and finally, general Spencer had discovered a line of fresh troops on the ridge behind that occupied by the French army. Weighing all these things in his mind with the caution natural to age, Burrard was reluctant to hazard the fortune of the day upon what he deemed a perilous throw.
The duke of Abrantes, who had displayed all that reckless courage to which he originally owed his elevation, profited by this unexpected cessation of the battle, and re-formed his broken infantry. Twelve hundred fresh men joined him at the close of the contest, and, covered by his cavalry, he retreated with order and celerity until he regained the command of the pass of Torres Vedras, so that when the day closed, the relative position of the two armies was the same as on the evening before.
One general, thirteen guns, and several hundred prisoners fell into the hands of the victors, and the total loss of the French was estimated at three thousand men, an exaggeration, no doubt, but it was certainly above two thousand, for their closed columns had been exposed for more than half an hour to sweeping discharges of grape and musquetry, and the dead lay thickly together. General Thiebault indeed reduces the number to eighteen hundred, and asserts that the whole amount of the French army did not much exceed twelve thousand men, from which number he deducts nearly three thousand for the sick, the stragglers, and all those other petty drains which form the torment of a general-in-chief. But when it is considered that this army was composed of Thiebault. men selected and organized into provisionary battalions expressly for the occasion; that one half had only been in the field for a fortnight, and that the whole had enjoyed three days rest at Torres Vedras, it is evident that the number of absentees bears too great a proportion to the combatants. A French order of battle found upon the field gave a total of fourteen thousand men present under arms, of which thirteen hundred were cavalry, and this amount agrees too closely with other estimates, and also with the observations made at the time, to leave any reasonable doubt of its authenticity or correctness.