It was invested the 11th of January; an abandoned outwork, three hundred and forty yards south of the town, was taken possession of the first night; and breaching batteries of eight guns, and counter-batteries of six guns were then marked out. The trenches were opened on the west, and approaches carried on by the flying sap against the old breach; but the rains were heavy and continual, the scarcity of entrenching-tools great, and it was not until the 18th, when the head of the convoy had passed the mountains, that the works could be properly advanced.
On the 19th the covered way was crowned, and the 20th the breaching batteries opened their fire; two mortars also threw shells into the town, and a globe of compression was prepared to blow in the counterscarp. In the evening, the governor of Badajos skirmished unsuccessfully with Latour Maubourg’s horsemen, and, on the 21st, the mine was completed and preparations made for the passage of the ditch.
Mendizabel, unable from the absence of Ballasteros’ division to relieve Olivenza, demanded succour, and Romana sent Carlos D’España’s brigade from Abrantes the 18th, and general Virues, with his own Spanish division, from Cartaxo on the 20th. The 21st, the governor of Olivenza was informed of this, and replied that he would maintain the place to the last moment; but the next day he capitulated, having still provisions, ammunition, eighteen guns, and four thousand one hundred effective soldiers. The 26th Soult marched against Badajos.
Meanwhile Ballasteros advanced upon Neibla, but being followed by Gazan, was overtaken at Castillejos on the 28th, and, after a sharp battle, driven with the loss of a thousand men over the Guadiana. The Spanish artillery was saved in the castle of Paymigo, the infantry took refuge at Alcontin and Mertola; and, that nothing might be left to alarm the French in that quarter, the Regency recalled Copon’s force to Cadiz. In this manner a fortress was taken, and twelve thousand men, who, well employed, might have frustrated the French designs against Badajos, were all dispersed, withdrawn, or made prisoners in twenty days after the commencement of Soult’s expedition.
For many months previous to these events lord Wellington had striven to teach the Spanish commander that there was but one safe mode of proceeding in Estremadura, and Romana had just yielded to his counsels, when the sudden arrival of the French threw every thing into confusion. The defence of the Guadiana, the dismantling of Olivenza, the concentration of the forces were all neglected. Romana, however, had sent his divisions towards the frontier, and they reached Montemor the 22d; the 23d they received Mendizabel’s orders to halt as Olivenza had surrendered; and the 24th Romana died of an aneurism in the heart. He was a worthy man and of quick parts, although deficient in military talent. His death was a great loss, yet his influence was on the wane; he had many enemies, and his authority was chiefly sustained by the attachment of his troops, and by his riches, for his estates being in the Balearic Isles, his revenues did not suffer by the war.
Mendizabel now commanded in Estremadura. He had received Romana’s orders to adopt lord Wellington’s plan, which was still to concentrate all the Spanish troops, amounting to at least ten thousand men, on the frontier, and, before the enemy appeared on the right bank of the Guadiana, to occupy a certain position of great natural strength close to Badajos; the right touching the fort of St. Christoval, the front covered by the Gebora river and by the Guadiana, the fortress of Campo Mayor immediately in rear of the left, and Elvas behind the centre. When Mendizabel was entrenched on this position, and a strong garrison in Badajos, the English general thought Soult could not invest or even straighten the communications of the town, yet, knowing well the people he dealt with, prophetically observed, “with soldiers of any other Appendix, [No. II.] Section 6.nation success is certain, but no calculation can be made of any operation in which Spanish troops are engaged.”
When Olivenza fell, a small garrison was in Albuquerque, and another in Valencia d’Alcantara; Carlos d’España was in Campo Mayor, and Virues, with Romana’s divisions, at Montemor. When Soult drove back the outposts of Badajos on the 26th, Mendizabel shut himself up with six thousand men in that fortress; but, although a siege had been expected for a year, the place was still unprovisioned. It was, however, still possible to execute the English general’s plan, yet no Spaniard moved, and, on the 27th, Latour Maubourg, crossing the Guadiana at Merida, forded the Gebora, and cut off the communications with Campo Mayor and Elvas!
FRENCH SIEGE OF BADAJOS.
This city stands on a tongue of land at the confluence of the Guadiana with the Rivillas; the first is a noble river five hundred yards broad, the second a trifling stream. A rock, one hundred feet high, and crowned by an old castle, overhangs the meeting of the waters, and the town, spreading out like a fan as the land opens between the rivers, is protected by eight regular curtains and bastions, from twenty-three to thirty feet in height, with good counterscarps, covered way, and glacis. On the left bank of the Guadiana the outworks were, 1º. the Lunette of San Roque, covering a dam and sluice on the Rivillas, by which an inundation could be commanded; 2º. an isolated redoubt, called the Picurina, situated beyond the Rivillas, and four hundred yards from the town; 3º. the Pardaleras, a defective crown-work, central between the Lower Guadiana and the Rivillas, and two hundred yards from the ramparts.
On the right bank of the Guadiana a hill, crowned by a regular fort three hundred feet square, called San Christoval, overlooked the interior of the castle, and a quarter of a mile farther down the stream, the bridge, six hundred yards in length, was protected by a bridge-head, slightly connected with San Christoval, but commanded on every side.