Thus the first serious siege undertaken by the British army in the Peninsula was commenced, and, to the discredit of the English government, no army was ever so ill provided with the means of prosecuting such enterprises. The engineer officers were exceedingly zealous, and, notwithstanding some defects in the constitution and customs of their corps tending rather to make regimental than practical scientific officers, many of them were very well versed in the theory of their business. But the ablest trembled when reflecting on their utter destitution of all that belonged to real service. Without a corps of sappers and miners, without a single private who knew how to carry on an approach under fire, they were compelled to attack fortresses defended by the most warlike, practised, and scientific troops of the age: the best officers and the finest soldiers were obliged to sacrifice themselves in a lamentable manner, to compensate for the negligence and incapacity of a government, always ready to plunge the nation into war, without the slightest care of what was necessary to obtain success. The sieges carried on by the British in Spain were a succession of butcheries, because the commonest resources of their art were denied to the engineers.
Colonel Fletcher’s plan was to breach the castle of Badajos, while batteries established on the right bank of the Guadiana should take the defences in reverse; false attacks against the Pardaleras and Picurina were also to be commenced by re-opening the French trenches; but it was necessary to reduce the fort of Christoval ere the batteries for ruining the defences of the castle could be erected.
In double operations, whether of the field or of siege, it is essential to move with an exact concert, lest the enemy should crush each in detail, yet neither in the investment nor in the attack was this maxim regarded. Captain Squires, although ill provided with tools, was directed to commence a battery against Christoval on the night of the 8th, under a bright moon, and at the distance of only four Appendix, [No. X.] Section 3.hundred yards from the rampart. Exposed to a destructive fire of musketry from the fort, and of shot and shells from the town, he continued to work, with great loss, until the 10th, when the enemy, making a furious sally, carried his battery. The French were, indeed, immediately driven back, but the allies pursuing too hotly, were taken in front and flank with grape, and lost four hundred men. Thus five engineer and seven hundred officers and soldiers of the line were already on the long and bloody list of victims offered to this Moloch; and only one small battery against a small outwork was completed! On the 11th it opened, but before sunset the fire of the enemy had disabled four of its five guns, and killed many more of the besiegers; nor could any other result be expected, seeing that this single work was exposed to the undivided fire of the fortress, for the approaches against the castle were not yet commenced, and two distant batteries on the false attacks scarcely attracted the notice of the enemy.
To check future sallies, a second battery was erected against the bridge-head, but this was also overmatched, and meanwhile Beresford, having received intelligence that the French army was again in movement, arrested the progress of all the works. On the 12th, believing this information premature, he resumed the labour, directing the trenches to be opened against the castle: the intelligence was, however, true, and being confirmed at twelve o’clock in the night, the working-parties were again drawn off, and measures taken to raise the siege.
SOULT’S SECOND EXPEDITION TO ESTREMADURA.
The duke of Dalmatia resolved to succour Badajos the moment he heard of Beresford’s being in Estremadura; the tardiness of the latter not only gave the garrison time to organize a defence, but permitted the French general to tranquillise his province and arrange a system of resistance to the allied army in the Isla. With that view, he commenced additional fortifications at Seville, renewing Appendix, [No. II.] Section 11.also the construction of those which had been suspended in other places by the battle of Barosa, and thus deceived Beresford, who believed that, far from thinking to relieve Badajos, he was trembling for his own province. Nothing could be more fallacious. There were seventy thousand fighting men in Andalusia, and Drouet, who had quitted Massena immediately after the battle of Fuentes Onoro, was likewise in march for that province by the way of Avila and Toledo, bringing with him eleven thousand men.
All things being ready, Soult quitted Seville the 10th, with thirty guns, three thousand heavy dragoons, and a division of infantry, reinforced by a battalion of grenadiers belonging to the first corps, and by two regiments of light cavalry belonging to the fourth corps. The 11th he entered Olalla, where general Marasin joined him, and at the same time a brigade of Godinot’s division marched from Cordoba upon Constantino, to reinforce the fifth corps, which was falling back from Guadalcanal in consequence of Colborne’s operations. The 13th a junction was effected with Latour Maubourg, who assumed the command of the heavy cavalry, while Girard taking that of the fifth corps, advanced to Los Santos. The 14th the French head-quarters reached Villa Franca. Being then within thirty miles of Badajos, Soult caused his heaviest guns to fire salvos during the night, to give notice of his approach to the garrison; but the expedient failed of success, and the 15th, in the evening, the army was concentrated at Santa Marta.
Beresford, as I have before said, remained in a state of uncertainty until the night of the 12th, when he commenced raising the siege, contrary to the earnest representations of the engineers, who promised to put him in possession of the place in three days, if he would persevere. This promise was ill-founded, and, if it had been otherwise, Soult would have surprised him in the trenches: his firmness, therefore, saved the army, and his arrangements for carrying off the stores were admirably executed. The artillery and the platforms were removed in the night of the 13th, and, at twelve o’clock, on the 15th, all the guns and stores on the left bank, having been passed over the Guadiana, the gabions and fascines were burnt, and the flying bridge removed. These transactions were completely masked by the fourth division, which, with the Spaniards, continued to maintain the investment; it was not until the rear guard was ready to draw off, that the French, in a sally, after severely handling the piquets of Harvey’s Portuguese brigade, learned that the siege was raised. But of the cause they were still ignorant.
Beresford held a conference with the Spanish generals at Valverde, on the 13th, when it was agreed to receive battle at the village of Albuera. Ballasteros’ and Blake’s corps having already formed a junction at Baracotta, were then falling back upon Almendral, and Blake engaged to bring them into line at Albuera, before twelve o’clock, on the 15th. Meanwhile, as Badajos was the centre of an arc, sweeping through Valverde, Albuera, and Talavera Real, it was arranged that Blake’s army should watch the roads on the right; the British and the fifth Spanish army guard those leading upon the centre; and that Madden’s Portuguese cavalry should observe those on the left, conducting through Talavera Real. The main body of the British being in the woods near Valverde, could reach Albuera by a half march, and no part of the arc was more than four leagues from Badajos; but the enemy being, on the 14th, at Los Santos, was eight leagues distant from Albuera: hence, Beresford, thinking that he could not be forestalled on any point of importance to the allies, continued to keep the fourth division round the fortress. Colborne’s moveable column joined the army on the 14th, Madden then retired to Talavera Real, Blake’s army reached Almendral, and the allied cavalry, under general Long, fell back before the enemy from Zafra and Los Santos, to Santa Marta, where it was joined by the dragoons of the fourth army.
In the morning of the 15th, the British occupied the left of the position of Albuera, which was a ridge about four miles long, having the Aroya Val de Sevilla in rear and the Albuera river in front. The right of the army was prolonged towards Almendral, the left towards Badajos, and the ascent from the river was easy, the ground being in all parts practicable for cavalry and artillery. Somewhat in advance of the centre were the bridge and village of Albuera, the former commanded by a battery, the latter occupied by Alten’s brigade. The second division, under general William Stewart, was drawn up in one line, the right on a commanding hill over which the Valverde road passed; the left on the road of Badajos, beyond which the order of battle was continued in two lines, by the Portuguese troops under general Hamilton and colonel Collins.