SECTION 2.
Conduct of the Spanish soldiers.
B.
“At the assault general Copons himself was the only person who shewed his head above the parapet. The precaution of outflanking him by three companies of the 47th regiment remedied the chance of evil, which so lamentable a want of chivalry might have occasioned, but the knights of older times were probably better fed than were our poor distressed friends.”
SECTION 3.
Conduct of colonel Skerrett.
A.
“It is necessary to advert to the 18-pounder mounted on the Gusmans’ tower, as Southey’s History contains some strange misrepresentation on the subject.” “The French made the 18-pounder an early object of attack, but they did not succeed in crushing it. Unfortunately one of the spherical case shot, not precisely fitting its old and worn calibre, burst in passing over the town, and killed or wounded a person in the street. This produced some alarm and complaint amongst the inhabitants for a moment, and in the first feeling of that moment, Skerrett, with characteristic impetuosity, directed the gun to be placed ‘hors de service.’ There was no ambiguity in his command, ‘Let it be spiked.’” “Had he referred the case to the commanding officer of artillery, the order would not have been executed, means would have been found to remove the first impression and tranquillize the people, without the sacrifice of the gun which might have added materially to the offensive powers of the garrison, particularly if the siege had been prolonged.”
B.
“On the 29th of December, colonel Skerrett with a rare activity, dismounted a 32-pound carronade, that looked into the enemy’s batteries at the distance of about four hundred yards, and he succeeded in spiking and knocking off the trunnion of an 18-pounder, borrowed from the Stately. This gun was mounted on the tower of the Gusmans.”
General Campbell to lord Liverpool.
“January 3, 1812.
“Annexed is a letter received last night from colonel Skerrett; and, notwithstanding the despondency therein expressed, which has been equally so in other letters that I have received from him, my opinion remains the same as formerly.”
A.