The waters subsided in the night as quickly as they had risen, but at daylight a living stream of French grenadiers glided swiftly down the bed of the river, and as if assured of victory, arrived, without shout or tumult, within a few yards of the walls, when, instead of quitting the hollow, to reach the breach, they, like the torrent of the night, continued their rapid course and dashed against the portcullis. The British soldiers, who had hitherto been silent and observant, as if at a spectacle which they were expected to applaud, now arose, and with a crashing volley smote the head of the French column! The leading officer, covered with wounds, fell against the portcullis and gave up his sword through the bars to colonel Gough; the French drummer, a gallant boy, who was beating the charge, dropped lifeless by his officer’s side, and the dead and wounded filled the hollow. The remainder of the assailants then breaking out to the right and left, spread along the slopes of ground under the ramparts and opened a quick irregular musketry. At the same time, a number of men coming out of the trenches, leaped into pits digged in front, and shot fast at the garrison, but no escalade or diversion at the other points was made, and the storming column was dreadfully shattered. For the ramparts streamed forth fire, and from the north-eastern tower a field-piece, held in reserve expressly for the occasion, sent, at pistol-shot distance, a tempest of grape whistling through the French masses, which were swept away in such a dreadful manner, that they could no longer endure the destruction, but plunging once more into the hollow returned to their camp, while a shout of victory, mingled with the sound of musical instruments, passed round the wall of the town.
In this combat the allies lost five officers and1812. January. thirty-one men, but the French dead covered all the slopes in front of the rampart, and choked the bed of the river, and ten wounded officers, of whom only one survived, were brought in by the breach. Skerrett, compassionating their sufferings and admiring their bravery, permitted Laval to fetch off the remainder; and the operations of the siege were then suspended, for both sides suffered severely from the weather. The rain partially ruined the French batteries, interrupted their communications, and stopped their supplies; on the other hand the torrent, again swelling, broke the stockades of the allies and injured their retrenchments, and some vessels, coming from Gibraltar with ammunition, were wrecked on the coast. Nevertheless a fresh assault was hourly expected until the night of the 4th, when, several cannon-shots being heard in the French camp, without any bullets reaching the town, it was judged that the enemy were destroying the guns previous to retreating. Soon afterwards large fires were observed, and at daylight the troops issuing out of the convent, drove the enemy from the batteries, and commenced a skirmish with the rear-guard; but a heavy storm impeded the action; the French conducted their retreat skilfully, and the British, after making a few prisoners, relinquished the pursuit. Nevertheless Laval’s misfortunes did not end here. The privations his troops had endured in the trenches produced sickness; many men deserted, and it was computed, at the time, that theGeneral Campbell’s Correspondence, MSS. expedition cost the French not less than a thousand men, while the whole loss of the allies did not exceed one hundred and fifty.
Such is the simple tale of Tarifa, but the true history of its defence cannot there be found. To hide the errors of the dead is not always a virtue, and when it involves injustice to the living it becomes a crime; colonel Skerrett has obtained the credit, but he was not the author of the success at Tarifa. He, and lord Proby, the second in command, were from the first impressed with a notion, that the place could not be defended and ought to be abandoned; all their proceedings tended to that end, and they would even have abandoned the island. At colonel Skerrett’s express desire general Cooke had recalled him on the 18th, that is to say, the day before the siege commenced; and during its progress he neither evinced hopes of final success, nor made exertions to obtain it; in some instances he even took measures tending directly[Appendix, No. VI.] Section 3. towards failure. To whom then was England indebted for this splendid achievement? The merit of the conception is undoubtedly due to general Campbell, the lieutenant-governor of Gibraltar. He first occupied Tarifa, and he also engaged the Spaniards to admit an English garrison into Ceuta, that the navigation of the straits and the coasting trade might be secured; for he was the only authority in the south of the Peninsula who appeared to understand the true value of those points. Finally, it was his imperious and even menacing orders, which prevented colonel Skerrett from abandoning Tarifa before the siege commenced.
General Campbell’s resolution is the more to be admired, because Tarifa was, strictly speaking, not within his command, which did not extend beyond the walls of his own fortress; and he had also to contend against general Cooke, who claimed the controul of a garrison which was chiefly composed of troops from Cadiz. He acted also contrary to the opinion of lord Wellington, who, always averse to any serious co-operation with the Spaniards, as well knowing the latter would inevitably fail, and throw the burthen on the British in the hour of need, was in this instance more strongly influenced, because the reports of general Cooke, founded on colonel Skerrett’s and lord Proby’s representations, reprobated the defence of Tarifa. Thus misinformed of the real resources, and having no local knowledge of the place, lord Wellington judged, that the island only could be held—that Skerrett’s detachment was not wanting for that purpose—and that without the island the enemy could not keep possession of Tarifa. Were they even to take both, he thought they could[Appendix, No. VI.] Section 5. not retain them, while Ballesteros was in strength and succoured from Gibraltar, unless they also kept a strong force in those parts; finally, that the defence of the island was the least costly and the most certain. However, with that prudence, which always marked his proceedings, although he gave his opinion, he would not interfere from a distance, in a matter which could only be accurately judged of on the spot.
But the island had not a single house, and was defenceless; the rain alone, without reckoning the effects of the enemy’s shells, would have gone near to force the troops away; and as the shipping could not always remain in the roadstead, the building of casemates and barracks, and storehouses for provisions and ammunition, would have been more expensive than the defence of the town. Tarifa was therefore an outwork to the island, and one so capable of a good defence that a much more powerful attack had been expected, and a more powerful resistance prepared by the English engineer; a defence not resting on the valour of the troops alone, but upon a skilful calculation of all the real resources, and all the chances.
That the value of the object was worth the risk may be gathered from this, that Soult, three months after the siege, thus expressed himself, “The taking of Tarifa will be more hurtful to theIntercepted despatches, 17th April, 1812. English and to the defenders of Cadiz, than the taking of Alicant or even Badajos, where I cannot go without first securing my left and taking Tarifa.” And, besides the advantages already noticed as belonging to the possession of this place, it was close to Ceuta where there were a few British soldiers, but many French prisoners, and above two thousand discontented Spanish troops and galley-slaves; Ceuta, which was so neglected by theGeneral Campbell’s papers, MSS. Spanish regency that a French general, a prisoner, did not hesitate to propose to the governor to give it up to Soult as his only means of avoiding starvation. Neither would Soult have failed to strengthen himself at Tarifa in despite of Ballesteros, were it only to command the supplies of the[Appendix, No. VI.] Campiña, and those from Barbary which could but be brought to that port or to Conil: the latter was however seldom frequented by the Moors, because the run was long and precarious, whereas a favourable current always brought their craft well to Tarifa. Swarms of French gun-boats would therefore soon have given Soult the command of the coasting trade, if not of the entire straits.
Tarifa then was worth the efforts made for its defence; and setting aside the courage and devotion of the troops, without which nothing could have been effected, the merit chiefly appertains to sir Charles Smith, the captain of engineers. That officer’s vigour and capacity overmatched the enemy’s strength without, and the weakness and cajolement of those who did not wish to defend it within. Skerrett could not measure a talent above his own mark, and though he yielded to Smith’s energy, he did so with avowed reluctance, and dashed it with some wild actions, for which it is difficult to assign a motive; because he was not a dull man, and he was a brave man, as his death at Bergen-op-Zoom proved. But his military capacity was naught, and his mind did not easily catch another’s enthusiasm. Tarifa was the commentary upon Taragona.
During the siege, the engineer’s works in front were constantly impeded by colonel Skerrett; he would call off the labourers to prepare posts of retreat, and Smith’s desire to open the north-gate, (which had been built up,) that the troops might have egress in case of escalade, was opposed by him, although there was no other point for the garrison to sally, save by the sea-gate which was near the castle. On the 29th of December a shell, fired from the eighteen-pounder in the tower of the Gusmans, having bursted too soon, killed or wounded one of the inhabitants, and a deputation[Appendix, No. VI.] Section 3. of the citizens came to complain of the accident; Colonel Skerrett, although the breach was then open, immediately ordered that gun, and a thirty-two-pound caronade, which at four hundred yards looked into the French batteries, to be dismounted and spiked! and it was done! To crown this absurd conduct, he assigned the charge of the breach entirely to the Spanish troops, and if Smith had not insisted upon posting the forty-seventh British regiment alongside of them, this alone would have ruined the defence; because hunger, nakedness, and neglect, had broken the spirit of those poor men, and during the combat general Copons alone displayed the qualities of a gallant soldier.
To the British engineer, therefore, the praise of this splendid action is chiefly due; because he saw from the first all the resources of the place, and with equal firmness and talent developed them, notwithstanding the opposition of his superiors; because at the same time he, by skilful impositions, induced the enemy (whose attack should have embraced the suburbs and the north-west salient angle of the place) to open his trenches on the east, where the besieged, under the appearance of weakness, had concentrated all their strength; finally, because he repressed despondency where he failed to infuse confidence. The second in merit was captain Mitchell, of the artillery; because in the management of that arm for the defence of the town, his talent and enterprise were conspicuous, especially during the assault; nor can the result of this last event be taken as the just measure of either officer’s merits, seeing that a prolonged siege and a more skilful and powerful attack was expected. In the enemy’s camp was found the French engineer’s sketch for a renewed operation by a cautious and extensive system of mines and breaches; but nothing was there laid down that had not been already anticipated, and provided against by his British opponents. If then the defence of Tarifa was a great and splendid exploit, and none can doubt that it was, those who conceived, planned, and executed it should have all the glory. Amongst those persons colonel Skerrett has no right to be placed; yet, such are the errors of power, that he was highly applauded for what he did not do, and general Campbell was severely rebuked by lord Liverpool for having risked his Majesty’s troops!
The French displayed courage but no skill. For two days, their heavy howitzers had been directed vaguely against the interior of the town, and the distant island, whither the unfortunate people fled from their shattered and burning houses. A portion of the shells thus thrown away in cruelty would have levelled the north-east tower with the ground, and the French were aware of its importance; but throughout the siege their operations were mastered by the superior ability of the engineer and artillery officers opposed to them.