D’Armagnac’s division of D’Erlon’s corps now pushed close up to the bridge of Urdains, and Clauzel assembled his three divisions by degrees at Bussussary, opening meanwhile a sharp fire of musquetry. The position was however safe. The mansion-house on the right, covered by abbatis and not easily accessible, was defended by a rifle battalion and the Portuguese. The church and church-yard were occupied by the forty-third who were supported with two mountain-guns, their front being covered by a declivity of thick copse-wood, filled with riflemen, and only to be turned by narrow hollow roads leading on each side to the church. On the left the fifty-second now supported by the remainder of the division, spread as far as the great basin which separated the right wing from the ridge of Barrouilhet, towards which some small posts were pushed, but there was still a great interval between Alten’s and Hope’s positions.
The skirmishing fire grew hot, Clauzel brought up twelve guns to the ridge of Bussussary, with which he threw shot and shells into the church-yard of Arcangues, and four or five hundred infantry then made a rush forwards, but a heavy fire from the forty-third sent them back over the ridge where their guns were posted. Yet the practice of the latter, well directed at first, would have been murderous if this musquetry from the church-yard had not made the French gunners withdraw their pieces a little behind the ridge, which caused their shot to fly wild and high. General Kempt thinking the distance too great, was at first inclined to stop this fire, but the moment it lulled the French gunners pushed their pieces forwards again and their shells knocked down eight men in an instant. The small arms then recommenced and the shells again flew high. The French were in like manner kept at bay by the riflemen in the village and mansion-house, and the action, hottest where the fifty-second fought, continued all day. It was not very severe but it has been noticed in detail because both French and English writers, misled perhaps by an inaccurate phrase in the public despatch, have represented it as a desperate attack by which the light division was driven into its entrenchments, whereas it was the picquets only that were forced back, there were no entrenchments save those made on the spur of the moment by the soldiers in the church-yard, and the French can hardly be said to have attacked at all. The real battle was at Barrouilhet.
On that side Reille advancing with two divisions about nine o’clock, drove Campbell’s Portuguese from Anglet, and Sparre’s cavalry charging during the fight cut down a great many men. The French infantry then assailed the ridge at Barrouilhet, but moving along a narrow ridge and confined on each flank by the tanks, only two brigades could get into action by the main road, and the rain of the preceding night had rendered all the bye-roads so deep that it was mid-day before the French line of battle was filled. This delay saved the allies, for the attack here also was so unexpected, that the first division and lord Aylmer’s brigade were at rest in St. Jean de Luz and Bidart when the action commenced. The latter did not reach the position before eleven o’clock; the foot-guards did not march from St. Jean until after twelve, and only arrived at three o’clock in the afternoon when the fight was done; all the troops were exceedingly fatigued, only ten guns could be brought into play, and from some negligence part of the infantry were at first without ammunition.
Robinson’s brigade of the fifth division first arrived to support Campbell’s Portuguese, and fight the battle. The French spread their skirmishers along the whole valley in front of Biaritz, but their principal effort was directed by the great road and against the platform of Barrouilhet about the mayor’s house, where the ground was so thick of hedges and coppice-wood that a most confused fight took place. The assailants cutting ways through the hedges poured on in smaller or larger bodies as the openings allowed, and were immediately engaged with the defenders; at some points they were successful at others beaten back, and few knew what was going on to the right or left of where they stood. By degrees Reille engaged both his divisions, and some of Villatte’s reserve also entered the fight, and then Bradford’s Portuguese and lord Aylmer’s brigade arrived on the allies’ side, which enabled colonel Greville’s brigade of the fifth division, hitherto kept in reserve, to relieve Robinson’s; that general was however dangerously wounded and his troops suffered severely.
And now a very notable action was performed by the ninth regiment under colonel Cameron. This officer was on the extreme left of Greville’s brigade, Robinson’s being then shifted in second line and towards the right, Bradford’s brigade was at the mayor’s house some distance to the left of the ninth regiment, and the space between was occupied by a Portuguese battalion. There was in front of Greville’s brigade a thick hedge, but immediately opposite the ninth was a coppice-wood possessed by the enemy, whose skirmishers were continually gathering in masses and rushing out as if to assail the line, they were as often driven back, yet the ground was so broken that nothing could be seen beyond the flanks and when some time had passed in this manner, Cameron, who had received no orders, heard a sudden firing along the main road close to his left. His adjutant was sent to look out and returned immediately with intelligence that there was little fighting on the road, but a French regiment, which must have passed unseen in small bodies through the Portuguese between the ninth and the mayor’s house, was rapidly filing into line on the rear. The fourth BritishManuscript note by lieutenant-general sir John Cameron. regiment was then in close column at a short distance, and its commander colonel Piper was directed by Cameron to face about, march to the rear, and then bring up his left shoulder when he would infallibly fall in with the French regiment. Piper marched, but whether he misunderstood the order, took a wrong direction, or mistook the enemy for Portuguese, he passed them. No firing was heard, the adjutant again hurried to the rear, and returned with intelligence that the fourth regiment was not to be seen, but the enemy’s line was nearly formed. Cameron leaving fifty men to answer the skirmishing fire which now increased from the copse, immediately faced about and marched in line against the new enemy, who was about his own strength, as fast as the rough nature of the ground would permit. The French fire, slow at first, increased vehemently as the distance lessened, but when the ninth, coming close up, sprung forwards to the charge the adverse line broke and fled to the flanks in the utmost disorder. Those who made for their own right brushed the left of Greville’s brigade, and even carried off an officer of the royals in their rush, yet the greatest number were made prisoners, and the ninth having lost about eighty men and officers resumed their old ground.
The final result of the battle at Barrouilhet was the repulse of Reille’s divisions, but Villatte still menaced the right flank, and Foy, taking possession of the narrow ridge connecting Bussussary with the platform of Barrouilhet, threw his skirmishers into the great basin leading to Arbonne, and connecting his right with Reille’s left menaced Hope’s flank at Barrouilhet. This was about two o’clock, Soult, whose columns were now all in hand gave orders to renew the battle, and his masses were beginning to move when Clauzel reported that a large body of fresh troops, apparently coming from the other side of the Nive, was menacing D’Armagnac’s division from the heights above Urdains. Unable to account for this, Soult, who saw the guards and Germans moving up fast from St. Jean de Luz and all the unattached brigades already in line, hesitated, suspended his own attack, and ordered D’Erlon,Soult’s Official Report, MSS. who had two divisions in reserve, to detach one to the support of D’Armagnac: before this disposition could be completed the night fell.
The fresh troops seen by Clauzel were the third fourth sixth and seventh divisions, whose movements during the battle it is time to notice. When lord Wellington, who remained on the right of the Nive during the night of the 9th, discovered at daybreak, that the French had abandoned the heights in Hill’s front, he directed that officer to occupy them, and push parties close up to the entrenched camp of Mousseroles while his cavalry spread beyond Hasparen and up the Adour. Meanwhile, the cannonade on the left bank of the Nive being heard, he repaired in person to that side, first making the third and sixth divisions repass the river, and directing Beresford to lay another bridge of communication lower down the Nive, near Villefranque, to shorten the line of movement. When he reached the left of the Nive and saw how the battle stood, he made the seventh division close to the left from the hill of San Barbe, placed the third division at Urdains, and brought up the fourth division to an open heathy ridge on a hill about a mile behind the church of Arcangues. From this point general Cole sent Ross’s brigade down into the basin on the left of Colborne, to cover Arbonne, being prepared himself to march with his whole division if the enemy attempted to penetrate in force between Hope and Alten. These dispositions were for the most part completed about two o’clock, and thus Clauzel was held in check at Bussussary, and the renewed attack by Foy, Villatte, and Reille’s divisions on Barrouilhet prevented.
This day’s battle cost the Anglo-Portuguese more than twelve hundred men killed and wounded, two generals were amongst the latter and about three hundred men were made prisoners. The French had one general, Villatte, wounded, and lost about two thousand men, but when the action terminated two regiments of Nassau and one of Frankfort, the whole under the command of a colonel Kruse, came over to the allies. These men were not deserters. Their prince having abandoned Napoleon in Germany sent secret instructions to his troops to do so likewise, and in good time, for orders to disarm them reached Soult the next morning. The generals on each side, the one hoping to profit the other to prevent mischief, immediately transmitted notice of the event to Catalonia where several regiments of the same nations were serving. Lord Wellington failed for reasons to be hereafter mentioned, but Suchet disarmed his Germans with reluctance thinking they could be trusted, and the Nassau troops at Bayonne were perhaps less influenced by patriotism than by an old quarrel; for when belonging to the army of the centre they had forcibly foraged Soult’s district early in the year, and carried off the spoil in defiance of his authority, which gave rise to bitter disputes at the time and was probably not forgotten by him.
Combat of the 11th.—In the night of the 10th Reille withdrew behind the tanks as far as Pucho, Foy and Villatte likewise drew back along the connecting ridge towards Bussussary, thus uniting with Clauzel’s left and D’Erlon’s reserve, so that on the morning of the 11th the French army, with the exception of D’Armagnac’s division which remained in front of Urdains, was concentrated, for Soult feared a counter-attack. The French deserters indeed declared that Clauzel had formed a body of two thousand choice grenadiers to assault the village and church of Arcangues, but the day passed without any event in that quarter save a slight skirmish in which a few men were wounded. Not so on the side of Barrouilhet. There was a thick fog, and lord Wellington, desirous to ascertain what the French were about, directed the ninth regiment about ten o’clock to open a skirmish beyond the tanks towards Pucho, and to push the action if the French augmented their force. Cameron did so and the fight was becoming warm, when colonel Delancy, a staff-officer, rashly directed the ninth to enter the village. The error was soon and sharply corrected, for the fog cleared up, and Soult, who had twenty-four thousand men at that point, observing the ninth unsupported, ordered a counter-attack which was so strong and sudden that Cameron only saved his regiment with the aid of some Portuguese troops hastily brought up by sir John Hope. The fighting then ceased and lord Wellington went to the right, leaving Hope with orders to push back the French picquets and re-establish his former outposts on the connecting ridge towards Bussussary.