Soult knew of the intended operations against his left on the 12th, but hearing the allies had collected boats and constructed a fresh battery near Urt on the Upper Adour, and that the pontoons had reached Urcurray, he thought lord Wellington designed to turn his left with Hill’s corps, to press him on the Bidouze with Beresford’s, and to keep the garrison of Bayonne in check with the Spaniards while Hope crossed the Adour above that fortress. Wherefore, on the 14th, when Hill’s movement commenced, he repaired to Passarou near the Bastide de Clerence and made his dispositions to dispute the passage, first of the Bidouze and the Soissons or Gave of Mauleon, and then of the Gave of Oleron. He had four divisions in hand with which he occupied a position on the 15th along the Bidouze; and heSoult’s Official Reports, MSS. recalled general Paris, posting him on the road between St. Palais and St. Jean Pied de Port, with a view to watch Mina’s battalions which he supposed to be more numerous than they really were. Jaca thus abandoned capitulated on the 17th, the garrison returning to France on condition of not serving until exchanged. This part of the capitulation it appears was broken by the French, but the recent violation by the Spaniards of the convention made with the deluded garrisons of Lerida, Mequinenza, and Monzon, furnished a reply.
Harispe, having Paris under his command and being supported by Pierre Soult with a brigade of light cavalry, now covered the road from St. Jean Pied de Port with his left, and the upper line of the Bidouze with his right. Lower down that river, Villatte occupied Ilharre, Taupin was on the heights of Bergoney below Villatte, and Foy guarded the banks of the river from Came to its confluence with the Adour. The rest of the army remained under D’Erlon on the right of the latter river.
Combat of Garris.—Harispe had just taken a position in advance of the Bidouze, on a height called the Garris mountain which stretched to St. Palais, when his rear-guard came plunging into a deep ravine in his front closely followed by the light troops of the second division. Upon the parallel counter-ridge thus gained by the allies general Hill’s corps was immediately established, and though the evening was beginning to close the skirmishers descended into the ravine, and two guns played over it upon Harispe’s troops. These last to the number of four thousand were drawn up on the opposite mountain, and in this state of affairs Wellington arrived. He was anxious to turn the line of the Bidouze before Soult could strengthen himself there, and seeing that the communication with general Paris by St. Palais was not well maintained, sent Morillo by a flank march along the ridge now occupied by the allies towards that place; then menacing the enemy’s centre with Le Cor’s Portuguese division he at the same time directed the thirty-ninth and twenty-eighth regiments forming Pringle’s brigade to attack, observing with a concise energy, “you must take the hill before dark.”
The expression caught the attention of theMemoir of the action published in the United Service Journal. troops, and it was repeated by colonel O’Callaghan as he and general Pringle placed themselves at the head of the thirty-ninth, which, followed by the twenty-eighth, rushed with loud and prolonged shouts into the ravine. The French fire was violent, Pringle fell wounded and most of the mounted officers had their horses killed, but the troops covered by the thick wood gained with little loss the summit of the Garris mountain, on the right of the enemy who thought from the shouting that a larger force was coming against them and retreated. The thirty-ninth then wheeled to their own right intending to sweep the summit, but soon the French discovering their error came back at a charging pace, and receiving a volley without flinching tried the bayonet. Colonel O’Callaghan distinguished by his strength and courage received two strokes of that weapon but repaid them with fatal power in each instance, and the French, nearly all conscripts, were beaten off. Twice however they came back and fought until the fire of the twenty-eighth was beginning to be felt, when Harispe seeing the remainder of the second division ready to support the attack, Le Cor’s Portuguese advancing against the centre, and the Spaniards in march towards St. Palais, retreated to that town and calling in Paris[ See Plan 9.] from the side of Mauleon immediately broke down the bridges over the Bidouze. He lost on this day nearly five hundred men, of whom two hundred were prisoners, and he would hardly have escaped if Morillo had not been slow. The allies lost only one hundred and sixty of whom not more than fifty fell at Garris, and these chiefly in the bayonet contest, for the trees and the darkness screened them at first.
During these operations at Garris Picton moved from Bonloc to Oreque, on Hill’s left, menacing Villatte, but though Beresford’s scouting parties, acting on the left of Picton, approached the Bidouze facing Taupin and Foy, his principal force remained on the Gamboury, the pivot upon which Wellington’s line hinged while the right sweeping forward turned the French positions. Foy however though in retreat observed the movement of the fourth and seventh divisions on the heights between the Nive and the Adour, pointing their march as he thought towards the French left, and his reports to that effect reached Soult at the moment that general Blondeau gave notice of the investment of St. Jean Pied de Port. The French general being thus convinced that lord Wellington’s design was not to pass the Adour above Bayonne, but to gain the line of that river by constantly turning the French left, made new dispositions.
The line of the Bidouze was strong, if he could have supported Harispe at St. Palais, and guarded at the same time the passage of the Soissons at Mauleon; but this would have extended his front, already too wide, wherefore he resolved to abandon both the Bidouze and the Soissons and take the line of the Gave d’Oleron, placing his right at Peyrehorade and his left at Navarrens. In this view D’Erlon was ordered to pass the Adour by the flying bridge at the Port de Landes and take post on the left bank of that river, while Harispe, having Paris’ infantry still attached to his division, defended the Gave de Mauleon and pushed parties onSoult’s Official Report. his left towards the town of that name. Villatte occupied Sauveterre, where the bridge was fortified with a head on the left bank, and from thence Taupin lined the right bank to Sordes near the confluence of the Gave de Pau. Foy occupied the works of the bridge-head at Peyrehorade and Hastingues guarding that river to its confluence with the Adour; this line was prolonged by D’Erlon towards Dax, but Soult still kept advanced parties on the lower Bidouze at the different entrenched passages of that river. One brigade of cavalry was in reserve at Sauveterre, another distributed along the line. Head-quarters were transported to Orthes, and the parc of artillery to Aire. The principal magazines of ammunition were however at Bayonne, Navarrens, and Dax, and the French general seeing that his communications with all these places were likely to be intercepted before he could remove his stores, anticipated distress and wrote to the minister of war to form new depôts.
On the 16th lord Wellington repaired the broken bridges of St. Palais, after a skirmish in which a few men were wounded. Hill then crossed the Bidouze, the cavalry and artillery by the repaired bridge, the infantry by the fords, but the day being spent in the operation the head of the column only marched beyond St. Palais. Meanwhile the fourth and part of the seventh divisions occupied the Bastide de Clerence on the right of the Joyeuse, and the light division came up in support to the heights of La Costa on the left bank of that river.
The 17th Hill, marching at eight o’clock, passed through Domenzain towards the Soissons, while the third division advancing from Oreque on his left passed by Masparraute to the heights of Somberraute, both corps converging upon general Paris, who was in position at Arriveriete to defend the Soissons above its confluence with the Gave d’Oleron. The French outposts were immediately driven across the Gave. General Paris attempted to destroy the bridge of Arriveriete but lord Wellington was too quick; the ninety-second regiment covered by the fire of some guns crossed at a ford above the bridge, and beating two French battalions from the village secured the passage. The allies then halted for the day near Arriveriete having marched only five miles and lost one man killed with twenty-three wounded. Paris relinquished the Soissons but remained between the two rivers during the night and retired on the morning of the 18th. The allies then seized the great road, which here runs from Sauveterre to Navarrens up the left bank of the Oleron Gave.
Harispe, Villatte, and Paris, supported by a brigadeSoult’s Official Correspondence, MSS. of cavalry were now at Sauveterre occupying the bridge-head on the left bank, Taupin’s division was opposite the Bastide de Bearn lower down on the right, Foy on the right of Taupin, and D’Erlon on the left of the Adour above its confluence with the Gave de Pau. Meanwhile the fourth division advanced to Bidache on the Bidouze, and the light division followed in support to the Bastide de Clerence, the seventh division remaining as before, partly in that vicinity partly extended on the left to the Adour. The cavalry of the centre, under sir Stapleton Cotton, arrived also on the banks of the Bidouze connecting the fourth with the third division at Somberraute. In this state of affairs Hill sent Morillo up the Soissons to guard the fords as high as Nabas, then spreading Fane’s cavalry and the British and Portuguese infantry between that river and the Gave d’Oleron, he occupied all the villages along the road to Navarrens and at the same time cannonaded the bridge-head of Sauveterre.
Soult thrown from the commencement of the operations entirely upon the defensive was now at a loss to discover his adversary’s object. The situation of the seventh division, and the march of the fourth and light divisions, led him to think his works at Hastingues and Peyrehorade would be assailed. The weakness of his line, he having only Taupin’s division to guard the river between Sauveterre and Sordes a distance of ten miles, made him fear the passage of the Gave would be forced near the Bastide de Bearn, to which post there was a good road from Came and Bidache. On the other hand the prolongation of Hill’s line up the Gave towards Navarrens indicated a design to march on Pau, or it might be to keep him in check on the Gaves while the camp at Bayonne was assaulted. In this uncertainty he sent Pierre Soult, with a cavalry brigade and two battalions of infantry to act between Oleron and Pau, and keep open a communication with the partizan corps forming at Mauleon. That done he decided to hold the Gaves as long as he could, and when they were forced, to abandon the defensive concentrate his whole force at Orthes and fall suddenly upon the first of the allies’ converging columns that approached him.