History of the war in the Peninsula and in the south of France from the year 1807 to the year 1814, vol. 6

by William Francis Patrick Napier

It was now evident that the victory must be won or lost by Beresford, and yet from Picton’s error lord Wellington had no reserves to enforce the decision; for the light division and the heavy cavalry only remained in hand, and these troops were necessarily retained to cover the rallying of the Spaniards, and to protect the artillery employed to keep the enemy in check. The crisis therefore approached with all happy promise to the French general. The repulse of Picton, the utter dispersion of the Spaniards, and the strength of the second line of entrenchments at St. Cyprien, enabled him to draw, first Taupin’s whole division, and then one of Maransin’s brigades from that quarter, to reinforce his battle on the Mont Rave. Thus three divisions and his cavalry, that is to say nearly fifteen thousand combatants, were disposable for an offensive movement without in any manner weakening the defence of his works on Mont Rave or on the canal. With this mass he might have fallen uponMorning States, MSS. Beresford, whose force, originally less than thirteen thousand bayonets, was cruelly reduced as it made slow and difficult way for two miles through a deep marshy country crossed and tangled with water-courses. For sometimes moving in mass, sometimes filing under the French musquetry, and always under the fire of their artillery from the Mont Rave, without a gun to reply, the length of the column had augmented so much at every step from the difficulty of the way that frequent halts were necessary to close up the ranks.

The flat miry ground between the river and the heights became narrower and deeper as the troops advanced, Berton’s cavalry was ahead, an impassable river was on the left, and three French divisions supported by artillery and horsemen overshadowed the right flank! Fortune came to their aid. Soult always eyeing their march, had, when the Spaniards were defeated, carried Taupin’s division to the platform of St. Sypiere, and supporting it with a brigade of D’Armagnac’s division disposed the whole about the redoubts. From thence after a short hortative to act vigorously he ordered Taupin to fall on with the utmost fury, at the same time directing a regiment of Vial’s cavalry to descend the heights by the Lavaur road and intercept the line of retreat, while Berton’s horsemen assailed the other flank from the side of the bridge of Bordes. But this was not half of the force which the French general might have employed. Taupin’s artillery, retarded in its march, was still in the streets of Toulouse, and that general instead of attacking at once took ground to his right, waiting until Beresford having completed his flank march had wheeled into lines at the foot of the heights.

Taupin’s infantry, unskilfully arranged for action it is said, at last poured down the hill, but some rockets discharged in good time ravaged the ranks and with their noise and terrible appearance, unknown before, dismayed the French soldiers; then the British skirmishers running forwards plied them with a biting fire, and Lambert’s brigade of the sixth division, aided by Anson’s brigade and some provisional battalions of the fourth division, for it is an error to say the sixth division alone repulsed this attack, Lambert’s brigade I say, rushed forwards with a terrible shout, and the French turning fled back to the upper ground. Vial’s horsemen trotting down the Lavaur road now charged on the right flank, but the second and third lines of the sixth division being thrown into squares repulsed them, and on the other flank general Cole had been so sudden in his advance up the heights, that Berton’s cavalry had no opportunity to charge. Lambert, following hard upon the beaten infantry in his front, killed Taupin, wounded a general of brigade, and without a check won the summit of the platform, his skirmishers even descended in pursuit on the reverse slope, and meanwhile, on his left, general Cole meeting with less resistance had still more rapidly gained the height at that side: so complete was the rout that the two redoubts were abandoned from panic, and the French with the utmost disorder sought shelter in the works of Sacarin and Cambon.

Soult astonished at this weakness in troops from whom he had expected so much, and who had but just before given him assurances of their resolution and confidence, was in fear that Beresford pushing his success would seize the bridge of the Demoiselles on the canal. Wherefore, covering the flight as he could with the remainder of Vial’s cavalry, he hastily led D’Armagnac’s reserve brigade to the works of Sacarin, checked the foremost British skirmishers and rallied the fugitives; Taupin’s guns arrived from the town at the same moment, and the mischief being stayed a part of Travot’s reserve immediately moved to defend the bridge of the Demoiselles. A fresh order of battle was thus organized, but the indomitable courage of the British soldiers overcoming all obstacles and all opposition, had decided the first great crisis of the fight.

Lambert’s brigade immediately wheeled to its right across the platform on the line of the Lavaur road, menacing the flank of the French on the Calvinet platform, while Pack’s Scotch brigade and Douglas’s Portuguese, composing the second and third lines of the sixth division, were disposed on the right with a view to march against the Colombette redoubts on the original front of the enemy. And now also the eighteenth and German hussars, having forced the bridge of Montaudran on the Ers river, came round the south end of the Mont Rave, where in conjunction with the skirmishers of the fourth division they menaced the bridge of the Demoiselles, from whence and from the works of Cambon and Sacarin the enemy’s guns played incessantly.

The aspect and form of the battle were thus entirely changed. The French thrown entirely on the defensive occupied three sides of a square. Their right, extending from the works of Sacarin to the redoubts of Calvinet and Colombette, was closely menaced by Lambert, who was solidly posted on the platform of St. Sypiere while the redoubts themselves were menaced by Pack and Douglas. The French left thrown back to the bridge-head of Matabiau awaited the renewed attack of the Spaniards, and the whole position was very strong, not exceeding a thousand yards on each side with the angles all defended by formidable works. The canal and city of Toulouse, its walls and entrenched suburbs, offered a sure refuge in case of disaster, while the Matabiau on one side, Sacarin and Cambon on the other, insured the power of retreat.

In this contracted space were concentrated Vial’s cavalry, the whole of Villatte’s division, one brigade of Maransin’s, another of D’Armagnac’s, and with the exception of the regiment driven from the St. Sypiere redoubt the whole of Harispe’s division. On the allies’ side therefore defeat had been staved off, but victory was still to be contended for, and with apparently inadequate means; for Picton being successfully opposed by Darricau was so far paralyzed, the Spaniards rallying slowly were not to be depended upon for another attack, and there remained only the heavy cavalry and the light division, which lord Wellington could not venture to thrust into the action under pain of being left without any reserve in the event of a repulse. The final stroke therefore was still to be made on the left, and with a very small force, seeing that Lambert’s brigade and the fourth division were necessarily employed to keep in check the French troops at the bridge of the Demoiselles, Cambon and Sacarin. This heavy mass, comprising one brigade of Travot’s reserve, the half of D’Armagnac’s division and all of Taupin’s, together with the regiment belonging to Harispe which had abandoned the forts of St. Sypiere, was commanded by general Clauzel, who disposed the greater part in advance of the entrenchments as if to retake the offensive.

Such was the state of affairs about half-past two o’clock, when Beresford renewed the action with Pack’s Scotch brigade, and the Portuguese of the sixth division under colonel Douglas. These troops, ensconced in the hollow Lavaur road on Lambert’s right, had been hitherto well protected from the fire of the French works, but now scrambling up the steep banks of that road, they wheeled to their left by wings of regiments as they could get out, and ascending the heights by the slope facing the Ers, under a wasting fire of cannon and musquetry carried all the French breast-works, and the Colombette, and Calvinet redoubts. It was a surprising action when the loose disorderly nature of the attack imposed by the difficulty of the ground is considered; but the French although they yielded at first to the thronging rush of the British troops soon rallied and came back with a reflux. Their cannonade was incessant, their reserves strong, and the struggle became terrible. For Harispe, who commanded in person at this part, and under whom the French seemed always to fight with redoubled vigour, brought up fresh men, and surrounding the two redoubts with a surging multitude absolutely broke into the Colombette, killed or wounded four-fifths of the forty-second, and drove the rest out. The British troops were however supported by the seventy-first and ninety-first, and the whole clinging to the brow of the hill fought with a wonderful courage and firmness, until so many men had fallen that their order of battle was reduced to a thin line of skirmishers. Some of the British cavalry then rode up from the low ground and attempted a charge, but they were stopped by a deep hollow road, of which there were many, and some of the foremost troopers tumbling headlong in perished. Meanwhile the combat about the redoubts continued fiercely, the French from their numbers had certainly the advantage, but they never retook the Calvinet fort, nor could they force their opponents down from the brow of the hill. At last when the whole of the sixth division had rallied and again assailed them, flank and front, when their generals Harispe and Baurot had fallen dangerously wounded and the Colombette was retaken by the seventy-ninth, the battle turned, and the French finally abandoned the platform, falling back partly by their right to Sacarin, partly by their left towards the bridge of Matabiau.

It was now about four o’clock. The Spaniards during this contest had once more partially attacked, but they were again put to flight, and the French thus remained masters of their entrenchments in that quarter; for the sixth division had been very hardly handled, and Beresford halted to reform his order of battle and receive his artillery: it came to him indeed about this time, yet with great difficulty and with little ammunition in consequence of the heavy cannonade it had previously furnished from Montblanc. However Soult seeing that the Spaniards, supported by the light division, had rallied a fourth time, that Picton again menaced the bridge of Jumeaux and the Minime convent, while Beresford, master of three-fourths of Mont Rave, was now advancing along the summit, deemed farther resistance useless and relinquished the northern end of the Calvinet platform also. About five o’clock he withdrew his whole army behind the canal, still however holding the advanced works of Sacarin and Cambon. Lord Wellington then established the Spaniards in the abandoned works and so became master of the Mont Rave in all its extent. Thus terminated the battle of Toulouse. The French had five generals, and perhaps three thousand men killed or wounded and they lost one piece of artillery. The allies lost four generals and four thousand six hundred and fifty-nine men and officers, of which two thousand were Spaniards. A lamentable spilling of blood, and a useless, for before this period Napoleon had abdicated the throne of France and a provisional government was constituted at Paris.