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

The town being thus taken, the Monte Orgullo was to be attacked, but it was very steep and difficult to assail. The castle served as a citadel and just below it four batteries connected with masonry stretched across the face of the hill. From the Mirador and Queen’s batteries at the extremities of this line, ramps, protected by redans, led to the convent of Santa Teresa which was the most salient part of the defence. On the side of Santa Clara and behind the mountain were some sea batteries, and if all these works had been of good construction, the troops fresh and well supplied, the siege would have been long and difficult; but the garrison was shattered by the recent assault, most of the engineers and leaders killed, the governor and many others wounded, five hundred men were sick or hurt, the soldiers fit for duty did not exceed thirteen hundred, and they had four hundred prisoners to guard. The castle was small, the bomb-proofs scarcely sufficed to protect the ammunition and provisions, and only ten guns remained in a condition for service, three of which were on the sea line. There was very little water and the troops were forced to lie out on the naked rock exposed to the fire of the besiegers, or only covered by the asperities of ground. General Rey and his brave garrison were however still resolute to fight, and they received nightly by sea supplies of ammunition though in small quantities.

Lord Wellington arrived the day after the assault.September. Regular approaches could not be carried up the steep naked rock, he doubted the power of vertical fire, and ordered batteries to be formed on the captured works of the town, intending to breach the enemy’s remaining lines of defence and then storm the Orgullo. And as the convent of Santa Teresa would enable the French to sally by the rampart on the left of the allies’ position in the town, he composed his first line with a few troops strongly barricaded, placing a supporting body in the market-place, and strong reserves on the high curtain and flank ramparts. Meanwhile from the convent, which being actually in the town might have been easily taken at first, the enemy killed many of the besiegers, and when after several days it was assaulted, they set the lower parts on fire and retired by a communication made from the roof to a ramp on the hill behind. All this time the flames were destroying the town, and the Orgullo was overwhelmed with shells shot upward from the besiegers’ batteries.

On the 3d of September, the governor being summoned to surrender demanded terms inadmissible, his resolution was not to be shaken, and the vertical fire was therefore continued day and night, though the British prisoners suffered as well as the enemy; for the officer commanding in the castle, irritated byJones’ Sieges. the misery of the garrison cruelly refused to let the unfortunate captives make trenches to cover themselves. The French on the other hand complainBellas’ Sieges. that their wounded and sick men, although placed in an empty magazine with a black flag flying, were fired upon by the besiegers, although the English prisoners in their red uniforms were placed around it to strengthen the claim of humanity.

The new breaching batteries were now commenced, one for three pieces on the isthmus, the other for seventeen pieces on the land front of the horn-work. These guns were brought from the Chofres at low water across the Urumea, at first in the night, but the difficulty of labouring in the water during darkness induced the artillery officers to transport the remainder in daylight, and within reach of the enemy’s batteries, which did not fire a shot. In the town the besiegers’ labours were impeded by the flaming houses, but near the foot of the hill the ruins furnished shelter for the musqueteers employed to gall the garrison, and the guns on the island of Santa Clara being reinforced were actively worked by the seamen. The besieged replied but little, their ammunition was scarce and the horrible vertical fire subdued their energy. In this manner the action was prolonged until the 8th of September when fifty-nine heavy battering pieces opened at once from the island the isthmus the horn-work and the Chofres. In two hours both the Mirador and the Queen’s battery were broken, the fire of the besieged was entirely extinguished, and the summit and face of the hill torn and furrowed in a frightful manner; the bread-ovens were destroyed, a magazine exploded, and the castle, small and crowded with men, was overlaid with the descending shells. Then the governor proudly bending to his fate surrendered. On the 9th this brave man and his heroic garrison, reduced to one-third of their original number and leaving five hundred wounded behind them in the hospital, marched out with the honours of war. The Spanish flag was hoisted under a salute of twenty-one guns, and the siege terminated after sixty-three days open trenches, precisely when the tempestuous season, beginning to vex the coast, would have rendered a continuance of the sea blockade impossible.

OBSERVATIONS.

1º. San Sebastian a third-rate fortress and in bad condition when first invested, resisted a besieging army, possessing an enormous battering train, for sixty-three days. This is to be attributed partly to the errors of the besiegers, principally to obstructions extraneous to the military operations. Amongst the last are to be reckoned the misconduct of the Admiralty, and the negligence of the government relative to the battering train and supply of ammunition; the latter retarded the second siege for sixteen days; the former enabled the garrison to keep up and even increase its means as the siege proceeded.

Next, in order and importance, was the failure of the Spanish authorities, who neglected to supply carts and boats from the country, and even refused the use of their public buildings for hospitals. Thus between the sea and the shore, receiving aid from neither, lord Wellington had to conduct an operation of war which more than any other depends for success upon labour and provident care. It was probably the first time that an important siege was maintained by women’s exertions; the stores of the besiegers were landed from boats rowed by Spanish girls!

Another impediment was Soult’s advance towards Pampeluna, but the positive effect of this was slight since the want of ammunition would have equally delayed the attack. The true measure of the English government’s negligence is thus obtained. It was more mischievous than the operations of sixty thousand men under a great general.

2º. The errors of execution having been before touched upon need no further illustration. The greatest difference between the first and second part of the siege preceding the assaults, was that in the latter, the approaches near the isthmus being carried further on and openings made in the sea-wall, the troops more easily and rapidly extricated themselves from the trenches, the distance to the breach was shortened, and the French fire bearing on the fronts of attack was somewhat less powerful. These advantages were considerable, but not proportionate to the enormous increase of the besiegers’ means; and it is quite clear from the terrible effects of the cannonade during the assault, that the whole of the defences might have been ruined, even those of the castle, if this overwhelming fire had in compliance with the rules of art been first employed to silence the enemy’s fire. A lodgement in the horn-work could then have been made with little difficulty, and the breach attacked without much danger.