During these marches O’Hare’s company were pushed forward, by mounting them behind the dragoons, and were on the 9th engaged all day in skirmishing; but without any loss.
On the 10th, the enemy having shown himself in great strength, in order to check the advance and to take up a position, the Battalion retired about half a league, and bivouacked in a pine-wood. On moving forward on the 11th it was found that the French had taken up a strong position at Pombal, occupying the old castle situated on an eminence and the town with infantry; the rest of their force being posted on the heights behind the town. Two companies of the 1st Battalion, O’Hare’s and another, with Elder’s Caçadores, dashed over the bridge leading to the town, and found the enemy in some houses near the bridge, from which they kept up a brisk fire; which the Riflemen, entering the opposite houses, returned for some time. Till at last Sergeant Fleming and a few men rushed into one of the houses held by the enemy and made several prisoners. Then the Riflemen drove them out of the houses. Lieutenant Hopwood, as he was entering one of them, got a bad wound in the thigh; pushing on they carried the castle, the key of the position; and pursuing the enemy, after some sharp fighting with their voltigeurs, who obstinately disputed ground which from its nature was very defensible, drove them completely out of Pombal. But continuing their pursuit too far, some were taken prisoners, and others escaped with difficulty. The combat continued till dark, which fell before Lord Wellington could bring up a sufficient body of troops to make a general attack. After this hard day’s fighting the Battalion bivouacked in a ploughed field, exposed to torrents of rain.
In this skirmish the two companies captured a grey horse, which carried the baggage of Colonel Soult, the nephew of the Marshal; and the contents were sold by auction by the captors in the bivouack; except his medals, which the men presented to Captain O’Hare, whose company had been actively engaged.
They stood to their arms before daylight, and found that the enemy had retired in the night. They immediately followed; and found the enemy posted in front of the town of Redinha; his right protected by some wooded heights; his left resting on the river Soure beyond Redinha, and well protected by ravines. In front was a large plain, which, when the Riflemen emerged from the defile leading to it, they found occupied by large bodies of troops. It was a bright Spring day, and the sight of the one army advancing over the plain the other in position on it, was splendid. The woods on the right of the position were immediately attacked by the left wing (four companies) of the 95th, under Major Stewart, which carried them and cleared them from the enemy in gallant style. This enabled Lord Wellington to form his line in front of the defile. At the same time the left of the position was attacked by the right wing of the 95th, under Major Gilmour, while the other regiments of the Light Division supported their attacks. The French rear-guard made gallant attempts to check their advance; but after a stubborn resistance they were driven through the town of Redinha and over the bridge; the Riflemen pressing them so hard, that they and the flying enemy passed over mixed together. Many of the enemy were forced over the battlements of the bridge; many threw themselves over to escape from their pursuers; and not a few were slain in the hand-to-hand fight on the bridge. On passing the bridge the rear-guard attempted to form on the height beyond; but the Light Division allowed them no respite, and they were driven towards Condeixa. The enemy’s guns occasionally gave our skirmishers some discharges of grape; but they pressed on till dark, when they were recalled, and bivouacked for the night on a height; the French army in the valley beneath, and the advanced sentries not more than two hundred yards from each other.
On this day Lieutenants Robert Beckwith and Chapman, of the 1st Battalion, were wounded; and of the 2nd Battalion, 4 rank and file were killed, and 9 wounded.
Lord Wellington, in his despatch, highly praises the conduct of the Regiment on this day, specially naming Majors Gilmour and Stewart; and in reference to driving the enemy’s right out of the wood, he says: ‘I have never seen the French infantry driven from a wood in a more gallant style;’[92] but by some mistake in Sir William Erskine’s report, he gives the credit of this exploit to the 52nd, while it was really performed, ‘to the admiration of the whole army,’ by four companies of the 1st Battalion.[93]
After some of the 1st Battalion skirmishers had towards evening driven the French before them, the officer commanding the latter held up his sword with a white handkerchief tied to it; and on coming to a parley, he told the officer commanding the Riflemen that he thought both parties needed some rest after a hard day’s work, and proposed a truce for the night. To this the Riflemen agreed; and asked him and his subalterns to share their rations. They very readily accepted the invitation; and after a scanty dinner of ration beef, and a little rum for beverage, they separated; one party to resume their retreat, the other their pursuit, next morning.
Three months after, Lieutenant Fitz-Maurice of the 95th, who had been present, was on picquet at Duas Casas, near the Agueda, when he saw a French officer limping towards him, who saluted him as an acquaintance. ‘Est-ce que vous ne me reconnaissez pas? I was one of your guests at Redinha. One of your men wounded me next morning. No matter. I come now not as a spy; but we have heard that you are short of rations; and I come, in return for your kindness, to offer you a share of ours.’ Fitz-Maurice was too old a soldier to admit that they were in want of supplies; though indeed they were; so, thanking him for his proffered kindness, which he declined (with great inward longing and regret, no doubt), they parted as good friends as they had been on the night of the fight at Redinha.
O’Hare’s and Balvaird’s companies being on picquet, an alarm was created by a Rifleman, Humphrey Allen, shooting a French sentry, in the hope of finding something in his mess-tin, because his own company had refused to share their provisions with him in consequence of his having skulked to the rear, carrying wounded, during the day. A general alarm took place, which brought Beckwith to the front.
On the 13th the Regiment marched to Condeixa and were left comparatively quiet on the roadside. For while some manœuvring took place to turn the enemy’s position, he evacuated it, having set the town of Condeixa on fire. As Lord Wellington was superintending these dispositions to turn the enemy’s flanks from a knoll close to the Regiment, some French tirailleurs crept near unperceived and fired at him and his Staff without success. Several Riflemen ran up to shoot or capture them, but they fled on their approach.