Again forming the rear-guard, the Regiment marched at midnight, and about eight o’clock on the morning of the 28th reached a position on the height near Soita in a wood of enormous chestnut-trees, many of which were hollow from age and of such dimensions that men might have been and were sheltered in them. Lord Wellington was here in a very strong position; and Marmont having effected his principal object of re-victualling Ciudad Rodrigo, declined to give battle, and retired.
The Regiment on October 1 marched to Aldea Velha, and resumed its cantonments on the Agueda at Castellejo de Duas Casas, Martiago, Atalaya, Robleda, etc.
The Regiment now (with the Light Division) maintained the blockade of Ciudad Rodrigo, and there is little to record of its movements until the commencement of the more active operations of the siege.
On November 2, however, information having been received that a considerable body of French troops were in motion to escort a new governor to Rodrigo (the former one, General Renaud, having been taken prisoner near the place by Don Julian Sanchez and his guerillas), the Regiment moved up nearer to the fortress on this morning; but it having been ascertained that the governor had succeeded in entering the place, and that the escort was bivouacked two leagues in its rear, the Regiment fell back to its former cantonments.
On the 20th Lord Wellington inspected the Regiment (with the rest of the Division) between El Bodon and Fuente Guinaldo. The Regiment had marched from its cantonments in the morning and returned to them after the inspection.
About this time, or rather earlier, Colonel Beckwith went to England on account of his health, and Barnard (commanding the 3rd Battalion) took command of his brigade.
On January 4 the troops intended to carry on the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo were moved up near the place. In an incessant fall of cold rain the Riflemen forded the Agueda; the water being nearly up to their shoulders, the men were obliged to put their pouches on the top of their knapsacks and to hold on to one another to prevent their being swept away by the current. The Light Division occupied Pastores, La Encina, and El Bodon. No sufficient arrangements having been made for their quarters, houses were with difficulty obtained, and officers and men were huddled together wherever they could find shelter. Next day, however, better arrangements were made, and the companies of Riflemen were housed separately.
On the 8th the Regiment crossed the Agueda before daylight on a bitterly cold morning at the ford of Cantarona, near the Convent of La Caridad; the water was about knee-deep; and passing round a hill to the north of the town near San Francisco and out of range of the enemy’s guns, they halted. Several French officers appeared and spoke to the officers of the 95th with great politeness, being anxious to ascertain, as it seemed, what this movement meant.
It was not long before they learned; for at nine o’clock that evening a party of 300 men of the Light Division, under Colonel Colborne of the 52nd, stormed the detached fort of San Francisco. Captain Crampton’s company of the 1st Battalion first formed upon the crest of the glacis, followed by Travers’s company of the 3rd Battalion, and another company, commanded by Lieutenant Macnamara, of the 1st Battalion. In a moment they were in the ditch and swarming over the parapet. Three guns were taken, 2 captains and 48 men made prisoners, and the rest of the garrison were killed. In this attack Second Lieutenant Rutherford Hawksley, ‘a most promising young man,’ was severely wounded, and died of his wounds. The officer commanding this outwork, a smart, talkative little Frenchman, was, when made prisoner, brought to General Craufurd. He had been stripped by the Portuguese and had nothing on but trousers, and was bleeding from the nose and mouth. Craufurd having expressed regret that he could not furnish him with clothing, Tom Crawley, a well-known private in the 1st Battalion, stepped forward, and saluting, said, ‘He may have my great coat, your honour.’ Craufurd, who was much pleased, said,’You are very good, Rifleman; let him have it.’ Almost at the same time a sergeant was brought in, stripped naked by the Portuguese; he embraced his captain and burst into tears. Harry Smith, then on Craufurd’s Staff, gave him his handkerchief to cover his nakedness.[107]
The capture of this work enabled the working parties immediately to begin the first parallel. The garrison kept up an incessant fire of shot and shell, but by daylight the men were well covered. Early on the 9th the Light Division were relieved by the 1st. The French from the old square tower of the cathedral had a good view of this relief, and a furious fire was kept up on the advancing and retiring Divisions.