[CHAPTER IV.]
Soon after the capture of Badajos the command of the Light Division was given to Baron Charles Alten, and the two Brigades of which it consisted were commanded, one by Barnard, and afterwards by Sir James Kempt, and the other by General Vandeleur. On Craufurd’s death and Vandeleur’s wound at Ciudad Rodrigo, the command of the Division had devolved on Barnard. How well he handled it, and how gallantly he led it at Badajos, has already been recorded.
I may here note that Barnard, who had hitherto commanded the 3rd Battalion, soon after this period was transferred to the command of the 1st Battalion, in Beckwith’s place, who had, as already noted, gone home on account of his health, and did not again return to the Peninsula. He was one of the original officers of the Regiment, and a most excellent Rifleman. In here parting from him as a regimental officer, I may add Kincaid’s testimony to his merits. ‘He was,’ he says, ‘one of the ablest of outpost generals. Few officers knew so well how to make the most of a small force. His courage, coupled with his thorough knowledge of the soldier’s character, was of that cool, intrepid kind, that would at any time convert a routed rabble into an orderly, effective force. A better officer probably never led a brigade into the field.’[117]
On April 11, the Regiment broke up from the camp before Badajos and marched to the north. Before doing so the men were ordered to give up the articles which they had plundered in Badajos; and to prevent their secreting any of them, their packs were examined. Whatever was found was collected in heaps and burned. But for two or three days before, the men had been selling what they had taken; crowds of country people thronged the camp to purchase; and it presented almost the appearance of a fair. On the 11th, however, the Regiment marched to Campo Major. On the next day they proceeded to Arronches and bivouacked in a wood. The 13th they marched to Portalegre, and on the 14th to Niza. On the next day they crossed the Tagus at Villa Velha, the 1st Battalion being in Monte de Senhora and the 3rd Battalion at Sernadas. On the 16th the Regiment marched to Castello Branco. Here they halted one day to allow the supplies to come up and to rest the troops, and the day following moved to As Caldas de Cima and Loisa. Here they came very close to the rear-guard of the French; and as they were informed by the peasants at S. Miguel d’Arch, which they reached on the 20th, that the enemy were in force, they moved with great caution to Penamacor on the 21st, San Bartolomeo on the 22nd, and passing through Sabugal on the 23rd, bivouacked near Alfayate. The British force on the north of the Tagus being as yet small, and the enemy falling back in force, their march had to be conducted with great caution.
On the 24th they proceeded to Ituera, where they halted for two days, and from thence the Regiment occupied cantonments on the Agueda; the 1st Battalion being between Ituera and Castellejo de Azarva; and the 3rd Battalion at La Encina. Here every exertion was made to get the Regiment equipped for taking the field; the clothing was repaired, and shoes provided; and everything was done that could be done to turn the men out in good order for a summer campaign. Nevertheless, when the Regiment was reviewed by Lord Wellington on May 27 between Guinaldo and El Bodon, the clothing of the Riflemen was patched with pieces of many colours, and the dress of many of the officers was little better. But Lord Wellington, whose soldier’s eye measured not the spic-and-span appearance, but the endurance and daring of the men, told them that they ‘looked well and in good fighting order.’
On June 6 the 1st Battalion moved to El Bodon, and on the 11th the whole Regiment left their cantonments on the Agueda, and bivouacked in a wood near Ciudad Rodrigo; on the 13th, moving on Salamanca, they advanced to Alba de Yeltes; on the 14th to Sancho Bueno; and on the 15th to Matilla. On the next day they marched to within about five miles of Salamanca; and having crossed the Rio Valmusa, bivouacked near some low hills extending from that stream to the city. On the 17th they moved towards Salamanca; but the enemy having constructed forts which commanded the bridge over the Tormes, they were obliged to cross by a deepish ford about a mile further up the river, and bivouacked in a wood on the plain a little way from the ford.
On the 18th the Regiment moved from this bivouac to Aldea Seca, about a league and a half from Salamanca; and the enemy fell back after skirmishing with our cavalry.
On the following day the Regiment was suddenly called to arms, the enemy having appeared in force in front of the position; but no fighting took place, and the Regiment moved from the plain and occupied Monte Rubio.