E. Weller, lith., London.
London: Chatto & Windus.
BATTLE
OF
VITTORIA
21ST JUNE 1813
General Alten directed the baggage taken from the French at San Millan to be sold by auction, and the proceeds to be divided among the soldiers. Not only horses, mules and carts, and the usual baggage of an army were thus disposed of, but a variety of female attire was also found and sold; several Spanish ladies, the wives or chères amies of French officers, having been among the prisoners taken. The proceeds of this sale were divided only among the men of the second brigade, who were in fact the actual captors; very much to the discontent of the soldiers of the 1st and 3rd Battalions, who maintained that, if it had not been for their attack and discomfiture of the first French brigade, this booty would never have been taken.
On the 21st the Regiment fell in at daylight and advanced, the 1st Battalion leading, over some high ground; and having arrived early near the river Zadorra, which flowing from near Vittoria turns at nearly a right angle towards Miranda, were ordered to pile arms. The river was thus in their front, flowing from their left to their right, and then again turning round their right flank. While they were thus resting with piled arms, Lord Wellington rode up, and advancing to the very bank of the river, observed the enemy’s position. This was not unnoticed by the French, who detached a cloud of voltigeurs, who, rushing across a bridge at the village of Villodas, seized a woody height on the side of the river our men occupied, and opened a fire on the Staff. The 3rd Battalion and two companies of the 1st Battalion which stood next to them, were immediately ordered to stand to their arms, and drive them back. This they did in a very short time; and thus they, and not General Hill’s division, as has been generally said, began that memorable battle.[121] They drove the French out of the woody height, through the village and over the bridge; but not having orders to cross, they extended along the river’s bank, as did the voltigeurs on their side, and many men fell; for the river was not broad, and a desultory fire was kept up. And as soon as the French were clear of the village a cannonade was opened from a battery on some high ground beyond the Zadorra, by which many men were killed. For the ground was rocky, and our men were dispersed among the rocks, and the fragments splintered off by the cannon-balls wounded them almost as much as the balls themselves. One shot took some Riflemen, who were lining a garden-wall, in flank and swept off several men at once.
Their task having been accomplished by clearing the village, some of the officers and half a company of the 3rd Battalion took post at the church of Villodas, and observed the course of the battle. General Hill’s force had now possession of the range of hills on the enemy’s left; while the smoke and booming of cannon on the right of their position showed that Sir Thomas Graham had commenced his attack on that flank. At this moment, about twelve o’clock, a peasant gave information that one of the bridges over the Zadorra was undefended, and the 1st and 3rd Battalions, moving to their left along the bank of the river, crossed by it (the bridge of Tres Puentes) at the point where the Zadorra bends with a right angle, and ascending the high ground halted just under the brow of the hill. While they were there the 3rd Division were seen advancing to the bridge of Mendoza next on the left to that by which the Riflemen had crossed; and the French observing them sent down some cavalry and light troops to oppose them, while a battery of French guns opened fire upon them. At this moment Barnard, with great promptitude, led his Battalion to the left, between the French cavalry and the river, and took the light troops and artillerymen in flank with such a severe fire, that he drove them off and enabled the 3rd Division to cross the river without opposition or loss. But the English gunners, who from the opposite bank were replying to the fire of the French battery, not distinguishing the dark dress of our men, who were in close contest with the enemy’s skirmishers, continued to pound them, and several men thus fell by the fire of our own guns. Nor was it till the head of Picton’s Division came over the bridge and joined the Riflemen that they ceased their fire.
The Light Division covered by the skirmishers of the 1st and 3rd Battalions, and the 3rd Division covered by two companies of the 1st Battalion, now advanced and pushed up the conical hill in front of Arinez, the centre of the enemy’s position. In this advance Lord Wellington rode close behind the two 1st Battalion companies, which were heading the 3rd Division,[122] calling out to the men ‘That’s right, my lads; keep up a good fire.’ The Battalion soon cleared the hill, and were going down the other side, when they were stopped by a wall at the entrance of the village of Arinez, behind which the enemy had posted some battalions of infantry, who on our men coming over the hill opened a sudden blaze of fire, which checked them. But only for a moment; for running forward they occupied one side of the wall while the enemy held the other. And in the few minutes they were there two officers and thirty men of the Battalion fell. Then some of the 3rd Division, having deployed into line, gave the French a volley, which dislodged them; and the Riflemen clearing the wall, rushed into and through the village, and took three guns, the first which were captured that day. The first of these was taken by Lieutenant Fitz-Maurice and two privates of the 1st Battalion. Observing that the French artillery, a battery of six guns, was retreating, and believing that he could intercept it, Fitz-Maurice started with his company; but they being in heavy marching order, were not able to keep up with him. Five guns had passed before he reached the road; he caught the leading horses of the sixth, and stopped them. The driver drew a pistol and fired at him, but the bullet passed through his cap. He called on the two men who were with him to fire, and one of the horses fell, which completely checked the gun. Then the rest of the company came up, cut the traces, and made the three drivers and four gunners prisoners. However, just beyond Arinez the enemy rallied a strong battalion, who advancing on the Riflemen forced them to retreat about a hundred yards, and to give up possession of the captured guns. But as our men had cut the traces with their swords, taken away the horses, and killed many of the gunners, when they saw the head of the 3rd Division advancing, they went forward again; and thus reinforced, drove the enemy finally from the village, and recaptured and retained possession of the guns.
In the meantime the 2nd Battalion with the 2nd brigade of the Light Division were hotly engaged at the village of Margarita, to the left of Arinez; but that village being carried and the enemy being driven off, they also advanced on the left of the other two Battalions.
The whole Regiment then continued to advance in the direction of Vittoria. On their right a large body of the enemy, which had been driven by General Hill from the high ground on that flank, were marching in a parallel direction. They were at first supposed to be Spaniards; and on its being ascertained that they were French, it was a question with the commanding officer of one of the Rifle Battalions whether he should not attack them. But his orders were to make the best of his way to his front; and he did not like to depart from them. Moreover the intervening ground was bad, and it might not have been easy to close with them. So hurrying on and outstripping our people, they joined their main army in retreat.
As the Riflemen advanced they came to a village where there was a French battery which cannonaded them severely. They formed lines of Battalions and lay down in some ploughed fields, still exposed in some degree to the enemy’s fire. In about half-an-hour they moved on; and with little check passed through the city of Vittoria and proceeded about three miles beyond it, the enemy having abandoned all their positions and flying before them. Here they bivouacked, having been on foot since three o’clock in the morning, and having fought almost all that time, over about twenty miles of ground.