Colonel Norcott was conspicuous, riding about on a tall black mare: he was early in the day wounded in the shoulder. George Simmons late in the day was wounded in the knee. When he was down the French continuing to fire at him, his servant, Henry Short, a brave Rifleman, ran up and deliberately placing himself in the line of fire, said ‘You shall not hit him again except through my body.’
Amongst this carnage some curious, some almost ludicrous, circumstances occurred. A captain of the Regiment was struck by a ball on a flask or drinking-horn which he carried at his side. The force of the ball knocked him down and for the moment stunned him. The men thinking he was killed, or desperately wounded, were carrying him to the rear, when he revived and called out ‘Stop, let me feel;’ when finding he was unhurt except by the blow, he leaped out of their arms, and again headed his company. His return was heralded by shouts of laughter, so ludicrous was the whole episode, though the fight was at the thickest, and the men falling fast.
When the Riflemen were occupying their camp on the Pyrenees, an owl had taken up its quarters with them, and always pitched on the tent of Lieutenant Doyle, who was killed at the Nivelle. Its accustomed haunt being gone, it transferred its perch to Captain Duncan’s tent. The joke ran, in the rough mirth of the camp, that he must be next on the roster; a joke of which he neither liked the point, nor saw the wit. Yet so it was that he fell in this day of Tarbes.
This fight was a strictly regimental one; for (as I have said) the Rifle Battalions only were engaged. It excited the admiration of their companions in arms. One of them, an eye-witness, thus speaks of this action: ‘Our Rifles were immediately sent to dislodge the French from the hills on our left, and our battalion was ordered to support them. Nothing could exceed the manner in which the ninety-fifth set about this business. Certainly I never saw such skirmishers as the ninety-fifth, now the Rifle Brigade. They could do the work much better and with infinitely less loss than any other of our best light troops. They possessed an individual boldness, a mutual understanding, and a quickness of eye in taking advantage of the ground, which, taken altogether, I never saw equalled. They were in fact as much superior to the French Voltigeurs as the latter were to our skirmishers in general. As our regiment was often employed in supporting them, I think I am fairly qualified to speak of their merits.’[135]
The enemy having been driven from the hill retreated across the plain, which was covered with the pursued and the pursuers. As they were crossing it, the Riflemen came upon a considerable body of the French who were retreating from the town of Tarbes, whence they had been driven by the 3rd Division; and it was proposed that the Riflemen, quickening their pace, should fall upon their flank and intercept them. But the French were too quick for them. For perceiving their intention, they inclined to the right and got away.
The enemy having crossed the plain took up a strong position on some heights at the extremity of it; but while Lord Wellington was making dispositions to attack them, darkness came on; and the Riflemen bivouacked that night on the plain. The French cannonaded the bivouack from the height, but the fire was almost harmless; and as the troops did not move from the ground on which they had bivouacked, it gradually ceased. And in the night the enemy abandoned the position and continued their retreat; pursued in the morning by the Riflemen, who halted that night at Lannemazen. The next day they proceeded, still in pursuit, to Castelnau. And starting early in the morning of the 24th, halted that night at L’Isle-en-Dodon. And on the next day (moving on Toulouse) reached Mont Ferrand. On the 27th they advanced to the village of Tournefeuille, a little beyond which the enemy still held some ground, occupying some hedges and enclosures, in front of a bridge about half a mile from the village. The 3rd Battalion and a Portuguese regiment were ordered to dislodge them. And the Riflemen extending to the left while the Portuguese moved on the road, the French gradually fell back towards the bridge and crossed it, taking the road to Toulouse; and the Riflemen did not pursue. The loss was trifling. But a most curious circumstance occurred during this skirmish. A Rifleman of the name of Powell was shot in the mouth, the ball knocking several of his teeth out. One of these struck a Portuguese and wounded him in the arm. The surgeon of the 43rd who happened to be at hand, dressing the wound of the Portuguese, found in it not a bullet but a tooth. On this the cry went among the Riflemen that ‘The French were firing bones and not bullets.’
On enquiry being made and the relative positions of the Portuguese soldier and Powell being ascertained, no doubt remained that his tooth had caused the wound. Powell was afterwards killed by a cannon-ball near New Orleans. I relate this extraordinary circumstance on the authority of Surtees, who was near Powell at the time he was wounded, and who minutely examined into the circumstances at the time. I ought to add that I have invariably found Surtees’ statements corroborated in every particular by the relations or journals of others; and as he was a man of strong religious impressions his veracity cannot I think be questioned.
On the 29th the Regiment moved forward to near Toulouse, and occupied some villages and châteaux in the neighbourhood. On the 31st the engineers attempted to throw a bridge over the Garonne above its junction with the Ariège above the town, and the Regiment was assembled to pass it; but the number of pontoons being insufficient, and it not being possible to construct a bridge on trestles, they returned to their cantonments. But it would seem that the 3rd Battalion did cross (ferried over probably)[136] and were left as a picquet in one of the villages on the bank.[137]
On April 2 all had recrossed the Garonne, and again occupied cantonments, on this occasion the houses occupied being lower down the river than those in which they were formerly cantoned; the 3rd Battalion were quartered in a wine-store, amongst the casks of which the men slept. During the time they occupied it no depredation whatever was committed, nor was any man of the Battalion found to be drunk. On the 6th the Regiment moved down the river towards Grenade, and encamped near the village of Seilh. A bridge of pontoons had been thrown across the Garonne here, and some divisions had crossed; but the river having risen, and fallen trees having been floated down the river, the pontoons broke away from the right bank, and were swung round with the stream, being still fast to the left bank. Though exertions were made to re-establish it, it was not practicable till the 9th. And early in the morning of the 10th the Regiment with the other troops of the Light Division crossed it, and moved up into position in front of Toulouse. The roads were excellent, and they quickly attained the position they were to occupy. Their right, the 3rd Battalion, was to touch Picton’s left, and the left was to communicate with the Spanish force under General Freyre. In front of the Riflemen the enemy occupied some houses, and they had constructed a battery near the bridge over the canal of Languedoc; and at the end of the bridge stood a Convent which they had loop-holed and fortified in a very effective manner. The Riflemen commenced by driving the enemy from the houses, and keeping up their attention during the day. But some of the 3rd Battalion (and of Picton’s division on their right) pushed on too far, and getting under the fire of the defenders of the Convent, they suffered severely. To cover themselves they had to leap into an open sewer; and detestable as was this position, they had to remain in it for some time, so severe was the fire of their opponents. But on the left of the Riflemen a different scene was taking place. The Spaniards had claimed, as a place of honour, to lead the attack on the Calvinet. Their rout and their flight under the fire of its defenders are well known. The Riflemen, and the other regiments of the Light Division, were mainly occupied during the day in covering the retreat of the Spaniards, who re-formed more than once and advanced to the attack; but always to be repulsed by the French fire, and to fly from it. As often as the English troops interposed, the French retired; as often as they left the fight to the Spaniards, the French pursued them.
When the left of the Division was thus occupied in shielding the flying Spaniards the French rushed out again with loud cries, in front of the 3rd Battalion, and only with hard fighting were again driven in. So the battle raged till about four o’clock, when Beresford having carried the heights on the left of the Riflemen, the French withdrew within the place, and the battle ended.