Chapter I: Preface

While engaged during the last ten years in the task of mastering the original authorities of the history of the Napoleonic wars, I have had to peruse many scores of diaries, autobiographies, and reminiscences of the British military and naval officers who were engaged in the great struggle. They vary, of course, in interest and importance, in literary value, and in the power of vivid presentation of events. But they have this in common, that they are almost all very difficult to procure. Very few of them have been reprinted; indeed, I believe that the books of Lord Dundonald, Sir John Kincaid, Gleig, John Shipp, and Colonel Mercer are wellnigh the only ones which have passed through a second edition. Yet there are many others which contain matter of the highest interest, not only for the historical student but for every intelligent reader. From these I have made a selection of ten or a dozen which seem to me well worth republishing.

Among these is the present volume—the reminiscences of a subaltern of the Connaught Rangers, the old 88th. William Grattan was one of the well-known Dublin family of that name—a first-cousin of Thomas Colley Grattan the novelist, and a distant kinsman of Henry Grattan the statesman; he joined the regiment as ensign on July 6, 1809. He went out to the 1st Battalion, and reached it on the Caya late in 1809; he served with it till the spring of 1813, when he went home on leave, having obtained his lieutenancy on April 12, 1812. Thus he was for more than four years continuously with the colours, and saw Busaco, Fuentes d’Oñoro, El Bodon, the storms of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz, Salamanca, and the disastrous retreat from Burgos. He was only off duty for a few weeks in 1812, in consequence of a wound received at Badajoz. In the ranks of the 3rd Division—the “Fighting Division” as he is proud to call it—he saw a greater portion of the war than most of his contemporaries, though he missed Vittoria and the invasion of France which followed.

Grattan as an author had two great merits. He had a very considerable talent for describing battles--indeed some of his chapters would not have disgraced the pen of William Napier. Of the many memoirs which I have read, I think that his is on the whole the most graphic and picturesque in giving the details of actual conflict. His accounts of Fuentes D’Oñoro, Salamanca, and above all of the storm and sack of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz, are admirable. The reader will find in them precisely the touches that make the picture live. His second virtue is a lively sense of humour. The Connaught Rangers were the most Irish of all Irish regiments, and the “boys that took the world _aisy_,” as Grattan calls them, were as strange a set to manage as ever tried an officer’s temper. “I cannot bring myself to think them, as many did, a parcel of devils,” writes Grattan; “neither will I by any manner of means try to pass them off for so many saints” (pp. 128–129); but whether good or bad, they were always amusing. For the exploits of Ody Brophy and Dan Carsons, of Darby Rooney and Barney Mackguekin, I must refer the reader to the book itself. Their doings, as recorded by the much-tried commander of their company, explain clearly enough Sir Thomas Picton’s addiction to drum-head court-martials, and Lord Wellington’s occasional bursts of plain and drastic language.[1] But no one with any sense of the ludicrous can profess any very lasting feeling of indignation against these merry if unscrupulous rascals.

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Footnote 1:

See, for example, his remarks on the 88th to Sir James M’Grigor, on
page 259 of the latter’s autobiography.

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It is clearly from the domestic annals of the 88th that Charles Lever drew the greater part of the good stories which made the fortune of _Charles O’Malley_. The reader will find many of the characters of that excellent romance appearing as actual historical personages in Grattan, notably the eccentric surgeon Maurice Quill, whose fame was so great throughout the British army that the novelist did not even take the trouble to change his name. His colleague Dr. O’Reily was almost as great an original. Many of the humours of Mickey Free seem to be drawn directly from the doings of Grattan’s servant Dan Carsons. Comparing the “real thing” with the work of fiction, one is driven to conclude that much of what was regarded as rollicking invention on Lever’s part, was only a photographic reproduction of anecdotes that he had heard from old soldiers of the Connaught Rangers.

Military diaries are often disappointing from one of two causes. Either the author slips into second-hand and second-rate narratives of parts of the campaign which he did not himself witness—things which he had better have left to the professed historian—or he fails to give us those small traits of the daily life of the regiment which are needed to make us realise the actualities of war. Grattan sometimes falls into the first-named fault, but never into the latter. He seems to have had an instinctive knowledge of what future generations would want to know concerning the old Peninsular army—its trials in the matter of pay, food, and clothing, its shifts and devices, its views of life and death. If any one wishes to know why Sir Thomas Picton was unpopular, or what the private and the subaltern thought about Lord Wellington, they will find what they seek in these pages. Nowhere else have I seen the psychology of the stormers of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz dealt with in such a convincing fashion; let the reader note in particular pages 144–5 and 193–4.

I have to confess that in various parts of this reprint I have used the Editor’s license to delete a certain amount of the author’s original manuscript. Grattan had two besetting sins considered as a literary man. The first was one to which I have already made allusion. Not unfrequently he quitted his autobiographical narrative, and inserted long paragraphs concerning parts of the war of which he had no personal knowledge, _e.g._ about the movements of Hill’s corps in Estremadura, or of the Spaniards in remote corners of the Peninsula. These, as is natural, are often full of inaccuracies: sometimes (and this is a worse fault) they turn out to be taken almost _verbatim_ from formal histories, such as those of Colonel Jones and Lord Londonderry. In one place I found thirty lines which were practically identical with a passage in Napier. In all cases these relate to parts of the war which did not come under Grattan’s own eyes: I have therefore ventured to omit them.

Grattan’s other weakness was a tendency to fly off at a tangent in the middle of a piece of interesting narrative, in order to controvert the statements of writers with whom he disagreed. He had one special foe—Robinson, the biographer of Sir Thomas Picton, on whom he wasted many an objurgatory paragraph. These small controversial points, on which he turns aside, break the thread of his discourse in the most hopeless fashion, and are now of little interest. I have often, though not always, thought it well to leave out such divagations. At the end of the work, in a similar fashion, a long criticism on a certain speech of the Duke of Wellington in the House of Lords has been omitted. It deals with the story of the long-delayed issue of the war-medal for the Peninsula. The whole point of Grattan’s remarks (caustic but well justified in most respects) was removed when the medal was at last actually distributed, a few months after he had made his complaint.

The present volume stops short at the end of the Peninsular war. Grattan’s pen travelled farther. Encouraged by the success of his first book, he issued two supplementary volumes: these are of very inferior interest, being mainly concerned with the doings of the 88th in their early campaigns, before the author had joined them. There is much about Buenos Ayres, the Low Countries, and Talavera. The rest is composed of amusing but very rambling reminiscences of garrison life in Canada in 1814, and in France in 1815–1816, and of character sketches of some of Grattan’s contemporaries, such as the unfortunate Simon Fairfield, concerning whom the reader will find certain information on pages 130–1 and 324 of this reprint. The whole of these two volumes consists of mere _disjecta membra_, much inferior in interest to the first two which the author had produced.

Grattan’s military service, which had begun in 1808, ended in 1817, in consequence of the enormous reductions in the effective of the army which were carried out after the evacuation of France began. His name last appears among combatant officers in the army list for March 1817, the month in which the 88th was reduced from two battalions to one, and many of its officers placed upon half pay. But he lived for thirty years longer, frequently descending into print in the _United Service Journal_, to controvert those who seemed to him to undervalue the services of the 88th or the old 3rd Division. In 1836 we find him residing at New Abbey, Kilcullen, and issuing a _Vindication of the Connaught Rangers_, which seemed so convincing to the officers of his old regiment, that they presented him with a present of plate to the value of 200 guineas “as a mark of their personal esteem and regard, and also in token of their warm admiration of his triumphant vindication of his gallant regiment from the attacks of the biographer [Robinson] of the late Sir Thomas Picton.” In 1847 he published the two volumes from which the present reprint is taken. In the following year he received his long-deserved Peninsular Medal. His last appearance in print was the publication of the two supplementary volumes of _Anecdotes and Reminiscences_, mentioned above, in the spring of 1853.

C. OMAN.

OXFORD, _November 1902_.

THE OFFICERS OF THE 88TH
1809–14

Grattan’s Memoirs cannot be fully understood without a list of the comrades whom he is perpetually mentioning in the narrative. I therefore append the names of the officers of the 88th from the Army List of 1809–10. I have added to each of those who were killed or wounded during the war a note specifying the casualty. No less than 49 of the 103 names bear this addition!

_Colonel_
William Carr Beresford, Major-General, wounded at Salamanca, 22.7.12.

_Lieutenant-Colonels_
Alexander Wallace. John Taylor.

_Majors_

Richard Vandeleur, died at Campo Mayor, 5.11.09. Daniel Colquhun.

John Silver, killed at Busaco, 27.9.10. R. Barclay M‘Pherson.

_Captains_

Robert B. M‘Gregor. Campbell Callendar. John Dunne. William C. Seton. Barnaby Murphy, wounded at Badajoz, killed at Salamanca, 22.7.12. Charles John Peshall, wounded at Badajoz, 6.4.12. James P. Oates, wounded at Badajoz, 6.4.12. William Adair M‘Dougall. William Hogan, killed at Salamanca, 22.7.12. Charles Tryon. John Groffer. Christopher Irwine, killed at Fuentes d'Oñoro, 5.5.11.

Joseph Thomson, killed at Badajoz, 6.4.12. Richard R. Browne, wounded at Busaco, died at Pinhel, 1810. Peter Lindsay, killed at Badajoz, 6.4.12. H.G. Buller. Walter W. Adair, wounded at Salamanca, 22.7.12. Robert N. Nickle, wounded at Toulouse, 10.5.14. Henry M‘Dermott, wounded at Vittoria, 21.6.13; killed at Orthez, 27.2.14. George Henry Dansey, wounded at Busaco, 27.9.10. J. Macdonald. Robert Christie.

_Lieutenants_

Duncan Robertson, Adj. George Bury. John Bower Lewis. Richard Bunworth. William Flack, wounded at Ciudad Rodrigo, 19.1.12. William Mackie. James Flood, wounded at Vittoria, 21.6.13. Richard Fitzpatrick, wounded at Vittoria 21.6.13; wounded at Orthez, 27.2.14. Nathan Gregg. Henry Johnson, killed at Busaco, 27.9.10. John Smith, died at Salamanca, 1812. Thomas North, killed at Badajoz, 6.4.12. John D. Hopwood. Alexander Graham. John Armstrong, wounded at Rodrigo, 19.1.12; wounded at Badajoz, 6.4.12. John Stewart, wounded at Fuentes, wounded at Badajoz. Robert Hackett, wounded at Fuentes, 5.5.11; died on return voyage. George F. Faris. Bartholomew Mahon.

Timothy Richard James. William Nickle, wounded at Salamanca, 22.7.12. Isaac Walker. John Davern, wounded at Badajoz; wounded at Orthez, 27.2.14. David Weir. Ralph Mansfield, killed at Badajoz, 6.4.12. Pat. Heron Cockburn. Leigh Heppenstal, killed at Foz d'Aronce, 15.3.11. Edward Cotton, killed at Badajoz, 6.4.12. Frederick Meade, wounded at Salamanca, 22.7.12. Hercules Ellis. Samuel M‘Alpine, wounded at Fuentes, 5.5.11; killed at Badajoz, 6.4.12. George Johnson, wounded at Rodrigo, 19.1.12. William Hodder. William Whitelaw, wounded at Busaco, 27.9.10; killed at Badajoz, 6.4.12. Peter Pegus. Thomas J. Lloyd. Jason Hassard. Geoffrey K. Power.

_Ensigns_

Christian Hilliard. John Graham. Maurice O‘Connor. Thomas Leonard, killed at Busaco, 27.9.10. William Rutherford. Simon Fairfield. Parr Kingsmill, wounded at Salamanca, 22.7.12. William Kingsmill, wounded at Rodrigo, 19.1.12. Maurice Mahon.

William Devereux Jackson. Joseph Owgan, wounded at Fuentes, 5.5.11. John Fairfield. William Grattan, wounded at Badajoz, 6.4.12; wounded at Salamanca, 22.7.12. John Christian. John M‘Gregor, died on landing at Portsmouth, invalided 1812. George Hill.

The following additional officers joined the regiment, either as ensigns or by exchange as lieutenants and captains from other corps, between 1810 and 1814.

T. Moriarty, killed at Orthez, 27.2.14. John D‘Arcy. L. Beresford, killed at Ciudad Rodrigo, 19.1.12. Walter C. Poole, wounded at Orthez, 27.2.14. T. Rutledge, died at Lisan, 12.9.13. Richard Holland, wounded at Orthez, 27.2.14. James Mitchell, wounded at Orthez, 27.2.14. Charles G. Stewart, wounded at Orthez, 27.2.14.

D. M‘Intosh, wounded at Orthez, 27.2.14. —— Gardiner. Thomas Taylor. Charles Crawford Peshall. Samuel Fisher. Oliver Mills. Barnard Reynolds, killed at Orthez, 27.2.14. John Atkin. Albert W. Sanders, killed at Vittoria, 21.6.13. James M‘Clintock. George Bunbury. William Smith. James Wright.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

The Author leaves the depot at Chelmsford, and proceeds to Page 1
join his regiment in Portugal—The _Samaritan_—Arrival at
Lisbon—Measures adopted by General Junot—A night’s
rest—Portuguese barbers—Priest Fernando and Major
Murphy—March to Aldea Gallega—First sight of the Connaught
Rangers

CHAPTER II

Headquarters of the 88th Regiment—Its losses from Page 12
sickness—Unhealthy state of the country—The British army
leaves the Alemtejo—General Picton takes the command of
the 3rd Division—Remarks on the general’s conduct—His
apology to Colonel Wallace—The Connaught boy and the goat

CHAPTER III

Masséna’s invasion of Portugal—Fall of Ciudad Rodrigo and Page 23
Almeida—Craufurd’s fight on the Coa—Anecdote of Colonel
Charles Napier—The British retire to the position of
Busaco

CHAPTER IV

Battle of Busaco—Daring advance of the French—The Page 30
achievements of the 88th—Adventure of Captain
Seton—Alcobaça—Remarks on the battle

CHAPTER V

Occupation of the Lines of Torres Vedras—An army in Page 47
motley—An Irish interpreter—Death of the Marquis de la
Romana—Retreat of Masséna’s army from Portugal—Indulgence
of Lord Wellington—The amenities of a subaltern’s
existence

CHAPTER VI

Excesses and sufferings of the French during their Page 56
retreat—Combats of Foz d'Aronce and Sabugal—Battle of
Fuentes d'Oñoro—Sir E. Pakenham, Colonel Wallace, and the
88th Regiment

CHAPTER VII

State of the town of Fuentes d'Oñoro after the battle—The Page 70
wounded—Visit to an amputating hospital—General Brennier’s
escape from Almeida—Booty in the camp

CHAPTER VIII

Guerilla warfare; its true character—The 3rd Division Page 81
marches for the Alemtejo—Frenchmen and Irishmen on a
march—English regiments—Colonel Wallace—Severe
drilling—Maurice Quill and Dr. O‘Reily—Taking a rise

CHAPTER IX

Second siege of Badajoz—A _reconnoissance_—Death of Captain Page 91
Patten—Attacks on Fort San Christoval—Their failure—Causes
of their failure—Gallant conduct of Ensign Dyas, 51st
Regiment—His promotion by the Duke of York

CHAPTER X

We withdraw from Badajoz—Dislike of the British soldier for Page 103
siege-work—Affair of El Bodon—Gallant conduct of the 5th
and 77th Regiments—Narrow escape of the 88th from being
made prisoners—Picton’s conduct on the retreat to Guinaldo

CHAPTER XI

Retreat of the French army—Vultures on the field of Page 118
battle—The Light Division and private theatricals—Major
Leckie and the musician—Privations—The Connaught Rangers
and the sheep—Deficient kits—Darby Rooney and General
Mackinnon

CHAPTER XII

Officers and sergeants—Fairfield and his bad Page 128
habit—Regimental mechanism—Impolitic familiarity—3rd
Division at the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo—Lieutenant D‘Arcy
and Ody Brophy—The Irish pilot

CHAPTER XIII

Spanish village accommodation—The siege of Ciudad Page 139
Rodrigo—Picton’s address to the Connaught Rangers in front
of the breach—Lieutenant William Mackie and the forlorn
hope

CHAPTER XIV

Storm of Ciudad Rodrigo—Gallant conduct of three soldiers of Page 149
the 88th—Desperate struggle and capture of a gun—Combat
between Lieutenant Faris and the French grenadier—A
Connaught Ranger transformed into a sweep—Anecdote of
Captain Robert Hardyman of the 45th—Death of General
Mackinnon—Plunder of Ciudad Rodrigo—Excesses of the
soldiers

CHAPTER XV

Results of the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo—The town Page 167
revisited—Capture of deserters—Sale of the plunder—Army
rests in cantonments—An execution of deserters—A pardon
that came too late

CHAPTER XVI

Preparations against Badajoz—Description of this Page 175
fortress—Its investment—Line of circumvallation formed in
the night—Sortie of the garrison repulsed—Destructive fire
of the besieged—Dreadful explosion from a
shell—Indifference—Deaths of Captain Mulcaster and Major
Thompson

CHAPTER XVII

State of the enemy’s fort La Picurina from our fire—Attempt Page 187
to storm it—Desperate defence of the garrison—It is
carried by assault—Preparations for the grand
attack—Frightful difficulties of the enterprise—The attack
and defence—Slaughter of the besiegers—Badajoz taken

CHAPTER XVIII

The sacking of Badajoz—Neglect of the wounded—Spaniards and Page 207
their plunderers—Disgraceful occurrences—Calamities of
war—The author’s wound and uncomfortable couch—Extent of
plunder—An auction in the field—Neglect of the 88th by
General Picton

CHAPTER XIX

Departure from Badajoz—The wounded left to the protection of Page 218
Spanish soldiers—Subsequently removed to Elvas—The author
leaves Elvas to join the army—Spaniards and
Portuguese—Rodrigo revisited—A Spanish ball—Movements of
Marshal Marmont—Fall of the forts of Salamanca—Amicable
enemies

CHAPTER XX

State of the opposing armies previous to the battle of Page 232
Salamanca—Preliminary movements—The Duke of Ragusa's false
movement—Pakenham engaged with the enemy’s left—Defeats
the division under General Thomières—Reinforced, they
again advance to the attack—Their destruction by a brigade
of British cavalry—The Portuguese repulsed—Desperate
exertions of the French—Final charge of Clinton’s
division—Complete defeat of the French army

CHAPTER XXI

Importance of the battle of Salamanca—Anecdotes of the Page 255
88th—Gallantry of Captain Robert Nickle—Pursuit of the
defeated army of Marshal Marmont—French infantry in square
broken and destroyed by cavalry—March on Madrid—Frolics at
St. Ildefonso—Sudden attack of the French
Lancers—Disgraceful conduct of the Portuguese Dragoons

CHAPTER XXII

The British army approach Madrid—Enthusiastic Page 267
welcome—Preparations to carry by assault the fortress of
La China—It surrenders—Description of Madrid—The Puerto
del Sol—The Prado—Unsociability of English
officers—Seizure of a Spanish priest—Proved to be a spy in
the service of the enemy—His execution by the garrotte

CHAPTER XXIII

Arrests at Madrid—Advantages of speaking French—Seizure of Page 282
Don Saturio de Padilla by the police—The author effects
his liberation—A bull day at Madrid—Private
theatricals—French and English soldiers—Blowing up the
Retiro—Retreat from Madrid—A pig hunt

CHAPTER XXIV

Sufferings of the army on the retreat—Jokes of the Connaught Page 302
Rangers—Letter of Lord Wellington—The junior
officers—Costume of the author during the retreat—An
unusual enjoyment

CHAPTER XXV

End of the Burgos retreat—Cantonments in Portugal—Rest at Page 314
last—Shocking effects of excess in eating—The
neighbourhood of Moimento de Beira—Wolves—The author
employed to cater for his regiment on St. Patrick’s day—Is
attacked by wolves on his return—Measure for measure

CHAPTER XXVI

Ordered home—Priests carousing—San Carlos gambling-house at Page 322
Lisbon—Cocking the card—The author quits the
Peninsula—Adventures on the road—The author’s return to
Ireland

CHAPTER XXVII

Breaking up of the British Peninsular army at the abdication Page 330
of Napoleon—Separation of the soldiers' wives—The
elopement—Sad story of Thorp, the Drum-Major—Conclusion

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

THE 88TH FOOT (CONNAUGHT RANGERS) _Frontispiece_

MAP OF SPAIN AND PORTUGAL _To face page_ 1

LIEUT.-GENERAL SIR T. PICTON, G.C.B. ” ” 14

PLAN OF SIEGE OF CIUDAD RODRIGO ” ” 142

PLAN OF SIEGE OF BADAJOZ ” ” 178

SERGEANT AND PRIVATE IN WINTER MARCHING ORDER, 1813 ” ” 308

ADVENTURES

WITH THE

CONNAUGHT RANGERS

1809–1814