Chapter I: Front Matter

Transcriber’s Note

Superscripts are indicated with a circumflex: M^cKenzie. Italics are enclosed in _underscores_.

Lieu^t.-General Sir W. Napier. Pinx^t. W.H. Egleton, sculp^t.]

ENGLISH
BATTLES AND SIEGES
IN THE
PENINSULA.

EXTRACTED FROM HIS ‘PENINSULA WAR.’

BY
LIEUT.-GEN. SIR WILLIAM NAPIER, K.C.B.,
&c. &c.

LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
1855.

LONDON: PRINTED BY W. CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET,
AND CHARING CROSS.

NOTICE.

In this publication, the combats of Roriça, Vimiero, and Coruña, and the character of Sir John Moore, have been entirely recomposed. The other battles and sieges are, with more or less compression of details, transcripts from the History of the Peninsula War. Thus arranged they will perhaps most effectually exhibit the constant energy of the British soldier, and draw attention in their neighbourhoods to the veterans who still survive. Few of those brave men have more than a scanty provision, many have none; and nearly all, oppressed with wounds, disease, and poverty, sure attendants on an old soldier’s services, feel life a burthen, so heavy as to make them envy the lot of comrades who threw it off early on the field of battle.

For the authenticity of the events the reader has this guarantee. The author was either an eye-witness of what he relates, or acquired his knowledge from those who were. Persons of no mean authority. Commanders-in-chief, generals, and other officers on both sides; private official correspondence of the English envoys; military journals and reports of the French leaders; the correspondence of the intrusive King Joseph, and his ministers, and the private military notes and instructions of the Emperor Napoleon, have all contributed to establish the truth of the facts and motives of action.

For the great Captain who led the British troops so triumphantly, this record gives no measure of ability. To win victories was the least of his labours. Those who desire to know what an enormous political, financial, and military pressure he sustained, what wiles he circumvented, what opposing skill he baffled, what a powerful enemy he dealt with and overcame, must seek the story in the original History from which this work has been extracted. For the soldiers it is no measure of their fortitude and endurance: it records only their active courage. But what they were, their successors now are--witness the wreck of the Birkenhead, where four hundred men, at the call of their heroic officers, Captain Wright and Lieutenant Girardot, calmly and without a murmur, accepted death in a horrible form rather than endanger the women and children already saved in the boats. The records of the world furnish no parallel to this self-devotion!

CONTENTS.

BOOK I.
Page
Combat of Roriça--Battle of Vimiero--Coruña--Battle of
Coruña--Heroic Death and Character of Sir John Moore 1

BOOK II.

Douro--Passage of the Douro--Talavera--Combat of Salinas--First
Combat of Talavera--Second Combat of Talavera--Battle
of Talavera 18

BOOK III.

Combats on the Coa and Agueda--Barba de Puerco--Combat of
Almeida on the Coa--Anecdotes of British Soldiers--Battle of
Busaco 44

BOOK IV.

Matagorda--Battle of Barosa--Massena’s Retreat--Combat of
Redinha--Combat of Cazal Nova--Combat of Foz d’Aronce--Combat
of Sabugal--Extraordinary Escape of Colonel Waters--Combat
of Fuentes Onoro--Battle of Fuentes Onoro--Evacuation
of Almeida 61

BOOK V.

Combat of Campo Mayor--First English Siege of Badajos--Battle
of Albuera--Renewed Siege of Badajos--First Assault of
Christoval--Second Assault of Christoval 86

BOOK VI.

Blockade of Ciudad Rodrigo--Combat of Elbodon--Guinaldo--Combat
of Aldea Ponte--Surprise of Arroyo de Molinos--Defence
of Tarifa--English Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo--Third
English Siege of Badajos--Assault of Picurina--Assault of
Badajos 109

BOOK VII.

Beira--Extraordinary Escape of Major Grant--Surprise of
Almaraz--Siege of the Salamanca Forts--Combats between the
Duero and the Tormes--Combats of Castrejon and the Guarena--
Battle of Salamanca--Combat of La Serna 157

BOOK VIII.

Madrid--Siege of Burgos--First Assault--Second Assault--Third
Assault--Fourth Assault--Fifth Assault--Retreat from Burgos--
Combat of Venta de Pozo--Combat on the Carion--Pisuerga--
Duero--Retreat from Madrid--Tormes--Matilla--Combat of the
Huebra 202

BOOK IX.

March to Vittoria--Battle of Vittoria 237

BOOK X.

Battle of Castalla--English Siege of Tarragona--Siege of San
Sebastian--Storming of San Bartolomeo--First Storm of San
Sebastian 262

BOOK XI.

Pyrenees--Combat of Roncesvalles--Combat of Linzoain--Combat
of Maya--Combat of Zabaldica--First Battle of Sauroren--Combat
of Buenza--Second Battle of Sauroren--Combat of
Doña Maria--Combats of Echallar and Ivantelly 287

BOOK XII.

Catalonia--Combat of Ordal--Renewed Siege of San Sebastian--
Storm of San Sebastian--Battles on the Bidassoa--Combat of
San Marcial--Combat of Vera 325

BOOK XIII.

English Passage of the Bidassoa and Second Combat of Vera--The
Passage of the Lower Bidassoa--Second Combat of Vera--Battle
of the Nivelle; Characters of Colonel Lloyd and
Lieutenant Freer 352

BOOK XIV.

Passage of the Nive--Battles in front of Bayonne--Combat of
Arcangues--First Battle of Barrouilhet--Second Battle of
Barrouilhet--Third Combat of Barrouilhet--Battle of St.
Pierre--Operations beyond the Nive 385

BOOK XV.

Passages of the Gaves and the Adour--Passage of the Gaves--
Combat of Garris--Passage of the Adour--Passage of the Gaves
continued--Battle of Orthes--Combat of Aire 412

BOOK XVI.

Garonne--Adour Combat of Vic Bigorre--Death and Character of
Colonel Sturgeon; Surprising Feat of Captain Light--Combat
of Tarbes--Operations on the Garonne--Major Hughes; Battle
of Toulouse--Sally from Bayonne 440

BATTLES AND SIEGES

OF THE

PENINSULA.