Chapter III (1)

On the night of March 5 it was ascertained that Massena had evacuated his position at Santarem, and had commenced a retreat, and the Light Division were ordered immediately in pursuit; and at three in the morning on the 6th they marched. The 1st Battalion, being in advance, on crossing the bridge came upon the dummy straw sentries (the old trick of the retreating enemy), and pushing on, arrived at Santarem at midday. This was found quite deserted; and after an hour’s halt the Riflemen resumed their march, and that night occupied Pernes.

On the 7th they followed the retreating enemy to Torres Novas; and halted at night at Arga and La Marosa. Starting at daybreak on the 8th, the Riflemen first caught sight towards evening of the enemy’s rear-guard, which occupied the village of Paialvo. The 1st Battalion were at once ordered to dislodge them, which, with the help of a couple of 6-pounders, they did very speedily. On the 9th they advanced early, and after five hours’ march came up with the enemy’s rear-guard at the junction of the roads from Leiria and Lisbon and that to Coimbra. Here a large body of cavalry was posted, and infantry in force was halted in rear. An advanced squadron of the 11th _Grenadiers à Cheval_ was charged by the German hussars, and some prisoners taken by them and the Royal Dragoons. About 40 prisoners, mostly stragglers, also fell into the hands of the Riflemen.

During these marches O’Hare’s company were pushed forward, by mounting them behind the dragoons, and were on the 9th engaged all day in skirmishing; but without any loss.

On the 10th, the enemy having shown himself in great strength, in order to check the advance and to take up a position, the Battalion retired about half a league, and bivouacked in a pine-wood. On moving forward on the 11th it was found that the French had taken up a strong position at Pombal, occupying the old castle situated on an eminence and the town with infantry; the rest of their force being posted on the heights behind the town. Two companies of the 1st Battalion, O’Hare’s and another, with Elder’s Caçadores, dashed over the bridge leading to the town, and found the enemy in some houses near the bridge, from which they kept up a brisk fire; which the Riflemen, entering the opposite houses, returned for some time. Till at last Sergeant Fleming and a few men rushed into one of the houses held by the enemy and made several prisoners. Then the Riflemen drove them out of the houses. Lieutenant Hopwood, as he was entering one of them, got a bad wound in the thigh; pushing on they carried the castle, the key of the position; and pursuing the enemy, after some sharp fighting with their voltigeurs, who obstinately disputed ground which from its nature was very defensible, drove them completely out of Pombal. But continuing their pursuit too far, some were taken prisoners, and others escaped with difficulty. The combat continued till dark, which fell before Lord Wellington could bring up a sufficient body of troops to make a general attack. After this hard day’s fighting the Battalion bivouacked in a ploughed field, exposed to torrents of rain.

In this skirmish the two companies captured a grey horse, which carried the baggage of Colonel Soult, the nephew of the Marshal; and the contents were sold by auction by the captors in the bivouack; except his medals, which the men presented to Captain O’Hare, whose company had been actively engaged.

They stood to their arms before daylight, and found that the enemy had retired in the night. They immediately followed; and found the enemy posted in front of the town of Redinha; his right protected by some wooded heights; his left resting on the river Soure beyond Redinha, and well protected by ravines. In front was a large plain, which, when the Riflemen emerged from the defile leading to it, they found occupied by large bodies of troops. It was a bright Spring day, and the sight of the one army advancing over the plain the other in position on it, was splendid. The woods on the right of the position were immediately attacked by the left wing (four companies) of the 95th, under Major Stewart, which carried them and cleared them from the enemy in gallant style. This enabled Lord Wellington to form his line in front of the defile. At the same time the left of the position was attacked by the right wing of the 95th, under Major Gilmour, while the other regiments of the Light Division supported their attacks. The French rear-guard made gallant attempts to check their advance; but after a stubborn resistance they were driven through the town of Redinha and over the bridge; the Riflemen pressing them so hard, that they and the flying enemy passed over mixed together. Many of the enemy were forced over the battlements of the bridge; many threw themselves over to escape from their pursuers; and not a few were slain in the hand-to-hand fight on the bridge. On passing the bridge the rear-guard attempted to form on the height beyond; but the Light Division allowed them no respite, and they were driven towards Condeixa. The enemy’s guns occasionally gave our skirmishers some discharges of grape; but they pressed on till dark, when they were recalled, and bivouacked for the night on a height; the French army in the valley beneath, and the advanced sentries not more than two hundred yards from each other.

On this day Lieutenants Robert Beckwith and Chapman, of the 1st Battalion, were wounded; and of the 2nd Battalion, 4 rank and file were killed, and 9 wounded.

Lord Wellington, in his despatch, highly praises the conduct of the Regiment on this day, specially naming Majors Gilmour and Stewart; and in reference to driving the enemy’s right out of the wood, he says: ‘I have never seen the French infantry driven from a wood in a more gallant style;’[92] but by some mistake in Sir William Erskine’s report, he gives the credit of this exploit to the 52nd, while it was really performed, ‘to the admiration of the whole army,’ by four companies of the 1st Battalion.[93]

After some of the 1st Battalion skirmishers had towards evening driven the French before them, the officer commanding the latter held up his sword with a white handkerchief tied to it; and on coming to a parley, he told the officer commanding the Riflemen that he thought both parties needed some rest after a hard day’s work, and proposed a truce for the night. To this the Riflemen agreed; and asked him and his subalterns to share their rations. They very readily accepted the invitation; and after a scanty dinner of ration beef, and a little rum for beverage, they separated; one party to resume their retreat, the other their pursuit, next morning.

Three months after, Lieutenant Fitz-Maurice of the 95th, who had been present, was on picquet at Duas Casas, near the Agueda, when he saw a French officer limping towards him, who saluted him as an acquaintance. ‘_Est-ce que vous ne me reconnaissez pas?_ I was one of your guests at Redinha. One of your men wounded me next morning. No matter. I come now not as a spy; but we have heard that you are short of rations; and I come, in return for your kindness, to offer you a share of ours.’ Fitz-Maurice was too old a soldier to admit that they were in want of supplies; though indeed they were; so, thanking him for his proffered kindness, which he declined (with great inward longing and regret, no doubt), they parted as good friends as they had been on the night of the fight at Redinha.

O’Hare’s and Balvaird’s companies being on picquet, an alarm was created by a Rifleman, Humphrey Allen, shooting a French sentry, in the hope of finding something in his mess-tin, because his own company had refused to share their provisions with him in consequence of his having skulked to the rear, carrying wounded, during the day. A general alarm took place, which brought Beckwith to the front.

On the 13th the Regiment marched to Condeixa and were left comparatively quiet on the roadside. For while some manœuvring took place to turn the enemy’s position, he evacuated it, having set the town of Condeixa on fire. As Lord Wellington was superintending these dispositions to turn the enemy’s flanks from a knoll close to the Regiment, some French tirailleurs crept near unperceived and fired at him and his Staff without success. Several Riflemen ran up to shoot or capture them, but they fled on their approach.

On the 14th at dawn the Light Division advanced against the enemy, who was posted on ground presenting many obstacles near the village of Casal-Nova. Other divisions of the army were sent to turn the flanks, while the Light Division attacked Ney’s centre. The ground was much intersected with stone walls, which enabled the enemy to dispute every foot of ground. And this Battalion was skirmishing from early morning until night; but they drove the enemy from one post of advantage to another in spite of many checks, and eventually Ney’s rear-guard fell back upon the main body at Miranda de Corvo. Early in the day a section of one of the companies was thrown forward among the skirmishers, and some rising ground being in front, Kincaid was ordered to take a man with him and occupy it, and to give notice of any movements of the enemy. He and the man who accompanied him, John Rouse, an old Rifleman, on getting to the top, ensconced themselves behind two large stones; but every time Rouse put his rifle over the stone to get a shot, a shower of French bullets rattled near them. After several attempts he gave it up, observing, ‘There will be no moving among them till this shower ceases.’ Kincaid observes that ‘this was the hardest day’s fighting he had ever known.’

As the French were retreating before our skirmishers, one man was observed to remain behind, deliberately loading and firing. Costello covered him and shot him. On coming up with him, a French sergeant, who lay wounded beside him, said: ‘_Hélas! vous avez tué mon pauvre frère._’ The cause of his having remained behind was evident; it was in the hope of protecting his wounded brother. Costello, much to his credit, as soon as the fighting was over, returned to look for the brothers; both were dead, stripped by camp-followers, by whom they had probably been murdered.

Major John Stewart was killed in this fight, and Lieutenant Strode received wounds of which he died. Stewart was a most admirable officer of light troops, skilful in handling them, experienced in outpost duty, and (after Beckwith’s example), while strictly maintaining discipline, never harassing the men with matters of minute detail. Strode, who was also an excellent officer, always carried a rifle in action, and in the accurate use of it he excelled.

This day’s fighting lasted till sunset, when the picquets of the 1st Battalion occupied the village of Illama, which had been set on fire by the French; and the officers and men of the picquets saved many of the inhabitants and their children, who were too exhausted from famine to extricate themselves, from perishing in their burning houses. Some, however, were only saved from one death to die, when brought out, from want and exhaustion. Lord Wellington, in his despatch, specially mentions the conduct of the Regiment and the names of Colonel Beckwith and Majors Gilmour and Stewart.

The Battalion on going over the field after the action found that they had been opposed by the French 95th Regiment; and many buttons with that number were cut off the coats of the killed and preserved as trophies.

On the morning of the 15th a thick fog prevented the army starting early in pursuit. When it cleared it was found that the enemy had evacuated their position, and the Battalion passed through Miranda de Corvo, which was in flames, having been set on fire by Marshal Ney’s rear-guard, which had occupied it the night before.

The Battalion were halted beyond the village on a gentle slope, when Lord Wellington rode up; and Beckwith took occasion in conversation with him to mention that the Battalion were suffering much from having outmarched their supplies, and that some of his men from want and weakness had been unable to keep up. The Commander-in-Chief at once told them that they should have the first rations that came up. The men were just setting about cooking some provisions they had found abandoned by the French, when they were ordered to fall in at once and advance. The truth is that Lord Wellington on going to the front had observed that the enemy were in a strong position behind the river Ceira, but had committed the fatal mistake of leaving the rear-guard under Ney in front of Foz d’Aronce on our side of the river, here crossed only by a narrow bridge. The Battalion at once attacked them, and after a short but hot engagement drove them over the river. By some mistake the bridge was destroyed before the whole of the rear-guard had passed; and these being hotly pressed, endeavoured to cross the river, and a large number of them were drowned in the attempt. It was almost dark before the action commenced and it was quite dark before it was ended. The Battalion occupied for the night the camping-ground thus suddenly vacated by the French rear-guard, and at their camp-fires resumed the cooking of their suppers which had been interrupted by the hasty advance from Miranda de Corvo; or, rather, they continued the cooking begun by the French, for they found their pots on the fire, and a good supply of biscuit.

In this affair Lieutenant M’Cullock was severely, and Kincaid slightly, wounded. The general orders of the 16th contain, besides expressions of approbation and thanks to the army in general, the following clause: ‘The Commander of the Forces requests the Commanding Officers of the 43rd, 52nd and 95th Regiments, to name a sergeant of each Regiment to be recommended for promotion to an ensigncy, as a testimony of the particular approbation of the Commander of the Forces of these three Regiments.’[94]

In compliance with this order, Sergeant Simpson, then acting Sergeant-Major, was recommended, and was appointed an Ensign in the 2nd (Queen’s) Regiment of Foot.

The 16th was a day of rest. The Light Division had outmarched their supplies; the men were fatigued and weak from hunger; and the bridge over the Ceira being destroyed Lord Wellington gave them a day’s halt.

On reaching the banks of the Ceira the Riflemen came upon a sight of such wanton cruelty as seemed to stand out in horrid prominence in a retreat where cruelty, rapine and slaughter were of daily occurrence. Nearly 500 donkeys were standing in mute agony, hamstrung by the inhuman enemy who had fled the preceding night. That they should prevent their falling into the hands of their pursuers was natural; that they should choose this alternative of rendering them useless, instead of killing them, was brutal.

On the morning of the 17th the Battalion crossed the Ceira at the ford of Alça Perna; the ford was so deep that the men with difficulty kept their legs; and having passed it they halted on high ground covered with wood, a little short of the Alva. The next morning the enemy was found in a strong position on the rugged banks of the Alva, behind the Ponte da Murcella. They had broken down the bridge. However, the Battalion was formed up opposite the enemy, and some 9-pounders being brought up, their fire and the advance of the Riflemen ‘put them all in a bustle,’ to use Lord Wellington’s characteristic language;[95] and George Simmons says he never saw them go off in such confusion.[96] The Battalion halted on a swampy height covered with pine-woods, and bivouacked.

On the 19th, a temporary wooden bridge having been constructed, they crossed the Alva, and passing through Sabriera, halted for the night in a wood of pines.

On this day, amongst many other prisoners, an Aide-de-Camp of General Loison was taken, with a very handsome Spanish girl, dressed in a hussar uniform, who was said to be his wife. He was a Portuguese, a traitor to his country.

On the 20th, the Battalion advanced through Gallizes and halted in a fir-wood near Venda Nova. Here they found quantities of carts and waggons which had been abandoned by the enemy. On the following day they continued their advance and halted in fir-woods near Marusa. On the 22nd the Battalion went into houses in the town of Momenta de Serra in consequence of the inclemency of the weather. Here, as indeed during this whole advance, they found the dead and mutilated bodies of the people, and heard from the survivors heartrending accounts of the cruelties perpetrated by the retreating enemy. On the 23rd they advanced to S. Paio and bivouacked in a wood in front of it; on the next day they marched to and were quartered in the village of Mello, and on the 25th bivouacked in a wood near it.

During these days the Battalion was obliged to make these short marches in order to let the supplies come up. The men and officers suffered the greatest privation, only one ration of bread being given out in four days, and the country behind the retreating French being stripped of everything.

On the 26th the Battalion marched to Celorico, which the enemy had evacuated, and halted there the next day.

On the 28th the right wing of the Battalion by a forced march reached Avalans de Ribeira, and 100 men under Captain Charles Beckwith were sent to dislodge a strong rear-guard of the enemy from a mill in front of Freixadas. They found the French busily at work, grinding corn, and soon drove them out of the mill and the village; taking several prisoners. In this affair the Adjutant, Lieutenant James Stewart, having dashed into the village with a few Riflemen, was shot, from a window, through the left breast and heart. He was acting as Brigade-Major to Colonel Beckwith, and was universally esteemed in the Regiment. ‘It is not too much to say,’ Leach observes, ‘that no man in any corps ever filled the situation of adjutant better than he did, and very few half so well. He was open-hearted, manly, friendly and independent; a most gallant and zealous officer, and much devoted to his own Corps. He neither cringed to, nor worshipped any man, but did his duty manfully, and with impartiality: two qualities inestimable in adjutants. By the soldiers he was idolised, and very justly. When his duties as adjutant did not interfere, he was amongst the first to enter into any frolic and fun; and a more jovial soul never existed.’[97]

On the next morning at dawn the whole of the advanced guard, Riflemen, cavalry, and artillery, attended his funeral; and his body, wrapped in his cloak, and deposited in a chest, was buried in front of Colonel Beckwith’s quarter, in the village of Alverca.

The left wing of the Battalion, with the rest of the Light Division, had on the 28th crossed the Mondego, and occupied the villages of Baracal and Mavashal.

On the 29th the army moved forward on the front and flanks of the strong position of Guarda, which stands perched on a high hill, and is said to be the most elevated town in Portugal.[98] Notwithstanding the strength of his position the enemy did not await our onset, but moved off in the direction of Sabugal, pursued by cavalry and artillery only. The Light Division was not now handled by the fiery Craufurd; and the enemy escaped with the loss of barely 200 prisoners, which fell into the hands of the pursuing cavalry.

The Battalion halted in Carapeta and other villages at the foot of the hill on which Guarda is placed.

On April 1 the Battalion marched by Adão to Pega, where they halted about an hour in very heavy rain; and then proceeded to Quintas de S. Bartolomeo on the banks of the Coa, and nearly opposite Sabugal, where the 2nd Corps of the French army, under Regnier, were posted in great force, having picquets on our side of the river.

The Battalion furnished the picquets, which were ordered to be extremely vigilant; not to interfere with the enemy if he did not molest them; but if attacked, to hold their post and never to quit it.

It was a very dark and stormy night, with heavy rain. George Simmons and Kincaid were on this picquet, and the latter relates a curious instance of the impossibility of a man’s walking quite straight in the dark. On going to visit one of his sentries about midnight, he found the man absent from his post. Being an excellent old soldier he felt assured that he had not deserted, and after searching for him in vain he called him by name. The man’s answer was instantly followed by the discharge of a French sentinel’s musket; and it then appeared that on every successive walk up and down his beat he had verged nearer and nearer to the French lines, which he was close to when called. The man, convinced that he had kept on his post, was astounded and incredulous that he had in the pitchy darkness edged away from it.

On the 2nd the Battalion moved towards the right, and nearer to the bridge in front of Sabugal, and during this movement had some slight skirmishes with the enemy’s advanced posts.

ACTION AT SABUGAL
3^{RD} APRIL 1811

_Drawn by Capt^n Moorsom, C.E._
_E. Weller, lith., London_
_London: Chatto & Windus._
]

On the morning of the 3rd a thick fog hung over the banks of the Coa. Beckwith’s Brigade of the Light Division was drawn up in close column behind the heights on the left bank of the river (in compliance with the disposition for the attack[99]), when a staff officer rode up and asked him ‘why he did not cross?’ Beckwith was not the man to whom such a question should have been addressed, nor one to hesitate in giving a practical answer to it. He immediately ordered his brigade to advance. Four companies (the right wing) of the 1st Battalion led. The banks were steep and the ford at which they crossed deep, the water nearly up to the men’s armpits. As soon as the Riflemen had climbed the opposite bank they advanced in skirmishing order. The officer in command of the French picquet ordered his men to fire as they retreated. Following the picquet, they soon came upon a regiment, and continued skirmishing till the rest of the brigade came up. Then they pushed the enemy through a chestnut-wood and up the hill; a blinding rain came on, and on advancing Beckwith found himself, when the shower ceased, confronted by the whole of Regnier’s _Corps d’Armée_. Their fire and overwhelming numbers forced back the four companies of the Battalion on the 43rd who were in support. Regnier followed with three strong columns; but the 43rd received them with such a fire that they fell back, and the 43rd charging them, drove them down the hill and into their position. Here the enemy made a stand, and being reinforced, again obliged Beckwith to retire. He got his Riflemen behind some walls, where he not only held and checked the enemy, but again drove the French back and pursued them; but on reaching their original position, Beckwith was attacked by infantry on the left, while cavalry on the right charged the skirmishers. A third time the handful of men were forced back by overwhelming numbers; but now the other brigade of the Light Division, attracted by the fire, came up; and the fog clearing off, the 3rd Division, under Picton, which had crossed the river lower down, came up on the enemy’s right; and the 5th Division, having crossed the bridge, appeared debouching from the town of Sabugal; thus reinforced, Beckwith drove the enemy at the point of the bayonet into and through his original position, and the French retreated in confusion. Unfortunately, Sir William Erskine with the cavalry had lost his way in the fog, and had gone too far to the right; so that advantage could not be taken of the loose manner in which the enemy left the field; yet some prisoners were made.

In this action, in which, as Lord Wellington states, ‘the operations of the day were, by unavoidable accidents, not performed in the manner he intended they should be,’ nothing could be more daring or more characteristic of British courage, than the way in which Beckwith, with a handful of men (the Riflemen, Elder’s Caçadores, and the 43rd), withstood and thrice repulsed and pursued a whole _Corps d’Armée_ placed in a strong position. And deservedly does the great captain go on to say that he considered ‘the action fought by Colonel Beckwith’s brigade principally, to be one of the most glorious the British troops were ever engaged in.’[100]

Beckwith’s own coolness and gallant bearing in it are recorded by all the narrators of the action. When obliged by the overwhelming numbers and fury of the French to give the order to retire, he rode among his own Riflemen; and seeing some disposition to quicken the pace he would say: ‘Don’t run; I did not mean that; we will go steadily, and give them a shot as we retire.’ When he had reached his supports and could make a stand, he faced them about, and led them forward again, and was obeyed and followed as calmly and steadily as if he was marching them up and down the barrack square.

In this affair Lieutenant the Hon. Duncan Arbuthnot and 1 Rifleman were killed. Beckwith was wounded in the forehead, and had a horse shot under him; and Second Lieutenant William Haggup and 12 rank and file were wounded.

And of the company of the 2nd Battalion present in this action, 1 man was killed and 2 wounded.

During the fight, as the Riflemen were driving the enemy’s skirmishers through a chestnut-wood, a man of the 1st Battalion of the name of Flinn, was aiming at a Frenchman, when a hare started out of the fern with which the hill was covered. Flinn, leaving the Frenchman, covered the hare, and fired and killed his game. On the officer commanding the company remonstrating with him, his reply was, ‘Ah! your honour, sure we can kill a Frenchman any day; but it isn’t always I can bag a hare for your supper.’[101]

The fight was hardly over, when the fog dissolved in torrents of rain; and Lord Wellington, riding up at the moment, directed the Light Division, as an express recognition of its prowess during the day, to house themselves in the town of Sabugal. They arrived just in time to anticipate the 5th Division, who yielded the much-coveted shelter, not without much murmuring. Thus the Riflemen had a roof over their heads; but the houses were mostly shared with the former occupants, who were dying of hunger or of ill-usage.

On the next day the Light Division moved through Quadrazaes, Valdespina, and Alfayates, and halted for the night at the frontier village of Forcalhos.

On the 5th the Battalion marched to Albergueria (in Spain); Massena having crossed the Agueda, and evacuated Portugal, with the exception of a garrison in Almeida, which was immediately blockaded.

On the 8th they marched to Fuentes d’Onor, and on the next day took up their old line of outposts on the Agueda, at Gallegos, Espeja, and Fuentes d’Onor.

On the 10th two companies of Riflemen, consisting of 150 men, under Captain Cameron, were detached to San Pedro near Almeida, to shoot the cattle grazing on the glacis of that fortress. Daily until the 15th, before dawn, they marched to near Almeida, and taking a position among rocks, and firing at the cattle, compelled the garrison to withdraw them. They were daily saluted with the fire of the guns of the place, by which, on the 12th, 1 sergeant (McDonald) was killed. At dusk they returned to San Pedro, to resume their watch on the next morning.

On the 23rd, a force consisting of two battalions of French infantry and a squadron of cavalry, marched by Carpio to the heights above the bridge of Marialva, on the Azarva, and halting there, sent forward a party to attack the picquets of the Light Division stationed at the bridge, then furnished by the 52nd. The pass was gallantly defended; and another company of the 52nd and some of the 1st Battalion coming to the assistance of the picquet, the enemy were repulsed, and retired towards Ciudad Rodrigo. Lord Wellington, in his ‘Despatches,’ mentions Lieutenant Charles Eeles as having distinguished himself on this occasion.[102]

On the 27th the Battalion marched early in the morning from the villages of Sesmero, Barquella and Villar de Puerco, which they occupied, to Alameda, and thence in rear of Gallegos, on which occasion another attack was made on the picquets, and again the enemy were repulsed.

And again, on May 1, six squadrons of French cavalry and a column of infantry appeared on the old ground of the heights of Carpio and Marialva; but after making a demonstration for some hours, withdrew.

On the 2nd the French army was concentrated, and advanced with a view evidently of raising the blockade of Almeida, or of throwing supplies into it; and as Lord Wellington was not disposed to dispute their advance until they approached his position at Fuentes d’Onor, the Light Division fell back without firing a shot, and passing through the village of Fuentes d’Onor, took post behind the village of Alameda.

But though the 1st Battalion were not actually engaged on this day, the company of the 3rd Battalion which was attached to the 1st Division took part in resisting the furious attack made by the enemy’s light troops on the village of Fuentes d’Onor; Lieutenant Uniacke was severely wounded, and 9 Riflemen were wounded.

On the evening of the 4th, the Battalion were moved to the rear of the centre of the British position. On this day General Craufurd rejoined from England, where he had been on leave, to the great satisfaction of his Division, which had experienced the want of his leading on more than one occasion during his absence.

BATTLE OF FUENTES d’ONOR
5^{TH} MAY 1811

_Drawn by Capt^n Moorsom, C.E._
_E. Weller, lith., London_
_London: Chatto & Windus._
]

On the 5th took place the Battle of Fuentes d’Onor. In the morning the Battalion was moved to the right and posted in a wood of oaks, throwing out skirmishers in front. Here they were hotly engaged for some time with the French skirmishers, who, however, did not attempt to drive them through the wood; till a large body of cavalry appearing on their right, and the French skirmishers pressing them sharply through the wood, they were compelled to retire, as the flank of the 7th Division being turned, they were in great danger of being cut off. Then it was that Craufurd moved them in close column, ready to form square in an instant had the cavalry charged them, across a plain nearly a mile in extent. This manœuvre was executed with all the precision and deliberateness of a field-day, while an enormous force of hostile cavalry hovered around them, but did not dare to charge, so formidable was their formation, and so steady their movement; and while a furious cannonade assailed them. They marched to that part of the position where the Guards were formed in line, and they wheeling back a company, the Battalion marched through, and halting in column acted as a support to that part of the position. They were afterwards placed at a right angle to the right of the British position, with their own right resting on the river Turones; and getting behind and among some rocks and broken ground, they were menaced by a large force of French infantry, which endeavoured to push in between the 1st and 7th Divisions, but finding the position unassailable, and being vigorously attacked by four companies of the Battalion under Major O’Hare,[103] withdrew. Then a tremendous fire of artillery was opened upon the Riflemen.

About two o’clock, as the enemy did not seem to threaten any further attack on this position, the Battalion were withdrawn, and placed in reserve in rear of the centre. Here they remained, lying down, until near dusk, when the Battalion moved down into Fuentes d’Onor, to relieve the troops which had been engaged there.

While the Battalion were in position near the Turones, and the French infantry which threatened them kept out of rifle range, Flinn, whose sporting propensities at Sabugal I have recorded, was observed to leave the ranks, and, with his comrade, advance towards the enemy. The officer in immediate command, fancying they were deserting, asked the sergeant of the company what it meant. ‘Oh no, sir,’ he replied, ‘they are only gone for some amusement.’ Accordingly, ‘on nobler game intent’ than the hares at Sabugal, after stopping to drink at the Turones (for the May day was hot) they crept up to the French, and taking good aim, brought down each his man. Then, putting their caps on their rifles to receive the return fire, while they were well under cover, they deliberately walked back, and fell into their places in the Battalion.[104]

In this action 1 sergeant and 6 Riflemen of the 1st Battalion were wounded; of the company of the 2nd Battalion, 2 were killed and 4 wounded; and of the company of the 3rd Battalion, attached to Sir Brent Spencer’s Division, Lieutenant Westby and 1 private were killed, 2 were wounded, and 1 sergeant and 1 private were missing.

Shortly after the Battalion occupied the village of Fuentes d’Onor, the French, whose picquets were at the other side of the bridge which spans the Duas Casas, sent over a flag of truce, with a request to be allowed to carry off their wounded. This was of course acceded to. Three French officers crossed the bridge, and while the wounded on both sides were being carried off had much friendly conversation with our officers, preceded by polite offers of ‘_une prise de tabac_.’ They were loud in their praises of the gallantry of our troops, and presaged hard fighting on the morrow. One of them, alluding to the name of the place, observed to George Simmons that of that ‘Fountain of Honour’ many of their comrades and of ours had drank deep. The wounded having been removed, they politely wished our officers ‘good night,’ and returned to their side of the river.

They had a captain’s picquet posted near the bridge, and a strong column of infantry near a church, and two of their sentries were at the foot of the bridge, while ours were stationed on our side of it. Great vigilance was necessary, and was exercised by our officers of the picquet, in consequence of the proximity of the posts.

A man of the Battalion of the name of Tidy, a blacksmith by trade, having found a forge in the village, set to work to shoe some of the officers’ horses. A French grenadier, attracted by the light, crossed the bridge, and asked to be allowed to light his pipe, and having done so remained talking to our men. Craufurd, who had come down to visit the picquet (Costello says to see after the shoeing of his horse), caught sight of the red epaulette, and sternly asked ‘What the man was doing there;’ and being informed that he only came to light his pipe, ordered him to begone.[105]

In the course of the night the Riflemen on picquet in the village threw up earthworks in the gardens, and a strong breastwork across the street. Before dawn they stood to their arms, but when day broke they found that the French did not renew the attack; nor did any change occur in the position of the two armies until the 10th, when it was ascertained at daybreak, by the Riflemen on picquet, that the French had retired, leaving only a small cavalry picquet at various points in the line of posts they had occupied. The Light Division and cavalry pursued them; but the superiority of the enemy in cavalry, which covered their retreat, effectually checked the pursuit; and the Battalion bivouacked in its old quarters at Gallegos and Espeja.

On the 12th three regiments of French cavalry moved from Ciudad Rodrigo by the heights of Carpio, and our cavalry picquets fell back, followed by a squadron towards Espeja. Beckwith at once turned out his brigade, and sent forward some Riflemen as skirmishers; and the enemy retired across the Azarva with the loss of a few horses.

On the 26th, the Battalion marched to Nave d’Aver and Aldea de Ponte, fully expecting to proceed to the Alemtejo; but the next day they were countermanded, and resumed from the 5th Division the line of outposts in front of Espeja, Gallegos, &c.

On June 3, Beckwith, having heard that the French cavalry were collecting on the Agueda, and not knowing where an attack might be made, moved his brigade before dawn out of Espeja, and occupied a wood in rear of it; but no attack being made he returned to his former post at noon.

On the 5th, the Light Division broke up from the line of posts it had occupied since the battle of Fuentes d’Onor, and marching by Aldea de Ponte, bivouacked in a wood near Alfayates. On the next day the Battalion crossed the Coa by the very same ford near Sabugal by which they had advanced to the fight of April 3, and bivouacked in a neighbouring wood of chestnut-trees. The night was very dark, and about midnight there occurred one of those strange panics which excite the terror even of those who never flinched in battle. Some bullocks straying among the piled arms knocked them over. Those awakened by the crash of the falling rifles raised the cry, ‘The French are upon us!’ In a moment all was confusion; the officers trying to assemble their companies; even Craufurd himself, it is said,[106] ordering the men to fall in and load; and the camp followers flying to the rear. After a time the panic died out; and on the morning of the 8th the Battalion marched to Memoa, and halting there to cook, proceeded to Penamacor in the evening.

On the 9th to S. Miguel d’Arch, and halted on the 10th.

On the 11th, by some blunder of the Staff, they were ordered to commence their march under a burning sun, and a great many men fell out, necessitating frequent halts. By some further mistake the baggage and supplies did not come up, and the men were without provisions for forty hours. At night they arrived at As Caldas de Cima, and bivouacked in a wood.

On the 12th the Battalion passed through Castello Branco, and halted during the heat of the day at As Cornadas de Rodão, and in the evening advanced to the pass of Villa Velha.

On the next day, crossing the Tagus by a bridge of boats, they marched to Niza, and bivouacked in a wood; on the 14th marched to Alpalhão, and on the following day to Portalegre, where they halted until the 19th, when they moved to Arronches.

On the 23rd they took up their position with the army which Lord Wellington had concentrated, encamping on a most arid plain near Monte Raguinga on the Caya, and about three miles from Campo Major.

Here the Battalion remained for about a month, during which time Craufurd did not allow his Division to be idle, but frequently took it out for drill and exercise. During the time it remained here the Battalion suffered much from the baneful climate of the Alemtejo; and fever, ague and dysentery were rife amongst the officers and men. To add to the discomfort of this camp, it was infested with snakes, scorpions and other reptiles; yet it is strange that among so many men occupying it, no fatal or serious accident ever occurred from this nuisance, at least among the Riflemen.

At last, on July 21, they were released from the life, to them after active service, so monotonous and every way so disagreeable; and on that day marching about a league and a half only, bivouacked, and on the next day marched into Portalegre. On the 23rd they proceeded to Castello de Vide, where they occupied several quintas round the town. Thence they marched northward by much the same route by which they had moved to the Alemtejo, passing Niza on the 29th, and on the next day crossing the Tagus at Villa Velha, by a pontoon bridge, and bivouacking in an olive-grove. Thence to Castello Branco on August 1, to Lausão on the 2nd, Bemposta on the 3rd, Mauras on the 4th, whence they moved to the neighbouring heights on the 6th, and continued their march towards the northern frontier of Portugal on the 7th. On the 10th the Battalion crossed the Agueda at the ford of Vado de Carros, and occupied the villages of Martiago with the right wing, and Langella with the left. On the 11th they started, with Lord Wellington, to make a reconnaissance on Ciudad Rodrigo. On their approaching it some hundred infantry with a few field-guns, came out of the town, but did not venture beyond the protection of the guns of the place. The reconnaissance having been effected, the Riflemen returned to their cantonments.

During the march from the Alemtejo the men of the Battalion had suffered much from the heat, and many of the marches had to be performed in the evening, or before sunrise, or during the night. On August 21 the four companies of the 3rd Battalion which had been at Barrosa, joined the Light Division, and a fifth company, which, as has been mentioned, was attached to Sir Brent Spencer’s Division at his request, as a Colonel Commandant of the Regiment, also joined, thus forming five companies of the Battalion, under the command of Colonel Barnard. They were placed in Beckwith’s brigade of the Light Division. About the same time another company of the 2nd Battalion, which had embarked at Portsmouth on July 5, and had landed at Lisbon on the 14th, under the command of Captain Hart, also joined the Light Division.

Sickness, no doubt contracted in the Alemtejo while encamped on the Caya, still made great ravages among the troops of the Light Division; three officers and many men of the Regiment having died while it occupied these cantonments on the Agueda.

At the end of August the Regiment (or at least the 1st Battalion) marched to Villa Rejo, on the 28th to Zamarra, and on the 29th to Atalaya.

On that evening George Simmons was sent forward with a company, and a corporal and three men of the German hussars, with orders, by moving through a woody country and by a circuitous route, to strike on the road leading from Salamanca; and then to proceed at his discretion, in order to ascertain, if possible, whether any convoy was on its way to throw provisions into Ciudad Rodrigo. He reconnoitred Tenebrun, and bivouacked for the night in a wood.

The next morning he moved to Boca de Carro and S. Spiritus, and ascertained from Don Julian Sanchez’s guerillas that a convoy had left Salamanca for Ciudad Rodrigo, but had been compelled to return, several parties of guerillas having formed across the road and attacked it. The company therefore returned to its quarters at Atalaya.

On September 9, Leach with his company and one of Portuguese Caçadores was sent over the Sierra de Gata to occupy two villages, Las Herrias and Aldea Juella, in the heart of the mountains, to observe some roads by which it was thought that Marmont might attempt to move light cavalry or infantry, and to obtain information as to the movements of the enemy. Here they remained a fortnight, daily patrolling and reconnoitring, but unable to ascertain anything of the enemy’s doings.

Marmont having determined to throw provisions into Ciudad Rodrigo, assembled his whole army and crossed the mountains from Plasencia. The Regiment, as part of the Light Division, was posted on the heights near Horquira. The enemy’s cavalry watched them, and entered Atalaya on September 23. Here the Riflemen remained three days; and on the 25th the combat at El Bodon took place between the Hon. General Colville’s brigade and the enemy’s cavalry. At this time the Riflemen were on the right bank of the Agueda, occupying the line of the Vadillo, a tributary flowing through a rocky channel into the Agueda, and falling into it about three miles from Rodrigo. Their position was a most dangerous one; for unless the troops on the left bank of the Agueda could hold the French in check they would have been cut off. Their safety was further endangered by the obstinacy of Craufurd; who though he received orders to retire, and join the rest of the army at or near Guinaldo, at two o’clock in the afternoon of the 25th, marched only to Cespedosa, one league from the Vadillo. On the next morning, however, at daybreak, they marched; and crossing the Agueda by a ford, and taking a circuitous route joined the 3rd and 4th Divisions near Guinaldo about three o’clock in the afternoon.

On that night the whole army retired, leaving the Light Division as a rear-guard. The Riflemen having made up their fires to deceive the enemy, and to lead them to believe that they were still in bivouack, followed about midnight. They marched through Casillas de Flores to Forcalhos, and were on the march during the whole of the 27th, with the exception of a short halt. General Craufurd having remained behind with a troop of cavalry to reconnoitre, was sharply pressed and pursued by the enemy’s chasseurs, and came galloping into the middle of the Riflemen with the enemy’s troopers at his heels. But the Riflemen, throwing themselves into rocky ground and cover, which fortunately was on each side of the road, soon brought the French cavalry to a check; but these dismounting and acting as infantry skirmishers, a smart skirmish took place between some companies of the Regiment and these dismounted men, which continued the greater part of the day. In the evening the Regiment joined the other Divisions at Aldea de Ponte.

Again forming the rear-guard, the Regiment marched at midnight, and about eight o’clock on the morning of the 28th reached a position on the height near Soita in a wood of enormous chestnut-trees, many of which were hollow from age and of such dimensions that men might have been and were sheltered in them. Lord Wellington was here in a very strong position; and Marmont having effected his principal object of re-victualling Ciudad Rodrigo, declined to give battle, and retired.

The Regiment on October 1 marched to Aldea Velha, and resumed its cantonments on the Agueda at Castellejo de Duas Casas, Martiago, Atalaya, Robleda, etc.

The Regiment now (with the Light Division) maintained the blockade of Ciudad Rodrigo, and there is little to record of its movements until the commencement of the more active operations of the siege.

On November 2, however, information having been received that a considerable body of French troops were in motion to escort a new governor to Rodrigo (the former one, General Renaud, having been taken prisoner near the place by Don Julian Sanchez and his guerillas), the Regiment moved up nearer to the fortress on this morning; but it having been ascertained that the governor had succeeded in entering the place, and that the escort was bivouacked two leagues in its rear, the Regiment fell back to its former cantonments.

On the 20th Lord Wellington inspected the Regiment (with the rest of the Division) between El Bodon and Fuente Guinaldo. The Regiment had marched from its cantonments in the morning and returned to them after the inspection.

About this time, or rather earlier, Colonel Beckwith went to England on account of his health, and Barnard (commanding the 3rd Battalion) took command of his brigade.

On January 4 the troops intended to carry on the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo were moved up near the place. In an incessant fall of cold rain the Riflemen forded the Agueda; the water being nearly up to their shoulders, the men were obliged to put their pouches on the top of their knapsacks and to hold on to one another to prevent their being swept away by the current. The Light Division occupied Pastores, La Encina, and El Bodon. No sufficient arrangements having been made for their quarters, houses were with difficulty obtained, and officers and men were huddled together wherever they could find shelter. Next day, however, better arrangements were made, and the companies of Riflemen were housed separately.

On the 8th the Regiment crossed the Agueda before daylight on a bitterly cold morning at the ford of Cantarona, near the Convent of La Caridad; the water was about knee-deep; and passing round a hill to the north of the town near San Francisco and out of range of the enemy’s guns, they halted. Several French officers appeared and spoke to the officers of the 95th with great politeness, being anxious to ascertain, as it seemed, what this movement meant.

It was not long before they learned; for at nine o’clock that evening a party of 300 men of the Light Division, under Colonel Colborne of the 52nd, stormed the detached fort of San Francisco. Captain Crampton’s company of the 1st Battalion first formed upon the crest of the glacis, followed by Travers’s company of the 3rd Battalion, and another company, commanded by Lieutenant Macnamara, of the 1st Battalion. In a moment they were in the ditch and swarming over the parapet. Three guns were taken, 2 captains and 48 men made prisoners, and the rest of the garrison were killed. In this attack Second Lieutenant Rutherford Hawksley, ‘a most promising young man,’ was severely wounded, and died of his wounds. The officer commanding this outwork, a smart, talkative little Frenchman, was, when made prisoner, brought to General Craufurd. He had been stripped by the Portuguese and had nothing on but trousers, and was bleeding from the nose and mouth. Craufurd having expressed regret that he could not furnish him with clothing, Tom Crawley, a well-known private in the 1st Battalion, stepped forward, and saluting, said, ‘He may have my great coat, your honour.’ Craufurd, who was much pleased, said,’You are very good, Rifleman; let him have it.’ Almost at the same time a sergeant was brought in, stripped naked by the Portuguese; he embraced his captain and burst into tears. Harry Smith, then on Craufurd’s Staff, gave him his handkerchief to cover his nakedness.[107]

The capture of this work enabled the working parties immediately to begin the first parallel. The garrison kept up an incessant fire of shot and shell, but by daylight the men were well covered. Early on the 9th the Light Division were relieved by the 1st. The French from the old square tower of the cathedral had a good view of this relief, and a furious fire was kept up on the advancing and retiring Divisions.

On the 12th the Light Division again occupied the trenches, fording the Agueda up to their waists, and continuing in this wet state, half-frozen, till relieved next day. Some worked at the approaches; some kept up a fire on the works of the place; and in the evening, under cover of a fog, thirty men of the 1st Battalion, under Kincaid, were sent forward to dig holes as near as possible to the crest of the glacis, in which to shelter themselves, and to pick off the gunners. This was not difficult for a good marksman; as, by having his rifle ready, he was able to aim at an embrasure and fire at it the moment he saw the flash of the gun. But the garrison threw fire-balls among them; however, the men crouching in their rifle-pits, lay hid until the fire-balls burned out, and then springing up again, picked off their gunners in the embrasures.

At ten the next morning the Division was relieved, and marched back to its cantonments. The fording of the Agueda, now partly frozen, on coming to and returning from the trenches, was very trying to the men. Not only the depth and the cold of the river; but now large blocks of ice carried down by the current bruised and incommoded them. In some measure to obviate this, cavalry were ordered to form across the ford above the infantry, and under this shelter the Riflemen crossed, if in the cold, at least unmolested by the floating ice.