615 



WELLINGTON, DUKE OF. 



WELLINGTON, DUKE OF. 



610 



whistled through the British ranks. Sir William Myers was killed, 

 Cole, and the three colonels, Ellis, Blakeney, and Hawkshawc, fell 

 wounded, and the fusileer battalions, struck by the iron tempest, 

 reeled and staggered like sinking ships. Suddenly and sternly re- 

 covering, they closed on their terrible enemies, and then was seen 

 with what a strength and majesty the British soldier fights. In vain 

 did Soult, by voice and gesture, animate his Frenchmen ; in vain did the 

 hardiest veterans, extricating themselves from the crowded columns, 

 sacrifice their lives to gain time for the mass to open out on such a 

 fair field ; in vain did the mass itself bear up, and, fiercely arising, fire 

 indiscriminately upon friends and foes, while the horsemen, hovering 

 on the flank, threatened to charge the advancing line. Nothing could 

 stop that astonishing infantry. No sudden burst of undisciplined 

 valour, no nervous enthusiasm, weakened the stability of their order ; 

 their flashing eyes were bent on the dark columns in their front ; 

 their measured tread shook the ground ; their dreadful volleys swept 

 away the head of every formation ; their deafening shouts overpowered 

 the dissonant cries that broke from all parts of the tumultuous crowd, 

 as foot by foot, and with a horrid carnage, it was driven by the inces- 

 sant vigour of the attack to the farthest edge of the hill. In vain did 

 the French reserves, joining with the struggling multitudes, endeavour 

 to sustain the fight ; their efforts only increased the irremediable con- 

 fusion, and the mighty mass, giving way like a loosened cliff, went 

 headlong down the ascent. The rain flowed after in streams dis- 

 coloured with blood, and 1500 unwouuded men, the remnant of 6000 

 unconquerable British soldiers, stood triumphant on the fatal hill.'' 

 (Napier, ' Peninsular War,' iii., 540-1.) 



The day was now won, and Beresford ordering the Portuguese and 

 Spaniards to advance, the French retreated in confusion across the 

 small river on which stands the village of Albuera. About three 

 o'clock the fire had ceased. The allied army had lost in killed and 

 wounded about 7000 men, of whom two-thirds were British. The 

 French lost about 8000 men, including two generals killed and three 

 wounded. On the 16th of May the two armies remained in their 

 respective positions, and Beresford waited in anxiety for another 

 attack, when he had hardly British soldiers enough for his picquets 

 and to take care of the crowd of wounded. On the 17th however he 

 was reinforced by an English brigade, and the following day Soult 

 retired towards Seville, leaving 800 soldiers severely wounded to the 

 generosity of the English. On the 19th Lord Wellington arrived 

 from the north, followed by two fresh divisions, and gave directions 

 to resume the seige of Badajoz. The trenches were opened, and on 

 the 5th of June, a breach being made in Fort St. Christoval, the 

 assault was given, but failed. On the 9th another attempt at storming 

 was made, which proved equally fruitless. On the 10th Lord Wel- 

 lington received intelligence that Marmont was marching to the south 

 to join Soult. He then took up a position near Campo Mayor, along 

 the frontiers of Portugal. The enemy did not choose to attack him, 

 and about the middle of July, Marmont, again separating himself 

 from Soult, recrossed the Tagus by Almaraz, and marched on Sala- 

 manca. Lord Wellington likewise, leaving General Hill with one 

 British division and the Portuguese in Alemtejo, and giving up the 

 siege of Badajoz for the present, crossed the Tagus with the remainder 

 of his army, and fixed his head-quarters at Fuenta Guinaldo, on the 

 line of the Agueda. He was looking towards recovering possession of 

 the important fortress of Ciudad Eodrigo, which his advanced parties 

 surrounded and kept in a state of blockade. Towards the end of Sep- 

 tember, Marmont, having received large reinforcements from France, 

 moved upon the Agueda, and by his superiority of numbers and 

 especially of cavalry, obliged Lord Wellington, after a partial engage- 

 ment at El Bodon, to withdraw his army, which he did in excellent 

 order to his old position on the Coa, where Marmont did not choose 

 to follow him. Nothing more happened after this on that side for 

 the remainder of the year 1811. 



In the south, General Hill effected a gallant achievement by sur- 

 prising the French General Girard, with 4000 foot and 1000 horse, at 

 Arroyos de Molinos, in the neigbourhood of Caceres, in Spanish Estre- 

 madura, on the 28th of October. Hill completely routed Girard, took 

 1500 prisoners, with several officers of rank, and the whole of the 

 enemy's artillery, ammunition, stores, and baggage, with only a trifling 

 loss on the part of the Allies. Hill then advanced to Merida, where 

 he placed his troops in cantonments, that part of Estremadura being 

 thus delivered from the enemy. 



Lord Wellington, in the second part of 1811, besides having firmly 

 established his complete possession of Portugal, had by his operations 

 within the Spanish frontiers, both north and south of the Tagus, given 

 full employment to two French armies, each commanded by a French 

 marshal of high reputation, and prevented them from acting with 

 vigour either against Galicia in the north or against Cadiz in the 

 south. He had thus fulfilled the promise which he had made the year 

 before of being able to retain possession of Portugal, and to make it a 

 position of support for future operations against the French in Spain, 

 and he continued to hold the same language to ministers at home. 

 ('Dispatches,' March 23, 1811, vii., p. 392.) 



In eastern Spain unfortunately the French had obtained in 1811 

 great successes against the unassisted Spaniards. They took Tarra- 

 gona by storm in June, when a horrid butchery of the unarmed popu- 

 lation took place, without regard to age or sex, to the number, it was 



stated, of 6000. Still the brave Catalonians, undismayed, continued 

 to carry on the war with unabated zeal The Spanish General Blake, 

 after being defeated by Suchet near Valencia, shut himself up in that 

 city with his whole army, the last Spanish army which had remained 

 in the field; and in the beginning of January 1812, he capitulated 

 with 18,000 soldiers, 23 general officers, and between 300 and 400 

 guns. " I believe," observed Lord Wellington, at the time, " there is 

 no man who knows the state of affairs in that province, and has read 

 Suchet's account of his action with Blake on the 25th of October, who 

 does not believe that, if Blake had not fought that action, Valencia 

 would have been safe. Are the English ministers and generals respon- 

 sible for the blunders of Blake ? " (' Dispatches,' viii., p. 520.) 



Campaign of 1812. Lord Wellington from his head-quarters at 

 Frenada, near the Coa, where be had been apparently quiet during tho 

 latter months of 1811, had been preparing in secrecy the means of 

 recapturing the important fortress of Ciudad Kodrigo. Under the 

 appearance of repairing and fortifying Almeida he had collected there 

 a battering train and abundant stores. A portable bridge on trestles 

 was also constructed in the same place. He also effected the forma- 

 tion of a commissariat waggon-train, with several hundred waggons 

 constructed for that purpose, in order to supersede the rude carts of 

 Portuguese construction which had been hitherto used as a means of 

 transport for the army, but which would have often proved quite 

 ineffectual without the assistance of a large body of Spanish mules and 

 muleteers, which followed all the movements of the divisions of the 

 British army. By the exertions of the engineer officers the river 

 Douro had been rendered navigable as far as the confluence of the 

 Agueda, that is to say, forty miles higher than boats had ever before 

 ascended it. All this was done with so little outward bustle and show 

 that Marmont does not seem to have anticipated any attack upon 

 Ciudad Rodrigo, at least for the remainder of the winter. The French 

 marshal had placed his army, the 'Army of Portugal,' in extensive 

 cantonments about Plasencia and Talavera, towards the Tagus, and 

 had detached part of it to the eastward towards La Mancha, and two 

 divisions to the north, to occupy Asturias. Suddenly, Lord Welling- 

 ton, on the 6th of January 1812, moved his head-quarters forward to 

 Gallegos, and on the 8th part of the army crossed the Agueda, and 

 immediately invested Ciudad Rodrigo. An external redoubt, on a hill 

 called the Great Teson, was stormed by a party of the light division 

 that very evening, and the first parallel was soon afterwards established. 

 On the night of the 13th the fortified convent of Santa Cruz, situated 

 outside of the walls, was surprised and carried ; and on the 14th the 

 convent of San Francisco, likewise situated outside the walls, was 

 carried by assault. The second parallel was then completed, and fresh 

 batteries being established, two practicable breaches were made on the 

 19th, and that very evening orders were given to storm the place. No 

 time was to be lost, as Marmont was known to be advancing to relieve 

 the garrison. A part of the light division under General Craufurd, 

 on one side, and General Mackinnon's brigade, supported by the 94th 

 and 5th regiments, on the other, advanced to the breaches, whilst 

 Colonel Pack's brigade attacked the gate of St. Jago, and in less than 

 half an hour from the time the attack commenced the Allies were 

 in possession of the ramparts, and the garrison then surrendered. 

 (Dispatches to Lord Liverpool, vol. viii., p. 549, &c.) The loss of the 

 British was severe. General Mackinnou and many of his men were 

 blown up by the explosion of a magazine on the rampart, which took 

 fire accidentally. General Craufurd, the gallant commander of the 

 light division, was mortally wounded, and died shortly afterwards. 

 General Vandeleur and Colonel Colborne were also wounded, as well 

 as Major George Napier, who led the storming party on the left. 

 The total loss of the British and Portuguese amounted to about 1000 

 killed and wounded. The loss of the garrison was estimated at about 

 the same, besides 1700 prisoners. A large battering- train and a vast 

 quantity of ammunition and stores were found in the place. 



Marshal Marmont heard at Valladolid, on the 15th of January, of 

 Lord Wellington's operations against Ciudad Rodrigo. He quickly 

 recalled Bonet's division from Asturias, collected his other divisions, 

 and marched, as he thought, to relieve the place ; but on arriving at 

 Salamanca he heard of its fall His astonishment was thus expressed 

 in a letter to Berthier : " On the 16th the English batteries opened 

 their fire at a great distance : on the 19th the place was stormed, and 

 fell into the power of the enemy. There is something so incompre- 

 hensible in this that I allow myself no remarks, as I am not yet 

 furnished with the necessary information." 



The Spanish Cortes assembled at Cadiz passed unanimously a vote 

 of thanks to Lord Wellington, and conferred on him the title of 

 Duke of Ciudad Rodrigo. In England he was raised to the dignity of 

 Earl of Wellington of the United Kingdom, and parliament, besides a 

 vote of thanks to him and his brave army, annexed to the title an 

 annuity of 2000?. 



Having repaired in some degree the works of Ciudad Rodrigo, Lord 

 Wellington placed it uuder the command of a Spanish governor, and 

 prepared to move to the south, for he had made up his mind to take 

 Badajoz, if possible, before Marmont and Soult could unite for its 

 defence. The artillery for the siege was embarked at Lisbon for a 

 fictitious destination, then transhipped at sea into small craft, in 

 which it was conveyed up the Setubal river to Alcacer do Sul, and 

 thence by land across Alemtejo to the banks of tho Guadiana. On 



