124 SWABEY DIARY. 
that General Borthwick, May, Dundas! and Holcombe? were all bruised 
by the explosion of shells. Dyneley’s hurt was not sufficient to prevent 
his services, he had it dressed and returned again to the charge. 
17th Janwary.— Went out to shoot but met with no encouragement. 
The wind changing we very much apprehended that the frost would 
take its departure and increase the difficulty of the siege. 
18th Janwary.—Moore? from Soita dined with us. Harding and the 
Captain set off on their travels to take a distant view of the batteries. 
The evening passed with me but heavily. 
19th January.—This night at 7 o’clock there being two practicable 
breaches, the larger one of sufficient size to admit a company abreast, 
Lord Wellington ordered Ciudad to be stormed. I have as yet got no 
further particulars than that the 38rd division attacked by escalade 
whilst the light division went in at the breach. The enemy made a 
desperate resistance. I have as yet only heard that General Robert 
Craufurd was badly wounded, General Mackinnon blown up so that not 
an atom of him could be found to identify. General Vandeleur and 
Colonel Colborne were wounded, and Major Napier, 52nd, lost an arm, 
the forlorn hope was led by Lieutenant Gurwood, 52nd, to whom Lord 
W. presented the Governor’s sword. When driven from the ramparts 
the French retreated to the square, planting their field pieces down the 
streets. 
20th January.—Lieutenant Stanhope dined with us, of course full of 
OUTS UCC OSS esr uae sat Otel Sama Cah cee tia Te cabo ete. "6 state 
21st January.—W ent out shooting. 
Zend January.—This day 1800 French, of whom 60 were officers, 
passed under an escort of a regiment of Cacadores for Lisbon; through 
them we learnt that Ciudad was plundered during the whole of the 20th 
by the troops. Never were there such wretched objects as these men, 
nothing in their possession but the clothes on their backs, shockingly 
emaciated, probably from the fatigues they had undergone in the bat- 
teries ; except the artillery, by no means a fair specimen of the French 
-troops.* 
1 Captain William Boulden Dundas (Kane’s List, No. 1150) served at the siege of Flushing in 
1809, and the following year joined the army in the Peninsula at Cadiz. At Ciudad Rodrigo he 
was wounded in the right ankle, and afterwards at Badajos lost his left arm. Captain McCarthy, 
in his recollections of the siege, says :—‘‘ Soon after I met some more artillerymen conveying in a 
blanket from the same battery an artillery officer, Captain Dundas, very severely wounded, he was 
‘a heavy man, and his left arm dreadfully shattered, his shirt and coat torn to rags, his arm was 
bent and hung over the side, and the weight of his body swagged to the ground. I stopped to 
assist in putting him in a better position, and laid his left arm straight by his side; his left thigh 
and leg were also injured.” 
For his Peninsular services Captain Dundas was made a C.B. In 1839, he was Inspector of 
Artillery, (Gun Factories) and he died a Major-General in August, 1858. 
2 Captain Harcourt Fort Holcombe (Kane’s List, No. 895) served in the Corufia campaign. In 
1811, he again joined the army in the Peninsula, and served at the sieges of Ciudad Rodrigo and 
Badajos ; after the fall of the latter place he joined the army on the east coast of Spain, and was 
present at the siege of Tarragona and the battle of Castella. He received the C.B. Lieut.-Colonel 
‘Holcombe died 6th March, 1847. 
3 Lieutenant George A. Moore (Kane’s List, No. 1410), R.A. He was killed at the passage of 
the Gave de Meulon in the south of France on 15th February, 1814. 
4° The garrison consisted of one weak regiment of French infantry, one German, one Italian ; 
-the last as strong as the other two. The artillery, two companies, were the only good part of the 
whole, and did all they could to prolong its defence.’ ‘ Cavalry Officer’s Diary,” p. 124. 
