[115] This comes from Masséna’s dispatch to Berthier of March 6th.

[116] For details as to this see Foy’s narrative quoted above.

[117] Journal of Noël of the Artillery of the 8th Corps, p. 137.

[118] For general statements as to the miserable state of the material of the army see Masséna’s dispatch to Berthier of March 6, 1811.

[119] This plan comes out in full in the diary of Beresford’s Chief of the Staff. D’Urban writes under the 23rd February: ‘The Marshal tells me that Lord Wellington means to attack, and his (Beresford’s) own share is that he must turn and force the French left, when the reinforcements should arrive. Some of them are already on their march up from Lisbon. On their arrival Lord Wellington will attack the French right, on the Rio Mayor, while Marshal Beresford crosses the Tagus at Abrantes, and attacks the force on the Zezere at the same time. Orders to inquire how far, in attacking the corps at Punhete, Amoreira can be turned, and the heights of Montalvão gained, with consequent advantage of ground in coming on the enemy upon the Zezere.’ The local reports were prepared by D’Urban on the 25th. The only allusion to the plan in the Wellington dispatches is in the last paragraph of the letter to Lord Liverpool of February 23rd, in which the phrase occurs, ‘I cannot venture to detach troops [to Estremadura] even after the reinforcements shall arrive: and if the weather should hold up a little I must try something else-of greater extent but more doubtful result.’

[120] The Chasseurs Britanniques had landed very early in February, and a wing of the 51st on the 25th of that month. But the bulk of the transport fleet from England only was reported at the Tagus mouth on March 4th, and began to land men next day—the critical day of Masséna’s retreat. The ships with the German light brigade had sailed late, and came in even later in proportion.

[121] Most of these orders will be found in the early (6 a.m.) dispatch of March 5th to Beresford. The rest are mentioned as having been ordered to take place on the 5th in the dispatch to Beresford of the 6th.

[122] See Wellington to Beresford, Dispatches, vii. p. 344.

[123] Wellington to Beresford, Dispatches, vii. p. 346.

[124] Memoirs of George Simmons of the 95th, p. 137.

[125] From the Memoirs of Donaldson of the 94th, p. 104. Passing through Porto de Mos on September 29, 1910, I thought that I would try to discover whether any memory of this horrid tragedy survived. The sacristan, of whom I made inquiries, at once took me to a ruined chamber to the left of the church, and told me that 200 people had been burned there in the ‘time of the French.’ A new sacristy had been built to replace it in 1814, the chamber being held accursed.

[126] See Chapter II above, p. 60, and Wellington, Dispatches, vii. 350-1.

[127] See pp. 57-8 above.

[128] Correspondance, no. 17,531. ‘Le siège de Cadix n’aurait pas couru les chances qu’il vient de courir si, en partant pour l’Estrémadure, le duc de Dalmatie avait mis le corps du général Sebastiani et la division Godinot sous les ordres du Maréchal duc de Bellune [Victor] ... il aurait alors eu trois fois plus de troupes qu’il n’en aurait fallu.’

[129] ‘Soult vient de me faire une grande sottise: il aurait dû laisser à Victor le commandement de toutes les troupes d’Andalousie. Il ne l’a pas fait, de peur que Victor ne fût aussi grand que lui.’ Foy’s interview with Napoleon in his Vie Militaire, p. 140.

[130] See above, p. 33.

[131] See above, p. 31.

[132] Whom Wellington (in his dispatch to Graham of December 31) calls ‘the German deserters’—they having been mainly men who had absconded from the French armies.

[133] Correspondance, no. 17,131.

[134] See vol. i. pp. 442-3.

[135] Schepeler, the Prussian officer in Spanish service, whose notes on all the Cadiz affairs are so important, owing to his having served through them under Blake and La Peña, says that the latter was generally allowed to be incompetent—he was a regular old woman. He tells an illustrative anecdote, of a guerrillero chief who came to concert a bold plan with the general, and went away at once, saying, ‘Can I hope to get anything out of an officer who, as I find, is called “Donna Manuela” by every one about him?’ Schepeler, Geschichte der spanischen Monarchie, i. 134. La Peña had kept his place, despite of his Tudela fiasco, through family and salon intrigues—he is said to have been the ‘tame cat’ of certain great ladies of the patriotic party.

[136] He played in the first recorded cricket match in Scotland in 1785.

[137] See his diary, quoted in Delavoye’s Life of Lord Lynedoch, p. 32.

[138] Graham survived Barrosa for thirty years, lived to be ninety-six, and after Waterloo founded the United Service Club, as a place of rendezvous for his old Peninsular comrades, who looked upon him as a kind of father.

[139] The delays in the start caused an unexpected conjunction in the mountains of the south. Beguines and his roving brigade, warned to be ready to join in the campaign by the 23rd, came down from the Ronda mountains in search of the army, advanced as far as Medina Sidonia, and skirmished there with Victor’s flank guard, two battalions under General Cassagne, which were always kept watching the mountains (March 25). Beaten off, Beguines retired to his usual haunts, and waited for signs of the expedition. His premature attack—premature through no fault of his own—called Victor’s attention to his rear, and caused him to fortify Medina Sidonia, and to reinforce Cassagne with three battalions and a cavalry regiment.

[140] These battalions were, I believe, Ciudad Real and 4th Walloon Guards.

[141] As the names of the Spanish battalions engaged in this expedition have never before been collected, it may be worth while to mention here that they were—Lardizabal’s division: Campomayor, Carmona, Murcia (2 batts.), Canarias; Anglona’s division: Africa (2 batts.), Sigüenza, Cantabria (2 batts.), Voluntaries de Valencia.

[142] I do not know these roads, nor the field of Barrosa, but Colonel Churcher, of the Royal Irish Fusiliers, who is well acquainted with them, tells me that the track (five miles inland from the coast) marked on the British staff map of 1810, from Bolonia to Vejer, is no proper road at all, and unfit for wheeled traffic to this day; while the Tarifa-Medina Sidonia road is bad, but can carry vehicles. He tells me that he has actually crossed the Laguna de la Janda at its centre in dry weather, so shallow does it become.

[143] There is a good note on the pros and cons of the two routes in Schepeler, i. 161.

[144] According to Schepeler La Peña had sent an officer out from Tarifa in a fishing-boat on the 1st March, to let the garrison of Cadiz know that he might not keep his time accurately; this messenger was stopped at sea by an English brig, and since he was disguised and had no English pass, he was detained some time as a suspicious character, and only reached Cadiz on the 4th.

[145] It chanced that the battalions in Leval’s division were individually stronger than those in the others—averaging 640 men each, against little over 500 in Villatte’s and Ruffin’s divisions—officers not counted. The brigading was—Ruffin, 1/9th Léger, 1/96th Ligne, 1 and 2/24th Ligne, 2 Provisional battalions of grenadiers, Leval 1 and 2/8th Ligne, 1 and 2/54th Ligne, 1/45th, 1 Provisional battalion of grenadiers. See Appendix at end of volume giving exact strength.

[146] See Graham’s diary, p. 465.

[147] The pinewood is now much shrunken, and covers only the northern part of its original breadth. See an article on the topography of Barrosa by Colonel Verner in the Saturday Review for March 9, 1911.

[148] Cruz Murgeon was commanding the two battalions attached to the British division, Ciudad Real and 4th Walloon Guards.

[149] The rest of the Spanish cavalry being now with La Peña by the Almanza creek.

[150] There is a lively account of the altercation in the memoirs of Browne’s ardent admirer Blakeney (A Boy in the Peninsular War, p. 187).

[151] All this from the graphic description in the autobiography of Blakeney, Browne’s adjutant, p. 188.

[152] The biography of General Dilkes seems to explain this matter. Duncan, the artillery commander, thought that he would be going into action without any infantry supports, and rode to the nearest brigadier—this was Dilkes—to ask him to lend a few companies to cover the guns. Dilkes assented, and told the Coldstream companies in the middle of his column to fall out and follow the guns. But Graham had already set aside the two companies of the 47th, from Barnard’s battalion, for the same purpose. When Duncan found them waiting for him in the edge of the wood, he told the officer commanding the Coldstreamers that he was not wanted, and these two companies marched off and fell into line in a gap in the front of Wheatley’s brigade.

[153] Blakeney, p. 195.

[154] For further details see the letters of General Dilkes, Colonels Norcott, Stanhope, and Onslow, and Major Acheson, in Wellington’s Supplementary Dispatches, vii. pp. 127-31.

[155] Vigo-Roussillon says that he personally captured Colonel Bushe, who was riding away slowly from the front, disabled by a wound. This seems contradicted by the very circumstantial evidence of Bunbury, adjutant of the 20th Portuguese, who says that Bushe had his horse shot under him, and was mortally wounded, that he declined being sent to the rear, and was propped up and left behind by his own orders. French soldiers were seen rifling him as he lay.

[156] Surtees, Twenty Years in the Rifle Brigade, p. 119.

[157] See letter in Rait’s Life of Lord Gough, vol. i. p. 53.

[158] A hereditary name of glory in the 87th. The present representative of the family won his Victoria Cross at Ladysmith in 1900.

[159] These two companies, whose losses, as it is seen here, were heavy, must have been engaged with part of the left battalion of the French 54th.

[160] Wellington to Graham, from Santa Marinha, March 25th. (Dispatches, vii, 396.)

[161] See the figures of losses in Appendix No. V.

[162] Lapéne, Campagnes de 1810-11, p. 121.

[163] See, for a curious note concerning this incident, Lapéne, Appendix, p. 256.

[164] It is sometimes asserted that La Peña proposed to continue the campaign, and was foiled by Graham’s departure into the Isla. But we have Graham’s own statement, in his dispatch to Henry Wellesley of March 24, that no such proposal was made. ‘The only regret expressed to me at Head Quarters on the morning of the 6th, on knowing of my intention to send the British troops across the Santi Petri, was that the opportunity of withdrawing the Spanish troops during the night was lost, and on my observing that after such a defeat there was no risk of attack from the enemy, a very contrary opinion was expressed.’

[165] See p. 62 above.

[166] The forces of the French corps five days later (but the numbers were much the same still) were, to be exact [Return of March 15 in French Archives Nationales]—

all exclusive of sick and wounded.

[167] Wellington to Baccelar, March 8: ‘I conclude that Colonel Trant will have retired from Coimbra upon the bridge of the Vouga, which he should destroy, and from thence on Oporto. The enemy have no boats, and I hope to be able to press them so hard that they can get none on the Mondego.... If the enemy should turn toward Vizeu, you will of course do all that you can to annoy them in their march, but send all your baggage, &c., across the Douro.’ (Dispatches, vii. p. 347.)

[168] Viz.:

The 2nd Division, left behind near Abrantes, had about 6,100 of all ranks. Hamilton’s Portuguese Division about 4,200, Fane’s British (13th Lt. Dragoons) and Portuguese cavalry was about 1,000 sabres, artillery of both nations for the Army of Estremadura about 500. The 7th Division, now being formed at Lisbon, was composed of 2,800 British and 2,300 Portuguese. There were two battalions not belonging to the 7th Division marching up with it, with 1,300 bayonets (2/52nd, 2/88th).

[169] Picton to Col. Pleydell, a letter printed in Robinson’s Life of Picton, i. 385.

[170] Narrative of Delagrave: ‘La cavalerie anglaise se déployait avec une certaine audace, et semblait vouloir provoquer un combat. Le Général Montbrun s’avança fièrement pour l’accepter. Les Anglais avaient des chevaux plus frais que les nôtres, et ils semblaient s’en prévaloir. Mais nos gens avaient pour eux le vrai courage et le sang-froid. Quelques escadrons de dragons, les plus avancés, en voyant qu’on les chargeait au grand galop, s’arrêtèrent et poussèrent le sabre en avant, et dans cette position reçurent de pied ferme l’ennemi. Cette manœuvre eut un plein succès. L’ennemi fut rompu, désuni, il eut beaucoup d’hommes et de chevaux tant tués que blessés. Ensuite les nôtres, dont pas un n’avait été touché, tirant un prompt parti de leur bon ordre, et du désordre des Anglais, chargèrent à leur tour, et eurent en quelques minutes bon marché de cette troupe, qui avait d’abord montré tant d’audace.’ (Campagne de Portugal, pp. 191-2.)

Narrative of Tomkinson, 16th Light Dragoons: ‘We followed the enemy up to the Pombal plain, where they showed eight squadrons formed on the heath in front. The Hussars advanced with one squadron in front and three in support, on which the enemy’s skirmishers retired, and the whole eight squadrons began to withdraw. We passed the defile in our front, and came up in time to join the Hussars in their charge. We charged and broke one squadron of the enemy, drove that on to the second, and so on, till the whole eight were altogether in the greatest confusion, when we drove them on to their main support. We wounded several and took a few prisoners, and should have made more, but that they were so thick that we could not get into them. The French officers called on the men supporting to advance: but not a man moved.’ (Diary, p. 79.)

The returns show that the total loss of the British cavalry was nine men on this day. Six belonged to the Hussars. The report states that one officer and eleven men of the French were taken prisoners (see Beamish, History of the K.G.L., i. p. 820). Wellington’s dispatch merely says, ‘The Hussars distinguished themselves in a charge, made under the command of Colonel Arentschildt.’

[171] No. 3 of that arm.

[172] Some French authorities, favourable to Masséna, assert that he was not responsible for the failure to occupy Coimbra, that Ney, on the 10th, had been told to send Marcognet’s brigade to support Montbrun, who said that he could not succeed without infantry help (Pelet, Notes sur la campagne de Portugal, p. 334). But Ney, it is said would not detach the brigade. This seems most improbable, for (1) Junot’s corps, which was in Ney’s rear and five miles nearer to Coimbra, would have been the natural source from which to seek for infantry supports for Montbrun, and (2) Masséna does not accuse Ney of this particular piece of disobedience in his report to Berthier of March 19, nor in the later one of March 22, when he is giving his reasons for superseding his colleague and sending him home to France. He simply says, in recounting his reasons for not seizing Coimbra, that Montbrun and the engineers reported ‘that the river was in flood, that the bridge had two arches broken, that the left bank was occupied by the forces of Trant and Silveira, and defended by cannon. It would have required several days to repair the bridge and to drive the Portuguese out of Coimbra; there was no pontoon train with the army, and not a single boat on the Mondego. In face of the danger of being attacked by Wellington’s whole force while the passage was in progress, he resolved to renounce it.’ The one battalion of infantry which was sent to Montbrun’s aid on the 12th came from Solignac’s division in Junot’s corps—as might have been expected.

[173] I spent two interesting hours at Redinha on September 29, 1910, going round the battle-ground, guided by Mr. Reynolds of Barreiro. The village is most irregularly built, and the way to the bridge not obvious, the streets being tortuous and narrow. The place is easy to defend, but not easy to get out of. A courteous denizen of Redinha, Mr. J. J. Leitão, presented me with an unexploded British shrapnel shell, which he had got out of the sand of the river-bed just above the bridge. Several more had been found on this spot; they must have been thrown by the pursuing British artillery at the French column hurrying over the bridge, and had fallen short, into the water. Each contained thirty-two balls, but the powder had decayed into an impalpable red dust. The shell that we got is now in the United Service Museum.

[174] See table of losses in Appendix III. Of the regiments the chief losers were the 95th (13 men), and 52nd (18 men).

[175] Of the fourteen French officers killed and wounded no less than thirteen were from the 25th Léger, and 27th and 50th Ligne of Mermet’s division.

[176] e. g. in Delagrave, p. 201: ‘Deux colonnes des siens remontaient le Mondégo, le long des rives: celle qui avait débarqué à Figuieras avait pour but principal de couvrir Coïmbre.... L’autre, qui remontait la rive gauche, avait été détachée de l’armée ennemie avec ordre de déborder et d’attaquer la droite des Français.’ Belmas also speaks of this imaginary force.

[177] Marbot says that the officer arrived four hours after the evacuation of Condeixa, though that place is only five miles from Fonte Cuberta (Mémoires, ii. 443). Fririon makes a much graver accusation against Ney, viz. that he sent no messenger at all, and that the allied cavalry were discovered by an officer named Girbault on Masséna’s staff.

[178] For an account of this curious affair see Fririon, Noël (who was with Loison at the moment), Pelet, and Marbot. The latter (as always) gives the most picturesque and probably the least trustworthy account. He forgets to mention that Fonte Cuberta was occupied by Loison’s 4,500 infantry, and writes as if a squadron of hussars had retired before Masséna’s escort of 50 men. According to him the Marshal’s night-retreat was much disturbed by the misadventures of his mistress (Renique’s sister), whose horse repeatedly fell in the dark and rolled over her, to his intense anxiety. Masséna’s dispatch says only, ‘Le duc d’Elchingen abandonna la position de Condeixa plus tôt que je ne le croyais. Le poste de Fonte Cuberta était découvert, et l’artillerie qui s’y trouvait compromise. J’ai gagné avec elle la grande route par une marche de flanc, à portée de canon de la ligne ennemie, par un beau clair de lune.’

[179] ‘Le Maréchal Masséna crut voir dans ce mouvement opéré à son insu l’intention de le faire tomber, lui et son état-major, entre les mains de l’ennemi. Le Général Fririon chercha à lui faire entendre qu’il devait attribuer ce fait à un oubli plutôt qu’à un sentiment de malveillance. Mais il lui fut impossible de le persuader. “Cette conduite est inexcusable,” lui dit Masséna; “le mouvement rétrograde de ces deux divisions était exécuté clandestinement; c’est un acte que rien ne peut justifier.”’ (Fririon, pp. 150-1.)

[180] For all this see Soriano da Luz, iii. pp. 360-1.

[181] According to Delagrave he got the news neither from Ney nor from an aide-de-camp of his own whom he had left with the 6th Corps to transmit information, but from an emissary of Masséna named Girod, who thought of him when the proper authorities failed to do so.

[182] Called the Deuça by Napier and other writers—an erroneous contraction of Rio de Eça.

[183] Late Champlemond’s, heavily engaged against Reynier at Bussaco.

[184] viz. Ashworth’s (late A. Campbell’s), Spry’s, Madden’s (late Eben’s), and Harvey’s, of which the third had only one regiment engaged at Bussaco, and the others had been on parts of the line not attacked by the French.

[185] I walked round Casal Novo on September 28, 1910. It is a very small place, under a low undulation of the high-lying plateau which the road crosses.

[186] There is a good account of the combat of Casal Novo in William Napier’s History, iii. 119-20, and a still more striking one in his biography, pp. 55-7, containing some distressing anecdotes. He was severely wounded, as was also his brother George Napier of the 52nd, whose narrative is quite as interesting as William’s. It is he who describes Erskine’s reckless action best—informed by Colonel Ross that the French were still in Casal Novo ‘he kept blustering and swearing it was all nonsense—that the captains of the pickets knew nothing about the matter, and that there was not a man in the village. Just as he spoke the dense fog began to clear, and bang came a shot from a twelve-pounder, which struck the head of our column and made a lane through it, killing and wounding many. Then came a regular cannonade, but the wise Sir William was sure it was but a single gun and a picket supporting it, and desired Colonel Ross to send my company against its flank,’ &c. Costello of the 95th has also left a very good and lively narrative of the day’s work.

[187] The losses of the 14th (Casal Novo) and the 15th (Foz do Arouce) have unfortunately got mixed in Martinien’s invaluable casualty lists, most of them being credited to the 14th, with the wrong heading ‘Condeixa’—which appears to mean Casal Novo. In some regiments the dates and names have not got wrong, e. g. we know that on the 14th the 27th regiment had 3 officers wounded, and 3 more at Foz do Arouce on the following day. But e. g. in the 39th Ligne Colonel Lamour is down as ‘blessé le 14 mars à Condeixa,’ while he was certainly wounded at Foz do Arouce on the 15th, where he was also taken prisoner. The total of officers recorded as hit in the 6th Corps on the 14th-15th is 22, of whom 10 were certainly casualties of the 14th. This must surely imply more than 55 in all, killed and wounded. At the low rate of 10 men per officer it would give 100—at the normal rate of 20 per officer it would be 200. But the last is probably too high. It was on this day that Marbot had his famous encounter with a rifle officer (officier de chasseurs à pied) and two hussars, of whom (according to his narrative) he slew the first and wounded the other two. It cannot be disputed that he had a fight, for he is down as wounded in the official lists. But he certainly did not kill a rifle officer. The only light division officer slain that day was Lieutenant Gifford, who was killed by a ball in the head at Casal Novo. It is also to be noted that there are no cavalry casualties in the return of March 14, or indeed since Redinha. Marbot’s supposed victims thus disappear!

[188] For details see the diary of Ney’s aide-de-camp Sprünglin (p. 470). It is astounding to find Masséna in his dispatch of March 19 to Berthier stating that between Miranda de Corvo and Foz do Arouce ‘nos équipages et nos malades ne cessaient pas de filer, et rien absolument n’est resté en arrière.’

[189] ‘The most disgusting sight was the asses floundering in the mud, some with throats half cut, the rest barbarously houghed. What the object of this was I never could guess. The poor brutes could have been of no use to us, for they could not have travelled another league. Their meagre appearance, with backbones and hips protruding through their skin, and their mangled limbs, produced a feeling of disgust and commiseration.’ (Grattan, p. 58.)

‘It was pitiable to see the poor creatures in this state, yet there was something ludicrous in the position which many had taken when thus cruelly lamed. They were sitting in groups upon their hinder ends, staring in each other’s faces, as if in deep consultation on some important subject.’ (Donaldson of the 94th, p. 106.)

[190] Napier calls the village Foz de Aronce, and this spelling of it (probably caused by an uncorrected printer’s error) has been perpetuated by every English writer on the War. Yet Wellington has it rightly spelt with the ‘u’ in his dispatch (vii. p. 370) as ‘Foz de Arouce.’ Masséna, in his, calls it Foz d’Arunce, which is incorrect. Delagrave, Fririon, and other French narrators follow him, sometimes with the variants Aronce or Arounce. There is no doubt that the name is spelt with a ‘u,’ and always has been, by the Portuguese.

[191] All Marchand’s division and a brigade of Mermet’s (25th Léger and 27th Ligne) remained behind. Only Labassée’s brigade of Mermet’s division crossed the water, with Loison’s division.

[192] I studied the ground at Foz do Arouce on September 28, 1910. The bridge is only four and a half yards broad, and 107 long. It was approached in 1811 by the road in a sharp turn, which has now been straightened out, so was far more difficult to cross than it is now. The gap between the hills in which the village lies is about 200 yards broad. The heights on the French left are much higher than those on their right.

[193] It was found in the river at low water and sent to London. The loss is mentioned in George Simmons’s diary under March 16. Wellington sent it home in July. (Dispatches, viii. p. 78.)

[194] So both Masséna’s dispatch, and Fririon, who was present with the brigade of which the 69th formed part. Marbot is wrong in saying that it was the 27th. All the narratives on the French side are very confused, and differ widely.

[195] Sprünglin says 400, Masséna, in his dispatch to Berthier, under 200, Marbot 150, Victoires et Conquêtes 400. Sprünglin, as Ney’s aide-de-camp, had the best chance of knowing. But Martinien’s lists, in which I can only find ten or twelve casualties among officers, suggest a smaller total, roughly perhaps 250.

[196] See Dispatches, vii. p. 366.

[197] There is a bitter letter from Pack of March 21st in his Memoirs concerning the ‘bad commissariat and worse medical establishment of an inefficient and penniless government which no officer can serve with pleasure or advantage,’ which quite bears out Wellington, Dispatches, vii. p. 371.

[198] Wellington had called Beresford up to him on May 9th, and the latter was present at Pombal and Redinha. He rode hastily back to pick up his forces, which were to form the Army of Estremadura, on the 16th and reached Thomar on the 17th March.

[199] Masséna to Berthier, from Maceira, March 19: ‘D’après les rapports, le général Hill [he means Beresford, who had been in charge of Hill’s former command since December] se portait avec sa division et un gros détachement de Portugais à travers les montagnes du haut Zézère, se dirigeant sur la rive gauche du Mondégo. Dès ce moment j’ai abandonné l’espoir de garder cette rive sans risquer une bataille.’ ... ‘Dans l’état actuel des choses et d’après les mouvements que l’ennemi peut faire sur mes flancs, par le Mondégo ou par les montagnes de Guarda, où s’est dirigé le corps de Hill, il est nécessaire de rapprocher l’armée de notre base d’opérations’ [i. e. to retreat into Spain].