This appeal was answered by General Macleod to the effect that he could not, under any consideration, relinquish the rights of his Corps: that he persisted in his claim, which had received the perfect approbation of Lord Chatham; but that, in consideration of the representations made by the magistrates, he again renounced the idea of deriving emolument to himself at the expense of the distresses of the inhabitants, but would persist in the right of his Corps, unless the magistrates should consent to pay the still further reduced sum of one hundred guineas in establishment of the right;—“to be disposed of in charity to the soldiers’ wives and widows of the Royal Artillery, as may be thought proper hereafter.”

As General Macleod was on the eve of leaving Walcheren for England, he transferred the correspondence to Colonel Terrot, with the intimation that he himself would have no objection to an appeal to the English Legislature, should Dated Middleburg, 9 Sept. 1809. the magistrates of Flushing insist on it; but “in that case,” he wrote, “it is to be understood that the appeal is for the whole of the bells, or for the full amount of their value. The appeal leaves no room for generosity on either side.”

The magistrates were obstinate, and the appeal was forwarded to England. On the 12th November intimation was sent to Major Dixon, in Walcheren, now in command of the Artillery, that the decision was unfavourable to the claims Dated Doctors’ Commons, 26 October, 1809. of the Corps. The following extract from the decision, addressed by Sir Charles Robinson to the Earl of Liverpool, explains the grounds on which it was based. “With respect to the bells of the church, the demands of the Artillery are, I conceive, altogether unsustainable. It is apparently not supported on the part of the Prize Commissioners, since they do not advert to this claim in their letter of the 4th of October. Anciently, there prevailed a law of pillage, which assigned to different corps and to different individuals a privileged claim to particular articles. Whether this was a privilege of the Artillery under the ancient custom of England, as described in the Petition, I am not informed; but in the modern usage of respecting property and public edifices, and more particularly those set apart for divine worship, such a demand cannot, I conceive, be sustained. What the custom may be,—whether deserving of any compensation in the division of what is properly prize, or from any other quarter,—may be a subject of consideration according to circumstances. But I am of opinion that the demand ought not to be enforced against the town.”

From subsequent correspondence which is extant, and which passed between General Macleod and Sir Anthony Farrington, it is evident that the former felt much regret that an old Regimental privilege should have disappeared during operations in which he had occupied so prominent a place; but the reader will admit that no one could have conducted the cause of the Corps in a more unselfish, chivalrous, and yet resolute manner.

N.B.—The comments of an officer of the sister corps, on the conduct of the Artillery at the siege of Flushing, were very favourable. Two extracts from Sir J. Jones’s work may be given.

“The guns of the batteries on the right of the attack were more particularly directed to enfilade and take en écharpe the rampart of the western sea-line, in order to silence the fire of its artillery on the fleet, now preparing to force the passage of the Scheldt. This they accomplished very effectually, by disabling or very severely wounding many of the traversing platforms and their carriages, and much injuring the guns themselves.”

Again:

“Discharges of carcasses and shells from the mortar batteries, with powerful flights of rockets intermixed, were kept up throughout the night on the devoted town, and frequently large portions of it burned with fury.”—Jones’s ‘Sieges,’ vol. ii. pp. 269-271.

CHAPTER XV.
Peninsular War resumed.—Passage of the Douro, and Talavera.

“The deliverance of the Peninsula was never due to the foresight and perseverance of the English ministers, but to the firmness and skill of the British Generals, and to the courage of troops whom no dangers could daunt and no hardships dishearten, while they remedied the eternal errors of the Cabinet.”—Napier.

In resuming the story of the Peninsular War, it will be seen that the narrative has to go back to an earlier date than that of the expedition described in the last chapter,—Sir Arthur Wellesley having returned from England to Lisbon, to take command of the army, so early as the 22nd April, 1809. But it has been thought better to clear the ground, so to speak, of the Walcheren Expedition, and thus to enable the reader to follow uninterruptedly the story of the operations, which terminated in the glorious victory of Talavera, and the subsequent withdrawal of the English troops from Spain to Portugal.

The British Government still resolved that the English army in Spain should be merely an auxiliary one, and remained still undeceived as to the real state of the Spanish forces. Perhaps it was as well, therefore, that the army entrusted to Sir Arthur Wellesley was not a larger one; for the difficulty he encountered in obtaining provisions and transport from the Spaniards would have been insurmountable, had the forces under his command been more numerous. Merida, 25 Aug. 1809. “I do not think,” wrote Sir Arthur to Lord Castlereagh, Cthat matters would have been much better if you had sent your large expedition to Spain instead of to the Scheldt. You could not have equipped it in Galicia, or anywhere in the north of Spain. If we had had 60,000 men instead of 20,000, in all probability we should not have got to Talavera to fight the battle, for want of means and provisions. But if we had got to Talavera, we could not have gone farther, and the armies would probably have separated for want of means of subsistence, probably without a battle, but certainly afterwards.” The campaign of 1809, from beginning to end, was marked by obstinacy on the part of Spanish Generals, and faithlessness on the part of the Spanish Government; by inadequate supplies of money from England, and by difficulties with the Portuguese troops, not the less annoying because they were often petty; as well as by hardships which tried the discipline of the English troops quite as much as the retreat to Corunna, and which drew from To Lord Castlereagh, dated Abrantes, 17 June, 1809. Sir Arthur Wellesley the bitter words: “We are an excellent army on parade, an excellent one to fight; but we are worse than an enemy in a country; and, take my word for it, that either defeat or success would dissolve us.” The success which he almost dreaded came: the 27th and 28th July witnessed as gallant an exhibition of English courage as has ever been seen; but in a few days Sir Arthur wrote: “A starving army is actually worse than none. The soldiers To Marquis Wellesley, dated Deleytosa, 8 August, 1809. lose their discipline and spirit; they plunder even in presence of their officers. The officers are discontented, and are almost as bad as the men; and, with an army which a fortnight ago beat double their numbers, I should now hesitate to meet a French corps of half their strength.” The administration which has so often marked our campaigns with passages like this, cannot be too distinctly held up to view as a perpetual warning. No troops, as Sir Arthur wrote, can serve to any good purpose unless they are regularly fed; and yet it is in this very point—the question of supply—that our military history abounds with failures.

The army which had landed in England from Corunna was speedily organized, and sent back to Portugal. Sir J. Cradock commanded the troops at Lisbon, some 14,000 in number; Marshal Beresford had been appointed to the command of the Portuguese forces, and was assisted in his task of organizing them by several British officers. All arrangements were made for taking the field; and this was done immediately on the arrival of Sir Arthur Wellesley, who was appointed Marshal-General of the united armies. Colonel Kobe had remained in command of the Artillery in Portugal during the interval between Corunna and Sir Arthur’s arrival; but he was now superseded by Brigadier-General—afterwards Sir E.—Howorth. The number of troops and companies in the Peninsula in 1809 was only seven. There were, in addition, five at Gibraltar, five in Italy, and three in Malta.

The Artillery officers first appointed for duty with Marshal Beresford were Captain—afterwards Sir J.—May and Captain Elliot, of the Royal Artillery, and also Captain Arentschild, of the King’s German Artillery. Lieutenant Charles was attached to the Portuguese force raised by Sir Robert Wilson; and Captain P. Campbell and Lieutenant Wills were employed with the Spanish troops at Seville and Cadiz respectively.

General Howorth, on his arrival in Lisbon in the beginning of April, arranged, with Colonel Robe’s assistance, the equipment of five brigades of guns, to take the field with the army, viz., one brigade of heavy 6-pounders, three of light 6-pounders, and one of 3-pounders. These were all he could equip; and, notwithstanding the opportune arrival, from Ireland, of 170 drivers and 298 excellent horses, he yet complained of the want of mobility from which they suffered, mixed as they were with the horses of the country, mules, and oxen. However, like Colonel Harding, he took a cheerful view of matters, and pronounced the mules to be very fine To D.-A.-G. Lisbon, 8 April, 1809. animals, and “the oxen, though slow, a steady, good draught.” The development of the Field Artillery during the Peninsular War, from the wretched batteries employed at its commencement to those which attracted such admiration at its close, will appear in the course of this work. Suffice it, at present, to remind the Artilleryman, by way of contrast, while the picture of the batteries of 1809 is yet fresh in his recollection, that before the conclusion of the Peninsular War, it was admitted by the artillerymen of the country with which England was engaged in hostilities, ‘Le passé et l’avenir de l’Artillerie,’ tom. v. p. 64. that “the English matériel might have been taken as a model by any nation in Europe;”—that, shortly before Waterloo, Marshal Marmont remarked that the equipment of the English Field Artillery was in every respect very superior to anything he had ever seen; and that the French Committee appointed in 1818 to compare the Artillery of Hime. the various countries represented in the review held that year in Paris, expressed unqualified delight with that of England.

On Sir Arthur Wellesley’s arrival in Lisbon, he found that Soult was in possession of Oporto, and Victor in Estremadura. He promptly resolved to attack them in detail; and, making Lisbon the base of his operations, he requested the Spanish General, Cuesta, to watch Victor’s movements, while he himself should march to the north against Soult. The moral effect of driving the French out of Portugal would, he felt, be very great—all the more so as his arrival had produced a sudden hopefulness among the Portuguese, which it was desirable not to disappoint.

Accordingly, on the 1st May, he moved his head-quarters to Pombal and Coimbra, and found himself in command of an army which, after deducting the sick and absent, numbered Napier. 20,653 rank and file, with 30 guns. On the 9th he left Coimbra with the main body, and arrived on the Douro, opposite Oporto, on the 12th, after a march of eighty miles To D.-A.-G. Oporto, 14 May, 1809. over infamous roads. “But,” wrote General Howorth, “neither difficulty nor danger impedes Sir Arthur: he is all fire, and establishes confidence in the troops.”

On the 10th, the left column of the army, which marched from Aveiro, fell in with the enemy at Algabaria Nova. A slight affair ensued, in which the Artillery and Cavalry were chiefly engaged; and the enemy was repulsed with the loss of a gun. On the 11th, the right column, which marched on the Vouga, came up with the French between Algabaria Nova and Grijon, and an engagement followed which lasted two hours, ending in the retreat of the enemy. On the arrival of the English at Villa Nova, opposite Oporto, it was found that the French had destroyed the bridge across the Douro, and removed every available boat to their own side of the river. It was of the utmost importance that the English troops should cross, so as to co-operate with Marshal Beresford, who, having crossed the river higher up, was now menacing the left and the rear of Soult’s army. The crossing was effected in a gallant, and yet singular and romantic way, whose details, too long for reproduction here, render the passage of the Douro one of the most interesting episodes in the Peninsular War. Wellesley saw a building on the other side of the river—here three hundred yards wide—called the Seminary, surrounded by a walled yard, capable of containing two battalions. Close to where he himself stood was a rock, called Serra, from which artillery would well command the passage of the river, and where he therefore desired General Howorth to place eighteen guns. The guards on the other side seemed few and negligent. Soult expected no danger on the part of the river above the town, and had posted himself to the westward; if, therefore, boats could but be obtained, Wellesley resolved to cross. A small skiff was found, and Colonel Waters, a staff officer, crossed, and found three large barges, which he towed back to the Villa Nova side of the river. The men were ordered to embark, and, in the face of an army of ten thousand men, the passage was effected. Very few, however, had crossed ere the alarm was given, and the French troops poured down upon the Seminary. The alarm acted in one respect favourably to the English; for some of the citizens hastened to unmoor some boats, and cross to Villa Nova, thus facilitating the embarkation and passage of the troops. All this time the fire of the Royal Artillery from the Serra told with great effect; and, as it completely swept one side of the Seminary, it soon limited the attack to the other. The gallantry of the Infantry was unrivalled. General Sherbrooke had crossed the river a little lower down, and was now in possession of the town of Oporto, and pressing, with the Guards and 29th Regiment, on the rear of the French troops as they poured out towards the Seminary. The Buffs and their comrades in the enclosure rained showers of bullets on the disorganized French; and in a short time they were Napier. in full retreat, “the artillery, from the Serra, still searching To D.-A.-G. 14 May, 1809. the enemy’s columns as they hurried along.” General Howorth, in describing the battle, said that he never saw anything like the gallantry of the English troops. Their firmness was irresistible; nor could the French make any impression; and, from the position which he occupied, he was able to form a good opinion, as he could see everything. To Lord Castlereagh, dated Oporto, 12 May, 1809. Sir Arthur, in his despatch announcing the victory, after enumerating the various officers who had especially distinguished themselves, said, in describing the services of the regiments engaged: “I had every reason to be satisfied with the Artillery.” That his satisfaction was also extended to the previous operations and to the severe march of eighty miles over most difficult country, may be gathered from General Howorth’s words. “I have reason,” he wrote, “to believe that Sir Arthur is perfectly satisfied with the Artillery; and, it must be owned, never was Artillery put to such trial.” The French ordnance captured at the recovery of Oporto included 56 brass guns and 3 brass howitzers. A considerable supply of ammunition was also taken.

The pursuit of Soult’s army was undertaken by Sir A. Wellesley with as little delay as possible, although not with sufficient promptness to satisfy the demands of certain military critics, who are ready to find fault, but slow to acknowledge difficulties in the way of armies. That it was sufficiently prompt to ensure the success of the English General’s purpose, may be gathered from the fact that on the 18th May Soult and his army crossed the frontier into Spain, having been driven out of Portugal with the loss of artillery, stores, and baggage, and of no fewer than 6000 men; while of those who remained, many were without arms Napier. and accoutrements, the majority without shoes, and all utterly exhausted and miserable; and, further, that the English army did not delay in the pursuit from any effeminate ideas of comfort or luxury, may be gathered from the following letter from General Howorth: “The extraordinary To General Macleod, dated Oporto, 24 May, 1809. rapidity of events in this country, which have been accompanied by a succession of the most triumphant operations against the enemy, left me no leisure to communicate them as they occurred. However, I am at last returned here, after passing eight days in continued marches over the worst roads I ever saw, through incessant rain, a depopulated country, quartered in uninhabited houses, and with no supplies whatever, but what was scantily provided by the Commissariat Department. During the greater part of this march the luxury of a bed, or a change of clothes, which were always wet, was unknown to me.... We pursued to Montalagree, where the enemy turned short to the left, over the mountains, and took the shortest way into Galicia.”

During the pursuit, the English overtook Soult at Salamonde, and his rear-guard being in a confined space, some guns were brought to bear on them with fearful effect. Napier. “Man and horse, crushed together, went over into the gulf; and the bridge, rocks, and the defile beyond were strewed with mangled bodies.” The furious peasantry also turned on the French troops, and rendered their retreat—which has been compared with that of the English on Corunna—infinitely more horrible.

As Soult sacrificed artillery and baggage in order to move more rapidly, it was but natural that he should outmarch an army which had not so disencumbered itself. But this pursuit has an importance to the Artilleryman in being a text on which much useful argument was hung by General Howorth and others, in favour of greater mobility than had yet attended the brigades of Field Artillery employed in the Peninsula. The 3-pounder brigade was the only one which was able to march with the army during its more Dated Oporto, 24 May, 1809. rapid movements; and therefore General Howorth made a demand for additional brigades of that nature, suggesting, with the assistance of Colonel Robe, various improvements in the equipment. Among other changes, he recommended double instead of single draught, both for guns and waggons; and that the brigades should be of four guns instead of six, the howitzers being dispensed with, and a liberal supply of spherical case being issued for the guns. Another very suggestive recommendation was made by him: “to have a small forge with each brigade of four guns; the forge to be placed on the frame of a small limber waggon; it can then follow the brigade, which is not the case with the present one.” The absence of a forge on the line of march must at times have sadly crippled the batteries. He also suggested that the span of the wheels should be narrowed to 4½ feet, and (to prevent liability to upset from this cause) that the gun should be lowered on its carriage by adopting a bare iron axletree. His next recommendation reveals a starvation of equipment which would account for almost any shortcomings on the line of march. He urged the authorities “to have spare shafts, wheels, axles, spokes, felloes, and pintails supplied, none having been sent with the present brigades, and now much needed.” He also made suggestions which would ensure greater mobility to the heavier brigades of 6-pounders. The Artilleryman may therefore date to the campaign of the Douro some of the most valuable lessons taught in the Peninsular War, and can trace to it that change in the opinions and experience of the military authorities, which resulted in so extended a use of Horse Artillery in the Peninsula, and in so marked an improvement in the brigades of Field Artillery before the conclusion of the war.

Marshal Victor, on hearing of the disastrous termination of Soult’s operations, fell back on Almaraz and Torremocha; so that Sir A. Wellesley, who had commenced his southward march through Traz-oz-Montes, resolved to halt at Abrantes, and to commence a thorough reorganization of his army, Wellington Despatches and Supplementary Despatches. now sadly undisciplined. The correspondence of Sir Arthur at this time reveals what one is apt to forget in reflecting on the glories of the Peninsular campaigns. The military genius of the Duke of Wellington and the courage of English soldiers are too often considered to have been the only necessary causes of success; but a study of the appeals made by him at Abrantes to officers and men,—of the strict orders, on even the smallest matters, which he found it necessary to issue,—and of the letters to ministers and friends, in which he never failed to tell the truth about the army, however unpalatable,—reveals another most necessary element in the success which attended him in all his operations. As the first thought in his own mind always was duty, so the first and last thing which he held before his troops, as that without which they would be worse than useless, was discipline. The arguments he used have a value for all time, and a special value for England at a time when she possesses an armed force of Volunteers, who might possibly consider that drill, instead of discipline, is the chief end of a soldier’s life; but whose discipline, on the other hand, if thorough, would be nobler than that of regular troops, in being more self-imposed, and less dependent on a penal code. As for the Duke of Wellington’s remarks on the discipline of the Spanish troops, they apply in a singularly exact way to the To Lord Castlereagh, dated 25 Aug. 1809. armies of Spain in the anarchy of 1873. “In Spain,” he wrote, “the business of an army is little understood. They are really children in the art of war; and I cannot say that they do anything as it ought to be done, with the exception of running away and assembling again in a state of nature.... The Government have attempted to govern the kingdom in a state of revolution by an adherence to old rules and systems, and with the aid of what is called enthusiasm; and this last is, in fact, no aid to accomplish anything, and is only an excuse for the irregularity with which everything is done, and for the want of discipline and subordination of the armies. People are very apt to believe that enthusiasm carried the French through their Revolution, and was the parent of those exertions which have nearly conquered the world; but if the subject is nicely examined, it will be found that enthusiasm was the name only, but that force was the instrument which brought forward those great resources, under the system of terror, which first stopped the Allies.” In his correspondence with Marshal Beresford, who found great difficulty in organizing the Portuguese troops, he laid down Dated Badajoz, 8 Sept. 1809. what may be considered a military creed. “They want the habits,” he wrote, “and the spirit of soldiers,—the habits of command on one side, and of obedience on the other—mutual confidence between officers and men: and, above all, a determination in the superiors to obey the spirit of the orders they receive, let what will be the consequence; and the spirit to tell the true cause, if they do not.” Poor Marshal Beresford had, indeed, need of support and sympathy Supplementary Despatches of Duke of Wellington, vol. vi. p. 362. in his task. Long habits of disregard to duty, and of consequent laziness, made it impossible for the senior officers to pay any regular or continued attention to the duties of their situations, and neither reward nor punishment would induce them to bear up against fatigue. By replacing these by younger officers, or English officers detached from the various regiments, he ultimately succeeded in making the Portuguese contingent a most valuable force; but this was only done by impressing on them the necessity of discipline and unhesitating obedience. More than sixty years have passed away, and the same lesson, though more difficult to learn, is not the less vitally necessary. The spirit of criticism spreads with the growth of education, and considerably out of proportion with it. The reasoning obedience which a soldier should yield is, perhaps, confused with an obedience which requires to know the reason of an order, instead of that which is readily yielded in the belief that what may be unintelligible in detail is necessary for the general plan. That such obedience is not easy always to give may be true enough. The possession, with a strong will, of but pigmy power, is undoubtedly trying; but the self-denial which is demanded stands among the highest of all military virtues, as it is the very alphabet of all military training. He only is fit to rule who has first learned to obey.

Reference has been made to the association of English officers with the Portuguese forces. The appointment of Captain—afterwards Sir Alexander—Dickson, to the Portuguese Artillery, which took place after the Douro campaign, was productive of so important results, that it deserves detailed notice. As Captain Dickson, he had acted as Brigade-Major to General Howorth during the recent operations. He had, however, come to Portugal with the intention of obtaining employment in a higher local rank with the Portuguese Artillery, and had only been deterred by difficulties which had arisen as to the status and pay of officers so attached. On the 4th June, he quitted Oporto with General Howorth, who had been indisposed for some time, and proceeded to Abrantes to join the army, and also to speak to Marshal Beresford on the subject of employment Captain Dickson to D. A. Gen. 3 July, 1809. with the Portuguese troops. Fortunately, on his arrival, he found that Captain May, then in command of a division of Portuguese Field Artillery, was on the point of resigning, in accordance with instructions from England; and Marshal Beresford readily appointed Captain Dickson as his successor,—Captain May, in exchange, assuming the duties of Major of Brigade. So far all was well; but Captain Dickson soon found that he had no pleasing position. The local rank of Major, which had been conferred on his junior officer, Captain Arentschild of the King’s German Artillery, was refused to him by Marshal Beresford, who had been irritated by contradictory orders from the English and Portuguese Governments; so that he found himself under the orders of his junior. The Portuguese officers were also very jealous of their English comrades; and the seniors, without incurring any risk themselves, made every difficulty in their power, when any suggestion was made which they disliked. Letters from the British to the Portuguese officers on official matters, and all applications for supplies, were left unanswered; and yet “these same men,” wrote Captain Dickson indignantly, “are embracing you as often as they meet!” He would gladly have given up his new appointment, had he not felt bound by his promise to Lord Chatham to retain it; so he set to work, in a true soldierlike spirit, to perfect the two 6-pounder Portuguese batteries which had been placed under his charge, and of which, even at the beginning, he was able to write in terms of the warmest approbation. As this narrative will show, he was rewarded for remaining at his post. The local rank was given to him ultimately; and by its means he found himself commanding many brother officers, much senior to himself regimentally, and ultimately at the head of the Artillery of the armies of the Duke of Wellington, while only a Captain in his own Corps.

It is now necessary to follow the movements of Sir Arthur Wellesley. The English Government continued to overrate the value of the Spanish armies; and the pressure brought to bear upon the English General was such as he could not resist. He therefore proposed to the Spanish General, Cuesta, to co-operate with his army against Victor’s forces, and ultimately against Madrid. Cuesta, whose treatment of Sir Arthur Wellesley was, on all occasions, of the most obstinate and boorish description, had an army of 33,000 men. Napier. Sir Arthur’s army, when he quitted Abrantes, numbered 20,997 men of all arms, with 30 guns. The advance of the united armies against Madrid by the valley of the Tagus had been foreseen by Napoleon, and he had ordered Soult, at the head of a powerful army, to concentrate his forces in such a manner that, on the advance of Wellesley, he could pass by his left rear, and cut him off from the base of his operations,—Lisbon and its surrounding country. The English General was far from correctly informed either of the strength or position of Soult’s army; he was urged by the English representative, Mr. Frere, and by his own Government, to take the offensive; the vacillation of Joseph Buonaparte tempted him to march on Madrid before further union could be effected among the French armies; he was further assured of the courage of the Spanish armies, the enthusiasm of the peasantry, and the abundance of supplies. On the 27th June, therefore, he broke up his camp at Abrantes, and marched towards Oropesa, to effect a junction with Cuesta. The farther he advanced, the more doubtful did he become of the sincerity of the Spaniards—a doubt which exhibited itself in the pertinacity with which he demanded from Cuesta and the Junta solemn promises to keep the English army supplied, during any farther advance, with the requisite transport and supplies. The reader does not require to be reminded how shamefully these promises were broken;—how thwarted Wellesley was, alike by the intrigues of the Junta and the conceited obstinacy of Cuesta;—nor how faithful he was, amid all his difficulties, to the duty which England had imposed upon him. Standing beside Cuesta like a better angel,—and receiving the treatment not unfrequently bestowed on such,—calm under insult, his judgment never heated by an indignation which would have been righteous,—he ultimately succeeded in placing the united armies in the very position in front of Talavera which he had selected, when he saw that a general action with the combined forces of Victor and Sebastiani was inevitable, if not, indeed, desirable. But not until the morning of the 27th July, nor until Cuesta’s folly and rashness had courted and received, at Alcabon, a well-deserved defeat, did the English General succeed in placing the Spanish forces in Gurwood’s Despatches: Selections, p. 278. the position he had chosen. The quiet irony of the memorandum of Sir Arthur Wellesley on the battle of Talavera cannot be seen without remembering the defeat just mentioned, and a disgraceful panic which seized on the Spanish troops at the appearance of some French cavalry, on the afternoon of the 27th, when 10,000 Infantry and all their Artillery fled, terror-stricken, to the rear. Part of these were recovered before the following day; but the Spanish contingent was weaker by the greater part of its Artillery, and 6000 of its Infantry. With such troops as allies, no wonder that Sir Arthur wrote: “The position of Talavera was well calculated for the troops that were to occupy it. The ground in front of the British army was open; that in front of the Spanish army was covered with olive-trees, intersected by roads, ditches, &c.” In other words, the offensive part of the battle was to fall on the British, while a masterly and imposing inactivity was reserved for the Spaniards.

The battle of Talavera was fought on the 27th and 28th July. The loss of the Spanish Artillery in the panic mentioned above was very serious, as the English had only 30 guns, very badly horsed and of small calibre, to oppose to 80 guns, admirably served by the enemy. Fortunately, the few guns of the Spanish Artillery, which were brought into action, were gallantly fought; and of those of the Royal and King’s German Artillery, both the officers present and all military historians speak in the highest terms. At the defeat of the 4th French Corps by Campbell’s division, the British Artillery, as Napier wrote, played vehemently upon their masses:—at the critical moment, later in the day, when the English centre was almost broken on account of the injudicious advance of the Guards, and of the confusion which seized the King’s German Legion, the marvellous effect which followed the arrival of the 48th Regiment, moving, amid all the confusion, with the steadiness, of a parade, was greatly heightened by the conduct of the Artillery, which, as the same historian says, “battered the enemy’s flanks without intermission.” Sir Arthur Wellesley, in addition to an expression of his satisfaction with the Corps in the General Order after the battle, made use of the following expression in his despatch to Lord Castlereagh: “The Artillery, under Brigadier-General Howorth, was also, throughout these days, of the greatest service.”

Compared with the loss of the other arms, that of the Artillery was but small. On the 27th, only two men were wounded; on the 28th, the loss was as follows:—

The officer who was killed was Lieutenant Wyatt; those who were wounded were Lieut.-Colonel Framingham, and Captains Baines and Taylor. In reporting the severe wound of Colonel Framingham, and applying for a pension, General Howorth said: “If it were possible that any testimony or To D.-A.-G. Dated Badajoz, 20 Oct. 1809. praise of mine could add to the weight of this application, or to the merit and brilliancy of Lieut.-Colonel Framingham’s gallant conduct in the action of the 28th July, at Talavera, I should most freely have bestowed it; but, as he distinguished himself on that occasion by a most skilful discharge of his duty, I have only to wish him sincerely a reward equal to his merits.” On the retreat of the army from Talavera, Captain Taylor, whose wound prevented his removal, fell into the hands of the French, and remained a prisoner to the end of the war.

There are several points connected with the battle of Talavera which stand out prominently, and seize the attention of the student at once. The weakness of King Joseph in playing into the hands of the English General, and allowing him to fight under the terms most advantageous to himself;—the hard, honest fighting, as Napier calls it, of the English troops, who, for hours, were closely engaged with a force of double their own numbers;—the watchful tactics of Sir A. Wellesley, who never missed a point during the whole engagement, and was always ready at critical moments with the necessary remedies; and the heavy losses on both sides—over 6000 being killed and wounded on the side of the English, and more than 7000 on that of the French;—these are points which cannot escape the most superficial reader. But to the soldier there are several precious instances of steadiness and discipline among particular regiments, which Wellington Despatches. shed a glow over this well-fought field,—the 45th and 5th Battalion of the 60th being conspicuous for these qualities on the 27th, and the “stubborn old 48th” on the 28th. Napier’s pages glow with the enthusiasm of a soldier as he describes the movements of the last-mentioned regiment on the occasion referred to above. “At first,” he writes, “it seemed as if this regiment must be carried away by the retiring crowds; but, wheeling back by companies, it let them pass through the intervals, and then, resuming its proud and beautiful line, marched against the right of the pursuing columns, and plied them with such a destructive musketry, and closed upon them with such a firm and regular pace, that their forward movement was checked.”

The changes which have become necessary in the art of war, owing to the improvement in fire-arms, may have forbidden the use in battle of the line which the gallant 48th showed at Talavera; but, in whatever form troops may be called upon to fight, the qualities which animated that regiment will still, if present, entitle their possessors to the same epithet, and the perfection of their drill and discipline will still claim the words, “proud and beautiful.”

The horrors of a battle-field, when the deadly encounter is over, were aggravated at Talavera by a fire, which caught the dry grass, and which licked the ground where the dead and wounded were lying, adding a new agony to the sufferings of the latter, and hideously scorching the bodies of those whose pain was for ever at an end. This incident gives a ghastly element to the recollection of a field, on which English courage was so ably proved.

Ramsgate, 8th June, 1809. (Signed) H. D. Ross, Captain Commanding R. H. A.

On the 29th, Wellesley’s army was strengthened by the arrival of Crawford’s brigade, consisting of the 43rd, 52nd, and 95th Regiments, with Captain Ross’s, “The Chestnut,” troop of Horse Artillery,21 which, in their eagerness to reach the field of battle, and undeterred by the lies of the flying Spaniards, had marched no less than sixty-two miles in twenty-six hours, in the hottest season of the year, and in heavy marching order. But news reached the English General which determined him to fall back, and to have done with the assistance of Spanish troops, whose worthlessness he had now thoroughly tested. Hearing that Soult was pressing on by rapid marches, and with increased forces,—had already gained possession of one of his most important communications with Portugal, and was threatening the others,—he resolved to leave his wounded at Talavera, and to fall back into Portugal. He did so by means of rapid marches; but he still conducted them so as to show no appearance of flight, such as would have injured the reputation of his army in the eyes of the Spaniards—a most important To D. A. G. Dated Badajoz, 26 Oct. 1809. consideration. General Howorth, in alluding to the retreat from Talavera, emphasises this point. “We made a retrograde movement,” he wrote, “with a dignified deliberation perfectly suitable to the gravity of Spanish deportment.” The whole of his brigades of Artillery returned from Talavera complete, with the exception of one 6-pounder gun which had been damaged in the battle of the 28th, and which, the General wrote, had been privately buried, perhaps out of consideration for Spanish deportment also. But all the spare ammunition and stores had to be abandoned, as the carts were required to carry the sick. No less than 150 carts were so employed; for the sickness during the retreat, and even after the troops went into cantonments at Merida, was very great. The well-known sickness in the Chestnut Troop, which so nearly led to its return to England, took place at Merida after the retreat. So severely did it suffer, that, in sending in his returns of available Artillery force at this time, General Howorth wrote: “I have one troop of Horse Artillery, Bull’s,22 and half a one, Ross’s. The latter has suffered severely by sickness and death of men and horses.” The sickness was aggravated by a dearth of medical officers; and the unfortunate Chestnut Troop, which required medical assistance to an extraordinary extent, was robbed of its own surgeon in an inglorious manner. “Poor Doctor O’Brien,” wrote General Howorth, “of Ross’s troop, died last night, owing to his servant’s getting drunk, and giving him too strong a dose of opium, which destroyed him.” Ere many weeks passed, the attempt to cope with the havoc made in the troop was almost abandoned. Two guns and their waggons were sent into store, from want of men and horses to work them; and orders were given that, on the arrival of another troop (Lefebure’s) from England, the surviving men and horses of the Chestnut Troop should be handed over to it, and Captain Ross and his officers return to England to organize a new troop. Luckily for him, Captain Lefebure’s troop suffered so much from a storm on its way to the Peninsula that, on its arrival, it was little more efficient than the one it was Memoir of Sir H. D. Ross. meant to relieve; so, to Captain Ross’s delight, he had his vacancies completed from the new arrivals, and Captain Lefebure had, instead, the duty of rebuilding his troop.

The head-quarters of the English General, on whom the title of Lord Wellington was bestowed after Talavera, were at Badajoz until the end of 1809. He devoted himself to the strengthening of his position, with the double motive of ensuring to himself the possession of Lisbon and the Tagus, and of securing the unmolested embarkation of his troops, should reverses render it necessary. The lines of Torres Vedras, which were to play so important a part in the campaign of 1810, were matured in the winter of 1809. Lord Wellington had given up all hope of succeeding by means of the Spaniards; but he by no means despaired of offering an effectual resistance to the most powerful French attacks by means of the combined English and Portuguese army under his command. He felt confidence in his troops. As Lord Wellington to Colonel Malcolm, Badajoz, 3 Dec. 1809. he boasted to a correspondent, “I command an unanimous army.” Supplies in Portugal were better arranged than in Spain; and, with the remembrance fresh in his mind of Talavera, which he himself pronounced “the hardest-fought battle of modern days, and the most glorious in its results to the English troops,” he looked forward to the next campaign with quiet confidence, and displayed during the winter an industry in strengthening his position which, at all events, deserved success.

Note.—Although the Peninsular War eclipses in point of interest any other operations in which the Royal Artillery was engaged in 1809, it would be a great omission, were no allusion made to the services of the Corps, in the beginning of 1809, during the operations in the West Indies under General Beckwith and Sir George Prevost, which resulted in the capture of the French colonies of Cayenne and Martinique. Over 500 officers and men of the Royal Artillery were present under the command of Brigadier-General Stehelin, and the value of their services may be ascertained from the following extract from the General Order issued at the termination of the campaign:—

G. O. Dated 8 March, 1809.

“To Brigadier-General Stehelin, commanding the Royal Artillery, for his regularity in all interior arrangements, and especially for that order and system established in this distinguished Corps, which led to those eminent services rendered by them during the bombardment, and which brought the siege to an early and glorious termination ... the Commander of the Forces is anxious to renew all those assurances of public and individual consideration, to which from their distinguished services they are fully entitled, and he requests, as an old soldier, that he may live in their remembrance and friendship.”

B. G. Stehelin to D.-A.-Gen. 23 March, 1809.

The officers of the Royal Artillery who were present during these operations were—in addition to Brigadier-General Stehelin—Captains Blaney Walsh, Unett, Phillott, St. Clair, Cleeve, Story, Du Bourdieu, Clibborn, Butts, and Rollo; and Lieutenants Spellen, Bell, Gordon, Lewis, Mathias, Tucker, Turner, Heron, Scriven, Simmons, and F. Arabin.

CHAPTER XVI.
Busaco and Torres Vedras.

It may not be uninteresting to the reader, before resuming the consideration of the Peninsular War, to study some statistics connected with the Regiment in the year 1810, the period to be treated of in this chapter. The number of troops and companies remained as before, 112—exclusive of the invalid battalion. They were distributed as follows:—16 Kane’s List. in the Peninsula, 5 in Italy and Sicily, 56 on home stations, 4 in Canada, 3 at the Cape of Good Hope, 3 in Ceylon, where they had been engaged on active service during the previous year, 6 in Gibraltar, 4 in Jamaica and 6 in the rest of the West Indies (these ten companies being actively engaged in the defence of the colonies), 1 in Madeira, 4 in Malta, 1 in Newfoundland, and 3 in Nova Scotia and Cape Breton.

The following tables show the strength of the battalions, and the proportions of the various ranks. They also show the pay of the various ranks, less the charges for agency, which are not deducted in the pay tables published in Kane’s List. But, in addition to the strength of the Royal Artillery, the reader will find detailed statements of the other corps which swelled the total Artillery force of Great Britain. It is hoped that, by publishing these tables in this form, reference will be easier, and lengthy description may be dispensed with. It cannot be too often repeated that the services in the Peninsula of the King’s German Artillery, the detail of which is given in the annexed tables, were of the most gallant description, unsurpassed by those of the corps to which they were attached. The active service of the corps, named the Royal Foreign Artillery, was chiefly in the West Indies.