Colonel Dickson, with the brigade of howitzers which he had commanded at Almaraz, left Elvas on the 5th June to join Lord Wellington’s army in the north. Passing the Tagus at Alcantara, he joined the army at Salamanca by way of Zarza, Fuente Guinalda, and Ciudad Rodrigo. Wellington was engaged at this time, with very limited means, in endeavouring to reduce the French Fort St. Vincent at Salamanca, a strongly entrenched work, having a large convent as its stronghold, and mounted with 36 pieces of ordnance. The Allied siege Artillery—previous to Colonel Dickson’s arrival—consisted of only 4 18-pounder guns, and a battery of long 6-pounders, under Lieut.-Colonel May.35 That officer had performed his duty, with inadequate means, in a manner which called forth universal admiration; and Colonel Dickson when he arrived with his howitzers to assist him, expressed the great satisfaction it afforded him to be able now to repay, in a small degree, the many acts of kindness and co-operation, which he had enjoyed at Colonel May’s hands. Several points of the defence were breached by the fire of the Allied Artillery, but the whole work was so strong, and the defences so connected, that no assault could be attempted on the body of the work. An assault made on two outworks failed at first, but the gorge of one of them having been subsequently breached, they were carried with little or no loss a few hours before the surrender of the chief fort. The means at their disposal being very small, Colonels May and Dickson employed hot shot from the howitzers against the Convent, and succeeded, after firing 260 rounds, in setting fire to it, and destroying the whole of the enemy’s provisions. The surrender followed almost Despatch dated Fuente la Pena, 30 June, 1812. immediately. These operations had been mainly conducted by General Clinton, under the supervision of Lord Wellington; and, in his despatch, Lord Wellington reported that that officer had mentioned in strong terms Lieut.-Colonel May, who commanded the Royal Artillery under the direction of Colonel Framingham, and the officers and men under his command. The capture of the forts was delayed until the 27th June, it having been necessary to send to the rear for more ammunition, a step which caused a delay of six days. As soon as they fell, the French army commenced to retire, pursued by the Allies.

The loss of the Royal Artillery at the siege of these forts was as follows:—

Killed: Captain Eligé, and 9 rank and file.

Wounded: 1 lieutenant (Love), and 25 rank and file.

In the various movements of both armies between the 27th June and the 22nd July, 1812, on which day the great engagement known as the battle of Salamanca was fought, no use appears to have been made of the Artillery, with the exception of the Horse Artillery attached to the Cavalry division. In one affair, on the 18th July, at Castrejou, when the troops under Sir Stapleton Cotton were attacked, Lieutenant Belson, an officer in the Chestnut Troop, was wounded. For honest, conscientious hard work, and staunch performance of his duty, this officer was unsurpassed by any in the Regiment. On reference to his record of service, it appears that between the 3rd August, 1809, and 14th April, 1814, Lieutenant Belson was present in no fewer than thirty-three engagements. Beside such services, which received but little official recognition, those of men in more recent campaigns, who have received lavish, although merited, rewards, sink into insignificance.

It is impossible, without exceeding the limits of this work, to describe in detail the services of the Horse Artillery in the Peninsula,—the branch of the regiment to which young Belson belonged. The tables at the end of the preceding volume give some idea of what these services were, but are totally inadequate. The history of some of the individual troops would alone fill a volume; and the writing of such a history will doubtless be undertaken by some officer, who may find himself in the proud position of commanding one. Their active duties were incessant; even during the sieges, when they ostensibly formed part of the armies of investment or observation, they were ready to volunteer at all times to do additional duty in the trenches. At San Sebastian, as will be seen shortly, their services in the sieges, as siege artillerymen, were invaluable. The details of their services in the great battle now to be described are, unfortunately, not given in any of the documents in the Record Office. The fact of the presence of three troops, Ross’s, Bull’s, and Macdonald’s, is known, but little more. They were included in the general mention of the Corps, by Lord Wellington, after the battle, when he Despatch dated Flores de Avila, 24 July, 1812. said that “The Royal and German Artillery under Lieutenant-Colonel Framingham distinguished themselves by the accuracy of their fire;” but no further details are given. From another pen we learn that the whole of the Browne. troops and batteries were more or less engaged during the eventful day; but this general statement is neither satisfying, nor quite exact. In a letter from Colonel Dickson, written three days after the battle, he mentions that one of his heavy brigades was not ordered up, but was kept in the rear, ready to move in case of retreat. Possibly this brigade may have been manned by Portuguese, and the howitzer brigade, which he commanded during the battle, may have been manned by Captain Glubb’s company, which was under his orders;—in which case the author referred to would be right; but it is extremely rare in Colonel Dickson’s correspondence to find him alluding to any action, in which he commanded men of his own Corps, without particularizing some by name. On the other hand, it must be admitted that Napier describes Colonel Dickson’s howitzers as being manned by British and Portuguese brigaded together.

Lord Wellington’s letters show that he was by no means anxious for a general action at this time, if it could have been avoided; and this fact was apparent to those around him. When it was inevitable, he found that the enemy had a better position than himself; and but for the unexpected To D.-A.-G. dated 25 July, 1812. opening given by Marmont, in the over extension of his left, it would have been a very doubtful issue. “I really believe,” wrote Colonel Dickson, “that Lord Wellington fought against his inclination, and that if Marmont by his manœuvres had not pushed him so hard, he would quietly have fallen back, and relinquished Salamanca to the French. The audacity of the enemy was such, however, that British honour required it should be checked; and most severely Marshal Marmont has been punished for playing tricks with such a leader as Lord Wellington. When at last his Lordship determined to attack the attacker, his dispositions were splendid, and his operations rapid and overpowering. I can compare the close-fighting part of the battle more to one of those battles between the French and Spaniards, of which there have been so many, with always the same result, than to a contest between armies equally powerful. It was a rapid succession of overthrows, with some failures, but none that for a moment impeded the grand result.”

There were two hills on the left of the Allied line, called Dos Arapiles or Los Hermanitos, situated within easy artillery range of one another. The French had obtained possession of the loftier of these, and by this means had acquired an undoubted advantage. But this advantage was modified by the artillery fire on the left of Lord Wellington’s line, which was very effective. It was here that Colonel Dickson’s howitzer brigade was in action, taking part in an Artillery duel, which is mentioned in the correspondence of To Colonel Shrapnel, dated 9 May, 1813. several Artillery officers who took part in it. Major Macdonald, who commanded a troop of Horse Artillery on the occasion, said that the French artillerymen were driven from their guns on the hill opposite, and prevented from returning, by the destructive fire of Shrapnel shell from the Lieut. Sinclair, R.A., to Colonel Shrapnel, dated 22 Oct. 1814. English guns. In another letter, from an officer who was also present, the same statement is endorsed; and the reader learns that the brigades of Artillery chiefly engaged were Ross’s, Bull’s, and Macdonald’s troops, Colonel Dickson’s and Captain Douglas’s brigades, and Major Sympher’s of the King’s German Artillery. From the same sources it is ascertained that in the staunch final advance of the enemy against the village of the Arapiles, the fire of Shrapnel shell from the howitzers of the English Artillery produced great effect; and that, on another important occasion during the battle, a battery of the enemy’s guns was disabled by the same means. It will be in the recollection of the military student that Marmont’s extension and weakening of his left sprang from a desire to cut off the retreat of the Allies on Ciudad Rodrigo, while he should yet retain the strong position on his right, afforded by the possession of the hill already mentioned. The division Thomières was selected for the flank movement, and against it Pakenham’s division was despatched by Lord Wellington, accompanied by 12 guns. The service performed by these guns was most valuable. Being placed in a commanding position, they suddenly took the French troops in flank, and aided materially in ensuring a victory, which Lord Wellington’s quick judgment and military skill had placed in the way of his troops. Then followed the stern battle all along the line, which resulted in the “beating of forty thousand men in forty minutes;” the French seeing General after General fall, and fighting at times in bewilderment, for want of orders;—the English fighting with all the courage of their race, and all the confidence which a General like Wellington inspired,—who seemed to be always at the right place at the right time:—then the French falling back from their first position only to make a new effort; and then the utter rout and confusion, redeemed but by the coolness and skill of the brave Foy, who with his rear-guard strove to cover the headlong flight of the others.

The strength of the Allied army at Salamanca was 46,000, that of the French 42,000; but the superiority in point of numbers on the side of the Allies was caused by the presence of some utterly useless Spanish troops. The French had 74 guns on the field, the Allies only 60. These, according to Napier, were as follows:-

There would certainly appear to be an error in this statement. In none of Colonel Dickson’s manuscripts can it be traced that there were more than five 24-pounder howitzers with his brigades; it would therefore seem that the strength of the Allied Artillery at Salamanca was even more disproportionate than that given, and that Lord Wellington had only 59 guns against Marmont’s 74.

The losses on both sides at Salamanca were very heavy. The Allies lost 1 General, 24 officers, and 686 men killed; and 5 Generals, 182 officers, and 4270 men wounded. The loss of the French has never been exactly stated. They lost 7000 prisoners alone, besides 11 guns and other Cust’s ‘Annals of the Wars.’ trophies. An approximation to their real loss has been obtained by taking General Clausel’s statement of the army on the 18th of the following month. He had succeeded Marshal Marmont in the command, on the latter being wounded; and on the 18th August he reported that the army, which had been 42,000 strong on the 22nd July, had fallen to 21,800, with 50 instead of 74 guns. Much of the loss may have occurred during the pursuit after the battle, but the whole was virtually attributable to the contest of the 22nd.

Important as the results of the victory were, they would have been more so, had not the retreat of the French across the Tormes been facilitated by a blunder of the Spanish General, Espana, who left the bridge of Alba open to them. This enabled Clausel to get as far as Peneranda with far less punishment than an army so beaten as his was should have received from his pursuers.36 Wellington followed him to Valladolid, but failed to overtake him; so, while Clausel continued his flight to Burgos, Wellington, after a pause of some days, turned towards Madrid, to free the capital from the presence of Joseph Buonaparte and his army.37 He entered it in state on the 12th August, Joseph having quitted it without waiting for the Allies; and he remained there until the 1st September, receiving from the Spaniards a perpetual ovation, and learning from England how valuable his services were deemed, by their further recognition in the form of a Marquisate.

Affairs in the Peninsula forbade longer repose, nor was Wellington the man to risk his army finding a Capua in Madrid. Soult, alarmed at the news from the north, raised the siege of Cadiz, and let Seville fall into the hands of the Allies, while he moved northward himself. An expedition from Sicily landed in the east of Spain, to co-operate with Lord Wellington, of which it must suffice here to say that the Royal Artillery accompanying it was commanded by Captain—then Brevet Lieut.-Colonel—Holcombe, the same officer whose company had been at the sieges of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz. And, lastly, the French General, Clausel, had reorganized his army, and was taking the offensive against the Allied troops left in the north. Of the operations of Wellington to check this General, and to defeat him again before Soult’s army could join him from the south, it is proposed to select one, as being a specially Artillery subject—the siege of the Castle of Burgos.

After the fall of the forts at Salamanca, the heavy Artillery employed there continued to be attached to the reserve Artillery under Colonel Dickson, and followed the movements of the army during the campaign. It consisted of three 18-pounder guns on travelling carriages, and five 24-pounder howitzers, to which were attached Captain Glubb’s company of the Royal Artillery, commanded by Captain Power, and a company of Portuguese Artillery, commanded by Major Arriaga, with some additional detachments of the Artillery of both nations. After the battle of Salamanca, the whole eight pieces were brought forward to the neighbourhood of Madrid, preparatory to the attack of Fort la Chine, which was still occupied by the French, but which ultimately surrendered without a contest. On the 1st September, Lord Wellington quitted Madrid, to proceed to Arevalo, where the 1st, 5th, 6th, and 7th Divisions were ordered to assemble preparatory to a movement to the northward; and Colonel Dickson, with his 18-pounders and howitzers, was ordered to accompany this corps.

Previous to this movement, measures had been taken to bring forward from Ciudad Rodrigo the following proportion of ammunition, viz.—

On the 9th September, this small siege-train arrived at Valladolid, and on the following day continued its march towards Burgos. On the 19th, the Castle of Burgos was invested, the Artillery park being formed near Villa Toro.

That Lord Wellington undertook this siege with wholly inadequate means has been well known; but how inadequate these means were will appear from the following statement. First, as regards personnel: how many Artillerymen had he to carry on the duties in the batteries against a place which held a commanding situation, and was powerfully armed? He had merely

As mentioned above, he had only eight guns; and the following was the total ammunition of all sorts, including the additional supply from Ciudad Rodrigo.

To swell this amount, Colonel Dickson offered a reward for bringing in any shot fired by the enemy. He found that the enemy’s 16-pounder shot fitted his own 18-pounder guns, and that his 8-pounder shot would fit the 9-pounders of the English field brigades. Before the end of September, about 1400 shot were brought in, in this way. Colonel Dickson also obtained detachments from the Horse and Field Brigades occasionally, to give his siege artillerymen relief; but the duties of the Field Artillery were so active at this time round Burgos that men could with difficulty be spared.

The names of the officers of the Royal Artillery engaged in the siege were as follows:—

Lieutenant-Colonel Robe, commanding.

Lieutenant-Colonel Dickson, in immediate charge of the operation.

Captain Blachley, joined 1st October.

Of the Royal Artillery, small in numbers, the casualties were very great in proportion. Fifteen men were killed, and forty wounded, during the siege, and in the operations immediately attending or succeeding it. The officers who were wounded were Colonel Robe, Captains Dansey and Power, Lieutenants Elgee and Johnstone.

After severe loss, a hornwork in front of the castle had been carried by assault on the night of the 19th September, and on the following night a battery for five guns was commenced. This battery was armed on the night of the 22nd with two 18-pounders and three 24-pounder howitzers, in readiness to open on the inner lines, in the event of an assault, which had been determined on for that evening on the outer line, proving successful. At the same time, a second battery for six guns was commenced to fire against the keep of the castle. The assault, which was premature, failed; and its leader was killed. On the night of the 24th, the two 18-pounders were taken out of No. 1 Battery, and drawn along a trench, part of the way towards No. 2, being replaced in the former by howitzers. On the 25th, the five howitzers in No. 1 Battery opened a fire to destroy some palisades, which were used to flank the works of the castle. The fire was not successful; the howitzers were found to be very deficient in precision when firing round shot; and the result was inadequate to the expenditure of ammunition,—141 rounds,—a consideration of some importance under the existing circumstances.38 Lord Wellington, conscious of the deficiency of his guns, worked now by means of mining; and on the night of the 29th September, a mine was sprung which threw down part of the outer wall. An assault was immediately ordered; but from the darkness of the night the detachment missed its way, and those who were leading—having gained the top of the breach—were driven down again for want of support. The whole, therefore, returned to the trenches.

On the 30th September, the howitzers in No. 1 Battery were of essential service. About 10 A.M. they opened fire, with the addition of a French 6-pounder gun, taken in the hornwork, to demolish a stockade upon the top of a tower in the outer line a little to the enemy’s right of the breach, from which the French with musketry annoyed the English in the sap,—the fire being so close that every man, who exposed himself in the slightest degree, was sure to be hit. The stockade was strengthened by sand-bags, &c., but, after three hours’ firing, it was utterly destroyed. The ammunition expended for this purpose was 136 rounds;—90 24-pounder shot, 40 6-pounder French shot, and 6 5½-inch common shell. It was on this day that Captain Dansey, who had volunteered for service in the trenches, was wounded.

The next episode in the Artillery portion of the siege was the moving the three 18-pounders into a breaching battery so close to the outer wall, that the guns of the upper work could not bear on them. The French commander, Dubreton, lost no time, however, in bringing down a howitzer and a light gun from the upper work, followed by others as quickly as he could; and as the breaching battery was very slight, Napier, and ‘Memoir of Sir Hew Ross.’ the result was serious. “The defences of the battery were quite demolished, two of the gun-carriages were disabled, a trunnion was knocked off one of the 18-pounders, and the muzzle of another was split.” A second, stronger, breaching battery was then formed, but the plunging fire from the castle was too severe; the guns which were yet serviceable were therefore removed back to No. 1 Battery, on the hill of San Michael. From this position, on the morning of the 4th October, they opened again on the old breach; and a mine having been exploded with great effect in the same evening, another assault took place,—the fourth during the siege. This was more successful, and a lodgment was effected; but on the following evening, a large body of the enemy charged down upon the guards and workmen, and got possession of the old breach, besides killing and wounding 150 Napier. men, and destroying their works. On the 7th, the besiegers, who had continued their advance, and were now close to the wall, were again charged with fatal effect by the garrison; and the guns from San Michael, although effecting a great breach in the second line, suffered severely from the artillery fire of the enemy,—another 18-pounder losing a trunnion. Guns were, however, too few and too valuable to be considered unserviceable, even after so serious an injury as this; and the ingenuity of Colonel Dickson produced a species of carriage, from which the damaged ordnance could fire with reduced charges. Between the 7th and the 10th October, the San Michael guns continued to make breaches in the works; on the 10th, some ammunition arrived from Santander; on the 18th, another breach was pronounced practicable, and Wellington ordered a fifth assault. This also was unsuccessful; the Allies lost 200 men killed and wounded; and the siege was at length raised—on the 20th—by Lord Wellington, who had received alarming intelligence of the approach of a French army to relieve Burgos, and of the movements of Soult.

The siege of Burgos is a blot on the military reputation of the Duke of Wellington; and revealed an ignorance of what artillery could and could not do, which every now and then Sir Hew Ross to Sir Hew Dalrymple, dated Madrid, 18 Oct. 1812. manifested itself in his military operations. If Sir Hew Ross was correctly informed, the error made by Lord Wellington was almost criminal, as there was no necessity for attempting such a siege with so inadequate a siege-train. “Why he should have undertaken the siege of such a place,” wrote Major Ross from Madrid, “with means so very inadequate appears very extraordinary, especially as there was little or no difficulty in augmenting it to any extent, either from the guns and ammunition found here, or the ships at St. Andero.” That Sir Hew wrote with reason seems all the more probable from the fact that, while the last assault was actually taking place, two 24-pounders sent from Santander by Sir Home Popham had passed Reynosa on Napier. their way to Burgos. But it may be urged that the responsibility of undertaking a siege with insufficient Artillery lay not with the General, but with the Artillery commander. Those who are familiar with the character of the Duke of Wellington, as shown in the various narratives of the Peninsular War, will not make use of this argument. It was not his wont to allow his plans to be altered by the representations of his subordinates, nor was he addicted to the habit of consulting them. Besides, in this particular instance, he officially relieved the Artillery and Engineer officers of the responsibility. “The officers,” he wrote, “at To Lord Bathurst dated Cabeçon, 26 Oct. 1812. the head of the Artillery and Engineer departments, Lieut.-Colonel Robe and Lieut.-Colonel Burgoyne, and Lieut.-Colonel Dickson, who commands the reserve Artillery, rendered me every assistance; and the failure of success is not to be attributed to them.” The Duke of Wellington believed in the bayonet beyond any other weapon; and if a legitimate belief became occasionally credulity, it is hardly to be wondered at, when one reflects on the gallantry of the Infantry which it was the Duke’s good fortune to command. What seemed to be impossibilities, when ordered by him, were proved possible in the result; and the consequently increased belief in the power of the bayonet seems but natural. But his creed was supported at a terrible cost. When we find Napier himself,—Wellington’s idolater,—pronouncing his sieges a succession of butcheries, the criticism of a more temperate student may be excused. Doubtless, the want of adequate ordnance was often severely felt by the Duke of Wellington, and compelled him to an exaggerated use of the other arms; but this fact was hardly an excuse for neglecting its employment, when available in sufficient quantities, and obtainable with moderate exertions.

Nor was the fact that he—as he justly complained—never had a proper amount of Artillery with his armies any excuse for his making occasionally but an indifferent use of that which he had. Fortunately, the Duke of Wellington had merely to encounter Napoleon’s Marshals in Spain: had he had to meet their master, it is probable that the creed which he believed and practised might have received some rude assaults. If one could free oneself of all but purely professional considerations, one would wish, for the sake of the student in the art of war, that Napoleon, instead of Marmont and Clausel, had faced Wellington in the campaign of 1812. The result would, doubtless, have been the same; but the ways and means would have been very different. As it happened, Wellington’s sole encounter with Napoleon took place on ground chosen by himself, and under circumstances which yet further assisted his military creed, by testing yet again that which he had so often extravagantly proved, the marvellous endurance, discipline, and courage of the British Infantry.

The results of the mistaken siege of Burgos are curtly described by Sir J. T. Jones, in his ‘Journal of the Sieges in the Peninsula.’ “By its means,” he writes, “a beaten enemy gained time to recruit his forces, concentrate his scattered armies, and regain the ascendancy.” The same author writes, with regard to the service of the Royal Artillery during the siege: “It is a pleasing act of justice to the Artillery officers, employed in this attack, to state that they vied with each other in their exertions and expedients to meet the hourly difficulties they encountered, and that no set of men could possibly have drawn more service than they did from the limited means at their command.”

CHAPTER XX.
Vittoria and San Sebastian.

The threatening appearance of the various French armies in Spain, which compelled Lord Wellington to raise the siege of Burgos, compelled him ultimately to withdraw into Despatch to Lord Bathurst, dated 26 Oct. 1812. Portugal for winter quarters. In leaving Burgos he found the activity of the commanding officers of Artillery very beneficial. It enabled him to carry off all his serviceable guns and stores in a single night; but the absence of cattle prevented his removing the few French guns which he had captured in the storming of the hornwork. During the retreat, the services of the Horse Artillery, under Major Downman, were of a high order, and called forth the commendation of Lord Wellington. The troop which most distinguished itself was Major Bull’s, commanded by Captain Norman Ramsay, Major Bull having been twice wounded,—on one occasion so severely,—when in advance with the Cavalry at Torquemada on the night of the 12th September, 1812,—that he was obliged to be invalided. He does not reappear in the story of his gallant troop until the battle of Waterloo.

The retreat terminated on the 24th November, and the troops went into cantonments, the head-quarters being stationed at Frenada, and the Artillery at Malhada Sourda, three miles distant.

An old friend reappears, in the winter of 1812-13, to the burrower among Artillery records. Captain—now Brevet-Major—Frazer, who last was mentioned in this work in the account of the operations at Monte Video and Buenos Ayres, arrived to take command of Major Bull’s troop during that officer’s absence. His own troop being on home service, he more easily obtained permission to assume this duty. He had not been many weeks in the Peninsula before he received a more important command,—that which had hitherto Sir A. Frazer’s Letters, page 89. been held with such distinction by Major Downman,—the command of the Royal Horse Artillery with Lord Wellington’s armies. Although a reserved man in public, and fond of solitude, he was almost diffuse in his correspondence. Happily for those who have succeeded him in the Corps, his letters from the Peninsula have been collected and published by one who served in his troop for seven years,—General Sir Edward Sabine. These letters, and the unpublished letters of Sir A. Dickson, give together a most graphic picture of the operations of 1813, 1814, and 1815, which cannot but lose by the necessary condensation of the historian.

In the beginning of 1813, Lord Wellington proceeded to Lisbon to make the necessary arrangements for the coming campaign. The intelligence of the French disasters in Russia had reached him; rumours also came that Soult and many of the best troops in the French Peninsular armies had gone to France; and, from his preparations at Lisbon, it is evident that he had already resolved on offensive operations, which should, if possible, have the effect of driving the French out of the Peninsula. That he succeeded is well known to the reader; it remains to single out, in this and the following chapter, some of the more salient points in the campaign.

Colonel Dickson had been ordered to Lisbon, to consult as to some means of making the Portuguese Artillery more available for service than it had as yet been; and while there, he was sent for by Lord Wellington, who had also Ibid. dated Lisbon, 30 Jan. 1813. arrived, and was directed to superintend the equipment of a pontoon train of thirty-four large pontoons, which was to be sent by river to Abrantes, and there handed over to the master-pontonier, for use in the coming operations of the army. This train was destined to be a sore grievance to the Artillery. It had always to be horsed first, even at the expense of the Artillery brigades; and its possible wants in that respect haunted, like a nightmare, the commanding officer of the Corps. At this interview Lord Wellington also expressed considerable anxiety about the brigade of 18-pounder guns, which, he said, he was determined to have early in the field, as the French were understood to be Colonel Dickson to D.-A.-G. dated 24 Feb. 1813. fortifying positions everywhere. Some new 18-pounders were expected daily from England; and, on their arrival, he desired that they should be sent up the Tagus to Abrantes. This was safely effected; and bullocks were ordered to bring them thence to head-quarters, at Malhada Sourda.

They were ultimately manned by Captain Morrison’s and Captain Glubb’s companies of the Royal Artillery; and the number of carriages in the brigade was no less than 57, viz.:—

6	18-pr. guns on travelling carriages.
2	spare carriages.
6	platform waggons.
2	forges.
18	ammunition (limber) waggons.
3	store waggons.
20	bullock carts.

N.B.—Ammunition was carried at the rate of 150 rounds per gun.

The guns, and nine of the ammunition waggons, had horses in addition to their bullocks; the remaining carriages were drawn by bullocks only.

About the same time as the 18-pounders arrived from England, another troop of Horse Artillery, under the command of Captain Webber Smith, also reached Lisbon. A change in the armament of the troop, from 6-pounders to 9-pounders, was immediately ordered by Lord Wellington,—a change which, on more than one occasion, and in more than one campaign, has been ordered in the armament of the Royal Horse Artillery. At this time, also, a recognition was made by the Portuguese Government of the services of the Artillery,—Colonels Robe and Dickson being made knights of the Tower and Sword.

The old difficulty as to horses reappeared in the beginning of 1813. The sickness among these animals during the winter had been excessive; and the difficulty of purchasing any in the country seemed daily to increase. This led to many changes. Among others, Lord Wellington reduced the whole of the Portuguese Artillery for service in the field to three brigades,—one 9-pounder and one 6-pounder brigade to be with Sir Rowland Hill’s force, and one 9-pounder brigade to be attached to the general Artillery reserve of the army. These three were made very efficient by this means, and the purchase of a considerable number of horses avoided.

The campaign of 1813 was distinguished by a feature of considerable importance. Lord Wellington was now Commander-in-Chief of all the Spanish armies, and all necessary correspondence came direct to him, instead of through Cadiz. The assistance of the Spanish regular troops was never of much value, even under the new system, except at the combat of San Marcial and the Bidassoa; but the part taken by the Partidas, or irregular forces, during the campaign was not unimportant, and increased the difficulties of the French troops.

The French commenced to fall back from Salamanca towards Burgos, and in the beginning of April had not above a thousand men in the former place. At the same time, supplies were arriving from England weekly, and were disembarked in the northern ports of the Peninsula, with a view to the advance of the English army. An organization of the Allied troops was taking place, superior to anything which had yet been witnessed; and the Corps, whose history is treated in these pages, improved with the other arms in this respect. It seems a suitable time to touch on the improvement in the Field Brigades which had already taken place; and, at the risk of wearying the reader, to place before him a specimen of these in the spring of 1813.

The brigade, i.e. battery, which it is proposed to describe belonged to the 10th Battalion, and was commanded by the 2nd Captain, R. M. Cairnes, a gallant officer, who afterwards fell at Waterloo. It was pronounced by various inspecting officers to be the best field brigade with the army; but Captain Cairnes in his correspondence declined to accept this honour, as he considered others equally efficient. It may, therefore, be accepted as a fair type. From a letter written by Captain Cairnes himself, the following particulars Captain Cairnes to Captain Bedingfield dated Penamacor, 4 April, 1813. are obtained; and they exhibit a startling contrast to the oxen-draught brigades of the commencement of the Peninsular War. His system was based on that of the Horse Artillery, now universal in field batteries, in which each officer was wholly and solely responsible to the captain for his division, whether in matters of men or matériel. He declined to allow the officer of the Driver Corps, who commanded the drivers attached to the brigade, to have any control over his men, except as far as their pay and subsistence were concerned; and by thus giving his own officers complete responsibility, he received the reward which such conduct generally ensures, and was able to say, “My subalterns, Raynes, Bridges, James, and Talbot, are all most excellent, full of zeal, activity, and intelligence; they run before me in everything I can desire concerning their respective charges, and are never more happy than when in stables.” The chief difficulty in field brigades had always been in the divided allegiance of the men of the Driver Corps. The solution of this difficulty, which was adopted by Captain Cairnes, gradually obtained favour, and ended in a most natural manner,—the abolition of the Driver Corps and the absorption of the drivers into the Regiment. It took, however, some years to educate the authorities up to this point; and not until 1822 was the corps actually Kane’s List. abolished. Another point in Captain Cairnes’s system to which he attached great importance, and which he said had been generally adopted in the other brigades, was that of having promotion among the non-commissioned officers to go, not by battalion, but by company seniority; and of waiving even the question of seniority in the presence of undoubted superiority. There were faces in Woolwich which grew very long, and fossil old gentlemen whose remaining hairs stood on end, at such a perversion of the old order of things; but Lord Wellington supported the captains of companies in a measure which on service gave them a powerful engine for discipline. So, time after time, does the reader find the real Artillery unit asserting itself.

The artificers with a brigade were 2 wheelers, 2 collar-makers, 1 farrier, 1 jobbing smith, and 4 shoeing smiths. The non-commissioned officers of the Driver Corps attached to a 9-pounder brigade were, 1 staff-sergeant, 2 sergeants, and 6 corporals, one of whom acted as forage sergeant, under the acting storekeeper of the brigade (a company, not driver non-commissioned officer), who, again, was under an assistant commissary-general attached to the brigade (under the immediate orders of the Captain commanding). This officer was responsible for the rations and the supply of corn, for which purpose he had a number of forage mules, at the rate of one mule to two horses.

Sixteen round tents and two horsemen’s tents were carried; and, for the convenience of the artificers, two store waggons accompanied the brigade. The other extra carriages were the forge waggon, spare wheel carriage, and the captain’s cart. The brigade itself consisted of 6 guns and howitzers, 6 ammunition waggons, and 2 reserve ammunition waggons. The proportion of ammunition carried was as follows:—

The number of drivers with a brigade was one hundred. Five of the spare carriages were drawn by mules; those being selected which were the least likely to go under fire.

This was altogether a most desirable command for a young 2nd Captain to have on active service; and keenly did Captain Cairnes enjoy it. His dismay may therefore be imagined, on receiving, on the 5th May, 1813, a letter from Colonel Fisher, then commanding the Artillery in the Peninsula, announcing that Lord Wellington had decided to take away the horses of his brigade for the service of the pontoon train, leaving him to the chance of any horses which might hereafter come from Lisbon. He was not allowed any time to brood over his troubles, but was ordered to meet the pontoons at Sabugal in three days’ time, and hand over to the Engineer the whole of his stud. Colonel Fisher’s letter, which was a private communication, sent a few hours in advance of the official order, held out hopes of a speedy restoration (which fortunately took place) of the equipment of his brigade for the field.39 Captain Cairnes’ reply to this letter was so soldierlike, that it is well worthy Dated 6 May, 1813. of a place in the records of his Corps. “I return you,” he wrote, “my dear Colonel, my sincere thanks for your communication of yesterday’s date, anterior to the arrival of any order, which would, I think, have set me perfectly crazy. As it is, I have read your letter over twenty times, and am yet very unwilling to understand it. Lord Wellington having fixed on this brigade, I trust we shall be entitled to every consideration, when it is recollected that a junior one in all respects is within a league of the same distance from Sabugal as this place. The pain of urging anything prejudicial to my valued friend Parker is superseded by the promise held out to us of a speedy re-equipment.... I know, my dear Colonel, that you cannot avert the blow from us, and that the necessity of the service has forced Lord Wellington to this measure; therefore, however sorely affected and hurt we may now feel, you will assure yourself that the whole shall be given over to the pontoons in as complete and efficient a manner, as if they were going to be put to our own carriages. I am full of dread and alarm that our new equipment of horses and harness will not come up in time to march with the army; and that (without being so extravagantly sanguine or conceited as to build on future successes and good fortune) we shall be too late for the golden opportunity that a few days will probably offer to other brigades.”

This allusion of Captain Cairnes to the other Artillery brigades with Lord Wellington’s army suggests the propriety of placing before the reader their distribution at the opening of the campaign of 1813. This would appear to have been as follows:—