[510] Supposing it, apparently, to be over 1,000 strong, while it was really not 800 sabres.
[511] Vie militaire, edited by Girod de l’Ain, p. 173.
[512] Correspondence in Mémoires, iv. p. 254.
[513] Foy, p. 174.
[514] So says Vere, in his Marches of the 4th Division, p. 31.
[515] Marmont, Mémoires, iv. p. 255.
[516] Clausel, Brennier, Maucune, Thomières, and Sarrut also, when the latter arrived late from Babila Fuente, and joined the main body.
[517] A K.G.L. unit—the only German artillery present at Salamanca.
[518] All this from Vere’s Marches of the 4th Division, p. 32.
[519] From the 14th Light Dragoons.
[520] The hours are taken from D’Urban’s diary.
[521] Tomkinson’s Diary, pp. 187-9.
[522] Marmont, Mémoires, iv. p. 256.
[523] Charles Stewart (Lord Londonderry), who had held the post for the last three years had just gone home, and his successor had not yet come out to Spain.
[524] The note concerning Delancey is from Vere’s Marches of the 4th Division, p. 31.
[525] Mémoires, iv. p. 257.
[526] Dispatch to Berthier, Mémoires, iv. pp. 445-6.
[527] Jourdan’s Mémoire sur la Guerre d’Espagne, p. 418.
[528] ‘Il y a plus de fatras et de rouages que dans une horloge, et pas un mot qui fasse connaître l’état réel des choses.’ For more hard words see Napoleon to Clarke, Ghiatz, September 2.
[529] See Memoirs of Parquin, who commanded his escort, p. 299. But he states the hour as 11 o’clock, much too early.
[530] For this artillery business see especially the six narratives of artillery officers printed by Major Leslie in his Dickson Papers, ii. pp. 685-97. Also for doings of the 5th Division battery (Lawson’s), Leith Hay, ii. pp. 47-8, and of the 4th Division battery (Sympher’s), Vere’s Marches of the 4th Division, pp. 33-4.
[531] Vere’s Marches of the 4th Division, p. 33.
[532] The traditional story may be found in Greville’s Memoirs, ii. p. 39. Wellington is said to have been in the courtyard of a farmhouse, where some food had been laid out for him, ‘stumping about and munching,’ and taking occasional peeps through his telescope. Presently came the aide-de-camp with Leith’s message. Wellington took another long look through his glass, and cried, ‘By God! that will do!’ his mouth still full. He then sprang on his horse and rode off, the staff following. Another version may be found in Grattan, pp. 239-40: ‘Lord W. had given his glass to an aide-de-camp, while he himself sat down to eat a few mouthfuls of cold beef. Presently the officer reported that the enemy were still extending to their left. “The devil they are! give me the glass quickly,” said his lordship—and then, after a long inspection, “This will do at last, I think—ride off.”’
[533] His nephew, Leith Hay, whose memoir I have so often had to quote, here ii. p. 49.
[534] D’Urban’s unpublished diary gives the fact that he got his order from Wellington personally before Pakenham was reached.
[535] Grattan’s With the Connaught Rangers, pp. 241-2.
[536] Two of 14th Light Dragoons, three of 1st Hussars K.G.L.
[537] All this from Leith Hay, ii. pp. 51-2.
[538] Marmont says that it was ‘environ trois heures du soir.’ But I think that about 3.45 should be given as the hour, since Maucune only left the woods at 2 o’clock, and had to march on to the plateau, to take up his position, to send out his voltigeurs, and to get them close in to Arapiles before he would have sent such a message to his chief. Foy says ‘between 3 and 4 p.m.’
[539] Many years after, when Marmont, now a subject of Louis XVIII, was inspecting some British artillery, an officer had the maladroit idea of introducing to him the sergeant who had pointed the gun—the effect of the shot in the middle of the French staff had been noticed on the British Arapile.
[540] Vie militaire de Foy, p. 177.
[541] Marmont to Berthier, Mémoires, iv. p. 468.
[542] Ibid., ‘la gauche eut été formée en moins d’un quart d’heure’!
[543] The exact moment of Marmont’s wound is very difficult to fix, as also that of Wellington’s attack. The Marshal himself (as mentioned above, p.438) says that he was hit ‘environ les trois heures,’ and that Leith and Cole advanced ‘peu après, sur les quatre heures.’ Foy places the wound merely ‘between 3 and 4 p.m.’ Parquin, who commanded Marmont’s escort of chasseurs, says that the Marshal had been carried back to Alba de Tormes by 4 o’clock—impossibly early. On the other hand Napier gives too late an hour, when saying that Marmont was wounded only at the moment when Leith and Cole advanced, 4.45 or so, and was running down from the Arapile because of their movement. This is, I imagine, much too late. But it is supported by Victoires et Conquêtes, sometimes a well-documented work but often inaccurate, which places the unlucky shot at 4.30. Grattan places the order to the British infantry (Leith and Cole) to prepare to attack at 4.20—Leith Hay at ‘at least an hour after 3 o’clock.’ Gomm, on the other hand, makes Wellington move ‘at 3 o’clock in the afternoon.’ Tomkinson (usually very accurate) places Pakenham’s and Leith’s success at ‘about 5 p.m.’ D’Urban thinks that he met Lord Wellington and received his orders after 4 p.m.—probably he is half an hour too late in his estimate.
[544] Wellington in his dispatch (ix. p. 302) speaks of the four columns, D’Urban makes it clear that his own squadrons formed the outer two, but the fact that Power’s Portuguese followed Wallace in the 3rd column only emerges in the Regimental History of the 45th (Dalbiac), p. 103. This is quite consistent with the other information.
[545] All this from D’Urban’s unpublished narrative in the D’Urban papers.
[546] All this is from D’Urban’s narrative, and letters from Colonel Watson to D’Urban. The colonel bitterly resented Napier’s account of the charge (Peninsular War, iv. p. 268).
[547] The division was marching left in front, so that the senior regiment was in the rear. The fourth unit of the division (23rd Léger) was absent, garrisoning Astorga, as was also the 2nd battalion of the 1st, which was a very strong four-battalion corps. Hence there were only 8 battalions out of 11 present, or 4,300 men out of 6,200.
[548] It is not certain that the whole of the rear regiment (the 1st Line) was in the group: possibly one or two of its battalions were not yet on the ground.
[549] Grattan, p. 245.
[550] The 1/5th lost 126 men, more than any other 3rd Division regiment except the 88th. Sergeant Morley of the 5th, its only Salamanca diarist, writes (p. 113): ‘There was a pause—a hesitation. Here I blush—but I should blush more if I were guilty of a falsehood. We retired—slowly, in good order, not far, not 100 paces. General Pakenham approached, and very good-naturedly said “re-form,” and after a moment “advance—there they are, my lads—let them feel the temper of your bayonets.” We advanced—rather slowly at first, a regiment of dragoons which had retired with us again accompanying ... and took our retribution for our repulse.’ The dragoon regiment was presumably part of D’Urban’s brigade.
[551] This comes from the report of Arentschildt on the doings of his brigade: it is not mentioned by Napier, nor is there anything about it in Wellington’s dispatch. The time is fixed by Arentschildt speaking of it as ‘during the attack on the first hill.’ He says that he closed with the main body of the French horse and drove it off.
[552] The losses in officers of the three regiments were, taking killed and wounded only, not unwounded prisoners, 25 for the 101st, 15 for the 62nd, 5 for the 1st, by Martinien’s lists. The British returns of prisoners sent to England, at the Record Office, show 6 officers from the 101st, 2 from the 62nd, and 1 from the 1st, received after the battle. I presume that nearly all the wounded, both officers and rank and file, count among the prisoners. The 1st entered in its regimental report 176 tués ou pris, 22 blessés, 29 disparus: here the only people who got away would be the 22 blessés. The regimental return of the 101st shows 31 officers wanting—which seems to correspond to the 25 killed and wounded plus the 6 prisoners sent to England.
[553] All this from Leith Hay, ii. p. 53. The 1/38th had joined from Lisbon only twelve hours back.
[554] This is proved by the narrative of the Brunswick captain, Wachholz, who commanded the company of that corps attached to the Fusilier brigade.
[555] Leith Hay, ii. pp. 57-8.
[556] See Le Marchant’s Life, from notes supplied by his son, in Cole’s Peninsular Generals, ii. p. 281.
[557] Life of Le Marchant, p. 285.
[558] Life of Le Marchant, pp. 286-7.
[559] Le Marchant was also an admirable artist in water colours. I saw many of his pleasing sketches of Peninsular landscapes when his grandson, Sir Henry Le Marchant, allowed me to look through his correspondence and notes.
[561] I have read with respect his admirable letters to his family. ‘I never go into battle,’ he said, ‘without subjecting myself to a strict self-examination: when, having (as I hope) humbly made my peace with God, I leave the result in His hands, with perfect confidence that He will determine what is best for me.’
[562] It is vexatious to find that neither the 22nd nor the 66th was among the fourteen Salamanca regiments of which detailed casualty lists survive. The 15th Line returned 15 officers and 359 men as their loss. Martinien’s tables show 21 officers lost in the 22nd, and 17 in the 66th. The deficits of these two regiments as shown by the muster-rolls of August 1 were respectively about 750 and 500, but these do not represent their total losses, as all the regiments present at the battle had picked up many men at their dépôts at Valladolid, and from the small evacuated posts, before August 1, e.g. the 15th had 52 officers present on July 15, lost 15 at Salamanca, but showed 46 present on August 1; 9 officers must have joined from somewhere in the interim. So the 66th had 38 officers present on July 15, lost 17, but showed 34 present on August 1. Thirteen more must have arrived, and accompanied of course by the corresponding rank and file.
[563] The regiments of Maucune’s brigade, which did not get caught in the cavalry charge (82nd and 86th), lost only 8 and 3 officers respectively, as against the 15 and 17 lost by the 66th and 15th. Of Brennier’s division the 22nd Line had 21 casualties among officers, while the 65th and 17th Léger had only 3 and 9 respectively.
[564] So Parquin of the 13th Chasseurs in his Mémoires, p. 302. The only other red-coated dragoons in Wellington’s army, Bock’s brigade, were far away to the left.
[565] Arentschildt reports that his and D’Urban’s men were all mixed and busy with the French infantry, when the French hussars charged in, and that he rallied, to beat them off, a body composed mostly of his own Germans, but with Portuguese and 14th Light Dragoons among them.
[566] The moment is fixed by Wachholz, who says that he looked at his watch, to fix the hour.
[567] This was the 122nd (three battalions), of Bonnet’s division, which Marmont says (see above, p. 430) that he had placed as a connecting-link between the Arapile and the troops on the plateau.
[568] All this from the journal of Chas. Synge, Pack’s aide-de-camp, who was with the caçadores, and was desperately wounded at the bank, in the first clash. It was printed in the Nineteenth Century for July 1912.
[569] See Vere’s Marches of the 4th Division, p. 36.
[570] All this from Wachholz, who was now with the 7th Fusiliers.
[571] See Vere’s Marches of the 4th Division, p. 36. The 3/27th on top of the hill was not brought forward, as some wrongly say.
[572] This from Wachholz’s narrative, very clearly explained. The Fusiliers were not relieved by the advance of the 1/40th and 3/27th, as some authorities state.
[573] The 122nd lost 21 officers and 508 men, the 118th and 119th probably as many or more—they had respectively 20 and 26 officers hit. The 120th, the regiment on the Great Arapile, lost only 8 officers—but 580 men, an almost inexplicable disproportion. The 118th claimed to have taken a flag—perhaps one of the 7th Portuguese Caçadores, who were badly cut up when Bonnet first advanced.
[574] The losses of three of Clausel’s four regiments chance to have been preserved—the 25th Léger lost 16 officers and 322 men: the 27th Ligne 7 officers and 159 men: the 59th Ligne 17 officers and 253 men. The 50th, which had 26 officers hit, must have had more casualties than any of the other three, so the total divisional loss must have been well over 1,200. But Bonnet’s division, much worse mauled, lost at least 2,200.
[575] This is stated by Napier, iv. p. 273, and seems reasonable. See also Tomkinson, p. 186.
[576] The losses in Campbell’s Guards’ brigade (62 men) were in the companies which defended the village of Arapiles earlier in the day—those in his line brigade (Wheatley’s) were trifling—16 wounded and no killed. The K.G.L. brigade lost 60 or so, all in the light companies, during the advance.
[577] All this from Lemonnier-Delafosse of Ferey’s division, pp. 158-9.
[578] But not on the best authority: regimental diaries are not always safe to follow on such points.
[579] Ross Lewin of the 32nd, ii. pp. 25-6.
[580] Grattan, p. 253.
[581] Lemonnier-Delafosse, p. 159. This note about Ferey’s being slain outright does not agree with the usual statement that he was mortally wounded, and died two days later, given by several English diarists. But Lemonnier-Delafosse is first-hand authority.
[582] Lemonnier-Delafosse, pp. 161-2.
[583] Ferey’s four regiments probably lost somewhat over 1,100 men—the 31st Léger had 380 casualties, the 47th Ligne (with 18 officers killed and wounded) something like 500; the 70th suffered least, it returned only 111 casualties; the 26th slightly more, perhaps 150. The whole forms a moderate total, considering the work done.
[584] Tomkinson (of Anson’s brigade), p. 187.
[585] Tomkinson in his diary (p. 188) has a curious story to the effect that ‘the Spanish general, before the action, asked if he should not take his troops out of Alba—after he had done it. Lord Wellington replied, “Certainly not,” and the Don was afraid to tell what he had done, Lord W. therefore acted, of course, as if the place had been in our possession still.’
[586] Foy, Vie militaire, pp. 176-7.
[587] This cavalry may have been the two detached squadrons of the 14th Light Dragoons, which had not followed the rest of Arentschildt’s brigade to the right.
[588] See Schwertfeger’s History of the German Legion, i. p. 378.
[589] Lemonnier-Delafosse, p. 164.
[590] Marmont to Berthier, Tudela, July 31, in his Mémoires, iv. p. 448.
[591] See vol. iv. p. 295.
[592] viz. killed or prisoners—officers 162, men 3,867; wounded—officers 232, men 7,529; traînards, 645 men; 12 guns and 2 eagles missing. This return is in the Paris archives. It is certainly incomplete: 60 officers were killed, 137 prisoners, which makes 197 tués ou pris instead of 162. And 20 guns were lost.
[593] A regiment whose 1st battalion was elsewhere carried not an eagle but a simple standard per battalion instead. Of such regiments, wanting their senior battalion and therefore their eagle, there were with Marmont three. Two, the 66th and 82nd, were in Maucune’s division, one, the 26th, in Ferey’s. The colours probably belonged to some of these, of which several were much cut up, especially the 66th.
[594] The returns of the Army of Portugal show a deficiency of 20 guns between July 15 and August 1, of which 12 represent the divisional batteries of Thomières and Bonnet, which have completely disappeared. Wellington says, ‘official returns account for only 11 guns taken, but it is believed that 20 have fallen into our hands.’ This was correct.
[595] The deficiency in cavalry rank and file shown by the muster rolls between July 15 and August 1 was 512.
[596] Perhaps more: for the Reserve Artillery and Park alone show 1,450 rank and file on July 15 and only 707 on August 1.
[597] Sixty-three officers arrived in England as the Salamanca batch of prisoners; of these some were wounded, for their names occur both in Martinien’s tables as blessés, and in the Transport Office returns at the Record Office as prisoners shipped off. The remainder of the 137 were badly wounded, and came later, or died in hospital.
[598] The 7th Division would have had practically no loss but for the skirmishing in the early morning near Nuestra Señora de la Peña, and the heaviest item in the 1st Division casualties was the 62 men of the Guards’ flank-companies who were hit while defending the village of Arapiles.
[599] Cotton was shot after the battle was over by a caçador sentry, whose challenge to halt he had disregarded while riding back from the pursuit.
[600] Diary in Vie militaire, ed. Girod de l’Ain, p. 178.
[601] Il a joué serré. This idiom is explained in the Dictionary of the Academy as ‘jouer sans rien hasarder.’
[602] Note in same volume, p. 177.
[603] See Tomkinson’s Diary, p. 190. He gives the three roads used as (1) Alba, Mancera de Abaxo, Junialcon; (2) Alba, Garcia Hernandez, Peñaranda; (3) Encina, Zorita, Cebolla [names all badly spelled]. It is doubtful whether the troops on the last road were not disorderly masses of fugitives only. The bulk of the army certainly went by Peñaranda.
[604] See vol. iii. p. 255.
[605] I took the trouble to work out the names from the immense list of prisoners at the Record Office, in order to test the truth of the statement that the whole battalion was captured. The following names appear from the 76th—Bailly, Cavie, Catrin, Demarest, Denis, Duclos, Dupin, Dupont, Dusan, Gautier, Guimblot, L’Huissier, Richard, Ravenal, besides two wounded officers, Lambert and Martinot. In addition, one officer (Lebert) was killed, and in Martinien’s Liste des officiers tués et blessés we have five more down as wounded, Dessessard, Lanzavecchia, Massibot, Norry, Rossignol. These may have died of their wounds, and so never have reached England; or they may have escaped, though wounded. The twenty-two names must represent practically the whole of the officers of the battalion.
[606] All this from Schwertfeger, i. p. 381.
[607] Foy, Guerre de la Péninsule, i. pp. 290-1.
[608] I have used for the narrative of this interesting fight not only the numerous and valuable K.G.L. sources printed or quoted by Beamish and Schwertfeger, but the letters of von Hodenberg, aide-de-camp to Bock, lent me by his representative, Major von Hodenberg, now resident in Hanover. For this officer’s interesting career see Blackwood for May 1912, where I published large sections from these letters.
[609] Their names were the colonel, Molard (who died, a prisoner, of his wounds, August 4), Baudart, Paulin, Piancet, Turpin, Paris, Bouteille; they were verified in the prisoners-rolls at the Record Office by me.
[610] Tomkinson’s Diary, p. 191.
[611] Wellington to Lord Bathurst, night of July 24. Dispatches, ix. p. 309.
[612] Tomkinson, p. 191.
[613] Clausel to King Joseph from Arevalo. Joseph’s Correspondence, ix. p. 54.
[614] Already on the day of Salamanca there were eight battalions in the army with less than 400 men present. See the tables in Appendix.
[616] Joseph to Soult, Madrid, June 30. Correspondence of Joseph, ix. p. 42.
[617] Correspondence of Joseph, ix. pp. 44-5.
[618] Joseph to Clarke, July 13, Correspondence, ix. p. 45.
[619] For d’Erlon’s letter see Joseph to Clarke of July 17th; Correspondence, ix. p. 48.
[620] This date is fixed by a letter of Joseph to Marmont, of that day, in the Scovell ciphers. It never got to Marmont.
[621] Jourdan in his Mémoires (p. 419) says that the concentration took place on the 17th, but Joseph’s letter to Clarke of July 18 says that Treillard’s dragoons would only reach Naval Carnero on the 19th, which is conclusive.
[622] All this from Vacani, vi. p. 110, where the movements of Palombini are very carefully detailed.
[623] Maupoint’s letter to the King, announcing his arrival at Madrid on the 29th-30th July, was captured by guerrilleros, and is in the Scovell collection of ciphers.
[624] Which falls into the Adaja near Olmedo, twenty miles south of Valladolid.
[625] Clausel to Joseph, Correspondance, ix. pp. 54-5.
[626] ‘Certainement, c’était le meilleur,’ says Jourdan, commenting on the choice years after.
[627] For this business see Hamilton’s History of the 14th Light Dragoons, p. 109. The leader of the patrol, a Corporal Hanley of that regiment, had only eight men, but surprised the chasseurs in an inn, and bluffed them into surrender.
[628] See Wellington to Hill of July 26. Dispatches, ix. p. 314. The Soult letter is in the Scovell collection of ciphers.
[629] For details, see Tomkinson, p. 192.
[630] See von Hodenberg’s letter concerning this in Blackwood for June 1912.
[631] Printed in Joseph’s Correspondence, ix. pp. 46-7.
[632] On the next day, August 2, the letter came to hand at Galapagar.
[633] Soult to Joseph, Correspondance, ix. pp. 45-7.