Part 2
On the 26th of June the army arrived off Ensenada da Baragon, a port on the river Plata, about thirty-two miles distant from Buenos Ayres, and landed on the 28th without firing a shot. The Thirty-Sixth and EIGHTY-EIGHTH regiments were brigaded together under the orders of Brigadier-General the Honourable W. Lumley. On the 29th the troops moved forward; the light brigade, composed of the rifle corps and nine light infantry companies, formed the advance, which was supported by Brigadier-General Lumley’s brigade, and followed by the other corps in succession. On the 1st of July the army was concentrated near the village of Reduction, about seven miles from Buenos Ayres, from whence it again advanced on the following day, crossed the Chuelo, a rivulet, by a ford called the Chico, and traversed the low ground on the opposite bank, at the extremity of which stands the city of _Buenos Ayres_.
Hitherto the enemy had offered only a very feeble resistance, which the discharge of a few round shot was sufficient to overcome; but when the right column, commanded by Major-General Leveson Gower, arrived near the Coral de Miserere, the Spaniards displayed a formidable body of infantry and cavalry, supported by a brigade of guns, with others in reserve. Brigadier-General Craufurd, placing himself at the head of his brigade, consisting of the Ninety-Fifth Rifles and light battalion, immediately made a vigorous charge; drove the enemy back in confusion; captured nine guns and a howitzer; and, profiting by the panic which had seized his opponents, pursued them into the very suburbs of the city, where his career of victory terminated, and Major-General Leveson Gower ordered the troops, first to halt, and then to take up a position for the night about a mile in the rear, near the principal slaughtering-place of the town. During the advance into the town, Captain William Parker Carroll, with his company, took a tilted waggon loaded with bread, and an eight-pounder brass gun, on which EIGHTY-EIGHTH was immediately scored with the point of a soldier’s bayonet, to mark it as a regimental prize.
The troops remained under arms during the night, exposed to heavy and incessant torrents of rain. In the morning Lieutenant-General Whitelocke summoned the governor to surrender; the Spaniards, however, made an attack upon the piquets, in which the EIGHTY-EIGHTH, which had relieved the rifle corps, lost about twenty men killed and wounded. The assault of the town was now determined upon, and the morning of the 5th fixed for carrying it into execution. For this service the EIGHTY-EIGHTH regiment was divided into wings, the right being commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Duff, and the left by Major Vandeleur, who were directed to enter the town separately by two different streets, and, having gained the banks of the river on the opposite side of the city, to possess themselves of the houses and form on the flat roofs; but what further steps they were to take, or what they were to do after so forming, was not stated.
At half-past six o’clock on the morning of the 5th of July the attack commenced: the right wing of the EIGHTY-EIGHTH, formed in sections, advanced at a rapid pace through several streets unmolested, and indeed without encountering, or even seeing, a single human being. A death-like silence reigned throughout the town, or was interrupted only by the measured tread of those who were most at a loss to comprehend the meaning of the apparent solitude and desertion that surrounded them. At length a few detached shots seemed to give a prearranged signal, at which the entire population of a vast town was to burst from its concealment, and in an instant the flat roofs of the houses swarmed with a mass of musqueteers, who poured a deadly, and almost unerring, fire upon the British soldiers. Under any circumstances the combat between men exposed in an open street, and adversaries ensconced behind the parapets of the houses on each side, must have been an unequal one; but the British troops were for some time absolutely defenceless in the midst of their enemies, having been positively ordered to advance with unloaded arms.[2]
Lieutenant-Colonel Duff, however, penetrated as far as a church on the right-hand side of the street in which his column had been directed to establish itself; but the strength of the barricadoed doors defied all attempts to force an entrance. His situation now became desperate; to remain stationary was to expose himself and his little band to certain massacre, unmitigated even by the being able to sell their lives dearly; to advance was nearly as pregnant with destruction; and even returning, independent of the repugnance every British officer feels to the very idea of retreat, was “as bad as to go on.” Lieutenant-Colonel Duff’s resolution was as prompt as the necessity was urgent; he made up his mind, on the instant, to hazard every thing while there was the most distant chance of success, and determined to push on; a determination which was received by his men with shouts, and seconded by them as if every individual soldier had felt himself personally responsible for the issue of the contest. With the few brave companions that survived, he succeeded in making his way into a cross street, and forcing open two houses, the doors of which were not so ponderous, or so well secured as those of the church: the houses, however, were not carried till after a severe struggle, in which all the men that defended them were put to death: and even when taken they afforded the captors but little shelter, being lower than the surrounding buildings, and, consequently, commanded on every side. At length, after a vain and murderous contest of four hours’ duration, but not until the last round of ammunition was expended, Lieutenant-Colonel Duff and his few remaining men were reduced to the necessity of surrendering prisoners of war.
The left wing of the regiment, under Major Vandeleur, had been, in the mean time, engaged in a contest equally murderous, equally hopeless, and equally unfortunate. It had penetrated a considerable way into one of the main streets of the town before a single enemy appeared: two mounted videttes were at length observed retiring slowly, and, as they retired, constantly looking up to the tops of the houses, evidently giving directions to the armed men, who were as yet concealed behind the parapets. Major Vandeleur ordered his men to advance in double-quick time; a terrific shout now burst from behind the parapets, and, in an instant, a dreadful fire of musketry, accompanied by hand-grenades and other missiles, carried death through the British ranks. Revenge or even resistance was out of the question; nevertheless the men remained undismayed, and continued to press on. A deep trench with a parapet cut across the street stopped them but for a moment; they carried it at the point of the bayonet, though with immense loss, and, finally, surmounting every obstacle, succeeded in reaching the river, where they found themselves exposed to an enfilading fire from the guns of the citadel, at about three hundred yards’ distance: they broke open a house, but it afforded no protection, the yard being surrounded by other parapeted houses, from whence an incessant and destructive fire was poured upon them; artillery was brought against them, and a large body of troops surrounded them in a _cul-de-sac_, from which either advance or retreat was impracticable. For three hours and a half did this devoted little band protract the hopeless struggle, and not until they were nearly annihilated, and until the firing had ceased on every other point, and until, like their comrades under Colonel Duff, they had expended the last ball cartridge that could be found even in the pouches of their dead or dying companions, did they adopt the sad alternative of surrender.
Thus ended the fatal 5th of July, 1807, the first and only occasion on which the EIGHTY-EIGHTH sustained a defeat. They had the consolation, however, of knowing, that all that men _could_ do they _had_ done, and of reflecting on many individual acts of devoted bravery highly honourable to the corps. Lieutenant Robert Nickle (late Lieutenant-Colonel of the Thirty-Sixth) led the advance of Brigadier-General Craufurd’s division column into the town, and fell, dangerously wounded, after having given repeated proofs of cool intrepidity united with the most daring courage. Lieutenant William Mackie (now Major, and late Captain, in the Ninety-Fourth Regiment) was severely wounded in the thigh, but, although fainting from loss of blood, continued at the head of his men, until a second bullet struck him across the spine, and stretched him, to all appearance, dead upon the ground; contrary to every expectation, however, though to the unfeigned delight of his comrades in arms, he survived, to gather fresh laurels in the Peninsula. Lieutenant George Bury also distinguished himself by vanquishing, in single combat, a Spanish officer of grenadiers. Serjeant-Major William Bone, for his gallant conduct on the same occasion, was recommended by Lieutenant-Colonel Duff for an ensigncy, to which he was promoted, and died a Captain in the Royal African regiment.
When the regiment was ordered for embarkation, Captain Oates, who was doing duty with the first, though in fact belonging to the second battalion, volunteered and received the permission of his Royal Highness the Duke of York to accompany the regiment; being a supernumerary he was attached to the Thirty-Eighth, a company of which he commanded in the attack on the Plaza de Toros.
Some of the other divisions of the army had met with less opposition than this regiment; the _Plaza de Toros_, a strong post on the enemy’s right, and the _Residencia_, a good post on their left, were taken; at the same time part of the army had gained an advanced position opposite the enemy’s centre; but these advantages had cost two thousand five hundred men in killed, wounded, and prisoners.
The loss of the EIGHTY-EIGHTH on this occasion amounted to twenty officers, and two hundred and twenty non-commissioned officers and privates killed and wounded.
_Officers killed._
Lieutenant Thompson ” Hale Ensign M‘Gregor Assist. Surgeon Ferguson
_Wounded._
Major Iremonger Captain M‘Pherson ” Dunne ” Chisholme ” Seton ” Peshall Lieut. Adair ” R. Nickle ” Graydon ” Whittle ” Stewart ” Buller ” Bury ” Mackie ” Gregg Adj. Robertson
On the following morning Lieutenant-General Whitelocke consented, at the instance of the Spanish commander, to desist from further hostilities, and to evacuate the place, on condition of having the captured regiments released.
The conduct of the Spanish towards the EIGHTY-EIGHTH, after its surrender, was marked by much kindness, and few instances occurred of officers being plundered. Captain M‘Gregor was robbed of his gold watch by a black soldier, but recovered it again three days afterwards, upon pointing out the man to a Spanish officer. The same officer was afterwards introduced by Captain Parker Carroll, who remained in the country as one of the British hostages, to General Liniers, and invited by the General to breakfast. The room in which he was received was decorated with coloured drawings of the different corps of militia and volunteers which had been raised within the last few months, and whose officers appeared to be of all hues and colours, from the real jet black to the mulatto, tawny, and even the pale mestee. The General, who entered freely into conversation with his guest, asked Captain M‘Gregor what he thought of the troops by whose portraitures he was surrounded?—receiving, of course, a complimentary answer, he replied, “Ay, it is _I_ who have done all this for them. Those Spaniards knew nothing of military tactics until I arrived amongst them.” He spoke in terms of high praise of Brigadier-General Beresford, and said they were indebted to that officer for teaching them how to defend the town.
On the 10th of July the EIGHTY-EIGHTH re-embarked at Buenos Ayres, and descended the River Plate to Monte Video, at which place it arrived on the 18th; on the 8th of August it sailed with the first division of the army for England, and, after a tedious and boisterous passage, made Spithead on the 5th, and landed at Portsmouth on the 8th of November, 1807. During the voyage it lost two officers by death, Lieutenant Lawson and Ensign Jackson.
In February, 1807, while the regiment was abroad engaged in the arduous services just detailed, its Colonel, General John Reid,[3] died, and was succeeded in the command by W. Carr Beresford, at that time Senior Lieutenant-Colonel of the regiment, with the rank of Colonel in the army. Such an instance of promotion is unusual in the service at the present period, and must be considered, therefore, as highly complimentary, not only to Colonel Beresford, but also to the regiment of which he had been for so many years the acting commander.
[Sidenote: 1808.]
Soon after its arrival in England the battalion was marched into Sussex, and from thence to Ashford in Kent. From Ashford it was moved in the spring of 1808 to Maldon, in Essex, where it received a draft of four hundred men from the second battalion; this detachment had unfortunately contracted the ophthalmia in Hilsea barracks, and, notwithstanding all the precautions that were taken to prevent the contagion spreading, upwards of two hundred men were in a short time afflicted with the disease; nor was it until towards October that the battalion again became quite effective.
On the 28th of December the EIGHTY-EIGHTH sailed from Falmouth for the Peninsula, but encountered, in the Bay of Biscay, a gale of three weeks’ duration, by which the transports on board which it was embarked, were at length forced into Cork, and detained there until the 21st of February following. While at Cork, Colonel Duff, to the great regret both of officers and soldiers, quitted the regiment, in consequence of the recent death of his uncle the Earl of Fife, and the command devolved on Major Vandeleur.
[Sidenote: 1809]
The original destination of the EIGHTY-EIGHTH was Cadiz, off which city it arrived on the 6th of March, 1809; but the Spanish Government refusing to receive any British troops into the fortress, it was ordered to Lisbon, where it landed on the 13th, and being brigaded with the Eighty-Seventh, was marched, early in April, to Coimbra. About this time, two of its non-commissioned officers, Serjeant-Major Nicholas Torrence, and Quarter-Master Serjeant William Hill, were promoted to commissions in the Portuguese army, of which the Colonel of the EIGHTY-EIGHTH (Lieutenant-General Beresford) was Commander-in-Chief, with the rank of Field Marshal.
When the combined British and Portuguese army moved from Lisbon to the north of Portugal to expel Marshal Soult from Oporto, the EIGHTY-EIGHTH was one of the regiments attached to the Portuguese army under Marshal Beresford, destined to act upon the Upper Douro and in the province of Tras os Montes, and intercept the retreat of the French. The march upon Amarante, the passage of the Douro, and the occupation of Oporto, are justly ranked high among the many brilliant achievements of the Duke of Wellington: nevertheless, the very nature of the service in which the EIGHTY-EIGHTH was engaged unquestionably tended to put to severe trial the discipline of every corps employed in it. The rapidity and length of the marches; the very unfavourable state of the weather; the obstacles presented by the nature of the country in the Tras os Montes, where the men were frequently obliged to use torch-light to avoid the risk of being dashed to pieces in the craggy paths they were obliged to traverse; the hospitality of the peasantry, who, totally ignorant of the imperious demands of military duty, were loud in commiserating and anxious to alleviate the hard fate of their deliverers thus compelled to march through their country in such inclement weather, and at such unseasonable hours; all offered temptations to straggling, which it is not at all wonderful that the men in many instances yielded to. The best-regulated army during a campaign, even if carried on under the most favourable circumstances, always becomes more or less relaxed in its discipline; and when it is considered that the wreck of the EIGHTY-EIGHTH regiment, after its capture at Buenos Ayres, was made up by drafts from the second battalion, that a few short months, only, were allowed it to recruit and re-organize before it was again employed in Portugal, it may be matter of regret, but certainly not of surprise, that it did not form an exception to the general rule. In fact many men were left behind, and some period of repose was necessary to remedy these irregularities, but that repose could not be obtained; for towards the end of June the whole disposable British force was marched into Spain, and on the 27th and 28th of July was fought the battle of TALAVERA DE LA REYNA.
The post of the EIGHTY-EIGHTH, on the first day, was in the wood on the river Alberche, and its conduct was much praised by Colonel Donkin, who commanded the brigade. It retired in line under a heavy fire, protecting by its steady front the advanced troops, who were greatly out-numbered by the enemy. During the retreat the soldiers were forbidden to fire unless they could _cover their man_. Corporal Thomas Kelly, of the fourth company, was the first who pulled a trigger; going up to the Adjutant, Lieutenant Stewart, and pointing out a French officer, he said, “Do you see that officer standing by the olive-tree in front of me? He is a dangerous man, and has been giving directions to his soldiers that _won’t sarve us_; four of the company have been hit already, but if you will allow me I think I could _do for him_.” “Try, then, Kelly,” was the reply;—he fired; the French officer fell, and the men, disconcerted by the loss of their leader, ceased to harass the regiment, which continued its retreat through the wood, and took post upon a hill on the left of the allied army, which was the key of the position. The hill was steep and rugged towards the enemy, but on the other side it was of smoother ascent; the French, however, resolved to attack this post.
The sun was set, and the shades of night had gathered over the hostile armies, when suddenly a body of French troops was seen advancing boldly to the attack, and in an instant the regiments were engaged in a sharp conflict. Colonel Donkin’s brigade beat the enemy in front, and the Twenty-Ninth Regiment, by a gallant charge, drove back part of the Ninth French Regiment. The enemy returned to the attack; the fighting became vehement; “and in the darkness the opposing flashes of the musketry showed with what a spirit the struggle was maintained: the combatants were scarcely twenty yards asunder, and for a time the event seemed doubtful; but soon the well-known shout of the British soldier was heard, rising above the din of arms, and the enemy’s broken troops were driven once more into the ravine below.”[4] The fighting now ceased; and the bivouac fires blazed up on both sides.
At day-break on the 28th the combat was renewed; a burst of artillery rattled round the height and swept away the English by whole sections; the roar of musketry succeeded, and the hill sparkled with fire. At length, unable to sustain the increasing fury of the British, and having lost above fifteen hundred men in the space of forty minutes, the French retired in disorder to their own lines.
About two o’clock the enemy again advanced; their commander “gave the signal for battle, and eighty pieces of artillery immediately sent a tempest of bullets before the light troops, who, coming on with the swiftness and violence of a hail-storm, were closely followed by the broad black columns in all the majesty of war. The English regiments, putting the French skirmishers aside, met the advancing columns with loud shouts, and breaking in on their front, and lapping their flanks with fire, and giving them no respite, pushed them back with a terrible carnage.”[5] The attack was, however, soon renewed; a fierce conflict raged along the whole front, and the EIGHTY-EIGHTH nobly maintained its post on the hill on the left; it had no opportunity of gaining distinction in close fight, but displayed great steadiness in sustaining a heavy fire of artillery. The French at length relaxed their efforts, the fire of the British grew hotter, and their loud and confident shouts—sure augury of success—were heard along the whole line; finally the French retreated without venturing another attack.
The loss of the EIGHTY-EIGHTH in killed and wounded amounted to six officers and one hundred and thirty non-commissioned officers and privates. The officers were Captains Blake, Graydon, and Whittle, and Lieutenant M‘Carthy killed; and Captain Browne and Lieutenant Whitelaw wounded.
In the movement upon Almaraz the EIGHTY-EIGHTH joined Brigadier-General Craufurd’s brigade. In this position, very appropriately named by the soldiers “Hungry Hill,” it suffered much from the tardy and defective supply of rations; a situation the more trying to the men from its contrast to the exuberant plenty they had recently enjoyed in the north of Portugal. Subsequently, the regiment occupied, for some time, the town of Campo Mayor, where Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Wallace joined and took the command of the battalion, which received, also, a detachment of three hundred men from the second battalion. Advantage was immediately taken of the regiments becoming, even for a short time stationary, to commence a system of drilling necessary for the re-establishment of that discipline which, during the incessant activity of the preceding months, had unavoidably been somewhat neglected. The task required great zeal and firmness, activity and energy; but Lieutenant-Colonel Wallace showed himself fully competent to it, and had the satisfaction and honour of rendering his corps, what it afterwards was acknowledged to be, one of the finest service regiments in the Peninsular army. At Campo Mayor, also, the EIGHTY-EIGHTH set the example, which was speedily followed by other regiments, of forming a regimental mess; indeed, a marked friendliness and cordiality reigned throughout the corps.
About this time Major Vandeleur died,[6] and Colonel Donkin, who commanded the brigade, quitted the army, addressing previous to his departure a letter to Colonel Wallace, from which the following are extracts:—
“The distinguished bravery of the EIGHTY-EIGHTH Regiment at Talavera, I shall ever reflect upon with admiration; and this splendid quality has been set off, first, by the utmost patience under the greatest fatigues and privations, and latterly, by the most exemplary behaviour while in a state of repose.
“I request you will be pleased to accept for yourself and your gallant corps, my warmest acknowledgments and best wishes, and convey to it my sincere assurance that should the chance of service ever place it again under my command, it will be one of the highest gratifications that I can receive.”
Towards the end of the year (1809), the EIGHTY-EIGHTH removed from Campo Mayor, and occupied the town of Pinhel in the province of Beira: it was brigaded with the Forty-Fifth and Seventy-Fourth, under Colonel Henry Mackinnon, and formed part of the third (or what was afterwards known by the appellation of the “fighting”) division of the army commanded by Lieutenant-General Picton.
[Sidenote: 1810]
The advance of Marshal Massena in the summer of 1810, preceded by the proud but vain boast, that in pursuance of the Imperial orders he would drive the English leopards into the sea, and plant the eagles of France on the towers of Lisbon; the successes with which his first operations were attended; the reduction one after another of Ciudad Rodrigo and Almeida, belong to the general history of the Peninsular war, into which the particular memoirs of the EIGHTY-EIGHTH regiment must glide on to the night of the 26th of September, the eve of the battle of BUSACO.