Part 18

It was an extraordinary occurrence in the action upon the Nivelle that a redoubt carried by our 88th regiment should have been defended by the greater part of the French 88th, the latter thus becoming prisoners to the former. And it was likewise the fate of the French 45th at Talavera to have been nearly destroyed by the fire of ours, as was ascertained by the numbers of killed and wounded left upon the ground, and also by the late Major-General Guard (who then commanded our 45th), who was left amongst the wounded at Talavera when our army retreated after the action.

I believe it is an axiom in war, at least it ought to be, that no extended position--fortify it as you please--can be held for any length of time against a properly combined movement of good troops. Had not we to fall back through the Pyrenees before Soult, and did we not find ourselves unable to make any effectual stand before him till we reached the ground in front of Pampeluna? Sir Thomas Picton certainly, the previous evening, checked the French for a short time; but after a night's march we found ourselves in the excellent position selected by him, and in which, when our army was more concentrated, we were able to frustrate all Soult's efforts, great as they were.

I must not here omit remarking, that it was insinuated, and even believed by many, that if Lord Wellington had not arrived in time, followed by a part of the army at this position, Sir Thomas Picton intended to have abandoned it, and to have retired behind Pampeluna, and thereby would have removed our blockading force, and thrown it open to Soult.

I can positively say that he had no such intention, and I feel I ought to make this assertion, if it were only in justice to Sir Thomas Picton's military reputation, and I know I can be borne out in it. I had been particularly employed with the 3rd division in originally forming the blockade of Pampeluna; that is to say, in taking up with the troops the positions to be occupied around it, and Sir Thomas Picton was aware that, in consequence, I was likely to be well acquainted with the various roads in the neighbourhood; he therefore sent for me on the night previous to the day upon which it was insinuated that he intended to have abandoned the position. He told me he expected to be attacked by Marshal Soult in the morning, that he was determined to stand his ground; but wished to know, if, before Lord Wellington could come to his assistance, and if such a misfortune should happen as that of his being obliged, by very superior numbers, and the unforeseen events of a battle, to fall back, if I was sufficiently acquainted with the roads around the city to enable me to undertake, under such circumstances, to conduct the troops, so as to keep them out of the range of the cannon upon the ramparts of the city. I replied, that I knew the roads sufficiently for the purpose, and was about to retire, when he repeated his determination to maintain his position, and even betrayed a kind of feeling of delight at the idea of giving Soult and his army battle, with only the few troops he could oppose to him, until the arrival of Lord Wellington.

Almost at this moment, as I learnt afterwards, an engineer officer (I don't remember his name) arrived to report himself, who had been looking for the 3rd division amongst the mountains; I think he said he had been sent to supply the place of Colonel Burgoyne, who had been taken ill, and was obliged to go to the rear. Sir Thomas, who at such a time, would have wished not to be plagued by a stranger, desired him, partly, it was fancied, with the intention of getting rid of him, to go and find out the different roads leading to the rear of Pampeluna; and I have often since wondered if in this could have originated the silly story of Sir Thomas Picton's intention of abandoning the position in which the battle was fought, and in which the 3rd division performed its usual brilliant part.

I think it but fair next to mention, that the dispositions made by the French at Orthes, were not only superior to what we usually met with, but they also fought that battle with seemingly more confidence in themselves, and in their chief, than they had latterly done. For some time after the action commenced, neither the 3rd nor 4th divisions, whose movements came more particularly under my observation, were able to gain any ground to their front, or to set properly to work; indeed, it was next to impossible for the former to advance, the position before them being judiciously and most formidably occupied by a considerable part of Soult's army; and we were aware that the moment we should attempt to go forward, we would have been taken in flank by a large body of troops, of whom part held very strong ground, and part possessed a wooded ravine, which separated the 3rd from the 4th divisions. We were thus most provokingly brought to a complete stand, exposed to a heavy cannonade, and also to the fire of the infantry in our front; and the French troops will fire away in that manner, and usually with considerable effect, as long as their opponents please.

Sir Thomas Brisbane saw plainly how his brigade, the most advanced of the three, was situated; and though most anxious to push forward to assail the enemy, so well posted in his front, and to fight as the 3rd division always did, yet in this state of things, it would have been decidedly wrong to have done so. I was carefully observing what the French before us, as well as those hitherto successfully opposed to the 4th division, were about; and seeing a body of cavalry assembling behind the infantry, with which we were more particularly engaged, I pointed them out to Sir Thomas Brisbane, who took such steps as he thought necessary in case of their venturing to charge us. Impolitic as it was, with such a large force to contend with, it was evident that there was nothing for it, but to detach some companies into the ravine, to drive out the French skirmishers, who invariably took in flank the 4th division, in the several gallant attempts successively made on the narrow tongue of land, by the regiments composing it, to get forward. I conclude Lord Wellington saw how the two divisions were situated, and sent a considerable part of the light division to our support, and to clear the ravine; and to my delight, I saw Sir Andrew Bernard coming on at their head for that purpose.

He soon completely scoured out the ravine, in the style the light division were accustomed to do every thing they undertook; and it was then no longer difficult for the 3rd and 4th divisions to advance, and in a few minutes, the advantageous ground, upon which the French had made so brave a stand, was in possession of the leading brigade. A chase then commenced, during which it was found very difficult to restrain the ardour of the troops, and had it been deemed advisable for our cavalry to have charged sooner than they did, the loss of the enemy must have been much greater than it was reported to be.

I have been again rather minute in detailing the part performed in this battle by the 3rd division, as I wish to attract attention to the mode of fighting invariably practised, and with so much success, by Sir Thomas Picton, who would have thought but little of any commander of a brigade or regiment who did not instantly, but in compact order, push forward upon the enemy; a mode of fighting which he knew to be most suitable to British soldiers and the least relished by their foes, who would always have preferred firing away, either skirmishing or even in line.

It was not in the power of the British armies either at Talavera or Waterloo (the actions which most resembled each other in fighting under a heavy fire,) to go forward in the manner I have mentioned against the French; and our losses were, consequently, in both these actions, very great from the enemy's fire.--Since the battle of Fontenoy, in which a long-continued steady advance of British troops, in compact order, effected such wonders, and which would have been completely successful if supported by the Dutch and the rest of the Duke of Cumberland's army, down to the present day, I cannot find that the style of fighting practised in the 3rd division was ever unsuccessful; but, on the contrary, was always attended with the best results, and even with much less loss than would have been sustained in any other mode of acting: I therefore trust I may be pardoned for having endeavoured to illustrate the correctness of the opinion I entertain in this respect, not only by what I have related of the battle of Orthes, but also by the rather minute description I ventured to give of the achievements of the 3rd division at Salamanca.

But even in acting as skirmishers on a large scale, when Sir Thomas Picton's division had, at Vic Bigore, to contend with two French divisions, each at least equal in number to the 3rd, the same system of fighting was, as far as practicable, observed. Besides the 5th battalion 60th, a battalion of Portuguese caçadores and our light infantry companies, whole regiments, (and here we felt the want of knowledge of light infantry movements in all corps,) only retaining some companies in reserve and for support, were engaged as sharpshooters. They were, however, constantly pushed forward upon the French, and recommended not to throw away their fire in long shots, but rather, as much as possible, to endeavour to close with them; and if a halt was any where perceived in any part of the advancing skirmishers a staff officer was invariably sent to the point to ascertain the cause. The French, therefore, invariably gave way, and in their confused retreat they became exposed, in running from one enclosure to another, to the fire of our troops. After driving them for a considerable distance before us in this style, the coming of night stopped our career, but had we stood and fired, as usual upon such occasions, this brilliant feat of the 3rd division would never have been heard of. At dark, Lord Wellington came up to Sir Thomas Brisbane's brigade, which was still warmly engaged.--He wished to know how the French, we had so long followed up, were situated; but so thickly wooded, enclosed, and covered with vineyards was the neighbourhood of Vic Bigore, near to which this splendid affair terminated, that it was impossible to give him any information about them.

A soldier of the 88th, hearing what had been said, volunteered to get up into a tree, and thereby to make himself an object to be shot at. This he accomplished with some difficulty, and being asked what he could see; replied, "Och, nothing but them wearisome vineyards, and bad luck to them, and a power of their scrimigers." Night closed the scene, the firing had ceased. The French sentinels and ours being posted not twenty yards from each other, they, as usual, thought no more of strife; but in the course of the night, the enemy silently and quietly moved off towards Tarbes. The day following we crossed the Adour at that town. Picton was again advancing against the enemy, whose right having been turned by the divisions on our left, they were marching, or rather running in great confusion along the road, which passes through a wooded height above Tarbes to Tournay. Sir Thomas Brisbane's dispositions were even made to have had a dash at them; when an order, which greatly surprised us, came for the troops to halt, when without almost meeting with any resistance, we must have cut off and taken vast numbers of the fugitives, who were thus allowed to "live to fight another day." Upon receiving this order to halt from Sir Thomas Picton's aide de camp, (who was questioned in order to ascertain if he was sure he was correct in the message he delivered) I went back to find out what could possibly have occasioned it. I soon met Sir Thomas, and venturing cautiously to express my regret at such an opportunity having been allowed to escape, of intercepting so considerable a number of the enemy's troops, he replied, "That is no fault of mine; but go now, Sir, and desire your general to move on." But before I could return to the brigade, which were greatly amazed at being kept back, the last of the French were just disappearing behind a hill about half a mile off.

Colonel Napier says, in speaking of French and British soldiers, "place an attainable object of war before the French soldier, and he will make supernatural efforts to gain it, but failing, he becomes proportionally discouraged. Let some new chance be opened, some fresh stimulus applied to his ardent sensitive temper, and he will rush forward again with unbounded energy; the fear of death never checks him, he will attempt any thing."

This is a well-drawn picture of the French, yet I hope he will excuse me for saying, that I think an officer of great experience, like Colonel Napier, must often have seen supernatural efforts made by French officers, both to bring on their men and to make them stand their ground, but all in vain, when they saw British troops about to close with them. Again Colonel Napier speaks of the unrelenting vigour of British infantry, and of their deafening shout, rolling over a field of battle, more full and terrible than that of any other nation, and followed by the strong and unwavering charge. All this must be fully acquiesced in, and the British soldier well merits this praise; for I do not think that Colonel Napier ever had any difficulty in getting his men to stand or follow him, either to the charge or to the assault of the most rugged and impracticable breach; on the contrary, I should suppose he must have found more difficulty in restraining them in their headlong course, with their officers, still more daring than themselves, at their head. In the comparison, therefore, drawn between French and British soldiers, I consider that Colonel Napier scarcely does the undaunted brilliant courage of the latter justice, when he only speaks of the unrelenting vigour of the British infantry. I conclude, when Colonel Napier composed this passage, he had the fields of Talavera and Waterloo before his eyes, where, certainly, great endurance of fire was necessary on the part of British troops, and where the French had full scope for displaying their best qualities as soldiers; but in the 3rd division, when it fought in Picton's style, and was led as he expected his officers to lead, he would, on all occasions, have witnessed the fine qualities attributed to French soldiers most amply displayed, and even surpassed. Much, however, as I admire the undaunted courage of British soldiers in following the bravest and most noble-minded officers in the world, I cannot be blind to their imperfections, and especially to their conduct after victory, and upon other occasions, which often threatened us with the most serious consequences; and it is this makes me so anxious to have more of the good and true men of the British empire brought into our ranks, and of whom there are enough to be found to form a well conducted invincible army.

But let us imagine such troops as these, in a high state of discipline, and properly supported by our splendid heavy dragoons and artillery, charging an enemy sword in hand, in the manner I have before alluded to, and it may be readily allowed that the fate of a campaign, or even that of a kingdom, would be decided in a single battle; for the enemy's troops, thus closed with, could not well escape from the field; and we should no longer be incredulous when we read of the consequences resulting from a charge of Roman legions. It has pleased Divine Providence to form the men of the British empire for such a kind of warfare; having bestowed upon them daring hearts, and powerful arms to execute whatever may be required of them.

If ever the plan of calling out men by ballot is adopted, I would beg leave to suggest, that a certain number of battalions of the regular army, from adjoining districts, should be permanently considered a division; and when a force was wanted in any part of the world, either the division, or a brigade of it, should compose the whole or a part of that force; and would not thus an esprit du corps be established in such a division, like what was found so admirably calculated for mutual support amongst the battalions and brigades of the light, 3rd, 4th, &c. divisions under the Duke of Wellington; and which induced them readily to make any effort, or any sacrifice, to aid each other in battle. And how often have I witnessed this feeling prevail, to a great extent, among the officers and soldiers of the 45th, 74th, 88th regiments, and 5th battalion, 60th, which composed the brigade to which I was so long attached as brigade-major. I can never forget one instance of this kind in particular, which occurred at the battle of Fuentes d'Onor. After a long and dreadful struggle in that village, between the British and a large body of the French Imperial Guard and other troops which supported them, the right brigade of the 3rd division was at last brought up to take the place of the fatigued regiments so long engaged, under a heavy fire, without any decided advantage being gained by either party, the French holding the lower and our troops the upper part of the village. The 88th, supported by the 45th, was ordered to charge into it and drive out the enemy. They soon did so in the usual style of the 3rd division. But I shall ever think with pleasure, of the extraordinary eagerness evinced by the 45th to advance to the help of their old friends the Rangers, who on that occasion wanted none. This feeling, however, between these two corps in particular, was always most strongly marked throughout the whole war; and I have no doubt would be revived, if they ever met again in presence of an enemy.

It may, perhaps, be considered out of place, but, before closing this chapter, I must beg leave to observe that I read--as I think every one else must have done--with great interest what the Marquis of Londonderry has told us in the account he has given of his visit to Russia, of the enormous establishments of the Czar for the instruction of those intended for the staff and other branches of his military and naval services. The country ought always to feel indebted to officers who can, like his Lordship, give useful information upon such subjects; for we certainly, by some means or other, should be made acquainted with what is going on in the military and naval world. And although the grand reviews, or showing off of troops and establishments were evidently got up in order to produce strong impressions, I feel confident it must, hereafter, be found that the expense of keeping up the latter will be much greater than the advantages to be derived from them. But our army does not require such an extended and overgrown system, which is neither suited to the feelings, ideas, or the genius of the free people of the British Empire.--An absolute government, which may one day have cause to tremble at the effects of what it has produced, could alone be supposed capable of creating and carrying out a plan of such magnitude, and which must, I should fear, prove hazardous to the safety of the country in which it is adopted, and also to its institutions.--I certainly would require that all gentlemen intended for commissions in our service should have had a certain military or naval education, but I would not ask where it had been acquired, provided they could pass the examinations I have already alluded to.

From our staff, at their own cost, well and probably expensively educated, we might naturally expect that officers would be selected, to be employed as consuls or otherwise, in ascertaining what might be going forward in countries likely to be, or which have already become the scenes of warfare, and about which, or the parties engaged, Great Britain might be deeply interested, yet not altogether justified in taking an active part in the contest, such as Circassia, Persia, South America, and perhaps Spain; and, above all, we might constantly have an eye upon our North American democratic neighbours, who can only be properly dealt with by a military governor-general of the whole of our North American territories, and who should be entrusted with much authority, both civil and military, so that he could act at all times with decision and promptitude.

Accomplished staff officers, such as I have in view, could give such information as might be relied upon, and would enable those, who direct the affairs of this great empire, to act judiciously and advantageously; and when these officers wished to do so, they ought to be allowed to go wherever war of any kind was carrying on, if it were only with the view of acquiring greater knowledge of their profession; for no matter what might be the nature of the warfare, some things may always be learnt. But these officers should, at the same time, be strictly prohibited from meddling with, or in any way aiding, or advising either party, without permission to do so from our Government. Civilians, in general, ought to be looked upon as not calculated for employment such as that I speak of, and we had once a lesson given us in this respect, if we will only profit by it, when Sir John Moore's army was so nearly lost through the foolish presumption of our agent or minister, sent out to the Spanish government of that day.

Many think that France could not be better governed than it is at present by Louis Philip, who is universally allowed to be an able sovereign; but I have often heard the question asked, how it was, that Paris, and all France in its train, fell so easily and unaccountably into the hands of the men of July, 1830. Although I know Paris tolerably well, and a good deal of France and Frenchmen, yet the only answer, I believe, that can be given is, that it did not suit the views, prejudices, or feelings of the military, that the existing order of things should be maintained; many of them, very probably, at the time belonging to the political coteries, with which Paris in particular always abounds, and in which are broached and discussed the strangest possible doctrines and dogmas. British officers can never belong to such dangerous associations, if they even did exist in the United Kingdom.