Chapter VI

Scarcity of provisions. Horrid stench from the unburied bodies of men
and horses. I lose my horse, and with him all my campaigning
comforts. The British army marches on Orapeza to attack Soult.
Conduct of General Cuesta at Talavera. The British army crosses the
Tagus at Arzobispo. Desperate attack made by General Crawford’s
troops on a herd of swine. How to dress pork in the most expeditious
manner. The army retires towards Delatosa. General Crawford’s
division proceeds to the bridge of Almaraz. Long and harassing
marches thither. Parched peas and boiled wheat our food. A fortnight
at Almaraz. Scanty diet of bran cakes and goat’s flesh, without
salt. How to reduce a corpulent person. The army falls back to the
southern frontier of Portugal, and is cantoned near the Guadiana. A
short account of our retreat. Maravao. Castello de Vide.
Jollification in the woods near it. Shooting party on the 1st of
September. Portalegre. General Catline Crawford’s brigade. Aronches.
General Crawford’s division reaches Campo Maior.

The Spanish authorities had failed most shamefully in their promise of procuring supplies for the British army; and I do not believe that more than one day’s allowance of bread was issued from the 29th of July to the evening of the 2d of August, nor were the rations of wine, spirits, and meat, forthcoming either. Dollars we had in our pockets, it is true; but they soon became totally useless.

In Talavera every thing was soon bought up at an enormous price, as may readily be imagined when it is considered that 35,000 hungry Spanish troops, and 20,000 British, were encamped near the town, every one scrambling for bread, chocolate, wine, and, in short, for whatever was eatable or drinkable, at any price.

The feelings which constant hunger produces were, however, in some degree counteracted two days after the battle, by the insufferable stench arising from the hundreds of dead bodies of men and horses still unburied. The Spaniards at length were ordered to collect the bodies in heaps and to burn them; and even to the present moment I am undecided whether the horrid smell arising from those funeral piles was not more trying than that which we had previously experienced.

The 31st of July proved an ill-fated day to me. I lent my saddle-horse to a brother-officer, to ride from the camp into Talavera, to purchase whatever he could lay his hands on; and, to my utter horror and dismay, I saw my friend return to the bivouac late in the afternoon, _not_ on horseback, but on foot, and with a face longer than my arm. I was soon put out of suspense by learning that a rascally Portuguese or Spanish boy, to whose care he had intrusted my charger in the town whilst he went into a shop, had disappeared with him. No Peninsula soldier need be told that this was a serious mishap. The _prad_ was a capital one; and the saddle, bridle, the cloak affixed to the saddle, the _valise_, containing all the articles of the toilet, a blanket under the saddle, and the various _et ceteras_, which in those days constituted the sole comfort of campaigners, were not to be replaced for love nor money on the plains of Talavera. Instead, therefore, of having a chestnut quadruped to carry me on the retreat from Talavera to the frontiers of Portugal, and having the benefit of a cloak and blanket at night in the bivouac, (our tent was thrown away, by the by, in consequence of death, by starvation and fatigue, of my baggage mule) I had the felicity to tramp it on foot from the Tagus to the Guadiana, no trifling distance either, and to stretch myself at the foot of a tree every night, with no covering but the sky and a green jacket.

_August 3d._—Before day-break this morning the whole British army was put in motion towards Orapeza. The occasion of our backs being thus turned towards the army of Marshal Victor, which had experienced so signal a defeat on the 28th of July, was this: Sir Arthur Wellesley had received information that Marshal Soult, with a powerful army, had crossed the mountains which divide Leon from Estremadura, and was bearing down, by forced marches, on the rear of the British, with a view of cutting off their communication with Portugal, by the bridges of Almaraz and Arzobispo; thus hemming them up in the narrow valley of the Tagus, and placing them between two fires, viz. Victor in front and himself in their rear. Not a moment was to be lost; and Sir Arthur formed the daring resolution of counter-marching the British army and attacking Soult, in spite of his superior force, whilst General Cuesta, with his thirty-five thousand Spaniards, who had been almost untouched in the battle of the 28th, should remain at Talavera and keep Marshal Victor in check.

In pursuance, therefore, of this plan, such of our sick and wounded as could not be moved were left in hospital at Talavera, the Spanish general having faithfully promised to protect them. A march of twelve hours brought the British army to Orapeza; but, owing to the intense heat of the weather, the want of water, and the scarcity of provisions for many days before, the road was covered with stragglers, who were quite exhausted. Soon after our arrival at Orapeza, the mortifying intelligence reached Sir Arthur, that General Cuesta, instead of remaining at Talavera to observe Victor, had abandoned that town and our hospitals, with the intention of making the best of his way to the left bank of the Tagus. No alternative now remained for the British commander but to cross the Tagus at Arzobispo, and to defend the line of that river, or to fall back towards the southern frontier of Portugal.

About this time Colonel Donkin’s brigade, consisting of the 45th, 88th, and 5th battalion of the 60th (Germans), was placed under General Crawford’s orders, and, with the light brigade, formed a division numbered the 3d. We halted the remainder of the 3d of August at Orapeza, and on the 4th the whole army crossed at the bridge of Arzobispo. Our battalion was attached to the cavalry, and formed the rear-guard.

As neither bread, meat, nor rations of any kind, were to be had, General Crawford ordered that any animals in the shape of cattle, sheep, or pigs, which could be found in the extensive woods in which we halted for the evening, should forthwith be put in requisition for the troops; and never do I remember having seen orders so promptly obeyed. A most furious attack was instantly made on a large herd of pigs, which, most fortunately for us, little dreamt of the fate that awaited them, or, I presume, they would have absconded on our first appearance in the forest. It would be useless to attempt a description of the scene of noise and confusion which ensued. The screeches and cries of those ill-fated swine, as they met their death at the point of the bayonet, the sword, or sergeant’s pike, and the rapidity with which they were cut up into junks, with the hair on, and fried on the lids of camp-kettles, or toasted at the fire on a pointed stick, to allay the cravings of hunger of some thousands of half-famished soldiers, was quite incredible, and, I must add, truly ludicrous. As neither bread, salt, nor vegetables were to be procured, it must be confessed that the repast was a singular one, although it was eaten with the greatest _goût_, and was washed down with some water from a rivulet hard by.

At midnight we resumed our march, the main body of the army proceeding by the road towards Truxillo, and our division taking its route through a mountainous tract of country, with orders to reach the bridge of Almaraz with the least possible delay. After a thirteen hours’ march through a mountainous, barren, unproductive country, affording no provisions of any sort except now and then a large, coarse description of pea, parched to a cinder by the sun, and an occasional God-send of wheat, found in the ungleaned fields near the line of march, we took up our ground for the night in a wild, uncultivated ravine, from which, I am inclined to think, the most enthusiastic admirer of romantic scenery would have made his escape without delay, from the fear of starvation. Our battalion was pushed forward to some woods in the direction of Almaraz. The heat was intense.

6th.—Day-break found us again in the act of scrambling over the mountains, and with pretty nearly the same sort of diet as on the preceding day,—boiled wheat and dried peas, without salt, bread, or meat. Spring water tolerably abundant, as rivulets were found in the numerous ravines. I cannot call to my recollection having ever witnessed a day’s march where so many men left the ranks from fatigue. Many hundreds of the division were left in the mountains to find their way to Almaraz at their leisure, or, rather, as soon as exhausted nature had rallied. The unavoidable scarcity of food will account for all this, in addition to the length and severity of the marches in the hottest part of Europe, and over the most execrable roads.

To reach and to secure the bridge of Almaraz was, however, of such vast importance, that if only fifty men of the division had strength to accomplish it, push on they must. In reality, we were not certain whether on our arrival we should not find Marshal Soult’s army in possession of it; in which case, the situation, not only of our own division but of the whole British army, would have been far from enviable. At the end of fifteen hours’ march we had the satisfaction to find two Spanish battalions encamped near the bridge, one arch of which they had destroyed, and thereby secured themselves and us from any force passing from the opposite bank. Below the bridge is a ford, but it cannot be deemed exactly practicable for infantry, even at the driest season of the year. Two companies of our battalion were immediately sent on picket at the ford, and the remainder bivouacked near at hand, to support the pickets if attacked. Not a Frenchman was at this time visible on the opposite bank.

It will not be denied that the British army had been in a state of jeopardy for a considerable time; nor was the danger entirely removed until it had reached the left bank of the Tagus by the bridge of Arzobispo, and until the passage of Soult’s army, or any strong detachment of it, was rendered impracticable, by the destruction of the bridge of Almaraz, and by the arrival of our division to guard the passage of the river at that point. From the 6th of August to the 20th we were stationed there for that purpose.

The main body of the division encamped near the village of Las Casas del Puerto, in the formidable pass through which runs the road from Badajoz to Madrid, by the bridge of Almaraz. A more extensive and magnificent prospect than that which one looks down on from this pass it is difficult to imagine. Our battalion was kept in advance during our stay in this position, and was encamped in an olive-wood near the village of Ramon Gordo, in readiness to support the two companies which were always on picket near the ford. Every evening at sunset we left the olive-grove, and lay down by our arms on the bank of the river near the pickets, returning to our campground at sunrise.

The time which we passed at this spot, although sufficiently monotonous, was such as one is not likely to forget. To the best of my belief, not one issue of bread was made to the troops during the fortnight; but an exceedingly coarse kind of flour, mixed with bran and chopped straw, and in very small quantities, was distributed by the commissariat. This, moistened with water, and made into a sort of pan-cake, was baked on a camp-kettle lid, and speedily devoured. The only regret was that the quantity was so very small. If any person who belonged to the troops stationed at Almaraz at that period can say that his appetite was satisfied on _any one day of the fourteen spent there_, I can only remark, that he was infinitely more fortunate than his neighbours.

Now and then half-a-dozen antiquated goats, which the commissary contrived to take by surprise in the mountains, found their way into the camp-kettles. A small slice of one of those quadrupeds, without salt, a very limited allowance of bran-cake, and an _unlimited_ quantity of spring-water, constituted our chief food. One day we were so fortunate as to stumble on some bee-hives in the gum cistus, with which the mountains abound; and in a shorter time than I have taken to relate the capture, the honey and the comb were consumed. Wine or spirits money could not procure. Perhaps the want of salt to help us through with the goat’s flesh, was as much felt as any thing. In short, if any corpulent person despairs of reducing his weight by the means usually adopted, I strongly recommend a few weeks’ change of air and scene at Almaraz; taking especial good care to observe the same rules and regulations for diet; and to roast himself throughout the day at the foot of a shadeless olive-tree, in the dog days. If that fails to have the desired effect, I give him up, and can prescribe nothing further.

On the evening of the 12th, a picket of French infantry first appeared on the heights opposite the bridge and ford, between whom and the Spaniards at the bridge some shots were exchanged. The Spaniards, as usual, were the aggressors in this unprofitable and ungentlemanly warfare, of popping at sentries on the advanced posts. During the eight following days after the arrival of the French opposite the ford, which post two hundred of our battalion always held, so far from a single shot being exchanged, our men and the French had the best possible understanding; and it frequently happened that the officers of both parties took off their hats and saluted each other across the river.

During the whole of the war in the Peninsula, the Spaniards could never be made to comprehend the meaning of this system; nor did they ever let slip any opportunity of shooting an unfortunate sentry on his post. Much as such a practice is to be deprecated between the armies of civilised nations, it cannot be denied that the Spanish soldiers had a thousand causes of irritation and of hatred toward their invaders which the British soldier had not.

Before we left Almaraz, the effects of the late harassing marches, bad provisions, the heat of the climate, &c. &c. began to be severely felt, and to shew themselves in fevers, agues, and dysenteries, which placed numbers on the sick-list. Some English newspapers were sent to us from head-quarters of the army at Delatosa, in which were accounts of active preparations going forward for a secret expedition about to leave England. Its probable destination served us to speculate on in our mountain-camp; although not one of our politicians dreamt at the time that so fine and numerous an army was doomed to waste its strength in the pestilential marshes of Walcheren.

At midnight of the 20th, leaving two Spanish battalions at the bridge and ford of Almaraz, our division commenced its march towards the southern frontier of Portugal; and rejoiced we were to turn our backs on this land of starvation. We reached the town of Delatosa the following day, and found several brigades of our army encamped there. We had not long taken up our ground for the bivouac, when the thick brushwood by which we were surrounded, being as dry as touch-paper, was soon in one general blaze, occasioned by the carelessness of the soldiers in kindling fires in the midst of it. This was an occurrence by no means unfrequent, and the baggage, horses, mules, and asses, were often in imminent danger of being roasted.

On the 21st, the whole army, except our division, was in full march towards Truxillo, (the birth-place of Pizarro,) from whence it was to proceed by Merida to Badajoz. The same evening we left Delatosa, and marched until midnight, when we lay down by our arms on the road-side four hours; and at day-break of the 22d, instead of following the track of the army, our march was directed towards Carceres, where we arrived on the 23d. Carceres is a town of considerable size, standing in the midst of an extensive plain, with nothing remarkable either in or about it, except a white monastery, perched on the summit of a desolate-looking detached rock, at no great distance from the town.

The 24th, 25th, and 26th, were spent in a similar manner to the three preceding days, viz. marching during half the night and several hours of the day.

Those who have passed over the line of country from Almaraz to Valencia d’Alcantara, need not be told, that on its parched plains and barren mountains any thing like herbage, in the summer months, is rarely to be met with: it will not, therefore, be wondered at that our baggage-animals died daily by dozens. An issue of corn for them from the commissariat was utterly hopeless. I do not believe that I was more unfortunate in this respect than my neighbours; but I do know that I started from Lisbon with the light brigade on the 3d of July, and by the 26th of August I had only a donkey remaining out of my original stud, which had consisted of two horses, a mule, and the said donkey. Two died of starvation and fatigue, and the other was lost at Talavera, as before related.

If, during the retrograde movement towards Portugal, our quadrupeds had a bad time of it, the troops could boast but little better fare, as any thing like a regular issue of provisions was unknown; nor, until we reached Valencia d’Alcantara, on the 26th, was a loaf of bread to be procured, and there only with much difficulty.

On the 27th and part of the 28th we halted near Valencia d’Alcantara, an ancient walled town; but I do not remember having seen any cannon on the ramparts. From the gardens in the neighbourhood we regaled ourselves with vegetables and mulberries, the first luxury of the kind we had tasted for some weeks.

On the 29th, having marched the greater part of the preceding night, we entered Portugal once more, which is here divided from Spain by a rivulet. One of the most striking objects I ever beheld is the small fortified town of Maravao, a short distance within the Portuguese frontier, perched on the summit of a dark isolated mountain, which frowns over the road at its base. The only approach to it is by an exceedingly narrow zig-zag road, which a handful of men might defend for ever; and, as there is no ground within reach from whence it can be bombarded, I conceive that its reduction would prove an arduous undertaking, unless water and provisions failed the garrison. A march of several miles through a valley finely watered, and abounding with the largest and most luxuriant chestnut-trees, brought us to Castello de Vide, near which we encamped. In this town, the first time for many weeks, we had an opportunity of purchasing bread, rice, chocolate, and capital wine; and it is scarcely necessary to add, that little else went on in camp this day but eating and drinking the good things from which we had so long been estranged. If the whole truth must be told, such good use was made of a certain fluid called “confession wine,” with which the cellars in Castello de Vide abounded, that not a thoroughly sober individual could have been found in the whole division by nine o’clock that night. Having nothing to apprehend in the way of a surprise, not a Frenchman being within several marches of us, the penance which we had done for some weeks on spring water, the most rigid stiff-laced person existing will admit to have been a sufficient apology for our jollification amongst the chestnut groves.

In its narrow and dirty streets, Castello de Vide resembles nine-tenths of the towns of its country. From the castle, or citadel, the eye ranges over a vast tract of sun-burnt country, mountain, and plain. Here we remained about a week, without any occurrence taking place worthy of a place in my journal.

On the 1st of September I considered it a point of duty to keep up the good old custom of waging war against the partridges, and started for the purpose at day-break, with one lazy old Spanish pointer, whose average pace was about three miles an hour. Between red-legged partridges, hares, and quails, the day’s sport was not despicable. On this occasion I was very nearly minus a friend, and the king a good officer; for I made a double shot, killing my partridge, and throwing several grains of shot into my friend’s regimental cap, which, for want of a more sportsmanlike head-dress, he wore on the occasion.

We moved from Castello de Vide on the 7th, and reached Portalegre the same evening, where we halted two days. It is amongst the best towns in Portugal; and we saw some tolerably fair specimens of Portuguese beauty in the convents. There is a fine church or cathedral here also.

General Catline Crawford’s brigade was in Portalegre during our stay in it. These troops had arrived at Lisbon from England or Ireland, shortly after the light brigade, and were on their march to join the army at Talavera, when Marshal Soult crossing the mountains from Leon into Estremadura, obliged them to re-enter Portugal.

The 10th brought us to Aronches, an old walled town, but incapable of much defence. Another blazing hot march on the following day placed our division at its destination in Campo Maior. The whole British army arrived about this period near the Guadiana (which river divides the two countries), and was put into cantonments. Head-quarters with one division of infantry was at Badajoz; our own division at Campo Maior; others at Villa Vicoza, Estremoz, Albuquerque, and different towns and villages near the Guadiana. In the open country in our front, at or near Merida, were our advanced posts of cavalry and horse artillery.