Chapter XVI

The campaign of 1813 opens. The 2d and Light Divisions march on
Salamanca. Sir Thomas Graham, with the six other divisions, crosses
the Douro. He advances to the Esla and crosses it. The Light
Division encamps at San Munos. Contrast between our situation then
with that of the 17th of November, 1812, on the same spot. We reach
the Tormes. The French retire from Salamanca, and are pursued
towards the Douro. They suffer from our horse artillery and cavalry.
The Light Division crosses the Douro at Toro. Brilliant affair of
cavalry, wherein the Hussar brigade distinguishes itself. We follow
the French to Palencia, and from thence to Burgos. The French blow
up the castle of Burgos, and retreat behind the Ebro. We pass the
Ebro at Puente Arena. Magnificent scenery. Appearance of the troops
descending the pass. Language, dress, and appearance of the people
northward of the Ebro. Beautiful scenery at every step. The Light
Division surprises a French division near St. Millan. The French
army assembles near Vittoria. Sale by auction in the camp of the
Light Division. Ladies’ dresses, &c. &c.

On the 21st of May the Light Division broke up from its winter quarters, crossed the Agueda by the ford of Moulina dos Flores, and encamped near San Felices Chico. Salamanca was the point on which our march was to be directed. Our old friends, the 1st German Hussars, and the 14th Light Dragoons, accompanied us, as did also the brigade consisting of the Life Guards and Blues. Lord Wellington and head-quarters moved with us. Sir Rowland Hill’s corps advanced on Salamanca, by a road parallel on our right. The 1st, 3d, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th Divisions of infantry, with the remainder of the cavalry, under the command of Sir Thomas Graham, crossed the Douro somewhere near (I think) Torre de Moncorvo, a day or two before the 2d and Light Divisions moved towards Salamanca. The passage of the Lower Douro was thus effected without difficulty or opposition; and whilst Sir Thomas Graham was advancing towards the Esla, the 2d and Light Divisions, with the cavalry regiments already mentioned, marched on Salamanca.

On the 23d our column encamped, after a tolerably long march, on the left bank of the Huebra, near San Munos; and we found ourselves on the identical spot where we had passed so dreary and miserable a night on the previous 17th of November. What a contrast did our situation now offer! When last there, we had bivouacked without fires, in a deluge of rain and sleet, without provisions for man or horse—cold, wet, half-famished, and nearly in rags. Now, on the contrary, the weather, the country, and every face, looked smiling and gay. A beautiful May morning, the valley abounding with grass for our animals, plenty of provisions in our canteens, the horses and mules quite renovated by rest, men and officers refitted in all the requisites for this their sixth campaign, and having the cheering prospect before them of driving the imperial legions nearer to their own country. We halted on the 24th on the same ground; and having nothing better to do, I went with my subalterns to the Huebra, in which we caught a number of dace, which soon found their way into the frying-pan.

On the 26th we reached the Tormes; and the advanced party of the French cavalry retired to Salamanca on our approach. The French garrison in Salamanca fell back towards Toro, and were followed some miles by the 1st German Hussars and the 14th Light Dragoons, with a troop of horse artillery, which cannonaded their squares and caused them some loss. We crossed the Tormes on the 28th, and encamped near Aldea Nueva de Figuiron, where Lord Wellington left us, under Sir Rowland Hill’s command, and set off to join Sir Thomas Graham on the right bank of the Douro. Here we remained encamped until the 2d of June, when we advanced on Toro, where the enemy had destroyed some arches of the bridge over the Douro.

On the following day the Light Division crossed, after a tedious process, on planks, and by a small flying-bridge hastily constructed. Sir Thomas Graham had passed the Esla without any serious loss or opposition, and advanced on Toro, whilst the 2d and Light Divisions menaced it from the opposite bank. Those combined operations obliged Marshal Jourdan to abandon the line of the Douro almost without a shot, although it had been fortified with great labour. The French army retired in the direction of Palencia, leaving near Toro a strong rear-guard of cavalry, which was attacked with great spirit and gallantry by the newly arrived Hussar brigade, and defeated, with the loss of 200 prisoners, and many killed and wounded. This brilliant affair reflected the highest credit on the Hussar brigade.

Joseph Bonaparte had evacuated Madrid, and having formed a junction with Jourdan, their united forces were marching on Palencia, with the allies in their track. Various were the speculations and calculations as to the time and place where Joseph Bonaparte would offer us battle.

Passing over a sun-burnt, parched, brown, uninteresting country, affording scarcely any wood or water, and still less provisions, with a terrific sun over our heads, we reached, in four days from Toro, Palencia, where the greater part of the army assembled.

Near a small town called Ampudia, we saw immense heaps of a kind of crystal from which the Spaniards make lime. In England it is called _talc_. Its appearance is very beautiful, much resembling thin, yellow glass.

Joseph Bonaparte had reviewed a part of the French army near Palencia the day before we arrived, and then directed it to march on Burgos. Palencia is an ancient city, standing on the left bank of the Carrion, in a well-cultivated valley; and it has a canal which communicates, I fancy, with the Ebro. So many thousand troops were encamped near the city, that a great scramble was made to purchase provisions at any price.

On the 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th, we continued marching over an open, uninteresting country, totally destitute of wood. The water which it afforded was often brackish. Heavy rains fell during the greater part of the time.

On the 12th, the Hussar brigade, General Ponsonby’s Heavy Dragoon brigade, and the Light Division, having found the French in force near the villages of Isar and Ornelio, were directed to halt on the heights above, until a movement, made by General Victor Alten’s light cavalry and Sir Rowland Hill’s corps, obliged the enemy to abandon their position, and to retire towards Burgos. In this movement their squares of infantry received some damage from the fire of our horse artillery. Sir Rowland Hill’s corps and the Light Division had prepared matters to attack the French infantry, but having the start of us by a mile or more, it was impossible to overtake them in their retreat to the river Urbel.

Soon after daybreak on the 13th, a heavy explosion was heard in our front, which was occasioned by the castle of Burgos being destroyed by mines. Marshal Jourdan was now in full retreat towards the Ebro, taking the great road by Miranda. The Light Division and some cavalry immediately marched towards the Ebro, by the road to Puente Arena, encamping that night near Tovar, and on the 14th near Quintana Juan; the country over which we passed affording but little to cheer the heart of man or beast. Sir Thomas Graham, with the 1st and 5th Divisions, and a corps of Spaniards, had been detached to the left, with directions to cross the Ebro near its source at Reynosa. Thus that line of defence, if Marshal Jourdan ever projected it, was, by a series of rapid and masterly movements, turned and rendered untenable; and the left wing of our army was actually across it as soon as, if not before, the French.

The 4th and Light Divisions, with the Hussar brigade and General Ponsonby’s dragoons, marched on the 15th; and after traversing some leagues of the same uninteresting kind of country over which we had been moving for the last fortnight, a scene suddenly burst on our view, when we reached the head of a pass leading down to the Ebro, which it is impossible to forget as long as the powers of recollection remain. I have since passed the Alps and Appennines, and travelled over many parts of Switzerland; but nothing have I seen comparable to this magical and lovely spot, according to my own ideas of beauty.

From the Tormes to the Ebro our route had lain over one of the most monotonous and uninteresting countries I ever beheld,—without wood, feature, verdure, streams of water, picturesque villages, or any one recommendation whatever to the admirer of fine scenery. Scarcely any thing could be purchased, as we drew near the Ebro, to help out the homely fare of ship-biscuit, rum, and lean ration beef, which was alive and merry in the morning, and consumed before night. What, then, was our excessive delight on suddenly and unexpectedly beholding an extensive valley at our feet, through which flowed the rapid Ebro; and that valley, as well as the country for miles beyond, teeming with fresh woods, fruit-trees, beautiful villages, gardens, and every thing which could delight the sight! For hundreds of miles before, the eyes had dwelt constantly on rocks, brown stubble, and more frequently on uncultivated wilds, where a hare would have been put to its shifts to find sustenance, or a jack-snipe to procure one day’s rations. The lofty mountains which overhang the Ebro near the Puente Arena are clothed to the summit with the most luxuriant woods of oak, beech, and birch. Here, also, the box-tree grows to an incredible size. Great numbers of young eagles and vultures were sitting on the ledges of the precipices, whilst the old birds soared far above them.

In this valley we encamped on the night of the 15th, and procured fresh bread, fruit, and vegetables,—luxuries of which we had known but little for many weeks. Our horses were, no doubt, equally rejoiced at the change of diet, from thistles and stubble, to fine fresh grass. The appearance of the allied army descending this pass—cavalry, infantry, and artillery, British, Hanoverians, and Portuguese, in red, blue, green, and brown—requires a pen much more able than my humble one to describe.

Proceeding on the 16th, by a mountainous road, along the right bank of the Ebro, for about a league, we suddenly turned our backs on the river, and saw its waters no more. We encamped in a beautiful valley near Medino del Pomo, where there was a large convent, but whose inmates we had not a sight of.

Why Marshal Jourdan did not attempt to stop us in the passage of the Ebro, at Puente Arena, it is not my business to inquire; nor why he did not leave a small party of cavalry to observe us at that point. The language, dress, and appearance of the inhabitants on the north of the Ebro are very dissimilar to those of Castile and Leon.

On the 17th, the Light Division was sent, by a difficult mountainous route, impracticable for artillery, through a continuation of the most bewitching scenery in the universe,—the valleys watered by the clearest streams, and producing abundance of wheat and Indian corn, and the mountains covered with the finest timber. We encamped near Rio de Loza.

AFFAIR NEAR ST. MILLAN.

The next morning, our battalion and a squadron of the 1st German Hussars were ordered to form the advanced guard of the Light Division; and as we were feeling our way through an intricate, thickly wooded country, we stumbled on a party of French Hussars, in front of the village of San Millan, with whom our German friends instantly had a brush, and took some prisoners. I know not where Lord Wellington’s head-quarters had been the night before, nor from whence he came; but in an instant he appeared on the spot, and directed the 1st and 3d battalions of our corps, supported by the remainder of General Kempt’s brigade, to attack a brigade of French infantry, which we had pretty nearly caught napping in San Millan. We engaged them briskly in front, whilst some of our companies assailed both their flanks simultaneously. This drove them in confusion from the village, with the loss of some baggage. On a rising ground behind it they formed a battalion in line, to cover the retreat of the remainder. A few minutes, however, sufficed to disperse it, and we pursued them closely for some miles, killing and wounding many, and making some prisoners. We lost many men in this affair, but fewer than the French.

Whilst General Kempt’s brigade was thus employed, the second brigade of the Light Division, commanded by General Vandeleur, to our great surprise was heard engaged in our rear with another French brigade. General Vandeleur took all their baggage and some hundred prisoners, dispersing the remainder, and driving them into the mountains, whither a corps of Spaniards, who well knew the intricate country, were sent in pursuit, and, without doubt, shewed most tender mercy to such of the unfortunate fugitives as fell into their hands. The rapidity of Lord Wellington’s movements had been such, that this French division, which we surprised at mid-day, were not even aware of the allied army having crossed the Ebro; so at least many of the prisoners declared.

The 4th Division, which marched by a road parallel on our left, had a brush with the French light troops, who were retiring towards a position near Vittoria.

We halted on the 20th to allow other divisions to close up from the rear. From the summit of a mountain near our camp we had a splendid view of the country about Vittoria, where Joseph Bonaparte and Marshal Jourdan were assembling their forces. The horses, mules, and baggage, which had been captured from the enemy by the Light Division on the 18th, General Alten directed to be sold by auction in the camp this day, and the money produced by the sale to be divided amongst the troops, before any more heads were broken by a collision with our French neighbours. Portmanteaus and trunks were consequently forced open, and various articles exposed for sale; amongst others, a large assortment of female dresses. Silks, satins, muslins, cambrics, gauzes, lace, flounces, bobbinets, tabbinets, poplins, and all sorts of finery, were put up to the hammer, and sold, _without reserve_, to the highest bidder. That a universal feeling of regret for the fair females who had thus lost their wardrobes pervaded all minds, I am ready to declare; but as there was no remedy for their misfortunes, abundance of purchasers were found.