Reminiscences of my military life from 1795 to 1818

CHELTENHAM, MARCH 9, 1 86 1.

We suffered great privations during the retreat, which was seriously commenced on Christmas Day, 1 808 ; and from that time until the battle of Corunna, January i6th, 1809, the enemy kept pretty close to

CHELTENHAM, MARCH 9, 1 86 1.

A day or two before the Battle of Corunna I witnessed a very different sight, and a very painful one too, such as I hope never to see again ; there being no ships provided for the embarkation of horses, an order was given out for them to be destroyed, and it was a cruel sight to witness the destruction of our fine English horses ; many of them were brought to the edge of the rock over- hanging the sea, some shot, and others stabbed, and then thrown down ; of course very many of them reached the bottom alive, and there lay on the sands, poor things, where there were men placed to despatch them, frequently with a hammer ; occasionally I saw a poor animal clinging to. a rock previous to reaching the bottom. I could bear the scene but a short time and then went away; I never witnessed anything more horrible and painful, it was almost

CHELTENHAM, MARCH 9, 1 86 1.

A few hours after we had lost our brave Com- mander the Reserve embarked ; it was about two o'clock in the morning, and a cold morning too in the month of January ; happy enough we were to get on board ship, and, although it was very dark, most of us reached the ships allotted to us. You may well suppose that we were rather hungry after our previous exertions, and fortunately for my party we found on board a fine large camp-kettle of soup, the making of which I myself had superintended, in the garden of the house where we were quartered when the Battle of Corunna commenced ; little expecting, at that time, to have eaten it on board ship. This soup was of course cold and a perfect jelly; it had boiled for hours, and a man of my company, being left behind sick, had taken charge of it and carried it on board with him. The soup was soon demolished, and we then turned into our berths, and had the luxury to sleep without our clothes, and once more to get into a bed, the first time for some weeks. In the morning, soon after daylight, we sailed out of the harbour, glad enough to get out of the country.

CHELTENHAM, MARCH 9, 1 86 1.

We landed at Corunna, but remained on shore only one day, when we proceeded to Lisbon. We were to have marched through the country to join Lord Wellington's army, but, as I suppose that it was considered a hazardous experiment for so small a force as ours to make the attempt, we were ordered to resume our voyage to Lisbon. We had but a short time, not more than twenty-four hours, to stretch our legs on shore ; and we were very- sorry to go on board again, as we should have pre- ferred a march through the country.- We were also disappointed at our stay here being so short, as we should have much liked to have gone over the ground where the Battle of Corunna was fought in . January, 1809. We visited, however, the tomb of

CHELTENHAM, MARCH 9, 1 86 1.

After we left Pesquira we were frequently en- camped previous to the battle of Vittoria, which took place the 21st June, 18 13. Some time before the action took place I was sent to a town called Meda, at which time my regiment was at Almendra, about twelve miles off. I was sent to Meda to take charge of the hospital there, where there was a great number of sick, belonging chiefly to 'regiments that had been in the country two or three years. Meda was situated in an open rocky plain, hardly a tree to be seen, except in the gardens of private houses ; the house in which I had my billet was the best one in the place ; my padrone being the head man there I had therefore good quarters, and being the commandant at Meda I had the advantage of a snug berth. There was an excellent garden to the house, and the fruit trees were still in blossom when I left it. There was one very large tree — a cherry tree, I think — which had a most beautiful appear- ance, like one entire blossom, something resembling

CHELTENHAM, MARCH 9, 1 86 1.

Until the Battle of Vittoria (21st June, 181 3) we were sometimes on the march, at other times encamped, occasionally in bivouac or in quarters, but more frequently on the move, expecting every now and then to meet the enemy ; at last came the battle of Vittoria. I recollect being on horseback that day (21st June, 18 13) from about five in the morning until nine at night, with the exception of occasionally dismounting for a short time ; and, as we had neither forage for our horses nor food for ourselves, until the battle was over, we were glad when the enemy retreated, for it was a hard day's work, and I think we all earned our day's pay. It was a brilliant action, lasting from 9 a.m. until dark; but the old XX had only a few men put hors de combat to-day — three killed and three wounded. It is impossible to be always in the thick of it, and we had plenty to do and to contend with in many other hard-fought engagements.

CHELTENHAM, MARCH 9, 1 86 1.

I recollect, during the Battle of Vittoria, seeing Colonel The Hon. H. Cadogan, of the 71st Regi- ment, lying dangerously wounded, attended by two or three of his corps ; he was, I believe, an excellent officer, and much respected in his regiment; he died of his wounds, greatly lamented.

CHELTENHAM, MARCH 9, 1 86 1.

they retreated some way before they again made any stand against us, and our brigade had not much to do, in the fighting way, until July; we had a good deal of marching and bivouacking, but no serious engagement, only now and then a little skirmishing. On the nth of this month we had been forty-seven days on the march, including a general action, but I was none the worse for our fatigues. We had marched at least 500 miles, pursuing the enemy many days after the battle of Vittoria. We had terribly cold and wet weather at this time, which was very trying. One day when encamped at Aybar, near the Pyrenees, we had such rain that it beat through our tents, and some officers had their baggage floating about.