The American Sharpe Page 4
18th – 25th Everything went on as well as could be expected until the 25th on which day our batteries opened on the town. The weather was very bad and the duty pretty frequent, it came to my turn to be on duty on an average twice in five days. Colonel Beckwith (who at the time we marched from Elvas was not able to come with us from illness) came in the same evening and was carried off again (the next day in a car so that the command of the division devolved on Lt Colonel Barnard,21 Major O’Hare22 also who at the time we marched from Escusa was very ill and followed us slowly joined on the 19th. The officer’s got tents the 2nd day, the men some days after. On the 19th the enemy made a sortie in the morning but were repulsed with loss. On the night of the 19th Freer23 of ours who was on duty in the trenches was wounded. On the 25th our batteries opened on the town at about 11 o’clock in the morning, the same night the outwork called Fort Picurina was stormed. It was carried but with some loss. I was on duty in the trenches the next day and went into the fort, it is wonderfully strong.
26th – 30th Blank
31st The 5th Division which arrived soon after the commencement of the siege and was posted on the other side of the river was about this time ordered to the front. The 48th, Richard Ellwood’s24 regiment arrived during the siege.
April
1st – 3rd Blank
4th The town is ordered to be stormed tomorrow.
5th The following are the heads of the orders relative to the storming of Badajoz which is ordered to take place at 9 o’clock tonight. The Light Division will storm the breach in the flank of the bastion of Santa Maria. The 4th Division will storm the breach in the face of the bastion of La Caridad. The 3rd Division will escalade at the castle. The 5th Division (which had been sent to the front but had returned) will extend down to the waterside and attract the attention of the garrison by firing. About 5 o’clock in the afternoon the order for storming was countermanded and the usual parties for the trench duty were warned.
The storming of Badajoz was set for the night of 6 April, the 3rd Division would attempt to escalade the castle walls, the 5th Division would cause a diversion near the Olivenca gate and the 4th and Light Divisions would storm the main breach. The breach, defended with mines and topped with wooden beams encircled with razor sharp sword blades sticking out in all directions known as chevaux de frise proved impassable. For five hours the divisions sought to break through without the slightest glimmer of success. ‘Individual officers, forming up 50 or a 100 men at a time at the foot of the breach, and endeavouring to carry it by desperate bravery; and fatal as it proved to each gallant band in succession, as fast as one dissolved, another was formed,’ wrote Johnny Kincaid.25
The castle being taken, the French ceased defending the breach and the town was taken and turned over to a disgraceful night of rape and pillage. The 1st Battalion 95th lost three officers, three sergeants and twenty-four men killed, with a further nine officers, fifteen sergeants and 139 men wounded, including our James, who was hit three times early in the storm, none of which was serious. Being evacuated, he escaped the dangers of lying at the foot of the breach for hours, where many wounded succumbed to further grenade attacks and the incessant musket fire.
6th Our company was sent to relieve a company of the 52nd on picket near the river at about 12 o’clock, this day. At about 6 o’clock we were ordered to come in and join the regiment at dark as the town is to be stormed tonight. A third breach has been made since yesterday. At about 8 o’clock we paraded in rear of the 52nd and our regiment was directed to put itself under the orders of Lt Colonel Elder26 who was to command the reserve and who had orders to remain in some quarries till further orders, he however neglected those orders and followed the column to the breach and brought his reserve into action with the main column.
The defence of the garrison is universally allowed to have been very good. I received three wounds early in the attack, viz one in the right leg very slight, one in the left arm and one in the chin and after lying on the ground was at last helped off by a sergeant of our company and with the assistance of some of the 52nd band who were coming with bearers carried to the hospital tent where my wounds were dressed and I was then put into a tent for the reception of wounded officers27. The firing continued for a long time after I was carried off, at last as I have since understood the 3rd Division having got into the castle, the enemy deserted the breaches and ours and the 4th Division got in without further opposition.
7th I remained in the tent until the afternoon when I was removed to our camp ground.
Chapter 5
Recovery
James was forced to remain at various hospital stations whilst he recovered from his wounds. During the time he languished in these dull towns, the army returned north to drive the French forces under Marshal Marmont away, which had made an incursion into Portugal whilst the army was occupied with the siege of Badajoz. To help the regiments recruit their strength, each battalion was authorised to incorporate fifty Spaniards but in the first month the First Battalion only managed to enlist eight men.
8th An hospital for the wounded being established in Badajoz I was removed there this afternoon and got into a very good house. Fitzmaurice1 who is wounded in the leg is also in the house, Johnston2 who is wounded in the arm has another house but comes here to meals.
9th Johnston finding it very inconvenient to come here to meals and go home again, came here this day to live in the house altogether.
10th – 14th We remained here until the 15th doing very well. There were 12 nuns in the house who came daily to see us, they were however almost all of them ancient. The army commenced moving northward on the 10th on which day our division marched to Campo Maior.
The wounded were transported to hospitals at Elvas.
15th We were removed in a spring wagon to Elvas, got into a pretty good house.
16th April – 17th May. We remained here all this time doing very well. 2 or 3 days after my removal to this place I was able to walk about a little and after that I gained strength every day and gradually extended my walk. I went two or three times up to the Fort La Lippe which is a most beautiful fortification.3 It is reckoned the most perfect fortification (I have heard) in Europe and is I believe impregnable except by mining. To breach it is impossible for example being situated on the top of a high mountain, the walls are not visible except either at a great distance from it or close to it within a few yards of it. The shape of the work is like that of most forts viz four bastions & four curtains, it has besides outworks of various kinds and is a complete masterpiece of fortification. Fort La Lippe is situated on the left of Elvas as you look towards Badajoz, there is another fort on the right of the town called Fort Santa Lucia, it like Fort La Lippe consists of four bastions and four curtains. Its situation is not so commanding, nor has it the same outworks, it is however very strong. The town of Elvas itself is a very fine fortification.
The south side of the town (or what I before called the right of the town as you look towards Badajoz) is the part most accessible with respect to the nature of the ground. But on this side is Fort Santa Lucia, a strong work which could not be taken without a regular approach and which must be taken before the town could be approached on the south side and there were small outworks building beyond Fort Santa Lucia at the time I was at Elvas. On the north side the ground is so steep and perpendicular that it would be impossible to breach these; besides that any breach dug there would be raked by the guns of La Lippe. On the east side there are stony outworks, besides the ground is fully commanded by La Lippe and partly by Santa Lucia. On the west side the ground is steep and unfavourable to an approach, the works of the town itself are very stony and defended by many outworks within the ditch. Elvas is situated on the side of a hill, on the highest part is a sort of castle or rather battery whose guns command all the lower part of the town.
Elvas at the time I was there was garrisoned by Portuguese Militia, the governor was a Portuguese Marshal named Victoria4. There is a telegra
phic communication between the town & La Lippe as there also might be with Santa Lucia. On the west side of the town there is an aqueduct which extends a great way into the country, is built of stone and plastered.
I also rode one day to Badajoz which is 3 leagues from Elvas. The breaches were repairing very fast, it appeared to be a very nice town and very well supplied.
The Army of Portugal under Marmont during the siege of Badajoz taking advantage of the absence of the British from the north, entered Portugal, laying waste the country and sent parties as far down as Castelo Branco & Vila Velha, the besieging army however proceeding northward after the capture of Badajoz compelled them to retire. By letters received from the division while we’re here, we learn that the army are cantoned. Our regiment is at Ituero [de Azaba] the rest of the division in those villages on the frontier of Spain.
18th There being an order that all the sick and wounded should remove to Estremoz as soon as sufficiently well to go. Johnston, Fitzmaurice and myself set off this day, but thinking it too far to be able to travel in one day in the state we were, we determined to make two stages of it and went this day to Borba a very nice village two leagues from Estremoz and three from Elvas. Johnston & myself rode, Fitzmaurice went in a spring wagon. The country through which we passed was very beautiful. This place is renowned and I think very justly for good wine & pretty women.
19th Went on to Estremoz this day, good into indifferent quarters.
20th There is a medical board sited here, 3 times in each month, this being one of the days, we appeared before it. Johnston and Fitzmaurice got 2 months leave to England. I got 3 weeks leave to this place.
21st May – 5th June. I remained all the time here doing very well with respect to my injuries, but very bad off for money. When Johnston & Fitzmaurice went away, which was I believe on the 23rd I messed with Worsley5, he went off to join the regiment on the 28th, I lived the rest of the time by myself. Estremoz is a nice town, very clean for a Portuguese town and I should think admirably adapted for an hospital station as there are many very large convents and large airy squares. It has formerly been a fortified town, it has on the highest part of it a castle or rather citadel and there are the remains of two small forts outside the walls of the town. The walls are however now going to decay, they are broken down in many places, there is nevertheless a guard of militia at every gate as if it were a regular garrison. The country about Estremoz is remarkably beautiful, towards the south on a ridge of romantic looking mountains on the top of one of which is situated Evora Monte. Towards the west as far as the eye can reach is a level plain, highly cultivated with all kinds of corn particularly bearded wheat, the other points are equally beautiful & thickly wooded with olives, with which the province of Alentejo abounds. The women of this place have a peculiar way of dressing, they have a sort of black silk cloak fastened to the waist and brought over the head and shoulders like a hood, almost all the women of this place dress in black.
Only a few letters from James survive from the Peninsular, but given that he rarely mentions having corresponded it is likely that he wrote only infrequently. Here he begins a correspondence with his cousin Laura, who was Edwin Gairdner’s eldest child.
Elvas, 25 April 1812
To Miss Gairdner
Albermarle Row, Clifton, England
My dear Laura,
My aunt writes that you are to become my correspondent during her illness but there is no reason why either my letters or your answers should be confined to that period, and as you have more leisure time and more convenience for writing than I have (except during my confinement while away from the regiment on account of these wounds) I shall expect to hear pretty regularly from you. I have very good quarters and am very comfortable, having been wounded on the evening of the 6th of this month in the storming of Badajoz where our regiment and indeed every regiment involved suffered exceedingly, I was the 2nd day after, viz the 8th, taken into Badajoz where I and two other wounded officers got into a very good house and were pretty comfortable. There were 12 nuns living in this house, some of them Spaniards, and some Portuguese, who were very attentive to us, they came up to see us every day and told us all the news. Their convent had been taken from them and turned into a hospital for the wounded soldiers. After staying there for a week we were removed to this place and a few days ago I was allowed to get up and walk about a little which I now do every day. I was heartily tired of being confined to my bed, but now that I can walk about I can wait patiently until I am perfectly recovered. I was wounded in the face, the left arm, and very slightly in the right leg, which last is now so far recovered that I have the use of it as well as ever. There is no news here, the army are marching to the north to try to catch the French, who of course have very good intelligence of their motions and will take good care to be off in very good time.
You must when you write tell me everything that is going on at home in England, for everything is interesting to a person that is in a foreign country. You must let me know everything as well concerning yourselves or concerning all our friends both in England and Scotland. I understand that Ebenezer6 Gairdner with his wife and children are at Clifton, of course you see them very often, remember them particularly to me. I did not see Mrs Gairdner when I was in London last, she was then at some place a little way out of town, and I had fixed with Eben[ezer] upon a day to go out to see them, but was too late for the coach, we fixed upon another day but before then I left town for Portsmouth. Their son ought to be a fine boy by this time, I suppose he can walk and talk quite well now. The other if I recollect right is a daughter. You were one of the party in the journey to Scotland, how did you like Wooden, and the Scotch people in general? I am very happy to hear that you are getting on so well in the musical way. I hear that the old maid and Mrs Mallet are making wondrous progress, in a short time you will be able to perform anything amongst you, duets, trios, concerlantas, in fact nothing will be too grand for you. You ought to invite Gordon7 and then you will be complete, but I dare say he would prefer any other amusement just now to hammering at a flute gamut. I suppose you had plenty of reel dancing when you were in Scotland; I recollect one evening when I was there when they were dancing reels as usual just before supper, my grandmother prevailed upon me to stand up for one reel, and I will be bound to say that nobody present nor indeed anybody in Scotland ever saw a reel danced in that manner in all their lives before. It was Rebecca of Mellendean8 who asked me first to dance and I will be bound she repented it, for after jostling her, treading on the other lady’s toes, and I believe almost knocking the gentlemen over I thought it high time to give up, and sat down after having performed a reel to the astonishment of everybody. I had not certainly been under the skilful hands of our friend Mr Denzies whose well known talents I hope I should not now disgrace by such an awkward exhibition. We have sometimes when we are quiet for any time in a town or village, dances, the Portuguese, but particularly the Spanish girls are very fond of dancing and dance very well. I think you told me before that you have nothing of the kind at Clifton. I had a letter from my Aunt Gordon on the 17th February, she says in that, that our Aunt Moodie is still in Scotland in very indifferent health. I hope by this time that she is well. I also hear that your brother in law Mr Mallet has been very unwell, how comes it that his wife remains at Clifton during his illness as if quite unconcerned about his welfare?
This part of Portugal is very fertile and is the best part of the country for fruits, vegetables and corn of every kind, but it is not so beautiful as the north, nor is it reckoned so healthy, but I believe there is little difference in that respect, however I would prefer spending the summer in the north, because it is much cooler.
You must remember me particularly to all friends. Is Mrs Bell with you now? If so remember me to her, if not remember me when you write. Remember me also to Emily, Jane9 and Gordon and believe me my dear Laura, yours affectionately James P. Gairdner.
I expect to hear from you very soon and very often.
6th Having got a bill on England cashed, I bought a black pony from Manners10 for 40 dollars to carry my baggage, my baggage as having been stolen the 2nd day after I came here and Leach and myself set off this day to join the regiment, we went this day to Fronteira 4 leagues, a very good town in which we got a good billet. Leach11 has one of the Spanish Bulldogs who killed a leveret today. I met with a curious instance of the ignorance of the Portuguese peasantry today. When we were about 2 miles on our road we asked a peasant how many leagues it was to Fronteira, he told us one, about a league further on, on asking another, he said it was two leagues, about a league further another said it was three leagues off, and when we were within an English mile of it, another fellow told us we were four leagues from it.
7th We went on this day to Alter do Chao 3 leagues, it is an hospital station.
8th Through Crato and Flora de Rosa [&] Alpalhao.
9th To Nisa 3 leagues.
10th To Vila Velha [de Rodao] 3 leagues.
11th Halted all this day in Vila Velha, a miserable little village. Bathed in the Tagus today. The view from Vila Velha is very extensive, but the most cheerless uncultivated looking country I ever saw. The weather is now remarkably hot.
12th To Castelo Branco 5 leagues through a miserable country covered with gum cistus.
13th Halted all day. Castelo Branco is a dirty uncomfortable town. Felt the heat very oppressive here. We heard here that the army had broken up from its cantonments and were marching on Salamanca.