William Henry Cope

“ But during the last fifteen miles of the march the officers and men were very weary and footsore, and as they were overcome with drowsiness from fatigue and want of sleep, the scene was somewhat ludicrous; the men now and then lurching from side to side till brought up by their neighbour’s shoulder, or missing that prop, occasionally falling forward in the road. The band, however, were wakeful enough to play for the last quarter of a mile, and the inspiriting strains of ‘Ninety-five’ carried them cheerfully into camp, which was pitched close to General Wheeler’s intrenchment. ”

“ The 1st and 3rd Battalions having returned from their pursuit, the Regiment encamped on the Jumillo, between San Millan and Villa Nueva.
On the 19th they proceeded by the same road by which their opponents on the preceding day had fled; and halted at the village of Salinas. The day was hot; the march ascending the hill fatiguing; and the clear sparkling rills at Salinas were eagerly resorted to. Every man dipped his mess-tin; every man, when he had tasted it, made a wry face. The water was salt. The earth all around is strongly impregnated with saline matter. ”

“ The 3rd Battalion marched from Nawabgunge on the 21st at three in the morning, and proceeded to Chinhut, where they encamped. Here they had left their sick on the 12th, and it appeared that a fearful panic had occurred on the next day. For some irregular cavalry and camp followers had fled from the field while the battle was raging, and, passing through Chinhut to Lucknow, had spread a report that we had been cut up, and that the enemy were advancing. Some of the sick, terrified by this intelligence, left their beds or their doolies, and madly rushed about with scarce any clothing in the sun. ”

“ During the execution of this movement the enemy’s cavalry pressed forward so rapidly and in such large masses that they compelled the 15th Hussars, who were in rear of the two companies, to retreat at full gallop. And Sir John Moore and his Staff also dashed past. The Riflemen, having opened to let them pass, immediately faced about, and forming across the whole breadth of the street of the village which they had now entered, poured on the enemy’s cavalry such a rapid and well-aimed fire that many saddles were emptied and the pursuit instantly checked. ”

“ The remainder of these sat down on the ground and fired at the enemy. Yet Fremantle could neither induce them to face the hill and attack the rebels, nor yet to clear off to the flank, and allow the guns and the Riflemen to act. At last he succeeded in getting them off to a flank; and then the guns opening with grape, and the Riflemen pouring in a steady fire, the flashes from the bushes and the hill in front soon ceased. Advancing up the hill, they found the camp of the rebels, their fires burning, and their bedding and grass for their horses unmoved; but not a man was there. ”

“ At this moment Barnard, with great promptitude, led his Battalion to the left, between the French cavalry and the river, and took the light troops and artillerymen in flank with such a severe fire, that he drove them off and enabled the 3rd Division to cross the river without opposition or loss. But the English gunners, who from the opposite bank were replying to the fire of the French battery, not distinguishing the dark dress of our men, who were in close contest with the enemy’s skirmishers, continued to pound them, and several men thus fell by the fire of our own guns. ”

“ It was now determined to evacuate Madrid and to retreat on Salamanca, as Soult’s army was approaching in force. On the 31st, therefore, they left the neighbourhood of Madrid to the great regret of its inhabitants; the men showing by gloomy sullenness, and the women by contemptuous sneers, their opinion of our leaving them to the tender mercies of the French. The regret was shared by officers and men of the Regiment, to whom the sojourn in the capital was long one of the most pleasing recollections of their Peninsular service. ”

“ Many of the men lost their shoes in the sticky slime of the roads, and had to march barefoot. The French cavalry hovered close behind the Regiment, but did not attack; and after dark the Riflemen bivouacked, again glad that in a wood they had at least acorns to assuage their hunger.
On the 17th they fell in before dawn. The rain still fell in torrents. Early in the day the French cavalry pressed the rear-guard, and the 1st Battalion took possession of some high and broken ground on each side of the road, and one or two companies were thrown out as skirmishers to check their advance. ”

“ Both Leach and Kincaid state that not a man of the Regiment (nor, as they believe, of the Division) was left behind, except those too badly wounded at San Munoz, or too utterly exhausted and moribund from hunger or fatigue, to be brought over the Huebra. Had the great Commander, like Moore, exempted from censure those who deserved praise, he would not have wounded the feelings and the esprit de corps of men who had so bravely fought and suffered, and were yet to fight and suffer, under his eye and at his side. ”

“ When it was getting late the Rifle Battalions, who were still in pursuit of the enemy, now completely routed, were ordered to halt, and got into some houses about five o’clock. The night was extremely cold, and the men had nothing but their usual clothing to cover them, not even their great-coats. The 3rd Battalion suffered from hunger too, as well as cold, being long without food. At last a lean cow was discovered, and immediately killed and cut up; and the men, roasting the tough morsels on the points of their swords, ate them half-raw. ”

“ So proceeding in the dark as best they could, they happily fell in with Sir Hugh Rose about daybreak. They made a long circuit to the left, and on arriving at a well which a cavalry picquet had just deserted, the rebels opened on them from two guns with a brisk fire of shot and shell; aiming well, but not hitting any of them. These guns were so well concealed in a ravine that our artillery could not touch them. They then dismounted and covered the advance, Captain Nixon’s company forming the reserve. They kept on advancing and returning the enemy’s fire for some time. ”

“ Your Queen and country now call upon you to uphold her honour in Southern Africa, against hordes of savages; and I feel quite sure that the Battalion will sustain the undying fame that it gained in the Peninsula and at Waterloo, and add more laurels to its wreath. Riflemen, old 95th, I bid you good bye with my heartfelt and best wishes for you all.’
Lord Seaton also issued a farewell order, highly commending the state of their discipline and general good conduct, and expressing his regret at their removal from his command, and his wishes for their future welfare. ”

“ Nothing could exceed the manner in which the ninety-fifth set about this business. Certainly I never saw such skirmishers as the ninety-fifth, now the Rifle Brigade. They could do the work much better and with infinitely less loss than any other of our best light troops. They possessed an individual boldness, a mutual understanding, and a quickness of eye in taking advantage of the ground, which, taken altogether, I never saw equalled. They were in fact as much superior to the French Voltigeurs as the latter were to our skirmishers in general. ”

“ If any man can recover, I know that I shall.’ While he lay here, as at Barrosa, the enemy seeing they had brought down an officer of rank plied their fire on him and those who surrounded him. He was at once carried by four soldiers into a farm-house, whence three days after he was borne by his band of the 1st Battalion through the pass to the town of Vera, where he slowly recovered. ”

“ No one who knew the gallant Sir Edward Paget will believe that he bribed a soldier to slay a chivalrous and brave enemy; of whom Napier writes, ‘his fine martial figure, his voice, his gestures, and, above all, his great valour, had excited the admiration of the British, and a general feeling of sorrow was predominant when the gallant soldier fell.’ It is quite possible that, as Costello says, General Paget flung his purse (or some of its contents) to Tom Plunket, in admiration of two such unerring shots in the midst of a hot fight. ”

“ The men, oppressed by the heat, and suffocated by the clouds of dust which arose from the sandy plain, were tormented with thirst. But there was no time to halt, nor water at hand to quench it. At last, arriving at the edge of this table-land, they looked [117] down into the vale of the Guareña, and the Riflemen hurried their pace to reach the water. The French instantly unlimbered their guns on the height above and sent some round shot among them. But our men drank of the muddy stream as they passed through it, and suffered little from the cannonade ”

“ Wood for firing could scarcely be found; provisions ran short, and when they were issued, consisted only of tough ration beef and hard biscuit. But now they were descending into a fruitful valley, teeming with everything which could supply their wants. The spirits of the men were elated, and coming to the village of Puente Arenas, they crossed its long stone bridge, the band of the 1st Battalion playing ‘The Downfall of Paris,’ and encamped close to the village. ”

“ But the assailants were soon undeceived; for a puff of smoke issued from a large circular bamboo jungle on the right, and a round shot flew over the column. The Riflemen were then hurried to the front; and with some native police and an eighteen-pounder and mortars, gradually inclined to the right till they came to the village, from which they drove in the enemy’s picquets, and it and the intrenchments were at once abandoned. They were then halted and ordered to lie down in a wood beyond the village. ”

“ This picquet was relieved every third day. Altogether this standing camp of Kurroundea was a pleasant change for the officers and men; after their long moving about in the plains, the sight of hills was refreshing; and the grazing being excellent, the camels enjoyed the change as much as their riders.
On the 15th a detachment of the Camel Corps, consisting of twenty-five Riflemen and fifty Sikhs, under command of Lieutenant Eyre, marched from Kurroundea at six in the morning, en route for Shergotty. They proceeded on camels about six miles to Dearee, where they halted for breakfast. ”

“ The valley was well cultivated as a garden; and full of fruit, with which the men filled their haversacks. Having halted there for breakfast, they marched back to camp; where they arrived about 10 o’clock on the 31st, and were mustered as they stood, in their accoutrements.
On June 3, four companies, Lord Alexander Russell’s, Woodford’s, Hardinge’s and Glyn’s, paraded at 6 in the morning and marched towards the Waterkloof, in order to meet General Cathcart, and to accompany him on a reconnaissance to the Waterkloof and the Blinkwater. ”

“ That moment soon came; the ‘assembly’ sounded, and mounting their camels they formed up with the brigade to which they were attached. In front of them were thousands of rebels advancing. Soon an officer came up in great excitement, and ordered the two Rifle companies of the Camel Corps to advance to the right. On doing so they found the rebels driving before them the picquet, or rather they had already driven it in, and were almost on some heavy guns which were in position there. The rebels were steadily advancing and within a hundred yards. ”

“ He extended the companies, and after advancing some way ordered Cragg’s company to lie down, sheltered by some rising ground, and directed Cragg if he saw him retiring, to pass through his files, and charge the enemy. Then forming up his own company in line, he fixed swords and charged the regiment in his front. These were drawn up in all the ‘pomp and circumstance’ of regular troops. They planted their green standard, shouted ‘Deen, deen!’ and stood their ground. The Riflemen engaged in a hand-to-hand conflict, killing many with their swords. ”

“ During the seven or eight months the Camel Corps were engaged in this service their duties were most harassing. They marched at short notices in every direction, wherever and whenever they had intelligence of an enemy; and almost always without the satisfaction of finding or engaging one. Often detachments of forty or fifty men were ordered to mount at a moment’s notice, and to ride thirty or forty miles as fast as they could, only to find that the enemy they expected to fight had fled before they approached his lair, or had scattered into jungle where it was hopeless to pursue. ”