After resisting the charge of the French cavalry, the FIFTY-THIRD again advanced, and were engaged in the attack of the last position occupied by the enemy on that memorable day. This was a desperate musketry action in the dark, and the difficulties of the ascent of the mountain gave the French division, under General Maucune, formed on the summit, a decided advantage. The FIFTY-THIRD were on the left of the sixth division on this occasion, and the British gallantly won their way upwards, and finally forced the enemy to make a precipitate retreat. Colonel Napier has given the following spirited description of this last attack, in his History of the Peninsular War:--"Assisted by a brigade of the fourth division, the troops then rushed up, and in the darkness of the night the fire showed from afar how the battle went. On the side of the British a sheet of flame was seen, sometimes advancing with an even front, sometimes pricking forth in spear heads, now falling back in waving lines, and anon darting upwards in one vast pyramid, the apex of which often approached, yet never gained, the actual summit of the mountain; but the French musketry, rapid as lightning, sparkled along the brow of the height with unvarying fulness, and with what desperate effects, the dark gaps and changing shapes of the adverse fire showed too plainly. Yet, when Pakenham had again turned the enemy's left, and Foy's division had glided into the forest, Maucune's task was completed, the effulgent crest of the ridge became black and silent, and the French army vanished, as it were, into darkness." The French army was overpowered and driven from the field with severe loss: and the Royal authority was afterwards given for the FIFTY-THIRD regiment to bear the word "SALAMANCA" on its colours, to commemorate the distinguished conduct of the second battalion on this memorable occasion: Lieut.-Colonel Bingham and Lieut.-Colonel Mansel received gold medals. Nineteen men were killed. _Captain_ A. K. Blackhall died of his wounds, much regretted; _Lieut.-Colonel_ Bingham, _Brevet Lieut.-Colonel_ Robertson, _Captains_ O. G. Fehrszen, J. W. Poppleton, D. M'Dougall, and John Fernandez, _Lieutenants_ J. B. Hunter, and Joseph Nicholson, _Ensign_ Peter Bunworth, _Adjutant_ John Carss, _Volunteer_ Munro Morphet, and seventy-six men were wounded; nine men wounded and prisoners. Captain Fehrszen was taken prisoner, but was left by the enemy at Alba de Tormes. The total loss amounted to nearly half the soldiers under arms on this occasion. The following officers were in the field, and escaped uninjured:--_Lieut.-Colonel_ John Mansel. _Lieutenants_ P. Hovenden, and John Fraser. _Ensigns_ W. Harrison, W. Baxter, George Fitzgerald, Robert Hilliard, J. W. Moir, and Michael Nagle. _Surgeon_ T. Sandell; _Assistant-Surgeon_ Charles MacLean.