On the retirement of the French, returning to the duties of the siege, the regiment, on the 19th of January, was included in the storming party which, despite the most strenuous resistance of the foe, won Ciudad Rodrigo. This achievement was immediately followed by the re-investment of Badajoz; a fortress esteemed impregnable, the more so as it was defended by some of the choicest troops of France. The progress had been so satisfactory, and the breaches in the ramparts deemed so far practicable, that by the 6th April, 1812, the assault was ordered, and the Herculean duty of storming the defences of the castle committed to the third division; accomplished, nevertheless, after “a combat so furiously fought, so terribly won, so dreadful in all its circumstances, that posterity can scarcely be expected to credit the tale.” Lieutenant Alexander Grant of the Seventy-fourth, leading the advance, entered the castle, but fell in the moment of victory. “Foremost in the escalade was John MʻLauchlan, the regimental piper, who, the instant he mounted the castle wall, began playing on his pipes the regimental quick step, ‘The Campbells are coming,’ at the head of the advance along the ramparts, as coolly as if on a common parade, until his music was stopped by a shot through the bag; he was afterwards seen by an officer of the regiment seated on a gun-carriage, quietly repairing the damage, regardless of the shot flying about him, and presently recommenced his animating tune.” Although the other assaults were not so successful, still the triumph of the third and fifth divisions at their several points of attack so turned the defences of the place, that resistance appearing hopeless, the fortress was surrendered.