History of the war in the Peninsula and in the south of France from the year 1807 to the year 1814, vol. 6Napier, William Francis Patrick
History
History of the war in the Peninsula and in the south of France from the year 1807 to the year 1814, vol. 6
Napier, William Francis Patrick
Peninsular War, 1807-1814
On the 3d of September, the governor being summoned to surrender
demanded terms inadmissible, his resolution was not to be shaken,
and the vertical fire was therefore continued day and night, though
the British prisoners suffered as well as the enemy; for the officer
commanding in the castle, irritated by the misery of the garrison
cruelly refused to let the unfortunate captives make trenches to
cover themselves. The French on the other hand complain that their
wounded and sick men, although placed in an empty magazine with a
black flag flying, were fired upon by the besiegers, although the
English prisoners in their red uniforms were placed around it to
strengthen the claim of humanity.
The new breaching batteries were now commenced, one for three pieces
on the isthmus, the other for seventeen pieces on the land front
of the horn-work. These guns were brought from the Chofres at low
water across the Urumea, at first in the night, but the difficulty
of labouring in the water during darkness induced the artillery
officers to transport the remainder in daylight, and within reach of
the enemy’s batteries, which did not fire a shot. In the town the
besiegers’ labours were impeded by the flaming houses, but near the
foot of the hill the ruins furnished shelter for the musqueteers
employed to gall the garrison, and the guns on the island of Santa
Clara being reinforced were actively worked by the seamen. The
besieged replied but little, their ammunition was scarce and the
horrible vertical fire subdued their energy. In this manner the
action was prolonged until the 8th of September when fifty-nine heavy
battering pieces opened at once from the island the isthmus the
horn-work and the Chofres. In two hours both the Mirador and the
Queen’s battery were broken, the fire of the besieged was entirely
extinguished, and the summit and face of the hill torn and furrowed
in a frightful manner; the bread-ovens were destroyed, a magazine
exploded, and the castle, small and crowded with men, was overlaid
with the descending shells. Then the governor proudly bending to
his fate surrendered. On the 9th this brave man and his heroic
garrison, reduced to one-third of their original number and leaving
five hundred wounded behind them in the hospital, marched out with
the honours of war. The Spanish flag was hoisted under a salute of
twenty-one guns, and the siege terminated after sixty-three days
open trenches, precisely when the tempestuous season, beginning to
vex the coast, would have rendered a continuance of the sea blockade
impossible.
OBSERVATIONS.
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