Recollections of the eventful life of a soldierDonaldson, Joseph
History
Recollections of the eventful life of a soldier
Donaldson, Joseph
Peninsular War, 1807-1814 -- Personal narratives
Our position was now taken up in such a way, that our line ran along
the frontiers of Portugal, maintaining the blockade of Almeida by our
left, while our right kept open the communication with Sabugal, the
place where the last action was fought.
The French advanced on our position in three columns, about three
o’clock in the afternoon, and detached a strong body of troops
against Fuentes, which was at this time occupied as an advanced post
by the 60th regiment, and the light company of our division. The
skirmishers were covered in their advance by cavalry, in consequence
of which ours were obliged to fall back, for greater safety, to
some stone fences on the outskirts of the village, while a party of
our German hussars covered their retreat. The cavalry now commenced
skirmishing, the infantry keeping up an occasional fire. It was
rather remarkable that the cavalry on both sides happened to be
Germans. When this was understood, volleys of insulting language,
as well as shot, were exchanged between them. One of our hussars
got so enraged at something one of his opponents said, that raising
his sword, he dashed forward upon him into the very centre of their
line. The French hussar, seeing that he had no mercy to expect from
his enraged foe, wheeled about his horse, and rode to the rear; the
other, determined on revenge, still continued to follow him. The
whole attention of both sides was drawn for a moment to these two,
and a temporary cessation of firing took place; the French staring in
astonishment at our hussar’s temerity, while our men were cheering
on. The chase continued for some way to the rear of their cavalry.
At last our hussar coming up with him, and fetching a furious blow,
brought him to the ground. Awakening now to a sense of the danger he
had thrown himself into, he set his horse at full speed to get back
to his comrades; but the French, who were confounded when he passed,
had recovered their surprise, and determined on revenging the death
of their comrade; they joined in pursuit, firing their pistols at
him. The poor fellow was now in a hazardous plight, they were every
moment gaining upon him, and he had still a long way to ride. A band
of the enemy took a circuit, for the purpose of intercepting him; and
before he could reach the line he was surrounded, and would have been
cut in pieces, had not a party of his comrades, stimulated by the
wish to save so brave a fellow, rushed forward, and just arrived in
time, by making the attack general, to save his life, and brought him
off in triumph.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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