The battles of the British Army : $b being a popular account of all the principal engagements during the last hundred yearsBlackwood, Robert Melvin
History
The battles of the British Army : $b being a popular account of all the principal engagements during the last hundred years
Blackwood, Robert Melvin
Battles -- Great Britain; Great Britain -- History, Military; Great Britain. Army -- History
This success, though brilliant, was far from being decisive. The
ardour of the right wing had carried it away, leaving the left
totally unsupported, and open to Reynier’s undivided efforts. From
the superiority of his force, he showed a larger front, and availing
himself of this advantage, endeavoured to turn the British left, and
in this attempt his cavalry had nearly succeeded. After a feint upon
the centre, they wheeled sharply to the right, making a flank movement,
while their infantry threatened the British line with a charge. This
was the crisis of the action. The French advanced, Stuart refusing his
flank, and obliquing his line from the centre. Reynier’s cavalry were
about to charge, when, fortunately, the 20th regiment, under Colonel
Ross, which had landed after the march of the army, came up.
The attack was already made, the cavalry advancing, when Ross, under
cover of some underwood, deployed in double-quick. Within a short
distance, a close and murderous volley was thrown in, and the cavalry
completely broken. The British line cheered and moved forward, the
French gave way, and a complete _déroute_ succeeded. No victory,
considering the numbers opposed, could have been more decisive. Seven
hundred killed, a thousand prisoners, and a large proportion of
wounded, were the estimated loss of the enemy, while this was achieved
by an amount of casualties greatly disproportioned, the victors having
but one officer and forty-four men killed, and eleven officers and two
hundred and seventy-one men wounded.
For that night the British army bivouacked on the battleground, and
having received supplies from the shipping, advanced on the 6th to
overtake the enemy’s rear; while a brigade under Colonel Oswald marched
on the French depot at Montelione, of which it took possession, making
six hundred prisoners. The whole of the commissariat stores, with the
entire baggage, and the military chest, were captured; and the remnant
of the French army was saved only by abandoning arms and accoutrements,
and retiring with all the confusion attendant upon a signal defeat.
Nothing could exceed the enthusiasm with which the victors were
received. The defended places along the coast, turned on the land side
by the army, of course surrendered unconditionally. The whole of the
Peninsula was rapidly crossed, and on the 11th of July, the leading
British brigade invested the Castle of Scylla.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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