The Hunt for Moore's Gold by John Grehan

Author:John Grehan [Grehan, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, History, France, British, Military
ISBN: 9781526730541
Publisher: Pen & Sword Books
Published: 2019-07-30T04:00:00+00:00

The Reserve and the French dragoons continued to skirmish throughout the morning. As Peter Facey had noted and was confirmed by Bugler William Green of the 95th, the French had a light infantryman (which Green called a rifleman) mounted behind each dragoon:

And when any good position, or bushes by the road side, gave them any advantage to give our men a few shots, those riflemen would dismount and get under cover of the bushes, so that we were obliged to do the same; their dragoons at the same time dismounting and laying their carbines on their saddles, with their horse standing in front of them for a sort of defence, would give us a few shots as well. In this way we were obliged to make a stand and drive them back. We used to laugh to see the riflemen run to the road, put their feet into the stirrups, and mount behind the dragoons and gallop back. We served many of these fellows off; and then we had to run to get up to the regiment. This was the sport for many days’ and we could not avoid it.

The French continued to hound the Reserve until the British reached a bridge over a stream at the foot of a hill. Beyond the bridge, the road zig-zagged its way up the steep slope of the hill. The Reserve would be horribly exposed to the long carbines of the dragoons on the opposite bank of the stream as they climbed slowly up the meandering mountain path. How Paget solved this typified the brilliance he showed throughout the retreat, being one of the few senior officers to emerge from the Corunna campaign with an enhanced reputation.

He ordered the Reserve to move quickly across the bridge and start the climb up the winding road, but Carthew’s six artillery pieces were unlimbered and prepared for action, the horses being taken to the rear. This gave the appearance of the Reserve making a stand, and it kept the French back out of artillery range. When the rear-guard, in the form of the 28th, was safely beyond musket range, it was halted. The job of the 28th was now to cover the guns.

The French were held back for about an hour, to allow the rest of the other divisions to gain a lead of four or five miles. The French, amassing in ever-increasing numbers, were attempting to outflank the position, so Paget calmly ordered the guns to be limbered up and the rear-guard made off unmolested.

The French light troops were soon over the bridge and, once again, on the tail of the rear-guard. At around midday, the rear-guard halted at a place where the mountain on its right was ‘stupendous, covered with snow, and rose nearly perpendicularly from where we stood’, and on the left was a very steep precipice, ‘its steepness bearing proportion to the sudden rise of the mountain above.’38

This was an ideal defensive spot as the severity of the slopes on either side meant that the enemy could only attack frontally along the road.

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