The Story of Wellington by Harold Wheeler

Author:Harold Wheeler [Wheeler, Harold]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: 19th Century, Modern, Nonfiction, Historical, History, Biography & Memoir, Military
ISBN: 9781518373688
Publisher: Perennial Press
Published: 2016-01-16T05:00:00+00:00

* * *

CHAPTER XIV

The Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo

(1811–12)

“The great object in all sieges is to gain time.”

Wellington.

The exacting nature of the campaign was beginning to tell on Wellington. “I certainly feel, every day,” he had written to the Earl of Liverpool on the 15th May 1811, “more and more the difficulty of the situation in which I am placed. I am obliged to go everywhere, and if absent from any operation, something goes wrong.” “Another such battle” as Albuera, he informs his brother Henry on the 22nd, “would ruin us,” and he proceeds to compare the Spanish and Portuguese troops, to the disadvantage of the former. They often held their ground too well, there was no moving them in a battle. On the other hand, “We do what we please now with the Portuguese troops; we manœuvre them under fire equally with our own, and have some dependence on them; but these Spaniards can do nothing, but stand still, and we consider ourselves fortunate if they do not run away.” In his report of the battle Beresford mentions the Spanish cavalry as having behaved “extremely well.”

Some idea of the enormous amount of labour involved may be gained from the fact that on the day mentioned Wellington either wrote or dictated at least eighteen dispatches, including two dealing with the loss of an officer for whose widow and child he was endeavouring to obtain “favour and protection” at the hands of the home authorities. At the same time he was actively preparing for the renewed siege of Badajoz: “The late action has made a terrible hole in our ranks; but I am working hard to set all to rights again.” He appeared “destined to pass his life in the harness,” to use his own phrase, and had “a monstrous quantity of business to settle of different descriptions.”

Referring to the difference of opinion held by his officers regarding his policy, he says, “I believe nothing but something worse than firmness could have carried me through.... To this add that people in England were changing their opinions almost with the wind, and you will see that I had not much to look to excepting myself.” The words are almost those of a broken-hearted man.

Badajoz was again invested on the 25th May, and the batteries opened fire on the 3rd of the following month in an attempt to breach the fort of San Christoval and the castle. Wellington had then made his headquarters at Quinta de Granicha, from whence he writes, on the 6th to the Earl of Liverpool, to the effect that if he cannot prevent the enemy from receiving provisions he will not risk an action because he has not the means, and out of fairness to his soldiers he cannot “make them endure the labours of another siege at this advanced season. Notwithstanding that we have carried on our operations with such celerity,” he concludes “we have had great difficulties to contend with, and have been much delayed by the use

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.