The 2nd and 8th Corps cross the damaged bridge at Foz do Arouce in the morning. Massena gives Ney orders to cross immediately and destroy the bridge after him.The 2nd and 8th Corps cross the damaged bridge at Foz do Arouce in the morning. Massena gives Ney orders to cross immediately and destroy the bridge after him.
With the best of intentions, Ney disobeys orders and deploys his Corps to fight a delaying action, leaving half his Corps (Marchand's Div and Bardet's Brig from Mermet's, with Lamotte's cavalry) on the near side, with the rest of his Corps covering them on the far side.
Tired after their night march, the French are lax and set no picquets. Indeed, the bulk of Lamotte's cavalry (including Lamotte) cross into the town to look for supplies.
The morning is again foggy and Wellington makes sure that nobody goes charging into Miranda de Corvo until they can see that the French have indeed left. So it is 3pm before the Light and 3rd Divs come in contact with the French at Foz do Arouce. Picton and Erskine confer and decide that it is too late in the day to attack, but Wellington comes up and, noticing the lack of alertness in the French positions, orders an attack.
The Light and 3rd Divs do their (by now habitual) left/right pincer with the 3rd moving against Bardet on the French left, and the Lt Div against Marchand on their right. The French are so unprepared that some companies of the 95th actually penetrate right into the village before the French notice them.
The sound of gunfire coming from the bridge approaches causes the 39th Ligne (Marcognet's brigade of Marchand's Div, the French right/centre) to panic and break for the bridge where they run into Lamotte's cavalry trying to get back to where it should have been. In the ensuing mess, the 39th lose many men trying to ford the river as well as their eagle and their colonel is captured.
Ney saves the situation by charging the Riflemen with the 3rd battalion of the 69th Ligne (Maucune's brigade of Marchand's Div) from the right reserve, and the riflemen fall back to the safety of the 52nd.
The French manage to scramble back across the bridge in failing light, and under fire from the artillery of both sides. With the 8th Corps in position on the hills across the river, the British make no attempt to force the river and halt for the night.
March 15th. - We overtook the enemy a little before dark this afternoon. They were drawn up behind the Ceira, at Foz d'Aronce, with their rearguard, under Marshal Ney, imprudently posted on our side of the river, a circumstance which Lord Wellington took immediate advantage of; and, by a furious attack dislodged them in such confusion that they blew up the bridge before half of their own people had time to get over. Those who were thereby left behind, not choosing to put themselves to the pain of being shot, to to the river, which received them so hospitably that few of them ever quitted it. Their loss, on this occasion, must have been very great, and we understood at the time that Ney had been sent to France in disgrace in consequence of it.
About the middle of the action I observed some inexperienced light troops rushing up a deep roadway to certain destruction, and ran to warn them out of it, but I only arrived in time to partake the reward of their indiscretion, for I was instantly struck with a musket-ball above the left ear, which deposited me, at full length, in the mud.
I know not how long I lay insensible, but, on recovering, my first feeling was for my head, to ascertain if any part of it was still standing, for it appeared to me as if nothing remained above the mouth; but, after repeated applications of all my fingers and thumbs to the doubtful parts, I at length proved to myself satisfactorily that it had rather increased than diminished by the concussion; and, jumping on my legs, and hearing, by the whistling of the balls from both sides, that the rascals who had got me into the scrape had been driven back and left me there, I snatched on my cap, which had saved my life and which had been spun off my to the distance of ten or twelve yards, and joined them a short distance in the rear, when one of them, a soldier of the sixtieth, came and told me that an officer of ours had been killed a short time before, pointing to the spot where I myself had fallen, and that he had tried to take his jacket off, but that the advance of the enemy had prevented him. I told him that I was the one that had been killed, and that I was deucedly obliged to him for his kind intentions, while I felt still more so to the enemy for their timely advance, otherwise I have no doubt but my friend would have taken a fancy to my trousers also, for I found that he had absolutely unbuttoned my jacket.
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Last update 22/1/03