On March 16th, 1812, when the popular trees that fringed the Guadiana were bending under a tempest of wind and rain, A British force some 15,000 strong, with a battering train of 52 guns, reached Badajoz, a strongly fortified Spanish town near the frontier of Portugal.

About a year before, Imas had delivered up the place to marshal Soult, and although we had made two attempts to retake it, we had failed on each occasion to retake it, we had failed on each occasion with heavy losses, our battering train being insufficient; the third time we were successful.

A granite bride with twenty-eight arches, dating from Roman times, still spanned the sluggish river on the northwest. There was nothing very remarkable about its quaint, crooked streets and massive Cathedral beyond the natural strengths of its position, rising some 300 feet above the marshy plain, with bastions and their connecting curtains to protect it from attack.

Philippon and the gallant garrison, and our troops under the Earl of Wellington, have, however rendered Badajoz immortal.

General of Brigade Philippon commanded in Badajoz with a force of 4,742 men.

A Formidable Task

Although somewhat short of powder and shell, Badajoz presented a formidable task to a besieging army, being protected on one side of the river, 500 yards wide in places, and having several outworks, notably one called the Picurina, on a hill to the southeast.

Philippon had, moreover, taken every means possible to strengthen his post: mines were laid, the arch of the bridge built up to form a large inundation, ravelins constructed and ramparts repaired, ditches cut and filled with water; and that he should have no useless mouths to fill, the inhabitants were ordered to lay up for three months provisions or leave the town.

Badajoz Invested

Such was Badajoz when Picton’s 3rd Division, Lowry Cole’s 4th division, and the Light Division, invested it.

The rest of the army covered the siege; the 5th division was on its way from Beira.

On the night of the 17th, 2,000 men moved silently forward to guard our working parties, and began to break ground, 160 yards from the Picurina, the sentinels on the raparts hearing nothing in the howling wind. So well had the volunteers from the 3rd Division laboured, for we had no regular sappers, that at daylight 3,000 yards of communication, and a parallel 600 yards long, were revealed, on which the garrison opened a fire of cannon and musketry. The roar of the guns of the crack of muskets continued with little cessation for many days, increasing as we armed battery after battery and brought them to bear upon the doomed town.

Of the 46 pieces some dated from the days of the Spanish Armada; others were cast in the regions of the Stewarts; we had 24-pounders of George II’s day, the bulk of the extraordinary medley being brass 24-pound guns of the seventeenth century, which required ten minutes to cool between each discharge, lest the overheating caused the muzzle to droop.

Wellington learned from his spies that that the garrison was to make a sally on the 19th, and at one o’clock, from the Talavera gate, a body horsemen came out, followed by 13,000 infantry, who concealed themselves in the covered trench connecting San Roque with the Picurina.

The cavalry dividing into two parties, one pursued the other towards our lines, were they were challenged, and allowed to pass on replying in Portuguese.

Thee was some excuse for our pickets, as the French Dragoons, in consequence of the difficulty of procuring new uniforms from France, used the brown cloth common all over the Peninsula, and was thus mistaken for our Portuguese allies, some of whom were also dressed in brown. The troopers dashed at the engineer’s park, cut down some men then galloped off with entrenching tools, for which Philippon had offered a large reward.

Simultaneously the infantry sprang out of the covered way with a part of the Picurina garrisons, and rushing forward, began to destroy our works.

We drove them back almost to the walls of Badajoz, killing 30 and wounding 287. But we lost heavily, and, unhappily, our chief engineer, Colonel Fletcher, was badly hit, a bullet striking a silver dollar in his fob and forcing it an inch into his groin, confining him to his tent until the latter end of the siege. The Earl went there each morning to consult about the day’s operations.

Our movements were by no means faultless. Wellington had great difficulties to contend with in many directions.

The Guadiana rose in full flood and tore away the pontoon bridge which connected us with our stores at Elvas; it was replaced, however, and we got nearer and nearer to their walls, until, at last, our men finding the fire from the Picurina very galling, it was decided to storm that fort on the 24th.