Volume 5

A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen / edited by Robert Chambers.

Date:
1854-1855
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen / edited by Robert Chambers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    general Leith, who, at the head of his light companies, drove them into tile ravine, and dispersed them. When the British had reached Corunna, after one of the most arduous retreats ever undertaken, in the deptli of winter, and the minds both of men and officers were cast down with the hardships of their situation, they encamped in front of the town, that they might afford protection to the harbour and the commissariat; the fleet not having yet arrived from Vigo. The French army, having passed the river on the 10th January, 1 80f), occu- pied the rising ground above the village of Burgos : their left was protected by the wood above the village of Elvina, and their right rested on the great road from Betanzos, under the command of marshal Soult. The third column of the enemy, directing from its centre an attack against the left of .the guards and the 81st regiment, general Leith, being ordered to place himself at the head of the 59th, made a charge, principally with the grenadiers of the regi- ment, and forced the enemy to retreat upon his position; while major-general Paget, with part of the reserve, bravely sustained an attack on the British right, and threatened to outflank the enemy. The heavy cannonade kept up by the French, in which they had a decided advantage, did fatal execution ; but the village on the El Burgo road, that had been occupied by a column which prevented the British from sending succours to the chief points of attack, being carried by part of the 14th regiment, under the command of lieutenant- colonel Nicolls, at the point of the bayonet, the enemy retired to his contmand- ing position. The advanced posts of the British took possession of their original station, and the darkness of the night put a stop to a battle in which the chief by his bravery, and the sacrifice of his own life, redeemed the honour of the British army from a retreat allowed to have been somewhat precipitate. Having been, in September, 1810, appointed to the command of a corps of 10,000 men, general Leith was next engaged in the affair of Busaco in Spain, where the whole French army, under marshal Massena was assembled. This corps was stationed between the division of Sir Roland Hill on his right, flanked by the Mondego river and the third division on his left. At break of day, the guns at the convent of Busaco opened a heavy fire, and a serious attack was made on the third division posted on that part of the Sierra, near the great road to St Antonio de Cantara. General Leith moved to the support of this division, but meeting with a strong column of the enemy on their way to this point, he quickly brought up colonel Barnes’ brigade, the 9th and 38th regi- ments, to the head of the column ; and, after a well managed fire, drove them at the head of the 9th regiment, from their position. The light troops of the third division were already driven back from the heights, with loss, by the enemy ; but with that promptitude and firmness for which he was distinguished, general Leith attacked them by a rapid movement, and, after a brilliant charge at the head of the 9th or 88th regiment, before they had time to form or collect in numbers, general Regnier was obliged to desist, while the column which at- tacked the left was driven into the valley of Mondego. In this engagement seven thousand of the enemy were either slain or taken prisoners ; and, in con- sequence of it, Massena’s direct communication with Lisbon was obstructed. Had general Trant arrived in time at the position of Sardao, as lord Wellington had expected, the French army would have been placed in a very critical situa- tion, and with difficulty have escaped. Lord Wellington was now reinforced by two divisions, the fifth, which was committed to the charge of major-general Leith, consisting of major-general Hay’s, major-general Dunlop’s, and brigadier-general Spry’s brigades ; and the sixth, commanded by major-general Campbell. The British army was now encamped in the strongholds of the Torres-Vedras, covering the town of Lisbon, to take