The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1868-10-17 00:00:00

A YORKSHIRE HERO AT THE BATTLE
OF ALCOLEA.

There is an episode connected with the battle of Menke
which ought not to remain unknown to the reading public,
says the Madrid conespondent of The Timer, who proceeds
to relate the following interesting narrative:—
Among the Englidi engineers in the employment of
the Andalusian Railway Company there is a man who
first came out in the capacity of an engine-driver, but
who owing to his intelligence and good conduct, was
subsequently promoted to the head management and
superintendence of the locomotive department. His
name in JOHN ROUTLEDGE, and he comes, I am told,
From Yorkshire. He is two or three inches above six feet
in height, athletic in frame, and with a proportionately
great soul within him--a gentle, unassuming, hard-
man, with a well-established character for a
genial and cordial disposition among the large colony of
practical scientific labourers scattered all overthe Penin-
sula, busy with the direction of its railway, canal, and
mining enterprise. Routledge, who was stationed at
Cordova, could not resist an Englishman 8 curiosity to
look on the scene of is 1-ife and death about to be
performed so near him, under the impulse of political
passions to which, ha his 4-opacity of an alien, he was a
perfect stranger. He presently, however, became
weary of his inactive position as a spectator. Prompted
by his humane instincts, he no sooner saw men drop-
ping hero and there in the foremost ranks, and
writhing on the ground between life and death, than
be rushed forward from his safe dielter, and, plunging
into the thickest of the miWc, began his work as
an ambulance man, lifting up the wounded in his stal-
wart arms, and conveying them, with the ease of a nurse
carrying an infant, to the stretchers that were waiting
to receive them in the rear. Again and again, with an
activity to which charity seemed to lend wings, and
with as great an intrepidity as if faith had given him a
charmed life,—again and again did the tall English,
man, unarmed and in plain clothes, plunge into the
I fight, calm and collected in the midst of all the fury
and anguish about him, yet warming up in his task
and redoubling his efforts as SUCCORS attended them
with the utmost impartiality, bestowing his attention
alike upon friend and foe, and by his example
firing the zeal and steadying the nerve of the
ambulance corps, of which he voluntarily con-
stituted himself the forlorn hope. He was thus
under fire during the whole action; and when
the day was won, Marshal Serrano, who was also
lavish of his person, and often met the Englishman
as this latter went back and forward on his generous
errand Marshal Serrano, himself a brave man, and
of lofty, chivalrous impulses, went up to him, and
embracing him, decorated him with the Order of
Isabella the Catholic. Rontledge's task was, however,
only beginning. Throughout the night, in the midst
of the confusion unavoidable in an army more or less
disorganized at the close of a general engagement, he
was at his place at the head of the locomotive de-
partment, and fitted out and hurried on train after
train, till all the wounded that could bear the journey
were safely housed in the hospitals of Cordova.
Routledge was a plain man, fired with no warlike
ambition, under none of that " obligation" which
nobility is said to involve, lie was on the spot, in dis-
charge of a duty assigned to him as a station-master at
Alcolea. He went " a little out of his way for a stroke
of good work—that is alb" His business was to con-
vey the wounded to the rear, lie just sailed out to
"pick them up here and there where they lay—that is
al" Such is the account he himself gives of the
transaction. That is all, so far as he is concerned.
Were it not for some of his brother engineers who are
among my most valued friends in Madrid, the noble
deeds performed by Routtedge on the 28th of Septem-
ber might, perhaps, never have come to the knowledge
of his countrymen. It is certainly not the hero him-
self that would have blown his own trmopet. Ile
simply pocketed " the bauble" which the Commander-
in-Chief bestowed upon him, and if he thought
a little better of himself for having displayed
both warm charity and cool courage on the occasion,
he at all events did not tell. I wish to Heaven it were
in my power to tell, and to tell with some effecli, in
his stead. I wish I had the vigour and tire and the
clarion-like strain of good bluff Burger in his Lied mot
&raven Mann, for, amid so many English idling abroad,
some of them astonishing the world by their oddity,
some provoking it by their arrogance, it is consoling to
fall in now and then with those who, like Routledge, re-
deem their countrymen's name from obloquy, and
give a practical demonstration that it is by some-
thing better than mere haughtiness or eccentricity
that the English claim distinction among their fellow-
men.

I had not the good fortune to be at the battle of
Alcolea, and have not yet read one description, among
the many with which the papers here are teeming, that
is at all satisfactory, or even intelligible. Spanish
journalism with rare exceptions, merely deals in froth
and bombast. The action seems to have been limited
to a front attack on the bridge. Novaliches probably
knew no better; he could Is no better, lie
twice sent his columns to the onslaught ; the third time
he himself led them on. The enemy in the first instance
allowed them to come on unchallenged, and only opened
fire from unmasked batteries when the assailants were
deeply engaged in the defiles of the bridge. Tle-re ensued,
as I said, a first repulse, a rally, a second repulse,
then rout and confusion. Novaliches endeavoured
to atone for his incapacity as a general by his de-
votion as a soldier His fall decided the tortures of a
battle which had never been doubtful Lir a moment.
Novaliches was only wounded by the insurgents, but
killed by the telegraph. The first announcement was
that he had been hit in the thigh; but a fragment of a
shell struck him also in the jaw, and shattered the
mouth and tongue, causing him so much pain and loss
blood that his life was for some time in jeopardy.
The imminent danger, however, seems to be over, and
he had already so far recovered on Saturday last that
Serrano saw him as he passed the station at
Pinto, on his triumphal way to Madrid. The
meeting between the two generals, enemies only
by chance, and owing to a mere freak in
the game of polities, is described as in the highest
degree affecting. The wounded man, unable or perhaps
not allowed to speak, pressed his adversary's hand,
and wrote on a card, " Adrairo a mi., mations."
(-I admire my conquerors.") It is said of Serrano
that, after the battle, he sotight his night's rest in an
ammunition-waggon, observing that "many would
have to sleep with less comfort than was allotted to
himself." IN hen he was received by the deputation of
the various Juntas in Madrid he said,—"l have got
safely over the Bridge of Alcolea ; you wish me now
to go through the far more formidable ordeal of con-
ducting the government; but I have no inclination to
be a ruler; all I long for is to go home to my children."
The Duchess, his wife, was then still abroad. She has
joined him since.

October 10.

A lamentable incident occurred yesterday in Madrid.
Senor Perez Ruiz, private secretary to Gonzalez
Bravo, and known as one of the most unpopular
functionaries ,d the late Administration, appeared
yesterday at the Home-office, whence, it seems, he
hoped to withdraw some papers highly compromising
Gonzalez Bravo. His presence collected a crowd at
the door of the Palace de la Gobernacion, in the
Puerta del Sol, and on his again appearing he was
fallen upon by an excited mob, out of whose hands
the public force and the better class of citizens could
not rescue him before he had received several danger-
ous wounds. General Prim being informed of the out-
rage stepped out of one of the balconies of his hotel,
the Fonda de Paris, in the same locality, and addressed
the multitude at considerable length, and in words
which seemed to work a beneficial impression.

GALLANT RESCUE OF A SHIP-
WRECKED CREW.
The following is a detailed account of the loss of the ship
Americana, and the gallant rescue of her crew:—
We sailed from Quebec for Liverpool on the sth of
September, and with the exception of a continuation
of easterly gales for the first three weeks nothing
worthy of note occurred. September 27, lat. 48 Os,
lon. 33 54 W.—A strong westerly wind, with thick
gloomy weather, the ship running under whole topsails;
wind increasing, reefed topsails. At 6 p.m. furled the
upper topsails, the wind still increasing and the sea
rising fast; barometer 29.50. At 8 p.m., when blow.
rig a very heavy gale, furled the foresail, the ship
running under the fore and main lower topsails and
foretopmast staysail. At 11 p.m., the foretopmast stay-
sail burst (a new salt) At midnight it was blowing a
furious gale from the N.V., with a most terrific sea
running; barometer 29.48. On Monday, the 28th, at
at I am, a tremendous sea struck the ship on the port
quarter, washing the second officer into the lee Lassen
rigging (we had taken the precaution to lash the
men at the wheel previously), carrying away boats,
binnacle, and saloon door, staving in the fore cud of
poop, and completely destroying the starboard side of
the cabin, and taking away chronometers, charts,
books, all the ship's papers, and everything movable—
thrawing the ship on her beam ends, and rendering her
entirely unmanageable. Before she could recover she
came to the wind on the port tack against her helm, and
in doing so floated the lee side of the deck load, starting
the lee raibs' , stanchions, and covering boards. The
foretopsail blew away; got the mainyard braced up-
the ship lying helplessly on her beam ends ; the wind
blowing a perfect hurricane, with one of the most
terrific Reps running that it has ever been my lot to
witness. Up to this time the slop had been perfectly
tight. Got all hands at the pumps, but the ship evi-
dently filling fast through the poop ceiling and broken
covenng loosed, and as she settled down in the water
the lee side of the deck ffiad floated off, taking with
it lee rails and part of the stanchions, destroy-
ing our head braces, and rendering our head yards un-
manageable— destroying everything flush with the main
deck, includingbulk heads of poop, forecastle, and dock,
also the pipes leading to our fresh-water tanks in the
lower hold, thus leaving us without a drink of fresh
water in the ship. 6 a.m.—The gale still raging, the
sea snaking a clean breach over the ship; all hands on
the poop, the only place where any safety could be
found; all the hatches stowed in, and the broken stow-
age floating out. Is —Ditto wind and weather.
Nothing of the ship's hull to be seen at times except the
Poop on which we stood. The deck load sailing about
destroying the ship, and threatening to crush any one
whoventuredneard. 4 p.m.—Thedeckbreakingup, amid
beam fillings working through. 5 p.m.—Sighted a ship
to windward running. Made a signal of distress, and
had the satisfaction to see her round to under our
lee. Midnight.—Less wind, but no less sea. The ship
maiming fearful bad weather, and settling lower in the
water. 29th—Began with a heavy gale from NN.W.,
and a fearful heavy Rea running. The ship evi-
dently breaking up. Daylight found a great part of
the maindeck on the starboard side washed away. The
ship we had seen the previous day still in sight, about
four miles on our lee bow. At S a.m, he wore ship and
stood towards us. Noon,—Wind and sea decreasing.
Seeing It would be impossible for the ship under our lee
to work up to us against the wind and sea, determined