The Sun.
London, England, 1832-10-01 00:00:00

UNITED SERVICE JOURNAL.

Another very amusing number. We are glad
to see that the promise to continue the Recol-
lections of a Sea Life, is fulfilled. Our friend the
midshipman resumes his story, and is no less
amusing than he was last month ; and we should
be tempted to make an extract from it had not

our Magazines already reached such a consi-
derable length. The " Rambles of Gibraltar,"
and the " Three Days at Elba," are two other
very readable articles, whilst that upon the army
of the United States of America, brings a sub-
ject before the English public of which it
has had hitherto but very vague notions. We
shall, perhaps, on a future day return to it. We
must close with the following graphic descrip-
tion of the storming of Ciudad Rodrigo :

"The situation in which we now were placed was one of
extreme danger and embarrassment; instead of falling into
rear of a column supposed to have already carried the
breach, we stood alone at its base exposed to a tremendous
fire of grape and musketry from its defences, whilst we
were in danger of being assaulted in the rear by a sortie
through the sally-port in the ditch already mentioned.
For a minute we seemed destined to be sacrificed to
some mistake as to the hour of attack, but suddenly we
beard a cheer from a body of men who, crowning the
summit of the counterscarp, flung down bags filled with
heather to break their fall, and leaped on them into the
ditch ; it was the old Scotch Brigade, which, like us,
having been int./34d as a support, was true to its time,
and was consequently placed in the same predicament with
ourselves. On the appearance of the 94th, the fire of the
garrison was redoubled, and after a moment's consultation
between the seniors, it was decided to be better to die like
men on the breach than like dogs in the ditch, and in-
stantly with a wild hurra all sprung upwards, absolutely
eating fire. I think the breach must have been seventy
or eighty feet wide ; the 94th took it on the right, we on
the left extremity as you look to the country, and I affirm,
it would have been a work of no small labour, to have
achieved the ascent under any circumstances, consisting as
it did of a nearly perpendicular mass of loose rubbish, in
which it was extremely difficult to obtain a footing.
" As our serious intentions were now evident to them,
the enemy developed and employed their entire means of
defence ; two guns pointed downwards from the flanks,
and had time to fire several rounds of grape, working
fearful destruction, particularly in the 94th. On the
margin of the breach were ranged a quantity of shells,
atnodpurosilileudp daonadvnavaonidiotnhgesitr
euxsp,
loascitoinng;
h was defended by a strong body of the
trha whichet h
teor
pawsoefar et
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cs
garrison, who maintained a heavy fire of musketry, and
showed for some time an undaunted countenance. Hand-
grenades and fireballs were not wanting, nor yet the agree-
able accompaniment of a heavy fire from a distant fl .eking
demi•bastion, which bore on the foot of the breach and
crest of the glacis where the 45th and 88th, who were just
arriving in time to do good service, suffered very severely
by it. As we struggled up, the resistance, though not
perhaps as determined as it might have been, was still
sufficiently formidable to have daunted the bravest. How-
ever, with all its defects, a night attack has the advantage
of concealing from the view much of danger and of diffi-
culty, that if seen might shake the nerves. But there was
no time then for hesitation, no choice for the timid ; the
front ranks were forced onwards by the pressure from the
rear, and as men fell wounded on the breach, there
they found their (living) grave, being trodden into
and covered by the shifting rubbish displaced by the
feet of their comrades. Some few more lucky, when
wounded, rolled down the slope into the ditch, where they
called in vain for that assistance which could not then be
afforded them, and they added by their outcries to the
wildness of the scene. Such a struggle could not be of
long duration, and the efforts of our men, reinforced as we
were by the two last.named regiments, were in a few mi-
nutes crowned with success ; the enemy's resistance
slackened, and they suddenly fled from before us, escaping
to right and left by boards laid across cuts through the
terre-pleine, by which cuts the breach was isolated ; the
boards they left behind in their panic.
" It was now seven o'clock, the breach was carried,
and the town virtually ours. A voice was heard to shout
above the uproar, " They run, they run !" All crowded
on the summit of the breach, and some spoke of forming
the men on the rampart ; but on that spot there was no
safety, for we had scarcely attained it, when a deadly fire
was opened on us from a breastwork about twenty yards
distant and beneath, formed from the ruins of some houses,
of loose stones, and lined with men. Many of our people
threw themselves on their faces, and in that position
returned the fire with good effect, as I observed, on the
following morning, more than forty of the garrison lying
dead behind the breastwork, shot through their heads,—
the only part of them exposed to our fire.
One portion of our fellows, led by General M'Kinnon,
proceeded to the left along the rampart, and turned the
right flank of the breast-work (which was appuyeed
against the walls), and there firing en them, dispersed the
enemy. .About that time, the expense magazine blew up
on the rampart, destroying the general and many with
him, as well as such of the garrison as were at that end of
the breastwork ; behind which I saw the next day a num-
ber of blackened and mailated
icorpses, hideous and shape-
less, friends and foes, mingled n one common destruction.
I distinctly remember the moment of the explosion, and
the short pause it occasioned in our proceedings,—a pause

that enabled us to distinguish the noise of the attack still
going forward in the direction of the little breach.

- I accompanied a party which pushed across-a
board to
our right, for the purpose of clearing the rampart (on that
side) of the enemy, who still fired on us, but fled on the
first demonstration of attack. Then it was that a gigantic
young Irish volunteer, attached to our regiment, was said
to have uttered that exclamation of surprise at the facility
with which he could deprive• a human b-iog of life, that
became celebrated afterwards throughout the division.
Observing a gal:ant artilleryman still lingering near his
gun, he dashed at him with bayonet fixed and at the
charge. The man stepped backwards, facing his foe, but,
his foot slipping, he fell against the gun, and in a moment
the young fellow's bayonet was through his heart : the yell
with which he gave up the ghost so terrified B- that
he started back, the implement of death in his hands, and,
apostrophizing it, was heard to say, " Holy Moses! how
easy you went into him !" As the first taste of blood
rouses the latent fierceness of the tiger's whelp, 80 this
event seemed to have altered B-'s nature, and doubt.
less lei to his subsequent misfortunes and premature death.
"No enemy being now visible on the ramparts, and
the men who lined the breastwoi k having fled, we advanced
in pursuit, dropping from the wall into the town. At first
we were among ruins ; but having extricated ourselves
from them, we made our way into a large street leading
nearly in a straight line from the principal breach to the
placa or square : up this street we fought our way, the
enemy slowly retiring before us. At about half the length
of the street was a large open space on our left hand,
where was deposited the immense battering train of " the
army of Portugal," and its materiel. Amongst this crowd
of carriages, a number of men ensconced themselves, firing
on us as we passed, and it required no small exertion on
our part to dislodge them. Such of them as were caught
suffered for their temerity. In the meantime, those of the
enemy a-head of us were lost to sight, having entered the
square; for which place we pushed on with as many men
es we could lay hands on, formed, without distinction of
regiments, into two or three platoons ; for the great pro-
portion of those who had started with us had gradually
sneaked off into the bye-streets for the purpose of plun-
dering, which business was already going on merrily. As
we reached the head of the street (which entered the square
at one angle), and wheeled to the left into the open apace,
we received a shattering volley from the enemy, which
quickly spoiled our array. They were drawn up in force
in the square and under the colonnade of the cathedral,
and we were for the moment checked by their fire, which
we returned from the head of the street, waiting for a
reinforcement. At length, when we were meditating a
dash at the fellows, we heard a fire opened from another
quarter, which seemed to strike them with a panic, for cn
our giving a cheer and moving forward, they to a man
threw away their arms as if by word of command, and
disappeared in the gloom like magic. It was the light
division who entered the square by a street leading from
the little breach, and their opportune arrival had frighted
the game which we had brought to bay, leaving the pave-
ment of the square covered with arms and accoutrements.
Resistance had ceased, and the town was captured."