AN EPISODE OF RODRIGO.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 646, 25 February 1914, Page 3

AN EPISODE OF RODRIGO.

THE BURIAL OF GENERAL CRATJFURD. On the 18th of January, 1811, two wide breaches were effected in the walls of Cuidad Rodrigo by the British Army under Wellington. The storming oi the right breach was allotted to the 3rd Division, and the left breach to the Light Division. General Robert Craufurd, of the Light Division, ordered four companies of the Rifles to cover the advance of the Division, and to keep down the fire of the defenders by occupying the crest of the glacis. These were followed by the Portuguese carrying bags of hay to throw into the ditch and break our men's fall, and ladders to escalade the scarp. Then came the Forlorn Hope, of an officer and twenty-five desperate men. Major Napier, of the 52nd, commanded the Stormers consisting of 100 volunteers from each regiment of the Light Division. Craufurd commanded the main body of the Division, and proceeded to the glacis to direct the storm ; here he received the mortal wound of which he died on the 24th. One of his last orders was, "Now, lads, for the breach !'' There was desperate fighting in the breaches, both of which were carried, with a total loss of fifty officers and 650 men. Robert Craufurd was buried at the foot rvf the breach which his beloved Light Division had stormed with such intrepidity. At his funeral there occurred an strident which I have never seen in print, but which was told me about twenty years ago by an old officer of my regiment, General Sir Martin Dillon, who had it from the late Colonel Thomas Smith, a younger brother of Sir Harry Smith, of Aliwal. Both brothers were lieutenants in the Rifle Regiment at the storming of Bodajiz, and both, I believe, were eye-witnesses of the occurrence. All who have read the story of Craufurd and of his iron discipline during the horrors of the retreat of Corunna are well aware how determined he was to punish with the utmost severity any soldier who broke the ranks or attempted by "defiling" to pick his way across wet ground. In fact it is on r<scord that once, when he saw an officer being carried across a stream on the back of a soldier, he ordered the latter instantly to drop his burden in the water and made the luckless officer wade back and recross the river, to the amusement of all ranks. After the Light Division had laid their chief at the foot of the breach he had given his life to capture, and were marching back to their quarters, their route traversed some deep muddy ground interspersed with pools of water, such as is so commonly seen where siege operations have been carried on in wet weather. Not a word was spoken, the deepest depression pervaded all ranks, the men moving along in gloomy silence. As they approached the wet piece of ground they suddenly closed up their ranks and in perfect formation, as ii passing a reviewing general, splashed their way doggedly through the deep mire. Not another sound" was heard ! But its meaning none could fail to understand. It was the last voiceless tribute of these gallant fellows to the memory of their lost chief, who, although many feared him, had earned the admiration and absolute confidence of both officers and men, who long since had realised that it was due to his draconic discipline and admirable thought for the welfare oi his men that the Light Division had become "'the admiration and the envy of the whole Army. "■-•Colonel Willoughby Verner, in the '"Saturday Review."