1812.

SIEGE OF CIUDAD RODRIGO,

January. The new year commenced with the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo, by the following divisions:

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January 6th. Head-quarters advanced this afternoon from Freneda to the village of Gallegos, where we arrived late at night, and very bad quarters in a Spanish cottage. 8th. Shortly after dark, parties from the 3d, 4th and light divisions broke ground before Ciudad Rodrigo, under a heavy cannonade from the besieged. An outwork or forti

fied convent, called the Convento de San Francisco, was most gallantly stormed by detachments from the light division. The immediate directions of the siege were vested in Lieut.-General Graham, in whose skill Lord Wellington placed the highest confidence. The weather continued dry and very cold, and the country around wore a wintery aspect, the "Sierras de Gata" being covered with snow.

15th. The batteries being fit to receive the guns, which had arrived during the night, they were drawn into the trenches, and a heavy fire was opened upon the walls this morning, and was continued without intermission day and night. Marshal Marmont being informed of this unlooked-for attack upon Ciudad Rodrigo, re-assembled his army near Salamanca, and proceeded by forced marches to the relief of the place.

STORMING OF CIUDAD RODRIGO,

Sunday Evening, 19th January.

At 8 o'clock Ciudad Rodrigo was carried by storm by the following divisions of the army, which were formed into five columns.

The troops moved from the camp as the sun went down, and concealed themselves in the trenches until the signal for the attack was given. The 1st, 2d and 3d columns, led by Lieut.-Colonel O'Toole, Major Ridge and Major-General Mackinnon, and consisting of troops of the 3d division, all under the command of General Picton, were ordered to storm the breaches made on one side of the town, while the 4th column, consisting of the 43d, 52d and 95th regiments, under Major-Generals Crawford and Vandeleur, the forlorn hope or advance of which

was led by Major Napier of the 52d, should assault the town on the other side; and Brigadier-General Pack with the Portuguese troops was to draw the attention of the. enemy by a feint or false attack at a third point. These several attacks were crowned with complete success, although the 4th column, composed of the 45th, 74th and 88th regiments, sustained a momentary check by the explosion of a mine, by which MajorGeneral Mackinnon was blown into the air, and the column suffered severely. In about half an hour from the commencement of the assault the town was in possession of the British, and the garrison (about one thousand seven hundred men, with the governor, General Banier) made prisoners. As I passed by the convent de San Francisco about 10 o'clock, some parties were removing the poor wounded out of the ditch. Lord Wellington soon afterwards returned to his headquarters at Gallegos, where he arrived about midnight. Our loss by the storm was not so severe as might have been expected. Valuable as the services were of those whom we had lost, it was a subject for congratulation, that

in killed and wounded they did not exceed five hundred men. Major-General Mackinnon was killed, and Major-Generals Crawford and Vandeleur were wounded.

January 21st. The prisoners marched from Gallegos for Lisbon.

24th. Major-General Crawford, who had commanded the light division, died at Ciudad Rodrigo of the wounds he received in the storm, and was buried with military honours according to his rank. Lord Wellington and other general officers attended the funeral. The Hon. Major Gordon, aide-decamp to Lord Wellington, set out for London with the dispatches; and the Spanish General, Don Miguel Alava, for Cadiz, where the news of this conquest was so joyfully received, that Lord Wellington was created Duke of Ciudad Rodrigo, and a grandee of Spain of the first class.

February. Marshal Marmont assembled his army, and commenced his march from Salamanca about the time of the capture of Ciudad Rodrigo, but finding himself too late to save the place, he resumed his former cantonments between the Tormes and the Douro,