The Campaigns of the British Army at Washington and New Orleans 1814-1815 | Page 4

was not a wall nor a tree which did not present evident
proofs of its having been converted into a temporary place of defence,
whilst the deep ruts in what had once been lawns and flower-gardens,
showed that all their beauty had not protected them from being
destroyed by the rude passage of heavy artillery.
Immediately beyond the village of Bedart such spectacles were
particularly frequent. It was here, it may be remembered, that in the
preceding month of December there had been fighting for four
successive days; and the number of little hillocks now within our view;
from under most of which legs and arms were beginning to show
themselves, as well as the other objects which I have attempted to
describe, sufficiently attested the obstinacy with which that fighting
had been maintained.
In the bosom of a man of peace it is very conceivable that all this
would have excited feelings exceedingly painful; in ours, such feelings
were overborne by others of a very different nature. If we gazed with
peculiar interest upon one hovel more than upon another, it was
because some of us had there maintained ourselves; if we endeavoured
to count the number of shot-holes in any wall, or the breaks in any
hedge, it was because we had stood behind it when "the iron hail" fell
thick and fast around us. Our thoughts, in short, had more of exultation
in them than of sorrow; for though now and then, when the name of a
fallen comrade was mentioned, it was accompanied with a "poor
fellow" the conversation soon returned again to the exploits and

hair-breadth escapes of the survivors. On the whole, therefore, our
march was one of deep interest and high excitement, feelings which did
not entirely evaporate when we halted, about two hours after noon, at
the village of Anglet.
MARCH TOWARDS BORDEAUX--ANGLET
We found this village in the condition in which it was to be expected
that a place of so much importance during the progress of the late siege
would be found, in other words, completely metamorphosed into a
chain of petty posts. Being distant from the outworks of Bayonne not
more than a mile and a half, and standing upon the great road by which
all the supplies for the left of the British army were brought up, no
means, as may be supposed, had been neglected, which art or nature
could supply, towards rendering it as secure against a sudden excursion
of the garrison as might be. About one hundred yards in front of it
felled trees were laid across the road, with their branches turned
towards the town, forming what soldiers, in the language of their
profession, term an abattis. Forty or fifty yards in rear of this a ditch
was dug, and a breastwork thrown up, from behind which a party might
do great execution upon any body of men struggling to force their way
over that impediment. On each side of the highway again, where the
ground rises into little eminences, redoubts and batteries were erected,
so as to command the whole with a heavy flanking fire; while every
house and hovel lying at all within the line of expected operations was
loop-holed, and otherwise put in a posture of defence. But upon the
fortification of the church a more than ordinary degree of care seemed
to have been bestowed. As it stood upon a little eminence in the middle
of the hamlet, it was no hard matter to convert it into a tolerably regular
fortress, which might serve the double purpose of a magazine for
warlike stores and a post of defence against the enemy. With this view
the churchyard was surrounded by a row of stout palings, called in
military phraseology stockades, from certain openings in which the
muzzles of half a dozen pieces of light artillery protruded. The walls of
the edifice itself were, moreover, strengthened by an embankment of
earth to the height of perhaps four or five feet from the ground, above
which narrow openings were made, in order to give to its garrison an

opportunity of levelling their muskets; while on the top of the tower a
small howitzer was mounted, from which either shot or shell could be
thrown with effect into any of the lanes or passes near. It is probably
needless to add that the interior arrangements of this house of God had
undergone a change as striking as that which affected its exterior.
Barrels of gunpowder, with piles of balls of all sizes and dimensions,
now occupied the spaces where worshippers had often crowded; and
the very altar was heaped up with spunges, wadding, and other
implements necessary in case of an attack.
I have been thus minute in my description of Anglet, because what has
been