3. The Battle of Maida (5)
The French Columns Descend from the Heights
At this moment—it was now a quarter to nine—the whole face of affairs was changed by Reynier’s army suddenly leaving its position and descending into the plain with remarkable celerity and admirable order. The French general, confident in his strength and exactly acquainted with the position of the British by means of his cavalry vedettes, had been intending to attack all along, but he had deliberately waited till Stuart should have advanced far enough from the sea to put him beyond the protection of the guns of the British squadron. He then descended upon his adversary, intending, as he says in his dispatch, “to make a vigorous charge, which should smash up a section of the enemy’s force, so that the remainder would not be able to re-embark, and would have to surrender, especially the part which had been turning our left”.
Sending out his 300 cavalry and his horse artillery guns to cover his movement, Reynier came rushing down from his camp in three columns. The southern one was to give the main blow; it consisted of the two best French regiments, four battalions of the 1st Léger and the 42nd Line, veteran troops with an old record of victory from Bonaparte’s first Italian campaigns. They counted in all 2,880 men. The second column, intended to form a support for the first, or to continue its line northwards so as to form a centre for the army, was composed of the three foreign battalions, two of Poles, one of Swiss; it was much smaller than the first, counting only a little over 1,500 bayonets under General Peyri. The third column, which was led by Digonet, had a much fuller curve to make, in order to get into line; it was composed of the 1,250 bayonets of the two battalions of the 23rd Léger, and had the cavalry and guns attached to it—for Reynier’s right was his weak point, being out in the open plain, and not covered (as was his left flank) by the wood lying below the French camp.
The three columns coming down the hill at the same moment, but having very different distances to cover in order to get into line, it soon resulted that the French army, like the British, fell into an echelon of brigades, with the left advanced, Compère leading, Peyri some way to his right flank and rear, and Digonet, again, some way to Peyri’s right flank and rear, except that his cavalry and guns, which were already down in the low country, were far ahead of the whole of the rest of the army. These 300 sabres found themselves opposite Cole, on the left of the British line; they endeavoured to stop his progress by ostentatious preparations to charge, and brought up four horse guns to play upon him. Cole replied by changing from column into line, and bringing up the three British field guns of the reserve, which engaged in a harmless but noisy duel with the French battery. The result was that Cole’s brigade got a little delayed, and that the echelon which it formed became separated by a considerable gap from Acland, the brigade next on its right.
Since Stuart was advancing with three brigades in echelon from the right, and Reynier with three brigades in echelon from the left, it was clear that Kempt and Compère would meet long before Acland faced Peyri, and that Acland and Peyri would be at close grips long before Cole came near Digonet’s two infantry battalions. Oswald was still far to the rear of Cole and Acland, as was indeed intended. This fact settled the general shape and course of the battle, which was fought in three separate sections, starting from the east and ending in the west.
Kempt, on seeing Compere’s brigade descending from the hills, formed his seven British companies in line, and threw out his 250 Corsican and Sicilian sharpshooters on his right, to cover his flank and explore the scrubby thickets beyond the Lamato, which lay below the deserted French camp. The light battalion, according to the rules of regimental seniority, which were strictly observed, had the company of the 20th on the right, next it the two companies (flankers, etc.) of the 35th, next de Watteville’s company in the centre, and finally the 61st, 58th, and 27th, the last on the extreme left.
Kempt had done well to cover his right with the Corsicans, for just as these had crossed the almost dry bed of the Lamato, and advanced among the bushes, they were charged by two companies of tirailleurs, whom Compère had placed under cover to protect his left flank. The Corsicans, receiving a sudden volley, broke and fell back into the open ground in disorder, followed by the French. But Kempt detached his two right companies, the light company of the 20th, and the “flankers” of the 35th, who crossed the Lamato, rallied the Corsicans, drove back the tirailleurs into the wood, and left the foreign light companies to “contain” them, while they themselves returned at the double to take their place on the right of the light battalion. They had hardly reformed when the crash came.
The 1st Léger in two battalion columns was now coming down upon the right and centre of Kempt’s line. Deducting the skirmishers on the eastern flank of each force, who were now bickering in the woods, the two French battalions had 1,600 men in line, the seven British companies only 700, so that the numerical advantage in favour of Compère was overwhelming. Neither side had any skirmishers out in their front, all having gone off to the flank. The ground was level and sandy, bounded by the shallow Lamato on its western side.
The two forces were quite isolated for the moment, though if Kempt looked to his left rear he could see Acland coming up with two battalions in line a quarter of a mile behind him, while if Compère looked to his right rear he could see the 42nd Ligne, also two battalions, coming on in column at a similar distance. The French 42nd, it maybe remarked, had 1,046 men, Acland’s 78th and 81st a decidedly superior force, the Highland regiment with about 700, the 81st with about 600 men in line. But Peyri with 1,500 Swiss and Poles was not very far in the rear of the 42nd. The rest of the troops on either side were almost hidden from the earlier combatants by the dust and the shimmering mirage which lay over the plain on a hot day.
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