of a French battery at Ampolla, and carried the town of Perello by storm; by which means two of the enemy’s privateers, employed in maintaining a correspondence with Tarragona, and intercepting the trade passing the mouth of the Ebro, were taken; and the communication between Tortosa and the Col de Balaguer was much straightened[1].
Early in June following, the fort of the Col de Balaguer, situated in a most difficult pass, through which the high road from Tortosa to Tarragona winds, armed with 12 pieces of ordnance, including 2 ten-inch mortars, and 2 howitzers, with a garrison of 101 officers and men-, was taken after a siege of five days, by a naval and military force under the command of Captain Adam and Lieutenant-Colonel Prevost, of the 67th regiment[2]. On the following morning, those
- ↑ See Commander Joseph Corbyn, in our next volume.
- ↑ See Captain W. F. Carroll, C.B.
badly wounded. * * * * Our own ships, as well as the transports, have been the receptacles of the miserable objects which saw no shelter but in the English squadron; and you will see by the orders which I have found it necessary to give, that we have been called upon to clothe the naked, and feed the starving, beyond the regular rules of our service.”
Captain Codrington further stated, “that General Contreras, the Commandant of the garrison, (to whose exposition of the siege we have already alluded at p. 873, of our first volume,) was reported to have been wounded and taken prisoner, but not before he had particularly distinguished himself; that the Governor of Tarragona (Gorizales) with a handful of men, defended himself to the last, and was bayoneted to death in the square, near his own house; that man, woman, and child, were put to the sword upon the French first entering the town; and afterwards, all those found in uniform, or with arms in their houses; and that the females of all ages underwent the most brutal violation; after which many of them were said to have been thrown into the names, together with the badly wounded Spaniards. A thousand men were left by the ferocious Sachet to destroy the works, and the whole city was set on fire.”
Thus fell Tarragona; and thus, through treachery, or if we may be allowed to use a softer term, through heinous neglect on the part of Spanish officers holding the most responsible situations, who omitted to have ammunition forwarded in sufficient quantity to the troops stationed on the walls, the French were afforded an opportunity of carrying on their designs against the southern provinces of Spain, without apprehension of any considerable force remaining behind to check their movements. “Had I been assisted by the army on shore” says General Contreras, “as I Was assisted by the squadron of Commodore Codrington, Tarragona certainly would not have fallen.”
