The Siege of San Sebastian
July 10th - August 13th 1813

The Second Attack Planned

by Leon Parté, UK

Soult having been defeated on August 24th, the siege was resumed. A new battering train had arrived from England, although scanty supplies of ammunition had been sent with it. On the 26th, 57 pieces of ordnance of all kinds opened fire from the two attacks. The points selected for breaching were the same as in the previous bombardment, and the results were soon and satisfactorily apparent.

Rey reported to Soult that great damage had been effected both on the fortification and town, and this increased daily. Yet the blockade was so ineffective that help was sent from France, and to check this the island of Santa Clara, lying to the westward of the peninsula, was captured. A battery placed on this island caused great annoyance to the castle, which it enfiladed. On August 30th it was reported that the breaches were practicable. Lord Wellington arrived about 3 p.m., and having made a close examination of the condition of the fortress, he ordered the second assault to be for 11 am next day.

Wellington was prepared to take the risk while sparing no effort to succeed. His eagerness in this respect led him to do a grave injustice to the brave but unfortunate men who had been beaten back in the first attack. He would not again trust to the 5th Division alone, but he called for volunteers from the 1st, 4th, and Light Divisions, asking for “ men who could show others how to mount a breach” ; and 750 under intrepid officers at once responded to the appeal.

But the commander of the 5th Division, Sir James Leith, who had general charge of the assault, would not suffer his own men to be put aside by the volunteers, and gave the main attack to one of his own brigades. Some of the volunteers he distributed along the line of the trenches to keep down the enemy’s fire; the rest were in reserve with Leith's second brigade, held to support the attacking columns. A diversion from the main attack was to be made by a body of Portuguese, who were to ford the Urumea at low water, and advance against the farther breach in the eastern wall. At the same time the rear of the castle was to be threatened by a battalion embarked in the boats of the squadron.

In this second attack there was to be no doubt about daylight. The hour fixed was 11 AM when the tide was low, and there was room for the troops to move between the walls and the water. The British batteries were to have harassed the garrison from early dawn, but a thick fog hung like a screen till 8am and from that hour only until the columns started was all possible damage done. The first to move out was a brave sergeant, who, with a dozen men, had volunteered to run forward and cut off the slow match of a mine the French had ready to fire. These heroes failed; the train was exploded prematurely, and a mass of wall fell upon the advancing column, killing many.

The forlorn hope had, however, got past before this catastrophe, and made for the breach, headed by Lieutenant Macguire, who , “conspicuous from his long white plume, his fine figure, and his swiftness,” soon, alas, met his death, and the stormers swept onwards over his corpse. The main column now followed and ascended the breach, but their foremost ranks were at once annihilated by the destructive musketry from the inner retrenchment. Those behind pressed forward undaunted, to suffer terribly , for there was no clear road, no descent possible, into the body of the place. Inner defences had been thrown up beyond the breach, and the stormers when thus detained were exposed to a fierce fire from the ramparts, and from the guns on the castle heights.

The most favourable inlet was found at the breach in the left half-bastion; but here the dense masses of the assailants offered huge targets, and the loss was appalling. Fresh troops were, however, sent constantly forward in support, and ere long more than half the 5th Division and all the volunteers were either actively engaged or had been stricken down. About 1 p.m. the Portuguese made their attack; they crossed the sands in beautiful order and gallantly assaulted the third breach.

That of a second column, who reinforced the assailants at the main breach, speedily followed this successful passage. And yet no substantial impression was made. All these heroic efforts proved fruitless. In this desperate situation Sir Thomas Graham, having consulted with the chief of the artillery, determined to concentrate the fire of all our available guns upon the high curtain or rampart above the breached bastion. Forty-seven guns thus brought to bear cleared away the defenders; they did far more, for the gunners knew the exact range, and pitched their shell into the magazines, which speedily took light; explosion followed explosion, and a general conflagration broke out. Hundreds of the French defenders were destroyed, and the rest were thrown into confusion, and while the ramparts were still enveloped with suffocating eddies of smoke the British soldiers broke in.

But the garrison, although at a disadvantage, were not yet conquered; a fierce hand to hand conflict ensued; the French fell back inch by inch, and only yielded to the verwhelming numbers of their assailants. About the same time the Portuguese made good their entrance at the lesser breach. Then the stormers, swept forward irresistibly; although the streets and squares were barricaded, the French, being instantaneously attacked in every direction, made no further resistance in the town. Several hundreds were taken prisoner; the still indomitable Rey withdrew the rest into his citadel on the Monte Orgullo.

The last phase of this stubborn struggle had been fought amid a most terrific thunderstorm. Rey held out for many days in the citadel. Wellington was now at San Sebastian in person, and he resolved to assault the castle by escalade, after concentrating on it the fire of all his guns. Fifty-nine heavy pieces opened simultaneously from all parts, and within a couple of hours the batteries were broken down, magazines exploded, and the castle itself was untenable. Then Rey surrendered, and next day he and his brave garrison marched out of their last stronghold with all “the honours of war.”

The Siege of San Sebastian July 10th - August 13th 1813

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