Assault on the Breach of San Sebastian by Mark Churms  The siege of San Sebastian from June 28th to August 31st 1813 was the third of the three great successful sieges carried out by Wellington's army during the Peninsular War. The siege operations on this occasion were conducted by Graham while Wellington was based at his headquarters in the Pyrenees at Lesaca. With Soult having been thrown back across the French border there was no real reason to hurry the siege. There was little hope of there being any interference from any relieving enemy force and Graham was able to carry on the operations and a more leisurely pace than at Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz. On these latter two occasions, the close proximity of French relieving armies had forced Wellington to commit his troops to the assault before he was entirely satisfied with the condition of the breaches and as a result heavy casualties were sustained. San Sebastian was rather a small town, situated on a low, sandy peninsula, dominated by a rocky mountain called Monte Orgullo, upon which was built a castle. The town was bordered on three sides by the waters of the Bay of Biscay and could only be approached by land from the south. To the east of the town flowed the river Urumea which at high water formed a sort of wide estuary. The town itself lay at the southern foot of Monte Orgullo and was separated from the castle by a line of defensive works. This meant that even in the event of the town falling to the Allies the castle was still defensible. Graham chose the eastern wall of the town, standing about 27 feet high, as the target for his siege guns which were positioned upon the Chofre Sand Hills away to the east. Having blasted suitable breaches Graham's men would have to storm the place by crossing the Urumea at low tide. Graham's 10,000-strong force began its siege operations on June 28th but it was not until July 25th that the first assault was made by Oswald's 5th Division and Bradford's Portuguese brigade, neither of which were able to get inside the place which was defended by a brave and determined garrison of about 3,000 French troops under the command of General Rey. During the next few days Soult launched his attack across the passes in the Pyrenees, an episode chronicled in the previous chapter, but with the attack having been repulsed the Allies were able to turn their attention to San Sebastian once more. On August 26th more siege guns arrived from England, Wellington now being able to supply his army through the ports along the coast of northern Spain, Passages in particular. After four days of accurate, sustained fire the eastern wall of San Sebastian was reduced to a crumbling wreck and a practicable breach made with another, smaller being effected further to the north. Rey's artillery also suffered and was practically silenced although both the garrison and the Spanish population were kept busy all day and night clearing the rubbish from the walls and repairing defences in the breaches. On August 30th Graham was satisfied with the state of the two breaches and gave orders that the place was to be stormed at noon the following day. The timing of the attack was, therefore, quite a departure from the normal practice of storming a town after dark. On this occasion, of course, the timing was purely dependent on the tide but what it did mean was that Graham's stormers would attack in full view of the defenders in broad daylight. It was not a pleasing prospect but the storming of a town afforded the British troops the chance of plunder and drink and of release from army discipline. They had acquired a taste for such things at Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz and no matter what obstacles were placed in their way they were not to be put off, nor would there would be any shortage of volunteers for the `forlorn hope'. Graham's plan involved an attack on the main breach by the 5th Division and Bradford's Portuguese, who were supported by 750 volunteers from the 1st and Light Divisions. Further to the north some 800 Portuguese volunteers would wade through the shallow waters of the Urumea and attack the smaller breach. The morning of August 31st dawned bright and fresh after a night of heavy rain and thunderstorms and as the columns of British and Portuguese stormers formed up ready to begin the assault crowds of local people wearing their holiday clothes began to congregate in order to watch. When the signal for the assault was fired the Allied troops began to pick their way across the beach through shallow rocky pools to make their way towards the breaches which yawned silent, intimidating and invitingly before them. When the `forlorn hope' approached the walls the watching French gunners opened up with a devastating blast of grapeshot that swept away half of `the hope' in an instant. For the next hour or so Graham watched helplessly as his men were smashed against the defences while the spectators elsewhere watched in awe. The garrison proved as tenacious as those at Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz and all manner of shells, grenades and other combustibles were thrown down to explode amidst the columns of Allied infantry. The defenders lined the ramparts and opened up a withering fire into the attacking columns, bringing them grinding to a halt. At this point Graham issued an order to Colonel Alexander Dickson, commanding the Allied artillery, an order based partly on inspiration and partly on desperation. Graham asked Dickson to open fire over the heads of the stormers and onto the French guns in the town. It was perhaps one of the earliest examples of a creeping barrage and was certainly a gamble, but it worked. The astonished British stormers pushed their faces to the ground as shot and shell screamed just a few feet overhead to crash into the French guns and defenders behind the ramparts. The stormers lay listening to this terrifying but pleasing symphony for about twenty minutes and when the guns lifted they stormed forward to carry the defences which had been torn apart by the guns. the breaches had all but been abandoned by the defenders and when a magazine exploded killing and wounding a large number of Frenchmen the town was as good taken. As Graham watched from the sandhills he saw with relief his men disappear into the smoke as they drove the remaining French troops from the breaches. San Sebastian was taken soon afterwards although the castle of La Mota held out until September 8th. Allied casualties were 856 killed and 1,520 wounded. The aftermath of the storming of San Sebastian was much the same as that at Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz as the victorious troops embarked upon an orgy of destruction which was made worse by a fire that engulfed the whole town. There were fierce accusations afterwards that Wellington himself had ordered the town to be put to the torch as it had been continuing to trade with France, accusations which Wellington denied although he might well have felt justified in resorting to such a measure. We'd like to thank Ian Fletcher, renowned military author on the Peninsula and Waterloo, for his contribution to our website.

History of the First Royal Scots at San Sebastian  Sir Thomas Graham, with the 1st and 5th Divisions - the latter including the Royals - was told off to invest that formidable place of arms, and before long two breaches, reported practicable, had been made. To the storming of one of these the Scots had the good fortune to be set, and at the dawn of a July day they started up out of the trenches and dashed forward to the gap. "Major Peter Fraser", says the regimental record, "while gallantly encouraging his brave men, was killed. Though the cannon of the fortress thundered in front, the French poured down their volleys of musketry and grenades, shells and stones darkened the air, yet onward went the Royal Scots and assailed the breach with a degree of valour and intrepidity which rivalled the gallant exploits of their predecessors under the great Gustavus. But the defence around the breach had not been destroyed. Success was found impossible, and the stormers were ordered to retire." As the Divisional orders said, "The Royal Regiment proved by the numbers left in the breach, that it would have been carried had they not been opposed by real obstacles, which no human prowess could overcome." In this terrible struggle the battalion lost, in killed and wounded, 333 officers and men. But though the ranks of the Royal Scots had been thus far more than decimated, their courage was far from damped. A few days afterwards a false attack was ordered in the night to make the enemy spring their mines, a most desperate service undertaken by Lieutenant Macadam. The order was so suddenly issued that neither volunteers were asked nor rewards offered for it, but instantly some of the Scots leaped forth to court what seemed instant death. With a rapid pace and loud shouts, in extended line, and firing rapidly, they rushed towards the breach, where the whole party perished save their leader, who was twice wounded, but survived to obtain high rank in the service. After a month's more battering at the walls, another assault was ordered, and again the forlorn hope was headed by the fire-eating, perfervid Scots, with whom to take a thing in hand was finally to accomplish it. As a voice - recorded by Kinglake - sang out at the Alma, when the Highland Brigade was advancing, after the Guards and Light Division had failed to make headway against the Russian squares: "Let the Scotsmen go on! They'll do the work". And never did these Scotsmen go on with a brisker appetite for work than at fortressed San Sebastian with its terrific means of defence. The Royals, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Barns, and supported by the 38th regiment, were directed to assault the left of the second breach. "The assault", says the record, "was made with great gallantry. Some of the traverses of the semi-bastion were carried by the leading companies, but were retaken by the enemy. Nothing could have exceeded the bravery and steadiness of the troops employed at this point, and the enemy, observing the whole division in motion, sprang a mine on the top of the curtain, but the explosion was premature, and only a few of the leading men of the Royal Scots suffered from it. Yet, undismayed by the bursting mine and the fierce opposition of the enemy, the Scots pressed forward upon their adversaries and carried the coverlain: troops crowded into the town in every direction"; and after several hours of the bloodiest and most stubborn fighting recorded in all history, San Sebastian was won, the citadel surrendering some time later. "Indeed", wrote Sir Thomas Graham, "I conceive our ultimate success depended upon the repeated attacks made by the Royal Scots", who, in two assaults, had lost 531 officers and men, or more than half their entire number." (Excerpt from The Glories and Traditions of the British Army. (Naval and Army illustrated Feb 26th 1897). The First Royal Scots or Lothian Regiment by Chas Lowe)