Notes
Major General Andrew Hay (1762-1814)

A very nice, relevant letter written from the Convent of Santa Clara near San Sebastián. Despite the military significance of the letter, there is a bittersweet poignancy to it. Hay's son George, a Captain in the 1st Foot had just been killed at the battle of Vitoria in July, and here he is acknowledging to Sir Charles Stuart (British Envoy and Minister in Lisbon) a note about his wife. Given the pace of the campaign at this point, it is possible he never again was able to see her. The island in the harbor of San Sebastián is named Santa Clara, and the officers of the British Army following the battle of San Sebastián had trouble finding quarters as much of the town had been sacked and burned, convents being more likely to have survived.

Andrew Hay was born in Mountblairey in Aberdeenshire near Banff. He raised the Duke of York's Own (Banffshire) Regiment of Fencible Infantry on 26 July 1798. They saw service in Ireland and Gibraltar and were disbanded in 1802. He subsequently joined Moore in the Peninsula and fought at Coruña commanding the 3rd battalion, 1st Royals (3/1st), and later in 1809 commanded a brigade at Walcheren. He later returned to the Peninsula under Wellington and as Colonel Hay Commanded the 1st Infantry Brigade (3/1st, 1/9th, 2/38th Foot, Coy Brunswick Oels) at Sabugal and Fuentes de Oñoro under Maj Gen Sir William Erskine's 5th Division. Erskine is one of the more tragic stories of the Peninsular War. When Wellington was advised that Erskine was being sent to command he complained that that he "generally understood him to be a madman." To which the Horse Guards responded: "No doubt he is sometimes a little mad, but in his lucid intervals he is an uncommonly clever fellow; and I trust he will have no fit during the campaign, though he looked a little wild as he embarked." In the event he bungled the capture of Regnier in the fog at Sabugal, and the blockade of the Spanish at the Almeida fortress, allowing the garrison to escape; after several more unfortunate incidents he was cashiered from command, being declared insane. He took his own life in Lisbon in 1813. Major General James Leith was given the command.

Hay was promoted to major general in 1811 and commanded the 1st Infantry Brigade (3/1st, 1/9th, 1/38th Foot, Coy Brunswick Oels) at Salamanca and later at Vitoria under Maj Gen John Oswald's 5th Division (Leith recovering from Salamanca wounds). It was at Vitoria that his son, Captain George Andrew Hay, was killed in action. Captain George Hay, 1st Foot was wounded at Vitoria, 21st June 1813, died on 24th June 1813. Having recovered from his wounds, Major General Sir James Leith - whose aide was incidentally Andrew Leith Hay - resumed command of the 5th Division which was the spearhead of the siege of San Sebastián. The attempts to take the Citadel of Sebastián in July were ineffective and with the arrival of the full siege train a new attack was planned. On 31 August 1813 after several days of artillery against a perceived weakness in the east wall, the 5th division came across the tidal flats of the Urumea River at low water (the Basque "urmehea" means thin water) and threw themselves against the breach. This was one of the more bloody losses of the war in terms of an hourly attrition rate. Wave after wave was repulsed and the survivors left hunkered under the seawalls. Lt. Gen Sir Thomas Graham, commanding the Left Column, instructed his artillery to conduct an operation not before accomplished. "Such practice was to be expected, and Graham's genius was more evinced by the promptness of the thought and the trust he put in the valour of his soldiers." (Napier) He had a barrage of artillery laid down at the top of the breached wall to clear the defenders posted in secondary redoubts. This was in some cases only ten meters above the heads of the British troops who were pinned down. While this might seem a logical vertical rolling barrage today, the fact was that at that time artillery accuracy left a great deal to be desired and there was a fear that the troops at the base of the citadel walls would become victims of friendly fire. But the Royal Artillery carried it off and the troops were able to top the breach and take the city after gruesome house to house combat followed by a regrettable and dishonorable sacking and burning of the city. The battle was incredibly costly with 2,376 casualties on that day alone with the 5th losing nearly half of their number and Generals: Leith, Oswald, and Robinson were wounded. This is directly accounted for in Hay's letter when he states: "The General Sir James Leith is, though severely wounded, recovering fast, Gen'l Robinson walking about"

Hays reference to "this division [5th] expect in a day or two to go into position between Irun & Oyarzun (being part of Sir Thomas Graham's Column)" was spot on. It was likely that Soult would seek to raise the siege: "To raise the siege of San Sebastián it was only necessary to force a way to Oyarzun, a small town seven or eight miles beyond the Bidassoa, from thence the assailants could march at once upon Passages and upon the Urumea. The royal road led directly to Oyarzun." (Napier)

Hay's comment: "They seem rather alarmed as they are entrenching themselves, the weather will soon be such as  most of the Passes of the Pyrenees impassable except by Irun & the Great Road where we are so strongly posted that if they had a mind to make another trial they certainly would be repulsed with great loss, as they were on the 31st Nigh." On August 31st French Marshal Soult, not realizing San Sebastián had fallen, mounted a belated relief assault across the Bidassoa (river marking the boundary of France and Spain) in the Battle of San Marcial, the Spanish Army of Galicia under General Freire turned back Marshal Soult's last major offensive against the Duke of Wellington's allied army in one of the best Spanish efforts in the War since Bailen. Hay's comment upon the entrenchment of the French is echoed by Napier. With the wounding of the other generals, Hay assumed Command of he 5th Division. As part of the Left Column, the 5th division was subsequently moved to the small town of Fuenterrabia at the mouth of the Bidassoa estuary. It was from here that on October 7th, 1813 they crossed the river at low water in a surprise attack and became the first British troops to land in France. Hay later led the division at the Battles of the Nivelle and Nive.

As Wellington pressed on into France, he left Lt. General the Hon Sir John Hope (Left Corps) and the 5th Division behind to besiege Bayonne. Wellington had invested Soult at Toulouse when word came that Napoleon had abdicated on April 12th 1814 and the war was over. However, in the last engagement of the Peninsular War, Thouvenot, Governor or Bayonne, who already knew of Napoleon's abdication, launched a major sortie of 6,000 men to break the siege. And on April 14th, although the sortie was driven back, Major General Andrew Hay was killed, while Hope was wounded and captured. We do not know if ever again he saw his wife who lived to see her husband and son fall at the end of the war.
     In honor of his service, the public in England erected a Monument to him which is in the North Transept at St. Paul's Cathedral in London, a rarified and esteemed location:

"ERECTED AT THE PUBLIC EXPENSE TO THE MEMORY OF MAJOR GENERAL ANDREW HAY. HE WAS BORN IN THE COUNTY OF BANFF IN SCOTLAND, AND FELL ON THE 14TH DAY OF APRIL 1814, BEFORE THE FORTRESS OF BAYONNE IN FRANCE, IN THE 52ND YEAR OF HIS AGE AND THE 34TH OF HIS SERVICES, CLOSING A MILITARY LIFE MARKED BY ZEAL, PROMPT DECISION AND SIGNAL INTREPIDITY"