When the concentration of the enemy's forces and the failure of the attack on Burgos rendered a retrograde movement necessary, the army withdrew in the night, and the French following in full career, several skirmishes occurred. On the 24th of October the army was in position behind the _Carion_, and the KING'S OWN were bivouacked near Villa Muriel. The position was attacked on the following day, and a French column having passed the river, took some prisoners at the village and lined the bed of a canal; the brigade under Major-General Pringle's orders was directed to clear the canal, and the FOURTH advanced against their adversaries. The French troops were driven back, the village was re-occupied in force, and the canal was lined by the allied troops; but the army withdrew before day-break on the 26th and the retreat was resumed.
The army took up positions from time to time to retard the advance of the enemy; and having crossed the Douro and the Tormes, it was posted behind the latter river until the middle of November; when a further retreat to Ciudad Rodrigo took place. The KING'S OWN having entered Portugal went into winter quarters at the villages of Valdigeen and Saude, in the vicinity of Lamego.
Both battalions having sustained considerable loss during this campaign, the second transferred its private men fit for duty to the first battalion on the 24th of December, and, proceeding to England, was stationed in Colchester barracks, where it was shortly afterwards recruited in numbers by volunteers from the militia.
The second battalions of the thirtieth and forty-fourth regiments being also reduced in numbers were sent to England, and the first battalion of the KING'S OWN remaining in cantonments on the northern frontiers of Portugal, was united in brigade with the second battalions of the forty-seventh and fifty-ninth regiments, under the orders of Major-General F. P. Robinson.
The campaign of 1813 was opened in May, when the army, entering Spain, advanced against the enemy; the FOURTH formed part of the force which traversed the mountainous country of Tras-os-Montes, turned the enemy's position on the Douro, and forced him to retreat; the rear of the retiring army was closely followed in its retrograde movement; and the enemy, having blown up the castle of Burgos, took a position on the Ebro, from which he was forced by a flank movement.