The Second Peninsular War

Twenty years ago, my friends and I played a Napoleonic campaign using a combination of Empires in Arms and Napoleon’s Battles rules. We had so much fun, we continued after the official conclusion of the game which saw Napoleon triumph over a grand coalition but not without cost in 1815. Later wars would increasingly feature technological and organizational advances but remained recognizably Napoleonic in style.

The results of these later wars were written up by me and initially circulated as bulletins amongst the players but eventually grew to short campaign stories in the Osprey style. Having found them again, I guess they fit the alternative history tag.

N.B. The original layout and pictures don't easily copy&paste so this is just the bare bones....



Return to Spain


Chapter 1 The Return of the King

Ferdinand VII was crowned King of Spain in 1814 at the successful conclusion of the bitter Peninsular War. A popular figure head for the Junta’s which had fought the French, he was returned to power after many years of gilded captivity in France but shackled to a liberal, progressive constitution formulated by the Spanish politicians, Junta leaders and the common people who had sacrificed much fighting the French and wanted something in return.

Ferdinand loathed the new constitutional monarchy the Junta’s had forced him to accept and quickly sought adherents to overthrow this affront to absolute power which had been the hallmark of previous Spanish kings. Faced with independence movements in the Spanish colonies in America, Spanish politics fractured into pro-independence movements which favoured a close but equal relationship with the colonies and hard-line conservatives which favoured military action to crush the rebels. King Ferdinand realized this was the opening he needed to regain executive power in Spain. After securing a powerbase in the army and the Catholic church, both strong reactionary powers, Ferdinand repudiated the constitution, executed liberal politicians and tried to govern as an absolute Monarch while sending large numbers of soldiers to the colonies to crush the rebellions.

This failed due to his own lack of capacity and character and by 1820, the Spanish populace was in open revolt. Three years of total anarchy followed and the nations of Europe looked at Spain in alarm as atrocity followed atrocity and revolutionaries and adventurers from all over Europe flocked to Spain.

While most European countries favoured the monarchy as a political system, a stable monarchy still required both a competent monarch and a measure of political representation if only to retain a measure of legitimacy and acceptance from the masses. King Ferdinand’s bloodthirsty rampages and ineffective rule undermined the stability of Europe and caused concern in the capitals of Europe yet none favoured military intervention as the memories of the Peninsular War were still fresh.

The former leaders of the Junta’s against the French were now desperately dodging Ferdinand’s agents. Their dream of an independent and strong Spain had been betrayed by the man they had welcomed back as their King. Ferdinand seemed determined to drag Spain back to middle ages with his misrule, leaving her once again a victim of stronger nations.

All over the country side, the peasants were once again up in arms but the royal army held sway in the cities. The leaders of the uprising against Ferdinand knew their improvised peasant armies could never defeat Ferdinand's royal army in open battle or successfully take the fortified cities, much as they had struggled in similar fashion against Napoleon's French. They needed foreign support and regular troops. And the only realistic options were Great Britain or France.

In many ways, Spain was never a unified kingdom. It consisted of separate, semi-independent realms ruled by a common King. During the Peninsular War, each province mostly fought its own war against the French. While strategically a weakness, their very independence prevented the French from crushing the rebellion. Any defeat of Spanish troops had only a very limited and localized effect. In the latter part of the war, the diverse Junta's did cooperate in a fashion but relations remained fractious. And so it proved once again as the Junta's reassembled to fight their own King.

Luckily, one man arose to lead them. In 1808, a young guard officer named Jose de Palafox made a brave attempt to free Prince Ferdinand from French captivity. Although this failed, the heroic attempt catapulted the sub-lieutenant to the rank of Captain-General of Aragon, surely the only time in history that a Lieutenant rose to Marshal in a single promotion. Palafox was not a particularly skilled or experienced field commander but he proved to be a highly charismatic fighter who could incite commoners to great acts of courage and perseverance.

His stubborn defence of Saragossa became a national epic which inspired the Spanish during the years of warfare against the hated French. Captured after the fall of Saragossa in 1809, Palafox was held captive in France until 1813. After the war, he refused many honours offered to him and retired from public life, further endearing himself to the common people.

As King Ferdinand's popularity declined, he enticed Palafox back into service as the commander in chief of the Royal Guard. The King hoped Palafox' popularity would rub off on him but received a serious setback when Palafox chose the side of the constitutional forces. He was stripped of his rank and honours but Ferdinand's agents were unable to arrest him before he slipped away. With his reputation sky-high, Palafox was the natural leader of the insurrection and he gave it a face and political direction.

Having been comrades in arms, the Junta’s naturally appealed to the British first. The conservative British government however sided with King Ferdinand. Great Britain was up to its old tricks once again. While it politically favoured a conservative Spanish government with limited political representation, it also recognized that Ferdinand was a weak King. And that meant a weak Spain and thus less competition to Britain’s position as a global trading power.

With this avenue unexpectedly closed, the Junta leaders had no other option than to appeal to the French. Surprisingly, this actually was their best chance. When Napoleon made his daring return to power in 1815, he had been forced to formulate a very liberal constitution to secure the necessary political backing. Even after his successes in the field, the political opposition was too strong for Napoleon to impose his previous one-man dictatorship and the largely liberal French senate wielded considerable power. As such, they had a lot in common with the Spanish leaders, especially as the rebels did not necessarily want to abolish the Spanish monarchy, just reign in the absolute power of the King, abolish the worst excesses and allow for more political representation. In effect, the Spanish leaders and the French liberals were speaking the same language. In addition, the Spanish appeal offered France the chance of gaining a friendly neighbour, something France had lacked since 1813.

But while the French senate slowly moved towards supporting the Junta, Marshal Davout, Minister of War and regent for the 12 year-old Napoleon II, was loath to send French armies into Spain again. Spain had proven a veritable graveyard for the Grande Armée and Davout recognized the messy situation in Spain for the hornet’s nest it was. He and the imperial army loudly opposed the idea of military intervention.

Under the French constitution, the Emperor and thus his regent acted as the political executive but parliamentary approval was required for every decree. The opportunity to gain an ally and reopen Spanish markets to French commerce was simply too attractive to ignore and eventually, Davout was forced to consent. France would once again send troops across the Spanish border.

The protracted political deliberations in Paris were held quite openly and King Ferdinand had little trouble staying abreast of developments. As the spectre of another French invasion loomed ever greater, King Ferdinand sent his diplomats to London to renew their alliance against the French. And just to ensure the diplomats would do their utmost to secure the alliance, the cruel King had their families imprisoned.

Lord Liverpool, the British Prime Minister, was not adverse to a bit of violent repression himself and thus had less animosity towards King Ferdinand of Spain than the majority of the British. His problem lay in weighing the dangers of facing the vaunted French in battle once again against loosing Spain as both ally and weak competitor. Since the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Spain had been a strong market for British goods and even the Spanish colonies had been opened up to some trade with Britain.

The British government did not favour a continental war, especially without multiple coalition partners but the memories of its earlier successful campaigns in Spain eventually won the day. Another expeditionary force would be sent. And Field Marshal Wellesley would command it.
 
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Chapter 2 The opposing leaders

Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, Duke of Vitoria, Duke of Ciudad Rodrigo, Field Marshal
Nicknamed the “Iron Duke”, fifty four year old Wellesley was a grasping social climber who married ability with ambition. A cool and decisive commander, extremely brave and energetic under fire, he was highly respected by his troops, despite his outspoken contempt for them. Wellesley was a brilliant defensive tactician with an excellent eye for defensive terrain. His offensive skills were less outstanding as he often had to balance the risks to his valuable army against the chance of outright success and thus habitually opted for the least risky option. Principally an infantry commander, his greatest drawback was a failure to understand proper cavalry usage or combined arms assaults. His grasp of strategy was of the highest order and Wellesley had a knack for concentrating his forces at the right place, although he could be fooled on occasion as he was very sensitive to his own lines-of-communication.

Francisco Xavier Castanos, Duke of Baylen, Captain-General of Spain
Sixty seven year old Castanos was Spain’s most able senior commander. His first great success came when he forced French General Dupont to surrender at Baylen in 1808 and he was the only Spanish commander to achieve success in open battle against the French. Castanos studied military science in Germany and was one of the few Spanish commanders to have an understanding of modern tactics. Because of his extensive experience leading Spanish armies during the Peninsular Wars, Castanos was the only Spanish general with the ability to lead large armies with a modicum of efficiency.

Jean Soult, Duke of Dalmatia, Marshal of France
Fifty four year old Soult was a brilliant administrator, strategist and organizer who had been largely responsible for the creation of the Grande Armée in 1803. As a field commander, he was an able tactician, with a special flair for elegant manoeuvres but he suffered from a lack of the killer instinct which marked some of the more aggressive French marshals. Together with Prince Davout and Prince Ney, Soult was the most famous of Napoleon’s remaining Marshals and certainly the most ambitious.

Guillaume Brune, Duke of Alessandria, Marshal of France
A distinguished army commander during the revolutionary wars, sixty year old Brune was an ardent republican. He fell from favour in 1807 as Napoleon’s imperial grandeur reached its heights and received no further commands. Surprisingly, he rallied to Napoleon in 1815 as he could not bear to see France threatened with invasion once again. In the campaigns of 1815, he covered himself with glory. Unlike some marshals, Brune was an experienced and able independent army commander and, common to most French generals, he was exceptionally brave.
 
Chapter 3 The opposing armies


The Spanish Army

The Spanish army had emerged from the Napoleonic wars with the worst reputation in Europe. Lacking proper training and competent leadership, the army was in fact no more than an armed rabble. Recruits were conscripted from the most unskilled peasants while the officer corps was largely formed by indolent nobility who considered military rank part of their birthright. There were few officers who made the effort to learn their trade and a casual contempt for their own men was as much part of the officer corps as their inability to manoeuvre under fire. Faced with empty coffers after long years of warfare and occupation, the royal army had declined from a post war strength of 170,000 to approximately 80,000 men by 1823. Supporting them was the Provincial Militia, locally recruited part-time troops with a nominal strength of 100,000 men. In reality, the strength, equipment and training of the militia depended on the vigour and ability of the local nobles and over two-thirds of these militia troops actually joined the insurgents against the crown. There was no officer training and no regulated drill, so standards differed per regiment. The one exception was General Zayas’ ‘blue’ division. Trained and equipped by the British during the Peninsular War, this force of blue clad troops had shown that Spanish troops were equal to others if properly trained and led. The celebrated blue division still numbered 6,000 veterans amongst its ranks. Between 1814 and 1818, King Ferdinand sent approximately 35,000 of his most reliable troops to the colonies to re-establish Spanish rule.

When the Spanish people rose in rebellion, the conservative army fought on the side of the King with great brutality.

Organization
At the head of the Spanish royal army was a royal guard of 4,000 foot guards and 1,000 horse guards. Concentrated in a single mixed division, these were heavy assault forces and were generally considered the best troops in the army after foreign regiments were abolished in 1814.

On paper, the line consisted of 100,000 line infantry, clad in white uniforms. To reduce maintenance costs, just 53,000 troops were actually under arms. Untrained conscripts would be used to bring the regiments up to strength in case of war. Spain also fielded more than 8,000 light infantry. These blue-clad cazadores were all former guerrillas and excelled in irregular combat.

Spain was not a good horse breeding country nor did its barren plains and mountainous regions lend itself to massed cavalry operations. In addition, cavalry required well trained troopers and mounts under skilled leadership, none of which applied to the Spanish cavalry.
The line cavalry consisted 1,000 heavy cavalry; red-clad coraceros in captured French cuirasses and helmets and 3,000 light cavalry; blue-clad cazadores and multi-hued hussars.

The field artillery fielded just 120 guns originally provided by the British while the many fortresses in Spain mounted hundreds of cannon of bewildering calibre and vintage.

Spanish forces were organized in either infantry or cavalry divisions which were then assigned to field armies. There was no intermediate army corps level. The armies mostly operated independently which suited their quarrelsome generals. There was no supreme commander to enforce cooperation between multiple armies as this post was considered too much of a threat to the King. While each army consisted of infantry, artillery and cavalry, few Spanish commanders were able to supervise proper combined arms assaults with their forces, leaving each branch to fight its own battles.

Tactics
Spanish infantry habitually fought in line and manoeuvred in column, in common with all European armies. But because of their poor level of training, manoeuvres were painfully slow and troops easily became disordered unless defending a fixed position. Some regimental commanders preferred columns for combat as columns were less prone to disorder. But troops in column formation required high morale to attack which was often lacking in the Spanish infantry.

Manoeuvring a cavalry unit properly required a lot of skill and experience which was lacking in the Spanish cavalry. Due to budgetary reasons, training was practically non-existent. Screening, reconnaissance and battlefield attacks were all poorly executed, often leaving the infantry to fend for themselves.

The artillery was equipped with fine British guns and equipment. Artillery had undergone significant progress in the past decades with improved gunnery techniques and new artillery tactics. The Spanish artillery corps, mostly employed as garrison artillery during the Peninsular War, missed most of these innovations and post war, lacked the funds to experiment and catch up with the other armies.

Spanish generals were notoriously uncooperative. Filled with arrogance and a fine appreciation of their position in society, they preferred operating on their own which made combined manoeuvres impossible to arrange. Armies were therefore often wielded in unwieldy blocks under the strict supervision of its commander in chief so uncooperative underlings had the least room for obstruction.

The British Army

Britain’s army had been very successful in the Peninsular War, only to suffer ultimate defeat at the hands of Napoleon in 1815. While this was a significant blow to the prestige of the British army and their noted commander Wellesley, the subsequent defeats of the other coalition members lessened the sting considerably. During the following years of peace, the army declined in size and returned to its traditional mission of colonial occupation and overseas conquests. To maintain the required numbers of their volunteer force, conditions and pay were improved. Most officers came from the nobility and gentry as pay was still insufficient for officers without private means. Recruits for the rank and file were a mix of patriotic men transferring from the home militia and the truly desperate. As a standing army filled with volunteers, the British were able to achieve a very high level of training compared to conscript armies. The army was supplemented by a large part-time militia.

Organization
The organisation of the British army was determined largely by civil war in its past where the standing army had been used to prop up Cromwell's regime. After the restoration of the monarchy, Parliament created a dual system where a small regular army was used to garrison overseas territories and field expeditionary forces while a large, part-time Home Militia provided security for the home isles.

The British Monarch was allowed only a small royal guard of less than 5,000 infantry and 1,500 heavy cavalry. Copying the French, the British foot guards were issued with tall bearskin caps while the guard cavalry adopted body armour after the Napoleonic wars ended. While often deployed in the field together with the line troops, the guard units never formed complete guard divisions for decisive assaults in the continental tradition.

The red coated line infantry consisted of highly trained volunteer troops. Because they were expected to serve overseas on a semi-permanent war footing, the line regiments were all up to strength, providing Great Britain with 65,000 superb redcoats. The pride of the infantry consisted of 2,000 elite riflemen in dark green uniforms and 2,000 red coated light infantry armed with muskets.

The superbly mounted British cavalry numbered over 10,000 troopers. The heavy cavalry fielded 3,000 men in the dragoon guard and dragoon regiments while the light cavalry fielded more than 7,000 troopers divided in regiments of light dragoons, hussars and lancers. After suffering defeat in the Belgian campaign of 1815, the British introduced further reforms which included much copying of the French. The dragoon guards were equipped with body armour while several light dragoon regiments were converted into lancers.

The blue clad artillery fielded 220 guns, of which 40 belonged to the elite horse artillery.

Tactics
Like all European armies, British infantry utilized both the line and the column. Traditionally, the British had always favoured strong musketry to offset their weak numbers and much attention was given to musket practice and proper deployment in line. The British army did suffer from poor leadership. British officers were brave but unskilled and thus incapable of proper combined arms tactics or counter tactics. This left them vulnerable to a combined arms assault.

British cavalry was unskilled in both screening and battlefield assaults. The former required initiative and specialized outpost skills while the latter required strong discipline and equally specialized battlefield skills. The British cavalry leaders never learnt how to properly husband their forces and how to use multiple attacks combined with reserves. They were only capable of a single all out charge.

The British artillery was well equipped and well trained but due to its modest numbers never had the strength to both provide local artillery support and form massed batteries. Local artillery support was important, especially in defence but massed batteries were required when attacking in order to dominate opposing artillery and hopefully disorder or drive off enemy troops.

Wellesley was well aware of the British deficiencies in cavalry and artillery and the general lack of ability in performing combined arms attacks. He had circumvented this weakness by fighting his battles on constricted ground that prevented the French from applying their advantages in cavalry and artillery.

Wellesley, the dominant British general of the era, stamped his views on the British army. He had little faith in most of his subordinates and kept a tight rein on his forces, often directing forces down to battalion level unlike Napoleon who used his corps commanders as battle field managers.

Because of Wellesley´s dislike of subordinate initiative, British troops were usually fielded in divisions under his direct command, without a intermediate corps level. This worked well in small armies of less than 30,000 men but larger armies became quite unwieldy.

The French Army

The French Army had scaled the heights of glory and plummeted to the very depths during their long wars. Deeply ingrained in their soul was a sense of glory and élan. Nominally a conscript army, conscription had been the most hated aspect of the Napoleonic empire. So in a political compromise, the army took in few conscripts each year but relied mostly on long term volunteers to fill their ranks. These were mostly veterans of the long wars of the past decades. Training and experience was thus high. The officer corps was superb, filled with highly experienced ex-rankers and/or dynamic and highly able combat leaders. Napoleon didn’t suffer any fools after all…A major, yet unrecognized, fact was that the Imperial army was aging. In 1815, the average age of Colonels and Generals was 40. In 1823, the average age had risen to 50, with a corresponding loss of vigour. The same development could be seen in the rank and file. Instead of young men in their early 20s, the average age had risen to 30.

The long wars had depleted France’s human and financial resources and France needed the years of peace to allow for a slow recovery. The French parliament however also wanted to clip Napoleon’s aggression and purposely limited the size of the regular army while building up the National Guard to secure its borders. The army therefore numbered just 150,000 men while the part time National Guard fielded 200,000 men in its regiments. These were locally recruited men who only served when the national guard was called up in times of emergency. Ideally, the National Guard would assume responsibility for fortresses and provide rear area security, releasing the regular army for field operations.

Organization
The most famous military force in the world was the French Imperial Guard. It formed a separate corps and numbered 8,000 old guardsmen and 8,000 young guardsmen in two infantry divisions and 2,000 heavy cavalry troopers and 2,000 light cavalry troopers in two cavalry divisions.

The line consisted of 100,000 men in line and light infantry regiments, dressed either in blue and white or all blue. Most regiments were up to strength as long term veterans filled their ranks. Line infantry were trained to fight in ranks with a secondary capacity for skirmishing while light infantry were equally capable of fighting in ranks but prided itself on their faster marching, higher esprit de corps and superior marksmanship when skirmishing.

Normally, an infantry division would consist of 3 or 4 line regiments with perhaps a single light infantry regiment. But the French had observed the success of the British light division during the Peninsular War and were experimenting with their own versions of light infantry divisions with either a complete light infantry complement or mixed with light cavalry.

Emperor Napoleon had a fine appreciation for the value of cavalry and ensured that France would field the largest regular cavalry force in Europe with 20,000 troopers. The iron fist of France consisted of 6,000 white uniformed carabiniers and blue-clad cuirassiers, both types equipped with body armour. His 4,000 green-clad dragoons formed a hybrid force, capable of serving both as heavy and light cavalry. The light cavalry consisted of 1,500 elite multi-hued hussars, 3,500 soberly clad green chasseurs a cheval and 5,000 green-clad lancers. Napoleon had first encountered the lance in Egypt and after some harrowing experiences with the lance armed Cossacks, he regularly increased the percentage of lance armed cavalry in his army until they formed the majority.

The elite of the French army was its artillery corps. Napoleon was a gunner by profession and he lavished extraordinary attention on his artillery. It had the best equipment, cannon, training and doctrines and could field an astounding 1,000 guns. Pride of place went to the imperial guard artillery of 100 guns.


Tactics
A typical French corps was composed of 2-3 infantry divisions, a light cavalry brigade and artillery, engineers and support services and was designed to fight independently. This gave French commanders great flexibility. Supporting the army corps were 2 cavalry corps of cuirassiers and dragoons each, intended for decisive shock action on the battlefield. Typical of the French army was the imperial guard and use of massed artillery batteries. French infantry usually fought in lines or an unique mixed formation, screened by light infantry and relied on a succession of attacks to break the cohesion of the enemy. Army doctrine favoured the attack as fitting with French élan. A new development was the light infantry division, meant to act as an advance guard during marches and a screening force for a corps-sized attack.
 
Chapter 4 Plans & Deployments

After having signed an alliance with the British, King Ferdinand’s limited intellect was wholly absorbed with the problems posed by the rebellion. There was no Spanish chief of the General staff to formulate an overall plan as that post would concentrate too much power in the hands of a possible rival. King Ferdinand, as titular commander-in-chief, remained solely in charge of overall strategy and he simply lacked the required talent.

Ferdinand had approximately 60,000 regulars and 70,000 militia troops available to guard his borders and crush the rebellion. His main attention remained focused on punishing the rebels and crushing their defiance. The bulk of his forces therefore remained engaged in bloody counter insurgency operations.

There were two invasion routes into Spain along the Franco-Spanish border; the western route Bayonne – San Sebastian and the eastern route; Perpignan – Gerona. Two armies were placed at either end; the Army of the Left under Captain-General Castanos (35,000 men) and the Army of the Right under Lieutenant-General Blake (20,000 men). Both armies were separated by more than 100 miles of mountainous terrain.

After his unexpected defeat at Waterloo, Field Marshal Wellesley had been living in semi-retirement in England. Over time, his reputation recovered and he again became the leading British general of his time. Once the decision was made to send troops to Spain again, Wellesley was the obvious choice to lead them.

England put together an expeditionary force of 45,000 men, larger than the previous force led by Wellesley in Spain. Wellesley distrusted Spanish intentions and abilities as he had amble experience with their duplicity but he knew he would have to cooperate with them as his army was too small to withstand the larger French army without Spanish support. Sending such a large force to Spain with the necessary supplies would take several months and Britain found itself in a race with France to be ready before the invasion occurred.

Luckily, Wellesley enjoyed cordial relations with Captain-General Castanos and actually outranked him due to his Spanish titles and honorary Captain-Generalcy in the Spanish Army. Both armies took up defensive positions in the mountains around San Sebastian, guarding the most likely invasion route into Spain

Marshal Davout grudgingly set to work in July preparing for the invasion of Spain. His first task was to choose an army commander. Out of the marshals with previous Spanish experience available, Soult was undoubtedly the most experienced and most senior. Soult had few victories against Wellesley to his name but he enjoyed much respect amongst the British army as the “Duke of Damnation”, a play on his ducal title of Duke of Dalmatia.

As such, Soult was the obvious choice. Together, Davout and Soult, Napoleon’s old paladins organised the Army of Spain. From all over France, veteran regiments marched towards the concentration point at Bayonne while a much smaller corps of observation formed at Perpignan under Marshal Grouchy. Both marshals were aware that the Spanish terrain would prevent France from deploying its main strength; overwhelming cavalry and artillery. Instead, the burden would fall on the infantry. To ensure success, Soult’s 75,000 strong army would include the new light infantry division.

Marshal Soult’s orders were to support the rebels. Palafox joined the newly forming army and hammered out a basic strategy with Soult. To force King Ferdinand to accept the liberal constitution, Soult would have to capture Madrid and ideally destroy the Spanish army. To achieve this, Soult decided to invade Spain along the classical invasion route: Bayonne, San Sebastian, Vitoria, Burgos, Madrid. By October, Marshal Soult had assembled enough supplies and was ready to take the field.
 
Chapter 5 Invasion

Minor cavalry clashes were a daily occurrence as French lancers screened the French concentration around Bayonne in October. With his 75,000 men united, Marshal Soult crossed the border on 4 October, preceded by his advance guard under Prince Jerome Bonaparte, the flamboyant but inept younger brother of Napoleon. The French were forced to march over atrocious roads and their advance soon became a disjointed effort as their columns became strung out. Soult’s troops were forced to attack British and Spanish strong points frontally, which led to heavy casualties. Led by their charismatic officers, the French stumbled on.

After 10 days of heavy fighting, Soult had crossed the mountains at a cost of 4,000 men while the Allies lost about 2,000 men, as strongpoint after strongpoint was battered into submission and their small garrisons captured.

Wellesley was unable to get Castanos to accept a subordinate position so both armies would fight together but independently. Wellesley, whose lines of communication ran westwards to Corruna took position on the left while Castanos deployed on the right. Both assumed a traditional linear position with their flanks covered by cavalry and their artillery distributed evenly along their line. Wellesley, being the ultimate micro-manager, personally placed each battalion and deployed a thick skirmishing screen in front of his main line. He had also ensured any French advance would be disrupted by rocky terrain. In contrast, Castanos had sought the most even terrain possible, to facilitate his slow moving troops. Almost 70,000 allied soldiers stared across a fog shrouded field in the mountains of the Pyrenees.

The French army was disorganized by its haphazard advance. Prince Jerome had allowed his 15,000 strong advance guard to lose cohesion as it battered strong point after strong point. Encountering the allied skirmishers, Jerome was slow to understand he had bumped into both Allied armies. Predictably, he launched a succession of unsupported attacks and was repulsed every time.

By the time Marshal Soult reached the field, Jerome’s men were fought out, with 2,000 of their casualties littering the field. Soult didn’t like the look of the battlefield but he was equally aware he couldn’t linger in the inhospitable mountains.

Prince Jerome’s corps was played out, leaving Soult with Marshal Ney’s and Marshal Vandamme’s men. Both were legendary commanders in the French Army and as notorious for their aggressiveness as for their inability to follow orders. Soult decided to play to his strength and deployed Vandamme opposite Wellesley while Ney arrayed his corps against Castanos. Soult’s plan was simple; while Vandamme demonstrated against Wellesley with heavy skirmishing and limited probes, Ney would launch an all-out attack against the Spanish.

Castanos’ Spanish troops were not as bad as their reputation made them out to be but they were severely outclassed against veteran French troops led by the legendary Marshal Ney. They managed to give a good accounting of themselves but the result was never in doubt. First his men were battered by French artillery, then subjected to lengthy galling fire by skirmishers before being swept away by heavy infantry attacks, only to be pursued by French cavalry.

Ney’s success spurred Marshal Vandamme on to exceed his orders. But the British were made of sterner stuff. Vandamme was forced to strengthen his skirmish line with line troops to beat down their opposing numbers. This weakened his main infantry assault to the point that it was unable to defeat the solid British lines. Without the massed artillery to support their attacks, each assault was repulsed. While casualties were relatively low, Marshal Soult had no choice but to withdraw as the battle petered out. His men were starving and disordered and needed time to refit. The battle of Irun cost the French 8,000 casualties while Spain lost 10,000 men and Britain lost just 2,000 men. With the Spanish Army of the Left in flight, Wellesley was loath to leave his strong position and take his chances with a French army which had been mauled but not defeated. For a total loss of 14,000 casualties, the allies had stopped Soult and forced him to return to Bayonne. It seemed as if the war had been won.

Marshal Soult found himself in Bayonne with a demoralized army, a situation similar to the one he had also found himself in 1813. He proposed the same remedy as then; a quick reorganisation, followed by an surprise offensive.

The French knew winter was approaching which would stop all active campaigning. Palafox was urgently prodding the French to act; King Ferdinand was sure to step up his efforts to crush the rebellion after the Battle of Irun. Next year, the countryside might well be pacified.

Paris was not pleased with the bulletins from Bayonne. French prestige had been sky high after the successful campaigns of 1815. The lost battle of Irun undermined that prestige and Austria was always a dangerous and restless rival. Marshal Davout considered replacing Soult with another commander but in the end decided to retain him for the time being. The Duke of Damnation would get a second chance!

Realizing that a simple frontal assault would not do against a clever opponent like Wellesley, Soult decided to use subterfuge. With considerable more light cavalry to screen his forces against the weak allied cavalry probes, the allies were unable to determine what Soult was up to, especially as they could not count on the populace for information as during the Peninsular War, because they now favoured Palafox and the Junta’s.

What Marshal Soult was up to was to lure the bulk of the allies away from his front. Marshal Grouchy’s small corps of 20,000 men was to attack Gerona and cause Lieutenant-General Blake to call for assistance.

On 10 November 1823, Marshal Grouchy launched his attack and feinted towards Gerona. His cavalry brushed the weak Spanish screen aside and the French marched down the Gerona highway through the Eastern Pyrenees at great speed. General Blake’s small Army of the Right tried to stop the invasion but suffered the same fate as their cavalry in the battle of Figueras. Grouchy’s men rolled over Blake’s troops while they were still trying to deploy and his army fled into the fortress of Gerona, leaving 4,000 men behind; dead or captured.
 
Blake sent desperate messages for support to Castanos and Wellesley. Grouchy could not continue his invasion without first taking Gerona although the Spanish didn’t realize that was never his goal. By trapping Blake’s army in Gerona and causing a crisis on the right, his job was already done.

King Ferdinand swallowed the bait and directed Castanos and Wellesley to relieve Gerona immediately. Castanos’ Army of the Left was still reforming after their battering at the Battle of Irun so only Wellesley’s army was available. None too pleased, Wellesley had little choice but to obey Ferdinand or cause a political crisis and soon his army was on the move with Wellesley constantly looking over his shoulder at his lines of communication.

Four days later, Marshal Soult launched his new offensive, aimed at the Allied left and the major town of San Sebastian. The French overran the Allied advanced lines in a series of skirmishes, with modest casualties on both sides. Despite their easy success, the French were once again disorganized as their corps advanced over the bad roads.

General Castanos sent panicked messages to Wellesley, requesting his immediate assistance but the British were unlikely to reach the Spanish before the French arrived. Castanos had no other choice but to accept battle on his own if he was to keep the French out of Spain. Having learnt nothing from his earlier defeat, he again sought out open fields to deploy his reformed Army of the Left.

Marshal Soult’s Army of Spain outnumbered Castanos by two to one and the French had nothing but contempt for the Spanish regular forces. Soult was not expecting any serious opposition and therefore deployed his army with speed rather than effectiveness in mind. He planned to roll over the Spanish and capture San Sebastian before Wellesley could retrace his steps.

The Spanish had not quite recovered from their earlier rout during the Battle of Irun but they certainly didn’t lack in courage or patriotism. Fighting the French had been their goal for an entire generation and so they took up their positions and used courage and hatred to repel the first French attacks.

Soult had not expected the Spaniards to withstand his hasty attacks which were largely uncoordinated and without proper artillery and cavalry support. Realising he might have an actual fight on his hands, he set about organising an all arms assault to smash through the enemy lines. Fortune intervened however as a stray cannonball smashed Marshal Soult into gory ribbons. His death threw the French in great disorder. Soult may not have been the most flamboyant or the most popular of Napoleon’s marshals but he had been one of the original set created in 1804 and he had fought at all the famous battles of the Empire’s heyday. French soldiers had grown up with his exploits and his death in battle forced all of them to acknowledge their own mortality. None more so than Prince Jerome who was splattered with Soult’s remains.

Marshal Ney, bravest of the brave, assumed command of the army and ordered an immediate cavalry charge by all 6,000 lancers and chasseurs assigned to the Army of Spain. Ney was a rather simple soldier, many would even claim he was a simple-minded soldier but he had an instinctive grasp of tactics and a fine appreciation of his soldier’s morale. An unsupported cavalry charge had little hope of achieving success. But the sight of thousands of charging troopers would have a powerful rallying effect on the French infantrymen and might well rout the Spanish who were known to be poor soldiers and easily startled.

True to form, Ney and his staff took up position at the head of the glittering ranks of cavalry. One could question if a Marshal of France had any business leading a charge but this was an era in which common soldiers were expected to stoically stand in lines and face death or mutilation. Such obedience was only possible if their leaders, from callow lieutenant to ennobled marshal, shared the risks in the front lines. Ney was well aware of this and also knew that his presence would motivate the cavalry to great heights.

The massive charge rolled forwards. Spanish artillery blew gaps in the French ranks but the cavaliers closed ranks and spurred their horses onwards. Spanish infantry started forming squares. Some succeeded, others were too slow and were annihilated in a blink of an eye and some squares even collapsed as the French cavalry smashed into them. The Army of the Left was unravelling, Ney’s unorthodox tactic seemed to working even better than expected. But there was still an act to play. Castanos fielded just 3,000 cavalry but this included the Spanish coraceros. They counter charged the French, just as the French cavalry was stalled around the Spanish squares and easily overthrew them, using their greater size, momentum and body armour to great effect. Marshal Ney was a conspicuous target and was badly wounded in a swirling fight between maddened coraceros and his desperate staff. His aides managed to rescue the marshal and take him back to the French lines but news of his death was soon spreading. While untrue, Ney was unconscious and in no state to disprove the tales.


The loss of the popular Ney demoralised the French. Soult was respected but Ney was loved. With his loss, the fight went out of the French army. Indecision gripped the French command. Marshal Vandamme was the next in line and he judged his troops unable to win the battle after losing two army commanders. Prince Jerome, still badly shaken by his near death at the side of Soult, was in no shape to continue the battle either and thus the decision was made to retreat once again. Once again, Spanish losses comfortably exceeded French losses in the Second Battle of Irun by 11,000 to 5,000 but another French invasion had been thwarted.

Sullenly, the French retreated back to Bayonne, again screened by their cavalry. Castanos had grasped victory from the jaws of defeat and was more than happy to let the French retire unmolested. While the French trudged through the mountains snow covered the thousands of dead littering the passes and deserted battlefields. Meanwhile, the allies settled down in their bivouacs and awaited events.
 
Chapter 6 A winter of discontent

Marshal Vandamme’s Army of Spain took up defensive positions along the border and tried to recover from their second setback. As yet, they had not penetrated Spain any further than Irun, making a mockery of their name. Marshal Soult and Marshal Ney had been popular with their men and their loss brought gloom to the army. Ney would recover from his wounds but it would take many months before he could take the field again.

Vandamme and Prince Jerome could not lift the aura of defeat and the dispatches to Paris became increasingly panicky as Prince Jerome expected an Allied invasion of France at any moment. The fact that the mountain passes were closed now that winter had come did not occur to him.

Jose Palafox travelled to Paris after the second repulse to strengthen French political support which was wavering badly after the Paris received the recent casualty lists. Perhaps 18,000 casualties were not that high after the bloodbaths of the Napoleonic Wars but after 8 years of peace, they were enough to shock the French citizens.

In Paris itself, the situation was tense. Marshal Davout, the iron regent, was stricken by tuberculoses and on his deathbed. Nobody knew how stable the Napoleonic regime truly was. While the royalist menace had receded, republicanism was still very much alive in France. During Napoleon’s reign it had been held at bay and Davout had proven an iron fisted regent for Napoleon II. No one was willing to challenge the Iron Marshal.

With him out of the picture, a vacuum arose. Prince Imperial Napoleon II could not be crowned until his 20th birthday, still 7 years in the future and his mother, Empress Marie-Louise had been ostracized by the French when she returned in 1815. Her escapades with her Austrian lover were too widely known and she lived a life of seclusion at Saint-Cloud.

While the defeat of Soult’s army cast dark shadows over Paris, in Vienna it was seen as a ray of sunshine. The Austrian war party bitterly resented the loss of Austrian prestige, not to mention the loss of influence in Italy to the French. Emperor Francis had adamantly opposed any war with France since 1815 but the war party, led by Prince Metternich, had patiently waited for an opportunity to regain prominence.

After Napoleon’s death in 1821, they had tried to get Emperor Francis to go to war but Prince Schwarzenberg, Austria’s leading general, had opposed war on the grounds that the army was not ready. In 1824, the army was ready and the war party quickly gained the upper hand at court, supported by British diplomats waving bags of gold.

Emperor Francis still opposed a war with France but strong pressure from his court forced his hand. Austria would quietly build up supplies in Mantua as a supply base for a renewed Italian campaign.

Field Marshal Schwarzenberg would gradually form a 100,000 man-strong army in Venice and Mantua. While the army formed, Austria would await the result of the expected French spring offensive in Spain. In case of a new defeat, Austria would declare war and re-conquer France’s Italian satellite kingdom.

In Paris, the imperial guard patrolled the streets and the mobs were restless....While there were many different political flavours available and the Parisian mob could make or break any government, the army was considered the final arbitrator. Napoleon’s coup d’état had been founded on his popularity as a victorious general. He had the charisma and the personal touch to win the army’s support for his imperial ambitions. For the common soldier, Emperor was just another rank in the army.

After Napoleon’s death, republicanism was once again on the rise. The army had eagerly embraced republicanism during the revolution and while it took great pride in its imperial victories, it remained staunchly individualistic and republican in nature to the point of ignoring certain Imperial decrees. For example, in 1811, Napoleon ordered all musicians to dress in Imperial livery. This smacked of Bourbonism to the army and most regiments simply ignored the decree.

Davout, Soult and Ney were the most highly regarded Napoleonic commanders. The other Marshals were less wedded to the Napoleonic legacy. Some were indeed better known for their republican leanings. Marshal Saint-Cyr had even voted against Napoleon being crowned Emperor.

And thus the dance of the marshals began. Brune, Jourdan and Saint-Cyr were firmly in the republican camp. Vandamme, Drouot and Mortier were staunch imperials. Which left Grouchy, MacDonald and Pajol to swing the decision either way.

The joker in the pack was Jose Palafox. He had no vested interest in French politics beyond the need for French bayonets and both camps were willing to continue the campaign in 1824. Palafox however had a foreigner’s appreciation of French society and politics. He managed to convince the republicans that the Napoleonic legacy was still too strong. The army and the people were in their hearts still too wedded to the glory and power Napoleon had given France. It would take at least another generation for that glory to diminish. If the republicans supported imperial rule for the moment, they could extract notable concessions for their acceptance of a new emperor.

Palafox’ insight and persuasive arguments eventually won over the republicans. They supported the appointment of Marshal Mortier as new regent. Mortier was an uncomplicated man with little taste for politics. Brave to a fault, he made an excellent commander of assault troops but even Napoleon acknowledged Mortier was not the smartest man in the world when he said his ‘mortar had a short range’. Mortier, the commander of the imperial guard since 1815, satisfied both the imperials and the republicans. The man himself was less than pleased with this duty as it meant he had to hand over his beloved guards to Marshal Drouot.

Tension slowly lessened in Paris as the new appointment took effect. Marshal Mortier’s first official act was a wholesale change of command of the Army of Spain. It was clear that something was rotten in that force and Mortier felt only a clean sweep would solve the problem. Marshal Vandamme and Prince Jerome were relieved together with all their divisional commanders. As a further sop to the republicans, Marshal Brune, the celebrated veteran of 1815, was made the new commander-in-chief. Accompanying him were all the remaining marshals. All except for Pajol had seen much service in Spain during the Peninsular War.

However even Mortier could see that sending all the republican marshals to command France's main army could prove dangerous. They might well build sufficient loyalty amongst the men to be able to secure a coup. So Marshal Mortier sent the imperial guard under Drouot as well to join the field army, ensuring a solid core of imperialists in the army.

Once in Bayonne, Marshal Brune set about restoring morale. His first act was to rename the army. In recognition of the famous republican armies of the revolution such as the Army of the Sambre and Meuse and the Army of the Rhine and Moselle, the army was christened the Army of the Ebro and Tagus. Grouchy’s corps of observation was added to the army and further reinforcements appeared as Mortier denuded northern garrison towns to increase the Army of the Ebro and the Tagus to 140,000 men. To ensure Brune had everything to succeed, this included the dragoon divisions under the reassigned Marshal Grouchy and even a cuirassier division. The successful charge of the Spanish cuirassiers had come as quite a shock to the French cavalry and Marshal Brune was determined to regain the upper hand. Cuirassiers and the old guard would show these uppity Spanish what the true strength of the French army was.

Brune also completely revamped the supply system for his army. Traditionally, French armies ´lived off the land´ which was an euphemism for stealing food from the local civilians and only carried ammunition and spare material in their supply trains. This had permitted them to use much smaller and nimbler supply trains and allowed French armies to march much faster than other armies. This system broke down in Spain which was a poor and barren country, unable to provide food for large armies. This forced French armies to disperse in search for food and coined the well deserved phrase “in Spain small armies are defeated and large armies starve”. Many marshals had begged Napoleon to reorganize the French supply system in Spain but Napoleon never realized the reality of warfare in Spain and his armies suffered as a result. In contrast, Wellesley had recognized the fundamental truth of campaigning in Spain and organized a supply chain consisting of thousands of mules and bullock carts shuttling supplies from sent from England via Portuguese ports to his troops in the field.

Brune organized a similar system and virtually denuded the south of France of mules and carts to create a supply train capable of supporting his large army.

With massive reinforcements, 7 new marshals and a proper supply train, the Army of the Ebro and Tagus slowly prepared for the spring offensive.

King Ferdinand was most pleased with the British and his own armies. The despised French had been defeated. Now all he needed was a bit more time and he could properly crush the insurrection. As a token of his appreciation, Duke Wellesley was made a Prince of Spain. The caustic Wellesley would have preferred supplies for his army. Although Britain sent replacements for his losses, feeding his army proved a problem as the populace fought a guerrilla war against his troops, a sharp contrast to 1808-1814. Out of his 45,000 troops, 15,000 were tied down guarding the lines of communication, leaving him with just 30,000 men, dispersed in the mountains and slowly starving.

King Ferdinand had difficulty keeping his forces up to strength. The army traditionally took poor, uneducated peasants as recruits. With the countryside up in arms against the King, he had to rely on city dwellers. Many of them were traditionally exempt from conscription and Ferdinand was in no position to harm relations with those supporting his regime so conscription efforts were relatively mild. His two main armies on the border were each kept at a strength of 30,000 men which left barely another 30,000 to fight the insurgency. Even if the French were not marching on Madrid, their mere presence prevented King Ferdinand from concentrating his strength and crushing the rebels.
 
Chapter 7 Spring recovery

Marshal Brune had last fought the British in 1799, 25 years ago. He had never faced Wellesley before but was aware of the awe the British commander still commanded.
Brune therefore decided not to attack the British but to defeat the Spanish on the allied right and march down to Barcelona. This would turn Wellesley’s right and force him to abandon the Pyrenees and fall back behind the river Ebro, leaving a sizeable territory to the insurgents. The French could then fight the Anglo-Spanish army in the open and fully utilize their superior cavalry. It would also please Palafox...

Palafox had been nagging Brune for months to support his poor people while Marshal Mortier in Paris did the same. The only way to escape the constant prodding would be to set his army in motion and on 9 March 1824, Marshal Grouchy led the advance guard forward. Consisting of 2 light infantry divisions and 8,000 light cavalry, it skilfully screened the line corps, blinding Field Marshal Wellesley to the elaborate French moves, as Brune slowly shifted the bulk of his army from Bayonne in the west to Perpignan in the east. Only Marshal Jourdan’s corps of 25,000 troops remained south of Bayonne to pin the British. As soon as the mountain passes were passable, the French advanced down the Gerona highway.

Their offensive caught the Spanish by surprise, as everyone had expected Marshal Brune to attack on the left near San Sebastian and initiate a third battle of Irun. Communications between the Spanish and Wellesley were quickly severed by Marshal Grouchy’s dragoons, leaving General Blake on his own to fight the French once again with his badly outnumbered Army of the Right.

His 30,000 men gave a good account of themselves but were defeated in 2 sharp battles at Camprodon and Figueras and collapsed in a broken mob. Grouchy and his cavalry pursued vigorously and Blake was left with less than 10,000 demoralized men when he finally was able to rally them under the walls of Barcelona. It would take weeks to refit them for further operations. With a single audacious move, Marshal Brune had routed the Spanish right for a loss of 7,000 men and captured Gerona, which quickly became a large supply base for the French.

Field Marshal Wellesley, his cavalry unable to pierce the French screen, did not learn of the Spanish defeat until 23 March 1824 when General Blake sent his report. Wellesley was quick to see the danger. If Brune was to march against him, Wellesley would be caught between Jourdan and Brune. Or, if Wellesley attacked Brune near Gerona, Jourdan could come down from Bayonne and sever the British lines of communication, leaving Wellesley stranded in a hostile Spain. The only logical decision would be to withdraw along his lines of communication to Burgos. This would allow Wellesley to guard the northern approach to Madrid and threaten any further French advance south.

Captain-General Castanos agreed with Wellesley’s interpretation of the state of affairs. He withdrew his Army of the Left to Saragossa and thus the allies mounted a new defence based on the line Burgos – Saragossa – Barcelona.
 
Chapter 8 Wellesley makes his move

Marshal Brune had broken the allied defensive line of the Pyrenees and gotten a toehold in Spain but because of his slow supply train, the allies had been able to build a new defensive line further south. He now had to consider his next move.

He had 100,000 men under his direct command at Gerona with another 25,000 under Jourdan at San Sebastian. A shift to San Sebastian would only match him against the allies two strongest armies while an assault on Barcelona would allow him to engage not only Spain’s weakest army but also its weakest general. And once Barcelona fell, the Valencia gap would allow Brune to side step the Sierra de Guadarrama mountain chain guarding Madrid’s northern approaches.

Further detaching Marshal MacDonald with 20,000 men to screen the rest of his army, Marshal Brune advanced on Barcelona and entered into a formal siege after General Blake refused to surrender. Barcelona was strongly protected by stout walls and several forts but Blake lacked the numbers to mount a strong defence. Palafox had secretly entered the city and convinced the populace that the French were here to liberate them from Ferdinand’s cruel regime and would leave as soon as their business was done. Without the citizen’s militia to bolster his numbers, Blake had little chance against the Army of the Ebro and Tagus. Brune had entered Spain with over 400 cannon, including heavy 12-pounders. While these were field guns and not proper siege cannon, their numbers allowed them to pound the walls of Barcelona with a constant bombardment. Blake realised it was only a matter of time before a practicable breach was made and with a hostile citizenry behind him, he could not hope to hold the city. He presented himself at the French lines and arranged the surrender of Barcelona with the ‘honours of war’ which meant his troops were allowed to withdraw unmolested.

King Ferdinand was furious and quickly had poor Blake arrested but his generals realized that odds of 8-1 would have been impossible to overcome. Blake´s arrest made it clear that King Ferdinand would not be forced off his throne without taking as many of his followers with him as possible.

Meanwhile Wellesley was pondering his next move. He had famously won the Peninsular War by sitting behind the impenetrable lines of Torras Vedras in Portugal while the French army starved outside. Now he was the one in danger of starving and his position near Burgos was hardly impenetrable. Any attempt to engage Brune´s main force would leave his own lines of communication vulnerable to an attack by Marshal Jourdan from San Sebastian. And with just 30,000 men, he had little chance of defeating Marshal Brune´s much larger army.

Marshal Jourdan´s much smaller force seemed a better target. A victory over Jourdan would open France to invasion. Wellesley was aware Brune commanded France´s main field strength. France´s second line National Guard would be both inferior and slow to concentrate against him. Paris would be forced to recall Brune to defend La Patrie en danger. And to top it off, Wellesley had defeated Jourdan on several occasions, most famously at the battle of Vitoria in 1813 where he crushed Napoleonic rule in Spain.

And thus Wellesley´s Expeditionary Force moved out of Burgos in long columns. The celebrated Light Division preceded it while morale soared. ´Old Nosey´ was once again going to trash the frogs his redcoats sang, remembering happier times a decade ago.

Marshal Jourdan had moved his corps from Bayonne to San Sebastian after the allies withdrew southwards. It was a strange advance. Jourdan had first entered Spain in 1808 and thus had first hand experience with the merciless guerrillas. Being feted by the Spanish people was therefore an unfamiliar experience. But Jourdan was a wily old fox. He had commanded several armies during the revolutionary wars and could read a map as well as Wellesley. He reached the same conclusion; Wellesley would attack and Jourdan would be the obvious target. Jourdan could either stand a siege in San Sebastian, withdraw back to Bayonne or fight a field battle. And since San Sebastian had been denuded off supplies by the allies, that left only battle or withdrawal back to Bayonne. Jourdan chose battle.

He picked a battlefield which would play to his strengths and prevent Wellesley from outflanking him. In his previous battles with Wellesley, Jourdan had either been outsmarted or outflanked and he was determined it wouldn’t happen again. A strong linear defence with plenty of cannon spread along his line would force Wellesley into a costly frontal attack. And so it proved. Wellesley quickly appreciated Jourdan’s smart deployment. There were no faulty dispositions, no flanks to turn. Loath to attack where the French were strongest, he hoped to lure them into a counter attack by stinging them into action.

The Light Division with its rifle and light infantry, reinforced by the light infantry companies of his line regiments, shook out in skirmish formation and moved forward to engage and hopefully lure the French out of their prepared defences.

But Jourdan was wise to this. The French had pioneered large scale skirmishing and their voltigeurs were quite able. They managed to keep the British away from the main line yet this was not enough for Jourdan. To goad the British into attacking his main line, Marshal Jourdan summoned his cavalry commander; General Kellerman. Francois Kellerman, the son of the late Marshal Kellerman, was perhaps the best cavalry commander in the French army. He first shot to fame when he led the decisive charge at Marengo and had led French cavalry to glory on numerous subsequent battlefields. Badly wounded in the first battle of the 1815 campaign, Kellerman had missed out on his best chance for a much deserved marshal’s baton. This was doubly galling as his fellow cavalry commander Pajol did win his baton.

General Kellerman commanded 2 lancer divisions totalling 4,000 men. Wellington’s army included 2 light cavalry divisions and 1 heavy division. Campaign losses had reduced them to approximately 4,000 men so the odds were even. If one disregarded Kellerman’s ability and the French superiority in massed charges.

Kellerman was yet another veteran of the Peninsular War. He had gained ample first hand experience with the British and knew their strengths well. To destroy them, he would send his first division in as bait, lure the British into a haphazard charge and then counter charge with his fresh remaining division while the British were blown and disorganised.

His plan went off without a hitch. The lancers made a surprise attack on the British skirmishers, scattering the Light Division before being charged in turn by the British. Wellesley only order his heavy cavalry division to charge but without orders both light cavalry divisions joined the melee. They completely smashed the first lancer division but were routed when Kellerman launched the second lancer division against them.

As his cavalry fled past him, Wellesley realised there was no other option left but to take the fight to the French. Waving his hat, he urged his troops forward. Marshal Jourdan had gotten his wish of a frontal attack.

The British, deployed in thin lines, marched forward, straight in the fire of 90 superbly handled French cannon. Wellesley had only 50 cannon to oppose them. The French ignored the British artillery and concentrated their fire on the British redcoats, blasting huge gaps in their ranks. Yet still they came on, in the finest tradition of stoic British infantry. The French voltigeurs gave way but not without causing significant losses and disorganisation amongst the attacking British battalions. Wellesley saw his army slowly disintegrating and realised they would not survive the shock of melee in this state. He halted his advancing battalions and dressed their ranks while under fire. Only the British infantry, with highly drilled troops, could perform such a feat but it came at frightful cost. Wellesley had brought 29,000 men on the field. The opening moves and the cavalry battle had already cost him 4,000 casualties. His stalled advance added yet another 3,000 casualties to the butcher´s bill.

As soon as he deemed everything satisfactory, he sent his men forward once again. The redcoats moved forward as on parade, got within musket range and opened up a devastating fire. The British redcoats and French bluecoats fired upon each other as fast as they could reload and pull the trigger. Huge clouds of billowing gun smoke obscured the battlefield. The French regiments were a combination of aging veterans and young conscripts while the British regiments were filled with harshly drilled regulars. The French simply couldn´t match the accuracy and volume of fire produced by the redcoats and slowly their regiments disintegrated.

Both Jourdan and Wellesley showed conspicuous gallantry to steady their men but in the end, the British infantry proved superior. Covered by their artillery and cavalry, Jourdan´s men withdrew. Although they had been swept off the field, they had made the British pay a steep price. And the British knew it. As much as Wellesley would have liked to turn withdrawal into rout, his own army was barely standing. The murderous fire fight had lasted all afternoon and cost him another 6,000 men. In total, his small army of 29,000 troops lost 13,000 men dead, wounded and missing. In addition, 7,000 dead or wounded Frenchmen littered the battlefield.

It truly was a pyrrhic victory for Wellesley. San Sebastian was his for the taking but his army was simply too depleted to hold it if French armies converged upon him. With the Spanish people up in arms against him and the French fielding a much larger army, Wellesley could see no profit in the entire enterprise. He would need at least another 30,000 men to be able to meet the French again and London simply didn´t have those men available. Once that became clear, London felt it had no choice but to recall Wellesley and his army. As much as it galled them to admit it, it had been the Spanish people who had allowed the British to take on the French in the Peninsular War. Without their support, Britain would have had to commit a much larger force to make any headway.

Slowly, the British withdrew to Oporto in Portugal, harassed by Spanish guerrillas every step of the way until they crossed the Portuguese border. Ten years onwards, the British had come to understand that Spain was indeed a graveyard of military reputations.

London was most displeased with the events in Spain. British prestige had been largely built upon their success in the Peninsular War, especially as Britain had claimed all the glory of defeating the French in ‘08-’14, down-playing the contribution of the Spanish guerrilla’s. Admitting defeat now was a bitter pill to swallow. But without any chance of ultimate victory, prolonging the war would only cost money without return benefits. Better to cut their losses than throw good money after bad argued the British politicians. And so, as bedraggled troops entered the transport ships to bring them home, British diplomats met in neutral Amsterdam with their French counterparts to form a peace.

In Vienna, news of the peace between Britain and France was received with horror. Goaded by British promises, Austria had been steadily accumulating supplies in Mantua, while Prince Schwarzenberg had already amassed 120,000 men in Italy for the coming invasion. Emperor Francis immediately cancelled the preparations and ordered his army demobilized. This fiasco severely damaged the credibility of the war party and the peace doves were in ascendency again in Vienna.
 
Chapter 9 The Treaty of Madrid

A stalemate settled over Spain as the two remaining adversaries pondered their next moves.
King Ferdinand had three armies left in the field. Captain-General Castanos commanded the Army of the Left which mustered 30,000 men. Lieutenant-General Zayas, Blake´s successor, led the Army of the Right which had been reinforced to a strength of 14,000 men. And around Madrid, the newly raised Army of the Centre mustered 10,000 men under Lieutenant-General Valesco, Marquis of Breda. If concentrated and deployed in an advantageous position, they had a small chance of beating the larger French army. But all would depend on timely and correct intelligence.

Marshal Brune also considered his remaining options. Jourdan guarded Bayonne with less than 16,000 men. Marshal MacDonald guarded Gerona and the French lines of communication with a further 20,000 men. Brune was well aware of the Spanish deployment thanks to excellent intelligence provided by the Junta’s. He both knew Madrid was the main prize and that it was defended only weakly. Thus a quick advance might catch the Spaniards by surprise.

Detaching Marshal Pajol with 27,000 men to screen Castanos, Brune led his remaining 60,000 men into the Valencia gap. Awaiting them was Zayas and the demoralised survivors of the Army of the Right. Zayas had been a highly aggressive and competent divisional commander during the Peninsular War and commanded the famous Blue division of troops paid and drilled by the British which accompanied Wellington during his invasion of France in 1814. Although inexperienced in high command, he was smart enough to recognize the poor odds as Brune´s army bore down on him. Realizing he was facing a major advance and not a probe, he skilfully withdrew his small army to Madrid as fast as he could. As his few remaining hussars were unable to penetrate Brune’s cavalry screen, he was convinced he was facing the bulk of Brune’s army which he believed to be in excess of 100,000 men.

The Spanish throne was an uncomfortable monstrosity while the crown was heavy. Yet King Ferdinand had been borne to rule. Unfortunately for him, the Spain of 1824 was not the Spain of 1784 when he was born and his attempts at absolute rule were doomed to failure. With French troops in striking distance of Madrid, even Ferdinand realized he was facing the end game. Threats to their lines of communication had hampered the French during the Peninsular War and would prove to be equally damaging today. Unfortunately, the populace now supported the French but Ferdinand deceived himself in believing he could still change their allegiance by an appeal to patriotism. He ordered his courtiers and generals a la suite to disperse and rally the countryside against the French invaders as if the clock could be turned back to 1810.

Zayas had served happily under Castanos in the past and was thus quick to warn him of the French advance. Equally quick, Castanos collected his army and moved towards Madrid for the decisive battle of the war, giving Marshal Pajol the slip. Pajol, a dashing cavalier, was slow and deliberate in command of an all-arms force of 27,000 men, considerably more than the few thousand troopers he was used to commanding. Pajol was thus fooled by Castanos and remained in place covering a Saragossa already denuded of Spanish troops.

Castanos’ arrival before the walls of Madrid came as a great surprise to Ferdinand and his remaining generals. The King wasted no time in appointing Castanos as his overall commander as the armies of the Left, Centre and Right took up positions to defend the capital and the King against the French.

Except the French were not alone. Marshal Brune’s march was badly impeded by his large supply train, allowing Castanos’ men to actually reach Madrid before the French. But the main obstacle were the Spanish. As Brune approached Madrid, thousands of insurgents joined his army, eager to end the reign of Ferdinand.

Most of these insurgents had previously fought the French in a bitter war of atrocity and counter atrocity. So leaders on both sides attempted to keep the French common soldiers away from the Spanish commoners but to everyone’s surprise, there was actually much rejoicing and fraternization.

And so Marshal Brune’s Army of the Ebro and Tagus with its associated bands of insurgents arrived before Madrid, ready to do battle. Awaiting them was Castanos’ three armies, entrenched and emboldened by the presence of their King.

Brune and his senior commanders toured the prospective battlefield and quickly realized the Spanish position was well laid out. There were no weak points to be found and only hard fighting would determine the issue. This worried Brune as French troops had proven rather brittle. With their towering reputation, they should have made easy work of the Spanish but the battles of the past year had shown the army had rested too much on its hard won laurels. Aging had dulled the sharpness of their weapons. While still capable of sharp battlefield manoeuvre, his troops seemed incapable of sustaining bloody frontal assaults. Castanos had learned from his earlier mistakes and had deployed his 50,000 men wisely, using the undulating terrain to his advantage. With heavy heart, the French prepared for bloody slaughter.

Palafox had not been pleased when Marshal Brune marched on Valencia instead of Saragossa. His defence of the city had been the defining moment of his life and it pained him to see the city in the hands of the royalists. But he finally came to understand that what the Juntas and the people were fighting for transcended a single city. It even transcended ambition or life. And now, seeing both armies arrayed for battle, Palafox seized the moment. Under a flag of truce, he met with Castanos, Zayas and Valesco. With eloquence and passion, he argued that Spanish citizens were about to give their lives on both sides for a King who had broken his word and betrayed the people who had fought so hard to win his personal release from captivity and their own liberation. Did such a man deserve to be their King? Palafox managed to convince Ferdinand’s generals that the battle would be futile. Even if they managed to defeat Marshal Brune, the French would simply send another marshal to lead their army. And even if the French withdrew, as long as the people rejected Ferdinand, there would be bloodshed and misery. And so, Palafox hammered out a compromise. King Ferdinand would be allowed to retain his crown but would be kept in luxurious captivity while Spain would be ruled by a council which would include both Palafox and Castanos. And in return, Palafox would ensure the swift withdrawal of the French from Spanish soil.

And so it came to pass. King Ferdinand naturally refused to accept the treaty of Madrid but without the support of the army, he was powerless and swiftly imprisoned in the Alhambra palace. He would eventually father a daughter Isabella who would inherit the crown after his death.

The Treaty of Madrid was warmly received in Paris. Not only would it allow Marshal Mortier to recall the French troops, it also provided France with a friendly neighbour and an ally in the European political game.

And so, the victory in Spain which had eluded Napoleon was gained by his successors but the era of the Grande Armée had truly passed. Much needed reforms were introduced after the Army of the Ebro and Tagus returned to France and dispersed to its sleepy garrison towns.

The end

© 1996
 
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