~ Chapter 24: Caesar and Hispania ~
Bailén was a shock to the French, and a cause of jubilation in Spain. The British could hardly believe the magnitude of the victory the Spanish had just pulled off, with their forces remaining passive in Portugal despite Floridablanca asking them to enter Spain and help foster the defence. The Imperial Army fled Madrid and retreated across the Ebro River, lifting the siege of Saragossa, a brutal siege in which many civilians and military men perished, including the commander of the Spanish forces, José de Palafox, when a roof tile fell on his head [1], with Castaños assuming command of the Army of the Ebro as well, for a grand total of close to 100,000 active soldiers, albeit only roughly a third were properly trained, with the rest being civilian and patriot militias that barely knew how to use a gun, albeit Spanish and British officials were desperately trying to give them a lesson or two about war [2].
The Spanish also launched a counterattack against the French everywhere else. The French portion of Santo Domingo that was still held by the Imperials was dealt with swiftly once a Spanish force invaded and defeated the French at the Battle of Palo Hincado. This left only one remaining French colony: Louisiana. Louisiana had been a French colony before being ceded to Spain in 1762, and it was given back to the French in 1801 as per the Treaty of Aranjuez. Napoleon desired to create an American empire out of Louisiana, hopefully securing alliances with the American Republics to expel the British from the continent. However, as Leclerc’s Haitian expedition perished in disease and the Republics universally refused to collaborate with the emperor, Louisiana was seen as nothing but a backwater that Napoleon only kept for prestige reasons [3].
Louisiana’s sheer size and small population impeded a proper defense of the territory, and as a matter of fact the French only had control from Saint Louis to the south, and only in the Mississippi thanks to scattered outposts such as Nouvelle Madrid or Natchez. Even there, French control was purely theoretical, as there were only a handful of Imperial troops in Louisiana, most of them quartered in New Orleans, and no orders were coming from Paris. Thus, in the period from 1801 to 1808 Louisiana enjoyed virtual self-government, only being threatened to the north, when a British expedition captured Saint Louis in 1806 but did not push further south, fearing to draw in Spanish attention. However, in 1808 the tables flipped and Louisiana was now surrounded by enemies on all sides. A Coalition Army, mostly composed of the Spanish Army of Cuba, landed near New Orleans on December 16 1808, bombing the fortifications of the city and laid siege to it for two weeks before the city surrendered. By spring, all of Louisiana was controlled by the Coalition, and it was effectively annexed back to Spain after the Junta renounced the Treaty of Aranjuez. For most Louisianans, the return of Spanish rule was met with ambivalence. Louisianans were, generally, very royalist and conservative people and were willing to trust a restored government, however their experience with practical independence had left a mark in the territory, and the lenience of the Spanish authorities only reinforced this belief, which would rear its head again in a decade [4].
Map of New Orleans in 1798. Not much changed during the decade of French rule
Going back to the events in Europe, Bailén was a shock for Napoleon. The emperor was infuriated and decided to take personal command of the armies there, rearranging them under the title of “Army of Spain”, for a grand total of roughly 260,000 men, more than doubling its Spanish counterpart. The first engagement of this renewed Spanish campaign happened at the Battle of Zornoza, where Irish-Spanish general Joaquín Blake successfully stalled Lefebvre’s forces as he decided to attack before the time Napoleon told him to, which allowed the Spanish to escape in good order and report the offensive. The next battle was also sour for the French, as Blake successfully avoided the French trap with crafty maneuvers and led marshall Claude Victor into a trap of its own at Valmaseda on November 5 1808, defeating the French. Napoleon took this badly, for his army could not be defeated by “an army of bandits led by monks”, and severely reprimanded Victor.
The Spanish Army had spent months training its forces and invited the British army of Sir John Moore (30,000 men) and Sir David Baird (12,000 men) to Spain, along with a 4,000 men-strong French royalist army headed by Pichegru. The bulk of the British army marched to the north, into Old Castille, León and Cantabria, while rearguard forces remained in Galicia and Portugal [5]. After Valmaseda, Victor was itching for revenge, and decided to rush his attack and prove Napoleon that he was a competent commander, launching a frontal attack against the Spanish at Espinosa de los Monteros. Victor’s force consisted of 21,000 men, including a contingent of Poles from the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, while the opposing Spanish force was of 34,000 men, commanded by La Romana and Blake. The first assault by Victor was an utter disaster as his forces could not even make a dent on the Spanish formation, so on the morning of November 11 he attempted an attack on Blake’s left flank, which again was repelled [6]. Victor received orders to keep the Spanish engaged, allowing for Soult’s army to move south into Castille, and Victor was successful in this mission, however Napoleon would dismiss him for taking massive casualties at Espinosa de los Monteros, which was, after all, a Spanish victory, as the victors of Austerlitz and Jena could not win that day.
French Cavalry at the Battle of Espinosa de los Monteros
Napoleon’s plan consisted on a double envelopment, with the French right flank advancing through the coast and near the Cantabrian Cordillera, while the left flank would advance across Navarre into the Ebro, and from there into Castille; with a secondary offensive taking place in Catalonia in order to relieve the trapped garrison of Barcelona. The truth being that by early November the French, commanded personally by Napoleon, were already at Burgos, but the presence of Castaños’ army based on the Queiles River posed a threat to the French flank, so on November 18 Napoleon ordered marshal Lannes to march to Tudela, where Castaños had placed the core of its defensive line, having 58,000 men against Lannes’ force of roughly 40,000 [7], believing the Spanish forces to be dispersed in a wide front, and finding them placed in the hills across the Queiles between Tudela and Cascante (which had a bridge across the Ebro River). On the night of November 22 the first combat ensued as the French vanguard clashed with the Spanish at Corella and Cintruénigo, and the next day the battle ensued as Lannes struck the Spanish defences at Cerro de Santa Bárbara.
The battle commenced well for the Spaniards, as they repulsed the first attack, however General Manuel de La Peña fumbled the defense by his lack of initiative at protecting a gap south of Tudela, which had to be fixed rapidly with reinforcement troops that were beaten (their rifles barely worked) and the French under Alexandre Digeon poured in, splitting the Spanish force temporarily before a fierce counterattack of the Spanish cavalry closed the gap. Castaños considered that continuing the battle there could lead to a disaster and retreated south of the Ebro towards Cascante with all of his forces [8], opening the path to Aragon as Castaños retreated towards Soria, heading for Madrid. Lannes continued southeast along the Ebro, reaching Saragossa in early December and capturing the city after a short siege on December 27 [9].
General Castaños at the Battle of Tudela
The campaign of 1808 would be decided further south. Napoleon marched south towards the Central Range that divides the two Spanish plateaus with the aim of crossing it and threatening Madrid. General Eguía was well aware of this and dispatched a force of 14,000 men to Somosierra under General Heredia and 6,000 to Sepúlveda. Napoleon’s forces headed towards the Somosierra pass, first encountering the defenders of Sepúlveda, who successfully withstood an attack of the French Imperial Guard, retreating when reinforcements arrived. At Somosierra, the Spanish had superior artillery located at the mountains, with Heredia ordering it to be protected [10]. On November 30, Napoleon ordered charge after charge of the cavalry, including the Polish Light Cavalry Regiment, which was decimated by the Spanish even if they managed to reach the cannons, with their commander Jan Kozietuslki perishing when a cannon exploded next to him. Napoleon grew impatient, as the Spanish kept resisting wave after wave of attacks. The French only crossed Somosierra on December 2 when the Spanish ran out of artillery rounds and retreated in good order towards Madrid. Somosierra was celebrated as a major victory, for the French emperor (arguably) had been defeated in person, suffering thousands of casualties compared to barely 800 Spaniards dead.
By that time the vanguard of Castaños’ army was about to reach the French rearguard at Somosierra, and Napoleon had to turn around and face him leaving a token force south of the Somosierra pass to guard it. Both forces collided on December 7 at the Battle of Riaza, in which Castaños’ forces were given a bloody nose by the French, as they had marched hurriedly towards the battlefield and the Spanish forces lacked discipline, with Castaños ultimately taking a longer route towards Madrid through the pass at Alcolea del Pinar. However, the battle gave Eguía extra time to prepare the defense of Madrid, calling back San Juan’s forces at Guadarrama to protect the capital.
[1] - For plot reasons, it could have easily happened.
[2] - Spanish historiography both IOTL and ITTL will sell the uprising as a national revolution, which was certainly the case for the upper classes, but not so much for the poor peasant that only wanted to protect his land. However, TTL’s version of the war will end up being even more of a unifying factor for Spain than IOTL.
[3] - No way he is giving the colony back to the Spanish.
[4] - Sort of a spoiler there.
[5] - A slightly improved logistical situation permits the British to enter Spain earlier than IOTL.
[6] - IOTL Blake’s flank crumbled and the Spanish were soundly defeated, with the army retreating in a surprisingly good order, but abandoning most of the equipment.
[7] - Spanish military coordination has improved compared to OTL levels. Plus, with Palafox dead, there is no dispute in the chain of command that paralyses the Spanish army and that resulted in the disaster that was Tudela IOTL.
[8] - IOTL the French successfully split the Spanish, sending the right flank to Saragossa and the left one due south. The ATL Battle of Tudela is not the crushing defeat of OTL, but not a victory in any way.
[9] - The sheer brutality of the Second Siege of Saragossa has been butterflied away.
[10] - IOTL the force was led by General Benito San Juan, with Heredia guarding the Guadarrama pass. San Juan did not take any precautions prior to the battle, which resulted in the epic cavalry charge of the Poles that demolished the Spanish artillery.