184 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1810. 



In the mean time field-mar- 

 shal Massena, prince of Essling, 

 was Oh his way from Paris to take 

 the command of the army appoint- 

 ed for the conquest of Portugal, to 

 consist of the 2nd, 6th, and 8tli 

 corps, forming altogether a force 

 of about 80,000 men.* On the 

 12th of May an officer of the 

 French Staft'presented himselfbe- 

 fore Ciudad Rodrigo, summoning 

 it to surrender. The governor 

 answered that he would hold no 

 communication witii the French, 

 but by the mouth of the c iiinon. 

 The siege of Ciudad Rodrigo 

 was long obstructed and retarded 

 by heavy rains, bad roads, the 

 difficult transportance of stores 

 and provisions, and lastly the near 

 vicinity of the allied army of Eng- 

 lish and Portuguese, under the 

 command of lord Wellington. 

 Tiie trenches were at length open- 

 ed on the night between the 

 15th and 16th of June, by which 

 time marshal Massena had ar- 

 rived in the French camp to 

 take the command of the army. 

 The 2nd corps, commanded by 

 Regnier, was put under the or- 

 ders of Massena, and drawins^ 

 towards Alcantara to manoeuvre 

 on the right bank of the Tagus, 

 The 1st, ith, and 5th corps were 



thought abundantly sufficient for 

 Andalusia. By means of these 

 dispositions, the prince of Essling 

 would be enabled to take the for- 

 tress of Ciudad Rodrigo ; and by 

 order of the emperor this was 

 stated in a letter from Berlhier to 

 king Joseph, dated Havre, 23rd 

 Mftv, 1810. In a letter of the same 

 date to Massena, he told him that 

 it appeared from the English 

 Journals, that lord Wellington's 

 army consisted of 23,000 English 

 and Germans, and 22,000 Portu- 

 guese. It was his majesty's will 

 that the prince should have more 

 troops than were necessary for ihe 

 present undertaking, in order to 

 beat the English, in the case of 

 their attempting to raise the siege. 

 He was desired to proceed im- 

 mediately to Ciudad Rodrigo 

 with the 6th and the 8th corpsf 

 leaving 2,000 dragoons of the 

 8th to general Keilerman ; and 

 also a force of about 10,000 men, 

 infantry, cavalry, and artillery, for 

 keeping open his communication 

 with the rear of the army. The 

 6th corps, with what remained of 

 the 8th, was computed at near 

 50,000, 



The town of Ciudad Rodrigo 

 was completely invested by a body 

 of troops under the orders of Ney 



• It has been conjectured, that Buonaparte was by no means satisfied with the 

 conduct of Soult. This commander, it lias been said, alter the passage of the Sierra 

 Morena, instead of scattering liis troops by sending Sebastian! to Grenada, andMor- 

 tier towards Badajoz, should have marched them rapidly in one mass, without the 

 smallest loss of time, to Seville, and then to Cadiz. With a bridge equipage for pass- 

 ing the river of St. Peter, Cadiz would have opened its gates without resistance. 

 So Buonaparte would have acted if he had commanded this expedition in person, 

 Bios;raphical note of marshal SnuU, duke of Dalmaiia. from general Sarrazin's 

 Philosopher. Perhaps marshal Soult, who cannot be supposed to have been at all 

 imder the real control of king Joseph, might have marched with greater rapidity, 

 though certainly very little time was lost either at Jaen, Cordova, or Seville. But 

 as to the direction of Sebastiani to Grenada, and of Mortier to the Guadiana, this 

 course may reasonably be presumed to have been prescribed by Buonaparte. 



f Massena was then at Salamanca. 



