697 



WELLINGTON, DUKE OP. 



WELLINGTON, DUKE OF. 



698 



ration that unquestionable zeal and firmness appear throughout to 

 have been exhibited by Lieutenaut-Generals Sir Hew Dalrymple, Sir 

 Harry Burrard, and Sir Arthur WellrBley, as well as that the ardour 

 and gallantry of the rest of the officers and soldiers on every occasion 

 during this expedition have done honour to the troops and reflected 

 lustre on your Majesty's arms." The king adopted the opinion of the 

 board. 



Sir Arthur Wcllesley's employment in the Peninsula being now ter- 

 minated, he resumed the duties of his office as Chief Secretary for 

 Ireland, whither he proceeded in the month of December. Parlia- 

 ment having re-assembled in January 1809, he returned to London to 

 resume his seat in the House of Commons, On the 27th of January 

 he received, through the Speaker, the thanks of the House for his 

 distinguished services in Portugal ; and, a few days afterwards, the 

 House of Lords passed resolutions- to the same effect, which were com- 

 municated to Sir Arthur by the Lord Chancellor. 



Campaign of 1809. Napoleon, with an army of more than 200,000 

 men, having burst through the Spanish lines, and routed the troops, 

 forced in person the strong pass of the Somosierra on the 30th of 

 November 1808, and four days afterwards was in possession of Madrid. 

 Meantime, Soult, with an overwhelming force, had been sent against 

 Sir John Moore, who had advanced into Spain as far as Salamanca. 

 This movement was followed by the disastrous retreat of the small 

 army under Sir John Moore, the battle of Coruna, January 16, 1809, 

 in which the heroic commauder was slain, and the embarkation of the 

 British forces for England. The French, following up their success, 

 spread over Leon and Estremadura to the borders of Portugal, and 

 Soult, having overrun Galicia, marched into the northern Portuguese 

 provinces, and carried Oporto by storm against the native troops. 

 The small British forca which had been left in Portugal when Sir 

 John Moore advanced into Spain was concentrated by General Sir 

 John Cradock for the defence of Lisbon. The unfavourable turn of 

 affairs in Spain induced the British government to make another effort 

 to save Portugal from invasion, and at the same time to assist the 

 Spaniards in their momentous struggle. Sir Arthur Wellesley, having 

 previously resigned his office of Secretary for Ireland as well as bis 

 seat in parliament, was sent to Portugal to assume the chief command 

 of the British forces in the Peninsula. He arrived at Lisbon April 22, 

 1809, with his staff. He was followed by reinforcements of infantry 

 and several regiments of cavalry. These, together with the Portu- 

 guese regulars under General Beresford, whom the Prince Regent had 

 appointed to the chief command of his army, enabled him to bring into 

 the field a force of about 25,000 men, with which he marched at the 

 end of April to dislodge Soult from Oporto, leaving a division under 

 General Mackenzie on the Tagus to guard the eastern frontiers of 

 Portugal against the French General Victor, who was stationed near 

 Merida, in Spanish Estremadura. The army under General Wellesley, 

 having assembled at Coirnbra, moved on the 9th of May in the direc- 

 tion of Oporto, and drove back the French troops, which had advanced 

 south of the Douro. On the llth of May the English occupied the 

 southern bank of that river opposite the city of Oporto. The French 

 had destroyed the bridges and removed the boats to their own side, 

 and Soult was preparing to retire leisurely by the road to Galicia. 



General Wellesley sent a brigade under General Murray to pass the 

 river about four miles above Oporto, whilst the brigade of Guards 

 was directed to cross the river at the suburb of Villanova, and the 

 main body under the commander-in-chief was to attempt a passage in 

 the centre by means of any boats that they could find. The Douro 

 at that spot is very rapid, and nearly three hundred yards wide. 

 About ten o'clock in the morning of the 12th of May, two boats 

 having been discovered, General Paget with three companies of the 

 Buffs crossed the river, and got possession of an unfinished building 

 on the Oporto side, called the Seminario. The French in Oporto 

 were taken by surprise. They sounded the alarm, and marched out 

 to attack the Seminario, but, before they could dislodge the first party 

 that had landed, General Hill crossed with fresh troops, and, pro- 

 tected by the British artillery from the southern bank, maintained the 

 contest with great gallantry, until General Sherbrooke with the 

 Guards crossed lower down into the very town of Oporto, amidst the 

 acclamations of the inhabitants, and charged the French through the 

 streets. Meantime the head of Murray's column, which bad crossed 

 at Avintas, making its appearance, Soult ordered an immediate retreat, 

 which was effected in the greatest confusion. He left behind his sick 

 and wounded and many prisoners, besides artillery and ammunition, 

 and retired by Amarante with the view of passing into Spain through 

 Tras-os-Moutes ; but finding that Loison had abandoned the bridge of 

 Araaraute, which was taken possession of by the Portuguese, he marched 

 by Guimaraens, Braga, Salamonde, and Montealegre, into Galicia. In 

 this disastrous retreat the French were obliged to destroy the re- 

 mainder of their artillery and part of their baggage, and the road was 

 strewed with dead horses and mules, and French soldiers, many of 

 whom were put to death by the peasantry before the advanced guard 

 of the British could save them. 



Soult lost about one- fourth of his army, but the retreat was effected 

 witn great ability under the most unfavourable circumstances. 

 General Wellesley pursued the French as far as Montealegre, and, 

 having driven them out of Portugal, retraced his steps to the south. 

 The passage of the broad and rapid Douro, effected in broad day, in 



presence of a French marshal at the head of 10,000 veterans, was one 

 of Wellington's finest achievements. The Englieh lost in the attack 

 of Oporto only 23 killed and 98 wounded. 



On taking possession of Oporto, General Wellesley issued a procla- 

 mation, strictly enjoining the inhabitants to respect the French 

 wounded and prisoners, and he wrote to Marshal Soult to request him 

 to send some French medical officers to take care of their sick and 

 wounded, as he did not wish to trust them to the Portuguese. 



The attention of Sir Arthur Wellesley was now turned towards 

 Spain. It was necessary to strike a blow in that country, and the pro- 

 sent occasion appeared favourable. The condition of the national cause 

 of Spain had improved since Napoleon had left that country in January. 

 None of his generals had individually the same means that he had at 

 his disposal, and there was not a sufficient bond of union among them 

 all to make them act in concert. Each had a separate command over 

 a large division of the country, and was in a great measure independent 

 of the others, and Joseph Bonaparte, who had been established in 

 Madrid as king of Spain, had little or no control over them, and had 

 not himself sufficient military skill to direct their movements. Each 

 marshal therefore, and there were five or six in the Penineula, acted 

 by himself, and the warfare became complicated and irregular. Mar- 

 shal Victor, Duke of Belluno, commanded the first corps in Estrema- 

 dura, near the borders of Portugal, having about 35,000 men, of whom, 

 however only 25,000 were under arms. General Sebastian! commanded 

 the fourth corps in La Mancha, which mustered about 20,000 men 

 under arms. A division of reserve under Dessolles stationed at 

 Madrid, together with King Joseph's guards, amounted to about 

 15,000 men. Kellermau's and Bonnet's divisions, stationed in Old 

 Castile and on the borders of Leon and Asturias, comprised about 

 10,000 more. All the above troops, amounting to about 60,000 dis- 

 posable men, were considered to be immediately under King Joseph 

 for the protection of Madrid and of Central Spain, and also to act 

 offensively in Andalucia and against Portugal by the Tagus and the 

 Guadiana. Soult had a distinct command. He had mainly to occupy 

 the northern provinces of Spain, and to act through them against 

 Portugal. He had under his immediate orders the second corps, 

 mustering about 20,000 men under arms; the fifth, or Mortier's 

 corps, amounting to 16,000; and Ney, with the sixth corps, also about 

 16,000. Soult' s force in all was about 52,000 men in the field. These 

 were the two French armies with which the English advancing from 

 Portugal were likely to be brought into collision. Besides these there 

 were in eastern Spain the third and seventh corps, making together 

 about 50,000 men, under Suchetand Augereau, who were pretty fully 

 employed in Aragon and Cataluna ; and 35,000 more were scattered in 

 the various garrisons and lines of communication. 



The fortresses and fortified towns in the hands of the French were 

 1st, on the northern line, San Sebastian, Pamplona, Bilbao, Santona, 

 Santander, Burgos, Leon, and Astorga; 2nd, on the central line, Jaca, 

 Zaragoza, Guadalajara, Toledo, Segovia, and Zamora ; 3rd, Figueras, 

 Rosas, and Barcelona, on the eastern coast. But Soult, after being 

 driven out of northern Portugal, had withdrawn from Galicia ; and 

 Ney, following the same movement, completely evacuated that exten- 

 sive province, including the forts of Coruna and Ferrol. A misunder- 

 standing or disagreement between those two commanders led to the 

 deliverance of Galicia, which was an important event in the war, for 

 the French never regained that part of Spain. 



Marshal Soult reached Zamora in the beginning of July, and hovered 

 about the eastern frontiers of Portugal. Ney arrived at Astorga. 

 Victor was posted between the Tagus and the Guadiana, his troops 

 suffering much from malaria. Mortier, with the fifth corps, on the 

 road from Zaragoza to Valladolid, received orders from France to 

 halt; and the Imperial Guards, which Napoleon had ordered into 

 Spain, and which had arrived at Vitoria, were hurriedly ordered to 

 march to the banks of the Danube. This was in consequence of the 

 Austrian war, which had just broken out. The French in Spam were 

 now reduced to a state of inactivity, and Andalucia and Valencia were 

 still untouched by them. 



The Spanish armies, though always beaten in the open field, had 

 been reorganised. General Cuesta, commanding the army of Eatre- 

 madura, reckoned at 38,000 men, was posted on the Guadiaua. This 

 was the force with which General Wellesley had to co-operate in an 

 advance from Portugal into Spain for the purpose of attacking Victor 

 and attempting to reach Madrid. The British commander had not as 

 yet seen a Spanish army in the field, and he could have no precise 

 notion of its defective organisation and discipline. He however soon 

 obtained that knowledge when he came in contact with Cuesta. But 

 there was another obstacle which made him hesitate, and that was 

 the difficulty of obtaining provisions and means of transport for his 

 army in Spain. His letters during the whole of this campaign teem 

 with painful details on this subject. The people, the local authorities, 

 the generals, and the Junta, all seemed unanimous in their unwilling- 

 ness to provide for the English, although sure to be amply repaid for 

 their supplies. While Cuesta's army abounded with provisions and 

 forage, Sir Arthur could not get enough to supply his men with half- 

 rations. " The French," he observes, " can take what they like, and 

 will take it, but we cannot even buy common necessaries." 



The British army entered Spain in the beginning of July by the road 

 of Zarza la Mayor and Coria, and the head-quarters were at Pl&sencia 



