619 



WELLINGTON, DUKE OF. 



WELLINGTON, DUKE OF. 



620 



well defended by cannon, gave me an opportunity of attacking him, 

 for which I had long been anxious." (Dispatch to Earl Bathurst, 

 July 24.) Lord Wellington's anxiety is explained by the intelligence 

 which he had received that General^Clausel had arrived at Polios, on 

 the Douro, on the 20th, with the cavalry and horse-artillery of the 

 army of the north, to join Marmont, which he was expected to do on 

 the 22nd or 23rd at the latest. This junction would give Marmont 

 such a superiority in cavalry as greatly to embarrass and endanger the 

 movements of the British. 



Lord Wellington, suddenly seizing the opportunity for which he 

 had been waiting, disposed his divisions so as to turn the enemy's left 

 and at the same time attack him in front. General Pakenhatn, at the 

 head of the third division, steadily ascended tLe ridge occupied by 

 the extreme left of the French, formed line across their flank, and, 

 being supported by some cavalry, he moved on towards the centre of 

 the enemy, driving everything before him. Wherever the French 

 attempted to make a stand they were charged with the bayonet; the 

 cavalry at the same time charged the enemy in front, and the whole 

 left wing of the French made a disorderly retreat towards their right, 

 leaving many killed and wounded behind, and about 3000 prisoners. 

 Meantime the 4th and 5th divisions, after a very severe struggle, 

 succeeded in driving in the centre of the enemy, whose right how- 

 ever remained unbroken, when General Clausel, who having joined the 

 Frof ch army that day, succeeded to the command in consequence of 

 Marshal Marmont being wounded, withdrew his troops with great 

 skill, and formed them in a new position nearly at right angles with 

 tho original one. His cavalry was numerous, and his artillery formid- 

 able. Lord Wellington directed a frtsh attack, and the 6th division, 

 ascending to the enemy's position under a sweeping fire of artillery 

 and musketry, gained the level ground, when they charged with the 

 bayonet, and the 4th division coming up at the same time the French 

 abandoned the ground in great confusion, retreating towards Alba de 

 Tormes, followed closely by the British till night stopped the pursuit, 

 which was renewed by the cavalry on the morning of the 23rd. 

 The cavalry came up with the French rear near La Serna, when three 

 French battalions surrendered, being forsaken by their own cavalry. 

 Clausel retired by Penaranda to Arevalo, whence he took the direction 

 of Valladolid. The loss of the French was very severe ; three generals 

 killed, four wounded; one general, six field-officers, 130 officers of 

 inferior rank, and between 6000 and 7000 men taken prisoners, besides 

 two eagles. Their total loss in killed and wounded could not be 

 ascertained. The Allies had 694 killed and 4270 wounded, but the 

 proportion of officers was very great. General Le Marchant was killed 

 and Generals Beresford, Leith, Cole, Cotton, and Spry were wounded. 



The ultimate though not immediate results of the victory of Sala- 

 manca were great, and a French historian, generally very warm in the 

 cause of Napoleon, does not hesitate to attribute to the military and 

 political consequences of that battle the ultimate loss of Spain by the 

 French. (Thibaudeau, ' Histoire de 1'Empire,' ch. 83.) Among the 

 political consequences must be reckoned the obliteration of any ten- 

 dency that there might have been in the minds of some of the influ- 

 ential men in Spain, and even in the Cortes, to give up the English 

 alliance, and make their peace with King Joseph, on condition of his 

 acknowledging the constitution proclaimed by the Cortes assembled at 

 Cadiz in March of that year. The author just quoted says, " We are 

 assured that a negociation to that effect had been entered into, which 

 the battle of Salamanca broke off for ever." 



Lord Wellington, having crossed the Douro, reached Valladolid on 

 the 30th of July, Clausel continuing his retreat towards Burgos. King 

 Joseph, with all the troops he could muster at Madrid, about 20,000, 

 had marched by the Escurial on the 21st of July to join Marmont. 

 On arriving at Arevalo he heard of Marmont's defeat, upon which he 

 marched by his right to Segovia to effect a diversion in favour of 

 Clausel's retreating army. Lord Wellington, recrossing the Douro, 

 marched against him on the 7th of August, leaving a force on the 

 Douro to watch Clause!. King Joseph retreated to Madrid, and the 

 Allies having passed the Guadarama, he abandoned the capital and 

 withdrew to the left bank of the Tagus, between Aranjuez and Toledo. 

 Lord Wellington entered Madrid on the 12th, and was received with 

 great acclamations. In consequence of this movement Soult raised 

 the blockade of Cadiz, destroying the works which the French had con- 

 structed with so much labour and expense, and, abandoning western 

 Andalucia, concentrated his forces in Granada. His rear-guard was 

 attacked by an allied Spanish and English force from Cadiz, which 

 drove it from San Lucar, and took Seville by assault. General Hill at 

 the same time advanced from the banks of the Guadiana to the Tagus, 

 connecting his operations with those of the main body of Lord Wel- 

 lington's army. On his approach King Joseph abandoned Toledo and 

 fell back to Almanza, in Murcia, to keep himself in communication 

 with Soult and Suchet. A great part of southern and central Spain 

 was thus freed from the French, who never retook Seville ; and this 

 was another result of the battle of Salamanca. 



The situation of Lord Wellington at Madrid was however critical. 

 Clausel's army in the north had been largely reinforced, and Soult, 

 and Suchet, and King Joseph, by forming a junction, might advance 

 from the south, and thus the Allies would be attacked by a combined 

 force nearly treble in number to their own. The Anglo-Sicilian expe- 

 dition of merely 6000 men, part of whom were foreign auxiliaries, 



was cooped up in Alicante, and could not effect any powerful diversion. 

 There was no Spanish force of any magnitude upon which Lord 

 Wellington could depend for field operations. The Galician army 

 under Santocildes, which was the most effective Spanish corps, after 

 taking Astorga, had advanced towards Zamora, but was driven back 

 by Clausel. Ballasteros, who commanded a Spanish force in Anda- 

 lucia, refused to be directed by Lord Wellington, and O'Donnell had 

 been defeated in Valencia by Suchet, and driven into Murcia, At 

 Madrid Lord Wellington was treated with enthusiastic admiration, but 

 no active exertions were made in the common cause. The country 

 was exhausted, the people appeared disheartened, and the British 

 commander-in-chief could not realise at Madrid, upon drafts on the 

 British treasury, a sum of money adequate to his most pressing wants. 

 To remain at Madrid was therefore impracticable ; he must either 

 advance to the north against Clausel, or to the soutli against Soult, 

 and he determined on the first of these movements, for the purpose 

 of striking a blow at Clausel before the French in the south and east 

 could advance to his support. Leaving two divisions at Madrid, he 

 marched with the remainder on the 1st of September for Valladolid, 

 which he entered on the 7th, and, continuing his march towards 

 Burgos, was joined at Palencia by the Spanish army of Galicia, which 

 scarcely mustered 10,000 men, undisciplined and deficient in equip- 

 ment. On the 19th the allied army entered Burgos, and the French, 

 under General Souham, who had assumed the command in the north, 

 fell back to Briviesca, leaving 2000 men, under General Dubreton, in 

 the Castle of Burgos, strong by its position, which had been fortified 

 with care. The possession of that fort was necessary for the security 

 of the allied army in its present advanced and insecure position, and 

 Lord Wellington directed it to be invested forthwith, though he 

 was ill furnished with eiege-artillery. A horn-work on a hill, which 

 commanded several of the works of the castle, was carried by assault. 

 The fort itself was battered, but with little effect, and sapping was 

 then resorted to. On the 29th, a breach being effected in the outer 

 wall by the explosion of a mine, an attempt was made to storm it, but 

 failed. Another breach was effected in like manner on the evening of 

 the 4th of October, and, being stormed with success, the besiegers 

 were established within the exterior line of the works of the castle. 

 The garrison made two eorties, by which they materially injured the 

 works of the Allies, and occasioned them great loss. Want of ammu- 

 nition greatly retarded the operations of the siege. A breach at last 

 being effected, by mining, in the second line on the 18th, orders were 

 given to storm it. A detachment of the King's German Legion carried 

 the breach, and a detachment of the Guards succeeded in escalading 

 the line ; but the enemy brought such a fire upon them from the 

 third line and from the body of the castle, and attacked them with 

 numbers so superior before they could be supported, that they were 

 obliged to retire with considerable loss. But now the French army 

 of the north advanced with evident intention to raise the eiege ; and 

 at the same time Lord Wellington learnt from General Hill that the 

 armies of the south and centre, which, being united, mustered 

 70,000 strong, were advancing from Valencia towards the Tagus, and 

 that the Spanish General Ballasteros had not assumed a position in 

 La Mancha, which the Spanish Government, at Lord Wellington's 

 suggestion, had directed him to take in order to intercept the enemy's 

 movements. The British commander was therefore under the neces- 

 sity of abandoning the siege of Burgos, and of effecting a retrograde 

 movement in order to draw near to General Hill, who at the approach 

 of Soult abandoned Madrid and retired slowly towards Salamanca. 



On the 21st of October the siege of Burgos was raised, and Lord 

 Wellington retired in good order to Paleucia, and was joined by a 

 brigade from England under Lord Dalhousie, which had landed at 

 Coruna. The French, under Souham, repeatedly attacked the rear- 

 guard of the Allies until they reached the Douro at Tudela, when 

 Souham halted, waiting to be joined by Soult from the south. Lord 

 Wellington continued his retreat to the Tormes, being joined on the 

 3rd of November by General Hill. On the 8th of November the 

 Allies took up their old position on the heights of San Cristoval, in 

 front of Salamanca. On the 10th, Souham and Soult joined their 

 forces, which amounted to 75,000 infantry and 12,000 cavalry, while 

 Lord Wellington's army did not exceed 48,000 infantry and 5000 

 cavalry. On the 14th the French crossed the Tormes in force near 

 Lucinas. Lord Wellington took position at the Arapiles, being the 

 ground of his former victory ; but as the enemy, through his supe- 

 riority of numbers, and especially of cavalry, was in motion to inter- 

 cept his communications with Ciudad liodrigo, he withdrew to the 

 Agueda, and on the 18th his head-quarters were at Ciudad Rodrigo. 

 Soult did not follow him close : in tact, the French made no serious 

 movement beyond the Tormes, and soon afterwards they even with- 

 drew a great part of their army from the banks of that river, to place 

 them iu better cantonments in Castile. The main army of the British 

 and Portuguese were distributed in their old quarters within the fron- 

 tiers of Portugal, their left resting at Lamego on the Douro, whilst 

 General Hill's corps moved into Spanish Estremadura, into canton- 

 ments, near Coria, and towards the Tagus, placing strong posts at the 

 passes of Baiios and Bejar. The campaign of 1812 was now terminated. 



During the retreat from Burgcs the allied troops suffered much 

 fatigue and privation ; the weather was very inclement, the roads were 

 deep and miry, and the rivers were greatly swelled, and some of them 



