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WELLINGTON, DUKE OF. 



WELLINGTON, DUKE OF. 



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were breast-high at the fords. Owing to the irremediable difficulty of 

 obtaining provisions in Spain, a great part of the army had neither 

 bread nor biscuit, and the men had only a ration of lean tough beef, 

 which they could not cook, but heated upon such smoky fires as they 

 could make, and so ate it half raw. Many irregularities were com- 

 mitted by the soldiers, which Lord Wellington severely reprobated in 

 a circular letter which he addressed to all commanding officers of 

 divisions and brigades, dated Frenada, 28th of November 1812. 

 (' Dispatches,' ix., p. 582.) 



When the news reached England of the victory of Salamanca, Lord 

 Wellington was advanced in the peerage by the title of Marquis of 

 Wellington, Aug. 18, 1812. On the 3rd of December he received the 

 thanks of parliament, and on the 7th of the same month the sum of 

 100,OOOZ. was voted to him as a reward for his services, and to enable 

 him to support with dignity the rank to which he had been elevated. 



Campaign 0/1813. Napoleon, having lost the best part of Ids army 

 in his Russian expedition of 1812, not only could not reinforce his 

 marshals in Spain, but thought it advisable to recall Marshal Soult, 

 at the beginning of 1813, in order to intrust him with a command in 

 the approaching campaign against the Russians and Prussians in 

 Germany. Soult however only took about 20,000 men with him from 

 the Peninsula. The French had still about 70,000 to oppose to Lord 

 Wellington, independent of the force under Suchet in eastern Spain. 

 The army still called ' the Army of Portugal/ under General Reille, 

 had its head-quarters at Valladolid ; that of the centre, under Drouet, 

 was distributed round Madrid ; and the head-quarters of the army of 

 the south, formerly Soult's, were at Toledo. All these forces were 

 under King Joseph, who was assisted by Marshal Jourdan. Clausel 

 and Foy commanded separate divisions in Aragon and Biscay. Anda- 

 lucia and Es>tremadura were free from the French, as well as Galicia 

 and Asturias in the north. 



Lord Wellington had been at last appointed by the regency of Spain, 

 with the approbation of the Cortes, to the rank of commander-in- 

 chief of the Spanish armies, and measures were taken to render the 

 Spanish troops more effective than they had hitherto been. But the 

 army upon which he could immediately rely for field operations con- 

 sisted of about 65,000 infantry, British and Portuguese, and about 

 6000 cavalry. With this force he opened the campaign of 1813. 



About the middle of May Lord Wellington broke up from his Portu- 

 guese cantonments, and put his army in motion for Spain in three 

 bodies, the left under Sir Thomas Graham, the right under General 

 Hill, and the centre under his own immediate command. He directed 

 General Graham to pass by Lamego to the north of the Douro, and 

 march through Tras-os-Montes to Bragan9a and Zamora, and thence to 

 Valladolid, thus securing the position which the French had taken 

 and had been at great pains to strengthen, along the northern bank of 

 the Douro. The French were taken by surprise, not expecting this 

 movement through Tras-o's-Montes. Graham reached the Esla, an 

 affluent of the Douro from the north, without meeting an enemy. On 

 the 1st of June, having crossed the Esla, he encamped near Zamora, 

 the French retreating before him, and, being joined by Lord Welling- 

 ton from Salamanca, they moved on towards Valladolid. General 

 Hill having crossed the Douro at Toro on the 3rd of June, joined the 

 rest of the allied army, which was likewise joined by the Spanish 

 army of Galicia, and afterwards by another Spanish corps from the 

 south under O'Donnell. The French at Madrid and Toledo, dis- 

 concerted by this rapid march of the Allies, and fearing to be cut off 

 from their countrymen in the north, hastily quitted the capital with 

 King Joseph, his court, and retainers, and crossed the Douro at 

 Puente, when the united French army retired to Burgos. On the 12th 

 of June, the Allies continuing their advance, the French abandoned 

 Burgos, destroying the defences of the castle, and retreated by Bri- 

 viesca to the Ebro, which was the line they intended to defend. They 

 threw a garrison into the fortress of Pancorvo in advance of the river. 

 Lord Wellington, to avoid a useless sacrifice of men in forcing the 

 passage of the Ebro in front of the enemy, moved his left by the road 

 to Sautander, through a rugged country, and directed it to pass the 

 Ebro near its source by Rocamunde and San Martino, and then to 

 follow the left or northern bank of the river towards Osma. The 

 French position on the Ebro was thus turned, and the Frenca fell 

 back upon Vitoria, after an engagement at Osma, in which they were 

 defeated. The whole allied army, having passed the Ebro on the 

 15th of June, followed the enemy, and on the 20th was concentrated 

 near Vitoria, where the French had taken a strong position in front of 

 the town, covering the three roads from Madrid, Bilbao, and Logrono, 

 which united at Vitoria. 



The two hostile armies were nearly equal in number, amounting 

 to from 70,000 to 75,000 men each. On the morning of the 21st 

 Lord Wellington moved his army for the attack in three great 

 divisions. The left, under General Graham, was directed by a circuit- 

 ous movement to turn the enemy's right across the Bilbao road, and 

 cut off his retreat to France by the Bayonne road ; the right, under 

 General Hill, was to commence the action by crossing the river 

 Zadorra where the road from Madrid to Vitoria intersects the river, 

 and to attack the enemy's left on the high ridge behind the village of 

 Subijana de Alava; and the centre, consisting of the 3rd, 4th, 7th, and 

 light divisions, in two columns, was to attack the French centre. 

 General Hill succeeded, after a severe contest, in earring the heights of 



Subijana de Alava, when King Joseph ordered his left to fall back for 

 the defence of Vitoria. In the mean time General Cole, with the 4th 

 and liht divisions, crossed the Ebro by the bridges of Nanclaras and 

 Tras Puentes, and soon afterwards the 3rd and 7th divisions crossed 

 the river higher up, and marched against the centre of the French, 

 who received the advancing columns with a destructive fire. General 

 Picton's division, the 3rd, coming in contact with a strong body of the 

 enemy, drove it back, and took its guns. The other divisions coming 

 up, the French abandoned their position, and began their retreat in 

 good order towards Vitoria. But while this was passing in front, 

 General Graham, moving along the road from Bilbao, had attacked the 

 French right, which was posted on the heights beyond the Zadorra, 

 above the village of Abechuco, and had dislodged it from thence, and 

 then, ascending the right bank of the Zadorra towards the road to 

 Bayonne, he carried the village of Gamarra Mayor : at the same time 

 the Spanish division of Longa carried the village of Gamarra Menor, 

 which is on the right bank of the river opposite the road to Bayonne, 

 which runs along the left bank, the heights of which were occupied by 

 two divisions of French infantry in reserve. Towards the evening 

 however the main body of the French army having been driven 

 through the town of Vitoria, the divisions on their right withdrew 

 hastily from their position ; and then General Graham, crossing the 

 Zadorra, took possession of the Bayonne road, by which the French 

 were retreating, and this movement threw their army into irretrievable 

 confusion. Their columns were obliged to alter their line of retreat, 

 and take the road to Pamplona, abandoning all their baggage, artillery, 

 ammunition, military chests, and the court equipage of King Joseph, 

 and were followed after dark by the Allies. It was the most complete 

 defeat that the French ever experienced in Spain. On this occasion 

 the Spanish divisions under Generals Morillo and Longa, who were in 

 the field with the British and Portuguese army, behaved remarkably 

 well, and were honourably mentioned in Lord Wellington's dispatch 

 after the battle. The total loss of the Allies was 740 killed and 4174 

 wounded. The loss of the French was stated by themselves at 6000. 

 About 1000 prisoners fell into the hands of the Allies. But the 

 French lost also 151 guns, 415 caissons, more than 100 waggons, an 

 immense quantity of ammunition, and all the baggage of the army, 

 and the baton of Marshal Jourdan. They carried away only one gun 

 to Pamplona. King Joseph's carriage was seized, and he had hardly 

 time to escape on horseback. Many carriages belonging to his court, 

 with ladies, were also taken. 



The French, leaving a strong garrison at Pamplona, continued 

 their retreat to France. General Foy, who was not present at the 

 battle, being near Bilbao, likewise fell back upon Bayonne, and was 

 pursued by General Graham. A French garrison remained at San 

 Sebastian. General Clausel, who was coming up' from Logrono with 

 about 15,000 men, hearing of the result of the battle, turned hastily 

 back to Zaragoza, and thence, by Jaca and the central Pyrenees, into 

 France, having lost his artillery. Suchet alone remained with his 

 army in Cataluna and Valencia, having his hands fully employed in 

 that quarter. 



Lord Wellington, having established the blockade of Pamplona, and 

 directed General Graham to invest San Sebastian, advanced with the 

 main body of his army to the Pyrenees, to occupy the passes from 

 Roncesvalles to Irun, at the mouth of the Bidasoa. 



When the news of the battle of Vitoria reached England, there were 

 great public rejoicings; and Lord Wellington was appointed a Field 

 Marshal of England. " You have sent me," thus wrote to him the 

 Prince Regent of England, " among the trophies of your unrivalled 

 fame, the staff of a French Marshal, and I send you in return that of 

 England." The Spanish Cortes, by a decree, created him Duke of 

 Vitoria, and granted him in perpetuity the estate of Soto de Roma, in 

 the kingdom of Granada. 



When Napoleon, in his camp in Saxony, heard of the disaster of 

 Vitoria, he was sorely vexed, and he immediately sent Marshal Soult 

 to the Army of Spain, with the rank of ' Lieutenant of the Emperor.' 

 Soult arrived on the Spanish frontier on the 13th of July, and set 

 about restoring order and confidence in his army, which consisted of 

 nine divisions of infantry (nearly 80,000 men), and three divisions of 

 cavalry. He told them, in a proclamation dated July, that the disas- 

 ters of the preceding campaign were owing to pusillanimous councils 

 and unskilful dispositions of their late commanders. " Let us not, 

 however," added he, " defraud the enemy of the praise which is due to 

 him. The dispositions and arrangements of their general have been 

 prompt, skilful, and consecutive, and the valour and steadiness of his 

 troops have been praiseworthy." He concluded by saying that his 

 instructions from the emperor were " to drive the enemy from those 

 lofty heights which enable him proudly to survey our fertile valleys, 

 and drive them across the Ebro. It is on the Spanish soil that your 



tents must next be pitched, and your resources drawn Let the 



account of our success be dated from Vitoria, and the birth of his 

 Imperial Majesty be celebrated in that city." 



Marshal Soult's first object was to relieve Pamplona. With this 

 view he collected the main body of his army at St. Jean Pied de Port, 

 and on the 25th of July attacked, with between 30,000 and 40,000 

 men, the British right at Roncesvalles. General Cole moved to the 

 support of that post, but the French having turned the British position, 

 General Cole, considered it necessary to withdraw in the night, and 



