WELLINGTON, DUKE OF. 



WELLINGTON, DUKE OF. 



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march to Zubiri. In the meantime two French divisions attackec 

 General Hill's position in the Puerto do Maya, at the head of the valley 

 of Baztan. At first they gained ground, but were again driven back 

 when the retrograde movement of General Cole, on hia right, inducec 

 General Hill to withdraw likewise to Irurita. Lord Wellington, who 

 had hia head-querters at Lesaca, on the left of the army, heard of these 

 movements late in the night, and concentrated his army to the right. 

 On the 27th tho French made a partial attack on the 4th division 

 near Sorauren, but were repulsed. Ou the 28th Soult directed a granc 

 attack, first on the left, by the valley of the Lanz, and then on the 

 centre of the British position. The 4th division (General Cole's) 

 tained nearly the whole brunt of the attack, and repulsed the enemy 

 with the bayonet. In one instance the French succeeded in over- 

 powering a Portuguese battalion on tbe right of General Ross's 

 brigade, at the chapel of Sorauren, which obliged General Ross to 

 withdraw, and the enemy established himself for a moment on the 

 lino of the Allies; but Lord Wellington directed the 27th and 48th 

 regiments to charge, and the French were driven down the hill with 

 great loss. On the 29th both armies remained inactive. Soult changed 

 his plan, and on the 30th endeavoured to turn the British left by an 

 attack on General Hill. He collected a large body on his right for 

 this purpose, and by manoeuvring on the left flank of Hill's corps, 

 obliged him to withdraw from the height which he occupied behind 

 Lizasso to another range about a mile in the rear, where, however, 

 General Hill maintained himself against every effort that was made to 

 dislodge him. At the same time Lord Wellington attacked the French 

 corps in hia front, in a strong position, betweeil the valley of the Lanz 

 and that of Arga, and obliged them to retire. On the morning of the 

 31st the French were in full retreat into France, by the various passes 

 of the Pyrenees, followed by the Allies, who took many prisoners and 

 much baggage. These various combats are designated by the name of 

 the ' Battles of the Pyrenees.' On the 1st of August Lord Wellington 

 took possession of the passes in the mountains. 



During the month of August General Graham was pressing the eiege 

 of San Sebastian. On the 31st of August the assault was made, and 

 the town was carried, but with great loss, and after a most determined 

 resistance. The French garrison retired to the castle. Many excesses 

 were committed by the British and Portuguese soldiers after they had 

 entered the town. Most of the houses were plundered, and it was not 

 till the 2nd of September that order was restored by severe measures. 

 The castle of San Sebastian capitulated after a few days. The siege 

 and capture of the place cost the Allies nearly 4000 men, killed and 

 wounded. Three British general officers were wounded, aud Sir 

 Richard Fletcher, tbe commanding officer of engineers, was killed. 



In the mouth of October Lord Wellington moved his left across the 

 Bidasoa upon French ground, and took possession of the hills called 

 La Rhune. The French made only a slight resistance, as Marshal 

 Soult had already fixed upon the line of the river Nivelle in his rear 

 for a position. On the 31st of October the French garrison of Pam- 

 plona, 4000 strong .having lost all hopes of relief, surrendered themselves 

 prisoners of war. Early in November Lord Wellington made his pre- 

 parations for marching his whole army into France, where they would 

 find good cantonments for the winter. Before however taking this 

 serious step he issued an order of the day to all his troops of the 

 various nations that composed his army, in which he told "the officers 

 and soldiers to remember that their nations were at war with France 

 solely because the ruler of the French nation would not allow them to 

 be at peace, and wanted to force them to submit to his yoke ; and not 

 to forget at the same time that the worst of the evils suffered by the 

 enemy in his profligate invasion of Spain and Portugal had been 

 occasioned by tho irregularities of his soldiers aud their cruelties 

 towards the unfortunate and peaceful inhabitants of the country. To 

 avenge this conduct on the peaceful inhabitants of France would be 

 unmanly and unworthy of the allied nations." But Lord Wellington 

 was not satisfied with mere proclamations and general orders; he 

 enforced them strictly ; and whenever he found any part of his troops 

 attempting to plunder, he not only punished by military law those 

 who were caught in the fact, but he placed the whole regiment or 

 brigade under arms to prevent further offence. His greatest trouble 

 was with the Spanish troops, who being badly supplied with provisions 

 by their own government, and having the fresh recollection of the 

 treatment which their countrymen in Spain had met with at the hands 

 of the French, could only be restrained by the strongest measures 

 from retaliating upon the French peasants. He was at last obliged to 

 diminish his army by moving back most of the Spanish troops within 

 the Spanish frontiers. 



On the 10th of November the allied army left their cold and cheer- 

 less position in the high valleys of the Pyrenees, and descended into 

 the plains on the French side. Soult had a strong position on the 

 Nivelle from St. Jean de Luz to Aiuhoe, 'about 12 miles in length. 

 General Hill, with the British right, advanced from the valley of 

 Baztan, and, attacking the French on the heights of Aiuhoe, drove 

 them towards Cambo on the Nive, while the centre of the Allies, con- 

 sisting of English and Spanish troops under Marshal Beresford and 

 General Alton, carried the works behind Sarre, and drove the French 

 beyond the Nivelle, which the Allies crossed at St P6, in the rear of 

 the enemy. Upon this the French hastily abandoned their ground 

 and works on the left of the Nivelle, and in the night withdrew to 



their entienched camp in front of Bayonne. Lord Wellington's head- 

 quarters were established at St. Jean de Luz on the right bank of the 

 Nivelle. The Allies went into cantonments between the sea and the 

 river Nive, where their extreme right rested on Cambo. The enemy 

 guarded the right bank of the Nive from Bayonne to St. Jean Pied 

 de Port. 



Lord Wellington, being straitened for room and supplies for his 

 large army, determined to cross the Nive and occupy the country 

 between that and the Adour. On the 9th of December General Hill 

 forded the Nive above Cambo, while the 6th division crossed at 

 Ustaritz, and the French were dislodged from their position at Ville 

 Franque. In the night all their posts were withdrawn to Bayonne, 

 and on the 10th the British right rested on the Adour. On that day 

 Soult, resuming the offensive, issued out of Bayonne, and attacked the 

 British left under Sir John Hope, which covered St. Jean de Luz, 

 where the Allies had considerable depots of stores. The French came 

 on with great spirit and twice succeeded in driving in the fifth division 

 of the Allies, and twice were repulsed again, the first time by the 9th 

 British and a Portuguese battalion, and the second time by the brigade 

 of Guards. At last night put an end to the fight. Next morning, 

 December 11, Soult, having withdrawn in the night most of his force 

 from the position in front of the British left, prepared to attack the 

 light division with overwhelming numbers. General Hope, suspecting 

 this, had moved part of his troops to their right to support the light 

 division. This occasioned another change in Soult's movements, who 

 again directed several columns against the left at Barouilles. The 

 troops were occupied in receiving their rations, and had barely time 

 to run to their arms ; but they withstood the attack, and at the close 

 of the day both armies remained ia their respective positions. Marshal 

 Soult now giving up any further attempt on the left of the Allies, and 

 imagining that his repeated attacks on that side must have induced 

 Lord Wellington to weaken his right, changed his plan, and during 

 the night of the 12th moved with his main force to his left to attack 

 the British right. Lord Wellington however had foreseen this, and 

 had given orders to the 4th and 6th divisions to support the 

 right, and the 3rd division was held in readiness for the same 

 object. General Hill had under his immediate command above 

 13,000 men, and his position extended across from the Adour beyond 

 Vieux Monguerre to Ville Franque and the Nive. Soult directed 

 from Bayonne on the 13th a force of 30,000 men against his position. 

 His columns of the centre gained some ground, but were fiercely 

 repulsed. An attack on Hill's right was likewise successful at first, 

 but was ultimately defeated. Soult at last drew back his troops 

 towards his entrenched camp near Bayonne. General Hill had with- 

 stood all the efforts of the enemy without having any occasion for the 

 assistance of the divisions which Lord Wellington had moved towards 

 him. Lord Wellington was well pleased, and said, " Hill, the day 

 is all your own." 



Nothing of importance occurred during the few remaining days of 

 the year 1813. Both armies remained in winter-quarters. Ou the 1st 



f January in this year (1813) Lord Wellington had been gazetted as 

 Colonel of the Royal Regiment of Horse Guards, in place of the Duke 

 of Northumberland, who had resigned ; and on the 4th of March he 

 had been elected a Knight of the Garter. 



Campaign 0/1814. The mighty contest which had been carried on 

 for ten years between France and the rest of Europe was drawing fast 

 to a close. The battle of Leipzig (October 1813) had given the death- 

 blow to the ambition of Napoleon. He had lost another fine army 

 which he had got together with great pains after the disasters of the 

 Russian campaign of the previous year. The scanty remains of his 

 Siost were driven out of Germany across the Rhine ; that river which, 

 according to his early declarations, constituted the natural frontier of 

 France, but which he had not had self-command enough to respect. 

 He was uow reduced to the necessity of depending upon the resources 

 of France alone. Lord Wellington had long foretold that, when that 

 should come to be the case, the feelings of the French population 

 would turn against him. Napoleon had hitherto supported his enor- 

 mous armies chiefly at the expense of foreign states. 



On his return to Paris, in November 1813, Napoleon decreed by 

 a senatus consulturn a new levy of 300,000 conscripts. In December 

 le ordered the assembling of 180,000 national guards to garrison the 

 towns and fortresses. He talked however of peace, but he hesitated, 

 aud lost time in agreeing to the preliminary basis of a treaty such as 

 was offered to him by the Allied Powers at Chatillon. He left his own 

 invoy there without instructions or powers. He wished in short to 

 ry once more the chances of war. On the 25th of January 1814 he 

 eft Paris for Chalons to attack the Prussians aud Russians. 



Lord Wellington now made his preparations to drive the army of 

 Soult from the country on the left of the Adour. About the middle 

 f February, by a succession of movements aud partial engagements, 

 e drove the French first across the Bidasoa, aud afterwards across 

 the Gave d'Ole'ron, an affluent of the Adour. On the 27th of February 

 he met Soult's army concentrated at Orthez on the Gave de Pau, 

 attacked and beat it, and pursued it to the Adour, the French retiring 

 eastward towards Auch. On the 1st of March Lord Wellington's 

 head-quarters were at St. Sever, north of the Adour. The loss of the 

 Allies at the battle of Orthez was 277 killed, and about 2000 wounded 

 or missing. The loss of the French army was considerable during 



