XXII

FRENCH LOSSES IN THE CAMPAIGN OF THE PYRENEES

[From Soult’s Official Return, lent me by Mr. Fortescue.]

Killed. Wounded. Prisoners.
Off. Men. Off. Men. Off. Men. Total.
I. Reille’s Wing:
1st Division (Foy) 6 78 9 393 69 555
7th Division (Maucune) 14 189 27 500 25 1,102 1,857
9th Division (Lamartinière) 10 79 16 657 3 216 981
Total Reille’s Wing 30 346 52 1,550 28 1,387 3,393
II. D’Erlon’s ‘Centre’:
2nd Division (Darmagnac) 13 191 65 1,925 1 30 2,225
3rd Division (Abbé) 9 130 21 560 1 29 750
6th Division (Maransin) 11 105 34 783 126 1,059
Total D’Erlon’s ‘Centre’ 33 426 120 3,268 2 185 4,034
III. Clausel’s Wing:
4th Division (Conroux) 16 145 35 1,432 12 747 2,387
5th Division (Vandermaesen) 16 153 30 978 2 301 1,480
8th Division (Taupin) 6 125 38 1,007 26 1,202
Total Clausel’s Wing 38 423 103 3,417 14 1,074 5,069
IV. Cavalry 12 2 33 1 19 67
General Total of Army 101 1,207 277 8,268 45 2,665 12,563

No figures for Artillery, Engineers, Train, or other auxiliary services, or for General Staff. Martinien’s lists supply 4 casualties of generals (Conroux, Schwitter, Rignoux, Meunier), and 12 of staff officers. There must have been appreciable casualties in the other services, especially men captured from the Train at the Yanzi disaster.

Soult’s figures are always unreliable (as witness Albuera). The details above contain some ‘moral impossibilities’—e. g. the Return gives 63rd Line of Abbé’s Division 193 casualties, not including one officer. But Martinien’s lists supply one officer-casualty at Maya, two at Beunza, two at Yanzi. Similarly 58th Line of Conroux has in the Official Return 473 casualties, including only 5 officers—1 wounded and 4 prisoners. A reference to Martinien shows 2 officers killed (one the colonel!) and 5 wounded—adding the 4 prisoners we get 11 officer-casualties to 473 men: quite a possible percentage, which Soult’s is not.

Captain Vidal de la Blache (i. p. 280) gives a casualty list differing slightly from the above. It runs: Foy 556, Maucune 2,457, Lamartinière 981, Darmagnac 2,225, Abbé 253 [quite impossible], Maransin 1,059, Conroux 2,387, Vandermaesen 1,480, Taupin 1,202, Cavalry 72; total 12,071.