CHAPTER VI.
OPERATIONS IN CATALONIA.
When Barcelona fell into the power of the French, the Spanish garrison amounted to nearly four thousand men; but Duhesme daily fearing a riot in the Cabanes, 1st Part. city, connived at their escape in parties, and even sent the regiment of Estremadura (which was eight hundred strong) entire to Lerida, where, strange to relate, the gates were shut against it; and thus, discarded by both parties, it made its way into Zaragoza during the siege of that place. Many thousand citizens also fled from Barcelona, and joined the patriotic standards in the neighbouring provinces.
Napoleon’s Notes, [Appendix, No. 2.]
After the first ebullition at Manresa, the insurrection of Catalonia lingered awhile; but the junta of Gerona continued to excite the people to take arms, and it was manifest that a general commotion approached; and this was a serious affair, for there were in the beginning of June, including those who Cabanes, 1st Part. came out of Barcelona, five thousand veteran troops in the province, and in the Balearic islands above ten thousand. Sicily contained an English army, and English fleets covered the Mediterranean. Moreover, by the constitution of Catalonia, the whole of the male population fit for war are obliged to assemble at certain points of each district with arms and provisions, whenever the alarum bell, called the somaten, is heard to ring; hence the name of somatenes; and these warlike peasants, either from tradition or experience, are well acquainted with the military value of their mountain holds.
Hostilities soon commenced; Duhesme, following his instructions from Bayonne, detached general Chabran and five thousand two hundred men, with orders to secure Tarragona and Tortosa, to incorporate the Swiss regiment of Wimpfen with his own troops, and to aid marshal Moncey in an attack on Valencia. At St. Cyr.
Victoire et Conquestes des Francois.
Foy.
Cabanes. the same time general Swartz having more than three thousand men, Swiss, Germans, and Italians, under his command, was detached by the way of Martorel and Montserrat to Manresa, with orders to raise contributions, to put down the insurrection, and to destroy the powder mills at the last town; then to get possession of Lerida, and to incorporate all the Swiss troops found there in his own brigade, placing five hundred men in the citadel; after which he was to penetrate into Aragon, and to co-operate with Lefebre against Zaragoza.
These two columns quitted Barcelona the 3d and the 4th of June. A heavy rain induced Swartz to stop all the 5th at Martorel: the 6th he resumed his march, but without any military precautions, although the Ibid. object of his expedition was known, and the somaten ringing out among the hills, the peasants of eight districts were assembled in arms; these men took a resolution to defend the pass of Bruch, and the most active of the Manresa and Igualada districts, assisted by a few old soldiers, immediately repaired there, and posted themselves on the rocks. Swartz coming on in a careless manner, a heavy but distant fire opened from all parts on his column, and created a little confusion, but order was soon restored, and the Catalans being beaten from their strong holds, were pursued for four or five miles along the main road. At Casa Mansana, where a cross road leads to Manresa, one part broke away, the others continued their flight to Igualada. Swartz, a man evidently destitute of talent, halted at the very moment when his success was complete, and the road to Manresa open; the Catalans seeing his hesitation first rallied in the rear of Casa Mansana, then returned to the attack, and drove the advanced guard back upon the main body. The French general became alarmed, formed a square, and retired hastily towards Esparraguéra, followed and flanked by clouds of somatenes, whose courage and numbers increased every moment; at Esparraguéra, which was a long single street, the inhabitants had prepared an ambush; but Swartz, who arrived at twilight, getting intelligence of their design, passed to the right and left of the houses, and continuing his flight reached Martorel the 7th, having lost a gun and many men by this inglorious expedition, from which he returned in such disorder, and with his soldiers so discouraged, that Duhesme thought it necessary to recall Chabran from Tarragona.
The country westward of the Llobregat is rugged and difficult for an army, yet Chabran reached Tarragona on the 8th without encountering an enemy; but when he attempted to return, the line of his march was intercepted by the insurgents, who took post at Vendrill, Arbos, and Villa Franca, and spread themselves along the banks of the Llobregat. As he approached Vendrill the somatenes fell back to Arbos, but a skirmish commencing at this latter place, the Catalans were defeated. Chabran set fire to the town, and proceeded to Villa Franca. Here the excesses so common at this time among the Spaniards were not spared; the governor, an old man, and several of his friends, were murdered, and the perpetrators of these crimes, as might be expected, made little or no defence against the enemy.
Meanwhile general Lechi moved out of Barcelona, and acting in concert with Swartz’s brigade, which marched from Martorel, cleared the banks of the Llobregat, and formed a junction at San Felice with Chabran on the 11th. The latter, after a day’s rest, having his division completed by the brigade of Swartz, marched against Manresa to repair the former disgrace; he arrived at Bruch the 14th, but the somatenes were also there, and assisted by some regular troops with artillery. Finding that in a partial skirmish he made no impression, Chabran, more timid even than Swartz, took the extraordinary resolution of retreating, or rather flying from those gallant peasants, who pursued him with scoffs and a galling fire back to the very walls of Barcelona.
This success spurred on the insurrection; Gerona, Rosas, Hostalrich, and Tarragona prepared for defence. The somatenes assembling in the Ampurdan obliged the French commandant to quit the town of Figueras, and shut himself up with three hundred men in the citadel, while others gathering between the Ter and the Besos, intercepted all communication between France and Barcelona.
In this predicament Duhesme resolved to make a sudden attempt on Gerona, and for this purpose drew out six thousand of his best troops, and eight pieces of artillery; but as the fortress of Hostalrich stood in the direct road, he followed the coast line, and employed a French privateer, then in the harbour, to attend his march. The somatenes got intelligence of his designs: one multitude took possession of the heights of Moncada, which are six miles from Barcelona, and overhang the road to Hostalrich; another multitude was posted on the ridge of Mongat, which, at the same distance from Barcelona, abuts on the sea; an intrenched castle, with a battery of fifteen guns, protected their left, and their right was slightly connected with the people at Moncada.
The 17th, Duhesme, after some false show to hide his real attack, fell upon the castle of Mongat, where the greater mass of the Catalans being posted, were defeated with slaughter; a detachment from Barcelona dispersing those of Moncada at the same time.
The 18th, the town of Mattaro being taken was plundered, although a few cannon-shot only had been fired in its defence. The somatenes were also defeated at the pass of San Pol. The 19th, the French halted at San Tione, but at nine o’clock on the morning of the 20th, they appeared before the walls of Gerona.
This town, built on the right bank of the Ter, is cut in two by the Oña. To the eastward it is confined by strong rocky hills, whose points filling the space between the right bank of the Oña and the Ter, overlook the town at different distances. Fort Mont Jouy, a regular fortification, crowned the nearest hill or table land, at five hundred yards distance, and three forts (that of the Constable, of queen Anne, and of the Capuchins), being connected by a ditch and rampart, formed one irregular outwork, a thousand yards in length, and commanding all the ridge to the south-east. The summit of this ridge is five, eight, and twelve hundred yards from Gerona, and sixteen hundred from Fort Mont Jouy, being separated from the latter by the narrow valley and stream of the Gallegan. South-west, between the left of the Oña and the Ter, the country, comparatively flat, is, however, full of hollows and clefts close to the town. The body of the place on that side was defended by a ditch and five regular bastions connected by a wall with towers. To the west the city was covered by the Ter, and on the east fortified by a long wall with towers having an irregular bastion at each extremity, and some small detached works placed at the opening of the valley of Gallegan. Three hundred of the regiment of Ultonia and some artillerymen composed the garrison of Gerona, but they were assisted by volunteers and by the citizens; and the somatenes also assembled on the left of the Ter to defend the passage of that river.
Duhesme, after provoking some cannon-shot from the forts, occupied the village of St. Eugenia in the plain, and making a feint as if to pass the Ter by the bridge of Salt, engaged the somatenes in a useless skirmish. Great part of the day was spent by him in preparing ladders for an attack; but at five o’clock in the evening the French artillery opened from the heights of Palau, and a column crossing the Oña passed between the outworks and the town, threw out a detachment to keep the garrison of the former in check, and assaulted the gate of El Carmen. This attempt failed completely and with great loss to the assailants. Two hours afterwards another column, advancing by the plain on the left of the Oña, made an assault on the bastion of Santa Clara, but with so little arrangement, or discipline, that the storming party moved forward without their ladders, and although the hollows favoured St. Cyr. them so much that they arrived under the walls without being perceived, and that the Neapolitan colonel Ambrosio, with a few others, actually gained the ramparts by means of the single ladder brought up, the confusion was too great to be remedied. And a detachment of the regiment of Ultonia coming from the other side of the town, charged the assailants, bayoneted those who were upon the walls, and drove the rest back. Another feeble effort made after dark likewise failed.
Duhesme tried some useless negotiations on the following day; but dreading a longer absence from Barcelona, broke up on the 22d, and returned by forced marches. As he passed Mattaro he left Chabran with some troops in that town. Meanwhile the victorious somatenes of Bruch had descended the Llobregat, rallied those of the lower country, and getting artillery from Taragona and other fortresses, planted batteries at the different passages of the river, and entrenched a line from San Boy to Martorel. Regular officers now took the command of the peasants; colonel Milans assembled a body at Granollers; don Juan Claros put himself at the head of the peasants of the Ampurdan; and colonel Baget took the command of those at Bruch.
General Chabran, after a few days’ rest at Mattaro, made a foraging excursion through the district of El Vallés. Milans, who held the valley of the Congosta, encountered him near Granollers; both sides claimed the victory, but Chabran retired to Barcelona, and Milans remained on the banks of the Besos. The 30th Duhesme caused the somatenes on the Llobregat to be attacked; general Lechi menaced those at the bridge of Molinos del Rey, while the brigades of Bessieres and Goullus, crossing at San Boy, surprised a battery at that point and turned the whole line. Lechi then crossed the river by the bridge of Molinos, ascended the left bank, took all the artillery, burnt several villages, killed a number of the somatenes, and put the rest to flight. They rallied again, however, at Bruch and Igualada, and returning the 6th of July, infested the immediate vicinity of Barcelona, taking possession of all the hills between San Boy and Moncada, and connecting their operations with colonel Milans. Other parties collected between the Besos and the Ter, and extended the line of insurrection to the Ampurdan; Juan Claros occupied the flat country about Rosas, and the French garrison of Figueras having burnt the town, were blocked up in the fort of San Fernando by two thousand somatenes of the Pyrenees. A nest of Spanish privateers was formed in Palamos Bay, and two English frigates, the Imperieuse and the Cambrian, watched the coast from Rosas to Barcelona.
A supreme junta being now established at Lerida, opened an intercourse with Aragon, Valencia, Seville, Gibraltar, and the Balearic islands, and decreed that forty tercios or regiments of one thousand men, to be selected from the somatenes, should be paid and organized as regular troops, and that forty others should be kept in reserve, but without pay.
This state of affairs being made known to Napoleon through the medium of the moveable columns watching the valleys of the eastern Pyrenees, he ordered general Reille, commanding the reserve at Perpignan, to take the first soldiers at hand and march to the relief of Figueras, after which, his force being increased by drafts from the interior of France, to nine thousand men, he was to assault Rosas and to besiege Gerona. The emperor imagined, that the fall of the latter place would induce the surrender of Lerida, and would so tranquillize Catalonia, that five thousand men might again be detached towards Valencia. On receiving this order, Reille with two battalions of Tuscan recruits, conducted a convoy safely to Figueras and raised the blockade, but not without difficulty, for his troops were greatly terrified and could scarcely be kept to their colours. He relieved the place the Foy’s History. 10th of July, and the same day Duhesme, who had been preparing for a second attack on Gerona, quitted Barcelona with six thousand infantry, some cavalry, a battering train of twenty-two pieces, and a great number of country carriages to transport his ammunition and stores, general Lechi remaining in the city with five thousand men. Meanwhile Reille having victualled Figueras and received a part of his reinforcements, proceeded to invest Rosas; but he had scarcely appeared Lord Collingwood’s despatch, Aug. 27.
Foy’s History. before it when Juan Claros raised the country in his rear; and Captain Otway, of the Montague, landing with some marines, joined the migueletes: the French were forced to retire, and lost two hundred men in their retreat.
Duhesme pursued his march by the coast, whereupon the somatenes of that part broke up the road in his front; Milans hung upon his left, and lord Cochrane, with the Imperieuse frigate and some Spanish vessels, cannonaded his right flank. In this dilemma he remained five days in front of Arenas de Mar; and then dividing his forces, sent one part across the mountains by Villagorguin, and another by St. Iscle; the first made an attempt on Hostalrich, but failed; the second beat away colonel Milans and dispersed the somatenes of the Tordera; finally, Duhesme united his people before Gerona on the 22d, but he had lost many carriages during the march. The 23d he passed the Ter and dispersed the migueletes that guarded the left bank. The 24th general Reille coming from Figueras with six thousand men, took post at Puente Mayor, and the town was invested with a line extending from that point by the heights of San Miguel to the Monte Livio; from Monte Livio by the plain to the bridge of Salt, and from thence along the left bank of the Ter to Sarria. The garrison consisting of five hundred migueletes and four hundred of the regiment of Ultonia, was reinforced on the 25th by thirteen hundred of the regiment of Barcelona, who entered the town with two guns. All the defences were in bad repair, but the people were resolute. The night of the 27th, a French column passing the valley of Galligan, gained the table land of Fort Mont Jouy, and made lodgements in three towers of masonry which the Spaniards had abandoned St. Cyr. Campaign in Catalonia. in the first moment of surprise. This advantage elated Duhesme so much, that he resolved, without consulting his engineers, to break ground on that side.
Cabanes’ History.
At this period a great change in the affairs of Catalonia took place; the insurrection had hitherto been confined to the exertions of the unorganised somatenes and was without system; but now a treaty between lord Collingwood, who commanded the British navy in the Mediterranean, and the marquis of Palacios, who was captain-general of the Balearic isles, having been concluded, the Spanish fleet and the troops in Minorca, Majorca, and Ivica, became disposable for the service of the patriots. Palacios immediately sent thirteen hundred to the port of San Felice di Quixols to reinforce the garrison of Gerona. These men entered that city, as we have seen, on the 25th, and Palacios himself disembarked four thousand others Cabanes’ History, 2d Part. at Tarragona on the 22d, together with thirty-seven pieces of artillery; an event that excited universal joy, and produced a surprising eagerness to fight the French.
The supreme junta immediately repaired to Tarragona, declared Palacios their president, and created him commander-in-chief, subject, however, to the tutelar saint Narcissus, who was appointed generalissimo St Cyr. of the forces by sea and land, and the ensigns of authority, with due solemnity, placed on his coffin. Cabanes’ History, 2d Part. The first object with Palacios was to re-establish the line of the Llobregat. To effect this, the count of Caldagues, with eighteen hundred men and four guns, marched from Tarragona in two columns, the one moving by the coast way to San Boy, and the other by the royal road, through Villafranca and Ordal. Caldagues, in passing by the bridge of Molino del Rey, established a post there, and then ascending the left bank, fixed his quarters at Martorel, where colonel Baget joined him with three thousand migueletes of the new levy.
The Llobregat runs within a few miles of Barcelona, but the right bank being much the steepest, the lateral communications easier, and the heights commanding a distinct view of every thing passing on the opposite side; the line taken by Caldagues was strong, and the country in his rear rough, full of defiles, and very fitting for a retreat after the loss of a battle. General Lechi, thus hemmed in on the west, was also hampered on the north, for the mountains filling all the space between the Llobregat and the Besos, approach in tongues as near as two and three miles from Barcelona; and the somatenes of the Manresa and Valls districts occupied them, and skirmished daily with the French outposts. Beyond the Besos, which bounds Barcelona on the eastward, a lofty continuous ridge extending to Hostalrich, runs parallel to, and at the distance of two or three miles from the sea coast, separating the main and the marine roads, and sending its shoots down to the water’s edge. This ridge also swarmed with somatenes, who cut off all communication with Duhesme, and lay in leaguer round the castle of Mongat, in which were eighty or ninety French. The Cambrian and the Imperieuse frigates blockaded the harbour of Barcelona; and, on the 31st of July, lord Cochrane having brought his Lord Collingwood’s despatches. vessel alongside of Mongat, landed his marines, and, in concert with the somatenes, took it, blew up the works, and rolled the rocks and ruins down in such a manner as to destroy the road. Thus, at the very moment that Duhesme commenced the siege of Gerona, he was cut off from his own base of operations, and the communication between Figueras and general Reille’s division, was equally insecure, for the latter’s St. Cyr. convoys were attacked the 28th of July, the 3d of August, and so fiercely on the 6th, that a Neapolitan battalion was surrounded, and lost one hundred and fifty men.
Palacios, whose forces increased daily, wished to make an effort in favour of Gerona, and with this view sent the count of Caldagues, at the head of three or four thousand men (part migueletes, part regulars), to interrupt the progress of the siege, intending to follow himself with greater forces. Caldagues left Martorel the evening of the 6th, marched by Tarrasa, Sabadell, Granollers, and San Celoni, and reached Hostalrich the morning of the 10th; there his force was increased to five thousand men and four guns. The 13th, he entered Llagostera; the 14th Castellar, a small place situated behind the ridges that overlook Gerona, and only five miles from the French camps. Don Juan Claros, with two thousand five hundred migueletes, mixed with some Walloon and Spanish guards from Rosas, met him at Castellar, as did also colonel Milans with eight hundred somatenes.
Caldagues having opened a communication with the junta of Gerona, found that Fort Mont Jouy was upon the point of surrendering, and that the French, who were ignorant of his approach, had, contrary to good discipline, heaped their forces in the plain between the left of the Oña and the Ter, but only kept a slender guard on the hills, while a single battalion protected the batteries raised against Mont Jouy. Being an enterprising man, Caldagues resolved to make an immediate effort for the relief of the place, and, after a careful observation on the 15th, divided his forces, and the 16th fell, with several columns, on the weakest part of the besiegers’ line. The garrison sallied forth at the same time from Mont Jouy, and the French guards being taken between two fires, were quickly overpowered, and driven first to the Puente Mayor and finally over the Ter. The Spaniards re-formed on the hills, expecting to be attacked; but Duhesme and Reille remained quiet until dark, then breaking up the siege, they fled away, the one to Figueras, the other to Barcelona, leaving both artillery and stores behind.
Duhesme endeavoured to pass along the coast, but, on his arrival at Callella, he discovered that the road was cut by ditches, that an English frigate was prepared to rake his columns on the march, and that all the heights were occupied by the somatenes; whereupon, destroying his ammunition, throwing his remaining artillery over the rocks, and taking to by-ways in the mountains, he forced a passage through the midst of the somatenes to Mongat, where general Lechi met him the 20th, and covered his retreat into Barcelona. Thus ended Duhesme’s second attempt against Gerona.
Observation 1.—Three great communications pierce the Pyrenean frontier of Catalonia, leading directly upon Barcelona.
The first, or Puycerda road, penetrates between the sources of the Segre and the Ter.
The second, or Campredon road, between the sources of the Ter and the Fluvia.
The third, or Figueras road, between the sources of the Muga and the sea-coast.
The first and second unite at Vicque; the second and third are connected by a transverse road running from Olot, by Castle Follit, to Gerona; the third also dividing near the latter town, leads with one branch through Hostalrich, and with the other follows the line of the coast. After the union of the first and second at Vicque, a single route pursues the stream of the Besos to Barcelona, thus turning the Muga, the Fluvia, the Ter, the Tordera, Besos, and an infinity of minor streams, that, descending from the mountains, in their rapid course to the Mediterranean, furrow all the country between the eastern Pyrenees and Barcelona. The third, which is the direct and best communication between Perpignan and the capital of Catalonia, crosses all the above-named rivers, whose deep channels and sudden floods offer serious obstacles to the march of an army.
All these roads, with the exception of that from Olot to Gerona, are separated by craggy ridges of mountains scarcely to be passed by troops; and the two first leading through wild and savage districts, are incommoded by defiles, and protected by a number of old castles and walled places, more or less capable of resistance. The third, passing through many rich and flourishing places, is however completely blocked to an invader by the strong fortresses of Figueras and Rosas on the Muga, of Gerona on the Ter, and Hostalrich on the Tordera. Palamos and several castles likewise impede the coast road, which is moreover skirted by rocky mountains, and exposed for many leagues to the fire of a fleet. Such is Catalonia, eastward and northward of Barcelona.
On the west, at five or six miles distance, the Llobregat cuts it off from a rough and lofty tract, through which the Cardena, the Noga, the Foix, Gaya, Anguera, and Francoli rivers, break in deep channels, descending in nearly parallel lines to the coast, and the spaces between being gorged with mountains, and studded with fortified places which command all the main roads. The plains and fertile valleys are so few and contracted, that Catalonia may, with the exception of the rich parts about Lerida and the Urgel, be described as a huge mass of rocks and torrents, incapable of supplying subsistence even for the inhabitants, whose prosperity depends entirely upon manufactures and commerce.
Barcelona, the richest and most populous city in Spain, is the heart of the province, and whoso masters it, if he can hold it, may suck the strength of Catalonia away. A French army, without a commanding fleet to assist, can scarcely take or keep Barcelona; the troops must be supplied by regular convoys from France; the fortresses on the line of communication must be taken and provisioned, and the active intelligent population of the country must be beaten from the rivers, pursued into their fortresses, and warred down by exertions which none but the best troops are capable of: for the Catalans are robust, numerous, and brave enough after their own manner.
Observation 2d.—It follows from this exposition, that Duhesme evinced a surprising want of forethought and military sagacity, in neglecting to secure Gerona, Hostalrich, and Tarragona, with garrisons, when his troops were received into those places. It was this negligence that rendered the timid operations of Swartz and Chabran capital errors; it was this that enabled some poor injured and indignant peasants to kindle a mighty war, and in a very few weeks obliged Napoleon to send thirty thousand men to the relief of Barcelona.
Observation 3d.—Duhesme was experienced in battles, and his energy and resources of mind have been praised by a great authority; but undoubtedly an absence of prudent calculation and arrangement, a total neglect of military discipline, marked all his operations in Catalonia; witness his mode of attack St Cyr. on Gerona, the deficiency of ladders, and the confusion of the assaults. Witness also his raising of the second siege, and absolute flight from Caldagues, whose rash enterprise, although crowned with success, should have caused his own destruction.
In those affairs it is certain Duhesme displayed neither talent nor vigour; but in the severities he exercised at the sacking of Mattaro, in the burning Napoleon’s Notes, [Appendix, No. 2.] of villages, which he executed to the extreme verge St. Cyr.
Cabanes. of, if not beyond what the harshest laws of war will justify, an odious energy was apparent, and as the ardour of the somatenes was rather increased than repressed by these vigorous proceedings, his conduct may be deemed as impolitic as it was barbarous.
Observation 4th.—In Catalonia all the inherent cruelty of the Spaniards was as grossly displayed as in any other province of Spain. The Catalans were likewise vain and superstitious; but their courage was higher, their patriotism purer, and their efforts more sustained; the somatenes were bold and active in battle, the population of the towns firm, and the juntas apparently disinterested. The praise merited and bestowed upon the people of Zaragoza is great; but Gerona more justly claims the admiration of mankind; for the Aragonese troops were by Lefebre driven from the open country in crowds to their capital, and little was wanted to induce them to surrender at once; it was not until the last hour that, gathering courage from despair, the people of Zaragoza put forth all their energy: whereas those of Gerona, although attacked by a greater force, and possessing fewer means of defence, without any internal system of terror to counterbalance their fear of the enemy, manfully and successfully resisted from the first. The people of Zaragoza rallied at their hearthstone; those of Gerona stood firm at the porch. But quitting these matters, I must now, following the order I have marked out, proceed to relate the occurrences in Valencia.
OPERATIONS OF MARSHAL MONCEY.
The execution of Calvo and his followers changed the horrid aspect of the Valencian insurrection; the spirit of murder was checked, and the patriotic energy assumed a nobler appearance. Murcia and Valencia were united as one province; and towards the end of June, nearly thirty thousand men, armed and provided with artillery, attested the resources of these rich provinces, and the activity of their chiefs. The Valencians then conceived the plan of marching to the assistance of the Aragonese; but Napoleon had already prescribed the measures which were to render such a movement abortive.
An order, dated the 30th of May, directed Moncey to move, with a column of ten thousand men, upon Cuenca; from that point he was to watch the country S.
Journal of Moncey’s Operations. MSS. comprised between the lower Ebro and Carthagena, and he was empowered to act against the city of Valencia if he judged it fitting to do so. The position of Cuenca was advantageous; a short movement from thence to the left would place Moncey’s troops upon the direct line between Valencia and Zaragoza, and enable him to intercept all communication between those towns; and a few marches to the right placed him upon the junction of the roads leading from Carthagena and Valencia to Madrid. If Moncey thought it essential to attack Valencia, the division of general Chabran was to co-operate from the side of Catalonia. By this combination the operations of Lefebre Desnouettes at Zaragoza, and those of Duhesme in Catalonia, were covered from the Valencians; and at the same time the flank of the French army at Madrid was protected on the side of Murcia.
The 6th of June Moncey marched from Aranjuez by Santa Cruz, Tarancon, Carascoso, and Villa del Orma, and reached Cuenca the 11th. There he received information of the rapid progress of the insurrection, of the state of the Valencian army, and Ibid. of the projected movement to relieve Zaragoza; he immediately resolved to make an attempt against the city of Valencia, and wrote to general Chabran, whom he supposed to be at Tortosa, directing him to march upon Castellon de la Plana, a town situated at some distance eastward of the river Guadalaviar. Moncey himself proposed, by a march through Requeña, to clear the country westward of that river, and fixed upon the 25th of June as the latest period at which the two columns were to communicate in the immediate vicinity of Valencia.
Halting from the 11th to the 16th at Cuenca, he marched the 17th to Tortola, the 18th to Buenaches, the 19th to Matilla, the 20th to Minglanilla, and the 21st to Pesquiera. From Buenaches to Pesquiera no inhabitants were to be seen; the villages were deserted, and either from fear or hatred, every living person fled before his footsteps. At length, a Swiss regiment, some of the Spanish guards, and a body of armed peasantry, made a stand at the bridge of Pajaso, upon the river Cabriel; the manner in which the country had been forsaken, the gloomy and desolate marches, and the sudden appearance of an armed force ready to dispute this important pass, prognosticated a desperate conflict; but the event belied the omens; and scarcely any resistance was made; the French easily forced the passage of the bridge; the peasants fled, and the Swiss and Spanish guards came over to the side of the victors.
Moncey informed general Chabran of this success, and appointed the 27th and 28th for a junction under Ibid. the walls of Valencia. The next day he took a position at Otiel; but hearing that the defeated patriots had rallied and being reinforced, were, to the number of ten or twelve thousand, intrenching themselves upon his left, he quitted the direct line of march to attack them in their post of Cabreras, which was somewhat in advance of the Siete Aguas. The Spanish position was of extraordinary strength, the flanks rested upon steep rocky mountains, and the only approach to the front was through a long narrow defile, formed by high scarped rocks, whose tops, inaccessible from the French side, were covered with the armed peasantry of the neighbourhood. A direct assault upon such a position could not succeed, and general Harispe was directed to turn it by the right, while the cavalry and artillery occupied the attention of the Spaniards in front; after overcoming many obstacles offered by the impracticable nature of the ground, Harispe reached the main body of the Spaniards, and then easily defeated them, taking all their cannon, ammunition, and baggage. This action, which took place upon the 24th, freed the left flank of Moncey’s army, and he resumed his march upon the direct road to Valencia. The 25th he was at the Venta de Buñol, the 26th in advance of Chieva, and the 27th he arrived in front of Valencia.
A complete circuit of the ancient walls was in existence, and all the approaches were commanded by works which had been hastily repaired or newly raised by the inhabitants; the citadel was in a tolerable state of defence, and the population were preparing for a vigorous resistance. A city containing eighty thousand people, actuated by the most violent passions, cannot be easily overcome, and the Valencians derived additional strength from the situation of their town, built as it was upon low ground, and encircled with numerous canals and cuts, made for the purposes of irrigation; the deep ditches of the place were filled with water, so that no approach could be made by the small force under Moncey except against the gates. It is said that the marshal had corrupted a smuggler, who promised to betray the city during the heat of the assault, and it is probable that some secret understanding of that kind induced the French commander to make an attempt which would otherwise have been rash and unmilitary.
Don Joseph Caro, a brother of the marquis of Romana, was with four thousand men entrenched behind the canal of the Guadalaviar, which was five miles in advance of the city gates. The village of Quarte, and some thickly planted mulberry trees, helped to render this post very strong; and when Moncey attacked it upon the 27th, he met with a vigorous resistance. Caro was, however, beaten, and chased into the city, with the loss of some cannon, and on the 28th the French drove in the outposts, and occupied all the principal avenues of the town.
However enthusiastic the patriots were while their enemy was at a distance, his near approach filled them with terror, and it is possible that a vigorous assault might have succeeded at the first moment of consternation. But the favourable opportunity, if it really existed, quickly passed away; Padre Rico, a friar distinguished by his resolution, traversing the streets, with a cross in one hand and a sword in the other, aroused the sinking spirit and excited the fanaticism of the multitude; the fear of retaliation for the massacre of the French residents, and the certainty that Moncey’s troops were few, powerfully seconded his efforts; and as it is usual for undisciplined masses of people to pass suddenly from one extreme to another, fear was soon succeeded by enthusiasm.
After disposing his field-pieces on the most favourable points, and while the impression of the first defeat was still fresh, Moncey summoned the governor to surrender. But the latter answered, “That he would defend the city.” The French guns then opened upon the place; the heavy guns of the Spaniards, however, soon overpowered them, and a warm skirmish ensuing about the houses of the suburbs and the vicinity of the gates, the Valencians so obstinately resisted, that when the night fell, not only no serious impression had been made upon the defences, but the assailants were repulsed with loss at every point. The situation of the French marshal became delicate; the persons sent to seek Chabran could gain no intelligence of that general’s movements; the secret connexions in the town, if any there were, had failed; the ammunition was nearly expended, and the army was encumbered with seven or eight hundred wounded men, and among them the general of engineers. Moncey, swayed by these embarrassments, relinquished his attack, and fell back to Quarte on the 29th, being harassed by Caro and the populace in his retreat.
When it is considered that in a great city only a small number of persons can estimate justly the immense advantages of their situation, and the comparative weakness of the enemy, it must be confessed that the spirit displayed by the Valencians upon this occasion was very great; unfortunately it ended there, nothing worthy of such an energetic commencement was afterwards performed, although very considerable armies were either raised or maintained in the province.
Journal of Moncey.
At Quarte Moncey, hearing that the captain-general, Serbelloni, was marching upon Almanza to intercept the communication with Chieva and Buñol, resolved to relinquish the line of Cuenca, and to attack Serbelloni before he could quit the kingdom of Murcia. This vigorous resolution he executed with great celerity; for, directing the head of his column towards Torrente, he continued his march until night, halting a short distance from that town. And a forced march the next day brought him near Alcira, only one league from the river Xucar; from his bivouac at that place he despatched advice to general Chabran of this change of affairs.
In the mean time the conde de Serbelloni, surprised in the midst of his movement, and disconcerted in his calculations by the decision and rapidity of Moncey, took up a position to defend the passage of the Xucar; the line of that river is strong, and offers many advantageous points of resistance; but the Spaniards imprudently occupied both banks, and in this exposed situation were attacked upon the morning of the 1st of July; the division on the French side was overthrown, and the passage forced without loss of time. Serbelloni then retired to the heights of San Felice, which covered the main road leading from Alcira to Almanza, hoping to secure the defiles in front of the latter town before the enemy could arrive there; but Moncey was again too quick for him; for leaving San Felice to his left, he continued his march on another route, and by a strenuous exertion seized upon the gorge of the defiles near Almanza late in the night of the 2d; the Spanish troops in the mean time approached his position, but were dispersed at day-break on the 3d, and some of their guns captured; the road being now open, Moncey entered the town of Almanza the same day. The 4th he took post at Bonete. The 5th near Chinchilla, and the 6th at Albacete, where he got intelligence that general Frere, who should have been at St. Clemente with a division, was gone towards Mequeña.
To explain this movement it is necessary to observe that when Dupont marched towards Andalusia, and Moncey against Valencia, the remaining divisions of their corps were employed by Savary to scour the country in the neighbourhood of Madrid, and to protect the rear and connect the operations of those generals; thus general Gobert, who, following Napoleon’s orders, should have been at Valladolid, was sent with the third division of Dupont towards Andalusia; and general Frere (commanding the second division of Moncey’s), who should have been at San Clemente, a central point, from whence he could gain the road leading from Seville to La Mancha, and intercept the communication between Valencia and Cuenca, or seize upon the point of junction where the route from Carthagena and Murcia falls into the road of Valencia, was sent by Requeña to reinforce Moncey.
Meanwhile, the inhabitants of Cuenca rose in arms, and being joined by a force of seven or eight thousand peasants, overpowered and destroyed a French detachment left in that town. The duke of Rovigo, fearing that Moncey’s column would be compromised by this insurrection, ordered general Caulaincourt, then at Taracon, to quell it with a force composed of cavalry and some provisional battalions. Caulaincourt arrived in front of Cuenca on the evening of the 3d of July; finding the insurgents in position, he attacked and dispersed them with great slaughter, and the town being deserted by the inhabitants, was given up to pillage.
In the mean time, Frere, who had quitted San Clemente upon the 26th, made his way to Requeña; there he received intelligence of Caulaincourt’s success, and that Moncey had passed the Xucar; whereupon, retracing his steps, he returned to San Clemente, his troops being wearied, sickly, and exhausted by these long and useless marches in the heats of summer. Moncey now re-organized his forces, and prepared artillery and other means for a second attempt against Valencia; but he was interrupted by Savary, who, alarmed at the advance of Cuesta and Blake, recalled Foy’s History. Frere towards Madrid, and Moncey, justly offended that Savary, inflated with momentary power, should treat him with so little ceremony, broke up from San Clemente, and likewise returned by the way of Ocaña to the capital.
OBSERVATIONS.
1º. The result of marshal Moncey’s campaign being published by the Spaniards as a great and decisive failure, produced extravagant hopes of final success; a happy illusion if the chiefs had not partaken of it, and pursued their wild course of mutual flattery and exaggeration, without reflecting that in truth there was nothing very satisfactory in the prospect of affairs. Moncey’s operation was in the nature of a moveable column; the object of which was to prevent the junction of the Valencian army with the Aragonese. The attempt upon the town of Valencia was a simple experiment, which, if successful, would have produced great effects, but having failed, the evil resulting was but trifling in a military [Appendix, No. 7.] point of view. Valencia was not the essential object of the expedition, and the fate of the general campaign depended upon the armies in Old Castile.
2º. It was consoling that a rich and flourishing town had not fallen into the power of the enemy; but at the same time a want of real nerve in the Spanish insurrection was visible. The kingdoms of Murcia and Valencia acted in concert, and contained two of the richest sea-port towns in the Peninsula; their united force amounted to thirty thousand organised troops, exclusive of the armed peasants in various districts; and the populace of Valencia were deeply committed by the massacre of the French residents. Here then, if in any place, a strenuous resistance was to be expected; nevertheless, marshal Moncey, whose whole force was at first only eight thousand French, and never exceeded ten thousand men, continued marching and fighting without cessation for a month, during which period he forced two of the strongest mountain passes in the world, crossed several large and difficult rivers, carried the war into the very streets of Valencia; and being disappointed of assistance from Catalonia, extricated his division from a difficult situation, after having defeated his opponents in five actions, killed and wounded a number of them, equal in amount to the whole of his own force, and made a circuit of above three hundred miles through a hostile and populous country, without having sustained any serious loss, without any desertion from the Spanish battalions incorporated with his own, and what was of more importance, having those battalions much increased by desertions from the enemy. In short, the great object of the expedition had been attained, the plan of relieving Zaragoza was entirely frustrated, and the organization of an efficient Spanish force retarded.
3º. Moncey could hardly have expected to succeed against the town of Valencia; for to use Napoleon’s words, “a city, with eighty thousand inhabitants, barricadoed streets, and artillery placed at the gates, cannot be TAKEN BY THE COLLAR.”
4º. General Frere’s useless march to Requeña was very hurtful to the French; and the duke of Rovigo was rated by the emperor for his want of judgment upon the occasion; “it was a folly,” the latter writes, “to dream of reinforcing Moncey; because if that marshal failed in taking the city by a sudden assault, it became an affair of artillery; and twenty thousand men, more or less, would not enable him to succeed.” “Frere could do nothing at Valencia, but he could do a great deal at San Clemente; because from that post he could support either Madrid or general Dupont.”
5º. Moncey was slightly blamed by the emperor for not halting within a day’s march of Valencia, in order to break the spirit of the people, and make them feel the weight of the war; but this opinion was probably formed upon an imperfect knowledge of the local details. The marshal’s line of operations from Cuenca was infested by insurgent bands, his ammunition was nearly exhausted, he could hear nothing of Chabran’s division, and the whole force of Murcia was collecting upon his flank and rear. The country behind him was favourable for his adversaries, and his army was encumbered by a number of wounded men; it was surely prudent under such circumstances, to open his communication again with Madrid as quickly as possible.
By some authors, the repulse at Valencia has been classed with the inglorious defeat of Dupont at Baylen; but there was a wide difference between those events, the generals, and the results. Moncey, although an old man, was vigorous, active, and decided; and the check he received produced little effect. Dupont was irresolute, slow, and incapable, if not worse, as I shall hereafter show; but before describing his campaign, I must narrate the operations of the Gallician army.