CHAPTER VIII.
OPERATIONS IN ANDALUSIA.
Journal of Dupont’s Operations. MS.
General Dupont received orders to march against Cadiz with a column, composed of two Swiss regiments (Preux and Reding), taken from the Spanish army, a French division of infantry under general Barbou, a division of cavalry commanded by general Fresia, a marine battalion of the imperial guards, and eighteen pieces of artillery. Three thousand infantry, five hundred cavalry, and ten guns, drawn from the army of Portugal, were to join him in Andalusia, and he was to incorporate among his troops three other Swiss regiments, quartered in that province.
The latter end of May he traversed La Mancha, entered the Sierra Morena, by the pass of Despeñas Perros, and proceeded by Carolina and Baylen to Andujar, where he arrived the 2d of June; there he was informed that a supreme junta of government was established at Seville, that minor juntas ruled in Granada, Jaen, and Cordoba, that war was formally declared against the French, that the whole of Andalusia was in arms, and the Swiss regiments ranged under the Spanish banners, and finally, that general Avril, commanding the detachment expected from Portugal, had halted in Tavora, and was preparing to return to Lisbon.
Alarmed by this intelligence, Dupont wrote to Murat and Savary to demand reinforcements, and in the mean time closed up the rear of his columns, and established an hospital in Andujar. The 6th he crossed the Guadalquivir, and continued his march towards Cordoba, following the left bank of the river. Two leagues from that ancient city the road recrossed the Guadalquivir by a long stone bridge, at the furthest end of which stood the village of Alcolea. The French general arrived there at day-break on the 7th, but his further progress was opposed by the Spanish general Echevaria, who, having fortified the head of the bridge, manned the works, placed twelve guns in battery on the right bank, and drawn together three thousand regular troops, and ten thousand new levies and smugglers, occupied the village, and was prepared to dispute the passage of the river. A small reserve remained in a camp close to Cordoba, and a cloud of armed peasants from the side of Jaen were also gathered on the hills behind the French army, ready to fall on its rear when the bridge should be attacked.
Dupont having observed this disposition, placed the cavalry, the Swiss regiments, and the marine battalion in reserve facing to the hills, and with the division of Barbou stormed the head of the bridge. The Spaniards, making a feeble resistance, were driven across the river, and their whole line immediately fled to the camp at Cordoba. The multitude on the hills descended during the battle, but were beaten back by the cavalry with loss, and the French general, leaving the marine battalion at Alcolea to secure the bridge, marched with the rest of his forces to complete the victory. At his approach the Spaniards abandoned their new position, took refuge in the town, and being summoned to surrender, opened a fire of musketry from the walls, whereupon the French bursting the gates with their field-pieces, broke into the town, and after a short and confused fight Echevaria’s men fled in disorder along the Seville road, and were pursued by the cavalry. As the inhabitants took no part in the contest, and received the French without any signs of aversion, the town was protected from pillage, and Dupont fixing his quarters there, sent his patroles as far as Ecija without meeting with an enemy.
In Seville the news of this disaster, and the arrival of fugitives, struck such a terror, that the junta were only prevented from retiring to Cadiz by their dread of the populace, and even entertained thoughts of Nellerto. abandoning Spain altogether, and flying to South America. Castaños, who a few days before had been declared captain-general of the armies, was at this time in march with seven thousand troops of the line from San Roque; being called to Seville, he arrived there on the 9th, and after a short conference with the junta proceeded to take the command of Echevaria’s forces, the greater part of which were reassembled at Carmona, but in such confusion and so moody that he returned immediately, and having persuaded the president Saavedra to accompany him, fixed his head-quarters at Utrera, where he gathered two or three thousand regulars from the nearest garrisons, and directing the new levies to repair to him, hastened the march of his own men from St. Roche. He also pressed general Spencer to disembark, and take up a position with the British forces at Xeres; but Spencer, for reasons hereafter to be mentioned, sailed to Ayamonte, a circumstance that augmented a general distrust of the English prevailing at the time, and which was secretly fomented by Morla, and by several members of the junta.
At this moment Andalusia was lost if Dupont had advanced; his inactivity saved it: instead of pushing his victory, he wrote to Savary for reinforcements, and to general Avril, desiring that he would without delay come to his assistance, but he himself remained in Cordoba, overwhelmed with imaginary dangers and difficulties; for although Castaños had in a few days collected at Carmona and Utrera seven or eight thousand regulars, and above fifty thousand new levies, and that Dupont’s letters were intercepted and brought to him, such was the condition of affairs that, resigning all thoughts of making a stand, he had, under the pretence of completing the defences of Cadiz, embarked [Appendix, No. 13.] the heavy artillery and stores at Seville, and was prepared, if Dupont should advance, to burn the timbers and harness of his field artillery, and to retreat to Cadiz.
Meanwhile continuing the organization of his forces, he filled up the old regiments with new levies, and formed fresh battalions, in which he was assisted by two foreigners, the marquis de Coupigny, a crafty French emigrant, of some experience in war, and Reding, a Swiss, a bold, enterprising, honest man, but without judgment, and of very moderate talents as an officer. Castaños wished to adopt a defensive plan, to make Cadiz his place of arms, and to form an entrenched camp, where he hoped to be joined by ten or twelve thousand British troops, and, in Sir H. Dalrymple’s Papers. security, to organize and discipline a large army; but, in reality, he had merely the name and the troubles of a commander-in-chief, without the power; for Morla was his enemy, and the junta containing men determined to use their authority for their own emolument and the gratification of private enmity, were jealous lest Castaños should control their proceedings, and thwarted him; humouring the caprice and insolence of the populace, and meddling with affairs foreign to the matter in hand.
As the numbers at Utrera increased, the general confidence augmented, and a retreat was no longer contemplated: plans were laid to surround Dupont in Cordoba; one detachment of peasants, commanded by regular officers, was sent to occupy the passes of the Sierra Morena, leading into Estremadura; another marched from Grenada, accompanied by a regiment of the line, to seize Carolina, and cut off the communication with La Mancha; a third, under colonel Valdecanas, proposed to attack the French in Cordoba without any assistance, and this eagerness for action was increased by a knowledge of the situation of affairs in Portugal, and by rumours exaggerating the strength of Filanghieri and Cuesta. It was believed that the latter had advanced to Valladolid, and offered Murat the option of abiding an attack, or retiring immediately to France by stated marches, and that, alarmed at Cuesta’s power, the grand duke was fortifying the Retiro.
These reports, so congenial to the wishes and vanity of the Andalusians, caused the plan proposed by Castaños to be rejected; and when Dupont’s despatches magnifying his own danger, and pressing in the most urgent manner for reinforcements were again intercepted and brought to head-quarters, it was resolved to attack Cordoba immediately; but Dupont’s fears outstripped their impatience.
After ten days of inactivity, by which he lost the immediate fruit of his victory at Alcolea,—the lead in an offensive campaign, and all the imposing moral force of the French reputation in arms, Dupont, finding Journal of Dupont’s Operations. that, instead of receiving direct reinforcements from Savary, he must wait until Moncey, having first subdued Valencia, could aid him by the circuitous route of Murcia, resolved to fall back to Andujar.
Napoleon’s notes, [Appendix, No. 1.]
He commenced his retreat the 17th of June, being followed as far as Carpio by the advanced guard of the Andalusians, under general Coupigny. Along the line of march, and in the town of Andujar, Whittingham. Journal of Dupont. where he arrived the evening of the 18th, he found terrible proofs of Spanish ferocity; his stragglers Foy’s History. had been assassinated, and his hospital taken, the sick, the medical attendants, the couriers, the staff Victoire et Conquêtes. officers, in fine, all who had the misfortune to be weaker than the insurgents, were butchered, with circumstances of extraordinary barbarity; upwards of four hundred men had perished in this miserable manner since the fight of Alcolea. The fate of colonel Renè was horrible; he had been sent on a mission to Portugal previous to the breaking out of hostilities; and was on his return, travelling in the ordinary mode, without arms, attached to no army, engaged in no operations of war, but being recognised as a Frenchman he was seized, mutilated, and then placed between two planks and sawed alive.
Dupont now collected provisions, and prepared to maintain himself in Andujar until he should be reinforced; but wishing to punish the city of Jaen, from whence the bands had come that murdered his sick, he sent captain Baste, a naval officer, with a battalion of infantry and some cavalry, to accomplish that object. The French soldiers, inflamed by the barbarity of their enemies, inflicted a severe measure of retaliation, for it is the nature of cruelty to reproduce itself in war; and for this reason, although the virtue of clemency is to all persons becoming, it is peculiarly so to an officer, the want of it leading to so many and such great evils.
The Andalusian army having remained quiet, Dupont, who knew that Vedel’s division, escorting a large convoy for the army, was marching through La Mancha, sent captain Baste with a second detachment to clear the pass of Despeñas Perros which was occupied by insurgents and smugglers from Grenada to the number of three thousand: the pass itself was of incredible strength, and the Spaniards had artillery, and were partially entrenched; but their commander, a colonel of the line, deserted to the enemy, and before Baste could arrive, Vedel forced the road without difficulty and reached Carolina. He posted a detachment there to keep open the communication with La Mancha, and then descended himself to Baylen, a small town sixteen miles from Andujar.
Meanwhile other insurgents from Grenada having arrived at Jaen were preparing to move by the Linhares road to Carolina and Despeñas Perros. General Cassagne, with a brigade of Vedel’s division, marched against them the 29th of June, and after fighting on the 2nd and 3d of July, he took possession of Jaen, and drove the Grenadans back with considerable slaughter, but lost two hundred men himself, and returned on the 25th to Baylen. Notwithstanding these successes, and that Vedel brought reinforcements for Barbou’s division and the cavalry, Dupont’s fears increased. His position at Andujar covered the main road from Seville to Carolina; but eight miles lower down the river it could be turned by the bridge of Marmolexo, and sixteen miles higher up by the roads leading from Jaen to the ferry of Mengibar and Baylen; and beyond that line by the roads from Jaen and Grenada to Uzeda, Linhares, and the passes of El Rey and the Despeñas Perros. The dryness of the season had also rendered the Guadalquivir fordable in many places. The regular force under Castaños was daily increasing in strength, the population around was actively hostile, Dupont’s Journal. and the young French soldiers were drooping under privations and the heat of the climate. Six hundred Foy’s History. were in hospital, and the whole were discouraged. It is in such situations that the worth of a veteran is found: in battle the ardour of youth often appears to shame the cool indifference of the old soldier, but when the strife is between the malice of fortune and fortitude, between human endurance and accumulating hardships, the veteran becomes truly formidable, when the young soldier resigns himself to despair.
After the actions at Jaen, both sides remained quiet until the 14th of July, on which day general Gobert, who should have been at Rio Seco with Bessieres, arrived at Carolina with the greatest part of a division, the next day he joined Vedel at Baylen, and the latter general pushed on a brigade, under general Leger Bellair, to watch the ferry of Mengibar, and it was full time, for the Spanish army was already on the opposite bank of the river.
Whittingham’s Correspondence.
When Dupont’s retreat from Cordoba had frustrated the plan of the Spaniards to surround him, Castaños returned to his old project of a rigorous defensive system. The junta at first acquiesced, but being unsettled in their policy, and getting intelligence of Vedel’s march, they ordered Castaños to attack Dupont at Andujar before the reinforcements could arrive. The regular troops were about twenty-five thousand infantry, and two thousand cavalry. A very heavy train of artillery, and large bodies of armed peasantry, commanded by officers of the line, attended the army; the numbers, of course, varied from day to day, but the whole multitude that advanced towards the Guadalquivir could not have been less than fifty thousand men, hence the intelligence that Vedel had actually arrived did not much allay the general fierceness. Castaños, however, was less sanguine than the rest, and learning that Spencer Whittingham’s Correspondence. had just returned to Cadiz with his division, he once more requested him to land and advance to Xeres, to afford a point of retreat in the event of a disaster; the English general consented to disembark, but refused to advance further than Port St. Mary.
The 1st of July the Spanish army occupied a position extending from Carpio to Porcuñas; the 11th a council of war being held, it was resolved that Reding’s division should cross the Guadalquivir at the ferry of Mengibar, and gain Baylen; that Coupigny should cross at Villa Nueva, and support Ibid. Reding; and that Castaños, with the other two divisions, advancing to the heights of Argonilla, should attack Andujar in front, while Reding and Coupigny should descend from Baylen and attack it in the rear. Some detachments of light troops under colonel Cruz were ordered to pass the Guadalquivir by Marmolexo, and to seize the passes leading through the Morena to Estremadura.
The 13th, Reding, with the first division, and three or four thousand peasantry, marched towards Ibid. Mengibar; and Coupigny, with the second division, took the road of Villa Nueva. The 15th, Castaños crowned the heights of Argonilla, in front of Andujar, with two divisions of infantry, and a multitude of irregular troops. Coupigny skirmished with the French picquets at Villa Nueva; and Reding crossing the river at Mengibar, attacked Leger Bellair; but Vedel came to the assistance of the latter, and Dupont’s Journal. Reding recrossed to the left bank. When Dupont saw the heights of Argonilla covered with Spanish troops, he sent to Vedel for a brigade of infantry, Foy. broke down the bridge of Marmolexo, occupied some works that he had thrown up to cover the bridge of Andujar, put a garrison in an old tower built over one of the arches, and drew the remainder of his troops up in position on the bank of the river; his cavalry being posted in the plain behind the town, with posts watching the fords above and below the position.
The 15th, Castaños merely cannonaded the bridge; the 16th, colonel Cruz crossed with four thousand men near Marmolexo, and fell upon Dupont’s rear, while Castaños attacked him in front. Cruz was Dupont’s Journal. beaten, and chased into the mountains by a single battalion, and a few discharges checked Castaños. Meanwhile, Vedel, either thinking all safe at Baylen, or mistaking Dupont’s meaning, instead of sending a brigade, marched during the night of the 15th with his whole division. The next day Reding again passed the Guadalquivir, and attacked Leger Bellair. General Gobert, who had just arrived at Baylen, marched to the latter’s assistance; the combat became hot, Gobert fell mortally wounded, and the French retired to Baylen. General Darfour succeeded Gobert, and as Reding did not follow up his success, Darfour gave credit to a report that the Ibid. Spanish general was moving by the Linhares road upon Carolina, and imprudently fell back to the latter town.
While this was passing, Dupont, already offended by Vedel’s over-zeal, heard of Gobert’s death, and obliged the former to return during the nights of the 16th and 17th, to Baylen, with orders to secure that important point; but Vedel also fell into the same error as Darfour, and marched the 18th to Carolina. Reding, who had never moved from Mengibar, being now joined by Coupigny, profited of this occasion to seize Baylen, and throwing out a detachment on the side of Carolina, drew up in position facing Andujar; his numbers, including the armed peasants, being about twenty thousand.
The armies were thus interlaced in a singular manner: Dupont being posted between Castaños and Reding; and Reding between Dupont and Vedel’s division: the affair became one of time; Castaños rested tranquilly in his camp, apparently ignorant of Reding’s situation; Dupont, more alive to what was passing, silently quitted Andujar on the evening of the 18th, marched all night, and at day-break came to Rio de las Tiedras, a torrent with rugged banks, two miles from the Spanish position, in front of Baylen. Reding’s ground was strong, intersected with deep ravines, and planted with olive trees. Dupont hoping that Vedel would return upon the Spanish Dupont’s Journal. rear, and having no choice, passed the Tiedras, and leaving Barbou with a few battalions on that stream to keep Castaños in check, if he should arrive during the action, attacked Reding.
For some time the French appeared to be gaining ground; but, fatigued with a long night march, and unable to force the principal points, they became discouraged; the Swiss brigade went over to the enemy; and at two o’clock, after losing about two thousand, killed and wounded, Dupont yielded to his destiny, and sent to desire a suspension of hostilities, with a view to a convention. Reding, who could hardly maintain his position, willingly acceded to the proposal. Whittingham. At this moment Barbou was attacked by general La Pena, who arrived on the Tiedras with a third Spanish division; for Castaños, when he had discovered Dupont’s retreat eight hours after the latter Ibid. had quitted his position, sent half the troops in pursuit, and remained with the rest at Andujar.
Victoires et Conquêtes.
Vedel having heard the cannonade as early as three o’clock in the morning, quitted Carolina at five o’clock, Foy. and marched in the direction of Baylen. The continued sound of artillery became more distinct as he Dupont’s Journal. MSS. advanced, and left no doubt of the fact of Dupont’s division being seriously engaged, notwithstanding which he halted at Guarroman, two Spanish leagues from Baylen, and remained inactive for seven hours. At three o’clock in the evening, when the firing had long ceased, he put himself in motion again, and coming upon the rear of Reding’s troops, enveloped and made prisoners a battalion of the detached corps which was posted by that general to watch the road leading from Carolina. These troops relying upon the faith of the armistice just agreed upon with Dupont, made no resistance; and Vedel being informed of what was passing, released them, and awaited the result of this singular crisis.
One Villontreys, an officer of the emperor’s staff, opened the negotiation with Reding, by whom he was referred to Castaños then at Andujar; thither generals Chabert and Marescot repaired on the 20th. They demanded permission for the whole army to retire peaceably upon Madrid; and Castaños was at first inclined to grant this as the most certain and ready mode of freeing Andalusia from the French, and gaining time for further preparations; but Savary’s letter to Dupont, written just before the battle of Whittingham’s Correspondence. Rio Seco, to recall him to the defence of the capital, being intercepted, was brought at this moment to the Spanish head-quarters, and changed the aspect of affairs. A convention was no longer in question; Victoires et Conquêtes. Dupont’s troops were required to lay down their arms and to become prisoners of war, on condition of being sent to France by sea. Vedel’s troops were likewise required to surrender on condition of being sent to France with the others, but not to be considered as prisoners of war: and these terms were accepted.
Meanwhile Vedel, informed, in the night of the 20th, by Dupont, of this unexpected change, had retreated to Carolina. Castaños hearing of it, menaced Dupont with death if Vedel did not return; and the latter understanding that he was included in the capitulation, came back to Baylen and surrendered.
Thus, above eighteen thousand French soldiers laid down their arms on the 22d, before a raw army incapable of resisting half that number if the latter had been led by an able man. Nor did this end the disgraceful affair; but, as if to show to what extent folly and fear combined will carry men, captain Villontrey’s, Foy’s History. with a Spanish escort, passed the Sierra Morena, and traversing La Mancha to within a short distance of Toledo, gathered up the escorts, the hospital attendants, and the detachments left by Dupont in that province, and constituting them prisoners under the capitulation, sent them to Andujar; and this unheard of proceeding was quietly submitted to by men who belonged to that army which for fifteen years had been the terror of Europe—a proof how much the firmness of soldiers depends upon the character of their immediate chief.
click here for larger image.
Explanatory Sketch
of the
BATTLE OF BAYLEN.
London. Published March 1828, by John Murray, Albermarle Street.
The capitulation, shameful in itself, was shamefully broken. The French troops, instead of being sent to France, were maltreated, and numbers of them murdered in cold blood, especially at Lebrixa, where above eighty officers were massacred in the most cowardly manner. Although armed only with their swords, they kept the assassins for some time at bay, and gathering in a company, upon an open space in the town, endeavoured to save their lives, but a fire from the neighbouring houses was kept up until the last of those unfortunate gentlemen fell.
No distinction was made between Dupont’s and Vedel’s troops; all who survived the march to Cadiz, after being exposed to every species of indignity, were cast into some hulks, where the greatest number perished in lingering torments: a few hundreds, rendered desperate by their situation, contrived to escape, some years afterwards, by cutting the cables of their prison-ship, and drifting, under a heavy fire, and in the midst of a storm, upon a lee-shore, where two-thirds of them were picked up by their countrymen at that time blockading Cadiz. Dupont himself was permitted to return to France, and to take with him all the generals; and it is curious that Victoires et Conquêtes. general Privé, who had remonstrated strongly against the capitulation, and pressed Dupont on the field to force a passage through Reding’s army, was the only one left behind.
Don Thomas Morla, after a vain attempt to involve lord Collingwood and sir Hew Dalrymple in the disgraceful transaction, formally defended the conduct of the junta in breaking the capitulation; his reasoning was worthy of the man who so soon afterwards betrayed his own country with the same indifference to honour that he displayed on this occasion.
OBSERVATIONS.
Return of the French army. [Appendix.]
1º. The gross amount of Dupont’s corps when it first entered Spain was about twenty-four thousand men, with three thousand five hundred horses; of these twenty-one thousand were fit for duty. It was afterwards strengthened by a provisionary regiment of cuirassiers, a marine battalion of the guard, and the two Swiss regiments of Preux and Reding. It could not therefore have been less than twenty-four thousand fighting men when Dupont arrived in Andalusia, and as the whole of Vedel’s, and the greatest part of Gobert’s division, had joined before the capitulation, and that eighteen thousand men laid down their arms at Baylen, Dupont must have lost by wounds, desertion, and deaths in hospital or the field, above four thousand men.
2º. The order which directed this corps upon Cadiz was despatched from Bayonne before the Spanish insurrection broke out; it was therefore strange that Dupont should have persevered in his march when he found affairs in such a different state from that contemplated by Napoleon at the time the instructions for this expedition were framed. If the emperor considered it necessary to reinforce the division which marched under Dupont’s own command, with a detachment from the army in Portugal before the insurrection broke out, it was evident that he never could have intended that that general should blindly follow the letter of his orders, when a great and unexpected resistance was opposed to him, and that the detachment of Portugal was unable to effect a junction. The march to Cordoba was therefore an error, and it was a great error, because Dupont confesses in his memoir that he advanced under the conviction that his force was too weak to obtain success, and, consequently, having no object, his operations could only lead to a waste of lives.
3º. At Cordoba, Dupont remained in a state of torpor for ten days; this was the second error of a series which led to his ruin: he should either have followed up his victory and attacked Seville in the first moment of consternation, or he should have retired to Andujar while he might do so without the appearance of being compelled to it. If he had followed the first plan, the city would inevitably have fallen before him, and thus time would have been gained for the arrival of the 2d and 3d division of his corps.
4º. It may be objected that ten thousand men durst not penetrate so far into a hostile country; but Dupont’s Journal of Operations. at Alcolea, Dupont boasts of having defeated forty thousand men without any loss to himself; from such armies then he had nothing to fear, and the very fact of his having pushed his small force between the multitudes that he defeated upon the 7th, proves that he despised them. “He retired from Cordoba,” he says in his memoir, “because to fight a battle when victory can be of no use is against all discretion;” but to make no use of a victory when it is gained comes to the same thing; and he should never have moved from Andujar unless with the determination of taking Seville.
5º. Those errors were, however, redeemable; the position behind the Guadalquivir, the checks given to the patriots at Jaen after the arrival of Vedel at Carolina upon the 27th, and above all the opportune junction of Gobert at the moment when Castaños and Reding appeared in front of the French line, proved that it was not fortune but common sense that deserted Dupont on this occasion, for the Spanish forces being divided and extended from Andujar to Mengibar were exposed to be beaten in detail; but their adversary was indulgent to them, and amidst the mass of errors committed upon both sides, this false disposition appeared like an act of wisdom, and being successful was stamped accordingly.
6º. At Mengibar a variety of roads branch off leading to Jaen, to Linhares, to Baylen and other places. From Andujar, a road nearly parallel to the Guadalquivir runs to the ferry of Mengibar and forms the base of a triangle, of which Baylen may be taken as the apex. From this latter town to the ferry is about six miles, from the ferry to Andujar is about eighteen, from the latter to Baylen the distance may be sixteen miles. Fifteen miles above Baylen the town of Carolina, situated in the gorge of the Sierra Morena, was the point of communication with La Mancha, and the line of retreat for the French in the event of a defeat, hence Baylen, not Andujar, was the pivot of operations.
7º. The French force was inferior in number to that under Castaños, yet Dupont disseminated his divisions upon several points. The natural results followed. The Spaniards, although the most unwieldy body, took the lead and became the assailants; the French divisions were worn out by useless marches; the orders of their chief were mistaken or disobeyed; one position being forced, another was of necessity Dupont’s Journal. MS. abandoned; confusion ensued, and finally Dupont says he surrendered with eighteen thousand men, because his fighting force was reduced to two thousand: such an avowal saves the honour of his soldiers, but destroys his own reputation as a general. The first question to ask is, what became of the remainder? Why had he so few when ten thousand of his army never fired a shot? It must be confessed that Dupont, unless a worse explanation can be given of his conduct, was incapable to the last degree.
8º. There were two plans, either of which promised a reasonable chance of success, under the circumstances in which the French army was placed on the 14th. 1st. To abandon Andujar, send all the incumbrances into La Mancha, secure the passes, unite the fighting men at Carolina, and fall in one mass upon the first corps of Spaniards that advanced; the result of such an attack could hardly have been doubtful; but if, contrary to all probability, the Spaniards had been successful, the retreat of the French was open and safe. 2dly. To secure Carolina by a detachment, and placing small bodies in observation at Andujar and the ferry of Mengibar, to unite the army on the 15th at Baylen, and in that central position await the enemy. If the two corps of the Spanish army had presented themselves simultaneously upon both roads, the position was strong for battle and the retreat open; if one approached before the other, each might have been encountered and crushed separately. Dupont had a force more than sufficient for this object, and fortune was not against him.
9º. The direction in which Reding marched was good, but it should have been followed by the whole army. The heights of Argonilla would have screened the march of Castaños, and a few troops with some heavy guns left in front of the bridge of Andujar, would have sufficed to occupy Dupont’s attention. If the latter general had attacked Castaños upon the morning of the 16th, when Vedel’s division arrived from Baylen, the fourteen thousand men thus united by accident would easily have overthrown the two Spanish divisions in front of Andujar; and Reding, if he had lost an hour in retreating to Jaen, might have been taken in flank by the victorious troops, and in front by Gobert, and so destroyed. Instead of availing himself of this opening, the French general sent Vedel back to Baylen, and followed himself the day after; being encountered by Reding, he vainly hoped that the divisions (which with so much pains he had dispersed) would reunite to relieve him from his desperate situation; it is difficult to say why those divisions did not arrive during the battle, and more difficult to assign to each person a just portion of censure where all were to blame.
10º. In the action Dupont clung tenaciously to the miserable system of dividing his forces; his only chance of safety was to force Reding before Castaños could arrive upon the Tiedras; it was therefore a wretched misapplication of rules to have a reserve watching that torrent, and to fight a formal battle with a first and second line and half a dozen puny columns of attack. An energetic officer would have formed his troops in a dense mass and broken at once through the opposing force upon the weakest point; there are few armies so good, that such an assault would not open a passage through them; seven thousand infantry with cavalry and artillery is a powerful column of attack, and the Spanish line could not have withstood it for a moment. The battle should have been one of half an hour; Dupont, by his ridiculous evolutions, made it one of ten hours, and yet so badly did the patriots fight, that in all that time not a single prisoner or gun fell into their hands, and the fact of Reding’s entering at all into a convention, proves his fears for the final result. It is truly astonishing that Dupont, who, from his rank, must have been well acquainted with Napoleon’s Italian campaigns, should have caught so little of the spirit of his master. And then the inexplicable capitulation of Vedel after his retreat was actually effected! Vedel, who might have given battle and disputed the victory [Appendix, No. 6.] by himself without any great imprudence! Joseph called Dupont’s capitulation a “defection;” perhaps he was right.
11º. Castaños, although active in preparation, discovered but little talent in the field, his movements were slow, uncertain, and generally false: the attempt to turn the French position at Andujar by detaching four thousand men across the river was ill conceived and badly supported; it was of that class of combinations to which the separate march of Reding’s corps belonged. To the latter general the chief honour of the victory is due; yet, if Vedel had returned from Carolina upon the 19th, with the rapidity which the occasion required, Reding would have repented taking post at Baylen. It was undoubtedly a bold energetic step; but instead of remaining at that place, he should have descended instantly upon the rear of Dupont, leaving a corps of observation to delay the march of Vedel. Time not being taken into his calculation, Reding acted like a bold but rash and unskilful officer. Fortune, however, favoured his temerity, and with her assistance war is but a child’s play.
Intelligence of the capitulation of Baylen was secretly spread among the Spaniards in Madrid as early as the 23d or 24th of July, but the French, although alarmed by rumours of some great disaster, were unable to acquire any distinct information, until the king sent two divisions into La Mancha to open Foy’s History. the communication; these troops arriving at Madrilejos, one hundred and twenty miles from Baylen, met captain Villontreys with his Spanish escort collecting prisoners, and apparently intending to proceed in his task to the very gates of Madrid. The extent of the disaster thus became known, and the divisions retraced their steps. Joseph called a council of war on the 29th, and Savary, enlightened by the instructions of Napoleon, proposed to unite all the French forces, to place a small garrison in the Retiro, and to fall upon the Spanish armies in succession as they advanced towards the capital; but a dislike to the war was prevalent amongst the higher ranks of the French army. The injustice of it was too glaring; and the reasons for a retreat, which might perchance induce Napoleon to desist, being listened to with more complacency than Savary’s proposal, it was resolved to abandon Madrid and retire behind the Ebro.
The king commenced this operation on the 1st of August, marching by the Somosierra; while Bessieres posted at Mayorga, covered the movement until the court reached Burgos, and then fell back himself. In a short time the French invaders were all behind the Ebro, the siege of Zaragoza was raised, and the triumphant cry of the Spaniards was heard throughout Europe.
The retreat of the king was undoubtedly hasty and ill-considered; whether as a military or political measure it was unwise. Bessieres, with seventeen thousand victorious troops and forty pieces of artillery, paralized the northern provinces, the Spanish army of Andalusia was too distant from that of Valencia to concert a combined movement, and if they had formed a junction their united force could not have exceeded forty thousand fighting men, ill provided, and commanded by jealous independent chiefs. Now the king, without weakening Bessieres’s corps too much, could have collected twenty thousand infantry, five thousand cavalry, and eighty pieces of artillery, and the battle of Rio Seco shows what such an army could have effected. Every motive of prudence and of honour called for some daring action to wipe off the ignominy of Baylen.
Let it be conceded that Joseph could not have maintained himself in Madrid; the line of the Duero was the true position for the French army. Taking Aranda as a centre, and occupying the Somosierra, Segovia, Valladolid, Palencia, Burgos, and Soria on the circumference; two ordinary marches would have carried the king to the succour of any part of his position, and the northern provinces would thus have been separated from the southern; for Blake durst not have made a flank march to the Guadarama, Castaños durst not have remained in the basin of Madrid, and the siege of Zaragoza might have been continued, because from Aranda to Zaragoza the distance is not greater than from Valencia or from Madrid, and from Soria it is only three marches; hence the king could have succoured Verdier in time if the Valencians attacked him, and it was impossible for Castaños to have arrived at Zaragoza under a month; now by taking up the line of the Ebro, Napoleon’s plan of separating the provinces, and confining each to its own exertions, was frustrated, and Joseph virtually resigned the throne; for however doubtful the prudence of opposing the French might have been considered before the retreat, it became imperative upon all Spaniards to aid the energy of the multitude, when that energy was proved to be efficient.
In this manner Napoleon’s first effort against Spain was frustrated; not that he had miscalculated either the difficulties of his task, or the means to overcome them; for although Bessieres was the only general who perfectly succeeded in his operations, the plan of the emperor was so well combined, that it required the destruction of a whole army to shake it at all, and even when the king, by committing the great faults of abandoning Madrid and raising the siege of Zaragoza, had given the utmost force to Dupont’s catastrophe; the political position only of the French was weakened, their military hold of the country was scarcely loosened, and the Spaniards were unable to follow up their victory.
The moral effect of the battle of Baylen was surprising: it was one of those minor events which, insignificant in themselves, are the cause of great changes in the affairs of nations. The defeat of Rio Seco, the preparations of Moncey for a second attack on Valencia, the miserable plight of Zaragoza, the desponding view taken of affairs by the ablest men of Spain, and, above all, the disgust and terror excited among the patriots by the excesses of the populace, weighed heavy against the Spanish cause. One victory more, and probably the moral as well as the physical force of Spain would have been crushed; but the battle of Baylen, opening as it were a new crater for the Spanish fire, all their pride, and vanity, and arrogance burst forth, the glory of past ages seemed to be renewed, every man conceived himself a second Cid, and perceived in the surrender of Dupont, not the deliverance of Spain, but the immediate conquest of France. “We are much obliged to our good friends the English,” was a common phrase among them when conversing with the officers of Sir John Moore’s army; “we thank them for their good-will, and we shall have the pleasure of escorting them through France to Calais: the journey will be pleasanter than a long voyage, and we shall not give them the trouble of fighting the French; we shall, however, be pleased at having them as spectators of our victories.” This absurd confidence might have led to great things if it had been supported by wisdom, activity, or valour; but it was “a voice, and nothing more.”