History of the war in the Peninsula and in the south of France from the year 1807 to the year 1814, vol. 2

by William Francis Patrick Napier

CHAPTER IV.

When the bishop of Oporto beheld, from his station at Sarea, the final overthrow of his ambitious schemes in the north of Portugal, he fled to Lisbon. There he reconciled himself to the regency, became a member of that body, and was soon after created patriarch; and, as I shall have occasion to shew, used his great influence in the most mischievous manner; discovering, on every occasion, the untamed violence and inherent falseness of his disposition.

Meanwhile, the fall of Oporto enabled marshal Soult to establish a solid base of operations, and to commence a regular system of warfare. The immediate fruit of his victory was the capture of immense magazines of powder, and a hundred and ninety-seven pieces of artillery, every gun of which had been used in the action. Thirty English vessels, wind-bound in the river, and loaded with wine and provisions for a month, also fell into his hands.

Having repressed the disorders attendant on the battle, he adopted the same conciliatory policy [Appendix, No. 13]. which had marked his conduct at Chaves and Braga; and endeavoured to remedy, as far as it was possible, the deplorable results of the soldiers’ fury. Recovering and restoring a part of the plunder, he caused the inhabitants remaining in the town to be treated with respect; and invited, by proclamation, all those who had fled to return. He demanded no contribution; and, restraining with a firm hand the violence of his men, contrived, from the captured public property, to support the army, and even to succour the poorest and most distressed of the population.

Soult’s ability in the civil and political administration of the Entre Minho e Douro produced an effect which he was not prepared for. The prince regent’s desertion of the country was not forgotten. The national feeling was as adverse to Portugal being a dependency on the Brazils as it was to the usurpation of the French, and the comparison between Soult’s government and the horrible anarchy which preceded it was all in favour of the former. His victories, and the evident vigour of his character, contrasted with the apparent supineness of the English, promised permanency for the French power; and the party, formerly noticed as being inimical to the house of Braganza, revived.

The leaders, thinking this a favourable opportunity to execute their intention, waited upon the duke of Dalmatia, and expressed their desire for a French prince and an independent government. They even intimated their good wishes towards the duke himself, and demanded his concurrence and protection; while, in the name of the people, they declared that the Braganza dynasty was at an end.

Although unauthorized by the emperor to accede to this proposition, Soult was yet unwilling to reject a plan from which he could draw such immediate and important military advantages. Napoleon was not a man to be lightly dealt with on such an occasion; but the marshal, trusting that circumstances would justify him, encouraged the design, and, appointing men to civil employments, raised a Portuguese legion of five battalions. He acted with so much dexterity [Appendix, No. 13]. that, in fifteen days, the cities of Oporto and Braga, and the towns of Bacellos, Viana, Villa de Conde, Povoa de Barcim, Feira, and Ovar, sent addresses, containing the expression of their sentiments, and bearing the signatures of thirty thousand persons, as well of the nobles, clergy, and merchants, as of the people.

These addresses were burnt when the French retreated from Oporto; but the fact that such a project was in agitation has never been denied. The regency even caused inquest to be made on the matter; and it was then asserted that very few persons were found to be implicated. That many of the signatures were forged by the leaders may readily be believed; but the policy of lessening the importance of the affair is also evident; and the inquisitors, if willing, could not have probed it to the bottom.

This transaction formed the ground-work of a tale generally credited, even by his own officers, that Soult perfidiously aimed at an independent crown; and the circumstances were certainly such as might create suspicion. That the conclusion was false, is, however, proved, by the mode in which Napoleon treated both the rumour and the subject Rovigo’s Memoirs. of it. Slighting the former, he yet made known to his lieutenant that it had reached his ears, adding, “I remember nothing but Austerlitz,”[5] and at the same time largely increased the duke of Dalmatia’s command.

S.
Journal of Operations MSS.

The policy of Soult’s conduct on this occasion, and the great influence, if not the numbers of the Portuguese malcontents, were abundantly proved by the ameliorated relations between the army and the peasantry. The fierceness of the latter subsided; and even the priests abated of their hostility in the Entre Minho e Douro. The French soldiers were no longer assassinated in that province; whereas, previous to this intrigue, that cruel species of warfare had been carried on with infinite activity, and the most malignant passions called forth on both sides.

Among other instances of Portuguese ferocity, and of the truculent violence of the French soldiers, the death of colonel Lameth, and the retaliation which followed, may be cited. That young officer, when returning from the marshal’s quarters to his own, was waylaid, near the village of Arrifana, and murdered; his body was then stripped, and mutilated in a shocking manner. This assassination, committed within the French lines, and at a time when Soult enforced the strictest discipline, was justifiable neither by the laws of war nor by those of humanity. No general could neglect to punish such a proceeding. The protection due to the army, and even the welfare of the Portuguese within the French jurisdiction, demanded a severe example, for the violence of the troops had hitherto been with difficulty restrained by their commander; and if, at such a moment, he had appeared indifferent to their individual safety; his authority would have been set at naught, and the unmeasured and indiscriminating vengeance of an insubordinate army executed.

Impressed with this feeling, and afflicted at the unhappy death of a personal friend, Soult directed general Thomieres to march, with a brigade of infantry, to Arrifana, and punish the criminals. Thomieres was accompanied by a Portuguese civilian; and, after a judicial inquiry, he shot five or six persons whose guilt was said to have been proved; but it is also certain that the principal actor, a Portuguese major of militia, and some of his accomplices, escaped across the Vouga to colonel Trant; and the latter, disgusted at their conduct, sent them to marshal Beresford. It would also appear, from the statement of a peasant, that Thomieres, or those under him, exceeded Soult’s orders; for, in that statement, attested by oath, it is said that twenty-four innocent persons were killed, and that the soldiers, after committing many atrocious excesses, burnt the village.

These details have been related partly because they throw a light upon the direful nature of this contest, but chiefly because the transaction has been adduced by other writers as proof of cruelty in Soult, a charge not sustained by the facts of [Appendix, No. 13]. this case, and belied by the general tenor of his conduct, which even his enemies, while they attributed it to an insidious policy, acknowledged, at the time, to be mild and humane. And now, having finished this political digression, in which the chronological order of events has been anticipated, I shall resume the narrative of military operations at that part where the disorders attendant on the battle of Oporto having been repressed, a fresh series of combinations were commenced, not less important than those which brought the French army down to the Douro.

The heavy blow struck on the 29th of March was followed up with activity. The boat-bridge was restored during the night; and the next day, the forts of Mazinho and St. Joa de Foz having surrendered, Franceschi’s cavalry crossed the Douro, took post ten miles in advance on the Coimbra road, and pushed patroles as far as the Vouga river. To support this cavalry, general Mermet occupied a position somewhat beyond the suburb of Villa Nova. Oporto itself was held by three brigades. The dragoons of Lorge were sent to Villa da Conde, a walled town, situated at the mouth of the Ave; and general Caulaincourt was detached up the Douro to Penafiel, with a brigade of cavalry, having orders to clear the valley of the Tamega. Another brigade of cavalry was posted on the road leading to Barca de Trofa, to protect the rear of the army; and general Heudelet was directed to forward the hospitals from Braga to Oporto, but to hold himself in readiness to open the communication with Tuy.

These dispositions made, Soult had leisure to consider his general position. The flight of the bishop had not much abated the hostility of the people, nor relieved the French from their difficulties. The communication with the Minho was still intercepted; the Tras os Montes was again in a state of insurrection; and Sylveira, with a corps of eight thousand men, not only commanded the valley of the Tamega, but had advanced, after re-taking Chaves, into the Entre Minho e Douro, and was posted between the Sierra de Catalina and the Douro.

Lisbon, the ultimate object of the campaign, was two hundred miles distant, and covered by a British army, whose valour was to be dreaded, and whose numbers were daily increasing. A considerable body of natives were with Trant upon the Vouga, and Beresford’s force between the Tagus and the Mondego: its disorderly and weak condition being unknown, appeared formidable at a distance.

The day on which the second corps, following the emperor’s instructions, should have reached Lisbon was overpassed by six weeks; and, as the line of correspondence with Victor was uncertain, his co-operation could scarcely be calculated upon. Lapisse’s division was yet unfelt as an aiding force; nor was it even known to Soult that he still remained at Salamanca: finally, the three thousand men expected from the Astorga country, under the conduct of the marshal’s brother, had not yet been heard of.

On the other hand, the duke of Dalmatia had conquered a large and rich city: he had gained the military command of a very fertile country, from whence the principal supplies of the British army and of Lisbon were derived: he had obtained a secure base of operations and a prominent station in the kingdom; and if the people’s fierceness was not yet quelled, they had learned to dread his talents, and to be sensible of their own inferiority in battle.

In this state of affairs, judging that the most important objects were to relieve the garrison of Tuy and to obtain intelligence of Lapisse’s division, Soult entrusted the first to Heudelet and the second to Franceschi. The last-named general had occupied Feira and Oliveira, and spread his posts along the Vouga; but the inhabitants fled to the other side of that river, and the rich valleys beyond were protected by colonel Trant.

This officer, well known to the Portuguese as having commanded their troops at Roriça and Vimiero, was at Coimbra when intelligence of the defeat at Braga arrived, and he immediately took the command of all the armed men in that town, among which was a small body of volunteers, students at the university. The general dismay and confusion being greatly increased by the subsequent catastrophe at Oporto, the fugitives from that town and other places, accustomed to violence, and attributing every misfortune to treachery in the generals, flocked to Trant’s standard; and he, as a foreigner, was enabled to assume an authority that no native of rank durst either have accepted or refused without imminent danger.

He advanced, at first, with about eight hundred men to Sardao and Aveiro, where he was joined by the conde Barbaceña with some Portuguese cavalry, and by generals Victoria and Eben; but the people regarded these officers with suspicion, and Trant [Appendix, No. 3], section 6. continued in the command, his force daily increasing by the arrival of ordenanzas, and even by regular troops, who, quitting their quarters, abandoned Beresford’s army to join him.

When Franceschi advanced, Trant sent a detachment by Castanheira to occupy the bridge of the Vouga; but the men, seized with a panic, dispersed, and this was followed by the desertion of many thousand ordenanzas,—a happy circumstance, for the numbers that had at first collected behind the Vouga exceeded twelve thousand men, and their extreme violence and insubordination excited the utmost terror, and impeded the measures necessary for defence. Trant, finally, retained about four thousand men, with which he imposed upon the French, and preserved a fruitful country from their incursions; but he was greatly distressed for money, because the bishop of Oporto, in his flight, laid hands on all that was at Coimbra and carried it to Lisbon.

Franceschi, although reinforced with a brigade of infantry, contented himself with chasing some insurgents that infested his left flank, while his patroles and scouts, sent forward on the side of Viseu, endeavoured to obtain information of Lapisse’s division; but that general, as we have seen, was still beyond the Agueda, and while Franceschi was thus employed in front of the French army, Caulaincourt’s cavalry on the Tamega was pressed by the Portuguese, and Loison marched with a brigade of infantry to his assistance on the 9th of April.

Sylveira, however, was too strong for both; and, on the 12th, advancing from Canavezes, obliged Loison, after a slight action, to take post behind the Souza.

Meanwhile, Heudelet was hastening towards Tuy to recover the artillery and depôts, from which the army had now been separated forty days.

The 6th of April, general Lorge, who had taken Villa de Conde and cleared the coast, joined Heudelet at Bacellos. The 7th they marched to Ponte de Lima; but the Portuguese resisted the passage vigourously, and it was not forced until the 8th.

The 10th the French arrived in front of Valença, on the Minho; this fortress had been maltreated by the fire from Tuy, and the garrison, amounting to two hundred men, having only two days’ provisions, capitulated, on condition of being allowed to retire to their homes; but, before the French could take possession, the capitulating troops disbanded and the town was deserted.

The garrison in Tuy, never having received the slightest intelligence of the army since the separation at Ribidavia, marvelled that the fire from Valença was discontinued; and their surprise was extreme when they beheld the French colours flying in that fort, and observed French videttes on the left bank of the Minho.

La Martiniere’s garrison, by the arrival of stragglers and a battalion of detachments that followed the army from St. Jago, had been increased to three thousand four hundred men; but twelve hundred were in hospital, and two-thirds of the artillery-horses had been eaten in default of other food. The Portuguese had passed the Minho, and, in conjunction with the Spaniards, attacked the place on the 15th of March; but the French general, by frequent sallies, obliged them to keep up a distant blockade, and his fire mastered that from Valença.

The 22d of March, the defeat at Braga being known, the Portuguese repassed the Minho, the Spaniards dispersed, and La Martiniere immediately sent three hundred men to bring off the garrison of Vigo; but it was too late, that place was taken, and the detachment with difficulty regained Tuy.

The peasants on the Arosa Estuary had, as I have before noticed, risen, the 27th of February, while Soult was still at Orense; they were headed, at first, by general Silva and by the count de Mezeda, and, finally, a colonel Barrois, sent by the central junta, took the command. As their numbers were very considerable, Barrois with one part attacked Tuy; and Silva assisted by the Lively and Venus, British frigates on that station, invested Vigo.

The garrison of the latter place was at first small; but the paymaster-general of the second corps, instead of proceeding to Tuy, entered Vigo, with the military chest and an escort of eight hundred men, and was blockaded there. After some slight attacks had been repulsed, the French governor negotiated for a capitulation on the 23d of March; but, distrustful of the peasantry, he was still undecided on the 26th. Meanwhile, some of Romana’s stragglers coming from the Val des Orres, collected between Tuy and Vigo; and don Pablo Murillo, a regular officer, assembling fifteen hundred retired soldiers, joined the blockading force, and, in concert with Captain Mackinley, of the Lively, obliged the garrison to surrender on terms.

Captain Mackinley’s Despatch.

The 27th, thirteen hundred men and officers, including three hundred sick, marched out with the honours of war; and, having laid down their arms on the glacis, were embarked for an English port, according to the articles agreed upon. Four hundred and forty-seven horses, sixty-two covered waggons, some stores, and the military chest, containing five thousand pounds, fell into the victor’s hands; and this affair being happily terminated, the Spaniards renewed their attack on Tuy: the Portuguese once more crossed the Minho, and the siege continued until the 10th of April, when the place was relieved by Heudelet. The depôts and the artillery were immediately transported across the river, and directed upon Oporto.

The 12th, general Maucune, with a division of the sixth corps, arrived at Tuy, with the intention of carrying off the garrison, but seeing that the place was relieved, returned the next day. Heudelet, having taken Viana, and the fort of Insoa, at the mouth of the Minho, placed a small garrison in the former; and then blowing up the works of Valença, retired to Braga and Bacellos, sending Lorge again to Villa de Conde.

The sick men were transported in boats along shore, from the mouth of the Minho to Viana, Villa de Conde, and thence to Oporto; and while these transactions were taking place on the Minho, La Houssaye, with a brigade of dragoons and one of infantry, scoured the country between the Lima and the Cavado, and so protected the rear of Heudelet.

All resistance in the Entre Minho e Douro now ceased; for, at this period, the influence of the Anti-Braganza party was exerted in favour of the French. But on the Tras os Montes side, Sylveira being joined by general Boteilho, from the Lima, was advancing, and boasted that he would be in Oporto the 15th: and now, also, intelligence of the recapture of Chaves reaching Soult, not only explained Sylveira’s boldness, but shewed, that, while the latter was in arms, the tranquillity of the Entre Minho e Douro could be only momentary. Wherefore, Laborde, with a brigade of infantry, was ordered to join Loison, and attack Amarante; while La Houssaye pushed through Guimaraens upon the same point.

The 15th, Laborde reached Penafiel; and Sylveira, hearing of La Houssaye’s march, retired to Villamea. The 18th, Laborde drove back the Portuguese without difficulty; and their retreat soon became a flight. Sylveira himself passed the Tamega at Amarante, and was making for the mountains, without a thought of defending that town; but colonel Patrick, a British officer in the Portuguese service, encouraging his battalion, faced about, and rallying the fugitives, beat back the foremost of the enemy. This becoming act obliged Sylveira to return; and while Patrick defended the approaches to the bridge on the right bank with obstinate valour, the former took a position, with five or six thousand men, on the heights overhanging the suburb of Villa Real, on the left bank of the river.

The 19th, La Houssaye arrived; and the French renewing their attack on the town, Patrick again baffled their efforts; but when that gallant man fell mortally wounded, and was carried across the bridge, the defence slackened, and the Portuguese went over the Tamega: the passage of the river was, however, still to be effected.

The bridges of Mondin and Cavez above, and that of Canavezas below Amarante, were destroyed: the Tamega was in full flood, and running in a deep rocky bed; and the bridge in front of the French was mined, barred with three rows of pallisades, and commanded by a battery of ten guns. The Portuguese were in position on the heights behind; from whence they could discern all that was passing at the bridge, and could reinforce at will the advanced guard, which was posted in the suburb.

PASSAGE OF THE TAMEGA, AT AMARANTE.

The 20th, the first barricade was reached by the flying sap; but the fire of the Portuguese was so deadly, that Laborde abandoned the attack, and endeavoured to construct a bridge on tressels half a mile below: this failed, and the efforts against the stone bridge were of necessity renewed. The mine at the other side was ingeniously formed; the muzzle of a loaded musket entered the chamber, and a string being tied at one end to the trigger, the other end was brought behind the entrenchments, so that an explosion could be managed with the greatest precision as to time.

Noble’s Campagne de Galice.

The 27th, the centre barricade was burnt by captain Brochard, an engineer officer, who devised a method of forcing the passage, so singularly bold, that all the generals, and especially general Foy, were opposed to it. The plan was, however, transmitted to Oporto; and Soult sent general Hulot, his first aide-de-camp, to report if the project was feasible. Hulot approved of Brochard’s proposal, and the latter commenced his operations on the 2d of May.

The troops were under arms, and disposed in the most convenient manner, as near the head of the bridge as the necessity of keeping them hidden would permit; and at eight o’clock, all being prepared, and the moon shining bright, twenty men were sent a little below the bridge, and directed to open an oblique fire of musketry against the entrenchments. This being replied to, and the attention of the Portuguese attracted, a sapper, dressed in dark grey, crawled out, and pushed with his head a barrel of powder, which was likewise enveloped in grey cloth to deaden the sound, along that side of the bridge which was darkened by the shadow of the parapet: when he had placed his barrel against the entrenchment covering the Portuguese mine, he retired in the same manner. Two others followed in succession, and retired without being discovered; but the fourth, after placing the barrel, rose on his feet and ran back, but was immediately shot at and wounded.

The fire of the Portuguese was now directed on the bridge itself; but as the barrels were not discovered, after a time it ceased; and a fifth sapper advancing like the others, attached a sausage seventy yards long to the barrels. At two o’clock in the morning the whole was completed; and as the French kept very quiet, the Portuguese remained tranquil and unsuspicious.

Brochard had calculated that the effect of four barrels exploding together would destroy the Portuguese entrenchments, and burn the cord attached to their mine. The event proved that he was right; for a thick fog arising about three o’clock, the sausage was fired, and the explosion made a large breach. Brochard, with his sappers, instantly jumped on to the bridge, threw water into the mine, cut away all obstacles, and, followed by a column of grenadiers, was at the other side before the smoke cleared away. The grenadiers being supported by other troops, not only the suburb, but the camp on the height behind were carried without a check, and the Portuguese dispersing, fled over the mountains.

The execution of captain Brochard’s bold, ingenious, and successful project, cost only seven or eight men killed; while in the former futile attempts above a hundred and eighty men, besides many engineer and artillery officers, had fallen. It is, however, a singular fact that there was a practicable ford near the bridge, unguarded, and apparently unknown to both sides.

A short time after the passage of the Tamega, general Heudelet, marching from Braga by Guimaraens, entered Amarante. Laborde occupied the position abandoned by Sylveira, and detachments were sent up the left bank of the river to Mondin: but Loison pursued the fugitives to the heights of Villa Real and Mezamfrio. The Portuguese guarding the passage at Canavezas, hearing of the action, destroyed their ammunition, and retired across the Douro without being overtaken.

The 6th of May, the French were near Villa Real and Mezamfrio, but all the inhabitants had crossed the Douro. This being made known to Soult, he reinforced Loison, and directed him to scour the right bank of the Douro as high as Pezo de Ragoa; to complete the destruction of Sylveira’s army, and to send patroles towards Braganza, with the view of subduing the Tras os Montes, and of ascertaining if any French troops had made their appearance there; for Bessieres had been requested to make a diversion on that side. Bessieres himself had returned to France, but the reply of his successor Kellerman being intercepted, it appeared that he was unable or unwilling to afford any aid.

General Laborde was now recalled, with two regiments of infantry, to Oporto; and the communication between that town and Amarante was guarded by a brigade of dragoons, and a regiment of infantry. Meanwhile, Loison felt the Portuguese at Pezo de Ragoa, on the 7th of May; but, meeting resistance, and observing a considerable movement on the opposite bank of the Douro, he became alarmed, and fell back the same day to Mezamfrio. The next morning he returned to Amarante, his march being harassed by the peasantry, who came on with a boldness shewing that some extraordinary support was at hand; and, in truth, a new actor had appeared upon the scene; the whole country was in commotion; and Soult, suddenly checked in his career, was pushed backward by a strong and eager hand.

OBSERVATIONS.—SPANISH OPERATION.

1º.—The great pervading error of the Spaniards in this campaign was the notion that their armies were capable of taking the lead in offensive movements, and fighting the French in open countries; whereas, to avoid general actions should have been a vital principle.

2º.—The resolution to fight the French having, however, been adopted, the second great error was the attaching equal importance to the lines of operation in La Mancha and Estremadura; the one should have been considered only as an accessory; and it is evident that the first rank belonged to La Mancha, because it was in a more open country; because it more immediately threatened Madrid; and because a defeat there endangered Seville more than a defeat in Estremadura would have done. In La Mancha the beaten army must have fallen back upon Seville: but in Estremadura it might retire upon Badajos. But, the latter place being to the Spaniards of infinitely less importance than Madrid was to their opponents, the lead in the campaign must always have belonged to the army of La Mancha, which could, at any time, have obliged the French to fight a battle in defence of the capital.

The army of Estremadura might, therefore, have been safely reduced to fifteen thousand men, provided the army of La Mancha had been increased to forty or fifty thousand: and it would appear that, with a very little energy, the junta could have provided a larger force. It is true that they would have been beaten just the same: but that is an argument against fighting great battles, which was, certainly, the worst possible plan for the Spaniards to pursue.

3º.—The third great error was the inertness of Valencia and Murcia, or rather their hostility: for they were upon the verge of civil war with the supreme junta. Those provinces, so rich and populous, had been unmolested for eight months; they had suffered nothing from Moncey’s irruption; and they had received large succours from the English government. Valencia had written her pretensions to patriotism in the bloody characters of assassination; but, were it not for the force under Llamas which, after the defeat of Tudela, helped to defend Zaragoza, Valencia and Murcia might have been swallowed up by the ocean without any sensible effect upon the general cause. Those countries were, however, admirably situated to serve as a support to Aragon, Catalonia, Andalusia, and La Mancha, and they could, at this time, have paralyzed a large French force, by marching an army to San Clemente.

It was the dread of their doing so that made the king restrain Sebastiani from pursuing his victory Parl. Papers, 1810. at Ciudad Real; and, assuredly, the Valencians should have moved; for, it is not so much in their numbers as in the variety of their lines of operation that a whole people find their advantage in opposing regular armies. This, the observation of that profound and original writer, general Lloyd, was confirmed by the practice of Napoleon, in Spain.

FRENCH OPERATIONS.

1º.—To get possession of Seville and Cadiz was certainly as great an object to Napoleon as to seize Lisbon: but the truth of the maxim quoted above regulated the emperor’s proceedings. If Victor had been directed at once upon Andalusia, the Portuguese and Valencians could have carried their lines of operations directly upon his flanks and rear. If Badajos and Lisbon had been the objects of his march, the Andalusians could have fallen on his left flank and cut his communications. But all such dangers were avoided by the march of Soult and Lapisse; their direction was not only concentric, but a regular prolongation of the great line of communication with France. Ney protected the rear of one; Bessieres the rear of the other; and those two marshals, at the same time, separated and cut off the Asturias from the rest of Spain; thus, all that was formidable was confined to the south of the Tagus.

For the same reason the course of conquest was to have proceeded from Portugal to Andalusia, which would then have been assailed in front and flank at one moment, while the fourth corps held the Valencians in check. By this plan the French would never have lost their central position, nor exposed their grand line of communication to an attack.

2º.—That this plan, so wisely conceived in its general bearing, should fail without any of the different corps employed having suffered a defeat, nay, when they were victorious in all quarters is surprising, but not inexplicable. It is clear that Napoleon’s orders were given at a time when he did not expect that a battle would have been fought at Coruña, or that the second corps would have suffered so much from the severity of the weather, and the length of the marches, neither did he anticipate the resistance that was made by the Portuguese, between the Minho and the Douro. The last error was a consequence of the first, for his plans were calculated upon the supposition that the rapidity of Soult’s movements would forestall all defence; yet the delay cannot be charged as a fault to that marshal whose energy was conspicuous.

3º.—Napoleon’s attention, divided between Austria and Spain, must have been somewhat distracted by the multiplicity of his affairs. He does not seem to have made allowance for the very rugged country through which Soult had to march, at a time when all the rivers and streams were overflowing, from the constant rains; and as the combinations of war are continually changing, the delay thus occasioned rendered Lapisse’s instructions faulty: for, although it be true, that if the latter had marched by Guardia, upon Abrantes, while Soult advanced to Lisbon, by Coimbra, and that Victor entered the Alemtejo, Portugal would have been conquered without difficulty; yet the combination was so wide, and the communications so uncertain, that unity of action could not be insured. Soult, weakened by the obstacles he encountered, required reinforcements after the taking of Oporto; and Lapisse should have considered himself as rather belonging to Soult than Victor, and have marched upon Viseu; the duke of Dalmatia would then have been strong enough to fight his own battle without regard to the operations in the Alemtejo.

4º.—The first error of the French, if the facts are correctly shewn, must, therefore, be attributed to Napoleon, because he overlooked the probable chances of delay, combined the operations on too wide a scale, and gave Ciudad Rodrigo and Abrantes, instead of Lamego and Viseu, for the direction of Lapisse’s march. I say, if the facts are correctly shewn, for it is scarcely discreet to censure Napoleon’s military dispositions, however erroneous they may appear to have been, and it is certain that, in this case, his errors, if errors they were, although sufficient to embarrass his lieutenants, will not account for their entire failure. Above sixty thousand men were put in motion by him, upon good general principles, for the subjugation of Lisbon; and we must search in the particular conduct of the generals for the reason why a project of Napoleon’s, to be executed by sixty thousand French veterans, should have ended as idly and ineffectually as if it had been concocted by the Spanish junta.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE SEPARATE OPERATIONS OF LAPISSE, VICTOR, SOULT, ROMANA, SYLVEIRA, AND CUESTA.

LAPISSE.

1º.—An intercepted letter of general Maupetit, shews the small pains taken by Lapisse to communicate with Soult. He directs that even so many as three hundred men should patrole towards Tras os Montes, to obtain information of the second corps, at a time when the object was so important that his whole force should have moved in mass rather than have failed of intelligence.

2º.—The manner in which he suffered sir Robert Wilson to gather strength and to insult his outposts was inexcusable. He might have marched straight upon Ciudad Rodrigo and Almeida, and dispersed every thing in his front; one of those fortresses would probably have fallen, if not both, and from thence a strong detachment pushed towards Lamego would not only have ascertained the situation of the second corps, but would have greatly aided its progress by threatening Oporto and Braga. It cannot be urged that Salamanca required the presence of a large force, because, in that open country, the people were at the mercy of Bessiere’s cavalry; and so sensible were the local junta of this, that both Salamanca and Ledesma refused assistance from Ciudad Rodrigo, when it was offered, and preferred a quiet submission.

3º.—When, at last, the king’s reiterated orders obliged Lapisse to put his troops in motion, he made a demonstration against Ciudad Rodrigo, so feeble that it scarcely called the garrison to the ramparts, and then as if all chance of success in Portugal was at an end, breaking through the pass of Perales, he reached Alcantara and rejoined the first corps; a movement equally at variance with Napoleon’s orders and with good military discretion; for the first directed him upon Abrantes, and the second would have carried him upon Viseu. The march to the latter place, while it insured a junction with Soult, would not have prevented an after movement upon Abrantes: the obstacles were by no means so great as those which awaited him on the march to Alcantara, and the great error of abandoning the whole country, between the Tagus and the Douro, to the insurgents would have been avoided.

Here then was one direct cause of failure; but the error, although great, was not irreparable. If Soult was abandoned to his own resources, he had also obtained a firm and important position in the north, while Victor, reinforced by ten thousand men, was enabled to operate against Lisbon, by the Alemtejo, more efficaciously than before. But Victor seems to have been less disposed than Lapisse to execute his instructions.

VICTOR.

1º.—The inactivity of this marshal after the rout of Ucles has been already mentioned. It is certain that if the fourth and first corps had been well handled, neither Cuesta nor Cartoajal could have ventured beyond the defiles of the Sierra Morena, much less have bearded the French generals and established a line of defence along the Tagus. Fifty thousand French troops should, in two months, have done something more than maintain fifty miles of country on one side of Madrid.

2º.—The passage of the Tagus was successful, but can hardly be called a skilful operation, unless the duke of Belluno calculated upon the ignorance of his adversary. Before an able general and a moveable army, possessing a pontoon train, it would have scarcely answered to separate the troops in three divisions on an extent of fifty miles, leaving the artillery and parc of ammunition, protected only by some cavalry and one battalion of infantry, within two hours march of the enemy, for three days. If Cuesta had brought up all his detachments, the Meza d’Ibor might have been effectually manned, and yet ten thousand infantry, and all the Spanish cavalry, spared to cross the Tagus at Almaraz, on the 17th; in this case Victor’s artillery would probably have been captured, and his project certainly baffled.

3º.—The passage of the Tagus being, however, effected, Victor not only permitted Cuesta to escape, but actually lost all traces of his army, an evident fault not to be excused by pleading the impediments arising from the swelling of the river, the necessity of securing the communications, &c. If Cuesta’s power was despised before the passage of the river, when his army was whole and his position strong, there could be no reason for such great circumspection after his defeat, a circumspection, too, not supported by skill, as the dispersed state of the French army, the evening before the battle of Medellin, proves.

4º.—That Victor was enabled to fight Cuesta, on the morning of the 28th, with any prospect of success, must be attributed rather to fortune than to talent. It was a fault to permit the Spaniards to retake the offensive after the defeat on the Tagus; nor can the first movement of the duke of Belluno in the action be praised. He should have marched into the plain in a compact order of battle. The danger of sending Lassalle and Latour Maubourg to such a distance from the main body I shall have occasion to show in my observations on Cuesta’s operations; but, the after-movements of the French in this battle were well and rapidly combined and vigorously executed, and the success was proportionate to the ability displayed.

5º.—The battles of Medellin and Ciudad Real, which utterly destroyed the Spanish armies and laid Seville and Badajos open; those battles, in which blood was spilt like water, produced no result to the victors, for the French generals, as if they had struck a torpedo, never stretched forth their hands a second time. Sebastiani, indeed, wished to penetrate the Sierra Morena; but the king, fearful of the Valencians, restrained him. On the other hand, Joseph urged Victor to invade the Alemtejo, yet the latter would not obey, even when reinforced by Lapisse’s division. This was the great and fatal error of the whole campaign, for nearly all the disposable British and Portuguese troops were thus enabled to move against the duke of Dalmatia, while the duke of Belluno contrived neither to fulfil the instructions of Napoleon, nor the orders of the king, nor yet to perform any useful achievement himself.

He did not assist the invasion of Portugal, he did not maintain Estremadura, he did not take Seville, nor even prevent Cuesta from twice renewing the offensive; yet he remained in an unhealthy situation until he lost more men, by sickness, than would have furnished three such battles as Medellin. Two months so unprofitably wasted by a general, at the head of thirty thousand good troops, can scarcely be cited. The duke of Belluno’s reputation has been too hardly earned to attribute this inactivity to want of talent. That he was averse to aid the operations of marshal Soult is evident, and, most happily for Portugal, it was so; but, whether this aversion arose from personal jealousy, from indisposition to obey the king, or from a mistaken view of affairs, I have no means of judging.

CUESTA.

Cuesta’s peculiar unfitness for the lead of an army has been remarked more than once. It remains to show that his proceedings, on this occasion, continued to justify those remarks.

1º.—To defend a river, on a long line, is generally hopeless, and especially when the defenders have not the means of passing freely, in several places, to the opposite bank. Alexander, Hannibal, Cæsar, Gustavus, Turenne, Napoleon, Wellington, and hundreds of others have shown how the passage of rivers may be won. Umenes, who prevented Antigonus from passing the Coprates, is, perhaps, the only example of a general baffling the efforts of a skilful and enterprising enemy in such an attempt.

2º.—The defence of rivers having always proved fruitless, it follows that no general should calculate upon success, and that he should exert the greatest energy, activity, and vigilance to avoid a heavy disaster; that all his lines of retreat should be kept free and open, and be concentric; and that to bring his magazines and depôts close up to the army, in such a situation, is rashness itself. Now Cuesta was inactive, and, disregarding the maxim which forbids the establishment of magazines in the first line of defence, brought up the whole of his to Deleyton and Truxillo. His combinations were ill-arranged; he abandoned Mirabete without an effort, his depôts fell into the hands of the enemy, and his retreat was confused and eccentric, inasmuch as part of his army retired into the Guadalupe, while others went to Merida, and he himself to Medellin.

3º.—The line of retreat upon Medellin and Campanarios, instead of Badajos, being determined by the necessity of uniting with Albuquerque, cannot be blamed, and the immediate return to Medellin was bold and worthy of praise, but its merit consisted in recovering the offensive immediately after a defeat; wherefore, Cuesta should not have halted at Medellin, thus giving the lead again to the French general; he should have continued to advance, and have fallen upon the scattered divisions of the French army, endeavouring to beat them in detail, and to rally his own detachments in the Sierra de Guadalupe. The error of stopping short at Medellin would have been apparent, if Victor, placing a rear-guard to amuse the Spanish general, had taken the road to Seville by Almendralejos and Zafra.

4º. Cuesta’s general design for the battle of Medellin was well imagined, that is, it was right to hide his army behind the ridge, and to defer the attack until the enemy had developed his force and order of battle in the plain, but the execution was on the lowest scale. If, instead of advancing in one long and weak line, without a reserve, Cuesta had held the greatest part of his troops in solid columns, and thrust them between Lassalle and Latour Maubourg’s divisions, which were pushed out like horns from the main body of the French, those generals would have been cut off, and the battle commenced by dividing the French army into three unconnected masses, while the Spaniards would have been compact, well in hand, and masters of the general movements. Nothing could then have saved Victor, except hard fighting; but Cuesta’s actual dispositions rendered it impossible for the Spaniards to win the battle by courage, or to escape the pursuit by swiftness.

5º. It is remarkable that the Spanish general seems never to have thought of putting Truxillo, Guadalupe, Merida, Estrella, or Medellin in a state of defence, although most if not all those places had some castle or walls capable of resisting a sudden assault. There was time to do it, for Cuesta remained unmolested, on the Tagus, from January to the middle of March; and every additional point of support thus obtained for an undisciplined army would have diminished the advantages derived by the French from their superior facility of movement. The places themselves might have been garrisoned by the citizens and peasantry, and a week’s, a day’s, nay, even an hour’s, delay was of importance to a force like Cuesta’s, which, from its inexperience, must have always been liable to confusion.

SOULT.

1º. The march of this general in one column, upon Tuy, was made under the impression that resistance would not be offered; otherwise, it is probable that a division of infantry and a brigade of cavalry would have been sent from St. Jago or Mellid direct upon Orense, to insure the passage of the Minho; and it seems to have been an error in Ney, arising, probably, from the same cause, not to have kept Marchand’s division of the sixth corps at Orense until the second corps had effected an entrance into Portugal.

2º. Soult’s resolution to place the artillery and stores in Tuy, and march into Portugal, trusting to victory for re-opening the communication, would increase the reputation of any general. Three times before he reached Oporto he was obliged to halt, in order to fabricate cartridges for the infantry, from the powder taken in battle; and his whole progress from Tuy to that city was energetic and able in the extreme.

3º. The military proceedings, after the taking of Oporto, do not all bear the same stamp. The administration of the civil affairs appears to have engrossed the marshal’s attention; and his absence from the immediate scene of action sensibly affected the operations. Franceschi shewed too much respect for Trant’s corps. Loison’s movements were timid and slow; and even Laborde’s genius seems to have been asleep. The importance of crushing Sylveira was obvious. Now, there is nothing more necessary in war than to strike with all the force you can at once; but here Caulaincourt was first sent, and being too weak, Loison reinforced him, and Laborde reinforced Loison; and all were scarcely sufficient at last to do that which half would have done at first; but the whole of these transactions are obscure. The great delay that took place before the bridge of Amarante; the hesitation and frequent recurrence for orders to the marshal, indicate want of zeal, and a desire to procrastinate, in opposition to Soult’s wishes. Judging from Mr. Noble’s history of the campaign, this must be traced to a conspiracy in the French army, which shall be touched upon hereafter.

4º. The resistance made by the Portuguese peasantry was infinitely creditable to their courage; but there cannot be a stronger proof of the inefficacy of a like defence, when unsupported by good troops. No country is more favourable to such a warfare than the northern provinces of Portugal; the people were brave, and they had the assistance of the organized forces under Romana, Sylveira, Eben, and the bishop: yet we find, that Soult, in the very worst season of the year, overcame all resistance, and penetrated to Oporto, without an actual loss, in killed, wounded, and prisoners, of more than two thousand five hundred men, including the twelve hundred sick, captured at Chaves.

ROMANA.

1º. Romana remained at Oimbra and Monterey, unmolested, from the 21st of January to the 6th of March; he had, therefore, time to reorganise his forces, and he had, in fact, ten thousand regular troops in tolerable order. He knew, on the 11th or 12th, that Soult was preparing to pass the Minho, between Tuy and Guardia. He knew, also, that the people of Ribidavia and Orense were in arms; that those on the Arosa were preparing to rise; and that, consequently, the French must, were it only from want of food, break out of the contracted position they occupied, either by Ribidavia and Orense, or by crossing the Minho, or by retreating to St. Jago.

With these guides, the path of the Spanish general was as plain as the writing on the wall; he was at the head of ten thousand regular troops; two marches would have brought him to Ribidavia, in front of which town he might have occupied a position close on the left flank of the French, rallied all the insurgents about him, and have organized a formidable warfare. The French durst not have attempted the passage of the Minho while he was in front of Ribidavia; and if they turned against him, the place was favourable for battle, and the retreat open by Orense and Monterey; while the difficulty of bringing up artillery would hamper the pursuit. On the other hand, if Soult had retreated, that alone would have been tantamount to a victory; and Romana would have been well placed to follow upon the rear of the French, connecting himself with the English vessels of war upon that coast as he advanced.

2º. So far from contemplating operations of this nature, Romana did not even concentrate his force; but keeping it extended, in small parties, along fifteen miles of country, indulged himself in speculations about his enemy’s weakness, and the prospect of their retreating altogether from the Peninsula; until he was roused from his reveries, by finding his divisions beaten in detail, and himself forced either to join the Portuguese with whom he was quarrelling, or to break his promises to Sylveira and fly by cross roads over the mountain on his right: he adopted the latter, thus proving, that whatever might be his resources for raising an insurrection, he could not direct one; and that he was, although brave and active, totally destitute of military talent. At a later period of the war, the duke of Wellington, after a long and fruitless military discussion, drily observed, that either Romana or himself had mistaken their profession. Time has since shewn which.

SYLVEIRA.

1º. This Portuguese general’s first operations were as ill conducted as Romana’s; his posts were too extended; he made no attempt to repair the works of Chaves, none to aid the important insurrection of Ribidavia; but these errors cannot be fairly charged upon him, as his officers were so unruly, that they held a council of war per force, where thirty voted for fighting at Chaves, and twenty-nine against it; the casting voice being given by the voter calling on the troops to follow him.

2º. The after-movement, by which Chaves was recaptured, whether devised by Sylveira himself, or directed by marshal Beresford, was bold and skilful; but the advance to Penafiel, while La Houssaye and Heudelet could from Braga pass by Guimaraens, and cut him off from Amarante, was as rash as his subsequent flight was disgraceful. Yet, thanks to the heroic courage of colonel Patrick, Sylveira’s reputation as a general was established among his countrymen, by the very action which should have ruined him in their estimation.