CHAPTER IV.
The battle of Vittoria was fought on the 21st of June.
The 1st of July marshal Soult, under a decree1813. July. issued at Dresden, succeeded Joseph as lieutenant to the emperor, who thus shewed how little his mind had been affected by his brother’s accusations.
The 12th, Soult, travelling with surprising expedition, assumed the command of the armies of the “north,” the “centre” and the “south” now reorganised in one body, called “the army of Spain.” And he had secret orders to put Joseph forcibly aside if necessary, but that monarch voluntarily retired from the army.
At this period general Paris remained at Jaca, as belonging to Suchet’s command, but Clauzel had entered France, and the “army of Spain,” reinforced from the interior, was composed of nine divisions of infantry, a reserve, and two regular divisions of cavalry besides the light horsemen attached to the infantry. Following the imperial muster-rolls this army, including the garrisons and thirteen German Italian and Spanish battalions not belonging to the organisation, amounted to one[Appendix, No. 8.] hundred and fourteen thousand men; and as the armies of Catalonia and of Aragon numbered at the same period above sixty-six thousand, the whole force still employed against Spain exceeded one hundred and eighty thousand men with twenty thousand horses; and of this number one hundred and fifty-six thousand were present under arms, while in Germany and Poland above seven hundred thousand French soldiers were in activity.
Such great forces, guided by Napoleon, seemed sufficient to defy the world, but moral power which he has himself described as constituting three-fourths of military strength, that power which puny essayists declaiming for their hour against the genius of warriors, are unable to comprehend although by far the most important part of the art which they decry, was wanting. One half of this force, organized in peace and setting forth in hope at the beginning of a war, would have enabled Napoleon to conquer; but now, near the close of a terrible struggle, with a declining fate and the national confidence in his fortune and genius shaken, although that genius was never more surpassingly displayed, his military power was a vast but unsound machine. The public mind was bewildered by the intricacy and greatness of combinations the full scope of which he alone could see clearly, and generals and ministers doubted and feared when they should have supported him, neglecting their duty or coldly executing his orders when their zeal should have redoubled. The unity of impulse so essential to success was thus lost, and his numerous armies carried not with them proportionate strength. To have struggled with hope under such astounding difficulties was scarcely to be expected from the greatest minds, but like the emperor, to calculate and combine the most stupendous efforts with calmness and accuracy, to seize every favourable chance with unerring rapidity, to sustain every reverse with undisturbed constancy, never urged to rashness by despair yet enterprizing to the utmost verge of daring consistent with reason, was a display of intellectual greatness so surpassing, that it is not without justice Napoleon has been called, in reference as well to past ages as to the present, the foremost of mankind.
The suddenness, as well as the completeness, of the destruction caused by the snows of Russia, had shattered the emperor’s military and political system, and the broken parts of the former, scattered widely, were useless until he could again bind them together. To effect this he rushed with a raw army into the midst of Germany, for his hope was to obtain by celerity a rallying point for his veterans, who having survived the Russian winter and the succeeding pestilence were widely dispersed. His first effort was successful, but without good cavalry victory cannot be pushed far, and the practised horsemen of France had nearly disappeared; their successors badly mounted and less skilful were too few and too weak, and thus extraordinary exertion was required from soldiers, whose youth and inexperience rendered them unfit even for the ordinary hardships of war.
The measure of value for Wellington’s campaign is thus attained, for if Joseph had opposed him with only moderate ability and had avoided a great battle, not less than fifty thousand veterans could have been drawn off to reinforce and give stability to the young soldiers in Germany. On the side of Spain those veterans were indeed still numerous, but the spirit of the French people behind them almost worn out by victory, was now abashed by defeat, and even the military men who had acquired grandeur and riches beyond their hopes, were with few exceptions averse to further toil. Napoleon’s astonishing firmness of mind was understood by few in high stations, shared by fewer; and many were the traitors to him and to France and to the glories of both. However his power was still enormous, and wherever he led in person his brave and faithful soldiers, fighting with the true instinct of patriotism, conquered. Where he was not their iron hardihood abated.
Marshal Soult was one of the few men whose indefatigable energy rendered them worthy lieutenants of the emperor; and with singular zeal, vigour and ability he now served. His troops, nominally above one hundred thousand men ninety-seven thousand being present under arms with eighty-six pieces of artillery, were not all available for field operations. The garrisons of Pampeluna, San Sebastian, Santona, and Bayonne, together with the foreign battalions, absorbed seventeen thousand; and most of the latter had orders to regain their own countries with a view to form the new levies. The permanent “army of Spain” furnished therefore only seventy-seven thousand five hundred men present under arms, seven thousand of which were cavalry, and its condition was not satisfactory. The people on the frontier were flying from the allies, the military administration was disorganized, and the recent disasters had discouraged the soldiers and deteriorated their discipline. Under these circumstances Soult was desirous of some delay to secure his base and restore order ere he attempted to regain the offensive, but his instructions on that point were imperative.
Napoleon’s system was perfectly adapted for great efforts, civil or military; but so rapid had been lord Wellington’s advance from Portugal, so decisive his operations that the resources of France were in a certain degree paralyzed, and the army still reeled and rocked from the blows it had received. Bayonne, a fortress of no great strength in itself, had been entirely neglected, and the arming and provisioning that and other places was indispensible. The restoration of an entrenched camp originally traced by Vauban to cover Bayonne followed, and the enforcement of discipline, the removal of the immense train of Spanish families, civil administrators, and other wasteful followers of Joseph’s court, the arrangement of a general system for supply of money and provisions, aided by judicious efforts to stimulate the civil authorities and excite the national spirit, were amongst the first indications that a great commander was in the field. The soldiers’ confidence soon revived and some leading merchants of Bayonne zealously seconded the general; but the people of the south were generally more inclined to avoid the burthen of defending their country than to answer appeals to their patriotism.
On the 14th Soult examined the line of military positions, and ordered Reille, who then occupied the passes of Vera and Echallar, to prepare pontoons for throwing two bridges over the Bidassoa at Biriatou. That general as we have seen was driven from those passes the next day, but he prepared his bridges; and such was Soult’s activity that on the 16th all the combinations for a gigantic offensive movement were digested, the means of executing it rapidly advancing, and orders were issued for the preliminary dispositions.
At this time the French army was divided into three corps of battle, and a reserve. Clauzel commanding the left wing was at St. Jean Pied de Port and in communication, by the French frontier, with general Paris at Jaca. Drouet, count D’Erlon,Soult’s Official Correspondence, MSS. commanding the centre, occupied the heights near Espelette and Ainhoa, with an advanced guard behind Urdax. General Reille commanding the right wing was in position on the mountains overlooking Vera from the side of France. The reserve under Villatte, comprising a separate body of light horsemen and the foreign battalions, guarded the banks of the Bidassoa from the mouth upwards to Irun, at which place the stone bridge was destroyed. The division of heavy cavalry under Trielhard, and that of light cavalry under Pierre Soult, the Marshal’s brother, were on the banks of the Nive and the Adour.
The counter-disposition of the allies was as follows.
Byng’s brigade of British infantry, detached from the second division and reinforced by Morillo’s Spaniards, was on the extreme right. These troops had early in June driven the French from the village of Valcarlos in the valley of that name, and had foraged the French territory, but finding no good permanent position, retreated again to the rocks in front of the passes of Roncesvalles and Ibañeta.
On the left of Byng, Campbell’s brigade detached from Hamilton’s Portuguese division, was posted in the Alduides and supported by general Cole, who was with the fourth division at Viscayret in the valley of Urroz.
On the left of Campbell general Hill defended the Bastan with the remainder of the second division, and with Hamilton’s Portuguese, now commanded by Sylveira, Conde D’Amarante. Picton, with the third division, was stationed at Olague as a reserve to those troops and to Cole.
On the left of Hill the seventh and light divisions occupied a chain of mountains running by Echallar to Vera, and behind them at the town of San Estevan was posted the sixth division.
Longa’s Spaniards continued the line of defence from Vera to general Giron’s position, which extending along the mountains bordering the Bidassoa to the sea, crossed the great road of Irun. Behind Giron was the besieging army under sir Thomas Graham.
Thirty-six pieces of field artillery, and some regiments of British and Portuguese cavalry, were with the right wing and centre, but the bulk of the horsemen and the heavy guns were behind the mountains, chiefly about Tafalla. The great hospitals were in Vittoria, the commissariat depôts were principally on the coast, and to supply the troops in the mountains was exceedingly difficult and onerous.
Henry O’Donnel, Conde de la Bispal, blockaded Pampeluna with the Andalusian army of reserve, and Carlos D’España’s division was on the march to join him. Mina, Julian Sanchez, Duran, Empecinado, Goyan and some smaller bands, were on the side of Zaragoza and Daroca, cutting the communication between Soult and Suchet, and the latter, thinking Aragon lost, was, as we have seen, falling back upon Catalonia.
The whole force under lord Wellington’s immediate command, that is to say in Navarre and Guipuscoa, was certainly above one hundred thousand men, of which the Anglo-Portuguese furnished fifty-seven thousand present under arms, seven[Appendix, 7.] thousand being cavalry; but the Spanish regulars under Giron, Labispal and Carlos D’España, including Longa’s division and some of Mendizabal’sNotes by the Duke of Wellington, MSS. army, scarcely amounted to twenty-five thousand. According to the respective muster-rolls, the troops in line actually under arms and facing each other, were, of the allies, about eighty-two thousand, of the French about seventy-eight thousand; but as the rolls of the latter include every man and officer of all arms belonging to the organization, and the British and Portuguese rolls so quoted, would furnish between ten and twelve thousand additional combatants, the French force must be reduced, or the allies augmented in that proportion. This surplus was however now compensated by the foreign battalions temporarily attached to Soult’s army, and by the numerous national guards, all mountaineers, fierce warlike and very useful as guides. In other respects lord Wellington stood at a disadvantage.
The theatre of operations was a trapezoid, with sides from forty to sixty miles in length, and having Bayonne, St. Jean Pied de Port, St. Sebastian and Pampeluna, all fortresses, in possession of the French at the angles. The interior, broken and tormented by dreadful mountains, narrow craggy passes, deep water-courses, precipices and forests, would at first sight appear a wilderness which no military combinations could embrace, and susceptible only of irregular and partizan operations. But the great spinal ridge of the Pyrenees furnishes a clue to the labyrinth of hills and valleys. Running diagonally across the quadrilateral, it separated Bayonne St. Jean Pied de Port and San Sebastian from Pampeluna, and thus the portion of the allied army which more especially belonged to the blockade of Pampeluna, was in a manner cut off from that which belonged to the siege of San Sebastian. They were distinct armies, each having its particular object, and the only direct communication between them was the great road running behind the mountains from Toloza, by Irurzun, to Pampeluna. The centre of the allies was indeed an army of succour and connection, but of necessity very much scattered, and with lateral communications so few, difficult and indirect as to prevent any unity of movement; nor could general Hill’s corps move at all until an attack was decidedly pronounced against one of the extremities, lest the most direct gun-road to Pampeluna which it covered should be unwarily opened to the enemy. In short the French general, taking the offensive, could by beaten roads concentrate against any part of the English general’s line, which, necessarily a passively defensive one, followed an irregular trace of more than fifty miles of mountains.
Wellington having his battering train and stores about San Sebastian, which was also nearer and more accessible to the enemy than Pampeluna, made his army lean towards that side. His left wing, including the army of siege, was twenty-one thousand strong with singularly strong positions of defence, and the centre, about twenty-four thousand strong, could in two marches unite with the left wing to cover the siege or fall upon the flanks of an enemy advancing by the high road of Irun; but three days or more were required by those troops to concentrate for the security of the blockade on the right. Soult however judged that no decisive result would attend a direct movement upon San Sebastian; because Guipuscoa was exhausted of provisions, and the centre of the allies could fall on his flank before he reached Ernani, which, his attack in front failing, would place him in a dangerous position. Moreover by means of his sea communication he knew that San Sebastian was not in extremity; but he had no communication with Pampeluna and feared its fall. Wherefore he resolved to operate by his left.
Profiting by the roads leading to St. Jean Pied de Port, and covering his movement by the Nivelle and Nive rivers and by the positions of his centre, he hoped to gather on Wellington’s right quicker than that general could gather to oppose him, and thus compensating by numbers the disadvantage of assailing mountain positions force a way to Pampeluna. That fortress once succoured, he designed to seize the road of Irurzun, and keeping in mass either fall upon the separated divisions of the centre in detail as they descended from the hills, or operate on the rear of the force besieging San Sebastian, while a corps of observation, which he proposed to leave on the Lower Bidassoa, menaced it in front and followed it in retreat. The siege of San Sebastian, the blockade of Pampeluna and probably that of Santona, would be thus raised, and the French army united in an abundant country, and its communication with Suchet secured, would be free either to co-operate with that marshal or to press its own attack.
In this view, and to mislead lord Wellington by vexing his right simultaneously with the construction of the bridges against his left, Soult wrote to general Paris, desiring him to march when time suited from Jaca by the higher valleys towards Aviz or Sanguessa, to drive the partizans from that side and join the left of the army when it should have reached Pampeluna. Meanwhile Clauzel was directed to repair the roads in his own front, to push the heads of his columns towards the passes of Roncesvalles, and by sending a strong detachment into the Val de Baygorry, towards the lateral pass of Yspegui, to menace Hill’s flank which was at that pass, and the front of Campbell’s brigade in the Alduides.
On the 20th Reille’s troops on the heights above Vera and Sarre, being cautiously relieved by Villatte, marched through Cambo towards St. Jean Pied de Port. They were to reach the latter early on the 22d, and on that day also the two divisions of cavalry and the park of artillery were to be concentrated at the same place. D’Erlon with the centre meanwhile still held his positions at Espelette, Ainhoüe or Ainhoa, and Urdax, thus covering and masking the great movements taking place behind.
Villatte who including the foreign battalions had eighteen thousand troops on the rolls, furnishing about fifteen thousand sabres and bayonets, remained in observation on the Bidassoa. If threatened by superior forces he was to retire slowly and in mass upon the entrenched camp commenced at Bayonne, yet halting successively on the positions of Bordegain in front of St. Jean de Luz, and on the heights of Bidart in rear of that town. He was especially directed to shew only French troops at the advanced posts, and if the assailants made a point with a small corps, to drive them vigorously over the Bidassoa again. But if the allies should in consequence of Soult’s operations against their right retire, Villatte was to relieve San Sebastian and to follow them briskly by Tolosa.
Rapidity was of vital importance to the French general, but heavy and continued rains swelled the streams, and ruined the roads in the deep country between Bayonne and the hills; the head-quarters, which should have arrived at St. Jean Pied de Port on the 20th, only reached Olhonce, a few milesSoult’s Official Correspondence, MSS. short of that place, the 21st; and Reille’s troops unable to make way at all by Cambo took the longer road of Bayonne. The cavalry was retarded in like manner, and the whole army, men and horses, were worn down by the severity of the marches. Two days were thus lost, but on the 24th more than sixty thousand fighting men including cavalry national guards and gensd’armes, with sixty-six pieces of artillery, were assembled to force the passes of Roncesvalles and Maya. The main road leading to the former was repaired, three hundred sets of bullocks were provided to draw the guns up the mountain, and the national guards of the frontier on the left were ordered to assemble in the night on the heights of Yropil, to be reinforced on the morning of the 25th by detachments of regular troops with a view to vex and turn the right of the allies which extended to the foundry of Orbaiceta.
Such were Soult’s first dispositions, but as mountain warfare is complicated in the extreme, it will be well to consider more in detail the relative positions and objects of the hostile forces and the nature of the country.
It has been already stated that the great spine of the hills, trending westward, run diagonally across the theatre of operations. From this spine huge ridges shot out on either hand, and the communications between the valleys thus formed on both sides of the main chain passed over certain comparatively low places called “cols” by the French, and puertos by the Spaniards. The Bastan, the Val Carlos, and the Val de Baygorry the upper part of which is divided into the Alduides and the Val de Ayra, were on the French side of the great chain; on the Spanish side were the valleys of Ahescoa or Orbaiceta, the valley of Iscua or Roncesvalles, the valley of Urros, the Val de Zubiri, and the valley of Lanz, the two latter leading down directly upon Pampeluna which stands within two miles of the junction of their waters. Such being the relative situations of the valleys, the disposition, and force, of the armies, shall now be traced from left to right of the French, and from right to left of the allies. But first it must be observed that the main chain, throwing as it were a shoulder forward from Roncesvalles towards St. Jean Pied de Port, placed the entrance to the Spanish valley of Ahescoa or Orbaiceta, in the power of Soult, who could thus by Yropil turn the extreme right of his adversary with detachments, although not with an army.
Val Carlos.—Two issues led from this valley over the main chain, namely the Ibañeta and Mendichuri passes; and there was also the lateral pass of Atalosti leading into the Alduides, all comprised within a space of two or three miles.
The high road from St. Jean Pied de Port to Pampeluna, ascending the left-hand ridge or boundary of Val Carlos, runs along the crest until it joins the superior chain of mountains, and then along the summit of that also until it reaches the pass of Ibañeta, whence it descends to Roncesvalles. Ibañeta may therefore be called the Spanish end of the pass; but it is also a pass in itself, because a narrow road, leading through Arnegui and the village of Val Carlos, ascends directly to Ibañeta and falls into the main road behind it.
Clauzel’s three divisions of infantry, all the artillery and the cavalry were formed in two columns in front of St. Jean Pied de Port. The head of one was placed on some heights above Arnegui about two miles from the village of Val Carlos; the head of the other at the Venta de Orrisson, on the main road and within two miles of the remarkable rocks of Chateau Piñon, a little beyond which one narrow way descended on the right to the village of Val Carlos, and another on the left to the foundry of Orbaiceta.
On the right-hand boundary of Val Carlos, near the rock of Ayrola, Reille’s divisions were concentrated, with orders to ascend that rock at daylight, and march by the crest of the ridge towards a culminant point of the great chain called the Lindouz, which gained, Reille was to push detachments through the passes of Ibañeta and Mendichuri to the villages of Roncesvalles and Espinal. He was, at the same time, to seize the passes of Sahorgain and Urtiaga immediately on his right, and even approach the more distant passes of Renecabal and Bellate, thus closing the issues from the Alduides, and menacing those from the Bastan.
Val de Ayra. The Alduides. Val de Baygorry. The ridge of Ayrola, at the foot of which Reille’sPlan, No. 2. troops were posted, separates Val Carlos from these valleys which must be designated by the general name of the Alduides for the upper part, and the Val de Baygorry for the lower. The issues from the Alduides over the great chain towards Spain were the passes of Sahorgain and Urtiaga; and there was also a road running from the village of Alduides through the Atalosti pass to Ibañeta a distance of eight miles, by which general Campbell’s brigade communicated with and could join Byng and Morillo.
Bastan. This district, including the valley of Lerins and the Cinco Villas, is separated from the Alduides and Val de Baygorry by the lofty mountain of La Houssa, on which the national guards of the Val de Baygorry and the Alduides were ordered to assemble on the night of the 24th, and to light fires so as to make it appear a great body was menacing the Bastan by that flank. The Bastan however does not belong to the same geographical system as the other valleys. Instead of opening to the French territory it is entirely enclosed with high mountains, and while the waters of the Val Carlos, the Alduides, and Val de Baygorry run off northward by the Nive, those of the Bastan run off westward by the Bidassoa, from which they are separated by the Mandale, Commissari, La Rhune, Santa Barbara, Ivantelly, Atchiola and other mountains.
The entrances to the Bastan with reference to the position of the French army, were by the passes of Vera and Echallar on its right; by the Col de Maya and Arietta passes in the centre; and on the left by the lateral passes of Yspegui, Lorrieta, and Berderez, which lead from the Val de Baygorry and the Alduides. The issues over the principal chain of the Pyrenees in the direct line from the Maya entrances, were the passes of Renecabal and Bellate; the first leading into the valley of Zubiri, the second into the valley of Lanz. There was also the pass of Artesiaga leading into the Val de Zubiri, but it was nearly impracticable, and all the roads through the Bastan were crossed by strong positions dangerous to assail.
The Col de Maya comprised several passages in a space of four miles, all of which were menaced by D’Erlon from Espelete and Urdax; and he had twenty-one thousand men, furnishing about eighteen thousand bayonets. His communications with Soult were maintained by cavalry posts through the Val de Baygorry, and his orders were to attack the allies when the combinations in the Val Carlos and on the Houssa mountain should cause them to abandon the passes at Maya; but he was especially directed to operate by his left, so as to secure the passes leading towards Reille with a view to the concentration of the whole army. Thus if Hill retreated by the pass of Bellate D’Erlon was to move by Berderez and the Alduides; but if Hill retired upon San Estevan D’Erlon was to move by the pass of Bellate. Such being the dispositions of the French general, those of the allies shall now be traced.
General Byng and Morillo guarded the passes in front of Roncesvalles. Their combined forceWellington’s Morning States. consisted of sixteen hundred British and from three to four thousand Spaniards. Byng’s brigade and two Spanish battalions occupied the rocks of Altobiscar on the high road facing Chateau Piñon; one Spanish battalion was at the foundry in the valley of Orbaiceta on their right; Morillo with the remainder of the Spaniards occupied the heights of Iroulepe, on the left of the road leading to the village of Val Carlos and overlooking the nearest houses of that straggling place.
These positions, distant only four and five miles from the French columns assembled at Venta de Orrisson and Arnegui, were insecure. The ground was indeed steep and difficult of access but too extensive; moreover, although the passes led into the Roncesvalles that valley did not lead direct to Pampeluna; the high road after descending a few miles turned to the right, and crossing two ridges and the intervening valley of Urros entered the valley of Zubiri, down which it was conducted to Pampeluna: wherefore after passing Ibañeta in retreat the allied troops could not avoid lending their right flank to Reille’s divisions as far as Viscayret in the valley of Urroz. It was partly to obviate this danger, partly to support O’Donnel while Clauzel’s force was in the vicinity of Jaca, that theWellington’s Morning States. fourth division, about six thousand strong, occupied Viscayret, six miles from the pass of Ibañeta, ten miles from Morillo’s position, and twelve miles from Byng’s position. But when Clauzel retired to France, general Cole was directed to observe the roads leading over the main chain from the Alduides district, and to form a rallying point and reserve for Campbell, Byng, and Morillo, his instructions being to maintain the Roncesvalles passes against a front attack, but not to commit his troops in a desperate battle if the flanks were insecure.
On the left of Byng and Morillo, Campbell’sIbid. Portuguese, about two thousand strong, were encamped above the village of Alduides on a mountain called Mizpira. They observed the national guards of the Val de Baygorry, preserved the communication between Byng and Hill, and in some measure covered the right flank of the latter. From the Alduides Campbell could retreat through the pass of Sahorgain upon Viscayret in the valley of Urroz, and through the passes of Urtiaga and Renacabal upon Eugui in the Val de Zubiri; finally by the lateral pass of Atalosti he could join Byng and the fourth division. The communication between all these posts was maintained by Long’s cavalry.
Continuing the line of positions to the left, general Hill occupied the Bastan with the second British division, Sylveira’s Portuguese, and some squadrons of horse, but Byng’s and Campbell’s brigades being detached, he had not more than nine thousand sabres and bayonets. His two British brigades underWellington’s States. general William Stewart guarded the Col de Maya; Sylveira’s Portuguese were at Erazu, on the right of Stewart, observing the passes of Arrieta, Yspegui and Elliorita; of which the two former were occupied by Major Brotherton’s cavalry and by the sixth Caçadores. The direct line of retreat and point of concentration for all these troops was Elizondo.
From Elizondo the route of Pampeluna over the great chain was by the pass of Bellate and the valley of Lanz. The latter running nearly parallel with the valley of Zubiri is separated from it by a wooded and rugged ridge, and between them there were but three communications: the one high up, leading from Lanz to Eugui, and prolonged from thence to Viscayret in the valley of Urros; the other two lower down, leading from Ostiz and Olague to the village of Zubiri. At Olague the third division, furnishing four thousand three hundred bayonets under Picton, was posted ready to support Cole or Hill as occasion required.
Continuing the front line from the left of Stewart’s position at the Col de Maya, the trace run along the mountains forming the French boundary of the Bastan. It comprized the passes of Echallar and Vera, guarded by the seventh division under lord Dalhousie, and by the light division under general Charles Alten. The former furnishing fourWellington’s Morning States. thousand seven hundred bayonets communicated with general Stewart by a narrow road over the Atchiola mountain, and the eighty-second regiment was encamped at its junction with the Elizondo road, about three miles behind the pass of Maya. The light division, four thousand strong, was at Vera, guarding the roads which led behind the mountains through Sumbilla and San Estevan to Elizondo.
These two divisions being only observed by the left wing of Villatte’s reserve were available for the succour of either wing, and behind them, at the town of San Estevan, was the sixth division of sixIbid. thousand bayonets, now under general Pack. Placed at equal distances from Vera and Maya, having free communication with both and a direct line of march to Pampeluna over the main chain of the Pyrenees by the Puerto de Arraiz, sometimes called the pass of Doña Maria, this division was available for any object and could not have been better posted.
Around Pampeluna, the point to which all the lines of march converged, the Spanish troops under O’Donnel maintained the blockade, and they were afterwards joined by Carlos D’España’s division at a very critical moment. Thus reinforced they amounted to eleven thousand, of which seven thousand could be brought into action without abandoning the works of blockade.
Head-quarters were at Lesaca, and the line of correspondence with the left wing was over the Peña de Haya, that with the right wing by San Estevan, Elizondo and the Alduides. The line of correspondence between sir Thomas Graham and Pampeluna was by Goizueta and the high road of Irurzun.
As the French were almost in contact with the allies’ positions at Roncesvalles, which was also the point of defence nearest to Pampeluna, it followed that on the rapidity or slowness with which Soult overcame resistance in that quarter depended his success; and a comparative estimate of numbers and distances will give the measure of his chances.
Clauzel’s three divisions furnished about sixteen thousand bayonets, besides the cavalry, the artillery, and the national guards menacing the valley of Orbaiceta. Byng and Morillo were therefore with five thousand infantry, to sustain the assault of sixteen thousand until Cole could reinforce them; but Cole being twelve miles distant could not come up in fighting order under four or five hours. And as Reille’s divisions, of equal strength with Clauzel’s, could before that time seize the Lindouz and turn the left, it was clear the allied troops, although increased to eleven thousand by the junction of the fourth division, must finally abandon their ground to seek a new field of battle where the third division could join them from the valley of Lanz, and Campbell’s brigade from the Alduides. Thus raised to seventeen or eighteen thousand bayonets with some guns, they might on strong ground oppose Clauzel and Reille’s thirty thousand; but as Picton’s position at Olague was more than a day’s march from Byng’s position at Altobiscar, their junction could only be made in the valley of the Zubiri and not very distant from Pampeluna. And when seven thousand Spaniards from the blockade, and two or three thousand cavalry from the side of the Ebro are added, we have the full measure of the allies’ strength in this quarter.
General Hill, menaced by D’Erlon with a very superior force, and having the pass of Maya, half a day’s march further from Pampeluna than the passes of Roncesvalles, to defend, could not give ready help. If he retreated rapidly D’Erlon could follow as rapidly, and though Picton and Cole would thus be reinforced with ten thousand men Soult would gain eighteen thousand. Hill could not however move until he knew that Byng and Cole were driven from the Roncesvalles passes; in fine he could not avoid a dilemma. For if he maintained the passes at Maya and affairs went wrong near Pampeluna, his own situation would be imminently dangerous; if he maintained Irrueta, his next position, the same danger was to be dreaded; and the passes of Maya once abandoned, D’Erlon, moving by his own left towards the Alduides, could join Soult in the valley of Zubiri before Hill could join Cole and Picton by the valley of Lanz. But if Hill did not maintain the position of Irrueta D’Erlon could follow and cut the sixth and seventh divisions off from the valley of Lanz. The extent and power of Soult’s combinations are thus evinced. Hill forced to await orders and hampered by the operations of D’Erlon, required, it might be three days to get into line near Pampeluna; but D’Erlon after gaining Maya could in one day and a half, by the passes of Berderez and Urtiaga, join Soult in the Val de Zubiri. Meanwhile Byng, Morillo, Cole, Campbell, and Picton would be exposed to the operations of double their own numbers; and however firm and able individually those generals might be, they could not when suddenly brought together be expected to seize the whole system of operations and act with that decision and nicety of judgment which the occasion demanded. It was clear therefore that Hill’s force must be in some measure paralyzed at first, and finally thrown with the sixth, seventh, and light divisions, upon an external line of operations while the French moved upon internal lines.
On the other hand it is also clear that the corps of Byng, Morillo, Campbell, Cole, Picton, and Hill were only pieces of resistance on lord Wellington’s board, and that the sixth, seventh, and light divisions were those with which he meant to win his game. There was however a great difference in their value. The light division and the seventh, especially the former, being at the greatest distance from Pampeluna, having enemies close in front and certain points to guard, were, the seventh division a day, the light division two days, behind the sixth division, which was quite free to move at an instant’s notice and was, the drag of D’Erlon’s corps considered, a day nearer to Pampeluna than Hill. Wherefore upon the rapid handling of this well-placed body the fate of the allies depended. If it arrived in time, nearly thirty thousand infantry with sufficient cavalry and artillery would be established, under the immediate command of the general-in-chief, on a position of strength to check the enemy until the rest of the army arrived. Where that position was and how the troops were there gathered and fought shall now be shown.