A history of the Peninsular War, Vol. 4, Dec. 1810-Dec. 1811

by Charles Oman

By the evening of the 22nd the two French marshals, as the result of their wide-spreading reconnaissances, were fully aware that Wellington lay in force from Campo Mayor to Elvas, and had no intention of retiring. But they had not been able to make out the details of his position, which lay across an undulating country wooded in many parts, and not to be embraced in a single view from any commanding spot. As a matter of fact their adversary had now got up all his troops; the last division from the Beira came into touch with the main body on the morning of the 23rd. Elaborate orders issued for the conduct of the army in case the French should advance for battle, show what were the intentions of Wellington[576].

His front extended from Ouguella near the Gebora river almost to Elvas, a distance of twelve miles. Ouguella was a little town with mediaeval fortifications, susceptible of defence for some hours. It was garrisoned by two companies of Portuguese from Elvas. Beyond it rises the mountain of the Dos Hermanas, and there is no practicable route to turn it, save by an immense détour in the direction of Albuquerque, so that the flank was very secure. Between Ouguella and Campo Mayor lay the 3rd and 7th Divisions under Picton. Campo Mayor had been repaired since its recapture, and had received a Portuguese garrison; it had some heavy guns (24-pounders) which would sweep the level ground in front of it. West of this fortress lay the allied centre under Hill, composed of the 2nd and 4th Divisions and Hamilton’s Portuguese, extending from Campo Mayor to the Caya. Beyond that river in the direction of Elvas, in a somewhat ‘refused’ position leaning backward to the north-west, lay the three brigades of the 1st Division, under Spencer, forming the right wing, and resting on the great fortress as their flank-guard. This formed the front line. The reserves were the Light Division on the Monte Reguingo in front of Arronches, ready to support Picton, and the 5th and 6th Divisions, which were on the Portalegre road, échelonned in advance from that place, behind Spencer, and able to reinforce the right or centre. The cavalry was out in front, Madden’s Portuguese on the left, Long’s brigade on the right, with De Grey’s, Slade’s, and Anson’s regiments ready in reserve to transfer themselves where they should be wanted[577]. The whole force available was about 46,000 infantry, of which 29,000 were British, 5,000 cavalry, of which 1,400 belonged to the weak Portuguese brigades of Madden, Otway, and Barbaçena, and 14 batteries with 80 pieces and 2,800 gunners. The gross total was 54,000, not including two regular and two militia regiments of Portuguese forming the garrison of Elvas. Thus the allied army, though still appreciably inferior in numbers to the enemy, more especially in the cavalry arm, was strong enough to take the defensive in a good position[578]. Every available regular unit in Portugal had been gathered in by the 23rd, even Pack’s and Barbaçena’s small Portuguese brigades, which had remained down to the last possible moment in the Beira. The ground was most formidable for defence, covered by three fortresses, and having in its front an open plain which, though interspersed with occasional groves, was sufficiently commanded by the heights on the British flanks to make it impossible for any large body of troops to move across it in any direction without being detected. Wellington had placed observation parties at the many ‘Atalayas,’ the old Moorish watch-towers, which line the Portuguese frontier, and had arranged for a system of flag-signalling to convey news from one flank to the other. There were also warnings to be given by gun-fire, from pieces detailed for that purpose at Ouguella and Campo Mayor[579]. The cross-roads along the rear of the position being good, and the Caya fordable in many places, Wellington thought that he was certain of being able to transfer troops with swiftness and security to any part of the line that might be threatened. The only way in which the enemy could approach him unseen would be by moving at night, and even so there would be ample warning, since the cavalry pickets were out far in front of the line, and would give notice betimes. Moreover, a night-march of some nine miles out from Badajoz over unknown ground, towards an undiscovered position, would have little temptation for the enemy. The danger of blundering into a trap in the dark would be too great.

But as a matter of fact the French Marshals were not proposing to attack. They had learnt that Spencer’s divisions were up, so that the whole of the Anglo-Portuguese army was in front of them, and they shrank from committing themselves to a general action. Marmont wrote to Berthier on June 21st, Soult on June 22nd, and in neither of their dispatches is there the least intention displayed of making any further offensive move. Both state that they intended to attack the Albuera position on the 19th, if Wellington had stayed in it. ‘The enemy,’ says Marmont, ‘retired in haste, repassed the Guadiana, and returned into Portugal, without leaving us any chance of tackling him. It is tiresome that he would not make trial of his fortune, for a decisive victory would infallibly have marked our arrival in this region.’ Soult, in very similar terms, writes: ‘The Duke of Ragusa and I had resolved to give battle, but Lord Wellington prudently retreated before we could come up with him. Yet he had 60,000 men, of whom 30,000 were English, including General Spencer’s divisions just drawn in from the north, 14,000 Portuguese, and 16,000 Spaniards; there were 5,000 cavalry among them. It is vexatious that no general action could take place: our success would not be doubtful. But we may hope that another occasion may present itself, especially if the Army of Portugal continues to keep in touch with the Army of the South, and communicates with it, as it is now doing. Of that I have no doubt, from the alacrity with which the Duke of Ragusa marched to join in the relief of Badajoz with all his disposable forces.’ Soult then proceeds to state with great gravity that Albuera was a signal victory, and the sole cause of the preservation of Badajoz—ignoring the fact that he retreated sixty miles after it, and could not move again till he had been joined by Drouet and Marmont[580].

If Soult wanted another signal victory of the type of Albuera he had only to march nine miles towards Campo Mayor, on the day after he wrote this dispatch to Berthier. The temptation was surely great, since the defeat of Wellington’s army would have shaken to its foundations the whole defence of the Peninsula. To assemble the force now lying by Badajoz, Andalusia and Leon had been stripped of all disposable troops, and left exposed to the raids of the Spanish Armies of Galicia and Murcia, and to the omnipresent guerrilleros, who had already cut communications in every direction. If Wellington could be beaten, the concentration was justified; if he were left unmolested nothing had been gained, save the reprovisioning of Badajoz—and the game might go on for ever. Battle was now offered to the Marshals if they chose to accept it—the reconnaissance of June 22nd proved that the Allies had taken up a position and were standing on it.

But neither Soult nor Marmont would advance. The cause of their reluctance to engage was undoubtedly a moral one. As Napier very truly remarks in a typical sentence[581], ‘Marmont’s army was conscious of its recent defeats at Bussaco, at Sabugal, at Fuentes de Oñoro; the horrid field of Albuera was fresh; the fierce blood there spilt still reeked in the nostrils of Soult’s soldiers.’ The generals, no less than the rank and file, felt a qualm at the idea of attacking Wellington in a position which he had taken up with deliberation, and where he showed himself serenely expectant of their attack. They were aware that an attempt to dislodge him would be rendered very tiresome by the fact that Elvas and Campo Mayor protected his line. They over-valued his forces by the number of Blake’s army, which, till the 24th June, they wrongly supposed to be still with him. So contenting themselves with dictating pompous dispatches concerning the importance of the relief of Badajoz—which was indeed a notable advantage—they went each upon his separate way. Instead of attempting to inflict a defeat on Wellington, the Marshals did no more than patch up a scheme by which they thought he might be contained and held in check for the present. In short, the offensive spirit was gone: the French armies in Spain found themselves thrown upon the defensive; and so things were to remain for the rest of the Peninsular War. The offensive, though it was hardly realized as yet, had passed to Wellington[582].

Meanwhile the Allies could not tell what might be the intentions of the enemy. Seeing the enormous advantage that a victory would bring the French, and remembering the way in which they had stripped all Spain of troops in order to produce the army which now lay opposite him, Wellington thought that he was to be attacked, and continued for some days to perfect his preparations. The period of intent waiting was from the 23rd to the 28th of June, during which nothing was to be made out concerning the main purpose of the French. Petty cavalry reconnaissances in the direction of the Albuquerque and Montijo roads, much moving about of small columns between Olivenza and Badajoz, were observed—but no certain deductions could be drawn from them. ‘No judging what he means yet: meanwhile everything is ready for him,’ wrote D’Urban, Beresford’s chief of the staff, in his diary on June 25th. As a matter of fact, the small movements hitherto observed were merely matters of foraging and exploration, and had no occult meaning. On the 27th, however, there was something definite to be learnt; on the morning of that day Godinot’s division blew up the walls of Olivenza, and marched to Valverde. This disappearance of the French left wing might have meant that all the columns were being drawn in for an attack in the centre; but it might also mean that Soult was about to send back troops to Seville. That the latter was the true interpretation was shown on the 28th, when Godinot definitely marched not towards Badajoz, but southward along the chaussée leading to Andalusia by Los Santos and Monasterio. It was certain that, if Soult was sending away men from the front, he could not be intending to attack, since every man would be required, if a dash at the Anglo-Portuguese lines was in contemplation. When Wellington had news from the peasantry of Godinot’s southward march on the 29th June, he could see that the die had been cast, and that he need no longer look for an attack upon his lines. He was soon afterwards informed that two divisions were gone southward, not merely one; but for some time he could get no certitude of the departure of the second division, though it was perfectly true that this unit (Conroux’s ten battalions of Drouet’s old corps) had departed almost immediately after Godinot.

What had happened was that on June 24th, the fourth day after the entry of the two Marshals into Badajoz, Soult had informed Marmont that he had such bad news from Andalusia that he must return at once to Seville with some of his troops. It was not so much Blake’s diversion which was working[583]—the French had learnt of his start on the 24th, but did not know that he had reached the Condado de Niebla—as the tidings of the spread of the insurrection in the Ronda mountains, and of threatening movements by Freire’s Army of Murcia against the 4th Corps. The force in Eastern Andalusia had lent so much to Soult’s field army[584], and so much more to garrison the province of Cordova[585], that it was much under strength. There were only 9,000 men, or less, left in the kingdom of Granada, and the Murcian army was 14,000 strong. Marmont refused to take Soult’s fears seriously, being (as he himself tells us[586]) convinced by this time that his colleague was wanting to throw all the responsibility of keeping Badajoz safe and ‘containing’ Wellington on the Army of Portugal. He replied that unless Soult promised to leave him the whole of the 5th Corps, and all Latour-Maubourg’s cavalry, he should order his troops to march for Truxillo and Almaraz, and throw the charge of Badajoz on the Army of the South, which might keep it if it could.

Soult was forced to assent to this demand, and took away only Godinot’s and Conroux’s provisional divisions, and three regiments of cavalry. The 5th Corps, now placed under Drouet[587], and six dragoon regiments, were left behind on the Guadiana, to enable Marmont to maintain a safe defensive against Wellington. They made up some 15,000 men, which, with the 32,000 of the Army of Portugal, provided a force quite insufficient to attack the Allies, yet large enough to prevent a siege of Badajoz. For no general, least of all the cautious commander of the Anglo-Portuguese army, would undertake to besiege a fortress of the first class, situated on two sides of a broad river, with 54,000 men, when a covering force of 47,000 men was supporting it in the near vicinity.