SECTION XXXIII: CHAPTER V
MARMONT TAKES THE OFFENSIVE. JULY 1812
On July 2nd Wellington had arrived at the end of the first stage of his campaign. He had cleared the French out of the whole of southern Leon as far as the Douro, had taken the Salamanca forts, and had beaten off with ease Marmont’s attempts to meddle with him. All this had been accomplished with the loss of less than 500 men. But the success, though marked, was not decisive, since the enemy’s army had not been beaten in the open field, but only manœuvred out of the considerable region that it had evacuated. The most tangible advantage secured was that Marmont had been cut off from Madrid and the Army of the Centre: he could now communicate with King Joseph only by the circuitous line through Segovia. All the guerrilleros of Castile, especially the bands of Saornil and Principe, were thrown on the Segovia and Avila roads, where they served Wellington excellently, for they captured most of the dispatches which were passing between King Joseph and Marmont, who were really out of touch with each other after the Marshal’s retreat from the Tormes on June 27th.
But till Marmont had been beaten in action nothing was settled, and Wellington had been disappointed of his hope that the Army of Portugal would attack him in position, and allow him to deal with it in the style of Bussaco. The Marshal had retired behind the Douro with his host intact: it was certain that he would be joined there by Bonnet’s division from the Asturias, and very possible that he might also receive succour from the Army of the North. The junction of Bonnet would give him a practical equality in numbers with the British army: any considerable reinforcement from Caffarelli would make him superior in force. And there was still a chance that other French armies might intervene, though hitherto there were no signs of it. For it was only during the first fortnight of the campaign that Wellington could reckon on having to deal with his immediate adversary alone. He was bound to have that much start, owing to the wide dispersion of the French, and their difficulty in communicating with each other. But as the weeks wore on, and the enemy became more able to grasp the situation, there was a growing possibility that outlying forces might be brought up towards the Douro. If Marmont had only been defeated on June 21st this would have mattered little: and Wellington must have regretted more and more each day that he had not taken the obvious opportunity, and attacked the Army of Portugal when it placed itself, incomplete and in a poor position, beneath the heights of San Cristobal.
Now, however, since Marmont had got away intact, everything depended on the working of the various diversions which had been prepared to distract the other French armies. One of them, Sir Home Popham’s, had succeeded to admiration, and had so scared Caffarelli that not a man of the Army of the North was yet in motion toward the Douro. And this fortunate expedition was to continue effective: for another three weeks Marmont got no succours from the army that was supposed to constitute his supporting force by the instructions of the Emperor and of King Joseph. But Wellington—not having the gift of prophecy, though he could see further into the fog of war than other men—was unable to rely with certainty on Caffarelli’s continued abstinence from interference. As to Soult, there were as yet no signs of any trouble from Andalusia. The Duke of Dalmatia had somewhat reinforced D’Erlon’s corps in Estremadura, but not to such an extent as threatened any real danger to Hill, who reported that he could keep D’Erlon in check on the Albuera position, and was not certain that he might not be able to attack him at advantage—a move for which he had his chief’s permission[453]. If only Wellington had been fortunate enough to receive some of Soult’s letters to King Joseph, written in the second half of June, he would have been much reassured: for the Marshal was (as we shall see) refusing in the most insubordinate style to carry out the orders sent him to move troops northward. Two minor pieces of intelligence from the South were of no primary importance—though vexatious enough—one was that Ballasteros had ventured on a battle at Bornos on June 1, and got well beaten: but his army was not destroyed. The second was that General Slade had suffered a discreditable check at Maguilla on June 11th in a cavalry combat with Lallemand’s dragoons. But neither of these events had much influence on Soult’s general conduct at the time, as we shall show in the proper place.
There remained one quarter from which Wellington had received information that was somewhat disturbing. An intercepted letter from King Joseph to D’Erlon showed that the latter had been directed to move towards the Tagus, and that the King himself was evidently thinking of bringing succour to Marmont, so far as his modest means allowed[454]. But since this projected operation seemed to depend on assistance being granted by Soult, and since it was doubtful in the highest degree whether Soult would give it, Wellington was not without hopes that it might come to nothing. ‘I have requested the Empecinado,’ he writes to Lord Liverpool, ‘to alarm the King for the safety of his situation about Madrid, and I hope that Marshal Soult will find ample employment for his troops in the blockade of Cadiz, the continued operations of General Ballasteros, and those in Estremadura of Lieut.-General Hill, whose attention I have called to the probable march of this corps of the Army of the South through Estremadura.’ As a matter of fact Soult prevented D’Erlon from giving any help to the King or Marmont; but a contingency was to arise of which Wellington, on July 1st, could have no expectation—viz. that, though refused all help from the South, Joseph might come to the desperate but most soldier-like determination to march with his own little army alone to the Douro, in order to bring to bear such influence as he possessed on what was obviously a critical moment in the war. The King and Jourdan were the only men in Spain who showed a true appreciation of the crisis: but they made their move too late: the fault was undoubtedly Soult’s alone. However, on July 1st, Wellington was justified in doubting whether any danger would arise on the side of Madrid. Joseph could not move the Army of the Centre to the Douro, without risking his capital and abandoning all New Castile. As late as July 11th Wellington suspected that he would not make this extreme sacrifice, but would rather push a demonstration down the Tagus to alarm central Portugal, a hypothesis which did not much alarm him[455]. The King and Jourdan knew better than to make this indecisive move, and marched where their 14,000 men might have turned the whole course of the campaign—but marched too late.
There was still a chance that Suchet might be helping the King—this depended entirely on an unknown factor in the game, the diversion which Lord William Bentinck had promised to execute on the coast of Catalonia. If it had begun to work, as it should have done, by the second half of June, there was little chance that any troops from the eastern side of Spain would interfere in the struggle on the Douro. But no information of recent date was yet forthcoming: it was not till July 14th that the vexatious news arrived that Lord William was faltering in his purpose, and thinking of plans for diverting his expeditionary force to Italy.
The situation, therefore, when Marmont went behind the Douro on July 1st, had many uncertain points: there were several dangerous possibilities, but nothing had yet happened to make ultimate success improbable. On the whole the most disappointing factor was the conduct of the Army of Galicia. It will be remembered that Wellington had arranged for a double diversion on Marmont’s flank and rear. Silveira, with the militia of the Tras-os-Montes and D’Urban’s Portuguese cavalry brigade, was to cross the Esla and besiege Zamora. Santocildes, with the Army of Galicia, had been directed to attack Astorga with part of his force, but to bring the main body forward to the Esla and overrun the plains of northern Leon. Silveira had but a trifling force, and the task allotted to him was small: but on July 1st he had not yet reached Zamora with his infantry, and was only at Carvajales on the Esla[456]. On the other hand D’Urban’s cavalry had pushed boldly forward in front of him, had swept the whole north bank of the Douro as far as Toro, and reported that all the French garrisons save Astorga, Zamora, and Toro had been drawn in—that Benavente, Leon, and all the northern plain were unoccupied. On July 2 D’Urban was at Castronuevo, north of Toro, right in the rear of Marmont’s flank—a very useful position, since it enabled him to keep up communication between Silveira and the Galicians, as well as to report any movement of the French right. Moreover, though his force was very small, only 800 sabres, it was enough to prevent any foraging parties from Marmont’s rear from exploiting the resources of the north bank of the Douro. Some such appeared, but were driven in at once, so that the Marshal had to live on his magazines and the villages actually within his lines: in the end these resources would be exhausted, and the old choice—starvation or dispersion—would once more be presented to the Army of Portugal[457].
But as a military body neither D’Urban’s 800 horse nor Silveira’s 4,000 militia had any threatening power against Marmont’s rear. They might almost be neglected, while the real pressure which Wellington had intended to apply in this quarter was not forthcoming. He had hoped that, by the time that he and Marmont were at close quarters, the Army of Galicia would have been taking a useful part in the campaign. It was not that he intended to use it as a fighting force: but if it could have appeared in the French rear 15,000 strong, it would have compelled Marmont to make such a large detachment for the purpose of ‘containing’ it, that he would have been left in a marked numerical inferiority on the Douro.