Memoir of the early campaigns of the Duke of Wellington, in Portugal and Spain, / By an officer employed in his army

by Earl of John Fane Westmorland

Sir Arthur Wellesley had from the first conceived, that the corps under his immediate command was as considerable as could conveniently be employed upon the advance to Lisbon, and was of sufficient force to secure the success of that operation; but he foresaw that it would be impossible for him to prevent the French army from retiring through the Alemtejo, to Elvas, unless he could bring a separate corps to intercept it; with that view he had recommended the march of Sir John Moore upon Santarem, and that excellent officer, upon his arrival in Mondego Bay, disembarked a considerable portion of his troops with the view of executing that movement.

From the moment Sir Arthur Wellesley was apprized of the determination of Sir Harry Burrard to prevent that operation, and found himself arrested in his pursuit of the enemy after the battle of Vimiera, he gave up all hope of enclosing the French in Lisbon, or of preventing their protracting the campaign (if they thought fit to do so) by a movement into the southern provinces of Portugal.

We must now proceed to the relation of the events which took place after the battle of Vimiera.

Sir Arthur Wellesley employed himself, in the evening of the 21st, in getting stores and provisions landed for the troops, and strenuously urged an advance on the 22d; but on the morning of that day, he was informed that Sir Hew Dalrymple was arrived in Marceira Bay, and was landing, to take the command. This officer soon afterwards reached Vimiera; he gave directions for the advance of the army on the next day; but about three o’clock in the afternoon, General Kellerman arrived at the advanced posts, and requested a conference with the English commander-in-chief. Some officers were directed to conduct him to head-quarters, with the persons who formed his suite; and soon afterwards he proposed the terms to Sir Hew Dalrymple, upon which General Junot was prepared to conclude an armistice, with a view to his total evacuation of Portugal.

General Kellerman insisted much upon the still remaining strength of the French army; that 10,000 Russians were prepared to land from the squadron which was in the port of Lisbon, and to assist in the defence of Portugal; that General Junot (in possession of the fortresses, and with his movements upon Elvas undisturbed) was not in a situation to be dictated to, as to the terms upon which he was willing to evacuate the country; that although a part of the French army had been repulsed from the position of the British, it still possessed considerable resources; that it had the opportunity of occupying, undisturbed, the positions which had been marked out for the defence of Lisbon; it therefore commanded respect; but that General Junot was willing to surrender the entire kingdom, with the ports and fortresses, upon condition that the French army should be sent, with its whole military baggage, and at the expense of England, to its own country.

Sir Arthur Wellesley had conceived from the first, that the policy of Great Britain was, to bring as early as possible to the assistance of the Spaniards, who were now upon the Ebro, the British army that was occupied in Portugal.

The plan upon which he had commenced the campaign was formed with that intention; the hope of seeing it accomplished, by force of arms, was now nearly at an end. The march of the French Emperor into Spain was already talked of; and there seemed to be no hope, if the French were determined to protract the campaign in Portugal, that a British army, after having beaten them in the field, and besieged the fortresses they occupied in the country, could arrive in time to be of any assistance to the Spaniards. If, on the contrary, the terms proposed for the evacuation of Portugal were, agreed to, the embarkation of the enemy might be immediately effected, and the British army might in a short time be marched to the assistance of the Spaniards.

With this view of the various circumstances of the moment, Sir Arthur Wellesley gave his voice in favour of the principle of the armistice proposed; the minor details of it were objected to by him, particularly the wording of the article which related to the baggage, and which might be construed into a permission to carry off the plunder of Portugal; but it was thought, (after an understanding with General Kellerman, that it included only the baggage “purement militaire,”) that the most proper moment for its correction, would be, in the arrangement of the convention.

With this explanation Sir Arthur Wellesley, in pursuance of Sir Hew Dalrymple’s directions, signed the Armistice.

It would be needless to relate here the terms of a document, which gave rise afterwards to so much discussion in England, and which must consequently be in the recollection of every Englishman. The period of the armistice was two days, with twenty-four hours’ notice of its rupture, and it precluded the British army from advancing beyond the line of the Zizandra. To give an opinion upon its merits would be presumption; but if the opportunity which it afforded of preparing the British army for its advance into Spain, had been properly made use of, and if the execution of this object had not been so considerably delayed, by the tardiness of the embarkation of the French, it is probable that greater advantages would have resulted from it, than have generally been brought into consideration, in the discussions which it has occasioned.