“Next morning we got up as usual. The first pipes played for parade; the second did not play at the usual time. We began to suspect all was not right. We remained thus until eleven o’clock; then received orders to fall in, and follow the line of march. During our march we fell to one side, to allow a brigade of guns to pass us at full speed. ‘Now,’ said my comrades, ‘we will have work to do before night.’ We crossed a river, and, as we passed through a village, we saw, on the other side of the road, the French camp, and their fires still burning, just as they had left them. Not a shot had been fired at this time. We observed a large Spanish column moving along the heights on our right. We halted, and drew up in column. Orders were given to brush out our locks, oil them, and examine our flints. We being in the rear, these were soon followed by orders to open out from the centre, to allow the 71st to advance. Forward we moved up the hill. The firing was now very heavy. Our rear had not engaged, before word came for the doctor to assist Colonel Cadogan, who was wounded. Immediately we charged up the hill, the piper playing, ‘Hey Johnny Cope.’ The French had possession of the top, but we soon forced them back, and drew up in column on the height; sending out four companies to our left to skirmish. The remainder moved on to the opposite height. As we advanced driving them before us, a French officer, a pretty fellow, was pricking and forcing his men to stand. They heeded him not—he was very harsh. ‘Down with him!’ cried one near me; and down he fell, pierced by more than one ball.
“Scarce were we upon the height, when a heavy column, dressed in great-coats, with white covers on their hats, exactly resembling the Spanish, gave us a volley, which put us to the right about at double-quick time down the hill, the French close behind, through the whins. The four companies got the word the French were on them. They likewise thought them Spaniards, until they got a volley that killed or wounded almost every one of them. We retired to the height, covered by the 50th, who gave the pursuing column a volley which checked their speed. We moved up the remains of our shattered regiment to the height. Being in great want of ammunition, we were again served with sixty rounds a man, and kept up our fire for some time, until the bugle sounded to cease firing....
“At this time the Major had the command, our second Colonel being wounded. There were not 300 of us on the height able to do duty, out of above 1000 who drew rations in the morning. The cries of the wounded were most heart-rending.
“The French, on the opposite height, were getting under arms; we could give no assistance, as the enemy appeared to be six to one of us. Our orders were to maintain the height while there was a man of us. The word was given to shoulder arms. The French, at the same moment, got under arms. The engagement began in the plains. The French were amazed, and soon put to the right about, through Vittoria. We followed, as quick as our weary limbs could carry us. Our legs were full of thorns, and our feet bruised upon the roots of the trees. Coming to a bean field at the bottom of the heights, immediately the column was broke, and every man filled his haversack. We continued to advance until it was dark, and then encamped on a height above Vittoria.... I had fired 108 rounds this day.”
According to the official figures the British lost 740 men by death and 4174 were wounded, out of a total strength of 80,000. The captures included 151 guns, 415 caissons, 14,249 rounds of ammunition, nearly 2,000,000 musket ball cartridges, 40,668 lbs. of gunpowder, fifty-six forage waggons, forty-four forge waggons, treasure to the amount of £1,000,000, pictures by Velasquez and other masters, jewellery, public and private baggage. King Joseph’s carriage, and Jourdan’s bâton. The last-mentioned was given by Wellington to the Prince Regent, who with becoming fitness sent the donor a Field-Marshal’s bâton. The French had 65,000 men engaged in the battle of Vittoria, of whom some 6000 were killed and wounded, and 1000 taken prisoners.
The defeated army crossed the Pyrenees and marched to Bayonne, where it was joined by the troops under Foy and Clausel, who had been pursued by the Allies. “To hustle the French out of Spain before they were reinforced,” had been Wellington’s object, and he had carried it out completely. As the garrisons of the fortresses of Pampeluna and San Sebastian had been strengthened, the former by Joseph and the latter by Foy, during their retreat, Wellington now turned his attention to them. Although the army under Suchet was the only one now left in the Peninsula, it occupied Catalonia and part of Valencia, and might therefore attack Wellington’s right flank.
Napoleon was at Dresden when he heard of his brother’s disaster at Vittoria, and he was in no mood for soft words. He recalled both Joseph and Jourdan, and gave the command to Soult. “It is hard to imagine anything so inconceivable as what is now going on in Spain,” the Emperor writes to Savary on the 3rd July 1813. “The King could have collected 100,000 picked men: they might have beaten the whole of England.” He blamed himself for the “mistaken consideration” he had shown his brother, “who not only does not know how to command, but does not even know his own value enough to leave the military command alone.”
Flight of the French through Vittoria
Robert Hillingford