♦Interruption of the siege.♦
On the 8th the investment of the town on the northern side was effected, and that same evening the siege commenced. The soil was hard and rocky; the men unaccustomed to such work and not numerous enough for it, for which causes, and the want also of intrenching tools, a sufficient extent of ground could not be opened the first night. The enemy, who allowed no opportunity to escape them, took advantage of this, made a sortie on the morning of the 10th, gained possession of a battery, and when driven back were pursued with such rash ardour to the very walls of Fort Christoval and the tête-de-pont that the besiegers lost more than 400 men. A breaching battery, armed with three guns and two howitzers, was completed during the next night, and on the morrow the garrison’s well-directed fire disabled one of the howitzers and all the guns. That same day intelligence was received from the Regent, General Blake, that Soult had left Seville with the declared intention of relieving Badajoz, and that Latour Maubourg, returning upon Guadalcañal and Llerena, had forced Penne Villamur to fall back. Orders therefore were given to hold every man in readiness to retire. But other accounts, on the 12th, seemed to make it probable that Soult’s movements were only intended against Blake, who had come to Fregenal, and against Ballasteros, who from Monasterio had pushed his advances toward Seville; and on that probability Beresford ordered ground to be broken against the castle. Fresh dispatches in the middle of the night from various quarters, made it beyond all doubt that Soult was rapidly advancing; immediate orders, therefore, were given to raise the siege, for Beresford deemed it better to meet the French marshal, and give him battle with all the force that could be collected, Spanish, Portugueze, and British, than by looking at two objects to risk the loss of one. General Cole’s division was left with some 2000 Spaniards to cover the removal of the guns and stores; and Beresford met Blake and Castaños at Valverde on the 14th. Any jealousy which might have arisen concerning the command had been obviated by a previous arrangement between Castaños and Lord ♦Arrangement between Lord Wellington and Castaños concerning the command.♦ Wellington. The latter in a written memorial concerning the operations which ought to be pursued in Extremadura, had proposed that whenever different corps of the allied armies should be united to give battle, the general who was possessed of the highest military rank, and of the longest standing, should take the command of the whole. This would have given it to Castaños; but he, with that wise and disinterested spirit which always distinguished him, proposed, as a more equitable arrangement, that the general who had the greatest force under his orders should have the chief command, and that the others should be considered as auxiliaries. Lord Wellington perfectly approved of the alteration. “It was my duty,” said he, “in a point so delicate as that of the allied troops acting in concert, to submit a proposition so reasonable in itself as to obtain universal assent; but it was becoming the manly understanding, candour, and knowledge of existing circumstances which characterise your excellency to make an alteration in it, substituting another proposal better calculated to please those of the allies who have most to lose in the battle, for which we must prepare ourselves.”
♦Reasons for giving battle to the French.♦
Lord Wellington had left it at Beresford’s discretion to fight a battle or retire, if circumstances should render one or other alternative necessary. But the effect of a retreat would, as he saw, have been most disastrous: it would have deprived the Spaniards of all hope for any efficient exertion on the part of Great Britain; it would have exposed Blake and Castaños to destruction: the British army would have suffered a second time in reputation; the Portugueze troops would have lost their confidence in their allies and in themselves; and in the retreat itself, ... with an army so dispirited, through an exhausted country, and before such troops as the French under such a commander, ... the numerical loss might have been greater than in a well-fought though unsuccessful engagement, and the consequences worse.
♦The allies assemble at Albuhera.♦
Our cavalry, with that of Castaños, under the Conde de Penne Villamur, falling back as the enemy advanced, was joined at Santa Martha by Blake’s. The British and Portugueze infantry, except the division which was left to cover the removal of the stores to Elvas, occupied a position in front of Valverde; but as this, though stronger than any which could be taken up elsewhere in those parts, would have left Badajoz entirely open, Beresford determined to take up such as he could get directly between that city and the enemy. He therefore assembled his force on the 15th at the village of Albuhera, where the roads meet which lead to Badajoz and to Jurumenha by Valverde and Olivença. A little above the village a brook called Ferdia falls into the Albuhera, one of the lesser tributary streams of the Guadiana; between these rivulets, and beyond them, is one of the open and scattered woods of ilex, which are common in this part of the country. There is a bridge over the Albuhera in front of the village. The village had been so completely destroyed by the enemy, that there was not an inhabitant in it, nor one house with a roof standing. The cavalry which had been forced in the morning to retire from Santa Martha joined here, and in the afternoon the enemy appeared. Blake’s corps making a forced march, arrived during the night; Cole with his division, and the Spanish brigade under D. Carlos d’España, not till the following morning. The 15th had been a day of heavy rain; and both these divisions, from forced marches, and the latter also from fatigue in dismantling the works before Badajoz, were not in the best state for action.
The whole face of this country is passable everywhere for horse and foot; Beresford formed his army in two lines nearly parallel to the Albuhera, and on the ridge of the gradual ascent from its banks, covering the roads to Badajoz and Valverde; Blake’s corps was on the right in two lines; its left on the Valverde road joined the right of Major-General Stewart’s division, the left of which reached the Badajoz road, and there Major-General Hamilton’s division closed the left of the line. Cole’s division, with one brigade of Hamilton’s, formed the second line. The allied force consisted of 8000 British, 7000 Portugueze, and 10,000 Spaniards; hardly two thousand of these were cavalry. Soult had drawn troops from the armies of Victor and Sebastiani, and left Seville with 16,000 men; Latour Maubourg joined him with five or six thousand; but he had a very superior cavalry, not less then 4000, and his artillery also was superior, he having forty-two field-pieces of which several were twelve-pounders, the allies only thirty. He had the greater advantage of commanding soldiers who were all in the highest possible state of discipline, and whom, though they were of many countries, long habit had formed into one army; whereas the allied force consisted of three different nations; the Portugueze indeed disciplined by British officers, but the Spaniards in their usual state of indiscipline; and one third of the army not understanding, or understanding imperfectly, the language of the other two.
♦May 16.
Battle of Albuhera.♦
Soult did not know that Blake had joined during the night, and he thought to anticipate his junction by attacking the right of the allies, thus throwing himself upon their line of communication, when the possession of the rising ground would decide the battle. At eight in the morning his troops were observed in motion; his horse crossed the Ferdia, and formed under cover of the wood in the fork between the two rivulets. A strong force of cavalry, with two heavy columns of infantry, then marched out of the wood, pointing toward the front of the allied position, as if to attack the village and bridge of Albuhera; while, at the same time, under protection of that superior cavalry which in such a country gave them command of the field, their infantry filed over the river beyond the right of the allies. Their intention to turn the allies by that flank, and cut them off from Valverde, was now apparent; upon which Beresford ordered Cole’s division to form an oblique line to the rear of the right, with his own right thrown back, and requested Blake to form part of his first line and all his second to that front.
While the French General Godinot made a false attack upon Albuhera, Soult, with the rest of the army, bore on the right wing of the allies. The attack began at nine o’clock; a heavy storm of rain came on about the same time, as favourable to the French, who had formed their plan, and consequently arranged their movements, as it was disadvantageous for the allies, whose measures were to be adapted for meeting those of the enemy. After a gallant resistance, the Spaniards were forced from the heights, and the enemy set up a shout of triumph which was heard from one end of the line to the other; their exultation was not without good cause, for the heights which they had gained raked and entirely commanded the whole position. The Spaniards to a man displayed the utmost courage; but their want of discipline was felt, and the danger of throwing them into confusion whenever change of position was necessary; yet the station which had been entrusted to them was precisely that upon which the fate of the whole army depended. They rallied at the bottom of the hill, turned upon the enemy, and withstood them, while Lieutenant-Colonel Colbourne brought up the right brigade of Stewart’s division, and endeavoured to retake the ground which had been lost.