History of the Peninsular War, Volume 6 (of 6)

by Robert Southey

♦The allies withdraw from Madrid.♦

There were large depôts of provisions in the Retiro and in the convent of Monserrate, which the allied army had no means of carrying with them in their retreat, and orders were therefore given that they should be burnt. The municipality requested that they might rather be disposed of either by sale, or as a loan, for the inhabitants and the hospitals; it was not at the commissary’s discretion to accede to this proposal; but instead of destroying the stores, the people in the immediate vicinity were invited to help themselves there. It seemed, indeed, in this retreat, that in the economy of an army the English had yet every thing to learn: the troops were at this time scantily provided with food, their line of supply had been along the valley of the Tagus, the arrangements for changing its direction failed, and before the men effected their junction with Lord Wellington’s army, the sweet acorns which they found in the wood formed no slight part of their subsistence. The works at the Retiro were destroyed before the troops withdrew from Madrid, and the artillery there was rendered useless: their departure resembled that of the French in this respect, that they were accompanied by a considerable number of Spaniards, for whom it would have been dangerous to place themselves at the mercy of the Intrusive Government; but such persons were objects of commiseration and respect to their countrymen, not of contempt and execration.

While the allies retired leisurely towards the pass of ♦The French enter.♦ the Guadarrama, a French officer presented himself on the afternoon of November 1, at the bridge of Toledo, announcing on the part of General Drouet, that King Joseph would enter on the morrow with his army, and requiring that a deputation should go out to meet and welcome him. On the morrow, accordingly, the Ayuntamiento went forth accompanied by some of the parish priests, of the titular nobility, and of those who held office under the Intruder. Baranda briefly represented the peaceable conduct of the inhabitants, and expressed to Joseph’s minister of the Interior, that his only wish was to retire to his own house, where he might consult his own health, and look after his own affairs. This permission was easily obtained, as the French presently re-established the former functionaries; but on the 6th, the municipality were informed that circumstances rendered it necessary for the troops to leave the capital for some days; and that, in the meantime, they must take upon themselves the charge of preserving tranquillity. Baranda was then summoned from his short retirement, and required again to act as President of the Ayuntamiento. At two on the afternoon of the 7th, the troops departed to reinforce Marshal Soult, who had followed Sir Rowland’s movements; and in less than two hours after their departure, Lieutenant-Colonel Mondedeu, the commandant of a Guerrilla party, entered; on the morrow, the Medico arrived with part of his band, the Empecinado’s division on the following day, and on the 11th, the Camp Marshal Bassecourt with some of his troops. Fewer disorders were committed than might have been expected under such circumstances, and those chiefly by peasants and deserters, who thought to take advantage of the sort of interregnum in which the capital was left; but the officers caused these offenders to be arrested, and exerted themselves to prevent excesses. But the inhabitants were told that, as the human means of effecting with God’s blessing their own deliverance, they must contribute towards the support of the soldiers as much as their necessities could spare; and it may be supposed that this contribution was exacted with less compunction on the one part, and submitted to with less unwillingness on the other, because both well knew that when the French returned, the locust would devour what the palmer-worm had left.

On the 6th Sir Rowland reached Arevalo, which is ♦Junction of the retreating armies.♦ about 80 miles from Madrid; the troops had suffered much from the weather, more from the gross ill management on the part of the commissariat and the staff, and not a little from their own irregularities, moral discipline having long been disregarded in modern armies. He was now in communication with Lord Wellington, and was instructed to continue his march by Fonteveros upon Alba de Tormes. By this time Lord Wellington’s army had been recruited by rest, and the enemy had rendered the bridges passable at Toro and at Tordesillas: he broke up therefore from his position in front of the latter city before daylight, leaving the fires burning: that day he fell back to Torrecilla de la Orden, continued his march the following day, and on the 8th took up the position which he had twice before occupied in front of Salamanca. Sir Rowland crossed the Tormes the same day at Alba, occupied that town and castle with Major-General Howard’s brigade, and stationed a Portugueze division on the left of the Tormes, under Major-General Hamilton, to support them. They were not followed during their retreat from the Douro; the enemy halted to collect provisions ♦Junction of the French armies.♦ and bring up their detachments, and the armies of Portugal and the north then formed their junction with those of the south, and of the centre under Soult and the Intruder: their united force amounted to not less than 80,000 foot and 12,000 horse, being the whole of their disposable force in Spain, and it was believed that they had with them not fewer than 200 pieces of cannon. The allies had 48,000 foot and 5000 horse. On the 9th the enemy drove in the piquets in front of Alba, and Major-General Long was obliged to withdraw his brigade through that town on the following morning. The enemy then, who were directing their main efforts against the right of the allies, approached their position on the Tormes, and prepared to force a passage. They attacked the troops in Alba with twenty pieces of cannon, and bringing up 15 squadrons and a considerable force of infantry threatened an assault, their light troops advancing close to the walls which had been hastily thrown up. They continued their fire from two o’clock till darkness had closed; but they made no impression on the brave troops who were opposed to them, and therefore they did not repeat the attempt. The intermediate time till the 14th they employed in reconnoitring the fords, and the position which Lord Wellington occupied in front of Salamanca; and on the 14th they commenced the passage at three fords, about two leagues above Alba, near Lucinas.

♦Lord Wellington retreats from Salamanca.♦

Lord Wellington immediately broke up from St. Christoval, ordered the troops to move towards Arapiles, and as soon as he had ascertained the direction of the enemy’s march from the fords, moved with a division of infantry and all the cavalry he could collect to attack them; but they had already crossed in too great force. The wind at this time blew strong, and a thick rain rendered all objects indistinct at little distance; Lord Wellington, nevertheless, under cover of a cannonade, reconnoitred their position, and saw that they were too strongly posted at Mozarbes to be attacked. In the evening therefore he withdrew the troops from the neighbourhood of Alba, having destroyed the bridges, and leaving only a Spanish garrison of 300 men in the castle, into which the remains of an old palace had been converted. During the night, and in the course of the ensuing morning, he moved the greater part of the troops through Salamanca, and placed Sir Edward Paget, with the first division of infantry on the right, at Aldea Tejada, to secure the passage there over the little river Zunguen, in case the movements of the French on his right flank should compel him to make choice either of giving up his communications with Ciudad Rodrigo or with Salamanca. The inhabitants of that city were some preparing for the worst, and others helplessly expecting it, yet with a lingering hope that another battle upon that ground which had proved so destructive to Marmont’s army might once more deliver them. Lord Wellington himself had this possibility in mind, and did not order the commissariat and hospital stores to be removed from Salamanca till the movements of the French rendered it certain that, notwithstanding their great superiority in numbers, they would not venture to bring on a general action. They fortified their position at Mozarbes, and sent out bodies of horse and foot towards their left, to act upon the communications of the allies with Ciudad Rodrigo. This was a sure game; they were too strong and too strongly posted for Lord Wellington to think of attacking them; nothing therefore remained for him but to retreat upon his resources; and this was the more necessary because the men were nearly exhausted with the fatigues of so long and arduous a campaign; there was little regard to discipline among them, except when in the immediate presence of an enemy, and the horses were dying of exhaustion and for want of forage.

♦Retreat to the Agueda.♦

On the 15th the army was put in motion to retire, in three columns, observing, as well as the country would allow, parallel distances. Sir Rowland commanded the first, Sir Edward Paget the centre, the third consisted of the Spanish army. They crossed the Zunguen, passed the left flank of the enemy’s position, and encamped that night in the olive-grounds, on the Vamusa, one of the smaller rivers which find their way into the Tormes. The weather was most unfavourable, and the way sometimes over stony and ploughed grounds, sometimes over swampy or inundated low lands. The ♦Sufferings of the army.♦ troops arrived at their halting places greatly fatigued. They were without shelter of any sort; it was impossible to kindle fires because of the heavy and incessant rain; and they were still farther dispirited by finding that the supplies had been forwarded to Ciudad Rodrigo. Bread for three days in advance had been issued to them as usual, but English soldiers are seldom provident, and when such demands were made upon their strength, the natural means of supporting and recruiting it could never be more needful. There was no provender for the horses, the bark of trees and sprigs of wild briar were the only and miserable substitutes that could be found. The French never displayed less vigour than at this time; the overweening contempt which they had once affected for the British troops had been so thoroughly corrected, that they made no attempt to overwhelm an enemy greatly inferior in number, and retreating under circumstances of great difficulty and distress. They only sent a body of cavalry with light artillery in pursuit; and these contented themselves with picking up stragglers and such baggage as fell behind. The army bivouacked on the 16th in a wood about two leagues from Tamames; the ground in many places was covered with water, but the rain ceased, and some biscuit was issued. The day’s march had been most painful, over such heavy ground that at every step the horses sunk to the fetlock, and the men to their ancles; but while the men were filling their havresacks with sweet acorns, which they rejoiced to meet with, in the want of other food, the horses now and then picked up a little grass.

The 17th was another wet and misty day; the army left its bivouack at six; an extensive wood lay before them: the enemy now followed close upon their rear, and the light companies were ordered to extend themselves through the wood for the purpose of protecting the flanks and the baggage. This service was not easily to be performed against so great a force of cavalry as was now harassing the movements of a disorderly army. Wherever the way was through the woods, the officers as well as men carried on a successful warfare against the herds of swine which at that season are turned there to feed upon the acorns; the Spaniards, it is said, began; the wretched state of their commissariat was their excuse, and the allies had the same excuse for following the example; and so eagerly was it followed, that the continued firing of musquetry on all sides, often occasioned an apprehension that the piquets were warmly engaged, and even that the army was surrounded. This occurred so often that it produced incaution at last, and the enemy’s fire was mistaken for pig-shooting. Owing to the badness of the roads, and the swollen state of the rivulets, there was an interval of about a mile between ♦Sir Edward Paget made prisoner.♦ two of the infantry divisions. Sir Edward Paget, who commanded the centre column, rode to the rear, alone, for the purpose of discovering the cause of this interval: a body of the enemy’s cavalry meantime had entered between these divisions; they had pursued a troop of Portugueze horse from the left flank: the firing had been ascribed to the pig-shooters, and Sir Edward falling in with the French was made prisoner, being without support: they might have done much hurt had they been more enterprising or more aware of their advantage. At this time the troops were descending upon the little village of S. Muñoz, in a valley between two hills; the Huebra which runs into the Douro has its course along this valley, a deep and rapid stream; both hills are covered with oaks, and the declivity on both sides is difficult and steep. The troops when they had forded were formed in open columns on the heights, and halted. A fog came on early in the afternoon, under cover of which the enemy got possession of a hill upon the right of the British line; they brought up some mountain guns, and commenced a fire upon the rear-guard, consisting of the light division, under Major-General Alten, while it was fording the river. Some loss was sustained by them. The guns of Major Macdonald’s troops of horse-artillery returned their fire successfully, but during the cannonade he was severely wounded. The enemy’s cavalry followed as soon as the division had crossed, and began to hem them in; and though the troops formed in squares, they succeeded in charging them in the low ground.

♦Lord Wellington reaches Ciudad Rodrigo.♦