The emperor, victorious on both flanks, and with a fresh base of operations fixed at Burgos, was free to move, with the guards and the reserve, either against Madrid or in the direction of Salamanca; and detachments of his army were already in possession of Valladolid; Sir John Moore’s Papers. the very town which, a few days before, the Spanish government had indicated for the base of sir John Moore’s operations, and the formation of his magazines.
The 26th the head of sir David Baird’s column was in Astorga, but the rear extended beyond Lugo. The head of general Hope’s division was at the Escurial, the rear at Talavera. The second French corps was on the Deba, threatening Leon and the Asturias; the cavalry covered the plains; the fourth corps was descending by Carrion and Valladolid, to seize the pass of the Guadarama; and the emperor himself was preparing to force the Somosierra.
From this summary of contemporary events, it is evident, that notwithstanding sir John Moore had organised, equipped, supplied, and carried his troops four hundred miles in the space of six weeks, he was too late in the field. The campaign was decided against the Spaniards before the British had, strictly speaking, entered Spain as an army; it is also certain, that if, instead of being at Salamanca, Escurial, and Astorga, on the 23d, the troops had been united at Burgos on the 8th, such was the weakness of the Spanish forces, the strength of the enemy, and such the skill with which Napoleon directed his movements, that a difficult and precarious retreat was the utmost favour that could be expected from Fortune by the English general.
The situation in which he was placed on his arrival at Salamanca, gave rise to serious reflections in the mind of sir John Moore. He had been sent forward without a plan of operations, or any data upon which to found one. By his instructions he was merely directed to open communication with the Spanish authorities, for the purpose of “framing the plan of campaign;” but general Castaños, with whom he was desired to correspond, was superseded immediately afterwards, and the marquis of Romana, his successor, was engaged in rallying the remains of Blake’s force in the Asturias, at a distance of two hundred miles from the only army with which any plan of co-operation could be formed, and of whose proceedings he [Appendix, No. 13], sect. 1 and 4. was as ignorant as sir John Moore. No channel of intelligence had been pointed out to the latter, and as yet a stranger in the country, and without money, he could not establish any certain one for himself. It was the will of the people of England, and the orders of the government, that he should push forward to the assistance of the Spaniards; and he had done so, without magazines, and without money to form them; trusting to the official assurance of the minister, that above a hundred thousand Spanish soldiers covered his march, and that the people were enthusiastic and prepared for any exertion to secure their deliverance; but he found them supine and unprepared; the French cavalry, in parties as weak as twelve men, traversed the country, and raised contributions, without difficulty or opposition. This was the state of Castille.
[Appendix, No. 13], sect. 5 and 6.
The letters of Mr. Stuart and lord William Bentinck amply exposed the incapacity, selfishness, and apathy of the supreme government at Aranjuez.
The correspondence of colonel Graham painted in the strongest colours the confusion of affairs on the Ibid. Ebro, the jealousy, the discord of the generals, the worse than childish folly of the deputy, Palafox, and his creatures.
Sir David Baird’s experience proved, that in Gallicia the people were as inert as in Castille and Leon, and the authorities more absurd and more interested. Ibid. General Hope expressed a like opinion as to the ineptitude of the central junta; and even the military agents, hitherto so sanguine, had lowered their tone of exultation in a remarkable manner.
The real force of the enemy was unknown to sir John Moore, but he knew that it could not be less than eighty thousand fighting men, and that thirty thousand more were momentarily expected, and might have arrived; he knew that Blake and the conde de Belvedere were totally defeated, and that Castaños must inevitably be so if he hesitated to retreat.
The only conclusion to be drawn from these facts was, that the Spaniards were unable, or unwilling, to resist the enemy, and that the British would have to support the contest alone, unless they could form a junction with Castaños, before the latter was entirely discomfited and destroyed; but there was no time for such an operation, and the first object was, to unite the parcelled divisions of the English army. From Astorga to Salamanca was four marches, from Salamanca to the Escurial was six marches; but it would have required five days to close up the rear upon Salamanca, six days to enable Hope to concentrate at the Escurial, and sixteen to enable Baird to assemble at Astorga. Under twenty days it would have been impossible for the English army to unite and act in a body; and to have advanced in their divided state would have been equally contrary to military principle and to common sense.