Madrid was tranquil; Toledo, notwithstanding her heroic promises, never shut her gates; one division of the first corps occupied that town, another was in Ocaña, and the light cavalry scoured the whole of La Mancha, even to the borders of Andalusia. The fourth corps, and Milhaud’s and Lasalle’s horsemen, were at Talavera preparing to march to Badajos, and sixty thousand men, with one hundred and fifty guns and fifteen days’ provisions in carts, were reviewed at the gates of Madrid upon the 19th. Three days afterwards they were in full march to intercept the line of sir John Moore’s retreat.
The emperor was informed of that general’s advance on the 21st; in an instant the Spaniards, their juntas, and their armies were dismissed from his thoughts; the different corps were arrested in their movements, ten thousand men were left to control the capital, and on the evening of the 22d, fifty thousand men were at the foot of the Guadarama. A deep snow choked the passes of the Sierra, and, after twelve hours of ineffectual toil, the advanced guards were still on the wrong side; the general commanding reported that the road was impracticable, but Napoleon, rebuking him fiercely, urged the columns to another attempt, and the passage of the mountain was effected amidst storms of hail and drifting sleet. The cold and fatigue being so intense that many soldiers and draft animals died during the two days that the operation lasted.
Personally urging on the troops with unceasing vehemence the emperor arrived at Villacastin, fifty miles from Madrid, on the 24th, and the 26th he was at Tordesillas with the guards and the divisions of La-Pisse and Dessolles. The dragoons of La Houssaye were at Valladolid on the same day, and marshal Ney, with the sixth corps, was at Rio Seco. From S.
Journal of Operations. MS. Tordesillas Napoleon communicated with Soult, informed him of these movements, and concluded his despatch thus: “Our cavalry scouts are already at Benevente. If the English pass to-day in their position, they are lost; if on the contrary, they attack you with all their force, retire one day’s march: the farther they proceed the better for us. If they retreat, pursue them closely;” and then, full of hope, he hastened to Valderas, but had the mortification to learn that, notwithstanding his rapid march, having scarcely rested night or day, he was twelve hours too late. The British were across the Esla!
In fact Soult was in full pursuit when this letter was written, for sir John Moore, who was well aware of his real situation, had given orders to retreat the moment the intelligence of Napoleon’s march from Madrid reached him. The heavy baggage and stores had been immediately moved to the rear; but the reserve, the light brigades, and the cavalry remained at Sahagun, the latter pushing their patroles up to the enemy’s lines and skirmishing, with a view to hide the retrograde march. The 24th, general Hope, with two divisions, fell back by the road of Mayorga, and general Baird, with another, by that of Valencia de San Juan, where there was a ferry-boat to cross the Esla river. The marquis of Romana undertook to guard the bridge of Mansilla. The enemy’s dragoons, under Lorge, arrived the same day at Frechilla, and the division of Laborde at Paredes. The 25th the general-in-chief, with the reserve and light brigades, followed the route of Hope’s column to Valderas; the 26th Baird passed the Esla at Valencia, and took post on the other side, but with some difficulty, for the boat was small, the fords deep, and the river rising. The troops, under the commander-in-chief, approached the bridge of Castro Gonzalo early in the morning of the 26th. The stores and baggage were a long time passing, a dense fog intercepted the view, and so nicely timed was the march that the scouts of the imperial horsemen were already infesting the flank of the column, and even carried off some of the baggage. The left bank of the river being high, and completely commanding the bridge, the second light brigade, under general Robert Crawfurd, and two guns, were posted on that side to protect the passage, for the cavalry were still on the march from Sahagun, and Soult, aware of the retreat, was pressing forward vigorously. When lord Paget had passed Mayorga he discovered a strong body of horse, appertaining to Ney’s corps, embattled on a swelling mound close to the road. The soil was deep, and soaked with snow and rain. Two squadrons of the tenth riding stiffly against the enemy, mounted the hill, and, notwithstanding the superiority of numbers and position, overthrew him, killed twenty men, and took a hundred prisoners. This was a bold and hardy action; but the English cavalry had been engaged more or less for twelve successive days, and with such fortune and bravery that above five hundred prisoners had already fallen into their hands, and their leaders being excellent, their confidence was unbounded. From Mayorga lord Paget proceeded to S.
Journal of Operations. MS. Benevente, but the duke of Dalmatia, with great judgment, directed his march towards Astorga by the road of Mancilla; and Romana, leaving three thousand men and two guns to defend the bridge at that place, fell back to Leon.
Thus by a critical march, sir John Moore had recovered his communications with Astorga and so far baffled the emperor; but his position was by no means safe, or even tenable. The town of Benevente, a rich open place, remarkable for a small but curious Moorish palace or castle containing a fine collection of ancient armour, is situated in a plain that, extending from the Gallician mountains to the neighbourhood of Burgos, appeared to be boundless. On the left it was skirted by the hills near the town of Leon, which was enclosed with walls, and capable of resisting a sudden assault. The river Esla winded through the plain about four miles in front of Benevente, and the bridge of Castro Gonzalos was the key to the town, but the right bank of the Esla, as I have before observed, was completely commanded from the further side, and there were many fords. Eighteen miles higher up, at Valencia de San Juan, a shorter road from Mayorga to Astorga, crossed the river by the ferry-boat, and at Mancilla, the passage being only defended by Spaniards, was, in a manner, open to Soult, for Romana had not destroyed the arches of the bridge. In this exposed situation sir John Moore resolved to remain no longer than was necessary to clear out his magazines at Benevente, and to cover the march of his stores; but the road to Astorga by Leon being much shorter than that through Benevente, he wrote to Romana to request that he would maintain himself at Leon as long as he could; hearing also that the marquis intended to retreat into Gallicia, sir John repeated his desire to have that road left open for the English army. Romana, who assented to both these requests, had a great rabble with him, and as Leon was a walled place, and that a number of citizens and volunteers were willing, and even eager, to fight, the town might have made a formidable resistance. Sir John Moore hoped that it would do so, and gave orders to break down the bridge at Castro Gonzalo in his own front, the moment the stragglers and baggage should have passed.
At this time the bad example of murmuring given by officers of high rank had descended lower; many regimental officers neglected their duty, and what with the dislike to a retreat, the severity of the weather, and the inexperience of the army, the previous fine discipline of the troops was broken down. Very disgraceful excesses had been committed at Valderas, and the general issued severe orders, justly reproaching the soldiers for their evil deeds, and appealing to the spirit of the men and of the officers, to amend them.
On the night of the 26th, the chasseurs of the imperial guard rode close up to the bridge of Castro Gonzalo, and captured some women and baggage[20]. The 27th, the cavalry and the stragglers being all over the river, general Crawfurd commenced the destruction of the bridge; torrents of rain and snow were descending; and half the troops worked while the other half kept the enemy at bay from the heights on the left bank, for the cavalry scouts of the imperial guard were spread over the plain. At ten o’clock at night a large party following some waggons endeavoured to pass the piquets and gallop down to the bridge; that failing, a few dismounted, and extending to the right and left, commenced a skirmishing fire, while others remained ready to charge, if the position of the troops, which they expected to ascertain by this scheme, should offer an opportunity; but the event did not answer their expectations. This anxiety to interrupt the work induced general Crawfurd to destroy two arches of the bridge, and to blow up the connecting buttress; but the masonry was so solid and difficult to pierce, that it was not until twelve o’clock in the night of the 28th that all the preparations were completed. The troops then descended the heights on the left bank, and passing with the greatest silence by single files over planks laid across the broken arches, gained the other side without loss; an instance of singular good fortune, for the night was dark and tempestuous; the river rising rapidly with a roaring noise, was threatening to burst over the planks, and the enemy was close at hand. To have resisted an attack in such an awkward situation would have been impossible, but happily the retreat of the troops was undiscovered, and the mine being sprung with good effect, Crawfurd marched to Benevente, where the cavalry and the reserve still remained[21].
The army gained two days rest at Benevente, but as very little could be done to remove the stores, the greater part of them were destroyed. The troops were, and had been from the first, without sufficient transport, the general was without money to procure it, and the ill-will of the Spaniards, and the shuffling conduct of the juntas, added infinitely to these difficulties. The 28th, Hope’s and Fraser’s divisions marched to Labaneza; and the 29th, to Astorga, where Baird’s division joined them from Valencia San Juan. On the same day the reserve and Crawfurd’s brigade quitted Benevente, but the cavalry remained in the town, leaving parties to watch the fords of the Esla. Soon after daybreak, general Lefebre Desnouettes, seeing only a few cavalry posts on the great plain, rather hastily concluded that there was nothing to support them, and crossing the river at a ford a little way above the bridge with six hundred horsemen of the imperial guards, he advanced into the plain. The piquets at first retired fighting, but being joined by a part of the third German hussars, they charged the leading French squadrons with some effect. General C. Stewart then took the command, and the ground was obstinately disputed. At this moment the plain was covered with stragglers, and baggage-mules, and followers of the army; the town was filled with tumult; the distant piquets and vedettes were seen galloping in from the right and left; the French were pressing forward boldly, and every appearance indicated that the enemy’s whole army was come up and passing the river. Lord Paget ordered the tenth hussars to mount and form under the cover of some houses at the edge of the town; he desired to draw the enemy, whose real situation he had detected at once, well into the plain before he attacked. In half an hour, every thing being ready, he gave the signal: the tenth hussars galloped forward, the piquets, that were already engaged, closed together, and the whole charged. In an instant the scene changed: the enemy were seen flying at full speed towards the river, and the British close at their heels; the French squadrons, without breaking their ranks, plunged into the stream, and gained the opposite heights, where, like experienced soldiers, they wheeled instantly, and seemed inclined to come forward a second time; but a battery of two guns being opened upon them, after a few rounds they retired. During the pursuit in the plain, an officer was observed separating from the main body, and making towards another part of the river; being followed, and refusing to stop when overtaken, he was cut across the head and brought in a prisoner. He proved to be general Lefebre.
Although the imperial guards were outnumbered in the end, they were very superior at the commencement of this fight, which was handsomely contested on both sides. The British lost fifty men killed and wounded; the French left fifty-five killed and wounded on the field, and seventy prisoners, besides the general Surgical Campaigns. and other officers. According to baron Larrey, seventy other wounded men escaped, making a total loss of above two hundred excellent soldiers. Lord Paget maintained his posts on the Esla under an occasional cannonade until the evening, and then withdrew to La Baneza.
While these things were passing, Napoleon arrived at Valderas, Ney at Villaton, and Lapisse at Toro; the French troops were worn down with fatigue, yet the emperor still urged them forward. The duke of Dalmatia, he said, would intercept the retreat of the English at Astorga, and their labours would be finally rewarded; but the destruction of the bridge of Castro Gonzalo was so well accomplished, that twenty-four hours were required to repair it, and the fords were now impassable. It was the 30th before Bessieres could Bulletin. cross the Esla; but on that day he passed through Benevente with nine thousand cavalry, and bent his course towards La Baneza. The same day, Franceschi forced the bridge of Mansilla de las Mulas by a single charge of his light horsemen, and captured the artillery and one half of the division left by Romana to protect it. The latter immediately abandoned Leon S.
Journal of Operations. MS. and many stores. The 31st the duke of Dalmatia entered that town without firing a shot, and the duke of Istria, with his cavalry, took possession of La Baneza; the advanced posts were pushed forward to the Puente d’Orvigo on one side, and the Puente de Valembre on the other.