If Lasnes had been defeated at Tudela, he could have fallen back on Pampeluna; the fifth and eighth corps were marching to support him, and the sixth corps would have taken the Spaniards in flank.
If the emperor had been repulsed at the Somosierra, the sixth corps would have turned that position by Guadalaxara, and the fourth corps by Guadarama.
If sir John Moore had retreated on Portugal, the fourth corps was nearer to Lisbon than he was.
If he had overthrown Soult, the fifth and eighth corps were ready to sustain that marshal, and Napoleon, with fifty thousand men, as we have seen, was prepared to cut the British line of retreat into Gallicia. In short, no possible event could have divided the emperor’s forces, and he constantly preserved a central position that enabled him to unite his masses in sufficient time to repair any momentary disaster. By a judicious mixture of force and policy also, he obliged Madrid to surrender in two days, and thus prevented the enthusiasm which would doubtless have arisen if the capital had been defended for any time, and the heart burnings if it had been stormed. The second sweep that he was preparing to make when sir John Moore’s march called off his attention from the south would undoubtedly have put him in possession of the remaining great cities of the Peninsula. Then the civil benefits promised in his decrees and speeches would have produced their full effect, and the result may be judged of by the fact that in 1811 and 12, Andalusia and Valencia were under the able administration of marshals Soult and Suchet, as tranquil and submissive as any department of France, and the former even raised numerous Spanish battalions, and employed them not only to preserve the public peace, but to chase and put down the guerillas of the neighbouring provinces.
Sir John Moore’s talents saved the Peninsula from this great danger, and here perhaps a military error of Napoleon’s may be detected. Forgetting that war is not a conjectural art, he took for granted that the English army was falling back to Portugal, and without ascertaining that it was so, acted upon the supposition. This apparent negligence, so unlike his usual circumspection, leads to the notion, that through Morla he might have become acquainted with the peculiar opinions and rash temper of Mr. Frere, and trusted that the treacherous arts of the Spaniard, in conjunction with the presumptuous disposition of the plenipotentiary, would so mislead the English general, as to induce him to carry his army to Madrid, and thus deliver it up entire and bound. It was an error; but Napoleon could be deceived or negligent only for a moment. With what vigour he recovered himself, and hastened to remedy his error! How instantaneously he relinquished his intentions against the south, turned his face away from the glittering prize, and bent his whole force against the only man among his adversaries that had discovered talent and decision! Let those who have seen the preparations necessary to enable a small army to act, even on a pre-conceived plan, say what uncontrollable energy that man possessed, who, suddenly interrupted in such great designs, could, in the course of a few hours, put fifty thousand men in movement on a totally new line of operations, and in the midst of winter execute a march of two hundred miles with a rapidity hardly to be equalled under the most favourable circumstances.
The indefatigable activity of the duke of Dalmatia greatly contributed to the success of the whole campaign, and it is a remarkable circumstance, that Soult and Napoleon, advancing from different bases, should have so combined their movements, that (after marching, the one above a hundred, and the other two hundred miles, through a hostile country) they effected their junction at a given point, and at a given hour, without failure; and it is no less remarkable that such a decided and well-conducted operation should have been baffled by a general at the head of an inexperienced army.
OBSERVATIONS ON SIR JOHN MOORE’S RETREAT.
When Sylla, after all his victories, styled himself a happy, rather than a great general, he discovered his profound knowledge of the military art. Experience had taught him that the urgent speed of one legion, the inactivity of another, the obstinacy, the ignorance, or the treachery of a subordinate officer, was sufficient to mar the best concerted plan, nay, that the intervention of a shower of rain, an unexpected ditch, or any apparently trivial accident, might determine the fate of a whole army. It taught him that the vicissitudes of war are so many, that disappointment will attend the wisest combinations; that a ruinous defeat, the work of chance, often closes the career of the boldest and most sagacious of generals; and that to judge of a commander’s conduct by the event alone, is equally unjust and unphilosophical, a refuge for vanity and ignorance.
These reflections seem to be peculiarly applicable to sir John Moore’s campaign, which has by sundry writers been so unfairly discussed. Many of the subsequent disasters of the French can now be distinctly traced to the operations of the British army. It can be demonstrated that the reputation of that excellent man was basely sacrificed at the period of his death, and that the virulent censures passed upon his conduct have been as inconsiderate as they were unmerited and cruel.
The nature of the commands held by sir John Moore in the years 1807-8-9, forced him into a series of embarrassments from which few men could have extricated themselves. After refusing the charge of the absurd expedition to Egypt in 1806, which ended, as he judged it must do, unfavourably, he succeeded to the command of the troops in Sicily, a situation which immediately involved him in unpleasant discussions with the queen of Naples and the British envoy: discussions to which the subsequent well-known enmity of the cabinet of that day may be traced. By his frank conduct, clear judgment, and firm spirit, he obtained an influence over the wretched court of Palermo that promised the happiest results. The queen’s repugnance to a reform was overcome, the ministers were awed, and the miserable intrigues of the day were for the time put down. The Sicilian army was reorganized, and a good military system was commenced under the advice of the British general. This promising state of affairs lasted but a short time; the Russian fleet put into the Tagus, the French threatened Portugal, and Sicily was no longer considered! Sir John Moore was ordered to quit that island, and to assemble a large force at Gibraltar for a specific service; but the troops to be gathered were dispersed in the Mediterranean from Egypt to the straits, and their junction could not be effected at all unless the English ambassador at Constantinople should succeed in bringing a negotiation then pending between the Turks and Russians to a happy issue. The special service in question had two objects, 1º. to aid sir Sydney Smith in carrying off the royal family Sir John Moore’s Journal, MSS. of Portugal to the Brazils; and 2º. to take possession of Madeira; but neither were made known to the general before his arrival at Gibraltar, which was not until after Junot had taken possession of Lisbon. Sir John Moore then (following his instructions) proceeded home, and thus our interests in Sicily were again abandoned to the vices and intrigues of the court of Palermo. On the passage he crossed general Spencer going with a force against Ceuta, and soon after he had reached England, he was despatched to Sweden, without any specific object, and with such vague instructions, that an immediate collision with the unfortunate Gustavus was the consequence. Having with much dexterity and judgment withdrawn himself and his army from the capricious violence of that monarch, sir John was superseded and sent to Portugal, with the third rank in an army which at that time no man had such good claims to command as himself[27].