Joseph, although by no means a dull man, seems to have had no portion of his brother’s martial genius, and the operations recommended by the latter did not appear to the king to be applicable to the state of [Appendix, No. 6.] affairs. He did not adopt them, but proposed others; in discussing which, he thus defended the policy of his retreat from Madrid.
“When the defection of twenty-two thousand men (Dupont’s) caused the king to quit the capital, the disposable troops remaining were divided in three corps: that immediately about his person; that of marshal Bessieres; and that of general Verdier, then besieging Zaragoza: but these bodies were spread over a hundred leagues of ground, and with the last the king had little or no connexion. His first movement was to unite the two former at Burgos, and afterwards to enter into communication with the third. The line of defence on the Ebro was adopted.” This operation Joseph affirmed to have been dictated by sound reason.—Because “when the events of Andalusia foreboded a regular and serious war, prudence did not permit three corps, the strongest of which was only eighteen thousand men, to separate to a greater distance than six days’ march, in the midst of eleven millions of people in a state of hostility. But fifty thousand French could defend with success a line of sixty leagues, guarding the two grand communications of Burgos and Tudela, against enemies who had not, up to that period, been able to carry to either point above twenty-five thousand men; because fifteen thousand French could be united upon either.”
Joseph was dissatisfied with Napoleon’s plans, and preferred his own. The disposable troops at his command, exclusive of those in Bilbao, were fifty thousand; these he distributed as follows. The right wing occupied Burgos, Pancorbo, and Puente Lara. The centre was posted between Haro and Logroña; the left extended from Logroña to Tudela; the latter town was not occupied. He contended that this arrangement, at once offensive and defensive, might be advantageously continued, if the great army directed upon Spain arrived in September, since it tended to refit the army already there, and menaced the enemy; but that it could not be prolonged until November, because in three months the Spaniards must make a great progress, and would very soon be in a state to take the offensive with grand organized corps, obedient to a central administration, which would have time to form in Madrid. Every thing announced, he said, that the month of October was one of those decisive epochs which gave to the party who knew how to profit from it, the priority of movements and success, the progress of which it was difficult to calculate.
In this view of affairs, the merits of six projects were discussed by the king.
First. To remain in the actual position. This was declared to be unsustainable, because the enemy could attack the left with forty thousand, the centre with forty thousand, the right with as many. Tudela and Navarre, as far as Logroña, required twenty-five thousand men to defend them. Burgos could not be defended but by an army in a state to resist the united forces of Blake and Cuesta, which would amount to eighty thousand men, and it was doubtful if the twenty thousand bayonets which could be opposed, could completely beat them; if they did not, the French would be harassed by the insurgents of the three provinces (Biscay, Navarre, and Guipuscoa), who would interpose between the left wing and France.
Second project. To carry the centre and reserve by Tudela, towards Zaragoza or Almazan; united with the left, they would amount to thirty thousand men, who might seek for, and, doubtless, would defeat the enemy, if he was met with on that side. In the meantime, the right wing, leaving garrisons in the citadel of Burgos and the fort of Pancorbo, could occupy the enemy, and watch any movements in the Montagna St. Ander, or disembarkations that might take place at the ports; but this task was considered difficult, because Pancorbo was not the only defile accessible to artillery. Three leagues from thence, another road led upon Miranda, and there was a third passage over the point of the chain which stretched between Haro and Miranda.
Third project. To leave the defence of Navarre to the left wing. To carry the centre, the reserve, and the right wing, to Burgos, and to beat the enemy before he could unite; an easy task, as the French would be thirty thousand strong. Meanwhile, Moncey could keep the Spaniards in check on the side of Tudela, or if unable to do that, he was to march up the Ebro, by Logroña and Briviesca, and join the main body. The communication with France would be thus lost, but the army might maintain itself until the arrival of the emperor. A modification of this project proposed that Moncey, retiring to the entrenched camp of Pampeluna, should there await either the arrival of the emperor, or the result of the operations towards Burgos.
Fourth project. To pass the Ebro in retreat, and to endeavour to tempt the enemy to fight in the plain between that river and Vittoria.
Fifth project. To retire, supporting the left upon Pampeluna, the right upon Montdragon.
Sixth project. To leave garrisons, with the means of a six weeks’ defence, in Pampeluna, St. Sebastian, Pancorbo, and Burgos. To unite the rest of the army march against the enemy, attack him wherever he was found, and then wait either near Madrid or in that country, into which the pursuit of the Spaniards, or the facility of living, should draw the army. This plan relinquished the communications with France entirely, but it was said that the grand army could easily open them again, and the troops already in Spain would be sufficiently strong to defy all the efforts of the enemy, to disconcert all his projects, and to wait in a noble attitude the general impulse which would be given by the arrival of the emperor.