Blake’s situation was not more prosperous.
The road from Bayonne to Vittoria was encumbered with the advancing columns of the great French army. An imperial decree, issued early in September, commanded that the troops already in Spain should be incorporated with the grand army then marching from Germany. The united forces were to compose eight divisions, called “Corps d’Armée,” an institution analogous to the Roman legion, because each “Corps d’Armée,” although adapted to act with facility as a component part of a large army, was also provided with light cavalry, a parc, and train of artillery, engineers, sappers, and miners, and a complete civil administration, to enable it to take the field as an independent force. The imperial guards and the heavy cavalry of the army were not included in this arrangement; the first had a constitution of their own, and at this time all the heavy cavalry, and all the artillery, not attached to the “Corps d’Armée,” were formed into a large reserve. As the columns arrived in Spain, they were united to the troops already there, and the whole was disposed conformably to the new organization.
| Marshal Victor, duke of Belluno, commanded the | first corps. |
| Marshal Bessieres, duke of Istria | second corps. |
| Marshal Moncey, duke of Cornegliano | third corps. |
| Marshal Lefebre, duke of Dantzic | fourth corps. |
| Marshal Mortier, duke of Treviso | fifth corps. |
| Marshal Ney, duke of Elchingen | sixth corps. |
| General St. Cyr | seventh corps. |
| General Junot, duke of Abrantes | eighth corps. |
The seventh corps was appropriated to Catalonia; the remainder were in the latter end of October assembled or assembling in Navarre and Biscay. General Merlin, with a division, held Zornosa, and observed Blake, who remained tranquilly at Bilbao. S.
Journal of the king’s operations, MS. Two divisions of the fourth corps occupied Durango and the neighbouring villages. One division and the light cavalry of the first corps was at Vittoria, a second division of the same corps guarded the bridge of Murguia on the river Bayas, and commanded the entrance to the valley of Orduña. Haro, Puente Lara, Miranda, and Pancorbo were maintained by the infantry of the king’s body guard and the second corps, and the light cavalry of the latter covered the plains close up to Briviesca.
The reinforcements were daily crowding up to Vittoria, and the king, restrained by the emperor’s orders to a rigorous system of defence, occupied himself with the arrangements attendant on such an immense accumulation of force, and left Blake in quiet possession of Bilbao. The latter mistook this apparent inactivity for timidity; he was aware that reinforcements, in number equal to his whole army, had joined the enemy; but, with wonderful rashness, he resolved to press forward, and readily agreed to attempt a junction with Palafox, in the rear of the French position. At this time Romana’s infantry were approaching Bilbao, and the Estremadurans were in march for Burgos; but the country was nearly exhausted of provisions; both armies felt the scarcity, and desertion prevailed among the Spaniards. The Biscayans, twice abandoned, were fearful of a third insurrection. Prudence dictated a retreat towards Burgos. Blake resolved to advance.
Carrol’s Correspondence.
Having posted general Acevedo with the Asturians and the second division at Orduña, he left a battalion at Miravelles, to preserve the communication with Bilbao, and the 24th of October marched himself at the head of seventeen thousand fighting men, divided in three columns, to attack Zornosa. The right ascended the valley of Durango by Galdacano, the centre by Larabezua, the left by Rigoytia; at the same time general Acevedo penetrated through the mountains of Gorbea by Ozoco and Villaro, with a view to seize Manares and St. Antonia d’Urquitiola. Brodrick’s Correspondence. It was intended by this operation to cut the communication between Miranda on the Ebro, and the town of Durango, and thus to intercept the retreat of marshal Ney, and oblige him to surrender with sixteen thousand men; for Blake was utterly ignorant of his adversary’s position, and imagined that he had only two corps to deal with. He believed that the king, with one, was in his front at Durango and Mont Dragon, and that Ney, with the other, was at Miranda, when in fact, the latter was at that moment attacking Pignatelli at Logroña. As the Spanish army approached Zornosa, Merlin abandoned the town, and drew up on some heights in the rear. Bad weather, and the want of provisions, checked further operations until the 25th. On the evening of that day, the Spanish division at Rigoytia attempted to turn the right flank of the French. At the same time Blake marched against the centre and left, and Merlin fell back to Durango.
S.
Journal of the king’s operations, MS.
The duke of Dantzic, alarmed by these movements, concentrated his whole force, consisting of two divisions of infantry (Sebastiani’s and Laval’s), and a Dutch brigade at Durango; his third division (Valence’s) being yet in France. The king reinforced him with a division of the first corps (Villatte’s), and ordered Merlin’s troops, which were composed of detachments, to join their respective regiments. From the 25th to the 30th the armies remained quiet; but at day-break on the 31st, the Spaniards were formed in order of battle, five miles beyond Zornosa, and close to the enemy’s position. The vanguard drew up across the road to Durango; the reserve at some distance in the rear. The third and fourth divisions occupied the intermediate space, so disposed as to outflank the others, in a chequer shape. The first division occupied a height on the left of the road, and behind the reserve.
Ibid.