Soult constructed a ferry on the Guadiana, above the confluence of the Gebora, and three attacks were opened against the town the 28th, two on the side of Picurina and one on that of the Pardaleras. The 29th and 30th slight sallies were repulsed, but tempestuous weather spoiled the works. Gazan’s division was distant; the infantry before the place were few, and, on the 30th, the garrison Conquête de l’Andalusie, par Edouard Lapéne.making a vigorous sally from the Pardaleras, killed or wounded sixty men and cleared the trenches. Meanwhile some Spanish cavalry, gliding round the left of the French, sabred several engineers and sappers, and then retired.
Siege de Badajos, par le Col. Lamare.
In the night of the 2d of February a violent tempest flooded the Rivillas, carried away the French bridges, drowned men and horses, damaged the depôts, and reduced the besiegers to the greatest distress. The cavalry employed in the investment could no longer forage; scarcity was felt in the camp; the convoys could only arrive by detachments; the rigour of winter bivouacs caused sickness, and, on the 3d, the Spaniards, making a second sally from Pardaleras, killed or wounded eighty men and ruined a part of the parallel. The same day Gazan arrived in camp, but the French cavalry being withdrawn from the Lord Wellington’s Correspondence. MSS.right bank of the Guadiana, in consequence of rigorous weather, the communication was re-established with Elvas, and Mendizabel called the divisions in Portugal to his assistance. Virues immediately marched upon Elvas, Carlo d’España, Mr. Stuart’s Papers. MSS.and Madden united at Campo Mayor, and Julian Sanchez brought down his Partida from Upper Estremadura.
In the night of the 5th, Mendizabel repaired to Elvas in person; passed the Caya the next day, and being joined on the road by the troops from Campo Mayor, pushed the few French horsemen still on the right of the Guadiana over the Gebora. The Portuguese brigade crossed that river in pursuit, and captured some baggage; but the infantry entered Badajos, for Mendizabel again neglecting lord Wellington’s counsel, designed not to take up a position behind the Gebora, but to raise the siege by a sally; yet he delayed this until the next day, thus risking to have his whole army shut up in an ill-provided fortress; for Latour Maubourg, seeing that Madden was unsupported, turned and drove him back over the Gebora with loss. Badajos now contained sixteen thousand men, and, early on the 7th, Carrera and Carlos d’España, at the head of five thousand infantry and three hundred cavalry, breaking out at the Picurina side, with one burst carried the trenches and the batteries; the soldiers fought with surprising ardour, but the entire want of arrangement on the part of the generals (unworthy to command the brave men under them) ruined all. They had not even provided the means to spike the guns, and when Mortier brought his reserves against the front and flank of the attack, the whole driven back in disorder, re-entered the city, having eighty-five officers and near six hundred soldiers killed and wounded; the enemy also lost several engineers and four hundred men.
While this action took place on the left bank, Latour Maubourg occupied the ground between the Gebora and the Caya, and again cut off the communication with Elvas and Campo Mayor; but his forces were too weak to maintain themselves there, and Mendizabel, leaving the defence of the town entirely to the governor, Rafael Menacho, pitched his own camp round San Christoval. Some days previous to this, the French had bombarded Badajos, a proceeding only mischievous to themselves; for the inhabitants, terrified by the shells, fled in great numbers while the communication was open, but left behind their provisions; which enabled Menacho to feed his garrison without difficulty.
Soult observing the numbers, and awake to all the real resources of the Spanish succouring army, feared lest delay should produce a change of commanders, or of system, and resolved to bring matters to a crisis. On the 11th he stormed the Pardaleras; on the 12th, he sent fifteen hundred cavalry across the Guadiana to Montijo; and, on the 14th, threw shells into the camp about Christoval, which obliged Mendizabel to remove from the heights in front of that fort. Meanwhile, intelligence that Castaños was appointed captain-general of Estremadura created the greatest anger amongst Romana’s soldiers: they had long considered themselves independent of the central government, and in this mood, although the position behind the Gebora, recommended by lord Wellington, was at last occupied, little attention Appendix, [No. X.] Section 2.was paid to military discipline. The English general had expressly advised Mendizabel to increase the great natural strength of this position with entrenchments; for his design was that the Spaniards, whom he thought quite unequal to open field-operations, Lord Wellington to Lord Liverpool. MSS.should have an impregnable post, whence they could safely aid in the defence of the town, and yet preserve a free communication with the Alemtejo, until the arrival of his own reinforcements (which he expected in the latter end of January) should enable him to raise the siege. Mendizabel, with that arrogance which is peculiar to his nation, rejected this counsel, and hung twelve days on the heights of Christoval in a torpid state; and, when driven thence by the French shells, merely destroyed a small bridge over the Gebora, but neither cast up entrenchments, nor kept a guard in his front, nor disposed his men with care. Soult observing these things, suddenly leaped upon him.
BATTLE OF THE GEBORA.
The Guadiana and the Gebora rivers covered the Spanish position; this did not deter the duke of Dalmatia from attempting to pass both and surprise the camp. But first to deprive Mendizabel of the aid of San Christoval, and to create a diversion, the French mortar-batteries again threw shells on the 17th: yet the swell of the rivers would not permit the main operation to be commenced before the evening of the 18th, when the cavalry drew down the right bank of the Guadiana from Montijo, and the artillery and infantry crossed at the French ferry, four miles above the confluence of the Gebora. These combinations were so exactly executed, that, at daybreak, on the 19th, six thousand infantry and three thousand cavalry were in order of battle on the right bank of the Guadiana; the Gebora was however still to be forded, and, behind it, the Spaniards had ten thousand infantry, a considerable artillery, and fifteen hundred cavalry, besides many armed followers of the camp; the whole number not being less than fifteen thousand.