Under these accumulating difficulties even Massena’s obstinacy gave way; he promised to retreat when he had no more provisions left than would serve his army for the march. A tardy resolution; yet adopted at the moment, when to maintain his position was more important than ever, as ten days longer at Santarem would have insured the co-operation of Soult. General Pelet says, that the latter marshal, by engaging in the siege of Badajos and Olivenza, instead of coming directly down upon the Tagus, was the cause of Massena’s failure; this can hardly be sustained. Before those sieges and the battle of the Gebora, Mendizabel could have assembled twenty thousand men on Soult’s rear, and there was a large body of militia on the Ponçul and the Elga; Beresford had fourteen thousand British and Portuguese regulars, besides ordenança; while the infinite number of boats at lord Wellington’s command would have enabled him to throw troops upon the left bank of the Tagus, with a celerity that would have baffled any effort of Massena to assist the duke of Dalmatia. Now, if the latter had been defeated; with what argument could he have defended his reputation as a general, after having left three or four garrisoned fortresses and thirty-five thousand men upon his flank and rear; to say nothing of the results threatened by the battle of Barosa.
The true cause of Massena’s failure was the insufficiency of his means to oppose the English general’s combinations. The French army reduced by sickness to forty thousand fighting men, exclusive of Drouet’s troops at Leiria, would have been unable to maintain its extended position against the attack meditated by lord Wellington; and when Massena, through the means of the fidalgos, knew that the English reinforcements were come, he prepared to retreat. Those troops landed the 2d of March, and, the 6th, the French had evacuated the position of Santarem.
Muster-Rolls of the French Army.
At this time Napoleon directed the armies of Spain to be remodelled. The king’s force was diminished; the army of the south increased; general Drouet was ordered to march with eleven thousand men to the fifth corps, which he was appointed to command, in place of Mortier; the remainder of the ninth corps was to compose two divisions, under the command of Clausel and Foy, and to be incorporated with the army of Portugal. Marmont was appointed to relieve Ney in the command of the sixth corps; Loison was removed to the second corps; and Bessieres was ordered to post six thousand men at Ciudad Rodrigo, to watch the frontiers of Portugal and support Claparede. Of the imperial guards; seven thousand were to assemble at Zamora, to hold the Gallicians in check, and the Appendix, [No. VII.]remainder at Valladolid, with strong parties of cavalry in the space between those places, that intelligence of what was passing in Portugal might be daily received. Thus Massena was enabled to adopt any operation that might seem good to him, without reference to his original base; but the order for the execution of these measures did not reach the armies until a later period.
RETREAT OF THE FRENCH FROM SANTAREM.
Several lines of operation were open to the prince of Esling. 1º. He could pass the Tagus, between Punhete and Abrantes, by boats or by fords, which were always practicable after a week of dry weather. 2º. He could retire, by the Sobreira Formosa, upon Castello Branco, and open a communication with the king by Placentia, and with the duke of Dalmatia by Alcantara. 3º. He could march, by the Estrada Nova and Belmonte, to Sabugal, and afterwards act according to circumstances. 4º. He could gain the Mondego, and ascend the left bank of that river towards Guarda and Almeida; or, crossing it, march upon Oporto through an untouched country. Of these four plans, the first was perilous, and the weather too unsettled to be sure of the fords. The second and third were difficult, from the ruggedness of the Sobreira, and exposed, because the allies could break out by Abrantes upon the flank of the army while in retreat. Massena decided on the last, but his actual position being to the left of the line of retreat, he was necessarily forced to make a flank movement, with more than ten thousand sick men and all his stores, under the beard of an adversary before he could begin his retreat. Yet this he executed, and in a manner bespeaking the great commander.
Commencing his preparations by destroying munition, and all guns that could not be horsed, he passed his sick and baggage, by degrees, upon Thomar, keeping only his fighting-men in the front, and at the same time indicating an intention of passing the Zezere. But when the impediments of the army had gained two marches, Ney suddenly assembled the sixth corps and the cavalry on the Lys, near Leiria, as if with the intention of advancing against Torres Vedras, a movement that necessarily kept lord Wellington in suspense. Meanwhile, the second and eighth corps, quitting Santarem, Tremes, and Alcanhete, in the night of the 5th, fell back, by Pernes, upon Torres Novas and Thomar, destroying the bridges on the Alviella behind them. The next morning the boats were burnt at Punhete, and Loison retreated by the road of Espinal to cover the flank of the main line of retreat; the remainder of the army, by rapid concentric marches, made for a position in front of Pombal: the line of movement to the Mondego was thus secured, and four days gained; for lord Wellington, although aware that a retreat was in execution, was quite unable to take any decided step, lest he should open the Lines to his adversary. Nevertheless he had caused Beresford to close to his right on the 5th, and at daylight, on the 6th, discovering the empty camps of Santarem, followed the enemy closely with his own army.
Thomar seemed to be the French point of concentration; but as their boats were still maintained at Punhete, general William Stewart crossed the Tagus, at Abrantes, with the greatest part of Beresford’s corps, while the first, fourth, and sixth divisions, and two brigades of cavalry, marched to Golegao; the light division also reached Pernes, where the bridge was rapidly repaired by captain Tod, of the royal staff-corps. The 7th, the enemy having burnt his boats on the Zezere, the Abrantes bridge was brought down to that river, and Stewart, crossing, moved to Thomar; on which place the divisions at Golegao were likewise directed. But the retreat being soon decidedly pronounced for the Mondego, the troops at Thomar were ordered to halt; and the light division, German hussars, and royal dragoons followed the eighth corps, taking two hundred prisoners.
This day’s march disclosed a horrible calamity. A large house, situated in an obscure part of the mountains, was discovered, filled with starving persons. Above thirty women and children had sunk, and, sitting by the bodies, were fifteen or sixteen survivors, of whom one only was a man, but all so enfeebled as to be unable to eat the little food we had to offer them. The youngest had fallen first; all the children were dead; none were emaciated in the bodies, but the muscles of the face were invariably drawn transversely, giving the appearance of laughing, and presenting the most ghastly sight imaginable. The man seemed most eager for life; the women appeared patient and resigned, and, even in this distress, had arranged the bodies of those who first died, with decency and care.