Upon this event sir John Murray, or some person writing under his authority, makes the following observations. “The most careful combination couldAppendix to Phillipart’s Military Calendar. not have selected a moment when the danger of such authority was more clearly demonstrated, more severely felt. Had these orders been received a very short time before, the allied army would not have been committed in active operations; had they reached sir John Murray a week later, there is every reason to believe that the whole country from Alicant to Valencia would have passed under the authority of the allied army, and that marshal Suchet cut off from his magazines in that province, and in Aragon, would have been compelled to retire through a mountainous and barren country on Madrid. But the order of lord William Bentinck was peremptory, and the allied army which even before was scarcely balanced, was now so inferior to the enemy that it became an indispensible necessity to adopt a system strongly defensive, and all hope of a brilliant commencement of the campaign vanished.”
Upon this curious passage it is necessary to remark, 1º. that Suchet’s great magazines were not at Valencia but at Saguntum; 2º. that from the castle of Denia the fleet would have been descried, and the strong garrison of Saguntum could have reinforced the troops in Valencia; Montmarie’s brigade also would soon have come up from Oropesa. These were doubtless contingencies not much to be regarded in bar of such an enterprize, but Suchet would by no means have been forced to retire by Requeña upon Madrid, he would have retired to Liria, the road to which steered more than five miles clear of Valencia. He could have kept that city in check while passing, in despite of sir John Murray, and at Liria he would have been again in his natural position, that is to say, in full command of his principal lines of communication. Moreover, however disagreeable to Suchet personally it might have been to be forced back upon Madrid, that event would have been extremely detrimental to the general cause, as tending to reinforce the king against Wellington. But the singular part of the passage quoted, is the assertion that the delay of a week in lord William Bentinck’s order would have ensured such a noble stroke against the French army. Now lord William Bentinck only required the troops to proceed in the first instance to Mahon; what a dull flagging spirit then was his, who dared not delay obedience to such an order even for a week!
April. The recalled troops embarked for Sicily on the 5th of April, and Suchet alarmed at the offensive position of the allies, which he attributed to the general state of affairs, because the king’s march to Castile permitted all the Spanish armies of Andalusia to reinforce Elio, resolved to strike first, and with the greater avidity because Elio had pushed general Mijares with an advanced guard of three or four thousand men to Yecla where they were quite unsupported. This movement had been concerted in March, with Murray who was to occupy Villena, and be prepared to fall upon the French left, if the Spaniards were attacked at Yecla; and in return the Spaniards were to fall on the French right if Murray was attacked. Elio however neglected to strengthen his division at Yecla withGeneral Donkin’s Papers, MSS. cavalry, which he had promised to do, nor did Murray occupy Villena in force; nevertheless Mijares remained at Yecla, Elio with the main body occupied Hellin, and the cavalry were posted on the side of Albacete, until the departure of the troops for Sicily. Roche then joined the army at Castalla, and Elio’s main body occupied Elda and Sax to cover the main road from Madrid to Alicant.
On the night of the 11th Suchet having by a forced march assembled sixteen battalions of infantry, ten squadrons of cavalry, and twelve pieces of artillery at Fuente la Higuera, marched straight upon Caudete, while Harispe’s division by a cross road endeavoured to surprise the Spaniards at Yecla. The latter retired fighting towards Jumilla by the hills, but the French artillery and skirmishers followed close, and at last the Spaniards being pierced in the centre, one part broke and fled, and the other part after some farther resistance surrendered. Two hundred were killed, and fifteen hundred prisoners, including wounded, fell into the hands of the victors, who lost about eighty men and officers.
Suchet’s movement on Fuente la Higuera was known in the night of the 10th at Castalla, where all the Anglo-Sicilian army was in position, because Whittingham had come from Alcoy, leaving only a detachment on that side. Hence while Harispe was defeating Mijares at Yecla, Suchet in person remained at Caudete with two divisions and the heavy cavalry in order of battle, lest Murray should advance by Biar and Villena. The latter town, possessing an old wall and a castle, was occupied by the regiment of Velez-Malaga, a thousand strong, and in the course of the day Murray also came up with the allied cavalry and a brigade of infantry. Here he was joined by Elio, without troops, and when towards evening Harispe’s fight being over and the prisoners secured, Suchet advanced, Murray retired with the cavalry through the pass of Biar leaving his infantry, under colonel Adam, in front of that defile. He wished also to draw the Spanish garrison from Villena but Elio would not suffer it, and yet during the night, repenting of his obstinacy, came to Castalla entreating Murray to carry off that battalion. It was too late, Suchet had broken the gates of the town the evening before, and the castle with the best equipped and finest regiment in the Spanish army had already surrendered.
Murray’s final position was about three miles from the pass of Biar. His left, composed of Whittingham’s Spaniards, was entrenched on a rugged sierra ending abruptly above Castalla, which, with itsSee [Plan 7.] old castle crowning an isolated sugar-loaf hill, closed the right of that wing and was occupied in strength by Mackenzie’s division.
A space between Whittingham’s troops and the town was left on the sierra for the advanced guard, then in the pass of Biar; Castalla itself, covered by the castle, was prepared for defence, and the principal approaches were commanded by strong batteries, for Murray had concentrated nearly all his guns at this point. The cavalry was partly behind partly in front of the town on an extensive plain which was interspersed with olive plantations.
The right wing, composed of Clinton’s division and Roche’s Spaniards, was on comparatively low ground, and extended to the rear at right angles with the centre, but well covered by a “barranco” or bed of a torrent, the precipitous sides of which were, in some places, one hundred feet deep.
Suchet could approach this position, either through the pass of Biar, or turning that defile, by the way of Sax; but the last road was supposed to be occupied by Elio’s army, and as troops coming by it must make a flank march along the front of the position, it was not a favourable line of attack; moreover the allies, being in possession of the defiles of Biar, and of Alcoy, might have gained the Xucar, either by Fuentes de la Higuera or by Alcoy, seeing that Alicant, which was their base, was safe, and the remnants of Elio’s army could easily have got away. Murray’s army was however scarcely active enough for such an operation, and Suchet advanced very cautiously, as it behoved him to do, for the ground between Castalla and Biar was just such as a prompt opponent would desire for a decisive blow.