History of the war in the Peninsula and in the south of France from the year 1807 to the year 1814, vol. 5

by William Francis Patrick Napier

Joseph having possession of the impregnable rocks, and the defile and forts of Pancorbo, now thought he could safely await for his reinforcements, and extended his wings for the sake of subsistence. On the 16th D’Erlon marched to Aro on the left, leaving small posts of communication between that place and Miranda, and sending detachments towards Domingo Calçada to watch the road leading from Burgos to Logroño. Gazan remained in the centre with a strong advanced guard beyond Pancorbo, for as the king’s hope was to retake the offensive, he retained the power of issuing beyond the defiles, and his scouting parties were pushed forward towards Briviesca in front, to Zerezo on the left and to Poya do Sal on the right. The rest of the army of the south was cantoned by divisions as far as Armiñion behind the Ebro, and Reille, who had occupied Busto marched to Espejo, also behind the Ebro and on the great road to Bilbao. There being joined by Sarrut’s division from Orduña he took post, placing Maucune at Frias, Sarrut at Osma, and La Martiniere at Espejo; guarding also the Puente Lara, and sending strong scouting parties towards Medina de Pomar and Villarcayo on one side and towards Orduña on the other.

While these movements were in progress, all the encumbrances of the armies were assembled in the basin of Vittoria, and many small garrisons of the army of the north came in; for Clauzel having received the king’s first letter on the 15th of June had stopped the pursuit of Mina, and proceeded to gather up his scattered columns, intending to move by the way of Logroño to the Ebro. He had with him Taupin’s and Barbout’s divisions of the army of Portugal, but after providing for his garrisons, only five thousand men of the army of the north were disposable, so that he could not bring more than fourteen thousand men to aid the king; nevertheless the latter confident in the strength of his front was still buoyant with the hope of assembling an army powerful enough to retake the offensive. His dream was short-lived.

The 13th, while the echoes of the explosion at Burgos were still ringing in the hills, Wellington’s whole army was in motion by its left towards the country about the sources of the Ebro. The Gallicians moved from Aguilar de Campo high up on the Pisuerga, Graham with the British left wing moved from Villa Diego, and in one march reaching the river, passed it on the 14th at the bridges of Rocamunde and San Martin. The centre of the army followed on the 15th, and the same day the right wing under Hill marched through the Bureba and crossed at the Puente Arenas. This general movement was masked by the cavalry and by the Spanish irregulars who infested the rear of the French on the roads to Briviesca and Domingo Calçada, and the allies being thus suddenly placed between the sources of the Ebro and the great mountains of Reynosa, cut the French entirely off from the sea-coast. All the ports except Santona and Bilbao, were immediately evacuated by the enemy; Santona was invested by Mendizabel, Porlier, Barceña, and Campillo, and the English vessels entered Sant Andero, where a dépôt and hospital station was established, because the royal road from thence through Reynosa to Burgos furnished a free communication with the army. This single blow severed the connection of the English force with Portugal. That country was cast off by the army as a heavy tender is cast from its towing rope, and all the British military establishments were broken up and transferred by sea to the coast of Biscay.

The English general had now his choice of two modes of action. The one to march bodily down the left bank of the Ebro, and fall upon the enemy wherever he could meet with them; the other to advance, still turning the king’s right, and by entering Guipuscoa, to place the army on the great communication with France, while the fleet keeping pace with this movement furnished fresh dépôts at Bilbao and other ports. The first plan was a delicate and uncertain operation, because of the many narrow and dangerous defiles which were to be passed, but the second which could scarcely be contravened, was secure even if the first should fail; both were compatible to a certain point, inasmuch as to gain the great road leading from Burgos by Orduña to Bilbao, was a good step for either, and failing in that the road leading by Valmaceda to Bilbao was still in reserve. Wherefore with an eagle’s sweep Wellington brought his left wing round, and pouring his numerous columns through all the deep narrow valleys and rugged defiles descended towards the great road of Bilbao between Frias and Orduña. At Modina de Pomar a central point, he left the sixth division to guard his stores and supplies, but the march of the other divisions was unmitigated; neither the winter gullies nor the ravines, nor the precipitate passes amongst the rocks, retarded the march even of the artillery; where horses could not draw men hauled, and when the wheels would not roll the guns were let down or lifted up with ropes; and strongly did the rough veteran infantry work their way through those wild but beautiful regions; six days they toiled unceasingly; on the seventh, swelled by the junction of Longa’s division and all the smaller bands which came trickling from the mountains, they burst like raging streams from every defile, and went foaming into the basin of Vittoria.

General Thouvenot’s Correspondence, MSS. During this time many reports reached the French, some absurdly exaggerated, as that Wellington had one hundred and ninety thousand men, but all indicating more or less distinctly the true line and direction of his march. As early as theMarshal Jourdan’s correspondence, MSS. 15th Jourdan had warned Joseph that the allies would probably turn his right, and as the reports of Maucune’s scouts told of the presence of English troops, that day, on the side of Puente Arenas, he pressed the king to send the army of Portugal to Valmaceda, and to close the other armies towards the same quarter. Joseph yielded so far, that Reille was ordered to concentrate his troops at Osma on the morning of the 18th, with the view of gaining Valmaceda by Orduña, if it was still possible; if not he was to descend rapidly from Lodio upon Bilbao, and to rally Foy’s division and the garrisons of Biscay upon the army of Portugal. At the same time Gazan was directed to send a division of infantry and a regiment of dragoons from the army of the south, to relieve Reille’s troops at Puente Lara and Espejo, but no general and decided dispositions were made.

Reille immediately ordered Maucune to quit Frias, and join him at Osma with his division, yet having some fears for his safety gave him the choice of coming by the direct road across the hills, or by the circuitous route of Puente Lara. Maucune started late in the night of the 17th by the direct road, and when Reille himself reached Osma, with La Martiniere’s and Sarrut’s divisions, on the morning of the 18th, he found a strong English column issuing from the defiles in his front, and the head of it was already at Barbarena in possession of the high road to Orduña. This was general Graham with the first, third, and fifth divisions, and a considerable body of cavalry. The French general who had about eight thousand infantry and fourteen guns, at first made a demonstration with Sarrut’s division in the view of forcing the BritishOfficial Journal of the chief of the staff, General Boyer, MSS. to shew their whole force, and a sharp skirmish and heavy cannonade ensued, wherein fifty men fell on the side of the allies, above a hundred on that of the enemy. But at half-past two o’clock, Maucune had not arrived, and beyond the mountains, on the left of the French, the sound of a battle arose which seemed to advance along the valley of Boveda into the rear of Osma; Reille, suspecting what had happened, instantly retired fighting, towards Espejo, where the mouths of the valleys opened on each other, and from that of Boveda, and the hills on the left, Maucune’s troops rushed forth begrimed with dust and powder, breathless, and broken into confused masses.

That general, proverbially daring, marched over the Araçena ridge instead of going by the Puente Lara, and his leading brigade, after clearing the defiles, had halted on the bank of a rivulet near the village of San Millan in the valley of Boveda. In this situation, without planting picquets, they were waiting for their other brigade and the baggage, when suddenly the light division which had been moving by a line parallel with Graham’s march, appeared on some rising ground in their front; the surprise was equal on both sides, but the British riflemen instantly dashed down the hill with loud cries and a bickering fire, the fifty-second followed in support, and the French retreated fighting as they best could. The rest of the English regiments having remained in reserve, were watching this combat and thinking all their enemies were before them, when the second French brigade, followed by the baggage, came hastily out from a narrow cleft in some perpendicular rocks on the right hand. A very confused action now commenced, for the reserve scrambled over some rough intervening ground to attack this new enemy, and the French to avoid them made for a hill a little way in their front, whereupon the fifty-second, whose rear was thus menaced, wheeled round and running at full speed up the hill met them on the summit. However, the French soldiers without losing their presence of mind threw off their packs, and half flying, half fighting, escaped along the side of the mountains towards Miranda, while the first brigade still retreating on the road towards Espejo were pursued by the riflemen. Meanwhile the sumpter animals being affrighted, run wildly about the rocks with a wonderful clamour, and though the escort huddled together fought desperately, all the baggage became the spoil of the victors, and four hundred of the French fell or were taken; the rest, thanks to their unyielding resolution and activity, escaped, though pursued through the mountains by some Spanish irregulars, and Reille being still pressed by Graham then retreated behind Salinas de Añara.

A knowledge of these events reached the king that night, yet neither Reille nor the few prisoners he had made could account for more than six Anglo-Portuguese divisions at the defiles; hence as no troops had been felt on the great road from Burgos, it was judged that Hill was marching with the others by Valmaceda into Guipuscoa, to menace the great communication with France. However it was clear that six divisions were concentrated on the right and rear of the French armies, and no time was to be lost in extricating the latter from its critical situation; wherefore Gazan and D’Erlon marched in the night to unite at Armiñon, a central point behind the Zadora river, up the left bank of which it was necessary to file in order to gain the basin of Vittoria. But the latter could only be entered, at that side, through the pass of Puebla de Arganzan which was two miles long, and so narrow as scarcely to furnish room for the great road; Reille therefore, to cover this dangerous movement, fell back during the night to Subijana Morillas, on the Bayas river. His orders were to dispute the ground vigorously, for by that route Wellington could enter the basin before Gazan, and D’Erlon could thread the pass of Puebla; he could also send a corps from Frias to attack their rear on the Miranda side, while they were engaged in the defile. One of these things by all means he should have endeavoured to accomplish, but the troops had made very long marches on the 18th, and it was dark before the fourth division had reached Espejo. D’Erlon and Gazan, therefore, united at Armiñon without difficulty about ten o’clock in the morning of the 19th, and immediately commenced the passage of the defile of Puebla, and the head of their column appeared on the other side at the moment when Wellington was driving Reille back upon the Zadora.

The allies had reached Bayas before mid-day of the 19th, and if they could have forced the passage at once, the armies of the centre and of the south would have been cut off from Vittoria and destroyed; but the army of Portugal was strongly posted, the front covered by the river, the right by the village of Subijana de Morillas, which was occupied as a bridge-head, and the left secured by some very rugged heights opposite the village of Pobes. This position was turned by the light division while the fourth division attacked it in front, and after a skirmish in which about eighty of the French fell, Reille was forced over the Zadora; but the army of the centre had then passed the defile of Puebla and was in position behind that river, the army of the south was coming rapidly into second line, the crisis had passed, the combat ceased, and the allies pitched their tents on the Bayas. The French armies now formed three lines behind the Zadora, and the king hearing that Clauzel was at Logroño, eleven leagues distant, expedited orders to him to march upon Vittoria; general Foy also, who was in march for Bilbao, was directed to halt at Durango, to rally all the garrisons of Biscay and Guipuscoa there, and then to come down on Vittoria. These orders were received too late.