History of the war in the Peninsula and in the south of France from the year 1807 to the year 1814, vol. 6

by William Francis Patrick Napier

On the 21st Beresford who had assumed the command of the left column was at Castlenau, Hill in the vicinity of Lannemezan, Wellington at Tournay.

The 22d Beresford was at Castlenau, Wellington at Galan, Hill at Monrejean, and Fane’s horsemen pushed forwards to St. Gaudens. Here four squadrons of French cavalry were drawn up in front of the town. Overthrown by two squadrons of the thirteenth dragoons at the first shock, they galloped in disorder through St. Gaudens, yet rallied on the other side and were again broken and pursued for two miles, many being sabred and above a hundred taken prisoners. In this action the veteran major Dogherty of the thirteenth was seen charging between his two sons at the head of the leading squadron.

On the 23d Hill was at St. Gaudens, Beresford at Puymauren, Wellington at Boulogne.

The 24th Hill was in St. Martory, Beresford in Lombez, Wellington at Isle en Dodon.

The 25th Hill entered Caceres, Beresford reached St. Foy, and Wellington was at Samatan.

The 26th Beresford entered St. Lys and marching in order of battle by his left, while his cavalry skirmished on the right, took post on the Auch road behind the Aussonnelle stream, facing the French army, which was on the Touch covering Toulouse. The allies thus took seven days to march what Soult had done in four.

This tardiness, idly characterized by French military writers as the sign of timidity and indecision of character, has been by English writers excused on the score of wet weather and the encumbrance of a large train of artillery and pontoons; yet the rain equally affected the French, and the pontoons might have been as usefully waited for on the Garonne after the French army had been pressed in its retreat of ninety miles. It is more probable that the English general, not exactly informed of Soult’s real numbers nor of his true line of retreat, nor perfectly acquainted with the country, was cautious; because being then acrimoniously disputing with the duke of Angoulême he was also uneasy as to the state of the country behind him and on his flanks. The partizans were beginning to stir, his reinforcements from England and Portugal were stopped, and admiral Penrose had not yet entered the Garonne. On the other hand Ferdinand had entered Spain and formed that engagement with Suchet about the garrisons already mentioned. In fine, lord Wellington found himself with about forty-five thousand men composed of different nations, the Spaniards being almost as dangerous as useful to him, opposed to an able and obstinate enemy, and engaged on a line of operations running more than a hundred and fifty miles along the French frontier. His right flank was likely to be vexed by the partizans forming in the Pyrenees, his left flank by those behind the Garonne on the right bank of which a considerable regular force was also collecting, while the generals commanding the military districts beyond Toulouse were forming corps of volunteers national guards and old soldiers of the regular depôts: and ever he expected Suchet to arrive on his front and overmatch him in numbers. He was careful therefore to keep his troops well in hand, and to spare them fatigue that the hospitals might not increase. In battle their bravery would he knew bring him through any crisis, but if wearing down their numbers by forced marches he should cover the country with small posts and hospital stations, the French people would be tempted to rise against him. So little therefore was his caution allied to timidity that it was no slight indication of daring to have advanced at all.

It does seem however that with an overwhelming cavalry, and great superiority of artillery he should not have suffered the French general so to escape his hands. It must be admitted also that Soult proved himself a very able commander. His halting on the Adour, his success in reviving the courage of his army, and the front he shewed in hopes to prevent his adversary from detaching troops against Bordeaux, were proofs not only of a firm unyielding temper but of a clear and ready judgment. For though, contrary to his hopes, lord Wellington did send Beresford against Bordeaux, it was not on military grounds but because treason was there to aid him. Meanwhile he was forced to keep his army for fifteen days passive within a few miles of an army he had just defeated, permitting his adversary to reorganize and restore the discipline and courage of the old troops, to rally the dispersed conscripts, to prepare the means of a partizan warfare, to send off all his encumbrances and sick to Toulouse, and to begin fortifying that city as a final and secure retreat: for the works there were commenced on the 3d or 4th of March, and at this time the entrenchments covering the bridge and suburb of St. Cyprien were nearly completed. The French general was even the first to retake the offensive after Orthes, too late indeed, and he struck no important blow, and twice placed his army in dangerous situations; but his delay was a matter of necessity arising from the loss of his magazines, and if he got into difficulties they were inseparable from his operations and he extricated himself again.

That he gained no advantages in fight is rather argument for lord Wellington than against Soult. The latter sought but did not find a favourable opportunity to strike, and it would have been unwise, because his adversary gave him no opening, to have fallen desperately upon superior numbers in a strong position with an army so recently defeated, and whose restored confidence it was so essential not to shake again by a repulse. He increased that confidence by appearing to insult the allied army with an inferior force, and in combination with his energetic proclamation encouraged the Napoleonists and alarmed the Bourbonists; lastly, by his rapid retreat from Tarbes he gained two days to establish and strengthen himself on his grand position at Toulouse. And certainly he deceived his adversary, no common general and at the head of no common army; for so little did Wellington expect him to make a determined stand there, that in a letter written on the 26th to sir John Hope, he says, “I fear the Garonne is too full and large for our bridge, if not we shall be in that town (Toulouse) I hope immediately.”

The French general’s firmness and the extent of his views cannot however be fairly judged by merely considering his movements in the field. Having early proved the power of his adversary, he had never deceived himself about the ultimate course of the campaign and therefore struggled without hope, a hard and distressing task; yet he showed no faintness, fighting continually, and always for delay as thinking Suchet would finally cast personal feelings aside and strike for his country. Nor did he forbear importuning that marshal to do so. Notwithstanding his previousChoumara. disappointments he wrote to him again on the 9th of February, urging the danger of the crisis, the certainty that the allies would make the greatest effort on the western frontier, and praying him to abandon Catalonia and come with the bulk of his troops to Bearn: in the same strain he wrote to the minister of war, and his letters reached their destinations on the 13th. Suchet, having no orders to the contrary, could therefore have joined him with thirteen thousand men before the battle of Orthes; but that marshal giving a deceptive statement of his forces in reply, coldly observed, that if he marched anywhere it would be to join the emperor and not the duke of Dalmatia. The latter continued notwithstanding to inform him of all his battles and his movements, and his accumulating distresses, yet in vain, and Suchet’s apathy would be incredible but for the unequivocal proofs of it furnished in the work of the French engineer Choumara.