Mr. Choumara attributes Beresford’s success to Taupin’s errors and to a vast superiority of numbers on the side of the allies. “Fifty-three thousand infantry, more than eight thousand cavalry, and a reserve of eighteen thousand men of all arms, opposed to twenty-five thousand French infantry, two thousand five hundred cavalry, and a reserve of seven thousand conscripts three thousand of which were unarmed.” Such is the enormous disproportion assumed on the authority of general Vaudoncourt.
Now the errors of Taupin may have been great, and his countrymen are the best judges of his demerit; but the numbers here assumed are most inaccurate. The imperial muster-rolls are not of a later date than December 1813, yet an official table of the organization of Soult’s army, published byKock’s Campaign of 1814. the French military historian Kock, gives thirty-six thousand six hundred and thirty-five combatants on the 10th of March. Of these, in round numbers, twenty-eight thousand six hundred were infantry, two thousand seven hundred cavalry, and five thousand seven hundred were artillery-men, engineers, miners, sappers, gensd’armes, and military workmen. Nothing is said of the reserve division of conscripts commanded by general Travot, but general Vaudoncourt’s table of the same army on the 1st of April, adopted by Choumara, supplies the deficiency. The conscripts are there set down seven thousand two hundred and sixty-seven, and this cipher being added to Kock’s, gives a total of forty-three thousand nine hundred fighting men. The loss in combats and marches from the 10th of March to the 1st of April must be deducted, but on the other hand we find Soult informing the minister of war, on the 7th of March, that three thousand soldiers dispersed by the battle of Orthes were still wandering behind the army: the greatest part must have joined before the battle of Toulouse. There was also the regular garrison of that city, composed of the depôts of several regiments and the urban guards, all under Travot. Thus little less than fifty thousand men were at Soult’s disposal.
Let twelve thousand be deducted for, 1º. the urban guard which was only employed to maintain the police of the town, 2º. the unarmed conscripts, 3º. the military workmen not brought into action, 4º. the detachments employed on the flanks to communicate with La Fitte in the Arriege, and to reinforce general Loverdo at Montauban. There will remain thirty-eight thousand fighting men of all arms. And with a very powerful artillery; for we find Soult after the action, directing seven field-batteries of eight pieces each to attend the army; and the French writers mention, besides this field-train, 1º. fifteen pieces which were transferred during the battle from the exterior line of St. Cyprien to the northern and eastern fronts. 2º. Four twenty-four pounders and several sixteen-pounders mounted on the walls of the city. 3º. The armaments of the bridge-heads, the works on Calvinet and those at Saccarin and Cambon. Wherefore not less than eighty, or perhaps ninety, pieces of French artillery were engaged.
An approximation to the strength of the French army being thus made it remains to show the number of the allies, and with respect to the Anglo-Portuguese troops that can be done very exactly, not by approximative estimates but positively from the original returns.
The morning state delivered to lord WellingtonSee [note at the end of the Appendix.] on the 10th of April bears forty-three thousand seven hundred and forty-four British and Germans, and twenty thousand seven hundred and ninety-three Portuguese, in all sixty-four thousand five hundred and thirty-seven soldiers and officers present under arms, exclusive of artillery-men. Of this number nearly ten thousand were cavalry, eleven hundred and eighty-eight being Portuguese.
The Spanish auxiliaries, exclusive of Mina’s bands investing St. Jean Pied de Port, were 1º. Giron’s Andalusians and the third army under O’Donnel, fifteen thousand. 2º. The Gallicians under general Freyre, fourteen thousand. 3º. Three thousand Gallicians under Morillo and as many more under Longa, making with the Anglo-Portuguese a total of ninety thousand combatants with somewhat more than a hundred pieces of field-artillery.
Of this force, O’Donnel’s troops were in the valley of the Bastan, Longa’s on the Upper Ebro; one division of Freyre’s Gallicians was under Carlos D’España in front of Bayonne; one half of Morillo’s division was blockading Navarens, the other half and the nine thousand Gallicians remaining under Freyre, were in front of Toulouse. Of the Anglo-Portuguese, the first and fifth divisions, and three unattached brigades of infantry with one brigade of cavalry, were with sir John Hope at Bayonne; the seventh division was at Bordeaux; the household brigade of heavy cavalry was on the march from the Ebro where it had passed the winter; the Portuguese horsemen were partly employed on the communications in the rear, partly near Agen, where sirSee [note at the end of the Appendix.] John Campbell commanding the fourth regiment had an engagement on the 11th with the celebrated partizan Florian. The second, third, fourth, sixth,[Appendix 7], sections 6 and 7. and light divisions of infantry, and Le Cor’s Portuguese, called the unattached division, were with lord Wellington, who had also Bock’s, Ponsonby’s, Fane’s, Vivian’s, and lord E. Somerset’s brigades of cavalry.
These troops on the morning of the 10th mustered under arms, in round numbers, thirty-one thousand infantry, of which four thousand three hundred were officers sergeants and drummers, leaving twenty-six thousand and six hundred bayonets. Add twelve thousand Spaniards under Freyre and Morillo, and we have a total of forty-three thousand five hundred infantry. The cavalry amounted to seven thousand, and there were sixty-four pieces of artillery. Hence about fifty-two thousand of all ranks and arms were in line to fight thirty-eight thousand French with more than eighty pieces of artillery, some being of the largest calibre.
But of the allies only twenty-four thousand men with fifty-two guns can be said to have been seriously engaged. Thirteen thousand sabres and bayonets with eighteen guns were on the left of the Garonne under general Hill. Neither the light division nor Ponsonby’s heavy cavalry, nor Bock’s Germans were really engaged. Wherefore twelve thousand six hundred sabres and bayonets under Beresford, nine thousand bayonets under Freyre, and two thousand five hundred of Picton’s division really fought the battle. Thus the enormous disproportion assumed by the French writers disappears entirely; for if the allies had the advantage of numbers it was chiefly in cavalry, and horsemen were of little avail against the entrenched position and preponderating artillery of the French general.
The duke of Dalmatia’s claim to the admiration of his countrymen is well-founded and requires no vain assumption to prop it up. Vast combinations, inexhaustible personal resources, a clear judgment, unshaken firmness and patience under difficulties, unwavering fidelity to his sovereign and his country, are what no man can justly deny him. In this celebrated campaign of only nine months, although counteracted by the treacherous hostility of many of his countrymen, he repaired and enlarged the works of five strong places and entrenched five great camps with such works as Marius himself would not have disdained; once he changed his line of operations and either attacking or defending delivered twenty-four battles and combats. Defeated in all he yet fought the last as fiercely as the first, remaining unconquered in mind, and still intent upon renewing the struggle when peace came to put a stop to his prodigious efforts. Those efforts were fruitless because Suchet renounced him, because the people of the south were apathetic and fortune was adverse; because he was opposed to one of the greatest generals of the world at the head of unconquerable troops. For what Alexander’s Macedonians were at Arbela, Hannibal’s Africans at Cannæ, Cæsar’s Romans at Pharsalia, Napoleon’s guards at Austerlitz, such were Wellington’s British soldiers at this period. The same men who had fought at Vimiera and Talavera contended at Orthes and Toulouse. Six years of uninterrupted success had engrafted on their natural strength and fierceness a confidence which rendered them invincible. It is by this measure Soult’s firmness and the constancy of his army is to be valued, and the equality to which he reduced his great adversary at Toulouse is a proof of ability which a judicious friend would put forward rather than suppress.