VITTORIA,
21
June 1813 The year of 1812 had
positively glowed with success but it was to end inauspiciously with the
failure to take the castle of Burgos, besieged by Wellington in September
and October 1812. The Allied siege operations provided one of the more
unhappier sides to the campaign in the Peninsula but at least the army was
successful on three occasions, albeit after some tremendous bludgeoning
which cost the lives of hundreds of British soldiers. At Burgos, however,
the operation was flawed from the start and a combination of bad weather,
inadequate siege train and plain bad mismanagement caused a despondent
Wellington to abandon the dreary place on October 19th.
The outcome of the
whole sad episode was a retreat which, to those who had survived it, bore
too many shades of the retreat to Corunna almost four years earlier. Once
again the discipline of the army broke down, drunkenness was rife and
hundreds of Wellington's men were left floundering in the mud to die or be
taken prisoner by the French. It was little consolation to Wellington that
while his army limped back to Portugal Napoleon too was about to see his
own army disintegrate in the Russian snows. The retreat to Portugal
finally ended in late November when the Allied army concentrated on the
border, close to Ciudad Rodrigo. The year had thus ended in bitter
disappointment for Wellington but nothing could hide the fact that taken
as a whole 1812, the year of Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajoz and Salamanca, had
seen the army achieve some of its greatest successes and once it had
recovered it would embark on the road to even greater glory.
During the winter of
1812-13 Wellington contemplated his strategy for the forthcoming campaign.
His army received reinforcements which brought it up to a strength of
around 80,000 men of whom 52,000 were British. The French believed that
any Allied thrust would have to be made through central Spain, an
assumption Wellington fostered by sending Hill, with 30,000 men and six
brigades of cavalry, in the direction of Salamanca. Wellington, in fact,
accompanied Hill as far as Salamanca to help deceive the French further.
The main Allied advance, however, would be made to the north, by the left
wing of the army, some 66,000-strong, under Sir Thomas Graham, who would
cross the Douro, march through northern Portugal and the Tras-o-Montes
before swinging down behind the French defensive lines. The advance would
be aimed at Burgos before moving on to the Pyrenees and finally into
southern France. If all went well Wellington would be able to shift his
supply bases from Lisbon to the northern coast of Spain and in so doing
avoid over-extending his lines of communication.
The advance began on
May 22nd 1813 and as the Allied army crossed the Portuguese border into
Spain Wellington is reputed to have turned and waved his hat in the air,
exclaiming, "Farewell, Portugal, for I shall never see you
again." He was right.
Wellington left
Hill's force on May 28th and joined Graham the following day. By June 3rd
his entire force, numbering around 80,000 men, was on the northern side of
the Douro, much to the surprise of the French who began to hurry north to
meet them. Such was the speed of Wellington's advance that the French were
forced to abandon Burgos, this time without any resistance, and the place
was blown up by the departing garrison on June 13th. Wellington passed the
town and on June 19th was just a short distance to the east of Vittoria
which lay astride the great road to France.
The battlefield of
Vittoria lay along the floor of the valley of the Zadorra, some six miles
wide and ten miles in length. The eastern end of this valley was open and
led to Vittoria itself while the other three sides of the valley consisted
of mountains although those to the west were heights rather than
mountains. The Zadorra itself wound its way from the south-west corner of
the valley to the north where it ran along the foot of the mountains
overlooking the northern side of the valley. The river was impassable to
artillery but was crossed by four bridges to the west of the valley and
four more to the north.
Wellington devised
an elaborate plan of attack which involved dividing his army into four
columns. On the right, Hill, with 20,000 men consisting of the 2nd
Division and Morillo's Spaniards, was to gain the heights of Puebla on the
south of the valley and force the Puebla pass. The two centre columns were
both under Wellington's personal command. The right centre column
consisted of the Light and 4th Divisions together with four brigades of
cavalry, who were to advance through the village of Nanclares. The left
centre column consisted of the 3rd and 7th Divisions which were to advance
through the valley of the Bayas at the north-west corner of the
battlefield and attack the northern flank and rear of the French position.
The fourth column, under Graham, consisted of the 1st and 5th Divisions,
Longa's Spaniards and two Portuguese brigades. Graham was to march around
the mountains to the north and by entering the valley at its north-eastern
corner was to severe the main road to Bayonne.
Joseph's French army
numbered 66,000 men with 138 guns but although another French force under
Clausel was hurrying up from Pamplona they would not arrive in time and
Joseph was to fight the battle with about 14,000 fewer men than
Wellington.
On the morning of
June 21st Wellington peered through his telescope and saw Joseph, Marshal
Jourdan and General Gazan and their staffs gathered together on top of the
hill of Arinez, a round hill that dominated the centre of the French line.
It was a moist, misty morning and through the drizzle he saw, away to his
right, Hill's troops as they made their way through the Heights of Puebla.
It was here that the battle opened at about 8.30am when Hill's troops
drove the French from their positions and took the heights.
Two hours later,
away to the north-east, the crisp crackle of musketry signalled Graham's
emergence from the mountains as his men swept down over the road to
Bayonne, thus cutting off the main French escape route. Hereafter,
Graham's troops probed warily westward and met with stiff resistance,
particularly at the village of Gamara Mayor. Moreover, Wellington's
instructions bade him to proceed with caution, orders which Graham obeyed
faithfully. Although his column engaged the French in several hours of
bloody fighting on the north bank of the Zadorra, it was not until the
collapse of the French army late in the day that he unleashed the full
power of his force upon the French.
There was little
fighting on the west of the battlefield until at about noon when, acting
upon information from a Spanish peasant, Wellington ordered Kempt's
brigade of the Light Division to take the undefended bridge over the
Zadorra at Tres Puentes. This was duly accomplished and brought Kempt to a
position just below the hill of Arinez and while the rest of the Light
Division crossed the bridge of Villodas Picton's `Fighting' 3rd Division
stormed across the bridge of Mendoza on their right. Picton was faced by
two French divisions supported by artillery but these guns were taken in
flank by Kempt's riflemen and were forced to retire having fired just a
few salvoes. Picton's men rushed on and, supported by the Light Division
and by Cole's 4th Division, which had also crossed at Villodas, the 3rd
Division rolled over the French troops on this flank like a juggernaut. A
brigade of Dalhousie's 7th Division joined them in their attack and
together they drove the French from the hill of Arinez. Soon afterwards,
what was once Joseph's vantage point was being used by Wellington to
direct the battle.
It was just after
3pm and the 3rd, 7th and Light Divisions were fighting hard to force the
French from the village of Margarita. This small village marked the right
flank of the first French line and after heavy fighting the defenders were
thrust from it in the face of overwhelming pressure from Picton's
division. To the south of the hill of Arinez Gazan's divisions were still
holding firm and supported by French artillery were more than holding
their own against Cole's 4th Division. However, with Margarita gone the
right flank of the French was left unprotected.
It was a critical
time for Joseph's army. On its right, D'Erlon's division was being
steadily pushed back by Picton, Dalhousie and Kempt, whose divisions
seemed irresistible. Away to his left, Joseph saw Hill's corps streaming
from the heights of Puebla whilst behind him Graham's corps barred the
road home. Only Gazan's divisions held firm but when Cole's 4th Division
struck at about 5pm the backbone of the French army snapped. Wellington
thrust the 4th Division into the gap between D'Erlon and Gazan, as a sort
of wedge, and as the British troops on the French right began to push
D'Erlon back Gazan suddenly realised he was in danger of being cut off. At
this point Joseph finally realised that he was left with little choice but
to give the order for a general retreat.
The resulting
disintegration of the French army was as sudden as it was spectacular. The
collapse was astonishing as every man, from Joseph downwards, looked to
his own safety. All arms and ammunition, equipment and packs were thrown
away by the French in an effort to hasten their flight. It was a case of
every man for himself. Only Reille's corps, which had been holding engaged
with Graham's corps, managed to maintain some sort of disorder but even
Reille's men could not avoid being swept along with the tide of fugitives
streaming back towards Vittoria. With the collapse of all resistance
Graham swept down upon what units remained in front of him but there was
little more to be done but round up prisoners who were taken in their
hundreds. The French abandoned the whole of their baggage train as well as
415 caissons, 151 of their 153 guns and 100 waggons. 2,000 prisoners were
taken.
More incredible,
however, was the fantastic amount of treasure abandoned by Joseph as he
fled. The accumulated plunder acquired by him in Spain was abandoned to
the eager clutches of the Allied soldiers who could not believe what they
found. Never before nor since in the history of warfare has such an
immense amount of booty been captured by an opposing force. Ironically,
this treasure probably saved what was left of Joseph's army for while
Wellington's men stopped to fill their pockets with gold, silver, jewels
and valuable coins, the French were making good their escape towards
Pamplona. Such was Wellington's great disgust at the behaviour of his men
afterwards that he was prompted to write to the Earl of Bathurst. It was
the letter in which he was to use the famous expression, `scum of the
earth'.
The Allies suffered
5,100 casualties during the battle while the French losses were put at
around 8,000. The destruction of Joseph's army is hardly reflected in this
figure, however, and the repercussions of the defeat were far reaching.
News of Wellington's victory galvanised the Allies in northern Europe -
still smarting after defeats at Lutzen and Bautzen - into renewed action
and even induced Austria to enter the war on the side of the Allies. In
England, meanwhile, there were wild celebrations the length of the country
while Wellington himself was created Field Marshal. In Spain, Napoleon's
grip on the country was severely loosened and there was now little but a
few French-held fortresses between Wellington's triumphant army and
France.
We'd like to thank Ian
Fletcher, renowned military author on the Peninsula and Waterloo, for his
contribution to our website.
