THE SPANISH CAMPAIGN OF NAPOLEON.
1808-1809
Retreat of Sir John Moore and Sir David Baird.--The Spanish Deputation.
--Anecdote of Napoleon.--Atrocities of the English.--Testimony of
Alison.--Napoleon at Astorga.--A new Coalition.--Anxiety of the
Emperor.--New Year's Wishes.--Napoleon's Response.--Magnanimity of
Napoleon.--Reforms introduced.--Escape of Sir John Moore.--Efforts of
the British Government.--Testimony of Alison.--Fury of the Populace.
--The Siege of Saragossa.--Savagery of Armies.--Discouragement of the
Spaniards.--Victory of General St. Cyr.--French Victories.--Desolations
of War.--Testimony of Alison.--Joseph's mistaken Views.--The Hostility
of the Allies to Napoleon personally.--Joseph's Want of Appreciation.
--Character of Joseph.--Remarks of the Duke of Wellington.--Siege of
Oporto.--Awful Slaughter.--Oporto Taken by Storm.--Continued Scenes
of Carnage.--Napoleon's Remarks to O'Meara.--Joseph at Malaga.
--Embarrassments of Joseph's Position.
In less than five weeks from the time when Napoleon first placed his
foot upon the soil of Spain he was master of more than half the kingdom.
Sir John Moore, with an army of about 30,000 Englishmen, was marching
rapidly from Portugal, to form a junction with another English army
of about 10,000 men under Sir David Baird, who were advancing from
Corunna. It was supposed in England that the co-operation of these
highly-disciplined troops with the masses of the Spaniards who had
already fought so valiantly, would speedily secure the overthrow of the
French.
But when Sir John Moore and Sir David Baird learned that Napoleon
himself was in Spain, that he had scattered the Spanish armies before
him as the tornado drives the withered leaves of the forest, that he was
already in possession of Madrid, and would soon be ready to direct all
his energies against them, they were both greatly alarmed, and, turning
about, fled precipitately back to their ships. A deputation of about
twelve hundred of the notables of Spain called upon Napoleon, to confer
with him respecting the affairs of the kingdom. He informed them very
fully of the benefits he wished to confer upon Spain by rescuing the
people from the dominion of the old feudal lords, and bringing them into
harmony with the more enlightened views of modern times. He closed his
remarks to them by saying,
"The present generation will differ in opinion respecting me. Too many
passions have been called into exercise. But your posterity will be
grateful to me as their regenerator. They will place in the number of
memorable days those in which I have appeared among you. From those days
will be dated the prosperity of Spain. These are my sentiments. Go
consult your fellow-citizens. Choose your part, but do it frankly, and
exhibit only true colors."
General Moore was retreating toward Corunna. An English fleet had
repaired to that port to receive the troops on board. On the 22d of
December Napoleon left Madrid, with 40,000 men, to pursue the flying
foe. The Spaniards, instead of rallying to the support of the English,
whom they never loved, dispersed in all directions, leaving them to
their fate. "The Spanish insurgents," says Napier, "were conscious that
they were fighting the battles of England. To restore Spain to
Ferdinand, England expended one hundred millions sterling ($500,000,000)
on her own operations. She subsidized Spain and Portugal besides, and
with her supply of clothing, arms, and ammunition, maintained the armies
of both, even to the guerrillas."[T]
[Footnote T: Napier, vol. iii. p. 78, vol iv. p. 438.]
By forced marches the Imperial troops rushed along, threading the
defiles of the mountains of Gaudarrama in mid-winter, through drifts and
storms of snow. Napoleon climbed the mountains on foot, sharing all the
toil and peril of his troops. Such a leader any army would follow with
enthusiasm. In one of the wildest passes of the mountains he passed a
night in a miserable hut. Savary, who was with him, writes:
"The single mule which carried his baggage was brought to this wretched
house. He was provided with a good fire, a tolerable supper, and a bed.
On those occasions the Emperor was not selfish. He was quite unmindful
of the next day's wants when he alone was concerned. He shared his
supper and his fire with all who had been able to keep up with him, and
even compelled those to eat whose reserve kept them back."
General Moore was straining every nerve to escape. The weather was
frightful, and the miry roads almost impassable. The advance-guard of
Napoleon was soon within a day's march of the foe. General Moore, as he
fled, blew up the bridges behind him, and recklessly plundered the
wretched inhabitants. His troops became exceedingly exasperated against
the Spaniards for their cowardly desertion, and reproached them with
ingratitude.
"We ungrateful!" the Spaniards replied; "you came here to serve your own
interests, and now you are running away without defending us."
So bitter was the hostility which thus arose between the English and the
Spaniards, and the brutality of the drunken English soldiers was so
insupportable, that the Spaniards often welcomed the French troops, who
were under far better discipline, as their deliverers. Sir Archibald
Alison, in his account of these scenes, says:
"The native and uneradicable vice of northern climates, drunkenness,
here appeared in frightful colors. The great wine-vaults of Bembibre
proved more fatal than the sword of the enemy. And when the gallant
rear-guard, which preserved its ranks unbroken, closed up the array,
they had to force their way through a motley crowd of English and
Spanish soldiers, stragglers and marauders, who reeled out of the houses
in disgusting crowds, or lay stretched upon the roadside, an easy prey
to the enemy's cavalry, which thundered in close pursuit.
"The condition of the army became daily more deplorable; the frost had
been succeeded by the thaw; rain and sleet fell in torrents; the roads
were almost broken up; the horses foundered at every step; the few
artillery-wagons which had kept up fell, one by one, to the rear; and
being immediately blown up to prevent their falling into the hands of
the enemy, gave melancholy tokens, by the sound of their explosions, of
the work of destruction which was going on."
On the 2d of January Napoleon's advance-guard had reached Astorga.
Notwithstanding the condition of the roads, and all the efforts of the
retreating foe, an army of forty thousand men had marched two hundred
miles in ten days. It was a cold and stormy winter morning when
Napoleon left Astorga, in continuance of the pursuit. He had proceeded
but a few miles on horseback, when he was overtaken by a courier from
France, bearing important dispatches. The Emperor alighted by the
roadside, and, standing by a fire which his attendants kindled, read the
documents. His officers gathered anxiously around him, watching the
expression of his countenance as he read.
The dispatches informed Napoleon that Austria had entered into a new
alliance with England to attack him on the north, and that the
probability was, that Turkey, exasperated by Napoleon's alliance with
Russia, would also be drawn into the coalition. It was also stated that,
though Alexander personally was strong in his friendship for Napoleon,
the Russian nobles, hostile to the principle of equal rights, inscribed
upon the French banners, were raising an opposition of such daily
increasing strength, that it was feared the Czar also might be compelled
to join in the new crusade against France.
To conduct the war in Spain, Napoleon had withdrawn one hundred
thousand of his best troops from the Rhine. His frontiers were thus
greatly exposed. For a moment it was said that Napoleon was staggered
by the blow. The vision of another European war, France struggling
single-handed against all the combined powers of the Continent, appalled
him. Slowly, sadly he rode back to Astorga, deeply pondering the awful
question. There was clearly but one of two courses before him. He must
either ignobly abandon the conflict in favor of equality of rights, and
allow the chains of the old feudal despotism to be again riveted upon
France, and all the new governments in sympathy with France, or he must
struggle manfully to the end. All around him were impressed with the
utter absorption of his mind in these thoughts. As he rode back with
his retinue, not a word was spoken. Napoleon seldom asked advice.
Soon his decision was formed, and all dejection and hesitation
disappeared. It was necessary for him immediately to direct all his
energies toward the Rhine. He consequently relinquished the personal
pursuit of the English; and commissioning Marshal Soult to press them
with all vigor, he prepared to return to France. Rapidly retracing
his steps to Valladolid, he spent five days in giving the most minute
directions for the movements of the army, and for the administration
of affairs in Spain. In those few days he performed an amount of labor
which seems incredible. He had armies in France, Spain, Italy, and
Germany, and he guided all their movements, even to the minute details.
On the first day of the year Joseph had written to Napoleon, and, in the
expression of those kindly sympathies which the advent of a new year
awakens, had said, "I pray your Majesty to accept my wishes that, in the
course of this year, Europe, pacified by your efforts, may render
justice to your intentions."
Napoleon replied, "I thank you for what you say relative to the new
year. I do not hope that Europe can this year be pacified. So little
do I hope it, that I have just issued a decree for levying one hundred
thousand men. The rancor of England, the events of Constantinople,
every thing, in short, indicates that the hour of rest and quiet is
not arrived."
The Emperor, having finished his dispatches at Valladolid, mounted his
horse, and set out for Paris. Mr. J. T. Headley thus describes this
marvellous ride:
"In the first five hours he rode the astonishing distance of
eighty-five miles, or seventeen miles the hour. This wild gallop was
long remembered by the inhabitants of the towns through which the
smoking cavalcade of the Emperor passed. Relays of horses had been
provided on the road; and no sooner did he arrive at one post, than he
flung himself on a fresh horse, and, sinking his spurs in his flanks,
dashed away in headlong speed. Few who saw that short figure, surmounted
with a plain chapeau, sweep by on that day, ever forgot it. His pale
face was calm as marble, but his lips were compressed, and his brow knit
like iron; while his flashing eye, as he leaned forward, still jerking
impatiently at the bridle as if to accelerate his speed, seemed to
devour the distance. No one spoke, but the whole suite strained forward
in the breathless race. The gallant chasseurs had never had so long and
so wild a ride before."
Napoleon had acted a very noble part toward his brother. The masses
of the Spanish people were very ignorant and fanatical. The priests,
wielding over them supernatural terrors, controlled them at will. There
were certain reforms which were essential to the regeneration of Spain.
But these reforms would exasperate the priests, and, through them, the
people. Napoleon, anxious to save his brother from the odium of these
necessary measures, took the responsibility of them upon himself. He
issued a series of decrees when he entered Madrid as a conqueror, and
by virtue of the acknowledged rights of conquest, in which, after
proclaiming pardon for all political offenses, he introduced the
following reforms.
The execrable institution of the Inquisition was abolished. The number
of convents, which had been thronged with indolent monks, was reduced
one-half. One-half of the property of these abolished convents was
appropriated to the payment of the salary of the laboring clergy.
The other half was set apart to the payment of the public debt. The
custom-houses between the several provinces of the kingdom, which had
been a great source of national embarrassment, were removed, and
imposts were collected only on the frontiers. All feudal privileges
were annulled.
These measures, of course, exasperated the priests and the nobles.
Unfortunately the people were too ignorant to appreciate their full
value. As Joseph returned to Madrid, under the protection of the arms
of his imperial brother, though the bells rang merrily, and pealing
cannon uttered their voices of welcome, and though the most respectable
portion of the middle class received him with satisfaction, there was no
enthusiasm among the populace, and the clergy and the nobility received
him with suspicion and dislike. The Emperor, upon his departure, had
confided to Joseph the command of the army in Spain. But the great
generals of Napoleon, ever ready to bow to the will of the Emperor,
whose superiority they all recognized, yielded a reluctant obedience to
Joseph, whom they did not consider their superior in the art of war.
Sir John Moore continued his precipitate flight, vigorously pursued by
Marshal Soult. "There was never," says Napier, "so complete an example
of a disastrous retreat. Abandoning their wagons, blowing up their
ammunition, and strewing their path with the debris of an utterly routed
army, they finally, with torn, bleeding, and greatly-diminished columns,
escaped to their ships."
The new coalition in Germany against Napoleon rendering it necessary
for him to withdraw a large part of his troops from Spain, greatly
encouraged the foes of the new regime. The British Government, animated
by its success in inducing Austria again to co-operate in an attack upon
France, and sanguine in the hope of drawing Russia and Turkey into the
coalition, which would surely bring the armies of Prussia into the same
line of battle, redoubled its efforts in Spain and Portugal. Emissaries
were sent everywhere to rouse the populace. Gold was lavished, and arms
and ammunition were transmitted by the British fleet to important
points.
A central junta was assembled at Seville. It issued a proclamation,
calling upon the people everywhere to rise in guerrilla bands. The
whole male population was summoned to the field. Death was the penalty
denounced upon all those who, by word or deed, favored the French.
Twenty thousand troops in Portugal were taken under British pay, and
placed under British officers, so that, while nominally it was a
Portuguese army, it was in reality but a British force of mercenaries.
Numerous transports conveyed a large body of troops from England under
Sir Arthur Wellesley, which was landed in Lisbon.
Where the French army had control, there seemed to be a disposition,
especially among the most intelligent and opulent portion of the
people, to accept the new regime of Joseph. The bitterest foe of Joseph
will not deny that the reforms which he was endeavoring to introduce
were admirable, and absolutely essential to the regeneration of Spain.
The British Government wished to restore the old regime under Ferdinand;
for that Government was in sympathy with the British rule of
aristocratic privilege. The French Government wished to maintain the new
regime under Joseph, because that Government would bring Spain into
sympathy with France, in her defensive struggle against the combined
despotisms of Europe. Popular opinion in Spain seemed now to be upon one
side, and again upon the other, according to the presence of the
different armies.
"At Madrid," says Alison, "Joseph reigned with the apparent consent of
the nation. Registers having been open for the inscription of those who
were favorable to his government, no less than twenty-eight thousand
heads of families in a few days enrolled themselves. And deputations
from the Municipal Council, the Council of the Indies, and all the
incorporations, waited upon him at Valladolid, to entreat that he would
return to the capital and reassume the royal functions, to which he at
length complied."
At Saragossa, on the other hand, Joseph was opposed with persistence
and bravery, which has rendered the siege of Saragossa one of the most
memorable events in the annals of war. A very determined leader,
Parafox, with about thirty thousand men, threw himself into that city. A
proclamation was issued, declaring that no mercy would be shown to those
who manifested any sympathy for the reign of Joseph. Suspicion was
sufficient to doom one to mob violence and a cruel death.
"Terror," says Alison, "was summoned to the aid of loyalty. And the
fearful engines of popular power, the scaffold and the gallows, were
erected on the public square, where some unhappy wretches, suspected
of a leaning to the enemy, were indignantly executed.
"The passions of the people were roused to the very highest pitch by the
dread of treason, or any accommodation with the enemy. And popular
vehemence, overwhelming all restraints of law or order, sacrificed
almost every night persons to the blind suspicions of the multitude, who
were found hanging in the morning on the gallows erected in the Corso
and market-place."
The priests summoned the peasants from all the region around, so that
soon there were fifty thousand armed men within the walls, inspired by
as determined a spirit of resistance as ever possessed the human heart.
The siege was commenced about the middle of December with thirty-five
thousand men, according to the statement of Napier. It is generally
understood in warfare that one man, acting upon the defensive within a
fortress, is equal to at least five men making the assault from the
outside. But in the memorable siege of Saragossa, the besieged had a
third more men than the besiegers. Alison thinks Napier incorrect, and
makes the besieging force forty-three thousand. This gives the besieged
a superiority of seven thousand men. It surely speaks volumes for the
courage and skill of the French army, that under such circumstances the
siege could have been conducted to a successful issue, especially when
the determination and bravery of the people of Saragossa are represented
as almost without a parallel.
The scenes of woe which ensued within the walls of Saragossa no pen can
describe, no imagination can conceive. In addition to the garrison of
fifty thousand men, the city was crowded with women and children, the
aged and the infirm. For fifty days the storm of war raged, with
scarcely a moment's intermission. Thirty-three thousand cannon shots and
sixteen thousand bombs were thrown into the thronged streets. Fifty-four
thousand human beings perished in the city during these fifty days--more
than a thousand a day. Many perished of famine and of pestilence. When
the French marched into the town, there were six thousand dead still
unburied. There were sixteen thousand helplessly sick, and many of them
dying. Only twelve thousand of the garrison remained, pale, emaciate,
skeleton men, who, as captives of war, were conveyed to France. When we
reflect that all this heroism and bravery were displayed, and all these
unspeakable woes endured, to re-introduce the reign of as despicable a
monarch as ever sat upon a throne, and to rivet the chains of despotism
upon an ignorant, debased, and enslaved people, one can not but mourn
over the sad lot of humanity.
The rank and file of armies is never composed of men of affectionate,
humane, and angelic natures. It is the tiger in the man which makes the
reckless soldier. Familiarity with crime, outrage, misery, renders the
soul callous. There is no rigor of army discipline which can prevent
atrocities that should cause even fiends to blush. The story of the
sweep of armies never can be truly told.
As all the physical strength of the region for leagues around Saragossa
had been gathered in that city, its fall secured the submission of the
surrounding country. Lannes was called to join the grand army in
Germany. Junot, who was left in command of the troops at Saragossa,
prepared for an expedition against Valencia. City after city passed,
with scarcely any resistance, into the hands of the French. The campaign
in Germany rendered it necessary for Napoleon to withdraw all his best
troops, leaving Joseph to maintain his position in Spain, with a motley
group of Italians, Swiss, and Germans, who were by no means inspired
either with the political intelligence or the martial enthusiasm of the
French.
The Spanish peasants, depressed by failure, and inspired, not by
intelligent conviction, but by momentary religious fanaticism, threw
down their arms and returned to their homes. There was but little
integrity or sense of honor to be found in Spain, long demoralized by a
wretched government; and the immense supplies which England furnished
were embezzled or misapplied. The Spaniards are not cowards. The feeble
resistance they often made proved that they took but little interest in
the issues of the war. Ferdinand had done nothing to win their regard.
But he was a Spanish prince, in the regular line of descent from their
ancient kings. Joseph Bonaparte was a stranger, a foreigner, about to be
imposed upon them by the aid of foreign arms. It was easy, under these
circumstances, to rouse a transient impulse for Ferdinand, but not an
abiding devotion.
General Duhesme was in Barcelona with a few thousand troops, cut off
from communication with his friends by the English fleet, and a large
army of Spanish peasants which was collected to secure his capture.
General St. Cyr, with about sixteen thousand infantry and cavalry,
marched to his relief. In a narrow defile, amidst rocks and forests, he
encountered a Spanish force forty thousand strong, drawn up in a most
favorable position to arrest his progress. St. Cyr formed his troops in
one solid mass, and charging headlong, without firing a shot, in half an
hour dispersed the foe, killing five hundred, wounding two thousand,
and capturing all their artillery and ammunition. The next day St. Cyr
entered Barcelona. The Spaniards were so utterly dispersed that not ten
thousand men could be re-assembled two days after the battle.
But the English fleet was upon the coast, with encouragement and
abundant supplies. After a little while, another Spanish army, twenty
thousand strong, was rendezvoused at Molinas del Rey. St. Cyr again fell
upon these troops. They fled so precipitately that but few were hurt.
Their supplies, which the British had furnished them, were left upon
the field. St. Cyr gathered up fifty pieces of cannon, three million
cartridges, sixty thousand pounds of powder, and a magazine containing
thirty thousand stand of English arms. Lord Collingwood, who commanded
the British fleet, declared that all the elements of resistance in the
province were dissolved. These events took place just before the fall of
Saragossa.
In the middle of February of this year, 1809, St. Cyr had twenty-three
thousand men concentrated at Villa Franca. Forty thousand Spaniards were
collected to attack him. Almost contemptuously, he took eleven thousand
of his troops, surprised the Spaniards, and scattered them in the
wildest flight. He pursued the fugitives, and wherever they made a stand
dispersed them with but little effort or loss upon his own side. There
was no longer any regular resistance in Catalonia, though guerrilla
bands still prowled about the country.
Thus the wretched, desolating warfare raged, month after month. Nothing
of importance toward securing the abiding triumph of either party was
gained. Whenever the French army withdrew from any section of country,
British officers entered, to re-organize, with the aid of the Spanish
priests, the peasants to renewed opposition, and British gold was
lavished in paying the soldiers. Junot was taken sick, and Suchet, whom
Napoleon characterized at Saint Helena as the first of his generals, was
placed in command. We have not space to describe the numerous battles
which were fought, and the patience of our readers would be exhausted by
the dreary narration. The siege of Gerona by St. Cyr occupied seven
months.
Joseph was still in Madrid. As we have said, the more intelligent and
opulent classes rallied around him. Sir Archibald Alison, ever the
advocate of aristocratic privilege, while admitting the fact of
Joseph's apparent popularity in Madrid, in the following strain of
remark endeavors to explain that fact:
"Addresses had been forwarded to Joseph Bonaparte at Valladolid from
all the incorporations and influential bodies at Madrid, inviting him
to return to the capital and resume the reins of government. Registers
had been opened in different parts of the city for those citizens to
inscribe their names who were favorable to his cause. In a few days
thirty thousand signatures, chiefly of the more opulent classes,
had been inscribed on the lists. In obedience to these flattering
invitations, the intrusive King had entered the capital with great pomp,
amidst the discharge of a hundred pieces of cannon, and numerous, if not
heartfelt, demonstrations of public satisfaction; a memorable example of
the effect of the acquisition of wealth, and the enjoyments of luxury,
in enervating the minds of their possessors, and of the difference
between the patriotic energy of those classes who, having little to
lose, yield to ardent sentiments without reflection, and those in whom
the suggestions of interest and the habits of indulgence have stifled
the generous emotions of nature."
The great defect in Joseph's character as an executive officer, under
the circumstances in which he was placed, was his apparent inability
fully to comprehend the grandeur of Napoleon's conceptions. Instead of
looking upon Spain as an essential part of the majestic whole, and
which, by its money and its armies, must aid in sustaining the new
principle of equal rights for all, he forgot the general cause, and
sought only to promote the interests of his own kingdom. Napoleon,
having secured the reign of the new regime of equality in France, in
antagonism to the old regime of privilege, immediately found all Europe
banded against him. France could not stand alone against such
antagonism. Hence it became essential that alliances should be formed
for mutual protection. The genius of Napoleon was of necessity the
controlling element in these alliances.
In that view, he had enlarged and strengthened the boundaries of France.
He had created the kingdoms of Italy and Naples. He had, impelled by
the instinct of self-preservation, bought out the treacherous Bourbons
of Spain, and was endeavoring to lift up the Spaniards from ages of
depressing despotism, that Spain, under an enlightened ruler, rejoicing
in the intelligence and prosperity which existed under all the new
governments, might contribute its support to the system of equal rights
throughout Europe.
England, Russia, Prussia, Austria, and the aristocratic party throughout
all Europe, were in deadly hostility to the principle of abolishing
privileged classes, and instituting equal rights for all. They were ever
ready to squander blood and treasure, to violate treaties, to form open
or secret coalitions, in resisting these new ideas. Regarding Napoleon
as the great champion of popular rights, and conscious that there was no
one of his marshals who, upon Napoleon's downfall, could take his place,
all their energies were directed against him personally.
Thus we have the singular spectacle, never before witnessed in the
history of the world, never again to be witnessed, of the combined
monarchs of more than a hundred millions of men waging warfare against
one single man. And therefore Napoleon called upon all the regenerated
nations in sympathy with his views to rally around him. He regarded them
as wings of the great army of which France was the centre. In combating
the coalition, he was fighting battles for them all. They stood or fell
together. In the terrific struggle which deluged all Europe in blood,
Napoleon was the commander-in-chief of the whole army of reform. He was
such by the power of circumstances. He was such by innate ability. He
was such by universal recognition.
When therefore Napoleon regarded the sovereigns appointed over the
nations whom his genius had rescued from despotism but as the generals
of his armies, who were to co-operate at his bidding in defense of the
general system of dynastic oppression, it was not arrogance, it was
wisdom and necessity that inspired his conduct. Louis in Holland, Jerome
in Westphalia, Eugene in Italy, Murat in Naples, Joseph in Spain, all
were bound, under the leadership of Napoleon, to contribute their
portion to the general defense.
Very strangely, Joseph seemed never to be able fully to comprehend this
idea. He was a man of great intelligence, of high culture, and a more
kindly, generous heart never throbbed in a human bosom; and yet,
notwithstanding all Napoleon's arguments, it seemed impossible for him
to comprehend why he should not be as independent as the King of Spain,
as Napoleon was in the sovereignty of France. Fully recognizing the
immeasurable superiority of his brother to any other man, and loving him
with a devotion which has seldom if ever been exceeded, he was still
disposed to regard himself as placed in Spain only to promote the
happiness of the Spanish people, without regard to the interests of the
general cause. Instead of being ready to contribute of men and money
from Spain to maintain the conflict against coalesced Europe, he was
continually writing to his brother to send him money to carry on his own
Government, and to excuse him from making any exactions from the people.
He was exceedingly reluctant to deal with severity, or to quell the
outrages of brigands with the necessary punishment. His letters to the
Emperor are often filled with complaints. He deplores the sad destiny
which has made him a king. He longs to return, with his wife and
children, to the quiet retreat of Mortfontaine.
Napoleon dealt tenderly with his brother. He fully understood his
virtues; he fully comprehended his defects. Occasionally an expression
of impatience escaped his pen, though frequently he made no allusion, in
his reply, to Joseph's repinings.
The Duke of Wellington is reported to have said that "a man of refined
Christian sensibilities has no right to enter into the profession of a
soldier." A successful warrior must often perform deeds at which
humanity shudders. Joseph was, by the confession of all, one of the most
calm and brave of men upon the field of battle. Still, he was too modest
a man, and had too little confidence in himself to perform those
hazardous and heroic deeds of arms which war often requires. Napoleon,
conscious that his brother was not by nature a warrior, and also wishing
to save him from the unpopularity of military acts in crushing sedition,
left him as much as possible to the administration of civil affairs in
Madrid. His statesmanship and amiability of character could here have
full scope.
To his war-scarred veterans, Junot, Soult, Jourdan, Suchet, the Emperor
mainly intrusted the military expeditions. Still, to save Joseph from a
sense of humiliation, the Emperor acted as far as possible through his
brother, in giving commands to the army. But the marshals, obedient as
children to the commands of Napoleon, whose superior genius not one of
them ever thought of calling in question, often manifested reluctance in
executing operations directed by Joseph. At times they could not
conceal from him that they considered their knowledge of the art of war
superior to his. Joseph was king of Spain, and was often humiliated by
the impression forced upon him that he was something like a tool in the
hands of others.
During the year 1809 Joseph remained most of the time in Madrid. There
were innumerable conflicts during the year, from petty skirmishes to
pretty severe battles, none of which are worthy of record in this brief
sketch.
The latter part of April the Duke of Wellington landed in Portugal, with
English re-enforcements of thirty thousand men. With these, aided by
such forces as he could raise in Portugal and rally around him in Spain,
he was to advance against the French. Napoleon had been compelled to
withdraw all of the Imperial Guard, and all of his choicest troops, to
meet the war on the plains of Germany. Marshal Soult was on the march
for Oporto. With about twenty thousand troops he laid siege to the city.
The feebleness of the defense of the Portuguese may be inferred from the
fact that the city was protected by two hundred pieces of cannon, and by
a force of regular troops and armed peasants amounting to about seventy
thousand men. Soult, having made all his preparations for the assault,
and confident that the city could not resist his attack, wrote a very
earnest letter to the magistrates, urging that by capitulation they
should save the city from the horrors of being carried by storm. No
reply was returned to the summons except a continued fire.
The attack was made. The Portuguese peasants had tortured, mangled,
killed all the French prisoners that had fallen into their hands. Both
parties were in a state of extreme exasperation. The battle was short.
When the French troops burst through the barriers, a general panic
seized the Portuguese troops, and they rushed in wild confusion through
the streets toward the Douro. The French cavalry pursued the terrified
fugitives, and, with keen sabres, hewed them down till their arms were
weary with the slaughter.
A bridge crossed the river. Crowded with the frenzied multitude, it sank
under their weight, and the stream was black with the bodies of drowning
men. Those in the rear, by thousands, pressed those before them into the
yawning gulf. Boats pushed out from the banks to rescue them, but the
light artillery of the French was already upon the water's edge,
discharging volleys of grape upon the helpless, compact mass. Before the
city surrendered, four thousand of these unhappy victims of war, torn
with shot, and suffocated by the waves, were swept down the stream.
Though the marshal exerted himself to the utmost to preserve discipline,
no mortal man could restrain the passions of an army in such an hour.
The wretched city experienced all the horrors of a town taken by storm.
The number of the slain, according to the report of Marshal Soult, was
more than eighteen thousand, not including those who were engulfed in
the Douro. Multitudes of the wounded fled to the woods, where they
perished miserably of exposure and starvation. But two hundred and fifty
prisoners were taken. The French took two hundred thousand pounds of
powder, a vast amount of stores, and tents for the accommodation of
fifty thousand men. They captured also in the port thirty English
vessels loaded with wine. The loss of the French in capturing Oporto,
according to the report of the general-in-chief, was but eighty killed,
and three hundred and fifty wounded.
It is heart-sickening to proceed with the recital of these horrors.
Similar scenes took place in Tarancon, where General Victor destroyed
the remains of the regular Spanish army with terrible slaughter. A band
of about twelve thousand men were cut to pieces by General Sebastiani.
Again the Spaniards met with a fearful repulse upon the plains of
Estremadura. The Spanish general, Cuesta, with twenty thousand infantry
and four thousand horse, was attacked by General Victor with fifteen
thousand foot and three thousand horse. As usual, the French cut to
pieces their despised foes, capturing all their artillery, inflicting
upon them a loss in killed, wounded, and prisoners, of ten thousand men,
while the French lost but about one thousand.
While these scenes were transpiring, Joseph, at Madrid, not only
occupied himself with the general direction of the war, so far as the
instructions which he perpetually received from Paris enabled him to
do, but labored incessantly, as he had done in Naples, in promoting all
needful reforms, and in forming and executing plans for the happiness
of his subjects. He caused a constitution, which had been formed at
Bayonne, to be published and widely circulated, that the Spaniards
might be convinced that it was his desire to reign over them as a father
rather than as a sovereign.
Napoleon, speaking of his brother Joseph to Dr. O'Meara at Saint Helena,
said:
"Joseph is a very excellent man. His virtues and his talents are
appropriate to private life. Nature destined him for that. He is too
amiable to be a great man. He has no ambition. He resembles me in
person, but he is much better than I. He is extremely well educated."
"I have always observed," O'Meara remarks, "that he spoke of his brother
Joseph with the most ardent affection."
The fickleness of the multitude was very conspicuous during all these
stormy scenes. Joseph made a short visit to the southern provinces.
Everywhere he was received with the greatest enthusiasm, the people
crowding around him, and greeting him with shouts of "_Vive le Roi._"
Deputations from the cities and villages hastened to meet him with
protestations of homage and fidelity. Joseph responded, in those
convincing accents which the honesty of his heart inspired, that he
wished to forget all the past, to maintain the salutary institutions of
religion, and to confer upon Spain that constitutional liberty which
would secure its prosperity. Joseph and the friends who accompanied him
were so much impressed with the apparent cordiality of their greeting
that they were sanguine in the hope that the nation would rally around
the new dynasty. On the 4th of March the King entered Malaga. The
enthusiasm of his reception could scarcely have been exceeded. The
streets through which he passed were strewn with flowers, and the
windows filled with the smiling faces of ladies. He remained there for
eight days, receiving every token of regard which affection and
confidence could confer.
[Illustration: JOSEPH ENTERING MALAGA.]
But in other parts of the country where Joseph was not present it seemed
as if the whole population, without a dissenting voice, was rising
against him. His embarrassments became extreme. He not only had no wish
to impose himself upon a reluctant people, but no earthly consideration
could induce him to do so. It was his sincere and earnest desire to lift
up Spain from its degradation, and make it great and prosperous. The
emissaries of Great Britain were everywhere busy recruiting the Spanish
armies, lavishing gold in payment, supplying the troops abundantly
with clothing and all the munitions of war, and giving them English
officers. Guerrilla bands were organized, with the privilege of
plundering and destroying all who were in favor of the new regime. The
friends of the new regime dared not openly avow their attachment to the
government of Joseph, unless protected by French troops. It was thus
extremely difficult to ascertain the real wishes of the nation.
The Duke of Wellington was upon the frontiers, with an army of seventy
thousand English and Portuguese. If Joseph remained in Spain, it was
clear that he had a long and bloody struggle before him. If he threw
down the crown and abandoned the enterprise, it was surrendering Spain
to England, to be forced inevitably into the coalition against France.
Thus the existence of the new regime in France seemed to depend upon the
result of the struggle in Spain. Joseph could not abandon the enterprise
without being apparently false to his brother, to his own country, and
to the principle of equal rights for all throughout Europe.