strengthening these places; the range of positions connected with them
extended from the Tagus at Alhandra, to the sea at the mouth of the
Zizandra; the accessible points were occupied with forts; and every
resource was employed to make a line of defence, in which so eventful a
contest was to be decided, as formidable as art, combined with its
natural advantages, could render it. The early decision of Lord
Wellington was supported by the events which succeeded each other in the
early parts of the year 1810. The great force of the enemy which menaced
Portugal, and the total destruction of all the effective Spanish armies
which could co-operate with the British in defence of it, confirmed Lord
Wellington in the wisdom of his plan of retreat. The French had a force
in Spain of not less than 300,000 men; this army was distributed over
almost every part of the country; Gallicia, Valencia, and Murcia, were
the only provinces that were free, the rest were in the occupation of
the enemy. The amount of this force, when collected, was sufficient to
overwhelm the small numbers of the allies that were in a state of
military organization in the Peninsula; but from great extension, it
became unequal to the task imposed upon it. It was employed in
completing the subjugation of the provinces that had been conquered; and
yet that object was not advancing, although the force was frittered away
in seeking to accomplish it. The animosity of the people was working in
silence the destruction of the French armies. Every succeeding day
brought reports of skirmishes, or individual rencontres, in which the
enemy were worsted, and no account represented any part of Spain as
diminishing in its hostility, or as being treated with more confidence,
or relied upon with greater security, by the French.
The army of Marshal Massena, while attempting the conquest of Portugal,
could lend no aid towards the reduction of the people in the Peninsula:
as long as it was in observation of the British troops, whether on the
Spanish frontier or in the lines of Lisbon, it could as little assist
the views of Buonaparte in reducing the country to obedience; the
destruction of Lord Wellington’s army could alone enable Massena to
fulfil the objects of his Imperial Master. The preventing that
catastrophe formed the basis of Lord Wellington’s plans for the
campaign. He was neither strong enough, nor had he any wish, to
undertake offensive operations: the state of Spain was not such as to
make them advisable; they must necessarily be commenced at considerable
risk against a superior army; and if they were unsuccessful, the cause
of the Peninsula was lost. By the plan which Lord Wellington had
determined upon, he promised to preserve his army, to increase its
discipline, to augment its numbers, to draw the French into a country
where their means of subsistence would be confined, and where their
force would not be sufficient to maintain even their communications with
the depôts, which must necessarily be placed at a distance from them.
Massena advanced from Salamanca in the beginning of June, to commence
the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo; he brought with him a considerable train of
artillery, and expected the place would surrender upon being summoned.
But it was defended with considerable ability and valour, and was only
yielded into the hands of the enemy upon the 18th of July, after the
breaches were practicable and the principal defences destroyed. Many
persons at the time conceived that Lord Wellington had seen the fall of
this fortress with considerable indifference, since he had made no
movement to relieve it; but it is only necessary to point out the
results of victory or defeat to the different armies, to shew the
propriety of Lord Wellington’s determination not to risk a general
action. To attack the French he must have crossed the Coa and the
Agueda; if he had been defeated, he would have had great difficulty in
repassing those rivers, and saving the wrecks of his army; he would no
longer have been able to provide for the defence of Portugal with a
beaten army; he must have evacuated the country. If he beat the French
they would have retired upon reinforcements, and would have been
prepared to advance upon him again in a very short time. Lord Wellington
would have had to lament the brave men he must have lost in an action,
which would but have relieved Ciudad Rodrigo for a short time, as he
must afterwards have abandoned it to the superior numbers of the enemy.
His army must also have been considerably weakened; and most likely
would have been unequal to the task afterwards to be imposed upon it, in
the defence of Portugal.
Soon after the fall of Ciudad Rodrigo, the British advanced guard, under
Major General Crawford, retired from the fort of La Conception, and was
placed in a position under the walls of Almeida. Lord Wellington
directed this corps to fall back across the Coa; but, from some
misapprehension, these orders were not executed, and it was attacked
upon the 24th of July. The French had the whole corps of Ney engaged in
this affair; it manœuvred under cover of its cavalry upon the right of
Major General Crawford, who did not decide upon his retreat until it had
gained his flank. The British and Portuguese troops behaved with great
gallantry, but they could not cope with numbers so superior to their
own; they retired across the bridge over the Coa, in some confusion, but
formed to defend it, and repulsed the repeated attacks of the enemy to
gain possession of it. Major General Crawford had been previously, for a
considerable time, with his advanced guard close to the French army.
During the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo, he had maintained a communication
with the place, and had assisted Don Julian Sanches in his successful
effort to leave it. This officer, who had for a long time commanded a
corps of Guerrillas, and who had been most fortunate in his enterprises
against the enemy, was enclosed within the walls of this fortress, by
the rapidity with which the French had invested it. Massena was aware of
the circumstance, and vowed vengeance against this chief of banditti (as
he was pleased to designate him). But Don Julian determined to force his
way through the besieging army. He formed his corps in close column,
placed his wife by his side at the head of it, and left the town soon
after dark. As soon as he was challenged by the French sentries, he
moved at full gallop upon them; cut down those that he met with, and
continued his course till he had passed through the army. He arrived in
safety at the quarters of Major General Crawford, and soon after
retaliated upon several of the enemy the vengeance they had threatened
to inflict upon him.
On the day on which Ciudad Rodrigo surrendered, General Crawford, while
making a reconnoissance, fell in with a strong patrole from the French
army; he engaged in an affair with it, which did not turn out
successfully; the French infantry repulsed three successive charges of
the British cavalry, in one of which Colonel Talbot, of the 14th Light
Dragoons, was killed; and, profiting by a mistake amongst our own
troops, who took each other for enemies, it retired with little loss to
the corps which was supporting it: the cavalry which accompanied it was
taken.
Marshal Massena invested Almeida on the 24th of July, immediately after
the affair under the walls of that place with the corps of Major General
Crawford. Lord Wellington retired from Alverca (where he had placed his
head-quarters during the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo) to his former station
at Celorico; he also drew back the divisions that were at Pinhel and
Trancoso, and placed them in rear of Celorico, along the valley of the
Mondego; he was thus prepared to commence his retreat upon the lines, in
case the enemy had determined to push forward, before the capture of
Almeida. Massena preferred, however, the surer game, and commenced the
siege of that place. He was considerably delayed in his operations by
the nature of the ground, and was not able to open his fire upon it till
the 23d of August. Lord Wellington determined to assist the place in its
defence, although he did not choose to risk an action to relieve it; he
moved up his whole army as soon as the firing had commenced from the
trenches, and, on the 27th of August, had determined to place it upon
the banks of the Coa. In the course of that day, however, Lord
Wellington, while reconnoitring, was surprised to find that all firing
had ceased about Almeida. The telegraph, by which he communicated with
it, no longer sent him any information, and he was afraid it had
surrendered; he observed a person walking upon the glacis, which
confirmed his suspicions, and he was informed of a considerable
explosion which had taken place the night preceding. Lord Wellington
immediately ordered his army to be ready to fall back to its positions
in the rear, but the place recommenced its firing about ten o’clock at
night; it ceased, however, at twelve; and the following morning, in a
skirmish with the enemy’s cavalry, a German serjeant, in the French
service, called to a dragoon of the 1st German hussars, and told him to
apprize his General that Almeida had surrendered. The order for the
retreat was soon after given; and the allied army was again placed in
its position, in the valley of the Mondego.
The loss of Almeida, after only three days firing, was a severe
mortification to Lord Wellington; he found afterwards, that an order
which he had given when he visited the place in the February preceding,
to remove the great magazine from the centre of the town to one of the
casemates, had not been executed; that a shell having fallen near the
door of this depôt, while some men were employed in getting powder, the
whole provision of that article for the garrison had been blown up; the
town had been nearly destroyed by the explosion; the ramparts had been
materially injured; and the place had been left without the means of
defence. In this situation the governor, General Cox, endeavoured to
capitulate, upon being allowed to retire with his garrison; but the
Portuguese officer, who was sent to negotiate (and who is the only
instance of a traitor among the officers of that nation, who have acted
with the British army), betrayed the disastrous situation of the place,
and refused to return within it. Marshal Massena insisted upon
unconditional surrender, which Brigadier General Cox refused; the firing
recommenced, as has been already stated, but at midnight the town was
surrendered.
The Marquis de Alorna, who was with the French army, desired the
Portuguese garrison to enter the service of France, and to become a part
of a Portuguese legion, of which he was to be the commander; but the
whole of the men and officers refused. They were then threatened with
every sort of persecution; they were menaced with the utmost rigour of
the law as traitors to their country; but if they would enlist under the
French banners, they were promised protection and advantage. Seeing no
other mode of escaping from a treatment so contrary to every principle
of justice, the garrison consented to serve under the Marquis de Alorna;
but its object was the reverse of what the French expected; the moment
the individuals were restored to liberty, they planned the means of
returning to their army; and, on the third day from the time of their
enlistment, there remained with the French out of the whole 20th
Regiment, a squadron of cavalry and a company of artillery, but thirty
men and a few officers, who had been detected at the moment they also
were escaping. These troops were immediately re-formed, upon their
return to Portugal; and the 20th Regiment particularly distinguished
itself throughout the campaign that followed.
An incident which took place on the night of the surrender of Almeida,
deserves to be mentioned, to shew the hostility of the Portuguese
peasantry to the French. Colonel Pavetti, the chief of the gens
d’armerie of France, in Spain, had gone to Almeida with Marshal Massena,
when he left his head-quarters at the fort of La Conception, to induce
the garrison to surrender; when the firing recommenced, Colonel Pavetti
(who was unwell) set out upon his return to his quarters; he was
accompanied by a Lieutenant-Colonel, a Captain, and twelve men; the
night was extremely dark and stormy, and he lost his way. He met with a
Portuguese shepherd, whom he took for his guide, and who promised to
conduct him (the vengeance of these Frenchmen hanging over him) to the
fort of La Conception. But this peasant could not resist his feelings of
animosity; he found courage to mislead the party; and under the pretence
of having missed his way, brought it to his own village. He persuaded
Colonel Pavetti to put up for the night in the house of the Jues de
Fora, and pretended that he would procure provisions for him. Instead,
however, of employing himself in that way, he collected the inhabitants,
fell upon the French, killed them all, except the colonel, whom he beat
most severely, and his servant who stated himself to be a German. The
next day the colonel was brought, with two ribs broken and other
damages, to the head-quarters of Lord Wellington; where he was attended
to, and afterwards sent prisoner to England.
To appreciate this event, it must be remembered that it took place in
the middle of an army of 60,000 Frenchmen; that their revenge awaited
those who were concerned in it; but that, notwithstanding, the animosity
of the Portuguese was too strong to be resisted by any calculations of
the retaliation which was likely to follow the act that was committed.
It will not be uninteresting to cite a trait of the character of Colonel
Pavetti. Lord Wellington treated him with great kindness; bought the
horse which had belonged to him of the peasants; returned it to him, and
asked him to his table. While at dinner, this officer took an
opportunity of stating to Lord Wellington that the Duchess of Abrantes
was with her husband Junot; he added, “Qu’elle était grosse, et qu’elle
comptoit faire ses couches dans son duché[3].” Lord Wellington took
little notice of this impertinence; but General Alava, a Spanish
officer, who was attached to the British head-quarters, answered, “Qu’il
ferait bien de faire savoir à madame la duchesse, qu’elle eut garde de
ces messieurs habillés en _rouge_, car ils étaient de très mauvais
accoucheurs.”
Footnote 3:
Abrantes was at that time 150 miles behind our army, and throughout
the whole succeeding campaigns, it was never taken by the enemy.
During the sieges of Ciudad Rodrigo and Almeida, General Regnier had
continually made movements with his corps upon Castel Branco,
Pena-Macor, _&c._, with a view of inducing Lieutenant General Hill to
leave the positions he occupied, and to expose himself to an attack,
which was meditated upon him from a part of the force under Massena, as
well as from Regnier. It was also hoped that Lord Wellington might be
induced to venture an attack upon Regnier’s corps, which seemed exposed,
but which Massena was prepared to support with his whole army. Lord
Wellington, however, was faithful to the system he had prescribed to
himself; no artifice could draw him from the position which made his
retreat secure; and Massena was at last obliged to come into Portugal,
to seek him upon the ground he had chosen for his operations.
Detachments of French were also sent upon Lord Wellington’s left, with
the same view of engaging him to break up from the positions he
occupied; but all these movements failed in their object.
From the neighbourhood of Almeida there are three roads which lead
directly to the centre of Portugal; that on the right by Trancoso to
Viseu, the centre by Celorico to Fornos Mangualde and Viseu; the third
by Celorico, Villa Cortes, Pinhancos, Puente de Marcella, and from hence
to Coimbra and Thomar; from Viseu the road also leads by Busaco to
Coimbra. The right and centre roads were extremely bad; so much so, that
Lord Wellington condemned a considerable part of them as improper for
artillery; he chose the road to Puente de Marcella as the fittest for
his operations, and bestowed the greatest pains in improving it. After
the fall of Almeida, he had placed the infantry of his own corps along
this road with the rear divisions, as far back as Puente de Marcella.
The corps of Major General Leith was moved from the Zezere to Thomar, so
as to be within reach for any assistance that might be required from it;
and Lieutenant General Hill was kept at Sarzedas to cover the road along
the Tagus upon Abrantes and Lisbon; but was directed to be prepared to
move by the road of Formoso and Pedragoa Grande, to Puente de Marcella,
in case Lord Wellington should require him to do so. The cavalry was in
front of the whole army, and had its advanced posts at Alverca.
Massena commenced his march into Portugal upon the 16th of September;
his army advanced in three corps; the 8th corps under Junot, moved by
Pinhel upon Trancoso, the 6th corps under Ney, upon Alverca; and the 2d
corps, under Regnier, upon Guarda; the British cavalry retired to
Celorico. The next day the two latter corps moved into Celorico; from
which place they were observed to take the road to Fornos. As soon as
Lord Wellington was persuaded that the enemy had made choice of that
road, and that no part of their army was moving upon the road by the
Tagus, he sent directions to Lieutenant General Hill to break up from
Sarzedas, and to move by Pedragoa Grande, to the Puente de Marcella; he
moved the corps of Major General Leith to the same place from Thomar,
and he withdrew his own divisions with the view of collecting the whole
army upon the Sierra of Busaco.
Marshal Massena had commenced his operations with the hopes of turning
the left of Lord Wellington, and of reaching Coimbra before the British
army could be collected to oppose him; he had been induced to believe
that Lord Wellington had prepared to meet him at the Puente de Marcella;
but he hoped that by this movement on the right of the Mondego, he
should turn that position, and find Lord Wellington unprepared to
assemble in any other. He was miserably deceived; Lord Wellington was
aware of the nature of the roads the enemy had fixed upon for his
movements; he calculated the delays he would meet with, and arranged his
plans accordingly. He directed a portion of the militia that was at
Lamego under the orders of Colonel Trant to march upon Sardao; the rest
was directed to move upon Trancoso and Celorico, upon the rear of the
enemy, to intercept their communication with Almeida.
Marshal Massena arrived at Viseu upon the 19th of September; his
artillery had suffered so much from the badness of the roads that he was
obliged to remain there for some days to repair it. General Junot joined
him at this place from Trancoso, so that the whole French army was
collected there. On the 23d the advanced patroles of the British and
French armies met each other near St. Comba de Dao. The bridge over the
Cris, by which the great road to Coimbra passes, was blown up; but the
following day the French advanced guard passed that river, and the
greatest part of the British retired to the heights of Busaco, where the
whole army was collecting. On the 25th Marshal Massena joined his
advanced guard, and on the 26th pushed forward to the foot of the
position which was occupied by Lord Wellington.
The ridge of heights upon which the British army was posted runs nearly
north and south, from a point about four miles to the north of Busaco,
to the confluence of the river Alva and the Mondego; the extreme points
are nearly fifteen miles distant. Two great roads to Coimbra cross over
this Sierra, the one close to the convent of Busaco, the other four
miles to the southward of it, at St. Antonio de Cantaro. The corps of
Lieutenant General Hill which had made a most rapid though difficult
march from Sarzedas, arrived upon the Mondego on the evening of the
26th, and was directed to move into the right of the position of Busaco
early on the following morning. Lord Wellington had made a road along
the heights, by which his flanks communicated, and in this situation he
awaited the attack of the enemy.
We may be allowed for a moment to consider the brilliancy of the
movement by which the allied army had thus been collected. Massena
conceived that he should surprise his antagonist by the rapidity of his
march upon his flank; the British officers generally thought that it
would be impossible to oppose him before he had possessed himself of
Coimbra; and the corps of Lieutenant General Hill was universally
thought to be totally beyond the reach of the army of Lord Wellington.
Marshal Massena for a long time disbelieved the fact of its junction at
Busaco; and after he had been convinced of it, denied the possibility of
its having marched from Sarzedas. Yet Lord Wellington, in spite of the
difficulties opposed to him, of the able movements intended to surprise
him, and of the triumphant predictions of his adversary, collected his
force from situations in which it seemed totally divided from him, and
was prepared to fight the enemy with the whole strength of the allied
army, without having lost a single man in the attainment of his object.
The corps of militia under Colonel Trant, which had been ordered to
Sardao, from whence it was to have moved into the Sierra of Caramula,
was the only one which had not reached the ground assigned to it; this
failure was occasioned by some false information as to the possession of
a pass by the enemy, which obliged that corps to move by a circuitous
road through Oporto. It arrived upon the Vouga on the 28th, but too late
to effect the object for which it was intended.
On the morning of the 27th of September the whole French army was
arrayed in front of the British position, from whence every part of it
was distinctly to be seen. The corps of Marshal Ney was formed in close
columns at the foot of the hill opposite the convent of Busaco. The
corps of General Regnier was opposite the third division of British
under Major General Picton, and prepared to advance by the road to
Coimbra, which passed over the height by St. Antonio de Cantaro. The
corps of General Junot was in reserve with the greater part of the
cavalry, and was posted upon some rising ground about a league in the
rear of Marshal Ney.