TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
* Italics are denoted by underscores as in _italics_, and small caps
are represented in upper case as in SMALL CAPS.
* Obvious printer errors have been silently corrected.
* Original spelling was kept, but variant spellings were made
consistent when a predominant usage was found.
* To aid referencing places and names in present-day maps and
documents, outdated and current spellings of some proper names
follow:
Abispal (Conde), now Abisbal and La Bisbal,
Agaera (river), now Agüera (río),
Aguilar del Campo, now Aguilar de Campoo,
Albayda,
Albeyda, now Albaida,
Albaracin, now Albarracín,
Albuquerque, now Alburquerque,
Alcanizas, now Alcañices,
Alemtejo, now Alentejo,
Almanza, now Almansa,
Arroyo dos Molinos, now Arroyomolinos,
Aspeytia, now Azpeitia,
Babila Fuente, now Babilafuente,
Ballasteros, now Ballesteros,
Balmaseda, now Valmaseda,
Bastan, now Batzán,
Beassayn, now Beasáin,
Becceril, now Becerril,
Belayos, now Velayos,
Bergara, now Vergara,
Berostigueta, now Berrosteguieta,
Bivar, now Vivar,
Bussaco, now Buçaco,
Caçeres, now Cáceres,
Calvarisa de Abaxo, now Calvarrasa de Abajo,
Calvarisa de Ariba, now Calvarrasa de Arriba,
Castroxeriz, now Castrojeriz,
Consentaina, now Concentaina,
Cordova, now Córdoba,
Corunna, now La Coruña,
Donna Maria,
Doña Maria, now Donamaría,
Douro, now Duero (in Spain),
Douro (in Portugal),
El Orrio, now Elorrio,
Ernani, now Hernani,
Escurial, now El Escorial,
Espadacinda, now Freixo de Espada à Cinta,
Estremadura, now Extremadura (in Spain),
Estremadura (in Portugal),
Exea, now Ejea de los Caballeros,
Exeme, now Ejeme,
Freneda, now Freineda,
Fuente Dueñas,
Fuentedueñas, now Fuentidueña de Tajo,
Garcia Hernandez, now Garcihernández,
Guadalaviar (river), now Turia (río),
Guarena, now Guareña,
La Baneza, now La Bañeza,
La Mota, now Mota del Marqués,
Majorca, now Mallorca,
Moxente, now Moixent,
Pampeluna, now Pamplona,
Passages, now Pasajes,
Penauseude, now Peñausende,
Puycerda, now Puigcerdá,
Requeña, now Requena,
Saguntum, now Sagunto,
Sanguesa, now Sangüesa,
Santa Enferina, now Santa Eufemia del Barco,
Saragossa, now Zaragoza,
Senabria, now Sanabria,
Tagus (river), now Tajo (Spanish),
Tejo (Portuguese),
Torre dem Barra, now Torredembarra,
Valtanas, now Baltanás,
Villa al Campo, now Villalcampo,
Villa Real, now Vila Real,
Villaba, now Villava,
Villadrigo, now Villodrigo,
Villavanez, now Villabáñez,
Vittoria, now Vitoria,
Xucar (river), now Júcar (río),
Yrurzun, now Irurzun,
Zagaramurdi, now Zugarramurdi,
Zamorra, now Zamarra.
* Footnotes have been renumbered into a single series and placed at
the end of the volume.
[Illustration: _Lieutenant-General Sir Rowland Hill, K.G.B._
_from the portrait by G. Dawe, R.A._]
A HISTORY OF THE
PENINSULAR WAR
BY
CHARLES OMAN, K.B.E.
M.A. OXON., HON. LL.D. EDIN.
FELLOW OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY
MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
CHICHELE PROFESSOR OF MODERN HISTORY
AND FELLOW OF ALL SOULS COLLEGE, OXFORD
VOL. VI
SEPTEMBER 1, 1812-AUGUST 5, 1813
THE SIEGE OF BURGOS
THE RETREAT FROM BURGOS
THE CAMPAIGN OF VITTORIA
THE BATTLES OF THE PYRENEES
WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS
OXFORD
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
1922
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
London Edinburgh Glasgow Copenhagen
New York Toronto Melbourne Cape Town
Bombay Calcutta Madras Shanghai
HUMPHREY MILFORD
Publisher to the University
Printed in England
PREFACE
It is seldom that the last chapter of a volume is written seven
years after the first has been finished; and when this does happen,
the author is generally to blame. I must ask, however, for complete
acquittal on the charge of dilatoriness or want of energy. I was
writing the story of the Burgos Campaign in July 1914: in August the
Great War broke out: and like every one else I applied for service
in any capacity in which a man of fifty-four could be useful. By
September 4th I was hard at work in Whitehall, and by a queer chance
was the person who on September 12th drafted from very inadequate
material the long _communiqué_ concerning the battle of the Marne. For
four years and six months I was busy in one office and another, and
ended up my service by writing the narrative of the Outbreak of the
War, which was published by the Foreign Office in February 1919. My
toils at the desk had just finished when it happened that I was sent
to the House of Commons, as Burgess representing the University of
Oxford, after a by-election caused by the elevation of my predecessor,
Rowland Prothero, to the Upper Chamber. Two long official tours in the
Rhineland and in France combined with parliamentary work to prevent me
writing a word in 1919. But in the recess of 1920 I was able to find
time to recommence Peninsular War studies, and this volume was finished
in the autumn and winter of 1921 and sent to the press in January 1922.
It was fortunate that in the years immediately preceding the Great
War I had been taking repeated turns round the Iberian Peninsula, so
that the topography of very nearly all the campaigns with which this
volume deals was familiar to me. I had marvelled at the smallness of
the citadel of Burgos, and the monotony of the plains across which
Wellington’s retreat of 1812 was conducted. I had watched the rapid
flow of the Zadorra beside Vittoria, marked the narrowness of the front
of attack at St. Sebastian, and admired the bold scenery of the lower
Bidassoa. Moreover, on the East Coast I had stood on the ramparts
of Tarragona, and wondered at the preposterous operations against
them which Sir John Murray directed. But there are two sections of
this volume in which I cannot speak as one who has seen the land. My
travels had never taken me to the Alicante country, or the scene of the
isolated and obscure battle of Castalla. And--what is more important--I
have never tramped over Soult’s route from Roncesvalles to the gates
of Pampeluna, or from Sorauren to Echalar. Such an excursion I had
planned in company with my good friend Foster Cunliffe, our All Souls
Reader in Military History, who fell on the Somme in 1916, and I had no
great desire to think of making it without him. Moreover, the leisure
of the times before 1914 is now denied me. So for the greater part
of the ten-days’ Campaign of the Pyrenees I have been dependent for
topography on the observations of others--which I regret. But it would
have been absurd to delay the publication of this volume for another
year or more, on the chance of being able to go over the ground in some
uncovenanted scrap of holiday.
I have, as in previous cases, to make due acknowledgement of much
kind help from friends in the completion of this piece of work. First
and foremost my thanks are due to my Oxford colleague in the History
School, Mr. C. T. Atkinson of Exeter College, who found time during
some particularly busy weeks to go over my proofs with his accustomed
accuracy. His criticism was always valuable, and I made numerous
changes in the text in deference to his suggestions. As usual, his
wonderful knowledge of British regimental history enabled me to correct
many slips and solecisms, and to make many statements clearer by an
alteration of words and phrases. I am filled with gratitude when I
think how he exerted himself to help me in the midst his own absorbing
duties.
In the preceding volumes of this work I had not the advantage of being
able to read the parts of the Hon. John Fortescue’s _History of the
British Army_ which referred to the campaigns with which I was dealing.
For down to 1914 I was some way ahead of him in the tale of years.
But his volumes of 1921 took him past me, even as far as Waterloo,
so that I had the opportunity of reading his accounts of Vittoria
and the Pyrenees while I was writing my own version. This was always
profitable--I am glad to think that we agree on all that is essential,
though we may sometimes differ on matters of detail. But this is not
the most important part of the aid that I owe to Mr. Fortescue. He was
good enough to lend me the whole of his transcripts from the French
Archives dealing with the Campaign of 1813, whereby I was saved a
visit to Paris and much tedious copying of statistics and excerpting
from dispatches. My own work at the _Archives Nationales_ and the
Ministry of War had only taken me down to the end of 1812. This was
a most friendly act, and saved me many hours of transcription. There
are few authors who are so liberal and thoughtful for the benefit of
their colleagues in study. It will be noted in the Appendix that quite
a large proportion of my statistics come from papers lent me by Mr.
Fortescue.
As to other sources now first utilized in print, I have to thank Mr. W.
S. D’Urban of Newport House for the loan of the diary of his ancestor
Sir Benjamin D’Urban--most valuable for the Burgos retreat, especially
for the operations of Hill’s column. Another diary and correspondence,
which was all-important for my last volume, runs dry as a source after
the first months of 1813. These were the papers of Sir George Scovell,
Wellington’s cypher-secretary, from which so many quotations may be
found in volume V. But after he left head-quarters and took charge of
the newly formed Military Police [‘Staff Corps Cavalry’] in the spring
before Vittoria, he lost touch with the lines of information on which
he had hitherto been so valuable. I owe the very useful reports of the
Spanish Fourth Army, and the Marching Orders of General Giron, to the
kindness of Colonel Juan Arzadun, who caused them to be typed and sent
to me from Madrid. By their aid I was able to fill up all the daily
_étapes_ of the Galician corps, and to throw some new light on its
operations in Biscay.
To Mr. Leonard Atkinson, M.C., of the Record Office, I must give a
special word of acknowledgement, which I repeat on page 753, for
discovering the long-lost ‘morning states’ of Wellington’s army
in 1813, which his thorough acquaintance with the shelves of his
department enabled him to find for me, after they had been divorced
for at least three generations from the dispatches to which they had
originally belonged. Tied up unbound between two pieces of cardboard,
they had eluded all previous seekers. We can at last give accurately
the strength of every British and Portuguese brigade at Vittoria and in
the Pyrenees.
I could have wished that the times permitted authors to be as liberal
with maps as they were before the advent of post-war prices. I would
gladly have added detailed plans of the combats of Venta del Pozo and
Tolosa to my illustrations. And I am sorry that for maps of Tarragona,
and Catalonia generally, I must refer readers back to my fourth volume.
But books of research have now to be equipped with the lowest possible
minimum of plates, or their price becomes prohibitive. I do not think
that anything really essential for the understanding of localities has
been left out. I ought perhaps to mention that my reconstructions of
the topography of Maya and Roncesvalles owe much to the sketch-maps in
General Beatson’s _Wellington in the Pyrenees_, the only modern plans
which have any value.
To conclude, I must express, now for the sixth time, to the compiler of
the Index my heartfelt gratitude for a laborious task executed with her
usual untiring patience and thoroughness.
CHARLES OMAN.
OXFORD,
_June_ 1922.
CONTENTS
SECTION XXXIV
THE BURGOS CAMPAIGN
CHAPTER PAGE
I. Wellington in the North: Burgos Invested. September
1812 1
II. The Siege of Burgos. September 19-October 30, 1812 21
III. Wellington’s Retreat from Burgos. (1) From the Arlanzon
to the Douro. October 22-30 52
IV. Hill’s Retreat from Madrid. October 25-November 6 87
V. Operations round Salamanca. November 1-15 111
VI. Wellington’s Retreat from the Tormes to the Agueda.
November 16-20 143
VII. Critical Summary of the Campaigns of 1812 167