THE SIEGE OF BURGOS.
1812.
The occupation of Madrid was among the most brilliant epochs of
Peninsular history, and, from circumstances, it was also among the
briefest. The conquest of the capital was certainly a splendid exploit.
It told that Wellington held a position and possessed a power that in
Britain many doubted and more denied; and those, whose evil auguries
had predicted a retreat upon the shipping, and finally an abandonment
of the country, were astounded to find the allied leader victorious in
the centre of Seville, and dating his general orders from the palace
of the Spanish kings. The desertion of his capital by the usurper,
proclaimed the extent of Wellington’s success; and proved that his
victories were not, as had been falsely asserted at home, “conquests
only in name.”
Without entering into military history too extensively, it will be
necessary to observe, that on many expected events which should
have strengthened his means, and weakened those of his opponents,
Lord Wellington was miserably disappointed. Maitland’s diversion on
Catalonia had proved a failure. Ballasteros exhibited the impotent
assumption of free action, and refused obedience to the orders of the
British general, and Hill was therefore obliged to leave Estremadura,
to cover the three roads to Madrid. The Cortes, instead of straining
their energies to meet the exigencies of the moment, wasted time in
framing new constitutions, and in desultory and idle debates.
While Wellington, removed from his supplies, his military chest
totally exhausted, and his communications menaced, was imperatively
obliged to open others, and secure assistance from the only place on
which reliance could be reposed--the mother country. To quote Lord
Wellington’s own words aptly illustrates the real case:--“I likewise
request your lordship not to forget horses for the cavalry and
artillery, and money. _We are absolutely bankrupt._ The troops are now
five months in arrears, instead of being one month in advance. The
staff have not been paid since February; the muleteers not since June,
1811; and we are in debt in all parts of the country. I am obliged to
take the money sent to me by my brother for the Spaniards, in order to
give my own troops a fortnight’s pay, who are really suffering for want
of money.”
It was, indeed, full time to move. The Spanish army were driven from
Gallicia, and Clausel threatened to interrupt the communications of the
allies with Portugal. Lord Wellington, therefore, decided on marching
against the army he had beaten at Salamanca; and leaving Hill’s
division to cover the capital, he left Madrid on the 1st of September,
and crossing the Douro on the 6th, moved on Burgos by Valencia.
That night Clausel abandoned Valladolid, and after crossing the
Pisuerga, destroyed the bridge of Berecal. Anxious to unite with
Castanos, Wellington waited for the Gallician army to come up, while
Clausel leisurely retreated through the valleys of Arlanzan and
Pisuerga, as remarkable for beauty and fertility as for the endless
succession of strong posts which they afforded to a retiring army.
Clausel, after an able retreat, took a position at Cellada del Camino,
and to cover Burgos, offered battle to the allied commander. The
challenge was promptly accepted; but the French general, discovering
that a junction of twelve thousand Spaniards had strongly reinforced
his antagonist, prudently declined a combat, retired, and united his
own to Souham’s corps, which numbered above eight thousand men. This
reserve had been organised by Napoleon’s special orders--and was
intended to remedy any discomfiture which might befall Marmont in the
event of his being defeated by the allies.
The British entered the city of Burgos, from which the French had
previously retired, after garrisoning the castle with two thousand five
hundred men, under the command of General Dubreton. Twelve thousand
allied troops, comprising the first and sixth British divisions, with
two Portuguese brigades, sat down before the place; while the remainder
of Lord Wellington’s army, amounting to twenty-five thousand effective
troops, formed the covering army of the siege.
The castle of Burgos was a weak fortress, on which French ingenuity had
done wonders in rendering it defensible at all. It stood on a bold and
rocky height, and was surrounded by three distinct lines, each placed
within the other, and variously defended.
The lower and exterior line consisted of the ancient wall that embraced
the bottom of the hill, and which Caffarelli had strengthened by
the addition of a modern parapet, with salient[12] and re-entering
flanks. The second was a field retrenchment, strongly palisaded. The
third, a work of like construction, having two elevated points, on one
of which the ancient keep of the castle stood, and on the other, a
well-intrenched building called the White Church; and that being the
most commanding point, it was provided with a casemated work, and named
in honour of Napoleon. This battery domineered all around, excepting
on its northern face, where the hill of St. Michael rising nearly to
a level with the fortress, was defended by an extensive hornwork,[13]
having a sloping scarp and counterscarp, the former twenty-five feet in
height, the latter, ten.
[12] In fortification, the salient angle is that which turns from the
centre of a place; while the _re-entering_ points directly towards it.
[13] A _hornwork_ is a work having a front and two branches. The
front comprises a curtain and two half-bastions. It is smaller than a
_crown-work_, and generally employed for effecting similar purposes.
Although in an unfinished state, and merely palisaded, it was under the
fire of the castle and the Napoleon battery. The guns, already mounted,
comprised nine heavy cannon, eleven fieldpieces, and six mortars and
howitzers; and, as the reserve artillery and stores of the army of
Portugal were deposited in the castle of Burgos, General Dubreton had
the power of increasing his armament to any extent he thought fit.
Two days passed before the allies could cross the river. On the 19th
August the passage was effected, and the French outposts on St. Michael
were driven in. That night, the hornwork itself was carried after a
sanguinary assault, the British losing in this short and murderous
affair upwards of four hundred men.
From the hill, now in possession of the allies, it was decided that the
future operations should be carried on, and the engineers arranged that
each line in succession should be taken by assault. The place, on a
close examination, was ascertained to be in no respect formidable; but
the means to effect its reduction, by comparison, were feebler still.
Nothing, indeed, could be less efficient; three long 18-pounders, and
five 24-pound howitzers, formed the entire siege artillery that Lord
Wellington could obtain.
The headquarters were fixed at Villa Toro. The engineering department
intrusted to Colonel Burgoyne, and the charge of the artillery to
Colonels Robe and Dickson.
The second assault, that upon the exterior wall, was made on the night
of the 22nd by escalade. Major Laurie of the 79th, with detachments
from the different regiments before the place, formed the storming
party. The Portuguese, who led the attack, were quickly repulsed,
and though the British entered the ditch, they never could mount a
ladder. Those who attempted it were bayoneted from above, while shells,
combustibles, and cold shot were hurled on the assailants, who, after
a most determined effort for a quarter of an hour, were driven from
the ditch, leaving their leader, and half the number who composed the
storming party, killed and wounded.
After this disastrous failure, an unsuccessful attempt to breach the
wall was tried, in effecting which, of the few guns in battery, two
were totally disabled by the commanding fire of the castle, and the
engineers resorted, from sheer necessity, to sap and mine. The former,
from the plunging fire kept up from the enemy’s defences, and which
occasioned a fearful loss, was speedily abandoned; but the latter was
carried vigorously on, and the outward wall mined, charged, and, on the
29th, exploded.
At twelve o’clock at night the hose was fired, the storming party
having previously formed in a hollow way some fifty paces from the
gallery. When the mine was sprung, a portion of the wall came down,
and a sergeant and four privates, who formed the forlorn hope, rushed
through the smoke, mounted the ruins, and bravely crowned the breach.
But in the darkness, which was intense, the storming party and their
supporting companies missed their way, and the French recovering from
their surprise, rushed to the breach, and drove the few brave men who
held it back to the trenches. The attack consequently failed, and from
a scarcity of shot no fire could be turned on the ruins. Dubreton
availed himself of this accidental advantage, and by daylight the
breach was rendered impracticable again.
Still determined to gain the place, Lord Wellington continued
operations, although twelve days had elapsed since he had sat down
before it. A singular despondency, particularly among the Portuguese,
had arisen from those two failures; while insubordination was creeping
into the British regiments, which produced a relaxed discipline that
could not be overlooked, and which, in general orders, was consequently
strongly censured.
The siege continued; and, on the 4th of October, a battery opened from
Saint Michael’s against the old breach, while the engineers announced
that a powerful mine was prepared for springing. At five o’clock that
evening the fusee was fired. The effect was grand and destructive; one
hundred feet of the wall was entirely demolished, and a number of the
French, who happened to be near it, were annihilated by the explosion.
The 24th regiment, already in readiness to storm, instantly rushed
forward, and both breaches were carried, but, unfortunately, with heavy
loss.
A lodgment was immediately effected, and preparations made for
breaching the second line of defence where it joined the first.
On the 5th October, early in the evening, the French sallied with
three hundred men. The attack was too successful; one hundred and fifty
of the guard and working party were killed or wounded, the gabions
overturned, the works at the lodgment injured, and the intrenching
tools carried off.
That night, however, the damage was repaired; the sap was rapidly
carried forward, and at last the British had got so close to the wall
that their own howitzers ceased firing lest the workmen should be
endangered by their shot. The guns on Saint Michael’s battery had also
breached with good effect, and fifty feet of the parapet of the second
line was completely laid in ruins. But, in effecting these successes,
a heavy loss was inflicted on the besiegers, and of their originally
small means for carrying on a siege, the few pieces of artillery they
possessed at first, were now reduced to one serviceable gun.
The weather had also changed, and rain fell in quantities and filled
the trenches. A spirit of discontent and indifference pervaded the
army. The labour was unwillingly performed, the guards loosely kept,
and Dubreton again sallied furiously, drove off the working party,
destroyed the new parallel, carried away the tools, and occasioned a
loss of more than two hundred men. Among the killed, none was lamented
more than Colonel Cocks, who having obtained promotion most deservedly
for previous gallantry, died at the head of his men, while rallying the
fugitives and repelling the sally.
Three assaults had failed; but still the allied commander did not
quit the place in despair. Preparations for another attempt were
continued, and the exertions of the engineers, of whom one-half had
fallen, were redoubled. Heated shot was tried against the White
Church unsuccessfully; while that of San Roman was marked as the more
vulnerable point, and a gallery commenced against it.
On the 17th, the great breach was again exposed by the fire of the
British guns, and the ramparts on either side extensively damaged.
A mine beneath the lower parallel was successfully exploded, and a
lodgment effected in a cavalier,[14] from whence the French had kept up
a destructive fire on the trenches. It was held but for a short time,
as the enemy came down in force, and drove the besiegers from it. On
the 18th, the breach was reported practicable, and an assault decided
on, the signal arranged being the springing of the mine beneath the
church of San Roman. That building was also to be assailed, while the
old breach was to be attempted by escalade, and thus, and at the same
moment, three distinct attacks would occupy the enemy’s attention.
[14] A _Cavalier_ is a work in the body of a place, domineering the
others by ten or twelve feet.
At half-past four the explosion of the mine gave the signal. A
countermine was immediately sprung by the French, and between both,
the church was partially destroyed, and Colonel Browne, with some
Portuguese and Spanish troops, seized upon the ruined building.
The Guards, who had volunteered a detachment, rushed through the
old breach, escaladed the second line, and, in front of the third,
encountered the French in considerable force, while two hundred of
the German Legion, under Major Wurmb, carried the new breach, pushing
up the hill, and fairly gaining the third line of the defences.
Unfortunately, however, these daring and successful efforts were not
supported with the promptness that was needed. The French reserves were
instantly advanced; they came on in overwhelming force, cleared the
breaches of the assailants, and drove them beyond the outer line, with
the loss of two hundred officers and men.
San Roman was taken the following night by the French, and recovered
again by the British. But with this affair the siege virtually
terminated, and Lord Wellington, by an imperious necessity, was obliged
to retire from a place of scarcely third-rate character, after four
attacks by assault, and a loss of two thousand men.
In war, the bravest and the most prudent measures are frequently marred
or made by fortune. Lord Wellington, with very insufficient means,
attempted the reduction of Burgos; and although skill and gallantry
were displayed in every essay, obstacles arose which checked the most
daring efforts; and all that science and determination could effect
were vainly tried to overcome difficulties physically insurmountable.
Had Wellington possessed the requisite _matériel_ for the conduct of a
siege, Burgos must have been taken in a week.
But let justice be done to its defenders. Much was expected from them,
and assuredly, the governor and garrison of the castle of Burgos
realised the high reliance placed upon their skill and heroism by their
countrymen.
On the 18th, the British corps united. On the 20th some trifling
affairs occurred between the outposts, and on the 21st the siege of
Burgos was regularly raised, and Lord Wellington issued orders for
retiring from before the place.