wings endeavoured to unite, their line of march was liable to be intercepted at Tudela by Moncey, and the rear of Castaños be attacked by Ney, who could pass the Ebro at Logroño or Lodosa. If they remained stationary, they might easily be beaten in detail. Any other than Spanish generals would have been filled with apprehension on such an occasion; but Palafox and Castaños, heedless of their own danger, tranquilly proceeded to arrange a plan of offensive operations singularly absurd. They agreed that the army of the centre, leaving a division at Lodosa and another at Calahorra, should make a flank march to the right, and take a position along the Aragon, the left to be at Tudela, the right at Sanguessa; that is, with less than twenty thousand men to occupy fifty miles of country close to a powerful and concentrated enemy. In the mean time, Palafox, with the Aragonese, crossing the river at Sanguessa, was to extend in an oblique line to Roncevalles, covering the valleys of Talay, Escay, and Roncal, with his centre, and re-enforcing his army by the armed inhabitants, who were ready to flock to his standard. Blake was invited to co-operate, in combination, by Guipuscoa, so as to pass in the rear of the whole French army, unite with Palafox, and thus cut off the enemy's retreat into France, and intercept his re-enforcements at the same time.' Castaños returned to Tudela on the 23d, and proceeded to Logroño ou the 25th, the grand movement being to commence on the 27th. But on the 21st, Grimarest had pushed forward strong detachments across the Ebro to Mendavia, Andosilla, Sesma, and Carcur, and one over the Ega to Lerim-the Castillian outposts occupied Viana on the left bank of the Ebro-the Aragonese divisions were already closing upon Sanguessa, and a multitude of peasants crowded to the same place in the hope of obtaining arms and ammunition. Moncey, deceived by this concourse of persons, estimated the force in Sanguessa at twenty thousand, when, in fact, it was only eight thousand regular troops; and his report, and the simultaneous movements of the Spaniards on both extremities, made the king to apprehend a triple attack from Logroño, Lodosa, and Sanguessa. He immediately re-enforced Ney with Merlin's division from Bessières' corps, and directed him to clear the left bank of the Ebro, while Bonnet's division, also taken from Bessières, descended the right bank from Haro to Briones. A division of Moncey's corps, stationed at Estella, received orders to follow the course of the Ega, and second Ney's operations; and a part of the garrison of Pampeluna, posted at Montreal and Salinas, was commanded to advance upon Nardues, and make a demonstration against Sanguessa." When Castaños arrived at Logroño these operations were in full acti 1 Sir John Moore's Papers; Colonel Graham's correspondence; Colonel Doyle's ditto. 2 Journal of the king's Operations, MS. vity. Ney had, on the 24th, driven back the Castillian outposts, crowned the height opposite that town on the 25th, and was cannonading the Spaniards' position. On the 26th, he renewed his fire briskly until twelve o'clock, at which time Castaños, after giving Pignatelli strict orders to defend his post unless he was turned by a force descending the right bank of the Ebro, proceeded himself to Lodosa and Calahorra. Meanwhile the French from Estella falling down the Ega, drove the Spanish parties out of Mendavia, Andosilla, Carcur, and Sesma; and Grimarest retired from Lodosa to La Torre with such precipitation, that he left colonel Cruz, a valuable officer, with a light battalion, and some volunteers, at Lerim, where he was taken after a creditable resist ance.' Pignatelli, regardless of Castaños' orders, retired from Logroño, and abandoned all his guns at the foot of the Sierra de Nalda, only a few miles from the enemy; then crossing the mountains, he gained Centruenigo in such disorder, that his men continued to arrive for twenty-four hours consecutively. On the right, O'Neil skirmished with the garrison of Pampeluna, and lost six men killed, and eight wounded, but in the Spanish fashion, announced, that, after a hard action of many hours, the enemy was completely overthrown. On the 27th, Merlin's division rejoined Bessières at Miranda, and Bonnet, retiring from Briones, took post in front of Pancorbo. Castaños, incensed at the ill conduct of the Castillians, dismissed Pignatelli, and incorporated his troops with the Andalusian divisions; fifteen hundred men of the latter, being sent back to Nalda under the conde de Cartoajal, recovered the lost guns, and brought them safe to Centruenigo.2 Dissensions followed these reverses. Palafox arrogantly censured Castaños, and a cabal, of which general Coupigny appears to have been the principal mover, was formed against the latter. The junta, exasperated that Castaños had not already driven the enemy beyond the frontier, encouraged his traducers, and circulated slanderous accusations themselves, as if his inaction alone had enabled the French to remain in Spain: they sent Francisco Palafox, brother of the captain-general, and a member of the supreme junta, to headquarters, avowedly to facilitate, but really to control the military operations, and he arrived at Alfaro on the 29th, accompanied by Coupigny, and the conde de Montijo, a turbulent factious man, shallow and vain, but designing and unprincipled. Castaños waited upon this representative of the government, and laid before him the denuded state of the army;3 the captain-general, Palafox, also came up from Zaragoza, and a council of war was held at Tudela on the 5th of November. The rough manner in which the 1 Whittingham's correspondence, MS.-Colonel Graham's ditto. 2 Colonel Graham's correspondence, MS. 3 Castaños' Vindication. Spaniards had just been driven from the left bank of the Ebro, made no impression on the council, which persisted in the grand project of getting in the rear of the French, although it was known that sixty thousand fresh men had joined the latter. Deeming it, however, fitting that Blake should act the first, it was resolved to await his time, and, as an intermediate operation, it was agreed that the army of the centre, leaving six thousand men at Calahorra, and a garrison at Tudela, should cross the Ebro and attack Caparosa : French parties had, however, pushed as far as Valtierra, and in the skirmishes which ensued, the conduct of the Castillian battalions was discreditable. Joseph Palafox then returned to Zaragoza and the deputy separated himself from Castaños.1 The loss sustained by desertion and the previous combats was considerable, but some Murcian levies, and a part of the first and third Andalusian divisions joined the army of the centre, which now mustered twenty-six thousand infantry, and nearly three thousand cavalry under arms, with fifty or sixty pieces of artillery. The positions of the army extended from Calahorra, by Haro, to Tudela. La Peña held the first town with five thousand men; Grimarest and Caro commanded eight thousand at the second; headquarters, with thirteen thousand five hundred men, were fixed in the last; Cartoajal remained with eleven hundred in the Sierra de Nalda, and eight hundred were posted at Ansejo." From these points, in pursuance of the plan arranged, the troops were actually in movement to cross the Ebro, when despatches from Blake announced that he had met with some disaster on the 31st, the extent of which he did not communicate. This news arrested the attack, and the preposterous transactions that ensued, resembled the freaks of Caligula rather than the operations of real war. First, it was arranged that the army should abandon Tudela, and take a position in two lines, the extremities of the one to rest on Calahorra and Amedo, the second to extend from Alfaro to Fitero, and the deputy ordered O'Neil, with the army of Aragon, to occupy the latter of these lines forthwith; O'Neil, however, refused to stir without instructions from the captain-general.3 This was on the 9th, on the 10th the plan was changed. Castaños fixed his headquarters at Centruenigo, and the deputy proposed that O'Neil should descend the right bank of the Aragon river, and attack Caparosa in the rear; that the troops in Tudela should attack it in front; and that a division should make a demonstration of passing the Ebro in boats, opposite to Milagro, in order to favour this attack. Castaños assented, and on the 12th a division assembled opposite Milagro, while La Peña, with two divisions, marched Colonel Graham's correspondence, MS.- Whittingham's ditto. Whittingham's correspondence, MS. 3 Graham's correspondence, MS. against Caparosa; suddenly, the whimsical deputy sent them orders to repair to Lodosa, forty miles higher up the Ebro, to attack the bridge at that place, while Grimarest, crossing in the boats at Calahorra, should ascend the left bank of the Ebro, and take it in rear. La Peña and Villarcayo, confounded by this change, wrote to Castaños for an explanation, and this was the first intimation that the latter, who was lying sick at Centruenigo, received of the altered dispositions. He directed his lieutenants to obey; but being provoked beyond endurance, wrote sharply to the junta, demanding to know who was to command the army; and after all this insolence and vapouring no operation took place: Francisco Palafox declaring, that his intention was merely to make a demonstration, ordered the troops to their quarters, and then, without assigning any reason, deprived La Peña of his command, and appointed Cartoajal in his place." It was at this time that sir John Moore's letter arrived: but Castaños, no longer master of his own operations, could ill concert a plan of campaign with the general of another army; he could not even tell what troops were to be at his nominal disposal! for the Estramaduran force, originally destined for his command, was now directed by the junta upon Burgos, and the remainder of his first and third division was detained in Madrid. His enemies, especially Montijo, were active in spreading reports to his disadvantage, the deserters scattered over the country declared that all the generals were traitors; and the people of the towns and villages, deceived by the central junta, and excited by false rumours, respected neither justice nor government, and committed the most scandalous excesses.3 Blake's situation was not more prosperous. The road from Bayonne to Vittoria was encumbered with the advancing columns of the great French army. An imperial decree, issued early in September, incorporated the troops already in Spain with the Grand army then marching from Germany, and the united forces were to compose eight divisions, called "corps d'armée," an institution analogous to the Roman legion; because each corps d'armée," although adapted for action as a component part of a large army, was also provided with light cavalry, a park, and train of artillery, engineers, sappers and miners, and a complete civil administration, to enable it to take the field as an independent force. The imperial guards and the heavy cavalry of the army were, however, not included in this arrangement; the first had a constitution of their own, and at this time all the heavy cavalry, and all the artillery, not attached to the " corps d'armée," were formed into a large reserve. As the columns arrived in Spain, they were united to the troops 1 Vindication of Castaños. 2 Graham's correspondence, MS. 3 Castaños' Vindication. already there, and the whole was disposed conformably to the new organization. Marshal Victor, duke of Belluno, commanded the First Corps. Marshal Bessières, duke of Istria Marshal Ney, duke of Elchingen General Junot, duke of Abrantes Second Corps. Third Corps. Fourth Corps. Fifth Corps. Sixth Corps. Seventh Corps. Eighth Corps. The seventh corps was appropriated to Catalonia, but the remainder were, in the latter end of October, assembled or assembling in Navarre and Biscay. General Merlin, with a division, held Zornosa, and observed Blake, who remained tranquilly at Bilbao. Two divisions of the fourth corps occupied Durango and the neighbouring villages. One division and the light cavalry of the first corps was at Vittoria; a second division of the same corps guarded the bridge of Murguia on the river Bayas, and commanded the entrance to the valley of Orduña. Haro, Puente Lara, Miranda, and Pancorbo were maintained by the infantry of the king's body guard and the second corps; and the light cavalry of the latter covered the plains close up to Briviesca. The re-enforcements were daily crowding up to Vittoria, and the king, restrained by the emperor's orders to a rigorous system of defence, occupied himself with the arrangements attendant on such an immense accumulation of force, and left Blake in quiet possession of Bilbao. The latter mistook this apparent inactivity for timidity; he was aware that re-enforcements, in number equal to his whole army, had joined the enemy, yet, with wonderful rashness, resolved to press forward, and readily agreed to attempt a junction with Palafox, in the rear of the French position. I At this time Romana's infantry were approaching Bilbao, and the Estramadurans were in march for Burgos; but the country was nearly exhausted of provisions, both armies felt the scarcity, desertion prevailed among the Spaniards, and the Biscayans, twice abandoned, were fearful of a third insurrection. Prudence dictated a retreat towards Burgos, but Blake resolved to advance. First he posted General Acevedo with the Asturians and the second division at Orduña; then he left a battalion at Miravalles, to preserve the communication with Bilbao; finally he marched himself, on the 24th, at the head of seventeen thousand fighting men, divided in three columns, to attack Zornosa." The right column ascended the valley of Durango by Galdacano, the centre by Larabezua, the left by Rigoytia; and general Acevedo penetrated 1 S. Journal of the king's Operations, MS. 2 Carrol's correspondence. |