by Rory Muir
Again we return to the car and drive a little way back towards Los Arapiles, before turning south onto an unsealed road which passes close under the western end of the Greater Arapile, and then on for almost a mile through smooth, bare country to the long, low rise of El Sierro, where Ferey made his stand. The ridge – although is scarcely deserves the name – marks a sharp boundary even today, for on the further side are low trees and scrub extending to the south-east, while on the near side the land has been swept clear for crops.
Return past the Greater Arapile to the dusty junction of minor roads by the railway line, and head east across open country which saw little or no fighting. After the road has turned north-east for a while, and when you are approaching Calvarrasa de Arriba (the local rubbish dump indicates its proximity), there is a side road to the left (north-west). This unpromising track leads to the foot of the heights of Calvarrasa de Arriba – a line of low cliffs which are the most striking natural feature on the generally undramatic battlefield. The Pelagarcia brook at their foot is trifling, although the reed-beds which enclose it might be thirty or even fifty yards wide in places. The heights themselves dwindle as they go north, but it is well worth the scramble to climb up to the chapel of Nuestra Señora de la Peña near their summit. Look west across the shallow valley to the gentle, low heights which were occupied by the allied army at the beginning of the day, while further to the south are the Lesser and Greater Arapiles.
For those with the time and energy, it is not a long drive (about six miles) from Calvarrasa de Arriba to Alba de Tormes (on the C510). Much of the country is broken and some of it wooded, and although none is really difficult, Marmont's battered army would not have had an easy march in the dark. One can see why Wellington's men, weary after a long, hot and immensely demanding day, did not press on for the five miles from El Sierro and push the French into the river. Alba de Tormes is not a particularly pretty town, but the situation is most attractive. The river is unexpectedly wide, and the fairy-tale castle rises high above the town. Whether a small Spanish garrison could have held the tower against a determined French assault – and whether, if they had done so, they really could have sustained a fire which would have prevented the fleeing French from using the bridge at night – seems somewhat doubtful; but in any case, too much has generally been made of this issue, for, as Soult's retreat from Oporto showed, a French army could almost always find some means of escape and, however much it suffered in the process, it would soon recover and be ready to take the field again.
Although the distances on the battlefield are short it would take a minimum of one very full day to visit and appreciate the points mentioned above. If possible, at least two days should be allowed, and any time over can be spent most enjoyably exploring the city.
Notes
Chapter One: The Campaign
1. There were bridges across the Tagus at Arzobispo and Talavera, but the roads leading to them were so poor that Wellington regarded them as useless for substantial bodies of troops, Wellington to Liverpool, 26 and 28 May 1812; The Dispatches of Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington …, compiled by Colonel Gurwood, 8 vols (London, Parker, Furnivall and Parker, 1844–7, ‘enlarged edition’), vol 5, pp. 672–3, 681. (Henceforth cited as Wellington's Dispatches.)
2. Wellington to Liverpool, 26 May 1812, Wellington's Dispatches, vol. 5, pp. 672–3.
3. Wellington to Liverpool, 18 and 25 June 1812, Wellington's Dispatches, vol. 5, pp. 713–16, 721–3; Major-General Sir W. F. P. Napier, History of the War in the Peninsula and in the South of France, 6 vols (London, Boone, 1853, new edition, revised by the author), vol. 4, p. 240 (henceforth cited simply as Napier, History) comments on the rough ground at the foot of the position.
4. Lieutenant-Colonel William Tomkinson, The Diary of a Cavalry Officer in the Peninsular War and Waterloo Campaign, 1809–1815 (London, Swan Sonnenschein, 1895, 2nd edition), p. 166 gives an example of this surprise. For more on this, see commentary p. 18 and for further discussion of Wellington's reasons, see chapter 2, p. 37–9.
5. Girod de l'Ain, Vie Militaire du Général Foy (Paris, Plon Nourrit, 1900), pp. 165–6, quoting Foy's journal; see also Sir Charles Oman, A History of the Peninsular War, 7 vols (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1902–30), vol. 5, pp. 367–8 (henceforth cited as Oman, History), and Jean Sarramon, La Bataille des Arapiles (22 Juillet 1812) (Toulouse, University of Toulouse, 1978), p. 53; Marmont does not mention the council of war in the brief account he gives of this episode in Marshal A. F. L. V. de Marmont, Duc de Raguse, Mémoires du Maréchal Marmont, Duc de Raguse, 9 vols (Paris, Perrotin, 1857), vol. 4, p. 117.
6. Wellington's views are reflected in his letters: for his early hopes see his letters to Graham, 3 July 1812 and to Bathurst, 4 and 7 July, Wellington's Dispatches, vol. 5, pp. 731–2, 733, 735–6; for his growing concern see the two letters quoted: to Hill, 13 July, and to Sir Henry Wellesley, 14 July, ibid., pp. 741–2, 745, and also other letters of this period. The changing plans are also recorded in the letters of Alexander Gordon, one of Wellington's most trusted ADCs, to his brother Lord Aberdeen, 7 and 14 July, and to Lord Bathurst, 14 July which criticizes Bentinck, Aberdeen Papers, BL Add. Ms 43,224, ff. 88–9, 90–1 and Bathurst Papers, BL Loan Ms 57, vol. 5, f. 487.
7. Napier, History, vol. 4, p. 249.
8. Charles Boutflower, The Journal of an Army Surgeon during the Peninsular War (Staplehurst, Spellmount, 1997, first published 1912), p. 145; Augustus Mockler-Ferryman, The Life of a Regimental Officer during the Great War, 1793–1815 … from the Correspondence of Col. Samuel Rice, 51st Light Infantry (Edinburgh, Blackwood, 1913), pp. 210–11.
9. For an account of this see Mark Urban, The Man Who Broke Napoleon's Codes (London, Faber, forthcoming), esp. chapters 10–14.
10. The Hon. J. W. Fortescue, A History of the British Army, 13 vols in 20 (London, Macmillan, 1899–1930), vol. 8, p. 472.
11. Wellington to Clinton, 7 pm, 16 July 1812, Wellington's Dispatches, vol. 5, pp. 748–9.
12. Napier, History, vol. 4, p. 254.
13. Captain J. Kincaid, Adventures in the Rifle Brigade and Random Shots from a Rifleman (Glasgow, Richard Drew, 1981, first published 1830–5), p. 78; Tomkinson, Diary of a Cavalry Officer, pp. 180–2.
14. Charles Broke Vere, Marches, Movements and Operations of the 4th Division … (Ipswich, privately printed, 1841), p. 28 describes the halt by the river as short; Burgoyne (also Fourth Division) says ‘about an hour’ in George Wrottesley, The Life and Correspondence of Field Marshal Sir John Burgoyne, 2 vols (London, Bentley, 1873), vol. 1, p.197; Leith Hay (of the Fifth Division) implies that the halt was fairly brief, Sir Andrew Leith Hay, A Narrative of the Peninsular War (London, Captain John Hearne, 1839, 3rd edition), p. 244; T. H. Browne (staff) also implies a halt, Captain T. H. Browne, The Napoleonic War Journal of Captain Thomas Henry Browne, 1807–1816, ed. by Roger Norman Buckley (London, Bodley Head for the Army Records Society, 1987), p. 163; Fortescue, History of the British Army, vol. 8, p. 475n cites several Light Division sources, implying only a brief, and perhaps undisciplined, scramble for water. Many other sources naturally do not mention the episode at all.
15. P. Castel, Relation de la Bataille et Retraite des Arapiles (Toulouse, J.-B. Cazaux, 1854), p. 11; Sarramon, La Bataille des Arapiles, pp. 173–4; Oman, History, vol. 5, p. 405.
16. Captain William Bragge, Peninsular Portrait, 1811–1814. The Letters of Captain William Bragge, Third (King's Own) Dragoons, ed. by S. A. C. Cassels (London, Oxford University Press, 1963), p.73 – see commentary, pp. 20–1 for discussion.
17. Sarramon, La Bataille des Arapiles, p. 174.
18. See Appendix I for details of losses on 18 July, and commentary, pp. 21–2 for discussion.
19. So say Oman, History, vol. 5, p. 406, and Sarramon, La Bataille des Arapiles, p. 175, but it is not clear on what authority, other than the fact that all three regiments lost quite heavily.
20. Castel, Relation de la Bataille et Retraite des Arapiles, p. 11.
&nbs
p; 21. Vere, Marches, Movements …, 4th Division p. 29, confirmed by Browne, Napoleonic War Journal, p. 163.
22. Browne, Napoleonic War Journal, p. 163.
23. Boutflower, Journal of an Army Surgeon, p. 146; Browne, Napoleonic War Journal, p. 163 (Browne was a lieutenant at the battle and subsequently promoted); George Hennell, A Gentleman Volunteer. The Letters of George Hennell from the Peninsular War, 1812–1813, ed. by Michael Glover (London, Heinemann, 1979), p. 28.
24. Castel, Relation de la Bataille et Retraite des Arapiles, pp. 11–12.
25. Sarramon, La Bataille des Arapiles, p. 175, although first-hand British accounts are more inclined to mention the French artillery than any fresh force of infantry.
26. A. Martinien, Tableaux par Corps et par Batailles des Officiers Tués et Blessés pendant les Guerres de l'Empire (1805–1815) (Paris, Éditions Militaires Européennes, nd [1980s], – first published 1899) and Supplement (Paris, Fournier, 1909) (henceforth the combined evidence from both is cited simply as Martinien). The British took some 240 prisoners, most of whom would have been wounded men who could not make their escape when their unit broke, Wellington to Bathurst, 21 July 1812, Wellington's Dispatches, vol. 5, p. 750. See commentary, pp. 21–2 and Appendices I and III for further discussion of casualty figures.
27. See Appendix I and commentary, p. 21 for casualty details and discussion.
28. Napier, History, vol. 4, pp. 258–9.
29. Cathcart to Sir Thomas Graham, 31 July 1812, Lynedoch Papers, NLS Ms 3610, ff. 187–96. Cathcart had been on Graham's staff and had remained with the army when Graham returned home, although his precise position in July 1812 is not clear.
30. Tomkinson, Diary of a Cavalry Officer, p. 188; however, neither Oman (History, vol. 5, p. 415) nor Fortescue (History of the British Army, vol. 8, p. 478) repeats this, and some of the details, such as the strength of the Spanish force, are incorrect.
31. John Green, The Vicissitudes of a Soldier's Life … 1806–1815 (Louth, privately printed, 1827), pp. 97–8.
32. Kincaid, Adventures in the Rifle Brigade, p. 81.
33. Pakenham to Murray, 24 August 1812, Murray Papers NLS, Adv. Ms 46.2.15, vol. 38, ff. 148–51.
34. Anon The Personal Narrative of a Private Soldier, Who Served in the Forty-Second Highlanders, for Twelve Years, during the Late War (Cambridge, Trotman, 1996, first published 1821), pp. 122–3. The author had been made a corporal at Salamanca (p. 121). The suggestion that Graham went home in disgust appears to be ill-founded – the problem with his eyes was both genuine and serious. Antony Brett-James, General Graham, Lord Lynedoch (London, Macmillan, 1959), p. 254.
35. Spencer Moggridge [Thomas Hamilton], ‘Letters from the Peninsula. No IV: The Battle of Salamanca’, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, vol. 23, no. 138 (May 1828), p. 537 – see p. 81 for a discussion of this source.
36. Tomkinson, Diary of a Cavalry Officer, pp. 180–1.
37. Lord Granville Leveson Go wer, Lord Granville Leveson Gower (First Earl Granville), Private Correspondence, 1781–1821, ed. by Castalia, Countess Granville, 2 vols (London, John Murray, 1916), vol. 2, p. 450; for casualties see Appendix I.
38. Lieutenant-Colonel C. Campbell to Torrens, 25 July 1812, Hope of Luffness Papers, NAS GD 364/1/ 1224; Hennell, A Gentleman Volunteer, p. 28; Browne, Napoleonic War Journal, p. 162.
39. Major George Simmons, A British Rifleman. The Journals and Correspondence of Major George Simmons …, ed. by Lieutenant-Colonel W. Verner (London, A&C Black, 1899), p. 239; see also Lieutenant-Colonel J. Leach, Rough Sketches of the Life of an Old Soldier (Cambridge, Trotman, 1986, first published 1831), p. 266.
40. Burgoyne in Wrottesley, Life and Correspondence of … Burgoyne, pp. 196–7; Boutflower, Journal of an Army Surgeon, p. 146.
41. Castel, Relation de la Bataille et Retraite des Arapiles, pp. 10–11.
42. N. L. Beamish, History of the King's German Legion, 2 vols (London, T&W Boone, 1832–7), vol. 2, pp. 64–5; Daniel S. Gray, ‘The Services of the King's German Legion in the Army of the Duke of Wellington: 1809–1815’ (unpublished PhD thesis presented to Florida State University in 1970), pp. 245–8.
43. Burgoyne in Wrottesley, Life and Correspondence, of … Burgoyne, p. 198; Bragge, Peninsular Portrait, p. 73 – see also Lieutenant John Massey (3rd Dragoons) to his brother Dick, 4 August 1812. Letters of Lieutenant John Massey NAM Ms 7804–14; Browne, Napoleonic War Journal, p. 163.
44. Wellington to Bathurst, 21 July 1812, Wellington's Dispatches, vol. 5, p. 750; Burgoyne in Wrottesley, Life and Correspondence of … Burgoyne, pp. 197–8; Browne, Napoleonic War Journal, p. 163.
45. Cathcart to Graham, 31 July 1812, Lynedoch Papers, NLS Ms 3610, ff. 187–96; Campbell to Torrens, 25 July 1812, Hope of Luffness Papers, NAS GD 364/1/1224; Pakenham to Murray, 24 August 1812, Murray Papers, NLS Adv. Ms 46,2.15, vol. 38, ff. 148–51; Hennell, Gentleman Volunteer, p. 28; Castel, Relation de la Bataille et Retraite des Arapiles, pp. 11–13.
46. PRO WO 1/255, pp. 91–2, ‘Return of Killed, Wounded and Missing on 18th July 1812’. G. Anson's three regiments lost sixteen, nineteen and fifteen casualties – seventeen more than Oman gives, History, vol. 5, p. 607. Wellington's Dispatches, vol. 5, p. 752; Tomkinson, Diary of a Cavalry Officer, pp. 182–3.
47. Napier, History, vol. 4, pp. 253–7; Oman History, vol. 5, pp. 401–7; Fortescue, History of the British Army, vol. 8, pp. 473–6; Peter Young and J. P. Lawford, Wellington's Masterpiece. The Battle and Campaign of Salamanca (London, Allen & Unwin, 1973), pp. 186–91; Sarramon, La Bataille des Arapiles, pp. 173–6.
Chapter Two: Armies and Generals
1. For more on this issue see my Tactics and the Experience of Battle in the Age of Napoleon (New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1998), pp. 201–7.
2. Figures: French from Fortescue, History of the British Army, vol. 8, p. 636; allies from Sir A. Dickson, The Dickson Manuscripts, ed. by J. H. Leslie, 5 vols (Cambridge, Trotman, 1990, first published 1908), vol. 4, pp. 685–6. These figures assume that the Spanish battery of 6-pounders included one howitzer.
3. One of the four 18-pounders that had originally advanced with the army had been disabled and rendered unfit for further service during the siege of the forts, Major-General John T. Jones Journal of the Sieges Carried On by the Army under the Duke of Wellington …, 3 vols (London, John Weale, 1846, 3rd edition), vol 1, pp. 259, 262.
4. [William Grattan], ‘Reminiscences of a Subaltern: Battle of Salamanca’, USJ, June 1834, p. 175; John Aitchison, An Ensign in the Peninsular War. The Letters of John Aitchison, ed. by W.F.K. Thompson (London, Michael Joseph, 1981), p. 178.
5. Oman, History, vol. 3, p. 542, vol. 4, p. 361.
6. Ibid., vol. 4, p. 225.
7. Although the 120th Ligne had served at Medina del Rio Seco in 1808 – see Martinien.
8. Most of the prior history of the regiments has been derived from Martinien supplemented by histories of particular campaigns: for example, on the 122nd Ligne at Coruña see Oman, History, vol. 1, p. 585n and vol. 5, p. 391n.
9. Dickson Manuscripts, vol. 4, p. 685; Emilio Becerra de Becerra, Hazañas de Unos Lanceros – Diarios de Julián Sánchez ‘El Charro’ (Diputación Provincial de Salamanca, 1999), p. 107. I am grateful to Bernabe Saiz Martínez de Pisón for bringing this source to my attention.
10. Counting detachments of 2nd and 3rd/95th Rifles as one battalion and the eight companies of 1st/95th as another.
11. Wellington to Bathurst, 14 July 1812, Wellington's Dispatches, vol. 5, p. 743 mentions that the 5th, 38th and 83rd Regiments are en route, and that he also expects two thousand drafts and convalescents to join in the following three weeks.
12. There is a good account of the origins and reputations of each division in Sir Charles Oman, Wellington's Army, 1809–1814 (London, Greenhill, 1986, first published 1913), pp. 167–75, especially pp. 172–3.
13. Oman, History, vol. 4, p. 391.
14. The best sketch of Marmont's career is in R. P. Dunn-Pattison, Napoleo
n's Marshals (London, Methuen, 1909), pp. 200–18; but see also John Pimlott's essay in David Chandler, ed., Napoleon's Marshals (London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1987), pp. 254–69.
15. Napier, History, vol. 4, p. 229.
16. Girod de l'Ain, Vie Militaire du Général Foy, pp. 170–1, quoting Foy's diary for 16 July 1812.
17. Ibid., p. 177n.
18. See chapter three, commentary, p. 80 for more on this.
19. M. A. Thiers History of the Consulate and Empire …, 20 vols (London, Willis & Sotheran, 1857), vol. 15, p. 55 (Book XLVI); there are some useful notes on Clausel's career, and on Marmont's other subordinates, in Young and Lawford, Wellington's Masterpiece, pp. 288–301; see also David Chandler, Dictionary of the Napoleonic Wars (London, Arms & Armour, 1979).
20. Etienne-François Girard, Les Cahiers du Colonel Girard, 1766–1846 …, ed. by Paul Desachy (Paris, Plon, 1951), pp. 194–6 et seq.; Marmont, Mémoires, vol. 4, p. 127.
21. Oman, History, vol. 5, p. 367n.
22. Lemonnier-Delafosse quoted in Oman, History, vol. 5, p. 392.
23. Tomkinson, Diary of a Cavalry Officer, p. 188; see also Anon, Personal Narrative of a Private Soldier, p. 123: ‘But I suppose my Lord Wellington's orders were not to engage unless me were attacked’ (original emphasis).