Another year, another battlefield tour for Sarah
The Battle of Vittoria in 1813 is recognised as decisive in pushing the French back across the border into France. However, several smaller engagements then took place before the end of the war. On this tour we would be looking at these final battles. War plays a large part in British history and it is a privilege to be able to visit some of the battlefields, for inspiration as well learning.
Remember June, before the droughts and the wildfires? We all thought we were in for another typical British summer. I was looking forward to a week of southern sunshine, meandering around Peninsular war battlefields. What I got was wall-to-wall sun – with a heatwave by the end of the week, and information overload.
The tour starts
At Madrid airport we met up with old friends from previous tours and met a few new ones, too. We were a small group, 17 of us plus our driver, Christian, whom we had met on last year’s tour. He is a fearless driver, very happy to follow some of the more, er, challenging tracks to take us to our destinations. An added bonus was that many of the group are avid military history enthusiasts, all of them more than happy to share their expertise.
Attrib. Horace Vernet, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
We left Madrid and headed northwest through the mountain pass of Somosierra.
It was here, in November 1808, that Napoleon ‘s Polish lancers forced their way past the Spanish infantry and artillery defending the pass. This was the last obstacle on Napoleon’s road to Madrid, and the city fell a few days later.
Napoleon Stopped Here
Our first hotel was in the Spanish Basque country, at the beautiful Argomaniz Parador. Originally a Renaissance palace, Napoleon made this his headquarters before attacking Vittoria. Since this year’s tour would be following Wellington’s army from the Battle of Vittoria to the final battle at Toulouse, this was the perfect place for us to spend our first two nights.
The Tour
Our intrepid party was again led by military historian Ian Fletcher and covered the lesser-known battles at the end of the Peninsular War. I could not possibly do justice to everything we saw, so this is just my brief explanation and a few interesting snippets I picked up along the way. There are many good history books out there covering the battles.
The Battle of Vittoria 21st June ,1813
This was the end of French aspirations in the Peninsula. Wellington (actually the Marquess of Wellington at that time, he did not become Duke until 1814) defeated the French army under the command of Joseph Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon, who had been imposed upon the Spanish people as their king.
Joseph, however, was not a great commander, and in reality it was his chief of staff, Marshall Jean-Baptiste Jourdan who took charge on the day.
The battlefield
The town of Vittoria sits in a shallow basin about 12 miles long and 7 miles wide, surrounded by mountains and with the Zadorra River to the north and west. Several bridges span the Zadorra and some of them were not even defended.
Around 8 am on the 21st June, the allies advanced, forcing the French left and centre to withdraw to defend Vittoria. To the north west, they crossed the river and after heavy fighting the French right finally gave way. By 7 pm the French army was in full retreat towards Pamplona. We covered a lot of ground – literally – for this battle.
We spent the day exploring the battlefield, starting from the knoll of Arinez where King Joseph and Marshal Jourdan initially established their command post. From there we had an excellent view over much of the battlefield. Then we looked at the bridges where the allies crossed the Zadorra and the villages where fighting was fierce.
One village that saw particularly heavy fighting was Gamarra Mayor which controlled one of the river crossings. John Douglas, a sergeant with The Royal Scots, later wrote of the village “…which we named Gomorrah, as it was a scene of fire and brimstone.” (John Douglas: Douglas’s Tale of the Peninsula & Waterloo: 1808-1815)
The fighting in and around Vittoria lasted most of the day, but by 7 pm the French were in full retreat and Wellington gave orders to pursue the French army but this did not quite go to plan…
The baggage train
Earlier in June, King Joseph packed up and left Madrid for good, accompanied by a huge convoy of over 100 wagons filled with loot (estimated value at today’s prices, £100 million). It included money, works of art, jewels, exotic pets and Joseph’s Spanish mistresses. The baggage train was stuck in Vittoria when the allies attacked.
Around 5pm, Joseph ordered the French to retreat and sent a general back to Vittoria to make sure the baggage – oh, and the artillery – went off towards Pamplona. It wasn’t just Joseph’s baggage train setting off. The French army filled thousands of vehicles with plunder from the city. Add to this the civilians also trying to escape Vittoria, plus herds of livestock, and you have some idea of how clogged the roads out of the city, and away from the advancing British army, would become.
What happened to Joseph?
He escaped the city but when his convoy was halted, he fled on horseback, abandoning his coach (filled with priceless paintings, many rolled to take up less space) as well as his Spanish ladies and wagons full of treasure.
The British soldiers, instead of pursuing the French, fell upon the baggage train and, er, “liberated it”.
Joseph’s Chamber Pot
The 14th King’s Hussars discovered King Joseph’s solid silver chamber-pot which they “removed” and kept. According to their museum website, this action gave the 14th the nickname of the Emperor’s Chambermaids. “To this day, it is a tradition that, at formal mess dinners, the Officers of the Regiment toast the Emperor with champagne drunk from the silver chamber-pot.”
The Pursuit
The British Hussars entered the city of Vittoria around 7.30pm that evening. Some regiments were so intent on looting they were no longer “available for combat”.
And they weren’t alone. Wellington sent his men in pursuit of the French army but they soon came upon the wreckage of Joseph’s convoy strewn across the fields. Treasures, paintings, books, silks and rich clothes were scattered everywhere. Wellington’s men saw the fleeing French soldiers plundering their own wagons and they just stopped and joined in, officers and poor soldiers alike.
It was this action that apparently caused Wellington to famously describe those involved as “the scum of the earth.” There were reports of drunken revelling long into the night, the soldiers accopanied by the young Spanish women abandoned by their French protectors.
Battle of Vittoria: the Outcome
The French losses for the Battle of Vittoria (killed, wounded, and captured) were about 8,000. The number would have been far higher if it had not been for the extraordinary amount of treasure discarded. The allies suffered about 5,000 casualties. The French also lost a large amount of artillery, caught up with the wagons that clogged the roads out of Vittoria. Wellington had been hoping to refill his war chest with millions of francs from the royal baggage train. In the end he only recovered about 250,000 francs. The rest disappeared, it was just too tempting for the poorly paid soldiers to resist.
The French forces retreated over the Pyrenees and back into France. The British and their allies now had control of the Basque provinces. On hearing of the victory, the Emperors of Russia and Austria offered Wellington command of their armies, but he declined. It did, however, persuade Britain’s allies not to make peace with Napoleon but to keep fighting.
For Wellington, everything was set for the final push into France.
If you want to learn more about the Battle of Vittoria Ian’s book, Vittoria, 1813 (published by Osprey) is a great place to start – lots of maps and pictures!
To be continued….
Dundee (photo Hans Musil)