CHAPTER X

AFFAIRS IN THE SOUTH. JUNE-AUGUST 1812. SOULT, HILL, AND BALLASTEROS

Two months elapsed between Wellington’s passage of the Agueda on his offensive march into the kingdom of Leon, and his triumphal entry into Madrid. During this critical time there had been constant alarms and excursions in Andalusia and Estremadura, but nothing decisive had occurred. This was all that Wellington wanted: if employment were found for the French Army of the South, so that it got no chance of interfering with the campaign on the Douro, he was perfectly satisfied, and asked for nothing more.

It will be remembered that his instructions to Hill, before he started on the march to Salamanca, were that Soult must be diverted as far as possible from sending troops northward. The main scheme was that Ballasteros and Hill should, if possible, combine their operations so as to bring pressure upon the enemy alternately[669]. The Cadiz Regency had readily agreed to stir up the Spanish general to activity: if he would demonstrate once more (as in April) against Seville, so as to attract Soult’s attention, and cause him to concentrate, Hill should press in upon Drouet and the French troops in Estremadura, so as to force the Marshal to draw off from the Spaniard. Similarly, if Soult should concentrate against Hill, Ballasteros was to strike again at Seville, or the rear of the Cadiz Lines, which would infallibly bring the Marshal southward again in haste[670].

[669] Wellington to Henry Wellesley at Cadiz, _Dispatches_, ix. p. 169, same to same of June 1, _Dispatches_, ix. p. 197, Wellington to Hill (June 6th), _Dispatches_, ix. p. 215, and more especially the last paragraph of Wellington to Henry Wellesley of June 7th, _Dispatches_, ix. p. 219, and same to same of June 10th, _Dispatches_, ix. p. 224.

[670] To quote Wellington’s own rather heavy but quite explicit phrases: ‘I am certain that the enemy will move into Estremadura upon Hill, as soon as it is known that _I_ have moved: and I hope everything will then be done by Ballasteros, and the Army of Murcia, and the troops in Cadiz, to divert the enemy from their intentions upon Hill.’ And, on the other hand, in a letter differing in date from that first cited by three days, ‘The Spanish government have desired that in case of a movement by Marshal Soult on General Ballasteros, General Hill should make a movement to divert his attention from Ballasteros. I have directed this movement, in the notion that the Conde de Villemur [the Spanish commander in Estremadura] will also co-operate in it.’ The see-saw of alternate distractions is clearly laid down--but Ballasteros (as usual) proved a difficult factor to manage.

When Wellington crossed the Agueda [June 13] Hill had his corps collected in central Estremadura--head-quarters at Almendralejo, the troops cantoned about Ribera, Villafranca, Fuente del Maestre, and Los Santos, with Penne Villemur’s Spanish horse in front at Zafra. Hill had in hand his old force--the 2nd Division and Hamilton’s Portuguese, with two (instead of the usual one) British and one Portuguese cavalry brigades. He could also call up, if needed, the three strong Portuguese infantry regiments (5th, 17th, 22nd) which were holding Badajoz till a sufficient native garrison should be provided for it. At present only a few hundred Spaniards [Tiradores de Doyle] had appeared. Far away, to the north of the Guadiana, observing the French posts on the Tagus, there was a detached Portuguese cavalry regiment at Plasencia. This outlying unit was also put under Hill’s charge: its object was to give early notice of any possible stir by the French, in the direction of Almaraz or the recently restored bridge of Alcantara. Morillo’s infantry division of Castaños’s army was lying on the right of Hill, in south-western Estremadura: Wellington suggested that the Spanish general might be willing to throw it into Badajoz, and so liberate the Portuguese regiments lying there, if Soult should advance before the regular garrison intended for the great fortress should arrive from Cadiz. The whole force watching Soult amounted to nearly 19,000 men, not including the Spaniards. Of this total about 7,500 sabres and bayonets were British--something over 11,000 were Portuguese. In addition, Morillo and Penne Villemur had not quite 4,000 Spanish horse and foot. Supposing that a minimum garrison were thrown into Badajoz--Morillo’s infantry for choice--Hill could dispose of 18,000 Anglo-Portuguese for field-operations, not including the Portuguese cavalry by the Tagus, who had the separate duty of watching the Army of the Centre.

The French in Estremadura still consisted of the old contingent which D’Erlon had been administering since the year began, viz. his own and Daricau’s infantry divisions, with Lallemand’s and Perreymond’s cavalry--altogether not more than 12,000 men, for several of the infantry regiments had lost a battalion apiece when Badajoz fell. Since his excursion to Don Benito and Medellin at the time of Hill’s raid on Almaraz, D’Erlon had drawn back, abandoning all southern and most of eastern Estremadura to the allies. He himself was lying at Azuaga and Fuente Ovejuna, on the slopes of the Sierra Morena, while Daricau was more to the north, about Zalamea, rather too far off to give his chief prompt support. Daricau’s detachment in this direction seems to have been caused by a desire to make communication with the Army of Portugal easy, if the latter should ever come southward again from the Tagus, and push to Truxillo as in 1811. It was clear that unless Soult should reinforce his troops to the north of the mountains, Hill need fear nothing: indeed he had a distinct superiority over D’Erlon.

Early in June, however, there was no danger that any troops from Seville would come northward, for Ballasteros’s diversion had taken place somewhat earlier than Wellington had wished, and the disposable reserve of the Army of Andalusia was far away in the extreme southern point of the province. After his success at Alhaurin in April, and his subsequent pursuit by Soult’s flying columns, Ballasteros had taken refuge--as was his wont when hard pressed--under the guns of Gibraltar. The French retired when they had consumed their provisions, and fell back to their usual stations at Malaga and Ronda, and along the line of the Guadalete. When they were gone, the Spanish general emerged in May, and recommenced his wonted incursions, ranging over the whole of the mountains of the South. Having received the dispatches of the Regency, which directed him to execute a diversion in favour of the allied army in Estremadura, he obeyed with unexpected celerity, and took in hand a very bold enterprise. General Conroux, with the column whose task it was to cover the rear of the Cadiz Lines, was lying at Bornos, behind the Guadalete, in a slightly entrenched camp. He had with him about 4,500 men[671]. Ballasteros resolved to attempt to surprise him, on the morning of June 1. Having got together all his disposable troops, 8,500 infantry and a few squadrons of horse[672], he made a forced march, and, favoured by a heavy mist at dawn, fell upon the enemy’s cantonments and surprised them. He won a considerable success at first: but the French rallied, and after a hard fight broke his line by a general charge, and drove him back across the Guadalete. Conroux was too exhausted to pursue, and Ballasteros remained in position, apparently meditating a second attack, when on seeing some cavalry detachments coming up to join the enemy, he sullenly retired. He had lost 1,500 men and 4 guns, the French over 400[673]. The first note of alarm from Bornos had caused Soult to send what reserves he could collect from the Cadiz Lines and Seville--six battalions and two cavalry regiments, and since Ballasteros had been beaten, but not routed, he thought it necessary to give prompt attention to him. Thereupon the Spaniard retreated first to Ubrique, and when threatened in that position, to his old refuge in the lines of San Roque before Gibraltar.

[671] 9th Léger, 96th Ligne, a battalion of the 16th Léger, and the 5th Chasseurs.

[672] Figures in _Los Ejércitos españoles_, p. 128.

[673] Possibly more--the casualty list of officers in Martinien’s admirable tables is very heavy--9 officers hit in the 9th Léger, 13 in the 96th Ligne, 3 in the 16th Léger, 5 in the 5th Chasseurs à cheval. Thirty officers hit might very probably (but not certainly) mean 600 casualties in all.

Soult would have liked to make an end of him, and would also have been glad to direct a new attack upon Tarifa, which served as a second base to the roving Spanish corps; he mentions his wish to capture it in more than one of his dispatches of this summer. But his attention was drawn away from Ballasteros and the South by the prompt advance of Hill, who (as had been settled) pressed in upon Drouet at the right moment. On the 7th June he moved forward his head-quarters from Almendralejo to Fuente del Maestre, and two days later to Zafra. On the 11th, Penne Villemur’s cavalry pushed out from Llerena towards Azuaga, while Slade’s brigade, advancing parallel with the Spanish general, pressed forward from Llera on Maguilla, a village some fifteen miles in front of Drouet’s head-quarters at Fuente Ovejuna. This reconnaissance in force brought on the most unlucky combat that was ever fought by the British cavalry during the Peninsular War, the skirmish of Maguilla.

Slade, an officer whose want of capacity we have before had occasion to notice[674], after some hours of march began to get in touch with French dragoon vedettes, and presently, after driving them in, found himself facing Lallemand’s brigade. Their forces were nearly equal--each having two regiments, Slade the 1st Royals and 3rd Dragoon Guards, Lallemand the 17th and 27th Dragoons--they had about 700 sabres a side: if anything Slade was a little the stronger. The French general showed considerable caution and retired for some distance, till he had nearly reached Maguilla, where he turned to fight. Slade at once charged him, with the Royals in front line and the 3rd Dragoon Guards supporting. The first shock was completely successful, the French line being broken, and more than 100 men being taken. But Slade then followed the routed squadrons with headlong recklessness, ‘each regiment,’ as he wrote in his very foolish report of the proceedings, ‘vying with the other which should most distinguish itself.’ The pursuit was as reckless as that of the 13th Light Dragoons at Campo Mayor in the preceding year, and resolved itself into a disorderly gallop of several miles. After the French had passed a defile beyond Maguilla a sudden cry was heard, ‘Look to your right’--a fresh squadron which Lallemand had left in reserve was seen bearing down on the flank of the disordered mass. Charged diagonally by a small force, but one in good order, the British dragoons gave way. Lallemand’s main body turned upon them, and ‘the whole brigade in the greatest disorder, and regardless of all the exertions and appeals of their general and their regimental officers, continued their disgraceful flight till victors and fugitives, equally overcome and exhausted by the overpowering heat and the clouds of thick dust, came to a standstill near Valencia de las Torres, some four miles from Maguilla, where at last Slade was able to collect his regiments, and to retire to the woods beyond Llera[675].’

[674] See vol. iv. pp. 187 and 437.

[675] See Ainslie’s _History of the 1st Royals_, p. 133.

In this discreditable affair Slade lost 22 killed, 26 wounded, and no less than 2 officers and 116 men taken prisoners--most of the latter wounded--a total casualty list of 166. Lallemand acknowledges in his report a loss of 51 officers and men[676]. The defeated general irritated Wellington by a very disingenuous report, in which he merely wrote that ‘I am sorry to say our loss was severe, as the enemy brought up a support, and my troops being too eager in pursuit, we were obliged to relinquish a good number of prisoners that we had taken, and to fall back on Llera.’ He then added, in the most inappropriate phrases, ‘nothing could exceed the gallantry displayed by both officers and men on this occasion, in which Colonels Calcraft and Clinton, commanding the two regiments, distinguished themselves, as well as all the other officers present[677].’

[676] Including one officer killed and four wounded.

[677] See Slade’s report in _Dispatches_, ix. pp. 242-3. Tomkinson (p. 174) says that Slade’s report to Cotton, commanding the cavalry, was ‘the _best_ I ever saw. He made mention of his son having stained his maiden sword!’

Wellington’s scathing comment, in a letter to Hill, was: ‘I have never been more annoyed than by Slade’s affair, and I entirely concur with you in the necessity of inquiring into it. It is occasioned entirely by the trick our officers of cavalry have acquired, of galloping at everything--and then galloping _back_ as fast as they galloped _on_ the enemy. They never consider their situation, never think of manœuvring before an enemy--so little that one would think they cannot manœuvre except on Wimbledon Common: and when they use their arm as it ought to be used, viz. offensively, they never keep nor provide for a reserve.... The Royals and 3rd Dragoon Guards were the best cavalry regiments in this country, and it annoys me particularly that the misfortune has happened to them. I do not wonder at the French boasting of it: it is the greatest blow they have struck[678].’ It is curious to find that Slade retained command of his brigade till May 1813. One would have expected to find him relegated to Great Britain at a much earlier date. But Wellington was not even yet in full control of the removal or promotion of his senior officers. Other generals with whom he was equally discontented, such as Erskine and Long, were also left upon his hands after he had set a black mark against their names.

[678] Wellington to Hill, _Dispatches_, ix. p. 238.

The combat of Maguilla, however unsatisfactory in itself, made no difference to the general strategy of the campaign. Drouet, having drawn back on Hill’s advance, sent messages to Soult, to the effect that unless he were strongly reinforced he must retire from the Sierra Morena, and cover the roads to Cordova on the Andalusian side of the mountains. He reported that he had only 6,000 men in hand, and that Hill was coming against him with 30,000, including the Spaniards. Both these figures were fantastic--for reasons best known to himself D’Erlon did not include Daricau’s division in his own total, while he credited Hill with 15,000 men in the 2nd British division alone [which was really 8,000 strong, including its Portuguese brigade], and reported with circumstantial detail that the 7th Division had come down from Portalegre and joined the 2nd[679].

[679] Letters of D’Erlon to Jourdan on June 9th, and of Soult to King Joseph June 12, copies from the Paris archives--lent me by Mr. Fortescue.

Soult sent on D’Erlon’s dispatch to Madrid, with the comment that Hill’s advance showed that the main intention of Wellington was certainly to attack Andalusia, and not to fall upon Marmont. But that he did not consider such an attack very imminent is sufficiently shown by the fact that he detached to Drouet’s aid only one division of infantry, that of Barrois--which composed his central reserve--and one of cavalry, that of Pierre Soult, or a total of 6,000 infantry and 2,200 cavalry: such a reinforcement would have been futile if he had really believed that Wellington was marching against Seville. His real view may be gathered from his estimate of Hill’s force at 15,000 Anglo-Portuguese and 5,000 Spaniards--a total very remote from the alarmist reports of Drouet, and not far from the truth. The reinforcement sent under Barrois would give the Estremaduran detachment a practical equality in numbers with Hill, and a great superiority in quality. The orders sent to Drouet were that he was to advance against Hill, to strive to get him to an engagement, at any rate to ‘contain’ him, so that he should not detach troops north of the Guadiana to join Wellington or to demonstrate against Madrid. If things went well, Drouet was to invest Badajoz, and to occupy Merida, from whence he would try to get into communication via Truxillo with the troops of the Army of the Centre. The final paragraph of his directions stated that Drouet’s main object must be to make such a formidable diversion that Wellington would have to reinforce Hill. ‘When the Army of Portugal finds that it has less of the English army in front of it, we may perhaps persuade it [i. e. Marmont] that the enemy’s plan is certainly to invade the provinces of the south of Spain before he acts directly against the North: then, no doubt, changed dispositions will be made.’ Unfortunately for the strategical reputation of Soult, Wellington crossed the Agueda with seven of his eight divisions to attack Marmont, on the very day after this interesting dispatch was written.

D’Erlon had been promised that Barrois should march to his aid on the 14th, but it was not till the 16th that the column from Seville started to join him, and then it marched not by the route of Constantina and Guadalcanal, as D’Erlon had requested, but by the high-road from Andalusia to Badajoz, via Monasterio. If Hill had been pressing the troops in front of him with vigour, the French would have been in an awkward position, since they were on separate roads, and might have been driven apart, and kept from junction by a decisive movement from Llerena, where Hill’s cavalry and advanced guard lay. But the British general had orders to attract the attention of Soult and to ‘contain’ as many of the enemy as possible, rather than to risk anything. He resolved, when he heard of the approach of Barrois, to retire to the heights of Albuera, which Wellington had pointed out to him as the most suitable position for standing at bay, if he were pressed hard. Accordingly he drew back by slow stages from Zafra towards Badajoz, covering his rear by his cavalry, which suffered little molestation. Barrois joined Drouet at Bienvenida near Zafra on the 19th, and their united force, since Daricau had come in to join them from the direction of Zalamea, with the greater part of his division, must have amounted to over 18,000 men, though Drouet in a report to King Joseph states it at a decidedly lower figure[680]. They advanced cautiously as far as Villafranca and Fuente del Maestre, which their infantry occupied on June 21, while their numerous cavalry lay a little way in front, at Villalba, Azeuchal, and Almendralejo. On the same day Hill had taken up the Albuera position, on which several points had been entrenched.

[680] In this report (the copy of which I owe to Mr. Fortescue’s kindness) Drouet says that Soult had told him to expect reinforcements to the total of some 15,000 men, but that Barrois brought him only 3,500 infantry and 1,500 horse, and Daricau 4,500 infantry and 1,000 horse, so that his reinforcements were only 10,500 men instead of 15,000. Drouet stated his own force, horse and foot (his own division and Lallemand’s cavalry) in a preceding letter of June 9th at 6,000 of all arms, so that the concentration would only give 16,000 men. I fancy that he is deliberately understating Barrois, for that general had 7,000 men in March, and 5,000 still in October at the end of a long and fatiguing campaign, and Pierre Soult too. Drouet’s object in giving these figures to Joseph was to prove that he was so weak that he could make no detachment towards the Tagus, as the King had directed him to do. Was it for the same purpose that he always over-stated Hill’s army? Or did he really believe that the latter had 30,000 men arranged opposite him, as he repeatedly told Soult?

As Hill had just called out the three garrison regiments of Portuguese from Badajoz, he had now between 18,000 and 19,000 of his own army in position, besides Villemur’s Spanish cavalry. This last, together with Long’s and Slade’s squadrons, were thrown out in front of the Albuera river, with their vedettes in Santa Marta, Almendral, and Corte de Peleas, only a mile or two from the French advanced posts. They were directed not to give way till they were severely pressed, as Hill wished to avoid at all costs the kind of surprise that had befallen Beresford in 1811, when Long had retired so precipitately before the French horse that he could give no account of their strength, nor of the position of Soult’s infantry. But the expected advance of the enemy hung fire--from the 21st onwards Hill was waiting to be attacked, and sending almost daily accounts of the situation to Wellington: but the main body of the French moved no farther forward. This was all the more surprising to the English general because he had intercepted a letter written on May 31 from King Joseph to Drouet, in which the latter was directed to ‘passer sur le corps à Hill[681],’ and then to come up to the Tagus to join the Army of the Centre. Not knowing how entirely Soult and D’Erlon were ignoring all orders from Madrid, both Wellington and his trusty lieutenant thought that such instructions must almost certainly bring about an action. The former wrote to the latter on June 28th, after receiving several statements of the situation: ‘if you should find that Drouet separates his troops, or if he pretends to hold you in check with a smaller body of men than you think you can get the better of, fall upon him, but take care to keep a very large proportion of your troops in reserve.... I should prefer a partial affair to a general one, but risk a general affair--keeping always a large body of reserve, particularly of cavalry--rather than allow Drouet to remain in Estremadura and keep you in check.’ But the enemy neither came on for a general action, nor scattered his troops so widely as to induce Hill to risk an attack on any point of his line. He remained with his infantry massed about Villafranca and Fuente del Maestre, and only demonstrated with his cavalry.

[681] Cf. Wellington to Hill of July 11th. _Dispatches_, ix. p. 280.

The cause of this inactivity on Drouet’s part was partly, perhaps, his over-estimate of Hill’s strength, but much more Soult’s unwillingness to obey the orders sent him from Madrid. He was determined not to detach a third part of his army to the Tagus, to join the Army of the Centre. He was by this time fully embarked on his long course of insubordinate action, with which we have already dealt when writing of the King’s desires and their frustration[682]. On the 26th May Joseph had sent him the dispatch which directed that D’Erlon must come up northward, if Wellington’s main attack turned out to be directed against Marmont and the Army of Portugal: ‘his corps is the pivot on which everything turns: he is the counterpoise which can be thrown into the balance in one scale or the other, according as our forces have to act on the one side or the other[683].’ Drouet himself had at the same time received that order to the same effect, sent to him directly and not through his immediate superior, which so much scandalized Soult’s sense of hierarchical subordination[684]. On getting the Madrid dispatch of May 26 upon June 8th, Soult had written to say that Wellington’s real objective was Andalusia and not the North, that Marmont was utterly misled if he supposed that he was to be attacked by the main body of the allies, that Graham, with two British divisions, was still at Portalegre in support of Hill, and that Drouet had therefore been forbidden to lose touch with the Army of the South by passing towards the Tagus. If he departed, the whole fabric of French power in the South would go to pieces, ‘I should have to pack up and evacuate Andalusia after the smallest check.’ Drouet should ‘contain’ Hill, but could do no more. In a supplementary dispatch of June 12, provoked by the receipt of Joseph’s direct orders to Drouet, Soult went further, definitely stating that the troops in Estremadura should not go to the Tagus, ‘where they would be lost to the Army of the South, but would never arrive in time to help the Army of Portugal.’ If Drouet passed the Tagus, Hill would march on Seville, and on the sixth day would capture that insufficiently garrisoned capital, put himself in communication with Ballasteros, and raise the siege of Cadiz. ‘I repeat that the Army of the South cannot carry out its orders, and send Count D’Erlon and 15,000 men to the valley of the Tagus, without being compelled to evacuate Andalusia within the fortnight.... If your Majesty insists, remove me from command, I do not wish to be responsible for the inevitable disaster that must follow[685].’

[682] See