with some 55,000 men. Wellington then brought up Hill to Madrid.
On the 1st of September 1812, the French armies having begun
once more to collect together, Wellington marched against the
Army of the North, now under General Clausel, and
laid siege to the castle of Burgos (Sept. 19) to secure
the road towards Santander on the coast. But the
Siege of the Castle of Burgos, Sept. 19 to Oct. 21.
Retreat from Burgos.
strength of the castle had been underrated;
Wellington had insufficient siege equipment and
transport for heavy guns; five assaults failed, and Soult (having
left Suchet in Valencia) and also the Army of Portugal were
both approaching, so Wellington withdrew on the night of the
21st of October, and, directing the evacuation of
Madrid, commenced the “Retreat from Burgos.”
In this retreat, although military operations were
skilfully conducted, the Allies lost 7000 men, and discipline, as
in that to Corunna, became much relaxed.
By November 1812, Hill having joined him at Salamanca, Wellington once more had gone into cantonments near Ciudad Rodrigo, and the French armies had again scattered for convenience of supply. In spite of the failure before Burgos, the successes of the campaign had been brilliant. In addition to the decisive victory of Salamanca, Madrid had been occupied, the siege of Cadiz raised, Andalusia freed, and Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz stormed Early in January also the French had abandoned the siege of Tarifa, though Valencia had surrendered to them (Jan. 9). One important result of the campaign was that the Spanish Cortes nominated Wellington (Sept. 22, 1812) to the unfettered command of the Spanish armies. For the operations of this campaign Wellington was created earl, and subsequently marquess of Wellington, duke of Ciudad Rodrigo by Spain, and marquis of Torres Vedras by Portugal.
Campaign in Spain and the South of France, 1813.—At the opening of 1813, Suchet, with 63,000 men, had been left to hold Valencia, Aragon and Catalonia; and the remainder of the French (about 137,000) occupied Leon, the central provinces and Biscay, guarding also the communications with France. Of these about 60,000 under Joseph were more immediately opposed to Wellington, and posted, in scattered detachments, from Toledo and Madrid behind the Tormes to the Douro, and along that river to the Esla. Wellington had further organized the Spanish forces—Castanos (40,000), with the guerrilla bands of Mina, Longa and others, was in Galicia, the Asturias and northern Spain, Copons (10,000) in Catalonia; Elio (20,000) in Murcia, Del Parque (12,000) in the Sierra Morena, and O'Donell (15,000) in Andalusia. More Portuguese troops had been raised, and reinforcements received from England, so that the Allies, without the Spaniards above alluded to, now numbered some 75,000 men, and from near the Coa watched the Douro and Tormes, their line stretching from their left near Lamego to the pass of Baños, Hill being on the right. The district of the Trasos-Montes, north of the Douro, about the Tamega, Tua and Sabor, was so rugged that Wellington was convinced that Joseph would expect him to advance by the south of the river. He therefore, moving by the south bank himself with Hill, to confirm Joseph in this expectation, crossed the Tormes near and above Salamanca, having previously—which was to be the decisive movement—detached Graham, with 40,000 men, to make his way, through the difficult district above mentioned, towards Braganza, and then, joining with the Spaniards, to turn Joseph’s right Graham, crossing the Douro near Lamego, carried out his laborious march with great energy, and Joseph retired precipitately from the Douro, behind the Pisuerga, The allied army, raised by the junction of the Spanish troops in Galicia to 90,000, now concentrated near Toro, and moved towards the Pisuerga, when Joseph, blowing up the castle of Burgos, fell back behind the Ebro Once more Wellington turned his right, by a sweeping movement through Rocamunde and Puente Arenas near the source of the Ebro, when he retreated behind the Zadorra near the town of Vitoria.
Santander was now evacuated by the French, and the allied line of communications was changed to that port. On the 20th of June Wellington encamped along the river Bayas, and the next day attacked Joseph. For a description of the decisive battle of Vitoria (June 21, 1813), see Vitoria. In it Battle of Vitoria, June 21, 1813. King Joseph met with a crushing defeat, and, after it, the wreck of his army, cut off from the Vitoria-Bayonne road, escaped towards Pampeluna. Within a few days Madrid was evacuated, and all the French forces, with the exception of the garrisons of San Sebastian (3000), Pampeluna (3000), Santona (1500), and the troops under Suchet holding posts in Catalonia and Valencia, had retired across the Pyrenees into France. The Spanish peninsula was, to all intents and purposes, free from foreign domination, although the war was yet far from concluded. The French struggled gallantly to the close: but now a long succession of their leaders—Junot, Soult, Victor, Masséna, Marmont, Joseph—had been in turn forced to recoil before Wellington; and while their troops fought henceforward under the depressing memory of many defeats, the Allies did so under the inspiriting influence of great successes, and with that absolute confidence in their chief which doubled their fighting power.
For this decisive campaign, Wellington was made a field marshal in the British army, and created duke of Victory[1] by the Portuguese government in Brazil. He now, with about 80,000 men, took up a position with his left (the Spaniards) on the Bidassoa near San Sebastian. Thence his line stretched along the Pyrenees by the passes of Vera, Echallar, Maya and Roncesvalles, to Altobiscar, his immediate object now being to reduce the fortresses of San Sebastian and Pampeluna. Not having sufficient matériel for two sieges, he laid siege to San Sebastian only, and blockaded Pampeluna. Sir Thomas Graham commenced the active siege of San Sebastian on the 10th of July 1813, but as Soult was approaching to its relief, the assault was ordered for daylight on the 24th. Unfortunately Siege of Sebastian, July 10–24, 1813. a conflagration breaking out near the breaches caused it to be postponed until nightfall, when, the breaches in the interval having been strengthened, it was delivered unsuccessfully and with heavy loss. Wellington then suspended the siege in order to meet Soult, who endeavoured (July 25) to turn the allied right, and reach Pampeluna. Attacking the passes of Maya and Roncesvalles, he obliged their defenders to retire, after sharp fighting, to a position close to Sorauren, which, with 25,000 men, he Battles of the Pyrenees, July 25 to August 2, 1813. attempted to carry (July 28). By this time Wellington had reached it from the allied left; reinforcements were pressing up on both sides, and about 12,000 allied troops faced the French. A struggle, described by Wellington as “bludgeon work,” now ensued, but all efforts to dislodge the Allies having failed, Soult, withdrawing, manoeuvred to his right towards San Sebastian. Wellington now assumed the offensive, and, in a series of engagements, drove the French back (Aug. 2) beyond the Pyrenees. These included Roncesvalles and Maya (July 25); Sorauren (July 28 and 30), Yanzi (Aug. 1); and Echallar and Ivantelly (Aug. 2), the total losses in them being about—Allies under 7000, French 10,000. After this, Wellington renewing the siege of San Sebastian carried the place, excepting the castle, after a heavy expenditure of life (Aug. 31). Upon the day of its fall Soult attempted to relieve it, but Storm of San Sebastian, August 31, 1813. in the combats of Vera and St Marcial was repulsed. The castle surrendered on the 9th of September, the losses in the entire siege having been about—Allies 4000, French 2000. Wellington next determined to throw his left across the river Bidassoa to strengthen his own position, and secure the port of Fuenterrabia.
Now commenced a series of celebrated river passages, which had to be effected prior to the further invasion of France. At daylight on the 7th of October 1813 he crossed the Bidassoa in seven columns, and attacked the entire French position, which stretched in two heavily entrenched lines from north
- ↑ Duque da Victoria, often incorrectly duke of Vitoria. The coincidence of the title with the place-name of the battle which had not yet been fought when the title was conferred, is curious, but accidental.
