IV.

1808.

notes,

No. 1.

reserve and distributed in various parts of La Man- CHAP. cha and the neighbourhood of Madrid. Napoleon likewise directed, that Segovia should be occupied and put in a state of defence, that a division (Go- Napoleon's bert's) of Moncey's corps should co-operate with Bes- Appendix, sieres on the side of Valladolid, and that moveable columns should scour the country in rear of the acting bodies, and unite again at stated times upon points of secondary interest. Thus linking his operations together, Napoleon hoped, by grasping as it were the ganglia of the insurrection, to paralyze its force, and reduce it to a few convulsive motions which would soon subside. The execution of his plan failed in the feebler hands of his lieutenants, but it was well conceived, and embraced every probable immediate chance of war, and even provided for the distant and uncertain contingency of an English army landing upon the flanks or rear of the corps at either extremity of the Pyrenean frontier.

Military men would do well to reflect upon the prudence which the French emperor displayed upon this occasion. Not all his experience, his power, his fortune, nor the contempt which he felt for the prowess of his adversaries, could induce him to relax in his precautions; every chance was considered, and every measure calculated with as much care and circumspection as if the most redoubtable enemy was opposed to him. The conqueror of Europe was as fearful of making false movements before an army of peasants, as if Frederick the Great had been in his front, and yet he failed! Such is the uncertainty of war!

BOOK

I.

1808.

Moniteur.

Victoires et

çais.

CHAPTER V.

ALL the insurrections of the Spanish provinces took place nearly at the same period; the operations of the French divisions were, of course, nearly simultaneous; I shall, therefore, narrate their proceedings separately, classing them by the effect each produced upon the stability of the intrusive government in Madrid, and commencing with the

FIRST OPERATIONS OF MARSHAL BESSIERES.

That officer had scarcely fixed his quarters at Conquêtes Burgos when a general movement of revolt took des Fran- place. On his right, the bishop of St. Ander excited the inhabitants of the diocese to take arms. In his rear, a mechanic assembled some thousand armed peasants at the town of Logroño. In front, five thousand men took possession of the Spanish artillery dépôt at Segovia; an equal number assembling at Palencia armed themselves from the royal manufactory at that place, and advanced to the town of Torquemada; while general Cuesta, with some regular troops and a body of organized peasantry, posted themselves on the Pisuerga at Cabeçon.

Bessieres immediately divided his disposable force, which was not more than twelve thousand men, into several columns, and traversed the country in all directions, disarming the towns and interrupting the combinations of the insurgents; while a division of Dupont's corps, under general Frere, marched from the side of Madrid to aid his operations. General Verdier attacked Logroño on the 6th of June, dispersed the peasantry, and put the leaders to death

V.

1808.

after the action. General Lasalle, departing from CHAP. Burgos with a brigade of light cavalry, passed the Pisuerga, fell upon the Spaniards at Torquemada on the 7th, broke them, and pursuing with a merciless sword, burnt that town, and entered Palencia on the 8th.

Meanwhile Frere defeated the Spanish force at Segovia taking thirty pieces of artillery; and general Merle marching through the country lying between the Pisuerga and the Douero with a division of infantry, joined Lasalle at Dueñas on the 12th. From thence they proceeded to Cabeçon, where Cuesta accepted battle, and was overthrown, with much slaughter, the loss of his artillery, and several thousand musquets. The flat country being thus subdued, Lasalle's cavalry remained to keep it under; but Merle, marching northward, commenced operations, in concert with general Ducos, against the province of St. Ander. On the 20th, the latter general drove the Spaniards from the pass of Soncillo ; the 21st, he forced the pass of Venta de Escudo, and descending the valley of the river Pas, approached St. Ander; on the 22d, Merle, after some resistance, penetrated by Lantueño, and followed the course of the Besaya to Torre La Vega, then turning to his right entered St. Ander on the 23d; and Ducos arriving at the same time, the town submitted, and the bishop fled with the greatest part of the clergy. The authorities of Segovia, Valladolid, Palencia, and St. Ander, were compelled to send deputies to take the oath of allegiance to Joseph.

By these operations, the above-named provinces were completely disarmed, and so awed by the activity of Bessieres, that no further insurrections took place, and his cavalry raised contributions and collected provisions without the least difficulty. Frere's

BOOK division then returned to Toledo, and from thence

I.

1808.

marched to San Clemente, on the borders of Murcia. The imprudence of Cuesta, and the general deficiency of talent and judgment manifested by the Spaniards throughout these proceedings, were very remarkable.

While Bessieres thus broke the northern insurrections, the march of general Lefebre Desnouettes against the province of Aragon brought on the first siege of Zaragoza. Palafox being declared captainCavallero. general, recalled the retired officers into service; a number of volunteers repaired to him from distant parts, and the soldiers and officers who could escape from Pampelona and Madrid joined his standard, and among others the officers of engineers employed in the school of Alcala. With their assistance his forces were rapidly organized, and many battalions were formed and posted at different points on the roads leading towards Navarre. The baron de Versage, an officer of the Walloon guards, occupied Calatayud with a regiment composed of students who were volunteers; he raised more men in that quarter, kept up a communication with the juntas of Soria and Siguenza, and covered the powder-mills in Villa Felice. The arsenal of Zaragoza supplied the patriots with arms. At Tudela the people broke down the bridge over the Ebro, and Palafox detached five hundred fuzileers to assist them in defending the passage of that river.

S.

Lefebre's

In this situation of affairs Lefebre commenced his Journal of march from Pampelona the 7th of June, at the head Operations. of three or four thousand infantry, some field batteries, MSS. and a regiment of Polish cavalry. On the 9th he Victoire et forced the passage of the Ebro, put the leaders of the Conquêtes des Fran- insurrection to death after the action, and then continued his movement by the right bank to Mallen. Palafox, with ten thousand infantry, two hundred

Moniteur.

çais.

Cavallero.

V.

1808.

dragoons, and eight pieces of artillery, awaited him CHAP. there in a position behind the Huecha. The 13th, Palafox was overthrown; the 14th, the French reached the Xalon; another combat and another victory carried Lefebre across that river; and the 15th, he was on the Huerba, in front of the heroic city.

FIRST SIEGE OF ZARAGOZA.

Zaragoza contained at that period fifty thousand inhabitants; situated on the right bank of the Ebro, it was connected with a suburb on the opposite side by a handsome stone bridge. The immediate vicinity is flat, and on the side of the suburb low and marshy. The small river Huerba, running through a deep cleft, cuts the plain on the right bank, and taking its course close to the walls, falls into the Ebro nearly opposite to the mouth of the Gallego, which, descending from the mountains on the opposite side, cuts the plain on the left bank. The convent of St. Joseph, built on the right of the Huerba, covered a bridge over that torrent; and, at the distance of cannon-shot, a step of land commenced, which, gradually rising, terminated at eighteen hundred yards from the convent, in a hill called the Monte Torrero. On Cavallero. Siege of this hill, which commanded all the plain and over- Zaragoza. looked the town, several storehouses and workshops, built for the use of the canal, were entrenched, and occupied by twelve hundred men. The canal itself, a noble work, formed a water carriage without a single lock from Tudela to Zaragoza. The city, surrounded by a low brick wall, presented no regular defences, and possessed very few guns in a state fit for service, but the houses were strongly constructed, some of stone, others of brick; they were mostly of two stories high, each story being vaulted so as to be

VOL. I.

F