IV. 1808. BOOK the head-quarters having arrived there on the day before. In the preceding month large stores had been gradually brought up to that town by sir David Baird, and as there were no means of transport to remove them, orders were given, after supplying the immediate wants of the army, to destroy them; but Romana, who would neither defend Leon nor Mansilla, had, contrary to his promises, pre-occupied Astorga with his fugitive army; and when the English divisions marched in, such a tumult and confusion arose, that no orders could be executed with regularity, no distribution made, nor the destruction of the stores be effected. The disorder thus unexpectedly produced was very detrimental to the discipline of the troops, which the unwearied efforts of the general had partly restored. The resources which he had depended on for the support of his soldiers became mischievous, and contributed to disorganise instead of nourishing them, and he had the farther vexation to hear Romana the principal cause of this misfortune, proposing, (with an army unable to resist a thousand light infantry), to commence offensive operations and plans, in comparison of which the visions of don Quixote were wisdom. The 31st, the light brigades separated from the army at Bonillas, and bent their course by cross roads towards Orense and Vigo. This detachment was made to lessen the pressure on the commissariat, and to cover the flanks of the army. Fraser's and Hope's divisions entered Villa Franca, Baird's division was at Bembibre. The reserve, with the head-quarters, halted at Cambarros, a village six miles from Astorga, but the cavalry fell back in the night to the same place, and then the reserve marched to Bembibre. IV. The marquis of Romana, after doing so much mis- CHAP. chief by crossing the line of march, left his infantry to wander as they pleased, and retired with his cavalry and guns to the valley of the Mincio. Upon the 1st of January the emperor took possession of Astorga. On that day seventy thousand French infantry, ten thousand cavalry, and two hundred pieces of artillery, after many days of incessant marching, were there united. The congregation of this mighty force, while it evinced the power and energy of the French monarch, attested also the genius of the English general, who, with a handful of men, had found the means to arrest the course of the conqueror, and to draw him, with the flower of his army, to this remote and unimportant part of the Peninsula, at the moment when Portugal, and the fairest provinces of Spain, were prostrate beneath the strength of his hand. That Spain, being in her extremity, sir John Moore succoured her, and in the hour of weakness intercepted the blow which was descending to crush her, no man of candour and honesty can deny. For what troops, what preparations, what courage, what capacity, was there in the south to have resisted, even for an instant, the progress of a man, who, in ten days, and in the depth of winter, crossing the snowy ridge of the Carpentinos, had traversed two hundred miles of hostile country, and transported fifty thousand men from Madrid to Astorga in a shorter time than a Spanish diligence would have taken to travel the same distance? This stupendous march was rendered fruitless by the quickness of his adversary; but Napoleon, though he had failed to destroy the English army, resolved, nevertheless, to cast it forth of the Peninsula, and being himself recalled to France by tidings that the Austrian storm was ready to burst, he fixed upon the 1809. IV. 1809. S. Journal of MS. BOOK duke of Dalmatia to continue the pursuit, adding for this purpose three divisions of cavalry, and three of infantry to his former command; but of these last, the two commanded by generals Loison and Heudelet, were several marches in the rear, and general Bonnet's remained always in the Montagna de St. Ander; hence the whole number bearing arms, which the Operations. duke led immediately to the pursuit, was about twenty-five thousand men, of which four thousand two hundred were cavalry *. The guns were fiftyfour. Loison's and Heudelet's divisions, however, followed him by forced marches, and he was supported by marshal Ney with the sixth corps, wanting its third division; but mustering above sixteen thousand men under arms, (the flower of the French army), together with thirty-seven pieces of artillery. Thus including Laborde, Heudelet, and Loison's division, nearly sixty thousand men and ninety-one guns were put on the track of the English army. The emperor returned to Valladolid, where he received the addresses of the notables and deputies from Madrid and the great towns, and strove, by promises and other means, to win the good opinion of the public. Appointing Joseph to be his lieutenantgeneral, he allotted separate provinces for each " corps d'armée," and directing the imperial guard to return to France; after three days he departed himself with scarcely any escort, but with a speed that frustrated the designs that (as some say) the Spaniards had formed against his person. CHAPTER V. THE duke of Dalmatia, a general, who, if the emperor be excepted, was no wise inferior to any of his nation, commenced his pursuit of the English army with a vigour that marked his eager desire to finish the campaign in a manner suitable to the brilliant opening at Gamonal. CHAP. 1809. S. Journal of MS. The main body of his troops followed the route of Foncevadon and Ponteferrada, a second column took the road of Cambarros and Bembibre, and general Operations. Franceschi, with the light cavalry, entering the valley of the Syl, ascended the course of that river, and turned the position of Villa Franca del Bierzo. Thus sir John Moore, after having twice baffled the emperor's combinations, was still pressed in his retreat with a fury that seemed to increase every moment. The separation of his light brigades, a measure which he adopted, after the advice of his quarter-master-general, weakened the army by three thousand men ; but he still possessed nineteen thousand of all arms, good soldiers to fight, and strong to march, yet by the disorders at Valderas and Astorga, much shaken in their discipline; for the general's exertions to restore order and regularity were by many officers slightly seconded, and by some with scandalous levity disregarded. There was no choice but to retreat. The astonishing rapidity with which the emperor had brought up his overbearing numbers, and thrust the English army into Gallicia, had rendered the natural strength BOOK 1809. No. 13, sections 2 and 8. Sir John of the country unavailing. The resources were few, even for an army in winter quarters, and for a campaign in that season, there were none at all. All the draft cattle that could be procured would scarcely have supplied the means to transport ammunition for two battles, but the French, sweeping the rich plains of Castille with their powerful cavalry, might have formed magazines at Astorga and Leon, and from thence have been supplied in abundance, while the English were starving. Before he advanced from Salamanca, sir John Moore, foreseeing that his movement must sooner or later end in a retreat, had sent officers to examine the Appendix, roads of Gallicia and the harbours which offered the greatest advantages for embarkation. By the reports of those officers, which arrived from day to day, and by the state of the magazines he had directed to be formed, his measures were constantly regulated. The magazines of Astorga, Benevente, and Labaneza, we have seen, were, by untoward circumstances, and the deficiency of transport, rendered of no avail beyond the momentary supply they afforded; and part of their contents falling into the enemy's hands, gave him some cause of triumph; but those at Villa Franca and Lugo contained about fourteen days' consumption; and there were other small magazines formed on the line of Orenze and Vigo; more than this could not have been accomplished. It was now only the fifteenth day since sir John Moore had left Salamanca, and already the torrent of war, diverted from the south, was foaming among the rocks of Gallicia. Nineteen thousand British troops, posted in strong ground, might have offered battle Appendix, to very superior numbers; but where was the use of merely fighting an enemy who had three hundred No. 28. |