Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Salamanca 1812

By 1812, Napoleon’s French Empire had a quarter of a million troops stationed in Spain, bogged down in a war that seemed to have no end. They faced a bitter struggle against the people of Spain, who had taken up arms in a guerrilla war, as well as the remnants of Spain’s field armies and an Anglo-Portuguese army under Lord Wellington. Despite this, French forces in Spain remained formidable and in firm control of the capital, Madrid, and most major cities.

The year began with another significant French victory in the south, but it would soon become a graveyard not just for young French conscripts but for the reputation of some of France’s most famous generals. General Junot, Marshal Soult, and Marshal Jourdan had all tasted defeat, while Marshal Masséna had been recalled in disgrace. Marshal Louis-Gabriel Suchet was the exception. French generals in Spain were notorious for their looting, with Soult, based in Andalucia, reckoned to have stolen one and a half million francs’ worth of art from Spanish monasteries and churches. In contrast, as Governor of Aragon, Marshal Suchet enforced strict discipline on his troops, punishing any who tried to steal or extort money from the Spanish, while treating local authorities with respect. He combined this hearts-and-minds strategy with ruthless military action against the guerrillas and was able to establish firm control of Aragon.

In June 1811, after a particularly bloody assault, Suchet took the port of Tarragona, for which Napoleon rewarded him with his Marshal’s baton. The Emperor then sent him reinforcements and ordered him to take Valencia. First, he routed a much larger Spanish army that attacked him at Saguntum before laying siege to Valencia. The city was packed with Spanish troops and refugees, and to avoid starvation, General Blake surrendered Valencia on January 8, 1812. The French took 18,000 prisoners, including 23 generals, and nearly 500 guns. It was a devastating blow to the Spanish cause.

However, to reinforce Suchet, Napoleon had stripped troops from other armies in Spain and then withdrawn 25,000 of the best troops for his imminent invasion of Russia. As a result, French forces in Spain were now severely overstretched just as Wellington prepared to strike. Spanish guerrillas kept Wellington well-informed of French movements, and learning that the forces facing him in western Spain had been much weakened, he decided to go on the offensive.

On the day that Valencia fell, Wellington laid siege to Ciudad Rodrigo, on the Portuguese-Spanish frontier. Eager to take the city before Marshal Marmont could march to its relief, he ordered an assault after just 10 days. It succeeded, though Major General Craufurd of the Light Division was among 300 killed. Wellington then marched south to besiege the much more strongly defended city of Badajoz. An assault was made on the night of April 6. The first wave attacking the main breach suffered heavy losses, but a diversionary attack on the city’s castle succeeded, and the city soon fell. The storming of Badajoz cost the British 3,700 casualties. In the aftermath, survivors went on a rampage, drinking and looting, resulting in the deaths of more than 100 Spanish civilians before British officers finally restored order.

Wellington had secured the two main routes between Spain and Portugal. He then sent his most reliable subordinate, General Hill, with a small Anglo-Portuguese force to destroy the bridge over the Tagus at Almaraz. This was a vital link between Marmont’s Army of Portugal and Soult’s Army of the South, as the next usable bridge was at Toledo, 90 miles east. The bridge was well guarded by forts and redoubts, but Hill led a swift and daring assault. The French defenses were taken by surprise, and the bridge and all the engineering equipment were burned, for the cost of just 177 casualties.

Wellington was now ready to begin his advance into Spain. Spanish regular forces and guerrilla bands began operations to tie down as many French troops as possible, while from the Bay of Biscay, Sir Home Popham’s naval raiding force made diversionary attacks on French coastal targets. In four days, Wellington was at Salamanca, as Marmont, outnumbered, withdrew behind the Douro River. But when reinforcements arrived, he crossed the river again. For six days, Marmont tried to march around Wellington’s flank, but the British general matched him move for move, their two armies marching in parallel, often within sight of each other.

On the seventh day, Marmont blundered. On the morning of July 22, Wellington’s army occupied high ground four miles south of Salamanca. Marmont was not interested in a direct assault; he still sought to outflank Wellington, threaten his line of retreat to Portugal, and force him to fall back. Around 8 am, the French won a dash for a hill known as the Greater Arapil, which Marmont made his observation point. The French army began to swing round behind him. Marmont had convinced himself that Wellington was an overly cautious general who would not risk an attack. The hills hid most of Wellington’s army from view, and when Marmont saw dust clouds to the west, he assumed it was Wellington’s baggage train leaving Salamanca, beginning their retreat. But it was the British 3rd Division and a Portuguese cavalry brigade moving up to strengthen Wellington’s flank because he wasn’t planning a retreat; he was about to attack.

Around 2 pm, Marmont ordered the five infantry divisions waiting in the woods behind him to march west to cut off Wellington’s imagined retreat. General Maucune’s 5th Division, in the lead, stopped to engage what was presumed to be the British rearguard in the village of Los Arapiles. General Thomières’ 7th Division continued west, past it. Wellington watched as the French left flank became increasingly strung out and knew it was an opportunity too good to miss. He galloped three miles across country to the 3rd Division to give the crucial orders in person, with many of his staff officers struggling to keep up. Upon arrival, he instructed the division’s commander, his own brother-in-law Edward Pakenham, to attack ‘and drive everything before him.’ The 3rd Division’s advance was hidden by low hills until the last minute. Thomières’ division was caught completely unawares and shattered by the assault. Thomières himself was killed, half his division was killed or captured, and the rest soon fled.

At this crucial moment, Marshal Marmont was hit by a British shell and carried from the field seriously wounded. His second-in-command, General Bonnet, was wounded an hour later, so command passed to General Clauzel. Forty-five minutes later, the British 5th Division attacked, supported by two Portuguese brigades and General Le Marchant’s dragoons. The French saw the cavalry coming and formed square, but were hit first by the British infantry, who unleashed a close-range volley and then charged with the bayonet. The French were routed and charged down by Le Marchant’s cavalry. The French 6th Division was caught up in the collapse. Le Marchant himself was shot from the saddle, but his brigade had helped destroy eight French battalions and capture two eagles. Wellington’s echelon attack continued as Cole’s 4th Division advanced in the center. However, Pack’s Portuguese brigade was thrown back from the Greater Arapil, and the whole division was soon falling back in disorder.

Despite the devastation of his army’s left flank, General Clauzel decided to launch an attack on the Lesser Arapil, the hinge of Wellington’s position. If it could be taken, he might still snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. But the French advance was met by fresh troops of Clinton’s 6th Division, who poured volleys of musket fire into the French columns. They began to fall back. The French army had lost the will to fight on, with its soldiers streaming away into the woods behind them. General Ferrey’s 3rd Division mounted a brave rearguard action to buy the rest of the army time to escape, but it faced a hopeless task. It was soon outflanked by the British 5th Division, and Ferrey himself was killed. Only General Foy’s 1st Division escaped in good order. With darkness falling and his army exhausted, Wellington called off the pursuit.

Wellington had smashed Marmont’s army, taking 7,000 prisoners and killing or wounding 6,000 more – a French casualty rate of 25% and more than double Wellington’s own losses. The next day, dragoons of the King’s German Legion attacked the French rearguard and achieved the almost unheard-of feat of charging down a French infantry square, taking another thousand prisoners. Wellington now decided to march on Madrid, forcing King Joseph to abandon the capital and retreat to Valencia to join up with Marshal Suchet. On August 12, Wellington liberated the city to scenes of wild celebration. Soult, now at risk of being cut off in Andalucía, abandoned the siege of Cadiz, which had dragged on for two and a half years, and marched east to join Joseph and Suchet.

The following month, Wellington marched north, pushing the French back from Valladolid and besieging the castle of Burgos. However, his army lacked heavy guns, and the French garrison fought bravely. As powerful French armies gathered to the north and south, Wellington himself was now in danger of being trapped. He had no choice but to withdraw. Wellington’s retreat turned into a desperate forced march through autumn rain. The supply system collapsed, and many starving soldiers looted what food they could find from Spanish villages. Madrid was abandoned and re-occupied by the French on November 1. Wellington was back where he’d started five months before.

Despite the campaign’s dismal conclusion, his strike into Spain had led to the liberation of huge swathes of the country and left the French more overstretched than ever. Reinforced and resupplied, Wellington would be back the next year to deliver the final blow to Joseph’s Spanish kingdom. 1812 had seen the tide of war turn, and not just in Spain. Because 2,000 miles to the east, in Russia, catastrophe had engulfed La Grande Armée.

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