It’s November of 1808, and Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte just launched a lightning offensive
across eastern Spain, culminating in a crushing victory at the Battle of Tudela. Those doubting
French power had been given a rude awakening. Although Napoleon had beaten his opponents
badly, he failed to land a knockout blow, and the Spaniards were licking their wounds
to fight another day.
After Tudela, the Emperor prepared his army for an advance on Madrid, which was not only
strategically important, but held great symbolic significance as both the capital of Spain,
and the birthplace of the anti-French resistance. Retaking the city and restoring Joseph Bonaparte
to the Spanish throne would be a major victory for France.
The Spanish were still reeling from defeat, and had few troops available to defend Madrid.
The Spanish government entrusted General Benito de San Juan with the task. San Juan scraped
together every available fresh recruit, militiamen, and regular fleeing from the east, amassing
a force of nearly twenty thousand in a few days. He planned to hold the French at the
narrow mountain passes outside the city. This good defensive terrain was the only hope for
such a small, inexperienced army. On November 29th, a 45,000-strong French force,
commanded by Napoleon himself, encountered about 9,000 men of San Juan’s army, guarding
the Somosierra Pass on the outskirts of Madrid. The Spanish infantry were arranged along high
ridgelines on either side of the pass, and San Juan had placed his artillery in four
successive barricades along the road through the pass to the capital. The Spanish were
outnumbered, and the quality of their troops was low, but this was an incredibly formidable
position, and they were well-entrenched. Napoleon had little choice but to try to dislodge
them. The Battle of Somosierra began around 8 the next morning, with an attack by three
regiments from Marshal Victor’s corps, in a dense morning fog. The French could barely
see their opponents, who raked the attacking lines with musket and cannon fire. Not even
the cream of the Imperial Army could make any progress against the strong Spanish lines.
But as the morning mists lifted, Napoleon believed he saw a weakness in the enemy defenses.
The Spanish cannons at the first barricade were dangerously close to the French line.
A frontal assault against it would be deadly, but Napoleon thought the barricade was close
enough that a quick surprise attack could seize the position before the Spanish had
time to react. He ordered a cavalry charge against the barricade. One of the staff officers
argued it was impossible, to which Napoleon famously replied: “Impossible? I don't know
the meaning of the word!” The assault would be made by the elite light
cavalry of the Imperial Guard. Most came from an all-Polish unit, the Imperial Guard Light
Horse Regiment, bolstered by Frenchmen from the Guards Mounted Chasseur Regiment. There
were probably around one hundred men in the initial attack, eventually joined by several
hundred more. N apoleon rode out to offer them a word of
encouragement: “Poles, take me those cannon!” The men raised their sabers and cheered, then
began to trot forward. Unfortunately for the cavalry, the gunners manning the Spanish cannon
were not untrained militia, but seasoned regulars. They unleashed a devastating grapeshot volley.
The assault column shuddered and stopped, then the horsemen reformed and continued the
attack. A Polish officer cried out: “The Emperor is watching!” and they charged.
The Spanish gunners failed to reload before the Poles closed the distance, and after desperate
hand-to-hand battle, the cavalry took the barricade and disabled the guns.
To the amazement of every observer, the Poles then saddled up and reformed to continue towards
the second barricade. Perhaps they misunderstood Napoleon’s orders, perhaps they were carried
away with the exuberance of victory, or perhaps Napoleon really had ordered them to sacrifice
themselves and charge as far as they were able. Whatever the case, this unit was about
to enter military history. Despite heavy losses, the second barricade
fell as well. Against all reason, the Poles then re-formed their column and charged a
third time, taking the third barricade despite bitter
resistance. Seeing their success, Napoleon ordered his infantry to renew the assault
on the heights on either side of the road. By now all of the senior officers of the Guards
Light Cavalry had fallen, but the attack had taken on a momentum of its own, and they reformed
and charged yet again, taking the fourth and final barricade.
A French infantry unit moved behind the light cavalry, securing the positions, and soon
San Juan’s army panicked and fled the field. A few hundred men of the Imperial Guard light
cavalry had almost single-handedly won the battle for France. Every third trooper and
all of the officers were either killed or wounded in this attack, but their achievement
at Somosierra would go down in history as one of the most daring exploits of nineteenth
century warfare. As they limped back, Napoleon greeted them, crying out “I proclaim you
my bravest cavalry!” The Spanish army was falling apart. General
San Juan tried to restore order, but was hanged by his panicked troops. Within days, Napoleon
was at the gates of Madrid. The desperate Spanish government began distributing arms
to the people of Madrid, but the spirit of resistance seemed dead; the city was too overawed
by the size of Napoleon’s army and the speed of his advance. The Emperor gave Madrid several
days to contemplate surrender, but on December 4th, his patience ran out, and the assault
began. It only took a few hours for the Spanish leadership to realize their position was hopeless
and call for a truce. By the afternoon, Madrid was back in French hands.
Napoleon’s troops rested around Madrid for two weeks, but he remained as busy as ever.
He and Joseph drafted a flurry of new legislation. The Bonapartes would reform the country in
the image of Napoleonic France. Napoleon also planned the next phase of the war: he dispatched
his forces out to the far corners of Iberia. With the Spanish field armies shattered, he
believed the time was ripe to end the war. Only one enemy army on the Peninsula remained
undefeated: a small force of around 25,000 British and Portuguese troops under General
John Moore, who was widely considered the most talented leader in the British army.
From his base at Lisbon, Moore had been racing for Madrid, hoping to bolster the city’s
defenses with his trained, professional soldiers. His army was too slow and too far away to
have any impact on the battle for Madrid, but this slowness saved them from defeat.
Napoleon assumed Moore would already be in full retreat to the coast, to be evacuated
to Britain, but the British were preparing to fight. Spanish guerrillas captured a report
containing the location of every French unit, and passed this information to their allies.
Emboldened, Moore decided to strike one blow against the French before making his retreat,
and chose to target the corps of Marshal Jean-de-Dieu Soult, which was marching north to pacify
León. Soult’s corps was tempting prey, spread out on the march, with a vulnerable
flank facing Moore’s army. Soult was among Napoleon’s most capable
commanders, but he had no idea Moore’s army was so close; like Napoleon, he had assumed
the British were long gone. On December 21st, Moore’s cavalry appeared seemingly out of
the blue on Soult’s flank, taking a French detachment completely by surprise at the village
of Sahagún, capturing nearly 300. Fortunately for Soult, the British infantry were too exhausted
to follow up on this victory. This attack was a success, but, at the same time Moore
had given away his position to the enemy, who outnumbered him ten to one. His little
army would have to run for their lives if they hoped to survive. Napoleon sent reinforcements
to Soult, and assembled a force of around 36,000 men to lead personally towards the
British rear. Napoleon ordered Soult to pin Moore down, moving his own force to cut off
Moore’s retreat. If all went according to plan, the British would have no choice but
surrender. Moore was now hemmed in on two sides by much
larger forces. He ordered a desperate retreat northwest, toward the port city of Corunna,
where the Royal Navy waited to take his army to safety. Fortunately for the British, Napoleon
was delayed by bad weather and poor road conditions, allowing Moore to slip out of his encirclement.
However, the French remained in hot pursuit through the rugged mountains of northwestern
Spain. Much of the British supply train had to be abandoned, or was captured. Moore’s
men entered the snowy passes of Galicia with little food, ammunition, or winter clothing.
Discipline broke down in many units of the British army. The British cavalry held together,
and fought brilliantly in rearguard actions, but that was just one bright spot in an otherwise
dismal slog. Many British veterans would remember this as the low-point of the war.
Despite their hardships, by January 11th, most of Moore’s troops were safely inside
Corunna, where they began fortifying the town and preparing for the evacuation. The arduous
retreat through the mountains had cost nearly 5,000 British casualties, but the army had
survived. Napoleon returned to Madrid and left Soult with orders to make one last attempt
at preventing Moore’s escape. Soult began assembling his army outside Corunna on January
14th, 1809. His men were tired; many were fresh off of the punishing road through the
mountains. The British, on the other hand, had spent days resting and resupplying in
the city. However, Soult could see the masts of British ships in the harbor-- the evacuation
had already begun. There was no time for rest or reconnaissance.
On the 15th of January, Moore positioned his 15 thousand troops to the south of Corunna,
with his center on a hill called Monte Mero. The area was full of hills, rivers, hedges
and olive groves which made any cavalry action possible only on the extreme left of the battlefield.
Soult’s 16 thousand was in the area and managed to push back the advanced British
forces, taking control of Penasquedo and Palavea heights. This made the English to take up
the positions opposite to them. The French commander planned to take the settlement of
Elvina and turn the British line, pushing it towards the coast and cutting it from Corunna.
However, the rugged terrain made it difficult to attack immediately and the battle was delayed
until the next day. This delay seemingly fooled Moore, who thought
that Soult did not have enough troops to attack, and decided to ramp up the evacuation. So,
early on the 16th he sent 3,000 under Paget towards the city. This proved to be a mistake,
as a group of Soult’s cavalry managed to form up on the Monte de Mesoiro, which threatened
the British right. This worried Moore and forced him to recall Paget and Fraser from
the city, ordering them to form up to the northwest of the main formation on the Heights
of San Margarita. Simultaneously, French artillery started to
shell the British positions, and two units were moved against the Bentinck’s position
at Elvina. This attack managed to take the village and push the British back, but Moore
personally moved reinforcements into the area and counter-attacked. As the terrain was making
it almost impossible to attack in a formation to the east of Elvina, the main engagement
happened around it, and the village changed hands a number of times.
The British commander in the area, Bentinck, was killed, and Moore took his place. The
shelling in the area was constant, and as the French artillery had the numbers, they
were doing most of the damage. Seeing that it was difficult to take the village head
on, Soult send his reserves and the cavalry on the extreme left to flank the British from
the right. Moore gave orders to Paget and Fraser to move closer and cover the flank
of the troops at Elvina. This was probably the last order given by Moore, as he was soon
struck by a cannonball. Initially, the French flanking force managed
to push the defenders at Elvina back, but they were soon counterattacked by Paget and
Fraser and the whole of the French left was forced to retreat to avoid being outflanked.
Although the French still had the numbers, the night made it difficult to continue the
battle. The Battle of Corunna cost around 1000 French
and more than 1,000 British casualties. It was a bloody affair for both sides, but the
British had bought themselves the time they needed, and by January 18th, the last units
had evacuated, and Soult entered the city. With that, Napoleon was on his way back to
France. Rumors of a coup plot in Paris, and of another war in central Europe, demanded
his attention. On paper, Napoleon’s campaign looked like a triumph. However, he had failed
to bring the conflict to a definitive end. Spain was a trap and Napoleon’s troubles
were just beginning. We will continue covering the Napoleonic Wars
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