Battle of Corunna January 16th 1809 - Game AAR
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| Action at Corunna back in December last year |
On November 28th 1808, Sir John Moore, in answer to a question from Lord Castlereagh, wrote the following conclusions as to the practicability of defending Portugal.
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| Sir John Moore |
Four months later, on March 7th, 1809, Sir Arthur Wellesley answered the same question, put to him by the same minister, in very different terms.
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| Sir Arthur Wellesley |
As a caveat to the contradicting opinion offered by Sir Arthur who held Sir John as a military commander in very high regard, it is only fair to quote Sir Arthur's reasoning for his difference in opinion.
"I have as much respect as any man can have for the opinion and judgement of Sir John Moore, and I should mistrust my own (if opposed to his)in a case where he had an opportunity of knowing and considering. But he positively knew nothing of Portugal *(Rather like Napoleon), and could know nothing of its existing state."
*My comment
These two opinions expressed to the British government by two senior military minds help to explain the shift in opinion of the British government in their reaction to Sir John Moore's army being forced to evacuate from Corunna, and, given the vote of confidence in Wellesley to return to Portugal, why he so vigorously pursued the expulsion of the French from Oporto.
Events between Corunna and Oporto
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| Marshal Soult Commander 2nd Corps |
On the 19th of January the Governor of Corunna asked for terms and the town opened its gates to the French army. Further round the coast was the equally strong harbour town of Ferrol containing a large amount of British supplies. It was well garrisoned with soldiers from the Marquis de la Romana's army together with sailors from a hulked naval squadron left over from the 1805 Trafalgar campaign, manning the guns of the fort. On the 25th of January the Governor of Ferrol, Admiral Melgarejo, surprised the French commander when, on being summoned, he opened his gates to the French troops. In gratitude for his handing over the ships and stores undamaged he was recommended for service under King Joseph.
With his rear cleared of all possible trouble, or so he thought, Marshal Soult could now take stock of the situation and see how he could carry out the Emperor's last set of orders. The winter campaign that his corps had just carried out had, if anything, ruined it more than the British for it was trying to exist in a mountainous region that three armies, British, French and Spanish, had marched over for a month. The following figures are quoted from Oman
15th January Returns
Infantry 35559
Cavalry 7368
Artillery 1468
Total 44395
Less Detached 8000
Sick 10000
Available 26395
Again it was the horses that really suffered and 3,000 men were without mounts. Unlike in Europe where an army could hope to regain strength as these detachments found their way back to the main force, many men were lost to marauding guerrillas and to garrison commanders unwilling to lose the services of these men in their own defence.
Useful links on orders of battle
French II Corps 15th January 1809
French Army in Spain 1st February 1809
La Romana's Army December 1808
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| Marshal Ney VI Corps Commander |
On the 8th of February the 2nd Corps set off on it's invasion of Portugal, following the advance guard of Franceschi's and Lahoussaye's cavalry together with Heudelet's infantry. Good news greeted the advance as Franceschi was able to report that he had been able to overawe the fortresses of Vigo and Tuy and capture them for no loss as their commanders had surrendered on the first summons.
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| Map to illustrate Soult's advance into Portugal and the key towns en-route |
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| An idea of how the march from Tuy to Rivadavia must have been like for Soult's army |
From Rivadavia the flood plain opened out towards Orense, thus relieving the French from much of the previous harassment. At Barbantes, Soult was able to pass some of his troops over the Minho using an imperfectly scuttled ferry (Wellesley would return the compliment of this idea at Oporto), so that he was able to take the town of Orense from both sides, the town falling on the 20th February. Soult then called a weeks halt to the march to allow his force to regroup and forage for much needed supplies.
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| Pedro Caro, Marquis of la Romana |
As soon as the French began to advance Portuguese General Silveira decided to evacuate the dilapidated fortress of Chaves, but local troops mutinied and vowed to defend their homes. This they did by firing off all their ammunition at no particular target and when summoned to surrender by Soult, they complied having no power to do otherwise.
From Chaves, Soult decided to risk heading back towards the coast, moving into the coastal plain around Braga and thus undoing the defences behind the River Minho that had caused him so much of a problem and reopening his communication to his garrisons on the Spanish border in Galicia. Unknown to Soult, the Portuguese commander in the area General Freire was only too willing to evacuate this zone but the mutinous rabble he commanded were preventing him.
Soult's army was forced to fight all the way to Braga only to find the high ground straddling the road into the town occupied by 25,000 men. Soult waited three days to bring up the bulk of his army to deal with this threat. The wait proved too long for General Freire who tried to flee the army but was caught and summarily executed. His successor Baron Eben took command by acclamation and promptly threw up extra field entrenchments.
When Soult finally attacked, the result was never in doubt. Once the Portuguese infantry was pushed out of its defences Soult unleashed his cavalry and inflicted over 5,000 casualties whilst suffering only 200 to his force. But as the French were congratulating themselves with their victory, news came that guerrillas had cut off communications to the north and to Chaves, and the recently defeated levies were taking up blocking positions on the road to Oporto.
After a short halt to reorganise his forces in Braga, the French advanced to and crossed over the River Ave, brushing aside the defences at little cost to themselves, so that by the 27th March they were in front of the defences of Oporto.
The defences encircled the city for about seven miles. Twelve redoubts crowned the hill tops with plenty of artillery. Ditches and fortified buildings also formed part of the defences. To hold the line the Bishop of Oporto, who was in nominal command, had about 7,000 regulars and militia backed up by about 20,000 Ordenanza and levies. These last were in a permanent state of mutiny and were holding drum head courts martial for any of those considered by the mob to be traitors.
Marshal Soult summoned the city to surrender and this was refused, so there was nothing for it but to storm the works. He fixed the assault for early the following day, the 29th of March, but prepared his assault by taking out some of the outlying defences first.
Hoping to profit from a dawn attack the French columns were ready early, but a severe thunderstorm drenched both attackers and defenders. When it cleared away, Soult called off the assault for an hour for his men to recuperate and to give the ground time to dry out for the supporting artillery (I wonder if he remembered this decision when he stood by the Emperor in wet sodden fields in 1815 just outside Brussels).
At 7am the signal was given and the attack began.
Unlike the all out attack at Braga, this time Soult employed a little finesse by having flanking columns move in to draw in the Portuguese reserves and units placed in the centre. Once this was observed to have had the desired effect, he sent in a French division in the centre supported by cavalry. As the plan evolved the French troops soon found themselves herding a panic stricken mob through the streets towards the River Douro. Instead of surrendering, the mob made for the bridge of boats spanning the river across from the town to Villa Nova. With the crush and panic and possibly some of the pontoons sinking under the weight, those who stopped and tried to turn back were crushed by the onrushing fugitives and many ended up in the water with French skirmishers firing from the banks. Once the French realised the catastrophe they were witnessing they stopped firing. With this and the fighting in the entrenchments, Oman estimated the casualties to have been 8,000 Portuguese for the loss of about 400 French troops.
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| Marshal Soult oversees his victory at the first Battle of Oporto |
Two months behind the schedule set by his Emperor, Soult was now able to lay claim to Portugal's second largest city, and to take stock of the strategic situation. Since the receipt of the message from Ney requesting him to turn back and aid him in his struggle with the Galician Insurgents, Soult had received no news of events elsewhere. On the day that Oporto fell, Silveira had recaptured Chaves with its hospital and garrison of about 2,000 men, whilst above the Minho, his fortresses were under threat, with Vigo surrendering to the Royal Navy. Of Marshal Victor operating on the Portuguese border in Estremadura there was no news. He had therefore no alternative but to hold his position and send out strong expeditions of divisional strength to succour his garrisons and find out hard information.
Heudelet was sent north to reopen the lines of communication, with the garrison at Tuy beset by guerrillas, he defeated Portuguese insurgents on his way to the town. He found out that Vigo had fallen and that Ney was in no position to support operations in Portugal.
Loison's division severely mauled Silveira's levies when they attempted to make a stand at Amaranthe (see the map above), but the Portuguese quickly rallied and held the bridge over the flood swollen River Tamega. With no other way over as all the other bridges were destroyed, Loison was forced to await events and it was not until May 2nd that he was able to force a way across and disperse the levies who fell back behind the River Douro. Content with his progress, Loison held his ground with nearly a quarter of Soult's army.
This dispersion of his forces and very few supplies meant that Soult had no strength to push on southwards to his real goal, Lisbon. Only Mermet's division and the light cavalry were sent forward over the Douro as an advance guard and to observe the remnants of the Bishop's army. Soult was confident that once his rear was secure again and his supply situation improved, the advance could continue.
Next Post - The situation with the British forces and the arrival of Sir Arthur Wellesley.
