English Battles and Sieges in the Peninsula.: Extracted from his 'Peninsula War'.Napier, William Francis Patrick
History
English Battles and Sieges in the Peninsula.: Extracted from his 'Peninsula War'.
Napier, William Francis Patrick
Peninsular War, 1807-1814
At Pampeluna the army bivouacked on the glacis of the fortress, but in
such destitution and insubordination that the governor would not suffer
them to enter the town.
Wellington, who had sent Graham’s corps into Guipuscoa by the pass of
St. Adrian, overtook the French rear and captured one of the two guns
saved from Vittoria, and on the 28th the king fled into France by the
Roncesvalles. Foy and Clausel were thus isolated on each flank and in
great danger. The first had a strong country, but his troops were
disseminated, and the fugitives from the battle spread such alarm that
the forts of Arlaban, Montdragon, and Salinas, blocking the passes
into Guipuscoa, were abandoned to Longa and Giron. Foy, who had only
one battalion in hand, rallied the fugitive garrisons, advanced, and
from some prisoners acquired exact intelligence of the battle. Then he
ordered the two convoys from Vittoria to march day and night towards
France, and reinforcing himself with Maucune’s escort gave battle
to the Spanish general, who, having three times his force, worsted
him with a loss of six guns and two hundred men. He retreated to
Villafranca, where, late in the evening of the 24th, Graham came upon
him from the side pass of San Adrian: he had now rallied a considerable
force and gave battle on the Orio with Maucune’s troops and St. Pol’s
Italian division: the first were beaten, yet the Italians gained some
advantages, and the position was so strong that Graham had recourse to
flank operations; Foy then retired to Tolosa, and again offered battle;
whereupon Graham turned his flank with the Spaniards, broke his front
with the Anglo-Portuguese, drove his wings beyond Tolosa on each side,
and bursting the gate of the town forced a passage through his centre
by the main road. Nevertheless Foy retreated with a loss of only four
hundred men, and he had killed and wounded more than four hundred
Anglo-Portuguese in the two days’ operations. The Spanish loss was not
known, but must have been considerable, and Graham, who was himself
hurt, halted two days to hear of Wellington’s progress. During that
time the convoys reached France in safety, and Foy, his force increased
by the junction of detachments to more than sixteen thousand men,
threw a garrison into San Sebastian and joined Reille on the Bidassoa:
twenty-five thousand men were then on that river, and Graham halted to
invest Sebastian.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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