These fellows think themselves invulnerable, but I will beat them out and with great ease.
Wellington
I have not come to France to pillage; I have not had thousands of officers and soldiers killed and wounded for the remainder to plunder the French.
Wellington
Despite his losses during the week-long battle of the Pyrenees, Marshal Nicolas Soult’s army still numbered 68,231 troops, including 57,243 infantry, 6,788 cavalry, and 4,200 gunners manning 97 cannons. Yet Soult faced two formidable challenges. First, Wellington’s army numbered 88,816 troops, including 63,143 British and Portuguese and 25,673 Spaniards, and thus outgunned his own by 20,000 men.1 Second, Soult’s army was stretched thin along a 23-mile front running from Maya pass and along the Pyrenees foothills then behind the Bidassoa River until it flowed into the Atlantic Ocean. This front was split into three sectors, with General Honore Charles Reille’s two division corps defending the lower, General Bertrand Clausel’s three division corps the middle centered at Vera, and General Jean Baptiste Drouet d’Erlon’s three division corps the upper with most of his troops guarding Maya pass. General Maximilien Sebastian Foy’s three divisions were camped in reserve around Saint Jean Pied de Port.
With overwhelming numbers of troops at his command, Wellington confidently anticipated shattering the French line: ‘These fellows think themselves invulnerable, but I will beat them out and with great ease ... It appears difficult, but the enemy have not men to man the works and lines they occupy ... I can pour a greater force on certain points than they can concentrate to resist me.’2 And that is exactly what happened. Wellington’s army triumphantly invaded France in a three-pronged attack on October 7, 1813. While General Rowland Hill feinted at Maya to distract the enemy, General John Hope’s 24,000 waded across the Bidassoa at low tide near Hendaye and General William Beresford’s 33,000 crossed upstream at Vera. The crossing at Hendaye began:
... about five in the morning and in a short time infantry, cavalry, and artillery found themselves on French ground. The stream at this point was nearly four feet deep, and had Soult been aware of what we were about, we should have found the passage a very arduous undertaking. Three miles above we discovered the French army and ere long came under fire ... The French army, not long after we began to return their fire, was in full retreat.3
The allies won the passage at a fairly low cost, suffering 400 casualties and inflicting 450 at Hendaye, and suffering 800 and inflicting 1,250 at Vera and Maya.4
Soult withdrew to the Nivelle River which runs from the Pyrenees into the ocean just past Saint Jean de Luz. As Wellington readied his army for its latest offensive, a worse psychological than strategic burden lifted from his mind when he learned that Pamplona’s 3,000-man garrison surrendered on October 31. He had now completely cleared the swath of Spain under his command of French forces. He was no longer Janus-faced at enemy forces before and behind him, but from now could focus on defeating the French in their home country.
Wellington’s strategy at the Nivelle River on November 10, essentially repeated what he had done at the Bidassoa, with one corps crossing at low tide near the mouth, another crossing upstream, and a third attacking the enemy’s left flank anchored in the mountains. This time the main thrust came with Beresford’s corps in the center, while the corps of Hope and Hill feinted against Soult’s right and left, respectively. Eventually all 3 corps punched through the French lines, inflicting 4,350 casualties and capturing 59 cannons, while suffering 2,450 casualties.5
Soult fell back to the Nive River, a far stronger position with his right anchored at the fortress of Bayonne a few miles from the ocean, and his left in the steep Pyrenees foothills. The Nive flows through Bayonne and into the Adour River that drains into the ocean 3 miles beyond. Wellington would have to attack this position with far fewer troops than in previous battles. His immediate army numbered 63,000 troops, including 36,000 British, 23,000 Portuguese, and a single 4,000-man division of the best Spanish troops. He returned 40,000 other Spanish soldiers to their own country.6
He had good reasons for doing so, noting grimly that: ‘I have not come to France to pillage; I have not had thousands of officers and soldiers killed and wounded for the remainder to plunder the French.’7 After entering France, he faced a worsening dilemma: ‘Our success and everything depends upon our moderation and justice, and upon the good conduct and discipline of our troops ... Hitherto, these have behaved well, and there appears a new spirit among the officers ... to keep their troops in order.’ He feared the consequences of Spanish atrocities, while understanding the vengeance and desperation behind them:
I despair of the Spaniards. They are in so miserable a state that it is hardly fair to expect that they will refrain from plundering a beautiful country into which they enter as conquerors; particularly adverting to the miseries which their own country has suffered from its invaders. I cannot, therefore, venture to bring them ... into France unless I can feed and pay them ... Without pay and food, they must plunder; and if they plunder, they will ruin us all.8
Even shorn of his Spanish troops, Wellington’s army still outgunned Soult by 63,000 to 60,000 troops. Wellington’s three corps simultaneously attacked on December 9. Hope’s troops cleared the coast road of enemy forces and approached within a few miles of Bayonne. Beresford’s engineers erected a pontoon bridge across the Nive at Ustaritz, and two of his four divisions marched over to fan out in a bridgehead. Hill’s troops waded the Nive at Combo and secured a cluster of villages.
Soult reacted the next day with a series of counter-attacks that threatened to turn Wellington’s left flank. Reille’s corps slammed into and scattered Hope’s advanced regiments; Hope withdrew his corps to Barrouillet. After harsh fighting, Clausel’s corps forced the Light Division to withdraw from Arcangues. Foy’s division reinforced Clausel’s corps. Wellington threw in reinforcements that pushed back Reille’s corps. The fighting ended inconclusively, with respective French and allied losses of about 1,200 and 1,500. Then, this night, 1,500 German troops deserted Soult after learning of Napoleon’s overwhelming defeat at Leipzig.9
Rather than withdraw, Soult boldly thinned his center and sent his wing troops under Reille and d’Erlon against Hope and Hill, respectively, early the next morning of December 11. Wellington did not push Beresford’s other two divisions across the Nive for a massive assault against the French that might have broken through and relieved the pressure on Hope and Hill. Instead, he had Beresford withdraw his two divisions already across and attack the left flank of the French forces attacking Hope. Meanwhile, Hill led a counterattack that pushed back d’Erlon. The 3-day battle ended in a bloody draw, with total French losses of around 3,300 and allied of around 1,775.10
That was the most serious fighting for the next three months. Wellington was in no hurry to attack the latest French position. The Joyeuse River flows north into the Ardour River about a dozen miles upstream of the sea. Soult deployed 55,000 troops in nearly equal parts behind those rivers. The Ardour ran deep, wide, swift, and unfordable between the Joyeuse and the sea. The Joyeuse had numerous fords between its junction with the Ardour and the Pyrenees foothills. Soult prepared a fall-back position behind the Bidouse River that flowed parallel a few miles behind the Joyeuse River. Anchoring Soult’s right flank was the fortress city of Bayonne, on the Ardour River’s south side, 3 miles from the sea. General Pierre Thouvenot commanded the 8,033-man garrison.
Weather was as much a French ally as the rivers. It was a monotonously wet and cold winter that kept troops huddled within tents or around smoky fires and turned roads into quagmires. During the interlude, Wellington massed supplies and filled his depleted regiments with new recruits. He assigned Hope’s corps the mission of besieging Bayonne, while the corps of Beresford and Hill deployed along the Ardour and Joyeuse, respectively.
The first break in the dismal rainy winter weather came in early February 1814. Wellington eagerly sought to take advantage of the blue skies and dry roads. On February 14, Hill’s corps attacked across each Joyeuse River ford, routed the French regiments before them, hurried across the Bidouse River, then prepared for French counter-attacks that never came. Stretched to the breaking point, Soult could not mass enough troops for an attack. Instead, he withdrew his army east to Orthez on the Gave du Pau River that joins the Ardour River where it ascends from the northeast.
Leaving Hope’s corps of 18,000 British and Portuguese, and 16,000 Spanish troops to carry on Bayonne’s siege, Wellington led the rest of the army after Soult.11 As Beresford’s corps directly hounded Soult, Hill’s corps quickmarched to outflank it from the south. By splashing across the shallow upstream waters of first the Saison then Gave d’Oloron Rivers, Hill prevented Soult from blunting Beresford’s advance at deeper waters downstream.
Meanwhile, Hope launched his siege’s second phase on the night of February 23. His engineers constructed a pontoon bridge across the Ardour River’s mouth as British warships bombarded French troops on the north bank. With the bridge finished on February 26, Hill marched two divisions across the river then arced them around the citadel at Saint Étienne guarding the bridge leading to Bayonne. Within days, Hope had batteries of heavy cannons emplaced on the Ardour’s north bank to join the bombardment of Bayonne from the east, south, and west sides, and the Saint Étienne citadel on the north bank. Bayonne’s defenders now numbered 17,000 troops.
Wellington’s army caught up to the French at Orthez, where Soult deployed most of his 36,000 infantry, 3,000 cavalry, and 48 cannons on a ridgeline overlooking the town and the Gave du Pau River. Wellington commanded 44,042 men, including 39,157 infantry, 3,373 cavalry, and 42 cannons manned by 1,512 gunners. On February 27, he sent Hill’s corps directly across the river at Orthez to assault the enemy left flank, while Beresford’s corps crossed downstream at Lahonton and attacked the right and center. By late afternoon, the allies drove the French from the field, inflicting 4,000 casualties while sustaining 2,164, including Wellington whose hip was badly bruised by a musket ball that glanced off his scabbard.12
As Wellington lay in bed recovering, he received a startling message. The mayor of Bordeaux informed him that royalists had seized the city and requested British troops to help them hold it. Wellington marched Hill in pursuit of Soult and sent Beresford north to secure Bordeaux, whose port on the Gironde River would make an excellent supply base for his army’s campaign deep into southern France. Much of the population cheered Beresford and his men as saviors when they paraded into Bordeaux on March 12. Leaving a division of troops behind, Beresford hurried to join Wellington’s army which had advanced to Aire.
Wellington launched his latest offensive on March 18, when he led the army south and east of Aire. Soult fell back through Tarbes, where his rear guard fought off Wellington’s advanced guard on March 20, then fled to Toulouse, which he reached on March 24. Toulouse sprawled along the eastern and northern bank of the Garonne River where it sharply flows from south to west; a bridge runs from Toulouse to the suburb of Saint Cyprien squeezed in the angle on the west bank. Walls surrounded the land sides of both Toulouse and Saint Cyprien, and along the top of a ridge running north to south a mile east of the city. With reinforcements Soult’s army now numbered 42,000 troops to Wellington’s 46,573, including 40,706 infantry, 3,617 cavalry, and 2,250 gunners manning 46 cannons.13
Wellington’s first step in capturing Toulouse was somehow to cross the river. On March 27, he sent Beresford to a ford upstream but the French blunted his advance. On April 4, he marched Hill to a ford further upstream, but the French also thwarted this crossing. He then led his army down to Toulouse, deployed Hill at Saint Cyprien and sent Beresford several miles downstream to construct a pontoon bridge and cross the Garonne. This time the crossing succeeded and Beresford deployed his troops in an arc north and east of Toulouse.
Wellington ordered his army to attack on April 11. Hill’s troops fought their way into Saint Cyrien. The French repulsed Beresford’s attack, then counter-attacked, which the allies fought off. This time Wellington’s army suffered more casualties than Soult’s – 4,568 to 3,236 – but won their latest victory when Soult withdrew his army south to Carcassonne.14 Hoping to avoid further death and destruction, Toulouse’s government opened the city to the invaders the following day.
Then came the electrifying news on April 12 that the allies had captured Paris on March 31; Foreign Minister Charles Maurice Talleyrand-Perigord had convinced the Senate to depose Napoleon on April 3; and Napoleon had abdicated and the Senate offered Louis XVIII the throne of France on April 6. A few days later word arrived that on April 11, the allies had signed the Treaty of Fontainebleau that granted Napoleon the right to rule the small island of Elba off Tuscany’s coast and annually receive a French subsidy of 1 million francs.15
The elation that the war was finally over was darkened by knowing that the death and destruction at Toulouse was for naught. Tragically, the killing and maiming were not yet done. At Bayonne, General Thouvenot remained defiant despite knowing of Napoleon’s abdication. On the night of April 14, he launched a sortie from the citadel at Saint Étienne that overran the allied lines and inflicted 843 casualties while suffering 891; General Hope was among the wounded. Thouvenot held out at Bayonne until April 26, when he grudgingly agreed to surrender.
Wellington and his staff rode off to Paris on April 30 and arrived on May 4. During the next two weeks, Wellington joined the celebrations and discussions with allied leaders over the fate of post-Napoleonic Europe. On May 17, he and his staff headed back to his army. Meanwhile, determined to put the war behind them, the allies granted France a generous peace with the Treaty of Paris, signed on May 20, 1814. France’s frontiers reverted to those of 1792, a clear gain over those of 1789. France would suffer neither an indemnity nor foreign occupation. The Bourbons would once again rule France, this time with Louis XVIII on the throne.16 Wellington issued his last General Order to his army and bid farewell on June 14, 1814. He could never have imagined that exactly a year later, he would be commanding an allied army against Napoleon’s last campaign.