1813: Empire at Bay by Jonathon Riley

Author:Jonathon Riley [Riley, Jonathon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Military, Napoleonic Wars, Strategy, Europe, France
ISBN: 9781783468706
Google: P8SIDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Grub Street Publishers
Published: 2013-09-19T16:08:19+00:00

Wellington had slept for only two hours when a despatch from Hill arrived. Hill’s troops had been in contact all day and had been driven from the pass of Maya with the loss of four guns and 1,300 casualties. Only the intervention of a brigade of the 7th Division had prevented disaster. Hill had withdrawn but was still in a position to stop further progress by D’Erlon. Soult’s real plan was revealed and Wellington issued orders accordingly. The 6th Division was to leave one brigade to secure the town of Santesteban while the main body marched to Elizondo to make contact with Hill; the 7th Division was to march to Sumbilla and make contact with the 6th; the Light Division was to be prepared either to reinforce Graham, or to march east. Wellington rode off with his staff to Irurita where he found Hill, well posted with 9,000 men and no French troops in sight, and there he heard of the events at Maya. Hill’s force had consisted of the 2nd Division–one Portuguese and two British brigades under Major-General Sir William Stewart–and Silveira’s Portuguese division of two brigades. The corps was dispersed, with the two British brigades in the pass of Maya, the Portuguese brigade of the 2nd Division under Major-General Sir Charles Ashworth in the pass of Ispegui 11 kilometres east of Maya, and Silveira’s division further east still, maintaining contact with the troops at Roncevalles.

D‘Erlon’s three divisions had been ordered to push the allies hard, for Soult believed that success at Roncevalles would force the troops at Maya to retreat or be surrounded; D’Erlon was then to rejoin the main army as soon as possible. But the British and Portuguese troops did not fall back until night had fallen, after one of the bloodiest battles of the Peninsular War. The attack had opened with a demonstration by some National Guard troops towards Silveira’s Portuguese, which was thrown back, but it did draw Hill away from Maya to investigate. This was hardly surprising, but Stewart, who was responsible for Maya, left his command and also went to see what was happening. He could not be found when the real action started, so command at Maya devolved onto Major-General Sir William Pringle, a brigade commander who had arrived from England only two days before.

Even if Stewart had been there, things might not have gone any better than they did, for his disposition at Maya was hardly a triumph of tactical planning. The position was a broad, grassy saddle about 1.5 kilometres long and 800 metres high, flanked by peaks reaching another 300 metres higher. The road from Urdax to Elizondo crossed the saddle at the western end, and a track from Maya to Espellette crossed it at the eastern end. Another track running away westwards, still called the Chemin des Anglais, allowed communication with the 7th Division. The main road was guarded by a British infantry brigade under Colonel John Cameron, supported by a Portuguese artillery battery, but the eastern

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