The General European Wars by George Kearton

Author:George Kearton
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: RO:SF
Publisher: Sea Lion Press
Published: 2017-12-24T23:00:00+00:00

The Spanish Campaign of 1855 – Stalemate

Despite the sound and fury of Belgium and the Netherlands, the Anglo-American army and its Spanish allies were still to face their greatest tests in central and eastern Spain as the bloody year of 1855 reached its military climax.

The original and highly ambitious plans for a simultaneous advance into French-held territory across the whole of Spain had not survived the actuality of war. The American advances in the west had been largely successful, but the British-led advance from Zaragoza was delayed by supply issues, by the need for belated training of newly-arrived troops and by uncertainty and disputes between Major General Cameron (who was to command the main advance), James Brudenell, Lord Cardigan (who was to command the British cavalry column), and the Spanish General O’Donnell (whose mainly Spanish troops would attempt the re-conquest of Catalonia).

The dispute was simple; Cardigan believed he had been given a totally independent command, while both Cameron and O’Donnell believed that the cavalry were to act only in support of their individual advances.

By the time these three commanders had sorted out their differences (even though no final tactical agreements were actually reached) it was the end of July; nearly eight weeks since the mass bombardment which, it was intended, would totally destroy any French capability for defence.

Cameron commanded the largest Stuart army for over 200 years; over 30,000 infantrymen organised into three Brigades, nominally ‘Scots’, ‘Irish’ and ‘English’. His original force had been 20,000 strong but newly-arrived reinforcements, mainly from Lancashire, Ireland and Scotland, boosted the numbers. The new arrivals were, however, almost totally without training; although some training was undertaken before the columns moved off, far too much reliance was placed on the belief that the French, following the bombardment, would be in total disarray. No field artillery would be taken by Cameron as no need for it was felt. What never occurred to the planners was that the delayed British advance had merely served to give the French time to re-organise and to establish a secondary line of defences.

On July 30th, the British forces moved off from Zaragoza. Two days later, Cardigan’s cavalry column left Caspe with several Gatling guns mounted on carts and with Lerida as their destination. Further supply problems delayed O’Donnell’s men, and it was to be over a fortnight before they marched out of Gandesa towards Tarragona.

Within two days, Cameron’s men realised that the bombardment may have forced a French retreat, but that it had not destroyed the French artillery which had been, supposedly, entrenched along the French front line. No traces of the heavy Krupp guns were discovered, and it became increasingly obvious that they had been withdrawn to a new defence line.

What also became apparent was that the French had adopted a scorched-earth policy as they retreated. Livestock had been slaughtered or driven off, crops had been set afire in the fields, the River Flumen (running north to south) had been fouled and poisoned with animal corpses – as had all the village wells – and most of the Flumen’s tributaries had been dammed.

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