The Napoleonic Wars, Volume 3 by Gregory Fremont-Barnes

Author:Gregory Fremont-Barnes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: The Napoleonic Wars: The Peninsular War 1807–1814
ISBN: 9781472809759
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Two sides to war: ‘Gentlemen’ and the guerrillas

The Peninsular War was a conflict of striking contradictions, for two radically different attitudes between adversaries existed side by side. Off the field of battle, and even sometimes on it, British and French troops often fraternized with one another, even to the point of dining inside each other’s lines and especially to barter food, alcohol, tobacco, and clothing. Both sides occasionally arranged unofficial truces, sometimes at an individual level between rival sentries or between field commanders who wished to remove casualties from the field for medical treatment and to bury the dead. Colonel Vivian noted how ‘we now ride along side by side, within five yards of each other, without any more danger of being shot than you are when hunting on the town burrows. This is doing as gentlemen should. They really are devilish civil, honourable fellows, and know how to make war …’ Colonel Napier, for his part, appeared to have little reason even to dislike the French: ‘I should hate to fight out of personal malice or revenge, but [have] no objection to fight for Fun and Glory.’ The paradox reached truly ludicrous proportions when one French general received through opposing lines copies of London newspapers so that he could check the fluctuating value of his investments in British government stock.

Nothing could be more further removed from this ‘gentleman’s war’ than the nebulous but nevertheless very important ‘second front’ posed by the bands of guerrillas who operated against the French wherever and whenever opportunity offered itself. Although guerrilla warfare has its origins in ancient times, it was in fact the Peninsular War which made it the phenomenon familiar to us today. The Spanish word guerrilla means ‘little war’, the individual participant a guerrillero, which has since been revised to guerrilla. These were often tough, hardy men, one of whom a British soldier described as ‘a swarthy, savage-looking Spaniard … armed to the teeth with pistols, daggers … a long gun, … crimson sash and free bearing, [which] at once proclaimed him as a guerrilla.’

By the very nature of their activities and loose-knit (or indeed often nonexistent) structure, guerrilla numerical strength cannot be estimated with any accuracy, as their bands could range from a handful to several thousand. What is known is that there were many separate partidas under numerous leaders sometimes sporting colorful nicknames such as ‘El Empecinado’ and ‘El Medico’. While guerrilla leadership varied in character, from simple patriots to bandit leaders and even priests, their purpose, targets, and methods remained generally constant: to sever communications, cut up small detachments, ambush convoys, pick off sentries, and intercept couriers and messengers. Guerrilla numbers multiplied as the war progressed and rendered effective French rule in the provinces difficult at best and impossible at worst. In short, French authority remained in a constant state of flux, with every region unsafe to the occupier. It is no exaggeration to say that the countryside was infested. Every rock and tree became a potential place

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