The Vittoria Campaign 1813

Interactive Map of Portugal and Spain

                    In 1812 Napoleon’s army of veterans was destroyed in Russia. Upon escaping a wintry grave himself, the French Emperor resolved to rebuild his Grand Armee, requisitioning infantry and cavalry from wherever he could find them, including Spain. With the French occupation forces in the Iberian Peninsula so weakened, Wellington decided to take the offensive and attempt to drive the French across the Pyrenees. Utilizing secondary Spanish and British armies on the east coast and in the south to hold down in place as many French divisions as possible, the enterprising Commander-in-chief planned to crush French forces opposed to him in northern Spain.  

            The Salamanca campaign of 1812 saw the 82nd Regiment undertake, with only short intervals at rest in between, seven months of hard marching and counter-marching across Portugal, Estramadura and Castile, in the course of which a third of the corps fell out due to exposure and drunkenness. The fate of these men was death or imprisonment by the French. After going into winter-quarters about Ciudad Rodrigo in November, George Wood states practically the entire regiment was entered for time on the sick list, suffering from a host of ailments caused by the exertions of the march, including Wood himself, who eventually was to lose the sight of one eye from his hardships. As the winter drew on, however, the regiment convalesced, received new drafts from England, drew new equipment, trained and made ready for further action in 1813. By May, according to Wood, the 82nd was able to muster 700 men all ranks and was in fine spirits for the ensuing campaign.[1] Maj. Gen De Bernewitz was now gone, and William Grant, commander of the 82nd and so recently under a cloud, was given temporary command of the brigade, likely on account of his seniority, which was strictly recognized in the British Army.* This brigade comprised, besides the 82nd, the 51st (old partners from Walcheren days), the 68th and the Chasseurs Brittaniques, a battalion of French ex-patriots fighting in the English service.

The British on the March in 1813

            On May 14, the 82nd set off with the rest of its brigade and division for the Douro River: the frontier of Portugal and Spain, where it concentrated with two other Divisions, the 4th and 6th, crossing over on the 26th.  Several marches later on the 31st, the regiment reached the Esla River, were some men of the brigade, trying to ford the swollen river, were swept away and drowned. A pontoon bridge was then laid across, and the 82nd with its division formed up on the other side. Here a French cavalry detachment menaced the column, but the battalion made ready and protected the crossing, the enemy choosing not to press the matter. The 82nd now headed east, passing through Zamora and stopping at Toro, where the entire army concentrated on June 3: 80,000 sabres and bayonets all told. Finding the enemy in full retreat, Wellington moved on, turning the right flank of the French, who stopped and offered battle near Burgos.  

                The march now took the regiment into the fertile valley of the upper Ebro, with the 82nd's column crossing the river on June 15 at  Puente Arenas. This crossing once again turned the right flank of the French army, who was offering battle down-river at Miranda el Ebro, thinking wrongly that the British would be following the high road to France. Marching on, the regiment reach the environs of Berberana on the 18th and on the 19th marched into the valley of the Bayas River, where it and the 7th Division took up a position at the small village of Anda. Across the Monte Arrato to the east, lay the valley of the Zadorra and the French army.

The Battle of Vittoria, June 21 1813

                The 82nd Regiment, as part of Dalhousie’s 7th Division, was one of two center columns that was to march over the Monte Arrato and converge at the bridge of Mendoza on the Zadorra River, where it was to take action against the French if British attacks at the south-west end of the valley were moving along well. Long before sunrise in the 21st, the drums beat the men to arms and, no breakfast having been issued, the division was quickly off marching along mountain tracks up into the Monte Arrato, with Grant’s Brigade taking the lead. The battalions filed up through the mountain tracks and had reached the small hamlet of Las Guetas on the other side sometime before noon. Here Grant halted the brigade, as Lord Dalhousie and the two rear brigades of Barnes and Le Cor were not up yet, having been held up by an artillery breakdown on the track behind.

  Interactive Battle of Vittoria Map

            Waiting at Las Guetas for Dalhousie to arrive was the “fighting’ 3rd Division under Lt. Gen. Thomas Picton, who following a different route over the mountain had arrived earlier that morning. At 8am, the battle had started to the south, where the right column, under the eyes of Wellington, was forcing the pass of Puebla and the bridges there over the Zadorra. From his arrival in the morning until noon, Picton waited for Lord Dalhousie with his missing brigades to show up. The general of the 3rd Division could see the battle raging further down in the valley and, true to his aggressive reputation, grew much agitated at the delay. When an aide-de-camp bearing a message from Wellington to Lord Dalhousie arrived, ordering him lead his division on an attack of the bridge at Mendoza, Picton lost his patience, drew up his brigades and attacked, “shooting like a meteor”[2] across the front of Grant’s Brigade towards the bridge. Grant followed the 3rd Division with his brigade, including the 82nd. Wood describes the march of the 82nd into battle in his typically vague and windy style:

   “…we arrived in the environs of Vittoria, in the front of which town the enemy were posted most advantageously, and in great numbers: they certainly made a most imposing appearance as they formed their line of battle, towards which we advanced with confident steps; peals of artillery echoing through the lofty hills, as we descended their trembling slopes to gain the glorious field.”[3]  

Wellington watches his redcoats march down into the valley

            The bridge at Mendoza was not well defended by the French, allowing the British to cross, where the 82nd formed up with its brigade behind Picton's Division; it being now roughly 2pm. Picton’s Division moved forward, with Colville’s Brigade, supported by Grant, attacking and carrying the village of Marguerita after a hot fight. Here Grant’s brigade, including the 82nd and supported by Vandaleur’s Brigade of the Light Division, swept past Marguerita and made for the hamlet of La Hermandad, which was defended by five German battalions and the wrecks of the French brigade ejected from Marguerita. Against the Germans and French, who were supported by a large battery of artillery, Dalhousie, now on the scene, led Grant’s Brigade forward 300 yards under a storm of shot and shell, where it came to a stop in a ditch about 200 yards short of the enemy position. Here Grant fell, shot in the stomach. As described by Wood:

“We advanced through the tumultuous scene with a battery in our front, dealing out dire destruction; and halting here, as if to defy its greatest efforts, we waited the signal to attack: men and officers fell in every direction; and their wounds were most dreadful, being all inflicted with cannon-balls or shells, except that of our Colonel, who received a musket-shot to his stomach. Our front was exposed to the full range of this redoubt, and had to contend with a French regiment on the right of the battery…”[4]  

            Here Lord Dalhousie hesitated for a moment, unsure of whether the village could be taken. The moment was saved, however, by Vandaleur’s Brigade, who came up in support, gathered along Grant’s Brigade with it, and carried the village in 10 minutes, in a most gallant fashion. Wood’s company, advancing, traded volleys with the French regiment to its front:

"…after politely receiving us with a few sharp volleys, which we politely returned, they retreated firing, and bent their course into a thicket. Towards this we advanced firing, and drove them furiously before us, till they were completely routed; and we had the satisfaction of passing over numbers whom we had laid prostrate.”[5]

            It was now 4pm in the afternoon, with the French falling back to a final position, backed up by 74 artillery pieces, which played against the forming infantry opposite them. Grant’s Brigade was placed into the front line between Colville’s on the extreme left and Power’s Portuguese Brigade on the right, opposite the village of Crispijana. Sometime before 5pm, Wellington ordered the advance. Long lines of British red-coats moved forward, crashing into the French positions. The 82nd with its brigade skirted Crispijana, which Colville took and moving around the left of the village of Ali, turned the French right flank. Joseph now sounded the retreat, and the French army began a general move to the rear.

The British fight their way across the plain at Vittoria

            The 82nd continued after the retreating French, passing Vittoria on its north side and not stopping until night put an end to the bloody affair. Here the harassed men, along with much of the rest of the army, betook themselves of food, water and the incredible amount of plunder the French had been trying to steal out of the country. Wood found for himself some good shoes, a warm blanket and a fine cavalry horse, fully accoutered, late of the Polish Lancers. The night was spent with the men sharing the spoils and celebrating such a great victory, in which the regiment and it’s brigade had played an important part. With the honour, however, came the butchers bill: 1 officer+ and five men killed, 3 officers and 22 wounded: 31 casualties in all. The 68th and Chasseurs suffered 125 and 149 casualties respectively, making it likely that these two regiments had formed the head of the brigade during the battle, or at least caught the worst of the advance. Col. Grant survived his musket-ball to the stomach, and was soon back commanding the regiment in time for the Battles of the Pyrenees. Wellington, in a dispatch to Lord bathurst, dated June 22, 1813, had this to say of the action in the 82nd's area of the fighting:

 “Maj. Gen. The Hon. C. Colville’s brigade of the 3rd Division was seriously attacked in its advance by a very superior force well formed, which it drove in. supported by Gen. Inglis’s brigade of the 7th Division, commanded by Col. Grant of the 82d. These officers and the troops under their command distinguished themselves.”[6]

                For its conduct during the affair, the 82nd Regiment was awarded the battle honour "Vittoria". Regardless of the scope of the French defeat, the enemy were by no means finished and much more hard fighting was to come as Wellington moved to push Joseph through the Pyrenees Mountains and into France proper. The next morning, after a night of ribaldry and celebration, the 82nd was again on the move east chasing the fast-retreating French.

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