12 Napoleon's failures. Finish in 1808. The emperor still believed that he could solve the Spanish problem with one decisive blow.
The best of the best were with him
Negotiations in Erfurt with Alexander I did not become a triumph for him, but for some time they allowed him not to fear a stab in the back. The best forces of the army could be led for the Pyrenees. As a result, the Great Army consisted of 8 corps and a reserve, whose forces reached 250 thousand people.
The 28,000th I Corps remained under the command of Victor, who received the marshal's baton quite recently. Marshal Bessières transferred command of the II corps to Soult (28 thousand people), and he himself led the cavalry reserve, in the III corps of Marshal Monsey there were 18 thousand people, in IV Lefebvre - 20 thousand. 24 thousand of Marshal Mortier made up the V corps, in the VI corps Marshal Ney had 29 thousand people, in the VII General Saint-Cyr - 35 thousand, in the VIII General Junot - 19 thousand. The Guard was commanded by General Walter.
Despite the fact that his forces were not collected in a single fist, Napoleon hoped to take advantage of the fact that the Spanish armies were scattered throughout almost the entire northern part of the country. He also sought to strike at the enemy before the addition of General Moore's English army, which was hastily moving from Lisbon to Salamanca.
The Spaniards, who numbered at least 200,000, in turn renewed their attacks on the divided French corps. The first to attack was Blake's left-flank Galician army, which by the end of September drove the French out of Bilbao. The French were threatened with a blow to the rear from the 32,000-strong Spanish group.
50-year-old Joaquin Blake, a Malaga native with Irish roots, was one of the most experienced and energetic Spanish generals. With his offensive, he began to implement a very bold plan to encircle the Napoleonic troops. David Chandler, the most authoritative of modern researchers of Napoleon's campaigns, harshly criticized the plan of the Spaniards, primarily because none of the advancing armies had sufficient forces.
However, if the Spaniards, united with Moore's English army, were able to get ahead of Napoleon in concentrating all their forces, the plan might have worked. But that would be if the scattered Spanish armies were not opposed by the emperor of the French himself. Napoleon quickly pulled his corps to the center, preparing an offensive on Madrid, in which he was not going to pay attention to any obstacles. In addition, Blake's backhand failed. On December 31, he attacked the IV French corps at Sornos, replacing Soult's forces, but was driven back. The troops of Marshal Lefebvre, in pursuit of the Galician army, again occupied Bilbao.
By this time, the French had already launched an offensive in all directions. Only the small III Corps of Monsey was left as a cover against the Spanish army of the center under the command of General Castanos, numbering more than 30 thousand people. Castagnos was backed up by the 25,000-strong Aragonese army of General Palafox, a 28-year-old secular womanizer who became a true hero of the siege of Saragossa. He had to reckon with the fact that the Aragonese, occupying the right flank, which, according to the plan, was to strike towards Blake, categorically did not want to fight far from the borders of their province.
And Napoleon with the II and VI French corps, guards and reserves was already advancing towards Burgos, without waiting for the corps of Mortier and Junot to still follow to the Pyrenees. The indefatigable Blake abandoned all attempts to threaten the French right wing, retreating to Espinosa. After a two-day battle with Victor's corps, it was necessary to retreat to Leon, where Blake was able to collect only 15 thousand people from his 32s. At the same time, Napoleon did not manage to block the retreat of the remnants of Blake's army with the forces of Soult, who limited himself to clearing Vizcaya from the enemy and occupying Old Castile along with Leon.
After that, Marshal Lannes took up the left flank of the Spaniards, obviously staying too long in the Spanish backwoods. With his 30,000 men, Lannes crossed the Ebro at Lodos and attacked the much larger Aragonese and Andalusian armies at Tudela. Despite the fact that there were no less than 45 thousand in them, the defeat was complete, and the Spanish supreme junta, with all its impotence, even removed from command General Castagnos, the winner of Dupont.
Polish glory of Somosierra
Around this time, Napoleon learned that General John Moore was about to lead 20 thousand Englishmen to Salamanca. Victor's I corps joined the emperor at Burgos, and Lefebvre with the VI corps from Bilbao has already moved to Valladolid, and he is tasked with striking the rear of Palafox and Castagnos, defeated by Lann. From the British, Napoleon covered himself with three cavalry divisions sent to Palencia, and Lefebvre forced Palafox and his army to lock up in Zaragoza.
The defeated Castanos managed to gather about 12 thousand people at the crossroads in ancient Calatayuda, southeast of Zaragoza, and moved them through Sigüenza to Madrid. Without a single major battle, Napoleon scattered the Spanish armies like old furniture. Having secured himself from the flanks, the emperor sent his I corps, guards and reserve cavalry straight to Madrid. On its way stood the last untouched of the Spanish armies - Castile.
Under the command of General Benito de San Juan, there were about 20 thousand people, of whom 8 thousand defended the defile at Somosierra in the mountains of Guadarrama. The Spaniards rightly considered their position impregnable. At that time, only one narrow road with several turns passed through the gorge of Somosierra. Bypassing the position was almost impossible, or it took a lot of time and did not give the bypassing any advantages.
General San Juan quite competently placed his four-gun batteries at the bends of the road - there were only four of them. The road was shot through by the Spanish guns for several kilometers. The Spanish commander took into account almost everything, but could not take into account the unparalleled valor of the Polish uhlans who fought for Napoleon.
The French army was involved in a defile near Somosierra on November 30, and the emperor, along with the headquarters and an escort of cavalrymen, without expecting a repulse, rode in front of the columns. The first to receive a volley of Spanish cannons were the Guards Horse Jaegers, commanded by Philippe de Segur, the author of an incomparable memoir. The cannonballs even reached Napoleon's retinue, and Segur's squadron had to retreat.
The French column of many thousands was forced to stop among the mountains, from the slopes of which they could well be threatened by the Spanish guerillas. It was necessary to bring up the artillery, but Napoleon did not want to wait. Next to him was only the second escort squadron - the Polish lancers of Jan Kozetulski, who did not have a peak and were formally listed in Napoleon's army as chevoliers. The emperor ordered him to attack the batteries head-on, telling Kozetulski: "Poles, take these guns for me." Some of the officers of the suite, having heard the order, plucked up the courage to object to the emperor, saying that it was impossible.
"How? Impossible? I don’t know such a word! Nothing is impossible for my Poles! " - answered the emperor. Kozetulsky immediately set off the squadron at a gallop. Historians, and not only Polish and French, still argue that the uhlans shouted - Vive l'Empereur! or something Slavic - obscene. The Polish heroes swept away the first battery, despite the fact that a horse was killed at Kozetulski and despite the hurricane fire.
However, how hurricane the firing of the cannons of that time could be can be read from Tolstoy, but the Poles managed to shoot down the second battery at once. After a sharp turn into the gorge, they were already led by Lieutenant Dzevanovsky. Serious losses, especially among officers, went already on the third battery, where they wounded Lieutenant Nigolevsky with a saber, and a horse was killed near Dzevanovsky.
However, the lancers rushed on, and took the fourth battery on the move, following the first three. The infantry was finishing off the Spaniards - Ruffen's division, which passed by no longer terrible batteries. The gate to Madrid was actually open. On December 2, the French were at the walls of Madrid, and on December 4 they entered the defeated Spanish capital.
The elusive English
By that time, General Moore's British had settled in Salamanca, and General Baird's regiments had landed to reinforce them in La Coruña. The British troops united in Mayorga decided to strike at the French II Corps, which was too far from the main forces of Napoleon in Saldane. Already having 25 thousand people, Moore went to Sahagun against Soult, to whose aid Napoleon, who had set out on December 22 from Madrid, was already in a hurry. Under the personal command of the emperor were the VI Corps, Guards and Reserve Cavalry. Napoleon moved swiftly to Tordesillas to cut off Moore's army from the sea. At this time, Junot's VIII corps managed to enter Burgos to reinforce Soult, and only part of the French cavalry remained in Madrid. Marshal Lefebvre with part of his IV corps occupied Talavera, and Victor's I corps settled in Toledo.
On December 27, Napoleon arrived in Medina del Rio Secco, but General Moore, who had already managed to collect 30 thousand people, managed to escape from the attack. It is unlikely that the British would then be able to resist the powerful French army. Subsequently, the Napoleonic marshals will never get a chance to fight them with such an advantage in forces. Napoleon marched after Moore's army only as far as Astorga, which is already quite near the Atlantic.
Further, the British were pursued by Marshal Soult and General Junot, who had no more than 35 thousand people, but the British commander did not know this. However, Ney's corps in the form of a reserve also moved somewhat behind Soult and Junot. John Moore only reached A Coruña on January 12, with only 19 thousand people under his command by that time. Almost all the Spanish allied troops managed to break away from his exhausted half-starved army. And then, due to bad weather, English ships could not get from Vigo to La Coruna.
General Moore had no choice but to accept the battle. Soult's corps attacked his positions on January 16, but did not achieve significant success. However, John Moore himself was mortally wounded in the battle, but his troops managed to carry out the long-awaited landing on the ships. And only on January 20, La Coruña surrendered to the French. Napoleon forced himself to believe that the British would no longer return to Spain, confining themselves to a small hole in the Continental blockade that Portugal remained. With those troops who were not chasing the British, he returned to Valladolid on January 1.
While the emperor was making his campaign to Astorga, Marshal Lefebvre repulsed the Spanish raid on Madrid, and the Duke of Infantado, who replaced General Castagnos, was hard hit by Victor's corps at Ucles. It cost the Spaniards 30 guns and 8 thousand prisoners. After the brilliant victory at Tudela, the V French Corps of Mortier and the III Corps, which General Junot took from the aging Monsey, totaling 40 thousand people, under the command of Marshal Lannes, began the siege of Saragossa.
At the same time, General Gouvion Saint-Cyr continued to win victories in Catalonia, who with his VII Corps eventually pushed back the Spanish army of Vives, who was replaced by General Reading, to retreat to Tarragona.
To Paris, on business, urgently
In just two months, Napoleon scattered all the Spanish armies opposing him, forced the British to leave the Pyrenees, returned King Joseph to the capital, pacified Catalonia and began a siege of Zaragoza, the last stronghold of old Spain. It seemed that the country could well be considered conquered. It would be better, of course, to own one, like Italy, because it was not for nothing that Napoleon abolished the Inquisition, closed monasteries, abolished feudal privileges and internal customs duties.
From a purely military point of view, Napoleon's short Spanish campaign can be considered flawless. The speed and onslaught no worse than Suvorov's were combined with the traditional punctuality, which was demonstrated by the faithful Berthier at the head of Napoleon's headquarters. Even an accidental defeat could not threaten the accuracy of the emperor's calculations. He broke the resistance of the people, previously divided like no other, but in the end he rallied them.
Most likely, if Napoleon had not had to leave Spain, both the country and the people would have remained for a long time a semblance of a French colony - not the most submissive, but quiet. Not the French, but the British would have to fight in a foreign field in the future. The French were already ready to invade Andalusia and Portugal, but Napoleon was informed from Paris that Austria would start a new war in the coming days.
Napoleon immediately went to Paris, which only confirms his admission of a mistake with such a profound interference in Spanish affairs. However, even when the war in Germany had not even begun, Napoleon received a message that seemed to promise a solution. Zaragoza fell on February 21st. It was defended by 20 thousand Spanish regular troops and 40 thousand inhabitants, under the command of the young General Palafox. The city still could not hold out against two French corps.
A new turning point not in favor of the French happened in Spain later, when Britain got into the matter seriously. Napoleon did not succeed in Spain, because there the people unexpectedly said their word, and not just society. In Russia, Napoleon did not even begin to offer the people his "European changes", considering the Russians not civilized enough for this.
Among other Spanish mistakes of Napoleon, one, almost the main one, is often forgotten. Victory in Spain would hardly have helped Napoleonic France to gain the upper hand in a trade war with England at the expense of a continental blockade. It is possible that a more promising option for France would be to leave all the Pyrenees on the same front line, which, by the way, could later work in the case of Russia as well.
