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Battle of Vitoria

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Battle of Vitoria

Part of the Peninsular War

Monument to the Battle, Vitoria

Date	June 21, 1813
Location	Vitoria, Spain
Result	Decisive Allied victory

Combatants

French Empire

United Kingdom

Spain

Portugal

Commanders

Jean-Baptiste Jourdan,
Joseph Bonaparte

Marquess of Wellington

Strength

58,000

80,000

Casualties

~5,000 dead or wounded,
3,000 captured^[1]

~5,000 dead or wounded^[1]

• • e Peninsular War Vitoria and the Pyrenees, 1813–1814
Vitoria – 1st San Sebastián – Pyrenees (Maya – Roncesvalles) – Sorauren – 2nd San Sebastián – San Marcial – Nivelle – Nive – Orthez – Toulouse

In the Battle of Vitoria (June 21 1813) Wellington and his Portuguese and Spanish allies finally broke the French army, leading to eventual victory in the Peninsular War. The Marquess of Wellington's 78,000 British, Portuguese and Spanish troops, with 96 guns, defeated 58,000 French with 153 guns under King Joseph Bonaparte and Marshal Jean-Baptiste Jourdan near Vitoria in Spain.

1 Background
2 Forces
- 2.1 British, Portuguese, Spanish
- 2.2 French
3 Battle
4 Aftermath
5 Notes
6 References
7 External links

Background

In July 1812, after the Battle of Salamanca, the French had evacuated Madrid, which Wellington's army entered on August 12, 1812. Deploying three divisions to guard the capital's southern approaches, Wellington then marched north with the rest of his army to lay siege to the fortress of Burgos, 140 miles away, but he had under-estimated the enemy's strength and on October 21 he had to abandon the Siege of Burgos and retreat. By October 31 he had abandoned Madrid too, and retreated first to Salamanca then finally to Ciudad Rodrigo, near the Portuguese frontier, to avoid encirclement by French armies from the north-east and south-east. Wellington spent the winter reorganising and strengthening his forces. By contrast, Napoleon withdrew many French soldiers to rebuild his main army after his disastrous invasion of Russia. The following year, Wellington marched 121,000 troops (53,749 British, 39,608 Spanish, and 27,569 Portuguese^[2]) from northern Portugal across the mountains of northern Spain and the Esla river, by May 20, 1813, to outflank Marshal Jourdan's army of 68,000 who were strung out between the Douro and the Tagus. The French retreated to Burgos, with Wellington's forces marching hard to cut them off from the road to France. Wellington himself commanded the small central force in a strategic feint, while Sir Thomas Graham conducted the bulk of the army around the French right flank over landscape considered impassable.

Forces

British, Portuguese, Spanish

Wellington organized his army into four columns.

The Right Center Column under Wellington's personal direction: consisted of Lieut-Gen Lowry Cole's 4th Division (7,300) and Maj-Gen Charles Alten's Light Division (5,500), Lieut-Col Robert Hill's Guard cavalry (900), Col Colquhoun Grant's light cavalry (1,600), Maj-Gen William Ponsonby's heavy cavalry (1,200) and Brig-Gen Benjamin D'Urban's Portuguese cavalry (700) brigades, and 4 artillery batteries led by Maj Augustus Simon Frazer (Ross RHA, Gardiner RHA, Ramsay RHA, Sympher KGL).
Lieut-Gen Rowland Hill commanded the Right Column.: This corps included Lieut-Gen William Stewart's 2nd Division (10,800), Maj-Gen Francisco Silveira's Portuguese Division (5,300), Maj-Gen Pablo Morillo's Spanish Division (4,600), Maj-Gen Victor Alten's light cavalry (1,000) and Maj-Gen Henry Fane's heavy cavalry (800) brigades, and 4 artillery batteries under Maj Joseph Carncross (Beane RHA, Maxwell RA, Tulloh Portuguese-2).
Lieut-Gen George Ramsay, 9th Earl of Dalhousie led the Left Center Column.: This force was made up of Dalhousie's own 7th Division (7,300), Lieut-Gen Thomas Picton's 3rd Division (7,500), and 2 artillery batteries led by Maj Richard Buckner (Cairnes RA, Douglas RA).
Lieut-Gen Thomas Graham commanded the Left Column.: This corps included Maj-Gen Kenneth Howard's 1st Division (4,900), Maj-Gen John Oswald's 5th Division (6,700), Maj-Gen Denis Pack's (2,300) and Maj-Gen Thomas Bradford's (2,400) independent Portuguese brigades, Col Francisco Longa's Spanish Division (3,100), George Anson's light cavalry (800) and George Bock's heavy cavalry (600) brigades, and the 2 artillery batteries of Dubordieu RA and Lawson RA.
Lieut-Col Julius Hartmann supervised 3 batteries of the Reserve Artillery: (Webber Smith RHA, Parker RA, Arriaga Portuguese).

Distributed among the four columns, the Allied army had 4,300 gunners plus 900 engineers, wagoneers and support troops.

French

King Joseph and Marshal Jourdan fielded three separate armies plus the Royal Guard.

Maj-Gen Honoré Gazan commanded the Army of the South.: This army included the infantry divisions of Maj-Gens Leval (4,700), Villate (5,700), Nicholas Conroux (6,400) and Daricau (5,700), the cavalry divisions of Maj-Gens Pierre Soult (1,500), Tilly (1,900) and Digeon (1,700), Brig-Gen Maransin's infantry brigade (2,900), plus 2,400 gunners, engineers and support troops.
Maj-Gen Honoré Reille led the Army of Portugal.: This corps consisted of the infantry divisions of Maj-Gens Sarrut (4,800) and Lamartinière (6,500), the cavalry divisions of Julien Mermet (1,800) and Pierre Boyer (1,500), plus 2,500 gunners, engineers and support troops.
Maj-Gen Jean-Baptiste Drouet D'Erlon commanded the Army of the Center.: This corps included the infantry divisions of Maj-Gens D'Armagnac (4,500) and Cassagne (5,200), the cavalry divisions of Maj-Gens Anne François Treilliard (1,000) and Avy (500), plus 800 gunners, engineers and support troops.
Royal Guard: included a French contingent of 2,300 infantry and 400 cavalry under Maj-Gen Guy and a Spanish contingent of 2,100 infantry, 700 cavalry and 100 gunners under Gen Casapalacios.
There was also an 800-man detachment from the Army of the North.

Battle

Finally, Wellington launched his attack at Vitoria on June 21, in three columns. After hard fighting, Thomas Picton's 3rd Division broke the enemy's centre and soon the French defence crumbled. About 5,000 French soldiers were killed or wounded and 3,000 were taken prisoner, while Wellington's forces suffered about 5,000 killed or wounded. 152 cannons were captured, but King Joseph Bonaparte narrowly escaped. The battle led to the collapse of Napoleonic rule in Spain.

Aftermath

The British soldiers failed to pursue the fleeing French troops, preferring instead to plunder the abandoned French wagons, containing "the loot of a kingdom". It is estimated that over one million pounds of booty (perhaps £100 million in modern equivalence) was seized, but the gross abandonment of discipline caused an enraged Wellington to write in a dispatch to Earl Bathurst, "We have in the service the scum of the earth as common soldiers".^[3] Order was soon restored, and by December, after detachments had seized San Sebastián and Pamplona, Wellington's army was encamped in France. The battle was the inspiration for Beethoven's Opus 91, often called the "Battle Symphony," or simply "Wellington's Victory", which portrays the battle in a form of a musical drama.