Battle of Orthez

Battle of Orthez

Part of: Napoleonic Wars on the Iberian Peninsula

Battle of Orthez

date	February 27, 1814
place	Orthez
output	Allied victory

Parties to the conflict
France	United Kingdom Portugal
Commander
Nicolas Jean-de-Dieu Soult	Arthur Wellington
Troop strength
36,000	43,300
losses
2,472 dead and wounded, 1,346 prisoners	1941 dead and wounded, 79 prisoners

The Battle of Orthez was one of the last fighting of the Spanish War of Independence , it took place on February 27, 1814 on French soil. The commanders were Maréchal Nicolas Jean-de-Dieu Soult on the French side and Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington on the Allied side.

backgrounds

After the fighting that had taken place at Bayonne in 1813 , the armies withdrew to their winter quarters and did nothing until February 1814, when Wellington decided to take Soult by surprise in his positions at Bayonne.

On February 14, Hill's division crossed the Nive , forcing the French to retreat north to Saint-Palais . The Général Harispe initially left a garrison in Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port , which was, however, harassed by the Spaniards under the command of General Espoz y Mina . Since he did not act energetically enough, the French were able to escape via the Bidassoa .

General Sir Thomas Picton, 3rd Division Commander

On February 23, at around 1:00 a.m., the British left wing moved into Bayonne and pushed the French outposts out of their positions. Before the eyes of the French, the Adour was crossed with a flotilla of boats. The exact cover fire of the British artillery prevented the French from providing effective resistance to the crossing. The crossing over the Adour was carried out towards evening the next day.

On February 26, a bridge was built south of the city, which opened the way to Bordeaux for the British. On the evening of February 27th, General John Rope began the siege of Bayonne with the troops of the Allied left wing.

During this time the bulk of Wellington's troops crossed the Gave d'Oloron in several places. At the confluence of the Gave d'Oléron in the Gave de Pau , the French were pushed back over the Peyrehorade bridge , against the fire from the Montréal Castle, which covered the bridge with two massive round towers. Soult's corps was in danger of being pushed to Bayonne and opening the road to Bordeaux for the British. Soult stayed for some time in Saint-Boès, a village on a ridge above the important road to Dax . The whole area is very hilly, Orthez is also located on such a steep mountain ridge.

The right wing of the French leaned on the left on the village of Saint-Boès and was commanded by Général Reille. He was responsible for the Taupin, Roquet and Pain divisions. This was followed by the center of the Général Comte d'Erlon, under whose command the divisions of the Comte de Foy and the Comte de d'Armagnac were. The road to Peyrehorade was controlled by these troops. Behind it was the Villatte Division, which formed the reserve with the bulk of the cavalry and was supposed to reinforce the individual sections as required. The Général Harispe and his division formed the left wing and relied on Orthez, which he occupied and whose bridge over the Gave de Pau he had to block. He had 12 cannons available for this. 12 more cannons were located in the center, from where they could also sweep the positions in front of Saint-Boès. 16 more cannons were kept in reserve on the road to Dax.

On the morning of February 27, Wellington explored the site and the French line-up for over an hour.

The battle

At 9:00 a.m. Wellington ordered the attack. The 3rd and 6th Divisions tackled the hills held by Foy's 1st Division with momentum, but began to slow down rapidly because of the steep slopes to be overcome. In front of Saint-Boès, the 4th Division with the Ross and Vasconcellos brigades set off, pushed through unoccupied terrain and began to threaten the right flank of Soult. There was bitter bayonet fighting here. Ross attacked a total of five times and was thrown back five times, which was also due to the flanking fire of the French guns from the center. The matter could only be settled for the French after the "Taupin Division" had come to support. Cole then had to retreat to below Saint-Boès, where he was fatally wounded. A simultaneous attack on the center by Picton was repulsed by Foy.

General Foy. Commander of one ^he division

It had been three hours now. Wellington noticed the precarious situation of his troops off Saint-Boès and changed his plan. He ordered the Anson Brigade from the reserve in support of Ross, withdrew the 7th Division and ordered the Vivian cavalry regiment towards the road to Dax to support the units there. At the same time he ordered the 3rd and 6th Divisions to attack the French left wing. At last he ordered Colborne, who led the "Oxford Light Infantry" (52nd InfRgt), to leave his position and throw back the French flank that threatened the British positions at Saint-Boès. The men of the 52nd regiment crossed swampy terrain in the French fire and pounced on the troops of Foy and Taupin, wiped out a French battalion and brought confusion among the French command. General Béchaud was killed and General Foy was seriously wounded in this attack. The chaos among the French troops carried over to General Reille's formations, which began to retreat to rear positions.

Behind Saint-Boès there was now a gap that Wellington took advantage of to move his 4th and 7th Divisions and the Vivien cavalry regiment with two artillery battalions there. At the other height, the 3rd and 4th divisions succeeded in gaining ground against the "Darmanac Division". The British placed an artillery battery on a hill that fired at the tightly packed French ranks. An escadron chasseurs à cheval , which attacked this battery with drawn saber, deviated from the direction and got into a ravine with no exit, in which they were shot down by the British artillery. The 3rd and 7th Divisions now formed a front with two wings. Soult concentrated his forces on the heights on the road to Dax and tried with the divisions Pain, Roquet, Taupin and d'Armagnac to stop the retreating troops of the Foy division. However, by Wellington's change of plan, the situation had changed to the extent that the Hill division with 12,000 men was ordered to cross the Gave and to prevent the threat to its own 6th division. In addition, the momentum should be used to make a final attack and achieve victory.

Corps Hill crossed the Gave, occupied the heights on the opposite side, blocking any possibility of French retreat on the road to Pau .

Soult realized his precarious situation and ordered a general withdrawal. However, this was not without problems, if only because of the difficulties of the terrain. The retreat of the French was slow, step by step, causing great losses on both sides.

Hill, who had foreseen the French withdrawal, quickly moved his division to the hills opposite the French withdrawal. This put the French in danger of being cut off. The orderly retreat turned into confusion. Hill pushed with force into the retreating columns, whereupon the French tried to escape in all directions. Some turned towards the Gave, others north towards Sault-de-Navailles

At around 3 p.m. the British cavalry set out to chase the fleeing people. The "7th Hussars (The Queen's Own) Regiment" attacked the flanks of Harispe's column, rode down 300 soldiers, whereupon another 2,000 men laid down their arms. The regiment captured another 17 officers and 700 soldiers near Sault de Navailles. The pursuit continued as far as the Luy de Béarn River , about seven kilometers from the battlefield.

Donaldson commented:

"There are so many soldiers who lay down their weapons that it is difficult to get through."

By nightfall, however, the bulk of Soult's troops had managed to pass the Luy de Bearn. Wellington had meanwhile been wounded in the buttocks by a musket ball. Soult continued his retreat all night as far as Saint-Sever , destroying all the bridges behind him.

The following day, Wellington continued the chase with three columns. Soult moved with the remaining troops, the supply columns and his artillery north to the Adour . They crossed the river in Saint-Server and destroyed the bridge.

Continuation of the battle

Wellington now dispatched Hill to give him orders to capture or destroy the other French corps. Hill appeared outside Aire-sur-l'Adour at 3:00 a.m. on March 2 with two infantry divisions, a cavalry brigade and a division of mounted artillery.

Clauzel had brought his troops to a standstill and awaited the pursuers with the divisions from Villate, Harispe and a number of cannons. His position was on a steep incline, to his left was a free space that was cut through by the road to Pau, to his right a ravine prevented any movement in that direction. William Stewart, also known by the nickname "Old Grog Willie" for having rum distributed to his soldiers on the march, began an attack on the French left flank. A Portuguese brigade under the command of Da Costa attacked the center. While Steward made progress, the Portuguese were repelled with the bayonet . Stewart then sent the 50th Regiment and the 92nd Highlander to reinforce. The renewed attack threw the French back on their reserves. Harispe was pushed back onto the river, Lees and Vilatte withdrew through Aire, which was then taken by Colonel Cameron and his Highlanders. The two French generals Dauture and Gasquet were wounded. Harispe's troops threw away their rifles and disbanded. The cannons and the artillery park fell into Hill's hands.

Colonel John Cameron was honored by the king for his brave behavior and the discipline of his soldiers after the capture of Aire.

The army of Maréchal Soult had been defeated in the battle of Orthez and in the pursuit of Aire, his officers no longer had confidence in the leadership, the conscripts had run away, the veterans of the army were scattered, most of the cannons and the Supplies fell into the hands of the enemy.

The French lost 2,472 dead and wounded and 1,346 prisoners; on the Allied side there were 1941 dead and wounded and 79 prisoners.

On March 12, 1814, Marshal Beresford and the Duke d'Angoulême entered Bordeaux at the head of the British 4th and 7th Divisions. They were greeted with joy by the citizens, who enthusiastically exchanged the tricolor for the white colors of the Bourbons. Louis XVIII was immediately proclaimed king. Wellington realized that a large crew would not be required in Bordeaux and ordered Beresford to pursue the French to Toulouse. Only 5,000 men remained in Bordeaux.

Soult turned to Toulouse to join forces with Marshal Suchet , who came from Catalonia.

A month later, the Battle of Toulouse took place as the last battle before Napoleon's first abdication.

Battle orders

Allied associations

The number of combatants in each of the Allied units was researched by the British historian Sir Charles Oman.

• Infantry:

7 infantry divisions (including a Portuguese division)

58 regiments listed by name with a total of about 60 battalions

• cavalry

1 cavalry division

7 regiments

A total of around 43,300 combatants

literature

• Major General FC Beatson: The Crossing of the Gaves and the Battle of Orthez . Heath Cranton, London 1925.
• Robert Burham & Ron McGuigan: The British Army against Napoleon - Facts, Lists, and Trivia 1805-1815 . Frontline Books, 2010, ISBN 978-1-84832-562-3 ; ( Digitized version )
• Ruthard von Frankenberg: In the Black Corps to Waterloo. Memoirs of Major Erdmann von Frankenberg . edition by frankenberg, Hamburg 2015, ISBN 978-3-00-048000-3 ; Eyewitness account on pp. 135–139
• James Grant: British Battles on Land and Sea . 3 volumes. Cassel, Petter & Galpin, London, Paris & New York 1880, ( digitized version )
• Charles Oman : A history of the Peninsula War . Volume VII (August 1813 to April 14, 1814), Clarendon Press , Oxford 1930, ( digitized )
• Jean Quatre Vieux & Pierre Migliorini: Les Batailles de Napoléon dans le Sud-Ouest . Atlantica, Biarritz 2013, ISBN 2-84394-531-3 , ( excerpts )

Web links

• Bataille d'Orthez - February 27, 1814
• Bataille d'Orthez - récit anglais de la bataille

Footnotes

1. ↑ after Digby Smith