The Battle of Fuentes De Onoro - May 1811

Fuentes de Onoro is a relatively short drive from Ciudad Rodrigo, about 24 Km due west on the main road (A-62) to Portugal. The village is very sleepy, and appears quite empty. As I said before the area really reminded me of the West of Ireland on a sunny day (a rarity in itself).  I had an easy drive on a sunny morning out of Ciudad Rodrigo and stopped at the village on my way to Portugal.

Dry stone walls lined the roads, villages and countryside all around, and the landscape looked fairly green for Spain. The village itself is a warren of small lanes and mostly low dry stone buildings.

The village was fairly bleak, and had a very isolated atmosphere; essentially a poor farming borderland.

This was one of the two main routes between Spain and Portugal that I mentioned in my Badajoz blog. Control both routes and you have the key to both countries, depending on which direction you're either attacking or defending from. In 1811 it was the French turn to attack, almost simultaneously in the North and South (the Battle of Albuera took place 10 days later). Both battles were actually attempts to relive the sieges, in this case of Massena trying to help the garrison at Almeida, and prevent Wellington from gaining control of the northern gates to Spain.

I've included a map of the battle below raided from Wikipedia (and source referenced), as it's hard to get a feel for the battle by just looking at the fields.

 

Map Source: Gregory Fremont-Barnes (main editor) - The Encyclopedia of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, page 395. Adapted from Paget 1997, 126.

The notable thing about this battle, as with Albuera, is how in both the French very nearly outflanked the Allied armies. The lie of the land in Fuentes De Onoro, and the presence of Wellington, meant that the British were not caught so unawares as Beresford was in Albuera. Both battles were "Close run things" , which nearly ended in British defeat.

Wellington never considered the battle a victory, though it witnessed the best performance of Craufurd's Light Division in any engagement during the Peninsular War (the Light division’s finest hour), who saved the isolated 7th division on Wellington's right flank from destruction and enabled him to reposition his right wing after being effectively outflanked by the French army. (This was a big change from the near debacle at the battle of the Coa the previous year when the Light division came close to being cut off on the wrong side of the river, in front of Almeida, avoiding annihilation.)

An oft quoted remark attributed to Wellington about Fuentes de Onoro is that had Napoleon been there, the British Army would surely have been lost.

Looking east from the village towards the line of the main French advance. The flanking move would have begun in the distance and proceeded to the right of the picture.

What of course is apparent as you go through the images is that it is perfect light infantry country. Though the route back for the exposed 7th Division from Poco Velho covered by the Light infantry was over mostly open-fields swarming with French cavalry, which underlines the scale of their achievement.

Below you can see a view out over the right flank from the ridge behind the village. This is the ground over which the British right flank retreated.

Looking up to the position of the new defensive line on the ridge taken by Wellington from the south side of the village.

The beginning of the more open farmland to the south of the village - the "exposed" right flank.

Up on the ridge again looking south from behind the village. The village is to the left of the picture.

Again on the ridge looking south-east. the village is in the middle distance.

What is apparent is that the slopes of the slope up to the ridge are criss-crossed with low stone walls and trees/hedging. behind this was the village itself full of narrow lanes and packed with one story farm buildings. This made for a very difficult obstacle for the French, and witnessed the bloodiest fighting of the day.

The Church in the distance in the centre of the village viewed from the position of Wellington's new right flank.

The old main road runs through the centre of the village, past the old church and up the hill, travelling west to the nearby border post with Portugal.

by most accounts the church is mostly as it appeared at the time of the battle. There is a small stone memorial to the battle there.

There is also a memorial to the fallen Nationalist heroes of the Spanish Civil war. Someone seems to have tried to pull the plaque off or damaged it. As in Ciudad Rodrigo, one can speculate that not everyone locally is happy with these monuments to Franco's men.

The main road coming up the hill. Even now you can see how narrow the way is. This was the line of the first attack by Ferrey's Division in trying to take the village, and then by Drouet, only to be thrown out again by the 88th Connaught Rangers Foot.

Just back from the top of the village on the ridge is where Wellington and his officers had their HQ. looking north along the line of his other regiments' positions (centre and left flanks).

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Looking south from Wellington's position above the village.

Looking North along the ridge where the rest of Wellington's army was positioned facing east towards the French (centre and left flank). In the distance you can see the beginning of Vilar Formoso.

The onward journey to Almeida is short as well, so making the area a good destination for any battlefield tour. Basing yourself in Ciudad Rodrigo you can take in Almeida, the Coa, and Sabugal, and in the other direction you are about 80 km from Salamanca, which is easily accomplished as a day trip. Anyway highly recommended.

From Here I drove on to Almeida, Sabugal, and then down into Portugal to Bussaco which I reached in the evening. More on these battlefields in the next posts.

Ciudad Rodrigo

As Tuesday (8^th January) will be the 201^st anniversary of the start of the siege (and eventual storming) of Ciudad Rodrigo, I thought I would dig out my notes and pictures of my visit. Coming from the south, you drive over mountain passes, plateaus and open moorland before descending down towards Ciudad Rodrigo. The land is beautiful, empty, and mostly poor. It reminded me very much of the west of Ireland. 

You can see Ciudad Rodrigo from a fair distance as you approach, clearly dominating the main northern route between Spain and Portugal. Thus the reason for it’s and Badajoz’s importance to the overall strategy of the war. An army would have to hold both of them to have any chance to either successfully defend and/or invade, in either direction. Only when wellington had secured them both was he able to advance into Spain. As it was Wellington chose to invest Ciudad Rodrigo first.

Ciudad Rodrigo itself is in remarkably good shape, and seems little altered from the time of the siege (unlike Badajoz). It is mostly built of sandstone, with many baroque as well as medieval and renaissance structures and churches crowded around the two main squares. It is easy to find the point of the main breach as all the buildings in it vicinity still bear the mark of cannon shot, the main church resembling a pepper pot with all the holes in its façade.

 

Here you can see where the British siege guns reduced the bastion by half, compared to the surrounding walls. This was the main breach stormed by Picton's division.

Here is the site of the lesser breach, stormed by the Light Division, and the where General Craufurd’s body was interred after the battle.

 And the memorial marking his final resting place.

Here in the distance you can see the Grand Tesson, upon which the British siege guns were sited, and behind which the Picton’s 3^rd Division sheltered before storming the town.

The hill overlooks the town, so the French had sited a redoubt here to prevent it being used as a siege point by the British. This had to be stormed first by Crauford’s Light Division on 8^th January 1812, after which the siege guns were set up.

I didn’t manage to get up to it as it is across several fields of fenced off farmland (though I am sure there is a track somewhere). I did though drive behind the hill, and it is easy to see how the British divisions could be concealed here, masking the preparation for any attack.

The Grand Tesson looking up from the Lesser Tesson.

 The main breach viewed from the Lesser Tesson. It's easy to see how the church tower became riddled with shell holes.

The lesser Tesson, where the British siege lines were pushed forward for the final bombardment and storming is easy to reach, being just outside the city walls, though half of it is covered in apartment blocks now, and a small railway line cuts it off from the Grand Tesson.

The outcome was never in dispute as the town was essentially indefensible with such a small garrison. Once the French had lost the Grand Tesson, the game was up. What is less easy to understand is why the French garrison did not surrender.