San Marcial

The monastry on San Marcial

The battle of San Marcial is one of the lesser known of Wellington's battles.

On 31 August 1813 the French held city of San Sebastian was about to fall to the allied siege. Marshal Soult determined to make one last effort to raise the siege. The most direct road to the city from Bayonne was along the coast, however the road bridge had been destroyed.

Two French divisions stormed the heights of San Marcial, which was held by three Spanish divisions under General Freire, and supported by a British division. The Spanish held the ridge against the determined French attack. At the crisis Friere sent a request to Wellington to send the British reinforcements. Wellington was convinced that the French were already beaten, and wanted the Spanish to take full credit, so he declined to use the reinforcements.

The Spanish held. By mid morning the French were in full retreat back over the river Bidassoa into France.

Our visit to the battlefield in 1995 is described here:

http://northernspainandpyrenees.blogspot.com/

The Crossing of the Bidassoa

Fuenterrabia would not be one of the first names to spring to mind if asked to list Wellington’s Peninsular Battlefields. However on the morning of 7 October 1813 it was to be the scene of one of his most daring battles.

The cities of San Sebastian and Pamplona has finally fallen and were now occupied by the Spanish army. The French had been forced to abandon Spanish soil and retreat into France.

The river Bidassoa formed the border between France and Spain. Marshal Soult had 55,000 men deployed on the French side from Vera to the sea. Wellington had 44,000 British, Portuguese and Spanish troops with which to force a crossing and secure the northern bank.

The French believed that the estuary of the river at Fuenterrabia could not be forded. However local fishermen advised Wellington that it was possible to ford the river at low tide.

At first light on 7 October 1813 the First and Fifth British divisions crossed the estuary at a point where it was never more than waist deep. The French were completely surprised and their earth works and fortifications were over run before they could be reinforced. By nightfall Wellington was in command of the north bank and the French in retreat.

You can read about our visit to Fuenterrabia at

http://northernspainandpyrenees.blogspot.com/

Vera

On 31 August 1813 a small party of 80 men from the 95th Rifles held a bridge to prevent a full division of about 10,000 French infantry from crossing the river Bidassoa. I am not sure what it would be called. Certainly not a battle, probably not a combat but perhaps an action.

I first heard about this gallant feat way back in the early 1970s. I had just become interested in wargaming, and subscribed to the only magazine then available in UK called Wargamers Newsletter by Don Featherstone. One edition contained an article called something like "Action at Vera". It caught my eye because my sister is also called Vera, and because it was about the Napoleonic period. The combination meant that I may have forgotten the details of the article, but not the name of the village.

So when we were planning a visit to Wellington's 1813 battlefields in the Pyrenees I was determined to make time to visit the village. Vera played an important part in the campaign because it had one of the few bridges over the strategically important river Bidassoa.

It was easy to find Vera, less easy to find the bridge. Although in a good state of repair, the main road now runs about a mile from the bridge. Fortunately we found a local lad who spoke a little English and he was able to give us general direction which eventually led to the bridge.

You can read about our visit at:

http://northernspainandpyrenees.blogspot.com/

Sorauren

The fourth battlefield we visited during our visit to northern Spain and the Pyrenees was Sorauren. This was the major battle fought over three days in July 1813 to protect the siege of Pamplona.

Sorauren is an attractive village a few miles north of Pamplona. The area is little changed since 1813 and is a very easy battlefield to explore. The ridge which formed Wellington's position overlooks the village, and is an easy climb.

The bridge where Wellington scribbled his orders to change the direction of march of his reinforcements is also easy to find. Best of all there is a very pleasant inn beside the river where you can sip a cool beer within sight of the famous bridge.

Pamplona is also well situated to visit four Napoleonic battlefields. Sorauren, Maya, Roncesvalles and Vitoria. So there is a lot to recommend it as a base to explore this part of Wellington's 1813 campaign.

You can read about our visit to Sorauren at:
http://northernspainandpyrenees.blogspot.com/

Maya

In the previous blog I recalled our visit to the Pass of Roncevalles, which Soult stormed in his bid to raise the siege of Pamplona. On the same day, 25 July 1813, he also attacked the Pass of Maya. Separated by 25 miles, these two passes in the Pyrenees commanded roads leading from France to Pamplona.

Maya is not quite so impressive as Roncevalles, but is still a lovely and impressive location. On this, our first visit, Jan and I spent an enjoyable but frustrating day trying to locate the main points of interest.

You can read about our visit at

http://northernspainandpyrenees.blogspot.com/

Roncesvalles

Less than five weeks after his defeat of the French at Vitoria, Wellington's army was spread over a wide area of the southern Pyrenees from the coast to Roncesvalles. He has laid siege to Pamplona and San Sebastian and deployed the remainder of his army to prevent Marshal Soult from raising either siege.

There are two roads through the mountains to Pamplona. The western one is through the Pass of Maya and the eastern one through the Pass of Roncesvalles.

This weeks battlefield is the latter - Roncesvalles.

You can read about our visit at:

http://northernspainandpyrenees.blogspot.com/

Vitoria

Tres Puentes bridge over the river Zadorra

Vitoria is a large battlefield and, unfortunately, much changed since 1813. We spent a full day exploring it by car and managed to find many locations of interest, including Tres Puentes bridge with its picnic table.

Despite a lot of preparation we found Vitoria to be a difficult battlefield to explore, largely because of a large motorway right through the centre of the field, plus a large expansion of the city itself. We managed to find all of the locations in the southern part of the field, but as we got nearer to Vitoria itself it became increasingly difficult.

You can read about our visit here:

http://northernspainandpyrenees.blogspot.com/