"Spanish at Vitoria" Topic

In the Osprey book on Vitoria the 3-D maps show the Spanish brigades of dos Pelos, Cartazo and Sanchez drawing off some of the French to the south. These do not seem related to Morillos Division. Also Salcedos brigade is shown accompanying Longa to the north under Graham. However no specific mention is made to any of these in the text or the order of battle.

Can anyone shed light onto what these forces were ? were they Guerillas ?

Appendix 6, page 374 Lipscombe "Peninsular War Atlas" – shows Salcedo as a guerilla corps of about 1,000 men.

Unfortunately he no information on the other formations.

Edit: If Sanchez is Julian Sanchez, he had 2 cavalry regiments.

Sanchez is of course Don Julian Sanchez, who founded a cavalry (Lancers of Castille) guerilla force who acted as a very effective screen for Wellington's Army from 1810 onwards. By 1813 they were a brigade of two regiments (some 900 men) plus a section of two horse artillery guns and were effectively a regular formation. From their original "cowboy" uniform they had adopted more regular items, including some captured uniforms of French Imperial Guard Polish Lancers. The Osprey "Spanish Guerillas in the Peninsular War 1808-1814" has two pages about Julian Sanchez and his men plus a coloured plate of their uniforms. Sanchez came from Ciudad Rodrigo and I have visited his grave, just inside the walls of that fortified town.

Rod

Thanks for the information Gents

It is probably safe to assume the others were guerilla formations as well?

dos Pelos, Cartazo and Sanchez seem to have played quite an important roll in distracting the French which caused them to weaken their centre to counter a perceived threat from the south from the direction of Logrono.

I am planning to do Vitoria in 6mm next month for the bicentenary. I happen to have some lanceros in 'cowboy' type uniforms which would fit the bill for Sanchez…I could easily add one or two Polish Lancers to the group!

Rod,

That's great info for me. I want to add Sanchez and his lancers to my OOB. They could look a fabulous brigade with some head swaps etc to reflect the captured equipment.

The sources I've seen vary between whether Sanchez' second regiment of cavalry were lancers or or not. The Osprey book Rod mentioned has them as hussars, in one of the best looking uniforms ever, with a green dolman and buff pelisse and breeches.

Rick

The other units, under dos Pelos, were two battalions of regularised partizans from Alava, the local province and part of Mina's Navarre division. They seem to be usually described as "Regiment of Alava" but so are some other local guerilla forces (under Pinto) that became attached to Longa's division, though not mentioned in the usual orders of battle. My guess is that this force comprised up to 2,000 men. Don't have any information on uniforms, but presumably these used recently exported British items, and maybe some captured French stuff too.

No information on Cartazo – I think he may have commanded one of the two battalions.

Neither Sanchez nor Dos Pelos (who were not coordinating their actions so far as I know) were operating as part of Wellington's battle plan – but their intervention was important in distracting the French, who thought they were the advance guard of something bigger.

My main source for this is Jean Sarramon's book La Bataille de Vitoria. This seems to be the main source of the Osprey maps, and is the best published account of the battle I have found. It's a bit dated (1985) and French biased, but a good supplement to Oman.

Hi,

Found a link to this

PDF link

which lists the forces involved from the Navarre Division as follows:

1st (led by Dos Pelos)and 3rd (led by Cortazar = Cartazo ?) de Alva Regimiento as well as the lanceros de Castilla (Sanchez). A total force of 3,200

Sanchez came from Ciudad Rodrigo and I have visited his grave, just inside the walls of that fortified town.

And a handsome monument it is too.

Thanks pushing tin. Each "regiment" was a battalion (the 2nd Alava under Pinto was with Longa) and usually reckoned to be about 1,000 men, which makes. Sanchez was about 1,300 earlier in the campaign, so that stacks up. Nice battle map: I will read this document with interest to see if the Spanish sources reveal anything interesting!

Matthew

There are a number of interesting details in the document posted by pushing tin above: the document itself was produced by the Vitoria-Gastiez tourist office, though the main elements (including the excellent map) seem to follow the Sarramon account. There's very little about the battle itself. There are some nice illustrations to give a feel for what the town looked like at the time.

Unsurprisingly it gives a starring role to General Alava, the local boy who was with Wellington (and had been at Trafalgar, and was also present at Waterloo). He is credited with saving the town from plunder by securing the gates (there seems to have been a small inner walled city, inside a bigger moated area).

Another detail is that the illustrations show the flag of Dos Pelos's 1st Alava regiment.