"End of the Peninsular War " Topic

"In 1811 Marc Desboeufs, a lieutenant in the 81st Line, crossed the Spanish border and began his Peninsular War career. His regiment, which had been withdrawn from an easy posting in Illyria, in the Balkans, to support Marshal Massena's invasion of Portugal, quickly found itself side-tracked to the dirty war against the guerrillas – holding down provinces, garrisoning remote forts, escorting convoys and taking part in anti-guerrilla sweeps. It was a pitiless war which sapped the strength of Desboeufs' regiment and the manpower of Napoleon's empire.

General Reille, who governed the province of Navarre, wanted to profit from our arrival by teaching the guerrilla chief Mina a lesson. We left the city at dawn and took the road to Tafalla with 900 men of our regiment, 300 hussars of the 9th Regiment, a cannon and a few wagons loaded with hay and empty chests. These were designed to lure the Spanish into attacking us, as they had a preference for ambushing conscripts escorting convoys. We reached a place called Carrascal and saw a swarm of about 2,000 Spaniards, of which some 200 were cavalry, come sweeping down the mountain to our left. When they reached the foot of the mountain a good number of the Spaniards formed a square, the rest dispersed into a skirmish cloud. A detachment also began to menace our left, threatening our wagons. General Reille quickly made the following dispositions: he pushed four companies of our 1st battalion out to serve as skirmishers, the remaining two companies of that battalion he deployed to fend off the Spanish column threatening the wagons. The 2nd battalion was deployed in line and the hussars were sent off to some trees to the right, just out of range of the Spanish square. Our cannon opened fire, first against the enemy's skirmishers, then against the Spanish column on our left. When Reille saw that the hussars had reached their designated position and deployed, he ordered our 2nd battalion forward. We drove the enemy skirmishers back, also forcing their column back; our two battalions then formed up together and, when we were no more than 20 paces from the square, we gave a resounding volley and levelled our bayonets. The volley and the disorder caused by the retreating skirmishers, threw the square into confusion; our regiment and the hussars charged together and the Spanish broke. From then on it was no more than a massacre…"
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