berserk, burning, looting and raping wherever they went. It took until the
morning after the siege for order to be restored but London was
unconcerned about war crimes and atrocities and awarded their general
an earldom and an extra £2,000 in annual pension. In March he moved
on to besiege Badajoz. This proved a tough nut, the British took heavy
losses, and Wellington was about to call off the siege when he heard that
his men had taken the citadel on the other side of the city. After a bitter
battle on 6-7 April r8r2, the British again ran amok in an orgy of rape
and drunken pillage. On 8 April Wellington erected a gallows and
threatened to hang his men by the dozen if they did not come to order.
Despite heavy casualties (s,ooo in all, including r,soo in the main
breach), Wellington had taken s,ooo prisoners and demonstrated to his
own satisfaction that he could proceed to destroy French armies
piecemeal. The siege had lasted a month but none of the marshals, and
especially not Soult who was nearest, had come to the aid of Badajoz.
With the strategic advantage Wellington now proceeded to invade the
heartland of Spain. He held the whip hand, especially as Marmont's
forces, in obedience to explicit orders from the Emperor, were strung out
in a huge arc stretching from Oviedo in the Asturias to Avila and the
Gaudarramas.
Wellington and Marmont circled each other warily at first, then the
marshal withdrew, leaving the British free to take Salamanca. Wellington
then set off into Leon after the French, but Marmont doubled back,
trying to beat the enemy to Salamanca. Marmont's strategy was clear: to
keep Wellington forever doubling back to Portugal by hooking round his
right and forcing him west. But in moving south-west towards Ciudad
Rodrigo, Marmont mistook Wellington's main army for a baggage train
and concluded that the British were retreating. He sent his divisions west
to continue the hooking manoeuvre, leaving his army strung out with a
weak centre. Wellington attacked there (22 July) and was able to destroy
Marmont's army systematically, division after division. There could be
no doubting the scale of the victory: the British lost s,ooo at Salamanca
but of 48,ooo French troops in the Army of Portugal, r4,ooo were
casualties (among the wounded were Marmont and his second-in
command General Bouvet) and 7,000 were prisoners. Once again
Wellington was supremely lucky, for this was an untypical error by the
talented Marmont. None the less it was a major setback for the French,
and the news, reaching Napoleon just before Borodino, did nothing for
the morale of the Grande Armee in Russia.
The Army of Portugal was forced to retreat north, first to Valladolid,
then to Burgos. In Madrid on 5 August Joseph ordered Soult to abandon
marcin
(Marcin)
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