Battle of the Pyrenees

The Battle of the Pyrenees was a large-scale offensive (the author David Chandler recognises the 'battle' as an offensive) launched on 25 July 1813 by Marshal Nicolas Jean de Dieu Soult from the Pyrénées region on Emperor Napoleon's order, in the hope of relieving French garrisons under siege at Pamplona and San Sebastián. After initial success the offensive ground to a halt in the face of increased allied resistance under the command of Arthur Wellesley, Marquess of Wellington. Soult abandoned the offensive on 30 July and headed toward France, having failed to relieve either garrison.

Soult was given command of an army made up mostly of fresh conscripts and began his offensive, although lacking supplies. The Battle of the Pyrenees involved several distinct actions. On 25 July, Soult and two French corps fought the reinforced British 4th Division and a Spanish division at the Battle of Roncesvalles. The Allied force successfully held off all attacks during the day, but retreated from the Roncesvalles Pass that night in the face of overwhelming French numerical superiority. Also on the 25th, a third French corps severely tried the British 2nd Division at the Battle of Maya. The British withdrew from the Maya Pass that evening. Wellington rallied his troops a short distance north of Pamplona and repelled the attacks of Soult's two corps at the Battle of Sorauren on 28 July.

Instead of falling back to the northeast toward Roncesvalles Pass, Soult made contact with his third corps on 29 July and began to move north. On 30 July, Wellington attacked Soult's rearguards at Sourauren, driving some French troops to the northeast, while most continued to the north. Rather than use the Maya Pass, Soult elected to head north up the Bidassoa River valley. He managed to evade Allied attempts to surround his troops at Yanci on 1 August and escaped across a nearby pass after a final rearguard action at Etxalar on 2 August. The French suffered nearly twice as many casualties as the Allied army.

After the decisive French defeat at the Battle of Vitoria, Marshal Soult consolidated the remnants of four armies into a single force of 80,000 troops. Soult ordered General of Division Jean-Baptiste Drouet, Comte d'Erlon commanding one corps of 21,000 men to attack and secure the Maya Pass. General of Division Honoré Reille was ordered by Soult to attack and seize the Roncesvalles Pass with his corps and the corps of General of Division Bertrand Clausel of 40,000 men. Marshal Soult's plan was to relieve the siege at Pamplona first, then swing the army westward to relieve the siege at San Sebastián.

Clausel's Lieutenancy (army corps) of the Left consisted of the infantry divisions of Generals of Division Nicolas François Conroux, Edmé-Martin Vandermaesen, and Eloi Charlemagne Taupin. Conroux's 4th Division had 7,056 men in nine battalions; Vandermaesen's 5th Division counted 4,181 troops in seven battalions; Taupin's 8th Division numbered 5,981 infantry in nine battalions. D'Erlon's Lieutenancy of the Center included the infantry divisions of Generals of Division Jean Barthélemy Darmagnac, Louis Jean Nicolas Abbé, and Jean-Pierre Maransin. Darmagnac's 2nd Division counted 6,961 troops in eight battalions; Abbé's 3rd Division was made up of 8,030 soldiers in nine battalions; Maransin's 6th Division had 5,966 men in seven battalions. Reille's Lieutenancy of the Right had the divisions of Generals of Division Maximilien Sebastien Foy, Antoine Louis Popon de Maucune, and Thomas Mignot de Lamartinière. Foy's 1st Division numbered 5,922 soldiers in nine battalions; Maucune's 7th Division had 4,186 infantry in seven battalions; Lamartinière's 9th Division comprised 7,127 troops in 10 battalions.

Each Corps had a single cavalry regiment attached for scouting purposes, for a total of 808 horsemen. The French Reserve under General of Division Eugene-Casimir Villatte held the defences on the lower Bidassoa River near the Bay of Biscay. The reserves numbered 9,102 French troops in 14 battalions, 2,066 Germans in four battalions, 1,349 Italians in three battalions, 1,168 Spanish in three battalions, 1,550 French National Guards, and 2,019 King's Guards in three battalions, the last being the remnant of Joseph Bonaparte's bodyguard. In addition, General of Division Pierre Benoît Soult commanded 3,981 light cavalrymen in 10 regiments and General of Division Anne-François-Charles Trelliard led 2,358 dragoons in six regiments. The two cavalry divisions remained in the rear. There were about 7,900 gunners, sappers, wagon drivers, and other troops. General of Brigade Louis Emmanuel Rey and 3,000 troops garrisoned San Sebastián while General of Brigade Louis Pierre Jean Cassan held Pamplona with a 3,500-man garrison. At Bayonne were 5,595 French conscripts. Altogether, Soult had 99,906 troops under his orders. Of this total he used 63,572 men in his offensive.

Wellington defended the line of the western Pyrenees with a covering force of 62,000 men. These faced to the northeast, with the left anchored on the Bay of Biscay at the mouth of the Bidassoa River. From left to right, he deployed the following infantry divisions: Major General Kenneth Howard's 1st on the coast, Major General Charles Alten's Light at Lesaka, Lieutenant General George Ramsay, 9th Earl of Dalhousie's 7th at Etxalar, Lieutenant General William Stewart's 2nd at the Maya Pass and Elizondo, Major General Francisco Silveira, Count of Amarante's Portuguese near Izpegi Pass, Lieutenant General Lowry Cole's 4th at Roncevaux Pass and Major General Pablo Morillo's Spanish also at Roncevaux. In reserve were Major General Denis Pack's 6th Division at Doneztebe, and Lieutenant General Thomas Picton's 3rd Division at Olague, plus other Portuguese and Spanish units. Cavalry being of little value in the mountains, Wellington stationed most of his far to the rear, except for two light dragoon brigades.

The Siege of San Sebastián was conducted by Major General James Leith's 5th Division and other units under the direction of Lieutenant General Thomas Graham. Pamplona was besieged by General Henry O'Donnell, 1st Count of la Bisbal's Spanish division and other units.