The Battle of Arzobispo on 8 August 1809 saw two Imperial French corps commanded by Marshal Jean-de-Dieu Soult launch an assault crossing of the Tagus River against a Spanish force under José María de la Cueva, 14th Duke of Alburquerque. Alburquerque's troops rapidly retreated after suffering disproportionate losses, including 30 artillery pieces. El Puente del Arzobispo (The Archbishop's Bridge) is located 36 kilometres (22 mi) southwest of Talavera de la Reina, Spain. The action occurred during the Peninsular War, part of a larger conflict known as the Napoleonic Wars.
The Battle of Talavera in late July 1809 saw a victory by Arthur Wellesley's British army and Gregorio García de la Cuesta's Spanish army over the Imperial French army of King Joseph Bonaparte. Wellesley (soon to be known as Wellington) found that he was unable to exploit the triumph due to the failure of his logistical arrangements. Within a few days, Wellesley discovered that Soult's large French army was attempting to cut off his army from Portugal.
Accordingly, the British and Spanish armies withdrew to the west, narrowly avoiding interception by Soult's forces. Alburquerque was left with 3,000 cavalry and 5,000 infantry to hold the bridge of Arzobispo. Because their position was so strong, the Spanish were lulled into a false sense of security. Meanwhile, French officers found and secretly reconnoitered a hidden ford near the bridge. Achieving tactical surprise, the French cavalry plunged across the ford during the Spanish siesta, followed by the infantry of Marshal Édouard Mortier's V Corps. Before Alburquerque could react, his cavalry was routed and one of his infantry battalions crushed. During the pursuit, Soult's horsemen not only seized 16 Spanish guns, but also recaptured at least 14 of the 17 French artillery pieces lost at Talavera.
Background
French offensive
Though the Anglo-Spanish armies triumphed over King Joseph Bonaparte's army at the Battle of Talavera on 27 and 28 July 1809, the butcher's bill was steep. The British counted 5,365 casualties, including 3,915 wounded while Gregorio García de la Cuesta's Spanish army lost only 400 to 500 men killed and wounded. The battle's losers suffered more; a total of 7,268 Frenchmen were casualties. On the morning of 29 July, General Robert Craufurd's Light Infantry Brigade and a battery of Royal Horse Artillery arrived in the British camp after an epic forced march. Even so, General Wellesley's army was in no shape to exploit its victory. The soldiers were on one-third rations due to the collapse of the supply system and the medical officers were unable to care for the thousands of wounded men. With few wagons and carts, Wellesley was unable to bring supplies forward from his base at Plasencia or evacuate his wounded. The British commander received intelligence that a French force was moving down from the north, but he assumed that there were only about 15,000 French troops. As it happened, the threat was much worse than Wellesley imagined.
On 12 June 1809, Emperor Napoleon ordered Marshal Soult to take command of the II Corps, V Corps, and VI Corps and move against the British army. It took some time to assemble this host but on 27 July, Marshal Mortier's 16,916-man V Corps and 1,853 dragoons set out from Salamanca toward the south. On the 29th, Soult's own II Corps received a convoy of artillery to replace the guns lost in the 1809 Portugal Campaign. Thus equipped, the 18,740-strong II Corps marched south on the 30th. Marshal Michel Ney and the 12,500-man VI Corps followed on 31 July, after dropping off a brigade of 3,200 men. Napoleon insisted that Soult keep his corps closed up to avoid defeat in detail. At most, about 10,000 French Imperial soldiers under General of Division François Étienne de Kellermann were left behind to defend León. Soult was aware that the Spanish and Portuguese could bring 20,000 men against Kellermann. But he accepted the risk because he understood that Wellesley's British army was the main objective.
The Allied strategy had called for General Francisco Javier Venegas and the Spanish Army of La Mancha to prevent the French IV Corps under General of Division Horace François Bastien Sébastiani from reinforcing Joseph's army at Talavera. In this, Venegas was completely unsuccessful, but another opportunity opened up. With Sébastiani gone from his front, the way to Madrid was almost undefended. Though his own army was too crippled to move at the moment, Wellesley hoped that pressure from Venegas' offensive would compel the French to retreat. The Army of La Mancha pressed forward to Toledo and Aranjuez on 29 July, but then it unaccountably halted in place until 5 August. Dropping off Marshal Claude Perrin Victor's 18,000-man I Corps to watch Wellesley and Cuesta, Joseph pulled back to a position at Illescas where he could move to block either Venegas or Wellesley if necessary.
Receiving news that 10,000 Portuguese under General Robert Wilson had reached a position behind his northern flank at Escalona, Victor retreated toward Madrid. In fact Wilson only had 4,000 Portuguese and Spanish troops and was soon forced to withdraw from his isolated position. On 1 August, Wellesley got news that the French were driving a small Spanish force under Marquis Del Reino from its position at the Puerto de Baños, a mountain pass to the north. Though Wellesley still believed that the French force was not large, he could not ignore the threat to his supply line to Portugal. In fact, Plasencia was captured by the French on the 1st. That day, Cuesta detached his 5,000-man 5th Division under Major General Bassecourt to investigate. After a heated debate with Cuesta, Wellesley agreed to move west while the Spanish general defended Talavera against Victor. On 3 August Wellesley marched west from Talavera to Oropesa with 18,000 British troops. He believed that he and Bassecourt were facing less than 15,000 Frenchmen and hoped to clear them away from his supply lines. Instead, the British commander was unwittingly marching into the jaws of Soult's 50,000-man host.
Scramble to safety
By this time, Mortier's and Wellesley's cavalry were already bickering near Navalmoral only about 30 miles (48.3 km) west of Oropesa. On 3 August, the French horsemen captured a Spanish courier carrying a message from Wellesley to General William Erksine at Lisbon in which Soult's forces were estimated at only 12,000 men. Soult saw that Wellesley was marching right into his hands. Luckily for the Allies, Spanish guerillas caught a French agent near Ávila and delivered his message to Cuesta on the 3rd. It was a note from Soult to Joseph, informing the king that he was advancing with over 30,000 soldiers. Cuesta quickly passed along the message to Wellesley.
Alerted to imminent danger, the British commander instantly ordered a retreat across the bridge at Arzobispo. For his part, Cuesta immediately led his army in retreat from Talavera to Oropesa, abandoning the British hospitals. With only about 40 wagons and carts available, 1,500 badly wounded men were left behind. The remainder were told to make their way as best they could. Eventually, 2,000 hobbled into the British lines. Another 500 either died en route or were captured by the French. The ones who were made prisoner by the French were well cared for. Cuesta could have crossed the Tagus at Talavera and retreated on the south bank. However, the roads on that side pass through the Sierra de Guadalupe and were so bad that the Spanish army would have had to abandon its artillery and wagon train. Instead, Cuesta took the risk of marching on the north bank, where the French were known to be at large.
By the evening of 4 August, Wellesley's army was safe on the south bank of the Tagus at Arzobispo. But Cuesta stubbornly refused to retreat. When Mortier's vanguard appeared before him, the Spanish general lashed out at it and drove it back. Believing that he was facing both Cuesta and Wellesley, Mortier became cautious and called for assistance from Soult. During the entire day of the 5th, Cuesta foolishly offered battle with the bridge of Arzobispo at his back, yet Mortier held back. By 6 August when both Soult and Mortier were massed for battle, they found their quarry had withdrawn across the Tagus. As it happened, this was the only opportunity that the French had for inflicting great damage on the Spanish army. As historian Charles Oman wrote, "Soult's best chance was gone before he was even aware of it."
Worried about his supply line to Portugal, Wellesley ordered Craufurd to march west with his own brigade and General Rufane Donkin's brigade to cover the Almaraz crossing. On 6 August, the last day of the march, the troops marched 15 hours on a meal of boiled wheat and dried peas without salt or meat. One participant later recalled that the straggling was the worst he ever saw in the entire war. Craufurd reached Almaraz with 4,000 British troops and joined 1,500 Spaniards under Del Reino. Ney's French troops arrived on the north bank the next day. After retreating from the Puerto de Baños, Del Reino crossed to the south bank of the Tagus at Almaraz and dismantled the pontoon bridge on the 2nd. After a difficult march over bad roads, two divisions of Wellesley's army reached Deleitosa on 7 August, within supporting distance of Almaraz. Another British division was holding Mesas de Ibor. That day, the head of Cuesta's column was approaching Mesas de Ibor where there was an immensely strong defensive position. The rest of the Spanish army struggled slowly over the hills. To cover the movement, the Spanish divisions of Bassecourt and Lieutenant General Alburquerque formed a rear guard at the Arzobispo bridge. Meanwhile, Victor's I Corps occupied Talavera on the 6th, but it remained to the east of the theater of action.
Battle
Deployment
The Spanish troops left the Arzobispo bridge intact, but they threw up barricades to defend it and assigned infantry to hold the old towers dating to medieval times. On the south bank only 30 yards (27 m) from the bridge a 12-gun redoubt crowned a small hill. Altogether, Alburquerque commanded Bassecourt's 5,000 foot soldiers and his own division of 3,000 horsemen. A ford was nearby, but since it was very narrow and difficult to locate, Cuesta hoped that his rear guard could hold back Soult's superior numbers. In fact, Soult spent the entire day of 7 August looking over the strong Spanish position and sending out scouts to find other crossings.
The town of Arzobispo is situated on the north bank of the Tagus. The village of Azután is on the south bank to the east, with the ford located between the village and the bridge. Villar del Pedroso is south of the bridge and Valdelacasa de Tajo is to the southwest. During the day Spanish cavalrymen carelessly rode out into the river to water their horses, revealing the possible location of the ford. That night, French officers conducted a meticulous search and discovered the hidden ford. They found that the ford was deep for only a short distance under the north bank and shallow the rest of the way. After being advised that an assault across the ford was feasible, Soult determined to attack the following day.
Soult also ordered Ney to attack across the Tagus at Almaraz and sent maps of a ford near that location. However, though the ford existed, the maps were in error. Ney sent a party of dragoons to look for it, but they never found it. In fact, Craufurd's defenders were aware of the ford and troops were in a good position to defend it. The Almaraz ford was no less than 4 feet (1.2 m) deep, narrow, and barely usable.
Forces
Alburquerque's 2nd Cavalry Division was made up of the Alcantara, Almanza, Infante and Pavia Cavalry Regiments, six squadrons of the 1st and 2nd Extremadura Hussar Regiments, and one squadron of the Carabineros Reales. Bassecourt's 5th Division included two battalions each of the 1st Real Marina and Murcia Infantry Regiments, the 1st Battalion of the Reyna Regiment, the 3rd Battalion of the Africa Regiment, and either one or three battalions of the Provincial de Sigüenza Regiment. The Spanish artillery counted 16 guns.
General of Brigade Jean-Baptiste Girard and General of Division Honoré Théodore Maxime Gazan led the two infantry divisions in Mortier's V Corps while Colonel Henri Pierre Delaage led the corps cavalry brigade. In February 1809, Girard's 1st Division comprised three battalions each of the 17th Light, 40th Line, 64th Line, and 88th Line Infantry Regiments and four battalions of the 34th Line. Gazan's 2nd Division consisted of three battalions each of the 21st, 28th, 100th, and 103rd Line Infantry Regiments. Delaage commanded the 10th Hussar and 21st Chasseurs à Cheval Regiments. The corps artillery included 30 artillery pieces. General of Division Louis Gabriel Suchet led the 1st Division in February, but he transferred to command the III Corps in April taking with him one battalion of the 64th Line as an escort.