Battle of the Nive
Encyclopedia
The Battles of the Nive (9-13 December 1813) were fought towards the end of the Peninsular War
. Arthur Wellesley, Marquess of Wellington
's Anglo-Portuguese and Spanish
army defeated Marshal Nicolas Soult
's French army in a series of battles near the city of Bayonne.
Unusually, for most of the battle, Wellington remained with the Reserve delegating command to his senior Lieutenant-Generals Rowland Hill
and John Hope
.
Marshal Soult fell back to a defensive line south of the town of Bayonne
along the Adour
and Nive
rivers.
The rivers and the Bay of Biscay near Bayonne form a rough Greek letter Pi (π). The left vertical leg is the coast, the right vertical leg is the Nive and the crossbar is the Adour. Bayonne is located where the Nive joins the Adour. Initially, Wellington's army was confined to the area between the Bay of Biscay and the Nive. To gain room to manoeuvre, the British general had to establish his army on the east bank of the Nive. Wellington's dilemma was that by separating two wings of his army, he would leave himself open to defeat in detail
. Soult, a wily strategist, understood this and tried to take advantage of the situation. By moving the French army through the fortified city of Bayonne, Soult could easily switch his army from one bank of the Nive to the other.
on 9 December. Meanwhile, the remainder of the British force under Hope (1st, 5th and Light Division
s, Thomas Bradford and Alexander Campbell's independent Portuguese
brigades, Lord Aylmer
's British
brigade and one brigade of the 7th Division) launched diversionary attacks towards Bayonne on the west bank of the Nive. Wellington's Reserve included the 4th
and 7th Divisions. About 630 casualties were suffered in these operations.
Soult launched a counter-attack with eight divisions against Hope the following day, and despite several fierce actions the British line held until reinforced by more troops coming up from Saint-Jean-de-Luz
.
The right flank of Hope's line was held by one brigade of the 7th Division at the bridge of Urdains. Charles Alten
's Light Division
defended the center near Bassussary. The left, under John Wilson, was held by Bradford and Campbell's independent Portuguese
brigades north of Barroilhet. The ravine-filled terrain forced the French into these three corridors of attack. The 5th Division lay three miles to the rear while the 1st Division and Lord Aylmer's independent British
brigade were ten miles away. Though Wellington ordered the line to be fortified, Hope failed to do this.
Ignoring the impregnable position at the bridge of Urdains, Soult committed five divisions under Bertrand Clausel against Bassussary and three divisions led by Honoré Charles Reille
against Barroilhet. The four divisions leading the attack were fresh while the supporting troops were tired from skirmishing with Hill's troops.
The Light Division's outpost line alertly detected the coming attack, though 50 men were cut off and captured. The French
advance soon came upon the ridge of Arcangues, topped by a chateau and a church. After one attack was beaten off with ease by the 4,000 men of the Light Division, Clausel settled down to a futile artillery bombardment and probing attacks against the very strongly built structures. Aylmer's brigade arrived about 2 pm.
The picket line on Hope's left flank was quickly gobbled up by Reille's attack and 200 men captured. For the most part, the Portuguese held sturdily, but one unit was broken by French cavalry. Fighting their way back to Barroilhet, the Portuguese held onto the village and awaited reinforcements. The 5th Division arrived, but due to a staff blunder, was low on ammunition.
Soult sent Eugene-Casimir Villatte
's Reserve Division from Bayonne and one division from Clausel to assist Reille's attack. After hours of heavy fighting, he ordered one last charge. This attack drove to the mayor's house of Barroilhet, the French skirmishers wounding and nearly capturing Hope. At this point, the 1st Division came up and Soult called off his attacks soon afterward.
That night Soult's army was weakened when two Nassau battalions, having learned the result of the Battle of Leipzig
the previous month, went over in their entirety from the French to the Allies. A third Nassau battalion was intercepted and disarmed. This event subtracted 2,000 infantry from the French army.
Both sides lost around 1,600 troops before Soult called off the assault. Of these, the Anglo-Allies lost 500 captured, the largest total of any one day of fighting under Wellington. Clausel turned in an unusually uninspired performance on 10 December. Sporadic clashes occurred over the next two days though neither side was willing to initiate a full-scale attack.
Seizing his opportunity, Soult rapidly switched six divisions and 22 guns to the east bank of the Nive and attacked Hill. Though delayed by congestion at the bridge over the Adour, Soult's attack against the British positions on the ridge around Saint-Pierre-d'Irube
was powerful enough for one British lieutenant colonel to flee the field, taking his battalion (1/3rd Buffs Foot) with him. Soult outnumbered Hill's corps by three-to-one. Defending a line between Petit Mougerre and the Nive, the Allied corps held on for hours in a bitter fight. The capable Hill performed superbly, feeding in his few reserves with skill and exhorting his troops.
However, after the arrival of reinforcements under Wellington, the French troops refused to continue the attack. The French near-mutiny forced Soult to reluctantly retreat into Bayonne, having lost 3,000 men against Anglo-Portuguese losses of 1,750. The Allied army commander rode up to his subordinate and congratulated him, "Hill, the day's your own."
It was on this day that General Hill was heard, for only the second time in the entire war, to use profanity
. When Wellington heard about it he remarked that "if Hill has begun to swear, they all must mind what they are about".
, Bidouse
and Gave d'Oloron
before Soult and Wellington fought the Battle of Orthez
.
, Spanish troops had indulged in plundering French civilians. Accordingly, he took pains to send most of his Spanish units back to their home country, rightly concerned that they would inflict the same atrocities on French civilians that their own had suffered from Napoleon's armies. At first, only Pablo Morillo's division was brought forward because it depended on the British payroll and supply train. As in Spain, Wellington harshly punished any British soldiers caught marauding.
As it happened, the French troops, hardened by years of plundering foreign civilians, began to despoil their own citizens. Actually, despite their French citizenship, the inhabitants south and east of Bayonne were Basque people
for the most part, often unable to speak and/or understand French
as it had been the case before crossing the River Bidasoa
. Soult tried to crack down on looting, hanging offenders and even shooting a much-decorated captain, but he was unable to stop it. As one historian noted, "The civilians soon came to the conclusion that only a swift allied victory could save their countryside." Consequently, Wellington had little to fear from French guerrilla action.
Peninsular War
The Peninsular War was a war between France and the allied powers of Spain, the United Kingdom, and Portugal for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war began when French and Spanish armies crossed Spain and invaded Portugal in 1807. Then, in 1808, France turned on its...
. Arthur Wellesley, Marquess of Wellington
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS , was an Irish-born British soldier and statesman, and one of the leading military and political figures of the 19th century...
's Anglo-Portuguese and Spanish
Spanish Army
The Spanish Army is the terrestrial army of the Spanish Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is one of the oldest active armies - dating back to the 15th century.-Introduction:...
army defeated Marshal Nicolas Soult
Nicolas Jean de Dieu Soult
Nicolas Jean-de-Dieu Soult, 1st Duke of Dalmatia , the Hand of Iron, was a French general and statesman, named Marshal of the Empire in 1804. He was one of only six officers in French history to receive the distinction of Marshal General of France...
's French army in a series of battles near the city of Bayonne.
Unusually, for most of the battle, Wellington remained with the Reserve delegating command to his senior Lieutenant-Generals Rowland Hill
Rowland Hill, 1st Viscount Hill
General Rowland Hill, 1st Viscount Hill of Almaraz GCB, GCH served in the Napoleonic Wars as a trusted brigade, division and corps commander under the command of the Duke of Wellington. He became Commander-in-Chief of the British Army in 1829.-Early career:Educated at a school in Chester, Hill was...
and John Hope
John Hope, 4th Earl of Hopetoun
Lieutenant General John Hope, 4th Earl of Hopetoun PC KB , known as the Honourable John Hope from 1781 to 1814 and as the Lord Niddry from 1809 to 1816, was a Scottish soldier and politician.-Military career:...
.
Background
Wellington's army had successfully pushed the French army out of Spain, over the Pyrenees, and into south-west France. After his defeat at NivelleBattle of Nivelle
The Battle of Nivelle took place in front of the River Nivelle near the end of the Peninsular War . After the Allied siege of San Sebastian, Wellington's 80,000 British, Portuguese and Spanish troops were in hot pursuit of Marshal Soult who only had 60,000 men to place in a 20-mile perimeter...
Marshal Soult fell back to a defensive line south of the town of Bayonne
Bayonne
Bayonne is a city and commune in south-western France at the confluence of the Nive and Adour rivers, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, of which it is a sub-prefecture...
along the Adour
Adour
The Adour is a river in southwestern France. It rises in High-Bigorre , at the Col du Tourmalet, and flows into the Atlantic Ocean near Bayonne. It is long, of which the uppermost as the Adour du Tourmalet. At its final stretch, i.e...
and Nive
Nive
The Nive is a French river that flows through the French Basque Country. It is a left tributary of the river Adour. The river's source in the Pyrenees in Lower Navarre...
rivers.
The rivers and the Bay of Biscay near Bayonne form a rough Greek letter Pi (π). The left vertical leg is the coast, the right vertical leg is the Nive and the crossbar is the Adour. Bayonne is located where the Nive joins the Adour. Initially, Wellington's army was confined to the area between the Bay of Biscay and the Nive. To gain room to manoeuvre, the British general had to establish his army on the east bank of the Nive. Wellington's dilemma was that by separating two wings of his army, he would leave himself open to defeat in detail
Defeat in detail
Defeat in detail is a military phrase referring to the tactic of bringing a large portion of one's own force to bear on small enemy units in sequence, rather than engaging the bulk of the enemy force all at once...
. Soult, a wily strategist, understood this and tried to take advantage of the situation. By moving the French army through the fortified city of Bayonne, Soult could easily switch his army from one bank of the Nive to the other.
Battle of the Nive
Despite poor weather, Hill led five Anglo-Portuguese divisions (2nd, 3rd, 6th, Portuguese and Pablo Morillo's Spanish Divisions) across to the east bank of the Nive near UstaritzUstaritz
Ustaritz is a village in the traditional Basque province of Labourd, now a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France. It is located some 13 km inland from Bayonne....
on 9 December. Meanwhile, the remainder of the British force under Hope (1st, 5th and Light Division
Light Division
The Light Division was a light infantry Division of the British Army formed in the early 19th Century. It can trace its origins to the Light Companies which had been formed to move at speed over inhospitable terrain and protect the main forces by skirmishing tactics...
s, Thomas Bradford and Alexander Campbell's independent Portuguese
Portuguese Army
The Portuguese Army is the ground branch of the Portuguese Armed Forces which, in co-operation with other branches of the Portuguese military, is charged with the defence of Portugal...
brigades, Lord Aylmer
Matthew Whitworth-Aylmer, 5th Baron Aylmer
Matthew Whitworth-Aylmer, 5th Baron Aylmer was a British military officer and colonial administrator.- Napoleonic Wars :...
's British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
brigade and one brigade of the 7th Division) launched diversionary attacks towards Bayonne on the west bank of the Nive. Wellington's Reserve included the 4th
4th Infantry Division (United Kingdom)
The 4th Infantry Division is a regular British Army division with a long history having been present at the Peninsular War the Crimean War , the First World War , and during the Second World War.- Napoleonic Wars :...
and 7th Divisions. About 630 casualties were suffered in these operations.
Soult launched a counter-attack with eight divisions against Hope the following day, and despite several fierce actions the British line held until reinforced by more troops coming up from Saint-Jean-de-Luz
Saint-Jean-de-Luz
Saint-Jean-de-Luz is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France.Saint-Jean-de-Luz is part of the province Basque of Labourd and the Basque Eurocity Bayonne - San Sebastian .-Geography:...
.
The right flank of Hope's line was held by one brigade of the 7th Division at the bridge of Urdains. Charles Alten
Charles Alten
Sir Charles Alten , Hanoverian and British soldier, son of Baron Alten, a member of an old Hanoverian family, entered the service of the elector as a page at the age of twelve. He led a famous Anglo-Portuguese division during the Peninsular War. At the Battle of Waterloo, he commanded a division...
's Light Division
Light Division
The Light Division was a light infantry Division of the British Army formed in the early 19th Century. It can trace its origins to the Light Companies which had been formed to move at speed over inhospitable terrain and protect the main forces by skirmishing tactics...
defended the center near Bassussary. The left, under John Wilson, was held by Bradford and Campbell's independent Portuguese
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
brigades north of Barroilhet. The ravine-filled terrain forced the French into these three corridors of attack. The 5th Division lay three miles to the rear while the 1st Division and Lord Aylmer's independent British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
brigade were ten miles away. Though Wellington ordered the line to be fortified, Hope failed to do this.
Ignoring the impregnable position at the bridge of Urdains, Soult committed five divisions under Bertrand Clausel against Bassussary and three divisions led by Honoré Charles Reille
Honoré Charles Reille
Honoré Charles Michel Joseph Reille was a Marshal of France, born in Antibes.Reille served in the early campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars under Dumouriez and Masséna, whose daughter Victoire he married. In 1800, Reille was appointed commander of the Italian city of Florence...
against Barroilhet. The four divisions leading the attack were fresh while the supporting troops were tired from skirmishing with Hill's troops.
The Light Division's outpost line alertly detected the coming attack, though 50 men were cut off and captured. The French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
advance soon came upon the ridge of Arcangues, topped by a chateau and a church. After one attack was beaten off with ease by the 4,000 men of the Light Division, Clausel settled down to a futile artillery bombardment and probing attacks against the very strongly built structures. Aylmer's brigade arrived about 2 pm.
The picket line on Hope's left flank was quickly gobbled up by Reille's attack and 200 men captured. For the most part, the Portuguese held sturdily, but one unit was broken by French cavalry. Fighting their way back to Barroilhet, the Portuguese held onto the village and awaited reinforcements. The 5th Division arrived, but due to a staff blunder, was low on ammunition.
Soult sent Eugene-Casimir Villatte
Eugene-Casimir Villatte
Eugène-Casimir Villatte, Comte d'Oultremont fought in the French army during the Wars of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. He rose to command a division at many of the important battles in the Peninsular War...
's Reserve Division from Bayonne and one division from Clausel to assist Reille's attack. After hours of heavy fighting, he ordered one last charge. This attack drove to the mayor's house of Barroilhet, the French skirmishers wounding and nearly capturing Hope. At this point, the 1st Division came up and Soult called off his attacks soon afterward.
That night Soult's army was weakened when two Nassau battalions, having learned the result of the Battle of Leipzig
Battle of Leipzig
The Battle of Leipzig or Battle of the Nations, on 16–19 October 1813, was fought by the coalition armies of Russia, Prussia, Austria and Sweden against the French army of Napoleon. Napoleon's army also contained Polish and Italian troops as well as Germans from the Confederation of the Rhine...
the previous month, went over in their entirety from the French to the Allies. A third Nassau battalion was intercepted and disarmed. This event subtracted 2,000 infantry from the French army.
Both sides lost around 1,600 troops before Soult called off the assault. Of these, the Anglo-Allies lost 500 captured, the largest total of any one day of fighting under Wellington. Clausel turned in an unusually uninspired performance on 10 December. Sporadic clashes occurred over the next two days though neither side was willing to initiate a full-scale attack.
Battle of St. Pierre
On the night of 12 December, a temporary pontoon bridge over the Nive at Villefranque was washed away. This isolated Hill's 14,000 men and 10 guns on the east bank of the river, just as the French were reorganizing for an assault. The nearest bridge was at Ustaritz, which meant that the Reserve had to march three times farther than if the washed-out bridge had been intact.Seizing his opportunity, Soult rapidly switched six divisions and 22 guns to the east bank of the Nive and attacked Hill. Though delayed by congestion at the bridge over the Adour, Soult's attack against the British positions on the ridge around Saint-Pierre-d'Irube
Saint-Pierre-d'Irube
Saint-Pierre-d'Irube is a village in the traditional Basque province of Labourd, now a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France.-External links:...
was powerful enough for one British lieutenant colonel to flee the field, taking his battalion (1/3rd Buffs Foot) with him. Soult outnumbered Hill's corps by three-to-one. Defending a line between Petit Mougerre and the Nive, the Allied corps held on for hours in a bitter fight. The capable Hill performed superbly, feeding in his few reserves with skill and exhorting his troops.
However, after the arrival of reinforcements under Wellington, the French troops refused to continue the attack. The French near-mutiny forced Soult to reluctantly retreat into Bayonne, having lost 3,000 men against Anglo-Portuguese losses of 1,750. The Allied army commander rode up to his subordinate and congratulated him, "Hill, the day's your own."
It was on this day that General Hill was heard, for only the second time in the entire war, to use profanity
Profanity
Profanity is a show of disrespect, or a desecration or debasement of someone or something. Profanity can take the form of words, expressions, gestures, or other social behaviors that are socially constructed or interpreted as insulting, rude, vulgar, obscene, desecrating, or other forms.The...
. When Wellington heard about it he remarked that "if Hill has begun to swear, they all must mind what they are about".
Aftermath
Storms and torrential rain precluded any further action for two months. Eventually, between 23 and 27 February, Wellington cut off Bayonne by crossing the mouth of the Adour west of the city. Leaving Hope to seal up the 17,000-strong French garrison, Wellington relentlessly pursued Soult and the rest of his army to the east. He turned the French marshal's flank at the rivers JoyeuseJoyeuse River
The Joyeuse, is a left tributary of the Bidouze, in the French Basque Country , in the Southwest of France.- Name :Its name Joyeuse, that applies also to the Aran River and one of its tributaries, is the name of the sword of Charlemagne. It was attributed after the battle of Roncevaux...
, Bidouse
Bidouze
The Bidouze, is a left tributary of the Adour, in the French Basque Country , in the Southwest of France.- Geography :The Bidouze rises at the base of Eltzarreko Ordokia in the Arbailles massif....
and Gave d'Oloron
Gave d'Oloron
The Gave d'Oloron is a river of south-western France near the border with Spain. It takes its name from the city Oloron-Sainte-Marie, where it is formed from the rivers Gave d'Aspe and Gave d'Ossau.It joins the Gave de Pau in Peyrehorade...
before Soult and Wellington fought the Battle of Orthez
Battle of Orthez
The Battle of Orthez saw the Anglo-Portuguese Army under Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, Marquess of Wellington defeat a French army led by Marshal Nicolas Soult in southern France near the end of the Peninsular War.-Preliminaries:...
.
Guerrillas
Wellington greatly feared an outbreak of guerrilla warfare against his soldiers by the French people. He was mindful that after the Battle of NivelleBattle of Nivelle
The Battle of Nivelle took place in front of the River Nivelle near the end of the Peninsular War . After the Allied siege of San Sebastian, Wellington's 80,000 British, Portuguese and Spanish troops were in hot pursuit of Marshal Soult who only had 60,000 men to place in a 20-mile perimeter...
, Spanish troops had indulged in plundering French civilians. Accordingly, he took pains to send most of his Spanish units back to their home country, rightly concerned that they would inflict the same atrocities on French civilians that their own had suffered from Napoleon's armies. At first, only Pablo Morillo's division was brought forward because it depended on the British payroll and supply train. As in Spain, Wellington harshly punished any British soldiers caught marauding.
As it happened, the French troops, hardened by years of plundering foreign civilians, began to despoil their own citizens. Actually, despite their French citizenship, the inhabitants south and east of Bayonne were Basque people
Basque people
The Basques as an ethnic group, primarily inhabit an area traditionally known as the Basque Country , a region that is located around the western end of the Pyrenees on the coast of the Bay of Biscay and straddles parts of north-central Spain and south-western France.The Basques are known in the...
for the most part, often unable to speak and/or understand French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
as it had been the case before crossing the River Bidasoa
Bidasoa
The Bidasoa is a river in the Basque Country of northern Spain and southern France that runs largely south to north. Named as such downstream of the small town of Oronoz-Mugairi in the province of Navarre, the river actually results from the merge of several streams near the village Erratzu, with...
. Soult tried to crack down on looting, hanging offenders and even shooting a much-decorated captain, but he was unable to stop it. As one historian noted, "The civilians soon came to the conclusion that only a swift allied victory could save their countryside." Consequently, Wellington had little to fear from French guerrilla action.
Commentary
Soult's strategy was masterful. Twice he fell upon isolated allied forces in greatly superior strength. As usual, his tactical direction left a lot to be desired. Wellington can be criticized for not anticipating Soult's moves and being away from the critical point in both battles. Wellington spoke truthfully when he later said, "I will tell you the difference between Soult and me: when he gets into a difficulty, his troops don't get him out of it; mine always do."Nomenclature
The action of 9-12 December is called The Battle of the Nive, while Hill's defensive battle of 13 December is known as The Battle of St. Pierre, while the entire period is collectively referred to as The Battles of the Nive in our source.Sources
- Chandler, David, Dictionary of the Napoleonic Wars, Wordsworth Editions, 1999. ISBN 1-84022-203-4
- Glover, Michael. The Peninsular War 1807-1814. London: Penguin, 2001. ISBN 0-141-39041-7
- Longford, Elizabeth, Wellington: The Years of the Sword, Panther Books Ltd., 1971. ISBN 586 03548 6
- Smith, Digby. The Napoleonic Wars Data Book. London: Greenhill, 1998. ISBN 1-85367-276-9