The Battles of the Nive (9–13 December 1813) were fought towards the end of the

Peninsular War The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain ...

. Arthur Wellesley, Marquess of Wellington's Anglo-Portuguese and

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

army defeated Marshal

Nicolas Soult Marshal General Jean-de-Dieu Soult, 1st Duke of Dalmatia, (; 29 March 1769 – 26 November 1851) was a French general and statesman, named Marshal of the Empire in 1804 and often called Marshal Soult. Soult was one of only six officers in Frenc ...

's French army on French soil 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 Sir Rowland Hill, KCB, FRS (3 December 1795 – 27 August 1879) was an English teacher, inventor and social reformer. He campaigned for a comprehensive reform of the postal system, based on the concept of Uniform Penny Post and his soluti ...

and John Hope.

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

Nivelle Nivelle () is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. Heraldry See also *Communes of the Nord department * Nivelle Offensive The Nivelle offensive (16 April – 9 May 1917) was a Franco-British operation on the Western Front ...

, Marshal Soult fell back to a defensive line south of the town of Bayonne along the Adour and

Nive The Nive (; eu, Errobi; oc, Niva) is a French river that flows through the French Basque Country. It is a left tributary of the river Adour. It is long. The river's source in the Pyrenees in Lower Navarre. The river Nive was made famous by t ...

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, or divide and conquer, is a military 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. This exposes one's own units to ...

. 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 (the

2nd A second is the base unit of time in the International System of Units (SI). Second, Seconds or 2nd may also refer to: Mathematics * 2 (number), as an ordinal (also written as ''2nd'' or ''2d'') * Second of arc, an angular measurement unit, ...

, the 3rd, the 6th, the Portuguese, and Pablo Morillo's Spanish Divisions) across to the east bank of the Nive near

Ustaritz Ustaritz (; eu, Uztaritze) is a town in the traditional French Basque Country, Basque province of Labourd, now a Communes of France, commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques Departments of France, department, southwestern France. It is located on ...

on 9 December. Meanwhile, the remainder of the British force under Hope ( 1st,

5th Fifth is the ordinal form of the number five. Fifth or The Fifth may refer to: * Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, as in the expression "pleading the Fifth" * Fifth column, a political term * Fifth disease, a contagious rash tha ...

and

Light Division The Light Division was a light infantry division of the British Army. Its origins lay in "Light Companies" formed during the late 18th century, to move at speed over inhospitable terrain and protect a main force with skirmishing tactics. These ...

s, Thomas Bradford and Alexander Campbell's independent

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

brigades, Lord Aylmer's

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

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 Saint-Jean-de-Luz (; eu, Donibane Lohitzune,Donibane Lohitzune
Charles Alten's

defended the centre near Bassussary. The left, under John Wilson, was held by Bradford and Campbell's independent

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

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 Bertrand, comte Clauzel (12 December 177221 April 1842) was a Marshal of France. When asked on Saint Helena which of his Generals was the most skillful Napoleon named Clauzel along with Louis-Gabriel Suchet and Étienne Maurice GérardOjala, Jean ...

against Bassussary and three divisions led by

Honoré Charles Reille Honoré Charles Michel Joseph Reille (; 1 September 1775 – 4 March 1860) 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 m ...

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 and the Frankfurt battalion, 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 battalion from Baden, which did not join the defection, was disarmed the following day. This event subtracted 2,000 infantry from the French army. The defection was orchestrated by the Prince of Orange, through his dynastic connections to Nassau. 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 (; eu, Hiriburu)HIRIBURU

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 Mouguerre (Elizaberry) 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, also known as cursing, cussing, swearing, bad language, foul language, obscenities, expletives or vulgarism, is a socially offensive use of language. Accordingly, profanity is language use that is sometimes deemed impolite, rud ...

. 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.

Guerrillas

Wellington greatly feared an outbreak of guerrilla warfare against his soldiers by the French people. He was mindful that after the

Battle of Nivelle The Battle of Nivelle (10 November 1813) took place in front of the river Nivelle near the end of the Peninsular War (1808–1814). After the Allied siege of San Sebastian, Wellington's 80,000 British, Portuguese and Spanish troops (20, ...

, 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 Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

'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. 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. The ''Encyclopaedia Britannica'' (1911) article on the

calls the actions the ''Battles before Bayonne, or Battles of the Nive, Dec, 10–13, 1813''.

Explanatory notes

Notes

References

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nive 1813, Battle of the

Battle of the Nive 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 on French soil ...

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Battle honours of the King's Royal Rifle Corps December 1813 events