With the release of Fantassin's 15mm Carlist War range, it seems a good time to compose an article on Spain's First Carlist War. The troop types and tactics are Napoleonic in nature. Occurring in the 1830s, much of the equipment would have also been the same as the recently concluded Napoleonic Wars. Selecting the desired scale will be key for wargamers to enjoy the period. I feel that a 1:50 or larger scale is too large and severely limits the number of battles available for scenarios. The rules that use a 1:35 or 1:10 scale would be the best. I will often use English translated terms and names for units unless the name held special meaning.

Source books in English are very limited. A few color illustrations of uniforms can be found in the "World Uniforms and Battles, 1815-50" by Philip Haythronthwaite. The "Uniforms of the World " by Knotel has some descriptions. A very good multi-part article with uniform color illustrations " A Romantic and Savage War" by Conrad Cairns was printed in Wargames Illustrated.

The same author, who is considered one of the experts about that war, also published a detailed multi-part series on the Carlist Wars in the magazine "Foreign Correspondent". Edgar Holt published "The Carlist War in Spain" in 1967 which provides a good overview of the war. Most other books are similar to Holt's book with a general narrative on the conflict and limited detail. On the internet is a site devoted to the First Carlist War at www.balagan.uk , it is listed as one of the webpages under the site. The site has a lot of very detailed information. It is really a must site to check out if you want to research the war.

Inheritance

The causes of the War may seem simple based mainly on the succession to the Spanish throne. The Carlist supported Don Carlos who claimed the right due to being the next Bourbon male in line to the throne. The Cristinos or Isabellists supported the widow Queen as regent and her daughter as the new queen. In reality, as with any civil war, the reasons for individuals and factions to select a side to support varies greatly. I will not go into depth with the political details but some comments are needed to provide some clarity.

Carlist support was found in those regions, which resisted the centralized authority of Madrid. Strong support was found in Navarre, the Basque areas and Aragon. This split the Carlist forces which operated as two independent commands (Army of the North and the Army of the Center).

The Carlists, as the rebels, needed to establish a city and region as a base. Carlist support was rural in nature which no major cities joining the cause. This required the official court and administrative offices to follow the army or set up temporarily in villages. This hurt the legitimacy of Carlos's claim and made it difficult to carry out governmental duties.

The Carlists did have several advantages including interior lines of defense. Early during the war, it had the highly talented General Zumalacarregui as its commander of the Army of the North. His death revealed how important he was to the cause. Afterwards the Carlist military effort stagnated and seemed to only decline in efficiency.

The Cristinos faction received the support of the civil governmental structure and the regular Army. The support of the formal structure was coupled with an uneasy alliance between most moderate and liberal political groups. (The unwillingness of Carlist leaders to consider any compromise kept these political enemies together.) As a result, the Cristinos began the war with a governmental structure, a large army, foreign support and a modest treasury. However the lack of good military leadership prevented them from ending the war quickly. Once a good commander was found in Esparto, the momentum of victory which was slowly growing became a tidal wave with victory being almost but not quite assured.

Though the Carlists seemed to be in an impregnable position with good interior lines and a mountainous frontier. In order to confirm the legitimacy of Don Carlos's claim, the Carlist could not remain in their defensive positions. Both assaults on Bilbao were failures but earlier probes proved that the Cristino defenses were soft beyond their primary positions around the Carlist frontier.

Year of Decision

The year 1837 could be considered the "Year of Decision". In the North both the Cristinos forces under Espartero and the Carlist forces under Don Sebastian are considered equal. The complicated three pronged Cristinos offensive of March was blunted.

While the Cristinos were reorganizing, the Carlist launched their major "Royal Expedition" offensive with a final goal of capturing Madrid. Another purpose was to allow the Navarre and Basque farmers a chance to produce crops without being devastated by constant warfare (Similar to Rebert E Lee's reasons for his Spring-Summer 1862 and 1863 offenses in the later American Civil War). A merger of both major Carlist armies seemed to assure success.

Then hesitation, for a variety of suspected but not confirmed reasons, resulted in the Carlist force retreating back to Basque territory without even attempting to capture Madrid. This ended the Carlist best opportunity to secure victory. The last few years could be termed as a mopping up operation as the main Cristino strike force under Espareto conquered small forces and towns.

The bitterness of this Spanish Civil War was so intense that Americans should be thankful that neither the American Revolution or the American Civil War contained such hatred. The First Carlist War was characterized with mass executions of prisoners of war by both sides. Civilian hostages, including the mother of one of the Carlist Generals, were also executed by both sides. Even when captured privates were imprisoned, any accompanying NCOs and officers were almost always executed.

The quality of the average Spanish soldier on either side should not be underestimated. The regular Army had just recently finished a successful campaign in Portugal. Both Carlist and Critinos soldiers operated effectively in formed units or as skirmishers in the rocky ground which dominated the area of conflict. One comment in regards to the unbeatable Infantry Squares versus Cavalry charges was that Observers commented that well trained troops held with difficulty, while troops with poor discipline or without ammunition collapsed under the charge of the cavalry lances. In the area of specialty troops such as artillerymen and engineers both sides were weak but the severe shortage of such troops in the Carlist Army almost ensured that they would lose the war. The Carlist were only able to capture a few major fortified towns from the Cristinos and those were in the less defensible Aragon region.

As indicated earlier, most actions were small in scale. The basic Cristino infantry unit was the battalion which had 6 fusilier companies plus a Light and a Grenadier company. The volunteer and most militia units had only 'center' companies. The Guard units had only Grenadier companies. Each company had a full strength of 120-140 men but field strength averaged below 100 men each.

A brigade consisted of several independent battalions often recruited in the same area. The twenty-four infantry regiments had three battalions each. The eight Light Infantry regiments had two battalions and one of three. The forty-two Provincial regiments had one battalion. The eight Guard regiments had three battalions. The Guard formations included four Royal, two Provincial Line and 2 Provincial Light regiments. There were three Marine battalions of eight companies but I am not sure of their assignments.

Any volunteer battalions were raised along the Line or Militia format. National Guard (Militia) battalions were raised as needed and varied from 6-10 fusilier companies. Volunteer formations were used longer in the Aragon front than in the Basque area. They were first employed in 1833 but by 1838 they had been disbanded or absorbed by regular army units throughout the country. The 'Chapelgorris' volunteer unit was attached to the British Legion.

The cavalry formations often operated as independent squadrons of two troops. The reference to regiments in the Cristinos Army was more administrative in nature and acted as a brigade HQ in the field with independent squadrons being given specific missions.

There were four Guard regiments (each of a different type titled Cuirassiers, Horse Grenadiers, Lancers, Casadores) of four squadrons of two troops of 70 men.

There were five Heavy/Line regiments of four squadrons of 2 troops of 50 men. Unit designations were 1 = Rey, 2 = Regina, 3 = Principe, 4 = Infante and 5 = Bourbon.

There were eight Light cavalry regiments of four squadrons of two troops of 50 men each. Unit designations were 1 = Castile, 2 = Leon, 3 + Extremadura, 4 = Vitoria, 5 = Albuhera, 6 = Cataluna, 7 = Navarra. The last regiment was formed at the end of the war from three volunteer units. There is one Hussar regiment listed in most sources and two in one source. It had four squadrons of two troops of 50 men. The reference to two units may actually be related to how the regiment was split and deployed.

Artillery was always a weak branch in the Spanish Army of the 1800s and this was especially a problem in the Carlist Army. The Cristino Army had batteries of four guns and a varying number of larger 16pdr and 24pdr guns in forts. The main field gun sizes were 8pdr, 12pdr and 4 pdr with 7" or 9" howitzers. Initially they raised mountain batteries with 4pdr guns but by 1838 had changed to 5" howitzers. There were four Guard batteries, thirty field batteries, six mountain batteries, and twelve horse batteries though only four had all of the crew mounted on horse.

Spain's First Carlist War

Historical Background
British, French, and Portuguese Troops
Carlist Troops
Comments on Standards and Colours