The year is 1812, and General d'Armee Caggarelli is on his way to assume command of the Army of the North in Spain. His escort was as follows: 3rd Line (1st Bn) - 540 men Lanciers de Berg (1 sqn) - 120 men 1 Coy of Artillerie a Pied - 4 guns and 210 men Total - 870 men and 4 guns. The column was marching as follows: Leading - 1 coy of Lanciers de Berg Main Body - The infantry and artillery with the Voltigeurs acting as flank guards. Rear - 1 Coy of Lanciers de Berg. On the battlefield there were the local troops, positioned thus: On each of the walls - 1 Fusilier coy. In each house - 1 Fusilier 'peleton'. On the bridge - the Grenadier Goy. At each end of the valley - 1 Voltigeur 'peleton'. These companies constituted the 3rd Bn of the 34th Line - 540 strong. Grand Total French Troops - 1,410 men and 4 guns. The local troops were expecting the column, but they were equally expecting an attack from the local bands of "Guerillas" under Mina the Younger, brother of the famous Don Mina the Elder, chieftain of all of the tribes of the North. The column appeared on schedule at (C) and marched steadily up the road towards the bridge. By the time the column had reached the vicinity of the houses, Caggarelli began to sense that something was wrong. Mina's spies on the Bayonne Road had informed him that a column of French, which they estimated at 1,000 men, was escorting an 'important Marshal'. Mina realised that they would now have reached a small farming hamlet that he had not pillaged or sacked recently! Prompted by a local abbot, who supported the Guerillas activities on the grounds that it removed more atheists from the world, he set off. Reaching the valley, and seeing troops both protecting the valley itself and the walls of the compound, he split his forces in two. They entered as follows: At (A) - Leading - about 100 cavalry. Main Body - about 100 infantry and 2 old British 9pdrs. Rear - a Bn of 300 "semi-Regular Infantry" and a troop of 75 Lancers. TOTAL - 1,175 men and 2 guns. At (B) - About 500 infantry. GRAND TOTAL - 1,675 men and 2 guns. The leading Guerilla cavalry pushed the voltigeur picquet on the western entrance of the valley over the hill, from whence they scuttled down into the compound, the other peleton doing likewise. The cavalry then rushed over the gentler slopes of the valley in the east, and met the company of Lanciers de Berg which was in the column's rearguard. Fortunately it had time to deploy and it succeeded in pushing the Spaniards back. While this was going on, the 500 detached infantry stormed the walls of the compound, but they were pushed back by two company's which had moved up to meet them. At this stage, Caggarelli realised that something was up! He did not know how numerous the Guerillas were, even whether the cavalry charge was going to be followed up or not, but he decided to take no chances and to deploy his column. This he did thus - 3rd Line on bend of road; Artillery behind walls facing the valley; Lanciers de Berg on road to the left of the infantry. Whilst Caggarelli was deploying, Mina was preparing for an all-out attack. His 500 strong unit facing the compound was to reform and charge again, and his main forces were deploying in the valley got a massive push over the hills, lastly the cavalry now reinforced by the lancers from the rearguard were to charge the Lenciers de Berg again. Suddenly the comparative tranquility was shattered. 1,000 Guerilla infantry poured over the hills, and their leading unit,despite being battered by the grapeshot of the artillery, succeeded in charging and breaking the artillerymen. The limbers careered away towards the N.W. and no one knows what became of them! The artillerymen fled towards a neighbouring village where they met a slow and painful death at the hands of the local populace. The cavalry had similar success. The Lancers succeeded in outflanking their Bergisch opponents, and the result was devastating. Only 45 troopers got away, and they met a similar fate to their brother artillerymen! The guerillas facing the compound were also successful and they sent the French reeling back towards the houses, unfortunately they were too disorganised to pursue effectively. The 3rd Line formed square to meet the cavalry, but this did not do them much good. They were so shaken by the fate of their neighbours that their resistance crumbled when they were charged by the mob of yelling Spanish cavalry. Some fled down the road towards the bridge and were slaughtered by the pursuing cavalry, some surrendered, and they were marched to a discreet distance by some infantry and then slaughtered. Meanwhile the Spaniards in the compound charged the French again and utterly routed them. These were joined in their flight by the rest of the infantry in the houses and on the other wall. Mina then manned the captured French cannons from one of his infantry battalions, and moved them up to support his pursuit. The French position was not untenable, the still fairly intact battalion of the 3rd Line was busy trying to ford the river somewhat upstream of the bridge that was still held by the Grenadier Company The Grenadiers, still unengaged, did not have long to live! Seeing the cavalry coming up, they formed a small square on the bridge, but after receiving a couple of rounds of grapeshot from the now reinforced Guerilla artillery, were ridden over and destroyed to a man. The rest of the battalion which had just succeeded in fording the river was now completely surrounded. Two guerilla battalions had formed up behind them on the far bank, three more battalions had forded further up, cutting off the French from any hope of retreating west, and lastly the cavalry, flushed with success had completed the circle. The exhausted Frenchmen tried to surrender, but without success! The Spaniards were enjoying this, and after several charges and rounds of cannon and musket fire, the battalion ceased to exist. But the list of Spanish achievements did not end there. General Caggarelli, having crossed the ford was attempting to get away on the western road. Seeing this, Mina swung his artillery round, and after three rounds, the General and his staff were annihilated. Thus Mina the Younger had, for the loss of only 200 infantry and 50 cavalry, slaughtered 1,4OO Frenchmen, and also gained -- one howitzer, three 4pdrs, 900 each of shakoes, muskets, packs and pairs of boots and 80 or so lances, chapskas, pairs of riding boots, horse furniture and sabres. He had immensely added to his martial reputation and thus recruiting power. Once more, by the efforts of the Spanish people a step was taken to rid Spain from the French invader. The rules used were Wargames Research Group with a few alterations for the use of guerillas. The figures were all Airfix with conversions. We would just like to say that we thoroughly recommend such an engagement to you -- guerillas are great fun to paint, and you can get away with just about any lavish uniform for chieftains and their select units, e.g. in this battle the 300 strong Infanterie Liguera de Fernando 7 , and the troop of lancers. Back to Table of Contents -- Wargamer's Newsletter # 162 To Wargamer's Newsletter List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1975 by Donald Featherstone. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com