Battle of Arroyomolinos re-enactment: the French retreat

Every year on or around October 28 our nearest village of Arroyomolinos re-enact different aspects of the battle fought in the village in 1811. The British, Spanish and Portuguese troops made a surprise attack on the French who were occupying Arroyomolinos on the morning of October 28 during a torrential thunder storm. Several thousand troops and cavalry were involved, the French were soundly defeated, nearly all captured but a small contingent escaped over the mountain to Trujillo, their base at the time. The re-enactment this year portrayed the efforts of the allied forced to cut off the retreat across the rugged terrain of the mountain side. 
As usual the local population of Arroyomolinos made a wonderful effort with convincing costumes and very loud canon fire. 

 After the battle…...

Battle of Arroyomolions re-enactment on October 28

A different format this year, somewhat reduced with no horse activity unfortunately but entertaining never the less. A perfect autumn day with blue skies above Arroyomolinos unlike the original battle of 1811 when there was torrential rain and thunder storms.
 See here for the 200 year anniversary in 2011
 http://finca-al-manzil.blogspot.com/2011/10/battle-of-arroyomolinos-200-year.html
And here for some spectacular horse action
 http://finca-al-manzil.blogspot.com/2013/10/a-beautiful-day-for-anniversary-of.html

A BEAUTIFUL DAY FOR THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE BATTLE OF ARROYOMOLINOS

The bi-centenary of the battle was in 2011, last year the celebration was washed out by torrential rain and it looked as if this one would be too as we have just had a week of heavy rain but it was wonderful to open the shutters on Saturday morning and see a pristine blue sky and the sun coming up over the mountain. The re-enactment takes place on the nearest Saturday to October 28th the date of the battle of Arroyomolinos, a significant battle in the Peninsular wars 1808 -1815.
It was another great effort by the local people of Arroyomolinos, imaginative period costumes and the uniforms were quite convincing, horses behaved with perfect discipline but plenty of  spirited charges and general roistering around.
I captured a few little minutes of the battle, if the camera seems juddery it's because every time another incredibly loud cannon shot went off I jumped out of my skin, there were plenty of minor rifle shots too. Imagine how loud the real battle was, with thousands of men shooting and hundreds horses thundering around the battle field,  must have been a frightening chaos in the sombre light of dawn during a drenching thunder storm.
Here are the French and British arriving on the battlefield with Spanish civilians, one with video camera!

A walk to commemorate the Battle of Arroyomolinos 28th October 1811

Today is the 198th anniversary of the battle of Arroyomolinos which was fought in the morning of 28th October 1811 during a wild storm. Fortunately for us the weather was perfect this morning, sunny and warm and not a desperate French hussar in sight as we set off for the walk which follows the path taken by Spanish guerrilla fighters hoping to cut off the retreat of General Girard and what was left of his force after the total rout of the battle. In fact they were not successful and General Girard although wounded managed to escape over a low saddle in the sierra, with him were a mere 400 troops out of his original force of 3000. He left behind a scene of confusion and disaster, many French troops in desperate panic tried to escape directly up the impossibly steep slopes of the sierra disgarding their horses and armour on the way, they were either swiftly dispatched by the guerrillas or rounded up by the British force under General Hill and captured as prisoners of war to be sent back via Lisbon to the specially built prisons in England for the duration of the war.


General Girard must surely have been in deepest despondency that morning. The day had started badly for him. His breakfast was rudely interrupted by the sudden and totally unexpected attack on Arroyomolinos heralded by the 71st Highlanders charging pell mell and shouting their rousing rendition of the old Jacobite air "Johnny Cope, are ye rising yet?"
The fighting was fierce and bloody with close combat over the walls of the village gardens and several cavalry charges. The brilliant tactics of General Hill left no road out of the village uncovered. The French were in a trap with no way to go except due east: to the north was the Sierra de Montanchez, a long chain of steep hills while to the west and the south were the British on the exits to Merida and Trujillo. By moving quickly and abandoning all their wagons, horses, cannons and armour the French nearly escaped when their column was hit by the lead units of Wilson's Brigade (the light companies of the 1/28th, 1/34th, and the 1/39th Regiments) coming from the south. The three companies hit the first battalion in the flank and succeeded in slowing down the rest of the column until the rest of the British and Portuguese could come up. Girard, seeing there was no escape, ordered his men not to stop and fight, but to attempt to move cross-country and to climb the high hills. He and about 400 men succeeded by scrambling over the only low part of the sierra, however the rest of the column was penned in and forced to lay down their arms. The battle was lost ingloriously and the French loses were horrendous. Of the six infantry battalions and three cavalry regiments engaged, about 1,000 men were killed or wounded. In addition to these casualties, another 1300 men and 30 officers were made prisoners. Most of the casualties were among the infantry, who lost about 80% of their combatents. Additionally, General Bron, the commander of the Cavalry, the Prince of Aremberg, commander of the 27th Chasseurs, and Colonel André, the chief-of-staff of the 5th Corps were all taken as prisoners. Girard lost all his baggage, guns, 6 caissons of ammunition, and the 5,000 dollars tax levied on the town of Caceres. British losses were less than 80 men killed and wounded. General Girard was subsequently relieved by Marshal Soult and returned to France in disgrace.

As you can see the path winds its way high up on the slopes of the sierra with amazing views down on to the flat plains of olive groves, on that long ago morning probably still shrouded with the heavy mist that decended after the storm, at least blotting out the carnage below. We walked to the point where the guerrillas must have been able to observe Girard's desperate band disappearing over the low dip in the sierra, they assumed that they would be stopped by a convoy on the road below but in fact this did not happen and the survivors must have had a desperate few days until they could join up with the French forces of Druet several days later.

We turned back and took another path that leads along a track high above the watermill gorge of arroyomolinos with wonderful views down on to the mills rather than the usual route of walking past them. We came out above the path that leads to Montanchez where there are several more mills and a stand of enormous chestnut trees which may have been slender saplings 198 years ago.

From this point we then took the usual route down the gorge back to Arroyomolinos. The river was running in some parts and looked quite clean and clear, it must have been quite different on that fateful day. Many of the French must have tried to escape up the gorge, maybe trying to take shelter in the mills but they didn't get far before they were overtaken by the merciless guerrillas and barbarously slaughtered, the river ran red that day.

Pippa's evening walk

As usual in the second half of August temperatures have dropped, the weather is just about perfect, hot but not stuffy, coolish at night and the early morning. I can resume my evening walk at 7.30 -8.00 which is perfect before dinner, for the last few weeks it's been impossibly hot until after 9.00 which really messed up the evening.

It's a simple walk, hop over the stone wall of the finca aided by the inset stepping stones, onto the camino and walk briskly up the ever increasing incline with a few flatter bits on the bends. On the way up I pass the huge stone drinking trough, still with a trickle of water splashing into the gorgeous green duckweed, home for legions of frogs who croak and splash at my approach. No doubt placed there at the end of the pass over the mountain from Montanchez to refresh thirsty pack mules and horses during the long centuries that this was a major trading route. The way is paved in smooth, rounded stones polished with constant use, unfortunately in need of some maintenance in places so if one wants to look at the views it's best to stop and stare rather than risk tripping up.

The views are vast, studded with the church towers of various nearby villages, a huge plain of olive groves around Arroyomolinos. This was the scene of a peninsula war battle in October 1811. I am fascinated with this battle and its meaning within the larger theatre of the Napoleonic wars. Just imagining what the Sierra de Montanchez was like in 1811 is a very interesting passtime, let alone imagining the battle fought over a few hours on a stormy, torrentially wet 28th October dawn and morning. Looking down on to the peaceful green plain it is difficult to imagine the mayhem caused by the surprise attack of General Rowland Hill and 9.000 British, Spanish and Portuguese troops on General Girard and his 6,000 French troops, that's 15,000 men and at least 5,000 cavalry horses clashing in the violence of battle in and around the village of Arroyomolinos. The battle was a resounding victory for the allied troops, the French were ordered to flee for their lives, hemmed in on all sides the only escape route was to scramble up the steep slopes of the sierra discarding equipment and weapons as they went. General Girard was amongst the fortunate who managed to reach the ridge of the sierra and escape to freedom, many didn't make it, if not captured at the foot of the sierra then masacred by Murillo's guerrillas further up the slopes. The final reckoning of this short but bloody battle was 1,000 French dead or wounded, 1,400 captured ; 80 allies dead or wounded. No mention of the fate of the cavalry horses. I wonder about those 1,400 prisoners of war, amazingly transported back to England and detained for the remainder of the war until 1815 in specially constructed prisons such as Dartmoor and Norman Cross, near Peterborough, what an extraordinary idea when any transport was so costly and fraught with difficulty. There's enough material wound around this battle to keep me day dreaming for hours so I march on with the ghosts of those desperate French troops who may have passed on this very camino 197 years ago.
I must admit that sometimes I sing, quietly, and a favourite is 'The grand old Duke of York', in fact the very same Duke of York who was Commander-in-chief of the British army during the Napoleonic Wars and the brother of the Prince of Wales who becamePrince Regent in the very year of the battle which he referred to in his first opening of parliament speech, loading praise on General Hill for his brave victory. Serendipity stikes again .......it's a good marching song anyway.

I pass a small gorge covered in rampant cactus plants all bearing the delicious prickly pears which I dare not touch, one bristle can keep one in agony for days.



Now you see it........................................ Now you don't

The views get better and better as I climb, finally around a bend and under the
branches of a giant cork oak is the impressive view of the moorish castle in Montanchez, it always gives me a thrill, a few steps more and in a blink it disappears from view not to appear again until one is almost at the foot of the impregnable crag on which it is built. This is the limit of my evening walk, the point of the disappearing castle. I call the reluctant dogs back and march down the camino feeling toned up and definitely ready for dinner and a relaxed evening.



the tiny red dot on left is the cortijo from the path down.