Antoine Charles Louis de Lasalle - Campaign in Spain

Campaign in Spain

Lasalle was given command of the 1st Light Cavalry Division consisting of the 8th Hussars, 13th, 16th and 24th Chasseurs in the Cavalry Reserve of Bessières. Lasalle’s cousin, Pierre-Louis-Adolphe-Georges du Prel, became his aide-de-camp. He arrived in Spain on 15 February 1808. One of Lasalle's major faults was his willingness to repay resistance with brutality and it was said of him he “made Spain tremble.” In June, Lasalle was responsible for the torching of Torquemada, a village that resisted his troops. He then defeated all the Spanish insurgents and marched to Palencia. As his men approached all the insurgents abandoned and fled to Valladolid, supported by a column of infantry. On 12 June 1808, while Lasalle was on his way to Valladolid, in the village of Cabezón he met a resistance of about 7,000 men under General Cuesta. The battle took place when General Cuesta's small army, scraped together almost from scratch to defend Old Castile, deployed itself along the Cabezón bridge to bar the road to Burgos against oncoming French divisions.

Rather than dig in on the opposite bank of the Pisuerga River, Cuesta, swept along by the enthusiasm of his men, rushed his troops across the bridge against almost double his number, with predictable results: Lasalle's veteran cavalry trampled Cuesta's raw recruits with ease and marched on to Valladolid. His trick of the trade was to charge at the trot, holding his men solidly in hand to meet an enemy exhausted from galloping. He left more than 1,000 dead Spaniards on the battlefield, losing only 50 of his own. The same day he reached Valladolid and restored order to the city. On 14 July at Medina de Rioseco, he fought against 21,900 Spaniards under the command of General Blake and Cuesta with 14,000 men under the command of Marshal Bessières. Lasalle led a gallant charge and set victory to the French flags capturing all of the enemy baggage. Lasalle then marched towards Vittoria commanding the rearguard protecting the French from another breach made by the enemy. By decree in September 1808, the Emperor named him Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor, and made Lasalle Count of the Empire. On 7 November, he fought at the Battle of Burgos and led the French to success.

The Spanish militias, untrained and unable to form infantry squares, scattered in the face of massed French cavalry, while the stubborn Spanish and Walloon Guards stood their ground in vain and were chewed up by Lasalle and his men. A few days later at the Battle of Villa Viejo he captured seven cannons and four flags. On 15 March, Leval’s division and Lasalle’s cavalry crossed the Tagus River at Talavera, and on the next day they were joined by Victor, at the head of Villatte’s and Ruffin’s divisions, at Arzobispo. The rest of the cavalry along with the artillery and the baggage was sent to Almaraz, where they were to wait for Victor to sweep away the Spanish troops guarding the river. Two days later Lasalle reached Meza de Ibor and fought the Spanish troops forcing them out of their defensive position on the Tagus. Lasalle then joined to participate in the Battle of Medellín. This battle was the most glorious day in the military life of General Lasalle when he was under the command of the left wing. Each wing was composed of a cavalry division and two infantry battalions filled with German troops from the Confederation of the Rhine. The Spanish heavily outnumbered them having an army almost twice the size of the French.

Lasalle's position was a bit dangerous, since the Guadiana was at his back meaning his 2,000 cavalry and 2,500 infantry could not fall back more than a mile. Three Spanish cavalry regiments hovered around the bank of the Guadiana and attempted to turn the French left, but Lasalle and his men held on to their tenuous positions. Spanish cavalry supported by infantry decided to come boldly at the French. Lasalle immediately recognized how dangerous a retreat would be in the close confinements of the narrow bridge. Lasalle had been reinforced with seven infantry battalions from Villatte, and once he saw the Spanish routing to the west he too ordered a powerful counter-attack. The 2nd Hussars regiment, accompanied by a Horse Chasseur regiment, smashed the Spanish cavalry, reformed, and charged at the once-again abandoned Spanish infantry in the eastern flank. Lasalle's fresh battalions also attacked frontally and French dragoons were now rolling over the center of the Spanish army, which attempted to flee in any way it could.

Many were brutally killed in this chaotic retreat and Cuesta's army effectively ceased to exist. 8,000 dead or wounded Spaniards scattered the battlefield. 2,000 prisoners and 19 cannons were trophies due to the fearlessness of General Lasalle. That was his last act of arms in the Spanish Peninsula, where he was nicknamed “Picaro” which means “rogue or adventurer” in Spanish. Napoleon called 33 year-old Lasalle, the spirited hero of Medellín, from Spain to Germany. Lasalle’s ebullience at being ordered to join Masséna’s corps in Germany was made clear by a chance meeting with Roederer and Thiébault in Burgos. To Roederer’s question if he were traveling via Paris, Lasalle replied, “Yes, it’s the shortest way. I shall arrive at 5 a.m.; I shall order a pair of boots; I shall make my wife pregnant, and I shall depart.” He left immediately to take command of the Light Cavalry Division in the IV Army Corps commanded by Masséna.