Jean Gabriel Marchand - Peninsular War

Peninsular War

Still commanding Ney's 1st Division, Marchand participated in Napoleon's 1808 invasion of Spain. In February 1809, his division numbered 6,860 soldiers in 12 battalions. In early 1809, Ney campaigned in Galicia but his 17,000 French soldiers had their hands full trying to control 10,000 square miles (26,000 km2) of territory. On 19 May there was a clash at Gallegos where Marchand's division was involved. Pedro Caro, 3rd Marquis of la Romana with 1,500 regulars and 8,000 militia attacked Antoine Louis Popon de Maucune's 3,000-man brigade, inflicting 500 casualties. Ney soon arrived with the remainder of the 1st Division and drove La Romana away. Finally, in mid-June, Ney abandoned Galicia and fell back to Astorga.

In June 1809, Napoleon placed the VI Corps under Marshal Nicolas Soult's command. With Ney's troops, plus the II and V Corps, Soult planned to sweep south and destroy Arthur Wellesley's British army. Wellesley beat King Joseph Bonaparte and Marshal Jean-Baptiste Jourdan at the Battle of Talavera on 28 July. When Spanish guerillas captured a French dispatch, the British general found out that Soult was coming down from the north with three corps. Wellesley immediately bolted back toward Portugal and escaped the trap. During these operations, Ney's advanced guard clashed with a column under Robert Thomas Wilson at Puerto de Baños on 12 August, but Marchand's troops were not engaged.

In the fall of 1809, the Spanish army of Lorenzo Fernández de Villavicencio y Cañas, Duke del Parque launched an offensive against the VI Corps. With Ney on leave, Marchand took command and suffered a stinging defeat at the Battle of Tamamés on 18 October 1809. With only 14,000 men and 14 artillery pieces, he tried to oust del Parque's 20,000 infantry, 1,500 cavalry, and 18 guns from a ridge. Sending Maucune's brigade to attack the Spanish left flank and the 25th Light Infantry to pin the enemy right flank, he planned to send the brigade of Pierre-Louis Binet de Marcognet to crush del Parque's center. Maucune's attack made considerable progress, but Marcognet's assault stalled in the face of heavy musketry and the fire of 12 cannons. Falling into confusion, Marcognet's men finally fled downhill and Marchand had bring up Mathieu Delabassée's reserve brigade to prevent a rout. His corps suffered 1,400 casualties while the Spanish only lost half as many.

Marchand evacuated his headquarters at Salamanca and retired north to Toro where François Étienne de Kellermann joined him with a dragoon division and some infantry. With Kellermann in overall command, the French recovered Salamanca. Dropping off Marchand and the VI Corps, Kellermann returned north to suppress new guerilla attacks. At this, Del Parque promptly advanced with superior forces, compelling Marchand to abandon Salamanca again. Learning that the main Spanish army had been smashed at the Battle of Ocana and fearing retribution, del Parque withdrew toward his mountain refuge. Meanwhile, Kellermann reappeared with his cavalry, joined Marchand, and launched a pursuit. The French cavalry found del Parque astride a river crossing at Alba de Tormes and mounted a devastating attack. On 28 November, Kellermann routed del Parque at the Battle of Alba de Tormes. Most of the fighting was over by the time Marchand's infantry arrived, though they managed to seize the vital bridge and town from the Spanish rear guard. For the loss of 300 to 600 men, the French inflicted 2,000 killed and wounded on del Parque's army. The French also captured 1,000 Spaniards, nine cannons, and most of the baggage train.

Marchand served under Ney again in Marshal André Masséna's third invasion of Portugal in 1810. He fought at the Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo from 26 April ro 9 July 1810 and the Siege of Almeida from 25 July to 27 August. On 15 September, Marchand's 1st Division consisted of Maucune's 1st Brigade, the 6th Light and 69th Line, and Marcognet's 2nd Brigade, the 39th and 76th Line. There were 6,457 men and 214 officers in the division. At the Battle of Bussaco on 27 September, Louis Henri Loison's division led the attack up the main road toward to top of the ridge. Fighting its way through knots of British and Portuguese skirmishers, it was met at the crest by British infantry and artillery and defeated. Too late to support Loison, one of Marchand's brigades neared the top of the ridge. Because of hostile artillery fire it strayed to the left of the road. Marchand's attack was beaten by Denis Pack's Portuguese brigade. His division suffered the loss of 1,173 men while Loison's division sustained 1,252 casualties.

With the rest of the Army of Portugal, Marchand spent the winter before the Lines of Torres Vedras. The next spring, he fought in the rear guard actions of Pombal on 11 March 1811 and Redinha on 12 March during the retreat from Portugal. On 14 March 1811, he gave the Marquess of Wellington's famous Light Division a bloody nose in the Battle of Casal Novo. Sir William Erskine, 2nd Baronet marched his 7,000 troops and six artillery pieces forward in a heavy fog without proper scouts. As the fog cleared, the Allies found Marchand's 4,600 men and six guns deployed across the road ready to receive them. During the action, the French lost 55 casualties but inflicted 155 killed and wounded on their opponents. On the 15th, Marchand's division suffered a defeat at the Battle of Foz do Arouce, losing 250 men and the eagle of the 39th Line. Allied casualties were only 71. In early May, he led his division at the Battle of Fuentes de Onoro, where part of it participated in the first day's attack on the village. Two days later, his infantry flushed the British 85th Foot and the Portuguese 2nd Caçadores out of the village of Pozo Bello into the open, where the two battalions were roughed up by French cavalry. Wellington soon managed to fend off the attack and forced Masséna to withdraw. Shortly after the engagement, Marshal Auguste Marmont arrived to replace Masséna. The new commander abolished the corps organization and sent Marchand and other generals home.