The Battle of Somosierra, November 30, 1808

The Battle of Somosierra has always been a battle that I was eager to create a scenario around. At first glance it isn’t an obvious choice, as the mad cavalry dash up a road clogged by Spanish batteries is a good topic for heroic battle art (Google it!) but does not necessarily translate to an interesting scenario. 

However, popular and conflicting accounts aside, the Polish cavalry charge wasn’t the only thing that happened that day - there was a full division of French infantry fighting their way up the hills either side of the pass. In fact, there is considerable evidence that the charge was just a bit of Napoleon’s famous bloody showmanship at work, a piece of theatre for the despatches back home but not really necessary at all. 

The Spanish never had enough troops available to hold the passes against the French in the mountains north of Madrid for long, and the positions could easily have been outflanked, forcing the Spanish to retreat. Oman even goes so far as to say that if Napoleon had just waited a bit longer Ruffin would have cleared the heights to either side with the First Division and forced a withdrawal - something that seems to be supported by the fact that Ruffin’s flanking troops were on the scene as the fight for the final battery at the top of the pass unfolded.

So my approach to this scenario was to put the French on a limited time frame, with the cavalry arriving late in the game. Victory for the French would be to either clear the heights on either side, forcing the batteries to be withdrawn, or clear out the batteries, forcing the Spanish on either side of the road to withdraw. The Spanish only needed to hold tight, a pyrrhic victory at best as the French with their four to one advantage and crack troops, would merely force the pass on the days following.

Eventually I want to shape this into a proper scenario, but our first game was really just a proof of concept, with forces reduced on both side so that we could play it out easily in an afternoon. It lead to a very different and interesting game, with the French attacker (Alan) electing to attack in a very unhistoric way.

The battle was fought on a 4’X6’ table, with 1/72nd scale toys (it was good to get my Spanish back on the table!) using the Over the Hills rule set.

A map of the Somosierra pass.

The Battlefield

The road runs straight up the middle, with a deep ravine to the right and Somosierra at the crest. it is bordered by high ground either side that is impassable by cavalry or artillery. There is a lot of terrain present in the high ground where the Spanish militia can take cover.

The pass as seen from the French entry point

1. Cannons on the road

Three small batteries of four pounders (two guns each) behind low dirt embankments block the road.

2. Somosierra

At the top of the pass, in front of the hamlet of Somosierra, the main Spanish battery (10 guns) is placed behind another earth works, with the Voluntarios de Seville in reserve along with a small contingent of Spanish horse (Principe).

3. Cordoba at the height of the pass

To either side of the main battery, Spanish line infantry (Cordoba) guard the hills.

4. Overview of Spanish deployment at the top of the pass

5. In the hills…

In the hills on either side wait the Spanish levies. Here the Voluntarios de Madrid (2nd Regiment) hold the ground on the Spanish left… 

6. Spanish right 

While the 1st Regiment guards the heights opposite.

7. Ruffin attacks

In the early morning fog* Ruffin launches his attack. Alan decides to launch his battalions in a massive assault column straight up the road, committing only some voltigeur battalions and a battalion of the 24th to pin the Spanish levies in the hill. His plan was to ignore the troops in the hills, storming through the first few batteries, and clearing the way for the cavalry to finish the job on their arrival. 

* We played the fog for the first three turns. We kept the Spanish militia that was located on either side of the road and the small batteries off the board to begin with, only placing them when they were spotted. The Spanish were not allowed to move until the enemy was spotted, and the French had to begin their attack not knowing exactly where the Spanish were, which led to an interesting tension.

8. First battery charged

Rounding a corner, the first Spanish battery was spotted, emplaced beyond a bridge and behind a small earth works. The 1/9th Legere charge!

9. Out of the fog

At the same time, as the fog briefly lifts one of the small ad hoc voltigeur battalions encounters the 1st Voluntarios de Madrid in open order on the flank of the first battery. 

10. First battery falls, Vols. of Madrid fall back

The surprised Spanish commander, finding the French on his flank, orders his right battalion to fall back. Meanwhile, on the road (left), despite being clobbered by a face full of canister, the 1/9th Legere overrun the first battery - only to come face to face with a second!

11. French stream forward

Spanish militia are now spotted in the hills on both side of the ravine as Ruffin pushes his troops forward. Napoleon will not be disappointed in his will to engage on this morning!

12. Cordoba (2nd Battalion) move right

Meanwhile, as the fog clears and the Spanish commander, San Juan (a.k.a. me), sees the French pushing straight up the road, he begins to shift his defence to the right.

13. Spanish main battery opens fire

The main Spanish battery, now with a clear view down the valley, begins to shell the fat juicy French columns to devastating effect.

14. Vols. of Madrid pushed back further

The 1/24th drives the Spanish back to their next line of defence in some rocky ground above a ravine.

15. Overview from the French side

At the bottom a French battery has arrived, and unlimbers to engage the 2nd Vols. of Madrid (right) who have begun to descend towards the ravine to snipe at the French flank. Above the guns, the Polish cavalry have arrived (Guard Light Horse), galloping up the road towards the French columns. With the cavalry Napoleon himself has also arrived (white horse to left of bridge - this is the only battle in Spain where Napoleon was personally present) bolstering the spirits of Ruffin’s battered troops (the French now have 13 rally dice to play with!)

To the right of the horse the 1/9th Legere have gone into skirmish formation along the bank of the stream, engaging the Spanish on the right while on the left of the picture the 24th push back the 1st Vols. de Madrid.

In the centre of the photo the 1/96th, taking over the lead from the 9th,hits the second battery, visible just in front of the second bridge.

16. Poles arrive!

To the cheers of the French infantry the gallant Poles arrive, as Napoleon (left of bridge) urges them on to charge the batteries for the glory of France!

17. Second battery attacked

However Ruffin has other plans. The 96th storms the second battery, engages, but the Spanish gunners put up an heroic defence. The fight goes the full three rounds without the French able to score a victory, and the 96th reels back while the gunners return to their guns.

18. Militia watch from above

The Spanish levies watch nervously from the heights as they see their first battalion making its way back across the ravine, hard pressed by the French who have now committed both battalions of the 24th to the attack. But a ragged cheer goes up as their guns throw back the enemy assault on the road.

19. Overview from Spanish side

The main Spanish battery continues to pound the French columns while the second battery is engaged on the road. On the left the 2nd Vols. of Madrid are making their way towards the ravine. The Polish cavalry have arrived (top) but time is beginning to run out for the French.

20. Skirmishing in the ravine

Along the ravine to the right of the road some skirmishing opens up between the 1/9th Legere and Spanish militia, while the French guns, unable to gain any targets to the front, begin to shell the heights to the west.

21. 2nd Vols. of Madrid shelled on the heights west of the pass and fall back

22. 24th making slow progress clearing the eastern heights 

23. Third battery charged!

The second battery falls to the Poles who, too exhausted to continue, make way for a mixed column of Guard Chausseurs and Polish Light who charge the third battery. All hangs in the balance with this charge, as a Spanish priest lays a blessing on the guns…

24. Driven off!

A devastating round of canister (for OTH players, rolled a 1!) crushes the charge, driving the French horse back.

25. And routed

Napoleon watches with dismay as his treasured Guard cavalry routs past him back down the road.

26. Spanish massed on the heights

In the meantime San Juan has had time to mass his troops in defence to the right. Faced with the third and main battery still intact and the Spanish in deep formation in front of the 24th on the eastern heights, Napoleon, almost out of his allotted time, throws in his monogrammed towel and goes off to make plans for a fresh attack on the morrow.

27. Final Overview

The 2nd of Cordoba and Vols. of Seville move to the right to bolster that flank, while the third and fourth Spanish gun emplacements still stand firm. 

It is the end of Turn 7 of eight and with still too much ground for the French to cover. In our game post mortem Alan revealed his plan to use Ruffin’s infantry to drive through the first two or even three gun emplacements and allow the horse to finish the job. His use of columns of companies in the attacks, although it gave him quick movement up the road, made them quite weak in the attack (25% strength), especially after taking the inevitable hit of canister, so columns of division might have been a better choice. 

Being the first time Alan had confronted the Spanish (we have been playing British/French scenarios to date) we agreed that he had probably over-rated the Spanish militia’s capacity to ward off a determined French assault in the hills, but still, a lot had to go right for the French to pull this off in the allotted time, as they did historically. Needless to say, the final cavalry charges did not manage to have quite the success the real ones did!

The scenario needs some tweaking still, and I have to sort out the orbats (the historical record is very sketchy and inconsistent around the composition and placement of the Spanish) and then we will be back for a re-try. But regardless, it made for a very interesting scenario!

After the battle Napoleon visits his dead and wounded... (I realized after the fact that I had forgotten to get a photograph of my newly painted Napoleon for this battle report, so thought I would belatedly rectify that.)