Nap Campaign: The Battle of Croxley-Valle (Spain)

The night before the battle:

Morillo has chosen a defensive position across a ridge of rocky hills with the village of Croxley-Valle in the centre of his position. He has calculated that the broken terrain will cancel out the French advantage in cavalry and the commanding position will be difficult to overcome by French infantry.

For Lobau, he has spent valuable time assembling his Corps which had been scattered across southern France. He has received intelligence that British ships have been sighted in the river estuary at Youngsport in Portugal. He has to deal with the Spanish quickly and comprehensively before advancing into Portugal. He looks on at the Spanish position with some trepidation. This may prove a little more difficult than he had anticipated.

THE BATTLE OF CROXLEY-VALLE

French v Spanish

Total French 596

CinC Lobau

Total Spanish 221

CinC Morillo

Scale = 6mm (Baccus figs)

Rules - General de Brigade (modified)

13th March 1808

0900 hours (max 32 moves)

ORDER OF BATTLE

TERRAIN

3'9" x 3'9" table

Spanish defending 19B16

French attacking from 19B17 & 22

Terrain Description

From top left:

19B11 – Rough terrain, high peaked mountain

19B12 – Rough terrain, cottage, rocky hills, river rapids through deep cuttings

19B16 – Rough terrain, rocky hills, village of CROXLEY-VALLE, poor road on high ground

19B17 – Firm grazing land, ditches, farm, river deep, timber bridge

19B21 – Firm heathland, river deep

19B22 – Firm grazing land, sunken road, river deep

On this occasion I classed the river as 'difficult' terrain in squares 17, 21 and 22. 

Note: All the terrain tiles containing rocks represents rocky (difficult) terrain which slows movement and cavalry become unformed. Cavalry cannot charge unformed which almost entirely cancels out their usefulness. 

View from rear of Spanish position

Croxley-Valle

Morillo placed Losado's 3rd Brigade on the left flank with his 3 battalions responsible for holding the position between the village and the impassable rocky foothills of the mountain. Carrera's 1st Brigade was to hold the village of Croxley-Valle and Lazan's 2nd Brigade the right flank on the rocky hill. The Spanish cavalry was thrown out on the far right of the line.

View of Losado's Brigade

Lazan's Brigade (left on hill) and Carrera's Brigade in the village.

The French 3rd and 5th Cavalry Divisions were positioned on the left flank. They were there purely to screen the advance of the French infantry.

Simmer's 19th Division is positioned in the French centre with the artillery who are preparing to cross the bridge.

Teste's 21st Division with the 1st Brigade of the 20th Division is situated on the French right flank.

The French plan is for the 19th Division to attack Croxley-Valle with Teste forcing the Spanish left flank. He is hoping that with concentrated large scale attacks on relatively small fronts the Spanish will be quickly overwhelmed despite their advantage in a good defensive position. A bonus will be if Teste manages to sweep around the rear of the Spanish cutting off any units still in the Croxley-Valle area. 

French left to right - Cavalry far left, Simmer's 19th Div between cav and Teste, Teste's command of 21st Div and part 20th Div in terrain tile in centre. Spanish - Losado's Brigade between rocky ground right top and across top of hill.

An order for a general advance was given by Lobau. Teste made steady progress maintaining good order. Simmer's 19th Division became a little fragmented but the French artillery caused Lobau some embarrassment. Two horse artillery batteries quickly deployed and began firing on Croxley-Valle. After one round one of the batteries ran low on ammo! The foot batteries crossing the bridge became snarled on the road creating a traffic jam. Lobau was not impressed! The cavalry ranged slightly ahead of the infantry on the French left flank alert to any possible incursion by the Spanish cavalry.

The view from behind Spanish lines as the French advance begins. Spanish artillery made little impact at this stage.

The advance pauses to allow the artillery through and hopefully deliver some devastating firepower. The omens are not good though as yet another battery runs low on ammo after one salvo!

As the French columns approach the Spanish left flank their advance is slowed in the rough terrain (half speed). This makes them vulnerable to Spanish musketry who inflict heavy casualties on the struggling columns.

As the French advance on Losada's Brigade they do not wait for the charge. Having delivered some effective musket volleys they then disgrace themselves by promptly retreating.

On the opposite flank the French cavalry slowly advance deterring any Spanish cavalry interference.

Losada rallies his brigade on the small wood flanking Croxley-Valle (top right of photo). Teste's command (middle right) slowly but steadily advance towards Losada's position.

Carrera's brigade makes ready to receive the advancing French infantry.

As Bony's brigade advances through the gap between the hill and rocky terrain (bottom left), Losada's brigade opens fire. Although several fall in the front ranks of the French columns, it has no effect on their advance. 

On Bony's left, Penne's brigade of Teste's 21st Division leads the climb up the steep hill.

Bellair's Brigade of the Simmer's 19th Division are given the task of assaulting Croxley-Valle through the rocky terrain using the rocks as cover (left of photo). The remainder of the division prepares to assault along the road into the village. On the right Teste's 21st Division reaches the summit of the hill looking down on Croxley-Valle.

Morillo, now seeing where the main French attack is materialising, orders Lazan to move his brigade off the hill on the right flank and into the village. He intended to concentrate his forces to meet the French attack.

Bony orders the two battalions of the 10th Line to charge Losada's brigade. The Spanish fire off a volley at short range and this time with more effect. The 1/10th Line suffers heavy casualties and falters. The 2/10th Line however successfully charges into the conscript Fusiliers of Eastern Spain. The conscripts lose the subsequent melee badly and retreat from the victorious French battalion.

Bellair's brigade (bottom middle) and Penne's Brigade (top right) launch their assaults on the village. Morillo is losing patience with Lazan (bottom left) who is moving at a sclerotic pace into the village (he keeps failing his command and control test!). Morillo needs his brigade urgently to shore up the village defences.

This photo clearly shows Morillo's predicament. Bony's brigade (bottom left) prepares to make an all out assault on the remainder of Losada's brigade. 

Losada's brigade broke and fled from the field leaving Bony's brigade clear to sweep around the  rear of the Spanish position (middle top).

In Croxley-Valle the outnumbered Carrera's brigade was unable to withstand the French assault and broke before Lazan's brigade had moved into the village.

As the French pour into Croxley-Valle - 

The Spanish streamed out the other side. Carrera began reforming his broken brigade in the foreground, while Lazan's Brigade decided they were not going to wait for the French and can be seen emerging in a panicked state from the village. 

Carrera manages to reform some of his troops just in time to form a rearguard and fired on the advancing French. Lazan with his brigade can be seen running to the rear behind Carrera (middle top).

There was nothing to be gained keeping the Spanish cavalry on the field so Morillo instructed them to retreat to prevent any losses.

The French pursue the retreating Spanish. 

This demonstrates how close the French were to cutting off the Spanish in Croxley-Valle. The routing Spanish had saved themselves!

Carrera's brigade did not stand to receive the charge and routed from the field. Lazan's brigade was the last to leave pursued by the French.

With Lobau in command of the field, the failure to cut off the Spanish in Croxley-Valle was only a minor disappointment. The rapidity of the victory was what counted and he now intended to capture Portugal as quickly as possible. Once Portugal was in French hands, he would be free to join Napoleon in the north and be present when final victory is achieved.

CASUALTIES:

The situation by nightfall with the routing Spanish streaming towards 

the Portuguese border (red line on the map):

RESULT - A DECISIVE FRENCH VICTORY

NEXT - MAP MOVES