Santiago Campaign – Day 8

Campaign Map on 26 October 1813

The absence of 16^th Italian corps on escort duty gives Wellington a short window of opportunity.

He has two days to attack Corunna, before they return and he is once more outnumbered

1^st British corps has recovered from earlier battle casualties, and is fully supplied

However it is not in position to attack the town, and must complete a four hour march to get there

This will reduce the time available to defeat 7^th French corps and attack the fortified town

Despite this he orders an immediate attack

Battle of Corunna

Both commanders are present at the battle

Both take advantage of this to take command of part of their army

                         

Wellington takes command of the cavalry, artillery and one infantry brigade

This leaves three infantry brigades under the command of general Stewart

Soult also takes command of his cavalry, artillery and one infantry brigade

They will form a reserve to counter attack

General Abbe commands the three remaining infantry brigades

Two are placed in the town as garrison, the third is a reserve

Wellington orders his artillery to advance and unlimber at short rang of the town wall

His cavalry will protect the gunners, his infantry will attack when the time is right

Stewart has orders to pin the French reserve, and support Wellington if possible.

Wellington routs one of the garrison brigades and storm the town with two infantry brigades

They take one half of the town, and engage the French conscript brigade holding the other half

Soult sends his dragoons to attack the infantry storming the town

Wellington counters with his hussar brigade

However the French win, and his cavalry are routed

The battle is extended by an hour to reach a conclusion

With two French brigades in rout, Soult orders a general retreat

Campaign Notes

It is usual for the attacker to start the battle with one map square between him and the attacker

This is four hours, or four wargame moves, from the enemy.

In this battle the British started the day two squares from the town                                                                                             

It would take them eight hours/game moves to reach the enemy

Instead of 8 hours/moves to fight the battle, Wellington would only have four

When the CinC is present on the wargames table, he can create a reserve by taking brigades from their corps commander

But he must then command this reserve himself for the duration of the battler

Both CinC were present, both created a reserve

Both did so by taking command of the cavalry, artillery and one infantry brigade from the single corps on the table

Wellington would have to defeat Soult in a very short time

If forced to fight a second day he risked the return of the Italian corps

Or possibly an attack on weakly held Ourense, the fall of which would force him to surrender

Most commanders would ignore the strongly held walled town

This is why Soult  created a strong, and very mobile, reserve

However Wellington decided to pin the French reserve and attack the town

To do so he would need to deploy his artillery very close to the town for maximum effect against the garrison

This would leave his gunners open to counter attack by the French reserve

To guard against this Stewart occupied the fortified farm on the right of the main road

He hid the remainder of his command behind the farm ready to engage the flank of any attack on Wellington

This worked well, and Wellington was able to rout one of the two brigades in garrison

However he had to expose Stewart in order to protect the actual attack

This resulted in the expected cavalry melee, which the British lost

Fortunately this was too late in the day for the French to take advantage of their cavalry superiority

Normally a game would end at 2000, which is 12 wargame moves

But in this battle the result was undecided at the end of the twelfth move

The British hussars had received 10% casualties from the French gunners

But they passed their morale test and still protected the infantry attack on Corunna

The game was extended for one move, during which the cavalry melee was decided

The French won, and routed the British hussars

However during the same move the British routed a second infantry brigade in the town

Soult was left with two infantry brigades, one cavalry brigade and his artillery

Wellington had four infantry brigades and his artillery

The battle would be decided by the fight for the town

This would only involve infantry, and the French cavalry could play little part

Wellington could detach one infantry brigade to protect his gunners and still outnumber the two French brigades

Soult took the right decision to abandon Corunna and retreat

He would avoid any further casualties and could join forces with the returning Italian corps

Wellington had won a much needed victory, but it was a temporary advantage

He would soon face the complete French army again, and this time they would be fully supplied.