Napoleon Issues Orders For the Invasion of Portugal in 1810

By 1810, Napoleon controlled most of the Continent, from Eastern Europe to the Iberian Peninsula. He had bested consecutive coalitions of, at different times, Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Sweden. Prussia had lost territory, and Austria had lost an empire. Britain, although technically part of the coalition, had confined its major operations to the sea. Yet it remained, intact and territorially isolated from Napoleon's reach. Russia too was intact and distant. Both these powers would eventually so weaken Napoleon that he would be toppled, the former in Spain and the latter on its own doorstep.

But in 1810, Napoleon was at his high water mark and there was relative peace in the east.  In April, he married Marie Louise, an Austrian.  Now he turned his eyes west, to the Iberian Peninsula, where a free Portugal served as a landing point for English troops under Wellington, and unrest in Spain threatened stability.  Specifically, Napoleon wanted to conquer Portugal, and in so doing both gain access to the sea and block British access to Spain, strangling the opposition there.



In the Spring of 1810, Wellington fortified Lisbon and readied for an anticipated assault. Napoleon's move to take Ciudad Rodrigo, a town located on the western side of Spain that was a gateway to Portugal. (Ironically, the town would also mark Wellington's avenue out as he commenced the campaign that expelled the French from Spain in 1813).  To do this, Napoleon would move his troops from east to west, along the French coast, to the Spanish border, and down into Spain itself.  This included elements of his elite Imperial Guard. On April 17, 1810, Napoleon issued a decree creating the army for the Portugal campaign.



The following week, he issued orders for the campaign. This is the very letter in which he did so.  

Letter Signed, April 25, 1810, Compiegne, to his Minister of War, with the one-word amendment "Nantes" in his hand, showing how he reviewed and edited all his letters.  In this letter, the towns of Nantes and Boulogne are westerly port towns in France.  Bayonne is a border city with Spain.



"Duke de Feltre, order the Grandjean division, which is in Reims, to come to Paris.  Order the Colbert brigade, which is in Orleans to go to Nantes.



"Order the four regiments of cuirassiers [cavalry] of the Duke of Padua's division to come to Paris. Inform me when this division will arrive that I may have it posted between the Somme and the Loire within reach of the coast. As soon as the posts are designated ask my orders for summoning the depots of these regiments from Piedmont, to be placed in these new and permanent cantonments.



"Order General Hulin to have the 3d, 4th and 7th provisional demi-brigades, which are in Paris, completed by whatever the depots in Paris and in the 1st division may be able to furnish, and to have the clothing and equipment of these three corps put into good condition. When the three demi-brigades are ready, have them reviewed by the Count de Lobau. After which, being united with the Berg infantry regiment, making a body of 6000 to 7000 men, they will take up their march for Bayonne under the title of rear-guard of the army of Spain. Give command of this body to a brigadier-general. This brigade is to march by regiments with intervals between. Give orders that each man is to have three pairs of shoes when he leaves Paris.



"Order the regiment of lancers that is in Rennes to proceed to Bayonne.  Order that the detachment of the 19th line, which forms a part of the 6th provisional demi-brigade of the reserve, and is in camp in Boulogne, be incorporated in the 19th regiment of the line and that the detachment of the 17th be placed in a suitable garrison in the Boulogne camp. The rest of this demi-brigade, to wit: the detachment of 400 men of the 25th, 300 of the 28th, 200 of the 36th and 300 of the 43d will come to Paris where you will have them reviewed on their arrival, after which they will set out for Spain.



"I have asked you for a report of the condition of the regiment of national guards of the Guard. Order General Lepic to go to Spain to take command of the cavalry of my Guard. Order the division of my Guard which is in Angers to take up their march for Bayonne.  Order General Dorsenne to go to Spain to take command of my Guard, infantry, cavalry and artillery.  Order the regiment of Polish light-horse to set out for Bayonne. The regiment of Berg lancers will be united with the cavalry of my Guard.  Order that the 12 pieces of light artillery of my Guard that are in Bordeaux join the division of my Guard coming from Angers, when it passes through that city and march with it into Spain."



Four days after writing this letter, the advance on Portugal commenced that led to the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo. Napoleon would take that town and move into Portugal in July, but solid defenses set up by Wellington halted the effort to take Lisbon. The Battle of Sobral on October 14 resulted in a French loss and ended their hopes for this campaign, and perhaps for their grand empire in general. As the great military historian Charles Oman wrote, "On that misty 14 Octoberth morning, at Sobral, the Napoleonic tide attained its highest watermark, then it ebbed."