Spanish general
In this
Spanish name
, the first or paternal
surname
is
Garcia de la Cuesta
and the second or maternal family name is
Fernandez de Celis
.
Gregorio Garcia de la Cuesta y Fernandez de Celis
(9 May 1741 ? 1811) was a prominent
Spanish
general
of the
Peninsular War
.
Charles Oman
(1902) stated that:
Throughout the two years during which he held high command in the field, Gregorio de la Cuesta consistently displayed an arrogance and an incapacity far exceeding that of any other Spanish general. (Oman, pp. 140?141.)
[1]
Early career
[
edit
]
Born in
La Lastra
,
Cantabria
, to a family of
petty nobles
, Cuesta entered military service in 1758 as a member of the
Spanish Royal Guards
Regiment. He saw several successes as a
Lieutenant General
during the
War of the Pyrenees
in the years 1793 to 1795. On 20 December 1795, he led 8,000 Spanish and Portuguese in a successful attack in the
Battle of Collioure
, capturing
Collioure
,
Fort Saint-Elme
and
Port-Vendres
. Cuesta's force killed or captured 4,000 of the 5,000 defenders.
[2]
He led a division under
Jose de Urrutia y de las Casas
at the successful
Battle of Bascara
on 14 June 1795.
[3]
His corps of 7,000 to 9,000 troops captured 1,500 Frenchmen at
Puigcerda
on 26 July. The following day, he fell upon and seized the town of Bellver with its 1,000-man French garrison.
[4]
Unknown to Cuesta, both actions occurred after the
Peace of Basel
had been signed on 22 July 1795. Political intrigues prevented further advancement until the turmoil of 1805 produced his appointment to
Commander in Chief
of the Army of Castile.
Peninsular War
[
edit
]
When war with
France
broke out in 1808, Cuesta was already 67 years old. He was at first reluctant to lead the insurgents who rose up in
Valladolid
but agreed after a
gallows
was erected outside his house and the indignant populace threatened to hang him.
[1]
His army was ramshackle, ill-trained and underequipped and his hastily recruited force of 5,000
militia
stood little chance against the
Grande Armee
of
Napoleon
. It was heavily defeated at
Cabezon
, forcing Cuesta's withdrawal from his seat of command at Valladolid.
After combining what was left of his army with
Lieutenant General Blake's
Army of Galicia
, Cuesta pulled rank and insisting on a foolhardy march on Valladolid, left his new force vulnerable to a French counterattack. Paralyzed by disunity of command, the pair were defeated on 14 July at the
Battle of Medina de Rioseco
when Cuesta failed to close the gap between his troops and Blake's.
Negotiations with the
Central Junta
led to Cuesta's brief promotion to
Commander-in-Chief
of the
Spanish Army
. In the absence of a military and political command structure, strategy and coordination with other Spanish forces proved impossible. He was soon sacked and arrested due to political machinating by his opponents.
[
citation needed
]
Following the loss of
Madrid
to Napoleon at the
Battle of Somosierra
the situation in Spain became more desperate and Cuesta was allowed to reconstitute the
Army of Extremadura
in order to defend the southern frontier. In defiance of the military wisdom of the time Cuesta pursued an offensive as soon as he had constructed a fighting force. This met with success. In January and February 1809, all of
Badajoz
was reclaimed from the
French
.
Cuesta was refused supplies and reinforcements until local authorities could review the appointments he had made to the army. As a result, a French offensive in the Spring annulled Cuesta's previous gains. On 26 March, Cuesta was badly wounded and trampled by cavalry, and his army savagely defeated, at the
Battle of Medellin
. Like
Blucher
after him, he continued fighting as a near-invalid.
Cuesta joined forces with the
British army
under
Wellington
. Relations with his British allies were difficult, taking into account that the British prioritized their interests before the Spanish, something that Garcia de la Cuesta strongly opposed. However, both prepared the battle of Talavera (July 28), obtaining an important victory for the allies. For the merits of this battle, Wellesley would receive the titles Viscount Wellington and Viscount Talavera de la Reina . For his part, Cuesta will receive the Grand Cross of Carlos III from the Central Board.
However, after the victory at the
Battle of Talavera
, some Spanish defeats occurred, to the great satisfaction of the general's enemies. Despite the victory achieved with Wellington, in December he was forced to resign from his position. Shortly afterwards, in
Badajoz
, he suffered a stroke that caused hemiplegia and for medical reasons he was evacuated to
Seville
and
Malaga
, and then, due to the approach of the French, to
Mallorca
. He arrived in Palma on May 14, 1810. On the island he published the manifesto in which he justified his actions during the War of Independence.
In 1810, Cuesta suffered a serious
stroke
from which he died in retirement a year later.
References
[
edit
]
- Chandler, David G. (1995).
The Campaigns of Napoleon
. New York: Simon & Schuster.
ISBN
0-02-523660-1
- Gates, David (2001).
The Spanish Ulcer: A History of the Peninsular War
. Da Capo Press.
ISBN
0-306-81083-2
- Smith, Digby (1998).
The Napoleonic Wars Data Book
. London: Greenhill.
ISBN
1-85367-276-9
External links
[
edit
]