200th Anniversary Scenario: Fuentes de Oñoro

[Picton]

Fuentes de Oñoro3-5 May 1811A Black Powder Scenario Strategic SituationIn April 1811, Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, had pushed the French Army of Portugal back as far as the Spanish border fortress of Ciudad Rodrigo.  André Massèna, Duc de Rivoli, quickly reorganized and prepared a counter-attack.  Wellington deployed in a defensive position, anchoring his left on the ruined Fort Concepcion and his right on the village of Fuentes de Oñoro, the whole position arranged along high ground between the rivers de Torones and Dos Casas.  Wellington placed the bulk of his strength behind the crest of the ridge. On 3 May, Massèna sent Ferey’s division and then Marchand’s to seize Fuentes de Oñoro and the crossings over the Rio Dos Casas.  In fierce street fighting, the British 1^st Division commanded by Spencer finally drove them back from the village. Recognizing after detailed reconnaissance on 4 May that the British right flank was the most vulnerable, on 5 May Massèna feinted with an attack on the north end of the British line, while launching his main assault as a flank attack to turn the British position.  On the French far left were Montbrun’s cavalry facing a British screening force of Houston’s 7^th Division and Cotton’s Cavalry Division.  Next, Marchand, Mermet and Solignac’s divisions, arrayed in attack columns, assaulted the village of Poco Velho, threatening to drive a wedge between the 7^th and the rest of the British line.  Then, Ferey’s, Conroux’s and Claparède’s divisions renewed the attack on Fuentes de Oñoro to break the hinge of the British position.Wellington responded by using his outnumbered cavalry to counter the French horse; sent Picton’s 3^rd Division as a reserve into Fuentes; and wheeled the right of his line back on the hinge of the village to face south.  A Portuguese Brigade and the remainder of the 1^st Division formed this new line, while he committed Craufurd’s Light Division in front of it to cover the withdrawal of the 7^th through the 1^st, before itself withdrawing. Massèna’s orders were for Ferey’s division to take Fuentes de Oñoro with close support from artillery, with Conroux and Claparède’s divisions in support if needed; and then for Marchand, Mermet and Solignac’s divisions to attack from the south to turn the whole position. Andrew Jackson of peninsularwar.org provides a map here:http://www.peninsularwar.org/m.....ntes.htm  We've cropped this down for our scenario purposes. ForcesUsing our available forces, we'll  be refighting the battle at our club night next week. Hoping the formatting holds.British:

Command	Unit	Armament	Specials
Wellington	Commander: 9 Stf, Great
Spencer	Commander: 8 Stf, Good
	Line Infantry, British	Smoothbore Muskets	First Fire, Steady
	Line Infantry, British	Smoothbore Muskets	First Fire, Steady
	Line Infantry, Highland	Smoothbore Muskets	Ferocious Charge, First Fire
	Light Infantry/Rifles, Small	Rifled Muskets	Sharpshooters, Skirmishers
	Artillery, Foot	Smoothbore Artillery
Picton	Commander: 8 Stf, Good
	Line Infantry, British	Smoothbore Muskets	First Fire
	Line Infantry, British	Smoothbore Muskets	First Fire
	Line Infantry, British	Smoothbore Muskets	First Fire
	Line Infantry, British	Smoothbore Muskets	First Fire
	Artillery, Foot	Smoothbore Artillery
Cotton	Commander: 8 Stf, Good
	Dragoons, British	Swords	Ferocious Charge, Heavy Cavalry +1
	Light Dragoons	Sabres	Marauders
Houston	Commander: 8 Stf, Good
	Line Infantry, Portuguese	Smoothbore Muskets
	Line Infantry, Portuguese	Smoothbore Muskets
	Line Infantry, Portuguese	Smoothbore Muskets
	Line Infantry, Portuguese	Smoothbore Muskets
	Artillery, Foot	Smoothbore Artillery
Craufurd	Commander: 8 Stf, Good
	Light Infantry	Smoothbore Muskets	Sharpshooters, Skirmishers
	Light Infantry	Smoothbore Muskets	Sharpshooters, Skirmishers
	Light Infantry/Rifles, Small	Rifled Muskets	Sharpshooters, Skirmishers
	Light Infantry/Rifles, Small	Rifled Muskets	Sharpshooters, Skirmishers
	Artillery, Horse	Light Smoothbore Artillery	Marauders

 French:

Command	Unit	Armament	Specials
Massena	Commander: 8 Stf, Good
Ferey	Commander: 8 Stf, Good
	Line Infantry, Veteran	Smoothbore Muskets	Elite 4+, Reliable
	Light Infantry, French	Smoothbore Muskets	Sharpshooters, Skirmishers
	Line Infantry, French	Smoothbore Muskets	Reliable Attack Column
	Line Infantry, French	Smoothbore Muskets	Reliable Attack Column
	Artillery, Foot	Smoothbore Artillery
Claparede	Commander: 8 Stf, Good
	Light Infantry, French	Smoothbore Muskets	Sharpshooters, Skirmishers
	Line Infantry, French	Smoothbore Muskets	Reliable Attack Column
	Line Infantry, French	Smoothbore Muskets	Reliable Attack Column
	Line Infantry, French	Smoothbore Muskets	Reliable Attack Column
	Artillery, Foot	Smoothbore Artillery
Conroux	Commander: 8 Stf, Good
	Line Infantry, Veteran	Smoothbore Muskets	Elite 4+, Reliable
	Light Infantry, French	Smoothbore Muskets	Sharpshooters, Skirmishers
	Line Infantry, French	Smoothbore Muskets	Reliable Attack Column
	Line Infantry, French	Smoothbore Muskets	Reliable Attack Column
	Artillery, Foot	Smoothbore Artillery
Marchand	Commander: 8 Stf, Good
	Light Infantry, French	Smoothbore Muskets	Sharpshooters, Skirmishers
	Line Infantry, French	Smoothbore Muskets	Reliable Attack Column
	Line Infantry, French	Smoothbore Muskets	Reliable Attack Column
	Line Infantry, French	Smoothbore Muskets	Reliable Attack Column
	Artillery, Foot	Smoothbore Artillery
Mermet	Commander: 8 Stf, Good
	Light Infantry, French	Smoothbore Muskets	Sharpshooters, Skirmishers
	Line Infantry, French	Smoothbore Muskets	Reliable Attack Column
	Line Infantry, French	Smoothbore Muskets	Reliable Attack Column
	Line Infantry, French	Smoothbore Muskets	Reliable Attack Column
	Artillery, Foot	Smoothbore Artillery
Montbrun	Dragoons, Line	Swords	Heavy Cavalry +1
	Dragoons, Line	Swords	Heavy Cavalry +1
	Dragoons, Line	Swords	Heavy Cavalry +1
	Dragoons, Line	Swords	Heavy Cavalry +1

[BigMike]

That sound like a great setup - I'd love to see pictures of that much stuff on a table!

[mattban72]

Picton? .... well Picton, its going to be a blast and thanks for this too.

[Picton]

I ran a test of it and realized that digging infantry out of buildings is even more ugly than I'd thought, so I'm hurriedly trrying to prep some French howitzers to replace some field artillery.

[Greenjacket]

Fuentes d'Onoro is one of the classic Peninsula battles - we refought it a few mongths ago and had a blast. It has all the most famous regiments of the war - the famed 95th Rifles, the Light Infantry, the Royal Horse Artillery, the Connaught Rangers, the 1/71st HLI and the Cameron Highlanders on the British side, and from the French side, hordes of dishevelled conscripts mixed with some glorious grenadiers wearing bearskins and even Imperial Guard cavalry!

Picton's 3rd Division included some of the best units in the British Army - 1/79th Cameron Highlanders, 1/88th Connaught Rangers, and 1/45th 'Old Stubborns'. The crack 1/71st HLI was attached for the fighting in the village.

Of course, the Light Division was a crack outfit, and the two LI battalions were notably large in size.

In contrast, the quality of the French units were decidely uneven. Merle and Heudelets' Divisions and Marchand, Mermet and Fereys' divisions were built around a core of veterans from the Grand Armee, but had sustained heavy losses in the previous two years in Spain and Portugal. Solignac, Claprede and Conrouxs' divisions were conscript battalions. Before the battle the Grenadier companies were removed from the battalions to form a special corps d'elite for the battle (whose distinctive bearskin caps led the British to believe they were fighting the Imperial Guard - and it is a great opportunity to use French battalions in bearskins!!)While the Army of Portugal had a massive numerical advantage in cavalry, it was poorly mounted due to the terrible losses in horses suffered in the previous year's campaign, and was kept up to strength by drafting in officers' ponies and artillery horses. Which in turn meant that the artillery lacked enough horses, so most of the guns the Army of Portugal had were light 4-pounders. Probably more important was that many of the divisional generals and most or all of the corps commanders were disgruntled, sullen, obdurate and largely uncooperative - Bessières’s cavalry refusal to take part in the battle a case in point.

[Rod MacArthur]

. Probably more important was that many of the divisional generals and most or all of the corps commanders were disgruntled, sullen, obdurate and largely uncooperative - Bessières’s cavalry refusal to take part in the battle a case in point.

I think in the case of Lepic's Guard Cavalry it was pure arrogance in that they refused to take orders from anyone else apart from Bessières. Bessières himself considered himself to be Massena's equal and seemed to take delight in looking for Massena's errors then criticising them, rather than helping his colleague to win.

Rod

[Rod MacArthur]

Fuentes d'Onoro is one of the classic Peninsula battles - we refought it a few mongths ago and had a blast.

Hi Greenjacket,

I am not trying to re-open the discussion on Attack Columns, since we clearly disagree but in my view one of the strengths of the Black Powder ethos is to allow whatever variations players wish to adopt.

What I am however curious about was how you handled British attacks into Fuentes de Onoro village. If British can only form March Columns then the normal Black Powder rules state that these cannot fire or fight. The streets in the village were clearly too narrow to allow deployment into Line. The only solutions I can think of are to modify the rules to allow March Columns to fire and fight or just not allow the British to attack the village, neither of which seems particularly satisfactory to me, or did you have some other solution?

As I am sure you are aware the real situation on 5 May was described by Oman (History of the Peninsular War - Volume IV page 334)as follows:

"There was a fearful clash by the church at the mouth of the village street, between the 88th, the leading British regiment, and the 4th battalion of the 9th Leger at the head of Conroux's column. They met in front, both in column, and are said to have fought with the bayonet for some moments - the rarest thing in a war; it was only in a street combat like this that a chance could happen. After a sharp bicker the French battalion gave way and turned back".

Rod

[Greenjacket]

Rod,
The preceding paragraph states that the 1/88th attacked while still in column of sections (i.e. a march column - the entire battalion was probably 8 men wide at most, as you'd expect moving down on a narrow lane).

In most BP games I'd expect that, if there wasn't enough room to deploy because of the terrain (i.e. like you'd get in street fighting) most players would be quite happy for march columns to charge.

Fuentes d'Onoro was a sprawling stone village with lots of stone walls - unless the players are willing to be flexible about formations and movement, then the game will become quite slow.

[Rod MacArthur]

OK, that is a reasonable pragmatic solution of allowing march columns to fire and attack in narrow streets (or presumably breaches of fortifications).

British Columns of Route (Black Powder March Columns) were normally 4 men wide (as per the very last section of the 1792 regulations page 368 in my 1815 edition). However Wellington issued an order in the Peninsula that they should be only three men wide, so a column of sections (quarter-companies) would be at least twice the normal March Column width (order is below).

Extract from General Order issued at Louzão on 16 March 1811
The Commander of the Forces requests that for route marches each company in every battalion of infantry be told off in threes; when the column is to be formed for the march the companies must be wheeled up or backwards, by threes, and each stand in column of three men in front, which is as large a number as the greater proportion of the roads in Portugal will admit. This front can easily be increased or diminished as circumstances may render expedient.

I would agree that the narrow columns of 8 or so men wide which fought in the streets of Fuentes de Onoro are not really Attack Columns, for British or French.

Rod

[Wanax]

First, sorry to necro this thread, but I find two things of great interest in it. I will definitely be trying out your scenario with BP. Love the thought put into it.

Second is on the columns thing in towns. Our read of BP states that buildings (towns) are blocks of terrain. We use the woods rule that upon entering a town a unit is automatically converted into skirmish formation. On must state for them to defend or enter a building, otherwise we assume the "block" is full of men in streets/allies etc and for game purposes mathematically they are in skirmish order. We further rationalize CC in such an instance because skirmishers can charge skirmishers and no one is deployed into the buildings (like square rather than skirmish in such a case).