St. George's Cavalry has prepared to meet the enemy at the crags between Solivella and Rocallaura. Lieutenant Colonel Comes has already prepared his troops in favorable terrain, but he does not trust to hold them for long, Sir. For his regiment is not complete while the enemy is composed of two full battalions of Spanish Guards, two squadrons of Horse Guards and a battery of artillery.
The battle starts off with the Catalan cavalry concealed in rolling scrub terrain near the only ford north of Montblanc. The rest of the area is scored by mostly dry riverbeds and streams. This one crossing is the easiest for artillery, foot and horse may cross anywhere....
Marquis of Aitona leads his command of Guard Horse, Grenadiers and guns towards the ford...
After leaving instructions with the Horse Guards Colonel, Marquis of Aitona moves to bolster the morale of the Guard Infantry as they scramble down into the stream and across.
Caught at the moment of crossing, the Catalonian Horse charged. Not surprisingly the Spanish Guardsmen finished the crossing and formed a firing line. For the artillery a harder choice was now at hand, they could not retire with enough speed to evade the horsemen and they could not get any of the guns into action. As the Guard Grenadiers were standing their ground and as the Marquis of Aitona was literally watching over their shoulders the gunners chose to make a brave stand and toss a few shells at the charging horsemen before running to the cover of the adjacent lines.
There was not to be any great overturning of expectations here.
The line quality Catalonian horse was no match for the Spanish Guard Grenadier infantry.
Indeed, while the charge did roll forward, it halted in confusion and disorder right before charging home into the guardsmen. The guard did not miss this opportunity and literally shot to pieces 100% of one squadron that charged them. The other squadron was more successful in catching, overcoming and literally destroying the artillery battery, sending the gunners scattering and touching off powder in magazine cases and rolling guns to the blood soaked waters.
The fire from the adjacent guard infantry did manage to off 1/3 of the squadron though.
This left St George's cavalry with 2/3rds losses in total and in no position to hold any ground the remaining troopers fled the field.
The Spanish Guard had been held up for perhaps 45 minutes, the Guard Horse had not taken any action at all and was free to press on to Montblanc.
Next up: AAR Montblanc proper.
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1 comment:
Quite an expectable final result, because defenders' chances were certainly small. I've got crushed at watching their terrible losses though --it leads to thinling that ot would have been better for them not to behave so bravely, and failing to charge. Although this would have sunk their commander's career maybe...
Thanks for your briliant battle account, MurdocK.
I've already started outlining my own after-battle scene. Is there any relevant data, or casualties listing, that I ought to have into account? (colonels fallen on the field or captured, and so?)
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