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Battle of Nivelle
Part of thePeninsular War
Gravure of the battle
Date 10 November 1813 Location River Nivelle,France 43°23′15″N1°40′9″W / 43.38750°N 1.66917°W /43.38750; -1.66917 (mouth of Nivelle) Result Allied victory
Belligerents
French Empire	United Kingdom Portugal  Spain
Commanders and leaders
Nicolas Jean de Dieu Soult	Marquess of Wellington Sir John Hamilton
Strength
50,000 (18,000 engaged)[1]	90,000 (50,000 engaged)[1]
Casualties and losses
3,200 killed or wounded 1,300 captured[1]	5,300 killed or wounded 200 captured (2,800 Anglo–Portuguese and 2,700 Spanish)[1]
class=notpageimage| Location within Europe

Peninsular War:
Campaign in south-west France

50km
31miles

7

Bayonne

6

Toulouse

5

4

3

2

Nivelle

1

   

  current battle

TheBattle of Nivelle (10 November 1813) took place in front of the riverNivelle near the end of thePeninsular War (1808–1814). After the Allied siege ofSan Sebastian,Wellington's 80,000 British, Portuguese and Spanish troops (20,000 of the Spaniards were untried in battle) were in hot pursuit ofMarshal Soult who had 60,000 men to place in a 20-mile perimeter. After theLight Division, the main British army was ordered to attack and the 3rdDivision split Soult's army in two. By two o'clock, Soult was in retreat and the British in a strong offensive position. Soult had lost another battle on French soil and had lost 4,500 men to Wellington's 5,500.

In theSiege of San Sebastian, theAnglo-Portuguese stormed and captured the port at the beginning of September 1813. In theBattle of San Marcial on 31 August, Soult failed to break through the Spanish defences in his final attempt to relieve the siege. The French army then fell back to defend theBidassoa River, which forms the French-Spanish frontier near the coast.

At dawn on 7 October, the Anglo-Allied army overran the French river defences in theBattle of the Bidassoa in a surprise crossing. During this action, the allies also captured several fortified positions in the area of La Rhune mountain. Both sides lost about 1,600 men in these actions.

Arrayed in front of the course of theRiver Nivelle, whose route was marked by a series of hills on which the French had built strong defensive positions or redoubts, was the French army underMarshal Soult. Soult's lines stretched from the shores of the Atlantic on the French right flank to the snow-covered pass of Roncesvalles on the left, a perimeter of about twenty miles. With only 50,000 men, Soult was stretched to an almost impossible point. This also meant that he could not hold troops back asreserves, something which might have turned the tide of the battle. As Soult moved back to his base atBayonne, his position strengthened but he was not quick enough and Wellington caught him up.

The French position was dominated by theGreater Rhune, a gorse-covered, craggy mountain nearly 3,000 feet high. Separated from the Greater Rhune by a ravine, roughly 700 yards below it, is the Lesser Rhune along the precipitous crest of which the French had constructed three defensive positions. If the French defences onLa Rhune could be takenSoult's position would become very dangerous as it would open him to attack from all elements of the British three-point pincer plan.

Wellington's plan was to distribute troops along the whole of Soult's line but make his main attack in the centre. Any breakthrough in the centre or the French leftflank would enable the British to cut off the French right flank. So, Wellington ordered that the British left (attacking the French right) would be led bySir John Hope and would involve the1st and5th Divisions as well as Freire's Spaniards.Beresford would lead the main Allied attack against the French centre with the3rd,4th,7th andLight Divisions, while on the British right (attacking the French left )Hill would attack with the2nd and6th Divisions, supported byMorillo's Spaniards andHamilton's Portuguese. Wellington decided to attack on 10 November.

The battle started just before dawn as theLight Division headed towards theplateau on the summit of the Greater Rhune (the summit had been garrisoned by French troops but they had fled after theskirmish on the River Bidassoa, fearing to be cut off from their own army). The objective of thedivision was to sweep the three defensive forts the French had constructed out of the battle. They moved down into the ravine in front of the Lesser Rhune and were ordered to lie down and await the order to attack. After the signal from abattery ofcannon, the offensive began. It started with the men of the43rd,52nd and95th – with the 17th Portuguese infantry Regiment in support – storming the redoubts on the crest of the Rhune. Despite this being a risky move and the men being almost exhausted, the surprise and boldness of the British sent the French fleeing towards other forts on other hills.

While the 43rd and 95th were dealing with the French on the Rhune, there still remained one very strong star-shaped fort below on the Mouizplateau which reached out towards the coast. This was attacked byColborne's 52nd Light Infantry, supported byriflemen from the 95th. Once again, the French were surprised and the British succeeded. They had, in the French eyes, appeared from the ground at which point, in danger of being cut off, the Frenchsoldiers quickly fled leaving Colborne in possession of the fort and other trenches without suffering a single fatality.

Shortly, the main British assault began, with the nine divisions fanning out over a five-mile front. When the 3rd division took the bridge at Amotz, all French resistance broke as any communication between the two halves ofSoult's army was now impossible. The French resistance melted away and soon they were in full retreat (by two o'clock they were streaming across the Nivelle) having lost 4,500 men to Wellington's 5,500.

News of the victory reachedLondon at the same time as reports of theLiberation of Hanover by Allied forces, leading to a double triumph.^[2]

Bodart, Gaston (1908).Militär-historisches Kriegs-Lexikon (1618-1905). Wien und Leipzig, C. W. Stern.

• Jones, John T. (1818),Account of the War in Spain and Portugal, and in the South of France: From 1808, to 1814, Inclus, Egerton, pp. 346–355
• Paget, Julian (2005),"Chapter 31:The Battle of Nivelle",Wellington's Peninsular War: Battles and Battlefields (illustrated, reprint ed.), Pen and Sword, pp. 211–216,ISBN 9781844152902

• Media related toBattle of Nivelle at Wikimedia Commons

• Battles of the Peninsular War involving Portugal
• Battles of the Peninsular War involving the United Kingdom
• Battles of the Peninsular War involving Spain
• Riverine warfare
• Military history of Nouvelle-Aquitaine
• History of Pyrénées-Atlantiques
• Battles in 1813
• 1813 in France
• November 1813
• Battle honours of the King's Royal Rifle Corps
• Battles of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
• Battles of the War of the Sixth Coalition

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