Second Lieutenant Zickel’s letters from Spain, 1808-1809 …

Here we have François-Joseph Zickel, an officer in the 10th Regiment of Chasseurs à Cheval, after nine years’ service and almost as many campaigns. His ‘new epaulette’ received its baptism of fire at Friedland on 14 June 1807. Then, after the peace of Tilsit and a few months’ well-earned rest, the two Zickel brothers moved with their regiment to Spain, from where the youngest brother would not return and where the eldest would spend five arduous years of constant fighting.

We therefore find them in the Iberian Peninsula, in 1808, under the orders of a general well suited to appeal to these two valiant sabreurs: the heroic Lasalle! It was at the battle of Medina del Rio-Seco, on 14 July 1808, that Second Lieutenant Zickel suffered his first wound (a musket shot to the right groin). He was awarded the Cross of the Legion of Honour on the following 4 September, but this did not prevent him from fighting at Burgos, Somosierra, Miajadas and other engagements.

Unfortunately, we lack details of the first months of Zickel’s time in Spain, as the first letter we possess from that country is dated 19 April 1809. It is addressed to his father :

To Mr. Zickel, lieutenant of the reserve company of the Department of the Haut-Rhin, at Colmar.

Mérida in Extremadura, 19 April 1809.

All correspondence having been intercepted up to this time and having recently been re-established, I take this opportunity, my dear father, to send you word of myself and Jean-Pierre, and to reassure you of our fate.

You have no doubt learned of the battle of Burgos; I have not been able to provide you with any details as, since that time, we have done nothing but wander to the right and to the left, always separated from the army corps, and no post has been established. We stayed for some time at Talavera, where I intended to write to you, but the postmaster did not arrive until the day before our departure; consequently, it was impossible for me to fulfil my intentions.

We marched from Talavera to Truxillo, having driven the insurgents from all their impregnable positions and thrusting our swords into the backs of their 4,000-strong cavalry force, the rearguard of their army. On 21 March, our regiment pursued them so vigorously that it cornered them on their infantry, which was refreshing itself at Miajadas. Then, finding themselves so close together and pursued by so few men, they turned around and charged us for half a league (at least five to one!) and killed about fifty men who, suffocated by the dust, threw themselves to the right and left of the road where there were small ravines and ditches into which their horses hurled them. It didn’t take long for us to exact our revenge, because on the 28th they established their line on the left bank of the Guadiana, in front of Medeline (sic) and backed by the village of Don Benito, to engage us in battle. Fortunately, they had chosen an immense plain to allow their cavalry to carry out the manoeuvre.

They began to present us a line of 12,000 infantrymen and about 1,200 cavalrymen. Marshal Victor brought forward the cavalry of his corps, consisting of the 2nd Hussars, the 5th, 10th and 26th Chasseurs, the 4th, 14th and 26th Dragoons, along with two large infantry divisions of around 8 to 10,000 men. We marched upon the enemy, who initially retreated to Don Benito. We were beginning to close in on them when they deployed their second line, which was hidden behind a ravine and was about 20,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry strong, as well as about twenty cannon. As our line was not wide enough to face the enemy, we retreated, the infantry in squares without firing a shot, and the cavalry in echelons, to occupy more enclosed terrain. The Spanish general, believing our defeat to be certain, having 36,000 men against our 12,000 at most, had his cavalry manoeuvre on our flanks in order to outflank them; and our own, the brave Count de Lasalle (who has just departed for France and whom we sincerely regret), seeing their infantry marching against us at the double and deprived of their cavalry, had us charge them. Nothing could resist us: we drove them in at the first impact and the entire line of infantry began to flee on all fours; we pursued them across a magnificent plain for two leagues, killing them at leisure.

Their cavalry, upon noticing our movement, retreated at full gallop, abandoning their infantry to save themselves more quickly, and they were the only casualties of this bloody battle, for the number of killed and wounded by the cavalry alone amounts to 12,000, as well as 7,000 prisoners, 20 guns and a few flags. We only suffered 136 wounded and about forty killed in the entire corps.

Jean-Pierre and I were lucky enough to come out of these two engagements unscathed, and we are always ready to gather new laurels.

The captain of the company to which I belong had asked the colonel for Jean-Pierre to become chief quartermaster, to which he replied: ‘He’s too good a soldier to be chief quartermaster! He should remain quartermaster until a better opportunity arises.’ And, according to the report I received from the colonel’s brother, he assured me that I was being considered for the rank of lieutenant and Jean-Pierre for the rank of second lieutenant or a decoration.

There are already six captains missing, in whose place lieutenants have been proposed, and if the government grants the requests that have been made, I do not despair of being an adjutant-major in a year’s time, or a captain in two.

I embrace you wholeheartedly, as well as my dear mother and brother and sisters, and am, for life, your devoted son.

ZICKEL, second lieutenant.

***

To Mr. Zickel, lieutenant of the reserve company of the Haut-Rhin, at Colmar.

Valdemor, 25 December 1809.

In reply to your letter of last 19 October, which I received on 16 December, I will tell you, my dear father, that I provided you with tidings of myself and Jean-Pierre last September, when I mentioned the battle of Talavera and that of Almonacid from which we managed to escape unharmed.

I also told you that, having joined the regimental postmaster, I had him hand over the acknowledgement of the money which you sent us nearly two years ago, to enable me to present myself with it at the post office in Madrid, from where I was only two leagues away (the regimental commander having left me there to supply the company with colbacks); but that, during the journey, I had the misfortune to lose it.

I therefore urged you, my dear father, to go and see the postmaster at Colmar, to inform him of this and to have a duplicate sent to you, so that with it you could withdraw the said money. It seems that you have not received my letter, but that it will reach you later, since I only received Ignace’s letter, in which he congratulated me on my decoration, at the end of (last) October.

As for the news from Spain, it is very satisfactory, having recently won one of the greatest victories over the insurgents since we began to fight them.

They had gathered at Ocaña, about 55,000 infantry and 7,000 cavalry, with the intention of marching upon the capital; however, we prevented them. IV Corps and part of V Corps, about 20,000 to 25,000 men, and two cavalry divisions, about 9,000 strong, marched against them, while I Corps manoeuvred on their right flank. We attacked them from an almost impregnable position. However, the usual intrepidity of our brave men overcame all obstacles; the enemy was overwhelmed in less than two hours, and routed in a manner that is easier to describe than to conceive! We captured at least thirty thousand men, fifty guns with their caissons, a large number of flags and all their equipment included. We pursued them to the other side of the Guadiana, where we collected stragglers at every step.

What caused great consternation in their army was the fact that, on the eve of the battle, our regiment, the Polish Lancers and two regiments of dragoons, together numbering about 1,200 horses, went on reconnaissance to Ocaña, where there was a superb plain before we got there.

There was no need to hesitate! The Poles, who were the first to reach the area and had not yet formed up in battle, initiated the most successful charge. The dragoons, holding the right, did the same, and our regiment, 150 strong and holding the left, faced six enemy squadrons that have never dared to measure their arms against us.

We killed at least 300 of their men, not counting the wounded, and we seized a large number of horses because, before reaching the town where all their infantry were located, there was a ravine 400 feet wide and 300 feet deep, which forced some of their cavalrymen to dismount and abandon their horses to the victors in order to save themselves. On the day of the battle, they hardly dared to show themselves and were the first to flee, overturning their infantry.

Thus, the enemy’s losses could amount to forty thousand men! Long live the Emperor!

Since the battle, we are in cantonments and I am established here, with 15 horses, and find myself four leagues from Madrid.

I embrace you wholeheartedly, as well as my dear mother, brother and sisters, and am always your devoted son.

ZICKEL, second lieutenant.

P. S. – I have lost another horse and the previous mount (1) has not yet been compensated! Jean-Pierre is doing well.

(1) Killed under him on 11 August at the battle of Almonacid.

Source : Le Carnet de la Sabretache, 1907, pp. 693-696.