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War to the Death: The Sieges of Saragossa 1808-1809
The intensity of Spanish resistance to French occupation of their country during the Napoleonic Wars is vividly portrayed in this classic account of the sieges of Saragossa in 1808 and 1809. The French army expected to have little difficulty in taking this key Spanish city, but they encountered ferocious opposition from Spanish soldiers and civilians. They were embroiled in a murderous, long-drawn out operation that lasted for almost a year. Casualties were very heavy on both sides, as was the suffering of the citizens of Saragossa, and the city was ruined by weeks of hand-to-hand, room-to-room fighting. Raymond Rudorff's classic account, reissued in paperback, of one of the defining events in the Peninsular War gives a vivid insight into the siege and the street-fighting, and into the fierce determination of the Spanish to expel the French from their country.
388 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1974
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April 15, 2020Possibly you are looking at this, taking in the obscure title of this book and wondering what on earth it could possibly be about?
Allow me to end the savage suspense. It is a book about the two sieges of the town of Saragossa in Aragon, Spain, in the summer of 1808 and the late winter of 1809. In practise the author pads out the story with the background in Spain, the decision of Napoleon to remove the king and replace him with Napoleon's own elder brother Joseph in the brief international monarch transfer window, moving him from the kingdom of Naples to the throne of Spain, the rebellion in Spain, which ultimately led Joseph to withdraw along with most of the French and to Napoleon cursing and swearing and leading armies back into Spain.
It struck me, and possibly the author as well, since he starts it, that all of the background material could have been scraped and rendered comic book style through a series of reproductions of paintings by Goya. Firstly Spain is in a bad wayt, there is depopulation in the inland areas, there is suspicion, backwardness, and poverty, the quality of political leadership was poor. Just look at King Charles IV and his family, the king was an idiot, his queen was having an affair with the chief minister who did anything for money - but on the plus side they liked Goya.
Napoleon dumps them and moves in his brother, the Spanish people on the whole are not exactly overwhelmed with happiness at this soap opera turn of events and on the second of May 1808 there is street fighting in Madrid against the French army. On third of May this is followed by 'pacification' measures. Rebellion spreads throughout Spain. The Spanish army is mostly defeated in battle against the French. Fighting is though particularly brutal on both sides as illustrated in The disasters of war.
I think there are two distinct ideas we can form about Napoleon and his wars, one the one hand the wars he fought in Italy and Germany, when he won decisive battles, governments surrendered, and Napoleon redrew the map, removing rulers, bringing in his own (not always his brothers), this is the general picture which judging by world events is predominant in the minds of most politicians and officers in the military. The other is the Spanish ulcer; the bitter war fought between an army and the civilian population, perhaps this is the archetype and the more typical pattern of wars and conflicts.
The book describes the two hard fought sieges of Saragossa. The city had a a good store of artillery and muskets, but not many soldiers, a nearby officer of the Royal Guard, Palafox, was hurriedly acclaimed by the population of the city as their military leader, he had no combat experience. Large numbers of civilians volunteered to fight, a French army gathered to force the city to acknowledge Joseph as rightful King. The French army was fairly small and did not have a great deal of artillery. Nor do the French have enough men to seal off the city, Palafox nevertheless gallops off allegedly in search of help. The French eventually manage to burst into the city, this imageillustrates one moment in the struggle, the French having killed all the artillerymen working a battery of guns are about to seize the bastion when a young woman, Augstina, rushed up and fired a cannon at the advancing troops, she eventually went on to have a career in the Spanish army becoming a captain. The city is eventually saved because a French army is trapped and forced to surrender in southern Spain which obliges Joseph to pull back from Madrid with the remaining French troops.
Napoleon was unimpressed by this turn of events in Spain and felt obliged to intervene in person with more soldiers. Saragossa is soon besieged again, but by a larger army with greater numbers of heavy guns, Napoleon himself apparently took an interest and after studying a map decided on where his artillery should be situated and where attacks were to be concentrated.
Since the first defence of the city was famous throughout Spain, many troops of the regular army arrived to help in the struggle, the townsfolk cut down most of the olive groves around the city to give them clear lines of sight to fire at advancing Frenchmen, the defences were improved, food and munitions brought in, indeed Palafox may have had more soldiers than the attacking French. The french however managed to dig lines of trenches, to concentrate artillery fire and eventually to break into the city in several places. Then house to house fighting began. The French smashed their way through from one house to the next through the walls, sometimes destroying house with gunpowder. Within each house the Spanish fought the French from floor to floor, later in Stalingrad the Germans fought the Russians for control over a tractor factory, during the siege of Saragossa the French and the Spanish battled within churches and monasteries. The Spanish were attacked by disease, monks and nuns made cartridges, civilians attacked the French with knives or with cooking pots. the war continues until at the battle of Vittoria in 1813 when Joseph is defeated as he was about to escape Spain with a wagon train full of works of Art looted from the royal collections, a moment of great significance in Art history as discussed in The Girl in a Green Gown.
The author mainly draws on memoirs and accounts written by the French, he records his disappointment that very little documentary evidence was retained by the Spanish though Palafox wrote a short autobiography. An active figure on the Spanish side was Countess Bureta, I amused to notice with one exception the author always referred to her as the beautiful Countess Bureta, no doubt she was, but it left me imagining her as being like Cleopatra in Asterix and Cleopatra with everything pausing around her, stilled by her appearance. A lively and vicious story.
Allow me to end the savage suspense. It is a book about the two sieges of the town of Saragossa in Aragon, Spain, in the summer of 1808 and the late winter of 1809. In practise the author pads out the story with the background in Spain, the decision of Napoleon to remove the king and replace him with Napoleon's own elder brother Joseph in the brief international monarch transfer window, moving him from the kingdom of Naples to the throne of Spain, the rebellion in Spain, which ultimately led Joseph to withdraw along with most of the French and to Napoleon cursing and swearing and leading armies back into Spain.
It struck me, and possibly the author as well, since he starts it, that all of the background material could have been scraped and rendered comic book style through a series of reproductions of paintings by Goya. Firstly Spain is in a bad wayt, there is depopulation in the inland areas, there is suspicion, backwardness, and poverty, the quality of political leadership was poor. Just look at King Charles IV and his family, the king was an idiot, his queen was having an affair with the chief minister who did anything for money - but on the plus side they liked Goya.
Napoleon dumps them and moves in his brother, the Spanish people on the whole are not exactly overwhelmed with happiness at this soap opera turn of events and on the second of May 1808 there is street fighting in Madrid against the French army. On third of May this is followed by 'pacification' measures. Rebellion spreads throughout Spain. The Spanish army is mostly defeated in battle against the French. Fighting is though particularly brutal on both sides as illustrated in The disasters of war.
I think there are two distinct ideas we can form about Napoleon and his wars, one the one hand the wars he fought in Italy and Germany, when he won decisive battles, governments surrendered, and Napoleon redrew the map, removing rulers, bringing in his own (not always his brothers), this is the general picture which judging by world events is predominant in the minds of most politicians and officers in the military. The other is the Spanish ulcer; the bitter war fought between an army and the civilian population, perhaps this is the archetype and the more typical pattern of wars and conflicts.
The book describes the two hard fought sieges of Saragossa. The city had a a good store of artillery and muskets, but not many soldiers, a nearby officer of the Royal Guard, Palafox, was hurriedly acclaimed by the population of the city as their military leader, he had no combat experience. Large numbers of civilians volunteered to fight, a French army gathered to force the city to acknowledge Joseph as rightful King. The French army was fairly small and did not have a great deal of artillery. Nor do the French have enough men to seal off the city, Palafox nevertheless gallops off allegedly in search of help. The French eventually manage to burst into the city, this imageillustrates one moment in the struggle, the French having killed all the artillerymen working a battery of guns are about to seize the bastion when a young woman, Augstina, rushed up and fired a cannon at the advancing troops, she eventually went on to have a career in the Spanish army becoming a captain. The city is eventually saved because a French army is trapped and forced to surrender in southern Spain which obliges Joseph to pull back from Madrid with the remaining French troops.
Napoleon was unimpressed by this turn of events in Spain and felt obliged to intervene in person with more soldiers. Saragossa is soon besieged again, but by a larger army with greater numbers of heavy guns, Napoleon himself apparently took an interest and after studying a map decided on where his artillery should be situated and where attacks were to be concentrated.
Since the first defence of the city was famous throughout Spain, many troops of the regular army arrived to help in the struggle, the townsfolk cut down most of the olive groves around the city to give them clear lines of sight to fire at advancing Frenchmen, the defences were improved, food and munitions brought in, indeed Palafox may have had more soldiers than the attacking French. The french however managed to dig lines of trenches, to concentrate artillery fire and eventually to break into the city in several places. Then house to house fighting began. The French smashed their way through from one house to the next through the walls, sometimes destroying house with gunpowder. Within each house the Spanish fought the French from floor to floor, later in Stalingrad the Germans fought the Russians for control over a tractor factory, during the siege of Saragossa the French and the Spanish battled within churches and monasteries. The Spanish were attacked by disease, monks and nuns made cartridges, civilians attacked the French with knives or with cooking pots. the war continues until at the battle of Vittoria in 1813 when Joseph is defeated as he was about to escape Spain with a wagon train full of works of Art looted from the royal collections, a moment of great significance in Art history as discussed in The Girl in a Green Gown.
The author mainly draws on memoirs and accounts written by the French, he records his disappointment that very little documentary evidence was retained by the Spanish though Palafox wrote a short autobiography. An active figure on the Spanish side was Countess Bureta, I amused to notice with one exception the author always referred to her as the beautiful Countess Bureta, no doubt she was, but it left me imagining her as being like Cleopatra in Asterix and Cleopatra with everything pausing around her, stilled by her appearance. A lively and vicious story.
May 28, 2018
This is a story of horror and savagery in the early days of the Peninsular War. With the French invasion of Spain, certain cities became targets, Saragossa was one of them. Napoleon had never fought a war like this one. It wasn't just army against army; it was also guerrilla warfare, and sieges where the people fought too, often to the death.
The author ably describes the first siege in the summer of 1808, in which the Saragossans under the leadership of Jose Palafox, defend their city successfully, despite Palafox's mistakes. Between August and December, there is joy in the city and the faint hope that they will be left alone. Tragically, the French had no intention of allowing the enemy to thwart their plans to dominate the entire peninsula.
The second half of the book is difficult to read at times. Palafox's weaknesses of strategy, the iron attitude of the Church, disease, and no relieving forces all contribute to the downfall of the city. As buildings are destroyed by great explosions, people continue to fight on despite disease and privation until finally capitulation becomes necessary.
Saragossa was only one small part of the Peninsular War, but it showed what people could do when they chose to fight. By 1814, the French were gone from Spain.
The author ably describes the first siege in the summer of 1808, in which the Saragossans under the leadership of Jose Palafox, defend their city successfully, despite Palafox's mistakes. Between August and December, there is joy in the city and the faint hope that they will be left alone. Tragically, the French had no intention of allowing the enemy to thwart their plans to dominate the entire peninsula.
The second half of the book is difficult to read at times. Palafox's weaknesses of strategy, the iron attitude of the Church, disease, and no relieving forces all contribute to the downfall of the city. As buildings are destroyed by great explosions, people continue to fight on despite disease and privation until finally capitulation becomes necessary.
Saragossa was only one small part of the Peninsular War, but it showed what people could do when they chose to fight. By 1814, the French were gone from Spain.
November 27, 2022
Written quite a few decades ago, this is still, in English, the best treatment of a siege that was the abyssal forerunner of the dark names of Shanghai, Stalingrad, Aachen, Hue, Mariupol, and other urban battlefields of the last century and so.
Covering all sides very well, but focusing mainly on the Spanish, the author did a wonderful job setting the stage by explaining Spanish culture, their attitudes towards their highly dysfunctional government and monarchy, and their relationship with first the Revolutionary French, and then the counter revolutionary Napoleonic Imperium.
Once the war between the French Empire and the Spanish begins, the author spends some time showcasing the broader events as the war rapidly marched to Zaragoza's doorstep. Once military operations begin outside the city, however, the author focuses almost exclusively on Zaragoza, and gives about a 70-30 split between the Spanish and French viewpoint.
The battles are well covered, both the field battles and operational maneuvers in the region, as well as the various tactical operations during the siege itself.
However, it's the horror of the siege itself, and the destruction of Zaragoza, by artillery, likely one of the first times in military history, that a sizeable urban center was pounded to ruin by sustained, weeks long, artillery fire, where the writing becomes darkly poignant. And once the French begin storming the city, which takes them several times before they finally break the Spanish resistance during a second siege under Marshal Lannes, the carnage is eerily similar to those 20th and 21st century urban nightmares.
Extremely well written, about a very little known aspect of the Peninsula War.
Very highly recommended.
Covering all sides very well, but focusing mainly on the Spanish, the author did a wonderful job setting the stage by explaining Spanish culture, their attitudes towards their highly dysfunctional government and monarchy, and their relationship with first the Revolutionary French, and then the counter revolutionary Napoleonic Imperium.
Once the war between the French Empire and the Spanish begins, the author spends some time showcasing the broader events as the war rapidly marched to Zaragoza's doorstep. Once military operations begin outside the city, however, the author focuses almost exclusively on Zaragoza, and gives about a 70-30 split between the Spanish and French viewpoint.
The battles are well covered, both the field battles and operational maneuvers in the region, as well as the various tactical operations during the siege itself.
However, it's the horror of the siege itself, and the destruction of Zaragoza, by artillery, likely one of the first times in military history, that a sizeable urban center was pounded to ruin by sustained, weeks long, artillery fire, where the writing becomes darkly poignant. And once the French begin storming the city, which takes them several times before they finally break the Spanish resistance during a second siege under Marshal Lannes, the carnage is eerily similar to those 20th and 21st century urban nightmares.
Extremely well written, about a very little known aspect of the Peninsula War.
Very highly recommended.
May 24, 2023
A grim story well told. A valuable reminder for those who only think of the Peninsular War in terms of Wellington and his redcoats thrashing the French with the help of a few guerrillas, that there was a wider and bloodier war going on. This book gives a good introduction on how the Spanish uprising against the French occupiers began, before getting into the detail of the two sieges of Zaragoza. Those familiar with Wellington's sieges will know that they were unpleasant businesses but, at least, once the breach was made and the place was stormed (with the inevitable raping and pillaging) it was over fairly quickly. With the second - and ultimately successful siege of Zaragoza - the French gaining entry to the town was only the start of weeks of grinding, house-to-house fighting. In spite of the fancy uniforms this sounds much more like a twentieth century affair: trenches, tunnels, explosives used to bring down buildings, 'mouse holes' blown to gain access from room to room and even fighting from floor to floor. Civilians were at the heart of the defence with men and women of all ages fighting and dying in droves from combat and disease - 54,000 in all! There was even paranoia about spies and traitors in the city - with accompanying executions - that would impress any Soviet commissar or Nazi hardliner. And when it was all over in February 1809, there were still five more years of the war to go! In spite of its age this remains a valuable contribution to the literature of the war in the Peninsula.
I am visiting Zaragoza next week, so it will be interesting to see if the sieges are as forgotten as the author found them nearly fifty years ago.
I am visiting Zaragoza next week, so it will be interesting to see if the sieges are as forgotten as the author found them nearly fifty years ago.
December 2, 2017
A fascinating history into the two French sieges of the Spanish city of Saragossa which were unsuccessful in 1808 but successful the following year. Unbelievably this story is not well known today but the bravery of the Spanish residents in holding off Napoleon's forces, who at the time were pretty much an all-conquering military force, should be the stuff of legends.
This was total warfare in the extreme with the whole city united against the French and involved some of the most brutal fighting imaginable involving soldiers, and civilians including woman and children. Weeks and weeks of hand to hand street fighting where dozens, if not hundreds of lives, were lost in the fight for each individual house, saw the most gruesome and barbaric sights imaginable with the Spanish defenders on occasion literally committing suicide rather than surrendering.
In our modern age, even though we are familiar with the mechanicalisation of warfare of the twentieth century, it is still hard to comprehend the sheer brutality of such conflicts and the determined attitudes of the combatants who often sold their lives so cheaply. The French finally succeeded in taking the city but at a huge cost. Over 50,000 of the local inhabitants were killed and the bravely and determination of Saragossa sent a message around the rest of Spain and around Europe that undoubtedly helped motivate further resistance against Napoleon, and perhaps led to the beginning of the end of his reign and put his armies in the long road to Waterloo.
This was total warfare in the extreme with the whole city united against the French and involved some of the most brutal fighting imaginable involving soldiers, and civilians including woman and children. Weeks and weeks of hand to hand street fighting where dozens, if not hundreds of lives, were lost in the fight for each individual house, saw the most gruesome and barbaric sights imaginable with the Spanish defenders on occasion literally committing suicide rather than surrendering.
In our modern age, even though we are familiar with the mechanicalisation of warfare of the twentieth century, it is still hard to comprehend the sheer brutality of such conflicts and the determined attitudes of the combatants who often sold their lives so cheaply. The French finally succeeded in taking the city but at a huge cost. Over 50,000 of the local inhabitants were killed and the bravely and determination of Saragossa sent a message around the rest of Spain and around Europe that undoubtedly helped motivate further resistance against Napoleon, and perhaps led to the beginning of the end of his reign and put his armies in the long road to Waterloo.
November 11, 2009
Horrifying account of the siege of Zaragosa in 1809.
September 17, 2024
Moving and empathetic account of the Spanish people during this memorable time in their history, though I am not sure a Spaniard would immediately appreciate this, as their country and culture gets quite a severe dressing down at the beginning. The first 50-ish pages of introduction to the Spanish position in Napoleon's plans at the time, their culture and recent history were fascinating.
This is a good all-you-need-to-know book about the Siege, but for me as a general reader and I think for many modern British readers for whom this is a fairly small part of the general scenery of the Napoleonic wars (or even the Peninsular specifically), we get an awful lot of detail here. It is a great action-by-action account of what happened exactly during the sieges, but for all it succeeded this purpose, for my own wants at least, I would've preferred a more general eye, focusing more on the scene setting. You sense the tight streets and the little shops and the dusty beauty of the dilapidated monastery but are not really told of them, and for a tale of this sort, atmosphere would add a lot. It would go from an account of what happened, to an account of why it so enraptured public imagination at the time. Yes, the stakes were against them and the feat was impressive, but the mythos of the event was much lost in the retelling. Until the epilogue I had just assumed the historian had not actually visited the city - it felt placeless like that. At the end of the book, as the Argonese are losing/have lost, the descriptions of the desecrated places of worship were harrowing and horribly visual however.
There was a grave inevitability to how this story would end, despite the fierce determination of the Spaniards and so reading as the resistance gradually unravelled made for a devastating experience. The final twenty pages or so when disease runs rampant through the Saragossans were particularly hard to read. Once they capitulate, General Lejeune's commentary on the sight of the emaciated, disease-addled Spaniards with long beards and ash-stained faces marching sadly, but still - despite everything - with pride in their eyes makes you appreciate the obvious fact throughout the account. These were brave people, braver than anyone could be. Their resistance is not known to the common man anymore, still as the book ends:
'As the last survivors of Saragossa's garrison were marched to the French frontier, it might have comforted them to know that it was before the walls of their city that Napoleon's men had begun to tread the path which was ultimately and inexorably to lead them to Waterloo.'
I don't think he could've ended it better; for the quiet importance of this little event in slowly undermining Napoleon's regime, I am so glad to have read it and opened my mind to the names and experiences of the people who suffered and died for it. Definitely a worthy read.
This is a good all-you-need-to-know book about the Siege, but for me as a general reader and I think for many modern British readers for whom this is a fairly small part of the general scenery of the Napoleonic wars (or even the Peninsular specifically), we get an awful lot of detail here. It is a great action-by-action account of what happened exactly during the sieges, but for all it succeeded this purpose, for my own wants at least, I would've preferred a more general eye, focusing more on the scene setting. You sense the tight streets and the little shops and the dusty beauty of the dilapidated monastery but are not really told of them, and for a tale of this sort, atmosphere would add a lot. It would go from an account of what happened, to an account of why it so enraptured public imagination at the time. Yes, the stakes were against them and the feat was impressive, but the mythos of the event was much lost in the retelling. Until the epilogue I had just assumed the historian had not actually visited the city - it felt placeless like that. At the end of the book, as the Argonese are losing/have lost, the descriptions of the desecrated places of worship were harrowing and horribly visual however.
There was a grave inevitability to how this story would end, despite the fierce determination of the Spaniards and so reading as the resistance gradually unravelled made for a devastating experience. The final twenty pages or so when disease runs rampant through the Saragossans were particularly hard to read. Once they capitulate, General Lejeune's commentary on the sight of the emaciated, disease-addled Spaniards with long beards and ash-stained faces marching sadly, but still - despite everything - with pride in their eyes makes you appreciate the obvious fact throughout the account. These were brave people, braver than anyone could be. Their resistance is not known to the common man anymore, still as the book ends:
'As the last survivors of Saragossa's garrison were marched to the French frontier, it might have comforted them to know that it was before the walls of their city that Napoleon's men had begun to tread the path which was ultimately and inexorably to lead them to Waterloo.'
I don't think he could've ended it better; for the quiet importance of this little event in slowly undermining Napoleon's regime, I am so glad to have read it and opened my mind to the names and experiences of the people who suffered and died for it. Definitely a worthy read.
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March 24, 2024
Published in 1974, 'War to the Death - the sieges of Saragossa 1808-1809' is a historical account of some keys events in the Peninsular War within the context of the Napoleonic Wars. I have read several accounts of the Peninsular War, but these have without exception concentrated on events connected with the involvement of the British Army under Sir Arthur Wellesley. This accounts deals with events leading up this, with a focus of the two sieges of Saragossa. This historical account provides next to nothing in source details, such as you routinely find in works by more modern historians. There, certain amount of judgement is required about exactly what you are reading - nevertheless it does adequately convey the horrors of the sieges, as well as the descent into atrocities and counter-atrocities that defined many aspects of the Peninsular War. A very informative read.
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