2000 21st August 1813
At his headquarters in Valladolid Wellington is concerned
and becoming impatient.
It is three days since he issued his campaign orders, and
since then he has not received a single report from his three corps commanders.
Reports continue to arrive from his network of spies, and
from the guerrilla chiefs. All confirm
that the French are busy redeploying their divisions to meet the expected
allied offensive.
The Spanish guerrillas have been busy behind the French
front lines, and one has reported that the main road from Burgos to France has
been occupied and all supplies disrupted.
He is concerned that his generals do not appear to have
taken advantage of the widely spread French divisions at the start of the
campaign, and may have missed the opportunity to strike at them before they
could concentrate.
He is very concerned about his ability to feed his army long
enough to allow them to defeat the French and drive them from Spain. Every single biscuit and musket ball issued
to each of his 16,000 British troops has to be transported by mule 270 miles
from Corunna to Valladolid along the most difficult of mountain roads. In addition he has to allocate large stocks
to his two Spanish divisions who are unable to live off the land and have
received no supplies from their own government.
Angry letters are sent to his three corps commanders to
provide urgent reasons for this apparent lack of initiative.
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