page_title: Siege of Pamplona (1813)
section_title: August–October
hierarchical_section_title: Siege of Pamplona (1813) / Siege / August–October
caption_attribution_description: Español: Carlos de España
context_page_description: In the Siege of Pamplona a Spanish force led by Captain General Henry O'Donnell and later Major General Carlos de España blockaded an Imperial French garrison under the command of General of Brigade Louis Pierre Jean Cassan. At first, troops under Arthur Wellesley, Marquess Wellington surrounded the city, but they were soon replaced by Spanish units. In late July 1813, Marshal Nicolas Soult attempted to relieve the city but his operation failed in the Battle of the Pyrenees. Cassan capitulated to the Spanish after the French troops in the city were reduced to starvation. The surrender negotiations were marred by French bluffs to blow up the fortifications and Spanish threats to massacre the garrison, neither of which occurred. Pamplona is located on the Arga River in the province of Navarre in northern Spain. The siege occurred during the Peninsular War, part of the Napoleonic Wars.
context_section_description: Despite the great disappointment of witnessing the failed relief of the city, Cassan managed to hold his soldiers to their duty for three more months. The Spanish sent emissaries to the garrison to announce Allied victories at the Battle of San Marcial on 31 August and the Battle of the Bidassoa on 7 October in order to convince the French that their position was hopeless. However, Cassan was determined to hold out until his food was gone. The countryside close to the walls of Pamplona was fertile land with many wheat fields and gardens. From July through September, the lands near the city were the focus of many foraging parties sent by Cassan to bring in food. Typically, the French commander would send out a sudden sortie of 500 soldiers that broke through the inner cordon of pickets. The troops would harvest wheat or dig up potatoes until a superior force of Spanish soldiers appeared on the scene. Then the French would withdraw within Pamplona with the food that they gleaned. 
  On 9 September, de España was wounded in the thigh in a skirmish with a French foraging party. After there were no more crops to be gathered, Cassan launched sorties to gather firewood and horse-fodder. The French commander put his garrison on half-rations at the end of September. Cassan tried to send the civilian population out of Pamplona, but de España ordered them to be fired upon and they fled back into the city. The French eventually killed and ate all the horses of the mounted gendarmes. In desperation, the starving soldiers killed dogs, cats and rats and then dug up roots, some of which turned out to be poison hemlock. In October, there were 1,000 men in hospital, many of them ill with scurvy. At this time, a stream of deserters began tricking out of the city; these were mostly Germans, Italians, Belgians and Spaniards who had joined the pro-French forces. Cassan sent out an officer to negotiate a surrender on 24 October. 
  Cassan proposed to de España that he and his garrison be allowed to march out with six cannons and their baggage and be allowed to join Soult. In reply, de España insisted on unconditional surrender. Cassan then threatened to blow up the Pamplona fortifications and fight his way to the French frontier. Later, he admitted in his report to the French government that this was pure bluff, since his starving soldiers could hardly march three miles. De España countered by pointing out that there were 25,000 Allied soldiers between Pamplona and the frontier. The Spanish general promised that if the French blew up the fortress, he would order his men to take no prisoners and that the peasants would probably kill anyone who escaped. Wellington wrote a letter to de España that the French officers should be shot and the common soldiers decimated if they damaged the city.
  Cassan then proposed that his soldiers be exchanged on the promise to not fight against the Allies for a year and one day. De España refused, pointing out that France was infamous for not honoring its pledges. Finally, Cassan had to accept terms which allowed his soldiers to march out with the honors of war, but lay down their arms 300 yards (274 m) from the gates and be sent to prison camps in England. Sick soldiers were also considered to be prisoners, though they were available for exchange. French civil servants might be exchanged for Spanish nationals held in France and French women, children and men over 60 years old could go free. However, Spanish and British deserters, as well as pro-French Spanish subjects (men and women) were to be turned over to their captors. Some of this group were executed by the Spanish. Supposedly a number of Spaniards escaped exemplary punishment by donning French uniforms or pretending to be French women.
caption: Carlos de España
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