By 31 October he had abandoned Madrid too and retreated first to Salamanca then to Ciudad Rodrigo, near the Portuguese frontier, to avoid encirclement by French armies from the north-east and south-east.

Napoleon recalled to France numerous soldiers to reconstruct his main army after his disastrous invasion of Russia.

Wellington himself commanded the small central force in a strategic feint, while Sir Thomas Graham conducted the bulk of the army around the French right flank over landscape considered impassable.

Gazan's divisions guarded the narrow western end of the Zadorra valley, deployed south of the river.

D'Erlon failed to destroy three bridges near the river's hairpin bend and posted Avy's weak cavalry division to guard them.

Wellington directed Hill's 20,000-man Right Column to drive the French from the Zadorra defile on the south side of the river.

Dalhousie's Left Centre column cut across Monte Arrato and struck the river east of the hairpin, providing a link between Graham and Wellington.

Coming up the Burgos road, Hill sent Pablo Morillo's Division to the right on a climb up the Heights of La Puebla.

Having become obsessed with the safety of his left flank, the marshal refused to help Gazan, instead ordering some of D'Erlon's troops to guard the Logroño road.

Wellington suspended his attacks to allow Graham's column time to make an impression and a lull descended on the battlefield.

According to Picton, the enemy responded by pummelling the 3rd with 40 to 50 cannon and a counter-attack on their right flank, still open because they had captured the bridge so quickly, causing the 3rd to lose 1,800 men (over one third of all Allied losses at the battle) as they held their ground.

The efforts of Reille's two divisions, holding off Graham, allowed tens of thousands of French troops to escape by the Salvatierra road.

[8] The British general also vented his fury on a new cavalry regiment, writing, "The 18th Hussars are a disgrace to the name of soldier, in action as well as elsewhere; and I propose to draft their horses from them and send the men to England if I cannot get the better of them in any other manner.

"[3] (On 8 April 1814, the 18th redeemed their reputation in a gallant charge led by Lieutenant-colonel Sir Henry Murray at Croix d'Orade, shortly before the battle of Toulouse) Order was soon restored, and by December, after detachments had seized San Sebastián and Pamplona, Wellington's army was encamped in France.

Another large-scale composition was Johann Bernhard Logier's The Battle of Vitoria (1813), which combined several military bands with orchestra.

The climax of the movie The Firefly, starring Jeanette MacDonald, occurs with Wellington's attack on the French centre.