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Impact Measurement
and Outcomes
Evaluation Using
Salesforce for
Nonprofits
A Guide to Data-Driven Frameworks
—
Dustin MacDonald
Impact Measurement and
Outcomes Evaluation
Using Salesforce for
Nonprofits
A Guide to Data-Driven Frameworks
Dustin MacDonald
Impact Measurement and Outcomes Evaluation Using Salesforce for Nonprofits:
A Guide to Data-Driven Frameworks
Dustin MacDonald
Sigourney, IA, USA
Acknowledgments���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������xv
Introduction�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������xvii
iii
Table of Contents
iv
Table of Contents
v
Table of Contents
Cross Filters�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 89
Subscribe to Reports������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 96
Export Reports����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 99
Einstein Discovery for Reports�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 101
Creating Dashboards����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 101
Dashboard Filters���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 103
Using Formulas and Validation Rules���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 104
Formula Fields��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 104
Intermediate Examples�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 107
Advanced Examples������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 109
Formulas in Reports������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 109
Validation Rules������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 112
Other Considerations for Data Input������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 113
Certifications and Additional Learning�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 114
Strategies for Collecting Data��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 114
Conclusion�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 116
vi
Table of Contents
vii
Table of Contents
viii
Table of Contents
Index��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 217
ix
About the Author
Dustin K. MacDonald is 10x Salesforce Certified, Nonprofit
Cloud Consultant. He holds an Accredited Professional
in Einstein Prediction Builder and is currently a Senior
Consultant at a midsize Salesforce implementation partner
that focuses exclusively on nonprofits and public sector
organizations. He is a former Affiliate Professor in Data
Science at Eastern University in St. Davids, Pennsylvania,
and holds several degrees: Bachelor of Professional Arts in
Human Services, Master of Science in Data Science, and
Master of Business Administration. Dustin was motivated
to write this book because there are no books available on
Nonprofit Cloud for nonprofit users who may lack technical knowledge, and the timing
is right as Salesforce is increasing its focus on this vertical.
xi
About the Technical Reviewer
Jesse Brown is a self-taught Salesforce architect, evangelist,
and fanboy based in Indianapolis, Indiana. As of the
publication of this book, Jesse has 16 certifications in the
Salesforce platform and is eyeing the Certified Technical
Architect examination. Jesse works as the Director of
Solutions Architecture at Provisio Partners.
xiii
Acknowledgments
I am incredibly grateful to everyone who helped bring this book to fruition: the Apress
team including Susan McDermott, Laura Berendson, Gryffin Winkler, Shobana
Srinivasan, and others who helped behind the scenes and supported this book
throughout its development.
I am also thankful to my colleagues at Provisio Partners and RedTag.pro who inspire
me each day, especially my supervisor Hillary Dale, Chief Delivery Officer Kim Collins,
CIO Erica Cox, CEO Travis Bloomfield, and some of my amazing coworkers including
Frank Nichols, Tom Overland, Sergii Korolivskyi, and Volodymyr Monchak who make
magic happen daily.
Thank you to Professor Greg Longo, whose support during my time at Eastern
University was invaluable in giving me the confidence and knowledge to pursue
this work.
A special thank you to my technical reviewer Jesse Brown, who teaches me
something new every day and took time out of his extremely busy schedule to ensure the
technical accuracy of this book.
I am grateful to my brother, Jonathan MacDonald, who has always been there to
bounce ideas off and who supported this book when it was nothing more than a few
bullet points on a notepad.
Finally, the deepest appreciation and thanks go to my wife, Melissa, and my kids, Ray
and Rose, who put up with endless late nights and review sessions.
xv
Introduction
If you’ve picked up this book, it’s probably because you find yourself in the role of a
nonprofit manager, outcomes and evaluation specialist, consultant, architect, or other
professional who is required either to directly perform outcomes measurement and
impact evaluation or to set up and supervise systems that do.
Before beginning this learning adventure, it will be helpful to understand how this
book came to be. I hold a variety of Salesforce certifications, Accredited Professional
badges, a bachelor’s degree in human services, and two master’s degrees. In all that
education, I have never had the opportunity to complete a formal course in outcomes
evaluation.
After spending years in all areas of nonprofits and helping them use Salesforce
as a consultant, the decision to distill those years of learning in one place about how
nonprofits use Salesforce – and there are a lot of them – has led to this book about how
you can build a proper impact measurement system.
After completing dozens of implementations across all areas of the nonprofit
spectrum including housing, homelessness, economic empowerment, poverty
alleviation, intimate partner violence, mental health, crisis intervention, suicide
prevention, and more, it’s become clear that a well-designed impact and outcomes
measurement system quickly pays for itself in your ability to tell a better story to your
funders.
During the research process, it has become clear there is a lack of written material for
Salesforce. Part of this is a function of the fact that the tech world moves fast, and written
material is often out of date by the time it is published. Another reason is that the people
busy doing work often don’t have the time to sit down and write a book.
There are a few reasons not to be discouraged by this reality as you begin to work
through this material.
First, even as specific technical implementation details get out of date, the core
functionality remains unchanged. In our case, the principles of outcomes measurement
and the process of building a rockstar impact measurement system are the same
whether you’re using Salesforce, an Access database from 1995, or a completely
pen-and-paper system.
xvii
Introduction
In this book, you will learn the skills and how to apply them. Salesforce will help us
by making it quicker and more efficient, but rest assured that nothing about the core
work of impact measurement and outcome evaluation will be out of date by the time you
read this.
Second, although blog posts, website articles, and presentations at Dreamforce
(Salesforce’s annual conference) are a great way to get information, it is often presented
with too little detail to immediately act on it. A book gives you the opportunity to dive
deep into both the theory and the practice of the subject at hand so that you have a
strong foundation to apply what you learn. That’s the purpose of this book and I’m
confident you will agree that it is met.
xviii
Introduction
xix
Introduction
Later in the chapter we move from the theoretical to the practical as we look at
strategies for collecting data. We’ll talk about techniques like paper surveys, Salesforce
assessments, Experience Cloud portals, and other methods of getting your output data
into Salesforce. We’ll also discuss best practices to make sure the data you’re collecting is
the most robust and reliable.
In Chapter 6, we take the data we’ve collected and examine how to report out
on it. We discuss how to meet the needs of your board, your funders, and the wider
community. Integrating your nonprofit impact into your grant proposals is also covered
here, as is how to seek out earned media when you have particularly compelling results
to share.
In Chapter 7, we focus on the complete change management process, which is
used to ensure that individuals are prepared for the changes that your organization
implements.
In Chapter 8, we begin wrapping up with three end-to-end case studies to help you
understand and apply the concepts throughout the rest of the book. Each case study is
based on the outcomes and evaluation work I’ve done in my career with organizations.
The first is a crisis line, the second is a nonprofit Chamber of Commerce, and the third is
a homeless shelter and food pantry.
xx
Introduction
xxi
CHAPTER 1
Introduction to Salesforce
for Nonprofits
This is a book about conducting impact measurement for nonprofits. If you’re reading
this book, I assume you work for a nonprofit or an external evaluator or are a consultant
like me and are interested in using the power of Salesforce to improve your impact
measurement and evaluation. If so, this is the right book for you.
Combine the lack of reading material on subjects related to Salesforce with the
lack of resources for nonprofits using Salesforce, and you have a recipe for numerous
organizations to not take full advantage of the technology that they’ve paid very good
money for.
This book will help you supercharge your impact measurement and outcome
evaluation by developing an understanding of what it means to have an impact and how
to measure it. Then we’ll learn how to set your Salesforce organization up so that you’re
automatically collecting the information that you need to be successful. And finally, we’ll
explore the technologies and techniques you have available to you to best demonstrate
the impact you’ve identified.
By tracing a straight line from your logic model or theory of change, which shows you
how the work you do with the people you serve, through to the outputs and outcomes
that your clients see, you can tell a more compelling story. And we’ll finish by exploring
how you can leverage this newfound impact measurement skill to improve fundraising
and ensure your organization’s long-term success.
We’ll close with a set of case studies to demonstrate this process based on several
real-life nonprofits I have worked with, including a telephone crisis line, a homeless
shelter and associated food pantry, and a Chamber of Commerce.
1
© Dustin MacDonald 2023
D. MacDonald, Impact Measurement and Outcomes Evaluation Using Salesforce for Nonprofits,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-9708-7_1
Chapter 1 Introduction to Salesforce for Nonprofits
Salesforce as a platform has been around since 1997. It was created by Marc Benioff
with the original slogan – still used today – of “clicks, not code.” The Internet was still
relatively nascent in the 1990s, and when you wanted most kinds of software, you
needed to get them on a CD or, worse, a mainframe. Computer software was big, bulky,
hard to use, and often slow to operate. In contrast, Salesforce made the promise of a
decentralized workforce something closer to reality by allowing individuals to work from
anywhere and allowing sales staff to work at a new office just by visiting a new website.
That original version of Salesforce, called Salesforce Classic, is still available (see
Figure 1-1). Eventually, Salesforce transitioned to a new layout and set of code called
Lightning. While Salesforce Classic and Lightning work on the same underlying
database, Lightning (sometimes also called Lightning Experience or LEX) is a total
rewrite of the Salesforce code that takes advantage of modern web standards that, true to
its name, often allow you to do things much quicker than you used to.
2
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
commanding engineer, the historian Vacani[391]—maintained that it
would take 6,000 men and a siege train of at least six heavy guns to
deal with the place. And, as subsequent events showed, this was
quite true. Castro is built on a rocky spit projecting into the sea, with a
stout wall 20 feet high drawn across the isthmus which joins the
headland to the coast. The narrow front of this wall, from water to
water, had been well repaired; there were some 20 guns mounted,
and an old castle on the extreme sea-ward point of the spit served as
a citadel or inner fortification. Mendizabal and his lieutenant,
Campillo, had come down from the interior with three or four
thousand men, and were visible on the flank, ready to fall upon the
Italian column if it should approach the town, through the labyrinth of
vineyards and stone fences which covered its outskirts.
Clausel, always venturesome, was inclined at first to go on with
his enterprise, when news reached him that Bilbao, which he had left
rather weakly garrisoned, was threatened by the guerrillero Jauregui,
and the battalions of the volunteers of Biscay and Guipuzcoa. He
returned hastily to his head-quarters with his French battalion, but
found that the danger had been exaggerated for the moment, so sent
out General Rouget with two battalions to join Palombini, who had
meanwhile on the 24th fought a severe action with Mendizabal. The
Spaniard had tried to surround him in his camp at San Pelayo, with
several outflanking columns—the Italian sallied out and drove him off
with loss—but suffered himself no less[392]. Clausel, on reaching the
front, came to the conclusion that Castro must not be attacked
without heavy guns and a larger field-force. He directed Palombini to
burn the ladders, fascines, &c., prepared for the assault, and to go off
instead to raise the blockade of Santoña, while he himself returned to
Bilbao. The Italian division therefore marched westward on Colindres,
on the other side of the bay on which Santoña stands, thrusting aside
the Spanish blockading forces, and communicated with the governor,
General Lameth. A supply of small arms and ammunition, money, and
food was thrown into the place. On the other hand, Lameth was
ordered to get six heavy guns on shipboard, and to be prepared to
run them down the coast, when next a French force should appear in
front of Castro-Urdiales, along with a provision of round shot, shells,
and entrenching tools. Lameth got the siege material ready, but was
not asked for it till another full month had gone by, for Clausel had
other business pressed upon him.
Palombini thereupon turned back, and regained Bilbao in three
forced marches, unmolested by the Spaniards, for they had gone off
in the direction of Balmaseda, not expecting him to return so quickly.
He had only been in Bilbao for two days when Clausel sent him out
again, eastward this time and not westward, with two of his
regiments, for a surprise attack on Guernica, the head-quarters of the
Biscayan insurgents and the seat of their Junta. A French column of
two battalions of the 40th Line from Durango was to co-operate and
to assail the enemy in the rear. This expedition was quite in
consonance with Napoleon’s orders to strike at the enemy’s central
dépôts in front and rear by unexpected raids. But it also showed the
difficulty of carrying out such plans. Palombini reached Guernica,
driving before him bands which gave way, but were always growing
stronger: behind Guernica they made a stand—the French flanking
column failed to appear—having found troubles of its own—and
Palombini was repulsed and forced to cut his way back out of the
hills. He reported his loss as only 80 men—but it was probably
somewhat more[393] (April 2). Having picked up the stray French
column, and replenished his ammunition from Bilbao, Palombini, with
a laudable perseverance, attacked the Guernica position again on
April 5, and this time forced it. Thence pushing east, he tried to drive
the enemy before him along the coast road, on which, in the
neighbourhood of St. Sebastian, a brigade from the Bayonne reserve
had been set to block their flight. But the Biscayans and El Pastor
evaded him and slipped south into the hills: the Guipuzcoan
battalions, instinctively falling back on their own province, were in
more danger. But warned in time that the coast road was stopped,
some of them took refuge in the boats of English warships at
Lequeytio and Motrico, and were shipped off to Castro-Urdiales in
safety, while others simply dispersed. No prisoners were taken, but
Palombini captured the petty magazines of the Guipuzcoans at
Aspeytia and Azcoytia, and thinking that the insurrection was
scotched returned to the Bayonne chaussée at Bergara (April 9).
So far was this from ending the campaign, that while Palombini
was devastating Guipuzcoa, the Biscayans and El Pastor had
concerted a new attack on Bilbao with Longa and Mendizabal, who
had been left with no containing force in front of them when the
enemy had retired from before Castro-Urdiales.
Clausel had gone off from Bilbao on March 30, with a large escort,
to join at Vittoria the newly arrived divisions of the Army of Portugal,
those of Taupin and Foy, and was set on organizing a new attack on
Mina. In the absence of both the Commander-in-Chief and of
Palombini, Bilbao was very weakly garrisoned—not more than 2,000
men were left to General Rouget to defend a rather extensive system
of outworks. On April 10th the Spaniards attacked him on both sides
of the Nervion river, and would probably have broken into Bilbao but
for the incapacity of Mendizabal, whose main body did not come up in
time to assist the attack of the Biscayans on the other bank of the
river. Rouget was still holding out when Palombini came to his rescue
from Bergara via Durango, in two forced marches. The Spaniards
thereupon dispersed, after their usual fashion, Mendizabal
disappearing to the east, the Biscayans falling back on their old head-
quarters at Guernica. Palombini was strong at the moment, having
been joined by the brigade from Bayonne, under General Aussenac,
which had been blocking the coast road. He therefore tried to
surround the Biscayans with converging columns—but when he
thought that he had cut them off from the inland, and was about to
drive them into the water, the bulk of them were picked up at Bermeo
by English cruisers, and landed farther down the coast. Only some
baggage and a store of munitions fell into the pursuer’s hands (April
14).
On this, Palombini, ‘convinced,’ says his admiring chronicler
Vacani, ‘of the uselessness of trying to envelop or destroy local bands
among mountains which they knew too well, when he could only
dispose of columns of a few battalions for the pursuit,’ resolved to halt
at Bilbao, and prepare for the siege of Castro. He put the brigade
from Bayonne in charge of the high road to San Sebastian, and
waited for the arrival of Foy from Vittoria. For he had been informed
that this general, with his division of the Army of Portugal, was to be
detailed to help him in the subjection of Biscay. Meanwhile April was
half over, the insurgents had been often hunted but never caught, and
Wellington might be expected to be on the move any morning: it was
strange that he had not been heard of already.
Leaving Biscay to Palombini and Foy, Clausel had collected at
Vittoria one of his own divisions, hitherto scattered in small
detachments, but relieved by the reinforcements sent him from the
Army of Portugal. For beside the four divisions lent for active service,
he had taken over the whole Province of Burgos, to which Reille had
sent the division of Lamartinière. With his own newly-collected
division, under Vandermaesen, and Taupin’s of the Army of Portugal,
Clausel set out for Navarre on April 11th, to combine his operations
with those of Abbé and to hunt down Mina. As he had already sent
forward to the Governor of Navarre the division of Barbot, there was
now a field-force of 20,000 men available for the chase, without
taking into consideration the troops tied down in garrisons. This was
more than double the strength that Mina could command, and the
next month was one of severe trial for the great guerrillero.
Clausel’s first idea was to catch Mina by a sweeping movement of
all his four divisions, which he collected at Puente la Reyna in the
valley of the Arga (April 24). Mina answered this move by dispersion,
and his battalions escaped through intervals in the cordon with no
great loss, and cut up more than once small detachments of their
pursuers. Clausel perceiving that this system was useless, then tried
another, one of those recommended by the Emperor in his letter of
instruction of March 9, viz. a resolute stroke at the enemy’s
magazines and dépôts. Mina kept his hospitals, some rough munition
factories which he had set up, and his store of provisions, in the
remote Pyrenean valley of Roncal, where Navarre and Aragon meet:
it was most inaccessible and far from any high road. Nevertheless
Clausel marched upon it with the divisions of Abbé, Vandermaesen,
and Barbot, leaving Taupin alone at Estella to contain Western
Navarre. He calculated that Mina would be forced to concentrate and
fight, in order to save his stores and arsenal, and that so he might be
destroyed. He was partly correct in his hypothesis—but only partly.
Mina left four of his battalions in Western Navarre, in the valleys of
the Amescoas, to worry Taupin, and hurried with the remaining five to
cover the Roncal. There was heavy fighting in the passes leading to it
on May 12 and 13, which ended in the Navarrese being beaten and
dispersed with the loss of a thousand men. Clausel captured and
destroyed the factories and magazines, and made prisoners of the
sick in the hospitals, whom he treated with unexpected humanity.
Some of the broken battalions fled south by Sanguesa into lower
Navarre, others eastward into Aragon. Among these last was Mina
himself with a small party of cavalry—he tried to fetch a compass
round the pursuing French and to return to his own country, but he
was twice headed off, and finally forced to fly far into Eastern Aragon,
as far as Barbastro. This region was practically open to him for flight,
for the French garrison of Saragossa was too weak to cover the
whole country, or to stop possible bolt-holes. Mina was therefore able
to rally part of his men there, and called in the help of scattered
partidas. Clausel swept all North-Western Aragon with his three
divisions, making arrests and destroying villages which had
harboured the insurgents. But he did not wish to pursue Mina to the
borders of Catalonia, where he would have been quite out of his own
beat, and inconveniently remote from Pampeluna and Vittoria.
But meanwhile the division which he had left under Taupin in
Navarre was having much trouble with Mina’s four battalions in the
Amescoas, and parties drifting back from the rout in the Roncal vexed
the northern bank of the Ebro, while Longa and Mendizabal,
abandoning their old positions in front of Bilbao, had descended on to
the Bayonne chaussée, and executed many raids upon it, from the
pass of Salinas above Vittoria as far as the Ebro (April 25-May 10).
The communications between Bayonne and Burgos were once more
cut, and the situation grew so bad that Lamartinière’s division of the
Army of Portugal had to be moved eastward, to clear the road from
Burgos to Miranda, Sarrut’s to do the same between Miranda and
Bilbao, while Maucune detached a brigade to relieve Lamartinière at
Burgos. Of the whole Army of Portugal there was left on May 20th
only one single infantry brigade at Palencia which was still at Reille’s
disposition. Five and a half divisions had been lent to Clausel, and
were dispersed in the north. And Wellington was now just about to
move! The worst thing of all for the French cause was that the
communications of the North were as bad in May as they had been in
January: after Clausel had taken off the main field-army to the
Roncal, and had led it from thence far into Aragon, the roads behind
him were absolutely useless. Only on the line Bayonne-Vittoria,
where the new blockhouses were beginning to arise, was any regular
passing to and fro possible. Clausel himself was absolutely lost to
sight, so far as King Joseph was concerned—it took a fortnight or
twenty days to get a dispatch through to him.
Meanwhile, before turning to the great campaign of Wellington on
the Douro, it is necessary to dispose of the chronicle of affairs in
Biscay. Foy and his division, as we have seen, had marched from
Vittoria to Bilbao and reached the latter place on April 21st[394]. On the
way they had nearly caught Mendizabal at Orduña, where he
chanced to be present with a guard of only 200 men; but, warned just
in time, he had the luck to escape, and went back to pick up his
subordinates Longa and Campillo nearer the coast.
Soon after Foy’s arrival at Bilbao he was joined by Sarrut’s
division of the Army of Portugal, which had followed him from Vittoria.
He had therefore, counting Palombini’s Italians, the brigade of
Aussenac, and the regular garrison of Bilbao, at least 16,000 men—
ample for the task that Clausel had commended to him, the capture
of Castro-Urdiales, with its patched-up mediaeval wall. The only thing
presenting any difficulty was getting a siege train to this remote
headland: Lameth, the Governor of Santoña, as it will be
remembered, had been ordered to provide one, and there were four
heavy guns in Bilbao:—the roads on both sides, however, were
impracticable, and the artillery had to come by water, running the
chance of falling in with British cruisers.
On April 25th Foy marched out of Bilbao with his own, Sarrut’s,
and Palombini’s divisions, more than 11,000 men,[395] leaving
Aussenac on the Deba, to guard the road from San Sebastian, and
Rouget in garrison as usual. On the same evening he reached the
environs of Castro, and left Palombini there to shut in the place, while
he went on himself to look for Mendizabal, who was known to be
watching affairs from the hills, and to be blocking the road to
Santoña, as he had so often done before. Foy then moved on to
Cerdigo where he established his head-quarters for the siege, on a
strong position between the sea and the river Agaera. Mendizabal
was reputed to be holding the line of the Ason, ten miles farther on,
but in weak force: he had only the partidas of Campillo and Herrero
with him, Longa being absent in the direction of Vittoria. On the 29th
Foy drove off these bands at Ampuero, and communicated with
Santoña, into which he introduced a drove of 500 oxen and other
victuals. The governor Lameth was ordered to ship the siege train
that he had collected to Islares, under the camp at Cerdigo, on the
first day when he should find the bay clear—for three English sloops,
the Lyra, Royalist, and Sparrow, under Captain Bloye, were lying off
Castro and watching the coast. Foy then established Sarrut’s division
to cover the siege at Trucios, and sent two Italian battalions to
Portugalete to guard the road to Bilbao, keeping his own division and
the three other Italian battalions for the actual trench work. The heavy
guns were the difficulty—those expected from Bilbao were stopped at
the mouth of the Nervion by the English squadron, which was
watching for them—but in the absence of the sloops on this quest,
the governor of Santoña succeeded in running his convoy across the
bay on May 4th. The guns from Bilbao were afterwards brought up by
land, with much toil.
Foy then commenced three batteries on the high slopes which
dominate the town: two were completed on the 6th, despite much
long-distance fire from the British ships, and from a heavy gun which
Captain Bloye had mounted on the rocky islet of Santa Anna outside
the harbour. On the 7th fire was begun from two batteries against the
mediaeval curtain wall, but was ineffective—one battery was silenced
by the British. On the 10th, however, the third battery—much closer in
—was ready, and opened with devastating results on the 11th, two
hours’ fire making a breach 30 feet wide and destroying a large
convent behind it.
The Governor, Pedro Alvarez, one of Longa’s colonels, had a
garrison of no more than 1,000 men—all like himself from Longa’s
regiments of Iberia; he made a resolute defence, kept up a
continuous counter-fire, and prepared to hold the breach. But it was
obvious that the old wall was no protection from modern artillery, and
that Foy could blow down as much of it as he pleased at leisure. On
the afternoon of the 11th part of the civil population went on board the
British ships: the governor made preparations for holding the castle,
on the seaside of the town projecting into the water, as a last
stronghold: but it was only protected by the steepness of the rock on
which it stood—its walls were ruined and worthless. Late in the day
the British took off the heavy gun which they had placed on the islet—
it could not have been removed after the town had fallen, and the fall
was clearly inevitable.
Foy, seeing the curtain-wall continuing to crumble, and a 60-foot
breach established, resolved to storm that night, and sent in at 7.20
three columns composed of eight French and eight Italian flank
companies for the assault—the former to the breach, the latter to try
to escalade a low angle near the Bilbao gate. Both attacks
succeeded, despite a heavy but ill-aimed fire from the defenders, and
the Spaniards were driven through the town and into the castle,
where they maintained themselves. Alvarez had made preparations
for evacuation—while two companies held the steep steps which
were the only way up to the castle, the rest of the garrison embarked
at its back on the boats of the British squadron. Some were killed in
the water by the French fire, some drowned, but the large majority got
off. By three in the morning there were only 100 men left in the castle:
Alvarez had detailed them to throw the guns into the sea, and to fire
the magazines, both of which duties they accomplished, before the
early dawn. When, by means of ladders, the French made their way
into an embrasure of the defences, some of this desperate band were
killed. But it is surprising to hear that most of them got away by boat
from the small jetty at the back of the castle. They probably owed
their escape to the fact that the stormers had spent the night in
riotous atrocities vying with those of Badajoz on a small scale.
Instead of finishing off their job by taking the castle, they had spent
the night in rape and plunder in the town[396].
The Spaniards declared that the total loss of their garrison was
only 100 men, and the statement is borne out by the dispatch of
Captain Bloye of the Lyra. Foy wrote to Clausel that the whole
business had only cost him fifty men. The two statements seem
equally improbable, for the siege had lasted for six days of open
trenches, and both sides had fought with great resolution[397].
But the really important thing to note about this little affair is that it
absorbed three French divisions for sixteen days in the most critical
month of 1813. Eleven thousand men were tied down in a remote
corner of Biscay, before a patched-up mediaeval wall, while Longa
was running riot in Alava and breaking the line of communication with
France—and (what is more important) while Wellington’s columns
were silently gliding into place for the great stroke on the Douro.
Colonel Alvarez could boast that his thousand men had served a very
useful and honourable end during the great campaign. He and they
were landed by Captain Bloye at Bermeo, and went off over the hills
to join Longa: the majority of them must have been present at the
battle of Vittoria, some six weeks after their escape by sea.
Having discharged the first duty set him by Clausel, Foy left the
Italians at Castro, to guard the coast and keep up communications
with Santoña. He sent Sarrut southward to hunt for Longa, by way of
Orduña; but the Spaniard crossed the Ebro and moved into the
province of Burgos, evading pursuit. Then, finding that Lamartinière’s
division was guarding the great road in this direction, he turned off
north-westward, and escaped by Espinosa to the mountains of
Santander. Sarrut, having lost him, turned back to Biscay.
Meanwhile Foy himself, after retiring to Bilbao to give a few days
of rest to his division, started out again on May 27th for a circular tour
in Biscay. His object was to destroy the three Biscayan volunteer
battalions which had given his predecessor so much trouble. Two he
dispersed, but could not destroy, and they ultimately got together
again in somewhat diminished numbers. The third was more unlucky:
caught between three converging columns near Lequeytio, it was
driven against the seashore and nearly annihilated—360 men were
taken, 200 killed, only two companies got off into the hills (May 30th).
But to achieve this result Foy had collected three brigades—5,000
men—who would have been better employed that day on the Esla,
for Wellington was crossing that river at the moment—and where
were the infantry of the Army of Portugal, who should have stood in
his way?
So while the British Army was streaming by tens of thousands into
the undefended plains of Leon, Foy and Sarrut were guerrillero-
hunting in Biscay, and Taupin and Barbot had just failed in the great
chase after Mina in Aragon and Navarre. Such were the results of the
Emperor’s orders for the pacification of the North.
Battle of CASTALLA April 13 1813
SECTION XXXV: CHAPTER VI
AN EPISODE ON THE EAST COAST.
CASTALLA, APRIL 1813