Battle of Barrosa
Battle of Barrosa
| date | March 5, 1811 |
|---|---|
| place | Chiclana de la Frontera |
| output | tactical victory of the British and Spanish |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 5,200 British 8,200 Spaniards |
10,200 men |
| losses | |
|
British: |
2,380 men thereof |
Bailén - Roliça - Vimeiro - Saragossa (1808) - Burgos (Gamonal) - Medina de Rioseco - Espinosa - Tudela - Somosierra - Saragossa (1809) - La Coruña - Torres Vedras - Valls - Braga - Oporto - Talavera - Ocaña - Gerona - Ciudad Rodrigo (1810) - Buçaco - Gévora - Barrosa - Badajoz (1811) - Fuentes de Oñoro - La Albuera - Tarragona (1811) - Sagunto (Murviedro) - Ciudad Rodrigo (1812) - Badajoz (1812) - Majadahonda - Salamanca - García Hernández - Venta del Pozo - Vitoria - Sorauren - San Sebastián - Bidassoa
The Battle of La Barrosa (also Battle of Chiclana ) was part of the Napoleonic Wars and took place on March 5, 1811. The allied English and Spaniards tried to break the French siege ring around Cadiz , they attacked the French army on the Cerro de la Cabeza del Puerco and the surrounding area and achieved a tactical victory, which could not be exploited. Despite the defeat, the French were able to continue the siege of Cadiz .
prehistory
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Cadiz has been besieged by up to 25,000 French since January 1810, but during this time it was freely accessible from the sea and could be adequately supplied with supplies. The Duke of Albuquerque followed the request of the Cadiz-based junta and brought about 8,000 Spaniards south to reinforce the city's defenses. At the beginning of 1811 the French commander-in-chief Marshal Nicolas Soult had three corps in southern Spain, one of which - under General Mortier on the border with Portugal, the other two under General Victor and Sebastiani in Andalusia .
Cadiz was defended by about 18,000 Spaniards and 6,000 British in the spring of 1811 and besieged by about 20,000 French under General Victor . From mid-February Soult reduced the French siege troops in front of Cádiz in order to free a corps of 8,000 men, which went off to strengthen the core of Badajoz . The British and Spanish troops saw the decline in enemy forces and planned to break the siege of Cadiz. During the withdrawal of Soult's units to the Estremadura , 20,000 English and Spanish were united on the island of Leon. The British commander in Cadiz, Thomas Graham planned to land an expeditionary force along the coast about 100 km south of Cadiz and march from behind in the rear of Victor's positions. Graham was forced to hand over the command of the expeditionary force to the incompetent Spanish general Manuel La Peña because he was the senior officer. General Zayas remained meanwhile with 4,000 Spanish soldiers in Cadiz and to secure the Isla de León. It was decided to embark 12,000 initially for Tarifa , while General Zayas was preparing a bridge from Lion Island over the Rio de Santi Petri River and was to conduct a diversionary attack. A Spanish division under General Francisco Ballesteros was to march against Seville at the same time , and an uprising against the French occupation was being prepared in the Ronda mountains . The English and Spaniards had embarked in the bay on the 21st, but could not sail until the 22nd. On February 23, 8,000 Spaniards and Graham's division with 4,000 men landed in Algeciras , supported by four squadrons under Colonel Whittingham . Victor immediately regrouped 10,700 men of his troops in the plain between the city of Chiclana and the Barrosa Hills (Cero de Puerco). Embarked in Cadiz from February 17 to 21, the troops landed in Algeciras on February 23 and united with 6,500 Spaniards on February 28, including 500 horsemen, who formed a brigade with the Germans under Wittingham. By February 27, another 8,000 men, two Spanish divisions under General Lardizábal and the Prince of Anglona, had been landed. Other Spanish forces, rioters under General Begines , had been ordered to rise in the Rondas Mountains and threaten Medina Sidonia . General Cassagne , in command of Victor's left flank, was reinforced with three infantry battalions and one cavalry regiment.
On March 1st, the assembled Anglo-Spanish expedition set out to march towards Medina Sidonia and were reinforced by 6000 Spaniards the following day. The allies marched towards the main French positions at Chiclana . Two other French divisions, under the command of Generals Ruffin and Leval , were asked to hide in the thick forest of Chiclana and attack the Allied flank.
The road from Chiclana to Cadiz ran between a swampy lowland and a pine forest, here the Villatte division (2,500 men) continued to block the road to Cadiz, two other divisions under Ruffin (3,500 men) and Leval (3,800 men) had a surprising flank attack against carry out the enlightened enemy forces, about 3,100 men were detached to Medina Sidonia for reinforcement. After a night march, the Spaniards reached the heights of Casas Viejas under La Pena on the morning of March 2nd. La Pena vanguard stormed the heights of Casa Viejas, power of 12,000 men, 800 horsemen and 24 cannons.
On March 3, General Zayas of the Isle de Leon launched his attack over the pontoon bridge built on the Rio de Santi-Petri river in order to get his hands on a bridgehead before the arrival of the main forces. Victor could not completely withdraw the crew from Cadiz (about 13,000 men) in order to launch an effective attack against the bridgehead. With the help of Zaya's troops, reinforced by a brigade from the Prince of Anglona's division, Villatte's troops were pushed to Almanza Bay. On March 4th, the first Spanish patrol troops had advanced towards Chiclana and reached the hill of Barrosa. The British meanwhile marched from the heights of Barrosa against those of Bermeja, they passed through thicker wood when on the right flank saw two enemy divisions which had climbed the height. After another night march, the Allies reached the Cerro del Puerco hill southeast of Barrosa on March 5.
The battle
On the night of March 4th to 5th, La Peña had intended to reach the coastal road that led from Conil via the village of Barrosa to Bermeja to the peninsula. In the dark, the army missed its target and was spending unnecessary time panning over Chiclana. At dawn the Spaniards recognized the wrong marching disposition and tried to reach the coast across the country across Barrosa. The road to Càdiz and San Fernando ran between a swampy landscape and a pine forest and was therefore difficult to access for attacks. The Spaniards temporarily occupied the southern slopes of Cerro del Puerco and advanced north into the forest. The presence of the Villatte division , which blocked the march to Cadiz, forced La Pena to split his troops. The cavalry brigade with 540 riders under Whittingham took over the security on the coast. The Anglo-Portuguese division stayed east of the Cerro del Puerco to cover the allies' right wing. For the time being, General La Pena contented himself with attacking the French under Vilatte with his division Lardizabal (3,000 men and 206 horsemen). The five battalions of the avant-garde were turned away by the French, however, La Peña reinforced the line with the succeeding division under the Prince of Anglona. The French had 337 wounded in this partial battle, but remained undefeated despite the superior strength of the Spanish forces. In addition, General Zayas had also launched attacks against the right flank of Villatte from his bridgehead. The cavalry division under Whittingham, consisting only of the second hussar regiment of the Kings German Legion, tried makeshiftly to stop the breakthrough of the French dragoons on the coastal road. Wittingham held back half of his German cavalry too long, although he had three additional Spanish squadrons at his disposal.
Around noon, Graham's troops advanced along a forest path that ran parallel to the coast to a pine forest, where the main fighting then developed. The main French forces were concentrated on the "Pinar de los Franceces" section, a position that ran about 15 kilometers east of the beach of Barrosa. While the Leval division (3,800 men) was advancing into the pine forest and encountering the British, the French Ruffin division had occupied the heights of Barrosa and secured it with artillery. Victor reacted immediately and ordered the French counterattack at around 12.30 p.m. The British advance guard battalion, 536 men under Colonel Brown, had only been 30 minutes on the hill when it was attacked by six French battalions. The situation soon changed. After Spanish guerrillas had warned General Graham of the unexplained presence of Ruffin's division on his right flank and back. After a brief consideration, he ordered the further attack to be carried out himself. Covered by heavy grape fire, his division swung right out of the forest. Wheatley Brigade (2,656 men) was supposed to attack Leval's division in the pine forest while the right Brigade Dilkes (1,897 men) was supposed to storm the hill of Barrosa, 10 guns in between covered the attack. The British had about 5,000 men, while Leval and Ruffin together could deploy 6,800 men. The skirmish of the light troops began immediately, and General Dilkes advanced under their protection. The French withstood the first attack steadfastly; the British volleys, more effective in rows of two, drove the French from the hill. The squadron of Rittmeister von dem Bussche threw back superior enemy dragoons, captured their leader, and took two cannons. The French, however, held the ridge of the mountains until two grenadier battalions were in reinforcement.
Colonel Wheatley's Brigade (2,656 men) first met the French 8th and 54th Line Regiments in the pine forest and counterattacked with the Irish 87th Fusilier Regiment. Attacked at Campano, the majority of Leval's division suffered a defeat with 1,400 men. The decimated French 8th Line Regiment consisted of only 25 officers and 867 men, it had around 50 percent losses and lost its eagle, which was captured by British troops under Sergeant Patrick Masterson. In addition to the regiment chief Colonel Autié, who had fallen, the battalion chief Vigo-Roussillon was taken prisoner. In the course of the fight, General La Pena had steadfastly refused to support his Anglo-Portuguese allies with his reserves not yet in combat. Even General Zayas repeatedly pressed for assistance to Graham's troops, but La Pena had refused permission each time.
The Vilatte division, which so far victoriously withstood the Spanish division Lardizabal, now also had to withdraw in order not to be outflanked. The meeting, named by the French after the town of Chiclana, but by the Spaniards after the town of Barrosa, ended around three in the afternoon.
consequences
General Graham no longer wanted to be under La Pena's command and withdrew with his troops a few hours after the battle over the island of Leon in Cadiz. The British lost about 1,240 men, including Portuguese and German soldiers. There were 210 dead, 1,037 wounded (British / Portuguese) and 390 wounded, 3 cannons, 703 prisoners, 3 colonels plus 100 officers. The Spaniards had suffered around 300–400 victims. The French casualties amounted to 2,380 men, 244 dead, 1,684 wounded, 134 missing and 5 cannons. 429 prisoners, 6 guns and 1 eagle fell into enemy hands. General Roussau and Colonel Autié were among the wounded; Among the prisoners was Division General Ruffin, who later died of his wounds on the warship Gorgone . La Pena stayed a few days on the heights of Vermeja, then the Spaniards withdrew again across the island. The Spanish troops that returned to Cadiz crossed the Isla de León behind Graham's troops, the bridge over the San Pedro was destroyed by the rearguard. Other parts withdrew via Medina-Sidonia on Ronda.
Marshal Victor had managed to rearrange his troops in Chiclana, the French holed up there until March 6, the French succeeded in closing the siege ring around Cadiz. On March 8th, three days after the battle, Victor renewed the siege of Cadiz, which had to be broken off after 18 months on August 24th, 1812 as a result of the Battle of Salamanca . Badajoz surrendered to the French on March 10, 1811, and Soult immediately marched into the Seville area to support the siege of Cádiz and prevent a repetition of the tactics that had led to Barrosa.
literature
- Hermann Baumgarten : History of Spain From the outbreak of the revolution to our days , S. Hirzel Verlag, Leipzig 1871
- John T. Jones (translated by Ferdinand Anton von Hauer): History of the war in Spain and Portugal , published by A. Strauss, Vienna 1819
- Sir William Francis Patrick Napier : History of the War in the Peninsula , published by David Christy, Oxford 1836.
- Sir Charles Oman : A History of the Peninsular War , Greenhill Books 1995, ISBN 1-85367-214-9
- Andreas Daniel Berthold von Schepeler : History of the Spanish Monarchy from 1810-1823 , J. Mayer Verlag, Aachen 1829
- Heinrich Zschokke : Napoleon's war against the uprising of the Spanish and Portuguese peoples , published by Heinrich Remigius Sauerländer, Aarau 1819
Individual evidence
- ^ Johann T. Jones: History of the war in Spain, Portugal and southern France Volume 2, Vienna 1819, p. 15 f.
- ^ Andreas Daniel von Schepeler: History of the Spanish Monarchy from 1810-1823, J. Mayer Verlag, Aachen 1829, p. 159
- ^ Napiers Peninsular War, Oxford 1836, pp. 328–329