Second battle at Oporto

Second battle at Oporto

Part of: Peninsular War

British and Portuguese troops pursue the retreating French

date	May 12, 1809
place	Postage in Portugal
output	British troops victory

Parties to the conflict
France	United Kingdom
Commander
Nicolas Jean-de-Dieu Soult	Sir Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington
Troop strength
about 11,200 men	about 20,000 men
losses
2,100 men lost, including 300 dead	125 men lost

The Second Battle of Oporto (Porto) occurred on May 12, 1809 near Porto in Portugal, in the course of the war on the Iberian Peninsula.

prehistory

After the bulk of the British army had withdrawn from the Spanish Peninsula shortly after the Battle of La Coruña , a renewed attempt to occupy Portugal began under Marshal Soult . During the invasion from the northwest it was necessary to take possession of the city of Porto. On March 20, 1809, the defending Portuguese troops were defeated in the Battle of Braga and the French forces under Marshal Soult managed to conquer Porto. However, there were still remaining British formations in Portugal, to which additional troops were sent from Great Britain to liberate Portugal.

Division of troops

The structure and the rounded thickness are given below:

French people

The following troops were under the command of Marshal Soult:

• Infantry division under Division General Merle with 3,400 soldiers
• Infantry Division under Division General Delaborde with 3,400 soldiers
• Light cavalry division under Division General Franceschi with 1,400 soldiers

British

Under the command of General Sir Arthur Wellesley were the following troops:

• infantry

Sherbrookes Division

Guard brigade under Henry Fred Campbell with 2,552 soldiers

4th Brigade under John Sontag with 2,079 soldiers

5th Brigade under Alexander Campbell with 2,075 soldiers

Paget's division

6th Brigade under Stewart with 2,050 soldiers

King's German Legion Brigade (KGL) under John Murray with 3,095 soldiers

Hills Division (Hill acted as both division and brigade commander)

1st Brigade under Rowland Hill with 2,274 soldiers

7th Brigade under Alan Cameron with 2,096 soldiers

• Cavalry under Stapleton Cotton with 1,500 soldiers
• Artillery: 24 cannons

The total strength was 18,000 men, including 2,400 Portuguese.

Allied troops

These troops did not take part in the battle, but performed other tasks. William Beresford and his troops were supposed to bypass the French positions. Alexander Mackenzie and his associations secured other parts of Portugal.

• under the command of William Beresford : 5 battalions of infantry, 2 squadrons of cavalry, 2 batteries of artillery (12 cannons)
  • British infantry , including the 3rd Brigade under Christopher Tilson with 1,659 soldiers
  • Cavalry : 2 squadrons with 164 soldiers
  • Portuguese troops
• under the command of Alexander Mackenzie: 10 battalions of infantry, 5 squadrons of cavalry, 3 batteries of artillery (18 cannons)
  • British infantry , including the 2nd Brigade under Alexander Mackenzie with 2989 soldiers
  • Cavalry under Henry Fane with 1466 soldiers
  • Artillery : a battery
  • Portuguese troops

course

Battle the day before

On May 11, 1809, there was a small battle south of Porto near Grijon. The French lost up to 250 men (fallen, wounded and prisoners), on the British side it was at least 100 men.

Combat operations on May 12, 1809

In the morning hours of May 12, 1809, British troops were preparing to cross the Douro to attack French troops on the north side of the river. For this purpose, all British guns were brought near the shore and in a hidden firing position. A monastery was to be captured and held on the enemy side of the river, and the British guns were to provide fire protection. Furthermore, an infantry brigade and cavalry were sent up the river to attack the French in a flank operation. Several troop landings with boats that had been hidden by the Portuguese from the French and were now made available to the British, went unobserved and undisturbed for over an hour. The convent was captured. After the French infantry had tried twice in vain to take the monastery, Marshal Soult had his troops reinforced and rearranged for a third attack. The reclassification of the French units gave the inhabitants of the city of Porto the opportunity to row the boats lying in the harbor to the other side of the river and at one time to cross over the entire British Guard Brigade. Supported by the troops in the monastery, the latter attacked the gathering French army, which then fled.

The French army not only lost 300 casualties and wounded, but had to leave behind both their artillery and the wounded in the hospital. The British troops, on the other hand, had only 123 dead and wounded.

consequences

The crossing of the Douro, which was carried out with surprising speed, showed that Wellesley knew how to lead his troops not only on the defensive. The victory boosted the morale of the British and Portuguese and weakened that of the French army in Portugal. With the liberation of Porto, the British now had a port in the north of the country, from which operations of the British associations could be supported. Finally, the French were driven out of Portugal for the second time.

Media reception

The writer Bernard Cornwell uses the battle as the historical background for his novel Sharpe's Mission , in which the fictional British Lieutenant Richard Sharpe supports the advance of the British from the north side of the River Douro with parts of the 95th Rifles .

literature

• Julian Paget: Wellington's Peninsular War. Battles and Battlefields. Updated edition. L. Cooper, London 1996, ISBN 0-85052-603-5 .
• Roger Parkinson: The Peninsular War. Hart-Davis MacGibbon, London 1973, ISBN 0-246-64096-0 .
• Jac Weller: Wellington in the Peninsula. 1808-1814. Nicholas Vane, London 1962.
• Detlef Wenzlik: The battles at Oporto and Talavera. May 12 / 27-28 July 1809 (= The Napoleonic Wars. Vol. 1). 3rd, revised and expanded edition. VRZ-Verlag Zörb, Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-931482-01-4 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Wenzlik, p. 39
2. ↑ on www.britishbattles.com
3. ↑ Weller, pp. 83ff.
4. ↑ Wenzlik, p. 36 ff.
5. ↑ Parkinson, p. 82 f.
6. ↑ Paget, p. 23f.