Battle of Albuera
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The Battle of Albuera was a battle of the Peninsular War which took place on May 16, 1811, at Abuera, about 12 miles south of Badajoz between the French Army, under the command of Field Marshal Soult, and an Allied force of British, Spanish, and Portuguese troops. The combined forces were under the command of Lord William Beresford, Marshal of the Portuguese Army. Portuguese and British forces were directly under his command; the Spanish forces were commanded by General Joaquin Blake. Soult was attempting to break up Beresford's attempts to besiege Badajoz, and failed to do so; the battle therefore was a victory for Beresford's forces. However, this was due to hard fighting ; the British infantry took very heavy casualties.
The siege of Badajoz was latter abandoned when Marmont joined forces with Soult. Albuera therefore had little effect on the course of the war , but the performance of Polish Lancers at it did cause the British Army to convert some cavalry regiments to lancers post-Waterloo. It also confirmed the fighting quality of the remodelled Portuguese Army.
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The Context of the Battle
Wellington, had spent the winter of 1810-1811 holding a strong line of fortification at Torres Vedras protecting Lisbon. French forces under Massena had spent the winter opposite the lines, unable to assault them and unable to adequately feed themselves, and consequently wasting away . In March 1811 Massena recognised the logic of the situation and fell back to the area of the Spanish border fortress of Ciudad Rodrigo, covering the road from Portugal towards Salamanca. He left a small force in the corresponding Portuguese fortress of Almeida. The combination of the winter in front of the Lines of Torres Vedras and a hurried retreat had largely destroyed his army's offensive capability.
South of the Tagus, the Portuguese fortress of Elvas and the Spanish fortress of Badajoz stood on the main road out of Portugal to Madrid. French operations south of the Tagus were the responsibility of Soult, who was also occupied in other directions (eg pursuing a siege of Cadiz. In January1811, Soult had stripped the Cadiz siege lines in order to put together a field force, with which he moved on Badajoz. In response to this British and Spanish forces attempted to break the siege of Cadiz, leading to the Battle of Barrosa March 8, 1811. Barrosa was a tactical defeat for the French, but was not exploited to disrupt the siege of Cadiz. Badajoz was surrendered to Soult on March 10 1811 (supposedly as a result of bribery rather than military operations) , and Soult promptly returned to the Seville area to support the siege of Cadiz and prevent any more effective repetition of the move that had led to Barrosa.
Wellington took the view that all four of the above-mentioned fortresses should be taken to protect Portugal from further invasion, and to allow a move by his Anglo-Portuguese forces into Spain. (Fortress towns were particularly important because of the poor state of communications in the Peninsula: they were difficult to bypass and the logistics of moving and supporting an effective siege train were problematic). He decided to split hois forces, and attempt to take both Almeida and Badajoz. An Anglo-Portuguese force (20,000 men of whom 10,000 British) under Beresford was therefore detached to besiege Badajoz, whilst Wellington with about twice this dealt with Almeida.
At this point, Wellington had no effective siege train. He therefore blockaded Almeida , with a covering force just to the east. Massena's attack on this position was defeated at the Battle of Fuentes d'Onoro on May 5 1811. As a result, Almeida was evacuated by the French on May 11 1811.
Beresford managed to assemble a siege train of sorts from antique Portuguese guns held at Elvas, and began siege operations against Badajoz May 8 1811. Soult marched with about 24,000 men to the relief of Badajoz. Beresford moved to a strong covering position on a N-S ridge behind a stream astride the Badajoz- Seville road at Albuera 12 miles from Badajoz, and 12,000 Spanish troops under Blake operating further south marched to join him.
- Soult's command included the Polish Onvistula Uhlan (Lancer) Regiment (minus one squadron) with 591 soldiers, and a regiment of Grenadiers formed from two Grenadier companies drawn from each of 4 infantry regiments from the Duchy of Warsaw. The composite Grenadier regiment was under the command of Colonel Varrere.
Prelude
On May 15, Beresford's cavalry screen (2,500 men) was driven back from the right bank of the Albuera River with some ease by the French cavalry (the British brigadier-general responsible was later relieved of command). In the small hours of May 16, Blake's forces joined Beresford (unbeknownst to Soult) and were deployed at the South end of the position.
Battle
Soult decided to attack. His plan was to feint an attack on the town of Albuera on the road with one brigade, but to take the bulk of his force on a wide flanking move to the South (the Allied right wing).
- Four platoons of Polish Uhlans crossed the Albuera. General Long responded by deploying two squadrons of the 3rd Dragoon Guards. The first squadron of this regiment was destroyed by two Polish platoons. When the second squadron attacked, the Poles retreated to the river. However, when the dragoons' fire became too intense, the Polish forces retreated across the river. As the Uhlans began to withdraw after crossing the river, they had to fight the British dragoons. Polish losses were 14 killed and 3 wounded. British losses were 20 killed and wounded.
Attack on Albuera
A brigade of infantry commanded by General Godin pushed back soldiers from a brigade of the King's German Legion (KGL) under the command of General Altena. They crossed the river at a bridge but took heavy losses from Portuguese artillery fire, which displaced some of the Germans from the village.
French Flank Attack
Beresford detected Soult's move and attempted to redeploy his forces in response. Orders were given for the Spanish forces (upon whom the flank attack would fall) to redeploy to face south. The British 2nd Division (under General Stewart) behind Albuera was replaced by a Portuguese division and moved south to extend the right flank to the west echelonned behind the Spaniards. The 4th Division under General Cole remained in reserve. However Blake, commanding the Spaniards, refused to move his troops because he was sure the main attack would be upon Albuera village.
When the French V Corps under the command of General Girard begun its attack on three Spanish divisions under the command of Generals Zayas, Lardizabal, and Ballasteros, only Zayas's men were aligned to meet the attack (on his own initiative). V Corps' flanks were covered by horse artillery. On the left flank of V Corps, a French dragoon division under the command of General Latour Mauborg took its position. On its right flank, General Werle's infantry division was deployed.
Destruction of Colborne's Brigade
Zayas' Spaniards fought well and General Stewart's 2nd Infantry Division, along with a battery from the KGL, moved to assist them. Colborne's brigade advanced in line to fire into the left flank of the attacking French infantry column. The French were shattered and Stewart ordered a charge. However at this point a rainstorm reduced visibility (and made it highly difficult to fire a musket). The British infantry were in line, with little or no firepower and unaware that French cavalry, which had made a wider flanking move was to their right flank and behind them.
At this moment, General Latour Maubourg sent the Uhlan Regiment and the 10th Hussars Regiment against them. The three British regiments involved (3rd 4th and 66th)were totally destroyed
- The Uhlans captured 5 regimental flags and also 5 cannons from the KGL battery. Meanwhile, some troops attacked a battalion of the 31st Infantry Regiment, but were repulsed. Next, the Uhlans attacked a Spanish Brigade commanded by General d'Espana and Beresford's staff. Some of the Spanish troops, mainly those from Ballesteros's and Lardizabal's divisions, successfully escaped. This portion of the battle was ended by the unsuccessful attack of the British 4th Dragoon Regiment, which lost 27 soldiers.
The Attack Fails
The French attack then fell upon Houghton's brigade of the 2nd Division, which held its ground despite heavy casualties (after the battle only two officers in the brigade were unwounded). So far, the battle had gone well for the French. However, Soult had become aware by now that Blake's army had joined Beresford and was therefore reluctant to gamble his last reserves to secure victory.
At this point Beresford's 4th Division under Lowry Cole attacked up the ridge from the West. They repelled cavalry charges by dragoons and Uhlans, and advanced to within close range of the French columns. They exchanged musket fire for about 20 minutes. In that time about half the British troops became casualties. Then the French infantry - who must have suffered at least as badly - broke
Casualties
- Allied forces (British, Spanish, Portuguese): 5,916 Soldiers (of whom 4,159 British : Wellington's comment was "another such battle would ruin us").
- French forces: 7,000 soldiers. (British claim 8000: Soult claimed 2,800, then revised this upwards to 5936. He also claimed his force was about 18,000 men: whatever his good points, they did not include scrupulous veracity ).
- Polish forces (serving with the French): The Uhlans lost 130 soldiers killed, wounded, or captured by the Allied forces. Kajetan (Captain) Wojciechowski, who took part in the battle, reported that the Uhlans lost 16 officers and 200 soldiers. The Polish grenadiers, which had covered the French withdrawal, also took heavy casualties.
References
- Article from polish historical newspaper "Mówią Wieki" nr 8/2000. The author is: Andrzej Krzysztof Szymański. The Polish title is: "Albuera zapomniana karta z dziejów kawalerii polskiej". The English translation is: "Albuera: A forgotten charge in the history of the Polish cavalry"
- Information about this battle can be found at here (http://web2.iadfw.net/napoleon/duchy-lancers.html)