Battle of Tordesillas (1812)

Battle of Tordesillas (1812)
Part of the Peninsular War

Stone bridge over the Duero at Tordesillas
Date25–29 October 1812
Location41°30′N 5°0′W / 41.500°N 5.000°W / 41.500; -5.000
Result French victory
Belligerents
First French Empire French Empire
Commanders and leaders
First French Empire Joseph Souham
Strength
53,000 35,000
Casualties and losses
350 killed, wounded or captured 800 killed, wounded or captured
Map
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Maps: terms of use
200km
125miles
Toulouse
12
Battle of Toulouse (1814) on 10 April 1814
Vitoria
11
Battle of Vitoria on 21 June 1813
Tordesillas
10
Burgos
9
Siege of Burgos from 19 September to 21 October 1812
Salamanca
8
Battle of Salamanca on 22 July 1812
Ciudad
7
Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo (1812) from 7 to 20 January 1812
Talavera
6
Battle of Talavera on 27–28 July 1809
Corunna
5
Battle of Corunna on 16 January 1809
Tudela
4
Battle of Tudela on 23 November 1808
Bailén
3
Battle of Bailén from 16 to 19 July 1808
Valencia
2
Battle of Valencia from 26 to 28 June 1808
Madrid
1
Madrid Uprising on 2 May 1808
  current battle
  Wellington in command
  Wellington not in command

In the Battle of Tordesillas, Battle of Villa Muriel or Battle of Palencia between 25 and 29 October 1812, a French army led by Joseph Souham pushed back an Anglo-Portuguese-Spanish army commanded by Arthur Wellesley, Marquess Wellington. After its failed Siege of Burgos, the 35,000-man Allied army withdrew to the west, pursued by Souham's 53,000 French soldiers. On 23 October, French cavalry defeated the Allied rear guard in the Battle of Venta del Pozo. The Allies pulled back behind the Pisuerga and Carrión Rivers and took up a defensive position.

Beginning on the 25th there were clashes at Palencia and Villamuriel de Cerrato as Souham sought to turn the Allied north flank. Wellington then adopted an unorthodox defensive position, prompting Souham to pause for two days. The stalemate was broken on 29 October when a party of naked French soldiers swam the Duero River at Tordesillas with their weapons on a raft. Upon reaching the far bank, they took up their guns and routed the Brunswick defenders of a key bridge. With an intact bridge in French hands, Wellington was forced to continue his retreat toward Portugal.

Meanwhile, Wellington's subordinate Rowland Hill withdrew from Madrid. The two British commanders united their armies near Alba de Tormes on 8 November. By this time the combined French armies were led by Nicolas Soult. Though 80,000 French faced 65,000 Allies on the old Salamanca battlefield neither commander initiated a battle, whereupon Wellington began a withdrawal. After a retreat in miserable conditions during which hundreds of soldiers were captured or died of hunger and exposure, the Allied army went into winter quarters. The actions were fought during the Peninsular War, part of the Napoleonic Wars.