Siege of Figueras (1811)

Siege of Figueres
Part of Peninsular War

Sant Ferran Fortress is located on a hill near Figueres.
Date4 April to 19 August 1811[1]
Location
Figueres, Spain
42°16′N 2°58′E / 42.267°N 2.967°E / 42.267; 2.967
Result French victory[1][2]
Belligerents
France First French Empire Spain Kingdom of Spain
Commanders and leaders
France Jacques MacDonald
France L. Baraguey d'Hilliers
France François G. Guillot		 Spain Juan Martínez
Spain Francesc Rovira
Spain Marquis Campoverde
Units involved
France VII Corps Spain Army of Catalonia
Strength
Rovira's coup: 900
Relief: over 7,000
Siege: 15,000[1]		 Rovira's coup: 2,000
Relief: over 10,800
Siege: 7,000[1]
Casualties and losses
Rovira's coup: 900
Relief: 400
Siege: 2,000[1]		 Rovira's coup: 25
Relief: 1,000
Siege: 7,000[1]
Peninsular war: Aragón Catalonia
Map
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200km
125miles
21
Battle of Ordal at Ordal, on 13 September 1813
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Battle of Saguntum at Saguntum, on 25 October 1811
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Figueras
15
14
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Third siege of Girona at Girona, from 6 May to 12 December 1809
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Battle of Valls at Valls, on 25 February 1809
  current battle

The siege of Figueras, which lasted from 10 April to 19 August 1811, saw the Spanish garrison of Sant Ferran Castle (San Fernando Fortress) led by Brigadier General Juan Antonio Martínez defend against an Imperial French force commanded by Marshal Jacques MacDonald and his deputy Louis Baraguey d'Hilliers. Martínez and his men held out much longer than expected but were eventually starved into surrendering the fortress, which was near Figueres. The action occurred during the Peninsular War, part of the Napoleonic Wars.[3]

On the night of 9 and 10 April 1811, a Spanish guerrilla force led by the priest Francesc Rovira i Sala seized the Sant Ferran Castle from its Italian garrison in a well-executed coup de main. Within a few days, the fortress was manned by 3,000 Catalan miquelets and 1,500 Spanish regulars and placed under the command of Martínez. A furious Emperor Napoleon demanded that the strategic fort be retaken and 15,000 Imperial troops were amassed for the purpose. MacDonald pleaded with Louis Gabriel Suchet for reinforcements, but that general refused to send a single soldier and went ahead with his intended Siege of Tarragona. When Suchet invested Tarragona, Luis González Torres de Navarra, Marquess of Campoverde leading the Army of Catalonia immediately withdrew the divisions of Pedro Sarsfield and Joaquín Ibáñez Cuevas y de Valonga, Baron de Eroles from the vicinity of Figueres and moved to defend Tarragona.[3]

MacDonald made no attempt to breach Sant Ferran's walls by cannon fire; rather he waited for hunger to compel a surrender. With his food nearly gone, Martínez launched a breakout attempt but it failed to pierce the siege lines. By the time the garrison capitulated, 4,000 of the besiegers had died, mostly from malaria, dysentery, and other diseases. Of the defenders, 1,500 died from enemy action and hunger, 2,000 marched into captivity, and 1,000 were too badly wounded or sick in the fortress hospital to leave. Though the Spanish lost Sant Ferran in the end and failed to stop Suchet from capturing Tarragona, they tied up the entire VII Corps for the summer of 1811.

  1. ^ a b c d e f Bodart 1908, p. 426.
  2. ^ Jaques 2007, p. 352.
  3. ^ a b Esdaile 2003, pp. 359–360.