The second siege of Badajoz (22 April – 12 May and 18 May – 10 June, 1811) saw an Anglo-Portuguese Army, first led by William Carr Beresford and later commanded by Arthur Wellesley, the Viscount Wellington, besiege a French garrison under Armand Philippon at Badajoz, Spain. After failing to force a surrender, Wellington withdrew his army when the French mounted a successful relief effort by combining the armies of Marshals Nicolas Soult and Auguste Marmont. The action was fought during the Peninsular War, part of the Napoleonic Wars. Badajoz is located 6 kilometres (4 mi) from the Portuguese border on the Guadiana River in western Spain.
While Wellington faced Marshal André Masséna's Army of Portugal in the north, his lieutenant Beresford attempted to capture French-held Badajoz in the south. Beresford invested the city in April but Philippon's garrison successfully fended off his attacks. The siege was briefly lifted while the Battle of Albuera was fought on 16 May. Though both sides suffered horrific casualties, Beresford emerged the victor and Soult retreated to the east. Wellington brought reinforcements from the north and resumed the siege, but progress was slow in the face of spirited French resistance. Meanwhile, Masséna's replacement Marmont brought large forces south to join Soult. The British commander lifted the siege after being menaced by the numerically superior French army led by Soult and Marmont.
Background
Hoping to assist Marshal André Masséna's third French invasion of Portugal, Emperor Napoleon ordered Marshal Nicolas Soult to act. Accordingly, Soult set out in January 1811 with 13,500 foot soldiers, 4,000 horse, and 2,000 gunners and sappers to besiege Badajoz. In a preliminary operation, Soult captured Olivenza in a two-week siege that ended on 23 January. The French seized 4,161 Spanish prisoners and 18 guns for an admitted loss of only 15 killed and 40 wounded. On 27 January, Soult's army invested Badajoz. Despite the interference of a 15,000-man Spanish relief army, the results were all the French could have hoped for. On 19 February, Soult sent Marshal Édouard Mortier to deal with the Spanish army. Mortier won a crushing victory in the Battle of the Gebora. The Spanish lost 850 killed and wounded plus 4,000 men, 17 guns, and 6 colors captured. French casualties only numbered 403. Turning to the siege, Soult forced a surrender on 11 March. The 4,340-man Spanish garrison plus 2,000 fugitives from the Battle of the Gebora lost about 1,000 killed and wounded while the rest became prisoners. The French sustained 1,900 casualties in the siege.
At about this time Soult received intelligence that Spanish General Francisco Ballesteros was menacing Seville and Marshal Claude Perrin Victor had been defeated by General Thomas Graham at the Battle of Barrosa. Leaving Mortier and 11,000 soldiers to hold Badajoz and environs, Soult hurried away with the remainder to deal with the twin threats. Meanwhile, Mortier besieged and captured Campo Maior on 21 March. As his subordinate General of Division Victor de Fay de Latour-Maubourg convoyed the captured cannon back to Badajoz, he was surprised by the cavalry vanguard of William Carr Beresford's approaching Anglo-Portuguese corps. In the Battle of Campo Maior on 25 March, the British 13th Light Dragoons scored an initial success, then lost all control as they galloped after the defeated French dragoons. In the confusion, Latour-Maubourg kept his head and, with the help of Mortier, managed to save the artillery convoy except for one artillery piece. Nevertheless, the appearance of Beresford and 18,000 Allied troops threw the French onto the defensive.
A field marshal in the service of Portugal, Beresford had available the 2nd Division, the 4th Division, Major General John Hamilton's Portuguese Division, and General Robert Ballard Long's cavalry. If he could have invested Badajoz at the end of March, Beresford might have found the defenses of the fortress in poor shape. However, problems arose to delay the operation until the French effected repairs. First, the 4th Division was immobilized by a lack of shoes and had to wait for a new shipment from Lisbon. Next, ample bridging material was supposed to be available at the Portuguese fortress of Elvas, but the number of pontoons proved inadequate to span the Guadiana River. The military engineers improvised a bridge, but it was immediately washed out by a flood on 4 April. A battalion was ferried across on the 5th, and starting on 6 April, the Allied corps began slowly filing across the Guadiana on a rickety structure. Luckily, for the Allies, the French did not contest the crossing. Mortier had been recalled and his replacement Latour-Maubourg lacked his strategic insight.
Too late, Latour-Maubourg finally woke up and sent two cavalry regiments and four infantry battalions on a reconnaissance to find out what was afoot. On the night of the 6th, the French flying column gobbled up a picket of the 13th Light Dragoons. The British lost 52 horsemen captured in this misadventure. General of Brigade Michel Veilande reported that the Allies were across the Guadiana in great strength. Before withdrawing from the area, Latour-Maubourg left General of Brigade Armand Philippon with 3,000 men in Badajoz and 400 soldiers in Olivenza (Olivença). Unaware that Olivenza had such a weak garrison, the Allies laid siege to it on 9 April. The place fell on the 14th after six Portuguese 24-pound cannons blasted a breach in the walls. The same week, Beresford was joined by a Spanish force numbering 3,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry under General Francisco Javier Castaños.
First phase
Before investing Badajoz, Beresford thought it worthwhile to drive Latour-Maubourg's force out of Extremadura. Leaving some troops to mask Badajoz, he marched southeast toward Zafra. Long routed the French 2nd Hussars at Los Santos de Maimona on 16 April. Abandoning Llerena on the 19th, Latour-Maubourg withdrew to Guadalcanal in Andalusia. Before starting the siege of Badajoz, Beresford posted Spanish cavalry at Llerena and British cavalry at Zafra. They were supported by a brigade of British infantry under Lieutenant Colonel John Colborne.
In any case, Beresford could not have besieged the fortress at once because no siege train had been assembled. Apparently, this was an oversight by Arthur Wellesley, Viscount Wellington who failed to issue the necessary orders. The main problem was that the British army in the Iberian Peninsula had never been provided by the home government with a proper siege train. Therefore, Major Alexander Dickson began forming a siege park from the Portuguese cannons available at Elvas. In the words of historian Charles Oman, "The walls of Elvas were a perfect museum of ancient artillery..." Some of the cannons that Dickson used had dates of 1620, 1636, 1646, and 1652 on their breeches. Even the pieces from the early 1700s were of an obsolete pattern. Most of the gunners were Portuguese, many only half trained. These were later supplemented by the personnel from British artillery batteries stationed at Lisbon in the companies of Captains Baynes, Bredin, Glubb, and Raynsford.
On 20 April, Wellington arrived on a flying visit from the northern front. By this time, his opponent Masséna had abandoned his campaign in Portugal and retreated into Spain. Two days later, Wellington accompanied Major General Charles Alten's newly-arrived brigade of the King's German Legion on a reconnaissance of Badajoz. A skirmish with the aggressive garrison ensued in which the Germans lost 50 to 60 casualties. Before leaving on the 25th, Wellington issued a set of comprehensive instructions to Beresford. On the advice of his chief engineer, Colonel Richard Fletcher, Wellington ordered that the main attack be directed on the San Cristobal, Picurina, and Pardeleras forts.
The siege began on 22 April 1811. Philippon's 4,000 defenders included the 1st Battalions of the 12th Light, 34th Line, and 88th Line Infantry Regiments and the 3rd Battalions of the 40th and 100th Line Infantry Regiments. To oppose the French, Beresford had 10,500 British and 10,200 Portuguese troops available. In case Soult tried to relieve Badajoz, Wellington arranged for as many as 15,000 Spanish troops to be ready to help. On 5 May Dickson reported that the siege train was finally ready. The next day, Beresford invested Badajoz south of the Guadiana with Alten's brigade, Major General William Lumley's British brigade, and Brigadier General Luiz Fonseca's Portuguese brigade. Lieutenant Colonel James Kemmis' 7th brigade and the 17th Portuguese Regiment took post on the north side opposite San Cristobal. Four more brigades were stationed in support between Badajoz and La Albuera. Meanwhile, Colborne conducted a successful campaign in the Sierra Morena with 2,000 men, causing Latour-Maubourg to fall back even farther.
Dickson assigned five 24-pound cannons and two howitzers to attack San Cristobal while 14 24-pound cannons and two 8-inch howitzers were deployed south of the river. On 8 April 1811, trenches were started on all three fronts at a distance of 400 yards (366 m) from the fortress. Opposite the Picurina fort, good progress was made, and a 10-gun battery was installed by the 11th. However, it was found almost impossible to dig trenches in front of San Cristobal because there was bedrock under a thin layer of topsoil. What little work could be done during the night had to be abandoned under deadly French fire during the day. Since trenches were out of the question, wooden gabions filled with soil had to be erected. On this front, Philippon launched a sortie on the evening of the 10th. The attack was repulsed, but the Allies pursued their enemies too far and came under murderous fire from San Cristobal. The French lost 200 men in the sortie; the British and Portuguese lost 438. On 11 April, a five-gun battery opened fire on the fort, but during the day four of its guns were put out of action by accurate French fire. By this time, six of the nine available engineers were casualties. A second battery was brought into action the next morning, but it was soon silenced. Shortly afterward, news arrived that Soult was rapidly approaching with an army of relief. Beresford ordered his troops to La Albuera to resist Soult's advance and sent the siege guns back to Elvas. The gabions were set on fire to deny the materials to the French. British losses in the failed siege numbered 533, nearly all in Kemmis' brigade, plus 200 Portuguese.
Albuera
On 16 May 1811, Beresford defeated Soult in the Battle of Albuera. Soult's 24,246-man army included 4,000 cavalry and 48 artillery pieces. Beresford's 35,284-strong army included 13,928 Spaniards under Generals Joaquín Blake and Castaños. Losses in both armies were staggering. The French marshal reported losing 5,935 men including Generals of Brigade François Werlé and Joseph Pepin killed. However, since Soult reported only 262 officer losses while a more reliable source counted 362, the true figure may be as high as 7,900 killed, wounded, and captured. Allied losses numbered 5,904 including 1,359 Spaniards. Colborne's brigade lost five colors after being ridden down by the 1st Vistula Legion Lancers and the French 2nd Hussars. The all-British 2nd Division suffered 2,865 casualties including 661 killed; the British brigade of the 4th Division lost 1,065 men. The Spanish Guards and Irlanda Regiments fought and counted 98 killed and 517 wounded. Soult's crippled army retreated on the 18th, covered by his superior cavalry. While the armies were fighting, Philippon's troops filled in the Allied trenches and battery positions. The French commander also removed much of the topsoil around San Cristobal. The siege was resumed on the morning of 19 May by Hamilton's Portuguese troops.
On 14 May 1811, the 3rd and 7th Divisions left the northern front and set out for Badajoz under the command of General Thomas Picton. On 16 May, Wellington left General Brent Spencer in charge of the 26,000 infantry and 1,800 cavalry of the northern army. Wellington reached Badajoz on the 19th; Picton's divisions arrived on the 24th. Meanwhile, Soult retreated slowly southeast to Llerena with his large convoys of wounded soldiers, followed by Beresford and Blake. There was one notable clash at the Battle of Usagre on 25 May. Soult asked Latour-Maubourg to drive back the Allied cavalry to ascertain if infantry was present. The French dragoons ran into a trap and lost 250 killed and wounded plus another 78 captured. Lumley's cavalry lost only 20 casualties in the one-sided fight.
Second phase
On 27 May Beresford was officially replaced in command on the southern front. Four days later, General Rowland Hill arrived to take over the covering force, the 2nd and 4th Divisions plus Alten's brigade and Lumley's cavalry, approximately 10,000 men. Wellington personally took charge of the siege corps, which consisted of the 3rd and 7th Divisions and Hamilton's division. These troops numbered 14,000 including 700 gunners. Philippon's garrison consisted of 3,600 men. Again, Wellington's engineers, of whom there were only 25 available, urged him to attack the San Cristobal fort. In addition, a major effort was planned against the Castle on the south side of the Guadiana.