Battle of Manresa (1810)

Battle of Manresa (1810)
Part of Peninsular War

Manresa was burned by the French on 30 March 1812.
Date21 March 5 April 1810
LocationManresa, Catalonia, Spain
Vilafranca del Penedès, Spain
Result Spanish victory
Belligerents
France First French Empire Spain Kingdom of Spain
Commanders and leaders
France Pierre Augereau
France Marie François Rouyer
France François de Schwarz
Spain Henry O'Donnell
Spain Juan Caro (WIA)
Spain Luis of Campoverde
Spain Francesc Rovira
Units involved
France VII Corps Spain Army of Catalonia
Strength
Vilafranca: 800
Manresa: 3,000
Vilafranca: 7,300
Manresa: 7,300
Casualties and losses
Vilafranca: 800
Manresa: 852
Vilafranca: light
Manresa: light

The Battle of Manresa and Battle of Vilafranca from 21 March to 5 April 1810 saw a Spanish division led by Juan Caro and Luis González Torres de Navarra, Marquess of Campoverde attack an Imperial French brigade commanded by François Xavier de Schwarz. Caro's division first surprised the town of Vilafranca del Penedès in March and captured its 800-man garrison made up of troops from the Confederation of the Rhine. Vilafranca is located 35 kilometres (22 mi) west of Barcelona.

The Spanish troops remained at large and fell upon the town of Manresa at the beginning of April. After several days of sparring they drove Schwarz and his German soldiers out of the town with heavy losses. Caro was wounded on 2 April and was replaced by Campoverde. The Spanish force included 2,000 regulars, 2,300 local miquelets (Catalan Militia), and Francesc Rovira i Sala's band of 3,000 miquelets. This minor disaster caused Marshal Pierre Augereau to call off Imperial troops which were threatening Tarragona. Schwarz's brigade belonged to Marie François Rouyer's division while Caro's division was part of Henry O'Donnell's Army of Catalonia. Manresa is located 40 kilometres (25 mi) northwest of Barcelona. The actions occurred during the Peninsular War, part of the Napoleonic Wars.

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, April 03, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.