Battle of Somosierra: Difference between revisions

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Revision as of 16:00, 7 May 2023 edit Technopat (talk \| contribs) Autopatrolled, Extended confirmed users, IP block exemptions, Pending changes reviewers, Rollbackers 52,667 edits Removed "translate" hatnote: priority is references... ← Previous edit		Latest revision as of 10:26, 9 August 2024 edit undo 83.55.95.96 (talk) Until the division of 1833 territorial division of Spain, the Somosierra port belonged to the Province of Segovia, and the community of Madrid did not exist until 1983.
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Line 2: {{For\|the 1936 battle\|Battle of Guadarrama}} {{More footnotes\|date=May 2023}} {{Use shortened footnotes\|date=May 2021}} Line 10 ⟶ 11: \|caption=''La bataille de Somo-Sierra'', 1810, [[Louis-François, Baron Lejeune\|Baron Lejeune]] \|date=30 November 1808 \|place=[[Somosierra Pass]], [[~~Community~~Province of ~~Madrid~~Segovia]], [[Enlightenment in Spain\|Spain]] \|coordinates={{Coord\|41\|09\|N\|3\|35\|W}} \|result=Franco-Polish victory{{sfn\|Bodart\|1908\|p=391}} \|combatant1={{flagdeco\|First French Empire}} [[First French Empire\|France]] <br> {{~~flagicon image~~flagcountry\|~~Bandera~~Napoleonic ~~de España 1808-1813.svg~~Spain}} ~~[[Spain under Joseph Bonaparte\|Spain]]~~ <br> {{flagicon\|Duchy of Warsaw}} [[Duchy of Warsaw]] \|combatant2={{flagdeco\|Spain\|1785}} [[History of Spain (1808–1874)\|Spain]] \|commander1={{flagdeco\|First French Empire}} [[Napoleon\|Napoleon I]] <br> {{flagicon\|Duchy of Warsaw}} [[Jan Leon Kozietulski]] Line 108 ⟶ 109: ==Background== [[Peninsular War#Napoleon's invasion of Spain\|Napoleon's invasion of Spain]] had started with the [[Battle of Zornoza]]. By late November 1808 the French ''[[Grande Armée]]'' had overwhelmed and destroyed both wings of the [[Military history of Spain\|Spanish popular army]]. To complete his reconquest of Spain, Napoleon advanced on Madrid with 40,000 men. General San Juan mustered an ad hoc army of [[militia]], reservists and various regular regiments still reeling from earlier defeats – in all about 12,000 men – to defend Madrid. In order to screen the many approaches to the city, San Juan dispersed his already greatly outnumbered forces. Under his orders, 9,000 men were sent west to guard the Guadarrama pass while 3,000 occupied an advanced post at [[Sepúlveda, Segovia\|~~Sepulveda~~Sepúlveda]], leaving only 9,000 men and 16 guns on the heights of Somosierra. The nature of the terrain and the tenacity of the Spaniards initially worked in their favor. On the evening of 28 November the brigade at Sepúlveda made up of the 3rd Battalion of the [[Walloon Guards]], the Jaén and Irlanda Regiments and the 1st Battalion of the Seville Volunteers repulsed a French attack by the two Fusilier Regiments of the Middle Guard commanded by General [[Anne Jean Marie René Savary\|Savary]]. The Spanish were forced to withdraw in the gathering darkness when their cavalry was defeated by the cavalry brigade of General [[Lasalle]]. On the morning of 30 November, Napoleon advanced his infantry directly toward the pass while small detachments crept up the flanks. Exchanging musket volleys with the defenders, the French made slow but measurable progress toward the enemy guns. Line 116 ⟶ 117: Some authors have assumed that Napoleon had gone out of his mind in ordering the Poles to charge batteries of 16 cannon over several kilometers of extremely difficult terrain.{{sfn\|Regan\|2000}} Others however, think Napoleon ordered only the closest battery to be taken, in order to open the way for his infantry, and that Kozietulski had misunderstood the order.{{sfn\|Bielecki\|1989}} No matter – once the charge had begun, and the ''chevaux-légers'' found themselves under fire from the second battery, they had no choice but to press the attack, as the horses went to the highest speed and were unable to stop. They took the second and third batteries but only a few chevaux-légers reached the last battery, and the Spanish attempted to recapture it. It was then that Napoleon saw his chance and immediately committed the other squadrons. [[File:Somosierra, 30 novembre 1808.jpg\|thumb\|right\|upright=1.0\|alt=Painting shows Emperor Napoleon conferring with some of the survivors of the charge.\|Myrbach painting shows Napoleon conferring with some of the Poles.]] Benito de San Juan had 16 cannons at his disposal, arranged in four batteries. Some accounts, based mostly on recollections of French officers, assume that the Spaniards placed all their guns at the peak of Somosierra pass. However, with a range of 600–800 metres, the cannons, deployed in this fashion, could not have struck much of the French army—and there were reports that Napoleon himself was at times under artillery fire. The first battery defended the entrance to the Somosierra pass, the next two covered the pass at its angles and the fourth, only, stood by the heights. It was assumed that all batteries had four cannons, and later theories that the pass was too narrow for that to be possible should be treated as legends. 13th Bulletin of the Army of Spain mentioned that chevau-légers were commanded by Gen. [[Louis Pierre, Count Montbrun]]. However, both Polish charge participants mentioned above and Lt. Col. [[Pierre Dautancourt]], one of the French tutors of the unit, stressed in their accounts that such was not the case. Datancourt mentioned that Montbrun in conversations with him had laughed at that idea. Yet French historian [[Adolphe Thiers]] gave him the honor of leading the charge, which caused a protest by surviving Polish participants of the battle. Maj. [[Philippe de Ségur]] in his memoirs wrote that he had commanded the charge, but his accounts were often described as unreliable and, again, both Dautancourt and the Poles denied his role in it. Line 143 ⟶ 145: The Battle of Somosierra is commemorated on the [[Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Warsaw]], with the inscription "SOMOSIERRA 30 XI 1808". ==~~Explanatory~~See ~~notes~~also== * [[Timeline of the Peninsular War]] ~~{{Notelist}}~~ ==Notes== {{~~Reflist\|2~~Notelist}} ==References== {{Reflist\|2}} ==Bibliography== * {{cite book \| last=Bielecki \| first=Robert \| year=1989 \| title=Somosierra 1808 \| publisher=Warszawa: Wydawnictwa Ministerstwa Obrony Narodowej \| isbn=83-11-07620-0}} * {{cite book \| last=Bodart \| first=Gaston \| date=1908 \| title=Militär-historisches Kriegs-Lexikon (1618-1905) \| url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_A0kNAAAAYAAJ \| url-access=registration \| access-date=17 May 2021}} * {{cite book \| last=Esdaile \| first=Charles J. \| year=2003 \| title=The Peninsular War \| publisher=Palgrave MacMillan \| isbn=9781403962317 \| url=https://archive.org/details/peninsularwarnew00esda \| url-access=registration \| access-date=17 May 2021}} * {{cite journal \| last=Nieuważny \| first=Andrzej \| year=2006 \| title=Najpiękniejsza z szarż (The Most Beautiful of Cavalry charges) \| journal = [[Rzeczpospolita (newspaper)\|Rzeczpospolita]] \| volume = 123 \| issue = 2006–05–27 \|language=pl}}▼ * {{cite book \| last=Regan \| first=Geoffrey \| year=2000 \| title=Great military blunders \| isbn=978-0-7522-1844-1}}▼ * {{cite web \| last=Somosierra \| year=2021 \| url=https://sites.google.com/site/entre18091810/campanas/la-intervencion-de-napoleon-y-la-primera-campana-inglesa/batalla-de-somosierra#TOC-Muerte-del-general-Benito-San-Juan \| title=Batalla de Somosierra - Entre 1809-1810 \| website=sites.google.com \| access-date=17 May 2021}}▼ * {{cite book \| last= Gómez de Arteche y Moro \| first=José \| year=1878 \| title=Guerra de Independencia Historia Militar Vol III}} ▲* {{cite journal \| last=Nieuważny \| first=Andrzej \| year=2006 \| title=Najpiękniejsza z szarż (The Most Beautiful of Cavalry charges) \| journal = [[Rzeczpospolita (newspaper)\|Rzeczpospolita]] \| volume = 123 \| issue = 2006–05–27 \|language=pl}} ▲* {{cite book \| last=Regan \| first=Geoffrey \| year=2000 \| title=Great military blunders \| publisher=4 Books \| isbn=978-0-7522-1844-1}} ▲* {{cite web \| last=Somosierra \| year=2021 \| url=https://sites.google.com/site/entre18091810/campanas/la-intervencion-de-napoleon-y-la-primera-campana-inglesa/batalla-de-somosierra#TOC-Muerte-del-general-Benito-San-Juan \| title=Batalla de Somosierra - Entre 1809-1810 \| website=sites.google.com \| access-date=17 May 2021 \| archive-date=14 March 2022 \| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220314125344/https://sites.google.com/site/entre18091810/campanas/la-intervencion-de-napoleon-y-la-primera-campana-inglesa/batalla-de-somosierra#TOC-Muerte-del-general-Benito-San-Juan \| url-status=dead }} ==Further reading== * {{cite book \| last=Bauer \| first=Frank \| year=2008 \| title=Somosierra 30. November 1808. Durchbruch nach Madrid \| location=Potsdam \| publisher=Edition König und Vaterland \| language=de}} * {{cite web \| last=~~napoleonistyka~~Napoleonistyka \| year=2020\| title=Battle of Somosierra Pass \| url=http://napoleonistyka.atspace.com/battle_somosierra.htm \| url-access=registration \| access-date=17 May 2021 \| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201006111628/http://napoleonistyka.atspace.com/battle_somosierra.htm \| archive-date=6 October 2020}} ==External links== Line 178 ⟶ 183: {{DEFAULTSORT:Somosierra 1808}} [[Category:Cavalry charges]] [[Category:~~Conflicts~~Battles in 1808\|Battle of Somosierra]] [[Category:Battles of the Peninsular War]] [[Category:Battles involving Spain]] [[Category:Battles involving Poland]] [[Category:~~Battles~~Military ~~in the Community~~history of Madrid]] [[Category:1808 in Spain\|Battle of Somosierra]] [[Category:November 1808 events]]