Battle of Espinosa de los Monteros

Battle of Espinoza
Part of the Peninsular War
Date 10-11 November 1808 Location Espinosa de los Monteros, southeast of Cantabria, Spain 43°04′00″N 3°32′00″W / 43.0667°N 3.5333°W / 43.0667; -3.5333 Result French victory[1]
Belligerents
French Empire	Spain
Commanders and leaders
Claude Victor	Joaquín Blake Pedro Caro
Strength
21,000[1]	23,000[1]
Casualties and losses
1,100[1]	5,400[1]

The Battle of Espinosa de los Monteros was a battle of the Napoleonic Wars, fought on 10 and 11 November 1808 at the township of Espinosa de los Monteros in the Cantabrian Mountains. It resulted in a French victory under General Victor against Lieutenant General Joaquín Blake's Army of Galicia.^[2]

Battle[]

Victor launched a series of attacks on the first day that were thrown back with heavy losses by the disciplined regulars of General La Romana's Division of the North. By nightfall, Blake's positions still held. On the morning of 11 November, Victor regained his composure and coordinated a massive French attack that pierced Blake's left wing and drove the Spaniards from the field.^[3]

Blake led his remaining men through a heroic retreat west through the mountains to escape Soult's pursuit. However, when Blake arrived at León on 23 November, only 20,000 of his men remained in an extremely bad condition.^[3]

In popular culture[]

• The Gun, by C. S. Forester (author of the Horatio Hornblower series), begins with the Spanish retreat from Espinoza.

Notes[]

References[]

• Bodart, Gaston (1908). Militär-historisches Kriegs-Lexikon (1618-1905). Retrieved 17 May 2021.
• Esdaile, Charles J. (2003). The Peninsular War. Palgrave MacMillan. Retrieved 17 May 2021.