Battle of Cabezón

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Battle of Cabezón
Part of the Peninsular War
Date June 12, 1808 Location Cabezón de Pisuerga, near Valladolid, Spain Result Decisive French victory
Belligerents
Spain	French Empire
Commanders
Gregorio de la Cuesta	Jean-Baptiste Bessières Antoine Lasalle
Strength
300 regular cavalry 4,700 militia 4 guns[1]	9,000 regulars
Casualties and losses
Unknown	50 dead[2]

v • d • e Peninsular War Invasion by Stealth, 1808 Madrid – the Bruch – Alcolea – Cabezón – 1st Gerona – 2nd Gerona – Saragossa – Rio Seco – Valencia – Bailén – Roliça – Vimeiro

The Battle of Cabezón was an engagement early in the Peninsular War on June 12, 1808 between a small Spanish militia force (grandiloquently styled the "Army of Castile") and a detachment of Marshal Bessières' French Army Corps under General Lasalle.

The battle took place when General Cuesta's small army, scraped together almost from scratch to defend Old Castile, deployed itself along the Cabezón bridge to bar the road to Burgos against oncoming French divisions. Rather than dig in on the opposite bank of the Pisuerga river, Cuesta, swept along by the enthusiasm of his men, rushed his troops across the bridge against almost double his number, with predictable results: Lasalle's veteran cavalry trampled Cuesta's raw recruits with ease and marched on to Valladolid.

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Gates, David. The Spanish Ulcer: A History of the Peninsular War. Da Capo Press 2001. ISBN 0-306-81083-2