Siege of Badajoz (1812)
| Siege of Badajoz | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Napoleonic Wars | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
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United Kingdom, Portugal | First French Empire | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Lord Wellington | General Philippon | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 25,000 regulars | 5,000 regulars | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 5,000 dead or wounded | 1,500 dead or wounded | ||||||
In the Battle of Badajoz (March 16-April 6, 1812) an Anglo-Portuguese army under Lord Wellington, besieged Badajoz, Spanish and forced the surrender of the French garrison. The siege was one of the bloodiest in the Napoleonic Wars and was considered a costly victory by the British, with some 3,000 Allied soldiers killed in a few short hours of intense fighting as the siege drew to an end.
Siege
After capturing the frontier towns of Almeida and Ciudad Rodrigo in earlier sieges, the Anglo-Portuguese army moved on to Badajoz to capture the town and secure the lines of communication back to Lisbon, the primary base of operations for the allied army. Badajoz was garrisoned by some 5,000 French soldiers under General Phillippon, the town commander, and possessed much stronger fortifications than either Almeida or Ciudad Rodrigo. With a strong curtain wall covered by numerous strongpoints and bastions, Badajoz had already faced two unsuccessful sieges and was well prepared for a third attempt, with the walls strengthened and some areas around the curtain wall flooded or mined with high explosives.
The allied army, some 25,000 strong, outnumbered the French garrison by around five to one and after encircling the town, began to lay siege by preparing trenches, parallels and earthworks to protect the heavy siege artillery, work made difficult by prolonged and torrential rainfalls. As the earthworks were prepared, the French made several raids to try and destroy the lines advancing toward the curtain wall, but were repeatedly fended off by British marksmen and counter-attacks by line infantry.
With the arrival of heavy 18lb and 24lb howitzers, the allies began an intense bombardment of the towns defences whilst one of the defensive bastions was seized by redcoats from General Thomas Picton's 3rd Division. The capture of the bastion allowed more extensive siege earthworks to be dug and soon a maze of trenches were creeping up to the high stone walls as the cannons continued to blast away at the stonework. By April 5 two breaches had been made in the curtain wall and the soldiers readied themselves to storm Badajoz. The order to attack was delayed for 24 hours to allow another breach to be made in the wall. News began to filter to the allies that Marshal Soult was marching to relieve the town and an order was given to launch the attack at 22:00 on the 6th of April.
The French garrison were well aware of what was to come and mined the large breaches in the walls and prepared for the imminent assault.
Storming of the city
With three large gaps in the curtain wall and with Marshal Soult marching to the town's aid, Wellington ordered his regiments to storm the town at 22:00 on the 6th and the troops made their way forward with scaling ladders and various tools. The first men to assault the breach were the men of the Forlorn Hope, who would lead the main attack by the 4th Division and Craufurd's Light Division while diversionary attacks were to be made to the north and the east by Portuguese and British soldiers of the 5th Division and Picton's 3rd Division.
Just as the Forlorn Hope were beginning their attack, a French sentry was alerted and raised the alarm. Within seconds the ramparts were filled with French soldiers, who poured a lethal hail of musket fire into the troops at the base of the breach. The British and Portuguese surged forward en-masse and raced up to the wall, facing a murderous barrage of musket fire, complemented by grenades, stones, barrels of gunpowder with crude fuses and even bales of burning hay.
The furious barrage devastated the British soldiers at the wall and the breach soon began to fill with dead and wounded, whom the storming troops had to struggle over. Despite the carnage the redcoats bravely continued to surge forward in great numbers, only to be mown down by endless volleys and shrapnel from grenades and bombs. In just under two hours, some 2,000 men had been killed or badly wounded at the main breach, while countless more men of the 3rd Division were shot down as they made their diversionary assault. General Picton himself was wounded as he climbed a ladder to try and reach the top of the wall. Everywhere they attacked, the allied soldiers were being halted and the carnage was so immense that Wellington was just about to call a halt to the assault when the soldiers finally got a foothold on the curtain wall.
Picton's 3rd Division finally managed to reach the top of the wall and simultaneously link up with men of the 5th Division, who were also making their way into the town. Once they had a foothold, the British and Portuguese soldiers were at an advantage from sheer numbers and began to drive the French back. Seeing that he could no longer hold out, General Philippon withdrew from Badajoz to the neighboring outwork of San Cristobal; he however shortly surrendered after the town had fallen.
Results
With success came mass looting and disorder as the redcoats turned to drink and it was some 72 hours before order was completely restored. The wanton sacking of Badajoz has been noted by many historians as a particularly atrocious conduct committed by the British Army: many homes were broken into, property vandalized or stolen, Spanish civilians of all ages and backgrounds killed or raped, and many officers were also shot by the men they were trying to bring to order. Among the Spanish civilians that managed to survive there were Juana Maria de los Delores de Leon, future wife of General Harry Smith, and her sister. (The city of Ladysmith, the site of another famous siege, would be named after Juana Maria Smith).
When dawn finally came on the 7th of April, it revealed the horror of the slaughter all around the curtain wall. Bodies were piled high and blood flowed like rivers in the ditches and trenches. When he saw the destruction and slaughter, Wellington wept bitterly and cursed the British Parliament for granting him so few resources and soldiers. The assault and the earlier skirmishes had left the allies with some 4,800 casualties. The elite Light Division had suffered badly, losing some 40% of their fighting strength. The siege was however, over, and Wellington had secured the Portuguese–Spanish frontier and could now move against Marshal Marmont at Salamanca.