The Battle of Saguntum (25 October 1811) saw the Imperial French Army of Aragon under Marshal Louis Gabriel Suchet fighting a Spanish army led by Captain General Joaquín Blake. The Spanish attempt to raise the siege of the Sagunto Castle failed when the French, Italians, and Poles drove their troops off the battlefield in rout. The action took place during the Peninsular War, part of the Napoleonic Wars. Sagunto lies a short distance from the east coast of Spain, about north of Valencia.
Suchet invaded the province of Valencia in September 1811. He tried to quickly seize Sagunto Castle, but its garrison under Colonel Luis Andriani repulsed two attacks and the French-Allied army was forced to lay siege to the ancient fortress. When Blake's army advanced from Valencia to raise the siege, Suchet posted his somewhat smaller army to resist the Spanish. Blake's attack on Suchet's right flank went awry and soon the poorly trained Spanish troops were fleeing. The Spanish troops attacking Suchet's left flank were made of sterner stuff, however, and the contest there was more severe. Finally, the Imperial troops gained the upper hand and put almost the entire Spanish army to flight. The garrison of Sagunto Castle soon surrendered and Blake's soldiers limped back to Valencia where they tried to put that city's defences in order.
Background Armies
Under the command of Louis Gabriel Suchet, the French Army of Aragon successfully concluded the Siege of Tortosa on 2 January 1811 and the Siege of Tarragona on 29 June 1811. In the latter operation, the French killed or captured 15,000 Spanish troops, wiping out two-thirds of Catalonia's army. French losses were 4,300 killed and wounded. Tarragona's capture earned Suchet his marshal's baton. Emperor Napoleon desired to subjugate the Province of Valencia, but that campaign had to wait until the French recaptured the Sant Ferran Castle, which sat on a major road between France and Spain. The Siege of Figueras ended on 19 August 1811 with a Spanish surrender. Six days afterward, Napoleon ordered Suchet to advance and seize Valencia. The emperor assumed that the Spanish Army of Valencia was in a panic and that the city would be easy prey for the Imperial French army. Napoleon erred; Sagunto Castle would hold out for weeks.
According to historian Charles Oman, the Valencian Army had the "worst fighting reputation" of all the Spanish armies. During the campaign which ended with the fall of Tarragona, the army proved incapable of assisting the garrison. In October 1811 the army numbered 36,000 men, including the Reserve Division consisting of newly raised 3rd Battalions of old regiments. The 3rd Battalions suffered from having too few officers. The only first-class formations were the divisions of Major Generals Miguel Lardizabal y Uribe and José Pascual de Zayas y Chacón, veterans of the Battle of Albuera. When Blake took command of the Army of Valencia, he brought with him from Cádiz these two divisions. It was hoped that the Army of Murcia under Lieutenant General Nicolás de Mahy y Romo might help defend Valencia from Suchet's expected attack.
Marshal Suchet's Army of Aragon counted 50,000 troops, but after deducting garrisons and sick there were only 31,000 men available in the field. There were also 15,000 soldiers in the divisions of Generals of Division Honoré Charles Reille and Filippo Severoli in Navarre and western Aragon. These good troops would soon be assigned to Suchet's command. General of Division Charles Mathieu Isidore Decaen's French Army of Catalonia numbered 23,000 soldiers. However, because the Catalan miquelets were so active, not a single man could be spared from Decaen's force. Suchet assigned the division of General of Division Bernard-Georges-François Frère, 7,000 men, to protect his rearward communications. Suchet carefully selected 22,000 of his best infantry for the Valencian campaign, leaving 6,800 of his least effective men to garrison his supply line. The only problematic element of the Imperial French field army were the 1,500 Neapolitans under General of Division Claude Antoine Compère. Suchet's invading army included nearly all his available cavalry and field artillery.
Operations
Suchet's left column advanced southwest along the coast road from Tortosa, where the French siege train and the bulk of the stores were kept. In the 11,000-strong coastal column, were General of Division Pierre-Joseph Habert's French infantry division, General of Brigade Louis Benoît Robert's infantry brigade from General of Division Louis François Félix Musnier's French division, almost all the cavalry and all the field artillery. General of Brigade Florentin Ficatier's brigade from Musnier's division accompanied the slow-moving siege guns. Musnier did not join the expedition; instead, he commanded the garrisons guarding the French supply line. The center column moved south on the mountain road via Alcañiz and Morella. The 7,000-man column consisted of General of Division Giuseppe Federico Palombini's Italian infantry division and Compère's Neapolitans. The right column marched southeast on the mountain road from Teruel and comprised 5,000 men from General of Division Jean Isidore Harispe's French infantry division. Harispe faced the greatest danger because his troops were nearest to Blake's Spanish army.
As it happened, Blake resigned himself to a passive defense from the beginning. Instead he urged his soldiers to construct a fortified and entrenched line covering Valencia. About twenty miles to the north of Valencia at Sagunto, Blake ordered a powerful fortress to be built. In March 1810, the abandoned site contained only the hilltop ruins of the Roman city of Saguntum which was later occupied by the Moors. On the recommendation of the British officer Charles William Doyle, Spanish workers restored the old walls by filling the gaps with stone blocks from the ancient ruins. The Roman theater, relatively intact up to this time, was dismantled to provide building materials. However, the work was still unfinished when Suchet's army advanced. The fortress was manned by 2,663 soldiers under the command of Colonel Andriani. There were five battalions, including two newly raised 3rd Battalions. The garrison had 17 cannons of which only three were 12-pounders and the rest lighter pieces. The Spanish also garrisoned Peniscola with 1,000 soldiers and Oropesa del Mar with 500 more.
On 15 September, all three Imperial French columns began to move. Two days later, Suchet's left column bypassed Peniscola, leaving one battalion and some hussars to keep an eye on the place. On 19 September, the French coastal column threaded past the two defended towers near Oropesa. That evening, Palombini's center column joined the left column, having encountered no opposition along its route. Blake sent General José Obispo's division to block Harispe's column at the Barraques pass. Harispe detected the Spanish force and took a side road to the east to avoid Obispo. This French division marched down the valley of the Mijares River to the coast to join the other two columns. On 22 September, Suchet's entire army set out from Castellón de la Plana, brushing aside 500 Spanish troops at Villarreal and the next day was before Sagunto Castle.
Siege
On 23 September, the Imperial French army invested Sagunto Castle by sending Habert's division around its east side and Harispe's division around its west side. Suchet's cavalry swept the country south to within of Valencia without meeting significant opposition. Palombini's division hovered off to the northwest to intercept any Spanish attempt to trouble the siege. Seeing that the castle's defenses were incomplete and two gaps in the wall were visible, Suchet decided to try a coup de main at midnight on 27–28 September. Two columns, each of 300 men were formed of volunteers from Habert's division. A third supporting column of similar size was assembled in the town of Murviedro at the base of the castle hill. Habert held 2,000 men ready to support a breakthrough. To mislead the defenders, six companies of Palombini's Italians would mount a diversion against another part of the fortress. Suchet hoped that the assault would be a surprise.
In the dark, the French storming parties crept forward into a large cistern which was near the old Roman theater. At this point they were from the two gaps. By some accident, firing broke out and the storming columns burst from cover prematurely, only to find the Spanish defenders alert. The attackers were able to plant a number of ladders against the wall, but the Spanish troops fought with desperate courage. Every Frenchman who got to the top of the wall was killed and the ladders knocked down. The French bravely pressed forward but their opponents stoutly held their positions. At midnight Palombini's men launched their diversion, which was met by sharp musketry. However, this did not cause the garrison to transfer troops away from the main attack. The third column was committed to the main assault, but this effort also failed. Finally, the survivors pulled back behind cover. At length, Suchet authorized the storming columns to retreat. The marshal admitted losses of 247 killed and wounded, though another source claimed that 360 men were casualties, including 52 Italians. Spanish losses were only 15 killed and fewer than 30 wounded.
After this failure, Suchet ordered Ficatier's brigade and the siege guns to join him. On their slow journey from Tortosa, the heavy guns would first need to blast the two Oropesa towers into submission. The French marshal divided his army into a blockade force to surround Sagunto Castle and a covering force to defend against Spanish interference. While waiting for the siege guns, the French engineering troops began to prepare battery positions and ramps to get their guns up the hill. Blake did not trust his soldiers to fight in the open field against Suchet's veteran army. Mahy, who commanded the Murcian army, complained that his troops had no confidence in their fighting abilities. In this situation, Blake hoped to force Suchet to retreat by cutting his supply line. He sent Obispo's division to Segorbe where it blocked the road from Teruel. The main effort against Suchet's communications was made by the guerillas.
Juan Martín Díez, José Durán and their guerilla bands attacked Calatayud, forcing its Franco-Italian defenders into a fortified convent. Martín's guerillas drove off a 1,000-strong relief column and then the Spanish forced the 560 survivors to surrender on 3 October 1811 by exploding two mines under the walls. At this time, Severoli's 7,000-strong Italian division reinforced the Imperial occupation forces of Aragon, restoring their shaken confidence. Francisco Espoz y Mina with 4,000 guerillas besieged Ejea de los Caballeros, forcing its garrison to cut its way out and join an 800-man relief column led by Colonel Ceccopieri. Not realizing Mina's strength, Ceccopieri marched his battalion of the 7th Italian Line Infantry Regiment to the relief of Ayerbe. On 16 October, Mina ambushed the Italians, killing 200 soldiers and their commander, and capturing the 600 survivors. Mina then herded his prisoners to Mutriku on the northern coast and handed them over to the frigate HMS Iris. Nevertheless, these minor disasters failed to distract Suchet from his siege of Saguntum.