Battle of Baza

Overview

In the Battle of Baza on 4 November 1810 an Imperial French force commanded by General Milhaud fought a Spanish corps led by General Blake. When the Spanish commander allowed his forces to get spread out, Milhaud attacked with his cavalry and crushed Blake's vanguard with heavy losses. The Spanish force retreated into the province of Murcia. Baza is located on Route 342 about 80 kilometres (50 mi) north of Almería. The battle occurred during the Peninsular War, part of the Napoleonic Wars.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

At Baza on 4 November 1810, a French force of roughly 3,300 under Milhaud inflicted some 1,500 casualties on a Spanish corps of 9,000 under Blake, forcing the Spanish to retreat into the province of Murcia. The engagement demonstrated the vulnerability of numerically superior but dispersed forces to concentrated cavalry action. Blake's failure to maintain cohesion allowed Milhaud to defeat the Spanish vanguard in detail, a setback that pushed Spanish forces away from the Almería region and ceded local operational initiative to French arms in this sector of the Peninsular War.

Tactics

Forces & casualties

Commanders (2)