Battle of La Bisbal

Overview

In the Battle of La Bisbal on 14 September 1810 a Spanish division led by Enrique O'Donnell and supported by an Anglo-Spanish naval squadron led by Francis William Fane and Charles William Doyle surprised an Imperial French brigade commanded by François Xavier de Schwarz. The Imperial troops were from the Confederation of the Rhine, a collection of small German states that were allied to Napoleon. Part of a division led by Marie François Rouyer, Schwarz's brigade was almost completely wiped out, most of its soldiers being taken prisoner along with its commander. One of the few Allied casualties was the capable O'Donnell, wounded in the foot. 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 La Bisbal on 14 September 1810, a Spanish division under Enrique O'Donnell and an Anglo-Spanish naval squadron under Francis William Fane and Charles William Doyle achieved a sharp local success against French forces in Catalonia. The Imperial brigade of François de Schwarz, drawn from the Confederation of the Rhine states allied to Napoleon, was almost completely wiped out — most of its soldiers taken prisoner alongside their commander — out of a French force of roughly 2,400. With French casualties reaching 1,600, the action effectively destroyed Schwarz's brigade as a fighting formation. The engagement demonstrated Allied capacity to combine land and naval forces in a coordinated strike against a larger occupation presence in northeastern Spain. The battle came at a cost to the Spanish effort, however: O'Donnell, described as a capable commander, was wounded in the foot, removing a key officer from operations at a critical phase of the Peninsular War.

Tactics

Forces & casualties

Commanders (5)