page_title: Battle of La Bisbal
section_title: Battle
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of La Bisbal / Battle
caption_attribution_description: English: Schwarzburg. Waldeck. Reuss. 6. Rheinbund-Regiment. 1812 Deutsch: Knötel, Band II, Tafel 28: Schwarzburg. Waldeck. Reuss. 6. Rheinbund-Regiment. 1812
context_page_description: In the Battle of La Bisbal on 14 September 1810 a Spanish division led by Henry 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.
  The action occurred amid the events leading up to the Siege of Tortosa in December 1810 and January 1811. As Louis Gabriel Suchet prepared to attack Tortosa, Marshal Jacques MacDonald was ordered to support him. The marshal cooperated by advancing into southern Catalonia with a large force. To distract MacDonald from his mission, O'Donnell determined to raid northern Catalonia.
context_section_description: Fane's Anglo-Spanish naval expedition struck first on 10 September. An amphibious force rowed ashore at Begur and captured 50 men and a coastal artillery emplacement. Alerted by this raid, General of Brigade François Xavier de Schwarz ordered his coastal units to beef up their defenses. His brigade comprised two battalions each of the 5th Confederation of the Rhine (Anhalt-Lippe) and 6th Confederation of the Rhine (Schwarzburg-Waldeck-Reuss) Regiments. The brigade numbered 1,700 men with 18 artillery pieces. Schwarz posted 800 men and his headquarters at La Bisbal d'Empordà while the remainder of the brigade was spread out to defend Begur, Calonge, Palamós, and Sant Feliu de Guíxols. Still undetected, O'Donnell arrived at the village of Vidreres with 6,000 foot soldiers and 400 cavalrymen on 13 September 1810. Another authority counted 6,600 men in the Spanish force, including the Kayser Swiss Regiment, Numancia Dragoons, and miquelets.
  On the morning of the 14th, O'Donnell attacked La Bisbal in overwhelming force. As his pickets were driven in, Schwarz sent a courier with orders to his detachments to concentrate. Shortly afterward, La Bisbal was surrounded and its defenders fell back to an old castle. Unfortunately, the structure was dominated by a nearby hill and a church tower from which snipers picked off a few Germans during the day. Schwarz held out until evening; he surrendered after the Spanish began massing for an assault. The French commander did not put up much of a battle, losing only one officer and four men killed, and three officers and 16 rank and file wounded.
  While the action in La Bisbal was going on, Schwarz's other outposts were being snapped up. Fane and Doyle landed their troops at Palamós and captured it. Colonel Aldea's column overran Calonge while Colonel Fleires's column seized Sant Feliu. Rouyer at Girona was unable to intervene because O'Donnell called out the local miquelets to harass his garrison. Schwarz, two colonels, 56 officers, 1,183 men, and 17 guns were captured for a total of 1,242 prisoners. The Germans also lost approximately 400 killed and wounded. Spanish losses were not reported but were probably light. However, they included O'Donnell who was badly wounded in the foot at La Bisbal. The Spanish general and the German prisoners were taken aboard Fane's squadron before it sailed back to Tarragona.
  Schwarz was held in captivity until the end of the war in 1814.  A number of German prisoners were transported to Edinburgh, with the officers being paroled to various towns in the Scottish Borders, including some who joined the Masonic lodge in Hawick. O'Donnell's wound became infected and he nearly died before being sent to Majorca to recover. Until his injury healed, the high command in Catalonia passed into the less capable hands of Lieutenant General Miguel Iranzo. O'Donnell later received the title 1st Count of la Bisbal in recognition of his victory.
caption: 6th Confederation of the Rhine Regiment
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