page_title: Siege of Roses (1794–95)
section_title: Action
hierarchical_section_title: Siege of Roses (1794–95) / Siege / Action
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Commandé par Napoléon Ier pour la salle des maréchaux du palais des Tuileries à Paris en 1804
context_page_description: The Siege of Roses began on 28 November 1794 and lasted until 4 February 1795 when the Spanish garrison abandoned the port and the forces of the First French Republic took control. Dominique Catherine de Pérignon commanded the French army and Domingo Salvator Izquierdo led the Spanish defenders. The siege took place during the War of the Pyrenees which was part of the French Revolutionary Wars. The war ended in July 1795 and Roses was soon restored to Spain. Roses is a coastal city in northeastern Spain, located 43 kilometres northeast of Girona, Catalonia.
  The French inflicted a severe defeat on the Spanish army at the Black Mountain in November 1794. In the aftermath, the French army quickly captured Figueras and its fortress. At the same time, they undertook a formal siege of Roses. Pérignon and his lieutenant Pierre François Sauret soon realized that an outlying fort was the key to Roses and concentrated their energy on reducing it. A month after the fort fell, the Spanish fleet evacuated the garrison by sea.
context_section_description: On 29 November, the first battery opened fire on the fortress and the French began digging siege trenches. By 7 December, six batteries were pounding the defenses. Izquierdo launched several ineffectual sorties at the French as their siege parallels drew closer to the citadel. By this time Pérignon realized that the Castillo de la Trinidad, whose fire caused serious damage to the besiegers, was the key position. He ordered that heavy guns be installed on Mont Puy-Bois. When the French engineers protested that it could not be done, the commanding general overrode their objections. The French soldiers, whose nickname for the Castillo was le Bouton de Rose (the Pimple), managed to haul three batteries to the summit by 25 December. The batteries on Mont Puy-Bois finally breached the walls of the Castillo and its garrison was taken off in boats on 1 January. From the newly captured position, the French opened fire on the citadel and the fleet.
  Meanwhile, the army of Lieutenant General José de Urrutia y de las Casas held a position behind the Rio Fluvià to the south of Roses, threatening to advance to its relief. By 25 January, when wintry weather compelled Sauret to suspend siege operations, Urrutia's army had grown menacingly large. Determined to take the fortress, Pérignon decided to try bluff again. He stormed the Spanish advanced positions on 1 February. The French army commander staged obvious preparations for a full-scale assault, such as the display of scaling ladders in the trenches. This finally broke the morale of the defenders. Izquierdo ordered the surviving members of the garrison to be evacuated by Gravina's squadron on the night of 3 February, leaving a 300-man rear guard behind to cover the operation. The rear guard was supposed to be taken off in small boats in the morning, but they were abandoned by the fleet and became French prisoners.
caption: Dominique Pérignon
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