page_title: Giuseppe Federico Palombini
section_title: Peninsular War: 1810–1811
hierarchical_section_title: Giuseppe Federico Palombini / Napoleonic Italy / Peninsular War: 1810–1811
context_page_description: Giuseppe Federico Palombini or Joseph Friedrich von Palombini became an Italian division commander during the Napoleonic Wars. He joined the army of the Cispadane Republic in 1796 and fought at Faenza in 1797. He became commander of a dragoon regiment in 1798. He became commander of the Napoleone Dragoons, of the Cisalpine Republic army, in 1802. He fought as an ally of the French at Kolberg and Stralsund in 1807. He married the daughter of Jan Henryk Dąbrowski in 1806.
  Transferred to Spain, he fought in Domenico Pino's division at Roses, Cardadeu, Molins de Rei, Valls and Gerona and was promoted general of brigade in 1809. He led a brigade at El Pla and Tarragona in 1811 and was promoted general of division. He led his division at Saguntum, Valencia and Castro Urdiales in 1811–1813. Transferring to Italy, he fought at Cerknica in 1813 and Peschiera del Garda in 1814. After collapse of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy in 1814, he joined the army of the Austrian Empire, becoming a Feldmarschall-Leutnant. He became the Inhaber of the 36th Line Infantry Regiment in 1817. He retired in 1824 and died in 1850 at his wife's castle in Grochwitz near Herzberg.
context_section_description: On 15 January 1810, the VII Corps was under the command of Marshal Pierre Augereau. At that date, Pino's division had 238 officers and 6,346 men present under arms, 201 detached, 2,409 sick in hospital and 93 prisoners. With the divisions of Pino and Souham, Augereau made an expedition in January in which all captured miquelets (militiamen) were hanged. In retaliation, the Spanish began killing all Imperial soldiers that they caught. By 15 March Filippo Severoli had assumed command of the Italian division when Pino went home on leave. On 24 April, Napoleon replaced Augereau with Marshal Jacques MacDonald. The new commander rescinded Augereau's orders to kill captured guerillas. MacDonald used Severoli's division to guard large convoys to Barcelona in June, July and August. In 1810, Palombini was appointed an officer of the Legion of Honor.
  On 2 January 1811, Louis Gabriel Suchet's III Corps successfully concluded the Siege of Tortosa. No longer needed as a covering force, MacDonald with 12,000 men started back to Lleida (Lérida) by a roundabout march past Tarragona. The Italian division was leading, followed at a distance of 3 miles (4.8 km) by three French brigades and one regiment of cavalry. When Francesco Orsatelli (called Eugenio) detected Pedro Sarsfield's Spanish division nearby, he recklessly attacked with his 2,500 foot soldiers and 30 horsemen. In the Battle of El Pla, Sarsfield's 3,000 infantry and 800 cavalry drove back the vanguard Italian brigade. Eugenio's men rallied when Palombini's brigade reached the field. Utilizing his superior numbers of cavalry, Sarsfield turned Palombini's right flank and broke his lines. The day might have ended in a disaster but Jacques-Antoine-Adrien Delort appeared with the 24th Dragoons and checked the victorious Spaniards. The Italians lost 600 men, including Eugenio fatally wounded, while Spanish casualties numbered only 160.
  On 10 March 1811, Napoleon transferred a large part of the VII Corps to the III Corps under Louis Gabriel Suchet. At that time the Italian division became part of Suchet's command. During the Siege of Tarragona, the two Italian brigades served in a composite division under Jean Isidore Harispe. They covered the siege lines on the east side. At 7:00 pm on 21 June 1811, Palombini led the storming columns against the lower city. The assault force, which was made up of 1,500 grenadiers and voltigeurs from the French regiments plus a French brigade, was successful and the lower city was seized. Imperial casualties were 120 killed and 362 wounded. During the final assault on 28 June, Juan de Courten and 3,000 Spanish troops tried to escape from the east side of Tarragona, but were blocked by the Italians. Some escaped to the Royal Navy warships offshore, a handful scattered into the hills, many others were cut down by Imperial cavalry on the beach, but most were captured.
  On 11 July 1811, Palombini was promoted general of division. That year, Napoleon raised him to the dignity of Baron of the Empire. On 15 July 1811, the III Corps was renamed the Army of Aragon with Luigi Gaspare Peyri in command of the Italian division. Pino's old division was still made up of the 1st and 2nd Light and the 4th, 5th and 6th Line Infantry Regiments, plus the Chasseurs and the Napoleone Dragoons. Palombini led a column through Caldes de Montbui and Sant Feliu de Codines to join Suchet's main column at Centelles. After the Battle of Montserrat on 25 July, Suchet installed Palombini's brigade as a garrison for the Santa Maria de Montserrat Abbey which previously functioned as a Catalan supply base.
  Suchet launched the invasion of Valencia Province with 22,000 soldiers in three French divisions under Harispe, Louis François Félix Musnier and Pierre-Joseph Habert, Palombini's Italian division, a weak brigade of Neapolitans, cavalry and artillery. Palombini's 6,219-man division included Vertigier Saint Paul's brigade, the 2nd Light Infantry (2,200) and 4th Line (1,660), and Éloi Charles Balathier's brigade, 5th Line (930) and 6th Line (1,429). On 15 September 1811, Suchet's army ad
caption: Louis Gabriel Suchet
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