Battle of Somosierra The Battle of Somosierra occurred November 30 , 1808 in the Peninsular War , when a French army under Napoleon I forced a passage through the Sierra de Guadarrama shielding Madrid . At the Somosierra mountain pass , 60 miles north of Madrid , a heavily outnumbered Spanish detachment of conscripts and artillery under Benito de San Juan aimed to block Napoleon ' s advance on the Spanish capital . Napoleon overwhelmed the Spanish positions in a combined arms attack , charging the Polish " Chevau - légers " of the Imperial Guard at the Spanish guns while French infantry advanced up the slopes . The victory removed the last obstacle barring the road to Madrid , which fell several days later . Background . By late November 1808 , the French Grande Armée had overwhelmed and destroyed both wings of the Spanish popular army . To complete his reconquest of Spain , Napoleon advanced on Madrid with 40 , 000 men . General San Juan mustered an ad hoc army of militia , reservists , and various regular regiments still reeling from earlier defeats ; in all about 12 , 000 men , to defend Madrid . In order to screen the many approaches to the city , San Juan dispersed his already greatly outnumbered forces . Under his orders , 9 , 000 men were dispatched west to guard the Guadarrama pass while 3 , 000 occupied an advanced post at Sepulveda , leaving only 9 , 000 men and 16 guns on the heights of Somosierra . Somosierra pass . The nature of the terrain and the tenacity of the Spaniards initially worked in their favour . On the evening of November 29 the brigade at Sepulveda repulsed a French attack , inflicted heavy casualties , and escaped from overwhelming French numbers in the gathering darkness to the west . The following morning , Napoleon advanced his infantry directly toward the pass while small detachments crept up the flanks . Exchanging musket volleys with the defenders , the French made slow but measurable progress toward the enemy guns . The Polish charge . Because the Spanish forces could not easily be outflanked by infantry movement , and Napoleon was impatient to proceed , he ordered his Polish " Chevaux - Légers " escort squadron of 125 men to charge the Spaniards and their fortified artillery batteries . To that number must be added members of other squadrons , totalling some 450 men , but these entered the battle later . The charge of 125 against batteries was joined by Niegolewski ' s platoon returning from reconnaissance . It is not clear , however , whether the number included only front - line troops ( " sabres " ) or all the soldiers in the units . The decision , arguably callous and imprudent , has been the subject of much historical controversy . Napoleon issued no written orders . Jan Kozietulski , who commanded the 3rd squadron that day , mentioned that he called , " " Lekka jazda kłusem ! " " ( " Light cavalry at the trot ! " ) and , passing the little bridge , added , " " En avant , Vive l ' Empereur ! " " ( Forward , long live the Emperor " ! " " ) Some western authors have assumed that Napoleon had gone out of his mind in ordering the Poles to charge batteries of 16 cannon over several kilometers of extremely difficult terrain . Others , however , think Napoleon ordered only the closest battery to be taken , in order to open the way for his infantry , and that Kozietulski had misunderstood the order . No matter , once the charge had begun , and the " chevaux - légers " found themselves under fire from the second battery , they had no choice but to press the attack as the horses went to the highest speed and were unable to stop . They took the second and third batteries , but only a few chevaux - légers reached the last battery , and the Spanish attempted to recapture it . It was then that Napoleon saw his chance and immediately committed the other squadrons . Benito de San Juan had 16 cannon at his disposal , arranged in four batteries . Some accounts , based mostly on relations of French officers , assume that the Spaniards placed all their guns at the peak of Somosierra pass . However , with a range of 600 – 800 metres , the cannons , deployed in this fashion , could not have struck much of the French army — and relations report that Napoleon himself was at times put under artillery fire . The first battery defended the entrance to the Somosierra pass , the next two covered the pass at its angles , and the fourth , only , stood by the heights . It was assumed that all batteries had four cannons , and latter theories that the pass was too narrow for that to be possible should be treated as legends . 13th Bulletin of the Army of Spain mentioned that chevau - légers were commanded by Gen . Louis Pierre , Count Montbrun . However , both Polish charge participants mentioned above and Lt . Col . Pierre Dautancourt , one of the French tutors of the unit , stressed in their relations that such was not the case . Datancourt mentioned in his relation that Montbrun in conversations with him himself had laughed at that idea . Yet French historian Adolphe Thiers gave him the honour of leading the charge , which caused the protest by Polish living participants of the battle . Maj . Philippe de Ségur in his memoirs wrote that he had commanded the charge , but his relations were often described as unreliable and again both Dautancourt and the Poles denied his role . The charge was led by Kozietulski , but he lost his horse after taking the first battery . The squadron was then joined by Lt . Andrzej Niegolewski , who had previously been on reconnaissance with his soldiers . The charge was continued under Dziewanowski , and when he fell from the horse after taking the third battery , by Piotr Krasiński . The charge which continued to the last battery was led by Niegolewski , who survived almost by miracle when Spanish attacked him ( he received nine wounds from bayonets and two carbine shots to the head ) . According to many memoirs of the veterans of the battle , Kozietulski led his men for a charge with the official cry " Vive l ' Empereur " . However , a popular legend has it that the true battle cry was in Polish " Naprzód psiekrwie , Cesarz patrzy " - " Forward , you sons of dogs , the Emperor is watching " . When the fourth battery was taken Napoleon ordered his Chasseurs of the Guard , and 1st squadron of Poles led by Tomasz Łubieński to resume the attack and repulse Spaniards from the Pass . Łubieński tried to give himself the whole glory , trying to minimise the role of the third squadron ( while Niegolewski tried to show that he had taken the cannons and Łubieński had therefore had it so easy as Spanish were shooting at him " with candies " ) . Charge effects . French officers tried to minimise the effect of the Polish charge , saying that all the success should be given to French infantry of Gen . François Ruffin . Yet still , the 13th bulletin of the Army of Spain mentioned the lead role of the Polish chevaux - légers . Only a cavalry charge was able to take all four batteries , even if French infantry was close enough to press their attack , and caused the en - masse retreat of Spanish Andalusian irregular militia and , in effect , the retreat of the whole army . Spanish artillery men preferred to die rather than abandon their position - but no Polish relation mentioned any fight with Spanish militia . Militiamen just left their position seeing how seemingly easily Poles took the artillery positions . In the smoke , they could not see how few Poles were on the top . Aftermath . San Juan raced his army back to Madrid . Although the victory at Somosierra was more accurately the result of a combined infantry and cavalry attack , with the infantry bearing the heavier fighting , later accounts , Napoleon ' s included , placed all the emphasis on the Polish charge . San Juan was later killed by his own men . French patrols reached the outskirts of Madrid on December 1 . The Junta made a half - hearted and futile attempt to defend the capital , and on December 4 , a devastating French artillery barrage brought the Spanish defence to grief . Spaniards surrendered their remaining 2 , 500 regulars ; the 20 , 000 civilians under their banner dispersed ; and the French entered Madrid for the second time that year . Notes and references . < div class = " references - small " >