Battle of Baza ( 1810 ) In the Battle of Baza on 4 November 1810 an Imperial French force commanded by General Milhaud fought a Spanish corps led by General Blake . When the Spanish commander allowed his forces to get spread out , Milhaud attacked with his cavalry and crushed Blake ' s vanguard with heavy losses . The Spanish force retreated into the province of Murcia . Baza is located on Route 342 about north of Almería . The battle occurred during the Peninsular War , part of the Napoleonic Wars . After King Joseph Bonaparte ' s army overran Andalusia , it meant that he had increased the territory his soldiers had to defend . French Marshal Soult ' s three corps were kept busy fending off constant Spanish and British threats to the province from land and sea . At Baza , the French successfully drove away one Spanish column . Within a few months , there would be another clash at Barrosa . Background . On 18 and 19 November 1809 , the main Spanish army suffered a catastrophic defeat at the Battle of Ocaña . A week later , a second Spanish army was beaten at the Battle of Alba de Tormes . As the Spanish frantically tried to cobble together a new army to defend the south of Spain , King Joseph Bonaparte decided to invade the province of Andalusia . With his royal treasury nearly empty , the king desired to incorporate the wealthy region into his domain . In January 1810 , Marshal Victor had 22 , 664 effectives in the I Corps . Victor commanded three infantry divisions , one 2 , 260 - strong dragoon division , and 823 troopers in one light cavalry brigade . General of Division Sébastiani led 10 , 125 men of the IV Corps . This formation included two weak infantry divisions , one 1 , 721 - man dragoon division , and one 1 , 351 - strong light cavalry brigade . Marshal Mortier supervised the 16 , 612 - man V Corps . Mortier counted two strong infantry divisions and one 2 , 127 - man cavalry division . Additionally , there were 8 , 354 reinforcements available to Joseph . Joseph ' s army swiftly overran Andalusia during the months of January and February 1810 . However , they failed to capture Cádiz and that island city successfully held out against the French from 5 February 1810 until 25 August 1812 . Soon after , Emperor Napoleon appointed Marshal Nicolas Soult to control Andalusia . The marshal soon found it difficult to defend the newly - conquered territory against multiple threats . Soult deployed Mortier ' s V Corps to defend the Portuguese border to the northwest . The IV Corps watched the Murcian frontier to the east . Victor and the I Corps maintained the Siege of Cádiz . Because the British navy had control of the seas , it could easily transport British and Spanish troops to menace French - held locations on the coast . On 13 October 1810 , one of these raids resulted in an embarrassing repulse of the British in the Battle of Fuengirola . Battle . In August 1810 , Sébastiani ' s IV Corps appeared before the city of Murcia . The French corps commander found Blake ' s troops manning powerful defensive works around the city . When he learned that Spanish guerillas had captured two small Andalusian ports and were on the outskirts of Granada , Sébastiani quickly abandoned his attempt to capture Murcia and hurried back to save Granada . After hovering on the Murcia - Andalusia border for several weeks , Blake advanced on 2 November with 8 , 000 infantry and 1 , 000 cavalry . The Spanish general occupied Cúllar on the 3rd and continued to advance . Carelessly allowing his corps to become spread out , Blake ' s advance guard of cavalry and 3 , 000 infantry camped near Baza on the evening of 3 November . Meanwhile , his 2 , 000 - man rear guard remained near Cúllar while his remaining division was located between the two towns . When he heard of the Spanish incursion , General Milhaud marched his cavalry to Baza , arriving on the morning of the 4th . Milhaud joined the 2 , 000 French infantry who were already holding Baza . General of Brigade Rey commanded a brigade from Sebastiani ' s 1st Division which included one battalion of the 32nd Line Infantry Regiment and three battalions of the 58th Line . Milhaud ' s 1 , 300 - strong cavalry division was made up of the 5th , 12th , 16th , 20th , and 21st Dragoon Regiments and the Polish lancers of the Legion of the Vistula . The French also had two horse artillery batteries . Blake had 12 guns in addition to the infantry and cavalry already enumerated . Deploying on both sides of the main highway , Milhaud charged Blake ' s cavalry and routed it . As the Spanish horsemen galloped away , they disrupted their own infantry formations . When the French dragoons and Polish lancers bore down on the surprised and shaken Spanish foot soldiers , the men scattered in flight . Milhaud ' s horsemen cut Blake ' s vanguard to pieces , cutting down many soldiers and capturing many prisoners . But when the French encountered the second Spanish division drawn up in rough terrain , they refrained from attacking . Blake immediately ordered a retreat to Cúllar . Result . For the loss of 200 killed and wounded , all in the cavalry , Milhaud ' s force inflicted 500 killed and wounded on the Spanish . In addition , the French captured 1 , 000 soldiers and six guns . Blake returned to Murcia where he remained quiescent for the rest of the year . The next action in the area was the Battle of Barrosa on 5 March 1811 where British Lieutenant General Thomas Graham inflicted a defeat on Victor ' s corps .