Manuel Freire de Andrade Manuel Alberto Freire de Andrade y Armijo ( 4 November 1767 – 7 March 1835 ) was a Spanish cavalry officer and general officer during the Peninsular War , and later Defense Minister . Freire ( a / k / a Freyre ) was born in Carmona ( Seville ) to a Spanish cavalry officer from Galicia , Francisco Freire de Andrade , and his wife Josefa Armijo y Bravo ( from Carmona ) . He joined his father ' s Alcántara cavalry regiment as a minor cadet when just seven years old , and on 1 January 1780 became an ordinary cadet . He participated in his first battle on 15 May 1793 , against revolutionary French forces during the opening of the Battle of Mas Deu , part of the War of the Pyrenees . Freire spent the next two years in Rousillon and Catalonia , including that war ' s last actions during which Spanish forces recaptured Puigcerda and Bellver ( after the peace treaty had been signed ) . Freire received several promotions during that war , having been named a junior lieutenant on 10 October 1793 , full lieutenant on 20 November , " ayundante " on 13 December 1793 , captain on 18 February 1794 , and cavalry captain on 28 July 1795 . During the following peace , Freire was promoted to sergeant major , then command of a squadron on 4 April 1801 . He later participated in a campaign against Portugal in Arronches , before being assigned to training in Mallorca . Peninsular War . Freire joined fellow Spaniards in fighting against invading Napoleonic forces , and on 15 September 1807 , took command ( as colonel ) of a volunteer cavalry regiment in Madrid . The following year he saw action in Extremadura and other locations . He was promoted to brigadier on 2 March 1809 after a campaign in La Mancha , and to field marshal after the Battle of Talavera . On 10 January 1810 , his cavalry forces were combined with the Third Army , and Freire became a calvary commander . He wrote a manual revising Spanish cavalry tactics , published in Murcia in 1813 . After fighting the French in Murcia , Granada , and Valencia ( 1810 - 1812 ) , Freire became a general and succeeded Francisco Javier Castaños in command of the Fourth Army , or Army of Galicia on August 12 , 1813 . His corps defeated Soult at the Battle of San Marcial on 31 August 1813 , earning him the San Fernando Cross . At the Battle of the Bidassoa on 7 October , Freire led the divisions of Generals Del Barco and Barcena across the river to capture French positions on Mont Calvaire . Freire also participated in the Battle of Nivelle on 10 November . He fought with " conspicuous gallantry " at the Battle of Toulouse in 1814 , where his two divisions were desperately mauled in the fighting for the French redoubt s on Mont Rave . On 7 October 1814 , Freire married Beatriz Abbad y Alfaro , the 33 - year - old widow of a fellow officer . They had two sons , Manuel ( who died shortly after his father ) and Jose ( who succeeded to the title of Marquis de San Marcial awarded his father shortly before his death ) . Freire ' s military career continued , and he also became active in politics during the turbulent post - war era . In 1818 , Freire and three other officers published " Informe sobre la mejora y aumento de la cría de caballos , dado al Supremo Consejo de Guerra " . Two years later , he published two additional books concerning his postwar conduct in Andalucia and Cadiz .