Battle of Mas Deu The Battle of Mas Deu or Battle of Mas d ' Eu on 19 May 1793 saw the French Army of the Eastern Pyrenees under Louis - Charles de Flers fighting the Spanish Army of Catalonia led by Antonio Ricardos . The Spanish drove the outnumbered French soldiers out of their camp near Mas Deu and compelled them to retreat to Perpignan . The victory enabled the Spanish forces to lay siege to the Fort de Bellegarde which dominated the best road through the Pyrenees from Barcelona into France . For the next month , Ricardos was preoccupied by the Siege of Bellegarde . Mas Deu is a former Knights Templar establishment east of the town of Trouillas in Pyrénées Orientales department . The action was fought during the War of the Pyrenees , part of the War of the First Coalition . Background . On 17 April 1793 Captain General Antonio Ricardos began the invasion of France when he descended on Saint - Laurent - de - Cerdans in the French Cerdagne with 4 , 500 Spanish troops . The six battalions and eight grenadier companies led by Ricardos chased 400 French soldiers out of the village . The Spanish next headed for Céret on the Tech River where they encountered one French regular battalion , 1 , 000 volunteers , and four artillery pieces on 20 April . The clash ended disastrously for the 1 , 800 French who quickly took fright and ran away . Between 100 and 200 Frenchmen became casualties while another 200 drowned trying to swim across the Tech . Ricardos admitted losing only 17 men wounded in the skirmish . The Spanish general left a force at Le Perthus to watch the garrison of the Fort de Bellegarde and keep it from interfering with his supply convoys . On 14 May 1793 , General of Division Louis - Charles de Flers took command of the Army of the Eastern Pyrenees . At about the same time General of Brigade Luc Siméon Auguste Dagobert and Colonel Eustache Charles d ' Aoust arrived with reinforcements from the Army of Italy . The French army was encamped on a hill high near Mas Deu , which is located east of Trouillas . The position overlooked the Aspres plain and was protected by two deep - cut stream beds . The Chateau of Mansus Déi was built by the Knights Templar in the 12th century and used as an administrative center for their extensive properties in Rousillon . In its heyday the Templar establishment raised cattle , grapes , olives , and other crops on lands that stretched from Fenolheda in the north to Banyuls - sur - Mer in the south . The wealth and secrecy of the Templar Order made powerful enemies . Desiring to appropriate the order ' s riches , King Philip IV of France demanded the arrest of all Templars in France in 1307 . The knights were rounded up , put to the torture , burned at the stake in many cases ; their wealth became the property of the French king . Philip soon bent Pope Clement V to his purposes and the Templar Order was suppressed outside of France as well . In 1312 all property of the order was given to the Knights Hospitaller . In time , the name of the place changed to Mas Deu ( pronounced : day ' - oo ) . In World War II the German occupiers used the chateau as an ammunition dump . This was detonated in 1944 , destroying the chateau , though some outbuildings survived to be used in the modern - day winery . Battle . On 16 May , Ricardos advanced from Céret with 12 , 000 infantry , 3 , 000 cavalry , 24 cannons , and six howitzers . Pedro Téllez - Girón , 9th Duke of Osuna commanded the 4 , 860 - strong Spanish right wing . His deputy was Pedro Mendinueta y Múzquiz and the force included four battalions of " Royal Guards " and one battalion each of the " Mallorca " Line Infantry and " Volunteers of Catalonia " Light Infantry Regiments , and Andalusian artillery . Ricardos accompanied the 2 , 460 - man center which was led by Luis Firmín de Carvajal , Conde de la Unión . The 4 , 680 - strong Spanish left wing was led by Juan de Courten , Rafael Adorno , and José Crespo . The left was made up of three battalions of " Walloon Guards " , three companies from Tarragona , one battalion of an Irish regiment , one company each from Granada , Valencia , and Burgos , the " Lusitania " Cavalry Regiment , and artillery from New Castile . De Flers ' staff worked out a plan whereby the French artillery would bombard the Spanish positions , pinning their infantry in place . Then the French left wing would make a feint attack against the Spanish right . After this distraction , the reinforced right wing would deliver the main French assault . To implement this strategy , De Flers had only 5 , 000 foot soldiers , 300 horsemen , 15 cannons , and nine howitzers . Claude Souchon de Chamron led the 1 , 180 men of the left wing . This comprised Pierre François Sauret ' s 7th Battalion of " Champagne " , Pierre Banel ' s 7th Battalion of the " Aude " , Charles Dugua ' s artillery of " Gard " , and Paul - Louis Gaultier de Kerveguen ' s 3rd Company of " Lavaur " . Dagobert ' s 2 , 680 - man right wing included Louis André Bon ' s 9th Battalion of " Drome " , Jean - Jacques Causse ' s 1st Battalion of " Mont - Blanc Volunteers " , Jacques Laurent Gilly ' s 2nd Battalion of " Gard " , Guillaume Mirabel ' s " Herault " Cavalry , and Antoine de Béthencourt ' s 180 cavalrymen . De Flers and Joseph Étienne Timoleon d ' Hargenvilliers accompanied the 740 soldiers of the center . Ricardos planned to maneuver Conde de la Unión ' s cavalry and then send Courten ' s " Walloon Guards " on a sweep around the village of Thuir to hit the flank of the Mas Deu camp . At 5 : 00 AM on the morning of 17 May , two Spanish batteries under the command of the Prince of Montforte opened fire . Each battery was composed of 12 4 - pound guns and four 6 - inch howitzers . The bombardment went on until 9 : 00 AM with the French infantry sheltering in the ravines near the camp . Apparently this ended the action for the day , with the French troops holding firm despite the prolonged artillery barrage . On the 18th , Ricardos reorganized his center , placing José Urrutia y de la Cases and Juan Manuel Cajigal in charge of the reserve cavalry . They were ordered to break through the French center where the troops of Victor Amédée Willot and Kerveguen stood . Kerveguen ' s counterattack against Cajigal ' s horsemen failed and Dugua ' s guns had to cover the withdrawal of Kerveguen ' s soldiers . Evening found the French line still intact but stretched by trying to hold back their adversaries ' superior numbers . In the night , a rumor swept through the French camp that the Spanish were massacring the outposts . At 3 : 00 AM firing broke out between the pickets of both sides . Numbers of French troops panicked and fled back to Perpignan . That night , Bonaventure Benet , a priest who helped bury the French dead , spied out the location of each French unit and sent this information to Spanish headquarters . On 19 May , Sauret was wounded in the leg and his battalion lost heart and retreated . Exploiting this withdrawal , Ricardos ordered Osuna to break into the camp supported by the fire of 14 cannons . To counter Osuna ' s attack , Dagobert sent help from the right flank . The " Bezieres Volunteer " Battalion and the 2nd Battalion of " Haute - Garonne " counterattacked but were repulsed by the Spanish soldiers ' disciplined ranks . The French began to abandon their camp and artillery . While his horsemen covered the retreat , Mirabel was wounded in the leg by an exploding howitzer shell . De Flers personally rallied one battalion , but it was driven off by the Spanish cavalry . Results . The next day , Perpignan was crowded with demoralized soldiers and frightened refugees . The local political leaders appropriated churches , convents , and the homes of émigrés to house the refugees . De Flers issued an address , " Soldiers , great cowardice has been committed . Some of the defenders of liberty have fled the satellites of despotism . . . " One volunteer battalion declared that it would not fight the Spanish and had to be disbanded . Historian Digby Smith credited the Spanish army with only 7 , 000 men in six line battalions , eight grenadier companies , and 30 provincial militia companies . He listed French casualties as 150 killed and 280 wounded , with three 6 - pound cannons and six ammunition wagons becoming prizes of the Spanish . The Spanish admitted losing 34 killed but did not list the number of wounded . Rather than follow up his badly shaken opponents , Ricardos chose to turn back and invest the Fort de Bellegarde . This fortress dominated the main road through the Pyrenees at the Col du Perthus . The Siege of Bellegarde began on 23 May and lasted until 24 June when Colonel Boisbrulé surrendered the 1 , 450 surviving members of the garrison . Another 30 men had been killed and 56 wounded . The fortress was armed with 41 cannons and seven mortars . Ricardos maintained 6 , 000 Spanish troops and 34 guns in the siege lines . While the main siege went on , the Spanish were also obliged to reduce two outworks , Fort les Bains and Fort de la Garde . These places surrendered on 3 and 5 June , respectively . De Flers tried to send a resupply convoy into Bellegarde on 29 May , but the effort failed when the 3 , 350 - man escort was driven off . On 24 May , de Flers began construction of the Camp de l ' Union . This was laid out under the walls of Perpignan between the village of Cabestany on the east to the mill of Orles on the west . As a result of the battle , Dagobert was elevated in rank to general of division while Sauret was promoted to colonel . On the Spanish side , Osuna proved to be a difficult subordinate and was transferred to the Army of Navarre in the western Pyrenees in October .