Battle of Arzobispo The Battle of Arzobispo on 8 August 1809 saw two Imperial French corps commanded by Marshal Nicolas Soult launch an assault crossing of the Tagus River against a Spanish force under José María de la Cueva , 14th Duke of Albuquerque . Albuquerque ' s troops rapidly retreated after suffering disproportionate losses , including 30 artillery pieces . El Puente del Arzobispo ( The Archbishop ' s Bridge ) is located southwest of Talavera de la Reina , Spain . The action occurred during the Peninsular War , part of a larger conflict known as the Napoleonic Wars . The Battle of Talavera in late July 1809 saw a victory by Arthur Wellesley ' s British army and Gregorio García de la Cuesta ' s Spanish army over the Imperial French army of King Joseph Bonaparte . Wellesley ( soon to be known as Wellington ) found that he was unable to exploit the triumph due to the failure of his logistical arrangements . Within a few days , Wellesley discovered that Soult ' s large French army was attempting to cut off his army from Portugal . Accordingly , the British and Spanish armies withdrew to the west , narrowly avoiding interception by Soult ' s forces . Albuquerque was left with 3 , 000 cavalry and 5 , 000 infantry to hold the bridge of Arzobispo . Because their position was so strong , the Spanish were lulled into a false sense of security . Meanwhile , French officers found and secretly reconnoitered a hidden ford near the bridge . Achieving tactical surprise , the French cavalry plunged across the ford during the Spanish " siesta " , followed by the infantry of Marshal Édouard Mortier ' s V Corps . Before Albuquerque could react , his cavalry was routed and one of his infantry battalions crushed . During the pursuit , Soult ' s horsemen not only seized 16 Spanish guns , but also recaptured at least 14 of the 17 French artillery pieces lost at Talavera . Background . French offensive . Though the Anglo - Spanish armies triumphed over King Joseph Bonaparte ' s army at the Battle of Talavera on 27 and 28 July 1809 , the butcher ' s bill was steep . The British counted 5 , 365 casualties , including 3 , 915 wounded while Gregorio García de la Cuesta ' s Spanish army lost only 400 to 500 men killed and wounded . The battle ' s losers suffered more ; a total of 7 , 268 Frenchmen were casualties . On the morning of 29 July , General Robert Craufurd ' s Light Infantry Brigade and a battery of Royal Horse Artillery arrived in the British camp after an epic forced march . Even so , General Wellesley ' s army was in no shape to exploit its victory . The soldiers were on one - third rations due to the collapse of the supply system and the medical officers were unable to care for the thousands of wounded men . With few wagons and carts , Wellesley was unable to bring supplies forward from his base at Plasencia or evacuate his wounded . The British commander received intelligence that a French force was moving down from the north , but he assumed that there were only about 15 , 000 French troops . As it happened , the threat was much worse than Wellesley imagined . On 12 June 1809 , Emperor Napoleon ordered Marshal Soult to take command of the II Corps , V Corps , and VI Corps and move against the British army . It took some time to assemble this host but on 27 July , Marshal Mortier ' s 16 , 916 - man V Corps and 1 , 853 dragoons set out from Salamanca toward the south . On the 29th , Soult ' s own II Corps received a convoy of artillery to replace the guns lost in the 1809 Portugal Campaign . Thus equipped , the 18 , 740 - strong II Corps marched south on the 30th . Marshal Michel Ney and the 12 , 500 - man VI Corps followed on 31 July , after dropping off a brigade of 3 , 200 men . Napoleon insisted that Soult keep his corps closed up to avoid defeat in detail . At most , about 10 , 000 French Imperial soldiers under General of Division François Étienne de Kellermann were left behind to defend León . Soult was aware that the Spanish and Portuguese could bring 20 , 000 men against Kellermann . But he accepted the risk because he understood that Wellesley ' s British army was the main objective . The Allied strategy had called for General Francisco Javier Venegas and the Spanish " Army of La Mancha " to prevent the French IV Corps under General of Division Horace François Bastien Sébastiani from reinforcing Joseph ' s army at Talavera . In this , Venegas was completely unsuccessful , but another opportunity opened up . With Sébastiani gone from his front , the way to Madrid was almost undefended . Though his own army was too crippled to move at the moment , Wellesley hoped that pressure from Venegas ' offensive would compel the French to retreat . The " Army of La Mancha " pressed forward to Toledo and Aranjuez on 29 July , but then it unaccountably halted in place until 5 August . Dropping off Marshal Claude Perrin Victor ' s 18 , 000 - man I Corps to watch Wellesley and Cuesta , Joseph pulled back to a position at Illescas where he could move to block either Venegas or Wellesley if necessary . Receiving news that 10 , 000 Portuguese under General Robert Thomas Wilson had reached a position behind his northern flank at Escalona , Victor retreated toward Madrid . In fact Wilson only had 4 , 000 Portuguese and Spanish troops and was soon forced to withdraw from his isolated position . On 1 August , Wellesley got news that the French were driving a small Spanish force under Marquis Del Reino from its position at the Puerto de Baños , a mountain pass to the north . Though Wellesley still believed that the French force was not large , he could not ignore the threat to his supply line to Portugal . In fact , Plasencia was captured by the French on the 1st . That day , Cuesta detached his 5 , 000 - man 5th Division under Major General L . A . Bassecourt to investigate . After a heated debate with Cuesta , Wellesley agreed to move west while the Spanish general defended Talavera against Victor . On 3 August Wellesley marched west from Talavera to Oropesa with 18 , 000 British troops . He believed that he and Bassecourt were facing less than 15 , 000 Frenchmen and hoped to clear them away from his supply lines . Instead , the British commander was unwittingly marching into the jaws of Soult ' s 50 , 000 - man host . Scramble to safety . By this time , Mortier ' s and Wellesley ' s cavalry were already bickering near Navalmoral only about west of Oropesa . On 3 August , the French horsemen captured a Spanish courier carrying a message from Wellesley to General William Erksine at Lisbon in which Soult ' s forces were estimated at only 12 , 000 men . Soult saw that Wellesley was marching right into his hands . Luckily for the Allies , Spanish guerillas caught a French agent near Ávila and delivered his message to Cuesta on the 3rd . It was a note from Soult to Joseph , informing the king that he was advancing with over 30 , 000 soldiers . Cuesta quickly passed along the message to Wellesley . Alerted to imminent danger , the British commander instantly ordered a retreat across the bridge at Arzobispo . For his part , Cuesta immediately led his army in retreat from Talavera to Oropesa , abandoning the British hospitals . With only about 40 wagons and carts available , 1 , 500 badly wounded men were left behind . The remainder were told to make their way as best they could . Eventually , 2 , 000 hobbled into the British lines . Another 500 either died en route or were captured by the French . The ones who were made prisoner by the French were well cared for . Cuesta could have crossed the Tagus at Talavera and retreated on the south bank . However , the roads on that side pass through the Sierra de Guadalupe and were so bad that the Spanish army would have had to abandon its artillery and wagon train . Instead , Cuesta took the risk of marching on the north bank , where the French were known to be at large . By the evening of 4 August , Wellesley ' s army was safe on the south bank of the Tagus at Arzobispo . But Cuesta stubbornly refused to retreat . When Mortier ' s vanguard appeared before him , the Spanish general lashed out at it and drove it back . Believing that he was facing both Cuesta and Wellesley , Mortier became cautious and called for assistance from Soult . During the entire day of the 5th , Cuesta foolishly offered battle with the bridge of Arzobispo at his back , yet Mortier held back . By 6 August when both Soult and Mortier were massed for battle , they found their quarry had withdrawn across the Tagus . As it happened , this was the only opportunity that the French had for inflicting great damage on the Spanish army . As historian Charles Oman wrote , " Soult ' s best chance was gone before he was even aware of it . " Worried about his supply line to Portugal , Wellesley ordered Craufurd to march west with his own brigade and General Rufane Donkin ' s brigade to cover the Almaraz crossing . On 6 August , the last day of the march , the troops marched 15 hours on a meal of boiled wheat and dried peas without salt or meat . One participant later recalled that the straggling was the worst he ever saw in the entire war . Craufurd reached Almaraz with 4 , 000 British troops and joined 1 , 500 Spaniards under Del Reino . Ney ' s French troops arrived on the north bank the next day . After retreating from the Puerto de Baños , Del Reino crossed to the south bank of the Tagus at Almaraz and dismantled the pontoon bridge on the 2nd . After a difficult march over bad roads , two divisions of Wellesley ' s army reached Deleitosa on 7 August , within supporting distance of Almaraz . Another British division was holding Mesas de Ibor . That day , the head of Cuesta ' s column was approaching Mesas de Ibor where there was an immensely strong defensive position . The rest of the Spanish army struggled slowly over the hills . To cover the movement , the Spanish divisions of Bassecourt and Lieutenant General Albuquerque formed a rear guard at the Arzobispo bridge . Meanwhile , Victor ' s I Corps occupied Talavera on the 6th , but it remained to the east of the theater of action . Battle . Deployment . The Spanish troops left the Arzobispo bridge intact , but they threw up barricades to defend it and assigned infantry to hold the old towers dating to medieval times . On the south bank only from the bridge a 12 - gun redoubt crowned a small hill . Altogether , Albuquerque commanded Bassecourt ' s 5 , 000 foot soldiers and his own division of 3 , 000 horsemen . A ford was nearby , but since it was very narrow and difficult to locate , Cuesta hoped that his rear guard could hold back Soult ' s superior numbers . In fact , Soult spent the entire day of 7 August looking over the strong Spanish position and sending out scouts to find other crossings . The town of Arzobispo is situated on the north bank of the Tagus . The village of Azután is upstream to the east , with the ford located between the village and the bridge . Villar del Pedroso is south of the bridge and Valdelacasa de Tajo is to the southwest . During the day Spanish cavalrymen carelessly rode out into the river to water their horses , revealing the possible location of the ford . That night , French officers conducted a meticulous search and discovered the hidden ford . They found that the ford was deep for only a short distance under the north bank and shallow the rest of the way . After being advised that an assault across the ford was feasible , Soult determined to attack the following day . Soult also ordered Ney to attack across the Tagus at Almaraz and sent maps of a ford near that location . However , though the ford existed , the maps were in error . Ney sent a party of dragoons to look for it , but they never found it . In fact , Craufurd ' s defenders were aware of the ford and troops were in position to defend it . The Almaraz ford was no less than deep , narrow , and barely usable . Forces . Albuquerque ' s 2nd Cavalry Division was made up of the " Alcantara " , " Almanza " , " Infante " and " Pavia " Cavalry Regiments , six squadrons of the " 1st " and " 2nd Extremadura " Hussar Regiments , and one squadron of the " Carabineros Reales " . Bassecourt ' s 5th Division included two battalions each of the " 1st Real Marina " and " Murcia " Infantry Regiments , the 1st Battalion of the " Reyna " Regiment , the 3rd Battalion of the " Africa " Regiment , and either one or three battalions of the " Provincial de Sigüenza " Regiment . The Spanish artillery counted 16 guns . General of Brigade Jean - Baptiste Girard and General of Division Honoré Théodore Maxime Gazan led the two infantry divisions in Mortier ' s V Corps while Colonel Henri Pierre Delaage led the corps cavalry brigade . In February 1809 , Girard ' s 1st Division comprised three battalions each of the 17th Light , 40th Line , 64th Line , and 88th Line Infantry Regiments and four battalions of the 34th Line . Gazan ' s 2nd Division consisted of three battalions each of the 21st , 28th , 100th , and 103rd Line Infantry Regiments . Delaage commanded the 10th Hussar and 21st Chasseurs à Cheval Regiments . The corps artillery included 30 artillery pieces . General of Division Louis Gabriel Suchet led the 1st Division in February , but he transferred to command the III Corps in April taking with him one battalion of the 64th Line as an escort . Generals of Division Armand Lebrun de La Houssaye and Jean Thomas Guillaume Lorge led one and a half divisions of cavalry . Houssaye commanded the 3rd Dragoon Division which consisted of the 17th , 18th , 19th , and 27th Dragoon Regiments . Lorge directed the 4th Dragoon Division which was made up of the 13th , 15th , 22nd , and 25th Dragoons . However , since February , one brigade of Lorge ' s dragoons had been detached to serve with Ney ' s corps . This unit was led by General of Brigade François Fournier and it probably comprised the 15th and 25th Dragoons , which were still with the VI Corps at the Battle of Tamames in October 1809 . General of Brigade Pierre Benoît Soult led the II Corps cavalry which included the 1st Hussar , 8th Dragoon , 22nd Chasseurs à Cheval , and Hanoverian Chevau - léger Regiments . The II Corps infantry divisions were led by Generals of Division Pierre Hugues Victoire Merle , Henri François Delaborde , and Étienne Heudelet de Bierre . Assault . Albuquerque posted one cavalry regiment at the river bank and only two or three battalions to hold the Arzobispo bridge and the artillery redoubt behind it . The rest of the infantry and cavalry were held well back from the river . Soult cleverly planned his assault to occur during the Spanish " siesta " . La Houssaye ' s dragoon division would spearhead the attack , followed in turn by Lorge ' s brigade , the II Corps cavalry , and the V Corps horsemen . The 4 , 000 troopers were trailed by Girard ' s division , of which one brigade would follow the cavalry and one brigade would rush the bridge if the cavalry attack succeeded . Gazan ' s division was ordered to support Girard , while the II Corps infantry waited in reserve . As soon as the assault commenced , the light artillery batteries were instructed to unlimber at the river bank and take the enemy guns under fire . About 1 : 30 PM on 8 August 1809 , the 600 dragoons of General of Brigade Auguste - Jean - Gabriel de Caulaincourt ' s brigade burst out of cover , trotted down to the river bank , and splashed into the river . They rapidly navigated the deep part of the ford and soon reached the shallows on the south bank . The " 1st Extremadura " Hussar Regiment and an infantry battalion from the bridge defenders tried to oppose the French cavalry . Caulaincourt ' s troopers set upon the Spanish hussars and soon routed them . The victorious French horsemen regrouped and charged the infantry . With its adversaries galloping toward it , the battalion tried to form square , but was unable to close the rear face before the dragoons charged through the gap . As the square broke up , many Spanish foot soldiers were hewn down or surrendered . As Caulaincourt ' s dragoons disposed of their opponents , the mass of French cavalry poured across the ford behind them . At this moment Soult waved forward the infantry brigade assigned to attack the bridge . Led by the 1st Battalion of the 40th Line Infantry Regiment , the French dashed forward . They were aided by a crossfire of horse artillery pieces and skirmisher fire . Seeing that the French cavalry would soon cut them off , the Spanish infantry fired two badly - aimed volleys at their attackers and took to their heels . The redoubt and all its guns were captured by the French . Both of Girard ' s brigades reached the south bank with the loss of only a few men who lost their footing at the ford and drowned . Albuquerque frantically rallied his divisions to resist the sudden attack . Four battalions of infantry formed up across the highway about a mile south of the bridge while the cavalry hurriedly saddled their horses . As soon as his troopers were ready , Albuquerque flung them at the French without waiting to form them into proper regiments or lines . As a result , 2 , 500 Spanish cavalry charged into La Houssaye ' s dragoons in a great ill - formed mass . But Lorge ' s dragoons and the corps light cavalry units were across the river and quickly joined the melee . Within a short time Albuquerque ' s overmatched horsemen were defeated . Albuquerque bravely tried to turn the tables with his last intact unit , the " 2nd Extremadura " Hussars , but this effort collapsed and the Spanish cavalry scattered with their French counterparts in full pursuit . Seeing their cavalry supports routed , Bassecourt ' s infantry formations melted away . Retreating across the hills , the Spanish foot soldiers got away with few additional casualties . The chase ended when the French cavalry encountered one infantry and one cavalry division of Cuesta ' s army drawn up in battle formation across the Valdelacasa road . Results . The Spanish suffered 800 killed and wounded plus 600 soldiers captured . Also taken by the French were 400 horses , 16 artillery pieces , and one color . The French admitted losing 28 killed and 83 wounded cavalrymen and four wounded artillerymen , plus a few foot soldiers drowned . During the pursuit , Soult ' s cavalry came across a convoy containing guns seized from the French at Talavera . According to Oman , 14 or 15 field pieces were recovered , while historian Digby Smith asserted that the French recaptured all 17 . This windfall enabled Sébastiani and General of Division Jean François Leval to make the bogus claim that they lost no guns at Talavera . The 17 guns in question consisted of four 8 - pound , four 6 - pound , and one 4 - pound cannons , two 6 - inch howitzers , and six pieces of unknown caliber . Of these , Oman noted that all but one 8 - pound and one 6 - pound cannons were recovered . Seeing that it was pointless to pursue his enemies into the mountains , Soult halted his offensive . He hoped to regroup his army for a major invasion of Portugal but he was overruled . Joseph ordered Ney ' s VI Corps to return north to help Kellermann and placed Soult ' s two remaining corps on the defensive at Plasencia and Talavera . This deployment freed Victor ' s I Corps to march east against Venegas . The next battle was the Battle of Almonacid on 11 August 1809 . The following day , Ney ' s corps bumped into Wilson ' s column on its return march at the Battle of Puerto de Baños . These events ended the Talavera campaign . Wellesley was ennobled as Viscount Wellington for his victory . With his troops starving , the British commander withdrew his army to the neighborhood of Badajoz where he was able to secure sufficient supplies . Wellington learned an important lesson about the importance of logistics . Disgusted with Cuesta ' s erratic behavior and the ineptitude of the Spanish military , Wellington vowed not to cooperate with the Spanish armies until their generals and troops became more dependable . To the British government he argued that he could hold Portugal against a French army of 70 , 000 to 80 , 000 men . To this end Wellington issued the orders to build the Lines of Torres Vedras in order to protect Lisbon .