Battle of Vimeiro In the Battle of Vimeiro ( August 21 , 1808 ) the British under General Arthur Wellesley ( later known as the Duke of Wellington ) defeated the French under Major - General Jean - Andoche Junot near the village of Vimeiro ( ) , near Lisbon , Portugal during the Peninsular War . This battle put an end to the first French invasion of Portugal . Four days after the Battle of Roliça , Wellesley ' s army was attacked by a French army under General Junot near the village of Vimeiro . The battle began as a battle of manoeuvre , with French troops attempting to outflank the British left , but Wellesley was able to redeploy his army to face the assault . Meanwhile , Junot sent in two central columns but these were forced back by sustained volleys from troops in line . Soon afterwards , the flanking attack was beaten off and Junot retreated towards Torres Vedras having lost 2 , 000 men and 13 cannon , compared to 700 Anglo - Portuguese losses . No pursuit was attempted because Wellesley was superseded by Sir Harry Burrard and then Sir Hew Dalrymple ( one having arrived during the battle , the second soon after ) . Prelude . After Roliça , Wellesley had established a position near Vimeiro . By holding the village , plus some ridges to the west , the British commander covered a beachhead at Maceira Bay a little further to the west . Since most of his reinforcements had arrived by August 20 , Wellesley planned to advance south on Lisbon . Eight independent infantry brigades under Rowland Hill , Ronald Fergusson , Miles Nightingall , Barnard Bowes , Catlin Craufurd , Henry Fane , Robert Anstruther and Wroth Acland formed the core of Wellesley ' s forces . Rounding out his force were 17 cannons , 240 light cavalry led by C . D . Taylor and about 2 , 000 Portuguese troops under Nicholas Trant , giving a total of 20 , 000 men . Junot organised his 14 , 000 - man force into two infantry divisions and a cavalry division under Pierre Margaron . Henri Delaborde ' s infantry division contained two brigades under Antoine Brenier and Jean Thomières , while Louis Henri Loison ' s division included two brigades commanded by Jean Solignac and Hugues Charlot . In addition , François Étienne de Kellermann commanded a 2 , 100 - man reserve made up of four converged grenadier battalions . These units were created by taking the grenadier company from each of Junot ' s infantry battalions . The French took 23 cannons into battle with them . Wellesley placed Anstruther ' s and Fane ' s brigades in front of Vimeiro , with Acland ' s men in support . At first , his five remaining brigades held only the western ridge . Junot planned to send Thomieres , Solignac and Charlot ' s infantry brigades to capture Vimeiro , while Brenier ' s 4 , 300 - man brigade and some dragoons swung in a wide flanking manoeuvre to seize an empty ridge to the northeast of the village . Wellesley detected Brenier ' s move and switched Nightingall , Fergusson and Bowes to the northeastern ridge . Once Junot realised that British troops occupied the ridge , he sent Solignac ' s brigade to the right to assist Brenier ' s attack . The French commander decided to launch his attack on the town immediately , instead of waiting for his flanking move to develop . Battle . All the preliminary moves and countermoves caused a series of uncoordinated French attacks . First , Thomieres ' 2 , 100 - man brigade approached the British position . Supported by three cannons and screened by skirmishers , the brigade was formed into a column of companies . The first company of 120 men formed in a three - deep line would have a front rank 40 men wide . All the other companies formed behind the first company , making the entire brigade about 40 files wide and 48 ranks deep . According to French doctrine , as soon as the enemy main position was found , the companies would peel off to the right or left to form a firing line many companies wide and only three files deep . On the other hand , French commanders often pressed home attacks while in column , depending entirely upon their skirmishers and artillery to provide the necessary fire support . To counter the French skirmishers , Fane detached four companies of riflemen . These outnumbered and outfought the French skirmishers , who fell back to the sides of the brigade column . Without their skirmishers in front of them , the French column blundered into the 945 men of the 50th Regiment . At , the British , formed into a two - deep line , opened fire . Several companies of the 50th began wheeling inward toward both flanks of the hapless French column . Unable to properly deploy into firing line and unwilling to face the deadly enfilade fire , the French infantry suddenly bolted to the rear , leaving their three cannons to be captured . Soon after , a similar fate overtook Charlot ' s brigade . In a very narrow column , it struck one battalion of Anstruther ' s brigade , which had been hidden behind a crest . Before they could deploy , the French were taken in flank by a second battalion . Unable to effectively reply to the devastating British volley fire , Charlot ' s men soon ran away . Seeing the battle going against him , Junot committed his grenadier reserve to the attack . The first two battalions attacked the same area as the previous units and were thrown back . Kellermann swung the final two grenadier battalions wide to the right and succeeded in breaking into Vimeiro . But , counterattacked by units from Anstruther and Acland , these Frenchmen also fell back . Colonel Taylor ' s 20th Light Dragoons pounced on Kellermann ' s retreating grenadiers and routed them . Excited by their easy success , the British horsemen charged out of control . They soon came up against Margaron ' s French cavalry division and were routed in their turn . Taylor was killed and the British horsemen lost about one man in four . As Brenier ' s men had gotten lost in the hills , Solignac attacked the northeast ridge . This brigade changed tactics deploying in an attack formation with three battalions abreast . Even so , each battalion formed a column one company wide and eight companies deep . If the French intended to form into line once the enemy position was detected , they waited too long . They marched into the kill zone of Nightingall and Fergusson ' s brigades before they could deploy . Smashed by British volleys , Solignac ' s men fled . Brenier ' s brigade , marching to the sound of battle , came on four battalions abreast . At first they enjoyed success when they surprised and defeated two British battalions . These units had let down their guard after overpowering Solignac . Victorious , the French pressed on in column , but soon ran into the 29th Regiment in line and were stopped . The 29th was joined by the other two units , who had quickly rallied . Together , the volley fire of the three British battalions soon routed Brenier ' s men . Though Wellesley urged him to pursue , Burrard declined to interfere with the subsequent French retreat . Aftermath . In hindsight , Junot faced very long odds with only 14 , 000 Frenchmen against 18 , 000 British led by Wellesley . Junot correctly launched his heaviest attack on the weakest point in the British position , the unoccupied northeastern ridge . However , his attacks suffered by being badly coordinated . Wellesley reacted quickly to counter Junot ' s flanking move . His forces overcame the French skirmishers by using superior numbers of their own skirmishers . Two of Wellesley ' s brigades never got into action , but the rest were used economically to defeat each French attack . After the comprehensive French defeat , Junot offered complete capitulation . Nevertheless Dalrymple gave the French far more generous terms than they could have hoped for . Under the terms of the " Convention of Sintra " , the defeated army was transported back to France by the British navy , complete with its guns and equipment and the loot it had taken from Portugal . The Convention of Sintra caused a massive outcry in Britain and , following an official enquiry , both Dalrymple and Burrard were blamed . Wellesley , who had opposed the agreement , was exonerated . Nevertheless , the dispatch of so many troops to Portugal had ensured that there would be a considerable delay before operations could commence in Spain . There were also serious problems with the Spaniards : inherent in the sudden Spanish interest in British troops , for example , lay the desire not just to receive assistance but also to obtain command over them . Equally a desire was beginning to emerge amongst the British to further their influence in Spain and to impose their own political solutions . With the British army in the hands of an officer who was not only highly ambitious but deeply frustrated , at odds with the ministry , notoriously suspicious of the government ' s representatives abroad , and possessed of a prickly disposition , trouble was certain , and all the more so given the thunderbolt that was being prepared across the river Ebro .