Battle of Roliça In the Battle of Roliça ( 17 August 1808 ) an Anglo - Portuguese army under Sir Arthur Wellesley defeated an outnumbered French army under General Henri Delaborde , near the village of Roliça in Portugal . The French retired in good order . Formerly spelled " Roleia " in English , it was the first battle fought by the British army during the Peninsular War . Background . In the months after occupying Portugal , Napoleon undertook the conquest and control of Spain . He met much resistance but it was disorganised even when it was effective . By the end of July the Spanish had met the French a dozen times , winning , or at least not losing , at seven of those meetings . Their most spectacular victory was in southern Spain on 23 July 1808 , when General Castaños surrounded and forced 18 , 000 French under General Dupont to surrender at Baylen . On 30 July 1808 , the French General Loison massacred the population , men , women , and children , of Évora . Both of these events were to have an effect on the future of each nation ' s relationships with British troops . On the same day , Wellesley received a letter from Castlereagh , the Secretary of War . It informed Wellesley that General Jean - Andoche Junot ' s forces numbered more than 25 , 000 . Castlereagh forwarded his plans to augment the British army in Portugal by another 15 , 000 men . General Sir John Moore was to arrive with an army from Sweden , and another force would be forwarded from Gibraltar . The command of this larger force would pass to Sir Hew Dalrymple ( the Governor in Gibraltar , a 60 - year - old general who had seen active service only in a failed campaign in Flanders in 1793 – 1794 ) . Dalrymple would be seconded by Sir Harry Burrard , attended by five other generals , all senior to Wellesley ( Dalrymple , Burrard , Moore , Hope , Fraser , and Lord Paget ) . The ambitious General Wellesley hoped to make something happen during the time he still commanded the army in Portugal . On 30 July 1808 , General Wellesley remet Admiral Cotton ' s convoy with Wellesley ' s troops at Mondego bay . Wellesley chose this as his landing point because students from Coimbra University had seized the fort making this a safer landing than any place nearer Lisbon . The disembarking of Wellesley ' s original 9 , 000 troops and supplies with the 5 , 000 they met off Portugal lasted from 1 – 8 August . Some landing craft capsized in the rough surf making the first British casualties in the Peninsula victims of drowning . The army marched off on the 10th on the hot and sandy 12 mile march to Leiria . Wellesley arrived the 11th and soon began arguing with General Freire , the commander of 6 , 000 Portuguese troops , about supplies and the best route to Lisbon . The result had Wellesley taking his preferred route , close to the sea and his supplies , with 1 , 700 of the Portuguese under the command of Colonel Trant , a British officer in service with the Portuguese Army . The army then began its march toward Lisbon following a force of the French army . The French were under the command of General Henri François , Comte Delaborde . These troops had been sent by Junot to harass and hold the British while he brought his larger army into position to oppose the Anglo - Portuguese forces . By 14 August the British reached Alcobaça and moved on to Óbidos . Here the British vanguard , mostly 95th Rifles , met pickets and the rearguard of the French forces . The 4 , 000 French were outnumbered approximately 4 to 1 . Battlefield . The village of Roliça is placed in the centre of a horseshoe shape of steep hills approximately one mile wide and two deep . The open end opens North North East toward Óbidos where the 95th had met the French the day before . The hills around Óbidos and Roliça were well wooded . The French began the day to the north of Roliça backed up to the higher ground allowing them to block or protect the roads south toward Lisbon . On the hill about one mile to the south of the village where the French first fell back , there were four defiles , or gullies leading into the new French position . The field below these hills were grassy , but boulders and the steep sides to the gullies made attack in formation impossible . In the first stages of the battle , Delaborde pulled his troops back to the top of the hill . Armies . The Anglo - Portuguese were formed in six brigades under General Hill , General Ferguson , General Nightingale , General Bowes , General Craufurd , and General Fane with the Portuguese under Colonel Trant . Colonel Trant with the Portuguese and 50 cavalry formed the right and were to turn the French left . Generals Ferguson and Bowes with three companies of riflemen and some light artillery were to force the French right and hold against the possible arrival of French General Loisson . General Hill and generals Nightingale , Craufurd , Fane with the remaining Portuguese , and the rest of the guns and cavalry were to push the centre . The French were under Delaborde consisting of five battalions , including one Swiss , and five guns . Battle . Wellesley arrived at Óbidos 16 August and moved toward Roliça on the following day . At the beginning of the battle , Delaborde occupied a position to the North north West of the village of Roliça . Wellesley attempted to manoeuvre his forces into a double enclosure , moving to each flank of the French position . This could be attempted since the Anglo - Portuguese army outnumbered the French forces present by over 3 to 1 . He sent Colonel Trant to the west , and a stronger force under Generals Ferguson and Bowes with six guns to the east , while he distracted the French with a show of force and noise in the centre . Wellesley tried the manoeuvre twice starting at 9 : 00 in the morning , but the battle - wise French fell back each time . At this time the French final position was to the south and east of the village at the top of a steep hill . Colonel Lake of the 29th Regiment of Foot in the centre then made the mistake of dashing up a gully toward the French position . He arrived behind Delaborde , which cost Lake his life and most of the men in the 29th . This prompted a general attack in relief by the outnumbering British . The fight was rough and uphill with Delaborde hoping for support to arrive from Loison . He repulsed three assaults by the British until nearly 4 : 00 in the afternoon . At this time Wellesley reached positions at the top of the hill and Ferguson arrived over the hills to the east . General Delaborde began to withdraw in good order with effective aid from his cavalry until his army ' s discipline broke and his army ran . Without British Cavalry to press the pursuit , they successfully withdrew to Montachique near Torres Vedras . Aftermath . The Anglo - Portuguese won with 487 casualties , over half that number from the precipitate 29th . The French lost 700 men and three of their five guns . General Delaborde himself was wounded . The following day Wellesley found that the 4 , 000 additional British troops had arrived from England and were off the coast . He marched his men to cover their disembarkation rather than follow Delaborde .