Battle of Albuera

Marshal Beresford disarming a Polish lancer at the Battle of Albuera. Print by T. Sutherland, 1831.

Date	16 May 1811
Location	Albuera, south of Badajoz, Spain
Result	Indecisive

Belligerents

Commanders and leaders

Strength

35,284:
31,385 infantry and 3,899 cavalry, 40–48 guns Anglo-Portuguese Forces: 20,650:

10,449 British: 9,285 infantry, 1,164 cavalry, 24 guns
10,201 Portuguese: 9,352 infantry, 849 cavalry, 12 guns

Spanish Forces: 14,634: 12,748 infantry, 1,886 cavalry, 14 guns

24,260:
20,248 infantry, 4,012 cavalry, 48 guns

Casualties and losses

5,916 to 7,000 dead or wounded
1,000 captured

4,159 British
1,368 Spaniards
389 Portuguese.

5,936–7,900 dead or wounded

Coordinates: 38°43′N 6°49′W / 38.717°N 6.817°W / 38.717; -6.817

35,284:
31,385 infantry and 3,899 cavalry, 40–48 guns Anglo-Portuguese Forces: 20,650:

The Battle of Albuera (16 May 1811) was a battle during the Peninsular War. A mixed British, Spanish and Portuguese corps engaged elements of the French Armée du Midi (Army of the South) at the small Spanish village of Albuera, about 20 kilometres (12 mi) south of the frontier fortress-town of Badajoz, Spain.

From October 1810 Marshal Masséna's Army of Portugal had been tied down in an increasingly hopeless stand-off against Wellington's Allied forces, safely entrenched in and behind the Lines of Torres Vedras. Acting on Napoleon's orders, in early 1811 Marshal Soult led a French expedition from Andalusia into Extremadura in a bid to draw Allied forces away from the Lines and ease Masséna's plight. Napoleon's information was outdated and Soult's intervention came too late; starving and understrength, Masséna's army was already withdrawing to Spain. Soult was able to capture the strategically important fortress at Badajoz on the border between Spain and Portugal from the Spanish, but was forced to return to Andalusia following Marshal Victor's defeat in March at the Battle of Barrosa. However, Soult left Badajoz strongly garrisoned. In April, following news of Masséna's complete withdrawal from Portugal, Wellington sent a powerful Anglo-Portuguese corps commanded by Sir William Beresford to retake the border town. The Allies drove most of the French from the surrounding area and began the Siege of Badajoz.

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