Battle of Bayonne

Battle and Siege of Bayonne
Part of the Peninsular War
"The Sortie from Bayonne, at 3 in the Morning, on the 14th April 1814" by Thomas Sutherland
Date 14 April 1814 Location Bayonne, France Result Allied victory
Belligerents
French Empire	United Kingdom Portugal Spain
Commanders and leaders
Pierre Thouvenot Louis Jean Nicolas Abbé	John Hope (POW) Andrew Hay †
Strength
14,000	19,550
Casualties and losses
910 dead, wounded, or captured	700 dead 2,000 wounded 276 captured

The Battle of Bayonne of 14 April 1814 was a sortie by General Thouvenot's French garrison of Bayonne during the siege of that city conducted by Allied forces under Lieutenant General John Hope. The battle was the last of the Peninsular War and occurred as news of Napoleon's abdication was beginning to reach the opposing forces.

While the Siege of Bayonne was largely illusory, with French and British soldiers fraternizing and exchanging goods and letters, the fighting of 14 April involved heavy hand-to-hand combat in which Lieut-Gen Hope was captured with two of his staff, 276 men and a gun, before reinforcements stabilized the Allied positions.

With Thouvenot occupying stronger positions at the conclusion of his sortie, the siege continued. On 17 April, the main French body under Marshal Soult signed an armistice with Wellington; Thouvenot would continue to resist until direct orders from Soult compelled him to observe the ceasefire.

After the Battle of the Nive, Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington mounted a surprise amphibious operation which crossed the Adour River estuary and isolated the French city of Bayonne. Wellington pressed east after Marshal Nicolas Soult's French army, leaving the fortress to be invested on 27 February by Hope's corps.

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