Battle of Somosierra

Battle of Somosierra
Part of the Peninsular War
La bataille de Somo-Sierra, by Baron Lejeune, 1810, oil on canvas.
Date 30 November 1808 Location Somosierra Pass, Segovia, Spain Result French victory
Belligerents
French Empire Duchy of Warsaw	Spain
Commanders and leaders
Napoleon I Jan Leon Kozietulski	Benito de San Juan
Strength
45,000	20,000 infantry, 16 guns
Casualties and losses
57 dead or wounded	250 dead or wounded, 3,000 captured

The Battle of Somosierra occurred November 30, 1808, in the Peninsular War, when a French army under Napoleon I forced a passage through the Sierra de Guadarrama shielding Madrid.

At the Somosierra mountain pass, 60 miles north of Madrid, a heavily outnumbered Spanish detachment of conscripts and artillery under Benito de San Juan aimed to block Napoleon's advance on the Spanish capital. Napoleon overwhelmed the Spanish positions in a combined arms attack, sending the Polish Chevau-légers of the Imperial Guard at the Spanish guns while French infantry advanced up the slopes. The victory removed the last obstacle barring the road to Madrid, which fell several days later.

By late November 1808 the French Grande Armée had overwhelmed and destroyed both wings of the Spanish popular army. To complete his reconquest of Spain, Napoleon advanced on Madrid with 40,000 men.

Gen. San Juan mustered an ad hoc army of militia, reservists and various regular regiments still reeling from earlier defeats – in all about 12,000 men – to defend Madrid. In order to screen the many approaches to the city, San Juan dispersed his already greatly outnumbered forces. Under his orders, 9,000 men were sent west to guard the Guadarrama pass while 3,000 occupied an advanced post at Sepulveda, leaving only 9,000 men and 16 guns on the heights of Somosierra.

The nature of the terrain and the tenacity of the Spaniards initially worked in their favor. On the evening of November 29 the brigade at Sepulveda repulsed a French attack, inflicted heavy casualties and escaped from overwhelming French numbers in the gathering darkness to the west. The following morning Napoleon advanced his infantry directly toward the pass while small detachments crept up the flanks. Exchanging musket volleys with the defenders, the French made slow but measurable progress toward the enemy guns.

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Wikipedia