Battle of Zújar

The Cerro Jabalcon towers over Zújar.

Date	9 August 1811
Location	Zújar, Spain
Result	French victory

Belligerents

First French Empire

Kingdom of Spain

Commanders and leaders

Strength

Campaign: 12,000
Zújar: 4,600–8,000

Campaign: 17,000
Zújar: 4,000

Casualties and losses

Campaign: unknown
Zújar: light

Campaign: 4,000
Zújar: 1,423

In the Battle of Zújar of the Peninsular War, part of the Napoleonic Wars, on 9 August 1811 an Imperial French division from Nicolas Soult's army attacked a Spanish division belonging to Manuel Alberto Freire de Andrade y Armijo's Army of Murcia. The French division, led by Nicolas Godinot, defeated Joseph O'Donnell's Spanish division with heavy losses. Zújar is located on Route 323, 13 kilometres (8 mi) northwest of Baza, Granada in Spain.

Spanish armies under Freire and Joaquín Blake y Joyes threatened the French grip on the south of Spain during the summer of 1811. Marshal Soult, who had just suffered a bloody defeat at the Battle of Albuera in May, left a colleague's army to observe the Anglo-Portuguese and marched south at the end of June. After driving off Blake's army, the marshal moved east with 12,000 men to deal with the Army of Murcia. Freire's army had enjoyed initial success in its campaign against Jean François Leval's weak IV Corps. At the beginning of August, Freire was joined by Blake's force, which had been shipped to the Region of Murcia by a British naval squadron. The arrival of Soult with reinforcements quickly turned the tables. While Soult faced Freire's main force, Godinot's division brushed aside one Spanish force, then threatened to block Freire's line of retreat. After Godinot savaged O'Donnell's division at Zújar, Freire was able to get away. But French cavalry under Pierre Benoit Soult crushed his rear guard at Las Vertientes, east of Cúllar. After the twin defeats, the Murcian army scattered into the mountains.

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