First Siege of Zaragoza

Assault on the walls of Saragossa by January Suchodolski, oil on canvas, 1845. (National Museum in Warsaw)

Date	15 June – 14 August 1808
Location	Zaragoza, Spain
Result	Spanish victory

Belligerents

First French Empire

Duchy of Warsaw

Kingdom of Spain

Commanders and leaders

Charles Lefebvre-Desnouettes

Jean-Antoine Verdier

José de Palafox y Melzi

Felipe Augusto de Saint-Marcq

Juan O'Neylle

Strength

8,500 regulars,
1,000 cavalry,
60 guns
Total: 9,500

500 regulars,
6,000 militia
Total: 6,500

Casualties and losses

3,000–3,500

5,000

The First Siege of Zaragoza (also called Saragossa) was a bloody struggle in the Peninsular War (1807–1814). A French army under General Lefebvre-Desnouettes and subsequently commanded by General Jean-Antoine Verdier besieged, repeatedly stormed, and was repulsed from the Spanish city of Zaragoza in the summer of 1808.

When the Dos de Mayo (2 May) uprisings took place in Spain in 1808, Napoleon at first thought that they were a series of isolated uprisings and despatched a number of small columns to quell them. In North Eastern Spain Marshall Bessières assigned General Lefebvre-Desnouettes to quell the revolt in Aragon. Eventually his column included 5,000 infantry, 1,000 cavalry and two artillery batteries. Lefebvre quickly discovered, however, that the revolt was much more widespread than had been believed.

The Spanish side was led by General José de Palafox who was the second son in an aristocratic Spanish family. He was appointed Captain-General of Aragon in late May. He successfully raised a force of 7,500 troops but was handicapped by the lack of experience of these troops with only about 300 experienced cavalry and a few gunners.

Palafox made a few attempts to stop the French from even reaching Zaragoza. His elder brother the Marquis of Lazan attempted to stop them at Tudela on 8 June 1808 and again at Mallen on 13 June 1808. Palafax then sent out a force of 6,000 but was defeated again at Alagon on 14 June 1808 and Palafox himself was wounded. Finally the remaining Spanish forces retreated into Zaragoza.

Zaragoza itself was protected by two medieval walls and two rivers – the Ebro river to the north-east and the Huerva to the south – but the west was exposed to attack. The strength of the city, though, was in its maze of strongly built defensible buildings with narrow lanes easy to block with barricades.

Lefebvre reached Zaragoza on 15 June 1808. At this time he was badly outnumbered by the Spanish, who had around 11,000 troops although only half had experience of battle from the Alagon defeat.

The next day Lefebvre assaulted the western wall of the city expecting that the Spanish would collapse quickly.

In the first assault the French broke into the western part of the city and their Polish cavalry broke through the Santa Engracia gate but could make no progress inside the city and were forced to retreat. The French suffered around 700 casualties in this first assault.

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Wikipedia