Battle of Bussaco

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"Busaco" redirects here. For the ghost town in Indiana, see Busaco, Indiana.

Battle of Bussaco
Part of
Bussaco, near Luso, Portugal
40°20′N 8°20′W / 40.333°N 8.333°W / 40.333; -8.333
Result Anglo-Portuguese victory[1]
Belligerents  United Kingdom
Kingdom of Portugal Portugal  FranceCommanders and leaders United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Viscount Wellington
Kingdom of Portugal Luís do Rego Barreto First French Empire André Masséna
First French Empire Michel Ney
First French Empire Jean ReynierStrength 32,000[1]–35,765[2] 45,774[2]–58,000[1]Casualties and losses 1,300[3][1]–1,356[2] dead or wounded 2,456[2]–4,500[3][1] dead or wounded
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Peninsular war: Portugal
1807 1808 1809 1810 1811

The Battle of Buçaco (pronounced [buˈsaku]) or Bussaco, fought on 27 September 1810 during the Peninsular War in the Portuguese mountain range of Serra do Buçaco, resulted in the defeat of French forces by Lord Wellington's Anglo-Portuguese Army.[4][5]

Having occupied the heights of

General of Division (Major General) Jean Reynier
, but after much fierce fighting they failed to dislodge the allied forces and were driven off after having lost 4,500 men against 1,250 Anglo-Portuguese casualties. However, Wellington was ultimately forced to withdraw to the Lines of Torres Vedras after his positions were outflanked by Masséna's troops.

Background

See also: Battle of Bussaco order of battle

The Third Portuguese campaign had started with the construction of the Lines of Torres Vedras and the Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo.

Operations

In 1810,

Battle of the Côa was fought soon after. The Siege of Almeida ended suddenly with a massive explosion of the fortress magazine on 26 August. With all obstacles cleared from their path, the French could march on Lisbon
in strength.

It was important to delay the French until the defences being built around Lisbon, the Lines of Torres Vedras, could be completed. Using selective demolition of bridges and roads, Viscount Wellington restricted the choice of routes the French could use and slowed the advance of the French troops. At the end of September, they met Wellington's army drawn up on the ridge of Bussaco.

The ridge, which at its highest rises to 549 metres, lies at right angles to the main road to Coimbra and thence to Lisbon, providing one of the few and certainly the best defensive position on the French route of march.

Allied organisation

Wellington had brought together six British infantry divisions:

In addition, the newly re-trained (by the British under the direction of Lieutenant General William Carr Beresford) Portuguese Army supplied a two-brigade Portuguese infantry division under Maj Gen John Hamilton, and three independent Portuguese brigades led by Brig Gen Denis Pack, Brig Gen Alexander Campbell and Brig Gen John Coleman.

Brig Gen

Bull RHA, Thompson, Lawson, two unknown), two King's German Legion (Rettberg, Cleeves) and five Portuguese (Rozierres, Da Cunha Preto, Da Silva, Freira, Sousa) batteries under Brig Gen Edward Howorth.[6][7]

The Anglo Portuguese army numbered 50,000, with 50% Portuguese troops.

French organisation

Masséna's army of 60,000 included the II Corps under Reynier, the VI Corps led by Ney, the VIII Corps under MG

General of Brigade (BG) Jean Baptiste Eblé, Masséna's artillery chief, commanded 112 guns.[8]

Plans

Mountains and National Palace of Bussaco

Wellington posted his army along the crest of Bussaco Ridge, facing east. To improve his lateral communications, he had previously ordered his four officers from the

Royal Corps of Engineers[9] to cut a road that ran the length of the ridge on the reverse slope. Cole held the left (north) flank. Next came Craufurd, Spencer, Picton and Leith. Hill held the right (south) flank with Hamilton's men attached.[10]

Masséna, believing he easily outnumbered the British and goaded by Ney and other officers to attack the British position rather than go around it, ordered a reconnaissance of the steep ridge. Very few of Wellington's troops were visible, as they remained on the reverse slope and were ordered not to light cooking fires. The French General planned to send Reynier at the centre of the ridge, which he believed to be the British right flank. Once the II Corps attack showed some signs of success, Masséna would launch Ney's corps at the British along the main road. The VIII Corps stood behind the VI Corps in reserve. While Ney announced that he was ready to attack and conquer, Reynier suddenly had second thoughts, predicting his attack would be beaten.[11]

Battle

II Corps attack

Reynier's troops struck in the early morning mist. Heudelet sent his leading brigade straight up the slope in a formation one company wide and eight battalions deep. When the leading regiment reached the top of the ridge, they found themselves facing the 74th Foot and two Portuguese battalions in line, plus 12 cannon. The French tried to change formation from column into a line. Pelet says, "The column began to deploy as if at an exercise."[12] But the Allies brought intense musketry to bear. Soon, the French infantrymen were thrown into confusion. However, they clung to a precarious toehold on the ridge.

Several hundred yards to the north, Merle's division thrust up the ridge in a similar formation. Picton hurriedly massed his defenders by using the ridgetop road. Met at the crest by the

45th Foot and two Portuguese battalions in a concave line, the French tried unsuccessfully to deploy into line. Crushed by converging fire, the French fled down the slope.[13] Merle was wounded while General of Brigade Jean François Graindorge fell mortally wounded.[14] Wellington rode up to Colonel Alexander Wallace of the 88th and remarked, "Wallace, I have never witnessed a more gallant charge."[15]

Seeing Heudelet's second brigade standing immobile at the foot of the ridge, Reynier rode up to BG

38th Foot of Leith and some of Picton's men.[16] The French were swept off the ridge and Foy wounded.[14]
After seeing this rout, Heudelet's other brigade withdrew to the base of the ridge.

VI Corps attack

Hearing gunfire, Ney assumed Reynier's men were enjoying success and ordered an attack. In this sector, the main highway climbed a long spur past the hamlets of Moura and Sula to reach the crest at the Convent of Bussaco. Against a very heavy British skirmish line, Loison's division fought its way forward. Near the crest, 1,800 men of the 43rd and 52nd infantry regiments lay down waiting. As Loison's leading brigade approached the convent grounds, the two British units stood up, fired a terrific volley at point blank range and charged with the bayonet.[15] The French brigade collapsed and fled leaving BG Édouard Simon, their commander, wounded and a prisoner.[12]

A short time later and slightly further south, Loison's second brigade under BG Claude François Ferey ran into a close-range fire from two batteries plus Anglo-Portuguese musketry. This unit was also routed. A final thrust by BG Antoine Louis Popon de Maucune's brigade of Marchand's division met defeat when it ran into Denis Pack's Portuguese brigade. The two sides occupied the rest of the day in vigorous skirmishing, but the French did not try to attack in force again.[16]

Aftermath

The French suffered 522 dead, 3,612 wounded, and 364 captured. The Allied losses numbered 200 dead, 1,001 wounded, and 51 missing. The British and Portuguese each lost exactly 626 men.[16]

Masséna now realised the size of Wellington's forces and the strength of his defensive position, so that afternoon he had sent cavalry patrols to reconnoitre both ends of the Bussaco ridge, looking for a way round the position. The French army was withdrawn towards Mortagoa, with fires lit in the woods to offer some camouflage to the troops’ departure. Massena issued orders on the evening of the 28th which would send his army along the Sardaõ road via Boialvo, outflanking Wellington’s position to the North of the Bussaco ridge, and opening up the main road from Oporto to Coimbra.[17]

Wellington, after spending the night in the convent, and finding his position turned, resumed the leisurely retreat of his army towards the, still being constructed, Lines of Torres Vedras.[18] He reached these in good order by 10 October.

Continuing to advance, Masséna had left his sick and wounded troops at Coimbra, where a few days later, they fell into the hands of the Portuguese.[18]

This was the first major battle of the Peninsular War in which units of the reconstituted Portuguese Army fought, where the Portuguese troops played a prominent part and the victory served as a great morale boost to the inexperienced troops.

The Third Portuguese campaign proceeded with the probing of the Lines in the Battle of Sobral on 14 October. Masséna found them too strong to attack and withdrew into winter quarters. Deprived of food for his men and harried by Anglo-Portuguese hit-and-run tactics, he lost a further 25,000 men captured or dead from starvation or sickness before he retreated into Spain early in 1811. This finally freed Portugal from French occupation except for the fortress of Almeida, near the frontier. During the retreat, several actions were fought, including the Battle of Sabugal.

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f Bodart 1908, p. 420.
  2. ^ a b c d Clodfelter 2008, p. 165.
  3. ^ a b Glover 1971, p. 139.
  4. ^ Ellingham, Fisher & Kenyon 2002, p. 63.
  5. ^ Wheeler & Opello 2010, p. 63.
  6. ^ Glover 1971, pp. 375–376.
  7. ^ Horward 1973, pp. 523–528.
  8. ^ Horward 1973, pp. 517–522.
  9. ^ Porter 1889, p. 262.
  10. ^ Zimmermann 1978, pp. 28–29.
  11. ^ Horward 1973, p. 176.
  12. ^ a b Horward 1973, p. 179.
  13. ^ Glover 1971, p. 137.
  14. ^ a b Horward 1973, p. 180.
  15. ^ a b Glover 1971, p. 138.
  16. ^ a b c Zimmermann 1978, p. 30.
  17. ^ White 2019, p. 171.
  18. ^ a b Porter 1889, p. 263.

References

Further reading

In fiction

External links

Preceded by
Siege of Almeida (1810) 		Napoleonic Wars
Battle of Bussaco 		Succeeded by
Battle of the Gebora
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