Battle of Peyrestortes
Battle of Peyrestortes | |||||||
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Part of the War of the Pyrenees | |||||||
Some parts of Perpignan's ramparts survive today. Rather than attack the fortress directly, the Spanish tried to surround it with fortified camps. | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
France | Spain | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Eustache d'Aoust Jacques Goguet |
Antonio Ricardos Marquis Amarillas Juan de Courten | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
8,000 | 6,000–12,000 | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
200–300, unknown | 1,702–3,500, 26–46 guns, 7 colors | ||||||
At the Battle of Peyrestortes (17 September 1793) in the
Eustache Charles d'Aoust and Jacques Gilles Henri Goguet assumed command and attacked two divisions of the Army of Catalonia led by Juan de Courten and Jerónimo Girón-Moctezuma, Marquis de las Amarillas. The Spanish were routed and never again advanced so far into Roussillon. After the battle, the Army of Catalonia found itself back in its original positions. Ricardos successfully defended a Spanish foothold in France during the remainder of 1793. Peyrestortes is located 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) northwest of Perpignan.
Background
Positions
Beginning in April 1793,
The representatives-on-mission appointed General of Division Barbantane as de Flers' successor as army commander.
Ricardos responded to the situation by establishing his own fortified camp at
Plans
On 3 September, a Spanish probe was turned back at the Mill of Orles near Perpignan by
Finally, the thoroughly panicked Barbantane abandoned his army altogether, dashing off to Narbonne supposedly looking for reinforcements. In his letter of resignation to the War Minister, he wrote, "The situation is beyond my powers", and he was dismissed. The government named Louis Marie Turreau as the new army commander, but it would be some time before he arrived from the Vendée. In the meantime, the representatives chose Dagobert as Barbantane's successor. Pending Dagobert's arrival from the Cerdagne, the representatives appointed d'Aoust to assume temporary command and named General of Brigade Goguet to lead the 4,000-man division at Salces.[10]
Hearing of Barbantane's unmilitary behavior, Ricardos determined to take advantage of the disarray in the French high command. The Spanish commander ordered Amarillas to march to Peyrestortes via Baixas. On 8 September, Amarillas occupied Peyrestortes, northwest of the provincial capital. That day, he attacked d'Aoust's Camp of the Union at Rivesaltes and drove the French away after a tough fight. Meanwhile, D'Aoust and General of Brigade Louis Lemoine constructed redoubts to defend Perpignan.[11] The Spanish set up a fortified camp at Peyrestortes and defended it with 12,000 soldiers.[10] The Spanish pushed forward a column from Peyrestortes to Vernet (a suburb 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) north of Perpignan).[4] This was Lieutenant General Juan de Courten's division, which took position behind an irrigation canal, with 24 cannon covering the road leading north to Salces.[11] This last move was a blunder because Ricardos did not mount a serious enough threat to d'Aoust's forces from the south at the same time.[4]
Battle
At 2:00 am on 17 September, José de Iturrigaray's Spanish artillery brought Perpignan under a heavy bombardment from the direction of Cabestany to the southeast. Ricardos deployed 6,000 troops to support the gunners on the south and west sides of the fortress. At 4:00 am that morning, d'Aoust fell upon de Courten's division at Vernet in four columns. Lemoine led the left column, Colonel Catherine-Dominique de Pérignon commanded the center column including some cavalry under Banel, and General of Brigade Antoine Soulérac directed the right column. An observation force that included Lieutenant Jean Lannes moved to the far left. One of the French columns managed to turn de Courten's flank. After a stubborn fight, the French captured all of de Courten's artillery.[11]
At 10:30 am d'Aoust hesitated, worried that Ricardos might assault Perpignan from the south. However, a crowd of citizens from Perpignan had watched the fight and they demanded more action. Urged on by the representatives-on-mission, d'Aoust reformed his soldiers and prepared to attack Peyrestortes. Representative Joseph Cassanyes galloped away to Salces-le-Château to bring Goguet into the fight. In the improvised battle plan the two divisions would attack together at 5:00 pm.[4] D'Aoust had no authority over Goguet and his division, but the two agreed to cooperate.[11] D'Aoust attacked at 5:00 pm with 4,000 men, but was driven off. Because of bad staff work, Goguet's 3,500-man division was late and only joined the battle at 7:00 pm.[12]
The Salses-le-Château column was led by Goguet and General of Brigade Pierre Poinsot de Chansac.[11] Guided by Cassanyes who was familiar with the area, the French found a gap in the Spanish defenses.[12] Amarillas neglected to post troops to defend a ravine, and Goguet exploited this blunder to push his soldiers into a hand-to-hand fight where Spanish firepower counted for little and French élan for much. As the day wore on, French reinforcements kept arriving from Salses, giving their attack ever increasing momentum.[11] The fighting went on even as daylight faded. Soulérac's column joined the attack on Peyrestortes hill. In the confusion and darkness, Rafael Adorno's Spanish cavalry panicked and withdrew. By 10:00 pm, French soldiers broke into the Spanish positions and forced both Amarillas and de Courten into a disorderly retreat back to Trouillas and Mas Deu.[11]
Results
Historian Ramsay Weston Phipps stated that the French captured 500 Spanish soldiers, 43 guns and seven colors, but did not list the killed and wounded.[12] Digby Smith gave Spanish losses as 52 officers and 1,150 rank and file killed, wounded, and missing out of 6,000 engaged. In addition, the French captured 500 men, 26 cannon, and seven colors. French losses were given as 200 killed and wounded out of a total of 8,000 troops involved in the fighting.[13] Another source listed Spanish casualties as 800 killed and 1,500 wounded, while the French captured 1,200 prisoners, 40 cannons and six howitzers.[9] During the action, Pérignon was wounded in the thigh and he received promotion to general of brigade the following day.[14] The next action was the Battle of Truillas on 22 September 1793.[13]
The heroes of Peyrestortes fared poorly. In late December, the French suffered a costly defeat at the
In spite of his strange defection, Barbantane managed to avoid the guillotine. He was imprisoned at Toulouse but later freed. Maximilien Robespierre put him in prison again but he survived the Reign of Terror. Later on, Napoleon instructed that Barbantane be left at home because he was useless at Paris.[10]
Monument
A battle memorial commemorating the victory is 1 kilometre (0.6 mi) southeast of the village, near the Perpignan–Rivesaltes Airport. The monument has the following inscription, A la mémoire de l'armée des Pyrénées-Orientales qui combattirent à Peyrestortes sous la conduite des conventionnels Cassanyes, Fabre, des généraux Daoust et Goguet. (To the memory of the Army of the Eastern Pyrenees which fought at Peyrestortes under the direction of deputies Cassanyes, Fabre, of generals Daoust and Goguet.)[18]
Notes
- ^ Smith 1998, p. 46.
- ^ Smith 1998, p. 49.
- ^ a b c Phipps 2011b, p. 153.
- ^ a b c d Phipps 2011b, p. 156.
- ^ a b c Phipps 2011b, p. 154.
- ^ Smith 1998, p. 53.
- ^ Phipps 2011b, p. 152.
- ^ Rickard 2009.
- ^ a b Munier 2002.
- ^ a b c d Phipps 2011b, p. 155.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Prats 2007a.
- ^ a b c Phipps 2011b, p. 157.
- ^ a b Smith 1998, p. 57.
- ^ Ostermann & Chandler 1987, p. 406.
- ^ Phipps 2011b, pp. 166–167.
- ^ Broughton 2006.
- ^ Phipps 2011a, p. 286.
- ^ Prats 2007b.
References
- Broughton, Tony (2006). "Generals Who Served in the French Army during the Period 1789–1815: Abbatucci to Azemar". The Napoleon Series. Retrieved 3 December 2017.
- Munier, François (2002). "Armée des Pyrénées" (in French).
- Ostermann, Georges; ISBN 0-02-905930-5.
- ISBN 978-1-908692-24-5.
- ISBN 978-1-908692-26-9.
- Prats, Bernard (2007a). "17 Septembre 1793 La Bataille de Peyrestortes" (in French). Archived from the original on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 22 May 2021.
- Prats, Bernard (2007b). "Detruire Tout, Pour Oublier" (in French).
- Rickard, J. (2009). "Combat of Peyrestortes". historyofwar.org.
- ISBN 1-85367-276-9.
External links
- Media related to Battle of Peyrestortes at Wikimedia Commons
Preceded by Siege of Bellegarde (1793) |
French Revolution: Revolutionary campaigns Battle of Peyrestortes |
Succeeded by Siege of Toulon (1793) |