French 4th Corps (with attached Polish division under general Valance) had to cross the bridge over the Guadiana River which was defended by the Spanish corps of Count Urbina Cartaojal. Polish lancers of the Legion of the Vistula under colonel Jan Konopka charged through the bridge taking it by surprise, then outflanked Spanish infantry and attacked it from behind as the main French and Polish forces crossed the bridge, and attacked the Spanish front lines.
The battle was over when undisciplined Spanish soldiers dispersed, and began to retreat in the direction of Santa Cruz. Józef Rudnicki, adjutant-major of the 4th Infantry Regiment of the Legion, described the battle in his diaries (spelling according to the original):
"as soon as the French regiments of the 4th Corps met our division, we rushed immediately toward the Consuegra and Ciudad Real, before of which town we found the Spanish corps, waiting for us on good positions. We were outnumbered, but thanks to the rational orders of the general Sebastiani, in some od four hours on 27 March 1809 the Spaniards were defeated and dispersed. They were retreating in chaos toward Almagro, where the Order of Calatrava has its home, and toward the Santa Cruz de Mudela, and even further, into the Sierramorena Mountains."[3]
Results
The Spanish corps lost some 2000 men killed or wounded and many more were taken prisoner. After the battle the count of Cartojal was deprived of command for incompetency, and replaced by general Venegas, hero of the Spanish War of Independence, and later the viceroy of New Spain.
battle, ciudad, real, fought, march, 1809, resulted, french, victory, under, general, sebastiani, against, spanish, under, general, conde, cartojal, part, peninsular, wardate27, march, 1809, locationciudad, real, province, ciudad, real, castile, mancha, spain3. The Battle of Ciudad Real was fought on 27 March 1809 and resulted in a French victory under General Sebastiani against the Spanish under General Conde de Cartojal 1 2 Battle of Ciudad RealPart of the Peninsular WarDate27 March 1809 1 LocationCiudad Real Province of Ciudad Real Castile La Mancha Spain38 58 15 N 4 00 25 W 38 97083 N 4 00694 W 38 97083 4 00694ResultFranco Polish victory 1 BelligerentsFrench Empire Duchy of WarsawKingdom of SpainCommanders and leadersHorace SebastianiConde de CartaojalStrength12 700 1 12 500 1 Casualties and losses100 1 3 000 1 Peninsular war Castile amp Andalusia Interactive fullscreen map current battle Contents 1 Background 2 Battle 3 Results 4 Aftermath 5 Notes 6 References 7 Further reading 8 External linksBackground EditThe Spanish campaign in early 1809 started with the Battle of Ucles Battle EditFrench 4th Corps with attached Polish division under general Valance had to cross the bridge over the Guadiana River which was defended by the Spanish corps of Count Urbina Cartaojal Polish lancers of the Legion of the Vistula under colonel Jan Konopka charged through the bridge taking it by surprise then outflanked Spanish infantry and attacked it from behind as the main French and Polish forces crossed the bridge and attacked the Spanish front lines The battle was over when undisciplined Spanish soldiers dispersed and began to retreat in the direction of Santa Cruz Jozef Rudnicki adjutant major of the 4th Infantry Regiment of the Legion described the battle in his diaries spelling according to the original as soon as the French regiments of the 4th Corps met our division we rushed immediately toward the Consuegra and Ciudad Real before of which town we found the Spanish corps waiting for us on good positions We were outnumbered but thanks to the rational orders of the general Sebastiani in some od four hours on 27 March 1809 the Spaniards were defeated and dispersed They were retreating in chaos toward Almagro where the Order of Calatrava has its home and toward the Santa Cruz de Mudela and even further into the Sierramorena Mountains 3 Results EditThe Spanish corps lost some 2000 men killed or wounded and many more were taken prisoner After the battle the count of Cartojal was deprived of command for incompetency and replaced by general Venegas hero of the Spanish War of Independence and later the viceroy of New Spain Aftermath EditThe Spanish campaign in early 1809 proceeded with the first Madrid offensive in the Battle of Medellin Notes Edit a b c d e f g Bodart 1908 p 394 Esdaile 2003 p 182 Druk 1862 p 64 References EditBodart Gaston 1908 Militar historisches Kriegs Lexikon 1618 1905 Retrieved 21 May 2021 Druk 1862 Pismo zbiorowe wilenskie na rok 1862 Esdaile Charles J 2003 The Peninsular War Palgrave MacMillan Retrieved 19 May 2021 Further reading EditGlover Michael 2001 The Peninsular War 1807 1814 London Penguin ISBN 0 14 139041 7 Kukiel Marian 2001 Dzieje oreza polskiego w epoce napoleonskiej Poznan 1912 repr 1998 ISBN 83 86600 51 9 Consuegra Martin de Gomez A J 2009 Napoleon en La Mancha La Ocupacion francesa de Ciudad Real 1809 1813 ISBN 978 1409282518 External links Editremilitari 2020 Las Guerras Napoleonicas Archived from the original on 6 October 2020 Retrieved 21 May 2021 Media related to Battle of Ciudad Real at Wikimedia CommonsPreceded byBattle of Los Yebenes Napoleonic WarsBattle of Ciudad Real Succeeded byFirst Battle of Porto Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Battle of Ciudad Real amp oldid 1096735281, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
