Pedro Sarsfield

Pedro Sarsfield y Waters (died 1837) was a Spanish general of Irish descent who commanded an infantry division during the Peninsular War. He is considered one of the best Spanish tacticians among his generation.^[1]

Pedro Sarsfield
Born	unknown unknown
Died	1837 Pamplona, Spain
Allegiance	Kingdom of Spain
Service/branch	Infantry
Rank	Lieutenant General
Battles/wars	Siege of Tortosa (1810) Battle of Pla (1811) Siege of Figueras (1811) Siege of Tarragona (1811) Battle of Oriamendi (1837)

Sarsfield was a descendant of Patrick Sarsfield, a celebrated Jacobite general.^[1] He is one of the Spanish generals who were second- or third generation descendants of those came from Ireland after the Battle of Boyne (1690).^[2]

He was particularly noted for his involvement in the operations surrounding the Siege of Tortosa in 1810–1811. In a well-conducted action, he defeated two Italian brigades at the Battle of Pla on 15 January 1811. After failing to break the Siege of Figueras, his troops participated in the Siege of Tarragona in May and June 1811. He escaped the disaster, but his division was largely destroyed. Remnants of his division later joined Marques de Campoverde's operation against the French forces led by Louis-Gabriel Suchet, who were occupying the Tarragona fortress.^[3]

After the Napoleonic Wars, Sarsfield remained loyal to King Ferdinand VII of Spain. He and Henry O'Donnell, 1st Count of la Bisbal foiled a liberal plot in 1819. That year he was rewarded with promotion to Lieutenant General. But when the liberals took power the next year in the Trienio Liberal, he was banished to the Balearic Islands. He opposed the French intervention to restore Ferdinand, known as the Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis. The 1830s found him leading the liberal army of Navarre during the First Carlist War. He was killed by mutineers at Pamplona in 1837, the same year he led his troops at the Battle of Oriamendi.

References

1. Coverdale, John F. (1984). The Basque Phase of Spain's First Carlist War. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. p. 153. ISBN 0691054118.
2. Linch, Kevin; McCormack, Matthew (2014). Britain's Soldiers: Rethinking War and Society, 1715-1815. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. p. 45. ISBN 9781846319556.
3. Lipscombe, Nick (2016). Wellington's Eastern Front: The Campaign on the East Coast of Spain 1810-1814. South Yorkshire: Pen and Sword. p. 27. ISBN 9781473850712.

• "Biografias y Vidas: Pedro Sarsfield" (in Spanish). biografiasyvidas.com. 2004–2012. Retrieved 7 July 2012.
• Guia de Forasteros en Madrid. La Imprenta Nacional. 1821.
• Oman, Charles (1996). A History of the Peninsular War Volume III. Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole. ISBN 1-85367-223-8.
• Oman, Charles (1996). A History of the Peninsular War Volume IV. Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole. ISBN 1-85367-224-6.
• Smith, Digby (1998). The Napoleonic Wars Data Book. London: Greenhill. ISBN 1-85367-276-9.