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Second Battle of Porto

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Second Battle of Porto
Part of the Peninsular War

Portuguese and British regiments pursuing the retreating French army at the Second Battle of Porto
Date12 May 1809[1]
Location
Porto, Portugal
41°9′43.71″N 8°37′19.03″W / 41.1621417°N 8.6219528°W / 41.1621417; -8.6219528
Result Anglo-Portuguese victory[1][2]
Belligerents
France French Empire United Kingdom United Kingdom
Portugal Portugal
Commanders and leaders
France Jean de Dieu Soult United Kingdom Sir Arthur Wellesley
Strength
13,000[1] 18,400-27,000[3][1]
Casualties and losses

2,100-2,400[1]

600 killed or wounded
1,500 captured[4]		 150[1]
class=notpageimage|
Peninsular war: Portugal
1807 1808 1809 1810 1811

The Second Battle of Porto, also known as the Battle of the Douro or the Crossing of the Douro,[5] took place on 12 May 1809. General Arthur Wellesley's Anglo-Portuguese Army defeated Marshal Soult's French troops and took back the city of Porto. After taking command of the British troops in Portugal on 22 April, Wellesley (later named 1st Duke of Wellington, Marquess Douro) immediately advanced on Porto and made a surprise crossing of the Douro River, approaching Porto where its defences were weak. Soult's late attempts to muster a defence were in vain. The French quickly abandoned the city in a disorderly retreat.[6]

This battle ended the Second French invasion of Portugal. Soult soon found his retreat route to the east blocked and was forced to destroy his guns and burn his baggage train.[6] Wellesley pursued the French army, but Soult's army escaped annihilation by fleeing through the mountains.

Background

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The Second Portuguese campaign had started with the Battle of Braga.

French occupation

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In the First Battle of Porto (28 March 1809), the French under Marshal Soult defeated the Portuguese under Generals Lima Barreto and Parreiras outside the city of Porto. After winning the battle, Soult stormed the city. In addition to 8,000 military casualties, large numbers of civilians died. Approximately half of these are thought to have died in the Porto Boat Bridge disaster, when the city's only bridge, a pontoon bridge (or 'ponte de barcas'), was destroyed.

While Soult was in Porto, a detached French force operated to the east under the leadership of Major-General Louis Loison. Initially, this force included General of Division Henri Delaborde's infantry division and Lorge's cavalry division. A Portuguese force under Major General Francisco Silveira captured the French garrison of Chaves, a border town on the river Minho, and blocked Soult's communications with Spain by blockading the area around Amarante.

From 18 April to 3 May, the Portuguese held Loison on the west bank of the Tâmega River. On the latter day, French engineers succeeded in disarming the explosives-rigged bridge so that Delaborde's infantry could cross it.[7]

By May 1809, however, Marshal Soult feared that he was outnumbered by the Anglo-Portuguese army under General Arthur Wellesley, which had advanced rapidly from Lisbon via Coimbra. Wellesley himself had been in Portugal for less than a month. Soult was also concerned about his lines of communication and line of retreat. He stayed up late in Porto on 11 May drawing-up plans for an orderly retreat to the north-east back towards Spain. General of Division Julien Augustin Joseph Mermet's division had already been sent off with the baggage and the artillery park. Soult was in no great hurry, believing that Wellesley could only cross the Douro downstream of Porto and with great difficulty. His troops were therefore largely deployed to the west of the city, and he relied heavily on the river Douro (tidal, deep, fast-flowing and 200 yards wide in Porto) as a natural barrier.

Soult retained a total of 10,000 infantry and 1,200 cavalry in Porto. Delaborde's division included three battalions each of the 17th Light, 70th Line, and 86th Line Infantry Regiments. General of Division Pierre Hugues Victoire Merle's division was composed of four battalions each of the 2nd and 4th Light Infantry Regiments, and three battalions of the 36th Line Infantry Regiment. General of Division Jean Baptiste Marie Franceschi-Delonne's cavalry was made up of the 1st Hussar Regiment, 8th Dragoon Regiment, and the 22nd and Hanoverian Chasseurs à Cheval Regiments.[4]

Anglo-Portuguese advance

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After coming up from Lisbon, the Anglo-Portuguese fought a skirmish with the French 10 miles south of Porto at the Battle of Grijó on 11 May. Arriving the same day at Vila Nova de Gaia on the Douro immediately opposite Porto, Wellesley was unable to cross the river because the former pontoon bridge had been destroyed two months previously during the First Battle of Porto, and Soult's army had either destroyed or moved all the boats, many of which were now moored on the north bank on the wharves of Ribeira, where they lay under guard by French troops. Wellesley positioned himself in the prominent convent Monastery of Serra do Pilar (Mosteiro da Nossa Serra do Pilar in Portuguese) on high ground on the south bank in Vila Nova de Gaia, level with the heights of Porto on the north bank. The monastery still stands, a dominant feature of the skyline viewed from Porto.

According to one historian, 18,400 men at Wellesley's command were organised thus:[3]

  • Lieutenant General (LG) William Payne's Cavalry Division
    • 1st Cavalry Brigade (MG Stapleton-Cotton; 14th LD (minus one sqn), 16th LD, 20th LD (2 sqns) and 3rd King's German Legion (KGL) LD (1 sqn))
  • LG Edward Paget's Division (5,145)[3]
    • 1st KGL Brigade (Brigadier General (BG) Langwerth; 1st and 2nd KGL Line)
    • 3rd KGL Brigade (BG Dreiburg; 5th and 7th KGL Line)
    • 6th Brigade (BG R. Stewart; 29th, 1st Bn of Detachments and 1/16th Port. Line)
  • LG John Coape Sherbrooke's Division (6,706)[3]
    • 2nd Guards Brigade (BG Henry Frederick Campbell; 1/Coldstream Gds and 1/3rd Guards)
    • 4th Brigade (BG Sontag; 97th, 2nd Bn of Detachments and 2/16th Port. Line)
    • 5th Brigade (BG A. Campbell; 2/7th, 2/53rd and 1/10th Port. Line)
  • MG Rowland Hill's Division (4,370)[3]
    • 1st Brigade (nominally MG Hill, in fact his senior Col.; 1/3rd, 2/48th and 2/66th)
    • 7th Brigade (BG A. Cameron; 2/9th, 2/83rd and 2/10th Port. Line)

There were four 6-gun artillery batteries (RA: Sillery, Lawson. KGL: Tieling, Heise) under Colonel (Col) Edward Howorth. One had 9-pounders, two had 6-pounders and one had 3-pounders.

Historian Michael Glover stated that the order of battle was somewhat different. Glover lists the following organization.[8]

  • 1st Guards Brigade: BG Henry F. Campbell, 2,292 (same as 2nd Brigade above)
  • 2nd Brigade: BG Alexander Campbell, 1,206 (same as 5th Brigade above)
  • 3rd Brigade: BG John Sontag, 1,307 (same as 4th Brigade above)
  • 4th Brigade MG Rowland Hill, 2,007 (same as 1st Brigade above)
  • 5th Brigade: BG Alan Cameron, 1,316 (same as 7th Brigade above)
  • 6th Brigade: BG Richard Stewart, 1,290 (same as above)
  • 7th Brigade: MG John Murray, 8th Baronet, 2,913 (same as 1st and 3rd KGL Brigades above, plus detachments of 1st and 2nd KGL Light)
  • Cavalry: MG Stapleton Cotton, 1,463 (same as above)
  • Artillery: Col Edward Howorth, 24 guns (same as above)

Farther to the east, William Carr Beresford (Marshal of the Portuguese army) led MG Christopher Tilson's British 3rd brigade (1,659 British and ca. 600 Portuguese grenadiers by 6 May morning state) and 5,000 Portuguese to link up with Silveira's force. They threatened Soult's line of retreat. MG Alex Randoll Mackenzie's British 2nd brigade and a large Portuguese force operated on the line of the Tagus river.

Action

[edit]

From his position at Monastery of Serra do Pilar, Wellesley observed on high ground on the north bank a mile east of the centre of Porto, outside the city walls, the diocesan seminary of Porto. It was large, solidly constructed, three storeys high, and an obvious potential strongpoint. (The restored seminary building still stands today, in Largo do Padre Baltazar Guedes, and now houses the Porto Orphan's College). Viewed through a telescope by British officers on the other side of the river, it appeared not to have been fortified or manned by French troops.

On the morning of 12 May, Wellesley tasked Colonel John Waters (British Army officer, born 1774), an enterprising officer who spoke Portuguese, with finding a means of trying to cross the river Douro east of Porto. On the river bank upstream from Vila Nova de Gaia, he was approached by a local barber, who led him to a small skiff, hidden by brush. Opposite, four wine barges were moored on the north bank, apparently unguarded. Above them stood the seminary. Colonel Waters took his little party across the 500-yard wide river in the skiff, and with the assistance of a local prior of the convent and three or four peasants, brought back the four wine barges unobserved, along with the welcome confirmation that the seminary was indeed unoccupied.[9]

A map of the battle

Informed of this godsend opportunity to cross the river and seize a strong-point, Wellesley did not hesitate and ordered, "well, let the men cross". [10] Immediately, a barge holding one junior officer and 24 men from the 3rd Foot, crossed the river and occupied the seminary, which overlooked the landing site. They were swiftly followed by the rest of their company, and then the light company of the same battalion. By the time the French realised that Wellesley's forces were on the north bank, and endangering their eastern flank, the "Buffs" were fortifying their position, and the rest of the battalion of the "Buffs" of Hill's brigade were crossing in more barges.[11]

Soult, sleeping in after a late night, was initially unaware of these dramatic developments. General of Brigade Maximilien Foy, who was the first to become aware of the British crossing,[10] requisitioned three battalions of the 17th Light Infantry and led an attack on the seminary at around 11:30 am. However, manned and fortified, the seminary was a very strong defensive position, and Wellesley was also able to bring his artillery to bear from the south bank, with great effect. Foy was wounded and his troops beaten back with heavy losses. Later in the day, reinforced by three more battalions, the French attacked again. By this time, however, three more British battalions from across the river had bolstered the force occupying the seminary and surrounding buildings, and the French were defeated again.

Soult was faced with an enemy force in a strongly fortified bridgehead, outflanking him to the east, threatening his line of retreat, and growing in strength all the time. In order to reinforce Foy in a desperate effort to retake the seminary, he made a fateful decision. He transferred the troops which had been guarding the boats on the wharves of Ribeira in the centre of Porto to join the attack on the seminary. This proved disastrous. As soon as the French troops left the riverside, the people of Porto liberated their boats and set out in "anything that would float" to the wharves of Vila Nova de Gaia on the south bank, from where they ferried the waiting British troops back across the Douro in large numbers, into the heart of Porto. Four British battalions crossed immediately and, advancing in the direction of the seminary, attacked the French from the rear. This clinched the battle. The French broke and fled precipitately from Porto, heading in disorder to the north-east along the road towards Valongo.

In order to cut off the French retreat, Major General John Murray's 2,900-man brigade, including the 14th Light Dragoons, had been sent across the Douro at a ferry crossing five miles to the south-east of Porto, near Avintes. His force then marched north and reached a ridge looking down from the south onto the Valongo road, along which the retreating French army was being pursued eastwards by British infantry from Porto. Murray, however, considered his force too small to engage with a French force three to four times the size. He therefore remained on a ridge to the south of the road and did not engage, failing to block the French escape route, or even to open fire on the retreating army. However, one squadron of the 14th Light Dragoons, of only 150 men, did speed after the retreating French. Its command had been spontaneously appropriated by General Charles Stewart (Charles Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry), a seasoned cavalry officer and Wellesley's Adjutant-General, who had arrived shortly beforehand with messages from Wellesley to Murray. With Stewart at the head, the squadron charged the French rear-guard, which had formed up in a defensive position but broke and fled. About 300 prisoners French were captured. From the British squadron, three of the four officers were wounded, 10 men killed and 11 severely wounded.[12] Action was then broken off, and the French army was able to continue its retreat.

Results

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Reenactment of the battle

The British lost 125 men in all in the Second Battle of Porto. In the battle for the Bishop's Seminary, Wellesley's second-in-command, Maj-Gen Edward Paget had his arm shattered by a French bullet and it had to be amputated. In addition to 1800 captured, the French suffered 600 casualties, including Foy who was wounded.[4]

Soult's retreat

[edit]

Due to Murray's error of judgement and the fact that the bulk of Wellesley's army were still on the other side of the Douro in Vila Nova de Gaia, the French escaped on 12 May. However, Loison failed to clear Silveira's force away from Soult's planned path of retreat to the northeast, so Soult was compelled to abandon all his equipment and take footpaths over the hills to the north. Soult's and Loison's forces met at Guimarães, but Wellesley's army marched north.

The British reached Braga (northwest of Guimarães) before the French, forcing Soult to retreat to the northeast again. Meanwhile, Beresford and Silveira were manoeuvring to block Soult's escape route in that direction. After escaping from several tight spots, Soult slipped away over the mountains to Orense in Spain. During the retreat, Soult's corps lost 4,500 men, its military chest and all 58 guns and baggage.

In recognition of this and other victories in 1809, Sir Arthur Wellesley was appointed Baron Douro of Wellesley in the County of Somerset later in the year.

Aftermath

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The guerilla war proceeded till the end of the Peninsular war.

The Spanish conventional warfare proceeded till the end of the Peninsular war.

Napoleon had ended his invasion of Spain with the occupation of Madrid.

The Second Portuguese campaign had ended with the French retreat out of Portugal.

The Spanish campaign in late 1809 started with the Battle of Talavera with the British army back in Spain.

Notes

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  1. ^ a b c d e f Bodart 1908, p. 403.
  2. ^ Brewster 1830, p. 132.
  3. ^ a b c d e Fletcher 1994, pp. 32–33.
  4. ^ a b c Smith 1998, p. 302.
  5. ^ Moores 2019.
  6. ^ a b Glover 1974, pp. 96–97.
  7. ^ Smith 1998, pp. 298–299.
  8. ^ Glover 1974, pp. 372–373.
  9. ^ Glover 1974, pp. 94–95.
  10. ^ a b Glover 1974, p. 94.
  11. ^ Cribb 2021.
  12. ^ https://www.britishbattles.com/peninsular-war/battle-of-the-douro/

References

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  • Bodart, Gaston (1908). Militär-historisches Kriegs-Lexikon (1618-1905). Retrieved 19 May 2021.
  • Cribb, Marcus (2021). "York's Military History of the Peninsular War". Archived from the original on 20 January 2021.
  • Brewster, David (1830). The Edinburgh encyclopaedia. Oxford University.
  • Fletcher, Ian (1994). Wellington's Regiments: The Men and Their Battles from Roliça to Waterloo, 1808-1815. Spellmount. ISBN 9781873376065.
  • Glover, Michael (1974). The Peninsular War 1807 – 1814, A Concise Military History. Penguin Books. ISBN 9780141390413.
  • Moores, Graham (2019). "Battle of Oporto 1808 (The Crossing of the Douro)". Archived from the original on 5 June 2019. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
  • Smith, Digby (1998). The Napoleonic Wars Data Book. London: Greenhill. ISBN 1-85367-276-9.

Further reading

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  • Hickock, William; York, Edward. York's Military History of the Peninsular War.

In fiction

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The battle of Porto is depicted by Bernard Cornwell in Sharpe's Havoc, Simon Scarrow in Fire and Sword, Allan Mallinson in An Act of Courage, Iain Gale in Keane's Company and by Martin McDowell in the historical novel The Plains of Talavera.

[edit]
Preceded by
Battle of Grijó 		Napoleonic Wars
Second Battle of Porto 		Succeeded by
Battle of Wörgl
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