Bailén

Context

After the abdications at Bayonne and the rising of 2 May, the whole of Spain rose. General Dupont was sent to occupy Andalusia with a corps partly made up of conscripts and foreign regiments. He pushed as far as Córdoba, which he gave over to pillage, then moved back north weighed down with loot and sick men.

Forces

France: about 20,000 men, scattered over several points of the Guadalquivir valley and unable to unite.

Spain: about 30,000 men, Castaños's Army of Andalusia and Reding's Swiss division, supported by the population.

Course of the battle

From 16 to 19 July the Spanish cut the road to Madrid around the village of Bailén. Dupont attacked to break through, in heat above forty degrees, without water and with exhausted troops; the assaults failed one after another. Vedel's divisions, a few hours' march away, could not make the junction.

Consequences

On 22 July Dupont signed a capitulation surrendering his entire corps. It was unprecedented: since 1796 no imperial force had surrendered in the open field. The terms were not honoured and most of the prisoners ended on the hulks of Cadiz or on the island of Cabrera, where thousands died of hunger.

The effects went beyond Spain: Joseph left Madrid, Austria decided to attack and would launch the war of 1809, and German patriots saw in it the demonstration they were looking for. Napoleon had Dupont tried, stripped him of his titles and imprisoned him until 1814.