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Pedro Sarsfield | |
---|---|
Born | unknown unknown |
Died | 1837 Pamplona, Spain |
Allegiance | Kingdom of Spain |
Service/ | Infantry |
Rank | Lieutenant General |
Battles/wars |
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]
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.
General Sir Brent Spencer was an Anglo-Irish officer in the British Army, seeing active service during the American Revolutionary War and the French Revolutionary Wars. During the Peninsular War he became General Wellesley's second-in-command on two occasions. He fought at Vimeiro and testified in Wellesley's favour at the inquiry following the Convention of Cintra. He led a division at Bussaco and two divisions at Fuentes de Onoro. After the latter action, he had an independent command in northern Portugal. Wellesley, now Lord Wellington, was not satisfied that Spencer was up to the responsibilities of second-in-command and he was replaced by Thomas Graham. Miffed, Spencer left Portugal and never returned. He became a full general in 1825.
Luis González Torres de Navarra Castro, 5th Marquis of Campoverde, was a Spanish military commander during the Peninsular War.
Juan de Courten (younger) (1765-1834) was a Spanish general who led an infantry division during the Peninsular War against the First French Empire. In 1810, he was promoted to mariscal de campo, a Spanish rank between brigadier general and lieutenant general, and therefore equivalent to major general. The following year he was captured at the conclusion of the Siege of Tarragona. In 1818, he received an important military decoration.
The siege of Figueras, which lasted from 10 April to 19 August 1811, saw the Spanish garrison of Sant Ferran Castle led by Brigadier General Juan Antonio Martínez defend against an Imperial French force commanded by Marshal Jacques MacDonald and his deputy Louis Baraguey d'Hilliers. Martínez and his men held out much longer than expected but were eventually starved into surrendering the fortress, which was near Figueres. The action occurred during the Peninsular War, part of the Napoleonic Wars.
Francesc Rovira i Sala or Francisco Rovira led miquelets against Imperial France in a number of partisan actions during the Peninsular War. A Catholic priest by profession, he took command of guerillas who resisted the French occupation of his native Catalonia. Soon he directed a force numbering a few thousand partisans. In February 1810, his men took part in the Battle of Vich. His most notable exploit was the surprise capture of Sant Ferran Castle in April 1811, which was part of the Siege of Figueras.
The Battle of Manresa and Battle of Vilafranca from 21 March to 5 April 1810 saw a Spanish division led by Juan Caro and Luis González Torres de Navarra, Marquess of Campoverde attack an Imperial French brigade commanded by François Xavier de Schwarz.
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David-Maurice-Joseph Mathieu de Saint-Maurice de La Redorte or Maurice Mathieu was a French general during the Napoleonic Wars.
The Battle of El Pla was a battle on 15 January 1811 between an Imperial French column made up of two Italian brigades on one side and a Spanish division under the command of Pedro Sarsfield on the other. The Spanish troops held steady and repulsed the attack of the first brigade, then counterattacked and defeated both brigades. The combat occurred during the Peninsular War, part of the Napoleonic Wars. The action was fought near El Pla de Santa Maria, north of Valls, Catalonia, Spain.
Louis Jean Nicolas Abbé was a French general during the Napoleonic Wars. He enlisted as a foot soldier in the royal army in 1784 and was a non-commissioned officer by 1792. He spent most of the French Revolutionary Wars fighting in Italy. In 1802 he joined the Saint-Domingue expedition. He was appointed colonel in command of the 23rd Light Infantry Regiment in 1803 and led the unit at Caldiero, Campo Tenese, Maida, and Amantea. Promoted to general of brigade in 1807, he led a brigade in 1809, fighting at Sacile, Caldiero, the Piave, Tarvis, Raab, and Wagram.
In the Battle of Cervera a Spanish force led by Luis Roberto de Lacy attacked a series of Imperial French garrisons belonging to the VII Corps of Marshal Jacques MacDonald. The actions were highly successful and netted nearly 1,000 enemy prisoners. The clashes occurred during the Peninsular War, part of the Napoleonic Wars. The largest garrison was located at Cervera which is located about 55 kilometres (34 mi) east of Lleida, in Catalonia, Spain.
Louis Auguste Marchand Plauzonne became a general officer during the First French Empire of Napoleon. He was killed while leading his brigade at the Battle of Borodino.
Luigi Gaspare Peyri or Louis Gaspard Balthazar Pierre Léon Marie Peyri became a general officer in the army of the Kingdom of Italy which was a satellite of Napoleon's First French Empire. He led Italians, Swiss, and Poles in a number of important actions in the War of the Fourth Coalition, the War of the Fifth Coalition, and the Peninsular War.
Pierre Hugues Victoire Merle was a French general during the First French Empire of Napoleon. He joined the French army as a private in 1781 but after the French Revolution, the pace of promotion quickened. He was appointed a general officer in 1794 for distinguishing himself during the War of the Pyrenees. After leading a brigade at Austerlitz in December 1805, he was promoted again. His division was in the first wave of the 1808 invasion of Spain, which precipitated the Peninsular War. In Spain, he led his division at Medina de Rioseco, Corunna, First and Second Porto, Bussaco, Sabugal, and Fuentes de Oñoro. After being sent home from Spain, Merle was assigned to lead a division in the French invasion of Russia. He led his troops at First and Second Polotsk. He embraced the Bourbon cause in 1814, retired from the army in 1816, and died at Marseilles in 1830. Merle is one of the names inscribed under the Arc de Triomphe on Column 35.
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Joseph O'Donnell or José O'Donnell (1768–1836) was an Irish-Spanish general who commanded troops from the Kingdom of Spain against Imperial France during the Peninsular War.
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