Battle
Anxious about the beleaguered garrison of Bellegarde, de la Union assembled an army of 45,000 infantry and 4,000 cavalry. He emerged from his fortified lines covering the Alto Ampurdán to attack Augereau's division on the western flank. The fighting took place near Sant Llorenç de la Muga, the site of a cannon ammunition foundry. The Spanish assault, carried out by 14,000 regular infantry and 6,000 provincial militia, failed to break the French defenders, who received some help from Pérignon's division in the center. Sauret's defenses, on the eastern flank, were not threatened.
General João Forbes covered the retreat with a Portuguese division consisting of one battalion each of the 1st, 2nd, Olivença, Cascais, Peniche, and Freire de Andrade Infantry Regiments. The French counted 800 casualties, including General of Brigade Guillaume Mirabel killed. The Spanish suffered losses of 1,400 soldiers killed, wounded, and missing.
Read more about this topic: Battle Of San Lorenzo De La Muga
Famous quotes containing the word battle:
“Above the bayonets, mixed and crossed,
Men saw a gray, gigantic ghost
Receding through the battle cloud,
And heard across the tempest loud
The death cry of a nation lost!”
—Will Henry Thompson (1848–1918)
“In a battle all you need to make you fight is a little hot blood and the knowledge that it’s more dangerous to lose than to win.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“A battle won is a battle which we will not acknowledge to be lost.”
—Ferdinand Foch (1851–1929)