Occupation of Porto and First Encounters
On 9 July 1832, the Liberal army entered Porto the day after the landing of Mindelo and found the city abandoned by the Royalist troops, whose leaders, ignoring the exact number of Liberal forces, had decided to withdraw.
General Manuel Gregório de Sousa Pereira de Sampaio, a first degree viscount of Santa Marta and supreme commander of the division that operated between the Royalists Coimbra and Vila do Conde, decided to settle in Vila Nova de Gaia. He ordered that on the same day of the entry of the Liberals forces into the city, an attack should be made against the occupants. In July 10, the Liberal English admiral George Rose Sartorius sent his boats into the mouth of the River Douro and fought back the Royalists' fire. While protected by the Liberal fleet, the division of Lieutenant-Colonel John Schwalbach crossed the river and occupied the Serra do Pilar, in Gaia, forcing the Royalists to withdraw in disorder to Oliveira de Azeméis.
Meanwhile, John Schwalbach advanced with his forces to the Alto da Bandeir and placed an advanced guard at Carvalhos. The two armies remained under mutual observation, without any of them daring to make an advance.
On 18 July, the first attack by the Royalists occurred, without success. Five days later the Battle of Ponte Ferreira was fought, in which a Liberal column routed the Royalists and returned to Porto. The Liberals committed numerous brutalities on their way, reinforcing the bad concept created by the clergy of the villages that the local populations had about the Liberals.
Read more about this topic: Siege Of Porto
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