Service in Spain
In July 1812, Foy was in the Battle of Salamanca and covered the retreat of the defeated French army. He was one of those who, when Wellington raised the siege of Burgos and retreated to the Douro, hung upon his rear and took some prisoners and artillery.
On the news of the disasters in Russia and Wellington's consequent resumption of offensive movements, Foy was sent with his division beyond Vittoria to keep the different parties in check. After the battle of Vittoria, at which he was not present, he collected 20,000 troops of different divisions at Bergana, and had some success in skirmishes with the Spanish corps forming the left wing of the allied army. He arrived at Tolosa about the same time as Lieut-Gen Thomas Graham. After a sanguinary contest in that town, retreated upon Irun, from which he was quickly dislodged, and finally recrossed the Bidassoa River.
Foy commanded a division in Marshal Soult's army during the Battle of the Pyrenees in July 1813. After Soult's defeat at Sorauren, Foy saved his division and parts of other commands by retreating northeast over the Roncesvalles Pass.
Read more about this topic: Maximilien Sebastien Foy
Famous quotes containing the words service in, service and/or spain:
“Television could perform a great service in mass education, but there’s no indication its sponsors have anything like this on their minds.”
—Tallulah Bankhead (1903–1968)
“Barnard’s greatest war service ... was the continuance of full-scale instruction in the liberal arts ... It was Barnard’s responsibility to keep alive in the minds of young people the great liberal tradition of the past and the study of philosophy, of history, of Greek.”
—Virginia Crocheron Gildersleeve (1877–1965)
“England and France, Spain and Portugal, Gold Coast and Slave Coast, all front on this private sea; but no bark from them has ventured out of sight of land, though it is without doubt the direct way to India.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)