The Delay
The Battle of Tudela was over on 23 November 1808 but the siege of Saragossa did not commence until 20 December 1808. This allowed the Spanish sufficient time to build up the defences and to lay in supplies.
After the Battle of Tudela two corps had been available to attack Saragossa - the 3rd corps under Marshall Moncey and the 6th Corps under Marshall Ney. Both of these corps left Tudela on 28 November and arrived at Saragossa on 30 November. They were about to commence the siege when Marshall Ney was ordered to take his army across the mountains to New Castille where he was to prevent the army of Castaños, retreating from Tudela, from interfering with his movements towards Madrid.
There were now only 15,000 men under Moncey facing Saragossa which was insufficient for a siege. As a result Moncey retired to Tudela to await reinforcements from Marshall Mortier with his 5th Corps. These troops arrived from Germany on 15 December giving a total of 38,000 infantry, 3,500 cavalry, 3,000 engineers, and 60 siege guns to attack Saragossa.
Read more about this topic: Siege Of Zaragoza (1809)
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