The Spanish attempt to raise the siege of the Sagunto Castle failed when the French, Italians, and Poles drove their troops off the battlefield in rout.

He tried to quickly seize Sagunto Castle, but its garrison under Colonel Luis Andriani repulsed two attacks and the French-Allied army was forced to lay siege to the ancient fortress.

The garrison of Sagunto Castle soon surrendered and Blake's soldiers limped back to Valencia where they tried to put that city's defences in order.

[4] Emperor Napoleon desired to subjugate the Province of Valencia, but that campaign had to wait until the French recaptured the Sant Ferran Castle, which sat on a major road between France and Spain.

The only first-class formations were the divisions of Major Generals Miguel Lardizabal y Uribe and José Pascual de Zayas y Chacón, veterans of the Battle of Albuera.

[6] It was hoped that the Army of Murcia under Lieutenant General Nicolás de Mahy y Romo might help defend Valencia from Suchet's expected attack.

Suchet carefully selected 22,000 of his best infantry for the Valencian campaign, leaving 6,800 of his least effective men to garrison his supply line.

[9] Suchet's left column advanced southwest along the coast road from Tortosa, where the French siege train and the bulk of the stores were kept.

On the recommendation of the British officer Charles William Doyle, Spanish workers restored the old walls by filling the gaps with stone blocks from the ancient ruins.

On 22 September, Suchet's entire army set out from Castellón de la Plana, brushing aside 500 Spanish troops at Villarreal and the next day was before Sagunto Castle.

Seeing that the castle's defenses were incomplete and two gaps in the wall were visible, Suchet decided to try a coup de main at midnight on 27–28 September.

By some accident, firing broke out and the storming columns burst from cover prematurely, only to find the Spanish defenders alert.

[15] Juan Martín Díez, José Durán and their guerilla bands attacked Calatayud, forcing its Franco-Italian defenders into a fortified convent.

Martín's guerillas drove off a 1,000-strong relief column and then the Spanish forced the 560 survivors to surrender on 3 October 1811 by exploding two mines under the walls.

At this time, Severoli's 7,000-strong Italian division reinforced the Imperial occupation forces of Aragon, restoring their shaken confidence.

Francisco Espoz y Mina with 4,000 guerillas besieged Ejea de los Caballeros, forcing its garrison to cut its way out and join an 800-man relief column led by Colonel Ceccopieri.

Not realizing Mina's strength, Ceccopieri marched his battalion of the 7th Italian Line Infantry Regiment to the relief of Ayerbe.

Hearing a rumor that French troops were approaching from Madrid, Blake sent Mahy's Murcians on a fruitless march to Cuenca where they found only one enemy battalion, which got away.

[18] Generals of Division Sylvain Charles Valée and Joseph Rogniat, Suchet's artillery and engineering commanders respectively, arrived with the siege train.

On 16 October, the siege guns opened fire and by the afternoon of the 18th the gunners and engineers reported that there was a breach in the Spanish defenses at the Dos Mayo redoubt.

At 5:00 pm, the men of the storming column rushed the defenses and made it halfway up the breach before being stopped by intense fire.

The defenders continued to fiercely resist and the French lost 15–20 men every day in their effort to push their works closer to the Spanish fortifications.

To face Blake's army, Suchet deployed 12,000 infantry, 1,800 cavalry and six batteries of field artillery, for a total of about 14,000 men.

Guarding the right flank was Robert's brigade (2,500), Colonel Schiazzetti's Italian Napoleone Dragoon Regiment (450) and one artillery battery.

Seeing Villacampa's division give way and the Italian dragoons boring in on their flank, Miranda's men turned and fled back to the valley.

Mahy managed to form a rearguard from one battalion each of the Cuenca and Molina[25] (Montijo's brigade and Villacampa's division, respectively)[26] Infantry Regiments; the rest were scattering in panic-stricken flight.

On the Spanish right flank, the division of Zayas advanced and got into a musketry duel with Habert's troops, with neither side gaining the advantage.

The Imperial attack forced Prieto's men to fall back from the knoll, but not before they inflicted heavy losses on their foes; General of Brigade Marie Auguste Paris was wounded and Harispe had his horse killed under him.

Loy led his troopers to capture three cannons and nearly overran the 116th Line which barely had time to wheel back at an angle to protect the Imperial flank.

After providing a garrison for Sagunto Castle and detaching a brigade to escort the Spanish prisoners to the rear, he had only 15,000 men available for field operations.