"extremely punishing couple of miniature battles at Osma and San Millan which ruined Maucune's division and sent the Army of ...

There were in fact two armies involved in the campaign of 1813 "[1] "Contact was, however, inevitable and on 18 June there was a sharp fight at the small village of San Millan, when the Light ...

King Joseph and Marshal Jean-Baptiste Jourdan believed their position behind the Ebro River was secure, but Wellington sent his troops marching to outflank the line on the north.

Believing Maucune's division was no longer fit for combat, Joseph used it to escort a convoy and it missed the decisive Battle of Vitoria three days later.

After the campaign in the fall of 1812, Arthur Wellesley, Marquess of Wellington's army was in poor shape, with 18,000 soldiers on the sick list.

On the other hand, the campaign resulted in the capture of the cities of Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajoz, Astorga, and Seville, and the provinces of Andalusia, Asturias, and Extremadura.

However, guerrilla warfare in northern Spain soon spiralled out of control and Napoleon ordered Bertrand Clausel to replace Marie-Francois Auguste de Caffarelli du Falga as commander of the Army of the North.

[5] Obsessed with the Spanish partisans' disruption of communications with France, the emperor ordered the Army of Portugal's six divisions be made available to Clausel for anti-guerrilla operations.

Marie Étienne de Barbot, commander of the 2nd Division of the Army of Portugal, was nearby with six battalions but failed to succor his ambushed column.

Finally alerted that 64,000 men were bearing down on Zamora from the northwest, Darricau bolted to the east, leaving Graham to occupy the town on the morning of 2 June.

[15] The French mounted troops comprised the 16th and 21st Dragoon Regiments under Pierre Benoît Soult and their horses were in very bad condition.

[17] The French fell back behind the Pisuerga River and then to Burgos but, to their bewilderment only a handful of Spanish cavalry directly pursued them.

For his part, Clausel never received any messages from the king until 15 June, at which time he gathered four divisions and set out to join the main army.

[2] Joseph found out that Girón's column was menacing Bilbao so he directed Reille to move north with three divisions on 18 June.

The French encountered the 1st and 2nd Light King's German Legion (KGL) Battalions of Colin Halkett's brigade, about 1,200 troops.

[19] Sarrut's division was organized into two brigades under Joseph François Fririon and Jean Baptiste Pierre Menne plus an artillery battery.

[22] On 18 June 1813, Antoine Louis Popon de Maucune's 5th Division of the Army of Portugal counted 4,800 men.

As Vandeleur's men pushed the French from the village and east along the road, Maucune's second brigade appeared from a rocky gorge to the southwest.

Kempt immediately attacked and, to avoid being taken in flank and rear, Maucune's second brigade left the road and began to retreat across the hillsides.

[2] The unit was so roughly handled that the king decided it was no longer fit for combat and assigned it to guard a convoy bound for France.