General Benito de San Juan mustered an ad hoc army of militia, reservists and various regular regiments still reeling from earlier defeats – in all about 12,000 men – to defend Madrid.

Because the Spanish forces could not easily be outflanked by infantry movement, and Napoleon was impatient to proceed, he ordered his Polish Chevaux-Légers escort squadron of 125 men[a] to charge the Spaniards and their fortified[citation needed] artillery batteries.

Some authors have assumed that Napoleon had gone out of his mind in ordering the Polish to charge batteries of 16 cannon over several kilometers of extremely difficult terrain.

[4] No matter – once the charge had begun, and the chevaux-légers found themselves under fire from the second battery, they had no choice but to press the attack, as the horses went to the highest speed and were unable to stop.

However, with a range of 600–800 metres, the cannons, deployed in this fashion, could not have struck much of the French Imperial Army—and there were reports that Napoleon himself was at times under artillery fire.

However, both Polish charge participants mentioned above and Lt. Col. Pierre Dautancourt, one of the French tutors of the unit, stressed in their accounts that such was not the case.

Yet French historian Adolphe Thiers gave him the honor of leading the charge, which caused a protest by surviving Polish participants of the battle.

Maj. Philippe de Ségur in his memoirs wrote that he had commanded the charge, but his accounts were often described as unreliable and, again, both Dautancourt and the Poles denied his role in it.

The charge that continued to the last battery was led by Niegolewski, who miraculously survived a fierce attack by Spanish troops – he received nine wounds from bayonets and two carbine shots to the head.

However, popular legend has it that the true battle cry was the Polish Naprzód psiekrwie, Cesarz patrzy – Forward dammit, the Emperor is watching.

word of Cambronne When the fourth battery was taken Napoleon ordered his Chasseurs of the Guard and the 1st squadron of Poles led by Tomasz Łubieński to resume the attack and drive the Spaniards from the Pass.