The Battle of Tolosa (26 June 1813) saw a British-Portuguese-Spanish column led by Thomas Graham attempt to cut off a retreating Franco-Italian force under Maximilien Sébastien Foy.

Assisted by Antoine Louis Popon de Maucune's division, which fortuitously appeared, the French parried Graham's initial attacks then slipped away when threatened with envelopment.

As the defeated French armies withdrew toward the Pyrenees, Wellington tried to intercept Foy's column in the north and Bertrand Clausel's forces in the south.

Clausel also managed to avoid being cut off, but except for the Sieges of San Sebastian and Pamplona, northern Spain was soon free of French occupation.

Some of the Allied units tried to pursue the beaten French, but most others turned aside to plunder the immense wagon train of booty that their opponents left behind.

[7] The British commander also sent Spanish troops under Pedro Agustín Girón and Francisco de Longa to the northeast in an attempt to catch up with Maucune's convoy.

[11] That day Wellington received information from the Spanish guerilla leader Francisco Espoz y Mina that Clausel's column was to his south.

[13] Meanwhile, Mina with 2,800 guerillas repulsed the attacks of the 3,150 French soldiers of Louis Jean Nicolas Abbé's Army of the North division at Tiebas-Muruarte de Reta on 8 February.

[15] After one abortive attempt to catch Mina, Clausel decided to strike at the guerilla leader's mountain base at Roncal.

But reports that the British were trying to intercept his column caused him to swerve south and cross the Ebro River at Lodosa on 26 June.

[20] Lowry Cole with the British 4th and Light Divisions and Colquhoun Grant's hussar brigade set out from Pamplona toward Tafalla on 26 June.

[25] On 25 April 1813, Foy left Bilbao with his own, Sarrut's and Palombini's divisions, altogether over 11,000 troops, and reached Castro Urdiales that evening.

[27] When Foy finally received instructions on 19 June, he was at Bergara with only one battalion, though there were 20,000 Franco-Italian troops scattered across his area of operations.

[29] Not appreciating the dire strategic situation, Foy declined to join the main army and his 5,000-man division was missed at Vitoria.

On 21 June, the day of battle, Maucune's division set off at dawn from Vitoria, escorting a large convoy toward the French frontier.

By 23 June, Foy collected about 3,000 soldiers at Bergara and with these he confronted Longa's division while waiting for the garrison of Bilbao and Vertigier Saint Paul's Italian brigade to reach him.

The Army of Galicia arrived at noon, but since the soldiers were in a state of exhaustion, Girón planned to attack Foy the following day.

As soon as the missing French units reached Bergara in the afternoon, Foy marched east to Villareal de Álava.

Foy's column left Villareal de Álava in the predawn hours of 24 June with Saint Paul's brigade acting as the rearguard.

The KGL light battalions attacked and captured Beasain, but Maucune pulled back to high ground and continued to defy the Allies.

Believing incorrectly that Joseph's army might be retreating toward the Biscay coast, Foy determined to defend the town of Tolosa.

Longa and Porlier were sent on a wide sweep to the right via the villages of Altzo and Gaztelu to cut the road to Pamplona, which emerges from the east side of Tolosa.

One of Pack's battalions and the light infantry from Girón's 3rd Division were sent on a sweep to the left in order to attack the west side of town.

Graham also asked Gabriel de Mendizábal Iraeta and his Vizcayan guerillas to move east from Azpeitia and block the main highway north of Tolosa.

Late in the afternoon, Graham heard the far-away sounds of musketry from Longa's division on the right and Mendizábal's guerillas on the left.

[39] Led by its commander Christian Friedrich Wilhelm von Ompteda, the 1st KGL Light Battalion tried to storm the Vitoria gate on the south side of town.

[40] The French soldiers under Bonté and Saint Paul were hit in the left flank by the KGL line battalions and pushed back against the Pamplona gate on the east side of town.

Unable to enter Tolosa because the gate was blocked by fortifications, the French and Italians broke out of the trap and streamed to the north along the base of the town wall.

The flanking forces of Mendizábal and Longa caught some stragglers, but Foy's corps marched off rapidly as darkness fell.

[43] Louis Emmanuel Rey was appointed to defend San Sebastián on 19 June and that port's defenses were badly neglected.