The French grenadiers, formed in a single square, made a fighting withdrawal, fending off British cavalry and escaping unscathed.

In retaliation, Craufurd took five or six squadrons of cavalry and several companies of infantry to attack and cut off a raiding party sent by General Roche Godart.

Two days after Ciudad Rodrigo fell, at four o'clock on the morning of 11 July, the British came into contact with a small body of troops near the village of Barquilla.

The badly outnumbered French force, under the command of Captain Pierre Gouache, was covering a foraging party in a corn field.

Craufurd brought up three squadrons of cavalry (the KGL 1st Hussars, the 16th and 14th Light Dragoons) to attack the French infantry, formed in a single square in a corn field.