Joaquín Blake

Joaquín Blake y Joyes (19 August 1759 – 27 April 1827) was a Spanish military officer who served with distinction in the French Revolutionary and Peninsular wars.

In his youth, he saw action as a lieutenant of the grenadiers in the American Revolutionary War, taking part in the reconquest of Minorca and the failed siege of Gibraltar against the British.

He was appointed head of the Supreme Junta's Army of Galicia (a paper force of 43,001 holding the Spanish left wing along the Cantabrian mountains) during the French invasions and fought well against Napoleon's Grande Armée despite the heavy odds against him.

On 31 October Marshal Lefebvre's IV Corps fell upon Blake's 19,000 men at Battle of Zornoza, turning back the hesitant Spanish advance.

On 5 November Blake surprised his enemies again when, at Valmaseda, he suddenly turned about and attacked the French vanguard with seasoned troops, inflicting a stinging defeat on General Vilatte's leading division.

In 1810, Blake participated in the creation of a Spanish General Staff which, in the final years of the war began to restore coherence to the country's military enterprises.