Many historians of the Peninsular War, including Gómez de Arteche, Toreno, Clonard and Oman, agree that, while not questioning Aréizaga's personal courage, he lacked the necessary skills required of a general.

Oman was especially scathing in his assessment of Aréizaga's command at Ocaña:[2] Even allowing for the fact that Areizaga had been the victim of the Junta's insensate resolve to make an offensive movement on Madrid, it is impossible to speak with patience of his generalship.

After the defeat at Tudela, Francisco Palafox, then a commissioner for the Supreme Central Junta, gave Aréizaga command of an Infantry division.

He was then given command of the 3rd Division of Joaquín Blake's Army of Aragón,[3] which was victorious at Alcañiz towards the end of the month, and for which he was promoted to lieutenant general.

Following his retreat from that battle, Aréizaga was appointed governor of Lérida, until the end of September, when he was transferred to the newly formed Army of the Centre, under the interim command of General Eguía, whom he would succeed the following October.

[1] Appointed governor of Cartagena in August 1810, he remained in that post until the following December, when he was attached to Marquis de La Romana's 5th Army.

[5] With Fernando VII back on the throne, Areizaga was appointed captain general of Guipúzcoa in July 1814, and that same month the case against him for Ocaña was dismissed.

How can anybody who has the faculty of reason separate the inefficiency, intrigue, bad organization, and consequent disasters of the army from the source of all those evils in the Junta?