While Wellington faced Marshal André Masséna's Army of Portugal in the north, his lieutenant Beresford attempted to capture French-held Badajoz in the south.

Wellington brought reinforcements from the north and resumed the siege, but progress was slow in the face of spirited French resistance.

The British commander lifted the siege after being menaced by the numerically superior French army led by Soult and Marmont.

Leaving Mortier and 11,000 soldiers to hold Badajoz and environs, Soult hurried away with the remainder to deal with the twin threats.

Next, ample bridging material was supposed to be available at the Portuguese fortress of Elvas, but the number of pontoons proved inadequate to span the Guadiana River.

A battalion was ferried across on the 5th, and starting on 6 April, the Allied corps began slowly filing across the Guadiana on a rickety structure.

Before withdrawing from the area, Latour-Maubourg left General of Brigade Armand Philippon with 3,000 men in Badajoz and 400 soldiers in Olivenza (Olivença).

The same week, Beresford was joined by a Spanish force numbering 3,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry under General Francisco Javier Castaños.

The main problem was that the British army in the Iberian Peninsula had never been provided by the home government with a proper siege train.

[14] In the words of historian Charles Oman, "The walls of Elvas were a perfect museum of ancient artillery..." Some of the cannons that Dickson used had dates of 1620, 1636, 1646, and 1652 on their breeches.

These were later supplemented by the personnel from British artillery batteries stationed at Lisbon in the companies of Captains Baynes, Bredin, Glubb, and Raynsford.

Two days later, Wellington accompanied Major General Charles Alten's newly-arrived brigade of the King's German Legion on a reconnaissance of Badajoz.

[17] On the advice of his chief engineer, Colonel Richard Fletcher, Wellington ordered that the main attack be directed on the San Cristobal, Picurina, and Pardeleras forts.

Lieutenant Colonel James Kemmis' 7th brigade and the 17th Portuguese Regiment took post on the north side opposite San Cristobal.

Meanwhile, Colborne conducted a successful campaign in the Sierra Morena with 2,000 men, causing Latour-Maubourg to fall back even farther.

However, it was found almost impossible to dig trenches in front of San Cristobal because there was bedrock under a thin layer of topsoil.

Beresford ordered his troops to La Albuera to resist Soult's advance and sent the siege guns back to Elvas.

The French marshal reported losing 5,935 men including Generals of Brigade François Werlé and Joseph Pepin killed.

However, since Soult reported only 262 officer losses while a more reliable source counted 362,[22] the true figure may be as high as 7,900 killed, wounded, and captured.

[27] Meanwhile, Soult retreated slowly southeast to Llerena with his large convoys of wounded soldiers, followed by Beresford and Blake.

Four days later, General Rowland Hill arrived to take over the covering force, the 2nd and 4th Divisions plus Alten's brigade and Lumley's cavalry, approximately 10,000 men.

[32] Picton's 3rd Division was made up of the British brigades of Colonel Henry MacKinnon and Major General Charles Colville.

Colonel Richard Collins led an independent Portuguese brigade that comprised the 5th Line Infantry Regiment and the 5th Caçadores Battalion.

Across the river, gabions were set up opposite San Cristobal and earth was brought up to fill them, but they were obliterated by French artillery fire in the morning.

On the 4th, the French put a second gun out of action near the Castle, but two more were disabled by muzzle drooping and three howitzers had their carriages damaged by their own firing.

Led by Captain Chauvin of the 88th Line, the defenders directed musketry at their attackers and rolled fuzed shells into the ditch.

To keep the French from clearing the ditch of debris, the Allied guns fired grape shot at the breach all night long.

Since an assault on the Castle would have to cross at least 600 yards (549 m) of open ground and wade the Rivillas stream, the engineers decided that an attack would be hopeless.

Likewise, General of Division Jean-Baptiste Drouet, Comte d'Erlon's IX Corps was broken up and its battalions ordered to join Soult's army.

When he discovered his opponent on the move, Spencer transferred his corps to the south and joined Wellington at Elvas on 17 June.