Located halfway between the Franco-Spanish border and Barcelona, Girona was considered critical to maintaining the French forces' lines of communication from France to Barcelona,[5] where General Guillaume Philibert Duhesme was virtually cut off from the rest of the Grande Armée in Spain by thousands of Catalan miquelets (militia), supported by a few Spanish regular troops.

An Imperial French corps led by Guillaume Philibert Duhesme attempted to capture the city of Girona and its Spanish garrison, nominally commanded by Julian Bolivar,[6] but in reality the defence was being conducted by Colonel La Valeta of the Barcelona Volunteers[6] and Lieutenant-colonel Richard O'Donovan, of the 6th Dragoons,[7] then assigned to the Ultonia Regiment.

[9] On the morning of the 16th, 1,400 troops of the garrison surprised the besiegers, the Barcelona Volunteers under La Valeta leading the attack and the Ultonia Regiment, under Major Henry O’Donnell, supporting.

[6] The dispatch, dated 22 August,[8] while highly praising the combatants who took active part in the fighting, severely criticised the former military governor of Menorca,[8] Domingo Traggia, marqués de Palacio, who had come over to the mainland from Mahón, accompanied by Baget,[10] landing at Tarragona with some 5,000 troops and 37 pieces of artillery[11] in order to take up his new appointment as Captain-General of Catalonia,[10] for refusing to intervene with his regiment of hussars, "famously experienced in warfare, and in better condition than any other force in Spain".

Meanwhile, Emperor Napoleon I assembled a new corps under Général de division Laurent Gouvion Saint-Cyr to relieve Duhesme from his predicament.