Until then, the French had amassed guns (52 artillery pieces), ammunition (30,000 grenades), and gunpowder (90,000 pounds or 40 tons) at the town of Xerta, 13 kilometres (8 mi) north of Tortosa.

On the opposite side of the Ebro, five battalions under General Louis Jean Nicolas Abbé blocked the bridge that communicated Tortosa with Valencia and southern Spain.

The Spanish garrison executed two sorties, which were repelled by Colonel Pierre-Michel Rouelle [fr] but caused some delays in the preparation of the siege works.

[4][page needed] On the morning of 1 January, before the siege artillery began firing, the governor of Tortosa presented his terms of surrender.

Alacha raised a white flag but Suchet, suspecting it to be a manoeuvre to gain time for reinforcements, repairs or defensive works, decided to proceed with preparations for the assault.