Battle of Ordal

The Battle of Ordal (also referred to as the Combat of the Ordal Cross) was a meeting engagement on 12 and 13 September 1813 that saw a First French Empire corps led by Marshal Louis Gabriel Suchet make a night assault on a position held by Lieutenant General Lord William Bentinck's Anglo-Allied advance guard.

The Allies, under the tactical direction of Colonel Frederick Adam, were defeated and driven from a strong position at the Ordal defile largely because he failed to post adequate pickets; Bentinck, on the other hand, underestimated the enemy's possible decisive action and its strength, and because of his blunder, the Allies put up smaller forces for defense, although overall they had more. In an action the next morning at Vilafranca del Penedès, the Allied cavalry clashed with the pursuing French horsemen and forced to retire. These were the last victories of the "French Eagle" on Spanish soil. The actions occurred during the Peninsular War, part of the Napoleonic Wars. Ordal and El Lledoner are located on Highway N-340 between Molins de Rei and Vilafranca.

Arthur Wellesley, Marquess of Wellington's triumph at the Battle of Vitoria made Suchet's positions in Valencia and Aragon untenable. Accordingly, the marshal withdrew his soldiers from those two places and concentrated them near Barcelona. As the French withdrew, they were followed up by Bentinck's army of 28,000 Spanish, British, Germans, and Italians. Suchet resolved to strike at Adam's advance guard near Ordal with 12,000 soldiers while Charles Mathieu Isidore Decaen's 7,000 men advanced from the northeast. After Adam's defeat, Bentinck abandoned Vilafranca and fell back to Tarragona. Soon after, he resigned his command.

Suchet's victory did not salvage the French position in Catalonia. As his troops were steadily siphoned away to defend eastern France, the marshal was forced to retreat to the Pyrenees, leaving behind several garrisons. These were picked off one by one until only Barcelona remained in French hands at the end of the conflict.