Battle of Tordesillas (1812)

In the Battle of Tordesillas, Battle of Villamuriel or Battle of Palencia between 25 and 29 October 1812, a French army led by Joseph Souham pushed back an Anglo-Portuguese-Spanish army commanded by Arthur Wellesley, Marquess Wellington. After its failed Siege of Burgos, the 35,000-man Allied army withdrew to the west, pursued by Souham's 53,000 French soldiers. On 23 October, French cavalry defeated the Allied rear guard in the Battle of Venta del Pozo. The Allies pulled back behind the Pisuerga and Carrión Rivers and took up a defensive position.

Beginning on the 25th there were clashes at Palencia and Villamuriel de Cerrato as Souham sought to turn the Allied north flank. The offence on Villamuriel was unsuccessful for the French, but by well-turned attack on Palencia – Wellington's left wing – Souham forced Wellington to adopt a new unorthodox defensive position. The French commander was prompted to pause for two-day reconnaissance. The stalemate was broken on 29 October when the labourious General of Division Maximilien Sébastien Foy managed to get a party of naked French soldiers swam the Duero River at Tordesillas with their weapons on a raft. Upon reaching the far bank, they took up their guns and routed the Brunswick defenders of a key bridge. When across, Foy was rapidly strengthened by the rest of Souham's army. With an intact bridge in French hands, Wellington was forced to continue his retreat toward Portugal. In the battle, the Coalition lost 800 men killed, wounded, and captured (excluding the last affair), while the French casualties were 350.

Meanwhile, Wellington's subordinate Rowland Hill withdrew from Madrid. The two British commanders united their armies near Alba de Tormes on 8 November. By this time the combined French armies were led by Nicolas Soult. Though 80,000 French faced 65,000 Allies on the battlefield of Salamanca neither commander initiated a battle, whereupon Wellington began a withdrawal. After a retreat in miserable conditions during which hundreds of soldiers were captured or died of hunger and exposure, the Allied army went into winter quarters. The actions were fought during the Peninsular War, part of the Napoleonic Wars.