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First Battle of Porto
Part of thePeninsular War
Marshall Soult surveys the broken bridge as Oporto falls to the French on 29 March 1809. In the foreground a grenadier rescues an orphaned baby.
Date 29 March 1809[1] Location Porto, Portugal 41°9′43.71″N8°37′19.03″W / 41.1621417°N 8.6219528°W /41.1621417; -8.6219528 Result French victory
Belligerents
Portugal	French Empire
Commanders and leaders
Caetano Parreiras	Jean de Dieu Soult
Strength
30,000[1]	16,000[1]
Casualties and losses
8,000–10,000 killed[2] Unknown wounded	500 killed or wounded[2]
4,000 civilians killed[3]

Peninsular War: Second French invasion

110km
68miles

6

Sanpayo

5

Grijó

4

Porto

3

Braga

2

Villafranca

1

Chaves

   

  current battle

In theFirst Battle of Porto (29 March 1809) theFrench underMarshal Soult defeated thePortuguese, under General Parreiras, outside the city ofPorto^[a] during thePeninsular War. Soult followed up his success by storming the city,^[4] in the course of which thousands of fleeing citizens drowned in thePorto Boat Bridge disaster.

TheSecond Portuguese campaign started with theBattle of Braga.

After theBattle of Corunna,Napoleon ordered MarshalJean-de-Dieu Soult to invade Portugal from the north. He was to seizePorto by 1 February andLisbon by 10 February. Napoleon failed to take into account both the wretched condition and the roads or the fact that a full-scaleguerrilla war had broken out in NorthernPortugal andSpain.

Soult'sII Corps had four infantry divisions, commanded byGenerals of DivisionPierre Hugues Victoire Merle,Julien Augustin Joseph Mermet,Étienne Heudelet de Bierre, andHenri François Delaborde. Merle had four battalions each of the 2nd Light, 4th Light and 15th Line Infantry Regiments and three battalions of the 36th Line. Mermet's division included four battalions each of the 31st Light, 47th Line, and 122nd Line, and one battalion each of the 3rd, 4th and 5th Swiss Regiments. Heudelet led two battalions each of the 22nd Line and 66th Line, one battalion each of the 15th Light, 32nd Light, 82nd Line,Légion du Midi, Paris Guard, and Hanoverian Legion. Delaborde's command comprised three battalions each of the 17th Light, 70th Line, and 86th Line. General of DivisionJean Baptiste Marie Franceschi-Delonne led Soult's corps cavalry, the 1st Hussar, 8th Dragoon, 22nd Chasseur à Cheval, and Hanoverian Chasseur Regiments. Attached were General of DivisionArmand Lebrun de La Houssaye's 3rd Dragoon Division and General of DivisionJean Thomas Guillaume Lorge's 4th Dragoon Division. The 3rd Dragoon Division was made up of the 17th, 18th, 19th and 27th Dragoon Regiments. The 4th Dragoon Division consisted of the 13th, 15th, 22nd and 25th Dragoon Regiments.^[5] In all, Soult had 23,500 men, including 3,100 cavalry.^[6]

Soult's first attempt to invade Portugal was stopped by the local militia on 16 February. The French then moved northeast toOurense in Spain, seized an unguarded bridge and marched south. On the way, Franceschi's cavalry overran Major GeneralNicolás Mahy's Spanish brigade atLa Trepa on 6 March, inflicting 700 casualties. The French crossed into Portugal and occupiedChaves on 9 March.

From Chaves, Soult moved west toPóvoa de Lanhoso where he was confronted byBaron Eben's 25,000-man army composed mostly of Portuguese militia armed with muskets, pikes, and agricultural implements. After waiting several days for all his troops to arrive, Soult went over to the attack. On 20 March 1809, at theBattle of Braga the French veterans butchered their adversaries. The outmatched Portuguese lost 4,000 killed and 400 captured. The French, who lost 40 killed and 160 wounded, also seized 17 Portuguese cannons.

Bishop Castro organized an army of 24,000 men to defend Porto.

Generals Lima and Parreiras commanded two battalions, each of the 6th, 18th and 21st Infantry Regiments, and one battalion of the 9th and other units. The 4,500 Portuguese regulars were supported by 10,000ordenanças (militia) and 9,000 armed citizens.When Soult hurled Merle, Mermet, Heudelet, Franceschi and Lahoussaye at the Portuguese deployed north of the city, on the weakest part of the Portuguese line of defence, Castro's force soon dissolved and the battle became a massacre. The Portuguese tried to escape from the French in the city but were chased by the French cavalry through the streets, and their regular units were annihilated.

Thousands of fleeing civilians drowned in thePorto Boat Bridge disaster. ThePonte das Barcas ( Bridge of Boats) was a permanentpontoon bridge across the Douro River. Residents fled over the he bridge away from Porto towards the south,Gaia side, pursued by French troops. Some Portuguese units started to sabotage the bridge to prevent the French from crossing the river and the bridge collapsed because of the weight of people and of Portuguese artillery fire (coming from the left side of the Douro) who were aiming at the French cavalry behind the Portuguese soldiers and citizens.^[6]

In the roadstead, Soult captured a squadron of Spanish naval vessels and 30 merchant ships. The French also found large stockpiles of British military stores. In the battle and storming of the city, the French lost 72 officers and 2,000 rank and file casualties. The Portuguese lost about 8,000 killed and 197 cannons captured.^[5]

Soult did not have very long to enjoy his success; Almost at once, theordenanças cut his communications with Spain and a 1,800-man garrison was forced to capitulate toFrancisco Silveira's Portuguese force in theSiege of Chaves. The French marshal started planning a retreat.

TheSecond Portuguese campaign proceeded with theBattle of Grijó. Porto was retaken by the British and Portuguese underWellesley in theSecond Battle of Porto.

• Timeline of the Peninsular War

• Bodart, Gaston (1908).Militär-historisches Kriegs-Lexikon (1618-1905). Retrieved19 May 2021.
• Buttery, David (2016).Wellington Against Soult: The Second Invasion of Portugal, 1809. Pen and Sword.
• Esdaile, Charles J. (2003).The Peninsular War. Palgrave MacMillan.ISBN 9781403962317. Retrieved19 May 2021.
• Glover, Michael (1974).The Peninsular War 1807-1814. Penguin.
• Smith, Digby (1998).The Napoleonic Wars Data Book. Greenhill.

• Hickock, William; York, Edward (1974).York's Military History of the Peninsular War.
• Conquêtes, désastres, revers et guerres civiles des Français, de 1792 à 1815, par une société de militaires et de gens de lettres. Paris: C. L. F. Panckoucke. 1820. pp. 16–18.

• Media related toFirst Battle of Porto at Wikimedia Commons

• Battles of the Peninsular War involving Portugal
• Battles in 1809
• 1809 in Portugal
• History of Porto
• March 1809
• Battles inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe

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