Battle of Orthez

1814 CE.

Shown on the map at 43.505°, -0.776°.

The Battle of Orthez was fought on 27 February 1814 in the southwest of France near the end of the Peninsular War. An army of British, Spanish and Portuguese troops under Field Marshal Lord Wellington attacked a French army led by Marshal Jean-de-Dieu Soult in southern France. The outnumbered French repelled several Allied assaults on their right flank, but their center and left flank were overcome and Soult was compelled to retreat. At first the withdrawal was conducted in good order, but it eventually ended in a scramble for safety and many French soldiers were taken prisoner. In mid-February, Wellington's army broke out of its small area of conquered territory near Bayonne. Moving east, the Allies drove the French back from several river lines. After a pause in the campaign, the westernmost Allied corps surrounded and isolated Bayonne. Resuming their eastward drive, the remaining two Allied corps pushed Soult's army back to Orthez where the French marshal offered battle. In subsequent operations, Soult decided to abandon the large western port of Bordeaux and fall back east toward Toulouse. The next action was the Battle of Toulouse.

Text from the Wikipedia article Battle of Orthez, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

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