Battle of Espinosa

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Battle of Espinosa
partof=the Peninsular War


caption=
date=November 10–November 11, 1808
place=Espinosa de los Monteros, southeast of Santander, Spain
result=French victory
combatant1=flagicon|France French Empire
combatant2=flagicon|Spain|1785 Spain
commander1=Claude Victor
commander2=Joaquín Blake
strength1=22,000
strength2=23,000
casualties1=1,200 dead or wounded
casualties2=3,000 dead, wounded, or capturedThe Battle of Espinosa a battle of the Napoleonic Wars, fought on November 10 and November 11, 1808 at the township of Espinosa de los Monteros in the Cantabrian Mountains. It resulted in a French victory under General Victor against Lieutenant General Joaquín Blake's Army of Galicia.

Battle

On the first day of the battle, Victor, seeking an easy victory to erase his humiliation at Valmaseda, launched a series of ill-advised attacks that were thrown back with heavy losses by General La Romana's disciplined regulars. By nightfall, Blake's positions still held. On the morning of November 11, Victor regained his composure and coordinated a massive French attack that pierced Blake's left wing and drove the Spaniards from the field. The French captured a healthy total of 30 guns and 30 standards.

Although not a decisive defeat in itself, the hopeless confusion of the tattered and weary Spanish army (having neither a government nor a military command structure to coordinate it) meant that Espinosa marked the deathblow to Blake's Army of Galicia. Blake, to his credit, led his remaining men through an heroic retreat west through the mountains, escaping, to Napoleon's disbelief, Soult's pursuit, but when he arrived at León on November 23, only 10,000 men remained under his banner.