Siege of Gerona (1809)

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Siege of Gerona
partof=the Peninsular War


caption="The Siege of Gerona in 1809" by Ramon Martí Alsina, Gerona Art Museum.
date=May 6 - December 12, 1809
place=Gerona, Spain
result=Pyrrhic French victory [Gates, p. 172. Gates notes that "to the Catalans and the rest of the indigenous population of the Peninsula went a moral victory which further strengthened their resolve to drive out the invaders.]
combatant1=flagicon|France French Empire
combatant2=flag|Spain|1785
commander1=Pierre Augereau
commander2=Mariano Alvarez de Castro
strength1=35,000 regulars
40 guns
strength2=5,600 regulars and militia
casualties1=14,000 dead, wounded, or illGates, p. 172]
casualties2=5,000 dead
1,200 wounded
3,000 captured

The Siege of Gerona of May 6 1809, sometimes called the Third Siege of Gerona (after two battles in 1808), involved the French Grande Armée's seven-month struggle to conquer the Spanish garrison at Girona. The town held out obstinately under the leadership of General Alvarez until disease and famine compelled it to capitulate on December 12.

On the accession of Joseph Bonaparte to the throne of Spain in 1808, General Alvarez was commander of the castle of Montjuïc in Barcelona. On February 29 French troops arrived to take possession of the fortress. Alvarez was preparing to defend it against them when he received direct orders of his Commander-in-Chief to hand it over. Alvarez fled Barcelona and joined the Spanish rebels against French rule. The Spanish Government in Cadiz named him commander of the Army of Catalonia and Governor of Gerona.

On May 6 a French army of 18,000 men under the Marshal Augereau besieged the town. Alvarez had only 5,600 men under arms. The French mounted 40 gun batteries that over the next seven months fired some 20,000 explosive shells and 60,000 cannon balls into the city. In August, the French captured the castle of Montjuich, the main defensive point. Undeterred, de Castro constructed barricades and trenches inside the city and battle raged for another four months before Alavarez, exhausted and ill, handed over command to a subordinate. Two days later, on 12 December, the town capitulated. It is estimated that some 10,000 people, soldiers and civilians, had died inside. French losses were around 15,000, over half of those to disease.

The town's resistance (rivalled only by the defenders of Saragossa) served Spanish purposes well owing to the large delays and losses imposed on the French, and the battle became something of a legend over the course of the Peninsular War. In spite of Alvarez's poor health, the French imprisoned him at Perpignan.

Notes

References

*Gates, David. "The Spanish Ulcer: A History of the Peninsular War." Da Capo Press 2001. ISBN 0-306-81083-2