Battle of Bailén 1808
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Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 16 July 1808 – 19 July 1808 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1808 | Wikidata P580 (start time) |
| Era | 19th century (1800–1913) | derived from year |
| Location | Spain | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Peninsular War | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | First French Empire, Kingdom of Spain | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 38.1000, -3.8000 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Bailén was fought in 1808 between the Spanish Army's Army of Andalusia, under General Francisco Javier Castaños and the French Imperial Army's 2nd Gironde Observational Corps under Divisional-General Pierre Dupont de l'Étang. The first open-field defeat of a Napoleonic army, the battle's heaviest fighting took place near Bailén (sometimes anglicized as Baylen), a village by the Guadalquivir river in the Jaén province of southern Spain.
In June 1808, following the widespread uprisings against the French occupation of Spain, Napoleon organized French units into flying columns to pacify Spain's major centres of resistance. One column under Dupont was dispatched across the Sierra Morena and south through Andalusia towards the port of Cádiz where a French naval squadron lay at the mercy of the Spanish. The Emperor was confident that with 20,000 men, Dupont would crush any opposition encountered on the way, despite most of them being inexperienced new recruits. Events proved otherwise when Dupont and his men stormed and plundered Córdoba in July.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Bailén (revision 1380365527), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
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- Battle of Arjona 1297 · 29 km
- Siege of Santuario de Nuestra Señora de la Cabeza 1936 · 33 km
- Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa 1212 · 35 km
- Siege of Jaén (1245–1246) 1245 · 37 km
- Siege of Jaén (1230) 1230 · 37 km
Other battles of the Peninsular War
- Battle of Alcolea Bridge 1808
- Battle of Benavente 1808
- Battle of Cabezón 1808
- Battle of Cardedeu 1808
- Battle of Espinosa de los Monteros 1808
- Battle of Gamonal 1808
- Battle of Medina de Rioseco 1808
- Battle of Molins de Rei 1808
- Battle of Roliça 1808
- Battle of Sahagún 1808
All 124 battles of the Peninsular War →
Browse more: battles in Spain · Europe · 19th century battles