Battle of Ordal 1813
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 12 September 1813 – 13 September 1813 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1813 | 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, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 41.3975, 1.8478 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Ordal (also referred to as the Combat of the Ordal Cross) was a meeting engagement on 12 and 13 September 1813 that saw a First French Empire corps led by Marshal Louis Gabriel Suchet make a night assault on a position held by Lieutenant General Lord William Bentinck's Anglo-Allied advance guard.
The Allies, under the tactical direction of Colonel Frederick Adam, were defeated and driven from a strong position at the Ordal defile largely because he failed to post adequate pickets; Bentinck, on the other hand, underestimated the enemy's possible decisive action and its strength, and because of his blunder, the Allies put up smaller forces for defense, although overall they had more. In an action the next morning at Vilafranca del Penedès, the Allied cavalry clashed with the pursuing French horsemen and were forced to retire. These were the last victories of the "French Eagle" on Spanish soil. The actions occurred during the Peninsular War, part of the Napoleonic Wars. Ordal and El Lledoner are located on Highway N-340 between Molins de Rei and Vilafranca.
Arthur Wellesley, Marquess of Wellington's triumph at the Battle of Vitoria made Suchet's positions in Valencia and Aragon untenable.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Ordal (revision 1370452297), 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.
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Other battles of the Peninsular War
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All 124 battles of the Peninsular War →
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