Battle of the Bridge of Amarante 1809
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Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate. Wikidata lists more than one location for this battle; the first is shown.
Key facts
| Date | 18 April 1809 – 2 May 1809 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1809 | Wikidata P580 (start time) |
| Era | 19th century (1800–1913) | derived from year |
| Location | Portugal | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Peninsular War | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | First French Empire, Kingdom of Portugal | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 41.2667, -8.0833 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of the Bridge of Amarante (18 April 1809 – 2 May 1809) was fought during the Peninsular War between Portuguese regular troops and militia regiments under the command of Francisco da Silveira, on the one hand, and a force of French troops under Loison.
During the second French invasion of Portugal, and following Silveira's victory at Chaves in March, Marshal Soult, based at Porto, sent General Loison to the east to make contact with Pierre Belon Lapisse's command in the west of Spain.
However, Loison's path was blocked by a mixed force of some 10,000 regular and irregular Portuguese troops under Silveira at Amarante, on the banks of the Tâmega. Unable to proceed, Loison requested reinforcements and Soult then sent Generals Delaborde, Lorge, Heudelet, Sarrut and Lahoussaye to assist Loison in opening up the route back to Spain. By blockading the bridge at Amarante, the Portuguese troops were able hold Loison, now with 9,000 French troops, nearly half of Soult's Army of Portugal, concentrated on the west bank of the river for almost two weeks, thereby giving the British troops the opportunity to march on Coimbra and Oporto.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of the Bridge of Amarante (revision 1370598457), 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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All 124 battles of the Peninsular War →
Browse more: battles in Portugal · Europe · 19th century battles