Wellington Storms Badajoz: Bloody Victory Opens Spain
British and Portuguese forces under the Duke of Wellington began the Siege of Badajoz on March 16, 1812, the third attempt to capture this heavily fortified Spanish city held by a French garrison during the Peninsular War. The siege lasted three weeks before Wellington ordered a direct assault on the night of April 6. The storming of the breaches was one of the bloodiest episodes of the Napoleonic Wars: British troops attacked the walls five times before breaching the defenses, suffering over 4,800 casualties in a single night. When the city fell, the surviving soldiers went on a three-day rampage of looting, rape, and murder that Wellington himself could not control. He reportedly wept at the carnage and threatened to have his own men shot to restore order. The fall of Badajoz, combined with the earlier capture of Ciudad Rodrigo, opened the road from Portugal to Madrid and allowed Wellington to launch the offensive that eventually drove the French from Spain.
March 16, 1812
214 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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