| Early in 1811 the Allied forces besieged in Cadiz fought a successful action at Barrosa. Beresford, with a force of 18,000 men, besieged Badajoz and the main Allied army blockaded Almeida. Masséna hastened to the relief of the latter and on 3rd May the two armies met at Fuentes de Onoro, a village on the crossing point of the river Don Casas. During the first engagement, Masséna lost 652 men to Wellington's 259 but two days later, on 5th May, the French Marshal resumed his attack and although Wellington did not hold a strong position, the steadfastness of the Allied troops repulsed the ferocious attack with a loss of 2,192 French casualties to 1,545 Allied. The battle of Fuentes was the longest battle in the Peninsular War and was particularly bloody, proving the ineffectiveness of the numerically superior French cavalry against properly handled infantry. Wellington was later to say of the battle 'the most difficult one I was ever concerned in, and against the greatest odds ... if Boney had been there, we should have been beaten'. |
