Tamames

General Del Parque advanced toward Salamanca with the Spanish ‘Army of the Left’ as part of the Spanish Junta’s 1809 fall campaign to retake Madrid. Barring his way was the weak French 6th Corps. Marshal Ney, the commander, was away …

1809-10-18

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General Del Parque advanced toward Salamanca with the Spanish ‘Army of the Left’ as part of the Spanish Junta’s 1809 fall campaign to retake Madrid. Barring his way was the weak French 6th Corps. Marshal Ney, the commander, was away on leave. General Marchand, in temporary command of the corps, rashly moved forward to intercept Del Parque. Marchand knew he was outnumbered, but pride, ambition and contempt for Spanish fighting abilities induced him to attack. The Spanish drew up on a formidable defensive position behind the village of Tamames. Marchand correctly identified the Spanish left as the weak section, but did not mass enough troops to win decisively. Maucune’s attack broke through the front line Spanish division, but did not have enough strength to dislodge the reserve Spanish division behind it. Marcognet’s attack on the right quickly came to naught as it was pummeled advancing uphill against a larger force. Del Parque, seeing the confusion in Marcognet’s advance, ordered his infantry forward. Marcognet’s troops broke and retreated back to their original line of departure. Maucune realized he was now facing the entire Spanish army, so he wisely abandoned his attack and conducted an orderly retreat. The Spanish gained another morale-boosting victory, but unfortunately, the remainder of the fall campaign turned into disaster when the Army of La Mancha was utterly destroyed at Ocaña.

Tamames, Spain

The Battle of Tamames was a sharp reversal suffered by part of Marshal Michel Ney's French army under Major-General Jean Marchand in the Peninsular War. The French, advancing out of Salamanca, were met and defeated in battle by a Spanish army on 18 October 1809.

Wikipedia: Battle of Tamames

French

Spanish

Peninsular War