Battle of Ordal

Battle of Ordal
Part of the Peninsular War
Date 13 September 1813[1] Location near Ordal and El Lledoner, Catalonia, Spain 41°23′51″N 1°50′52″E / 41.3975°N 1.8478°E / 41.3975; 1.8478 Result French victory[1]
Belligerents
First French Empire	United Kingdom Spain
Commanders and leaders
Marshal Suchet	Lord William Bentinck Frederick Adam  (WIA)
Strength
Ordal: 17,000[1] Vilafranca: 1,750	Ordal: 20,000[1] Vilafranca: 770
Casualties and losses
Ordal: 300[1] Vilafranca: 107	Ordal: 2,000[1] Vilafranca: 134

Peninsular war: Aragón Catalonia

200km
125miles

Ordal

21

Castalla

20

19

Valencia

18

Saguntum

17

16

15

14

13

12

11

10

9

8

7

6

5

María

4

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2

1

  

  current battle

The Battle of Ordal on 12 and 13 September 1813 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 smaller Anglo-Allied and Spanish 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 they failed to post adequate pickets. In an action the next morning at Vilafranca del Penedès, the Allied cavalry clashed with the pursuing French horsemen. 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. Accordingly, the marshal withdrew his soldiers from those two places and concentrated them near Barcelona. As the French withdrew, they were followed up by Bentinck's army of 28,000 Spanish, British, Germans, and Italians. Suchet resolved to strike at Adam's advance guard near Ordal with 12,000 soldiers while Charles Mathieu Isidore Decaen's 7,000 men advanced from the northeast. After Adam's defeat, Bentinck abandoned Vilafranca and fell back to Tarragona. Soon after, he resigned his command.

Suchet's victory did not salvage the French position in Catalonia. As his troops were steadily siphoned away to defend eastern France, the marshal was forced to retreat to the Pyrenees, leaving behind several garrisons. These were picked off one by one until only Barcelona remained in French hands at the end of the conflict.