200 years from the Siege of Burgos (1812)
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| Taken from Spanish Ministery of Education http://bvpb.mcu.es/es/consulta/resultados_navegacion.cmd?posicion=1&forma=ficha&id=29 |
"Wellington entered Valladolid on September 7 and pursued Clausel, which retired unhurried northwards, first on Burgos and then on Briviesca. On September 19, Wellington (reinforced by 11,000 men from the Castaños's Ejército de Galicia) laid siege to Burgos, an open city, dominated by a castle protected by the hornwork of San Miguel, and with a 2,000-men French garrison under Dubreton.
The hornwork was immediately assaulted and taken at the cost of 500 casualties. Four days later, an impatient Wellington gave the order to storm the castle without artillery preparation, but the assault was repulsed with heavy losses. Then, began a regular siege but the lack of siege artillery forced the use of mining galleries, which allowed the capture of the exterior defensive works in October 4, but proved insufficient against the castle main walls. After several failed attempts of assault, Wellington had to raise the siege on October 21and retired towards Valladolid. The unsuccessful attempt took 700 French and 2,000 Allied casualties, and was one of the few failures of Wellington as Commander-in-Chief during the Peninsular War."
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| Cover of ALKAID No. 15 http://www.alkaidediciones.com |
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