ALBUHERA DAY 1811
16 May
Albuera or Albuhera is a small village in the Spanish province of Badajoz. Just 13 kilometres to the south is the site of a famous victory won there on 16 May 1811, by the British and their Portuguese and Spanish allies, under General Beresford, over a French Army commanded by Marshall Soult
In 1811 Wellington's forces were laying siege to the fortress of Badajoz on the frontier of Portugal and Spain. Marshal Soult, the French Commander in Southern Spain, brought a force of 24,000 men to relieve the garrison. The allied force of 15,000 Spaniards, 12,000 Portuguese and 10,000 British soldiers took up a position at Albuhera to meet the French.
On 16 May 1811 the French attacked. They suprised the Spaniards and threw them into utter confusion. The remaining British Regiments stood firm, but, being now greatly outnumbered by the French, were in dire straits. The only British reserve was the Fusilier Brigade, commanded by Sir William Myers of the Royal Fusiliers, and composed of the 1st and 2nd Battalions Royal Fusiliers and 1st Battalion the 23rd, or Royal Welch Fusiliers.