Battle of Burgos
The battle of Burgos proceeded the November 7th 1808, during the war of Spain. A powerful army ordered by the marshal Bessières crushed and destroyed the small Spanish army of the general Belveder, opening the center of Spain to the French invasion.
The historians in Spain point out this battle in memory of the vain bravery of the regiments of the Guard and Wallonia ordered by Don Vicente Genaro de Quesada. Forming the rear-guard of the burst Spanish lines, these troops supported repeated loads of the cavalry of the general Lassalle without yielding an inch of ground, at the price of a massacre of the French as well as of the Spaniards. Of the 307 men of the rear-guard, only 74 survived, covered with blood, the uniforms haillons some, the twisted and blunted bayonets.
It is said that Bessières returned itself its sword in Quesada and made bandage its wounds at the hospital of French countryside. These acts of knighthood became increasingly rare as the war of Spain was prolonged.
Sources
- Newspaper of France and the French; Fourthly Gallimard, 2001.
- the Battle of Gamonal (Spanish)
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