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Battle of Alcañiz of 1809

Alcañiz, Bajo Aragón, Teruel

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Battle of Alcañiz of 1809

Historical milestone · Alcañiz, Bajo Aragón, Teruel

Image of Alcañiz, not of the place itself.

After the Napoleonic invasion of 1808 and the French victories at Tudela and Somosierra, Aragon fell under French control: on 26 January 1809 General Watier stormed Alcañiz, crushing the resistance of a militia of volunteers among its 4,000 inhabitants. On 20 May the Ejército de Aragón y Valencia arrived in the city, with 8,500 infantry, 500 cavalry and 19 cannon under the command of Joaquín Blake, before whom the French troops withdrew without fighting as far as Híjar. Blake took up positions on the heights northwest of the city, with the infantry concealed in an olive grove, the cavalry under Ibarrola's command and other troops on the Cerro Perdiguer, and on 23 May 1809 he defeated the army of Marshal Suchet in a key victory of the War of Independence in the region.

1809

Photo: Fqll (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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