The Siege of Almeida took place during the Peninsular War

Peninsular War

The Peninsular War was a war between France and the allied powers of Spain, the United Kingdom, and Portugal for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war began when French and Spanish armies crossed Spain and invaded Portugal in 1807. Then, in 1808, France turned on its...

 portion of the Napoleonic Wars

Napoleonic Wars

The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...

. After a month-long blockade, the French garrison under Brigadier-General Antoine Brenier

Antoine François Brenier de Montmorand

Antoine-François Brenier de Montmorand served as a French general of division during the period of the First French Empire and became an officer of the Légion d'honneur.-Early career:...

 escaped, leaving the fortress in Anglo-Portuguese hands.

Almeida

Almeida, Portugal

Almeida is a town in Almeida Municipality, Portugal. The fortress around the town guards an important cross-border road from Spain, and underwent several sieges. The siege of 1810 ended spectacularly when a chance shell ignited the main gunpowder magazine, which exploded, killing 500 defenders...

 is located in eastern Portugal, near the border with Spain. The town had been captured from a Portuguese garrison after an earlier Siege of Almeida

Siege of Almeida (1810)

In the Siege of Almeida, the French corps of Marshal Michel Ney captured the border fortress from Brigadier General William Cox's Portuguese garrison. This action was fought in the summer of 1810 during the Peninsular War portion of the Napoleonic Wars...

 in 1810.

After Marshal André Masséna

André Masséna

André Masséna 1st Duc de Rivoli, 1st Prince d'Essling was a French military commander during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars....

's retreat from Portugal, the French installed a garrison of 1,400 men under Brennier in the fortress. These troops were blockaded in the town by forces under Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS , was an Irish-born British soldier and statesman, and one of the leading military and political figures of the 19th century...

. Since the Anglo-Portuguese Army

Anglo-Portuguese Army

The Anglo-Portuguese Army was the combined British and Portuguese army that won the Peninsular War, under the command of Arthur Wellesley. The Army is also referred to as the British-Portuguese Army and, in Portuguese, as the Exército Anglo-Luso or the Exército Anglo-Português.The Anglo-Portuguese...

 had no heavy guns to reduce the walls, they were forced to starve the garrison out. Because of this, this operation was technically a blockade

Blockade

A blockade is an effort to cut off food, supplies, war material or communications from a particular area by force, either in part or totally. A blockade should not be confused with an embargo or sanctions, which are legal barriers to trade, and is distinct from a siege in that a blockade is usually...

 rather than a siege

Siege

A siege is a military blockade of a city or fortress with the intent of conquering by attrition or assault. The term derives from sedere, Latin for "to sit". Generally speaking, siege warfare is a form of constant, low intensity conflict characterized by one party holding a strong, static...

.

From 3 to 5 May 1811, Masséna failed to relieve Almeida in the Battle of Fuentes de Onoro

Battle of Fuentes de Onoro

In the Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro , the British-Portuguese Army under Viscount Wellington checked an attempt by the French Army of Portugal under Marshal André Masséna to relieve the besieged city of Almeida.-Background:...

. During this time, the blockade was maintained by William Erskine

Sir William Erskine, 2nd Baronet

Major-General Sir William Erskine, 2nd Baronet was an officer in the British Army, served as a member of Parliament, and achieved important commands in the Napoleonic Wars under the Duke of Wellington, but ended his service in insanity and suicide.He was the eldest son of Lieutenant-General Sir...

's 5th and Alexander Campbell's 6th Divisions, plus Count Barbacena's 300-man Portuguese cavalry brigade.

With great skill, Brenier slipped his men through the Anglo-Portuguese lines on the night of 10-11 May. The fortifications were rigged with explosives and blew up after the French cleared out. During the night, 360 Frenchmen were captured. But the rest escaped when the French 31st Light Infantry Regiment from Maj-Gen Jean Reynier

Jean Reynier

Jean Louis Ebénézer Reynier rose in rank to become a French army general officer during the French Revolutionary Wars. He led a division under Napoleon Bonaparte in the French Campaign in Egypt and Syria...

's II Corps ambushed the pursuing British 36th Foot Regiment, inflicting 35 casualties. A furious Wellington later wrote,

"They had about 13,000 to watch 1,400. There they were all sleeping in their spurs even; but the French got off. I begin to be of the opinion that there is nothing on earth so stupid as a gallant officer."