Military Subjects: Virtual Battlefields  French Rearguard  Notes
On Terrain  How to Get There  Further Reading  Garcia Hernandez
By Colin Jones & Vic Powell Portsmouth Napoleonic Society
Research Group Project  One of the most famous conflicts
throughout the Peninsular War was the Battle of Salamanca, or
Los Arapiles, as the French and Spanish call it. Taken from the
village and heights of that name which formed the centre of the
action. Essentially, the French Marshal Marmont with his 'Army
of Portugal' made a serious blunder by marching his army around
the heights of the Greater Arapiles forming his forces into a
semi-circle which over extended his line to an almost careless
degree, leaving gaps between one body and another. Wellington's
allied army were encapsulated, as it were, inside the mouth of
the semi-circle and therefore could force a higher concentration
of troops at any given point along the enemy's front. Many
historians claim this to be one of Wellington's greatest
victories, in Wellington's ey