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The Battle of Bayonne of 14 April 1814 was a ''sortie'' by General Thouvenot's French garrison of Bayonne during the siege of that city conducted by Allied forces under Lieutenant General John Hope. The battle was the last of the Peninsular War and occurred as news of Napoleon's abdication was beginning to reach the opposing forces. While the Siege of Bayonne was largely illusory, with French and British soldiers fraternizing and exchanging goods and letters,〔Castex (2013), p. 85〕 the fighting of 14 April involved heavy hand-to-hand combat in which Lieut-Gen Hope was captured with two of his staff, 276 men and a gun, before reinforcements stabilized the Allied positions. With Thouvenot occupying stronger positions at the conclusion of his sortie, the siege continued. On 17 April, the main French body under Marshal Soult signed an armistice with Wellington; Thouvenot would continue to resist until direct orders from Soult compelled him to observe the ceasefire. ==Background== After the Battle of the Nive, Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington mounted a surprise amphibious operation which crossed the Adour River estuary and isolated the French city of Bayonne. Wellington pressed east after Marshal Nicolas Soult's French army, leaving the fortress to be invested on 27 February by Hope's corps.〔Glover, p 320〕 Hope's 19,550-man force included Kenneth Howard's 1st (6,800) and Andrew Hay's 5th (2,750) British Divisions, Lord Aylmer's Independent British Brigade (1,900), Thomas Bradford (1,600) and Archibald Campbell's (2,500) Portuguese Brigades, and Carlos de España's Spanish Division (4,000). Hope's corps was joined by 10,000 Spanish troops in the divisions of Marcilla, Espeleta and Pablo Morillo, but these soldiers were sent away to join Wellington's army in time to fight at the Battle of Toulouse on 10 April.〔Smith, p 525〕 Before retreating, Soult reinforced the garrison with the division of Abbé, raising its strength to 14,000 men. The regular infantry included the 5th and 27th Light, and the 64th, 66th, 82nd, 94th, 95th, 119th and 130th Line Regiments.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Battle of Bayonne」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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