Battle of Ocaña

On 19 November 1809 at Ocaña in Spain, Marshal Soult crushed General Areizaga's Spanish army. Spaniards lost about 4,000 killed, 14,000 prisoners, and 50 guns. It was one of Spain's heaviest defeats during the War of Independence and consolidated French control of Andalusia and La Mancha.

After Madrid returned to French hands and the English withdrew in the summer of 1809, Joseph Bonaparte had to reconquer southern Spain. Juan Carlos de Areizaga gathered the Army of La Mancha, 51,000 men and 60 guns, to cover Andalusia and threaten the capital. Soult, Victor and Sébastiani coordinated the French response and marched south with some 40,000 men.

On 19 November, Sébastiani's cavalry carried out the decisive manoeuvre: working round the Spanish squadrons to fall on their right flank. French coordination and cavalry superiority broke up a Spanish army that was nonetheless the larger, and its defeat turned into a rout.

The Spanish left nearly 19,000 men between dead, wounded, prisoners and deserters; the French lost about 2,000. Ocaña is the heaviest Spanish defeat of the whole War of Independence. The main defensive force in the south was destroyed, opening the French invasion of Andalusia in the winter campaign that followed.