164 Ucles 13 January 1809 - WDS Bonaparte's Peninsular War

Ucles, 13 January 1809 - While French attention was diverted against Moore's expeditionary force and elsewhere, the Spanish army of the Centre, under the Duke of Infantado, had managed to elude Bessiere's pursuit and was now in a position to threaten French-held Madrid. Infantado sent his cavalry and vanguard under Venegas down into the plain of New Castile, but then failed to either march down to support Venegas with his remaining troops or give clear orders to his subordinate. Discovering that some 15,000 French under Victor were marching against him, Venegas decided to adopt an over-extended defensive position at Ucles, despite being outnumbered approximately 3:2 and only having half as many cavalry as the French and hardly any guns. Victor, having driven in the enemy outpost at Tribaldos and reconnoitred the main Spanish position, deployed half of Villatte's division and the cavalry in front of Ucles to pin the enemy in position while Ruffin's division carried out an outflanking manoeuvre against the Spanish right flank and the other half of Villatte's division outflanked the enemy left flank.