ALBUERA, LA (or ALBUHERA), a small village of Spain, in the province of Badajoz, 13m. S.E. of the town of that name, insignificant in itself but celebrated on account of the victory gained there on May 16, 1811, by the British, Portuguese and Spaniards, under Marshal Beresford, over the French army com manded by Marshal Soult.
After Portugal had been cleared of the French invading army under Massena, Wellington sought to secure his position by recov ering the frontier fortresses. He himself invested Almeida while Beresford was sent with io,000 Spaniards, 9,00o Portuguese and 9,000 British only, to lay siege to Badajoz. But the latter was hardly in position before Soult moved upon him from the south with 27,00o veterans. Beresford took up a covering position at Albuera, astride the road to Badajoz, but his dispositions were faulty and Massena, feinting at a direct thrust down the road, made a concealed manoeuvre round the allied right flank. Here the Spanish were cut to pieces or dispersed, a British brigade, hurrying to their aid, was annihilated by the French cavalry, and only a thin line of 1,80o British "red-coats" strung out on a ridge intervened between the French mass of manoeuvre and complete victory. Thin as it was, being a line, it overlapped the front of the massed French columns, and thus gained full value from its fire. For half an hour both sides poured a heavy musketry fire into each other's ranks at point-blank range, and then the nerves of the French snapped under the exorbitant toll, and their columns rolled back down the slopes, gaining momentum as they went until their retirement became a rout. The French losses were some 8,000, and those of the British 4,000 in all, while the Spaniards lost 1,400. Strategically, Beresford's decision to fight was a mis take, for the siege had already been abandoned on Soult's ap proach; it exposed him to disaster when isolated, and even as it was the losses grievously impaired Wellington's strength. But mor ally, it had a vital influence on subsequent encounters.