Napoleonic Wars - Battle of Salamanca 1812 - Universal History

By 1812, the French forces in Spain were spread too thin, as Napoleon withdrew his best troops for his invasion of Russia. Wellington saw an opportunity to attack. He first secured the strategic fortress cities of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz, both taken in bloody assaults, then advanced to Salamanca, where his Anglo-Portuguese army met Marshal Marmont's French army in one of the most decisive engagements of the Peninsular War.