Siege of San Sebastián

The siege of San Sebastián took place between 7 July and 8 September 1813, during the Peninsular War. Allied British and Portuguese forces under the command of Thomas Graham captured the city by assault after a lengthy siege, which followed a failed earlier siege and attack under the lead of Arthur Wellesley, Marquess of Wellington. The successful assault carried out by Graham forced the surrender of the defending French garrison under Louis Emmanuel Rey. Having broken into the town during the final assault, the allied soldiers rampaged out of control through San Sebastián, abusing and murdering many of its civilian inhabitants and setting fire to many of the city's buildings.

San Sebastián (Donostia in Basque), had 9,104 inhabitants at the time and was more liberal than the surrounding conservative province of Gipuzkoa. The town was open to different influences from Gascony and France in the north and Spain in the south. Moreover, the make-up of the town had been conspicuously mixed ethnic Gascon and Basque since its foundation, although the Gascon language may have died out already by this point in the town's history.

After Napoleon's takeover in France, his elder brother Joseph I was proclaimed king of Spain in 1808. Francisco Amorós, who is cited in many accounts as "French-minded", was then appointed chief magistrate of the town. While it seems that the new authorities and aides were not held in especially high regard by the population, peace prevailed throughout the period up to 1813, and French troops were generally well accepted. This balance swung when French troops retreating under Emmanuel Rey's command and refugees fleeing Vitoria after the French defeat arrived in the city in June.

On 1 July General of Brigade Rey's 3,170-man French garrison consisted of the 22nd and 34th Line (one battalion each), 62nd Line (two battalions), elements of the 1st and 119th Line, one company each of sappers and pioneers, and two companies of gunners. Seventy-six guns lined the fortifications.

To prosecute the siege, Lieut-Gen Sir Thomas Graham was given command of 9,000 troops from Maj-Gen John Oswald's 5th Division and Brig-Gen Henry Bradford's Portuguese brigade. Graham initially deployed 40 heavy guns from various sources.

According to Charles Oman (1902–1930), the 5th Division had 3,900 British officers and men and 2,300 Portuguese, with a further 2,300 Portuguese troops in Bradford's brigade. (Marching strengths 25 May 1813, minus Battle of Vitoria casualties.) Javier Sada has stated that the makeup of the allied troops investing the town included an important multinational share of soldiers of fortune, whose only incentive was the booty obtained in the conquered strongholds.

After winning the decisive Battle of Vitoria on 21 June 1813, Wellington's army advanced into the western Pyrenees to take the mountain passes and to face Marshal Soult's who had retreated back to France to try to reorganise his army. To clear his rear area, and to evict the last French forces from Spain, Wellington needed to take Pamplona and San Sebastián. Lacking resources to attack both simultaneously, Pamplona was blockaded and San Sebastián was put under siege.

The blockade of Pamplona took time, but resulted in the surrender of the French forces there due to starvation on 31 October 1813.