Second Battle of Porto

The Second Battle of Porto, also known as the Battle of the Douro or the Crossing of the Douro, took place on 12 May 1809. General Arthur Wellesley's Anglo-Portuguese Army defeated Marshal Soult's French troops and took back the city of Porto. After taking command of the British troops in Portugal on 22 April, Wellesley (later named 1st Duke of Wellington, Marquess Douro) immediately advanced on Porto and made a surprise crossing of the Douro River, approaching Porto where its defences were weak. Soult's late attempts to muster a defence were in vain. The French quickly abandoned the city in a disorderly retreat.

This battle ended the Second French invasion of Portugal. Soult soon found his retreat route to the east blocked and was forced to destroy his guns and burn his baggage train. Wellesley pursued the French army, but Soult's army escaped annihilation by fleeing through the mountains.

The Second Portuguese campaign had started with the Battle of Braga.

In the First Battle of Porto (28 March 1809), the French under Marshal Soult defeated the Portuguese under Generals Lima Barreto and Parreiras outside the city of Porto. After winning the battle, Soult stormed the city. In addition to 8,000 military casualties, large numbers of civilians died. Approximately half of these are thought to have died in the Porto Boat Bridge disaster, when the city's only bridge, a pontoon bridge (or 'ponte de barcas'), was destroyed.

Having thus secured Portugal's second city, with its valuable dockyards, arsenals and materiel Soult halted at Porto to refit his army before a planned advance on Lisbon.

While Soult was in Porto, a detached French force operated to the east under the leadership of Major-General Louis Loison. Initially, this force included General of Division Henri Delaborde's infantry division and Lorge's cavalry division. A Portuguese force under Major General Francisco Silveira captured the French garrison of Chaves, a border town on the river Minho, and blocked Soult's communications with Spain by blockading the area around Amarante.

From 18 April to 3 May, the Portuguese held Loison on the west bank of the Tâmega River. On the latter day, French engineers succeeded in disarming the explosives-rigged bridge so that Delaborde's infantry could cross it.

Soult's refitting in Porto proceeded at a rather leisurely pace. His plans to advance south to Lisbon were then disrupted by the return to Portugal in April 1809 of General Arthur Wellesley, to command the British army, reinforced with Portuguese regiments trained by General Beresford. Wellesley immediately adopted an offensive strategy and his combined force proceeded to advance rapidly north from Lisbon via Coimbra towards Porto.