103 Chaves 11 March 1809: The Portuguese resolve to fight - WDS Bonaparte's Peninsular War

Chaves 11 March 1809 "What if" - After the British expeditionary force had successfully evacuated at Coruna, Napoleon ordered Soult's 23,000 strong (a further 10,000 men were sick) II Corps to invade Portugal with the totally unrealistic timetable of occupying Oporto by 1 February and Lisbon nine days later. In fact, due to an insurgency in Galicia, Soult was only able to cross the Portuguese frontier on 9 March, where he encountered a 12,000 strong force of mostly ill-equipped Portuguese militia under Silveira at Chaves. Rather than attempt to defend Chaves - the walls hadn't been repaired since the Spanish siege of 1762 - Silveira fell back south of the town to the San Pedro heights. However, some 3,000 of his troops refused to abandon Chaves and, aided by around 1,200 armed civilians, determined to defend it against the French. When Soult drove off Silveira's force, the Portuguese in Chaves were persuaded to surrender, but this "what if" scenario assumes that they decided to fight.