The Difficulties Napoleon’s Troops Faced in Besieging Almeida

When the French were ready to dig trenches around Almeida, specifically opposite the São Pedro Bastion, they encountered considerable difficulties, “as Almeida stands on a plateau of bare granite, with only 60 to 90 centimetres of earth covering the hard layer beneath” (OMAN, 1908, p. 267).

Faced with the impossibility of digging into the ground to protect themselves from Portuguese artillery fire, the French sappers of the 6th Corps were forced to build upwards instead. “The first parallel was laid out at a distance of only 450 metres from the walls; completing it proved very difficult due to the shallow depth of the soil, and it had to be constructed using gabions and sandbags rather than excavated into the rocky subsoil. In many places, rock outcrops reached the surface and had to be blasted by the sappers to create a trench, however shallow” (OMAN, 1908, p. 272).

Despite these difficulties, “between the 17th and the 24th, no fewer than eleven batteries were built along the first parallel, armed with more than 50 heavy guns. On the 24th, the Portuguese managed to prevent construction of the second parallel from beginning, driving off the workers before they could take shelter in the stony ground.” Meanwhile, “at six o’clock in the morning on 26 August, all the batteries were completed and opened fire” (OMAN, 1908, p. 272).

And so, 26 August would become a day whose memory would live on forever.

Bibliographical reference:

OMAN, Charles (1908). A History of the Peninsular War [Online]. Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, vol. III, pp. 267–272. [Accessed 15 June 2026]. Available at: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/55231/55231-h/55231-h.htm#FNanchor_317.

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