A Forgotten Battle. The Charge of the Vistula Lancers Regiment in Avenidas De Montizón (Sierra Morena) During the Peninsular War (20 January 1810)

On 20 January 1810, during the Spanish War of Independence (Peninsular War), a military confrontation took place in the Sierra Morena mountains between the 4th Corps of the Grande Armée under the command of General Horace-François-Bastien Sébastiani and the remnants of the Spanish army that had been able to regroup after the disastrous battle of Ocaña. The successful and fearsome Polish Vistula Lancers Regiment, already famous among their enemies, conquered that day one of the passes linking La Mancha and Andalusia. However, this feat, so comparable to that of the Polish chevau-légers of the Imperial Guard at Somosierra in November 1808, did not make it into the history books, not even Polish ones. This article analyses the course of the battle, the reasons why it was forgotten and also, thanks to the contrast of documentary sources and new techniques for studying the terrain, clarifies the exact location of the battle.