page_title: Siege of San Sebastián
section_title: Second Siege
hierarchical_section_title: Siege of San Sebastián / Second Siege
caption_attribution_description: English: Louis Emmanuel Rey surrenders at the Siege of San Sebastián.
context_page_description: In the Siege of San Sebastián, part of the Peninsular War, Allied forces under the command of Arthur Wellesley, Marquess of Wellington captured the city of San Sebastián in northern Basque Country from its French garrison under Louis Emmanuel Rey. The attack resulted in the ransacking and devastation of the town by fire.
context_section_description: After driving Soult back across the frontier, Wellington waited until the rest of the battering train and sufficient supplies of shot had arrived from England before he again turned his attention to San Sebastián: even with the increased resources now available to him, Wellington could only mount one formal siege at a time, whilst it was decided to plump for San Sebastian on the grounds that it was weaker, more accessible and open to resupply by sea. By 15 August the French commander, Rey had received some drafts from blockade running vessels but, even so, he only had 2,700 effective troops and 300 wounded in hospital.
  On 19 August British supplies started to arrive, including additional engineering pioneers so that by 23 August the guns were ready to resume the offensive. By 26 August the British had established batteries for 63 pieces of artillery. On 26 August, 15 heavy cannon from the south and 48 guns from the east were blasting away, destroying towers and making more breaches in the walls.
  On 27 August, 200 men from Beagle, Challenger, Constant, and Surveillante rowed into the bay to the west and after a brief fight and a handful of casualties, captured a small island, Santa Clara. The British then moved six guns from Surveillante on to the island to establish a battery to enfilade the town and the castle. The French were dismayed as they had thought the island's sides were too steep to assault.
  The main breach in the east wall was almost 500 feet (150 m) long with the towers at each end demolished. In the south a sap had been pushed forward to the glacis of the hornwork.
  Because the attack had to be made as the tide fell, it was scheduled for 11:00 am on 31 August. Another mine was exploded, which partly took down a wall, but also created a series of craters so that when the 5th Division made the assault from the south on the main breach. The soldiers dashed across the 180 yards (160 m) from the trenches through the craters to the foot of the breach with little loss, but then the French opened a terrific fire. Again and again the men of the 5th Division rushed up the rubble-strewn breach, but they were cut down in swathes.
  The French had built a coupure (inner wall) that stopped the redcoats from breaking through the defences. Hundreds of British soldiers were killed. Graham committed 750 volunteers from the 1st, 4th, and Light Divisions, but they were unable to push back the French defenders. A Portuguese brigade splashed across the Urumea River and attacked the eastern breach, but their drive also stalled. After two hours, the assault was a costly failure. The survivors hugged the ground to avoid the searing fire.
  After consulting with his artillery commander, Alexander Dickson, Graham chose to open fire on the coupure's inner wall, despite the risk of killing many British soldiers who lay so close under the barrier. When the British heavy guns first fired over their heads, the survivors of the attack began to panic. But, when the smoke cleared, they saw that the big guns had wrecked most of the inner wall. With a yell, they charged, reached the top of the breach, and spilled into the city. At the sight of their defence lines broken, the French retreated to the fortress on the hill of Urgull and by midday the besiegers had taken over the town.
  On inspection it was discovered that not a single shot had fallen short into the allied troops, even though they were fired from 600–800 yards (550–730 m) for 20 minutes and that, aided by an explosion of ready grenades and live shells on the wall, few defenders survived uninjured. 700 French were captured in the town which by now was in flames.
  Rey and the rest of his surviving garrison held out until 5 September before asking for terms. The French commander formally surrendered on 8 September, and, in recognition of a noble defence, the remainder of the garrison stationed in the fortress was granted the honours of war by the Anglo-Portuguese forces. They marched out of the stronghold with shouldered arms, flags flying, to the sound of the drums. Their officers were permi
caption: Rey and the garrison surrenders (from a British book)
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