Qualla: Battle of Bussaco https://qualla.com/battle-of-bussaco en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:17 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/e/z/4/j/battle-of-bussaco-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Battle of Bussaco https://qualla.com/battle-of-bussaco Battle of Bussaco: Introduction https://qualla.com/battle-of-bussaco/ Photo credit Tschubby, CC BY-SA 3.0. Wellington hid an entire army on the wrong side of a hill. On 27 September 1810, some 52,000 Anglo-Portuguese troops lay concealed along the reverse slope of the Serra do Bussaco, a ten-mile granite ridge rising 549 meters above the road to Coimbra. No cooking fires gave them away. No glint of bayonets betrayed their positions. Marshal Massena, commanding 65,000 French soldiers tasked by Napoleon with driving the British from Portugal, surveyed the ridge and saw almost nothing. He attacked anyway.

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Image: Tschubby | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/e/z/4/j/battle-of-bussaco-wp/ez4j-battle-of-bussaco-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Battle of Bussaco: The Ridge That Swallowed Armies https://qualla.com/battle-of-bussaco/ Photo credit Alta Falisa, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Serra do Bussaco was Wellington's chosen ground, and he prepared it with a craftsman's care. Engineers from the Royal Corps cut a hidden road along the reverse slope, allowing rapid redeployment that the French could neither see nor anticipate. Six British infantry divisions ...

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Image: Alta Falisa | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/e/z/4/j/battle-of-bussaco-wp/ez4j-battle-of-bussaco-the-ridge-that-swallowed-armies.mp3 0:06 2 full Battle of Bussaco: Through the Morning Mist https://qualla.com/battle-of-bussaco/ Photo credit Manuel F. V. G. Mourão, Public domain. Reynier's corps struck first, columns of infantry climbing the steep slope in early morning fog. Heudelet's leading brigade advanced one company wide and eight battalions deep, a formation designed for momentum on flat ground that became a deathtrap on a mountainside. When the le...

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Image: Manuel F. V. G. Mourão | Public domain

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/e/z/4/j/battle-of-bussaco-wp/ez4j-battle-of-bussaco-through-the-morning-mist.mp3 0:06 3 full Battle of Bussaco: A Convent Becomes a Battlefield https://qualla.com/battle-of-bussaco/ Photo credit Thomas S. St. Clair, Public domain. Marshal Ney, hearing gunfire and assuming Reynier was succeeding, launched his own attack up the spur toward the Convent of Bussaco. What followed was one of the Peninsular War's most devastating ambushes. Near the crest, 1,800 soldiers of the 43rd and 52nd Light Infantry lay fla...

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Image: Thomas S. St. Clair | Public domain

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/e/z/4/j/battle-of-bussaco-wp/ez4j-battle-of-bussaco-a-convent-becomes-a-battlefield.mp3 0:06 4 full Battle of Bussaco: Victory Without an Ending https://qualla.com/battle-of-bussaco/ Photo credit Roque Gameiro, Public domain. Bussaco was a triumph, but Wellington knew it was not a conclusion. Massena, chastened but resourceful, sent cavalry patrols around both ends of the ridge and found a route that outflanked the position to the north. On the night of 28 September, the French slipped away toward the...

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Image: Roque Gameiro | Public domain

]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/e/z/4/j/battle-of-bussaco-wp/ez4j-battle-of-bussaco-victory-without-an-ending.mp3 0:06 5 full