Juan Pignatelli

Juan Domingo Pignatelli de Aragón y de Gonzaga, 6th VI Duke of Solferino, 19th Conde de Fuentes[1][2] (1762–1819) was a Spanish military commander.

This article is about the Spanish officer serving in Spain during the Peninsular War. For the Italian officer serving in Spain during the Peninsular War, see Francesco Pignatelli, Prince of Strongoli.
Juan Pignatelli
Born27 January 1757
Turin
Died9 November 1819(1819-11-09) (aged 62)
Madrid
Battles/warsAmerican Revolutionary War
War of the Pyrenees
Peninsular War

Early career

After studying at the Real Seminario de Nobles de Madrid,[2] Pignatelli enlisted in 1773 as a cadet in the Spanish Royal Guard (Guardias de Corps). In 1779 he was attached as colonel to the Montesa Cavalry Regiment, seeing action at Gibraltar[3] during the American Revolutionary War.

In 1793, during the War of the Pyrenees, he was promoted to field marshal[3] and in 1795 appointed commander-in-chief of the coast of Santander (Comandante General de Toda la Costa de Santander).[2]

Pignatelli was appointed military governor of Zamora in 1801.[3][4]

He was promoted, in October 1802, to lieutenant general in the same promotion as other notable Spanish military commanders of the Spanish armies during the Peninsular War, including the Duke of the Infantado, Manuel Lapeña, Juan Carrafa, Francisco Castaños, Francisco Taranco, Francisco Eguía, and Arturo O'Neill, among others.[5]

Peninsular War
Main article: Peninsular War

1808

In May, Lieutenant general Pignatelli was still governor of Zamora[6] and on 30 September, he was appointed commander-in-chief of the Spanish forces in Old Castile.[7][3]

By mid-October, Pignatelli, based at Logroño, commanded the army of Castile, having substituted Eguia,[8] who was ill. This was, by far, the largest division of Spain's Army of the centre, with 10,000 infantry, 1,500 cavalry, and 14 guns.[9][note 1]

Later that month, Castaños dismissed Pignatelli for having retreated from Logroño before Ney's troops and abandoning all his guns at the foot of the mountains around Nalda.[9] His troops were redistributed among the divisions of Grimarest, La Peña, and Llamas,[8] and a brigade of six battalions under Cartaojal,[8] which was then sent back and managed to recover the abandoned guns.[9]

In December, the Junta Suprema ordered Marquis de La Romana to dismiss Pignatelli from the post of captain general of Old Castile and to court-martial him for the "scandalous and cowardly abandonment of Valladolid and Avila". As it is not clear if La Romana received the order or if he decided not to act on it, the Junta repeated the order the following February.[6]

1809

By the end of January Pignatelli, still captain general of Old Castile,[6] had raised a new regiment, the Volunteers of Avila, which he sent to supplement the under-manned garrison at Ciudad Rodrigo.[10]

1810

In November, the Regency absolved Pignatelli, by then no longer governor of Zamora,[6] of having abandoned Valladolid and Avila to their fate before the enemy.[7]

See also

Notes
  1. The other divisions were as follows: Grimarest: the second division of Andalusia, with 5,000; La Peña's 4th Division, with 5,000 infantry; the artillery, plus a division of infantry, at Cintruénigo; and the remainder at Tudela and neighbouring villages. (Napier, 1844: p. 91.)

References
  1. (in Spanish). Hernández Viñerta, María Jesús. El Condado de Fuentes (siglos XVI-XXI), p. 119. Institución Fernando el Católico. Diputación de Zaragoza. Retrieved 1 May 2023.
  2. (in Spanish). Gómez de Olea y Bustinza, Javier; Pedro Moreno Meyerhoff (2007). Anales de la Real Academia Matritense de Heráldica y Genealogía. Vol. X., pp. 223 (footnote 45), 226. Real Academia Matritense de Heráldica y Genealogía. Retrieved 1 May 2023.
  3. (in Spanish). Gil Novales, Alberto (2010). Diccionario biográfico de España (1808-1833): P/Z, p. 2418. Fundación Mapfre. Retrieved 1 May 2023.
  4. (in Spanish). Kalendario manual y guía de forasteros en Madrid, para el año de 1802, p. 87. Imprenta Real, 1802. Google Books. Retrieved 30 April 2023.
  5. (in Spanish). Gaceta de Barcelona, no. 1750, p. 14. 6 October 1802. Hemeroteca Digital. Biblioteca Nacional de España. Retrieved 30 April 2023.
  6. (in Spanish). Gras y Esteva, Rafael [1913] (2006). Zamora en Tiempo de la Guerra de la Independencia, pp. 36, 82, 92, 114–115, 133 171–172. Google Books. Retrieved 29 April 2023.
  7. (in Spanish). Gazeta de la Regencia de España e Indias del jeuves 22 de noviembre de 1810, p. 933. Boletín Oficial del Estado. Retrieved 29 April 2023.
  8. Oman, Charles (1902). A History of the Peninsular War, Vol. I, pp. 385, 392–294. Project Gutenberg. Retrieved 30 April 2023.
  9. Napier (1844). History of the War in the Peninsula, Vol. 1, p. 91, 93, 98. Google Books. Retrieved 29 April 2023.
  10. Oman, Charles (1903). A History of the Peninsular War, Vol. II, p. 258, footnote 306. Project Gutenberg. Retrieved 30 April 2023.
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