Manuel Freire de Andrade

Manuel Alberto Freire de Andrade y Armijo (4 November 1767 – 7 March 1835) was a Spanish cavalry officer and general officer during the Peninsular War, and later Defense Minister.

Freire (also known as Freyre) was born in Carmona, Spain near Seville, to a Spanish cavalry officer from Galicia, Francisco Freire de Andrade, and his wife Josefa Armijo y Bravo, also from Carmona. He joined his father's Alcántara cavalry regiment as a minor cadet when just seven years old, and on 1 January 1780 became an ordinary cadet. He participated in his first battle on 15 May 1793, against revolutionary French forces during the opening of the Battle of Mas Deu, part of the War of the Pyrenees. Freire spent the next two years in Rousillon and Catalonia, including that war's last actions during which Spanish forces recaptured Puigcerda and Bellver (after the peace treaty had been signed).Urquijo Goitia, José Ramón
"Diccionario biográfico de ministros". Instituto de Historia.
Retrieved 1 September 2103. Freire received several promotions during that war, having been named a junior lieutenant on 10 October 1793, full lieutenant on 20 November, ''ayundante'' on 13 December 1793, captain on 18 February 1794, and cavalry captain on 28 July 1795. During the following peace, Freire was promoted to sergeant major, then command of a squadron on 4 April 1801. He later participated in a campaign against Portugal in Arronches, before being assigned to training in Mallorca.

Peninsular War

Freire joined fellow Spaniards in fighting against invading Napoleonic forces, and on 15 September 1807, took command (as colonel) of a volunteer cavalry regiment in Madrid. The following year he saw action in Extremadura and other locations. He was promoted to brigadier on 2 March 1809 after a campaign in La Mancha, and to field marshal after the Battle of Talavera. On 10 January 1810, he was appointed commander of cavalry under Juan Carlos de Aréizaga and led them at Ocaña on 19 November, a devastating defeat that cost the Spanish control of Andalusia. He wrote a manual revising Spanish cavalry tactics, published in Murcia in 1813.

After fighting the French in Murcia, Granada, and Valencia (1810-1812), Freire became a general and succeeded Francisco Javier Castaños in command of the Fourth Army, or Army of Galicia on August 12, 1813. His corps defeated Soult at the Battle of San Marcial on 31 August 1813, earning him the San Fernando Cross. At the Battle of the Bidassoa on 7 October, Freire led the divisions of Generals Del Barco and Barcena across the river to capture French positions on Mont Calvaire. Freire also participated in the Battle of Nivelle on 10 November. He fought with "conspicuous gallantry" at the Battle of Toulouse in 1814, where his two divisions were desperately mauled in the fighting for the French redoubts on Mont Rave.

On 7 October 1814, Freire married Beatriz Abbad y Alfaro, the 33-year-old widow of a fellow officer. They had two sons, Manuel (who died shortly after his father) and Jose (who succeeded to the title of Marquis de San Marcial awarded his father shortly before his death).

Freire's military career continued, and he also became active in politics during the turbulent post-war era. In 1818, Freire and three other officers published "Informe sobre la mejora y aumento de la cría de caballos, dado al Supremo Consejo de Guerra". Two years later, he published two additional books concerning his postwar conduct in Andalucia and Cadiz.
''Manifiesto que da al público el teniente general D. Manuel Freyre para hacer conocer su conducta en el tiempo que tuvo el mando del ejército reunido de Andalucía y de los sucesos acaecidos en Cádiz en 1820''. (Sevilla, 1820), and ''Contestación al expuesto que los procuradores síndicos presentaron al Excmo. Ayuntamiento de la ciudad de Cádiz en 13 de mayo de 1820, por el Teniente General D. Manuel Freyre''. (Jerez de la Frontera: D. Manuel Ruiz, 1820).

Notes

References

*Gates, David. ''The Spanish Ulcer: A History of the Peninsular War.'' Da Capo Press 2001.
* Glover, Michael. ''The Peninsular War 1807-1814.'' London: Penguin, 2001.
*Longford, Elizabeth. ''Wellington: The Years of The Sword''. New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1969.
* Muñoz Maldonado, José. ''Historia política y militar de la Guerra de la Independencia de España contra Napoleon Bonaparte desde 1808 á 1814. Tomo III / escrita sobre los documentos auténticos del gobierno por el Dr. D. José Muñoz Maldonado''. Madrid: Imprenta de D. José Palacios, 1833.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Freire Andrade Armijo, Manuel Alberto
1767 births
1835 deaths
Spanish generals
Spanish commanders of the Napoleonic Wars