Editing Mequinenza (section)

=== Spanish War of Independence and the siege of Mequinenza ===
[[File:Louis-Gabriel Suchet.jpg|thumb|Louis-Gabriel Suchet]]

During the [[Peninsular War|Spanish War of Independence]], within the [[Napoleonic Wars]] the [[siege of Mequinenza]] began on 15 May 1810. Despite having only a castle with few defenses, the town and its castle were located in a strategic point for the [[Grande Armée|Napoleonic army]] to ensure the navigation of the [[Ebro]] and the use of the town as a supply and transport base for subsequent military operations. The first attack on the population was in mid-March after the capture of [[Fraga]], although population defenders under the command of Colonel Manuel Carbón rejected the attack. After this first failed attempt, the French high command changed its strategy seeking the peaceful surrender of the castle.{{cn|date=April 2024}}

Failing this attempt to surrender the square by peaceful route, the French army again opted for the military route. After the capture of [[Lleida|Lérida]], [[Louis-Gabriel Suchet|General Louis-Gabriel Suchet]] in command of the 3rd Army Corps ordered General Musnier to assault Mequinenza with his division. The siege began on 19 May and days later Musnier's troops were joined by those from the Mont-Marie brigade, stationed on the right bank of the Ebro and those of General Rogniat, who reinforced the siege with engineers, sappers and miners. The attackers numbered about 16,000 men, four engineer companies and two artillery with 14 pieces. The Spanish defense of the square, at the hands of Colonel Carbón, had a total of 1,200 men. On 2 June, French engineers had already started digging trenches and located artillery pieces to attack the castle while the infantry stormed the town at the same time. The Spanish garrison left the town on the night of 3 June and took refuge in the castle. On the night of 4 to 5 June, the second battalion of the first Vistula regiment erected a square tower armed with artillery. The same night the population is taken and eight pieces of cannon, four hundred rifles, fifteen barrels of gunpowder and four barges. The head of the Polish battalion Chlusowitz and the French sapper captain Foucaud lead the attack.{{cn|date=April 2024}}

With the town taken, General Suchet goes to the siege of the castle. On the night of 7 to 8 June, the artillery commanded by Battalion Chief Raffron, assembled three new batteries and the fire of sixteen artillery pieces begins at the start of the day. General Carbon's defenders respond vigorously by destroying three pieces, though French fire continues to dent the defenses. Finally, a part of the main walls succumbs and the projectiles begin to reach the center of the castle. The attack is joined by the French shooters parapeted with bags of sand. On the 8th at 10 o'clock in the morning, the Spanish garrison, after offering great resistance throughout the night, fought back and finally flew the white flag. The garrison gains the honor of parading in front of General Musnier's division and lays down its weapons in front of the [[glacis]] of the Mequinenza Castle. The Spanish troops at that time were 500 soldiers of various origins: Navarrese-Aragonese, Catalans, smugglers, [[Miquelet (militia)|Miquelets]], adventurers and a regiment commanded by an Englishman named Doyle who held the rank of Commissar General of Aragon. Inside the castle, the French found five mortars, four hundred thousand English-made cartridges, and thirty thousand gunpowder, as well as food for three months.{{cn|date=April 2024}}

[[File:Reproducció d'un mapa de la zona de Mequinensa (AFCEC VINTRO D 4140).jpeg|thumb|French map of the siege of Mequinenza (1810)]]

Mequinenza was incorporated into the French department of [[Bouches-de-l'Èbre]]. The French Mequinenza would not last long and in 1814 it would be recovered again for the Spanish thanks to the Spanish soldier and adventurer of Flemish origin [[Juan Van Halen]]. As a consequence of these military contests, the name "Mequinenza" appears on the [[Arc de Triomphe]] in Paris as one of the great Napoleonic victories in Spain.{{cn|date=April 2024}}

The British military man and artist [[Edward Hawke Locker]] describes the population in 1824 in his work "Views from Spain" after one of his trips around Spain:
<blockquote>
The Segre which rises in the Pyrenees at the distance of 120 miles, and traverses some of the richest plains of Cataluña, falls into the Ebro, beneath the walls of Mequinenza, which stands on the confluence of these two rivers, and of the Cinca, which also becomes tributary to the Ebro, near the same spot. Mequinenza is a fortified town os fome consecuence, though its population does not exceed 1500 souls.<ref>{{cite book|last=Locker|first=Edward Hawke|url=https://archive.org/details/viewsinspain00lockgoog|title=Views in Spain|date=1824|publisher=J. Murray|language=en}}</ref>
</blockquote>

Mequinenza returns to be a place of importance during the [[Carlist Wars]] and later in the [[Second Carlist War|War of the Matiners]]. In 1841, the adventurer and businessman [[Enrico Misley]] promoted the Ebro Steamer Company with the aim of establishing a transportation service between [[Zaragoza]] and [[Barcelona]] divided into sections, using coal from the Mequinenza mines as fuel for [[Steamship]]s. Misley's company ended up failing for political and economic reasons, although it meant a starting point in the concession and exploitation of the first mining demarcations of the Mequinenza coal basin.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Calvo |first=Miguel |title=Lo que el Ebro se llevó. Minas, trenes y barcos en la cuenca carbonífera de Mequinenza |publisher=Prames |year=2018 |isbn=978-84-8321-874-7 |location=Zaragoza |language=es}}</ref>