Andrés Pérez de Herrasti

Andrés Pérez de Herrasti y Pérez del Pulgar (1750–1818) was a Spanish military commander.

Early career

After enlisting as a cadet in the Provincial Regiment of Granada in 1762, Pérez de Herrasti transferred to the Royal Guards Corps in 1764, seeing action in Algeria in 1775. Promoted to second lieutenant in 1779, he participated in the blockade and siege of Gibraltar until 1783. Promoted two years later to lieutenant, he saw action at the siege of Oran in 1791 and, from April 1793, in the War of the Pyrenees at Masdeu, Perpignan, Millas, Trouillas, Bolou and Banyuls dels Aspres, by which time he had been promoted to captain.

In 1807 Pérez de Herrasti was given interim command of the 1st Battalion of his regiment and sent to Portugal,

Peninsular War

Stationed at Vicálvaro, just outside Madrid, when the Dos de Mayo Uprising took place, he was prohibited from moving into the capital by the president of the Council of Castile, Infante Antonio Pascual of Spain, who sent him to join General Castaños's troops stationed in La Rioja. with a garrison of 5,500 troops plus 240 horse under the command of lieutenant colonel Julián Sánchez, for carrying out sorties.

In February 1810, Pérez de Herrasti rejected Marshal Ney's demands for the surrender of the place which, together with the sorties carried out by Sánchez's horse, forced the French commander to return to his headquarters at the Castle of San Felices de los Gallegos. and Sánchez's horse now numbered 340.

At the end of the siege he was taken prisoner to Bayonne, where he remained until the end of the war.

Post-war career

On his return to Spain, he was promoted to lieutenant general in July 1814 and that same month appointed military governor of Barcelona, post he held at his death. In 1815 he was also, briefly, interim captain general of Catalonia.