and French infantry reclaimed the town. The next day Coupigny tested the grounds at Villa Nueva and engaged the French piquets opposite him in a sharp skirmish. Castaños reached the heights at Arjonilla on 15 July and, setting up a battery on a ridge overlooking Andújar, opened fire on Dupont. At the same time, 1,600 4,000 skirmishers and irregulars under Colonel Cruz-Mourgeón forded the river near Marmolejo and attacked towards Dupont's rear, but were handily repulsed by a French battalion and dispersed into the hills. Alarmed by this show of force, Dupont called on Vedel to release a battalion or even a brigade to his assistance, and Vedel, judging that Mengíbar was not seriously threatened, set out in the night with his entire division. The arrival of Vedel with this sizeable force put an end to the threat at Andújar but gravely imperilled the French left wing (Mengíbar—Bailén—La Carolina), leaving Ligier-Belair seriously denuded of troops in his fight against Reding. Battle On 16 July Dupont and Vedel, expecting a desperate struggle for Andújar, found Castaños and Coupigny merely repeating the previous day's noisy demonstrations without seriously attempting a passage. Reding, however, was on the move: making a feint toward the Mengibar ferry with his sharpshooters, the Swiss forded the river upstream at Rincon and, encircling Mengibar, crushed the French battalions under Ligier-Belair. General Gobert, rushing forth from Bailén to plug the gap, was shot in the head and later died of the wound, and his counterattack, carried on by General of Brigade François Bertrand Dufour, collapsed under the weight of the Spaniards. Distracting Reding with repeated charges from his cuirassiers, Dufour disengaged his men and fell back onto Bailén. Alerted to the loss of Mengibar, Dupont hesitated once again. Unwilling to take advantage of Vedel's presence to engage in a trial of strength with Castaños—a successful attack on the Arjonilla might have turned the Spanish line in return and allowed Dupont to swing across the rear of Coupigny and Reding—Dupont hunkered down at Andújar and ordered Vedel's weary division back to Bailén to prevent the collapse of the right wing. The right wings disengage The fighting around Mengibar then took a curious turn: Reding, having finally gained the north bank and turned the French flank, suddenly retreated to the other side of the river, perhaps feeling isolated with his lone division. At the same time, guerrillas under Colonel Valdecanos made