José Imaz Altolaguirre (17611828) was a Spanish military commander during the Peninsular War. Early career In 1780, Imaz enlisted in the Regimiento Real de Lima, Peru, and saw active service in the campaign against Túpac Amaru. In 1782 he was promoted to second lieutenant. Returning to Spain in 1784, he transferred to the Regimiento de Infantería de Soria as a cadet, being promoted to lieutenant in 1789 and from September 1790 to July 1791 he was stationed at the besieged city of Ceuta. He was promoted to captain the following August, seeing action in several combats in Portugal. Peninsular War Siege of Badajoz Following the death of his commanding officer, Rafael Menacho, Imaz took command of the garrison. The following week, he called a council of war which decided to surrender to Mortier. On the way to France as a prisoner of war, he was rescued by a group of guerrilleros and taken to Cartagena and from there by sea to Cádiz. He was arrested on landing and court-martialled, a process that lasted until 1813, and ending with him being absolved. Oman's comments Oman, in his A History of the Peninsular War, Vol. IV (1911), was especially critical of Imaz's surrender, summing it up as follows: The worst part of his conduct was that he was aware that an army of succour was on the march to help him. For Badajoz had semaphore communication with Elvas, and on the preceding day the Portuguese General Leite had telegraphed to him, by Wellington’s orders, that Beresford had been detached with two divisions to hasten to his aid on March 8th. As a matter of fact, Beresford’s movement into Estremadura was retarded, and his corps did not move off for some days later, but Imaz did not know this, and he was certainly guilty of concealing from his officers that prompt succour had been promised, and was actually upon its way. The whole responsibility for the surrender falls on him, because he allowed Alvo, and the other voters for capitulation, to produce uncontradicted the statement that no relief was probable, while he knew himself that it had been promised. It is impossible to deny that this was pusillanimity reaching into and over the border of treason. (Oman 1911, pp. 60-61.) Badajoz was found by the victors to contain rations for 8,000 men sufficient to last for over a month, more than 150 serviceable