The 1,100 dismounted cavalrymen were given muskets and formed into a column with Quesnel in command. A few of the weakest 3rd and 4th infantry battalions transferred their rank and file into their regiment's 1st and 2nd battalions. The superfluous officers and NCOs were formed into cadres and ordered to return to France to reform their units. These infantrymen were also attached to Quesnel's column. The force set out for Astorga and fought its way through a concentration of Spanish guerillas at Doncos. Though constantly sniped at during its march, the column made it through successfully. On 11 July 1809, Quesnel was ordered to Nijmegen and on 7 February 1810 was named to lead brigades of light cavalry. On 3 May 1810 he assumed command of the 11th Military Division. On 10 April 1811, Spanish guerillas under Francesc Rovira i Sala seized Sant Ferran Castle, throwing the French position in Catalonia into chaos. As commander in charge of the Pyrenees frontier district, Quesnel quickly assembled three line infantry battalions and the Gers and Haute-Garonne National Guard battalions and marched into Spain. He joined Luigi Gaspare Peyri's 1,500 men and 2,000 more under Louis Baraguey d'Hilliers to give d'Hilliers a force of 7,000 men. With this force, plus large reinforcements under Louis Auguste Marchand Plauzonne, the French began the Siege of Figueras. The besiegers repelled a Spanish relief attempt on 3 May but the operation tied up the VII Corps for the entire summer. By the time the starving Spanish garrison capitulated on 19 August 1811, 4,000 French troops had died, many from disease. During the siege, Quesnel's division included three battalions of the 79th Line Infantry Regiment, two battalions of the 23rd Light, one battalion of the 93rd Line, and three squadrons of the 29th Chasseurs à Cheval. In 1813, Napoleon appointed his stepson Eugène de Beauharnais to command the Army of Italy. By mid-May the 46th, 47th, and 48th French and 49th Italian Infantry Divisions were being organized. Actually, most of the so-called French troops were from areas of Italy annexed to the First French Empire. Only 13,000 men of Eugene's army came from France.