News reached Moore that the main French forces were much closer to him than he had thought; therefore the attack against Soult was abandoned. The cavalry action at Sahagun marked the final advance before the British began their long, painful and almost disastrous retreat towards the port of Corunna on the Galician coast. The presence of the British army had, as Moore intended, focussed Napoleon's attention upon it allowing the Spanish forces some time to reorganise and regroup after the defeats they had suffered.