Note d: Both regiments were incomplete, having dropped men at Vittoria and Burgos.
[136] In the Vaughan Papers I find a ‘Journal of the operations of General Blake,’ by some officer of his staff, unnamed. It gives the force of the Galician army at Rio Seco as follows:—
| Officers. | Sergeants. | Drummers, &c. | Veteran rank and file. | Recruits. | Total. | ||
| Vanguard: Gen. Count Maceda | 75 | 81 | 76 | 1,678 | 277 | = | 2,187 |
| 1st Division: Gen. Cagigal | 186 | 194 | 166 | 4,795 | 1,315 | = | 6,470 |
| 4th Division: Marquis Portago | 188 | 185 | 144 | 3,208 | 2,281 | = | 5,818 |
| Head-quarters Guard: Volunteers of Navarre | 29 | 30 | 43 | 681 | — | = | 754 |
| 478 | 490 | 429 | 10,362 | 3,873 | = | 15,229 |
This total only differs by 26 from that given by Arteche (ii. 654).
[137] The flank battalion which started the rout was the ‘Regiment of Buenos Ayres,’ a provisional corps which had been formed out of the prisoners lately returned from England, who had been captured during our unlucky South American expedition, before Whitelock’s final fiasco (see the ‘Journal of Blake’s Operations,’ in the Vaughan Papers).
[138] In accordance with the unwise practice prevailing in most Continental armies, Blake had massed the grenadier companies of all his line regiments into two battalions, to act as a select reserve.
[139] When Stuart and Vaughan passed through Medina in September, they were given many harrowing details by the local authorities.
[140] See his remarks in the document of July 21, Nap. Corresp., 14,223.
[141] See Foy (iv. 45), and Nap. Corresp., 14,192, where the Emperor goes so far as to say: ‘Si le Général Dupont éprouvait un échec, cela ait de peu de conséquence. Il n’aurait d’autre résultat que de lui faire repasser les montagnes’ (i.e. the Sierra Morena).
[142] Of Gobert’s division the 5th provisional regiment and the Irish battalion never marched south. The 6th, 7th, and 8th provisional regiments—twelve battalions—formed the column; they left one battalion at Madridejos, another at Manzanares. One more remained in the pass at the Puerto del Rey; nine and the cuirassiers (700 strong) descended into the plains. See for details Cabany’s Baylen, p. 115.