[593] There is a good, but short, account of this forced march, in bitter cold, to be found in the memoir of ‘T.S.’ of the 71st, one of Hope’s four infantry regiments. He speaks of a curious fact that I have nowhere else seen mentioned, viz. that at Peñaranda the artillery horses were so done up that Hope buried six guns, and turned their teams to help the other batteries. Apparently they were dug up a few days after by troops sent out from Salamanca, as the tale of batteries is complete when Moore resumed his march.
[594] I think that Napier (i. 287-8) somewhat exaggerates the danger which Hope ran in his march from Villacastin to Alba de Tormes. Of course if Lefebvre had been marching on Salamanca, the situation would have been dangerous: but as a matter of fact he was marching on the Guadarrama, which Hope had safely passed on the twenty-eighth. Every mile that the British moved took them further from Lefebvre’s route: his infantry was never within fifty miles of Hope’s convoy: and supposing his brigade of cavalry had got in touch with the British, it could have done nothing serious against a force of all arms in the hands of a very capable general. The ‘4,000 cavalry’ of which Napier speaks were in reality only 1,500.
[595] See James Moore’s memoir of his brother, p. 72; compare Napier, i. 292, and Lord Londonderry’s account of his own observations at Salamanca, in his History of the Peninsular War, i. 220, 221.
[596] The heavy ammunition and all the sick who could be moved were sent off on Dec. 5, under the escort of the 5/60th. See Moore’s ‘General Orders’ for that day, and Ormsby, ii. 54.
[597] Moore to Castlereagh, from Salamanca, Nov. 29.
[598] La Romana to Moore, from Leon, Nov. 30.
[599] See the ‘morning states’ for the army of Galicia on Dec. 4 and Dec. 14, in Arteche (iv. 532, 533).
[600] Martin de Garay to Moore, from Aranjuez, Nov. 28, 1808.
[601] This answer is recorded in the despairing appeal which Escalante wrote to Moore from Calzada de Baños on Nov. 7, after having started back to join the Junta. The rest of Moore’s arguments can be gathered from his own dispatches.
[602] Moore to Frere, from Salamanca, Dec. 6, 1808.