TALAVERA.—THE FRENCH LOSSES
N.B.—I owe these figures to the kindness of Commandant Balagny, who has caused them to be copied in detail from the French Archives.
TABLE LEGEND:
- A = Officers.
- B = Men.
| Regiments. | Killed. | Wounded. | Missing. | Total. | |||
| A | B | A | B | A | B | ||
| 1st Corps (Marshal Victor): | |||||||
| État-Major Général | – | – | 1 | – | – | – | 1 |
| 1st Division (Ruffin): | |||||||
| 9th Léger | 3 | 35 | 14 | 340 | – | 65 | 457 |
| 24th Line | 1 | 92 | 17 | 456 | 1 | – | 567 |
| 96th Line | 3 | 36 | 19 | 548 | – | – | 606 |
| État-Major | – | – | 2 | – | – | – | 2 |
| 1,632 | |||||||
| 2nd Division (Lapisse): | |||||||
| 16th Léger | 8 | 49 | 8 | 342 | – | – | 407 |
| 8th Line | 3 | 41 | 17 | 376 | – | – | 437 |
| 45th Line | 3 | 43 | 12 | 328 | – | 2 | 388 |
| 54th Line | 2 | 54 | 14 | 462 | – | – | 532 |
| État-Major | – | – | 3 | – | – | – | 3 |
| 1,767 | |||||||
| 3rd Division (Villatte): | |||||||
| 27th Léger | 1 | 25 | 4 | 159 | – | – | 189 |
| 63rd Line | – | 2 | 2 | 36 | – | – | 40 |
| 94th Line | 1 | 20 | 1 | 123 | – | – | 145 |
| 95th Line | – | – | – | 27 | – | – | 27 |
| 401 | |||||||
| Corps-Cavalry (Beaumont): | |||||||
| 2nd Hussars | – | 3 | 2 | 11 | – | – | 16 |
| 5th Chasseurs | – | 1 | 3 | 19 | – | – | 23 |
| 39 | |||||||
| Artillery and Engineers | 1 | 9 | 1 | 53 | – | – | 64 |
| Total of 1st Corps | 26 | 410 | 120 | 3,280 | 1 | 67 | 3,904 |
| 4th Corps (General Sebastiani): | |||||||
| 1st Division (Sebastiani): | |||||||
| 28th, 32nd, 58th, 75th Line | 13 | 187 | 67 | 1,852 | – | 61 | 2,180 |
| 2nd Division (Leval): | |||||||
| Baden, Hesse, Nassau, Holland, Frankfort | 6 | 97 | 24 | 803 | – | 77 | 1,007 |
| 3rd Division (Valence): | |||||||
| 4th Polish Regiment | – | 3 | – | 37 | – | – | 40 |
| Total of 4th Corps | 19 | 287 | 91 | 2,692 | – | 138 | 3,227 |
| Cavalry Divisions— | |||||||
| 1st Division of Dragoons (Latour-Maubourg): | |||||||
| 1st, 2nd, 4th, 9th, 14th, 26th Dragoons | – | 13 | 9 | 61 | – | – | 83 |
| 2nd Division of Dragoons (Milhaud): | |||||||
| 5th, 12th, 16th, 20th, 21st Dragoons | – | – | – | 3 | – | – | 3 |
| Milhaud’s Artillery | – | – | – | 3 | – | – | 3 |
| Merlin’s Light Cavalry Division: | |||||||
| 10th, 26th Chasseurs, Polish Lancers, Westphalian Chevaux-Légers | – | 6 | – | 42 | – | – | 48 |
| Total of Cavalry Divisions | – | 19 | 9 | 109 | – | – | 137 |
| General Totals:— | |||||||
| 45 officers, 716 rank and file killed; | |||||||
| 220 officers, 6,081 rank and file wounded; | |||||||
| 1 officer, 205 rank and file missing = 7,268. | |||||||
Note.—No distinction is made in the French returns between losses on July 27 and July 28, which cannot therefore be ascertained separately.
These ‘Missing’ do not include the French wounded who were left within the British lines on the night of July 28, and became prisoners, but were freed again on Aug. 6 when Victor reoccupied Talavera and captured the British hospitals. They must have been numerous in the divisions of Ruffin, Lapisse, and Sebastiani. The French returns are those made up for the Emperor’s use, some weeks after the battle—those of the 4th Corps as late as Sept. 19. The men in question therefore appear as ‘wounded,’ but not as ‘prisoners.’
XI
THE BRITISH ROYAL ARTILLERY IN THE PENINSULA IN 1809