[240] In a letter of March 20 to Mr. Villiers, Cradock makes the astounding statement that after scouring all Portugal for horses for three months, he was still unable to provide them for four out of his six batteries.
[241] Cradock’s controversial letters to Lord Londonderry, printed in the latter’s history (ii. 286-7), do no more than bear out Londonderry’s accusations of torpidity against Sir John.
[242] Cradock contended that before the arrival of Hill and Sherbrooke and the return of Mackenzie from Cadiz, he had only 10,225 men, and, deducting sick and garrisons for the Lisbon forts, could only have marched out with 5,221. [Letter to Londonderry on p. 302, vol. ii. of the latter’s work.] He had sent 3,500 men to Cadiz and Seville, on Sir George Smith’s unhappy inspiration, or his force would have been much larger. As to the resolution to march against Soult, which he afterwards claimed to have made, it is sufficient to say that Wellesley on his arrival wrote to Castlereagh that ‘Sir John Cradock does not appear to have entertained any decided intention of moving forward: on the contrary he appears (by his letters to Mr. Villiers) to have intended to go no further till he should hear of Victor’s movements.’ [Well. Corresp., Lisbon, April 24.]
[243] All authorities agree as to the inferior character and status of a great part of the Portuguese officers. Dumouriez remarks [1766] that ‘their pay does not enable them to live better than the common soldiers, whose comrades and relatives they often are. The subaltern ranks are filled from the inferior classes, and their hatred of foreigners prevents their association with, or receiving any improvement from, them: hence it is that they remain in such ignorance and wretchedness’ (p. 17). Halliday remarks (p. 106) that ‘even captains had not the rank of gentlemen.’ Compare with this Patterson’s curious note (vol. i. p. 250), ‘The familiarity that subsists between the native officers and their men renders ineffective all the authority of the former, at the same time defeating the object to be attained by discipline. They eat, gamble, and drink together. I have even seen them waltzing and figuring off in the contra-danza, captains with corporals, majors with drumboys—all Jack-fellows well met, and excellent boon companions. They will not of themselves do anything, their good qualities must be elicited by strangers. I know of nothing that stamps the character of Lord Beresford as a man of energy and perseverance, more than the way in which he has organized them, and from a miserable undisciplined rabble produced, in course of time, a fair body of fighting troops, who performed (encouraged by their English officers) some spirited service during the war.’
[244] Of these, twelve squadrons were originally cuirassiers (Dumouriez, p. 18), but their armament had been discarded before 1800, and one regiment only was light horse.
| Twenty-four regiments of infantry of two battalions each | 36,000 |
| twelve regiments of cavalry at 470 | 5,640 |
| four regiments of artillery at 989 | 3,956 |
| ten garrison companies of artillery (veterans) | 1,300 |
| ‘Experimental Legion,’ engineers, &c. | 1,500 |
| Total | 48,396 |
Halliday gives an even larger figure, 52,204.
[246] Except two Lisbon regiments, named Viera Tellez and Freire, from former colonels of distinction [Nos. 4 and 16].
[247] It was intended, however, to give each cavalry regiment an extra squadron.