[565] The main convoy only reached Abrantes when Wellesley had advanced to Plasencia, in Spain. See letter to the officer commanding Artillery at Castello Branco, dated July 8, from Plasencia.
[566] Cf. Wellesley to Frere, June 14, to Commissary-General Murray, June 16, both from Abrantes, and to Castlereagh, June 27.
[567] The 2/9th and 2/30th were sent to Gibraltar in May. The two squadrons of the 20th Light Dragoons and the one squadron of the 3rd Hussars of the K. G. L. were sent to Sicily at the same time.
[568] The 1/48th, 1/61st, and 23rd Light Dragoons.
[569] 1/43rd, 1/52nd, 1/95th. Of these three units only 1/43rd had been in Robert Craufurd’s old brigade, during the march to Sahagun. The other two had been in Anstruther’s brigade of Paget’s reserve; they had therefore fought at Corunna, while Craufurd and the ‘flank brigade’ which includes the 1/43rd, had been detached from the main army and had embarked at Vigo.
[570] A and I troops. The first joined in company with Craufurd. The second only appeared much later.
[571] Writing to Castlereagh on June 30, Wellesley remarks that ‘according to your account I have 35,000 men—according to my own I have only 18,000,’ but this was before he had been joined by the 1/61st, the 23rd Dragoons, and certain details. It is certain, from the careful table of troops engaged at Talavera which is to be found in the Record Office, that somewhat over 22,000 men entered Spain, and that after deducting sick left at Plasencia and elsewhere, just 20,600 fought at Talavera.
[572] These topics occur in many dispatches to Castlereagh. Perhaps the most notable is that of May 31, 1809, written at Coimbra.
[573] Wellesley’s anxiety to make examples may be traced in the series of letters concerning a private of the 29th which occur in his July dispatches. The man had been acquitted by a court-martial on the ground of insanity, but this did not satisfy the Commander-in-chief, who sends repeated orders that the award must be revised, and the man, if possible, executed.
[574] Viz. 2nd, Tilson and Richard Stewart; 3rd, Mackenzie and Donkin; 4th, A. Campbell and Kemmis.