[410] See the orders in the Archives du Ministère de la Guerre.
[411] It is this interchange of troops which makes all the figures of the Army of Portugal so divergent. Fririon, for example, ignores it, as do most French statisticians. But see Masséna’s orders (14), and the ‘situations’ in the Archives of Sept. 14 and Sept. 27 respectively.
[412] According to Napier (iii. 22-3) Craufurd risked his division somewhat in their skirmish. But this criticism is not made by D’Urban, Leach, and other eye-witnesses.
[413] The Light Division had been first divided into brigades on Aug. 8, when the 1st was constituted of the 43rd, four companies of the 95th, and the 1st Caçadores, under Beckwith: the 2nd of the 52nd, four companies of the 95th, and the 3rd Caçadores, under Barclay. See Atkinson’s lists of the Peninsular Army in the Eng. Hist. Rev.
[414] There are two monuments: this simple weather-beaten obelisk on the culminating height where the 1st Division stood, a point where no fighting took place, and the modern column lower down and close to the high-road, behind the spot where Craufurd fought. Here the Portuguese to this day maintain a small military post, and hoist a flag to do honour to the victory.
[415] Which makes astounding Fririon’s statement that it was only three-quarters of a league long (p. 46).
[416] Archibald Campbell’s and Fonseca’s brigades, forming Hamilton’s Portuguese Division, which was attached to the British 2nd Division throughout the war, and shared with it the triumphs of Albuera, Vittoria, and St. Pierre.
[417] This is the feature which Napier, somewhat hyperbolically, describes as ‘a chasm so profound that the naked eye could hardly distinguish the movement of troops in the bottom, yet so narrow in parts that 12-pounders could range across (iii. 21).’ It does not, as he says, separate the Serra de Bussaco from the last ridge in front of it, that which the French held, as it only lay in front of Craufurd and Pack. There is no chasm between Spencer’s, Picton’s, Leith’s, or Hill’s position and the French knolls.
[418] See the letter quoted on [page 358].
[419] See Marbot, ii. p. 384—if that lively writer may be trusted.