[558] Having now received the Brunswick Oels Jägers, the Light Division was six battalions strong, not its usual five. Its strength about this time was some 4,000 bayonets. Merle’s division was about 5,000 strong: it had dwindled to 4,200 effectives before December was out. Thus the English and Caçadore battalions averaged 650 men, the French 450 only, so that the strength was not very unequal. But only 2,500 of Craufurd’s troops were British.
[559] There its main body was now joined by Ferey’s brigade, which had been detached for some weeks.
[560] Probably Ferey’s brigade marching to join Loison and trains following it, and certainly Reynier’s trains which he had sent off towards Golegão. See Dispatches, vi. 629.
[561] The Diary of the Marches of the 4th Division, by its Assistant Quarter-Master, Charles Vere, settles the date. For Leith’s start on the same morning, see Leith-Hay’s Narrative, i. p. 269.
[562] Napier, however, dates the General’s escapade wrongly. It took place on the night of the 18th-19th, where it is duly related in the diary of George Simmons (p. 117), and not on the 21st as Napier implies. I have a copy of Delagrave’s Campagne de Portugal, which once belonged to Napier; he has written a sarcastic note on the bottom of page 111, commenting on the ridiculous account of the event which appeared in the French narratives. He adds that the sergeant’s name was McCurry, and that ‘the sergeant had sense enough to hold his tongue, but Craufurd spoke out, and so drew the fire of the enemy’s picket.’
[563] The emplacement of the Anglo-Portuguese army is given as follows by Beresford’s Quarter-Master-General, D’Urban, on the night of the 18th-19th, showing its complete dislocation:—
- Light Division, Pack, and Slade’s and Anson’s cavalry—before Santarem.
- 1st Division—Cartaxo.
- 2nd Division—passing the Tagus at Vallada.
- 5th Division—Alemquer.
- 4th Division—Sobral.
- 6th Division—Ribaldeira (in the Lines).
- 3rd Division, and Coleman’s and Alex. Campbell’s Portuguese—Torres Vedras.
- Le Cor’s Division—Alhandra (in the Lines).
[564] It was their march, visible from the other side of the Tagus, which helped to deceive Fane as to the general movements of the French army.
[565] See Delagrave, 128-30, and Gachot’s excellent notes thereon.
[566] Wellington to Liverpool, Nov. 26, 1810.