[418] To Lord Liverpool, 8th May. Dispatches, vii. p. 531.
[419] 2/24th and 1/79th from Nightingale’s brigade, and the 1/71st from Howard’s, in all 1,850 bayonets, leaving the remainder of the 1st Division with 5,700 bayonets, the 3rd Division with 5,400, and Ashworth with 2,500 as the main line holding the plateau, with 3,700 of Craufurd’s Light Division in reserve.
[420] Masséna’s dispatch, see [Appendix, no. XIII]. Drouet is therefore wrongly blamed by French critics who say that he attacked an hour or two late—he had to wait to see the turning movement in successful progress.
[421] British narratives persistently state that infantry of the Imperial Guard fought in Fuentes village. But it is absolutely certain that there were none of those troops with Masséna’s army. The explanation lies in the fact that the grenadier company in a French regiment wore bearskins, and that a mass of grenadier companies therefore could easily be mistaken for Guards. All 71st and 79th diaries speak of fighting with ‘the Imperial Guards’ for this reason.
[422] Masséna’s dispatch speaks only of Claparéde’s division as being put in, but as Martinien’s lists show, Conroux must have been still more heavily engaged, for his division lost 31 officers killed and wounded, Claparéde’s only 25. Moreover, it was one of Conroux’s battalions (9th Léger) with which the 88th were engaged mainly, and this battalion alone lost 8 officers. About three battalions of each division remained in reserve and had few or no casualties, viz. the 64th, 88th, 95th, 96th, 100th, 103rd of the Line.
[423] Grattan of the 88th; see his Adventures, &c., pp. 66-7.
[424] This again from Grattan, who tells how his colonel, Wallace of Bussaco fame, said that he would rather have to retake Fuentes than to cover a retreat to the Coa.
[425] It is unfortunately impossible to disentangle the losses of the various battalions of the 9th Corps, as there is no regimental return, but only a corps return of its losses available. But some aid is given by Martinien’s invaluable Liste des officiers tués et blessés pendant les Guerres de l’Empire, which shows that the battalions that suffered most were the 4/9th Léger with 8 officers hurt out of 21 present, the 4/63rd Ligne with 7 out of 19, the 4/24th Ligne and 4/28th Léger, each with 6 out of 17, and the 4/16th Léger with 6 out of 16. These, clearly, were the units that were most engaged. Some belonged to Conroux’s, some to Claparéde’s division.
[426] Six guns of the cavalry, fourteen of the 6th Corps, four of the 8th Corps.
[427] Bull’s horse artillery troop, Thompson’s and Lawson’s companies, and three Portuguese batteries, those of Sequeira, Rosado, and Preto.