[712] To Henry Wellesley on August 28; cf. to Lord Liverpool of same date.
[713] To Lord Liverpool, Dispatches, viii. 256.
[714] Some typical regimental figures of September 15, 1811, may serve as illustrations. The 68th (only just landed) had 233 sick to 412 effective, the 51st (landed in April) 246 sick to 251 effective. The 77th landed on July 5th with 859 of all ranks, but had only 680 effective on August 5, and 560 on September 15. The 40th had, on September 15, 791 effective and 513 sick. The total sick on the last-named day were, ‘present’ 1,720, ‘hospitals’ 12,517, or 14,237 in all.
[715] Brigades of Pack and MacMahon, with the other five brigades incorporated in the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th Divisions, and two weak cavalry brigades under Madden. See tables in [Appendix XX].
[716] Thiébault (Mémoires, iv. p. 510) gives the total at 48,000 infantry and nearly 4,000 cavalry. I imagine the real total to have been a little larger, about 58,000 in all. By the returns of the summer of 1811 the two guard-infantry divisions had 15,000 men, Serras’s (Thiébault’s) 4,000 men, Souham’s nearly 8,000.
[717] Wellington to Charles Stuart, from Fuente Guinaldo, September 23rd. Dispatches, viii. p. 299.
[718] According to Marmont (Mémoires, iv. p. 63) only one division, Thiébault’s, actually entered the town.
[719] This reason for his great reconnaissances of September 25th is the only one given by Marmont (Mémoires, iv. p. 63).
[720] This was the first time on which the British cavalry fought lancers (at Albuera it was only infantry which were charged by the Poles). Tomkinson of the 14th reports (Diary, p. 115): ‘They looked well and formidable till they were broken and closed with by our men, and then their lances were an encumbrance.... Many caught in the appointments of other men, and pulled them to the ground.’
[721] That of Lamotte (1st and 3rd Hussars, 15th and 22nd Chasseurs) and that of Fournier (7th, 13th, 20th Chasseurs).