[555] Leith Hay, ii. pp. 57-8.
[556] See Le Marchant’s Life, from notes supplied by his son, in Cole’s Peninsular Generals, ii. p. 281.
[557] Life of Le Marchant, p. 285.
[558] Life of Le Marchant, pp. 286-7.
[559] Le Marchant was also an admirable artist in water colours. I saw many of his pleasing sketches of Peninsular landscapes when his grandson, Sir Henry Le Marchant, allowed me to look through his correspondence and notes.
[561] I have read with respect his admirable letters to his family. ‘I never go into battle,’ he said, ‘without subjecting myself to a strict self-examination: when, having (as I hope) humbly made my peace with God, I leave the result in His hands, with perfect confidence that He will determine what is best for me.’
[562] It is vexatious to find that neither the 22nd nor the 66th was among the fourteen Salamanca regiments of which detailed casualty lists survive. The 15th Line returned 15 officers and 359 men as their loss. Martinien’s tables show 21 officers lost in the 22nd, and 17 in the 66th. The deficits of these two regiments as shown by the muster-rolls of August 1 were respectively about 750 and 500, but these do not represent their total losses, as all the regiments present at the battle had picked up many men at their dépôts at Valladolid, and from the small evacuated posts, before August 1, e.g. the 15th had 52 officers present on July 15, lost 15 at Salamanca, but showed 46 present on August 1; 9 officers must have joined from somewhere in the interim. So the 66th had 38 officers present on July 15, lost 17, but showed 34 present on August 1. Thirteen more must have arrived, and accompanied of course by the corresponding rank and file.
[563] The regiments of Maucune’s brigade, which did not get caught in the cavalry charge (82nd and 86th), lost only 8 and 3 officers respectively, as against the 15 and 17 lost by the 66th and 15th. Of Brennier’s division the 22nd Line had 21 casualties among officers, while the 65th and 17th Léger had only 3 and 9 respectively.
[564] So Parquin of the 13th Chasseurs in his Mémoires, p. 302. The only other red-coated dragoons in Wellington’s army, Bock’s brigade, were far away to the left.