[456] Castaños himself during the campaign acted more as Captain-General than as Army-Commander—stationing himself at Salamanca and reorganizing the districts just recovered from the French.
[457] Apparently not without reason, if we can trust King Joseph’s correspondence, which contains notes of a treasonable intrigue in May, between certain officers of the 3rd Army and General Viruez, an Afrancesado at Madrid. See Correspondance du Roi, ix. pp. 130 and 466.
[458] Total force a nominal 15,000, but dépôts, hospitals, petty garrisons, &c., absorbed a full third—the cavalry was 441 sabres only.
[459] See Codrington to Wellesley, January 18, in Supplementary Dispatches, vii. p. 569.
[460] Sarsfield with one of the two Catalan field divisions was normally operating as a sort of guerrillero on the Aragonese side. Manso generally hung about the Ampurdam with a brigade.
[461] The H.A. troops were ‘A’ Ross, ‘D’ Bean, ‘E’ Gardiner, ‘F’ Webber-Smith, and ‘I’ Ramsay. The foot companies were those of Dubourdieu (1st Division), Maxwell (2nd Division), Douglas (3rd Division), Sympher K.G.L. (4th Division), Lawson (5th Division), Brandreth (6th Division), Cairnes (7th Division). Tulloh’s Portuguese company was attached to the 2nd Division, Da Cunha’s to Silveira’s division. The reserve was composed of Webber-Smith’s H.A. troop, Arriaga’s Portuguese heavy 18-pounders, and Parker’s foot company. See Colonel Leslie’s edition of the Dickson Papers, ii. p. 719.
[462] Long was now in charge of Hill’s cavalry vice Erskine, a general whose acts have so often required criticism. This unfortunate officer had committed suicide at Brozas during the winter, by leaping out of a lofty window while non compos mentis. The moment he was removed Wellington abolished the ‘2nd Cavalry Division’, and threw its two brigades into the general stock under Stapleton Cotton for the campaign of 1813.
[463] Wellington to Hill, Supplementary Dispatches, xiv. pp. 206 and 216.
[464] 12th Dragoons, of Digeon’s division.
[465] This is Wellington’s own observation, Dispatches x. 397, to Graham from Matilla.