[174] Viz. 2/7th, 2/48th.
[175] 2/24th, 2/31st, 2/53rd, 2/66th. The first battalions of three of these were in the East Indies, that of the fourth in Sicily.
[176] 1/7th, 1/11th, 1/23rd, 1/37th, 1/39th, 1/57th.
[177] 2/5th, 2/34th, 2/38th, 2/44th, 2/47th, 2/58th, 2/62nd, 2/84th.
[178] 68th, 74th, 77th, 85th, 94th.
[179] This was the case with the 2/62nd, 77th, 1/37th, 2/84th.
[180] The sixth of the units of the provisional battalions being a single battalion corps, the 2nd Foot or Queen’s.
[181] Typical figures are 77th, landed in July 859 of all ranks—had only 560 present in September. The 68th, landed about the same time, had 233 sick to 412 effective: the 51st, landed in April, 246 sick to 251 effective! But the 51st had lost men in the second siege of Badajoz. The other two regiments had not seen much service.
[182] Over 14,000 men in October, 1811.
[183] Wellington wrote to the Secretary of War (Lord Bathurst), “I assure you that some of the best battalions with the army are the provisional battalions. I have lately seen two of these engaged, that formed of the 2/24th and 2/58th, and that formed from the 2nd Queen’s and 2/53rd: it is impossible for any troops to behave better. The same arrangement could now be applied with great advantage to the 51st and 68th, and also to other regiments” (Dispatches, x. p. 629). There was another “provisional battalion” composed of the 2/30th and 2/44th for a short time in 1812–13.