Those with 1820 or 1610 men were nearly all regiments which had one battalion on active service and one on home service, though a very few had both overseas (such as the 18th, 34th, 39th, 62nd); in such cases the 2nd battalion, though on service, was very weak.
The two-battalion corps with under 1600 men were almost invariably regiments which had one battalion in the Indies, worked down to very low numbers by disease, and had failed to keep up its strength (the 15th, 25th, 96th in the West, the 59th, 69th in the East Indies).
The 37 single-battalion regiments stood on the following establishments—
6 were at a strength of 1126 or thereabouts.[343]
13 were at a strength of 940 or thereabouts.[344]
15 were at a strength of 700–730 or thereabouts.[345]
3 were at a strength of under 600.[346]
Those corps on the two higher establishments are either actually serving, or are designated for immediate service abroad, and have therefore their establishments fixed high. Those on the lower establishments (730 or under) fall into two classes: either they are regiments in the East or West Indies which have died down to a low figure [e.g. 16th, 37th, 46th, 54th, 55th, 65th, 68th, 70th, 86th] or they are battalions quartered in peaceful stations and not expected to be sent on active service, [e.g. 41st, 99th, 100th, 103rd, in Canada and Bermuda] or at home [74th, 75th, 77th, 85th, 94th]. All the last-named five, on home service, were raised to a higher establishment and sent to the front in 1810–12.
It will be noted that of the one hundred and three 1st battalions, or single-battalion regiments, a great many were not available, viz. twenty-one in the East Indies, twenty-one in the West Indies (including Bermuda), eleven in the Mediterranean Garrisons, five at the Cape of Good Hope, six in Canada, two in (or bound for) New South Wales. There were only twenty-five 1st battalions at home, and of these twenty had served under Moore in the Corunna retreat and then went on the Walcheren expedition, so that in 1809 they were unavailable. Three more battalions which had not served under Moore had shared in the same descent on the Scheldt (74th, 77th, 85th). There were actually only two single-battalion corps which had neither gone to Corunna nor to Walcheren and were available at home (75th and 94th).[347] In the way of the strongly organized first battalions, therefore, there was absolutely nil to send to Wellington in 1809 save Craufurd’s three Light Infantry battalions, which though they had been with Moore in January were back in the Peninsula by July (1/43rd, 1/52nd, 1/95th).
It is easy to see, therefore, that there was the greatest possible difficulty in finding battalions with which Wellesley’s Peninsular Army could be reinforced. Of troops which had not gone to Walcheren there were left in Great Britain only the 75th and 94th, with twenty-eight 2nd (or junior) battalions which had not joined in the expedition to the Scheldt. These were almost without exception very weak units, the first battalions of ten of these were in the Indies, then of five more already in the Peninsula, all their strength was used up in keeping their senior battalions full, of the remaining thirteen only two (2/5th 2/34th, 2/38th), were strong enough to be sent to Portugal. The reinforcements which Wellington was given in the autumn of 1809 and the summer of 1810 were largely scraped up from foreign garrisons—the 1/7th from Nova Scotia, the 1/11th from Madeira, the 1/57th from Gibraltar. But in 1810 Walcheren battalions began to come out, such as the 3/1st, 1/9th, 1/50th, 1/71st, 1/79th, and to load Wellington’s hospitals with ague-stricken convalescents. For later reinforcements see Chapter VII.
ESTABLISHMENT OF CAVALRY IN 1809.
| 1st Dragoon Guards | 905 | Home |
| 2nd Dragoon Guards | 905 | Home |
| 3rd Dragoon Guards | 905 | Peninsular Field Army |
| 4th Dragoon Guards | 905 | Home |
| 5th Dragoon Guards | 905 | Home |
| 6th Dragoon Guards | 905 | Home |
| 7th Dragoon Guards | 905 | Home |
| 1st Dragoons | 1083 | Peninsular Field Army |
| 2nd Dragoons | 905 | Home |
| 3rd Dragoons | 905 | Home [went to Walcheren] |
| 4th Dragoons | 905 | Peninsular Field Army |
| 6th Dragoons | 905 | Home |
| 7th Hussars | 905 | *Home |
| 8th Light Dragoons | 720 | East Indies |
| 9th Light Dragoons | 905 | Home [went to Walcheren] |
| 10th Hussars | 905 | *Home |
| 11th Light Dragoons | 905 | Home |
| 12th Light Dragoons | 905 | Home [went to Walcheren] |
| 13th Light Dragoons | 905 | Home |
| 14th Light Dragoons | 905 | Peninsular Field Army |
| 15th Hussars | 905 | *Home |
| 16th Light Dragoons | 905 | Peninsular Field Army |
| 17th Light Dragoons | 940 | East Indies |
| 18th Hussars | 905 | *Home |
| 19th Light Dragoons | 905 | Home |
| 20th Light Dragoons | 905 | 1/2 Sicily and 1/2 Peninsula |
| 21st Light Dragoons | 905 | Cape of Good Hope |
| 22nd Light Dragoons | 928 | East Indies |
| 23rd Light Dragoons | 905 | Peninsular Field Army |
| 24th Light Dragoons | 928 | East Indies |
| 25th Light Dragoons | 940 | East Indies |
N.B.—Note that there was no 5th regiment of Dragoons in 1809. The corps last bearing that number had been disbanded in 1799, and its successor was not raised till 1858.