“We have received no sort of assistance from the government.”
Ditto, Astorga, Nov. 19.
“Had the Spanish government afforded us any active assistance, the state of our equipments would have been much more advanced.”
Colonel Graham to sir John Moore, Madrid, Oct. 4, 1808.
“All this instead of at once appointing the fittest men in the country to be ministers, looks much like private interest and patronage being the objects more than the public good.”
Colonel Graham to sir John Moore, Tudela, Nov. 9, 1808.
“It is hoped that the Arragonese army will come over to fill it” (the line) “up, but being an independent command, no order has yet been sent. An express went after Palafox, who will return here this morning, and then, it is hoped, that he will send an order to general O’Neil at Sanguessa to march instantly; and further, it is hoped, that general O’Neil will obey this order without waiting for one from his immediate chief, Palafox, the captain-general of Arragon, who is at Zaragoza; at all events, there is a loss of above 24 hours by the happy system of independent commands, which may make the difference of our having 18,000 men more or less in the battle that may be fought whenever the French are ready.” ... “Making me compliments of there being no secrets with their allies, they” (the members of the council of war) “obliged me to sit down, which I did for a quarter of an hour, enough to be quite satisfied of the miserable system established by this junta” ... “In short, I pitied poor Castaños and poor Spain, and came away disgusted to the greatest degree.”
Col. Graham to Lord W. Bentinck, Centruenigo, Nov. 13, 1808.
“If any thing can make the junta sensible of the absurdity of their conduct this will. It would indeed have been more felt if a great part of the division had been lost, as might well have happened. But the difficulty of passing so many men with artillery, and in small boats, and the time that would have been required so great, that I can hardly persuade myself these people can be so foolish as ever seriously to have entertained the idea. But with whatever intentions, whether merely as a pretence for assuming the command for the purpose of irritating Castaños; whether from the silly vanity of exercising power, and doing something which, if by great good luck it had succeeded, might have proved what might be done with a more active commander; or whether from a real conviction of the excellence of the scheme, it must be equally evident to every military man, indeed to every man of common sense, that it is impossible things can succeed in this way; and then the junta itself interferes, and to worse purpose.”
Castaños’s Vindication.