Extracts from colonel Skerrett’s despatch.
“The enemy’s force employed in the siege is stated at ten thousand, probably this is in some degree exaggerated.”
B.
“The fact of the enemy, with eleven thousand experienced soldiers, not having made another effort after his assault of the 31st, &c.”
Lord Wellington’s despatch.
“January 19, 1812.
“By accounts which I have from Cadiz to the 27th December, I learn that the enemy invested Tarifa with a force of about five thousand men on the 20th December, covering their operation against that place by another corps at Vejer.”
Conduct of the French.
A.
“There was not, on the part of the leading French officer (an old lieutenant of the 94th) or of his followers, any appearance of panic or perturbation. Their advance was serene, steady, and silent, worthy of the 5th corps, of their Austrian laurels, of their ‘vielles moustaches.’”