Chapter II: Section XVI: The Talavera Campaign (july-Aug. 1809)

I. Wellesley at Abrantes: Victor evacuates Estremadura 433

II. Wellesley enters Spain 449

III. Wellesley and Cuesta: the interview at Mirabete 463

IV. The March to Talavera: Quarrel of Wellesley and Cuesta 483

V. Concentration of the French Armies: the King takes
the offensive: Combats of Torrijos and Casa de Salinas 494

VI. The Battle of Talavera: the Preliminary Combats
(July 27-28) 507

VII. The Battle of Talavera: the Main Engagement (July 28) 527

VIII. The Retreat from Talavera 559

IX. The end of the Talavera Campaign: Almonacid 599

APPENDICES

I. The ‘Army of the Centre,’ Jan. 11, 1809. The Spanish Army
at the Battle of Ucles 621

II. The Garrison of Saragossa 622

III. The French Army in Spain, in Feb. 1809 624

IV. The Spanish Army at Medellin 627

V. The Portuguese Army in 1809: organization and numbers 629

VI. Papers relating to the intrigues at Oporto,
April-May 1809 632

VII. Strength of Wellesley’s Army, May 6, 1809 640

VIII. Soult’s Report on Galicia, June 25, 1809 642

IX. Suchet’s and Blake’s Armies, May and June 1809 643

X. Papers relating to the Talavera Campaign: strength and
losses of the British, Spanish, and French Armies 645

XI. The British Royal Artillery in the Peninsula, 1809 654

XII. Venegas’s Army of La Mancha in June-July 1809 655

INDEX 657

MAPS AND PLANS

I. UCLES AND ROSAS _To face_ 54

II. GENERAL MAP OF CATALONIA: BATTLE OF VALLS ” 88

III. SARAGOSSA, THE SECOND SIEGE ” 134

IV. MEDELLIN ” 166

V. BRAGA (LANHOZO) AND OPORTO ” 248

VI. NORTHERN PORTUGAL, SHOWING SOULT’S AND WELLESLEY’S
CAMPAIGNS OF 1809 ” 360

VII. ALCAÑIZ AND MARIA ” 426

VIII. TALAVERA ” 550

IX. CENTRAL SPAIN, SHOWING THE LOCALITIES OF
THE TALAVERA CAMPAIGN ” 596

ILLUSTRATIONS

JOSEPH PALAFOX, EQUESTRIAN PORTRAIT BY GOYA _Frontispiece_

A PORTUGUESE CAVALRY SOLDIER, 1809 212

A PORTUGUESE INFANTRY SOLDIER, AND A MAN OF THE ORDENANZA 222

THE DOURO ABOVE OPORTO, THE LOCALITY OF WELLESLEY’S
CROSSING 336

COINS STRUCK IN SPAIN DURING THE PENINSULAR WAR 478

ERRATA IN VOL. II

The following facts I discovered in Madrid and Lisbon when it was too late to correct the chapters in which the mis-statements occur.

(1) Page 82, note 93. I have found from a Madrid document that part, though not the whole, of the Regiment of Baza was present at Valls. One battalion was left behind with Wimpffen: one marched with Reding: about 800 men therefore must be added to my estimate of the Spanish infantry.

(2) Page 318, note 394. I found in Lisbon that the regiments which marched with Beresford to Lamego were not (as I had supposed) nos. 7 and 19, but nos. 2 and 14, with the 4th cazadores. Those which joined from the direction of Almeida were two battalions of no. 11 (1st of Almeida) and one of no. 9.

(3) Page 366. A dispatch of Beresford at Lisbon clears up my doubts as to Silveira’s culpability. Beresford complains that the latter lost a whole day by marching from Amarante to Villa Pouca without orders; the dispatch directing him to take the path by Mondim thus reached him only when he had gone many miles on the wrong road. The time lost could never be made up.

SECTION IX

AFTER CORUNNA

(JANUARY-FEBRUARY 1809)