THE DISPATCHES OF FIELD MARSHAL THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON, DURING HIS VARIOUS CAMPAIGNS FROM 1799 TO 1818. "Monumentum ære perennius." OF FIELD MARSHAL THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON, DURING HIS VARIOUS CAMPAIGNS IN INDIA, DENMARK, PORTUGAL, SPAIN, THE LOW COUNTRIES, AND FRANCE, THE DISPATCHES OP FIELD MARSHAL THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON IN THE PENINSULA, IN 1809 AND 1810. To Brigadier General R. Craufurd. 'MY DEAR GENERAL, • Deleytosa, 8th August, 1809. 'I INTENDED going to see you this day, but there are so many points to be arranged here, that I must defer my visit till to-morrow. The measures to be adopted at your post upon the Tagus depend so much upon our general situation, that it is impossible to enter upon them at all without explaining our whole situation with which I am about to trouble you. From all that I learn, the enemy have brought, or are bringing through the Puerto de Baños to Plasencia, all the troops they had in Castille. General Beresford, in a letter of the 4th, from Almeida, tells me that they have now none left in Castile, and that the number sent through amounts to 34,000 men. This would make the French force in this part of Spain about 70,000 men. They will either press us upon our right with this body, and force their way to Cordova; or they will try again the game of diversions, and detach a large corps into Portugal, in order to make us separate from the Spaniards. I do not think it likely that they will endeavour to force the passage of the Tagus. Indeed, success at any point above Almaraz would not be of much use to them, for they could not march an army by any road excepting that by which we have come, and which might be easily defended. VOL. V. B |