THE DISPATCHES

OF

FIELD MARSHAL

THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON,

DURING HIS VARIOUS CAMPAIGNS

IN

INDIA, DENMARK, PORTUGAL, SPAIN, THE LOW
COUNTRIES, AND FRANCE,

FROM

1799 TO 1818.

COMPILED FROM OFFICIAL AND AUTHENTIC DOCUMENTS,

BY

LIEUT. COLONEL GURWOOD,

ESQUIRE TO HIS GRACE AS KNIGHT OF THE BATH.

VOLUME THE ELEVENTH.

LONDON:

JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.

MDCCCXXXVIII.

THE

DISPATCHES

ОР

FIELD MARSHAL THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON

IN

THE PENINSULA AND FRANCE,

IN

1813-14.

To Lieut. General Sir T. Graham, K.B.

MY DEAR SIR, 'Lesaca, August 15, 1813. 8 P.M. 'I was very much concerned to find from your note delivered to me by General Oswald, that your health was in such a state as to induce you to think of returning to England. However much I regret this circumstance, I cannot but think you are right in giving up, if you find your health not equal to the calls upon your exertions; and I can only return my thanks for returning to us when you did. I will make the King's Government acquainted with the state of your health by the first opportunity.

'I have received your note of this day regarding the works to be constructed in the second line behind the Bidasoa.

You may depend upon it that, whatever we may do elsewhere, we cannot make the position between Oyarzun and the Bidasoa too strong. I have been on horseback to-day, and I hope to be able in a day or two to go over and look at the ground; but in the mean time it is desirable that no time should be lost in commencing on the works of the second line which you propose. The second line is, if possible, more

VOL. XI.

B

important than the first, which it is not very easy to hold with an inferior body of troops without a strong second line. 'I am glad to hear of the approach of the fleet.

MY DEAR BERESFORD,

· Lesaca, 15th August, 1813. 8 P.M. 'I have received your letters of the 13th and 14th, and from what you say, I think it quite clear that Guetaria can be of no use to us; and I therefore wait only for the report of the officers of Engineers to order that it may be destroyed entirely.

There is nothing new whatever. I enclose the project of a peace sent to me by my correspondent, which he swears is handed about as what Napoleon is ready to consent to. It proves only that they are preparing the minds of the people in France to large cessions.

I am glad to find you are better. I am so likewise, but not yet quite free from pain when I move, and sometimes even when sitting still.

Believe me, &c.

WELLINGTON.

Sir W. C. Beresford, K.B.

'To Marshal

By the bye there is news that General Paris has retired from Jaca to France. Mina says driven by his troops, with whom they certainly had an action on the 11th. A garrison of 800 men has been left in Jaca.'

'MY DEAR SIR,

To Sir Charles Stuart, K.B.

'Lesaca, 15th August, 1813. I have received your letter of the 6th, and I have given directions that a letter should be written to the Portuguese Government in regard to General Peacocke, which will, I hope, be satisfactory to them. I shall, besides, send their letter to England by an early opportunity.

I never entertained the slightest doubt of the advantage which the country derived from the presence of the

army in Portugal; I only hope that it will not suffer so much from its absence as that the revenue will fail.

I have not written to you for a long time, and I am afraid that you have not been better treated in the way of correspondence by others. In the way of military news and intentions, I have nothing to add to my dispatches. I think I am too strong for Soult, on the defensive; and I shall probably take the offensive as soon as I can take San Sebastian or Pamplona, and can hear of the northern Powers deciding upon their line one way or other.

'It is reported on the frontier that peace is made, but I have no reason to believe it. I do not, however, like the state in which matters were in Germany early in July, although ministers and Lord Cathcart did. In order to show you how they stood, and my opinion upon them, I enclose (entre nous) the copy of a letter which I wrote to Lord Bathurst yesterday,

The accounts of the battle of Vitoria were received at Brandeiss from Dresden on the 8th of July. Buonaparte knew of the battle only on the 6th, and it was kept secret even from Maret; but Count Bubna discovered it on the 7th. The last battles, however, are more important; and I am only afraid that they will lead to concessions by Buonaparte to Austria and to Russia and Prussia which may lead to a peace with those Powers, to the exclusion of England and the Powers of the Peninsula.

I received only this day your letter of the 11th, for which I am very much obliged to you; and I am very sorry that I have not had the pleasure of meeting you.

'I write to Sir George Collier, who commands the squadron on the north coast of Spain, to request that he will facilitate to you, by every means in his power, a passage to England for yourself and your party at Bilbao. I am inclined to believe, from what I have heard of the navigation of the river at Bilbao since I have directed that some of the