General the Earl of Wellington, K.B., to the Earl of Liverpool, MY LORD, " 1 Secretary of State. 'Camp at Badajoz, 7th April, 1812. I beg leave to recommend to your Lordship to have sent to the Tagus 4000 barrels of gunpowder. There is but little of that article remaining in Badajoz; and the siege has expended a large proportion of what was in Elvas, which must be replaced from the stores at Lisbon. I have the honor to be, &c. General the Earl of Wellington, K.B., to the Earl of Liverpool, MY LORD, Camp at Badajoz, 8th April, 1812. It gives me great pleasure to inform your Lordship that our numerous wounded officers and soldiers are doing well. I have had great reason to be satisfied with the attention paid to them by Mr. M'Griger, the Inspector General of Hospitals, and the medical gentlemen under his direction, and I trust that the loss to the service, upon this occasion, will not eventually be great. The Earl of Liverpool. SIR, I have the honor to be, &c. ⚫ WELLINGTON. General the Earl of Wellington, K.B., to the Right Hon. 'Camp at Badajoz, 8th April, 1812. "I enclose the copy of a dispatch to the Secretary of State, giving an account of the capture of Badajoz by assault. I beg that you will communicate to the Spanish Government such parts of this dispatch as you may think proper. And I send it by Colonel Don José O'Lalor, who has for some time been employed with this army, very much to my satisfaction, and has been present at all the operations; and can give the Government any farther details which they may wish to have. "I have requested Lieut. General the Marques de Monsalud to come over here; and I propose to give him possession of the place, and all that it contains. 'The Right Hon. I have the honor to be, &c. Sir Henry Wellesley, K.B. General the Earl of Wellington, K.B., to Lieut. Colonel Torrens, Military Secretary to the Commander in Chief. MY DEAR TORRENS, Camp at Badajoz, 8th April, 1812. I send my dispatch on the fall of Badajoz by Captain Canning, my aide de camp. I had thought of sending it by Lord Fitzroy Somerset, for whom I am very anxious to obtain the rank of Lieut. Colonel; but it would really be so inconvenient to me, and to the public service, to be without him, that I prefer to trespass upon His Royal Highness's kindness, and to ask him as a favor to promote him. "I have more than one claim for promotion for my aides de camp, as I have not availed myself of all the opportunities of which I might have availed myself to send them to England with accounts of important events. I hope, therefore, that if His Royal Highness should be favorably disposed to grant me this request you will make it. I likewise wish again to draw the notice of His Royal Highness to Major Dickson. I am certain that there is not an officer in this army who will not admit that he deserves any favor which can be conferred upon him. Believe me, &c. • Lieut. Colonel Torrens." WELLINGTON, < SIR, General the Earl of Wellington, K.B., to His Excellency Charles Stuart. Camp at Badajoz, 9th April, 1812. In answer to Dom M. de Forjaz's note of the 4th instant, enclosed in your letter of the 6th, I beg that you will inform that gentleman that I refer him to my letters on the subject of the regulation for means of transport, and to the regulation alone, in which he will see that every measure which I proposed is frittered away to nothing; that the form and words only remain, and the spirit of the measure is taken away. I must observe, that this is the mode in which the local Government of Portugal have acted by me for the last two years. They are apprehensive of the displeasure of their Prince and of the country, if they openly object to what is proposed; but they carry it into execution in such a manner as to deprive it of all chance of success. 'I purpose not to give myself any further trouble about this or any other arrangement; and the local Government will act as they may think proper. 'I give them notice, however, first, that they will lose the fortress of Elvas, if they do not take measures to carry up to that place the stores which I had provided for the siege of Badajoz, which are now at Alcacer do Sal; as, for want of those stores, I have been obliged to use the stores in Elvas. Secondly; that they will lose Badajoz if they do not take measures to provide me with the means of transport to supply that place with stores for its defence. I beg that this warning may be recollected, and that it may be understood, that from this time forward, I consider myself in no manner responsible for the safety of either place. I have the honor to be, &c. • Wellington. • His Excellency Charles Stuart.' General the Earl of Wellington, K.B., to the Earl of Liverpool, Secretary of State. 'MY LORD, I have had the honor of receiving your Lordship's letter of the 11th February, in regard to the relief of 2nd battalions of this army. As soon as the 2nd batt. 4th regiment shall arrive, I shall send away two of the 2nd battalions ordered by His Royal Highness. The 2nd batt. 52nd is already gone, under His Royal Highness's former orders; and the 2nd battalions of the 5th, 38th, and 42nd regiments shall go as soon as the 1st battalions of those regiments shall arrive. There will then remain three 2nd battalions in this country, which His Royal Highness is desirous should quit it, and they shall go as soon as I shall receive orders to send them; and I beg your Lordship will state to what part of the world the several battalions are to be sent, when they shall quit this country. Your Lordship and His Royal Highness are the best judges of what description of troops it is expedient that this army should be composed. I beg leave, however, to submit, that some of the best and most experienced soldiers in this army, the most healthy and capable of bearing fatigue, are in the 2nd battalions. The 2nd batts. 53rd, 31st, and 66th, for instance, are much more efficient, and have always more men for duty in proportion to their gross numbers, and fewer sick, than any of the 1st battalions recently arrived which had been in Walcheren; and it is certain that this army will not be so strong by the exchange of new for old soldiers. I have thought it proper to submit this matter to your Lordship, assuring you at the same time that it is entirely indifferent to me; and that whatever orders I shall receive upon the subject will be immediately obeyed. I ordered General Cooke to occupy Tarifa as soon as I received your Lordship's directions; but, as the Spanish Government had reinforced General Ballesteros at my request, and had reduced for that purpose the Spanish force at Cadiz, referring, at the same time, to the state of the British force at that station, they objected to send a detachment to Tarifa at present. 'As, however, the object for which General Ballesteros was reinforced is accomplished, I conclude that the Spanish troops will be recalled to Cadiz; and I have desired General Cooke to obey your Lordship's orders. I have the honor to be, &c. 'The Earl of Liverpool. 'WELLINGTON. General the Earl of Wellington, K.B., to Major General • SIR, Camp at Badajoz, 10th April, 1812.) I beg to refer you to my instructions of the 5th ultimo from Freneda, in which you will see, that in case the enemy followed your march from Ciudad Rodrigo, you were to move gradually, and you were not directed to proceed farther than Castello Branco without further orders. 'I cannot consider movements to be gradual which brought you from Val de Lobos to Castello Branco in two days. You have now crossed the Tagus at Villa Velha without orders, and you propose to destroy the bridge at that place. • It does not appear from your letters whether you had or not received the orders of the Quarter Master General of the 8th instant, to halt at Castello Branco, or to return thither if you had left that place; and I cannot tell whether you will obey that order or not. If, upon the receipt of this letter, you have no positive intelligence that the enemy are actually in Castello Branco, you will march there, and act according to the orders contained in the letter from the Quarter Master General of the 8th instant. 'You are not to interfere in any manner with the bridge at Villa Velha. I send an officer there to take up the bridge if it should be necessary, and to remove the boats to a station below Villa Velha on this side of the Tagus, from which they can afterwards be moved up again, and formed into a bridge for the service of the army. 'The troops will move in the morning. "Major General · "WELLINGTON. General the Earl of Wellington, K.B., to Lieut. Colonel Torrens, Military Secretary to the Commander in Chief. MY DEAR TORRENS, 'Camp at Badajoz, 10th April, 1812. In my last letters I omitted to recommend to His Royal Highness's favor Captain Nicholas of the Engineers, because he is so desperately wounded that I thought it impossible he could live, but I understand that he is likely to do well *; and it is but justice to him to make known his merits to his Royal Highness. Lieut. Colonel Fletcher has likewise requested me to recommend Captain Ellicombe of the Engineers. Lieut. Colonel Torrens. • Believe me, &c. • WELLINGTON. P.S. It would be very desirable to get back to their duty in this country all the officers absent in England for various causes. I have really more to do than I can manage.' General the Earl of Wellington, K.B., to Lieut. General 'MY DEAR HILL, 'Camp before Badajoz, 11th April, 1812. I heard yesterday evening that some of Marmont's troops had crossed the Coa, and had appeared on this side of Sabugal on the 8th; it is even said that they were that night at Penamacor. It is therefore necessary that I should return to that * He died of his wounds. |