The Sun.
London, England, 1809-08-19 00:00:00

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fl/2411C.E. SIXPENCE liALFI'iNI4i.

THE BATTLE OF TALAVERA.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER FR OM AN OFFICER 'OF HIGH
RANI IN
,THE ARMY OF slit A. WELLESLEY.
k` Talavera :iet,a Reyna, July 30, 1809.,
-" The movement of the French, in retreat, of
•which I gave you an account in my last letter, was - •
a most masterly otie.
" The advice and interference of Sit-A. '
ley to the. Spaniards,, saved them trom inecitatne de.
strualion, and his ability has seemed_ to the British
arms a most.glorious and brilliant victory. It-ap,
pears that the French retired on the Morning of the •
24th to Saint 'Olalla and Torrijos, takwg the road to -
Toledo. The Spaniards' followed the retreating
army to Saint Olalla ; on the 25th the. French ef-
fe6ted the junEtion of the three corps of Vidor, -
Se,bastiani, ,and king seph., thus forming an army
of 50,000 men. On the 26th they advanced againSt
the Spaniards, and beat in their advanced guards ;
the-night before, Sir A. Wellesley had requested
Cuesta,to retire ueoe Cevolla, as it appeared clear
[hit ,the French intended a movement in advance;
the attack 'upon the advanced guard supported this
advice, and Cuesta with his whole army retired on
the 26th to the heights in front of this place.---The
27th the French comiaued their advance, and in
some measure came 'up with the division ot Gen.
Sherbrooke, which was posted at Casa LagOas, to
prote& the retreat of the Spanish rear guard ; by one
o'clock, however,' every thing was sate across the
Alberche, and General Sherbooke and the Spanish
army were ordered immediately into a position
which Sir A. Wellesley had fixed upon, having-the
right on Talavera, the left on a hill about two miles
north-west Of it. About two • o'clock the French
began to engage upon the Alberche, with the divi-
.sion of Gen. Mackenzie which had been left
,to op-
pose or retard the passage of the river. The enetnyi
however, appearing in force, the division was or 4 ,
dered to retire gradually to the position in the rear.
The enemy having passed a number of troops, this
movement brought on a serious affair, and the
French followed up their advance. till we Were. ar-
rived in our position, and then instantaneously they
-attacked the height upon our left, and foe asnioaleet
carried it. The brigades of Generals Stewart and
Filson recovered it imiriediately, and so ended the
action of the 27eh., .with the only eiCceptiun, that
the enemy's' cavalry attempted the Spanish line on
the righte but were repulsed.
In the morning of the 28th, the whole of the
French formed in front of the British army :. a
sion at the bottom of the hill on the lett was the
first which began the anon, by storming, with
about 8000 men, the height they had lost the night
before. This attack, from its ' nature.,. Wald not
be of long duration ; 'although- supported by an
immense train of- artillery-trorn an opposite height,
the enemy was. driven. .back .with an amazing
loss, and thrown into complete. confusion. Owing _
to accident, our 'cavalry was not near, enough to
charge, otherwise the whole of three Fiench ,
slow; forming the attack and support, must have been
cut to pieces. After this attack had been repulsed,
the enemy confined himself for a. considerable time
to a cannonade, in which 'be had a great superiority ,
of guns, but by which nothing but the desuuttiOu
of a few men and horses was elected. At the
end of about two hours the firing on both sides
ceased, and there succeeded an interval of abent
two hours tranquility. At one o'clock the filing re-
commenced on the part of the French, and
diately after an *attack 'with three columns upon our
centre; The action was furious, but in halt an hour
the attack was completely repulsed with an amazing
loss on the part ot the French, and t.itrie consider-
Ole suffering on ours. The ,eh;erny did
_not lose
courage'; they determined upon a ,third attack,
and a-most tremendous one it proved. Four or five
columns, or the whole of Sebastiani's corps
of 18,000 men, attacked the centre, While three
strong columns of- infantry, suvorted by a large
body of cavalry, threatened to turn our left, by go-
ing round the height which they had already' twice
attacked ; our cavalry was ordered to charge this
body, and. although by a mistake or softie accident,
and-by. the great strength of infantry in close, co-.
lutims against cavalry, the charge did not succeed,
and on the contrary proved very fatal to the lad
Dragoons, yet its etfeat was such as entirely, to stop
the advance of the intended attack, ayd to retiree
us in a short, time from the fear of any attack upon
our left. In the mean time, how ever, the Luta( k
upon the centre became 'tremendous; soineot• our
battalions were forced to give way.; and' the Guards,
by an imprudent, though gallant charge in how,
were so cut up by some artillery, aim se‘enal co.
lumns of infantry, as to be obliged to tat back. Sir-
A. Wellesley, when 'he observed the e'.dvauice of I he
Guards, dreaded the result, and ordered the 48th
regiment from the left- to support tile.)) in case 'of
necessity; the stead ness of this regimeei contributed
greatly to the success o the day; the Guilds
through it,and'it su, ported the' whole of the
that •was pouring &tem, and _stopped the French
advance. Under cover of this regiment, the Guards
and the other regiments formed, and in a quarter of
an hotir returned into aelion with a huzz.., which,
repeated through the .whole line, was tulloe ed by
the repulse of the enetny.upon all points, and' with
this terminated the action. We observed the French
colUnins retiring to the Alherche, and b.-tore dark
'their rear guard quitted Abe ground it occupied. I
wily not go further into detail, about this great-
action; for unless I- could inclose you a planoi the •
ground you could not understand it ; but you' will •
-perceive by what I have said, that our army Was
on the left and the Spanish, on the right, and
. that the French attack was entirely directed against,
us; although' there were two Or three Spanish re-
giments.ene-aged; and those behaved extremely well:
" Our .loss has been severe, 4500 killed and
wounded, hut we hive "since been joined by Crau:.
lord with 3000 men. Thoel.4'reuch lost in the ac -