Star.
London, England, 1809-09-04 00:00:00

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General Cuesta might find himself obliged to
• . WelrreffinUe SEPT. L
The Ilea has been pleased to grant the dignity of Talavera, befbre I should be able to revues to hi
.
. and I urged him to collect ell the carts that coe
a Baronet of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
land Irbiand to the following Gentlemen, and the re- be got, in order to remove our hospital. At his sh.
spective heirs male of their bodies 'lawfully begot- sire I put the purport of this conversation in writing,
ten, viz. -end sent.him a letter to be laid before General Cues..
. tai of which I inclose a copy.
[l. PAOLUS Asinine Ilvt,ro Esq. of Woo4bouse and Robgill
The British army marched on the 3d to Gropes*,
ewer, in the county of Dumfries, Lieutenant-General of his
Majesty's Forces. General Bassecourt's Spanish corps being at Centi.
nello, where I desired that it might halt the next day,
Tuomas koncer 1, Esq. of Roberts',Cove, in the county of
Core: in order that I might be nearer to it.
hates SHAW, Esq. of the city of London, and of Kilmarnock, About five o'clock in the evening, ',heard that
in the county of Ayr.
the Frenceshad arrivedfrom Plasencia at Navalmo-
ROWLAND BLENNRIINASSZT,Ise of Elennervilleentheoninte ral, whereby they were between us and the bridge of
of Kerry.
wit.Ll4ll Steyr n,Esq.of Eardiston, in the county of Worcester. Almaraz.Montt an hour afterwarch, I received from Gene-
cuearos coceeneen Esq. of Sezincot, in the county of Glou-
cester, and of Piccadilly, in the county of Middlesex. ral O'Donogime the letter and its inclosares, of which
I inclose copies, announcing to me the intention of
Enteric Boy tqr of SANDYS, Esq. of Miserden Castle, in the
march from Talavera in the even.county of Gloucester, and of Chadlington Hall, in the county of
Oxford.ing, and to leave there my hospital, excepting such
General Cuesta. to
HINItT BALPORD, of. St. George's, Hanover-square, in the men as could be moved by the means he already
county' of Middlesex, Doctor of Physic, and one of his Majesty's had, on the ground of his apprehension that I was
Physicians in Extraordinail.
I onN TY a E r,t, Esq. of Boreham House, in the county of Essex. not strong enough for the corps coming from Pla-
sencia, and that the enemy was moving upon his
FOREIGN OFFICE, AUGUST 26. flank, and had returned to Santa Olalla in his front.
Tbb Kitto has been pleased to appoint DON loser Acosno I acknowledge that these reasons did not appear
ORTIZ to be his Catholic Majesty's Consul General in the United
Isingdoniit Great Britain and Ireland. to me sufficient for giving up so important a post as
e: - Talavera, for exposing the combined armies to an at-
.
• DOW/4ING-STREET, SEPTEMBER 2. tack in front and rear at the same time, and for abut-
/. Plin.tch, of which•the following is a Copy, was, on the 30th Boning my .
. alt. received at the Office of Lord Viscount Castlereagh, one
-of;bis Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, from Lieute- I inclose a hospital ; and I wrote the lend orwhick
copy.
• nant-General Lord Viscount Wellington, datedbeleytosa, Bth This unfortunately reached the General after he
• Aogssr; Incr.. . had marched, and he arrived at Oropesa shortly after
Deleytesa, August 8, 1809. daylight, on the morning of the 4th.
'Me Loren—l apprized your Lordship on the Ist The question what was to be done, was then to be
instant, of the advance of a French corps towards considered. The enemy, stated to
-be thirty thousand
the Puerto de Betties, and of the probable embarrass- strong, but at all events consisting of the corps of
meats tO the operations of the army, which its mei- Soult and Ney, either united, or not very distant from
ye" at Plasencia would occasion; and these embar- each other, and supposed by Marshal Jourdan and
ressmems having since existed to e degree so consi Joseph Bonaparte, to be sufficiently strong to attack
4erable, as to oblige us to-fall back, and to take up the British army, stated to be twenty-five thousand
defeniive position on the Tagus, lam induced to strong, were on one side, in possession of the high.
iiouleje you more at length with an account of what road to the passage of the Tagus at Almaraz, the
has passed upon this subject. -- ' ' bridge at which place we knew had been removed,
'When I entered Spain, I had a communication although the boats still necessarily remained in the
with. General Cuesta, through Sir Robert Wilson river.
and Colenee Roche, respecting the occupation of the On the other side, we had reason to expect the ad.
Puerto de Banes and the Puerto de Perales, the former vance of Victor's corps to Talavera, as soon as Gt-
of which, 'it *as at last settled, should be held by a neral Cuesta's march should be known, and after
corps to be formed under the Marquis De la Reyna, leaving twelve thousand men to watch Vanegas, and
to consist of two battalions from General Cuesta's allowing from- ten to eleven thousand killed and
army, and two from Bejar ; and diet the Puerto de wcunded in the late action, this corps would have
Perales was to be taken care of by ''.e Duque del amounted to twenty-five thousand. We could extrie
Parque, by detachments from the garrisoa cf Ciudad trate ourselves from this difficult situation only by
Rodrigo. I doubted of the capacity of the garrison great celerity of movement, to which the troops were
of Ciudad Rodrigo to make the detachment to the lan unequal, as they had not had their allowance of pros
ter, but so little of the effectual occupation of the for. visions for several days, and by success in two bat.
mer, that in writing to Marshal Beresford on the 17th sties. If unsuccessful in either, we should have been
July, I desired him to look to the Puerto de Perales, without a retreat ; and if Souk and Ney avoiding an
but that I considered Banos as secure, as appears by action had retired before us, and had waited the ar.
the extract of my letter which I inclose. rival of Victor, we should have been exposed to i
On the 30th intelligence was received at Talavera, general action with fifty thousand men, equally with-
that twelve thousand rations had been ordered at Fu- out a retreat. -
ente Duenos for the 28th, and twenty-four thousand We had reason to expect, that as the Marquis de la
at Los Santos for the same day, for French' corps, Reyna could not remove the boats from the river
which it was b.lieved was on its March towards the Almaraz, Soult would have destroyed them.
Puerto de Banes. Our only retreat was, therefore, by the bridge of
General Cuesta expressed some anxiety respecting Arco Bispo ; and if we had moved on, the enemy,
this post, and sent me a message, to propose that Sir by breaking that bridge while the army should 'be
Robert Wilson should he sent Iliere with his corps. engaged with Soult and Ney, would have deprived
Sir Roberr was on that day at Talavera, but his us of that only resource.—We could not take a
corps was in the mountains towards Escalona ; and position at Oropesa, as we thereby left open the road
as he had already made himself very useful in that to the bridge of Arco Bispo front Talavera by Cale.
quarter, and had been near Madrid, with which city ra; and, after considering the whole subject maturely,
he had had a communication, which I was desirous I was of opinion that it was advisable to retire to the
of keeping up, I proposed that a Spanish corps should bridge of Arco Bispo, and to take up a defensive ple-
be sent to Banos without loss of time. sion upon the Tagus.
I could not prevail with General Cuesta, although I was induced to adopt this last opinion, because
1
he certainly admitted the necessity of a reinforce- the French have now at least fifty thousand Men dise
' Mien[ when he proposed that Sir Robert should be posable to oppose to the combined armies~ and a
sent to Banes ; and.he was equally sensible with my- corps of twelve thousand to watch Vanegas ; and I
self, of the benefit to be derived to the cause from was likewise of opinion, that the sooner the defensive
sending Sir Robert back to Escalona. line should be taken up, the
more likely were the
•At thip lime we had no further intelligence of the troops to be able to defend it.
enemy's advance, than that the rations were ordered ; -Accordingly I marched on the 4th, and crossed
end I had' hopes that the enemy might be deterred tho Tagus by the bridge of Arco Bispo, and have
from advancing, by the intelligence of our success on continued my route to this plale, in which lam well
the 28th, and that the troops in the Puerto might situated to defend the passage of Almaraz and the
make some defence ; and that under these circum- lower 'parts of the Tagus. General Cuesta crossed
stances it was not desirable to divert Sir Robert Wil- the river on the night of the sth, and he is *ill at the
son from. Escalona. bridge of Arco Bispo. About two thousand of the
On the 30th, however, -I renewed my application wounded have been brought away from Talavera,
to General Cuesta, to send there a Spanish division of the remaining fifteen hundred are there; and I doubt
.sufficient strength, in a letter to General O'Donoghue, whether, under any circumstances, it would have
of which I enclose a copy, but without effect ; and been possible or consistent with humanity, to attempt
he did not detach General Bassecourt till the moin• to remove any more of them.
ing of the 2d, after we had heard that the enemy had From the treatment which some of the soldiers'
entered Bejar, and it was obvious that the troops in wounded on the 27th, and who fell into the hands of
the,Puerto would make no defence, the enemy, experienced from them, and from the
On the second we received accounts, that the enemy manner in which I have always treated the wounded
had entered Plasencia in two columns. who have fallen into my hands, I expect din them
The Marquis de la Reyna, whose two battalions men will be well treated ; and I have only to lament
consisted of only six hundred men, with only twenty that anew concurrence of events, over which froth
rounds of ammunition each man, retired "from the I circumstances I had and could • have no contralti,
Puerto and from Plasencia, without firing a shot, and should have :placed the aemy in a situation to be
went to the bridge of Almaraz, which he declared obliged to leave any of 'them behind. I have the hol.
that he intended to remove ; the battalions of Bejar nour to lie, etc. (Signed) ARTHUR WELL.ESLZY.
..
dispersed without making any resistance.
' DOWNING-STREET, SEPTEMBER I.
The General called upon me on that day, and pro-
A Dispatch, of which the following Is a Copy, tiNti Yesterdri
posed that half of the army should march to the rear Morning received at the Office of Lord Viscount Castlereao,-
to oppose the enemy, while the other half should one of his Majesty's Principal Secretaries of Stole, front Lien-'
maintain the post at Talavera. nant-creneral the Earl of Chatham, dated Pliad-quirters,
-My answer was, that if by half the army, he meant Batz, August 29, 1805.
half of each army, I could only answer that I was My Lord—Major Bradford delivered to me yours
Lor.d.ship'sdisiltch of the 21st install, signifying toe
ready either to go or to stay with the whole British
me his Majesty s commands that I shoidd convey to
army, but that I could not separate it. He then de-
Lieutenant-General Sir Eyre Coote, the-General and
sired me to chose whether I would go or stay, and I
preferred to leo, from thinking that the British troops other Officers and troops employed before Flushing,
a
were most likely to do the business effectually, and and particularly to those of the Artillery and Engl.
without contest ; and from being of opinion that it was
neer Departments, his Majesty's most grads:ls ap.
probation of their conduct; and which Ihave obeyed..more important to us than to the Spanish army to .
:
open the communication through Plasencia, althOugh with the most entire satisfaction.
I had the honour in my last dispatch of acquainting
very important to them. With this decision, General '
Cuesta appeared perfectly satisfied. . your Lordship with my intention of proceeding to this
)
The movements of the enemy in our front since the place, and I should have been most happy tolave
been enabled to have announced to rur Lordship
.
Ist, had induced me to be of opinion, that despairing
however,the further. progress of this army. 'Unfortunately,
lof forcing us at Talavera, they intended to force a
. it becomes my duty M. state to your Lord-
passage by Escalona, and thus to open a communi.
ship that, from the concurrent testimony from so
cation with the French corps coming from Plasenci e
the many
information, _ohmatiquarteron, the
quarters, as to, leave no dOubt cf the troth
enemy appears to have collect}
This suspicion was confirmed on the night of the
'2d, by letters received from Sir Robert Wilson, of
which I inclose copies ; and before I quitted Tula-
so formidable a force, as to co.:v:nce me that the pe-
vera on the 3d, I waited upon General O'Donoghue
rOl was arrived, at }rich air instructions would
ladconversed-with hint upon the whole of our 'lett-.
. have directed sue to .withdraw the army under my
•• Vora ever.
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