Note 127 — SECTION III: CHAPTER II
Reading edition
I find in the Vaughan Papers the following note: ‘General Lefebvre-Desnouettes was residing at Cheltenham on parole, having been taken prisoner at Benavente by Lord Paget. I went to Cheltenham on May 27, 1809, for the express purpose of seeing the general. He told me that he had advanced at first with no more than 3,000 men, but that after General Verdier joined him, the French force employed against Saragossa was 15,000 men. I understood that in the attack of July 2 and the previous fighting they lost 2,000 men, and that their total loss in the whole siege was 4,000, including three generals wounded.’ Nap. Corresp. (xvii. 389, 426) calls the whole force before Saragossa on August 2, 17,300 men. But there seems to have been present in all only—
(1) Lefebvre-Desnouettes’ column:
Brigade Grandjean
2nd of the Vistula (1st and 2nd batts.) 1376
70th of the line (3rd batt.) 379
4th bataillon de marche 581
6th ditto 655 = 2991
Brigade Habert
1st of the Vistula (1st and 2nd batts.) 1243
1st supplementary regiment of the Legions of Reserve (1st and 2nd batts.) 1030
47th of the line (3rd batt.) 420
15th ditto (4th batt.) 411 = 3104
Cavalry
Regiment of Polish Lancers 717
5th escadron de marche 217 = 934
(2) Division of Gomez Freire:
14th Provisional Regiment (1st, 2nd, and 3rd batts.) 1173
7th bataillon de marche 334
5th Portuguese infantry 265
Portuguese Cazadores 288 = 2060
(3) Column of Colonel Piré (arrived June 29):
3rd of the Vistula (1st and 2nd batts.) 1332
National Guards d’élite (two batts.) 971
3rd, 8th, and 9th escadrons de marche 275 = 2578
(4) Bazancourt’s Brigade (arrived August 1):
14th of the line (1st and 2nd batts.) 1488
44th ditto (1st and 2nd batts.) 1614
11th escadron de marche 205 = 3307
(5) Artillery and train 561 = 561
Total 15,535
These are mainly Belmas’s figures. He mentions a battalion of the 16th of the line as present at the great assault. There must be some error here, as that regiment was not in Spain. It is probably a misprint for the 70th of the line, which is not mentioned by him as present, though it certainly was so.