Note 540 — Chapter I

Napier (ii. 149) calls this alternative plan of campaign ‘a movement in conjunction with Beresford, del Parque, and Romana by Salamanca.’ This is a most inappropriate description of it: about June 10, when operations might have commenced, Del Parque’s army did not yet exist. There were only three or four of Carlos d’España’s battalions at or near Rodrigo. La Romana, on the other hand, was at Orense facing Soult, and could not have reached Almeida or Rodrigo for weeks after the campaign would have begun.