Note 512 — SECTION XV: CHAPTER III
Reading edition
It is necessary to enter a protest against Napier’s statement (vol. ii. p. 252), that Valencia did not do its fair share in defending the general cause of Spain—that ‘from the very commencement of the insurrection its policy was characterized by a singular indifference to the calamities that overwhelmed the other parts of the country.’ The contribution of Valencia to the national armies raised in 1808-9, compares well with that of the other provinces. These troops, too, were not used for local defence, but employed in other parts of Spain. Argüelles’ answer to Napier on this point seems conclusive: (see the Appendix-volume of his Observaciones, &c.). The troops sent out by Valencia were:—
Men.
(1) To join the division of Llamas in the ‘Army of the Centre’ [Roca’s later division], thirteen battalions, about 6,000
(2) To join the division of O’Neille in Aragon, one regiment 800
(3) To join the division of St. March in Aragon, nine battalions 6,000
(4) Joined Palafox at Saragossa between the date of Tudela and the commencement of the siege, one battalion 500
(5) Sent to Catalonia in December, two battalions 800
(6) Raised to recruit Roca’s division in January 4,000
(7) Raised to join Blake between April and June 1809 11,881
Total 29,981
These figures are exclusive of cavalry and artillery, and in some cases are under-estimated, as no morning-states of the troops survive for the earlier months of the campaign of 1808, and these totals are taken from returns made late in the year, when the regiments had begun to run low in numbers. For the enormous monetary contribution made by Valencia in 1808-9, see the tables in Argüelles.