Note 307 — Chapter I

Nothing could be done in Estremadura without the 2nd Division, and D’Urban’s diary shows that the orders for the 2nd Division to march into the Alemtejo were only given on the 12th. Beresford’s chief of the staff notes on that day, ‘Orders to General Stewart [commanding 2nd Division] to fix his head quarters at Tramagal, to move the 13th to Crato or Carragueira [both in the Alemtejo south from Abrantes], and to let the troops remain as at present—unless it should become necessary to concentrate for the protection of the Bridge of Tancos.’ This shows that Wellington’s statement to Lord Liverpool on March 14th (Dispatches, vii. 360) that ‘troops had marched from Thomar on the 9th, and that part of Sir William Beresford’s division, which had not passed the Tagus, was put in motion, and that their head had arrived within three marches of Elvas,’ can apply at most to Hamilton’s Portuguese.