Note 444 — SECTION XXVI: CHAPTER IV

Wellington says (to Lord Liverpool, May 15): ‘Sir W. Erskine was dining with Sir Brent Spencer at head quarters, and received his orders about 4 o’clock. He says that he sent them off forthwith to the 4th regiment, which was stationed between Aldea de Obispo and Barba del Puerco.... The 4th regiment, it is said, did not receive their orders before midnight, and, though they had only 2½ miles to march, missed the road, and did not arrive at Barba del Puerco till after the French.’ (Dispatches, vii. 566.) Tomkinson’s contemporary comment on this is (pp. 102-3 of his diary): ‘The order reached Sir W. Erskine’s quarters about 2 p.m.: he put it in his pocket, and did not dispatch the letter to Colonel Bevan before midnight, and to cover himself, when required to explain by Lord Wellington, said that the 4th unfortunately missed its way, which was not the case.’ Many years later (1836) in his Conversations with Lord Stanhope (which see, p. 89) Wellington said that he believed Bevan had his orders ‘about four or five in the afternoon, but the people about him said “Oh! you need not march till daybreak,” and so by his fault the French got to Barba del Puerco.’ Napier (History, iii. p. 156) says plainly that ‘Erskine sent no order to the 4th regiment.’ Colonel Bevan always maintained that he got nothing from Erskine till nearly midnight.