SIR JOHN MOORE’S CAMPAIGN.

Lieutenant-General Sir Harry Burrard received His Majesty’s commands to place a large portion of the army in Portugal under the orders of Sir John Moore, to be employed on a particular service, which was announced in a general order on the 8th. of October, 1808, and preparations were accordingly made for entering Spain. Upon arriving in that country the troops were directed to wear the white cockade, in addition to their own, as a compliment to the Spanish nation, and to use every means to maintain the good opinion entertained of them by that high-spirited people.

On the 27th. of October the division under the command of Lieutenant-General the Honourable John Hope, afterwards the Earl of Hopetoun, was put in motion, and after a short stay at Badajoz, resumed the march to Talavera de la Reyna. From this town the column proceeded to the Escurial, seven leagues to the north-west of Madrid, where it arrived and halted on the 22nd. of November. Intelligence was here received of the enemy’s movements, and a night march was made to the left by Avila and Peneranda, and finally to Alba de Tormes, where a junction was formed with a detachment from the army under Lieutenant-General Sir John Moore. The troops were shortly afterwards put in motion towards Valladolid, and subsequently to the left, to effect a junction with the division under Lieutenant-General Sir David Baird, which had landed at Corunna.

Previously to this period, the Spanish armies under General Blake, near Bilboa on the left, General Castanos in the centre, and General Palafox lower down the Ebro on the right, had been completely defeated; and Lieutenant-General Sir John Moore consequently made arrangements for a retreat on Portugal by Ciudad Rodrigo; but it having been represented to him that Madrid held out against the French, he was induced to effect a junction with Lieutenant-General Sir David Baird, in order to make a diversion in favour of Madrid, by attacking Marshal Soult on the River Carion.

81