Note 183 — Chapter X · THE ORGANIZATION OF THE ARMY: THE REGIMENTS
Reading edition
Wellington wrote to the Secretary of War (Lord Bathurst), “I assure you that some of the best battalions with the army are the provisional battalions. I have lately seen two of these engaged, that formed of the 2/24th and 2/58th, and that formed from the 2nd Queen’s and 2/53rd: it is impossible for any troops to behave better. The same arrangement could now be applied with great advantage to the 51st and 68th, and also to other regiments” (Dispatches, x. p. 629). There was another “provisional battalion” composed of the 2/30th and 2/44th for a short time in 1812–13.