A reply to the misrepresentations and aspersions on the military reputation of the late Lieut.-Gen. R.B. Long

16 May 1811

Battle of Albuera

IV PREFACE.

I have to acknowledge your note of the 27th instant, and have to state that I was in command of the 4th Dragoons at the cavalry affairs of Campo Mayor and Los Santos in 1811, but not at the battle of Albuera. I do not know that I can object to reply to any questions which you may wish to put to me " touching the different orders and arrange- ments as connected with General Long's opera- tions (at the cavalry affairs above-mentioned), so far as the same came within my own know- ledge, or under my own observation," but of the propriety of my so doing, I shall be better able to judge when those questions shall be submitted. I conclude that they will be limited to matters of fact, for having been un-

VIII.

We now approach the ever-memorable day of Albuera, (for not even on the prouder day of Waterloo, were the glorious deeds of a gallant army more nobly conspicuous,) and the final criminatory charges against General Long, which have been pleaded in bar of judgment on the part of Lord Beresford, by the unknown counsel chosen for conducting his defence. " Lord Beresford," says the writer, p. 116, " having left staff officers to put the troops in the positions he had assigned them, went to reconnoitre the country in the direction of Ta- lavera, and refresh his memory with its features, though his former visit had already made him pretty well acquainted with it. He proceeded on this object for about two leagues, till he came within sight of the town, and was slowly returning towards Albuera, when one of his aides-de-camp came galloping towards him, with the account that General Long had arrived there in great confusion from Santa Martha, and that the enemy's light cavalry were close upon him." Whether General Long did so arrive from Santa Martha, " in great confusion," as stated by the writer, will best appear from the journal of that officer, and the corroborating testimony of his

VIII.

I have just read the Marshal's account, and he has written it with more prudence than was shown in preparing for the contest. The whole sum and substance is confined in the words — " As the heights which the enemy had gained'' (by our having neglected to occupy them, he might have added,) " raked and entirely com- manded our whole position, it became necessary to make every effort to retake and maintain them." Here is a just description of the po- sition as it was taken up, and the cause of that blood that was so profusely spilled in the at- tempt to retrieve the error. The Marshal has here stated the fact, and by his own confession my observations, as to accuracy of narrative, may be appreciated. I have never said half&s much against him as I hear from others very high in authority indeed, and therefore I am convinced that the battle of Albuera will for ever be to General Beresford the most unfortu- nate day for his military reputation that he ever encountered. You will doubtless have seen, read, or heard of various other private accounts of this memorable day, and I only beg that you will abide in your opinion by that which appears the most favourable, and at the same time the most impartial."

VIII.

" I feel deeply the kind interest you take in my behalf, and I am sorry that any circum- stance should deprive me of the full enjoyment I could not but derive from a fair acknowledg- ment of services performed to the best of my ability. But, I must confess, the Marshal, had he had been studiously inclined to throw me in the back ground, could not have adopted a better course than the one he has pursued. His last public dispatch, on the action of Albuera, in which so much is said in favour of his friend, and my successor in command, and not a soli- tary word for me, winds up of the measure of his injustice.* That very column which he describes as menacing so formidably his front, before he was prepared to resist it, was solely repulsed, and kept afterwards in check by the movements of the cavalry and artillery under my immediate orders, and, without at all ques- tioning the superiority of General Lumley's abilities; still, arriving, as he did, in the hour of action, ignorant of the ground, position, or