220 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1812. 



of the conduct of the officers and 

 troops under his command, except- 

 ing to express my concurrence in 

 all he says in their praise. Too 

 much cannot be said of the brave 

 officers and troops who took by 

 storm, without the assistance of 

 cannon, such works as the enemy's 

 forts on both banks of the Tagus, 

 fully garrisoned, in good order, 

 and defended by 18 pieces of ar- 

 tillery. 



Your lordship is aware, that the 

 road of Almaraz affords the only, 

 good military communication across 

 the Tagus, and from the Tagus to 

 the Guadiana, below Toledo. All 

 the permanent bridges below the 

 bridge of Arzobispo, have been 

 destroyed during the war, by one 

 or other of the belligerents, and the 

 enemy have found it impossible to 

 repair them. Their bridge, which 

 Lieut,-Gen. Sir Rowland Hill has 

 destroyed, was one of boats, and I 

 doubt their having the means of 

 replacing it. The communications 

 from the bridges of Arzobispo and 

 Talavera to the Guadiana, are very 

 difficult, and cannot be deemed 

 military communications for a large 

 army. The result, then, of Lieut.- 

 Gen. Hill's expedition, has been 

 to cut off the shortest and best 

 communication between the armies 

 of the South and of Portugal. 



Nearly about the time that the 

 enemy's troops, reported in my 

 last dispatch to have moved into 

 the Condado de Niebla, marched 

 from Seville, it is reported that 

 another considerable detachment 

 under Marshal Soult went towards 

 the blockade of Cadir, and it was 

 expected that another attack was 

 to be made upon Tariffa. 



It appears, however, that the 

 enemy received early intelligence 



of Sir Rowland Hill's march. The 

 troops under the command of Gen- 

 eral Drouet made a movement to 

 their left, and arrived upon the 

 Guadiana at Medellin on the 7th 

 instant; and on the 18th a de- 

 tachment of the cavalry under the 

 command of the same General, 

 drove in, as far as Ribera, the 

 picquets of Lieutenant-General Sir 

 William Erskine's division of ca- 

 valry, which had remained in 

 lower Estremadura, with a part 

 of the 2d division of infantry, and 

 Lieutenant-General Hamilton's di- 

 vision of infantry. Marshal Soult 

 likewise moved from the blockade 

 of Cadiz towards Cordova; and 

 the troops which had marche 

 from Seville into the Condado d 

 Niebla, returned to Seville nearly 

 about the same time ; but Lieut.- 

 General Sir Rowland Hill had at- 

 tained his object on the 19th, and 

 had returned to Truxillo, and was 

 beyond all risk of being attacked 

 by a superior force on the 21st. 

 The enemy's troops have retired 

 into Cordova. 



Since the accounts have been 

 received of Lieutenant-General Sir 

 Rowland Hill's expedition, the 

 enemy's troops have likewise been 

 put in motion in Old and New 

 Castile ; the first division, under 

 General Foy, and a division of the 

 army of the center under Gen. 

 D'Armagnac, crossed the Tagus, 

 by the Bridge of Arzobispo, on the 

 21st, and have moved by the road 

 of Deleytosa, to relieve or with- 

 draw the post which still reraaiHed 

 in the tower of Mirabete. 



The whole of the army of Por- 

 tugal-have likewise made a move- 

 ment to their left ; the 2d division 

 being on the Tagus, and Marshal 

 Marmont's head quarters have 



been 



lU 



