496 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1809. 



Total killed and wounded. 



Captain Cockburn's return— 7 

 killed, 22 wounded. General 

 return— 2 killed, 18 wounded. 

 Captain Richardson's return— 7 



wounded.. Total, 9 killed, 47 



wounded. 



(Signed) R. J. Strachan. 



A letter from rear-admiral sir 

 Richard John Strachan to the hon. 

 W. W. Pole, dated on board the 

 St. Domingo, Flushing, 17th Aug. 

 1809, transmits one from sir Rich- 

 ard Goodwin Keats, inclosing the 

 terms of capitulation for the sur- 

 render of the towns ofZeirickzee 

 and Browershaven, with the whole 

 of the islands of Schowen and 

 Duiveland, which are of the usual 

 nature. 



Military General Orders. 



The commander in chief has 

 received the king's commands to 

 notify to the army the splendid vic- 

 tory obtained by his troops in 

 Spain, under the command of lieu- 

 tenant general the right hon. sir 

 Arthur Wellesley, on the 27th and 

 28th of last month, at the battle of 

 Talavera de la Reyna. 



His majesty is confident that his 

 army will learn with becoming ex- 

 ultation, that the enemy, after es- 

 caping by a precipitate retreat from 

 thewell concerted attack with which 

 sir ArthurWellesley, in conjunction 

 with the Spanish army, had threa- 

 tened him on the 24'th of July, con- 

 centrated his force, by calling to his 

 aid the corps under the French gen. 

 Sebastiani and the garrison of Ma- 

 drid; and thus reinforced, again ap- 

 proached the allied army on the 

 27 th of July; and, on this occasion, 

 owing to the local circumstances of 



its position, and to the deliberate 

 purpose of the enemy to direct his 

 whole efforts against the troops of 

 his majesty, the British army sus- 

 tained nearly the whole weight of 

 this great contest, and has acquired 

 the glory of having vanquished a 

 French army double their numbers, 

 not in a short and partial struggle, 

 but in a battle obstinately contested 

 on two successive days (not wholly 

 discontinued even throughout the 

 intervening night), and foughtunder 

 circumstances which brought both 

 armies into close and repeated 

 combat. 



The king, in contemplating so 

 glorious a display of the valour and 

 prowess of his troops, has been 

 graciously pleased to command that 

 his royal approbation of the con- 

 duct of the army serving under the 

 command of lieut.-general sir 

 Arthur Wellesley shall be thus 

 publicly declared in general or- 

 ders. 



The commander in chief has 

 received the king's commands to 

 signify, in the most marked and 

 special manner, the sense his ma- 

 jesty entertains of lieut.-general 

 sir Arthur Wellesley's personal 

 services on this memorableoccasion, 

 not less displayed in the result of 

 the battle itself, than in the con- 

 summate ability, valour, and mili- 

 tary resource, with which the many 

 difficulties of this arduous and pro- 

 tracted contest were met and pro- 

 vided for by his experience and 

 judgment. 



The conduct of lieut.-general 

 Sherbrooke,second incommand,has 

 entitled him to the king's marked 

 approbation. His majesty has 

 observedjwith sat isftiction, the man- 

 ner in which he led on the troops to 

 the charge with the bayonet, a spe- 

 cies 



