LIEUT.-GENERAL THOMAS DYNELEY, C.B., R.A. 451 
LETTER XIII. 
(To Carrain J. K. Dovatas, B.A.). 
Auoca DEL Ruy, August 5th, 1812. 
I am in great hopes, my dear John, you may receive this before you 
have an opportunity of seeing my letter to Mrs. Close sent by last 
packet, wherein I grumble and abuse you for an idle fellow; now I 
cannot sufficiently thank you for your delightful long letter of—I can- 
not say what date, for as usual it had none. I shall begin to suspect 
you are in the Fleet, Newgate, or some other pretty little hiding-place, 
for you never even mention the place from whence you write. Surely 
if I should be correct in my suspicions, there could be no necessity for 
keeping it from an old friend. Since you last heard from me we have 
had a pretty severe time of it, marching and counter-marching ever 
since the Ist June. However, at last we had an opportunity of coming 
up with the fellows, and I should think the dressing they got would 
be enough to last them the next six months at least. They have never 
looked behind them since and yet the scoundrels have the assurance to say 
it was not a general action but only a skirmish, but in the said skirmish 
they have lost 15,000 men. You will see by the date of this we are 
advanced some way into Spain. The part of the army I am now with 
consists of two regiments of heavy German cavalry, two strong regi- 
ments of Portuguese cavalry, a German infantry light battalion and 
our troop, under the command of General d’Urban, and is called the 
“corps of observation and communication.” The ‘“ observing” part 
of it left Coca on the night of the 2nd on a forced march of nine 
leagues to Segovia, taking with it two guns, the light battalion and 
Portuguese cavalry. On their arrival there they observed Joseph 
Bonaparte at the head of 12,000 men, who had fled, but returned, and 
they therefore very wisely retired two leagues upon this place, and we 
marched next morning to support them and communicate with the 
head-quarters of the army. Here we have been ever since, not having 
a word from the other party. I am left here with the command of four 
guns, Macdonald! having gone on with the other two. 
On the morning of the action? I was very near having an oppor- 
tunity of getting an “ ex” or “dis’’—tinguish. There was a small hill 
in the centre of our line of which the enemy showed a disposition to 
possess themselves, and I received orders from his Lordship to occupy 
and defend it as long as I had a man to stand to my guns, and in the 
event of my being so hard pushed as to be unable to fire any more, to 
spike the guns and run. These orders were brought me by Colonel 
Sturgeon,’ who shook hands and wished me well over it, thinking, I 
1 A valuable collection of medals and orders were lately sold at Sotherby’s. Among them the 
gold medal for the battle of Salamanca which belonged to Colonel R. Macdonald, R.A. It fetched 
£59.—Hd. 
2 Battle of Salamanca. 
8 Lieut.-Colonel Henry Sturgeon, Royal Staff Corps, Assistant-Quarter-Master-General, was an 
officer of very superior merit, and one of the most trusted of those on his personal staff by Lord 
Wellington. Lieut.-Colonel Sturgeon began his serviee in the Royal Artillery (Kane’s List, No. 
932) ; he was killed in the affair at Tarbes in the south of France, March 19th, 1814.—Ed. 
