90 SWABEY DIARY. 
posts on the 27th, between the enemy’s advance and our light cavalry, 
combined with Captain Bull’s and Lefebure’s troops. The 5th regi- 
ment were twice charged by a regiment of Chasseurs, and then walked 
up to the cavalry with their bayonets, a thing new in the annals of war. 
The 11th and 14th Dragoons, and the Coldstream Guards behaved 
gallantly, and the artillery did much execution. Poor Dunn! of the 
latter was brought into Sabugal wounded in the groin; he was picked 
out by a rifleman. No accommodations are contrived in this army to 
convey the sick and wounded to the rear, and I sat with Dunn some 
hours, concocting plans for conveying him easily, and had a cot con- 
structed to swing in a wagon for him—he was wounded before in 
Egypt, and has seen much service. 
The actions referred to were those of El] Boden and Aldea de 
Ponte. Marmont, who had received a reinforcement of 11,000 
men from France, having thrown a convoy into Ciudad Rodrigo, 
which had been blockaded for six weeks and wanted food, ob- 
serving the extended position of the allies, crossed the Agueda 
and attacked them on the 27th of September, at El Boden and 
Aldea de Ponte. At the former place the cavalry of Montbrun 
cut down some Portuguese gunners and took two guns, when 
suddenly the 5th Regiment, led by Major Ridge, charged into 
the midst of the French cavalry and retook them. 
At Aldea de Ponte, the French were at first successful, but eventu- 
ally were repulsed. In the night Wellington fell back and 
occupied on the 28th a new and strong position, on the same 
day the French, who had but a few days’ provisions, and could 
procure none in the country, also retired, and Marmont resumed 
his old position in the valley of the Tagus. See Napier, Vol. 
IV., p. 234 et seq. 
50th September.—Marched to Val de Lobo with a guide, having 
received orders to attach ourselves to the 7th Division? under Major- 
1Lieutenant William Dunn (Kane’s List, No. 1188) served in the campaign cf 1805 in Italy, was 
present at the battle of Maida, and capture of Scylla Castle in 1806, and at its defence in 1808 
greatly distinguished himself. Ife served with the expedition to Egypt in 1807, including attack 
on Alexandria and Rosetta, and the battle of E] Hamet, where he was taken prisoner. 
He served in the Peninsula in “A” Troop, while his own, “‘ D,”’ was refitting in Lisbon after 
its disastrous voyage from England, and was present, in 1810, at the operations between the rivers 
Agueda and Duas Casas, at Almeida, at the affair on the Coa, the battle of Busaco, and the lines 
of Torres Vedras. He joined his own troop when it took the field in 181], was with it at the 
battle of Albuera, and the affair of Usaqre. At the affair of Aldea de Ponte (severely wounded), 
With General Hill’s corps in Spanish Estremadura, at Ribera, and many other affairs. He served 
in America in 1814. Major-General Dunn died in 1863. 
2 There were eight divisions in the army known among the troops by the cant names as below :—- 
Light Division—-The Division. 
1st " The Gentlemen’s Sons. 
2nd 0" » Observing Division. 
3rd " 1 Fighting n 
4th " » Supporting 1 After the affair in the 
Pyrenees, they were called the Enthusi- 
astics. 
5th " 1 Pioneers. 
6th n Marching Division. 
7th H They tell us there is a 7th, but we have never 
seen them. 
66 Diary of a Cavalry Officer,” p. 133, 
