of the 2nd and 4th infantry divisions under Generals William Stewart and Lowry Cole, De Grey's heavy and Slade's light cavalry brigades under the command of General R. B. Long, and four Portuguese brigades, was ordered by Lord Wellington to invest Badajoz and check any incursion of Soult's army of Andalusia into Estremadura, while he himself foiled Masséna's last attempt to break into the fertile province of Beira. From the first no real confidence was felt by Hill's old corps in Beresford ; no contrast could be greater than between the quiet English gentleman and the fiery Irishman, and the English officers resented being placed under the command of a Portuguese general. Beresford marched rapidly towards Badajoz ; and the very first engagement, which took place at Campo Mayor, showed how little command he had over his troops, for the light cavalry brigade charged the French cavalry so impetuously that it got far beyond the reach of recall, and the l4th light dragoons were either cut to pieces or taken prisoners. Campo Mayor soon surrendered, and the marshal then proceeded to invest Badajoz with inadequate forces. Soult advanced with his whole corps d'armée, and, driving Blake's Spanish army before him, entered Estremadura. Beresford at once raised the siege, and drew up his army, with Blake's upon his right, opposite the little bridge of Albuera. Soidt saw that it was possible for him to occupy almost unobserved certain heights on Beresford's right, which Blake had neglected. He therefore made a feint on the English centre, while he sent the flower of his army to occupy these heights. There the battle raged. When Beresford saw Soult's regiments debouching on the heights, he ordered Stewart's division to reoccupy them ; but Stewart advanced too hastily, and the 2nd division was soon thrown into disorder by a vigorous charge of the Polish lancers. In vain Beresford himself rushed to the spot, and he had already given the order to retire, when the military genius of Colonel Hardinge, the quartermaster-general of the Portuguese army^, won the battle. Without orders from his chief, he galloped up to General Cole, whose division had only just arrived from Badajoz, and ordered it to advance. In perfect order two brigrades of the 4th division, Arbuthnott's on the right, and Alexander Abercromby's on the left, advanced to the fatal liill, and gradually but purely forced the French to leave the field. Both generals claimed the victory ; but Soult, though he bivouacked upon the field, found it necessary from his enormous losses to retire once more into Andalusia. Beresford had won a hard-fought fight, but a little more generalship would have saved the lives of the 4,300 splendid soldiers, and it was Hardinge and not Beresford who had won the victory. Yet Beresford had many reasons to be proud of the day (16 May). He had personally distinguished himself and he had prevented Soult from making the advance on Lisbon which Napoleon had directed.
Discontent has been freely expressed at the battle of Albuera. The tactics of the general were almost beneath contempt. Wellington speedily resumed the command of the southern army, and Beresford returned to Lisbon to continue the work of reorganisation, for which he was far more fitted than for command in the field. Nevertheless he was present, though not actively engaged, at the siege of Badajoz, and in the famous advance into Spain, which was signalised by the victory of Salamanca. On that great day he held no particular command, but encouraged his Portuguese soldiers in the gallant attacks of Pack and Bradford on the Arapiles, which were among the finest actions of the great battle. Towards the close of the day he was severely wounded in the thigh, and so did not share the triumph of Wellington's entry into Madrid. After this battle a singular proof occurs of the high value Wellington placed upon his services. It was proposed by the mmistry to make Sir Stapleton Cotton, who had been second in command, a peer, when Wellington was made a marquis; but Wellington earnestly begged that this should not be done, because Beresford would at once throw up his Portuguese command. 'I do not know how you will settle this question,' he wrote to Lord Bathurst on 2 Dec. 1812. 'All that I can tell you is that the ablest man I have yet seen with the army, and that one having the largest views, is Beresford. They tell me that when I am not present, he wants decision, and he certainly embarrassed me a little with his doubts, when he commanded in Estremadura, but I am quite certain that he is the only person capable of conducting a large concern' (Wellington Supplementary Despatches, vii. 484). Beresford soon got cured of his wound in Portugal, and was present in 1813 at the battle of Vittoria and at the battles of the Pyrenees, without any special command. After a sojourn in England, he again rejoined the army before the invasion of France, and commanded the centre of the army at the battles of the Nivelle, the Nive, and Orthez. After this last battle he was detached with two infantry divisions and two brigades of cavalry to Bordeaux, where, Wellington was
