General Catlen Craufurd,&c,

GENERAL CATLEN CRAUFURD.

FROM the present press of other Military Matter, and from our

anxiety to do justice to this excellent Officer, we defer till our next a detailed narrative of his Military Life, Course, and Service. If any of his friends or other Military Gentlemen would kindly add to our materials for this Memoir, they would much facilitate its due execution.

We take this opportunity of soliciting Communications of anecdotes or circumstances of the life of any Officers lately deceased. We shall ourselves neglect no means to be full and accurate.

TO THE GENTLEMEN OF THE ARMY.

THE Gentlemen of the Army will be perfectly aware, that this

Head can never be so complete as they and ourselves must wish, unless they will themselves contribute towards it. Every information relating to military affairs and concerns, whether general or regimental, will be thankfully received, and inserted in any form which the Writer may desire. Such Gentlemen as shall favour us with any contributions of this kind, will be pleased to express, whether they wish their Letters to be inserted verbatim, or whether they wish that the Editor may merely avail himself of the information, and draw it up in a form suitable to the Work. It is requested, however, that nothing will be sent, which is in any way contrary to military decorum, or to the real good of the service. It is our anxious wish to obtain and deserve, and to obtain by deserving the general patronage of the English Army; and from the general approbation which even our Prospectus has met with, we have no apprehension but that we shall accomplish our aim.. Nothing, therefore, contrary to the most delicate honour, will ever be inserted in our pages; but as we have the real good of the service at heart, we will unceasingly exert ourselves in its cause. THE PROPRIETORS.

COBA

MILITARY CHRONICLE.

NOVEMBER, 1810.

Containing the Gazettes at full Length, Promotions, Orders, and Military Miscellaneous Occurrences of every kind.

GAZETTE EXTRAORDINARY, Oct. 15, 1810.

DOWNING-STREET, OCT. 14, 1810.

Dispatch, of which the following is a Copy, was received this day at the Earl of liverpool's Office, addressed to his Lordship, from Lieutenant-general Lord Viscount Wellington, K. B. dated Coimbra, Sept. 30th, 1810.

MY LORD.

WHILE the enemy was advancing from Celerico and Francoso upon Vizeu,

the different divisions of Militia and Ordenanza were employed upon their flanks and rear; and Colonel Trant, with his division, attacked the escort of the military chest and reserve of artillery, near Tojal, on the 20th instant. He took two officers and 100 prisoners, but the enemy collected a force from the front and rear, which obliged him to retire again towards the Doure.

I understand that the enemy's communication with Almeida is completely cut off; and he possesses only the ground on which his army stands.

My dispatches of the 20th instant will have informed you of the measures which I had adopted, and which were in progress to collect the army in this neighbourhood, and if possible to prevent the enemy from obtaining possession

of this town.

On the 21st, the enemy's advanced guard pushed on to St. Cambadao, at the junction of the rivers Criz and Dao; and Brigadier-general Pack retired across the former, and joined Brigadier-general Crawfurd, at Mortagoa, having destroyed the bridges over those two rivers. The enemy's advanced guard crossed the Criz, having repaired the bridge on the 23d, and the whole of the 6th corps was collected on the other side of the river; and I therefore withdrew the cavalry through the Sierra de Busaco, with the exception of three squadrons, as the ground was unfavourable for the operations of that arm.

On the 25th the whole of the 6th and of the 2d corps crossed the Criz, in the

VOL. I. No. 1.

K

Gazette Extraordinary.—Battle of Busaco.

neighbourhood of St. Cambadao; and Brigadier-general Crawfurd's division, and Brigadier-general Pack's brigate retired to the position which I had fixed upon for the army on the top of Sierra de Busaco. These troops were followed in this movement by the whole of the corps of Ney and Regnier, (the 6th and 2d) but it was conducted by Brigadier-general Crawfurd with great regularity, and the troops took their position without sustaining any loss of importance.

The 4th Portuguese Cacadores which had retired on the right of the other troops, and the picquets of the 3d division of infantry, which were posted at St. Antonio de Cantaro, under Major Smith of the 45th, were engaged with the advance of Regnier's corps in the afternoon, and the former shewed that steadiness and gallantry which others of the Portuguese troops have since manifested.

The Sierra de Busaco is a high ridge which extends from the Mondego in a northerly direction about eight miles.

At the highest point of the ridge, about two miles from its termination, is the convent and garden of Busaco. The Sierra of Busaco is connected by a mountainous track of country with the Sierra de Caramula, which extends in a northeasterly direction beyond Vizeu, and separates the valley of the Mondego from the valley of the Douro, on the left of the Mondego. Nearly in a line with the Sierra de Busaco is another ridge of the same description, which is called the Sierra de Marcella, covered by the river Alva, and connected by other mountainous tracks with the Sierra d'Estrella.

All the roads to Coimbra from the eastward, lead over one or other of these Sierras. They are very difficult for the passage of an army, the approach to the top of the ridge on both sides being mountainous. As the enemy's whole army was on the ridge of the Mondego, and as it was evident that he intended to force our position, Lieutenant-general Hill crossed that river, by a short movement to his left, on the morning of the 26th, leaving Colonel le Cor with his brigade on the Sierra de Marcella to cover the right of the army; and Major-general Fane with his division of Portuguese cavalry, and the 13th Light Dragoons in front of the Alva, to observe and check the movements of the enemy's cavalry on the Mondego. With this exception, the whole army was collected upon the Sierra de Busaco, with the British cavalry observing the plain in the rear of its left, and the road leading from Mortagea to Oporto, through the mountainous track which connects the Sierra de Busaco with the Seira de Caramula.

The eighth corps joined the enemy in our front on the 26th, but he did not make any serious attack on that day. The light troops on both sides were engaged throughout the line.

At six in the morning of the 27th, the enemy made two desperate attacks upon our position, the one on the right, the other on the left of the bighest point of the Sierra. The attack upon the right was made by two divisions of