General Paget. From this position in the line of retreat Beresford's men were constantly called back to assist the reserve in their numerous engagements with the French vanguard, and always gave Moore the fullest satisfaction. In the battle of Conmna, where Moore fought his last battle, Beresford was posted on the English left, and did his duty on that memorable day. His brigade was the last but one to embark on board the ships, and when the relics of Moore's famous army reached England it was agreed that no English general had distinguished himself more than Beresford.
The Portuguese government, recognising the utter disorganisation of the Portuguese army, now begged that an English general might be sent them with English regimental officers to effect a reform. The appointment, according to Napier, was much coveted, but the choice of the government fell upon Beresford, not so much on account of his parliamentary influence, which was great, as his thorough knowledge of the Portuguese language and his local knowledge of the country acquired in the last campaign. In February 1809 he was made a local lieutenant-general in Portugal in the English army, though but a major-general of one year's standing, and a marshal in the Portuguese army, and landed at Lisbon on 2 March to begin his difficult task. Beresford distributed the English officers he had brought with him to a very few regiments, and, by steadily weoding out some three-fourths of theo most inferior material into a militia, formed a small serviceable army instead of a large unwieldy mass of men. He further perceived the fitness of the Portuguese for light troops, and by a process of selection formed the famous Caçadores, who proved themselves worthy to be brigaded with the light division. The more promising officers were appointed to the regiments intended for active service, and the rest left to the militia; he gave them a real pride in their regiments, and the Duc de Saldanha, for instance, after serving for a short period as aide-de-camp to the marshal, felt no indignity in serving through the rest of the Peninsular war in an infantry regiment. Having selected his men, Beresford had to make disciplined soldiers of them. He carried his maintenance of martial law to an extreme ; every infraction of discipline, whether in officers or men, was severely punished, and at the same time everv deed of valour was iustlv estimated. His one great difficulty was to get money and food for his men. Without proper rations they had to plunder, and when they were fed by the English commissariat they became a burden. Throughout his labour of organising the Portuguese army he had the full sympathy of Wellington, who never failed to give the Portuguese the praise that was their due ; but his English local rank was the source of endless trouble to the commander-in-chief. Senior generals objected to having their junior placed over their heads ; more than one resigned when on the spot, and many refused to join the army, and in his chagrin Wellington writes on one occasion : 'I would to God Beresford would resign his English lieutenant-general's rank ; the embarrassment and ill-blood it causes is inconceivable' (Wellington Despatches, iii. 241).
Before his labours of reorganisation were seriously commenced—while Sir John Cradock was still in command—he had an opportunity of trying his undisciplined mass against ooult's army in the province of Tras-os-Montes, and soon saw their utter uselessness. Nevertheless Sir Arthur detached him with his Portuguese, when he moved against Oporto, to cross the Douro on the extreme right, and to try to cut off Loison's retreat at Amdrante. This one experience was enough, and when Wellington entered Spain and fought the battle of Talavera, Beresford was left behind to commence his real work. So hard did he labour during the winter of 1809 that Lord Wellington in the summer of 1810 brigaded certain Portuguese regiments with English ones, and found them capable of doing good service. The Portuguese fought side by side with the Englishmen at the battle of Busaco, and the behaviour of the 8th Portuguese regiment is one of the most disputed points in the history of that battle, every historian of the war believing it behaved well, but all differing as to the time when it came into action. For his service on this day Beresford was made a knight of the Bath in October 1810, a knight of the Tower and Sword of Portugal, and Conde de Trancoso in the peerage of Portugal.
When Wellington had retreated into the lines of Torres Vedras, Beresford established his headquarters at Lisbon, and continued his work of reorganisation by means of the fresh English officers who joined him at this time, and having organised his regiments in the winter of 1809, he now organised his brigades in the winter of 1810.
General Hill, who had been Wellington's right hand in the previous year, was obliged to go home from illness in the spring of 1811, and Wellington was reluctantly obliged to give up the command of his corps to Beresford, as next in seniority to Hill. His army, which consisted
