In the subsequent battle of _Vimiera_, fought on the 21st of August, the first battalion of the FIFTH forming, with the Ninth and Thirty-eighth Regiments, the first brigade, was posted on the mountain on the right of the village. The enemy was defeated, and the regiment was rewarded by royal permission to inscribe the word "VIMIERA" also upon its colours. These successes being followed by the Convention of Cintra, and the evacuation of Portugal by the French, the first battalion of the FIFTH was afterwards stationed in Lisbon, where it remained several weeks. Portugal being now free from the presence of an enemy, an army, commanded by Lieutenant-General Sir John Moore, was sent up the country in the autumn, to assist the Spaniards in their resistance to the armies of France, and the first battalion of the FIFTH Regiment was selected to form part of this expedition. [Sidenote: 1809] Passing through Portugal by a rapid march, the troops traversed four hundred miles in a short time, and were soon engaged in operations in Spain; but the Spaniards, who were to have co-operated, had in the mean time been defeated and dispersed; and the little British army was eventually obliged to retire before the superior numbers of the enemy. The FIFTH Regiment took its full share in the disasters and privations of the retreat from Sahagun to _Corunna_, as well as in the glories of the 16th of January, 1809, when the steady firmness of the British army, by repulsing at all points an assailant, superior in numbers and artillery, and commanded by one of the ablest generals[39] that France could boast, proved to the world that even a forced retreat of two hundred and fifty miles, made under circumstances the most disheartening, and accompanied by privations the most appalling, though it might wear the sinews and exhaust the physical strength of the British soldier, had no power to shake his resolution or daunt his courage. In the battle of _Corunna_, Colonel Mackenzie particularly distinguished himself: after having one horse shot under him, he remounted another, and was at length mortally wounded, whereupon the command of the battalion devolved on Major Emes, who received a medal for this service, while the regiment itself acquired another honorary inscription for its colours, 'CORUNNA' being by royal permission borne upon them. The number of killed and wounded of the first battalion of the FIFTH, in the battle of Corunna, has never been exactly ascertained; but on mustering after its return to England, one serjeant, two corporals, three drummers, and one hundred and twenty-six rank and file were found to be missing.