2nd ditto Lieut.-Col. Wade Staff Corps Detachments Lieut.-Col. Nicolay 1st Light Battalion, K. G. L. Lieut.-Col. Leonhard 2nd ---- ditto ditto Lieut.-Col. Halkett D. GENERAL ORDERS. Horse Guards, 18th August, 1809. The Commander-in-Chief has received the King's commands to notify to the Army the splendid victory obtained by His Troops in Spain, under the command of _Lieutenant-General the Right Honourable_ SIR ARTHUR WELLESLEY, on the 27th and 28th of last month, at the _Battle_ of TALAVERA DE LA REYNA. His Majesty is confident that His Army will learn with becoming exultation that the enemy, after escaping by a precipitate retreat from the well-concerted attack with which SIR ARTHUR WELLESLEY, in conjunction with the Spanish Army, had threatened him on the 24th of July, concentrated his force, by calling to his aid the corps under the French General Sebastiani and the garrison of Madrid, and thus reinforced, again approached the Allied Army on the 27th of July; and on this occasion, owing to the local circumstances of its position, and to the deliberate purpose of the enemy to direct his whole efforts against the Troops of His Majesty, the British Army sustained nearly the whole weight of this great contest, and has acquired the glory of having vanquished a French army double their numbers, not in a short and partial struggle, but in a battle obstinately contested on two successive days, (not wholly discontinued even throughout the intervening night,) and fought under circumstances which brought both armies into close and repeated combat. The King, in contemplating so glorious a display of the valour and prowess of His Troops, has been graciously pleased to command that his Royal approbation of the conduct of the Army serving under the command of _Lieutenant-General_ SIR ARTHUR WELLESLEY shall be thus publicly declared in General Orders. The Commander-in-Chief has received the King's commands to signify in the most marked and special manner the sense His Majesty entertains of _Lieutenant-General_ SIR ARTHUR WELLESLEY'S personal services on this memorable occasion, not less displayed in the result of the battle itself than in the consummate ability, valour, and military resource with which the many difficulties of this arduous and protracted contest were met and provided for by his experience and judgment. The conduct of _Lieutenant-General Sherbrooke_, second in command, has entitled him to the King's marked approbation. His Majesty has observed with satisfaction the manner in which he led on the Troops to the charge with the bayonet--a species of combat which, on all occasions, so well accords with the dauntless character of British soldiers.