a horrid carnage, it was driven by the incessant vigour of the attack to the farthest edge of the hill. There the French reserve, mixing with the struggling multitude, endeavoured to sustain the fight; but the effort only increased the irremediable confusion, the mighty mass gave way, and like a loosened cliff, went headlong down the ascent. The rain flowed after in streams discoloured with blood, and fifteen hundred unwounded men, the remnant of six thousand unconquerable British soldiers, stood triumphant on the fatal hill!" "The Fusiliers exceeded anything that the usual word 'Gallantry' can convey."--_Colonel Sir Henry Hardinge._ "In this attack, and carrying the enemy's position, the Fusilier brigade lost 1000 out of 1500 men and 45 officers; among whom three were commanding officers;--and exhibited an example of steadiness and heroic gallantry which history, I believe, cannot surpass."--_Major-General Sir G. Lowry Cole._ [19] Brigadier-General Kemmis's brigade, being on the north side of the Guadiana, was left in that position in order to secure the safe removal of the stores to the town of Elvas on the siege of Badajoz being raised, and was prevented, on that account, from joining the fourth division until the morning of the 17th of May. [20] During the year 1811 the following non-commissioned officers were rewarded with commissions. Serjeant-Major Timothy Meagher, Lieutenant Seventh Fusiliers. Serjeant-Major William Johnson, Ensign Fifty-seventh Regiment. Quarter-Master Serjeant Arthur Byrne, Ensign and Adjutant Twenty-seventh Regiment. Serjeant William Gough, appointed Ensign, Second West India Regiment, on 14th November, 1811; promoted to a Lieutenantcy on 12th August, 1813; and died in September, 1817. [21] This officer was aide-de-camp to Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Picton, and was mortally wounded on the 19th March. [22] In July, 1812, Serjeant William Harris of the Royal Fusiliers was rewarded with the commission of Ensign and Adjutant in the twenty-seventh regiment. [23] Serjeant Joseph Wood was this year rewarded with a commission in the thirteenth veteran battalion formed at Lisbon. [24] The following non-commissioned officers were this year rewarded with commissions:-- Serjeant John Henry, Ensign and Adjutant Ninety-first Regiment. Quarter-Master Serjeant William Greenwood, Quarter-Master Seventh Regiment. Serjeant John Day, Ensign Sixtieth Regiment.