When Viscount Wellington broke up from the Guadiana in the month of December, and crossed the Tagus, he left Lieut.-General Hill, who had been appointed to serve on the Staff in the Peninsula as a Lieut.-General, after the battle of _Talavera_, with a force of ten thousand men, British and Portuguese, at Abrantes. Among the former was the second battalion of the THIRTY-FIRST; it continued at that place until February 1810, when Lieut.-General Hill, on the approach of Marshal Mortier on Badajoz, marched to Portalegre, and occupied that strong position. He made a move on the 23rd of April through the Sierra de St. Marmede, which had the desired effect of relieving General O’Donnell at Albuquerque, the enemy retiring to Merida. Lieut.-General Hill was once more at Portalegre on the 26th of April, and on the 15th of May he again quitted his cantonment, by which movement he disengaged Badajoz from the attention of the enemy, who had made a reconnoisance on the 12th of that place, and relieved General Ballasteros, returning in a few days afterwards to his old position. During the continuance of the division at Portalegre, it was always on the alert, owing to General Regnier’s movements in Estremadura. In the beginning of July, Lieut.-General Hill concentrated his corps at Campo Mayor, previously to an expedition into Estremadura in conjunction with the Marquis de Romana. General Regnier had, however, frustrated this plan, by quitting Merida on the 10th of July, and marching upon Aleonete and Almaraz, effected the passage of the Tagus on the 16th. Lieut.-General Hill made a parallel movement, and crossing the river at Vilha Velha, was at Castello Branco on the 21st; he encamped at Sarzedas, in front of the Sobreira Formosa, remaining some time in observation between the Estrella and the Tagus. Upon Marshal Massena concentrating his force for the invasion of Portugal, Lieut.-General Hill fell back from his position at Sarzedas, and on the 21 st of August, arrived on the Alva. On the 26th, the THIRTY-FIRST in Lieut.-General Hill’s corps, crossed the Mondego, arrived on the _Sierra de Busaco_, and was posted on the right, across the road leading over the mountain ridge to Peña Cova, but the battalion was not engaged in the action. When General Regnier attacked the position held by the third and fifth divisions, Lieut.-General Hill withdrew towards his left to support them; it was unnecessary however, these divisions having repulsed the enemy, and he therefore continued in his original position.