On the 15th of May the first battalion, still belonging to the second division, moved forward without interruption until its arrival at _Vittoria_ on the 21st of June: it bore a considerable share in the battle on that day, in taking, defending, and maintaining the village of _Subijana de Alava_, a post in front of the left of the French line, which they considered of such importance as to induce them to make several vigorous attacks to repossess themselves of it, but which proved unavailing. In this glorious action the battalion lost, in killed and wounded, above one-third of its number. Captains Charles Carthew, Robert Walton, and William Hicks, were wounded. Captain Hicks died of his wounds on the 3rd of July; Lieutenant the Honorable Michael De Courcy Meade died of his wounds on the 9th of July. Lieutenants Francis C. Crotty, Coyne Reynolds, Thomas Baynes, and Alexander G. Speirs, were wounded. Two serjeants and thirty-two rank and file were killed; six serjeants and one hundred and ninety-four rank and file were wounded. The French, being driven from all their defences, retreated with such precipitation towards Pampeluna as to abandon all their baggage, artillery, ammunition, military chests, and the court equipage of King Joseph, whose carriage being seized, he had barely time to escape on horseback. The defeat was the most complete that the French had experienced in Spain. The baton of Marshal Jourdan was taken by the Eighty-seventh regiment, and the Prince Regent, in the name and behalf of His Majesty, appointed the Marquis of Wellington a Field-Marshal. In a most flattering letter, the Prince Regent thus conferred the honor:--“You have sent me among the trophies of our unrivalled fame, the staff of a French Marshal, and I send you in return that of England.” To commemorate this victory the THIRTY-NINTH subsequently received the royal authority to bear the word “VITTORIA” on the regimental colour and appointments. A medal was granted to Colonel the Honorable Robert William O’Callaghan, of the THIRTY-NINTH regiment, in temporary command of the brigade, who was specially noticed in the Marquis of Wellington’s despatch, “as having maintained the village of Subijana de Alava against all the efforts of the enemy to gain possession of it;” and also to Brevet-Lieut.-Colonel Charles Bruce, in immediate command of the first battalion.