On arrival at Buenos Ayres, after two engagements at Reduccion and Passo Chico, in which the English were successful, General Whitelocke completely invested the city. The plan of attack on which he decided was to enter the place in separate columns by totally different entrances [Sidenote: ‘Gazette,’ 13 Sept. 1807.] and streets; each column to march “along the street directly in its front, till it arrived at the last square of houses next the River La Plata, of which it was to possess itself, forming on the flat roofs, and there wait for further orders. No firing was to be permitted until the columns had reached their final points and formed.” The reader, who has already been informed of the size of Buenos Ayres, and the style of the houses, will at once see the madness of such a method of attack; but the extraordinary thing to be noted is that General Whitelocke employed, as an argument for the course he adopted, the very circumstance which should have forbidden him to hazard his troops in the dangerous and unsatisfactory occupation of street fighting. “The knowledge,” he wrote, “that the enemy meant to occupy the flat roofs of the houses gave rise to the plan of attack.” The guns accompanied the columns; but “the detachments of the Horse Artillery were not mounted, and of the Cavalry only two squadrons had their horses.” The attack took place on the 5th July, and if endurance and courage among the troops could have redeemed their General’s blunder, this would have been done. At the end of the day no fewer than 2500 men were killed, wounded, or prisoners. The battle was just what might have been foreseen. In General Whitelocke’s own words, “The nature of the fire to which the troops were exposed was violent in the extreme. Grape shot at the corners of all the streets, musketry, hand grenades, bricks, and stones from the tops of all the houses; every householder with his negroes defended his dwelling, each of which was in itself a fortress, and it is not, perhaps, too much to say that the whole male population of Buenos Ayres was employed in its defence.” General Whitelocke’s subsequent conviction by court-martial for incapacity might have been assured on his own testimony.