[Illustration: PENINSULAR GOLD CROSS.] [Illustration: PENINSULAR GOLD MEDAL WITH BARS.] The following regiments were engaged at the siege and storming of Badajoz: 2nd Foot Guards; 1st, 4th, 5th, 7th, 23rd, 24th, 30th, 38th, 40th, 43rd, 44th, 45th, 48th, 52nd, 60th, 74th, 77th, 83rd, 85th, 88th, 94th, and 95th Regiments, the Rifle Brigade, and the 13th and 14th Light Dragoons. =Salamanca.=--The battle of Salamanca, fought on Sunday, July 22nd, 1812, is noteworthy as the first general action in the Peninsular War in which Wellington attacked; his decision was due to Marmont making a sudden movement which threatened to cut the British lines of communication with Portugal, but although the position appeared to be a critical one for the British General, he turned to the Spanish General Alva and said, "Mon cher Alva, Marmont est perdu!" In this battle the 3rd division, under Major-General Pakenham, were the first in action, and brilliantly carried everything before them. In this division were the Connaught Rangers, who, incensed by the death of a favourite officer, Major Murphy, could hardly be kept in hand. General Pakenham, noticing their impatience, ordered them to "be let loose," when they charged with an impetuosity which nothing could withstand, and together with the 45th and 74th broke through the masses of infantry, bayoneting all they could overtake. Composed of such material, no wonder the 3rd was called "the fighting division." It took just forty minutes to defeat Marmont's left wing, which in his endeavour to close the Ciudad road had got separated from the right, and into the gap made thereby Wellington poured his men. The right, however, reinforced by those who had escaped the conflict on the left, made a very determined resistance, and the shades of evening were falling ere the enemy made a last brave effort to retrieve the day, and, indeed, appeared to be on the way to doing so when Wellington ordered Clinton's division, numbering 6,000 bayonets, to advance, which, after a furious struggle, compelled the French to give way in confusion. Night had set in, and the remnants of Bonnet's division, which Clinton had put to rout, had the good fortune to find a means of escape through the abandonment of the ford of Alba de Tormes by the Spaniards. For six hours the battle of Salamanca raged with unabated fury, and with varying fortune on the right, so that the divisions which had been actively engaged, on an exceedingly hot day, were glad to bivouac on the ground where they had fought a battle, which again demonstrated the brilliant commandership and the keen, quick eye with which Wellington detected an opportunity when it offered. Salamanca was, in the opinion of experts, the most skilful of any of his victories, though the mistakes which Marmont made would have been obvious to men of lesser capacity. A decisive battle, it would have proved much more fatal to the French had darkness not precluded the