ABSTRACT
An hour before dawn, while the stars shone brilliantly out of a sky that now had no trace of cloud, both armies stood to their arms. In strength they were nearly equal, each about 50,000 strong; exact totals are apt to be misleading, they can so rarely be accurately computed. Marmont had eight infantry divisions, four cavalry brigades and seventy-six guns; Wellington seven Anglo-Portuguese divisions, two independent Portuguese brigades, Carlos de Espana’s Spanish division (little more than a brigade), five cavalry brigades and fifty-four guns (a battery of 24-pounder howitzers had just joined him). Marmont had the advantage in guns, Wellington in cavalry; numerically the Anglo-Portuguese army may have been a little the stronger, but to all intents and purposes the two armies were levelly balanced.
