In my Fields of Battle article (Issue 7), I provided some photographs of the Medina battlefield, which I visited a week after the book was published. One picture (untitled - foot of page 24) shows the Teson de Mondin from the Pramo de Val de Cuevas. A second picture was titled "Teson de Moclin (Moclin is the local name) from the Palacios road".

In the second picture, the Teson is almost exactly dead centre of the picture with the P ramo as a dark grey streak stretching to the left on the skyline. The Teson appears as a very small conical feature. Dr Esdaile suggests that the hill I have indicated was not, in fact, the TesĒn, but another hill upon which Bessieres later set up his HQ and that the Teson was further to the north-east, forming part of the ridge where Mouton observed Cuesta. I believe this is the position I identified in the third of my pictures ("The road from Palacios, showing probable French artillery position") in which the P ramo is off the picture to the Ieft. To make the topography clearer, I reproduce a map from Dr Esdaile's chapter on Bessieres in "Napoleon's Marshals" (ed. David Chandler) published by Weiderfeld & Nicholson. The apparent reason for this muddle is the fact that I believe I was directed to the wrong feature by the local tourism office (or, more likely, I misunderstood what they said!). Oman obviously made the same mistake on Derbishire's map (although, one, presumes not because of the same tourism office) but his contention that the French mounted their artillery on the Teson is not now disputed, it is simply a case of topographical mistaken identity. Thus, the remarks I made about it being impossible to site even a battery where Oman shows it were justified and we now know the true position.

In "Battle Studies in the Peninsula" page 53, I have marked the Teson in approximately the right place but have not extended the Spanish line far enough to the left and show the bulk of the French artillery where Bessieres' HQ was sited. It should, in fact, have been where Mouton's artillery is shown. I am indebted to Dr Esdaile for this information and hope that, for owners of "Battle Studies in the Peninsula" it has clarified the position and corrected a minor error. Please see, below, the map from "Battle Studies".

Napoleonic Peninsular War

Introduction
Medina De Rioseco: 14th July 1808
Bailen: 19th July 1808