Algarve Brigade is not surpassed by any in the army.

«Fourteenth regiment of the line. — The fourteenth regiment of infantry of the line was embodied at Tavira, in Algarve, and Is, I believe, faking it altogether, the finest regiment in the service. When I saw this regiment at Chamusca, in February last, it mustered about two thousand five hundred men, upon parade. The fourteenth has been formed, and altogether organised, by lieutenant-colonel Le Mesurier of his majesty's twenty-first regiment. I have already observed that this regiment forms, with the second, what it called the Algarve brigade. The men appear in general to be much stronger, and, in my opinion, a more martial race, than the inhabitants of Portugal. They have more of the Spanish than Portuguese character and on that account, I think, make better soldiers; and certainly the Algarve Brigade is not surpassed by any in the army.»

In "The Royal Military Chronicle: Or, British Officers Monthly Register", November 1811, Printed by and for J . Davis.

O Regimento de infantaria nº 14, aquartelava em Tavira e formava com o 2º de Lagos a Brigada do Algarve.

Havilland Le Mesurier, era um oficial britanico que ingressou no exercito portugues até a data da sua morte na batalha dos Pirineus em Julho de 1813. Quando ingressou como a Tenente Coronel do Regimento de Tavira referiu: “In the 19th Line regiment seven officers were over sixty, and in one cavalry regiment 'the three eldest cornets [alferes] make up near 180 years.”. Pretendia com esta crítica descrever o Estado envelhecido das unidades portuguesas e incapacidade do quadro de oficiais, velhos e pouco profissionais.

Le Mesurier é citado por JohnGreham em "Wellington´s fighting cocks: the portuguese army in the península" – inserido na obra “The Peninsular War, Aspects of the Struggle for the Iberian Península» ; Staplehurst Spellmount, 1998, p. 174.