of February 1809; also a list of regiments employed under
Lieut.-General Sir John Moore at Corunna, inserted in pages 161,
&c. of the _Appendix_.
[25] The bonnet _cocked_ is the pattern cap to which allusion
is made in the above letter. This was in accordance with
Lieut.-Colonel Pack’s application; and with respect to retaining
the pipes, and dressing the pipers in the Highland garb, he added,
“It cannot be forgotten how these pipes were obtained, and how
constantly the regiment has upheld its title to them. These are the
honorable characteristics which must preserve to future times the
precious remains of the old corps, and of which I feel confident
His Majesty will never have reason to deprive the SEVENTY-FIRST
regiment.”
[26] The remaining four companies of the first battalion of the
SEVENTY-FIRST regiment arrived in the Peninsula in the course of
the year 1811, namely, two companies in March, and two in July 1811.
[27] Major General William Carr Beresford, marshal in the
Portuguese service, was appointed a Knight of the Bath on the 16th
of October 1810.
[28] Lieut.-General Rowland Hill was appointed a Knight of the
Order of the Bath on the 22d of February 1812.
[29] When Lieut.-General Sir Rowland Hill was created a Peer in
May 1814, his title was connected with the gallant affair above
recorded, as he was styled Baron Hill of Almaraz, and of Hawkstone,
in the county of Salop.
[30] The officers of the SEVENTY-FIRST regiment, to mark their
admiration and esteem for this distinguished officer, had a
monument erected to his memory.
[31] A list of the British and Hanoverian army at Waterloo, as
formed in divisions and brigades, is inserted in the _Appendix_,
page 166.
[32] Colonel the Honorable Henry Cadogan, who was mortally wounded
at Vittoria on the 21st of June 1813.--_Vide page 94._
[33] During the period the SEVENTY-FIRST were stationed at York,
they had the satisfaction of removing to consecrated ground the
mortal remains of the brave grenadiers of the eighth regiment,
who fell upon the 27th of April, 1813, in action with the
Americans. These gallant soldiers had fallen, and were buried at
a considerable distance from the shores of Lake Ontario; but as
its waters had since encroached upon the land in this direction,
they at length succeeded in breaking open their honorable grave,
and the beach became strewed with their remains. This coming to
the knowledge of the SEVENTY-FIRST, they had them removed to the
military burying ground in the vicinity of the garrison.
SUCCESSION OF COLONELS
OF THE
SEVENTY-FIRST REGIMENT,
HIGHLAND LIGHT INFANTRY.
JOHN LORD MACLEOD,
_Appointed 19th December 1777_.
Lord John Macleod was the eldest son of the Earl of Cromartie,
and, with his father, was engaged in the attempt made in 1745 by
Prince Charles Edward, the young pretender, to recover the throne
of his ancestors. After the battle of Culloden, in 1746, the Earl
of Cromartie was brought to trial, and pleaded guilty; but his life
was spared on consideration of the remorse expressed by him for
having been seduced in an unguarded moment from that loyalty which
he had always, previously to the breaking out of the rebellion,
evinced to the existing establishment, both in Church and State.
Lord Macleod also received the royal mercy on account of his youth,
and his regard for his parent, which had been the cause of his
being concerned in the rebellion. The young lord also promised,
that, should the royal clemency be extended to him, that his future
life and fortune should be entirely devoted to His Majesty’s
service, which promise was amply fulfilled in after years. Lord
Macleod subsequently entered into the Swedish army, where he served
for several years with great reputation, and was made a Commandant
of the Order of the Sword in the kingdom of Sweden. While the
American war of independence was being carried on, his Lordship
returned to Great Britain, and in December 1777 received authority
to raise a regiment of Highlanders, which was, on its formation,
numbered the seventy-third, and subsequently the SEVENTY-FIRST
regiment, under the circumstances detailed in the Historical
Record. His Lordship was appointed colonel of the newly raised
regiment, to which a second battalion was added in September 1778,
and embarked with the first battalion for India in January 1779,
arriving at Madras in January 1780. The war with Hyder Ali, the
powerful Sultan of the Mysore territory, commenced in that year,
and his Lordship served under Major-General Sir Hector Munro in the
first instance, and afterwards under Lieut.-General Sir Eyre Coote.
On the 1st of June 1781, Colonel Lord Macleod was promoted to the
local rank of major-general in the East Indies, in which year he
returned to England, some misunderstanding having arisen between
his Lordship and Major-General Stuart concerning priority of rank.
His Lordship was promoted to the rank of major-general on the 20th
of November 1782. On the forfeited estates being restored, in 1784,
Major-General Lord Macleod obtained the family estate of Cromartie.
His decease occurred on the 2d of April 1789, at Edinburgh.
THE HONORABLE WILLIAM GORDON,
_Appointed 9th April 1789_.
The Honorable William Gordon was appointed captain in the Sixteenth
Light Dragoons, when that corps was raised in the year 1759.
In October 1762, he was appointed Lieut.-Colonel of the 105th
regiment, and in 1777, he was promoted to the colonelcy of the
eighty-first regiment, which was afterwards disbanded. In 1781 he
was promoted to the rank of major-general, and in April 1789 was
nominated colonel of the SEVENTY-FIRST Highlanders. He was advanced
to the rank of lieut.-general in 1793, to that of general in 1798,
and was removed to the Twenty-first Royal North British Fusiliers
in 1803. He died in 1816.
SIR JOHN FRANCIS CRADOCK, G.C.B. AND K.C.,
afterwards
LORD HOWDEN,
_Appointed 6th August 1803_.
This officer entered the army on the 15th of December 1777, as a
cornet in the fourth regiment of horse, now the seventh dragoon
guards; and on the 9th of July 1779, he exchanged to an ensigncy in
the Coldstream guards, in which he was promoted to a lieutenancy,
with the rank of captain, on the 12th of December 1781. On the 25th
of June 1785, he was advanced to the rank of major of the twelfth
dragoons, and on the 16th of September 1786, exchanged into the
thirteenth foot, of which regiment he was appointed lieut.-colonel
on the 16th of June 1789. Lieut.-Colonel Cradock commanded the
thirteenth regiment in the West Indies, and on his return, in
1792, was appointed quartermaster-general in Ireland, where he was
specially employed by Government in many of the disturbed counties.
He went a second time to the West Indies, in the command of the
second battalion of grenadiers, under the orders of General Sir
Charles (afterwards Earl) Grey, and was present at the reduction
of Martinique (where he was wounded), St. Lucia, Guadaloupe, and
at the siege of Fort Bourbon. Before the reduction of the second
battalion of grenadiers in the West Indies he was appointed by Sir
Charles Grey to be his aide-de-camp, and on his return to England
he received the thanks of Parliament for his services.
On the 26th of February 1795, Lieut.-Colonel Cradock received the
brevet rank of colonel, and on the 16th of April following was
appointed colonel of the one hundred and twenty-seventh regiment,
which was disbanded in 1798, when he was placed on half pay.
On the 1st of January 1798, Colonel Cradock was advanced to the
rank of major-general, and served as quartermaster-general in
Ireland during the rebellion of that year; was under the command
of Lieut.-General Gerard (afterwards Viscount) Lake at the affair
with the rebels at Vinegar Hill, and in the subsequent movements
in the county of Wexford. Major-General Cradock accompanied Earl
Cornwallis as quartermaster-general in his lordship’s march against
the French forces that landed in Killala under General Humbert,
and was severely wounded in the action at Ballynahinch, when the
French and rebel force were defeated, and laid down their arms.
Major-General Cradock was afterwards appointed to the staff of the
Mediterranean, under General Sir Ralph Abercromby, and proceeded on
the expedition to Egypt, and was in the actions of the 8th, 13th,
and 21st of March 1801. In that of the 13th, near Alexandria, he
commanded the brigades which formed the advance against the enemy,
and received the thanks of Sir Ralph Abercromby. He was second in
command of the division of the army that proceeded to Cairo under
the command of Lieut.-General Hutchinson (afterwards the Earl of
Donoughmore), and was at the action of Rhamanie on the 9th of May
1801, and at the surrender of Cairo and Alexandria. The surrender
of the latter place on the 2d of September following, terminated
the campaign, after which he was appointed to the command of a
force of 4,000 men, to proceed to Corfu; but the preliminaries of
peace being signed on the 1st of October between Great Britain and
France, put an end to the expedition, and he returned to England,
when he was again honored with the thanks of Parliament. The Grand
Seignior had also established the order of knighthood of the
Crescent, of which the general officers who served in Egypt were
made members.
On the 8th of May 1801, Major-General Cradock had been appointed
colonel commandant of the fifty-fourth regiment, and upon the
reduction of the army, in 1802, he was placed on half-pay. On the
6th of August 1803, he was appointed colonel of the SEVENTY-FIRST
regiment.
On the 1st of January 1805, Major-General Sir John Cradock,
K.B., was advanced to the rank of lieut.-general, and appointed
to the command of the forces at Madras. Upon the departure from
India of General Lord Lake, in 1806, Lieut.-General Sir John
Cradock remained for nearly a year in the command of the forces
in that country. In 1808 he was appointed to command the forces
in Portugal, during the critical period preceding the arrival of
Lieut.-General Sir Arthur Wellesley, and was afterwards appointed
Governor of Gibraltar, which in a short time he resigned. On the
6th of January 1809, he was removed from the SEVENTY-FIRST to the
colonelcy of the forty-third regiment. In 1811 he was appointed
governor of the Cape of Good Hope, and commander of the forces on
that station, which he held until 1814, on the 4th of June of which
year he was promoted to the rank of general.
General Sir John Cradock was nominated a Knight Grand Cross of
the Order of the Bath on the 2d of January 1815, and in 1819 was
created a peer of Ireland, by the title of Baron Howden. At the
coronation of His Majesty King William IV. he was advanced to
the dignity of a Peer of the United Kingdom. By royal licence he
afterwards altered his name to Caradoc, deeming that to be the
ancient and veritable orthography. The decease of General the
Right Honorable John Francis Caradoc, Baron Howden of Howden and
Grimstone in the county of York, and of Cradockstown, county of
Kildare, occurred on the 26th of July 1839, at the advanced age of
eighty years.
FRANCIS DUNDAS,
_Appointed 7th January 1809._
The first commission of this officer was an ensigncy in the first
foot guards, dated 4th of April 1775, and in May 1777 he joined
the army in North America, was present at the battle of Brandywine
on the 11th of September of that year, and in that of Germantown
on the 4th of October following, also at the siege of ten forts
on the river Delaware, and after their reduction in December the
detachment of guards employed on that service rejoined the army,
and went into winter quarters at Philadelphia. On the 23d of
January 1778 he received a lieutenancy, with the rank of captain,
in the first foot guards. Captain Dundas served the campaign of
that year, and was present in the action of Monmouth Court-House on
the 28th of June 1778, fought during the march of the British army
from Philadelphia to New York, in which the second battalion of the
first foot guards was principally engaged. Having soon after been
appointed to the light company of that corps, he was employed on
various detached services in 1778 and 1779, in the course of which
the company to which he belonged sustained considerable losses.
The corps of guards being detached into South Carolina, joined the
army under Lieut.-General the Earl Cornwallis, in 1780, and the
light company forming his lordship’s advanced guard, it was almost
every day engaged. Captain Dundas commanded it at the battle of
Guildford and at York Town.
Captain Dundas was promoted to a company in the first foot guards,
with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, on the 11th of April 1783,
and on the 6th of June following exchanged into the forty-fifth
regiment, from which he was transferred to the first foot on the
31st of March 1787. With the first battalion of the latter regiment
Lieut.-Colonel Dundas embarked for Jamaica in January 1790, and
returned to England in July 1791. In October 1793 he was appointed
aide-de-camp to King George III., and received the brevet rank of
colonel.
Colonel Dundas was employed in that rank in the West Indies as
adjutant-general to the army under General Sir Charles (afterwards
Earl) Grey, and was present at the siege of Martinique and the
other adjacent islands in 1794. Upon his return to England, being
appointed on the 9th of October 1794, colonel of the Scots brigade,
afterwards numbered the ninety-fourth regiment, he joined it in
Scotland, and raised a new battalion.
Major-General Dundas, to which rank he was advanced on the 26th
of February 1795, was employed on the staff in North Britain
until ordered to join the army preparing for foreign service
under Lieut.-General Sir Ralph Abercromby, at Southampton. Having
returned to Portsmouth with the expedition, he was soon afterwards
appointed to the command at the Cape of Good Hope, and in August
1796 he embarked for that colony. Being appointed lieut.-governor,
with the command of the troops under the governor, he continued
to hold that appointment until Lord Macartney returned to England
in November 1798, leaving him to act as civil governor. Upon
the arrival of Lord Macartney’s successor, in December 1799,
Major-General Dundas resumed his former situation; but that officer
being recalled in 1801, the civil with the military authority
again devolved on Major-General Dundas, and he held both until the
Cape was restored to the Dutch by the treaty of peace concluded
in 1803. Upon his return to England in June 1803, Lieut.-General
Dundas, to which rank he had been promoted on the 29th of April of
the previous year, was placed on the staff in the southern district
of Great Britain, under General Sir David Dundas, K.B. Towards the
end of 1805 Lieut.-General Dundas was appointed to the command of
a division ordered to join the army assembling in Hanover under
Lieut.-General Lord Cathcart, and on his return, in 1806, he was
again appointed to the staff in the southern district. On the
7th of January 1809, Lieut.-General Dundas was appointed by His
Majesty to be colonel of the SEVENTY-FIRST regiment, and on the 1st
of January 1812 was advanced to the rank of general. He had been
appointed governor of Carrickfergus in Ireland in 1787, and was
transferred in January 1817 to the governorship of Dumbarton Castle
in Scotland.
The decease of General Dundas occurred at Edinburgh on the 16th of
January 1824.
SIR GORDON DRUMMOND, G.C.B.
_Appointed 16th January 1824._
Removed to the forty-ninth regiment on the 21st of September 1829,
and to the eighth foot on the 24th of April 1846.
SIR COLIN HALKETT, K.C.B.
_Appointed 21st September 1829._
Removed to the thirty-first regiment on the 28th of March 1838, and
to the forty-fifth regiment on the 12th of July 1847.
SIR SAMUEL FORD WHITTINGHAM,
_Appointed 28th March 1838._
This officer was appointed ensign in the sixty-sixth regiment
on the 20th of January 1803, lieutenant in the ninth foot on
the 25th of February, and was removed to the first life guards
on the 10th of March of the same year. On the 14th of February
1805 he was promoted to the rank of captain in the twenty-eighth
regiment, and was removed to the thirteenth light dragoons on
the 13th of June following, and in 1809 was appointed deputy
assistant quartermaster-general in the army in the Peninsula
under Lieut.-General Sir Arthur Wellesley. In March 1810, Captain
Whittingham was promoted to the rank of major, serving with the
Portuguese army. He was subsequently employed in America; but
the chief scene of his services was with the army in Spain, for
which he was peculiarly qualified by his perfect knowledge of the
Spanish language. He was first permitted to join that service as
aide-de-camp to General Castanos, and in that capacity shared in
the battle and victory of Baylen. Major Whittingham afterwards
served under the Duke of Albuquerque, and was severely wounded at
Talavera. Soon afterwards he obtained the command of the Spanish
cavalry, and was present at the battle of Barrosa, fought on the
5th of March 1811. On the 30th of May following he was promoted
lieut.-colonel in the Portuguese army. He was next intrusted to
raise and command a large corps of Spanish troops clothed and paid
by the British Government. In 1812, as major-general in command
of this well-disciplined corps, he was, in junction with the
British army at Alicant, successfully opposed to Marshal Suchet,
and was again wounded at the battle of Castalla; after which he
served with distinction in command of a division of infantry
under Lieut.-General Sir John Murray, and subsequently under
Lieut.-General Lord William Bentinck on the eastern coast of Spain.
At the restoration of peace in 1814, Lieut.-Colonel Whittingham
returned to England, his conduct in Spain being reported in very
flattering terms by the British ambassador in Spain and by the
Duke of Wellington. On the 4th of June 1814, he was appointed
aide-de-camp to His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, with the rank
of colonel in the army; and was appointed a Companion of the Order
of the Bath, with the honor of knighthood, on the 4th of June 1815.
Upon the return of Napoleon from Elba in March 1815, Colonel
Sir Samuel Ford Whittingham returned to the Peninsula, at the
particular request of the King of Spain, and on his arrival at
Madrid, he was invested with the Grand Cross of the Order of
San Fernando. In the year 1819 he was appointed governor of
Dominica, and in 1822 his services were transferred to India as
quartermaster-general of the king’s troops; he subsequently held
the command as major-general, to which rank he was promoted on the
27th of May 1825, successively in the Cawnpoor and Meerut divisions.
Major-General Sir Samuel Ford Whittingham served at the siege of
Bhurtpore, which was captured in January 1826; and received the
thanks of Parliament for his conduct on that occasion. He was also
nominated a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath on the 26th
of December following.
Having returned from India in 1835, Major-General Sir Samuel
Ford Whittingham was appointed to the command of the forces in
the Windward and Leeward Islands in 1836. On the 28th of March
1838, he was appointed colonel of the SEVENTY-FIRST Regiment,
and on the 28th of June following was advanced to the rank of
lieut.-general. He was permitted to resign the Windward and Leeward
command in 1839, in order to undertake the command-in-chief at
Madras, receiving at the same time from General Lord Hill, then
commanding-in-chief, a flattering testimonial of his services while
in the West Indies.
Lieut.-General Sir Samuel Ford Whittingham arrived at Madras on the
1st of August 1840, where he continued until the 19th of January
1841, the date of his decease.
SIR THOMAS REYNELL, BART., K.C.B.
_Appointed 15th March 1841._
This distinguished officer commenced his military career as an
ensign in the thirty-eighth regiment, his commission being dated
the 30th of September 1793. He joined the regiment in January 1794
at Belfast, and in April proceeded with it to Flanders, where it
formed part of the army commanded by His Royal Highness the Duke
of York. On arrival at the seat of war, the thirty-eighth regiment
was ordered to join the corps under the Austrian General Count
Clèrfait, who commanded the troops in West Flanders, and it was
attached to the division under Major-General Hammerstein, together
with the eighth light dragoons and twelfth foot. Ensign Reynell
was present in the action on the heights of Lincelles on the 18th
of May, and at the battle of Hoglade on the 13th of June 1794. He
afterwards served with the army under the Duke of York, and was
in Nimeguen when that town was besieged. On the 3d of December
following, when cantoned between the rivers Rhine and the Waal,
he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in the thirty-eighth
regiment. Lieutenant Reynell served during the winter campaign
of 1795, and retreat through Westphalia to the Weser, and there
embarked for England. He accompanied the thirty-eighth regiment
to the West Indies in May 1796, and was present at the capture of
the island of Trinidad in the early part of 1797. On the 22d of
July 1797 he was promoted to a company in the second West India
regiment, and joined that corps at Grenada.
Captain Reynell quitted Grenada early in 1798, in consequence of
being appointed assistant adjutant-general at St. Domingo, where
he remained until that island was evacuated by the British in
September, when he returned to England. In the beginning of 1799 he
revisited St. Domingo, as one of the suite of Brigadier-General the
Honorable Thomas Maitland, then employed in framing a commercial
treaty with the negro chief Toussaint L’Ouverture, who had risen
to the supreme authority at St. Domingo. When it was concluded,
Captain Reynell returned to England in July of the same year.
On the 8th of August 1799 Captain Reynell was transferred to a
company in the fortieth regiment, with the first battalion of
which he embarked for the Helder in that month, and joined the
army, which was at first commanded by Lieut.-General Sir Ralph
Abercromby, and afterwards by the Duke of York. Captain Reynell was
present in the action of the 10th of September; also in the battle
of the 19th of September, when he was the only captain of the first
battalion of the fortieth regiment that was not killed or wounded;
he was also present in the subsequent battles of the 2d and 6th of
October. Captain Reynell, upon the British army being withdrawn
from Holland, re-embarked with the first battalion of the fortieth
regiment, and arrived in England in November 1799.
In April 1800 Captain Reynell embarked with his regiment for
the Mediterranean, and went in the first instance to Minorca,
afterwards to Leghorn; returned to Minorca, and proceeded with a
large force under Lieut.-General Sir Ralph Abercromby for the
attack of Cadiz. Signals for disembarking were made; but although
the boats had actually put off from the ships, a recall was
ordered, in consequence of the plague raging at Cadiz. After this
he proceeded up the Mediterranean again, and in November landed at
Malta.