to volunteer their services in the expedition to Egypt, Captain
Reynell proceeded thither in command of the light company (one of
the four flank companies detached under Colonel Brent Spencer),
and was present in the action at the landing on the 8th of March
1801. On this occasion the flank companies of the fortieth were
on the right of the line, and were particularly noticed for the
gallant style in which they mounted the sand-hills immediately
where they landed. Captain Reynell was present in the battle of
the 13th of March, and commanded the right out-piquet of the
army, in the morning of the 21st of that month, when the French
attacked the British near Alexandria, on which occasion General
Sir Ralph Abercromby was mortally wounded. Soon after Captain
Reynell proceeded with a small British corps and some Turkish
battalions to Rosetta, of which easy possession was taken. He was
present in an action at Rhamanie, and followed the French to Grand
Cairo, where that part of their army capitulated; and returned as
escort in charge of the French troops to Rosetta; and after they
had embarked he joined the force under Major-General Sir Eyre
Coote before Alexandria. The surrender of Alexandria, on the 2d of
September 1801, terminated the campaign, for his services in which
he received the gold medal conferred by the Grand Seignior on the
several officers employed.
Captain Reynell was afterwards appointed aide-de-camp to
Major-General Cradock, who was ordered to proceed from Egypt
with a force of four thousand men to Corfu; but while at sea
counter-orders were received, and he proceeded to Malta, and
subsequently to England. In July 1804 he embarked as aide-de-camp
to Lieut.-General Sir John Cradock, K.B., who had been appointed
to the command of the troops at Madras, and while on the passage,
namely, the 3d of August 1804, he was promoted to the rank of major
in the fortieth regiment.
On the 10th of March 1805 Major Reynell received the brevet rank of
lieut.-colonel, upon being appointed deputy quartermaster-general
to the King’s troops in the East Indies. In July following he was
appointed aide-de-camp to the Marquis Cornwallis, governor-general
of India, and accompanied his lordship from Madras to Bengal,
with whom he remained until his lordship’s decease, at Ghazepore,
in October 1805. Lieut.-Colonel Reynell returned to Madras
immediately afterwards, and was appointed military secretary to the
Lieut.-General Sir John Cradock, the commander-in-chief at that
presidency. He officiated during several months of the year 1806
as deputy adjutant-general in India, in which country he remained
until October 1807, when he returned with Lieut.-General Sir John
Cradock to Europe, and arrived in England in April 1808.
Lieut.-Colonel Reynell resigned the appointment of deputy
quartermaster-general in India, and was brought on full pay as
major of the ninety-sixth regiment on the 5th May 1808, and on the
22d of September following was appointed major in the SEVENTY-FIRST
regiment.
In October 1808, Brevet Lieut.-Colonel Reynell embarked as military
secretary to Lieut.-General Sir John Cradock, who had been
appointed to command the forces in Portugal, and landed in November
at Lisbon. He remained in Portugal until April 1809, when Sir John
Cradock was superseded in the command of the forces in Portugal
by Lieut.-General Sir Arthur Wellesley. Lieut.-Colonel Reynell
afterwards accompanied Lieut.-General Sir John Cradock to Cadiz,
Seville, and Gibraltar, of which latter place Sir John Cradock was
appointed governor, and Lieut.-Colonel Reynell remained there as
military secretary until September, when he returned to England.
Lieut.-Colonel Reynell joined the SEVENTY-FIRST regiment at
Brabourne-Lees Barracks in December 1809, immediately after its
return from Walcheren. In September 1810 he embarked at Deal with
six companies of the SEVENTY-FIRST regiment for Portugal, landed at
Lisbon towards the end of that month, marched soon after to Mafra,
and thence to Sobral, where the six companies joined the army under
Lieut.-General Viscount Wellington. In October Lieut.-Colonel
Reynell had the honor of being particularly mentioned by Viscount
Wellington in his despatch, containing an account of the repulse
of the attack of the French at Sobral on the 14th of that month.
The British army shortly afterwards retired to the lines of Torres
Vedras, and Brevet Lieut.-Colonel Reynell was appointed assistant
adjutant-general to the fourth division under Major-General the
Honorable George Lowry Cole.
Early in March 1811, the army of Marshal Massena broke up from its
entrenched position at Santarem, and retreated to the northward.
Brevet Lieut.-Colonel Reynell entered Santarem with the fourth
division the day after Marshal Massena had left it, and continued
in the pursuit of the French army to the Mondego. In the affair of
Redinha he had a horse killed under him. From Espinhal the fourth
division was ordered to retrograde, and recross the Tagus, for
the purpose of reinforcing Marshal Sir William Carr Beresford. In
1811 he joined the Marshal at Portalegre, and being the senior
British assistant adjutant-general, was directed to join Marshal
Beresford’s head-quarters, and proceeded with him to Campo Mayor,
from which the enemy retired; was also present at the capture
of Olivença, and subsequently accompanied the marshal to Zafra,
between which place and Llerena a smart skirmish occurred with the
enemy’s hussars. In May 1811, Lieut.-Colonel Reynell returned to
England from Lisbon with despatches from Viscount Wellington.
In July 1811, Brevet Lieut.-Colonel Reynell embarked as military
secretary to Lieut.-General Sir John Cradock, K.B., who had been
appointed governor and commander of the forces at the Cape of Good
Hope, where he arrived by the end of September. On the 4th of June
1813, he received the brevet rank of colonel; and on the 5th of
August 1813, he was promoted lieut.-colonel of the SEVENTY-FIRST
regiment, in succession to Lieut.-Colonel the Honorable Henry
Cadogan, who was mortally wounded in the battle of Vittoria; in
February following, being desirous of joining the corps, Colonel
Reynell resigned his staff situation at the Cape, and proceeded to
England, where he arrived in May 1814. In July of that year he was
appointed adjutant-general to the force then preparing for service
in America under Lieut.-General Lord Hill; but, other operations
being then in view, that appointment was cancelled.
Colonel Reynell took the command of the first battalion of the
SEVENTY-FIRST regiment at Limerick in December 1814, and embarked
with it from Cork in January of the following year, as part of an
expedition for North America; but peace having been concluded with
the United States, and contrary winds having prevented the sailing
of the vessels, the destination of the battalion was changed. In
March Colonel Reynell received orders to proceed with his battalion
to the Downs, where, in the middle of April, it was transhipped
into small vessels, and sent immediately to Ostend, to join the
army forming in Flanders, in consequence of Napoleon Bonaparte
having returned from Elba to France.
In the memorable battle of Waterloo, fought on the 18th of June
1815, Colonel Reynell commanded the first battalion of the
SEVENTY-FIRST regiment, and was wounded in the foot on that
occasion. He afterwards succeeded to the command of Major-General
Adam’s brigade, consisting of the first battalions of the
fifty-second and SEVENTY-FIRST, with six companies of the second,
and two companies of the third battalion of the ninety-fifth
regiment, in consequence of that officer being wounded. Colonel
Reynell commanded the light brigade in the several operations that
took place on the route to Paris, and entered that capital at the
head of the brigade on the 7th of July 1815, and encamped with it
in the _Champs Elysées_, being the only British troops quartered
within the barriers. In this year he was appointed a Companion
of the Order of the Bath, and received the Cross of a Knight of
the Austrian Military Order of Maria Theresa, also a Cross of the
fourth class of the Russian Military Order of St. George.
Colonel Reynell remained with the “_Army of Occupation_” in
France until October 1818, when, after a grand review of the
united British, Danish, and Russian contingents at Valenciennes,
the SEVENTY-FIRST marched to Calais, and embarked for England.
Colonel Reynell continued in command of the regiment until the
12th of August 1819, the date of his promotion to the rank of
major-general.
In April 1820 Major-General Reynell was suddenly ordered to proceed
to Glasgow, having been appointed to the staff of North Britain
as a major-general, in which country he remained until March
1821, when, in consequence of the tranquillity of Scotland, the
extra general officer was discontinued. Immediately afterwards he
was appointed to the staff of the East Indies, and directed to
proceed to Bombay, for which presidency he embarked in September
following, and where he arrived in March 1822. After remaining
there a month, Major-General Reynell was removed to the staff of
the Bengal Presidency, by order of the Marquis of Hastings. In
August Major-General Reynell proceeded up the Ganges, and took the
command of the Meerut division on the 3d of December 1822.
The next operation of importance in which Major-General Reynell
was engaged was the siege of _Bhurtpore_. Early in December 1825
a large force had been assembled for this purpose, to the command
of which he had been appointed, when, just as the troops were
about to move into the Bhurtpore states, General Lord Combermere,
the new commander-in-chief in India, arrived from England, and
Major-General Reynell was then appointed to command the first
division of infantry. He commanded that division during the
siege, and directed the movements of the column of assault at the
north-east angle on the 18th of January 1826, when the place was
carried, and the citadel surrendered a few hours after. For this
service he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Bath, as well as
honored with the thanks of both Houses of Parliament.
Major-General Sir Thomas Reynell succeeded to the baronetcy upon
the decease of his brother Sir Richard Littleton Reynell in
September 1829; and on the 30th of January 1832 was appointed by
His Majesty King William IV. to be colonel of the ninety-ninth
regiment, from which he was removed to the eighty-seventh Royal
Irish fusiliers on the 15th of August 1834. On the 10th of January
1837, he was promoted to the rank of lieut.-general, and on the
14th of June 1839 was appointed a member of the consolidated board
of general officers for the inspection and regulation of the
clothing of the army. On the 15th of March 1841, he was appointed
by Her Majesty to the colonelcy of the SEVENTY-FIRST regiment.
The decease of Lieut.-General Sir Thomas Reynell, Bart., K.C.B.,
occurred at Avisford, near Arundel, on the 10th of February 1848.
SIR THOMAS ARBUTHNOT, K.C.B.
_Appointed 18th February 1848._
This officer entered the army as ensign in the twenty-ninth
regiment on the 23d of November 1794, and was promoted lieutenant
in the fortieth regiment on the 1st of May 1796. He was advanced
to the rank of captain in the eighth West India regiment on the
25th of June 1798, and on the 26th of May 1803 was appointed
captain in the royal staff corps, and on the 7th of April 1808
was promoted major in the fifth West India regiment, in which
year he joined the staff of the army in the Peninsula, first
as assistant adjutant-general, and afterwards as assistant
quartermaster-general. Major Arbuthnot was present at the battles
of Roleia, Vimiera, and Corunna.
On the 24th of May 1810, he received the rank of lieutenant-colonel
in the army, and was appointed deputy quartermaster-general at
the Cape of Good Hope, where he arrived on the 25th March 1811.
Lieut.-Colonel Arbuthnot was appointed aide-de-camp to His Royal
Highness the Prince Regent on the 7th of February 1812, and in May
1813 proceeded from the Cape to the Peninsula, and was present
at the battles of the Pyrenees, Nivelle, and Orthes. For these
services in the Peninsula and south of France he was decorated
with a cross and one clasp. On the 24th of March 1814, Brevet
Lieut.-Colonel Arbuthnot was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the
fifty-seventh regiment, and on the 4th of June following received
the brevet rank of colonel in the army. In January 1815 he was
nominated a Knight Commander of the Bath, and on the 12th of
August 1819 was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the SEVENTY-FIRST
regiment. On the 27th of May 1825 he attained the rank of
major-general, and on the 15th of August 1836 was appointed colonel
of the ninety-ninth regiment. Sir Thomas Arbuthnot was advanced
to the rank of lieutenant-general on the 28th of June 1838, and
was removed to the fifty-second regiment on the 23d of December
1839. In August 1842 he was appointed to the command of the
northern and midland districts of Great Britain, which he retained
until his decease. On the 7th of December 1844 Lieut.-General Sir
Thomas Arbuthnot was removed from the fifty-second to the ninth
foot, and on the 18th of February 1848 was appointed colonel of
the SEVENTY-FIRST regiment. Lieut.-General Sir Thomas Arbuthnot,
K.C.B., died at Salford, near Manchester, on the 26th of January
1849.
SIR JAMES MACDONELL, K.C.B. and K.C.H.
_Appointed from the seventy-ninth regiment on the 8th February
1849._
APPENDIX.
_Memoir of Captain_ PHILIP MELVILL _of the_ SEVENTY-FIRST
_Regiment_.
Captain Philip Melvill was the fourth and youngest son of John
Melvill, Esq., of Dunbar, and was born on the 7th of April 1762. At
the age of sixteen he obtained a commission, on the 31st December
1777, as a lieutenant in the seventy-third now the SEVENTY-FIRST
regiment, commanded by Colonel John Lord Macleod, on condition
of raising a certain number of men, which, by the influence of
his relatives in the north of Scotland, he effected. Lieutenant
Melvill joined the regiment at Elgin, and was appointed to the
light company. In 1779 he embarked for India with his regiment,
and arrived at Madras in January 1780. His services now became
identical with those of Captain Baird, under whose command he
proceeded as part of a reinforcement to Lieut.-Colonel Baillie,
as detailed in the foregoing pages. In the action on the 10th
of September 1780, at Perambaukum, Lieutenant Melvill was
severely wounded in both arms; his left being broken, and, after
surrendering, the muscles of his right arm were cut in two by a
sabre. He was dashed unmercifully to the ground, and as he lay
exhausted, a horseman wounded him in the back with his spear. In
this miserable situation he continued for two days and two nights,
exposed to the intense heat of a burning sun, and to the danger
of being torn to pieces by beasts of prey. He was afterwards
conveyed to Hyder’s camp, and was confined at Bangalore with the
other prisoners. After three years and a half of confinement, they
obtained their release in March 1784.
Lieutenant Melvill had been advanced to the rank of captain on the
22d of June 1783; and being disabled from military duty by the
condition of his wounds, was, on being released from captivity,
enabled to visit his brother at Bengal, where he remained until
the beginning of the year 1786. Captain Melvill then returned
to England, when he was appointed, on the 3d of January 1787, to
the command of an invalid company stationed in Guernsey, where he
remained for five years. He subsequently exchanged into a company
at Portsmouth, and was afterwards placed on the retired list, in
consequence of ill-health. After remaining a year in retirement at
Topsham, in Devonshire, Captain Melvill, on the 29th of September
1796, exchanged his full pay as a retired captain for the command
of an invalid company stationed at Pendennis Castle in Cornwall.
In the year 1797, when preparations were made by France for
invading Great Britain, Captain Melvill, who had been appointed
lieut.-governor of Pendennis Castle, was mainly instrumental in
forming a corps of volunteers, which was subsequently retained,
first as the Pendennis Volunteer Artillery, and afterwards as a
body of local militia.
Lieut.-Governor Melvill died on the 27th October 1811, aged
forty-nine, and was interred in Falmouth Church.
_Memoir of the services of General the Right Honorable Sir David
Baird, Bart., G.C.B. & K.C., formerly Lieut.-Colonel of the_
SEVENTY-FIRST _Regiment_.
This celebrated commander commenced his military career as an
ensign in the second foot, his commission being dated the 14th of
December 1772. He joined the regiment at Gibraltar in April 1773,
and in 1775 returned with it to England. In February 1778 he was
promoted lieutenant in the second foot, and on the 16th of December
1777 was promoted to a company in the seventy third regiment, then
being raised by Colonel Lord Macleod, which was afterwards numbered
the SEVENTY-FIRST regiment. This corps Captain Baird joined at
Elgin, from whence he marched to Fort George, and embarked for
Guernsey. In January 1779 he embarked with his regiment for India,
and arrived at Madras in January 1780. The regiment, shortly
after its arrival in India, was called upon to take part in the
war against Hyder Ali, the powerful sovereign of the Mysore,
whose army exceeded eighty thousand, besides a strong body under
a general of the name of Meer Saib, who had entered the Company’s
territories on the north. This force was rendered still more
formidable and effective by the aid of Monsieur Lally’s troops,
and a great number of French officers who served his artillery,
and even directed all his marches and operations. The British army
ready to oppose this invasion did not consist of five thousand
men. These were commanded by Major-General Sir Hector Munro,
K.B., and were stationed at St. Thomas’s Mount, in the immediate
neighbourhood of Madras, in order to cover that city. Here they
were joined by Colonel Lord Macleod and the seventy-third regiment.
Hyder Ali, after a march across the country, which he marked by
fire and sword, suddenly turned upon Arcot, and on the 21st of
August 1780 sat down before that city, as the first operation
of the war. Arcot was the capital town of the territory of the
nabob of that name, the only prince in India who was friendly
and in alliance with the Company. It contained immense stores of
provisions, and, what was equally wanted, a vast treasure of money.
There was another important reason, which required on the part of
the British an immediate attention to this movement. Lieut.-Colonel
Baillie, with a body of troops, was in the Northern Circars; and
Hyder Ali, by besieging Arcot, had interposed himself between this
detachment and the main army under Major-General Sir Hector Munro.
Orders were immediately sent to Lieut.-Colonel Baillie to hasten
to the Mount, to join the main army; and Sir Hector Munro, at once
to meet Lieut.-Colonel Baillie and to raise the siege of Arcot,
marched on the 25th of August with his army for Conjeveram, a place
forty miles distant from Madras, in the Arcot road.
The British troops were followed during the whole way by the
enemy’s horse. They were four days on their march to Conjeveram,
and when they arrived, they found the whole country under water,
and no provisions of any kind to be procured. So relax were the
commissaries appointed by the Madras government, that the army had
but four days’ provisions; in the midst of the most fertile region
of India, and in the very onset and commencement of a war, the
troops were in danger of being famished. The army had no other
resource than to spread itself individually over the fields, and,
at the risk of being destroyed in detail by the enemy’s horse,
collect the growing rice, up to their knees in water.
Hyder Ali, as the British general foresaw, raised the siege of
Arcot upon this movement towards Conjeveram; but, what he had not
foreseen, his politic enemy threw his army in such a manner across
the only possible road of Lieut.-Colonel Baillie’s detachment, as
to prevent the desired junction, which had been expected to have
taken place on the 30th of August, the day after the arrival of
the army at Conjeveram. Lieut.-Colonel Baillie, before this last
movement of the enemy to cut him off, had been stopped for some
days, at no great distance, by the sudden rising of a small river.
Hyder made use of this time to throw his army between them. On the
5th of September Lieut.-Colonel Baillie effected his passage over
the river, but Hyder, being informed of it, made a second movement,
which completely intercepted him. In order in some degree, however,
to defeat this movement, but with slight hopes of success, Sir
Hector Munro changed his position likewise, and advanced about two
miles, to a high ground on the Tripassoor road, which was the way
that the expected detachment was to come. By these movements the
hostile camps were brought within two miles of each other, the
enemy lying about that distance to the left of the British.
Lieut.-Colonel Baillie had passed the river in his way on the
afternoon of the 5th of September, and encamped for the night.
Hyder, on receiving this information, made the movement before
related, and other arrangements on the following morning, the 6th
of September, and Sir Hector Munro changed his own position at
the same time. This change was scarcely effected when the evident
bustle in the enemy’s army explained its purpose. In fact the
purport of Hyder’s movement was to cover and support a great attack
at that moment making on Lieut.-Colonel Baillie’s detachment. He
had already sent his brother-in-law, Meer Saib, with eight thousand
horse upon that service, and immediately afterwards detached his
son, Tippoo Saib, with six thousand infantry, eighteen thousand
cavalry, and twelve pieces of cannon, to join in a united and
decisive attack. They encountered Lieut.-Colonel Baillie at
a place called Perambaukum, where he made the most masterly
dispositions to withstand this vast superiority of force. After
an exceedingly severe and well-fought action, of several hours’
continuance, the enemy was routed, and Lieut.-Colonel Baillie
gained as complete a victory as a total want of cavalry and the
smallness of his numbers could possibly admit. Through these
circumstances he lost his baggage. His whole force did not exceed
two thousand sepoys, and from one to two companies of European
artillery.
This success, however, by diminishing Lieut.-Colonel Baillie’s
force, only added to his distress. The British camp was within
a few miles, but Hyder’s army lay full in his way, and he was,
moreover, in the greatest want of provisions. Under these
circumstances, Lieut.-Colonel Baillie despatched a messenger to
Major-General Sir Hector Munro, with an account of his situation,
stating that he had sustained a loss which rendered him incapable
of advancing, while his total want of provisions rendered it
equally impossible for him to remain in his present position. A
council of war being held, at which Colonel Lord Macleod assisted,
it was resolved to send a reinforcement to Lieut.-Colonel
Baillie, to enable him to push forward in despite of the enemy.
Lieut.-Colonel Fletcher, Captain Baird, and other officers were
sent off with a strong detachment to the relief of Lieut.-Colonel
Baillie. The main force of this detachment consisted of the
flank companies of the first battalion of the _Seventy-third_,
afterwards numbered the SEVENTY-FIRST regiment, the light company
being commanded by Captain Baird. There were two other companies
of European grenadiers, one company of sepoy marksmen, and ten
companies of sepoy grenadiers. In all about a thousand men. The
junction was effected with some difficulty on the 9th of September,
and the following day was appointed for the march of the united
detachment. Accordingly, day-light had scarcely broken when it
commenced its march. By seven o’clock in the morning of the 10th of
September the enemy poured down upon them in thousands. The British
fought with the greatest heroism, and at one time victory seemed
to be in their favour. But the tumbrils containing the ammunition
accidentally blew up with two dreadful explosions in the centre of
their lines. The destruction of men was great, but the total loss
of their ammunition was still more fatal to the survivors. This
turned the fortune of the day, and after successive prodigies of
valour the brave sepoys were almost to a man cut to pieces.