The public emergencies called for a very considerable addition to
the Corps of Marines in 1779. Seventeen thousand three hundred and
eighty-nine were voted, being an effective augmentation of 5560.
Early in the year accounts were received of the capture of
Pondicherry, by the united efforts of the Navy under Sir Edward
Vernon, and a large force of European and Company's troops under
Sir Hector Monro. After more than two months of very fatiguing
duties, owing to the heavy rains, the siege was brought to that
issue, which invited a general assault.
The works having been much battered in every quarter of approach,
three different attacks were meditated; against L'Hospital Bastion
to the southward, the East face of the North West Bastion, and from
the sea to the northward.
These arrangements having been made, nearly 200 Seamen, and all the
Marines of the squadron were landed on the 15th of October 1778, in
order to have joined in the storm, which was to have taken place
on the 17th. But Monsieur Bellecomb, who had hitherto defended
himself with much obstinacy, dreading this event, proposed terms
of surrender, which were accepted. Many were of opinion, that had
he withstood the onset, its result would have been fatal to the
British Army, from the extensive mines that he might have sprung.
Admiral Byron, who arrived in the West Indies in the beginning of
1779, rendered our Naval force in that country superior to the
enemy. He was foiled in every attempt to bring D'Estaing to an
action, who kept close in Martinique.
The English Admiral having gone to leeward, with a view to
collect the homeward-bound at St. Kitt's, and to escort them, a
small detachment of French troops took St. Vincent, after a very
inadequate resistance; and the conquest of Grenada soon after
followed, but under circumstances highly honourable to Lord
Macartney and our arms. At this, D'Estaing, who united in himself
the character of the Soldier and the Seaman, was present, and led
a French column in storming the British lines upon Hospital Hill.
These were carried, after a gallant defence, which led to the
immediate surrender of the Island.
Scarcely was this accomplished, when he was called to act upon
another element by the approach of Admiral Byron, who, deceived by
intelligence as to the French force, hastened down under a press
of sail and in a scattered order. A general ardour pervaded all
to close with the enemy, whose numbers could only be gradually
perceived as they stretched out from the land. They were at last
discovered to be far superior to the chacing fleet, when the
advanced ships of it, led by Admiral Barrington, nobly seconded
by Captain, now Lord Gardiner, in the Sultan, and Sawyer in the
Boyne, had begun the battle. To these names may be added Captains
Collingwood, Edwards, and Cornwallis, as having been highly
distinguished on the 6th of July. Lieut. Jonah Veale, of Marines,
was killed in this action, and Lieut. Richards wounded.
D'Estaing evinced a total want of Naval enterprize through the day.
He returned to Grenada during the following night, while Admiral
Byron proceeded to St. Kitt's to repair his damages.
The approach of the hurricane season determined the French Admiral
to take refuge, with his fleet, at Hispaniola, where he received
an urgent call to unite with the Armies of America in recovering
the Province of Georgia. Elated with his success at Grenada, he
anticipated to himself the glory, not only of driving the British
from this Colony, but of exterminating them from every post which
they occupied along the sea-coasts of that Continent. There was
not, to appearance, a force sufficient to stem his ambitious views;
but they were opposed and frustrated by a spirit which often
compensates the want of numbers.
D'Estaing's arrival on the coast of Georgia, early in September,
was marked with a partial success by capturing the Experiment,
of 50 guns, after a gallant defence on the part of Sir James
Wallace. Unaccustomed to such an event as the capture of an English
two-decker, it was considered as a favourable omen, and swelled his
presumptuous hopes.
The appearance of such an armament struck wonder into General
Prevost and the Garrison of Savannah, which were intended as the
first victims to its power.
General Lincoln, with the Rebel Army from South Carolina, hearing
of their new allies, moved towards Georgia, to combine in the
attempt.
General Prevost issued orders to concentrate his detachments,
and began to add to his works. Captain Henry, of the Royal Navy,
commanded that force in the river Savannah with much zeal.
It became expedient, upon the nearer advance of the French Fleet,
to move the ships of war close to the town, to land the guns and
Seamen, and to incorporate their Marines with the Grenadiers of the
60th Regiment.
After D'Estaing had debarked his army of 5000 men, he instantly
marched against Savannah, without waiting for Lincoln, and desired
the Garrison to surrender, on the 16th of September. General
Prevost solicited delay in answering his summons; in order to give
time for his outposts to join him.
During the critical interval of 24 hours, which were allowed, that
brave and active Officer, Lieut. Colonel Maitland, whom I have
formerly mentioned, reached Savannah with a force of 800 men, after
having encountered obstacles and difficulties of the most trying
kind. Already, during the campaign of 1779, had he shewn himself
most consummate in all the requisites of a Soldier, by the stand he
made at John's Island with a handful of men, against ten times his
numbers, under General Lincoln. That deed alone was enough to fix
his military fame, which acquired additional glory by his _wading
march_ from Beaufort, to the relief of Prevost. In this, few men
could have equalled, and none surpassed his undaunted fortitude and
steady perseverance. It was the means of saving Georgia and its
Capital.
Such were his personal fatigues and anxieties to reach the scene
of his future duties, that both struck at the vitals of his
existence, which afterwards closed a life long valuable to mankind
by habitual exercises of the most amiable benevolence, and happy
to himself by the approving consciousness of its having never been
stained by dishonour. The activity of his spirit, however, buoyed
him up under every bodily suffering, while Savannah was besieged by
the enemy.
My limits will not allow me the extent of detail, which was very
creditable to the courage and exertions of all.
Count D'Estaing, little looking for such protracted operations,
and growing impatient under them, determined to storm early on the
morning of the 9th of October.
Two feigned attacks by the American Militia, were planned against
the Garrison, to attract its attention to the centre and left,
and it was also resolved that, whilst D'Estaing and Lincoln moved
against Spring-hill redoubt in front, Count Dillon, with another
column, should advance along the edge of a swamp which communicates
with the river above the town, silently pass the redoubts and
batteries, and thus gain the rear of the British lines. This column
losing its way, was embarrassed in the morasses, and after the dawn
was exposed to a heavy fire, that threw it into a disorder from
which it could not recover.
D'Estaing, under the cover of darkness, got near the redoubt just
as the day began to break; but he was received with incessant
volleys and heavy discharges, which committed a dreadful carnage.
This part of defence was entrusted to Captain Tawse and his
little Corps of Provincial Dragoons, who maintained it with
enthusiastic bravery. Alternately had the French and American
standard been planted on the parapet, when that gallant Chief,
defending in person the gate of his redoubt, and his sword still
unentangled from the body of an impetuous Frenchman, received his
own death-wound. Here there still continued a doubtful contest for
possession, when Lieut. Colonel Maitland, commanding the force
upon the right of our lines, pushed on the 60th Regiment and the
Marines, who, with charged bayonets, soon decided the struggle. The
assailants were driven from the ditch, and retreated quickly, with
the loss of 901 killed and wounded.
It was with difficulty the British could be restrained from
following their superior forces, whose future operations were
limited to the re-embarkation of their troops and stores, and the
retreat of the Rebel Army into South Carolina.
The Count D'Estaing, with a part of his fleet, returned to France,
after having achieved nothing worthy of notice, and his other ships
proceeded for the West Indies.
Throughout this service the Navy were justly entitled to a great
share of merit. Never were the exertions of the Sailors at the
great guns more animated or useful.
Captain, afterwards Colonel Moncrieffe, of the Engineers, exhibited
symptoms of the highest talents in his profession; and a share of
honour truly falls to the lot of Captain Charlton, of the Corps of
Royal Artillery, which has been eminently and uniformly great upon
every service allotted them.
Lieut. Colonel Glazier, who led the Grenadiers and Marines in
the charge which decided the fate of every thing, attracted much
praise.
Soon after the raising of the siege, Lieut. Colonel Maitland fell
a sacrifice to his fatigues, which, producing a bilious fever,
deprived his Country of a faithful servant, and the Soldier of a
true friend.
Sir George Collier was most usefully active during the period of
his command in North America. He undertook nothing in which he did
not succeed, and in every instance of service exhibited a prompt
and decisive mind. The enemy's Commerce and Naval Power suffered
much by his spirited measures, in which I cannot follow him.
In the month of June, Spain, after having received her treasures in
safety, entered the lists against Great Britain, whose situation
now seemed desperate to all the surrounding Powers. But the hour
of danger is the only occasion in which the native spirit of
Englishmen can best be known or appreciated. It called forth that
union which should ever constitute the pride, as it can alone
secure the independence of a nation.
Notwithstanding the immense superiority gained by this accession,
still the vigour of our combined enemies was by no means in an
adequate proportion. Their fleets soon after appeared on our
coasts, in numbers we were unable to oppose; but their exertions
against them were at first repressed by discord, and finally
averted by disease.
The only service upon which the Corps of Marines was employed
during the remainder of the present year, was in the capture of
Omoa, effected by parties from the Charon, Lowestoff, and Pomona
frigates, in conjunction with the Seamen of these ships, who were
trained to small arms, and a number of baymen and logwood cutters
that were embodied at Truxillo. Commodore Luttrell conducted the
naval part of the expedition, and Captain Dalrymple the land force.
Disembarking at Porto Cavallo, they sustained great fatigue in a
night's march toward the fort, with a view to surprize it, on the
16th of October. Such were their obstacles from morasses filled by
the rains, and intervening precipices, that they found themselves
nearly six miles distant in the morning, and that they were
discovered by the enemy. After giving the men a little respite,
Captain Dalrymple pushed on, drove the Spaniards from an ambuscade,
secured and established posts on the heights round the town and
fort, and having been incommoded by musquetry from the place, he
set it in flames, at which time Commodore Luttrell entered the
harbour and completed the blockade by sea.
After cannon being landed, and the batteries opened during some
days, they had produced but little effect upon the enemy's works;
on which it was resolved to storm them with 150 Seamen and Marines,
united with some loyal Irish, who were to be aided in their
approach by a fire from the ships and the heights. Under this cover
the assailants advanced at four in the morning, against walls 28
feet in height. To these they applied their scaling ladders, when
the storming party, headed by two British Seamen, gained the top,
and being instantly seconded, the Spaniards, paralysed at the
daring act, begged for quarter.
It is to be regretted that the name and local origin of _one_
intrepid Sailor, upon this occasion, should have been lost.
Ascending with two cutlasses, he soon found an enemy almost asleep,
whom he disdained to sacrifice: rousing him from his slumbers, he
put one into the Spaniard's hand, telling him they were now equal.
Whether from a dislike to the combat, or in gratitude for such
generous conduct, the tender, however, was not accepted.
The Commanders declined some offers of ransom made by the enemy
which would have been highly advantageous to themselves; but they
militated against their Country's interest. This conquest was
obtained with a very trifling loss.
Some valuable captures were brought into our ports during the year,
and our Commerce was well protected.
Sir James Wallace, by an exploit in Cancalle Bay, recalled to
the public mind the deeds of former times, by the capture or
destruction of three frigates under the French batteries.
Lieutenant A. J. Field, of the Marines, still lives an instance of
Providence, by an escape from the melancholy fate of too many of
his shipmates in the Quebec frigate, which blew up in action with
La Surveillante.
In this, British valour would have ultimately triumphed; but it was
obliged to yield to destiny. The most amiable manners, in union
with a cool courage, were the predominant features of Captain
Farmer's character.
Captain Pearson, of the Serapis, ennobled himself by a brave
defence against a much greater force, which assumes an historical
importance, from its happy consequences in saving a large and
valuable convoy entrusted to his care.
An action was fought between his Majesty's ship Pearl and the
Spanish frigate St. Ammonica, which very much signalized Captain,
now Admiral George Montague, and in which Lieutenant Fowke, of
Marines, was also distinguished.
Nothing of attached moment farther, appears within the review of
1779.