in the Mediterranean, resolved to menace the capital and kingdom
of Naples, as a diversion in favour of the Austrians, who were
contending against numerous difficulties in their war with France.
The flank companies of the first battalion were employed on this
service; and after menacing a considerable extent of coast, which
produced much alarm, the romantic and fruitful island of _Ischia_,
celebrated for the beauty of its scenery, and situated in the Bay
of Naples, about six miles from the coast, was attacked. A landing
was effected in the face of a formidable line of batteries, from
which the enemy was speedily driven. The siege of the castle was
undertaken, and in a few days the garrison was forced to surrender.
The island of _Procida_ surrendered on being summoned. Two valuable
islands were thus rescued from the power of the Grand Duke of Berg,
General Murat, upon whom the Emperor Napoleon had, in the preceding
year, conferred the sovereignty of Naples, in succession to Joseph
Bonaparte, who had been nominated by his brother to be King of
Spain; and one thousand five hundred regular troops, with one
hundred pieces of ordnance, were captured. An attempt was, at this
period, made to reduce the castle of _Scylla_; but the large force
which the enemy possessed in Calabria, rendered this impracticable.
[Sidenote: 2nd Batt.]
The assumption of the sovereignty of Spain by Joseph Bonaparte,
although the strongest places and most commanding positions in
the Peninsula were occupied by French troops, had excited the
indignation of the Spanish people, who solicited, and readily
obtained, the aid of Great Britain; and the latter power had,
in April 1809, sent Lieut.-General Sir Arthur Wellesley with
reinforcements to Portugal, to save that country from invasion, and
also to assist the Spaniards in their struggle for independence.
The second battalion was selected to proceed to join the army in
the Peninsula under the command of Lieut.-General the Honorable
Sir Arthur Wellesley: it embarked on the 22nd of June 1809 for the
Tagus, and arrived at Lisbon on the 2nd of July. The battalion
shortly afterwards proceeded with a division, consisting of
reinforcements, under the command of Brigadier-General Catlin
Crawfurd, who endeavoured, by a forced march, to arrive in time
for the battle of _Talavera_, which was fought on the 27th and
28th of July, and for which victory Lieut.-General the Honorable
Sir Arthur Wellesley was raised to the peerage by the title of
Viscount Wellington. When the second battalion arrived at Sarza
la Mayor, a despatch was received from Sir Arthur Wellesley,
ordering the brigade and detachments to halt and bivouac at Niza
until his arrival with the head-quarters at Badajoz, after which
the battalion was stationed at the village of Torre Mayor: here it
suffered severely from sickness, which at that season of the year
is prevalent in Estremadura, and particularly on the banks of the
Guadiana. On the 3rd of September the head-quarters arrived at
Badajoz, and the army was distributed about Elvas, Campo Mayor, and
other places adjacent; but when Viscount Wellington broke up from
the Guadiana in the month of December, and crossed the Tagus, he
left Major-General Rowland Hill (afterwards Viscount Hill), with a
force of 10,000 men, British and Portuguese, at Abrantes: among the
former was the second battalion of the THIRTY-NINTH regiment.
[Sidenote: 1810. 1st Batt.]
In the summer of 1810, Joachim Murat, King of Naples, assembled
upwards of a hundred heavy gunboats, a number of others more
lightly armed, and about four hundred transport boats, and brought
thirty thousand troops to the coast of Calabria for the purpose
of invading Sicily. The battalion companies, under the command of
Brevet-Lieut.-Colonel Cavendish Sturt, accordingly proceeded from
Malta, in June 1810, to Sicily, where they were employed in the
defence of the island against the threatened invasion.
[Sidenote: 2nd Batt.]
The second battalion accompanied the force under Major-General
Rowland Hill in all its movements in Portugal and on the frontiers
of Spain, and in August 1810 was one of the corps of the second
division, when it formed, by forced marches, the memorable
junction with Viscount Wellington on the heights of _Busaco_.
Lieut.-Colonel George Wilson being appointed to the charge of a
brigade, Major Patrick Lindesay, afterwards Major-General Sir
Patrick Lindesay[26], commanded the battalion, which formed part
of the right of the army in the battle at _Busaco_, on the 27th of
September, but the battalion was not engaged in the action. When
General Regnier attacked the position held by the third and fifth
divisions, Major-General Hill withdrew towards his left to support
them: it was unnecessary, however, these divisions having repulsed
the enemy, and he therefore continued in his original position.
After the battle of Busaco, the second battalion accompanied the
army in its retrograde movement to the Lines of _Torres Vedras_,
where it remained until orders were given to advance in pursuit of
the French troops towards Santarem, when it crossed the Tagus with
the corps under Major-General Hill, and occupied cantonments at
Almeirem, immediately opposite the head-quarters of the enemy.
[Sidenote: 1811. 2nd Batt.]
In consequence of the French army retreating from Portugal
into Spain, the second battalion of the THIRTY-NINTH regiment
accompanied the second division in its movements towards the
frontiers, and was present at the expulsion of the enemy from the
fortress of Campo Mayor on the 25th of March 1811; subsequently
the battalion crossed the Guadiana at Jerumenha, and was present
with the second division in a variety of skirmishes at Los Santos
and Zafra, as well as at the investment of _Badajoz_ on the 2nd of
May, where the battalion was actively employed in making approaches
and constructing batteries against that fortress until the 14th of
May, when it marched with the corps under Marshal Sir William Carr
(now Viscount) Beresford to _Albuhera_, where the battalion arrived
on the evening of the 15th of that month, and was attacked on the
following day by the French army under Marshal Soult.
In the battle of _Albuhera_, fought on the 16th of May, the
second battalion of the THIRTY-NINTH regiment, although only four
hundred strong, bore a distinguished part. The brigade to which it
belonged, having been brought up at a critical moment, materially
assisted in deciding the fate of the day, preventing by its fire
the deployment of a heavy column of the enemy’s reserve, which
was ultimately obliged to give way with considerable loss, and
retreated in confusion across the river Albuhera.
On this occasion the second battalion had Lieutenant George Beard
and fourteen rank and file killed; Captain James Brine, Lieutenants
John William Pollard, Francis H. Hart, Ensign Charles Cox, four
serjeants, and seventy-three rank and file wounded.
For this action Major Patrick Lindesay, being in command of the
battalion, obtained the brevet rank of Lieut.-Colonel, and was
presented with a medal. Captain Charles Carthew, who commanded the
light company, was publicly thanked by Major-General the Honorable
William Stewart, commanding the division, for the gallant conduct
of himself, the officers, and company, in their skirmishing with
the enemy.
The royal authority was afterwards given for the THIRTY-NINTH to
bear the word “ALBUHERA” on the regimental colour and appointments,
to commemorate the distinguished conduct of the second battalion on
that occasion.
The French army having retreated on the road to Seville, the
battalion moved forward with the corps, and on the march made many
prisoners, the hospitals and wounded having, in many instances,
fallen into the hands of the British. The enemy having been
completely driven over the Sierra Morena, the battalion retired
with the division, and was cantoned on the frontiers until the 22nd
of October, when it marched with the troops under Lieut.-General
Rowland Hill, and on the 28th of that month arrived close to the
village of _Arroyo dos Molinos_, where a division of the French
army was surprised, and about fourteen hundred prisoners, with all
its artillery and baggage, were taken. Several officers of rank
and consideration, including General Brun and Colonel the Prince
d’Aremberg, were amongst the prisoners. The light companies of the
brigade, acting in battalion, were under the command of Major Roger
Parke of the THIRTY-NINTH regiment.
General Girard, who commanded the French division, escaped, with
about five hundred men, by ascending the Sierra de Montanches, when
the second battalion of the THIRTY-NINTH was ordered to pursue
them; but the French throwing away their knapsacks, and in many
instances their appointments, they marched with such rapidity,
that the battalion could only come up with the rear-guard, which
occasionally occupied most favorable positions to cover their
retreat. After some skirmishing the French descended into the
plain: the battalion being excessively fatigued by a continued and
harassing march, from two o’clock in the morning until six in the
evening, Brevet-Lieut.-Colonel Patrick Lindesay, then in command,
finding further pursuit unavailing, tried the success of a “_ruse
de guerre_,” by riding up to the enemy with a flag of truce, and
proposing to General Girard to surrender, as no doubt he would be
intercepted by the British cavalry on the plain, and that a Spanish
corps under General Morillo was at hand. A captain and twenty men
left the column, and surrendered to the battalion, then rapidly
advancing in pursuit. The French general, mortified by the surprise
and loss of his division, declared he would rather die than
surrender. Unfortunately only one troop of cavalry arrived, and
Morillo’s force was unable to come up, so that General Girard, and
the remainder of his division, escaped by the bridge of Medellin.
In this affair the second battalion had Captain Hardress
Saunderson, one serjeant, and nine rank and file wounded.
On the following morning the second battalion rejoined the division
at Arroyo dos Molinos, and returned to Albuquerque.
[Sidenote: 1st Batt.]
Meanwhile the first battalion, under the command of Lieut.-Colonel
the Honorable Robert William O’Callaghan, had embarked from Sicily
on the 20th of August 1811, to join the army in the Peninsula, and
arrived at Lisbon in October following. The battalion moved towards
the frontiers of Portugal, and on its arrival at Crato was joined
by the second battalion on the 24th of December 1811, commanded by
Brevet-Lieut.-Colonel Patrick Lindesay.
[Sidenote: 2nd Batt.]
On the 25th of December 1811, the second battalion transferred all
its effective men to the first battalion, after which the skeleton
marched to Lisbon, where it embarked for England on the 27th of
January following.
[Sidenote: 1st Batt.]
The first battalion, thus completed to twelve hundred rank and
file, proceeded on the 26th of December to join the second division
of the army under Lieut.-General Rowland Hill.
[Sidenote: 1812. 2nd Batt.]
The portion of the second battalion, which had proceeded to
England, disembarked at Weymouth on the 2nd of March 1812.
[Sidenote: 1st Batt.]
In March _Badajoz_ was invested for the third time, and the first
battalion formed part of the covering army under Lieut.-General
Sir Rowland Hill[27] at the successful siege of this important
fortress, which was taken by the British on the night of the 6th
of April. The battalion afterwards continued with the division in
all its various movements from the frontiers of Portugal to the
Spanish capital. The victory gained at _Salamanca_ on the 22nd
of July by the army under the immediate command of the Earl of
Wellington, for which he was raised to the title of Marquis, was
followed by the surrender of Madrid to the allies, who entered
that city on the 12th of August, and were joyfully received by the
inhabitants. The situation of the British commander at Madrid was
critical; and it being deemed impracticable to remain there, the
Marquis of Wellington on the 1st of September departed from that
city, and advanced to Burgos; but the siege of the castle at that
place was not successful, and a retrograde movement was made in
order to unite with the troops under Lieut.-General Sir Rowland
Hill, information having been received that Marshal Soult and King
Joseph, with their combined forces, were advancing from Valencia,
and that their advanced guard was in the neighbourhood of Ocanna,
and moving on Madrid. Lieut.-General Hill, at the approach of
Marshal Soult, abandoned that city, and retired slowly towards
Salamanca. On the retreat from Madrid to the Tormes, the first
battalion formed part of the rear-guard of the army; here the
battalion rejoined the second division, and continued the march by
Salamanca until its arrival at Coria on the 1st of December 1812,
where it remained for the winter.
[Sidenote: 2nd Batt.]
The second battalion, upon its arrival in England in February
1812, was stationed at Weymouth until October following, when it
proceeded to Exeter, but returned to Weymouth in December.
[Sidenote: 1813. 1st Batt.]
Shortly after the arrival of the first battalion at Coria,
the THIRTY-NINTH sustained the loss of a most gallant and
distinguished officer in Colonel George Wilson, who died on the
6th of January 1813. This officer had served in the regiment
upwards of twenty-nine years, and was at the period of his decease
aide-de-camp to His Majesty King George III., lieut.-colonel of the
second battalion, colonel on the staff of the army, and commanding
the brigade to which the first battalion was attached.[28]
On the 15th of May the first battalion, still belonging to the
second division, moved forward without interruption until its
arrival at _Vittoria_ on the 21st of June: it bore a considerable
share in the battle on that day, in taking, defending, and
maintaining the village of _Subijana de Alava_, a post in front
of the left of the French line, which they considered of such
importance as to induce them to make several vigorous attacks to
repossess themselves of it, but which proved unavailing. In this
glorious action the battalion lost, in killed and wounded, above
one-third of its number. Captains Charles Carthew, Robert Walton,
and William Hicks, were wounded. Captain Hicks died of his wounds
on the 3rd of July; Lieutenant the Honorable Michael De Courcy
Meade died of his wounds on the 9th of July. Lieutenants Francis
C. Crotty, Coyne Reynolds, Thomas Baynes, and Alexander G. Speirs,
were wounded.
Two serjeants and thirty-two rank and file were killed; six
serjeants and one hundred and ninety-four rank and file were
wounded.
The French, being driven from all their defences, retreated with
such precipitation towards Pampeluna as to abandon all their
baggage, artillery, ammunition, military chests, and the court
equipage of King Joseph, whose carriage being seized, he had barely
time to escape on horseback. The defeat was the most complete that
the French had experienced in Spain.
The baton of Marshal Jourdan was taken by the Eighty-seventh
regiment, and the Prince Regent, in the name and behalf of His
Majesty, appointed the Marquis of Wellington a Field-Marshal. In
a most flattering letter, the Prince Regent thus conferred the
honor:--“You have sent me among the trophies of our unrivalled
fame, the staff of a French Marshal, and I send you in return that
of England.”
To commemorate this victory the THIRTY-NINTH subsequently received
the royal authority to bear the word “VITTORIA” on the regimental
colour and appointments. A medal was granted to Colonel the
Honorable Robert William O’Callaghan, of the THIRTY-NINTH regiment,
in temporary command of the brigade, who was specially noticed
in the Marquis of Wellington’s despatch, “as having maintained
the village of Subijana de Alava against all the efforts of the
enemy to gain possession of it;” and also to Brevet-Lieut.-Colonel
Charles Bruce, in immediate command of the first battalion.
From Vittoria the first battalion moved forward with the army on
the evening of the same day towards the _Pyrenees_. Some affairs
of little importance occurred, and on the 7th of July the French
occupied a position across the valley of Bastan; the second
battalion of the Thirty-fourth and the first battalion of the
THIRTY-NINTH regiments were moved through the mountains to turn
their right; towards evening they fell in with a piquet of the
enemy near the extremity of the valley, which was driven in, and
found to be supported by a great portion of the French army, which
kept up a heavy fire until night. From a thick fog, and the nature
of the ground, the enemy did not perceive the comparatively small
force opposed to him, nor did the battalion suffer much for the
same reason. On the morning of the 8th the enemy retired within the
French territory. Four days afterwards Marshal Soult, who had been
sent to the seat of war by Napoleon, with the rank of “Lieutenant
of the Emperor,” assumed the command of the army of Spain, when all
his energies were directed to retrieve its disasters, and to drive
the British across the Ebro.
Nothing particular occurred until the 25th of July, when Count
D’Erlon attacked the pass of _Maya_ with an overwhelming force.
This pass was occupied by the piquets of the brigade, to whose
support the battalion, with the brigade, moved forward; but on
their arrival found the pass in possession of the enemy: this
circumstance, and his great superiority of numbers, obliged the
troops to retire, which they did in good order, but with great loss.
In the subsequent action near _Pampeluna_ the battalion occupied
some strong ground on the left of the British line, and was but
little engaged. It again moved forward on the retreat of the enemy,
and on the 31st of July, two attempts having failed to carry the
heights of _Donna Maria_, the THIRTY-NINTH, being selected for a
third, happily succeeded. The enemy after this made no further
stand, but retreated beyond the Pyrenees.
In the operations of the army from the 25th to the 31st of July,
the loss of the THIRTY-NINTH was as follows:--
Lieutenants John Lord, and Trevor Williams, killed in action on
the 25th of July. Lieutenant Connell Scanlan was wounded and
taken prisoner, and died of his wounds. Captain Joseph A. Jones,
Lieutenants Francis H. Hart, Charles Cox, and Purefoy Poe, Ensigns
William Allan Courtenay and Robert Rhodes were wounded on the 25th
of July. Lieutenant William Johnston Hughes was taken prisoner.
Six serjeants and twenty-three rank and file were killed; five
serjeants and one hundred and four rank and file were wounded; two
serjeants, one drummer, and nineteen rank and file were missing.
For the several actions in the _Pyrenees_ from the 25th to the
31st of July, His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, in the name
and behalf of His Majesty, was graciously pleased to grant medals
to Colonel the Honorable Robert William O’Callaghan, commanding
the brigade, Brevet-Lieut.-Colonel Charles Bruce, commanding the
battalion; and to Captain Duncan Campbell, of the THIRTY-NINTH, in
command of the light companies of the brigade.
The THIRTY-NINTH also received the royal authority to bear the
word “PYRENEES” on the regimental colour and appointments, to
commemorate the services of the first battalion in these actions.
The enemy having been driven over the Pyrenees, the British
remained in possession of the several passes, the THIRTY-NINTH
occupying those of Maya, Roncesvalles, and Alduides, alternately,
until the 9th of November, when the battalion entered France by
the pass of Maya without opposition, except driving in the enemy’s
advance-posts, until its arrival at the river _Nivelle_, the
passage of which was contested by the French army. The battalion,
however, succeeded in crossing with trifling loss on the 10th
of November, and the enemy was afterwards driven from all his
strong and fortified positions on the heights of Sarre, where
the THIRTY-NINTH remained for the night. In commemoration of
this service the THIRTY-NINTH subsequently received the royal
authority to bear the word “NIVELLE” on the regimental colour and
appointments.
Captain George D’Arcy, of the THIRTY-NINTH, was promoted to the
brevet rank of Major on the 22nd of November 1813.
The battalion subsequently moved forward to the _Nive_, the left
bank of which it occupied until the 9th of December, when the army
crossed that river,--the THIRTY-NINTH by a ford at Laressor, under
great difficulties, as well from the depth of the river as the
opposition made by the enemy. The passage having been effected, the
enemy retired to the heights of St. Pierre, near Bayonne.
In crossing the _Nive_ the battalion had one man killed, and twelve
rank and file wounded.
On the morning of the 10th of December the division took possession
of the high ground in the neighbourhood of _Bayonne_, the
THIRTY-NINTH occupying Ville Franche on the left of the line, and
on the right bank of the _Nive_. Early on the morning of the 13th
of December, Marshal Soult made a most desperate attack on the
second division with all his force; but the battalion being on the
extreme left of the position was not materially engaged, having
only one serjeant killed, and Ensign John Burns and thirteen rank
and file wounded. The enemy, being defeated in his attack, retired
to Bayonne that night; the division still retained its position and
continued therein until the 13th of February, the THIRTY-NINTH
occupying the village of Petite Moguerre.
For the services connected with the passage of the river Nive, the
THIRTY-NINTH subsequently received the royal authority to bear the
word “NIVE” on the regimental colour and appointments. Medals were
also granted to Colonel the Honorable Robert William O’Callaghan,
commanding the battalion, and to Brevet-Lieut.-Colonel Charles
Bruce, commanding the light companies of the brigade.
[Sidenote: 2nd Batt.]
During the year 1813 the second battalion continued to be stationed
at Weymouth; and having completed its ranks from the militia, and
by means of recruiting parties, it sent several large drafts to the
first battalion in the Peninsula.
[Sidenote: 1814. 1st Batt.]