A gallant fop--An ill-humoured recruit--The military agriculturist and
the gentleman farmer--Death or glory--The Duke at Vimiero--Picking off
the enemy--The brothers Hart.
I remember there was an officer, named, I think, Cardo, with the
Rifles. He was a great beau; but although rather effeminate and
ladylike in manners, so much so as to be remarked by the whole regiment
at that time, yet he was found to be a most gallant officer when we
were engaged with the enemy in the field.
He was killed whilst fighting bravely in the Pyrenees; and amongst
other jewellery he wore, he had a ring on his finger worth one hundred
and fifty guineas.
As he lay dead on the field, one of our Riflemen, named Orr, observed
the sparkling gem, and immediately resolved to make prize of it. The
ring, however, was so firmly fixed that Orr could not draw it from the
finger, and whipping out his knife cut the finger off by the joint.
After the battle, Orr offered the ring for sale amongst the officers,
and, on inquiry, the manner in which he had obtained it transpired. Orr
was in consequence tried by court-martial, and sentenced to receive
five hundred lashes, which sentence was carried into execution.
A youth joined the Rifles soon after I myself put on the green jacket,
whose name was Medley. He was but a small chap, being under the
standard one inch;[2] but our officers thought he promised fair to
become a tall fellow, and he was, accordingly, not rejected. Medley
did not deceive them; for, on the day he first joined the Rifles, he
was five feet one inch in height, and on the day he was killed, at
Barrossa, he was exactly six feet one. He was celebrated for being the
greatest grumbler, the greatest eater, and the most quarrelsome fellow
in the whole corps. I remember he cut a most desperate figure in the
retreat to Corunna; for there he had enough to bear both of fatigue and
hunger; and a very little of either of these disagreeables would make
him extremely bad company at any time. It was dangerous, too, to bid
him hold his tongue sometimes; for he had picked up so amongst us since
he was only five feet one, and grown so bony as well as tall, that he
would challenge and thrash any man in the corps. Corunna, however,
though it could not stop his growling, took the desire of boxing quite
out of him; and he sprawled, scrambled, and swore, till he somehow got
through that business. If General Craufurd could have heard but the
twentieth part of what I heard him utter about him on that retreat, I
think he would have cut Medley in half. He was, as I said, a capital
feeder; and his own allowance was not half enough to satisfy his
cravings, so that he often got some of his comrades to help him out
with a portion of theirs. He was my comrade for about two years; and,
as I was a shoemaker, I often had food to give him; indeed it was
highly necessary either to give him what I had for my own allowance,
or find some provision elsewhere, for he was the most cross-grained
fellow, if his belly was not filled, that we ever had amongst us. He
was killed at Barrossa, as I said, and he carried his ill-humour with
him to the very last hour of his life; for, being knocked over by a
musket-ball in the thigh, he was spoken to as he lay by some of his
comrades, who, asking if they should assist him, and carry him to the
rear, he told them to "_Go and be d--d!_" and, bidding them mind their
own business, abused them till they passed on and left him. I was told
this last anecdote of him by the very men who had spoken to him, and
got this blessing as he lay.
We had another tall fellow in the four companies of Rifles who were in
that retreat. His name was Thomas Higgins; he was six feet one and a
half, and quite as lank and bony as Medley. He also was an ill-tempered
fellow, but nothing to compare with him either in eating or grumbling.
The tall men, I have often observed, bore fatigue much worse than the
short ones; and Higgins, amongst others of the big 'uns, was dreadfully
put to it to keep on. We lost him entirely when about half through this
business, I remember; for, during a short halt of about ten minutes he
was reprimanded by one of our officers for the slovenly state of his
clothing and accoutrements; his dress almost dropping from his lower
limbs, and his knapsack hanging by a strap or two down about his waist.
Higgins did not take it at all kind being quarrelled with at such a
time, and, uttering sundry impertinences, desired to know if they
were ever to be allowed to halt any more, adding that he did not see
very well how he was to be very smart after what he had already gone
through. The officer spoke to one of the sergeants upon this, and bid
him remember, if they got to their journey's end, to give Higgins an
extra guard for his behaviour. "Oh! then, d--n me," says Higgins, "if
ever I take it!" and, turning about, as we all moved on at the word to
march, he marched off in the contrary direction, and we never either
saw or heard of him from that hour; and it was supposed afterwards,
amongst us, that he had either perished alone in the night, or joined
the French, who were at our heels. These were the two tallest men in
the four companies of Rifles; and both were in the company I belonged
to. Higgins was the right hand, and Medley the left hand man.
THE YORKSHIRE FARMER.
It was about the year 1807 or 8, that a man volunteered from the
Nottingham Militia into the Rifles. After receiving the half of
his bounty, he thought that was quite as much as would serve him
of the Rifle regiment, and so he declined to serve them in return,
and accordingly made off, without joining them at all at that time.
Four years afterwards he was discovered by the very sergeant of the
Nottingham Militia who belonged to his own company when he volunteered
from them into our corps. This same sergeant was then himself
recruiting, and fell in with his former comrade in some town, of which
I forget the name; but it was in Yorkshire. The man (whose name, also,
I have forgotten now,) was then grown very fat, and was, likewise, as
much altered in dress as in condition, being clad in the habiliments
of a respectable and comfortable farmer of that delightful county. The
sergeant, however, had a sharp eye, and penetrated both through the
disguise of his then calling, and also even his portly look failed in
throwing him off the scent. In fact, he went warily to work, made his
inquiries, compared his notes, allowed for the time and circumstances,
and, notwithstanding the respectability and reputed worth of our
farmer, arrested him forthwith as a deserter from the Ninety-fifth.
From Yorkshire he was marched a prisoner to Hythe, in Kent; and I
remember seeing him brought in, dressed as he was apprehended, and
handcuffed, and guarded by a corporal and three or four men. He was,
as I said, clad in his farmer's dress, and that it was which made
myself and others (who happened to be out) more especially regard him;
for, although it was no great sight at that time to see a deserter
brought along, yet it was not often we beheld one so apparently well
off and respectable looking in such a situation. In fact, the Yorkshire
farmer made a great talk amongst us; and we pitied him much. No man in
his present circumstances could, I should think, feel more acutely,
and he dwindled perceptibly in bulk every day, till he was brought to
trial. During his confinement he had written to the colonel of the
regiment, offering him sixty pounds to let him off; but I believe he
never at that time got any reply to his offer, and, being tried, was
sentenced to receive seven hundred lashes. When he was brought into
the hollow square to receive his punishment, I remember the anxiety
amongst us was twice as great as on an ordinary occasion of the sort.
He did not seem a man who was afraid of the lash, as regarded the pain
of its infliction, but the shame of it (considering the situation he
had attained to) was apparently the thing that hurt him most. Even now,
although fallen away, he was a jolly and portly-looking man, though
his flesh seemed to hang about him from the quickness he had been
reduced in bulk by long marches, and anxiety of mind. He addressed a
few words to the colonel in a firm and manly tone, and begged him to
consider his situation and circumstances, and that he was the husband
of a respectable woman, and father of several children; but, however,
it was not possible for the colonel to forgive him at that time, and
he was ordered to be quick and prepare. The farmer, accordingly,
stripped, and was tied up. The colonel addressed him, and referred to
the offer he had made him when in confinement, which, he told him,
had much aggravated his crime, as supposing him (the colonel) capable
of selling his honour for sixty pounds. So the farmer received his
seven hundred lashes that day, and never uttered a word of complaint
during the infliction, except that, as he sometimes turned his head,
and looked after the can of water, he would say, "Oh! poor Tom! poor
Tom! I little thought ever to come to this!" I remember, after four
hundred, the colonel asked him if he would sign his banishment, telling
him it was to send him to another regiment, which was in foreign
parts; but the farmer refused to do so, and the punishment went on. I
recollect, too, that the doctor desired the drummer to lay the lash
on the other shoulder, and the farmer received the whole sentence, as
he well deserved. In a week or more he was to be seen walking in the
barrack-square; but he avoided the society of the men, and in about
two or three days afterwards, he was missing altogether, having taken
an opportunity to escape; and we never again either heard of, or saw,
the Yorkshire farmer.
There was another agriculturist who, I remember, was in the Rifles
with me. He was the eldest son of a gentleman-farmer, who resided in
Yorkshire, and as handsome a youth as I think I ever beheld; but he was
one of the wildest chaps, perhaps, in the whole county, and, although
he was not above four or five-and-twenty, his parents had found it
out to their cost. In one of his sprees, happening to fall in with
Sergeant Sugden of our corps, nothing would content him but he must
enlist. Sugden, you may easily conceive, was not averse to indulge
such a "_perspiring_" hero, and very soon had him for a recruit.
Although there must have been considerable difference in the style of
life amongst us to what he had been used to, yet he appeared nowise
displeased with, the change. To be sure, he was rather too lively a
bird at times, and, having plenty of money, occasionally got himself
into trouble, but nothing particularly disagreeable happened, and
altogether he was very much liked in the corps, in which he went by
the name of "The Gentleman Farmer." Just before a detachment of the
Rifles started for Portugal, a gentleman rode into the barrack-square,
and inquired of some of the men for this young spark, whose name I
cannot now remember. The meeting was not a very amicable one, for
the new-comer was the gentleman-farmer's brother, who upbraided him
with his conduct in enlisting, and told of the anxiety and sorrow
this new freak had caused at home. After they had somewhat mollified
their quarrel, they sought an interview with our commanding-officer;
and the brother immediately, in the name of the parents, offered any
reasonable sum the colonel chose to name, so he would but grant the
gentleman-farmer a discharge. The colonel, however, was not willing to
lose him, and refused at that time to grant the request.
"He is a wild and untamed spirit," he said; "and as he is just now
under orders for foreign service, he had better go; let him have a year
of that fun; it will do his complaint good; and, if he lives, we shall
see him, I hope, return an improved man."
The new-comer, therefore, was fain to put up with this answer, and
next morning returned home to his parents, apparently much cut up and
disappointed at his ill success. Accordingly the gentleman-farmer
embarked for Portugal, and was soon after witness of a wilder scene of
discord and horror than, I dare say, even his hair-brained ideas quite
contemplated when he enlisted for a soldier; in short, he took his
first lesson of actual warfare at the siege of Badajoz, and, entering
with heart and soul into the breach, his head was dashed into a
hundred pieces by a cannon ball.
Thomas Mayberry was a man well known at that time in the Rifles. He was
a sergeant in my day, and was much thought of by our officers as a very
active and useful non-commissioned officer, being considered, up to the
time of his committing the slight mistake I shall have to tell of, one
of the most honest men in the army. With the men he was not altogether
so well liked, as he was considered rather too blusterous and
tyrannical. Whilst in the town of Hythe, he got the fingering of about
two hundred pounds, for the purpose of paying for necessaries purchased
for the men of his company, and which two hundred pounds he had, in a
very short space of time, managed to make away with, and lose in the
society of a party of gamblers, who at that time infested the town of
Hythe. Captain Hart, who then commanded the company Mayberry belonged
to, was not a little thunderstruck, some little time after, at finding
that the several tradesmen who furnished the articles for the men had
never been settled with, and, sending for Mayberry, discovered the
delinquency. Mayberry was a prisoner in a moment; and Captain Hart was
as much astonished as if his own father had committed a fraud, so well
and so much was Mayberry thought of. He was brought to court-martial,
together with two other men, whom he had seduced to become partners
in his gambling transactions; and, on the inquiry, it was further
discovered that he had been in the habit of cheating the men of his
company out of a farthing a-week each for the last ten months. That
was, perhaps, the worst thing against him. He was sentenced to receive
seven hundred lashes. Corporal Morrisson and Patrick Divine, his two
participators in this roguery, got, I remember, the former three, and
the latter one hundred, awarded to them.
When the square was formed for punishment, and the three were brought
out, it was necessary to check the men of the regiment, or they
would have hooted and hissed them on the parade. I recollect, also,
that there was a civilian, of the name of Gilbert, whom Mayberry had
defrauded, and he had inquired the time of his punishment, and was
present in the rear during the infliction, having expressed to some of
Mayberry's companions that he was content to lose the money, so that
he saw the fellow well flogged:--a pretty good proof that, when their
own interests are nearly concerned, your civilian has no objection
to even be an eye-witness of the infliction of the lash, about which
there has lately been such an outcry. It is, indeed, no uncommon thing,
now-a-days, to see a man who has committed crimes, which have caused
him to receive the execrations of his sometime companions in arms,
as he is being drummed out of the corps, received by a host of folks
without the barrack-gates, and taken to their bosoms as an object of
commiseration.
When Mayberry was tied up, he was offered, as was then customary, the
option of banishment; but he refused it, notwithstanding considerable
entreaty was made to him by his two comrades to accept it, as, by so
doing, they thought they all would escape the lash. However, Mayberry
decided to take the seven hundred, and bore the sentence without a
murmur. Not so the two others: Morrisson screamed and struggled so
much, that he capsized the triangle, and all came sprawling together,
so that he was obliged to be held by a man at each side. Divine came
last. He was rather an effeminate-looking man; and the colonel rode
round, and told him he lamented being obliged to break so fair a skin;
but he must do his duty. However, as he had borne a good character,
and was not so much to blame as the other two, he let him down after
five-and-twenty.
Mayberry after this was much scouted by his fellow-soldiers, and also
ill-thought of by the officers; and, on a detachment being sent to
Portugal, he volunteered for the expedition. Captain Hart, however,
would fain have declined taking him, as he had so bad an opinion of him
after this affair; but Mayberry shewed himself so desirous of going,
that at last he consented, and took him. At the siege of Badajoz,
Mayberry wiped off, in a measure, all his former ill conduct. He was
seen by Captain Hart to behave so bravely in the breach, that he
commended him on the spot.
"Well done, Mayberry!" said he; "you have this day done enough to
obliterate your disgrace; and, if we live, I will endeavour to restore
you to your former rank. Go now to the rear; you have done enough for
one day." Mayberry, however, refused to retire, although covered with
wounds; for he was known to have killed seven with his own hand, with
his rifle-sword-bayonet.
"No going to the rear for me," he said. "I'll restore myself to my
comrades' opinion, or make a finish of myself altogether."
He accordingly continued in the front of all, till at last he was seen
to be cut down, in the clear light of the fire-balls, by a tremendous
sword-cut, which cleft his skull almost in twain. Morrisson, I heard,
also died at that siege. Divine returned safe home, and died of fatigue
at Fermoy.
It has been said, I have heard, by officers of high rank in the army
of the Peninsula, that there never were such a set of devil-may-care
fellows, and so completely up to their business, as the 95th. It would
be invidious to make a distinction, or talk of any one regiment
being better, or more serviceable, than another; but the Rifles were
generally in the mess before the others began, and also the last to
leave off. It was their business to be so; and if they did their work
well, so did every other British corps engaged in that country, at
least I never either heard or saw to the contrary. There was, perhaps,
as intelligent and talented a set of men amongst us, as ever carried a
weapon in any country. They seemed at times, to need but a glance at
what was going on to know all about its "why and wherefore." I remember
seeing the Duke of Wellington during the battle of Vimiero; and in
these days, when so much anxiety is displayed to catch even a glance of
that great man's figure as he gallops along the streets of London, it
seems gratifying to me to recollect seeing him in his proper element,
"the raging and bloody field," and I have frequently taxed my mind to
remember each action and look I caught of him at that time.
I remember seeing the great Duke take his hat off in the field of
Vimiero, and methinks it is something to have seen that wonderful man
even do so common-place a thing as lift his hat to another officer in
the battle-field. We were generally enveloped in smoke and fire, and
sometimes unable to distinguish or make remarks upon what was going
on around, whilst we blazed away at our opponents; but occasionally
we found time to make our comments upon the game we were playing.
Two or three fellows near me were observing what was going on just
in the rear, and I heard one man remark, "Here comes Sir Arthur
and his staff;" upon which I also looked back, and caught sight of
him just meeting with two other officers of high rank. They all
uncovered as they met, and I saw the Duke, as I said, (then Sir Arthur
Wellesley) take off his hat and bow to the other two. The names of
the new-comers, however they were learnt, whether from some of the men
who had before seen them, or picked up on the instant from an officer,
seemed to be well known, as well as the business they were engaged in
talking of; for it ran along the line from one to the other that Sir
Hugh Dalrymple and Sir Harry Burrard were about to take the command,
instead of Sir Arthur Wellesley, a circumstance which, of course, could
only be a random guess amongst these fellows at the moment.
The intelligence of these men was indeed very great, and I could relate
instances of their recklessness and management which would amuse the
reader much. I remember a fellow, named Jackman, getting close up to
the walls at Flushing, and working a hole in the earth with his sword,
into which he laid himself, and remained there alone, spite of all
the efforts of the enemy and their various missiles to dislodge him.
He was known, thus earthed, to have killed, with the utmost coolness
and deliberation, eleven of the French artillerymen, as they worked at
their guns. As fast as they relieved each fallen comrade did Jackman
pick them off; after which he took to his heels, and got safe back to
his comrades.
There were three brothers in the Rifles, named Hart,--John, Mike, and
Peter,--and three more perfectly reckless fellows, perhaps, never
existed. Nothing ever escaped their notice; and they would create
the greatest fun and laughter, even when advancing under the hottest
fire of the enemy, and their comrades being shot down beside them. I
remember Lieutenant Molloy, who was himself as fine a "soldier as ever
stepped, and as full of life in the midst of death" as these Harts,
being obliged to check them at Vimiero. "D--n you!" he said to them,
"keep back, and get under cover. Do you think you are fighting here
with your fists, that you are running into the teeth of the French?"
I never saw those three men, to appearance, the least worse for
hard work during the time we remained in Portugal. They could run
like deer, and were indeed formed by Nature and disposition for the
hardships, difficulties, and privations of the sort of life we then
led. They were, however, all three pretty well done up during the
retreat to Corunna; though, even in that dreadful business, their
light-heartedness and attempts at fun served to keep up the spirits of
many a man, who would else have been broken-hearted before the English
shipping appeared in sight. They even carried their pleasantry on that
occasion so far as to make a jest of their own appearance, and the
miserable plight of the whole turn-out, as we disembarked upon the
beach at Portsmouth. One of them even went so far as to observe, "that
we looked more like the rakings of h-- than the fragments of an army!"
Nothing, indeed, but that grave of battalions, that unwholesome fen,
Flushing, could have broken the spirits of three such soldiers as John,
Mike, and Peter Hart. A few weeks, however, of that country sufficed
to quiet them for evermore. One, I remember, died; and the other two,
although they lived to return, were never worth a rush afterwards, but,
like myself, remained living examples of what climate can bring even a
constitution and body framed as if of iron to.
Nothing, I suppose, could exceed the dreadful appearance we cut on
the occasion of the disembarkation from Corunna; and the inhabitants
of Portsmouth, who had assembled in some numbers to see us land,
were horror-stricken with the sight of their countrymen and relatives
returning to England in such a ghastly state; whilst the three Harts,
with feet swathed in bloody rags, clothing that hardly covered their
nakedness, accoutrements in shreds, beards covering their faces, eyes
dimmed with toil, (for some were even blind,) arms nearly useless to
those who had them left, the rifles being encrusted with rust, and the
swords glued to the scabbard;--these three brothers, I say (for I heard
them myself,) as they hobbled up the beach, were making all sorts of
remarks, and cracking their jokes upon the misery of our situation, and
the appearance they themselves cut.
I recollect seeing at this time an affecting instance of female
affection displayed. One of our officers, whose name I will not
mention, and who was much beloved by us all, observed his wife waiting
for him on the beach, as he disembarked from the boat. He met her as
she rushed into the sea to embrace him, and they were locked in each
others' arms before they touched the dry land.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 2: The standard at that time, when men were quickly used up,
was five feet two with us.]