EARLIER HISTORY OF THE REGIMENT.
Before the war of 1914 the Regiment now known as the Thirteenth Hussars
had, like most Regiments of the British Army, served in various parts
of the world. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it
had borne a part in nine wars of one kind or another, and had made
acquaintance not only with the Continent of Europe, but with Asia,
America, and Africa.
The Regiment was raised in the year 1715. The Duke of Marlborough was
then still living, but his long series of victories had been brought to
a close by the Treaty of Utrecht two years before, and thirty thousand
of the veterans who had won them for him had been ruthlessly disbanded.
After the accession of George I., in 1714, it was seen that this step
had been a hasty and dangerous one, for the Jacobite party was strong,
and the reduction of the small British Army had given them fresh hopes.
It soon became evident that the exiled Stuarts meant to take advantage
of their opportunity, and the British Government was obliged to raise
fresh troops in place of those so recently thrown away. Among the new
Regiments were to be several of Dragoons, and in July 1715 the raising
of one of these was entrusted to Brigadier Richard Munden, an officer
on half-pay who had served with some distinction under Marlborough.
It appears that Munden had no difficulty in finding recruits, for
within three months the Regiment had been raised, and was assembled
at Northampton. There it received orders to march to Leeds, and soon
afterwards Brigadier Munden was informed that his Regiment, with
others, was to be under the orders of Major-General Wills, whom
His Majesty had appointed “to command several of his forces on an
expedition.”
At this time a Dragoon Regiment in the British Army consisted of
6 troops, and its strength was between 200 and 300, including 19
“Commission” officers. It was not a Regiment of “Horse,” though it was
mounted, and regarded as Cavalry. The men were armed with the same
firearm as the Infantry, or practically the same, and were expected to
fight on foot as well as on horseback. This, it will be remembered, was
the period when European Cavalry depended largely on their fire, and
had not been trained to the system of Frederick the Great, the charge
at speed with the _arme blanche_. The officers of Munden’s Dragoons,
including Munden himself, had almost all served in Regiments of Foot.
The Regiment was “officially declared to be a disciplined force
belonging to the regular army on 31st October 1715.” It had not to wait
long before seeing service, for early in November General Wills learned
that the Jacobite “rebels” were over the Scottish border, and marching
on Lancaster. He at once drew together his forces at Manchester, and
marched thence to Wigan. On the 12th November Munden’s Dragoons were in
presence of their first enemy, who had advanced as far as Preston, and
was in occupation of the town.
It is significant that when General Wills left Wigan with his force to
attack the rebels, the order of march was as follows: The advance-guard
consisted of fifty musketeers and fifty dismounted dragoons. After the
advance-guard came a Regiment of Foot, then three Brigades of Cavalry
consisting of one Regiment of “Horse” and five of Dragoons. Evidently
Cavalry was not regarded as the eyes of an army.
The action which followed was at first indecisive. The enemy, superior
in numbers, and aided by some guns and barricades, repulsed one or two
attacks made by Infantry and dismounted Dragoons. But on the following
day General Carpenter having come up with three more Regiments of
Dragoons, the rebels gave in and surrendered. Their assailants had
lost in all one hundred and thirty killed and wounded, so the fighting
had not been very severe. Nevertheless Preston was an affair of some
importance, for with the indecisive battle of Sheriffmuir, fought
the same day by other troops, it sufficed to put an end to the First
Jacobite Rebellion and to establish the House of Hanover on the British
throne. Munden’s Dragoons had only four wounded during the fight, but
they seem to have behaved well. Munden himself is said to have led a
storming party, and to have been thanked for his gallant conduct. After
the fight, the Regiment seems to have been employed in escorting to
jail the unfortunate prisoners, whose fate was a sad one.
It may be noted that among the troops who served at Preston was
Dormer’s Regiment of Dragoons, afterwards the Fourteenth Hussars. Thus
began a comradeship between the two Regiments which was afterwards very
close.
Then followed for Munden’s Dragoons, who about this time became known
as the Thirteenth Dragoons, a long period of peace service. In 1718
there was again a reduction of the Army, and some Regiments having been
disbanded in Ireland, the Thirteenth were sent over to take the place
of one of them. The Irish military establishment was then separate
from the British. The pay of the troops was somewhat less, and their
circumstances in other respects were very unsatisfactory. It was
forbidden to enlist any native of the country, so that men were hard
to get, and the barrack accommodation was so scanty that the troops
were scattered about in small detachments, to the woeful detriment of
their discipline and efficiency. It apparently became the custom for
officers to overstay their leave, or absent themselves without leave,
and everything got slack in proportion. It was possibly not the fault
of the Regiments that their arms were in most cases insufficient and
bad; but in every way their condition was deplorable. The Thirteenth
Dragoons seem to have suffered like the rest, and probably when their
Colonel, Munden, was transferred to another Regiment in 1722, they were
not in a very efficient condition.
Munden was one of the officers who followed the body of the great Duke
of Marlborough when he was borne to his grave in Westminster Abbey. He
died himself, a Major-General, three years later, and Colonel William
Stanhope became Colonel of the Thirteenth. This officer, afterwards the
Earl of Harrington, was appointed a Secretary of State in 1730.
The stay of the Regiment in Ireland came to an end in 1742, when it was
transferred to Great Britain, and in the following year the command of
it was bestowed upon Lieut.-Colonel James Gardiner of the Inniskilling
Dragoons, then serving in Germany. Thus when the Second Jacobite
Rebellion took place, in 1745, the Thirteenth, under this well-known
officer, was among the Regiments at the immediate disposal of the
Government, and was fortunate, or unfortunate, enough to find itself
engaged once more on active service.
When Bonnie Prince Charlie unfurled his standard at Glenfinnan, Sir
John Cope, the British General commanding in Scotland, was very weak in
the number and quality of his troops. He had no gunners to man his few
guns, and the force at his disposal to meet the advancing rebel army,
after providing some small garrisons, amounted to about twenty-five
companies of foot and two Regiments of Dragoons. One of these two was
the Thirteenth. Provisions and transport were very scarce.
It is a curious coincidence that the Regiment came to blows with its
second enemy at another Preston, this time in Scotland. Close to it
was the house of their Colonel, Gardiner. The Thirteenth had had some
trying work during the preceding weeks, when Cope withdrew his small
force from Inverness to Dunbar, abandoning Edinburgh to the rebels;
and the Regiment was not in good condition, many men and horses being
physically unfit for duty.
The result of the battle is well known. The enemy, chiefly Highlanders,
attacked on the early morning of 18th September. Cope having no
gunners, a Lieut.-Colonel Whiteford and an old Master Gunner of the
name of Griffiths fired a few rounds from the guns and cohorns, “none
of whose shells would burst,” and then the guns were rushed by the
Highlanders. It was a fine chance for the Cavalry, as the rebels were
in confusion, but the chance was not taken. To tell the simple truth,
neither of the two Dragoon Regiments, Hamilton’s or Gardiner’s, which
seem to have numbered six hundred men between them, could be induced to
charge, and their only inclination was to gallop off the field. By the
exertions of their officers and other gentlemen, about three-quarters
of them were stopped, and brought into Berwick next day; but it must
be admitted that their behaviour was anything but creditable, and
the battle ended in the total defeat of the King’s force. This much
is to be said in favour of the Regiments, that their officers fought
gallantly. The ill-fated Gardiner, who was seriously ill, was wounded
at the beginning of the engagement; and later, when his men refused
to charge, he received several other wounds, from which he died. His
Lieutenant-Colonel, Whitney, was also wounded in trying to rally the
men. But the fight of “Prestonpans” was certainly what Brigadier Fowke
called it, “an unhappy affair.”
After Gardiner’s death the command of the Thirteenth was given to
Colonel Ligonier, a brave officer who had served under Marlborough, and
in the following January it took part in another battle and another
defeat at Falkirk Muir. The same two Regiments of Dragoons which had
been engaged at Prestonpans, and another, Cobham’s, formed at Falkirk
a Brigade of Cavalry under Ligonier’s orders. This affair was not
so discreditable as the former. The Cavalry, very gallantly led by
Ligonier, did charge the enemy, and it is said penetrated their first
line. But they failed to break the second line, and the charge ended
in a confused retreat. Lieut.-Colonel Whitney, wounded at Prestonpans,
was killed, and the gallant Ligonier also paid for his courage with
his life. Suffering from an attack of pleurisy, he insisted on getting
out of bed to command his Brigade in the battle, which was fought in
a storm of wind and rain. His exertions in rallying the Dragoons and
covering the retreat during the following night were too much for him,
and a week later he died.
The Thirteenth saw no further fighting. When the Duke of Cumberland
broke the Highland clans at Culloden and put an end to the rebellion,
the Regiment was not present. It had been left in Edinburgh to patrol
the roads, and intercept any communications between the English and
Scottish Jacobites. Its share in the campaign, therefore, had not been
a very satisfactory one. Perhaps it was not to be blamed for the second
defeat at Falkirk, but certainly it had not won much distinction on the
battlefield.
All that can be said is that no troops are likely to do well in the
great ordeal of war unless their discipline and general condition have
been steadily maintained in peace. History abounds in such lessons. The
Regiment was to do great things later under more favourable conditions,
and win a fine name for itself as a fighting corps. Its time was not
yet come.
In 1748 the Thirteenth was once more transferred to Ireland, and there
it remained for a second score of years. A Dragoon Regiment at this
time seems to have been very weak in numbers, considerably under two
hundred all told, officers and men, with one hundred and fifty horses.
The prohibition against Irishmen had apparently been withdrawn, and
by 1767 the men were almost all Irish. But none were Roman Catholics,
the enlistment of these being still absolutely forbidden. The men
were fine, most of them from five foot nine to five foot eleven,
and “tolerably well appointed.” The officers too were mostly Irish.
The barrack accommodation was still very poor, and the Regiment was
scattered in detachments as before. The arms were very bad at times.
About 1777 the Thirteenth were converted into Light Dragoons, and much
smaller men were enlisted. The example of Frederick the Great was now
being followed on the Continent, and Cavalry was being trained for
greater speed and hand-to-hand fighting. The Infantry firearm of the
Thirteenth gave place to a short carbine, and some changes were made
in the uniform, the old three-cornered hat making way for a Cavalry
helmet. Bayonets were still carried, but evidently there was some idea
of making the Dragoon more of a horseman and less of a foot soldier.
Nevertheless the state of the British Cavalry at that time as to
equipment and drill was very antiquated. “The military value of their
training,” says Barrett, “was practically _nil_.” And, to add to their
disadvantages, they were now cursed with the system of “proprietary
Colonels.” How this system came about is not clear, but towards the
end of the eighteenth century it was in full force. In Munden’s day
the Colonel had been “the active officer in command, and always
present, unless on leave, whether at home or in the field.” Sixty years
later, when the old traditions of Marlborough’s time had been lost,
the Regiment was really commanded by the Lieutenant-Colonel, while
the Colonel had become an absentee, seeing the Regiment perhaps once
or twice a year. Yet it was in a sense looked upon as his private
property. “The system,” says Barrett, “was a bad one. To bad Colonels
were due the crying abuses of the pay system as well as those of the
clothing system--the systematic robbery of the soldier, the mean frauds
by which an income was literally swindled out of Government or sweated
off the backs of the men; and the abuse of the power of the lash was
owing to the same cause.” In 1787 the Colonel of the Thirteenth, a
member of Parliament, “lived mainly in London while the Regiment was
in Ireland.” Arms were bad, desertions frequent, and the duties of
the Regiment consisted chiefly of hunting down members of the various
lawless societies in Ireland, Whiteboys and Peep-o’-Day Boys, and the
like. In spite of all these heartbreaking drawbacks the regimental
officers seem to have done something to make the men efficient, for
at times the reports of inspecting Generals are good enough, though
evidently the standard was not high; and in 1794, no doubt because of
the French Revolution and the outbreak of war on the Continent, the
strength had been increased to 446 men and 393 horses.
The Thirteenth, however, was not yet to be employed in the Continental
war. It was now, after its two campaigns against the Jacobites,
followed by fifty years of peace duty, to have its first taste of
service abroad, but this was not to be in warfare against a civilised
enemy.
In the island of Jamaica the “Maroons,” originally runaway negro
slaves, had long been giving trouble, and it had now become urgently
necessary to suppress them. They held a difficult mountain country,
full of densely wooded glens, from which they had been wont for many
years to raid the lowlands and plantations, plundering and murdering.
After some partial settlements they had again risen, and had openly
defied the white men to war. Their numbers were not large, perhaps
1200 all told, but as Great Britain was already fighting the French in
the West Indies the complication was serious, and Lord Balcarres, the
Governor, was assembling a considerable force to blockade the revolted
highlands.
It is remarkable to find, considering the nature of the ground, that in
addition to three Regiments of Infantry and some local militia, this
force was to consist of five Dragoon Regiments, of which two were the
Thirteenth and Fourteenth Light Dragoons.
The Thirteenth was brought over from Ireland to England in 1795, and a
couple of troops sailed for Jamaica in advance, the remainder of the
Regiment remaining in England until the following February, when, on
the 9th of the month, the Headquarters sailed in the _Concord_, which
formed part of a fleet numbering more than five hundred sail. In spite
of all the circumstances of its peace service, the Regiment seems
then to have been in a condition of discipline and efficiency very
creditable to officers and men. Fortunate that this was so, for both
were soon to be severely tested. A violent storm scattered the fleet
three days after sailing, and in the Bay of Biscay the _Concord_ took
fire, some pitch used for fumigation having been upset by the rolling
of the vessel, and blazed up. As the fire was immediately over nineteen
casks of powder, the danger was great. It is pleasant to read how the
ship’s company behaved in this sudden contingency. The Captain, who
was writing in his cabin, ran on deck “with his pen across his mouth.”
An officer was sent down to the hold to cover the powder barrels with
wet blankets and mattresses. “Scores of men, with their mattresses
held in front of them,” threw themselves on the flames and smothered
them, while the officer below spread a sailcloth over the barrels and
kept it wet under a shower of sparks from the deck above. Eventually,
after really heroic exertions, the fire was brought under, and the ship
escaped destruction. Soon afterwards she sprang a leak, and had to put
back to Cove, but all damage was set to rights in a few days, and on
the 26th February the fleet put to sea again. This time all went well,
and on the 1st April the fleet was assembled in Barbadoes.
After a short stay there, the Thirteenth was sent on to San Domingo,
in which island it remained for some months, helping to put down a
rising of brigands. While doing this work the Regiment, which till
then had been very healthy, was attacked by the scourge of the West
Indies--yellow fever. Much has been written about the awful ravages
of the disease in those days. It is only necessary to say here that
the Thirteenth suffered as others did. Men died daily, and at last the
Regiment was so reduced that it had to apply to the Fifty-sixth Foot
for help to bury its dead. How many were left alive does not appear,
but by the end of the year the remains of the Regiment had arrived in
Jamaica.
It is not easy to follow in detail the course of the campaign against
the Maroons; but it seems that though only two troops of the Thirteenth
were employed in it, the command of the whole expedition was eventually
given to Lieut.-Colonel the Hon. George Walpole of this Regiment, and
that after some hard jungle fighting and mutual ambuscades the Maroons
surrendered to him, on a promise that they should not be deported. The
Jamaica Government broke this engagement, and voted Walpole a sword of
honour, which in the circumstances was naturally declined.
The Regiment remained in the West Indies until August 1798, when,
after transferring some 95 men to the Jamaica Dragoons, all that were
left, 52 in number, chiefly non-commissioned officers, sailed under
the command of a Lieutenant for England. Of these 52, many were found
on arrival to be totally unfit for service, and were invalided. Most
of those not immediately invalided were “completely exhausted and worn
out,” and were gradually discharged. The Regiment had in fact ceased
to exist. During the two years and six months of its absence, though
it had lost only one man killed in action, it had left behind it,
dead of disease, 19 officers, 7 quartermasters, 2 volunteers, and 287
non-commissioned officers and men. Such were the conditions of service
at that time in the West Indies.
But the war with France was now in full course, and Cavalry was
necessary, so the Commander-in-Chief gave orders that the Thirteenth be
augmented to a strength of 641 men with the same number of horses. As
practically nothing remained of the old Regiment but a few officers,
this meant raising a new one. Nevertheless, by August 1799, the task
had been accomplished, and two years later the strength had reached
902. The short-lived Peace of Amiens in 1802 caused it to be reduced
again, after the custom of the times, by about one-half, but the
reduction was as short-lived as the peace, and in 1805, when Napoleon
had assembled his great army at Boulogne for the invasion of England,
the Regiment stood at the highest strength it ever reached, 1064
men, and the same number of horses. From this time on until 1810 the
Thirteenth was kept at home. It was then no longer an Irish Regiment,
but a trace of its old connection remained in the fact that it now had
as one of its squadron commanders Colonel Patrick Doherty, who had
sailed with it for the West Indies in 1796, and that two of his sons
were serving in his squadron.
So far the war record of the Thirteenth can hardly be said to have
been fortunate. In the ninety-five years of their existence they had
served with no special distinction in the two Jacobite rebellions, and
in one campaign abroad, where their chief enemies had been climate and
disease. But this long period of inglorious and yet trying service was
now over. In the next five years, before their first century came to an
end, they were to cross swords again and again with the finest soldiers
in the world, to learn the lessons of war under the greatest of English
commanders, and to win for themselves imperishable renown.
In February 1810 the Regiment was ordered to prepare 8 troops for
immediate service abroad, and before the end of the month they were
on board ship. They left behind 2 troops in depot at Chichester, and
parted with their Commanding Officer, Colonel Bolton, who had done much
to raise and shape the new Regiment after the West Indian campaign.
He had just been promoted, and was succeeded by Colonel Head from the
Twelfth Dragoons. The 8 troops for active service each numbered 85 men
and 85 horses, or 680 men with officers. Before the end of March they
had disembarked at Lisbon.
The Thirteenth were about to take part in the famous Peninsular War.
Wellington had already given the French some rude shocks in this
quarter, and was soon to establish his reputation as one of the first
soldiers in Europe. He had clearly recognised the power of offence
given to Great Britain by her Navy, which was now supreme, and he
believed that by clinging on to a foothold in Portugal, he would in
time be able to deal a heavy blow to the military strength of Napoleon,
which must be strained by a protracted struggle at this distant point
of the Empire. It was a fine conception, and the event proved that he
had judged correctly. But at the moment his prospects seemed to be very
doubtful, if not hopeless. Napoleon had large armies in Spain, fully
300,000 men, commanded by some of his most famous Marshals, while the
British force in Portugal was not a tenth of that number, and badly
organised. The Spaniards were evidently incapable of defending their
country, or of giving any effective help in defending it; and Portugal
was not strong enough, or united enough, to do much against such an
enemy. Wellington himself was as yet a man of no great weight in
Europe, a mere sepoy General, to use Napoleon’s words, who was regarded
as fit only to fight Asiatics. He was thwarted and decried in England,
where such successes as he had gained were minimised by party rancour.
Some of his countrymen even wished to omit his name from the vote of
thanks accorded to the troops under his command, and the force itself
was full of complaints and discontent, chiefly on the part of the
officers. It belonged to an Army which had been discredited by almost
constant failure since the War of American Independence. Even in its
own country it was not highly regarded. And if the British Infantry
was now beginning, under Wellington’s command, to win some measure of
the reputation it was soon to gain as the best in Europe, the British
Cavalry was, both in numbers and training, greatly inferior to the
magnificent squadrons of France. When the Thirteenth landed in Lisbon
there seemed little likelihood of a brilliant future for them. Happily
the British soldier is not greatly disturbed by the prestige of his
enemies, and individually both men and horses were better than the
French. Above all, our troops had now a leader whose indomitable spirit
was proof against all discouragements.
The Thirteenth were soon in the thick of the fighting, but at first
they seem to have been rather helpless. It is recorded that in July
of that year, 1810, the Regiment for the first time found itself in
bivouac, “and both the officers and men were perfectly ignorant what to
do.... Nobody knew what was to be done for food, forage, &c. Provisions
were served out to the men by the Commissary, but how to cook them was
another matter.” They were soon taught how to find shelter and feed
themselves, but this was the doubtful beginning of a campaign in which
they were to oppose the war-seasoned troops of Napoleon. Nevertheless,
within a few weeks of that date some of them had twice successfully
encountered the enemy’s horsemen, a troop of the Thirteenth on the
second occasion charging through and capturing more than fifty French
Dragoons.
After this, during the summer, the Regiment suffered severely from
sickness, which, however, did not prevent them from being present at
the battle of Busaco on the 26th September 1810, when Masséna was met
and severely checked in his famous invasion of Portugal. They were not
actually engaged, but were observing the plain in the left rear of the
force while the battle was fought. As every one knows, Masséna was
eventually stopped by the lines of Torres Vedras, and had to retreat.
During the autumn and winter the Thirteenth remained in the country not
far from Lisbon, watching the French and learning their work in many a
rough march.
For some time it is said French and English Dragoons lay on opposite
sides of the Tagus, and the retreat being for the time at an end, the
Thirteenth used to have frequent field-days on a plain by the river.
The vedettes by mutual arrangement refrained from firing on each
other, and the French officers used to come and look on, sometimes
when the river was low exchanging conversation with their friendly
enemies. It was in some ways a chivalrous warfare, in which, however,
the unfortunate Portuguese suffered terribly from the wasting of the
country and exhaustion of supplies.
Then, in the spring of 1811, the enemy retired to the northward and
westward; and a force under Marshal Beresford was sent to intercept
communications from the south. The Thirteenth formed part of this
force, and while under Beresford’s orders it had the luck to be
engaged in a brilliant affair which has since formed the subject of
much controversy. The town of Campo Mayor had been taken by the French
under Latour Maubourg, and was occupied by a force of 1200 Infantry
and over 800 Cavalry, with some Horse Artillery and a battery train of
sixteen heavy guns. On Beresford’s approach this force evacuated Campo
Mayor and retreated on Badajos, ten miles away. The British Cavalry
was sent in pursuit and overtook the enemy. The action that ensued is
not altogether easy to understand; but the Thirteenth charged, and
after some very gallant hand-to-hand fighting, broke the opposing
French Cavalry, pursuing them up to the gates of Badajos, capturing
the whole siege train, with great quantities of waggons and stores,
and leaving the rest of the garrison to be followed up and secured
by Beresford’s heavy Cavalry and guns. The Thirteenth were naturally
pleased and proud at their success against a very superior enemy; but,
by a mistake which was not fully explained at the time, the advance
was stopped, and the Thirteenth given up for lost. They rejoined the
force in safety; but Beresford, misled by false information, believed
they had shown want of discipline after the charge, and reported in
that sense. Wellington, at a distance, and as Fortescue says, “always
justly sensitive over the ungovernable ardour of his Cavalry,” accepted
Beresford’s view, and referred to the Thirteenth in stinging words.
“Their conduct,” he wrote, “was that of a rabble, galloping as fast
as their horses could carry them over a plain after an enemy to which
they could do no mischief after they were broken.... If the Thirteenth
Dragoons are again guilty of this conduct, I shall take their horses
from them, and send the officers and men to do duty at Lisbon.” This
threat was not communicated to the Regiment, Beresford having meanwhile
learnt something of the truth; but the Thirteenth were nevertheless
severely censured for impetuosity and want of discipline. This censure,
as may be supposed, they deeply resented. Napier, in his ‘History of
the Peninsular War,’ says that “the unsparing admiration of the whole
army consoled them.” No doubt to some extent it did, but not entirely.
Fortescue, after a detailed examination of the incident, sums it up
as follows: “Of the performance of the Thirteenth, who did not exceed
200 men, in defeating twice or thrice their numbers single-handed, it
is difficult to speak too highly. Indeed, I know of nothing finer in
the history of the British Cavalry.”... “But more important than all
was the admission of the French that they could not stand before the
British Cavalry.” Yet, owing to the mistakes of their superiors, the
Thirteenth never received for their feat the honour they deserved, or
indeed, officially, anything but blame. It was a signal instance of the
ill-fortune which sometimes attends upon the noblest conduct.
Whatever may be said of this, the Thirteenth had, at all events, the
satisfaction of knowing that they had been thoroughly successful. They
were not always to be so, for on the 5th April, less than a fortnight
later, a troop of the regiment was surprised by French Cavalry during
the night. They were not on outpost duty, having been regularly
relieved, and they supposed that their front had been secured by
the relieving squadron, a body of Portuguese Cavalry under British
officers. The men of the Thirteenth had eaten nothing for two days, and
were faint for want of food. After getting a meal, they lay down by
their horses, and were sleeping peacefully when the French, who were
retiring and came upon them by chance, dashed suddenly among them with
the sabre. Two officers and twenty men escaped in the darkness, but the
other two officers with practically all the rest of the men were taken
prisoners. It is characteristic of warfare in those days that among
them was the wife of one of the troopers.
Then there was another turn of the wheel. Ten days after the surprise
it was reported that a body of French Cavalry was at Los Santos,
levying contributions. The British Cavalry advanced to attack them,
and Marshal Beresford himself rode with the Thirteenth, whom he had
so severely censured less than a month before. A sharp fight ensued,
ending in the rout of the enemy, who were pursued for about nine miles
and lost some hundreds of prisoners. The loss of the Thirteenth was
very small.
The next month saw the bloody battle of Albuera, which forms the
subject of one of Napier’s most famous chapters. During the day the
Thirteenth were employed in holding off the enemy’s Cavalry. They were
exposed to severe fire from Infantry and guns, but were successful in
carrying out their duty without heavy loss.
There was much hard work for the Thirteenth during the remainder of
this year, 1811, and one incident is noteworthy. On the 21st November,
Lieutenant King, a fine young officer, was shot by Spanish guerillas
when carrying a flag of truce to the fortress of Badajos. His body was
recovered by the French and buried with all military honours on the
ramparts, General Philippon assembling the whole garrison under arms
for the purpose.
During 1812 the Thirteenth again saw some rough service. They shared in
the advance to Madrid and Alva de Tormes, and then in the retreat back
to Portugal, during which their horses suffered terribly from hardship
and starvation.
In April 1813 the British army advanced again, and again reached Alva
de Tormes. In June the French took up their position at Vittoria, and
the famous battle ensued. The share of the Thirteenth in this combat
was interesting. After some sharp fighting they captured King Joseph’s
carriages and equipment, and then pressed on in pursuit of the beaten
enemy, whose losses were great, including over a hundred and fifty
guns. Vittoria was in fact the break-up of Napoleon’s power in Spain,
for many of his commanders and troops had been withdrawn the year
before to strengthen his army for the Russian campaign, and he was
never able to replace them.
Then followed the march to the French frontier and the battles of the
Pyrenees. In November the Thirteenth crossed the border.
The winter was a hard one for the Cavalry. Hilly country intersected by
deep ravines, exhausted of supplies, and obstinately defended by Soult
and his veterans, was a rough scene for outpost duty. There were many
small affairs, especially between foraging parties. The weather was
very bad, and the troops had constantly to bivouac in the mud, under
torrents of rain, sometimes in snow. There was often no corn or straw
for the horses, nothing procurable but gorse, which, pounded and made
into a sort of paste, Irish fashion, just kept the poor beasts alive.
One incident which occurred near Orthes, on the 27th February 1814, is
striking. The Thirteenth there came in contact with Soult’s Cavalry,
and charged. At their head rode their Lieutenant-Colonel, Patrick
Doherty, with his sons, Captain and Lieutenant Doherty, three abreast.
The charge was completely successful, and many prisoners were taken,
among them two officers.
Napier has told us how, through the spring of 1814, that fierce
fighting went on, in snow and rain and misery--the French, now
overmatched, losing battle after battle and many thousands of men, but
still, under their indomitable leader Soult, turning to bay again and
again. Then at last came the battle of Toulouse, and the white cockade
began to show itself, and on the 13th April it was known that peace
had been declared. Napoleon had fallen. Soult fought on for five days
more, but then it was announced in general orders that hostilities had
ceased, and the British Cavalry in pursuit beyond Toulouse desisted
from further action.
The Thirteenth had fought almost without interruption for four years,
in the long struggle that began at Lisbon and ended at Toulouse. They
now had a few weeks’ rest, and it was badly needed. Numbers of horses,
worn out by want and hard work, had to be destroyed, and the men were
in rags. No clothing had been issued during the winter. “Overalls
patched with cloth of all sorts of colours, and most frequently of red
oilskin--fragments of baggage-wrappers by the way--were universal or
almost so.” They were indeed “The Ragged Brigade,” as they and their
old comrades of the Fourteenth had been named. But, starting in May,
they marched up through France, and arriving at Boulogne on the 5th
July, embarked for England. By the 8th July the Regiment had all been
landed in Ramsgate. During an absence of four years and five months
the Thirteenth had marched 6000 miles, and had been engaged in twelve
battles and thirty-two “affairs,” many sharply contested. They had lost
by death six officers and 270 men. But the Regiment had now made its
mark, and was thenceforward one of the foremost fighting corps of the
British Cavalry.
After their return from France the Thirteenth spent some months in
England and Ireland, but their enjoyment of peace was short. In
February 1815 Napoleon escaped from Elba, and war again broke out.
On the 20th April, having meanwhile received royal authority to bear
on its guidons and appointments the word “Peninsula,” the Regiment
was ordered to prepare six troops for immediate service, and soon
afterwards the number was increased to ten. In May the Thirteenth were
in Ostend (with twenty-eight women and nine children), and by the end
of the month they formed part of a force of 6000 Cavalry, under Lord
Uxbridge, which was inspected by Wellington and Blücher.
Then followed Quatre Bras and Waterloo. The movements of the Thirteenth
up to the morning of the decisive battle are of no special interest,
but it seems that having been ordered to join a Brigade consisting
of the Seventh and Fifteenth Hussars under Major-General Grant, the
Regiment arrived at Quatre Bras on the night of the 16th June, and
shared in the retreat of the 17th June to Waterloo. It was a dreary
day, for the rain was heavy and they got no food--a bad preparation for
the coming battle. Then followed “a dreadful rainy night, every man
in the Cavalry wet to the skin,” and at four o’clock in the morning
of the 18th, the Thirteenth “turned out and formed on the field of
battle in wet corn and a cold morning without anything to eat.”
Their commanding officer, the gallant old veteran Colonel Doherty,
had broken down and was lying ill in Brussels, so the Regiment was
commanded on the 18th by Lieut.-Colonel Boyse. The Brigade to which
it belonged was posted on the right centre of the army, in rear of
Byng’s Brigade of Guards, who held the house and garden of Hougomont.
From this position the Thirteenth witnessed the furious fighting which
ensued between the Guards and their French assailants, and they came
themselves under heavy Artillery fire, which caused them some loss.
Colonel Boyse had his horse killed under him by a cannon-shot, and
was severely hurt, the command devolving on Major Lawrence. Two other
officers were wounded. There was also severe and repeated Cavalry
fighting, in which the Thirteenth did their share, charging more than
once the enemy’s horsemen, and on one occasion dispersing a square
of French Infantry. In this fighting they lost three officers killed
or mortally wounded,[2] and two more wounded by sabre cuts. Towards
evening the French made another desperate attack with both Cavalry and
Infantry, and the Thirteenth charged again, losing three more officers
wounded, among whom were both the Doherty brothers. Before the enemy
finally gave way almost every officer of the Regiment had lost one
horse at least, and Major Lawrence had lost three. When at last the
French broke, the Brigade was sent in pursuit, and pressed the routed
enemy until nine o’clock. Then it was halted, and the pursuit was
handed over to the Prussians. “The last charge,” wrote an officer of
the Thirteenth, “was literally riding over men and horses, who lay in
heaps.” And the account goes on to say that “when the Regiment mustered
after the action at 10 P.M. that night, we had only 65 men
left out of 260 who went into the field in the morning.”
Many rejoined later, and these figures do not represent the actual
losses as afterwards ascertained, but so far as can be judged the total
of killed and wounded was close upon a hundred, of whom eleven were
officers.
After Waterloo, the Thirteenth marched to Paris, where they remained
some weeks, and then they were sent northward again. At or near
Hazebrouck, a name now so familiar, they remained some months. In May
1816 the Regiment returned to England, arriving at Dover on the night
of the 13th. During the past year it had lost in killed, died, and
discharged, 3 officers and 65 men.
With Waterloo ended the first century of the Regiment’s service. If
ninety-five years of it had been rather colourless, the last five had
certainly been as full of fighting as any one could have desired.
[Illustration: INDIA]
For about three years after its return the Thirteenth remained in
England. The times which followed the war were bad, and the Regiment
was often employed maintaining order among the civil population, always
a detestable duty for soldiers, but nothing of note occurred. On the
9th February 1819 the Regiment sailed for India, and for the next
twenty years it rested peacefully in Eastern cantonments.
[Illustration: OFFICER OF THE 13TH LIGHT HUSSARS
1830-1836]
In India, as well as in Europe, the beginning of the century had been
a time of hard fighting in various fields, and when the Thirteenth
went out, the supremacy of the British among the Indian country powers
had hardly been established. It was only sixteen years since Sir Arthur
Wellesley had routed the Maratha armies at Assaye, and gained his first
great victory. After that time other powers had challenged the British,
and been with difficulty overthrown. Even in 1819 there remained
serious elements of disorder, and it was not until seven years later
that a period of complete peace began. Nevertheless, it may be said
that the period of general war closed in Asia as in Europe soon after
the fall of Napoleon.
The Thirteenth at all events had no fighting to do. They were sent
to the extreme south of India, where the name of their old chief was
very familiar, and the provinces about Bangalore, where they were
quartered, had many fighting traditions; but nothing occurred to test
the spirit of the Regiment. In that very pleasant place, and other
stations not far distant, the Thirteenth remained year after year, with
little to disturb them except inspections and reviews, enjoying plenty
of sport, after the manner of British Cavalry Regiments in the East,
and maintaining their efficiency in so far as it could be maintained
without service in the field. In 1832 a formidable plot was discovered
for a native rising in Bangalore. The Thirteenth with a British
Infantry Regiment, the Sixty-Second, and a detachment of European
Artillery, were to be suddenly attacked at night and massacred, after
which the conspirators hoped that a general mutiny of the Native Army
would follow. But the plot was revealed by a faithful native officer,
and was crushed without any fighting.
Nevertheless it had shown that there was disaffection among the Indian
population, and a few years later this came to a head. In 1839 it
was found that a certain Mahomedan chief, the Nawab of Karnul, had
collected in secret a large quantity of military stores, including
some “hundreds” of guns, and that he had in his employ a considerable
number of sturdy fighting men, Arabs, Rohillas, and Pathans from the
North-West of India--the turbulent mercenaries who had for generations
made India a vast battlefield. The matter was considered so serious
that a force of 6000 men, of which two squadrons of the Thirteenth
formed part, was sent to Karnul. Action had been taken in time, and
the fighting on the part of the enemy at Karnul and the neighbouring
village of Zorapur, though brave enough, was soon over. A few British
officers and men were killed and wounded. The Thirteenth lost more than
thirty men, chiefly from cholera, on this expedition, but none by the
sword. It was one of the countless forgotten skirmishes upon which the
Indian Empire has been built up.[3]
Early in 1840, after twenty-one years spent in the country, the
Thirteenth sailed for home. They had seen little fighting, but those
were days when India claimed a terrible toll from British troops,
and during the short march from Bangalore to the coast at Madras the
Regiment lost from cholera forty more men, as well as many women
and children. Cholera is no longer the scourge that it was to our
countrymen, but the thousands of graves that one finds scattered over
the face of the land, often in the loneliest places, are a sad reminder
of the price Great Britain has paid for her Eastern dominion.
On return to England the Regiment was very weak, for in addition to its
losses from disease, it had left behind many men who had volunteered
for other Regiments in India; but it was soon in good order again. It
was to be replaced in India by the Fourteenth, and in 1841 the two
Regiments, “The Ragged Brigade” of the Peninsular War, met again in
Canterbury. There can have been few officers in either who had served
together in that war, but the old traditions were still alive, and in
remembrance of them the Fourteenth presented to the sister Regiment
their mess-table, which had been originally captured by the Thirteenth
at Vittoria with King Joseph’s household.
During the next ten years and more the Thirteenth served in the United
Kingdom, and there is little to record of their doings. In 1852 they
formed part of the troops who followed the funeral of their old chief,
the Duke of Wellington, and in the next year they attended the first
camp of exercise held in England. The Duke had originated the idea. The
camp was a success, and proved to be the precursor of many more such
gatherings. But something more than camps of exercise was now before
the Regiment. In 1854 came war with Russia, and the Thirteenth were
warned for service in the field. By the middle of May they had sailed
for the East. It is memorable that they were now once more commanded
by a Lieut.-Colonel Doherty.
[Illustration: OFFICER OF THE 13TH LIGHT HUSSARS
(_undress_)
1830-1836]
The Regiment had some rough work in European Turkey before going on
to the Crimea; but in September 1854 it landed at Eupatoria with
the Allied forces, and on the 19th of that month it marched towards
Sebastopol as part of the Light Brigade under Lord Cardigan. The
opening day of the march brought the Thirteenth under fire, and they
had a few casualties, which were, it is said, the first in the British
army. The enemy withdrew with some loss, and on the following day the
whole of the Allied armies, British, French, and Turkish, advanced to
the banks of the Alma.
Every one knows the story of the battle which ensued--how the Allies
attacked the Russian troops holding the heights across the stream, the
British redcoats on the left, the dark masses of the French and Turks
on the right; and how, after some stubborn fighting, the Russians were
driven off the heights upon the plain beyond. The Light Brigade had
little to do during the attack. Their position was on the left front of
the British army, where they remained all the afternoon, watching the
development of the struggle, and facing large bodies of Russian Cavalry
and guns which threatened the flank of our advance. They never did more
than threaten, and the Light Brigade had no fighting, though there was
some slight loss from Artillery fire. When finally the Russians were
driven off the heights, the British Cavalry was sent in pursuit, and
crossing the stream at a gallop, pressed up and over the hills, to see
below them the beaten enemy in full retreat. Some prisoners were made,
and the Russian rearguard was watched as long as daylight lasted, but
nothing of much importance occurred. The battle had been won, and the
Russians had suffered heavily, but the bulk of their troops maintained
some order, and there was no general rout. The Thirteenth spent the
night in bivouac, on ground which had to be cleared of many dead.
There followed a month of comparative freedom from fighting, while the
Allied armies closed on Sebastopol and took up their position for a
siege. The work of the Cavalry was constant, in exploring the country
and watching the enemy, but until the 25th October no serious encounter
took place. Then occurred the famous battle of Balaclava.
It was a day on which, to an exceptional extent, Cavalry shared in the
actual shock of battle, and not only as horsemen against horsemen, but
in conflict with other arms. The Russian Cavalry, far more numerous
than the British, were the assailants, but it may safely be said that
at the end of the day, heavy as our losses had been, and unnecessarily
heavy, the British horsemen had established for themselves a personal
superiority which was never again challenged.
The action began about daybreak, the Russians advancing in great
force to attack certain outlying redoubts held by Turks, which were
incapable of much resistance. The Light Brigade and a troop of British
Horse Artillery moved out to support the defence, but the redoubts
fell quickly and were soon in Russian hands. Then the Russian Cavalry,
some three thousand or more in number, with over thirty guns, advanced
to complete the Russian success, and to threaten Balaclava itself,
which, although of vital importance to our army, was for want of
numbers very weakly held. First a body of the enemy’s horsemen came on
boldly against the 93rd Highlanders, who, with some men of the Guards,
received them steadily and drove them off by a couple of volleys at
close quarters. Then the main body of the enemy’s horse came up unseen
by our own Cavalry, and suddenly appeared on the heights within a few
hundred yards of Scarlett’s Heavy Brigade, which was advancing in
imperfect formation through the tents and picket ropes of the camp to
support the 93rd. Fortunately the Russians, instead of launching their
Cavalry mass upon our greatly outnumbered squadrons, came slowly down
the slope, and halted--and then the Heavy Brigade dashed into their
ranks. Within ten minutes the great mass, nearly three thousand strong,
had been riven by successive charges and scattered over the plain with
a loss of 400 men, and Scarlett’s troopers, a fifth of their number,
rode back in triumph.
This feat was performed under the eyes of the Light Brigade, who sat
on their horses, impatiently expecting the order to advance and join
in the fight, or at all events in the pursuit of the broken enemy.
According to Colonel Tremayne, then a Captain in the Thirteenth, some
squadrons instinctively fronted that way; and it seems likely enough
that if the Light Brigade had charged the enemy in flank while they
were engaged with Scarlett’s men, great execution might have been
done; but Lord Cardigan considered that his orders forbade him to move,
and the opportunity was not taken.
[Illustration: BEFORE THE CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE AT BALACLAVA
25TH OCTOBER 1854]
Then followed the separate attack about which so much has been written.
It appeared to the British Commander-in-Chief that the Russians were
about to carry off the guns captured in the lost redoubts, and he
directed the Cavalry to advance rapidly and try to prevent them. What
exactly the Light Brigade was ordered or meant to do has been a matter
of endless controversy; but this much is certain, that 673 officers and
men, of five Regiments, charged a Russian battery in position at the
end of a valley a mile or more in length, other Russian batteries and
bodies of Infantry being on the sides of the valley, and some Russian
Lancers and Hussars in rear of the battery attacked. The Thirteenth,
now reduced to a strength of 8 officers and a little more than a
hundred men, were with the Seventeenth Lancers in the front line.
Behind them came the Eleventh, Fourth, and Eighth Hussars. In front of
all, straight into the enemy’s guns, rode the Commander of the Brigade,
Lord Cardigan. He had been much criticised for habitually sleeping on
board his yacht, which lay in the harbour below, and other allegations
were made against him, but there was at all events no question as to
his courage. The charge was a mad one, due to some misconception.
The Brigade reached its objective, but was practically destroyed in
the course of the charge and return. When the remnants of the Light
Brigade re-formed in rear of the Heavy Brigade, which had not been sent
in, it was seen that the losses had been ruinous. The Thirteenth was
represented by 1 wounded officer and 14 men. Others rejoined later,
but the Regiment lost that day 3 officers and 11 others killed, 12
men taken prisoners, and 30 wounded. The officer in command, Captain
Oldham, was among the killed. It was a fatal ride, and the Brigade was
sacrificed to little purpose; but officers and men had obeyed their
orders with splendid devotion, and it is no wonder that among the
Regiments which formed the Brigade the memory of “Balaclava Day” is
held in everlasting honour.
The Thirteenth was present a few days later at the bloody battle of
Inkerman, where it had no chance of doing anything, and then went
through the miseries of the Crimean winter, when men and horses
suffered terribly from want of food and clothing. In February the
effective strength of the Regiment, exclusive of officers, was
5 mounted men--namely, 1 sergeant, 1 trumpeter, and 3 privates.
Lieut.-Colonel Doherty, who had been absent, ill, on the day of the
famous charge, was now fit for service again, but that was the strength
of his command. During the ensuing spring and summer, successive drafts
brought up the number, and when the battle of the Tchernaya was fought
in August 1855, the Thirteenth turned out 200 strong. They came, it is
said, very near disaster again that day in consequence of an order by
the Sardinian General della Marmora, to whom their services had been
lent, and were only saved by the interposition of Marshal Pelissier
from another hopeless charge at a Russian battery. After the fall of
Sebastopol the Regiment had some more hard work in small expeditions,
but no more severe fighting. On the 27th May 1856, they were back at
Portsmouth.
After their return from the Crimea, the Thirteenth had ten years of
peace service in the United Kingdom. There is nothing memorable about
this period except that in 1861 or 1862 they became Hussars instead of
Light Dragoons.
In 1866 the Regiment was suddenly ordered to Canada, where the Fenian
conspiracy had given rise to some excitement; but the invasion proved
a fiasco, and the Thirteenth saw no active service. They returned to
England in 1869.
In 1870 the Thirteenth were once more ordered out to India, and there
they remained for fourteen years. This time they were not sent to the
south of the great peninsula, but to the north, to Hindustan proper,
where there was more chance of stirring times. India, as one of the
best of its Viceroys used to say, is a country where “the bottom is
always dropping out of the bucket,” and the task of putting matters to
rights generally falls to the troops in the north, where the bulk of
the British garrison is always kept.
There was in fact some active work for the northern army while the
Thirteenth formed a part of it, for in 1878 occurred the Second Afghan
War, in the course of which there was much fighting in Kabul and
Kandahar. But the Thirteenth had not the good fortune to see it. They
were, it is true, sent to Kandahar in 1880, remaining across the border
about a year, but in that part of the country the fighting was over,
and they returned to India.
[Illustration: 13TH LIGHT DRAGOONS 1854]
In 1884 the Thirteenth left India for home again, but they were sent by
way of South Africa, where, in Natal, they spent a year. From Natal
they returned to England. In the United Kingdom they spent the next
fourteen years.
Thus it appears that from 1856 to 1899, forty-three years, the
Regiment never had the good fortune to see a shot fired in anger. But
a considerable part of that time was spent in various parts of the
world, in Canada, Asia, and Africa, and the experience gained in such
service is not without value. If at times prolonged absence from home
may entail a certain loss of smartness, it has its compensations.
In the autumn of 1899 the Boer republics issued their ultimatum to
Great Britain, and crossed the border of Natal. The Thirteenth was
among the Regiments immediately sent out to strengthen the British
forces in South Africa; and as by the time it arrived Sir George White
was besieged in Ladysmith, it was ordered to join General Buller’s
relieving force in Natal. On the 12th December it was included in Lord
Dundonald’s Cavalry Brigade. Three days later occurred Buller’s attempt
to force the passage of the Tugela at Colenso, and the Thirteenth was
in action throughout the day. The Adjutant, it may be observed, Captain
Tremayne, was the son of one of the eight officers who charged at
Balaclava. From this time until the 3rd March, the Thirteenth shared
all the rough fighting that took place in trying to break through
the strong semicircle of hills held by the Boers. Then the relieving
force entered Ladysmith in triumph. After that the Thirteenth served
throughout the war, and saw much hard work.
It was not until October 1902 that they returned to England, after an
absence of nearly three years. In the course of the campaign they had
lost eighty men killed in action or by disease, while four officers and
forty-six men had been wounded, and a large number invalided home. The
Regiment fully maintained its reputation, and received many honours.
Two uneventful years in England followed, and then for the third time
the Thirteenth were sent out to India, where they were still serving in
1910. With the beginning of that year Barrett’s history of the Regiment
ends. It had then been in existence nearly 200 years, and had served in
nine wars, among which were the Peninsular War, the Waterloo Campaign,
the Crimean War, and the South African War. In all of these it had done
well and distinguished itself. Its reputation, whether in war or peace,
stood high.