destroyed 16 Spanish ships, secured with great nautical skill,
and protected by the castle and the forts on the shore. This was
thought, at that time, one of the greatest feats ever accomplished.
The Earl of Clarendon, speaking of this exploit, says, “It was so
miraculous, that all who knew the place wondered that any sober
man, with what courage soever endowed, would have undertaken it;
and the victors could hardly persuade themselves to believe what
they had done, whilst the surviving Spaniards thought that they
were devils and not men who had destroyed their ships so.” Here
also, in an unsuccessful attack made upon this place by Nelson,
several officers and 141 men were killed, and the brave Admiral
lost his right arm, July 24th, 1797. It is remarkable that Captain
Freemantle, the great friend of Nelson, and a companion of his in
most of his great and brilliant achievements was also wounded in
the arm immediately before Nelson had received his wound in the
same limb. The following laconic note addressed to the lady of
Captain Freemantle, (who was on board with her husband at the time
he wrote) has been preserved, as being the first letter written by
the glorious hero with his left hand:
MY DEAR MRS. FREEMANTLE,
Tell me how Tom is? I hope he has saved his arm. Mine is off;
but, thank God, I am as well as I hope he is.
Ever Yours,
HORATIO NELSON.
SARATOGA, BURGOYNE’S SURRENDER AT.--General Burgoyne, commander of
a body of the British Army, after a very severe engagement with the
American Provincials in the American War of Independence, October
17th, 1777, surrendered to the American General Gates. No less than
5791 men laid down their arms. This was the greatest check the
British suffered during the war.
SCOPOLO.--On July the 5th, 1808, a desperate action was fought
off the island of Scopolo, between a large Turkish frigate and
corvette, and the Seahorse thirty-eight guns, captain Stewart,
exhibiting the skill and gallantry of the latter against a great
disparity of force, by which his own ship was so well preserved,
while that of his opponent was ruined. The action began at
half-past nine in the evening, the Turks under easy sail, a little
off the wind, and continually endeavouring to board. At ten
o’clock, after a quarter of an hour’s hot fire, the small ship
was silenced; the large ship, which had during this time fallen
a little to leeward, and thus been prevented from assisting her
consort, recovered her position; the action was recommenced; and
the resistance of the Turks was so obstinate, that it was not
till a quarter past one she was rendered a motionless wreck. As
they would neither answer nor fire, captain Stewart, knowing the
character of the people, conceived it most prudent to wait for
daylight to send on board her. At daylight, observing her colours
upon the stump of the mizenmast, the Seahorse poured a broadside
into her stern, when she struck. She was named the Badere Zaffer,
of fifty-two guns, with a complement of 500 men, commanded by
captain Scanderli Kichuc Ali, who had been prevented by his own
people from blowing her up. Her loss was prodigious--165 killed and
195 wounded. The Seahorse had only five killed and ten wounded.
SEBASTOPOL.--The celebrated city besieged during the Crimean war.
See _Bombardment, first and second (final) of Sebastopol_; also,
_Mamelon_, _Malakoff_ and _Sortie_.
SEDGMOOR, BATTLE OF.--Fought, July 5th, 1685, in which the Duke
of Monmouth was completely defeated by the army of James II of
England. The Duke, who was the natural son of Charles II, by
Lucy Walters, one of his mistresses, was made prisoner, and soon
afterwards executed.
SEIDLITZ, BATTLE OF.--Fought, April 10th, 1831, between the Poles
and Russians. The Poles obtained the victory, after a bloody
battle, taking 4000 prisoners, and several pieces of cannon. The
killed and wounded, on both sides, amounted to many thousands.
SEMINCAS, BATTLE OF.--Fought A.D. 938. One of the most bloody
battles ever fought. Between the Moors and Ramirez II, King of
Leon, and the Austrians. More than 80,000 of the infidels were
slain, the dead lying in heaps for miles around.
SEMPACH, BATTLE OF.--Fought, July 9th, 1386, between the Swiss and
Leopold, Duke of Austria. The heroic Swiss, after prodigies of
valour, gained a great and memorable victory over the Duke, who was
slain. By this battle they gained their independence, which they
possess until this day; and they annually commemorate, with great
solemnity, this victory.
SERGEANT.--The highest non-commissioned officer of a company.
This word enters into the title of different officers, as
sergeant-major, color-sergeant, &c.
SERINGAPATAM, BATTLE OF.--This first battle, called also the Battle
of Arikera, in which the British defeated Tippoo Saib, was fought
May 15th, 1791. The second, in which the redoubts were stormed, and
Tippoo reduced by Lord Cornwallis, fought February 6th, 1792. After
this capture peace was signed, and Tippoo agreed to cede one-half
of Mysore, and to pay 33,000,000 of rupees, about £3,000,000,
sterling to England, and to give up his two sons as hostages. In
a new war the Madras army arrived before Seringapatam, April 5th,
1799. It was joined by the Bombay army, April 14th, and the place
was stormed and carried by Major General Baird, May 4th, same year.
Tippoo was killed in this engagement.
The following account gives the particulars of the 1st engagement
previous to the capture of Seringapatam.
“On the 27th of March, 1799, at three o’clock p.m., the right wing
(of the British army destined for the capture of Seringapatam)
moved slowly off the ground of encampment, along a heavy sandy
road, impeded in their progress by the ponderous battering-train
of guns, each 42 pounder being drawn majestically along by thirty,
forty, and sometimes fifty bullocks, harnessed four abreast; and
even these numbers were frequently found insufficient to extricate
the wheels of the carriages from the deep sloughs into which
they often sank, even up to the axles, when the aid of elephants
was required; these sagacious animals would wind their trunks or
probosci around the nave and between the spokes of the wheels, and
thus lift gun and carriage from the impending difficulty, whilst
the bullocks were being goaded and whipped with leather thongs.
The ponderous machines were thus drawn forward. It was indeed an
admirable and beautiful sight to observe the sagacity of these
huge creatures; for when one only was brought up to assist, if
the weight was too considerable for its animal strength, a shrill
trumpeting proceeding from its proboscis would instantly proclaim
this deficiency in strength for the object required, when the
keeper would call for another elephant, and then the united power
of the two, simultaneously applying their whole force, would
speedily overcome almost insurmountable difficulties; though,
when guns and carriages were embedded up to the axles of the four
wheels, several of these noble animals have been required to lift
the machines bodily from the tenacious clay into which they had
sunk.
Clouds of looties, or irregular predatory horsemen, were on the
right flank of the line, who fired incessantly on the British as
they advanced; and when a stoppage occurred, to extricate the guns,
large bodies of these looties would suddenly dash through the
intervals, cutting down the artillerymen, maiming the bullocks,
and destroying the whole paraphernalia of harness; and this in
spite of all the exertions of skirmishers to keep them at a
respectable distance. The fierce sun was almost intolerable, and
many Europeans fell dead from _coups-de-soleil_. Only three miles
and a half could be marched from three o’clock until nearly twelve,
when the little mud-walled fort of Malleville was descried, with
the gallant 19th dragoons, drawn up in close column under the
walls, to shelter them from the enemy’s brisk cannonade. At a hill
fortress (Amboor), previous to mounting the Ghauts and entering the
Mysore country, the British army had been joined by about 10,000
of the Nizam’s troops--a disorderly set of savage, undisciplined
barbarians (clothed in stuffed cotton jackets, covered with
steel-chained armour, capable of resisting a musket-ball), prancing
and skirmishing about the country in every direction, wielding
their long lances with uncommon dexterity, managing their horses
with grace and ease, almost to perfection in the equestrian
art--sometimes casting their spears, and then, at full gallop,
bending the body so low under the horse, as to recover possession
of the spear that lay flat on the sand. This heterogeneous force
was certainly an additional strength to the numerical force of the
British, but, in a military point of view, of dubious advantage
to the invading regular army, whose movements they frequently
disconcerted by dashing furiously through the intervals between the
columns on the line of march, and, being often mistaken for the
enemy’s irregular horse, were fired at accordingly, many of them
perishing in this unprofitable manner; and had any adverse fortune
occurred in the campaign, confusion and defeat must have ensued,
as these disorderly masses would inevitably have incommoded,
and rendered all military discipline abortive. Accordingly, to
protect them from absolute annihilation, the 33rd regiment of
infantry, under command of the hon. colonel Wellesley (the Duke
of Wellington), was attached to this disorderly crew, and acted
with them during the advance to Seringapatam. The movements of the
whole army was entirely confided to the management of Colonel Barry
Close, a Company’s officer, and adjutant-general to the forces--a
man of extensive capacity, who had displayed eminent talents in
both civil and military departments during his long residence in
India. He was an ornament to his profession, and, had fortune
favoured him, might have proved a first-rate general. For his
amiable and conciliatory disposition, he was beloved and esteemed
by all who enjoyed the advantage of his society.
During the march, the towns and villages were involved in flames
in every direction, and not an atom of food or forage was anywhere
procurable (every officer of the army was provided with three
months’ provision of biscuit, &c., borne on the backs of bullocks
in various numbers, according to the grade of the officer), and
every tank or pool of water was impregnated with the poison of the
milk hedge, large quantities of the branches of which the enemy had
industriously thrown in--so that many horses, bullocks, and even,
in some instances, men, fell victims to the deleterious infusion.
As the head of the British column passed the little fort of
Malleville, the quarter-master-general was observed marking out
the site for encampment on an extensive sandy plain in front
of the fort. The booming of distant heavy ordnance was plainly
distinguishable. The lascars had commenced pitching the tents
and marquees for the reception of the exhausted troops, but were
suddenly interrupted in their occupation by the successive bounding
of cannon-balls amongst them, when they precipitately quitted the
dangerous situation, and fled for protection to the rear of the
approaching troops. The enemy were posted on a commanding eminence
about two miles distant, at the extremity of the sandy plain,
supported by a long range of numerous heavy artillery and strong
imposing bodies of regular cavalry. The English pickets, commanded
by Captain Macpherson, of the 12th foot, pushed on towards the
enemy’s left flank with two 12-pounder galloppers, and the action
became brisk in that quarter--for, having ensconced themselves
in a wood, they were thus secure from the charges of hordes of
cavalry surrounding, whom they saluted with reiterated discharges
of grape-shot from the galloppers. In the interim, whilst this
scene was agitating, the right wing of the British army formed, on
the intended ground of encampment, in contiguous close columns, and
in this form cautiously advanced towards the eminence in front.
I now, for the first time, became acquainted with the whirring,
hoarse noise of cannon-balls--the phitz, phitz, of musket-bullets
passing close to the body--and the ping, ping, of those flying
distantly over head: fortunately, the balls, rockets, &c., were
ill-directed, and did little execution. As the columns approached
nearer the enemy’s position, the heavy guns were withdrawn behind
the eminence (Tippoo Saib fearing nothing so much as the capture of
his artillery, which he had invariably lost in his former battles
with lord Cornwallis, in 1782), and ultimately disappeared! In
this short advance, Captain Whitley, of the grenadiers of the
12th (to which company I was attached), observing, I presume, the
unaccustomed paleness of my countenance, turned round and offered
me a refreshing draught of brandy and water from the contents
of his canteen, or leathern bottle attached to his side, which
I gratefully accepted; for at eighteen we have not the nerves
and stamina of a man of forty years old. Untried individuals may
sarcastically sneer at this apparent indication of pusillanimity;
but never, during all my service, did I observe soldiers enter on
a scene of action with that calm, florid appearance, denoting a
sense of health and security: did man ever yet exist exempt from
the common feelings of human nature? In point of fact, there is
an evident, palpable alteration of feature in every man, at the
commencement of a battle; as it rages, this marked difference in
the lineaments of the countenance disappears, and the excitement
of exertion soon produces the usual effect of renewed animation,
with a spirit of recklessness indifferent to the consequences of
existing danger.
The advancing columns having approached within a few yards of
the summit of the eminence, halted, and deployed into line, and
thus marched on, when having reached the apex of the ascent, the
formidable army of the redoubtable Tippoo Saib appeared drawn up
on the plain below in battle array, with woods on both flanks,
covered with tens of thousands of horsemen: the first indication
of a serious attack proceeded from a body of cavalry, who
charging the light infantry skirmishing front, soon drove them
with headlong speed into the British line, where they rejoined
their battalions; this body of horse, of about 1500, was formed
in a compact wedge-like shape, with the front angle headed by two
enormous elephants (saddled with howdahs, filled with distinguished
officers), having each a huge iron chain dangling from the
proboscis, which they whirled about with great rapidity, a blow
from which would have destroyed half a company of infantry; at the
first superficial view they were mistaken for the Nizam’s troops,
but as they rapidly approached (firing their pistols and carbines,
which produced some trifling effect) towards an interval of a few
yards extent between his majesty’s 12th regiment and a battalion
of Sepoys on the right, it was soon obvious they intended passing
through this interval to the rear of the British line; fortunately,
at this momentous crisis, a detachment of the Company’s native
cavalry suddenly galloped from the rear, and completely filled
up the space, when the enemy edged off, and directed their whole
column to the front of the 12th regiment. General Harris, the
commander-in-chief, suddenly appeared in the rear, vociferating
aloud, “Fire, 12th! fire!” To their eternal credit, coolness, and
unexampled discipline, be it recorded, that although standing with
recovered arms, not a shot was fired, nor even a movement made,
that indicated indecision; the men knew it was not the voice of
the colonel, who, however, thus pressed by the authority of his
superior officer, now gave the command--“Steady, 12th! and wait
until these fellows are within ten yards of you,--then singe the
beggars’ whiskers.” This order was implicitly obeyed. At the word
“Fire!” a volley was effectually poured into the wedge of cavalry,
followed by a rapid and well-directed file-firing, which produced
the happiest effect; for on the smoke clearing away, a complete
rampart of men and horses lay extended on the earth, in front of
this invincible old corps! The elephants, maddened, with pain
from their innumerable wounds, were shuffling away with speed,
and swinging the enormous chains to right and left amidst the
retiring cavalry, many of whom were thus destroyed. The howdahs
(from which the leading chiefs had directed the charge) were
dashed to atoms, and several of these brave men’s heads hung from
the backs of the enraged animals; horses rearing, and crushing
the riders to death--other loose and wounded horses scouring the
plain on all sides--the scene was awfully terrific! Just at this
eventful period, two 9-pounder field-pieces replaced the cavalry
in the interval alluded to, at once opening a destructive shower
of grape-shot on the discomfited horsemen, who were attempting to
join their main body stationed in the woods below; these latter,
perceiving the entire defeat of the “_Forlorn Hope_,” poured forth
their tens of thousands, scouring rapidly over the sandy plain,
exposed to the exterminating effects of the British artillery. The
battle now became general along the whole line--infantry, cavalry,
and artillery, all exerting their utmost efforts of destruction.
Unfortunately, a large body of the Mysorian cavalry outflanked and
cut into the rear of the British line, destroyed crowds of sick men
and lascars, who were considered safe from such indiscriminate and
inhuman butchery. Many of these gallant fellows, although in the
last stage of human debility, crawled out of the doolies (rough
palanquins for sick men), and fought manfully to the last gasp.
On the extreme right of the line, the hon. colonel Wellesley was
stationed, with his majesty’s 33rd regiment of foot, surrounded
by the Nizam’s cavalry. The Mysorians at once charged the Nizam’s
horse, who as suddenly scampered off. When the 33rd regiment were
first observed by the enemy, the usual cry of “Feringee bong
chute!” (“Rascally English!”) was uttered, and Tippoo’s cavalry
fled in confusion, leaving several battalions of infantry to
receive the dreadful charge of the British regiment! One hurrah!
and the opposing infantry came in contact; several thousands of the
Mysorians were bayonetted, the rest retiring in dismay, followed
by the 19th dragoons, who cut and slashed without mercy. The right
wing of the enemy being thrown into irretrievable confusion, and
all parts of their line wavering, the battle was soon ended, Tippoo
Saib drawing off with all possible haste. The British line now
began to advance from their fighting position; but so numerous were
the dead bodies of men and horses in front of the 12th regiment,
that some difficulty was experienced in surmounting the obstacle!
Two or three horsemen, in the attack of the wedge of cavalry,
cut through the 12th regiment, but were immediately shot in the
rear. To give an idea of the temper, sharpness, and weight of the
swords of these men, who had all drugged themselves with bang (a
narcotic herb, resembling opium in its effects on the human frame),
for the attack, I have only to mention, that the barrel of one of
the European’s muskets was completely severed by one cut from a
Moorman’s sabre, the blade of which was three and a half feet long,
half an inch thick at the back, and four inches broad, weighing
fourteen pounds!
It is now only necessary to add, that the victory was in favour of
the British, who with the right wing of their army (about 16,000
men) had engaged the combined forces of the sultan, destroying
several thousands, with the loss only of a few hundreds. No guns
were captured on either side. About six o’clock in the afternoon,
the only indication of the proximity of an enemy was the distant
booming of heavy artillery. The British, on reaching their original
ground of encampment, were congratulated by the left wing of the
army (just encamping, after a tedious hot march) on the success of
the engagement, expressing regret that they had not arrived in time
to participate in the glory of the day.”