FRENCH RAIDS
1690-1797
TEIGNMOUTH AND FISHGUARD.
Aristophanes, in ‘The Acharnians,’ puts into the mouth of Dicæopolis
some sarcastic observations as to what the Athenians would do if the
Spartans manned a skiff and stole a pug-puppy from one of the islands.
The poet’s imagined invasion of the Athenian Empire is very much on
a par with the two French landings which have taken place in England
since the year 1689.
The Revolution left England under the rule of a monarch of her own
choosing, but torn with faction, and committed of necessity to a war
with France. At this time the French Navy was more powerful than it has
ever been; but it was hampered by the inexperience and timidity of its
officers, and did far less than might otherwise have been accomplished.
On June 30 the famous French Admiral, Anne Hilarion de Cotentin, Comte
de Tourville, gained a complete victory over the allied English and
Dutch under Herbert, now Earl of Torrington, off Beachy Head, and for
some weeks was master of the Channel. On July 27 he put into Torbay,
while the galleys which accompanied the heavy ships rowed a few miles
northwards, and landed about a thousand men, who burned the fishing
village of Teignmouth. The inhabitants escaped. Some fishing-boats were
also burned, but after remaining on shore for awhile the landing party
re-embarked. Tourville had with him several galleys fit for inshore
work, but this insignificant operation was all that Louis XIV.’s
seamen were capable of effecting after a great victory. Its effect was
to rouse the somewhat dormant national spirit. The militia of Devon
assembled with enthusiasm and marched down to the coast, burning with
desire to meet the invaders.
For over a century no French force landed on the shores of England,
though they were successful in effecting various landings in Ireland,
chiefly during the early years of William III. The centre of British
naval defence was always the mouth of the Channel, and it was
comparatively easy to slip past the defending fleets to Ireland. It was
this design which the great French general Hoche took up in 1796, and
which brought about the last landing of French troops in England.
Lazare Hoche was, perhaps, the greatest of the warriors produced by the
Revolution, with the exception of Napoleon. He had made his mark by a
victorious defence of the eastern frontier against the Austrians in
1793, being then only twenty-five years of age. His next service--the
greatest that he ever rendered to his country--was to end the terrible
civil war in the west. It was in the course of this that he came into
communication with the Irish leaders who were busily engaged in rousing
their countrymen to rise against the harsh English rule.
Hoche’s sympathies were naturally with the Irish, and his hatred of
England, as evidenced by his letters, amounted to passionate folly. La
Vendée was at last tranquil, and Hoche proposed to employ part of his
great army of 100,000 men in an invasion of Ireland. On December 16 a
fleet of seventeen battleships, twenty frigates and brigs, and seven
transports, under Vice-Admiral Morard de Galles, sailed from Brest with
Hoche and some 16,000 troops. The expedition was a failure, though
not owing to active British naval operations. Hoche and the Admiral
lost touch with their fleet. Ships were wrecked, and the armament was
scattered, but Rear-Admiral Bouvet actually reached Bantry Bay with a
number of ships and 7,000 troops. But the weather was bad, and though
urged to disembark the soldiers by General Grouchy, the senior military
officer, he eventually put back to Brest. Hoche arrived in Bantry
Bay to find his fleet already gone, and could only follow it. Had he
actually landed, even with only 7,000 men, in smouldering Ireland,
there is no predicting where his victorious career would have ended.
The Protestant militia of Ireland were utterly worthless against the
fine French troops, as was proved a year later.
[Illustration:
_A. Rischgitz._
GENERAL LAZARE HOCHE (1768-1797).
Organized the great invasion of Ireland in 1797, to which the attack on
Fishguard was subsidiary. Perhaps the greatest of the soldiers of the
Revolution, after Napoleon.
_From the portrait by Ary Scheffer at Versailles._]
One of Hoche’s subordinate designs in this great expedition was to land
subsidiary and distracting detachments in England itself. Unhappily
for his fame, he allowed himself to be led by his bitter hatred of
England into very discreditable methods. He proposed to form columns of
military delinquents and released convicts which should lay waste and
terrorize the enemy’s country. Such a scheme had been devised by the
Committee of Public Safety; but it is a blot upon the fair fame both of
Carnot, over whose signature the plan appears, and of Hoche.
Two regiments were eventually formed out of these disreputable
elements. They were called the 1st and 2nd Legions of Franks; but
the criminal regiment was called, if not named, the ‘Black Legion.’
The whole design was distinctly foolish, despite its specious air of
cunning. The men of whom the legions were composed were scarcely likely
to risk hardships and death for the sake of the Government that had
imprisoned them, and it is tolerably clear that their capacity for
mischief must have been greatly lessened by their ignorance of the
English language. Open brigandage they might commit, but it could only
be in large bodies which could easily be hunted down. In fact, if there
were not evidence to the contrary, one might conclude that the French
Government only wished to be rid of these criminal elements.
On February 22, 1797, three frigates and a lugger, under Commodore
Castagnier, appeared near Fishguard Bay in Pembrokeshire, and landed
some 1,400 of ‘the legions.’ The Commander was an Irish-American
adventurer named Tate. The intention had been to put them ashore in
Somerset in order to burn Bristol. The actual landing was made at
Llanwnda, about two miles from Goodwick, in an inlet called Careg
Gwasted Bay. One life was lost, but otherwise by the 23rd the force was
landed in safety, with its ammunition, and bivouacked on the heights
above the inlet.
[Illustration:
_By kind permission of Mrs. Orchar._
A HIGHLAND OUTPOST.
_From the picture by John Pettie, R.A._]
Now, however, the weak point in the nefarious design showed itself.
Owing to a recent wreck there were great quantities of wine and
spirits available in the surrounding cottages. The men, devoid of
any sense of duty or discipline, and only too ready to forget the
misery of their life in prison, seized upon liquor with avidity, and
before long General Tate’s force was either helplessly intoxicated
or completely out of hand, engaged in reckless pillage. Castagnier,
having accomplished the landing, set sail and stood out to sea. It
certainly seems as if he had had orders to abandon the ‘legionaries’ to
their fate. No attempt could be made to capture Fishguard itself, and
Tate and his staff seem to have been powerless among their ruffianly
followers. There is evidence that they endeavoured to suppress the
excesses that were going on around them, but the men refused to obey
orders. Brutal violence there was none; the invaders only seized all
the food that they could find. Tate even endeavoured to return his
property to a bold Welshman who remonstrated with him.
Meanwhile the men of the countryside were assembling _en masse_. Near
Fishguard there were but 300 militiamen, seamen, and gunners, but
before evening on the 23rd they were joined by Lord Cawdor with 60
yeomanry and 320 of the Pembrokeshire and Cardiganshire Militia. By
this time there were collected on Goodwick Sands, headed by all the
gentry of the neighbourhood who had been able to join, 2,000 furious
Welshmen, armed with every sort of weapon--scythes, hayforks, picks,
mattocks, and reaping-hooks--everything, in short, that had an edge
or a point. Of properly armed men, including the militia, there were
probably less than 1,000. There was a lack of ammunition, and lead
from the roof of St. David’s Cathedral was used for moulding bullets.
The women of the counties streamed after their men, and it is quite
likely that, as has been said, their high black hats and red cloaks
were mistaken by the befuddled ‘legionaries’ for regular uniforms.
Tate saw the seemingly formidable force collecting in his front; he
knew that his own men were helpless, and would in any case probably
refuse to fight. He sent a letter to Cawdor offering to surrender on
terms. Cawdor replied that, in view of his own great and increasing
superiority of strength, he could only insist upon unconditional
surrender! So next day the episode ended. The number of prisoners is
given as ‘near 1,400.’ A light is thrown upon the real intentions of
the French Government by what subsequently happened. They refused to
exchange the prisoners. The British Government thereupon threatened to
land them in Brittany to do their worst. This brought the Directory to
their senses, and the exchange was effected. France received back her
criminals; Britain regained an equal number of good fighting men, and
thus, in circumstances not far removed from the proceedings of comic
opera, ended the famous episode of Fishguard.
The fact that Hoche’s large expedition did actually, in part at least,
reach the shores of Ireland was due largely to the slackness of Lord
Bridport, the commander of the Channel Squadron. The British admirals
had not yet adopted the plan of close and relentless blockade, which
was soon afterwards initiated by Jarvis. The French were further
assisted by the violent gales which, while they scattered their
own fleet, also forced the British to run to port for shelter. The
Fishguard raid, like that of General Humbert in Ireland shortly
afterwards, is of value as demonstrating the impossibility, even to
a great naval power, of preventing the landing of small invading
forces. A close blockade might, in the days of sailing ships, be broken
by exceptionally bad weather; but since the introduction of steam,
blockades are more effective, and naval movements generally are carried
out with infinitely greater precision.