The Regiment remained now encamped for more than a month on the slope
of l’Arrhune. Extremely inclement weather set in; rain, wind, and
sometimes snow. Occasionally tents were blown away, or falling on
their sleeping occupants buried them under the wet canvass. The men
on picquet also suffered severely. But notwithstanding the altitude
and exposure of their camp and the severity of the weather, the
health of the Regiment was uncommonly good; not one man, in the 1st
Battalion at least, being sick. But this immunity from illness did
not extend to all the officers; for Colonel Ross was obliged to leave
the camp and the command of the 3rd Battalion, and to take up his
residence in the village of Renteria.
During this time the French were busily employed in fortifying and
throwing up entrenchments on La Petite Arrhune. The officers with
these working parties frequently interchanged civilities with our
officers, saying: ‘You will not be able to remain on these bleak
mountains. You will have to retire into Spain.’ To which the reply
was: ‘We will do so, if we are ordered.’ At last La Petite Arrhune
exhibited a truly formidable appearance. Stone walls were built with
loop-holes to fire through; the ground was escarped where it appeared
accessible; and redoubts were built at intervals.
[Illustration:
BATTLE OF THE NIVELLE
10^{TH} NOV.^R 1813
_E. Weller, lith., London._
_London: Chatto & Windus._
]
Pamplona surrendered at the end of October; and Lord Wellington
being thus relieved from any enemy in his rear, immediate measures
were adopted to advance into France. Heavy rains and the consequent
impracticability of the roads postponed this movement, which was
resolved upon in the first days of November, until the night of the
9th. On that day the commanding officers of the three Battalions had
been taken up to the top of l’Arrhune, and from that commanding
position the task laid out for each of the Battalions, and the
ground over which they were to move, had been pointed out to them.
After nightfall on that evening the Regiment moved to its ground,
and about midnight took up its position, crouching behind the rocks
within half-musket shot of the enemy’s picquet. All this was done in
profound silence. No horse, nor even a dog, was allowed to go with
the Regiment, lest their neighing or their barking should reveal the
movement.
The signal for attack was a gun on the left. A little before daylight
the Riflemen assumed their arms, and watched with anxiety the first
tinge of sunlight on the peaks of the mountains. At last that streak
appeared, the gun pealed forth among the hills, and the Riflemen
sprang up from their lair. The enemy, though surprised (for their
picquet was found seated round the fire), were not unprepared; but
flew to arms and to man their works. The 1st and 3rd Battalions
crossed the valley separating the two Arrhunes, and ascended and
forced the steep sides of La Petite Arrhune. The 2nd Battalion, with
the mountain guns, was stationed near the hermitage at the top of
the greater Arrhune; but when the other two Battalions had advanced,
they also moved forward and took their part in the fray. The French
fought here with great determination, and clung to the works they
had constructed with resolute tenacity. The officers were observed
by the Riflemen to stand on the walls, and urge their men by their
gesture and example to remain. One young man in particular excited
their admiration by prodigies of valour; and refusing to the last
to retire, fell forward pierced by a bullet. Later in the morning,
when La Petite Arrhune had been carried and cleared of its defenders,
General Alten led his Division across and attacked the enemy’s
entrenchments on the opposite range. These were carried with less
difficulty than those they had fought for in the morning. But towards
the close of the day the 1st Battalion charged the right flank of the
French, near a redoubt called the Signal redoubt; and the enemy being
taken in flank at the same time by other troops, turned and fled,
closely pursued by the Riflemen.
At this moment Barnard, who led them, fell from his horse, wounded
through the right breast by a musket-ball. George Simmons, who was
close to him, was at once at his side, and placed his head on his
breast. It was evident that the lung was penetrated; for blood and
air issued from the wound, and blood came from the mouth also. His
first words were: ‘Do you think I’m dying? Did you ever see a man
so wounded recover?’ Simmons assured him that though his wound was
dangerous, yet that there were many instances of recovery from such
wounds; and that his pulse indicated no appearance of sinking.[131]
‘Then,’ said the gallant chief, ‘you give me hopes. If any man can
recover, I know that I shall.’ While he lay here, as at Barrosa, the
enemy seeing they had brought down an officer of rank plied their
fire on him and those who surrounded him. He was at once carried by
four soldiers into a farm-house, whence three days after he was borne
by his band of the 1st Battalion through the pass to the town of
Vera, where he slowly recovered.
The loss of the Regiment in this action, known as the Battle of the
Nivelle, was very severe. Of the 1st Battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel
Barnard, Captain Charles Smyth, Lieutenants Haggup and Fensham were
severely wounded; 2 sergeants, 1 bugler, and 3 Riflemen were killed;
and 42 wounded.
Of the 2nd Battalion, Captain William Cox was slightly, and
Lieutenants Charles Eaton, Henry Scott, and Doyle were severely
wounded. Doyle died of his wounds. Five Riflemen were killed; 3
sergeants and 23 Riflemen wounded; and 3 missing.
Of the 3rd Battalion, there were Lieutenants Kirkman slightly, Loftus
Jones severely, and 8 Riflemen wounded.
The Regiment bivouacked that night on the ground it had taken in
front of Sarre. It rained hard all the following day, and for some
days subsequently, and the troops suffered severely from the state
of their camp. On the 15th the Regiment moved to Arbonne, where the
men were quartered in houses, and on the 17th proceeded to Arcangues.
Here the 1st Battalion occupied the château and some houses near it;
while the 3rd Battalion were placed in some houses near the church,
about a quarter of a mile to the rear. The village of Arcangues is
built on high ground, from which three tongues or spurs run out like
a trident. The enemy’s picquets were at the village of Bassussari,
about 400 yards from our picquets posted on these tongues of land;
and in fact the sentries of the opposing armies were so close that
the reliefs passed each other. There were some houses in this line of
posts in the possession of the enemy which it was important to take
from them, and so to connect our picquets on the tongues by a line of
sentries extending across the valleys between them.
Accordingly, on November 23 the Light Division was ordered to attack
the houses. This task was given to the 43rd. They at once attacked
and carried these houses; but unfortunately the officer commanding
the company engaged went beyond, and attacked a fortified house
which the French occupied in strength on their reinforcing their
post there, and the 43rd became seriously engaged. The 1st Battalion
were then ordered to move forward and cover this officer’s retreat.
But he was made prisoner with many of his men, and his Lieutenant
was killed. The 1st Battalion then held the houses which it was the
object of this movement to secure.
While this was happening on the left projection, there were some
houses also on the right in the possession of the enemy, which it was
essential to take in order to secure access to a causeway, which ran
along a marsh, and to some high ground near the Nive, occupied by
another Division of the army; and on which stood a château, called,
from the owner of it, ‘Garrat’s House.’
This task was also assigned to a company of the 43rd, supported by
some other companies of that regiment, and by the 3rd Battalion.
The houses were at once taken; but an order immediately arrived to
evacuate them, and the 43rd retired. But ere long a counter-order
was issued that they were to be held; when a company of the 3rd
Battalion took possession of them. They had not, however, been long
in them when a third order was given that they were to retire.
Scarcely had they begun to obey it when they were charged by some
cavalry, supported by a column of infantry. The officer in command
of the company, anxious perhaps to fulfil the last orders, and not
unnecessarily to engage himself with a superior force, ordered his
company to run to the rear. He thus brought them off safely, with
the exception of one man wounded; but rather to the offence of his
brother Riflemen, who felt that he might have resisted, and punished
the cavalry, and then have slowly withdrawn before a superior force
of infantry.
One man of this company I have said was wounded. He was shot in the
head; and came to the surgeon who was with the other 3rd Battalion
companies in reserve, to have his wound dressed. As the surgeon was
sponging it with water from a mess-tin held by the hospital orderly,
a ball struck the tin, knocking it out of the hands of the orderly;
but without injuring any of the party. There were also wounded of the
1st Battalion, Lieutenant Stilwell, 1 sergeant and 3 Riflemen, and of
the 3rd Battalion, 1 sergeant and 1 other man.
The houses so often taken and evacuated were retaken next day by
another company of the 3rd Battalion, who held them in spite of all
attempts of the enemy to dispossess them. In taking them a young
officer, George Cary, then a Second Lieutenant, advanced with his men
on the enemy, who withdrew for some distance without much resistance;
but on reaching a hedge some way in front of the principal house,
they called to him to come no further, or they would fire. Cary,
having placed his men under cover, called out to them (for he spoke
excellent French) that they might begin their fire when they liked;
but that he must have the house. They made no more resistance; but
walking off planted their sentries within about forty yards of it.
This is but one of many instances of the good and chivalrous feeling
that existed between the Riflemen and the French troops on outpost
duty. On another occasion soon after, some French officers made
signs of peace to those of our 3rd Battalion on picquet. These being
courteously returned, the French officers advanced, and informed our
officers that some of the inhabitants who had fled from their homes
within our lines were desirous to return to them; and requested our
officers to pass them through our outposts unmolested. This was of
course readily agreed to, and promptly executed; and the officers on
both sides parted with mutual expressions of esteem. ‘But the most
remarkable instance’--(though it occurred a little later than the
period of which I am writing, I will give it here, in the words of
Sir William Napier)--‘happened on the occasion of Lord Wellington’s
being desirous of getting to the top of a hill occupied by the enemy
near Bayonne. He ordered the Riflemen who escorted him to drive the
French away, and seeing the former stealing up, as he thought too
close, called out to commence firing. With a loud voice one of those
old soldiers replied “No firing!” and then holding up the butt of
his rifle towards the French, tapped it in a peculiar way. At the
well-understood signal, which meant “We must have the hill for a
short time,” the French, who though they could not maintain would
not have relinquished the post without a fight if they had been
fired upon, quietly retired. And this signal would never have been
made, if the post had been one capable of a permanent defence. So
well,’ concludes the historian, ‘do veterans understand war and its
proprieties.’[132]
The well-known signal was holding up the butt, and tapping the brass
tool-box which was in the stock of the Baker, as it was also in that
of the Brunswick rifle. It signified ‘We are in earnest;’ and was
used by the Riflemen when they approached the French outposts to
drive in picquets or with other hostile intent. Without this signal
made they were unmolested.
On December 9 the Light Division was ordered to advance with a view
to the troops under General Hill passing the Nive. The 1st and 3rd
Battalions drove in the enemy’s outposts, the latter advancing along
a ridge in their front. The 2nd Battalion was also actively engaged.
A heavy fire was kept up by the French, to which the Regiment was
more or less exposed all day. In the evening the Regiment fell back
to the cantonments at and near Arcangues which they had before
occupied. On the morning of the 10th no immediate fighting was
anticipated; so little indeed that the Light Division had orders to
fall back to Arbonne about four miles to the rear, and part of the
second brigade had already marched; but General Kempt, not being
satisfied with the look of things in his front, delayed his movement.
The morning dawned with a thick drizzling rain; and the troops,
having been as usual under arms at daylight, had turned in, when
a sudden order was received to fall in and support the picquets,
for the enemy were advancing. The position of Arcangues has been
already described: the church, the château, the adjacent houses, the
three tongues of hilly land; and there was a table-land, a sort of
open common, at the top. The left tongue was occupied by picquets
of the 52nd; the centre by those of the 43rd; the right by those
of the 1st Battalion; and that near Garrat’s House by those of the
3rd Battalion. As soon as these Battalions turned out, they found
the picquets vigorously attacked. The numbers of the assailants
were overwhelming, and they had to retire. But though this had to
be effected at the double--for there was much ground to get over to
reach the plateau in front of Arcangues--and though they moved over
bad ground, yet the moment they reached the flat ground at top, these
apparently flying skirmishers resumed their formation, and presented
a steady and impenetrable front to the advancing enemy. But some of
the 1st Battalion retiring from the right-hand tongue were unable to
head the enemy, who moving by the ravine, arrived at the plain before
them. Some men[133] and one officer, Second Lieutenant James Church,
were then made prisoners.
Two companies of the 3rd Battalion were pushed forward to cover the
retreat of the picquets; and having done so, they retired gradually
as the enemy advanced. This Battalion then lined a coppice at
the foot of the high ground on which the church is situated and
connecting the church with the château, whence the 1st Battalion,
having loop-holed it and strengthened it with _abattis_ and a
kind of rude rampart, kept up a galling fire upon the enemy. This
_tiraillade_ continued till dark.
In this affair Lieutenant Hopwood of the 1st Battalion, Sergeant
Brotherton and Private Patrick Mahon were killed by one ball, which
passed through the heads of all three as they were standing one
behind the other. They fell near a hedge which the Battalion had
defended as they fell gradually back from one defensible point to
another. During the day several French soldiers came through the
hedge and approached their bodies; but as our men supposed that it
was with the intention to plunder them, they shot every man who
passed the hedge. For they were unable from the violence of the
fire to go out themselves to remove their bodies. At last towards
evening a French officer approached through the hedge waving a white
handkerchief; and when our firing ceased, he brought out some of his
men with spades, who buried Hopwood and the sergeant in one grave.
On this day the losses of the Regiment were: 1st Battalion: 4
Riflemen killed; 2 Sergeants, 1 Bugler and 21 Riflemen wounded; 2nd
Battalion: 4 Riflemen killed, 3 Sergeants, 1 Bugler and 24 Riflemen
wounded; 3rd Battalion: 1 Rifleman killed, 1 Bugler and 22 Riflemen
wounded.
On that night the 1st Battalion continued of course in its occupation
of the château d’Arcangues, while the 3rd Battalion bivouacked on the
ridge extending from it to the church.
On the 11th the Regiment was not engaged. And on that day some French
officers, continuing the good feeling which I have mentioned, and
doubtless anxious to show their confidence, brought out some chairs
and a table from a house occupied by their picquet; and having
carried them into the middle of the adjoining field, within 100 yards
of our sentries, placed some wine and glasses on the table, and
sitting down saluted the officers of our picquet; bowing and holding
up their glasses, as if drinking to their healths.
Yet this security of the outposts was sometimes broken through. For
on this night a Sergeant of the 3rd Battalion surprised the French
picquet. Taking a few men with him he stole past the sentries and got
up to the picquet house undiscovered; and seizing their arms, which
he found piled outside, broke them. And while the picquet, utterly
surprised, were turning out, he and his companions ran back to their
lines. I do not know the name of this daring soldier. He lost an arm
at the battle of Toulouse, and was consequently discharged.
On the other hand: some of the 1st Battalion were, in one of the
affairs of outposts about this time, ordered to drive in the French
picquets in front of them. Lieutenant Gardiner, who commanded the
party, observed that he would not shoot the French sentries. So,
calling to them to begone, he told them that he was going to attack
the post. I have already noted that he spoke French fluently. They
retired; but had hardly done so, when the French officer ordered his
picquet to fire on Gardiner, who was making his men fall in for the
attack. The discharge was ineffectual; and the Riflemen were glad to
hear afterwards that the officer in charge of the French picquet was
not a real soldier, but one of the national guard.
On the 12th the enemy made a show of strengthening his position;
constructing a six-gun battery on the height in front of Arcangues,
which however his gunners never could have served; as the Riflemen
would have shot them before they could have fired a second round.
While therefore our people were strengthening the château of
Arcangues by _abattis_ and throwing up a breastwork, the older
heads declared that it was all a sham. And so indeed it proved. For
though some fighting was anticipated on the 12th, and though in
the afternoon the 1st and 3rd Battalions fell in with the supposed
intention of driving the enemy’s outposts further back from the ridge
in front of Arcangues, yet nothing was done. And in the night between
the 12th and 13th, the sentries of the picquets having reported that
the enemy’s fires were burning more brightly than usual, the _ruse_
was suspected. And an officer with a patrol, having crept up to
their lines, found them almost abandoned. The truth is that Soult
had withdrawn his force in front of the Riflemen, to attack General
Hill’s force on their right.
In the morning the Riflemen moved forward to the ridge of Bassussari,
and had some little firing with the rear-guard, which had not yet
cleared off; but one of the known signals being made (an officer
holding up his cap on the top of his sword), the firing ceased; and
the Riflemen were suffered without any opposition to advance their
outposts to the ground they had occupied before the attack on them on
the 9th.
On this night an untoward event occurred, which gave the officers of
the Regiment some annoyance. After dark, a French officer accompanied
by two men, approached our position; when the Corporal in charge
of the advanced post of the picquet at the _abattis_ took up his
rifle and shot the French officer, whom the two soldiers carried
into their picquet. It was feared that this would endanger the good
understanding of the French outposts with the Riflemen. For it was
not known whether they came on a friendly visit, as they sometimes
did; or whether it was a patrol sent forward to ascertain if we had
withdrawn the picquets pushed forward in the afternoon. If the latter
(and the presence of the two soldiers makes it probable that it was),
of course those composing the patrol, risked the chances of war.
However, no retaliation was attempted, and the outposts continued as
friendly as before.
Here the Regiment remained without any other matter of moment
worth recording for some weeks, during which they were hospitably
entertained by the owners of the château of Arcangues, an aged lady
and her grandson.
On January 3, 1814, they were moved to the right; and crossing the
Nive advanced a league or two, in order to support some operations
of the army on the Adour. These being effected they fell back to the
Nive; and were cantoned in the villages of Ustaritz and Aurantz; the
3rd Battalion occupying the latter.
The weather now became very severe; rain, sleet and snow fell; and
the roads were knee-deep for foot-passengers, and up to a horse’s
girths.
On January 24 the 1st Battalion was transferred to the second brigade
of the Light Division, and the 2nd Battalion was placed in the first
brigade. This was in consequence of Barnard, commanding the 1st
Battalion, being given the command of the second brigade.
On February 16 the Regiment moved from its cantonments, and may be
said to have commenced the campaign of 1814. Crossing the Nive at
Ustaritz, they moved to within a league and a half of La Bastide de
Clarence and encamped on a wild heathy plain. Next day they marched
to La Bastide itself, and encamped on a hill beyond it.
On the 18th they were moved into houses in consequence of the
weather; which beginning with rain, changed through sleet into snow.
On the 19th the 1st Battalion marched for St. Jean-de-Luz to get
their new clothing, for they were almost in rags; and the means
of transport were not forthcoming, nor the roads easy for its
conveyance. Therefore the Regiment went down to St. Jean-de-Luz, one
Battalion at a time, to obtain it. Having received it on the 23rd
the Battalion started on the 24th to rejoin the army, and passing
though Ustaritz, La Bastide and Garris, arrived at St. Palais on the
28th. Here they were very much disappointed to find that the regiment
which occupied it had orders to move to the front, leaving the 1st
Battalion at St. Palais till a fresh regiment relieved them. For
they had heard firing on the 27th, and now the tidings of the hard
fight at Orthez had reached them. Here they remained some days, in a
state of great anxiety and excitement, until, as they were trying to
persuade some detachments which came up that they were a relieving
battalion, an order reached them to move forward. And marching as
rapidly as possible, they reached Sauveterre on the 7th March, Orthez
on the 8th, and rejoined the other two Battalions at Barcelonne on
the 11th.
But while the 1st Battalion was absent for re-equipment in clothing,
the two other Battalions had moved from La Bastide to Esturi on
February 21st, and to St. Palais on the 22nd, and on the 23rd they
encamped near La Chere and Charite. And it was found that the enemy
had blown up a bridge over the Bidouze. It was necessary therefore
on the 24th to cross two branches of that river by fords. The first,
the Gave de Mauleon, they passed at Nabes; and then moving forward
to Gave d’Oleron, they found some French cavalry drawn up on the
opposite bank to dispute the passage. A small cottage was on the
bank; and George Simmons,[134] taking a few Riflemen into it, kept
up a smart fire from the windows to cover the passage of the two
Battalions through the ford. As it was very deep, they were halted,
and made to take off their pouches and strap them on the top of their
knapsacks, and then plunge in, Captains Miller and Duncan of the 2nd
Battalion leading the way. The water was above the men’s waists, and
they were obliged to link themselves together to avoid being swept
away; while some of the men clung to the stirrup-leathers and tails
of the horses of the mounted officers. On arrival at the opposite
bank they found that the enemy had endeavoured to obstruct their
mounting it, by drawing harrows with the point upwards to the slope.
The cavalry however did not molest them. One man indeed galloped
towards the bank, but he was instantly shot down by one of the 2nd
Battalion men in the cottage. Under their fire, and that of a couple
of guns, brought up to the left bank, they gave way and retired. This
ford was near Villeneuve; and having passed through that village the
Riflemen halted till the rest of the Division had crossed and formed
up. While here George Simmons, being wet to the shoulders and very
cold, entered a respectable house, and sitting down by the fire,
asked the people to get him some wine and something to eat. Some ran
to execute his orders, while the rest watched him with terror and
aversion. A little child being present, he took it up on his knee and
fondled it, and (as the people refused to be paid for the refreshment
he had asked for) he put some money into its hand. On his setting it
down a general feeling of relief seemed to pervade the bystanders,
who then told him that Soult and his emissaries had informed the
peasantry that the English were barbarians, who would carry off and
murder their children.
On their march after crossing the Gave d’Oleron, they came in sight
of a body of the enemy’s infantry moving parallel to them, and
apparently making the utmost haste to escape from them. It was at
first proposed to fall on them; but some wiser man having observed
that their supports were probably not far off, they were allowed to
depart in peace. The two Battalions bivouacked on a bleak exposed
common not far from Orion.
The next day they passed through Orion; and on arrival there learned
that it had been occupied as Soult’s head-quarters the night before.
The wisdom of not attacking the retreating column the day before was
now apparent; for the French being in force at Orion, would have
moved out to their succour; and possibly might have overpowered, and
certainly would have harassed, the soldiers weary with a long march
and the passage of two fords.
Pursuing their march they arrived near Orthez and soon heard a loud
explosion, which proved to be the destruction by the enemy of the
stone bridge over the Gave de Pau. The two Battalions advanced to
some high ground looking over the town of Orthez. Some troops of the
enemy were observed filing through the town; and some guns being
brought up opened on them, which induced them to quicken their pace,
and their officers were seen riding up and down and urging them on.
They also brought forward some guns which returned the cannonade
without, however, doing much harm. The Riflemen bivouacked on this
height.
On the 26th Lord Wellington after reconnoitring the enemy’s position
ordered them about twelve o’clock to fall in. And they were soon
after directed to move to the right, and cross a ford a little above
the destroyed bridge. This promised to be a most deadly business as
the French infantry were massed, with heavy guns, directly in front
of the ford. However the Riflemen marched off, the 3rd Battalion
leading. On the way a staff officer overtook them, and ordered them
to conceal themselves as much as possible behind any irregularities
of the ground. This they did and crept on; and just as they got to
open ground leading down to the ford, and expected the artillery to
open upon them, they were suddenly countermanded, countermarched,
and moved far to the left. The truth is that this was a double
feint. First, to make the enemy believe that our people were going
to attempt the ford; and then, lest they should have suspected that
any open demonstration to do so was a feint, to make them fancy, by
our stealth and getting under cover, that it was hoped to conceal
the movement from them. By occupying the enemy’s attention with this
skilful manœuvre, three divisions of the army were enabled to cross
the river by a pontoon bridge at a point near Salles, below Orthez.
By this bridge the Riflemen were also to pass; and marching all day
they bivouacked near the village of Salles and close to the pontoon
bridge at night.
On the 27th they early crossed the Gave de Pau; and moved by the
great road which leads from Peyrehorade towards the town of Orthez;
and when within about two miles of it, turning to the left, they
ascended the ridge which runs parallel with the river and in front
of which the French were posted in a very strong position. Whether
it was that the Light Division was weak, two of its regiments being
absent, or that they were not needed, the two Battalions were not
actively engaged. Lord Wellington was in front of them during the
afternoon, and ordered that advance of the 52nd which, as is well
known, broke through Soult’s centre and decided the fate of the day.
Then the enemy fled, and then the Riflemen were ordered in pursuit,
but did not come up with the retreating columns. Their march
continued for about two leagues, in the course of which they passed
the river Lys de Béarn and bivouacked near the village of Bonne
Garde. They were entirely without covering and suffered much; for it
froze hard. The Commanding Officer of the 3rd Battalion (whether Ross
or Balvaird, I am not sure) did indeed contrive to get into a hut;
but there being no bed unoccupied, he lay down in a kneading-trough
or flour-bin, and appeared in the morning more like a miller than a
Rifleman.
On the 28th the two Battalions started early, and after crossing the
Lys de France, arrived at Duerse, where they halted for the night.
On March 1, they passed the Adour, and after a long march entered
Mont-de-Marsan, which the enemy evacuated just before they reached
it. Here they were quartered in good houses, and had comfortable
beds: a change very refreshing to them after their long marches,
often in very bad weather, and after their exposed bivouacks.
On the next day the 2nd Battalion marched to Bertam, and the 3rd
Battalion to St. Maurice; the march was through the pine forests and
by the sandy roads of the Landes; and being made in a snow storm was
very painful to the soldiers.
On the next day the 3rd Battalion moved on to St. Sever, where Lord
Wellington had fixed his head-quarters. Here they continued till the
8th, furnishing the guards and duties of head-quarters. On the 4th
the 2nd Battalion had marched to Bascom, where they remained till
the 9th, when both Battalions re-united near Aire, whither the 3rd
Battalion had marched, crossing the Adour on the 8th and moving to
Grenade; and next day to Barcelonne opposite Aire on the right bank
of that river.
On the 10th both Battalions marched at daylight to some poor cottages
near Arblade, and on the 11th entered Tarsac, where they halted for
the night. The 1st Battalion now rejoined the Light Division, and the
Regiment was re-united.
On the 14th, as Soult assembled a considerable force and threatened
General Hill’s corps, the Regiment was moved back through Tarsac and
formed on the high road near a wood, where they remained the whole
day expecting to be engaged; but the enemy retiring after making a
demonstration only, they marched back to Tarsac and re-occupied their
quarters there.
The enemy had left a rear-guard of cavalry, and as they remained
during the next two days, it was determined on the 16th to attack
them. The 15th Hussars were with the Riflemen at Tarsac; and
accordingly on that morning this regiment moved out to attack the
French cavalry. This consisted of the 13th French Hussars, and they
sent one squadron in advance, the rest of the regiment being formed
in support. The English cavalry adopted the same formation, and
a squadron under Captain Hancox, supported by the 2nd Battalion,
advanced to meet their opponents. The French were rapidly charged and
upset; many of them sabred; and about twenty-five made prisoners,
among whom was the French Captain. He was badly wounded, and died of
his wounds in his father’s house, to which he was taken. For he was
a native of the place, which it was said he had not visited for many
years. The rest of the French cavalry rapidly retired and escaped.
On the 18th the Regiment advanced by the road by which the French had
retreated, and crossing the Adour by a bridge at Arros (or La Rose)
proceeded to St. Germain; whence, after a short halt, to Plaisance,
where they remained for the night, three companies of the 1st
Battalion being pushed across the river.
On the next day the Regiment marched to Obregon, where they halted
for some hours; and in the evening halted at Aget.
The French were now falling back on Tarbes, and on this day the
Riflemen heard much firing on their right, which was caused by the
attack of Picton’s light troops on the retreating enemy near Vic en
Bigorre.
On the 20th the Regiment marched early, and moving along the ridge
on which they had last night encamped, arrived at Rabastens. Here
learning that the enemy had taken up a position near Tarbes, they
moved to the right, by the road leading from Auch to Tarbes. On
approaching this town the French were found posted in a formidable
position on a hill, or rather a succession of heights intersected
with ditches and hedges, which gave it almost the form of
entrenchments. It being at first supposed that no considerable force
was engaged, for on marching along the road only a small party were
observed, a company of the 2nd Battalion was sent to dislodge them.
But when it was ascertained that the position was occupied by a
considerable part of General Harispe’s division, the whole Regiment
advanced to the attack. The 3rd Battalion were on the right, the 2nd
in the centre, and the 1st Battalion on the left. The front of the
enemy was covered by clouds of light troops, whom it was not easy to
dislodge, for they had the protection of hedges and banks; and the
Riflemen had to force their way in skirmishing through some covert of
considerable growth. Then they emerged at the foot of the hill, and
the enemy’s ranks rose ‘tier above tier’ as one eye-witness describes
it, on the side of the mountain. But the Riflemen rushed forward;
and though their opponents fought desperately, and their fire was
delivered from one rank above another like the guns on the decks of
a three-decker, yet the Riflemen drove them from the hill, over it
and into the plain below. ‘The French,’ Napier relates, ‘charged
with great hardiness, and being encountered by men not accustomed to
yield, they fought muzzle to muzzle; and it was difficult to judge
at first who would win.’ It was not long to decide; for within an
hour this hill was taken; its face cleared of all but the dead or
dying, and the French in disordered flight over the plain beyond.
Napier supposes that the French mistook the Riflemen, on account of
their green dress, for Portuguese, and therefore fought with more
perseverance than was usual against English troops. Yet one would
suppose that the veterans of the Peninsula had too often fought
with the green-jackets to be ignorant of their nationality or their
endurance in fight. Be that as it may, all agree that this was an
unusually hard-fought field. Surtees says ‘the firing was the hottest
I had ever seen, except perhaps Barossa.’ And Costello observes ‘I
never remember to have been so warmly engaged as on this occasion,
except at Badajos.’
The odds too were very great. I am not able to say how many French
crowded that hill-side; but sixteen companies of Riflemen only drove
them from it. For though the other regiments of the Division were in
reserve, and would doubtless have supported the Riflemen, had they
been repulsed; yet not a shot was fired on that hill except from a
95th rifle. Lord Wellington in his despatch notes the loss of the
enemy as being considerable; that of the Regiment was 11 officers and
80 men.
Of the 1st Battalion, Captain Loftus Gray and Lieutenant John Cox
were severely, and George Simmons slightly, wounded; 2 Riflemen
were killed, and 5 sergeants and 21 Riflemen wounded. Of the 2nd
Battalion, Captain Duncan was killed, Lieutenant-Colonel Norcott,
Captain Miller, and Lieutenant Dixon were severely, and Lieutenant
Humbley slightly, wounded; 1 sergeant and 2 Riflemen were killed;
and 14 wounded. And of the 3rd Battalion, Captain William Cox and
Lieutenant Farmer were severely, and Lieutenant Sir John Ribton and
Quartermaster Surtees slightly, wounded. 1 Rifleman was killed, and
3 sergeants and 32 Riflemen were wounded.
Colonel Norcott was conspicuous, riding about on a tall black mare:
he was early in the day wounded in the shoulder. George Simmons
late in the day was wounded in the knee. When he was down the
French continuing to fire at him, his servant, Henry Short, a brave
Rifleman, ran up and deliberately placing himself in the line of
fire, said ‘You shall not hit him again except through my body.’
Amongst this carnage some curious, some almost ludicrous,
circumstances occurred. A captain of the Regiment was struck by a
ball on a flask or drinking-horn which he carried at his side. The
force of the ball knocked him down and for the moment stunned him.
The men thinking he was killed, or desperately wounded, were carrying
him to the rear, when he revived and called out ‘Stop, let me feel;’
when finding he was unhurt except by the blow, he leaped out of their
arms, and again headed his company. His return was heralded by shouts
of laughter, so ludicrous was the whole episode, though the fight was
at the thickest, and the men falling fast.
When the Riflemen were occupying their camp on the Pyrenees, an owl
had taken up its quarters with them, and always pitched on the tent
of Lieutenant Doyle, who was killed at the Nivelle. Its accustomed
haunt being gone, it transferred its perch to Captain Duncan’s tent.
The joke ran, in the rough mirth of the camp, that he must be next on
the roster; a joke of which he neither liked the point, nor saw the
wit. Yet so it was that he fell in this day of Tarbes.
This fight was a strictly regimental one; for (as I have said) the
Rifle Battalions only were engaged. It excited the admiration of
their companions in arms. One of them, an eye-witness, thus speaks
of this action: ‘Our Rifles were immediately sent to dislodge the
French from the hills on our left, and our battalion was ordered
to support them. Nothing could exceed the manner in which the
ninety-fifth set about this business. Certainly I never saw such
skirmishers as the ninety-fifth, now the Rifle Brigade. They could
do the work much better and with infinitely less loss than any other
of our best light troops. They possessed an individual boldness, a
mutual understanding, and a quickness of eye in taking advantage of
the ground, which, taken altogether, I never saw equalled. They were
in fact as much superior to the French Voltigeurs as the latter were
to our skirmishers in general. As our regiment was often employed
in supporting them, I think I am fairly qualified to speak of their
merits.’[135]
The enemy having been driven from the hill retreated across the
plain, which was covered with the pursued and the pursuers. As
they were crossing it, the Riflemen came upon a considerable body
of the French who were retreating from the town of Tarbes, whence
they had been driven by the 3rd Division; and it was proposed that
the Riflemen, quickening their pace, should fall upon their flank
and intercept them. But the French were too quick for them. For
perceiving their intention, they inclined to the right and got away.
The enemy having crossed the plain took up a strong position on
some heights at the extremity of it; but while Lord Wellington
was making dispositions to attack them, darkness came on; and the
Riflemen bivouacked that night on the plain. The French cannonaded
the bivouack from the height, but the fire was almost harmless;
and as the troops did not move from the ground on which they had
bivouacked, it gradually ceased. And in the night the enemy abandoned
the position and continued their retreat; pursued in the morning by
the Riflemen, who halted that night at Lannemazen. The next day they
proceeded, still in pursuit, to Castelnau. And starting early in
the morning of the 24th, halted that night at L’Isle-en-Dodon. And
on the next day (moving on Toulouse) reached Mont Ferrand. On the
27th they advanced to the village of Tournefeuille, a little beyond
which the enemy still held some ground, occupying some hedges and
enclosures, in front of a bridge about half a mile from the village.
The 3rd Battalion and a Portuguese regiment were ordered to dislodge
them. And the Riflemen extending to the left while the Portuguese
moved on the road, the French gradually fell back towards the bridge
and crossed it, taking the road to Toulouse; and the Riflemen did
not pursue. The loss was trifling. But a most curious circumstance
occurred during this skirmish. A Rifleman of the name of Powell was
shot in the mouth, the ball knocking several of his teeth out. One
of these struck a Portuguese and wounded him in the arm. The surgeon
of the 43rd who happened to be at hand, dressing the wound of the
Portuguese, found in it not a bullet but a tooth. On this the cry
went among the Riflemen that ‘The French were firing bones and not
bullets.’
On enquiry being made and the relative positions of the Portuguese
soldier and Powell being ascertained, no doubt remained that
his tooth had caused the wound. Powell was afterwards killed
by a cannon-ball near New Orleans. I relate this extraordinary
circumstance on the authority of Surtees, who was near Powell at the
time he was wounded, and who minutely examined into the circumstances
at the time. I ought to add that I have invariably found Surtees’
statements corroborated in every particular by the relations
or journals of others; and as he was a man of strong religious
impressions his veracity cannot I think be questioned.
On the 29th the Regiment moved forward to near Toulouse, and occupied
some villages and châteaux in the neighbourhood. On the 31st the
engineers attempted to throw a bridge over the Garonne above its
junction with the Ariège above the town, and the Regiment was
assembled to pass it; but the number of pontoons being insufficient,
and it not being possible to construct a bridge on trestles, they
returned to their cantonments. But it would seem that the 3rd
Battalion did cross (ferried over probably)[136] and were left as a
picquet in one of the villages on the bank.[137]
On April 2 all had recrossed the Garonne, and again occupied
cantonments, on this occasion the houses occupied being lower down
the river than those in which they were formerly cantoned; the 3rd
Battalion were quartered in a wine-store, amongst the casks of which
the men slept. During the time they occupied it no depredation
whatever was committed, nor was any man of the Battalion found to be
drunk. On the 6th the Regiment moved down the river towards Grenade,
and encamped near the village of Seilh. A bridge of pontoons had been
thrown across the Garonne here, and some divisions had crossed; but
the river having risen, and fallen trees having been floated down the
river, the pontoons broke away from the right bank, and were swung
round with the stream, being still fast to the left bank. Though
exertions were made to re-establish it, it was not practicable till
the 9th. And early in the morning of the 10th the Regiment with the
other troops of the Light Division crossed it, and moved up into
position in front of Toulouse. The roads were excellent, and they
quickly attained the position they were to occupy. Their right,
the 3rd Battalion, was to touch Picton’s left, and the left was to
communicate with the Spanish force under General Freyre. In front of
the Riflemen the enemy occupied some houses, and they had constructed
a battery near the bridge over the canal of Languedoc; and at the end
of the bridge stood a Convent which they had loop-holed and fortified
in a very effective manner. The Riflemen commenced by driving the
enemy from the houses, and keeping up their attention during the day.
But some of the 3rd Battalion (and of Picton’s division on their
right) pushed on too far, and getting under the fire of the defenders
of the Convent, they suffered severely. To cover themselves they
had to leap into an open sewer; and detestable as was this position,
they had to remain in it for some time, so severe was the fire of
their opponents. But on the left of the Riflemen a different scene
was taking place. The Spaniards had claimed, as a place of honour, to
lead the attack on the Calvinet. Their rout and their flight under
the fire of its defenders are well known. The Riflemen, and the
other regiments of the Light Division, were mainly occupied during
the day in covering the retreat of the Spaniards, who re-formed more
than once and advanced to the attack; but always to be repulsed by
the French fire, and to fly from it. As often as the English troops
interposed, the French retired; as often as they left the fight to the
Spaniards, the French pursued them.
When the left of the Division was thus occupied in shielding the
flying Spaniards the French rushed out again with loud cries,
in front of the 3rd Battalion, and only with hard fighting were
again driven in. So the battle raged till about four o’clock, when
Beresford having carried the heights on the left of the Riflemen, the
French withdrew within the place, and the battle ended.
Captain Michael Hewan of the 2nd Battalion was severely wounded.
14 Riflemen of that Battalion were killed; and 3 Sergeants and 23
Riflemen wounded.[138]
The Regiment bivouacked on the ground they had occupied, being
saluted from time to time by shot or shell from the place.
On the 11th the Regiment remained perfectly quiet, and on the
12th entered Toulouse, Marshal Soult having in the previous night
retreated from the place in the direction of Carcassonne. On the
same day Colonel Cooke and Colonel St. Simon, as English and
French commissioners, arrived with intelligence of the abdication
of Napoleon. This was at once communicated to Marshal Soult; but
as he refused to acknowledge the authority of those making the
communication, the Regiment with other troops was started in pursuit,
and marched on the 16th towards Villefranche. On the second day’s
march, as they were halted on the roadside, loud huzzas were heard in
front, and a carriage approached containing Count Gazan, the bearer
of intelligence that Soult recognised the abdication of the Emperor,
and acceded to a suspension of arms. The Regiment, therefore, at once
returned to Toulouse and occupied their former quarters.
Towards the end of April the Regiment moved out of Toulouse, and
descending the Garonne were quartered in Castel Sarazin and the
neighbouring villages, the 1st Battalion occupying Castel Sarazin,
and the 3rd Grisolles. The 2nd appear to have been at Castelnau
d’Estrettefons.
Here they remained until the 1st June, when they forded the Garonne
and halted at Grenade. On the next day they reached Cadours near
Cologne, at which the 2nd Battalion halted. On the 5th they marched
to Leitoure; and passing next day through Condom and Nerac halted at
Castel Jaloux. On the 11th they reached Bazas and on the 12th arrived
at Langon. The next day they proceeded to Barsac. On the 14th they
halted at Castres, and the next day entered Bourdeaux. They were not
however quartered there, but merely passed through it, and marched
on to Blanquefort. On the road the Riflemen were reviewed by Lord
Wellington, and the men and officers as they passed saluted with loud
cheers the chief who had for six years led them to victory.
They remained at Blanquefort till the 13th July, when the 1st and 2nd
Battalions embarked at Paulliac on board H.M. ship ‘Ville de Paris’
and disembarked at Portsmouth on the 22nd.
The 3rd Battalion embarked on the 8th July on board H.M. ship
‘Dublin,’ and sailing on the 9th arrived at Plymouth on the 18th, and
disembarking there occupied the barracks.
I have been unwilling to interrupt the narrative of events in which
the Regiment was engaged in the North of Spain and the South of
France; but I have now to turn to operations in Holland in which
detachments of the three Battalions were engaged.
An expedition to that country having been decided on, under the
command of General Sir Thomas Graham[139] (afterwards Lord Lynedoch),
some companies of the Regiment, from the depôts of each Battalion at
Shorncliffe, were selected to form part of it.
Of the 1st Battalion, Captain Glasse’s company; of the 2nd, Captain
M’Cullock’s; and of the 3rd, two companies, Captains Fullerton’s
and William Eeles’, formed the detachment to accompany this
expedition.[140]
They marched from Shorncliffe on November 28; but in consequence of
the continuance of easterly winds, did not embark from Deal until
December 9. In this embarkation the Deal boat which was conveying
Captain Glasse’s company on board H.M. ship ‘Grampus’ was swamped;
but the men, after being in considerable danger, were all saved.
Yet their dangers were not over; for on that or the next night the
‘Grampus,’ in which the Rifle companies were embarked, came into
collision with the ‘Monarch.’ These dangers being overcome, the
Riflemen disembarked at St. Martin’s dyck in the Island of Tholen
on December 17; and made a night march to Wosmaer. On the next day
they proceeded to Halteren, and thence to near Bergen-op-Zoom, near
which they halted. At this time Bergen was partially invested, and
the Riflemen were moved up on the 23rd close to the walls. But on the
24th they made a night march to Steenberghen; and on the next day
proceeded to Oudenbosch. Here they halted some days; and on the 29th
an attack was anticipated, but none took place.
Early in January 1814 a combined movement was arranged between Sir
Thomas Graham and General Bülow, who commanded the Prussian force
with which Graham’s was to co-operate, by which the French were to
be dislodged from Hoogstraten, and a reconnaissance was to be made
on Antwerp. Accordingly the Riflemen moved to Roosendael on January
9, and thence to Calmthout, where they arrived at daybreak on the
11th. The combined movement of the English and Prussians was to have
taken place on the 12th; and on that day the enemy threatened an
attack; but learning from their patrols that the Prussians were also
approaching, they fell back, and being reinforced from the garrison,
took up a position in front of Antwerp, their left resting on the
village of Merxem, their right on Bergerhout. The Riflemen on the
enemy retiring had advanced in pursuit to Capellen.
On the 13th they advanced towards Antwerp, and soon came up with
the enemy’s rear, as they were retiring into the place. There was a
smart skirmish; and the enemy were driven into Antwerp. The Riflemen
distinguished themselves in this affair; and Sir Thomas Graham in
his despatch particularly mentions ‘the rapid but orderly advance of
the detachment of the 3rd Battalion of the Rifle Corps under Captain
Fullerton’s command,’ with great praise.[141]
In this affair one Rifleman of the 3rd Battalion was killed, and one
wounded.
On the 14th they fell back to Calmthout, and on the 15th marched to
Eckeren, where they remained for some days. The Riflemen had suffered
much from the extreme cold; and on January 26 it reached its maximum,
the thermometer marking 13° of frost.
During the month of January the army under Sir Thomas Graham,
which originally amounted to hardly 6,000 men, was increased by
reinforcements of about 3,000 men. And at this time Major and Brevet
Lieutenant-Colonel Cameron of the 1st Battalion arrived in Holland
and took command of the detachments from the three Battalions.
As the French had 12,000 men in Antwerp under Carnot’s command,
no regular siege could be attempted with this force and with the
means at Graham’s disposal; it was resolved therefore to attempt
to set fire to the enemy’s ships at Antwerp. With this object the
troops were moved forward. And the Riflemen returned on January 30
from Eckeren to Calmthout; on the 31st marched to Braeschaet; and
on February 1 advanced to Donk. On that evening the picquets had
some fighting with those of the enemy. On the 2nd the enemy advanced
to Merxem, which had been strengthened with field works, and the
Riflemen had some hard fighting in and about that village, and at
Schooten. Merxem was carried in gallant style; and Graham specially
notes the conduct of ‘the detachments of the three Battalions of the
Rifle Corps,’ under Colonel Cameron’s command, ‘for the distinguished
manner in which they attacked the left and centre of the village,
forcing the enemy from every stronghold.’[142]
On this day Lieutenant Wright of the 1st Battalion was returned as
wounded;[143] as were Captain William Eeles, Lieutenants Ferguson and
Fitzgerald of the 3rd Battalion. One bugler and 2 Riflemen of the 2nd
Battalion were killed, and 6 wounded.[144]
The attempt to burn the ships in the Scheldt and in the docks was
unsuccessful; for our mortars numbering only seventeen, two-thirds of
which were Dutch or French ones found on the ramparts of Willemstadt
(where part of the force had disembarked), were unserviceable, and
unable to throw shells a sufficient distance. The enemy too nightly
flooded the decks with water, which the intense frost converted into
a thick coating of ice, which, at that range, helped to resist the
shells thrown by the imperfect mortars. And the enemy were able at
once to extinguish any fire among the shipping which might take place.
On the 3rd the Riflemen occupied the château of Merxem, where they
remained until the 6th, when the partial investment of Antwerp and
the attempt on the ships having been found a failure, they moved to
Braeschaet. On the next day they were again moved forward to Donk to
repel a sortie of the garrison, which having effected they returned
to Braeschaet; and on the 9th fell back to Klein Zundert, and on the
15th to Loënhout.
About this time the Prussians, having received orders to proceed to
the south, separated from the British force; and Graham’s position
on the frontier of Holland was far from secure. He fell back,
as we have seen, from Antwerp, and occupied ground between that
place and Breda. He eventually resolved to attempt the capture of
Bergen-op-Zoom. The Riflemen moved on February 28 to West Wesel. In
the storm of Bergen and its failure they had no part; for on March 8
(the day on which the attempt was made) they marched in the evening
towards Antwerp, it being understood that their destination was to
attack Fort Lillo. They marched all night, and towards morning were
countermanded and halted; and some hours afterwards heard of the
failure at Bergen-op-Zoom. However a picquet of the 3rd Battalion was
left near Bergen; and on the failure of the attack on it, they were
ordered late in the night of the 8th to retire, and to make the best
of their way to their companies. This they effected; but with barely
sufficient time to call in their advanced sentries.[145]
On the 9th the Riflemen halted at Stabroek, and on the 11th moved to
Capellen.
Another sortie was made by the enemy from Antwerp on March 26, and
the Riflemen were under arms expecting an attack; but none took
place on them, the enemy having retired. Such alarms and affairs
occasionally occurred; for on the 30th the Riflemen pursued a
foraging party of the enemy, but unsuccessfully, for they made good
their return into Antwerp before the Riflemen could intercept them.
But all really active operations of this expedition terminated
with the failure at Bergen-op-Zoom. Some further operations were
contemplated; but as Graham was on the point of executing them, news
reached the Riflemen on April 4 of the entrance of the Allies into
Paris on March 31.
However by the Treaty of Paris the Kingdom of the Netherlands was
to be established; and pending the details of that measure being
arranged by the Congress of Vienna, an Anglo-Hanoverian force was to
remain in the country. The Rifle detachments formed part of it.
Early in April a detachment of one company was sent to occupy Fort
Batz, and on April 15 the Riflemen moved from Capellen to Braeschaet
and Schooten; on the 29th they marched to Contich, and on the
30th to Mechlin, where they remained about a fortnight. On May 14
they arrived at Brussels; where on the 30th they were reviewed by
the Prince Sovereign of the Netherlands, as he was then styled,
afterwards the King of the Netherlands.
On Sir Thomas Graham, then Lord Lynedoch, returning to England, the
Anglo-Hanoverian force was placed under the command of General the
Prince of Orange. The Riflemen remained at Brussels until August
29, when they moved to Ypres, and on the 31st arrived at Courtrai.
On September 5, they marched to Menin; but returned to Ypres on
October 12. Remaining there till November 22, they moved on that day
to Dixmude, and to Furnes on December 9. About this time the Rifle
detachments received some reinforcements. Captain Logan, Lieutenant
Robert Cochrane and 45 men of the 2nd Battalion embarked at Deal on
November 7 to join them. On March 8, 1815, they were at Nieuport,
with a detachment of two companies at Furnes; their strength being
then 4 captains, 14 subalterns, 2 staff, 21 sergeants, 9 buglers and
388 rank and file, under the command of Captain Glasse of the 1st
Battalion. But on March 24 they were re-united at Menin.[146]
On the renewal of hostilities in 1815 the companies of the 1st and
2nd Battalions joined those Battalions on their arrival in Flanders.
The 2nd Battalion company joined at Leuze on April 18; and the two
companies of the 3rd Battalion were (with the 2nd Battalion) in Sir
Frederick Adam’s brigade at Waterloo.[147]
I have said that the five companies of the 3rd Battalion, on their
return from the Peninsula disembarked at Plymouth, and moved into
barracks there. On September 18, 1814, exactly two months after their
arrival in England, they re-embarked for service; the commanding
officer, Major Mitchell, and three companies on board the ‘Fox,’
and the other two companies on board the ‘Dover’ frigates. Their
destination and the nature of their service were kept a profound
secret, but they were, in fact, intended to effect a descent on
the American coast near New Orleans. They reached Madeira on the
8th October, where they remained till the 11th, and having touched
at Barbadoes early in November, anchored in Negril Bay, Jamaica,
on the 25th. Here they were joined by four line regiments, and two
West India regiments; and setting sail on the 29th, arrived off the
American coast near Mobile on December 10, and on the 11th anchored
near the Chandeleur Islands near the entrance to Lake Borgne.
New Orleans is situated on the left bank of the Mississippi, here
about 800 or 1,000 yards across; below the town are great marshes,
covered with reeds six or seven feet high. While on the river bank
runs a strip of firm ground, varying from one to three miles across,
and mostly under sugar plantations. From this the marsh extends
six or seven miles to the shores of Lake Pontchartrain, which
communicates by Lake Borgne with the sea.
It was deemed impossible to approach New Orleans by the Mississippi,
as well because very strong works existed at its mouth, and on the
way up to the city, as because the course of the river is so tortuous
that no wind would have carried the ships up, without considerable
delay. It was therefore resolved to disembark the troops on the shore
of one of the lakes. But it was ascertained that the Americans,
already cognisant of the intended invasion, had placed gun-boats on
these lakes to prevent the landing. The previous destruction of these
was therefore necessary; and this was effected in very fine style
and in a very short time by the boats of the fleet under Captain
Lockyer.
On the 15th the Riflemen were moved from the ships of war into brigs,
which drew less water, but in which they were so crowded as to be
unable to lie down or almost to turn. But even these were too deep
for the shoal waters of the lake, and they were transferred into long
boats, from which they were landed on the 19th on the Île au Poix (or
as our men called it Pearl Island), formed by the branches of the
Pearl river. The weather in moving from the ships to the island was
very bad; and on arrival at it, it was found to be a perfect desert.
Nothing but reeds grew on it, except a few scrubby pine-trees at one
end. To add to their discomfort, a severe frost came on at night; the
men were without shelter of any kind, and they suffered severely. And
as all their supplies had to be furnished from the fleet, want of
provisions was added to their other hardships.
On the 22nd the Battalion (which formed part of the advance under
Colonel Thornton) embarked in boats, and about two o’clock pushed
off to land on the mainland. The place decided on for their
disembarkation was at the head of a creek called Bayou Catalan in
Lake Borgne. The distance was between thirty and forty miles, and the
men were so crowded in the boats that they could not move. They did
not reach the entrance to the creek till after dark. As a picquet of
the enemy was posted about half a mile up the creek, Captain James
Travers, with his company, were placed in small boats and pushed
forward. The picquet was stationed at some huts; near these Travers
landed, and having moved his men to both ends of the huts, prevented
the escape of the picquet, which was secured without a shot being
fired. This was admirably effected; and was a most important service.
For had this picquet escaped or raised an alarm, the landing would
have been opposed. And this would have been a serious check; for on
the morning of the 23rd, when the leading boat reached the narrow
part of the Bayou it was found impracticable to ascend higher, and
the boats being drawn up one after another the men passed over them
as a bridge. This of course was a very slow operation, and one
which, if opposed, would have been very difficult. The Battalion
disembarked about an hour after daylight, having been upwards of
sixteen hours cramped in the boats.
As soon as the whole advance were on shore, they marched, Travers’
company leading; and to give their force as imposing an appearance
as possible, and to scour the country, they advanced with extended
files. They moved in this order through a wood which skirted the
swamp on this side, and as soon as they had cleared it, came upon a
house, surrounded with out-buildings and huts for slaves, belonging
to a M. Villeroy. The Battalion advancing at the double, took
possession of it; and in this and some neighbouring houses took
about thirty prisoners, and a good many stand of arms, belonging, as
was supposed, to the local militia. Unhappily M. Villeroy escaped,
and probably gave information to the enemy; this, before the night
was over, entailed very disastrous consequences. The Battalion then
advanced, and turning to the right, marched for about a mile on the
road to New Orleans, and then bivouacked in a green field in quarter
distance column.
The road ran near the river’s bank which was on the left; and an
embankment about three or four feet high was thrown up to keep
the overflow of the river from the cultivated ground, here about
three-quarters of a mile or a mile broad; beyond this was a strip of
wood, the way through which was, in fact, impracticable, the ground
under the trees being wet and swampy. The cultivated land was much
intersected with wet ditches, and divided by strong wooden palings
five feet high.
On arriving at the bivouack Travers’ company, which had formed the
advanced guard on the march, was pushed forward about a mile to the
front, on the main road, as a picquet.
The troops halted somewhat after mid-day; and as the men had been
without provisions since the morning before, they began as soon as
dismissed to cook. While doing so, between three and four o’clock,
firing was heard in the front from the picquet; it turned out to
be in consequence of an American officer, attended by some mounted
men, riding up to the picquet to reconnoitre. However, the Riflemen
saluted him with a few shots, one of which wounded him, and another
killed the horse of one of the party, on which they retired, getting
off the wounded officer with them.
At nightfall, Captain Hallen’s company relieved Travers at the
advanced picquet; and the men of the rest of the Battalion, being
much fatigued by their uncomfortable night in the boats, their
tedious landing, and their march, lay down in bivouack. They had torn
down some of the palings dividing the fields, and had made good fires
which then burned brightly. While they were thus, as they fancied,
secure, a schooner dropped down the Mississippi, and guided by the
light of their fires, opened a heavy cannonade upon them with great
effect. The men of course were aroused and dispersed; but no shelter
could be found, in this dead flat, except by crouching under the
embankment by the riverside. Hallen had seen the schooner pass his
post and had sent a man off to alarm the Battalion; but the schooner
having the current of the river in her favour reached the bivouack
before the Rifleman could get there.
While in this state of alarm from the sudden cannonade from the
schooner, heavy and continued firing was heard in the front. A body
of 5,000 Americans had attacked Hallen’s picquet, detaching 1,500 men
through the wood to turn the right of the troops. Nobly Hallen kept
them at bay; but being himself wounded, and his picquet threatened by
such overpowering odds, reinforcements advanced from the Battalion.
Meanwhile the enemy made way through the garden of a house on the
right, where a picquet of the 85th had been placed; and the night
being very dark, a hand to hand fight took place. Every deception
was practised by the enemy; and having discovered (from prisoners
probably made in the _mêlée_) the regiments opposed to them, they
would call out, ‘Come on my brave ninety-fifth (or eighty-fifth),’
and then make those who advanced prisoners.
But this _ruse_ was not always successful; more than once they found
that instead of making Riflemen prisoners, they had themselves
‘caught a Tartar.’ On one such occasion an officer and some men
of the Battalion made a body of the Yankees prisoners, and when
they were desired to lay down their arms, the cowardly officer who
commanded them made a stab at the 95th officer with a knife. He was
summarily disposed of; for a Rifleman instantly shot him through the
body.
Meanwhile the fight continued at Hallen’s post. Two battalions came
up and fired volleys by word of command as at a drill. Not much to
their advantage, for the Riflemen, warned by the words, ‘Ready!
Present!’ took care to lie pretty close before the word ‘Fire!’
which, having been pronounced and obeyed, they sprang up, and gave
them a severe return before they could reload. This continued for
some time; but at last, the picquet was obliged to give way before
superior numbers. Yet they only retired a little way to get under
cover and re-form. Eventually the Riflemen advanced again, attacked
their assailants, repulsed them, and regained the post. Hallen, as I
have said, was wounded, so was Lieutenant Forbes, who held a separate
post, and about forty men were killed or wounded. This defence by
Hallen has truly been characterised as ‘an affair of posts but rarely
equalled, and never surpassed in devoted bravery.’[148]
‘Had the expedition terminated more favourably,’ he who makes the
foregoing remark goes on to observe, ‘it is to be presumed that the
brave commander of the company would not have gone unrewarded.’ It
may be so: this is the presumption; the fact is, that Hallen retired
from the Service in 1824 with the rank of Captain, which he had
obtained fifteen years before. Thus England rewarded acts of valour
performed by all but her superior officers.
When the fire was first heard at Hallen’s picquet, Major Mitchell,
taking with him twenty or thirty Riflemen, had hurried to the front
to reinforce it. On the way, however, he fell in with a body of the
enemy, whom, in consequence of the darkness of the night, he could
not distinguish, and he and the men with him were made prisoners.
Altogether the loss of the Battalion on that night was 6 Sergeants
and 17 Riflemen killed; Captain Hallen, Lieutenants Daniel Forbes,
(severely), and W. S. C. Farmer (slightly), 5 Sergeants and 54
Riflemen wounded; and Major Samuel Mitchell, 2 Sergeants, and
39 Riflemen missing. A total (exclusive of officers) of 123, or
one-fifth of their whole number.
The loss of the Americans, who were finally driven off about
midnight, must have been very great, for the field was strewn with
their dead.
Yet still the schooner, and a ship which had joined her, inflicted
amazing annoyance on our people. With a brutality happily unknown
among European nations, they fired into the houses to which the
wounded had been carried. One shot struck a house in which a wounded
Rifleman was lying, and knocked away his knapsack, which he was using
as a pillow, without doing him any actual injury.
However, this savage warfare was to end. On the night of the 25th
a battery was constructed close to the river’s edge, and furnaces
erected for heating red-hot shot. At daybreak on the 26th the battery
commenced its fire on the schooner. Its crew, whose courage did
not equal their cruelty, at once took to their boats and fled; the
fourth shot set her on fire, and she soon afterwards blew up. While
the ship, warned by her fate, and esteeming discretion as the better
part of valour, had herself towed, as rapidly as possible, out of the
range of the little English battery.
In this bivouack the Riflemen continued till the 28th. But it was
toilsome work. The picquets were continually fired at; the reliefs
waylaid; the officers going round their sentries exposed to chance
shots from a concealed marksman. How different this from the
courtesies and chivalry of their European enemies, which I have so
often had occasion to narrate!
[Illustration:
Operations near NEW ORLEANS
in 1814-15.
_Compiled & Drawn by Capt^n H. M. Moorsom, Rifle Brigade._
E. Weller, _Litho._
_London, Chatto & Windus._
]
Early on the 28th the army advanced towards New Orleans, the Riflemen
leading, by the high road along the river’s bank. They drove in the
enemy’s picquets, and proceeded along the road here called ‘_Le
détour des Anglais_,’ till, on turning round some houses on the left,
they suddenly found themselves in front of a strong work the enemy
had thrown up, and from which they opened a cannonade from four guns;
while their old enemy the ship, now moored a little in advance of the
work, brought a flank fire to bear on them. The Riflemen, leading and
extended, did not suffer so much;[149] but the 85th which followed
in close formation were mown down by this fire. Some houses were on
the right, which might have afforded some temporary cover; but the
enemy, by their shells, set them on fire, and the flames added to the
confusion. To escape in some measure from the effects of the fire the
regiments were deployed to the right, while the Riflemen advancing
about a hundred yards got into a ditch, which in a great degree
sheltered them. In the afternoon the regiments moved off by wings, so
as to present as small a body as possible to the enemy’s fire. The
Riflemen, however, did not move off till after dark, nor till some
of the Yankees had ventured out of their works ‘in a very triumphant
manner.’ But a few shots from the Riflemen immediately produced the
conviction among them that it was more advisable to return to the
protection of their rampart. This work was a stout parapet, in front
of which was a wet ditch or canal. Its extent was about 1,000 yards,
and its left touched the river, while its right was defended by the
wood.
The army now took up a position about a mile and a half or two
miles from this work. The Battalion was placed in a house rather in
advance, and on the left of the line. This was exposed, not only to
the fire from the work, but also, as it was near the bank, from a
redoubt which the enemy had constructed on the opposite side of the
river. The men were placed in a sugar-house belonging to this farm,
the floor of which being sunk below the level of the natural ground
afforded some protection. Yet on one occasion at least their cooking
utensils were knocked off the fire by shot passing through this house.
So matters continued until the 31st. It was resolved to bring up some
of the ships’ guns and to place them in battery against the enemy’s
work. Accordingly on the night of the 31st strong working parties
were employed in constructing two batteries near it; one with the
object of keeping down the flank fire from the ship; the other with
the view of breaching the centre of the rampart. The night was dark;
the men worked in silence; and before daylight the batteries were
completed, and the guns in position.
Early in the morning of January 1, 1815, the troops were moved up,
with the object of attacking the enemy’s work. A thick fog favoured
their advance, and concealed their movements from the Americans.
About nine o’clock the fog rose, and our batteries at once began
their fire. This threw the Yankees, who were seen on parade, into
utter confusion; and had a charge on the works been made at that
moment, no doubt it would have been successful. But unhappily the
orders were that the attack was not to be made till the enemy’s
fire had been silenced, and his works breached. When, therefore,
the Americans saw that nothing took place but a cannonade, their
courage returned, and after about twenty minutes they began to return
our fire; and gradually increased to a vigorous cannonade, which
effectually overpowered our guns, and dismounted some of them. The
flank fire too from the battery on the opposite bank of the river, in
which they had placed their ship’s guns, was very galling.
After being kept under this fire inactive till between two and three
o’clock in the afternoon, the troops were withdrawn and bivouacked
on the ground, and some occupied the houses they had held during
the last few days. At night the troops were turned out and employed
in withdrawing the guns from the batteries in which they had been
placed. This was hard work; and some of the guns had to be buried, it
being found impossible to remove them before daylight. Thus the men
had been up, and at hard work, two nights; and in the intervening day
had been for many hours under the enemy’s fire, without the chance of
fighting them. The loss of the Battalion was, 1 Rifleman killed, and
2 missing.
Things continued in this state till the 7th, the picquets being as
before constantly harassed by the enemy.
No other course remained but to carry the enemy’s work by an attack
_de vive force_, and it was decided that this should take place on
the 8th. Three companies of the Battalion were to precede the advance
of the right column under General Gibbs, consisting of the 4th,
21st and 44th regiments; while the other two companies were in like
manner to act with the left column. The Riflemen were to extend along
the edge of the canal or ditch in front of the enemy’s rampart, and
both parties so extended were to occupy the whole of the bank, or
as it might be called, the crest of the glacis. At four o’clock in
the morning the troops paraded; and by daylight the Riflemen were
in their place. But the 44th Regiment, which had been appointed to
carry ladders and fascines to enable the attacking force to cross
the ditch, had come without them. Their commanding officer, the Hon.
Colonel Mullens, had said loudly the night before when the regiment
was detailed for this duty in orders, that ‘his regiment was sent on
a forlorn hope’ and ‘was doomed.’ And on the regiment returning to
fetch the ladders and fascines, he prudently did not come back to
the front with them. The enemy meanwhile opened a furious fire on
the troops, specially destructive to the Riflemen who were extended
within 100 or 150 yards of the work. One regiment of the right
attack, finding itself exposed to this fire, and without the fascines
and ladders they had been led to expect, wavered, broke up, and fled
to the rear, throwing the regiment which was following in support
into confusion. Sir Edward Pakenham, who commanded, in trying to
rally this column was killed; General Gibbs, who commanded it, was
mortally wounded; and General Keane, who commanded the left attack,
was wounded. This attack succeeded better; and for a time the troops
composing it held a redoubt which the enemy had constructed in front
of the ditch, and which they had stormed. But in the end they were
obliged also to give way. Thus the Riflemen, extended in skirmishing
order along the edge of the ditch, were left unsupported, and were
obliged to retire as best they could. As their files were extended
they presented a less prominent object for the enemy’s guns, and
they eventually got away with comparatively small loss. Some of them
had got quite to the edge of the ditch, and reported that they could
have passed it, but the attacking columns which they expected never
came up; and to have entered the enemy’s work without them would, of
course, have been certain destruction.
A gallant and successful diversion was made on the right bank of the
Mississippi by a column under Colonel Thornton; but as the Battalion
did not form part of it, it is not my province, as historian of the
Regiment only, farther to notice it.
It was regretted by the Riflemen, that Pakenham, himself a Peninsular
soldier, did not employ troops who had seen fighting more prominently
in so arduous an operation as storming this work. The 7th and 43rd
had arrived just before; beside both these regiments the Riflemen
had fought in Spain and Portugal; the latter were especially
companions in arms, and they had hailed their advent with delight.
Yet these he held in reserve, while he advanced comparatively
unseasoned troops to the fire of the Americans.
The Battalion retired at last, sorrowful and weary, to its bivouack.
It lost 1 Sergeant and 10 Riflemen killed; and Captains James
Travers (severely) and Nicholas Travers (slightly), Lieutenants John
Reynolds, Sir John Ribton, John Gossett, William Backhouse, and
Robert Barker (severely), 5 Sergeants and 89 Riflemen wounded.[150]
During the night the wounded were removed, and a truce for two
days, to enable the dead to be buried and the wounded cared for,
was made between General Lambert (who succeeded to the command) and
General Jackson who commanded the American force. This truce was
effected, not without difficulty, by Major Harry Smith, Assistant
Adjutant-General, who passed and repassed frequently between the
opposing armies.
During this truce every attempt was made by the Yankees to induce
our men to desert. The non-commissioned officers were promised
commissions, the men land, if they would enter the American service.
On one such occasion two Sergeants and a private of the 95th were
accosted by an officer of American Artillery, who with such large
promises invited them to enter the American service. The Riflemen
heard the tempter out; and then, in language perhaps rather forcible
than complimentary, assured him that they would rather be privates
in their own Corps, than officers with such ‘a set of ragamuffins’
as they saw before them; assuring him that if he did not move off,
he should have a taste of their rifles. On that hint, he fled; but
getting into the work turned a gun on them and fired, knocking over
the private, whom however he only wounded.
A Rifleman on sentry was exposed to the solicitations of another
of these gentry. He heard all his generous offers of money, land,
and promotion; but pretending he did not, he begged him to come a
little nearer and ‘tell him all about it.’ The Yankee elated at his
success walked up to the post, and when he was well within range, the
Rifleman levelled and shot him in the arm. Then walking forward, he
led him prisoner to the guard-room; on the way informing him what a
real soldier thought of such sneaking attempts on his fidelity.[151]
These attempts were not always unsuccessful, and much desertion took
place; but Surtees records with natural pride, that as far as he
knew not a single instance took place among the Riflemen of the 3rd
Battalion.
During this truce an officer of the American army was observed
plundering a wounded soldier. This excited the ire of Corporal Scott
of the 3rd Battalion, who (with the permission of his officer) took a
shot at the marauder, and tumbled him over the man he was plundering.
The last duties having been paid to the dead, and all the wounded
that were capable of being moved having been withdrawn, a retreat
was effected on the night of the 18th. The fires were trimmed, and
the men fell in and marched in silence. The weather had latterly
broken up; heavy rains by day, and sometimes thunderstorms, were
often followed by frost at night. As it was impossible, owing to
the narrowness and shallow water of the Bayou Catalan, to embark
the troops where they had landed, a road, or an attempt at a road,
had been constructed across the marsh, from the great road to New
Orleans, along the river’s bank to the shore of Lake Borgne. This
extended some miles, and was made of reeds, which it was thought
would support the men across the morass; and where it crossed open
ditches, as it frequently did, the reeds were laid on boughs of trees
brought with great labour from the wood. This road, a bad one at the
best, was much injured by the rains, and sunk in with the tramp of
the head of the column; so that this night march was very fatiguing,
the men often sinking in to the knees, and sometimes in the dark
slipping off into the marsh, from whence they were with difficulty
rescued.
However at last on the 19th they reached the shore of the lake about
one mile from its entrance. Here they were ordered to hut themselves;
but this was no easy task, the place being a desert, and almost the
only material the reeds which grew on the marsh.
Here they remained till the 25th, when the Battalion embarked on
board the ‘Dover,’ which had brought out two of its companies. The
Battalion was reduced by its losses in the field to almost half its
strength on landing. On the 27th they set sail; and it was resolved
to attempt the capture of Mobile. This place, lying about 100 miles
to the eastward of New Orleans, is situated in a bay, the entrance to
which is defended by a work called Fort Boyer, which therefore had
first to be reduced. In order to effect this the 4th, 21st, and 44th
Regiments were landed, and commenced the investment of and approach
to the place. While on the 8th February the Riflemen and the rest of
the troops were disembarked on Île Dauphine at the other side of the
bay, till the reduction of Fort Boyer should enable them to move up
to Mobile. Here the men hutted themselves; for the island, though
otherwise almost a desert, is well covered with pine wood; while the
officers, or some of them, had tents.
During the time that they were here, General Lambert inspected the
troops by regiments. On making his inspection of the 3rd Battalion,
James Travers (in Mitchell’s absence, who had been taken prisoner)
was in command. ‘Well, Travers,’ said the General, ‘I hear your
Sergeant-Major ran away on the night of the 23rd December.’ ‘Nay,
General,’ answered Travers, ‘that he did not. He fought as well
as any man could, and was towards the end of the affair severely
wounded. But,’ added he, ‘I think I know what may have given rise
to that report. A sergeant of ours was in or near one of the houses
where the wounded were taken, and the surgeon made him remain there
as Hospital Sergeant. I did all I could to get him back to the
Battalion; but I could not succeed.’ ‘Well,’ said the General, ‘since
I had done the Sergeant-Major some wrong, I must see what I can do
to make him amends.’ He did procure him an ensigncy in a West India
Regiment, to which he was gazetted soon after.
While the Battalion was on Île Dauphine, a gallant act was performed
by Sergeant Thomas Fukes. He, with four or five Riflemen, was sent
over to the mainland to shoot bullocks. Fukes with a couple of
Riflemen went inland, leaving the other men in charge of the boat.
Here one Shiel of the American navy (who had captured a boat in bad
weather with some of the 14th Light Dragoons, when embarking at Lake
Borgne, and who in consequence fancied himself a hero) came upon them
round a jutting point, and having captured them, put them in charge
of some of his own crew into their own boat, and dispatched them to
an American ship or post. Then waiting for the sergeant, the other
two Riflemen, and the Commissary, he of course made them prisoners,
since their boat and the rest of their party had disappeared. The
Commissary was placed aft with Mr. Shiel; Sergeant Fukes and his two
men forward; and they were being rowed off. When well off the shore
the Commissary seizing Shiel by the thighs chucked him overboard,
while Sergeant Fukes at the same instant sent one of the boat’s
crew to follow him, and the Riflemen disposed of the rest. They now
recovered their rifles, and having taken security of Mr. Shiel for
his good behaviour, admitted him at his urgent importunity into the
boat, from whence they landed him, a moist and dispirited prisoner of
war, on Île Dauphine.
The approaches to Fort Boyer being completed, Harry Smith was
sent in with a summons to surrender. The poor Yankee commandant,
sadly puzzled, asked Major Smith what he would advise him to do.
He strongly recommended him to surrender immediately, as the place
must be taken by assault. Acting on such good advice, which fell
in probably with his own sinking courage, he surrendered with his
garrison, and signed a capitulation on the 11th February.
This important work having fallen, immediate preparations were made
for re-embarking the troops, and attacking Mobile. But on the 14th
news arrived of the preliminaries of peace between England and the
United States having been settled at Ghent on December 24. All
warlike operations of course terminated; and the troops only awaited
on Île Dauphine the ratification of the treaty by President Madison.
Intelligence of this reached them on the 5th March, and on the 15th
the officers and Riflemen who had been made prisoners re-joined the
Battalion, having been released under the terms of the treaty. Major
Mitchell had been roughly treated by General Jackson, because he
refused to furnish him with information of our strength or movements.
On the 31st March the Battalion embarked on board the ‘Dover,’ some
few men being placed on board the ‘Norfolk’ transport. On the 4th
April they set sail, and, having called at the Havannah, arrived
at Plymouth, whence they were ordered round to Dover, where they
disembarked on the 2nd June and moved to Shorncliffe, where they
found three companies of the Battalion, the remaining two being in
Flanders, as is now to be narrated.
FOOTNOTES:
[131] George Simmons had been brought up to the medical profession.
[132] ‘Napier,’ Book xxiii. chap. 3.
[133] Nineteen men of the 1st Battalion, and 1 bugler and 12 men of
the 2nd Battalion, were returned as ‘missing.’
[134] He was, while the 1st Battalion were absent, temporarily
attached to the 2nd Battalion; being employed on the telegraph of the
Light Division.
[135] ‘Twelve Years’ Military Adventure.’
[136] See Napier, Book xxiv. chap. 5.
[137] Surtees, 296, 297. The context is very confused, the editor not
having been able to decipher or to arrange Surtees’ MS.
[138] Record, 2nd Battalion. As the return in the ‘London Gazette’
does not distinguish the regiments of the non-commissioned officers
and privates, I am unable to give the casualties of the other
Battalions.
[139] It is evident from Sir Thomas Graham’s letters to Lord Bathurst
and Lord Wellington (‘Supplementary Despatches,’ viii. 376-7) that
he undertook this command very unwillingly and only from a sense
of duty. To Lord Wellington he says ‘I cannot look forward to it
otherwise than an irksome service, with scarce a chance of any
material success.’
[140] It would appear from a private letter from Lord Bathurst to
Lord Wellington, that the strength of the detachment of the 3rd
Battalion was 250 men. ‘Supplementary Despatches,’ viii. 390. This is
a clerical or typographical error for ‘of the three Battalions.’ The
depôt companies were at this time very weak, and the strength of the
whole detachment was about 250 men.
[141] Graham’s Despatch, ‘Annual Register,’ lvi., 154.
[142] Despatch, ‘Annual Register,’ 157.
[143] I am informed by Mr. Wright that he was _not_ wounded on this
occasion. This is a curious illustration of Byron’s remark about
‘Gazette fame’ (‘Don Juan,’ canto viii., stanza 18 and note). The
officer of the 1st Battalion who was wounded at Merxem on February
2 was Lieutenant Church. He had been taken prisoner in one of the
fights at Arcangues on December 10, 1813 (see p. 160); but had made
his escape, had found his way across France without being discovered,
and had joined Glasse’s company in Holland. Like M’Cullock after the
Coa (p. 56) he had trusted himself to the fair sex, who had assisted
his disguise, and favoured his escape.
[144] ‘London Gazette,’and 2nd Battalion Record. As the ‘Gazette’
does not distinguish the regiments of the non-commissioned officers
and lower ranks, I am unable to state the losses of the detachments
of the other two Battalions.
[145] I derive this information from Michael Mappin, a pensioner
in the Royal Hospital at Chelsea, who served in the 3rd Battalion
from April 1813 till it was disbanded, and afterwards in the 2nd
Battalion, and who was himself on this picquet. He was wounded before
Antwerp.
[146] ‘Wellington Supplementary Despatches,’ x. 704-5-6, and 718.
[147] I owe almost all the particulars of this expedition to the
kindness of Lieutenant Wright, on half-pay of the Regiment, who
served in it, and who survives in good health and perfect memory,
whose acquaintance I had the pleasure of making while these sheets
were passing through the press. The information and papers he
communicated to me enable me to supply many details of this campaign,
which, squeezed out between the Peninsular and Waterloo campaigns,
and eclipsed by the latter, has never had its history sufficiently
written. Yet it was arduous service, albeit unsuccessful.
[148] Leach, ‘Sketch of Field Services,’ 27.
[149] Their loss between December 25 and 31 was 1 Rifleman killed; 1
Sergeant and 3 Riflemen wounded; and 1 Rifleman missing.
[150] Major James Travers, K.H., died February 5, 1841. The ball
received at New Orleans had never been extracted, and is said
eventually to have caused his death. Lieutenant Backhouse died of his
wounds.
[151] Gleig, ‘Campaigns of the British Army at Washington and New
Orleans’ p. 186. He regrets that he has forgotten, or did not know,
the name of this soldier; a regret in which all Riflemen will join.