THE ENEMY RETIRE INTO FORT BOURBON AND FORT LOUIS ... THE ADMIRAL
ATTACKS FORT LOUIS WITH THE BOMB-KETCH AND GUN-BOATS ... CAMP OF
SEAMEN FORMED AT POINT NEGRO ... A WHARF BUILT IN THE CUL DE SAC DE
COHEE, STORES AND AMMUNITION LANDED THERE ... GENERAL BELLGARDE
ATTEMPTS TO CUT OFF THE COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE ARMY AND NAVY,
BUT IS BEATEN, AND HIS CAMP ON SOURIER TAKEN ... HEAD-QUARTERS
ESTABLISHED ON SOURIER ... GENERAL ROCHAMBEAU SENDS AN AID DE CAMP
TO THE COMMANDERS IN CHIEF ... THE NAVY MAKE A ROAD, AND DRAG THE
GUNS TO THE HEIGHTS OF SOURIER.
St. Pierre being now captured[15], the enemy's strength was concentrated
in one point at Forts Louis and Bourbon: the latter is a work of late
date, being built under the directions of the present Marquis de
Bouille, and is a well planned as well as strongly situated
fortification; but in this mountainous country it is hardly possible to
find any spot that may not be commanded by some neighbouring height,
unless on the tops of the mountains, where it would be difficult to
procure water and provisions sufficient for the subsistence of an army
during a siege of any length. The town of Fort Royal is situated on a
flat and swampy ground, at the foot of the hill on which is Fort
Bourbon; and Fort Louis, the ancient strong-hold of this island, is on a
neck of land running into the sea, and forms one side of the Carenage,
an excellent harbour for shipping of all kinds.--The Admiral, from the
day he anchored in Fort Royal Bay, began a heavy cannonade on Fort
Louis. The Vesuvius bomb, commanded by Captain Sawyer, and under the
direction of Captain Suckling of the artillery, threw shells into the
fort from an eighteen-inch and twelve-inch mortar with great effect; and
as soon as the evening shut in, the gun-boats, attended by several
row-boats from the ships in the fleet (to assist in case of their being
sunk by the enemy's shot) moved towards the mouth of the Carenage, and
commenced a brisk fire on the fort, which was generally returned with
equal spirit; but, from the smallness of the object, and frequently
shifting their situation, they were less often hit than could have been
expected, considering that they constantly were within the range of
grape-shot, which fell in showers round them. Towards day-break they
returned to their respective ships.--In the night of February 15th, the
second and third companies of seamen, under the command of Lieutenants
Miln and Ogle, left the Boyne; and, with other seamen from the fleet,
the whole under command of Captain Rogers of the Quebec, landed at Cas
Navire, and (occupying the posts that the troops under Colonel Myers had
that day quitted, to assist in the attack on St. Pierre) formed a camp
near Point Negro.--Our shipping having now, by the capture of Pigeon
Island, free ingress to Fort Royal bay, most of the transports and
store-ships, under convoy of his majesty's ships Santa Margarita,
Solebay, Nautilus, &c. got up into the Cul de sac de Cohee, an harbour
at the north-east end of the bay, from whence they had a communication
with the army under Sir Charles Grey, and where they built a wharf to
land provisions and stores; and a chain of posts was established from
thence to the heights of Bruno, on which duty the fifteenth and
twentieth regiments were employed.--On February 18th in the morning,
General Bellgarde moved with nearly his whole force from his camp on the
heights of Sourier, to attack the landing-place in the Cul de sac de
Cohee, and by that means to cut off the communication between the army
and the fleet. Sir Charles Grey, with that quickness of perception that
has rendered him so often useful to his country, instantly perceived his
design, and without loss of time ordered the grenadiers, under the
command of Colonel Buckridge, and the light infantry, under that of
Colonel Coote, to advance with the utmost expedition, and attack Mons.
Bellgarde's camp at Sourier; and detached a strong corps from the
heights of Bruno to support them. They began their attack on the enemy
in the wood; and having driven them from thence, began to mount the
rugged and almost inaccessible sides of the hill on which Sourier was
situated. The troops gallantly forced their way through every
obstruction, and mounted the heights under a heavy fire from the
retreating enemy, whom they fairly drove up the precipice, and gained
the heights, where they found an excellent dinner (provided for
Bellgarde and his people) to refresh them after their fatigue. Our loss
in this affair[16] was by no means so great as might have been expected,
considering the length of ground, and the many disadvantages under which
our troops engaged. While this was doing, General Sir Charles Grey
cannonaded Bellgarde from the camp at Bruno, whose troops soon retired
in confusion to their late camp at Sourier, which they found occupied by
the British grenadiers, who turned their own guns on them (consisting of
three brass field pieces), and drove them in confusion under the walls
of Fort Bourbon. Our soldiers could not now be restrained, but with an
impetuosity that General Prescott could not for the moment prevent,
advanced so near the fort, that the enemy opening a heavy fire of grape
shot on them, obliged them at length to retire with some loss to their
new acquisition on Sourier, a post which Sir Charles Grey had intended
to have attacked the following day, as being absolutely necessary to
enable him to carry on his plan of attack against Fort Bourbon, and
which the temerity of Bellgarde had thus put into his hands a day
sooner.--The whole business of this action was conducted in such a
manner, that each individual concerned partook of the glory of it; and
when considered as to its utility, it was perhaps one of the most
fortunate, as well as the best conducted, enterprises that happened
throughout the campaign. The day after this event General Rochambeau,
who commanded in Fort Bourbon, sent an aid de camp on board the Boyne,
who went thence with Captain Grey to the Commander in Chief at head
quarters. The terms of capitulation that he brought were, that the whole
island should be delivered to the English on condition that, in case
Louis the Seventeenth should ever come to the throne, it should be
restored to him; if not, and the republic should be established, it
should be given up to that government. The Commander in Chief returned
for answer, 'that he came expressly to take this island for his
Britannic Majesty; and that he hoped to take all the French islands in
this quarter on the same account.'--The troops now pitched their tents,
and formed their camp on Sourier. General Prescott's quarters were in
this camp, where he commanded; and Sir Charles Grey established his head
quarters at a small distance in the rear.--General Dundas having
arranged every thing relative to the government of St. Pierre, left
Colonel Myers of the fifteenth regiment with the battalions of the
fifty-eighth and sixty-fifth regiments to garrison that town, and on
February 20th embarked with the grenadiers on board the Veteran for Fort
Royal Bay. The morning following they disembarked in the Cul de sac de
Cohee, and marched directly to head quarters at Sourier, where they
pitched their tents, and with regret parted from General Dundas, their
commander hitherto, who went to Camp la Coste to take the command of
the light infantry.--The artillery, artificers, and engineers, were now
busily employed in landing stores and ammunition preparatory to the
formation of the batteries necessary for the siege; in which business
they received great assistance from a body of seamen landed for that
purpose: three hundred of these brave fellows were landed at the wharf
in the Cul de sac Cohee from his majesty's ships Santa Margarita,
Captain Harvey, with his Lieutenants Woolley and Harrison; the Solebay,
Captain Kelly, with Lieutenants Carthew and Schomberg; and Nautilus
sloop, Captain Carpenter; with Lieutenant Bennet, Lieutenant Collins,
and a party of marines, from the Santa Margarita. They instantly began
to proceed with a twenty-four pounder and two six pounders[17] towards
Sourier. They halted with the twenty-four pounder that evening on the
side of the road between Fort Royal and the town of Lamantin, as they
were obliged to cut a road through a thick wood for nearly a mile. The
next day they completed the road, and also made a sort of bridge, or
rather passage, across a river, which at times was of considerable
depth, though fortunately there was now only four feet water in it. This
they effected by filling it up with large stones and branches of trees,
and then they proceeded with the twenty-four pounder and two eight-inch
howitzers, which they left that night in charge of a piquet from the
post above mentioned. On the third day they, to the astonishment of the
whole army, got a twenty-four pounder to the heights of Sourier before
the night shut in, and two howitzers within a mile of it; and to add to
the difficulty, a considerable part of that day was employed in
levelling the banks of the river that runs by Dillon's plantation, and
making it fordable, by removing immense stones and fragments of rock. On
the fourth day (notwithstanding they were obliged to employ a
considerable party in making the road more complete) they got the two
howitzers above mentioned, and two more twenty-four pounders, to the
heights of Sourier. The distance from the wharf to those heights is near
five miles; and when we consider that the road was to be formed for near
four miles of the way, one of which was through a very thick wood, and
that, as they approached the heights of Sourier, for near a mile the
road was so steep, that a loaded mule could not walk directly up it, it
seems scarce credible that so small a number as three hundred men should
be able to have undergone such severe fatigue, considering the climate
and the nature of the soil, which was a very stiff clay, intermixed with
large rock stones.--A few days after, a reinforcement of seamen was
landed from the Veteran, Captain Nugent, with Lieutenants Leaf and
Whitlock, and the Winchelsea, Lord Viscount Garlies, with his
Lieutenants Dixon and Watson; also Lieutenant Treminere of the marines,
with a sergeant's party. They took post by the side of the road leading
from Lamantin to Fort Royal, where the first twenty-four pounder was
halted.--The first party of seamen took post on the banks of the river
running past Dillon's plantation, at the foot of the heights of
Sourier. But the Veteran being wanted for other service, in the course
of the week one hundred and fifty men were reimbarked on board her, and
the Winchelsea's crew joined the former party. The compliments paid the
seamen in general orders for their spirited conduct, is a convincing
proof that they never once relaxed from their first exertions from the
beginning of the siege to the surrender of Fort Bourbon, a period of
five weeks. Indeed their astonishing exertions were almost beyond
probability: after rain (which in this climate is frequent) the steep
parts of the road were so slippery, that a man even with the greatest
care would frequently slip back ten and sometimes twenty feet at a time:
but so determined were the honest tars not to fail in what they
undertook, that when once they set out with their gun after a heavy
rain, and they found it impossible to keep their feet, they have crawled
up as they dragged the twenty-four pounder, and kept themselves from
sliding back by sticking their fingers in the ground. But among the many
compliments paid the seamen, none pleased them so much as having a
battery appointed solely for them[18], where they used to relieve one
another by turns, without even an additional allowance of grog as an
encouragement. Sir Charles Grey paid the highest compliments to the
zeal and ability with which the Admiral seconded all his plans. Indeed
there never was an instance in which two commanders carried on a
business of such importance so unalloyed by the least difference in
opinion, or jealousy of command: each strove to prove his readiness to
assist his friend and colleague; of course every thing succeeded, and
was carried on with a promptness of execution that seldom has been
equalled, never exceeded.
[15] Information having arrived that some of the enemy had retired
from St. Pierre to a five-gun battery on that part of the island,
Major Manningham was dispatched with a strong detachment in
flat-boats, under the protection of the Zebra sloop of war, and was
completely successful in driving them from thence.
[16] According to the best account I could collect, ten killed and
forty-four wounded.--I must here beg the reader will pardon the
inaccuracy of my account of the killed and wounded in this and the
other actions that took place. Though I have made every possible
inquiry, I have not been able to meet with the regular returns,
which must have been given in to the adjutant general's office at
Martinique.
[17] The two six-pounders were to strengthen the post that
commanded the road to Fort Royal by Dillon's house.
[18] One day, when the Commander in Chief met them on the road,
they (being ignorant that a battery was appointed for them to serve
in) surrounded the General, and offered him their services,
swearing they thought it d----d hard to have all work and no
fighting; and hoped his Honour would let them have some share in
it. The General, with that kindness which won the hearts of all
that had the happiness to serve under him, said, "Well, my lads,
you shall have a battery to yourselves." On which, having saluted
him with three hearty cheers, the honest fellows went readily to
their work again.