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A HISTORY
OF THE
COLDSTREAM GUARDS.
[Illustration:
_Field Marshal H.R.H. Adolphus Frederick, Duke of Cambridge K.G.,
G.C.B., G.C.H.,
Colonel Coldstream Guards 1805-1850._
FROM A PRINT IN THE POSSESSION OF THE REGIMENT.
]
[Illustration:
A
HISTORY
OF THE
COLDSTREAM GUARDS,
FROM 1815 TO 1895.
BY
L^T. COL. ROSS-OF-BLADENSBURG, C.B.
LATE
COLDSTREAM GUARDS.
ILLUSTRATED BY
LIEUT. NEVILE R. WILKINSON,
COLDSTREAM GUARDS.
LONDON,
A.D. INNES & C^O.
1896.
]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THIS HISTORY
OF
HER MAJESTY'S COLDSTREAM REGIMENT OF FOOT GUARDS,
FROM THE YEAR 1815 TO 1885,
IS, BY MOST GRACIOUS PERMISSION,
HUMBLY DEDICATED TO
=HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN-EMPRESS=
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PREFACE.
The following pages are a continuation of Colonel MacKinnon’s _Origin
and Services of the Coldstream Guards_, from the victory of Waterloo
down to the year 1885. They have been compiled with great care and much
labour, and the reader will, I trust, feel justified in adding, with
accuracy and marked ability.
The first few chapters deal with events that took place in France, after
Waterloo, including the military occupation of the North-Eastern
frontier by the Allies, up to the year 1818.
The period onwards to the Crimean War, although containing but few
accounts of interest concerning the career of the Regiment, is valuable
as continuing, to a considerable extent, the history of events in Europe
so far as that is consistent with the subject of the present volume.
There is reference, nevertheless, to the part taken by the Regiment in
the suppression of the Canadian rebellion.
From the date, however, of 1854, the subject assumes a different
character, and is of absorbing interest to every Officer and man
associated with the Coldstream Guards.
The events connected with that campaign have been carefully selected
from thoroughly authentic sources; they are recorded in no spirit of
vainglory or self-sufficiency, but as a true and faithful tale of the
share which the Regiment took in that eventful war,—illustrating, as it
does, acts of gallantry, a noble and uncomplaining endurance of
difficulties and hardships, and a strict performance of duty under very
trying circumstances.
The accuracy of the record of the more recent Egyptian campaigns is of
special value, from the fact of the author of this work having himself
taken an active part in one of them.
The perusal of these records will be accompanied by the conviction which
exists in the minds of all of us, that those who replace their gallant
predecessors will, when their turn comes, deserve equally well of their
country.
FRED^K. STEPHENSON, _General,
Colonel, Coldstream Guards_.
1896.
AUTHOR'S NOTE.
I beg to return sincere thanks to the many members of the Coldstream
Guards, past and present, who have helped me to compile the volume I now
venture to issue to the public; and to assure them that, but for their
assistance, it would have been far less worthy of their acceptance than
even it is at the present time. It is not possible for me, in the short
space at my disposal, to mention all by name to whom I am indebted in
this respect. But I should fail in my duty did I not, at least, express
my gratitude to General Sir Frederick Stephenson, G.C.B., and to General
Hon. Sir Percy Feilding, K.C.B., for the interest they have shown in my
work, and for the trouble they have taken to enable me to carry it out.
Major Vesey Dawson was indefatigable in compiling all that concerns the
Nulli Secundus Club. Captain Shute prepared an Appendix on the
Coldstream Hospital. Mr. Sutton spared no pains in supplying information
which the Regimental Orderly Room affords; and Mr. Studd arranged
materials that required considerable labour. Major Goulburn, Grenadier
Guards, moreover, lent me the interesting Crimean Diary of the late
Colonel Tower; and Colonel Malleson kindly looked through the proofs,
and made many valuable suggestions.
I also offer my acknowledgments to Messrs. Blackwood and Sons, and to
Messrs. Seeley and Co., for their courteous permission to use the maps
in Mr. Kinglake’s _Invasion of the Crimea_ and in Sir E. Hamley’s _War
in the Crimea_ .
Lastly, I must express the pleasure it gives me that my work is
illustrated by so able and accomplished an artist as Mr. Wilkinson.
It only now remains for me to explain that as Colonel MacKinnon’s
_Origin and Services of the Coldstream Guards_ does not contain
illustrations of uniforms worn by the Regiment during the many
generations of its existence, we preferred to give representations, not
of the familiar figures of this century, but of those that are less
known. Thus, though the following pages only describe events from the
year 1815 to 1885, the plates generally refer to a more remote period of
the history of the Regiment.
JOHN ROSS-OF-BLADENSBURG,
_Lt.-Colonel_.
_October, 1896._
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
THE CAPITULATION OF PARIS.
PAGE
Flight of Napoleon from the field of Waterloo—Reaction in
Paris—Napoleon’s abdication—Surrender to Captain
Maitland—Provisional Government set up in France—Advance of the
Allies from Waterloo—Operations of Marshal Grouchy—Allies hope
to cut the enemy off from Paris—Blücher’s energy to secure that
object—Unsuccessful efforts of the Provisional Government to
obtain a suspension of hostilities—The Allies before Paris—The
Prussians move round to the south of the city—Co-operation of
Wellington—Capitulation of the capital, July 3rd—Advance of
Austrians and Russians—“Waterloo men”—The “Wellington
pension”—Rank of Lieutenant granted to Ensigns of the Brigade
of Guards—The soldier’s small account-book introduced into the
British army 1