March to Paris. Cambray is taken by escalade. Letters from Highlanders
to their friends in the North. Half a dozen lines only relative to
Paris. Another half dozen as to the three years spent by the army of
occupation in the north of France. On the distribution of medals.
The army evacuates France, and is dispersed all over the globe.
Reflections on this breaking up of old friends and comrades. A
campaign amongst the Glasgow radicals. Proceed to Ireland. Guarding
jails, hunting stills and white boys. A few words at parting with my
military friends.
We followed the wreck of the French army without delay, and without any
attempt being made on their part to stop our progress, until we arrived,
about the end of June, near St. Denis, which town they had barricaded,
and appeared determined to defend. Montmartre was in some measure
fortified, and looked formidable; but the Prussians having succeeded,
after sustaining some loss, in crossing the Seine, and thereby menacing
Paris from other points, Marshal Davoust, who commanded in the city,
sent out a flag of truce; shortly after which the capitulation was
agreed on which put the allies in possession of the capital.
A few days after the battle of Waterloo, Sir Charles Colville’s division
took Cambray by escalade, with trifling loss.
In the encampment near St. Denis I one day overheard the following
curious dialogue between some soldiers of our division. An Irishman, who
was washing his linen under a hedge close to my tent, observed to some
of his comrades similarly employed, “I’m tould the newspapers is come
out from England, and by J——s thim Highlanders have got all the cridit
for the battle.” To this, a Highlander, who was on the opposite side of
the hedge, and had heard the remark, replied, “And sa they ocht;”
meaning thereby, I presume, “so they ought.” The Irishman, however,
appeared by no means disposed to cede that point, and very naturally
proceeded: “Sure, did’nt we do our duty as well as any of thim Highland
regiments, and lose as many min?”
I much doubt, nevertheless, whether honest Pat’s logic carried with it
that conviction to the Highlander which it most indisputably ought to
have done. They continued to discuss the point for a considerable length
of time, and it terminated, I fancy, in the same manner as all arguments
ever do, by each party retaining the same opinions with which they first
set out. One cannot but applaud the feeling displayed by the Irishman
for the honour of his regiment; and, in good truth, the self-same
feeling has manifested itself in hundreds of others, of all ranks and of
different regiments, who fought on the bloody fields of Waterloo and
Quatre Bras.
No man will deny that the Highlanders displayed invincible courage, and
that they nobly upheld the honour of their country and of their
respective regiments, in common with their brothers in arms from England
and Ireland. The myriads of letters, however, with which the newspapers
were constantly inundated for some months after the battle, from
Highlanders to their friends in the north, actually had the effect of
convincing nine-tenths of the people in England, and nine hundred and
ninety-nine out of every thousand in Scotland, that the Scottish
regiments were the only people who pulled a trigger on the left of the
British position throughout the whole of that protracted struggle, and
that they, unaided, defeated the reiterated attacks of the Imperial
Legions at that point.
The candid and liberal-minded Scot will neither cavil nor take umbrage
at my remarking, that Sir Thomas Picton’s division was composed of eight
British regiments, three of which were Highland, one (the 1st Royals)
Lowland Scotch, and four English or Irish. Whoever has seen that part of
the position which our division occupied, need not be informed that
every regiment which composed it must necessarily have been exposed in
an equal degree to the repeated attacks of the French; and it was
therefore utterly impossible that one regiment should have had a smaller
or greater degree of pounding than another.
Various panoramic exhibitions have also strongly tended to convince the
good people of England, that John Bull and Pat were little better than
idle spectators on the left of the British position. In a panorama at
Edinburgh, some months after the battle, the Highlanders and Scotch
Greys were depicted as giants, and placed in the foremost ranks,
cutting, slashing, charging, bayonetting, and sending headlong to the
devil, every thing in the shape of a Frenchman; whilst the other poor
dear harmless little regiments of the 5th Division were represented as
mere pigmies in size and stature, and placed in the back-ground. “Fair
play is a jewel, and the devil should have his due.” With a view,
therefore, of rendering common justice to all hands who composed Sir T.
Picton’s division, I have been induced to touch on these matters; and I
repeat, that no man of a liberal and unprejudiced mind will misconstrue,
pervert, or twist my remarks into any thing approaching, in the
slightest degree, to an invidious feeling towards those distinguished
Scottish regiments who fought side by side with us on that memorable
occasion.
It is unnecessary that I should dwell for an instant on the wonders of
Paris: its Louvre, Palais Royal, Boulevards, and a multiplicity of other
things of high interest, are too well known to the myriads of my
countrymen, who have since seen them, to need description. The swarms of
officers and soldiers, British, Hanoverians, Prussians, Russians,
Austrians, Dutch, Belgians, Brunswickers, and others, with whom Paris
was inundated, and who choked the avenues of the Palais Royal by day and
night, were by no means the least interesting objects at that period.
Crowds of English families flocked to Paris before we had long occupied
it; and there John Bull might be seen, in all his glory, gaping and
staring, in every part of the city, at those continental novelties.
I now take flight from Paris, after a six months’ sojourn there, to the
north of France, which we marched to about the end of December. The 1st
and 2d battalions of our corps formed a part of the army of occupation;
and our 3d battalion was sent to Ireland, with various other regiments.
The three following years passed by the army of occupation in Cambray,
Valenciennes, and other towns and villages in that part of France,
furnished no materials of consequence for journalising. Our summers were
spent in camp, and we had annually some grand reviews, in presence of
emperors, kings, archdukes, and a variety of big-wigs of different
kinds.
Those who were fond of field-sports indulged in them to their hearts’
content; and I was among the number who did so. Game was very plentiful,
and a finer country for coursing is no where to be found. There were
several packs of fox-hounds and harriers belonging to different
divisions of the army, and greyhounds without number. At Valenciennes we
had races frequently, and some decent nags found their way out from
England. Champagne, Burgundy, Claret, and other orthodox fluids, were
abundant; and the greater part of the army would willingly have
protracted their stay a dozen years longer in those quarters.
A few months after the army of occupation had reached the north of
France from Paris, medals were sent out from England, and distributed
amongst the regiments which had fought at Waterloo. Every man on whom
this honourable mark of distinction was conferred, must undoubtedly have
felt extremely gratified, conscious that he had lent a hand in gaining a
battle more sanguinary and obstinately contested, perhaps, than any to
be found in the annals of history, and one on which the fate of Europe
depended. The mode of distributing this badge was such as no one could
object to; for it was not conferred on the few, and withheld from the
many; but the very same description of medal was, on this occasion,
suspended at the breast of the Commander-in-chief and the private
soldier.
No one, however, can be surprised, that the regiments which had taken an
active part in the many battles and sieges in the Peninsula, and had
struggled, year after year, with all the dangers, hardships, and
fatigues, which those campaigns brought in their train, (but whose fate
it was, not to have been present at Waterloo), should have felt sadly
galled on finding themselves, at the termination of a long and bloody
war, without even a bit of copper, by way of badge, to commemorate their
services. Many men, on the contrary, who had, perchance, commenced their
military career in England a month or two only before the battles of
Quatre Bras and Waterloo, and until the night of the 16th of June, 1815,
knew not what it was to sleep in a bivouac, enjoyed the marked and
distinguished privilege of wearing a medal for a battle, which,
sanguinary, long-protracted, and decisive, as it was, surely ought not
to cast oblivion on the many blood-stained fields of Portugal, Spain,
and the south of France.
The mode which was concocted at home of distributing medals to the
Peninsular army, has, with great reason, created surprise, and, I may
add, discontent. I could name many officers who disembarked with the
army in Portugal on the 1st of August, 1808, as captains or subalterns,
and served throughout the whole of those seven years, without having
received a single badge. And why? Simply because they held no higher
rank than that of captain or subaltern during that succession of
campaigns, and consequently never commanded a battalion in a general
action. On the other hand, some of those who joined the army for the
first time in the end of 1813 or the beginning of 1814, as
field-officers in command of regiments, or holding some staff
situations, found themselves bedizened with medals in the course of a
few months.
For example: if a regiment arrived in the Pyrenees in the autumn of
1813, (being its first appearance on that stage,) and happened to be
engaged in the battles of the Nivelle, Nive, Orthes, and Toulouse, the
whole of which were fought between the 10th of November, 1813, and the
10th of April, 1814 (a period of only five months), the field-officer
who commanded this newly arrived corps would receive four medals, and be
created a K.C.B. into the bargain. The captain or subaltern, however,
unless he happened, by some stroke of good fortune, to command a
regiment in a general engagement, although he could boast of having
fought at Roleia, Vimeira, Corunna; the passage of the Douro, Talavera,
Buzaco, Barossa; in Massena’s retreat out of Portugal, at Fuentes
d’Onoro, Albuera, at the sieges of Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajoz, Burgos, or
St. Sebastian; at Salamanca, Vittoria, and in the Pyrenees, (_the whole
of which, with an infinity of minor actions, took place before the
arrival of this new regiment from England_,) and in spite of his having
also fought at the Nivelle, Nive, Toulouse, and Orthes, returned to
England in 1814, as he first entered Portugal in 1808—badgeless!
If the dictionaries of Johnson or Sheridan do not acknowledge the word
which I have just made use of, I must take the liberty of coining it for
the occasion. Whether a medal be of gold, copper, tin, or iron, is a
matter of no importance whatever; and I feel well convinced, that one
metal would be appreciated equally as much as another. Every private
soldier in the Prussian army who fought in 1813, 1814, or 1815, had a
copper medal, with the date of the campaign in which he served inscribed
thereon.
I can scarcely believe that the expense attending a similar distribution
of badges to every man who took a part in the Peninsular campaigns,
would be attended with consequences so ruinous to John Bull’s finances
as some people may imagine; for I am quite sure that, from a few pieces
of artillery, out of the one hundred and fifty which we captured at
Vittoria, might have been cast brass medals sufficient to satisfy those
who so naturally and laudably wish to possess some trifling mark of
having fought in many a bloody field.
The rising generation of soldiers will listen with about as much
patience to details of Peninsular exploits, as we of older standing do
to tales of Minden, Dusseldorf, or Bunker’s Hill; and ere many years
elapse, if the names of Vimeira, Talavera, Salamanca, Vittoria, &c. &c.
should be partially remembered, the actors in those scenes (with a few
exceptions) will be entirely forgotten.
The beginning of the winter of 1818 witnessed the evacuation of France
by our troops, which were immediately afterwards scattered all over the
world, like dust before the wind. A few regiments went to England, many
to Ireland, and still more to the East and West Indies, Canada, the
Cape, the Mediterranean; and, in short, to every creek and corner where
we had colonies or garrisons. Thus was dispersed an army, many regiments
of which had been together from the year 1808 to 1818; the whole of
which time, with the exception of the few months that Napoleon spent at
Elba, was passed in the Peninsula and in France. It was the breaking up
of a large family, which was, or ought to have been, bound together by
those ties which the various scenes inseparable from the life in which
they had been actors, might naturally be expected to create. It was
impossible to witness, without feelings of regret, this thorough
dispersion of regiments and of individuals so long known to each other;
and who, in all human probability, would not be reassembled under
similar circumstances of interest and excitement.
No long time had elapsed, after leaving France, before our battalion was
despatched, post haste, from England to Scotland, for the purpose of
keeping in order the radicals of Glasgow, Paisley, and the vicinity. It
was by no means a delectable service, for we found them a most nefarious
crew. After one year spent in this manner, we were removed to Ireland;
where still-hunting, white boy hunting, and guarding county jails, were
the amusements substituted for overawing cotton-spinners and colliers in
Caledonia. And thus, in Old Ireland, I now find myself employed, after
having served three long apprenticeships in the army.
I am free to confess, that I feel no particular _penchant_ for passing
the remainder of my days in marching off guards, going grand rounds and
visiting rounds, and performing other dull, monotonous, and
uninteresting duties of the kind, on which such great stress is laid,
and to which such vast importance is attached, in various stiff-starched
garrisons; but, on the contrary, prefer to range, henceforth, free and
unfettered by military trammels, wherever my fancy leads.
And now I would offer a few words of advice at parting with the members
of that corps, whose uniform, during the many years which I served in
it, was seldom exchanged for a plain coat. It is true that I never held
a staff appointment, nor enjoyed the benefit of having the theoretical
principles of my profession hammered into my brain either at High
Wycombe, or at any other military college; but, on the contrary, have
merely twenty-one years of practice to boast. May those who hereafter
rise to command its respective battalions, ever bear in mind, that
although it is necessary for riflemen to be thoroughly grounded in the
drill of infantry of the line, and able to go through correctly, in
presence of the inspecting general, that series of manœuvres recently
introduced,—our corps gained the reputation, which it wrung from friends
and foes, _not by aping the drill of grenadiers_, but by its activity
and intelligence at the outposts; by being able to cope with, in all
situations, the most experienced and best-trained light troops which the
continent of Europe could produce; and by the deadly application of the
rifle in action. In making this assertion, I defy contradiction, even
from those who, jealous of its fame, would most readily and delightedly,
if they were able, detract from its hard-earned renown. I will further
assert, also, that when called on to storm the breaches at Monte Video,
Ciudad Rodrigo, and Badajoz, the corps proved itself equally efficient
in the form of grenadiers, as any of the other brave regiments employed
on those occasions.
It is, doubtless, vastly pretty to see officers march by and salute
gracefully,—to see formations from line into column, and from column
into line, executed with accuracy and promptness; but I hold all these
to be very secondary considerations indeed for a rifle corps, although I
am far from thinking that they should be neglected. Too much time and
attention, however, ought not to be employed on them. The great and
important points, before which all others should succumb and sink into
comparative insignificance, are, to attain the most perfect use of the
arms they bear, which can only be effected by constant and unremitting
attention and practice; to become thoroughly master of all matters
connected with outpost duties, pickets, flank patroles, advanced and
rear-guards; to direct the attention, and to practise the eye, of
officers and non-commissioned officers, to the selection of positions
advantageous for posts and pickets; and to instil into the mind of the
soldier, that he must act for himself, and on his own judgment, in
taking every advantage of the ground on which it may be his lot to
engage the enemy; and that, in the desultory nature of our warfare, it
is impossible that an officer or sergeant can always be at his elbow to
set him right. I maintain that this can only be learned by constant
practice.
In my opinion, by far the most useful and profitable drill for riflemen
is, that of sending out one or more companies to take up a defensive
position, and to attack them with the remainder of the battalion: and I
would, if possible, select the most intersected, intricate, and
difficult ground for that purpose. He who fancies that these matters are
to be learned in a day, a month, or a year, will find himself
egregiously and wofully mistaken; as he in like manner will, if he
flatters himself, that occasionally trotting out one of his flank
companies to a skirmish in front of the battalion, in a clean-swept,
smooth barrack-square, without inequality of ground, or any elbow-room
for light movements, is all that is requisite to make first-rate light
troops. Any company of any regiment in his Majesty’s service surely can
extend in skirmishing order in front of a line, and fire advancing and
retreating; unless, indeed, their training has been much neglected.
When war shall again appear, and either, or both, of the battalions of
the rifle brigade find themselves in boats, with orders to gain some
hostile shore—to land—to attack—and disperse the light troops of an
enemy ready to dispute the disembarkation of the army, it will then be
found that every perfection, as light troops and marksmen, will be
expected from them; and that the slower and more compact movements in
masses, however requisite for infantry of the line, will, as far as they
are concerned, become little better than a dead letter.
The opinions on the training of Riflemen, which I have here offered, may
possibly be deemed little short of heresy by those who either _cannot_,
or _will not_, perceive the immense distinction which ever exists
between the duties of infantry of the line, and those of the _lightest
of the light_, when an army takes the field in good earnest. If the
theoretical soldier, who has never seen a rifle or musket discharged at
any object more formidable than a target, is disposed to question the
accuracy of my doctrine, I must attribute it to his total want of
experience in such matters. The practical soldier, however, if he has
candour, will scarcely place his hand on his heart, and assert that he
believes my opinions on this subject erroneous.
May the muster-rolls of the corps never be so unfortunate as to bear on
their strength tacticians with new-fangled doctrines, whose vanity and
presumption may induce them to attempt to overturn the good
old-established system of the regiment, which, both in garrison and in
the field, has hitherto been attended with complete success!
But I will not anticipate evils which I most sincerely hope may never be
realised. That every success may attend both its battalions, and glory
continue to mark their paths, is my most ardent hope!
In the 70th regiment there is not now an officer who was with us at the
period of our embarkation for the West Indies, and, in all human
probability, not one individual. My best wishes, nevertheless, attend
the regiment to whatever part of the globe the Fates may call it.
My military infancy was passed in it—days which will never be effaced
from my memory. All the friends of my early life are entombed in
Antigua.
THE END
LONDON:
J. MOYES, CASTLE STREET, LEICESTER SQUARE.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Transcriber’s Note
Some compound words appeared both hyphenated and unhyphenated.
Only where there was a single instance, on a line break, were the
hyphens removed: artillery[-]men, brush[-]wood, camp[-]ground,
counter[-]marches, day[-]break, day[-]light, out[-]post,
quarter[-]master, scare[-]crows.
At 167.1, the missing word ‘we’ was added by hand to our copy.
At xv.8, and again at 104.3, the odd possessive ‘Cuestas’’, is corrected
in both places to ‘Cuesta’s’.
The spelling of ‘alignement’ and ‘malecontents’ has been retained as
printed. Other errors deemed most likely to be the printer’s have been
corrected, and are noted here. The references are to the page and line
in the original.
52.5 in the field[,] took Removed.
57.22 a few weeks before[.] Added.
61.19 was in[ in] the reserve Removed.
72.25 Santarem is a[ a] good town Removed.
90.26 Soon after our arr[r]ival Removed.
120.4 who understand this in[n]uendo Added.
254.12 and Light Divisions[,] commenced operations Removed.