Letter of Congratulation from Lord Ponsonby to the Author—Ibrahim
Pacha’s Standard, missing from the Field of Boharsof—Letters to Lord
Ponsonby, Colonel Hodges, and the Admiral respecting it—Lord
Ponsonby’s Speech to the Sultan, and Letter to the Author—Colonel
Hodges’ Explanation—The Affair never satisfactorily cleared up.
Before leaving Beyrout, I received a letter from the Ambassador, dated
October 22, congratulating me on the affair of Boharsof, and expressing
a hope that we should follow up our successes. His Lordship was also
very active in urging the Porte to send more arms and troops, and also
to secure to the mountaineers all their rights and privileges, and
remove that wicked and unprincipled old Turk, Izzet Pacha, which I had
requested him to do.
By the same conveyance I received the Oriental Observer, in which paper
it was stated that Colonel Hodges had arrived at Smyrna, with the green
flag, under which I had seen Ibrahim Pacha reconnoitring our position,
and which we took at Boharsof, and afterwards lost, as I was informed by
General Jochmus; this rather puzzled me. I always thought there was a
mystery about this flag, which never was in my possession, and which I
never sent to Constantinople. How it got there demanded an explanation,
and I accordingly wrote to Lord Ponsonby as follows:
“Powerful, Beyrout,
November 1, 1840.
“My Lord,
“I received your Lordship’s letter, and I am happy to find that our
operations have given so much satisfaction at Constantinople, as also to
yourself. I do hope you will be able to do something for the
mountaineers; nothing would increase our influence so much as giving
them the sea ports, because the Turks do not treat them well; and they
would be quite willing to pay a tribute. I was yesterday at the
residence of the Grand Prince, and I am no longer surprised that he
should have stuck to Mehemet Ali; he had three palaces building at the
same time, which shows that he had his full sway in the mountains, and
it is to be hoped his successor will be kept in check.
“We are at last going to Acre with 3500 men; should the weather remain
fine I think we shall succeed, but it does not follow that it will be
easy; all depends on the disposition of the garrison.
“Ibrahim Pacha’s standard was taken, which I should have sent to the
Sultan, with the Admiral’s permission, but General Jochmus told me it
had been lost, which very much surprised me. It appears, by the Smyrna
paper, that Colonel Hodges was in possession of it, and that he was to
present it to the Sultan. I can hardly believe he would have done this
unless under some mistake. I have written to him about it; and your
Lordship will oblige me by inquiring if Ibrahim’s standard has found its
way to Constantinople, and who sent it.
“I have two flags taken at Sidon, one by Corporal James Symons; some
mark of favour to him would do good. I hope, in the course of the
winter, to be at Constantinople if operations cease here, which I hope
will not be the case till the coast becomes dangerous.
“I have the honour to remain,
“Your Lordship’s obedient servant,
“CHARLES NAPIER.”
“To the Right Hon. Lord Ponsonby.”
I also very naturally applied to Colonel Hodges:
“My dear Hodges,
* * * * *
“In the Oriental Observer the following paragraph appears:
“‘Colonel Hodges, Her Britannic Majesty’s Consul General at Alexandria,
is on board, and has the flag of Ibrahim Pacha, taken in the last
engagement, which, on his arrival at Constantinople, he will present to
the Sultan.’
“If this is true, this flag must have been sent to you in a
surreptitious manner, for I feel assured you never would have lent
yourself to such a transaction.”
A few days after this I received another letter from the Ambassador,
acquainting me that he had presented the standard in question to the
Sultan, in form, and made the following speech:
“Sire, I solicited the honour of an audience of your Imperial Majesty,
that I might lay at the foot of your Majesty’s throne the standard taken
in battle by your Majesty’s valiant troops, and sent to me from the
officer who had the happiness to direct the action of those brave men in
the glorious combat of the 10th of October.
“A few weeks since, some rebellious subjects of your Majesty boasted
that the standard should be displayed before the capital of your empire.
The standard is now here, a monument of the triumph of your Majesty’s
arms, and an evidence of the error of those who proclaimed the weakness
of the Sublime Porte, and the power of the Pacha of Egypt.”
His Lordship’s letter and his Lordship’s speech puzzled me more than the
Oriental Observer. I began to doubt whether I had commanded the Turkish
army, or had ever been on the heights of Boharsof at all, as I most
certainly never sent this flag to Lord Ponsonby, and I again wrote to
his Lordship for an explanation.
“My Lord,
“I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, the 25th of
September, inclosing the copy of a speech your Lordship made to the
Sultan on presenting the standard of Ibrahim Pacha to His Majesty, taken
by the Sultan’s troops under my command, at the battle of Boharsof.
“Your Lordship says it was sent to you by the officer who had the
happiness to direct the action of those brave men in the glorious
contest of the 10th of October. I fear some deception has been practised
on your Lordship. I never sent the standard, nor did I ever see it.
General Jochmus reported to me it was taken, and when I desired it might
be produced, he made inquiry, and found it had been lost.
“The standard ought to have been brought to me, and by me delivered to
Sir Robert Stopford, and I have considered it necessary to write
officially to him to request that he will order an inquiry into this
mysterious affair.
“Your Lordship must not be satisfied with the capture of Acre; the next
attempt should be made on Damascus. I am ordered to Alexandria, and I
shall see what can be done there.
“The Sultan had better form the whole of the Egyptian troops who have
been captured or deserted, give them their arrears of pay, promote the
officers, and land them in Egypt, promising that when Mehemet Ali is put
down they should go to their homes, and that the rest of his army shall
have their arrears, and go home also, if they come over; let him do
that, and he will get Egypt as easily as he has got Syria.
“I have the honour to be, &c.
“CHAS. NAPIER.”
“Right Hon. Lord Ponsonby.”
I also sent to the Admiral the following letter:
“Powerful, off Acre,
Nov. 7, 1840.
“Sir,
“Lord Ponsonby has inclosed me a speech made by his Lordship to the
Sultan on delivering to his Majesty Ibrahim Pacha’s standard, taken by
the troops under my command at the battle of Boharsof; it is a mystery
to me how that standard fell into Lord Ponsonby’s hands. It was not sent
to his Lordship by me who commanded the troops, and General Jochmus, the
chief of the staff, declared that the standard had been lost. I have not
now the power to officially inquire how this lost standard found its way
to Constantinople, but I have to request you will take such steps as you
see fit to clear up this mysterious affair. Had an inferior officer in
the Duke of Wellington’s army sent a captured standard to the King of
Portugal, unknown to the Commander-in-Chief, it may be easily answered
what would have been his fate; and I do trust a severe example will be
made of the person who committed this extraordinary breach of discipline
and decorum, to give it the softest name.
“I have the honour to be, &c.
“CHAS. NAPIER.”
“Admiral Sir Robert Stopford.”
The Ambassador never thought proper to reply to either of my letters,
and the only explanation I ever got was from Colonel Hodges, which I
subjoin:
“As to the flag, I was the bearer of it to this place. I left Beyrout on
Sunday evening. I called on Sir Charles Smith on the afternoon of that
day, at his quarters on shore, when he asked me to take charge of
despatches, and a flag, that I understood from him had been taken from
the 2000 Egyptian troops that had surrendered the day before at Beyrout.
This flag, with a parcel of red buntin flags, were sent by a sergeant of
artillery to my boat, that was waiting to carry me to the Princess
Charlotte. When I reached the ship the Admiral was on the quarter-deck;
he asked me ‘What that flag was.’ I told him it was one that Sir Charles
Smith had requested me to take to Lord Ponsonby. The Admiral replied,
‘It is I who ought to send that flag to Lord Ponsonby to present to the
Sultan, and I shall write a despatch with it.’ This is all I know of the
transaction.”
This did not explain Lord Ponsonby’s speech, and to this day it is a
mystery. Now the flag was either sent or not; if sent, the person has
managed to conceal it, and if it was not sent, then some one has
bamboozled the Ambassador or the Ambassador bamboozled the Sultan. Here
I shall let it rest, and carry the reader at once to St. Jean D’Acre, a
place well known in ancient and modern history.
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