K.B., returned to England, and the command of the army in North
America devolved on General Sir Henry Clinton, K.B. The next action
in which Lieutenant Doyle shared was that at Monmouth Court-House
on the 28th of June 1778, and on the 24th of October following
he was promoted to a company in the corps raised by Lord Rawdon
(afterwards Marquis of Hastings), which was at first named the
“_Volunteers of Ireland_,” but which was subsequently numbered
the One hundred and fifth regiment. Shortly after General Sir
Henry Clinton assumed the chief command, it was deemed a measure
of policy to withdraw from the ranks of the enemy the natives of
Scotland and Ireland. Two regiments were raised by distinguished
noblemen of these countries; one was designated the “_Caledonian
Volunteers_,” and the other the “_Volunteers of Ireland_.” The
former was given to Lord Cathcart, and the latter to Lord Rawdon,
then Adjutant-General in America. The officers were chosen from the
line, and Lieutenant Doyle obtained a company as above stated.
In the celebrated retreat through the Jerseys, Captain Doyle acted
as Major of Brigade. During the winter of 1779 his regiment was
ordered to South Carolina, under the command of Lord Rawdon, where
he assisted at the siege of Charleston. After the fall of this
place in May 1780, Captain Doyle accompanied Lieut.-General the
Earl Cornwallis up the country, by whom he was appointed Major of
Brigade, and was honorably mentioned in his Lordship’s despatch
relative to the action at Camden, which was fought on the 16th of
August 1780.
Upon Lord Cornwallis quitting the province of South Carolina,
Captain Doyle served in the same capacity to Colonel Lord Rawdon,
who succeeded to the command of this portion of the troops, and
soon had another opportunity of distinguishing himself. General
Green, having contrived after the battle of Guildford, on the 15th
of March 1781, to turn Lord Cornwallis’s left, by a rapid movement
penetrated the upper parts of South Carolina, and presented
himself before the village of Camden, where Lord Rawdon commanded
a small detachment, not exceeding nine hundred men, while the
enemy’s force consisted of three thousand regulars, a fine corps
of cavalry, and a numerous body of militia, strongly posted on the
heights above the village in which the British were quartered. His
Lordship seeing the difficulty of a retreat, boldly determined to
advance against the enemy. Accordingly on the 25th of April 1781,
he chose the hour of mid-day to make his attempt, when least
expected, his march being concealed by a circuitous route through
thick woods. This sudden and rapid manœuvre enabled his Lordship
to reach Hobkirk Hill before General Green became aware of the
movement, and the British gained a complete victory. The exertions
of Brigade-Major Doyle on this well-fought field were alluded
to in highly honorable terms in his Lordship’s despatch. Having
raised the siege of Ninety-six, Lord Rawdon returned to England
on account of ill health, when the Brigade-Major prepared to join
the Earl Cornwallis in Virginia; but in consequence of the effects
of the action at Ewtaw Springs on the 8th of September 1781, he
was requested, from his knowledge of the country, to remain in the
province to fill a more prominent situation. He subsequently acted
as Adjutant-General and Public Secretary to Colonel Paston Gould;
and on that officer’s decease in the following year, he was honored
with the same confidence by his successors, Major-General James
Stuart and Lieut.-General the Honorable Alexander Leslie.
Captain Doyle was promoted on the 21st of March 1782 to the rank of
Major in the “Volunteers of Ireland,” which corps at this period
was numbered the One hundred and fifth regiment. Major Doyle formed
a corps of light cavalry from amongst the backwoodsmen, with which
he rendered essential service to the army, and was again severely
wounded. In the expedition against General Marion he charged the
State regiment of Carolina dragoons with his advanced corps of
seventy horse, the killed, wounded, and prisoners of the enemy
exceeding his whole force. The American War shortly afterwards
terminated, and the One hundred and fifth regiment was ordered to
Ireland, when Major Doyle was entrusted with public despatches to
the ministers.
Peace having now taken place, Major Doyle entered upon a new
scene of action, and was returned member for Mullingar in the
Irish parliament of 1782, when his exertions were devoted to the
improvement of the establishment in Ireland, similar to Chelsea
Hospital, for the relief of disabled and worn-out soldiers. The One
hundred and fifth regiment was disbanded in 1784, and Major Doyle
remained on half-pay from the 25th of June of that year until the
war of the French Revolution in 1793, when he offered to raise a
regiment of his countrymen for the service of Government; and his
Royal Patron honored the corps with the appellation of “The Prince
of Wales’s Irish Regiment,” and it was numbered the EIGHTY-SEVENTH,
of which Major Doyle was appointed Lieut.-Colonel Commandant on
the 18th of September 1793, and with which he proceeded in the
following year to the Continent, with the force commanded by
Major-General the Earl of Moira, under whom (as Lord Rawdon) he had
served in America.
Lieut.-Colonel Doyle served during the campaign of 1794 under His
Royal Highness the Duke of York, and repulsed an attack of the
enemy at Alost, on the 15th of July of that year, after having
been twice severely wounded, being the first individual of the
regiment who was wounded. His conduct was honorably noticed in His
Royal Highness’s despatch. Lieut.-Colonel Doyle next proceeded to
Antwerp, and ultimately to England for the recovery of his wounds,
when he was afterwards appointed Secretary-at-War in Ireland.
In consequence of the reduction of the Prince of Wales’s household,
Lieut.-Colonel Doyle lost the appointment of Secretary to His
Royal Highness; but, notwithstanding this decrease of income, he
closed his political career by a mark of generosity worthy of being
recorded. His regiment being still prisoners in France, under the
circumstances narrated at page 6., he collected their wives and
families, and distributed five hundred pounds amongst them.
On the 3rd of May 1796, Lieut.-Colonel Doyle was promoted to
be Colonel of the EIGHTY-SEVENTH regiment, and proceeded in
the command of a secret expedition to Holland, with the rank
of Brigadier-General; but contrary winds, violent gales, and
unavoidable delays, rendered the expedition fruitless, its object
being to surprise and destroy the Dutch fleet in the Helder.
In 1797 Colonel Doyle was appointed a Brigadier-General upon the
staff, and was ordered to Gibraltar, where he remained until the
expedition was determined on for Malta and Egypt, when, having
volunteered his services, he was placed on the staff under General
Sir Ralph Abercromby, whom he accompanied to Minorca, Malta, and
Cadiz, and was selected as one of his brigadier-generals upon
the expedition to Egypt, when he shared in the actions, near
Alexandria, of the 8th, 13th, and 21st of March 1801, after which
he was selected by Lieut.-General Hutchinson, who succeeded to the
command on the death of General Sir Ralph Abercromby, to accompany
him in the expedition against Grand Cairo. He was also at the
affair of Rhamanie on the 9th of May, subsequently to which the
army halted at the village of Algam. On the morning of the 17th
of May, when the army was encamped upon the borders of the Lybian
Desert, an Arab was conducted to Brigadier-General Doyle’s tent,
who brought intelligence that a body of French troops, which he
computed at two thousand men, was within a few miles of the camp,
with a large convoy of camels. Brigadier-General Doyle immediately
requested permission to pursue the enemy with such of the cavalry
as might be in the camp; and Lieut.-General Hutchinson acceding
to his request, he repaired thither, where he ascertained that
the Turkish cavalry had been detached a day or two before, and
that a squadron of the Twelfth light dragoons had, prior to his
arrival, been sent to water at some distance. As success depended
on promptness and expedition, the Brigadier immediately struck
into the desert in search of the enemy, without waiting for the
absent squadron, which he left to an officer to bring on. After
a long pursuit, the cavalry came up with the French troops, when
they formed a hollow square, and commenced an irregular fire of
musketry. The French commander, after some parley, was obliged to
surrender on the terms offered; twenty-eight officers, five hundred
and sixty-nine rank and file, two hundred horses, four hundred and
sixty camels, one four-pounder, besides a stand of colours, were
taken on this occasion by the detachment under Brigadier-General
Doyle, which consisted of two hundred and fifty dragoons.
After the capitulation of Grand Cairo in June 1801, Lieut.-General
Hutchinson (afterwards the Earl of Donoughmore) in his public
despatches, expressed his obligations to Major-General Cradock and
Brigadier-General Doyle, and recommended them as “officers highly
deserving His Majesty’s favour.” Upon the surrender of Cairo, the
country fever seized many of the troops, and Brigadier-General
Doyle, with several others, was sent ill to Rosetta, where, before
his recovery, he heard a rumour of an intended attack upon the
French at Alexandria. Urged by this intelligence, he left his sick
bed, mounted his horse, and rode forty miles through the desert,
under the intense heat of an Egyptian sun, and arrived the night
before the attack. In that successful enterprise he commanded,
and had the good fortune to defeat the attempts subsequently made
by General Menou upon a part of his position. Lieut.-General
Hutchinson, on the following day, thanked him publicly in the field
in the most animated manner; but in writing his official despatch,
not only omitted to forward the Brigadier-General’s report of the
action of the Green Hills, near Alexandria, on the 17th of August
1801, but unfortunately stated his brigade to have been commanded
by another. This omission was afterwards fully rectified by the
Lieut.-General, and the matter was adverted to by Lord Hobart in
the House of Commons, who particularly alluded to the conduct of
Brigadier-General Doyle, when moving the thanks of Parliament to
the army and navy employed in Egypt.
While at Naples, after the close of the Egyptian campaign, whither
Brigadier-General Doyle had proceeded for the recovery of his
health, he was requested by the British ambassador to become the
bearer of important despatches to the Government. This proved a
service of great danger, as the country through which he passed
was infested with banditti, who robbed and assassinated all who
fell into their hands. His conduct on this occasion was gratefully
acknowledged by His Majesty’s ministers. Upon his arrival in
England, he was promoted to the rank of Major-General on the 29th
of April 1802, and was placed on the staff at Guernsey, and was
soon afterwards appointed Lieut.-Governor of that island, where his
services during the threatened invasion of England by Napoleon were
highly appreciated. Shortly afterwards the island of Alderney was
added to his command. In October 1805, he was created a Baronet
of the United Kingdom, and received His Majesty’s royal license to
wear the Order of the Crescent conferred by the Grand Seignior, and
to bear supporters to his arms, with an additional crest. On the
25th of April 1808, he was promoted to the rank of Lieut.-General.
Lieut.-General Sir John Doyle was selected to organise and command
the Portuguese army, but the despatch ordering him to report
himself for that purpose to the Secretary of State, was prevented
from reaching him by a gale of wind that lasted for twenty-eight
days, and another officer was consequently sent upon that service,
which did not admit of delay. In 1812 he was nominated a Knight of
the Bath, and in 1815 became a Knight Grand Cross of that Order.
Whilst the Sovereign and the Government were thus marking their
approbation of the services of Lieut.-General Sir John Doyle,
the inhabitants of Guernsey, whose government he had so long
administered, were not slow in manifesting their gratitude for
the benefits they derived from his fostering care. The States of
the Island voted him an address of thanks under their great seal,
and presented him with a splendid piece of plate, in the form of
a vase, with suitable inscriptions; their example was followed
by the militia and other public bodies with similar valuable and
elegant testimonials; and when he was recalled in consequence of
the reduction of the staff on the peace of 1815, they unanimously
petitioned the Prince Regent that they might retain their
Lieutenant-Governor, and voted the erection of a pillar, at the
public expense, as a memorial of their gratitude for the services
rendered by him to the island and its inhabitants.
Lieut.-General Sir John Doyle, Bart., was appointed Governor of
Charlemont on the 21st of September 1818, and on the 12th of August
of the following year he was advanced to the rank of General. His
decease occurred in London, on the 8th of August 1834, after a
lengthened service of sixty-three years.
SIR THOMAS REYNELL, BART., K.C.B.
_Appointed 15th August 1834._
This distinguished officer commenced his military career as an
Ensign in the Thirty-eighth regiment, his commission being dated
the 30th of September 1793. He joined the regiment in January 1794,
at Belfast, and in April proceeded with it to Flanders, where it
formed part of the army commanded by His Royal Highness the Duke
of York. On arrival at the seat of war, the Thirty-eighth regiment
was ordered to join the corps under the Austrian General Count
Clèrfait, who commanded the troops in West Flanders, and it was
attached to the division under Major-General Hammerstein, together
with the Eighth light dragoons and Twelfth foot. Ensign Reynell
was present in the action on the heights of Lincelles on the 18th
of May, and at the battle of Hoglade on the 13th of June 1794. He
afterwards served with the army under the Duke of York, and was
in Nimeguen when that town was besieged. On the 3rd of December
following, when cantoned between the rivers Rhine and the Waal,
he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in the Thirty-eighth
regiment. Lieutenant Reynell served during the winter campaign of
1795, and the retreat through Westphalia to the Weser, and there
embarked for England. He accompanied the Thirty-eighth regiment
to the West Indies in May 1796, and was present at the capture of
the island of Trinidad in the early part of 1797. On the 22nd of
July 1797 he was promoted to a company in the Second West India
regiment, and joined that corps at Grenada.
Captain Reynell quitted Grenada early in 1798, in consequence of
being appointed Assistant Adjutant-General at St. Domingo, where
he remained until that island was evacuated by the British in
September, when he returned to England. In the beginning of 1799 he
revisited St. Domingo, as one of the suite of Brigadier-General the
Honorable Thomas Maitland, then employed in framing a commercial
treaty with the negro chief Toussaint L’Ouverture, who had risen
to the supreme authority at St. Domingo. When it was concluded,
Captain Reynell returned to England in July of the same year.
On the 8th of August 1799 Captain Reynell was transferred to a
company in the Fortieth regiment, with the first battalion of
which he embarked for the Helder in that month, and joined the
army, which was at first commanded by Lieut.-General Sir Ralph
Abercromby, and afterwards by the Duke of York. Captain Reynell was
present in the action of the 10th of September; also in the battle
of the 19th of September, when he was the only captain of the first
battalion of the Fortieth regiment that was not killed or wounded;
he was also present in the subsequent battles of the 2nd and 6th
of October. Captain Reynell, upon the British army being withdrawn
from Holland, re-embarked with the first battalion of the Fortieth
regiment, and arrived in England in November 1799.
In April 1800 Captain Reynell embarked with his regiment for
the Mediterranean, and went in the first instance to Minorca,
afterwards to Leghorn; returned to Minorca, and proceeded with a
large force under Lieut.-General Sir Ralph Abercromby, for the
attack of Cadiz. Signals for disembarking were made; but although
the boats had actually put off from the ships, a recall was
ordered, in consequence of the plague raging at Cadiz. After this,
he proceeded up the Mediterranean again, and in November landed
at Malta. The flank companies of the Fortieth regiment having
been allowed to volunteer their services in the expedition to
Egypt, Captain Reynell proceeded thither in command of the light
company (one of the four flank companies detached under Colonel
Brent Spencer), and was present in the action at the landing on
the 8th of March 1801. On this occasion the flank companies of
the Fortieth were on the right of the line, and were particularly
noticed for the gallant style in which they mounted the sand-hills
immediately where they landed. Captain Reynell was present in the
battle of the 13th of March, and commanded the right out-piquet of
the army in the morning of the 21st of that month, when the French
attacked the British near Alexandria, on which occasion General Sir
Ralph Abercromby was mortally wounded. Soon after Captain Reynell
proceeded with a small British corps and some Turkish battalions
to Rosetta, of which easy possession was taken. He was present in
the action at Rhamanie, on the 9th of May, and followed the French
to Grand Cairo, where that part of their army capitulated, and
returned as escort in charge of the French troops to Rosetta; and
after they had embarked he joined the force under Major-General Sir
Eyre Coote before Alexandria. The surrender of Alexandria on the
2nd of September 1801 terminated the campaign, for his services in
which he received the gold medal conferred by the Grand Seignior on
the several officers employed.
Captain Reynell was afterwards appointed Aide-de-camp to
Major-General Cradock, who was ordered to proceed from Egypt
with a force of four thousand men to Corfu; but while at sea
counter-orders were received, and he proceeded to Malta, and
subsequently to England. In July 1804 he embarked as Aide-de-camp
to Lieut.-General Sir John Cradock, K.B., who had been appointed
to the command of the troops at Madras; and while on the passage,
namely, the 3rd of August 1804, he was promoted to the rank of
Major in the Fortieth regiment.
On the 10th of March 1805 Major Reynell received the brevet
rank of Lieutenant-Colonel upon being appointed Deputy
Quartermaster-General to the King’s troops in the East Indies.
In July following he was appointed Aide-de-camp to the Marquis
Cornwallis, Governor-General of India, and accompanied his Lordship
from Madras to Bengal, with whom he remained until his Lordship’s
decease at Ghazepore in October 1805. Lieut.-Colonel Reynell
returned to Madras immediately afterwards, and was appointed
Military Secretary to Lieut.-General Sir John Cradock, the
Commander-in-Chief at that presidency. He officiated during several
months of the year 1806 as Deputy Adjutant-General in India, in
which country he remained until October 1807, when he returned with
Lieut.-General Sir John Cradock to Europe, and arrived in England
in April 1808.
Lieut.-Colonel Reynell resigned the appointment of Deputy
Quartermaster-General in India, and was brought on full pay as
Major of the Ninety-sixth regiment on the 5th of May 1808, and
on the 22nd of September following was appointed Major in the
Seventy-first regiment.
In October 1808, Brevet Lieut.-Colonel Reynell embarked as
Military Secretary to Lieut.-General Sir John Cradock, who had been
appointed to command the forces in Portugal, and landed in November
at Lisbon. He remained in Portugal until April 1809, when Sir John
Cradock was superseded in the command of the forces in Portugal
by Lieut.-General Sir Arthur Wellesley. Lieut.-Colonel Reynell
afterwards accompanied Lieut.-General Sir John Cradock to Cadiz,
Seville, and Gibraltar, of which latter place Sir John Cradock was
appointed Governor, and Lieut.-Colonel Reynell remained there as
Military Secretary until September, when he returned to England.
Lieut.-Colonel Reynell joined the Seventy-first regiment at
Brabourne-Lees Barracks in December 1809, immediately after its
return from Walcheren. In September 1810 he embarked at Deal with
six companies of the Seventy-first regiment for Portugal, landed at
Lisbon towards the end of that month, marched soon after to Mafra,
and thence to Sobral, where the six companies joined the army under
Lieut.-General Viscount Wellington. In October Lieut.-Colonel
Reynell had the honor of being particularly mentioned by Viscount
Wellington in his despatch, containing an account of the repulse
of the attack of the French at Sobral on the 14th of that month.
The British army shortly afterwards retired to the lines of Torres
Vedras, and Brevet Lieut.-Colonel Reynell was appointed Assistant
Adjutant-General to the fourth division under Major-General the
Honorable George Lowry Cole.
Early in March 1811, the army of Marshal Massena broke up from its
entrenched position at Santarem, and retreated to the northward.
Brevet Lieut.-Colonel Reynell entered Santarem with the fourth
division the day after Marshal Massena had left it, and continued
in the pursuit of the French army to the Mondego. In the affair of
Redinha he had a horse killed under him. From Espinhal the fourth
division was ordered to retrograde, and recross the Tagus, for
the purpose of reinforcing Marshal Sir William Carr Beresford. In
1811 he joined the Marshal at Portalegre, and being the senior
British assistant adjutant-general, was directed to join Marshal
Beresford’s head-quarters, and proceeded with him to Campo Mayor,
from which the enemy retired; was also present at the capture
of Olivença, and subsequently accompanied the Marshal to Zafra,
between which place and Llerena a smart skirmish occurred with the
enemy’s hussars. In May 1811, Lieut.-Colonel Reynell returned to
England from Lisbon with despatches from Viscount Wellington.
In July 1811, Brevet Lieut.-Colonel Reynell embarked as Military
Secretary to Lieut.-General Sir John Cradock, K.B., who had been
appointed Governor and Commander of the forces at the Cape of Good
Hope, where he arrived by the end of September. On the 4th of June
1813, he received the brevet rank of Colonel; and on the 5th of
August 1813, he was promoted Lieut.-Colonel of the Seventy-first
regiment, in succession to Lieut.-Colonel the Honorable Henry
Cadogan, who was mortally wounded at the battle of Vittoria. In
February following, being desirous of joining the corps, Colonel
Reynell resigned his staff situation at the Cape, and proceeded to
England, where he arrived in May 1814. In July of that year he was
appointed Adjutant-General to the force then preparing for service
in America under Lieut.-General Lord Hill; but, other operations
being then in view, that appointment was cancelled.
Colonel Reynell took the command of the first battalion of the
Seventy-first regiment at Limerick in December 1814, and embarked
with it from Cork in January of the following year, as part of an
expedition for North America; but peace having been concluded with
the United States, and contrary winds having prevented the sailing
of the vessels, the destination of the battalion was changed. In
March Colonel Reynell received orders to proceed with his battalion
to the Downs, where, in the middle of April, it was trans-shipped
into small vessels, and sent immediately to Ostend, to join the
army forming in Flanders, in consequence of Napoleon Bonaparte
having returned from Elba to France.