THE EXPEDITION TO MARTINIQUE, 1793--THE CAPTURE OF MARTINIQUE, ST.
LUCIA, AND GUADALOUPE, 1794--THE DEFENCE OF FORT MATILDA, 1794.
In February, 1789, all three companies of the "Black Corps of Dragoons,
Pioneers, and Artificers" were stationed in Grenada, and from that date
until June, 1793, they are shown in every monthly return, with a
strength varying from 279 to 268, and an increase of four first
lieutenants.
In February, 1793, the news of the French declaration of war was
received in the West Indies, and orders were soon after transmitted from
England to the Commander-in-Chief in the Windward and Leeward Islands to
attempt the reduction of the French islands. Tobago was taken on the
17th of April without much trouble, the majority of the planters in that
island being English; and an attack on Martinique was next meditated.
The whole of the British force in the West Indies was known and
acknowledged to be inadequate to the reduction of that island; but such
representations had been spread throughout the army, concerning the
disaffection of the greater part of the inhabitants of all the French
islands towards the Republican Government lately established, as to
create a very general belief that the appearance of a British armament
before the capital of Martinique would alone produce an immediate
surrender. Major-General Bruce, on whom the chief command of the troops
had devolved, was assured by a deputation from the principal planters of
the island that "a body of 800 regular troops would be more than
sufficient to overcome all possible resistance."
These representations induced Major-General Bruce, in conjunction with
Admiral Gardner, to undertake an expedition; and the troops having been
embarked at Grenada in the men-of-war, the armament arrived off Cape
Navire, Martinique,[10] on the 11th of June, 1793. There the general met
the officer commanding the French Royalists, and, as the latter proposed
an attack upon the town of St. Pierre, the 21st Regiment was landed at
Cape Navire on the 14th, and there posted, to enable the Royalists to
concentrate in the neighbourhood of St. Pierre, where the remainder of
the British force joined them on the 16th. "The British troops consisted
of the Grenadiers, Light Infantry, and Marines from the fleet, with the
Black Carolina Corps, amounting in all to about 1100 men."[11] The
Royalists were said to number 800.
On the afternoon of the 17th, the enemy made an attack, but were driven
back by the pickets, with the loss of one officer and three men killed
on the part of the British. An attack on the two batteries which
defended St. Pierre was planned for the morning of the 18th, but failed,
owing to the want of discipline on the part of the Royalists.
Major-General Bruce says: "The morning of the 18th was the time fixed
for the attack, and we were to move forward in two columns, the one
consisting of the British troops, the other of the French Royalists; and
for this purpose the troops were put in motion before daybreak; but,
unfortunately, some alarm having taken place amongst the Royalists, they
began, in a mistake, firing on one another, and their commander being
severely wounded on the occasion, the whole body, refusing to submit to
any of the other officers, retired to the post from which they had
marched."
This conduct showed the general that no reliance could be placed on the
Royalists, and that the attack on St. Pierre, if carried out at all,
would have to be done by the British troops alone, whose numbers were
not equal to the task. He, consequently, ordered the troops to return to
their former positions, and on the 19th they re-embarked. As to have
left the Royalists in Martinique would only have been to leave them to
be massacred by the Republicans, those unfortunate people were embarked
on the 19th and 20th, and the 21st Regiment being taken on board at
Cape Navire on the 21st, the expedition returned to Grenada.
It may be wondered whence came the Black Carolina Corps mentioned by
Major-General Bruce, but it is evident that by that designation the
Black Corps of Dragoons, Pioneers, and Artificers was locally known; for
in the monthly return, dated May 1st, 1794, the "state" of the corps is
headed, "Return of the Black Carolina Corps," and the title, "Black
Corps of Dragoons, Pioneers, and Artificers" ceases, from that date, to
be used in any official document. The strength of the corps in that
return is 258 of all ranks.
The failure of Major-General Bruce's attempt on Martinique induced the
British Ministers to send out an armament under Sir Charles Grey for the
reduction of all the French West India Islands; and, until the arrival
of this force at Barbados, in January, 1794, the Black Carolina Corps
remained quietly in garrison at Grenada. The troops from the various
islands--and amongst them all three companies of that corps--were
collected at Barbados during the remainder of January, and, on the 4th
of February, the expeditionary force, 6085 strong, set sail from
Carlisle Bay. The army, in three divisions, landed at three separate
points in Martinique; the first at Gallion Bay, on the northern side of
the island, on the evening of the 5th of February; the second at Cape
Navire, nearly opposite on the south, on the 8th of February; and the
third at Trois Rivieres, towards the south-east. The British were so
rapidly successful that, by the 17th of February, the whole of the
island, except the two fortresses of Bourbon and Fort Royal, were in
their hands. The services of the Black Carolina Corps up to that date
are not known in detail, but the return of killed and wounded shows the
Dragoons as having had one rank and file killed.
On the 20th of February, Forts Bourbon and Fort Royal were completely
invested, and the pioneers and artificers of the Carolina Corps were
busily engaged on the siege works. On the north-east side the army broke
ground on the 25th of February; and on the western side, towards La
Caste, fascine batteries were erected with all possible expedition. By
the 16th of March, the advanced batteries were pushed to within 500
yards of Fort Bourbon, and 200 yards of the enemy's nearest redoubt. On
the 20th of March, the fortress of Fort Royal was carried by Captain
Faulkner, of the _Zebra_; and General Rochambeau at once sent a flag
from Fort Bourbon offering to capitulate. The terms were accordingly
adjusted on the 23rd, and on the 25th, the garrison, reduced to 900 men,
marched out prisoners of war.
Martinique being now entirely conquered, Sir Charles Grey left there, as
a garrison under General Prescott, five regiments, and one company of
the Carolina Corps; and proceeded, on the 31st of March, with the
remainder of the force to the attack of St. Lucia. That island had no
means of defence against so considerable an invading force; and, on the
4th of April, the British colours were hoisted on the chief fortress of
Morne Fortune; the garrison, consisting of 300 men, having surrendered
on the same terms of capitulation that had been granted to General
Rochambeau. The 6th and 9th Regiments, with a company of the Carolina
Corps, being left as a garrison for St. Lucia, Sir Charles Grey returned
to Martinique, and commenced his preparations for an expedition to
Guadaloupe.[12]
Guadaloupe really consists of two islands, separated from each other by
a narrow arm of the sea, called La Riviere Salee, which is navigable for
vessels of fifty tons. The eastern island, or division, which is flat
and low-lying, is called Grandeterre; while the western, which is rugged
and mountainous, is named Basseterre.
On the 8th of April, the troops, with the remaining company of the
Carolina Corps, sailed from Fort Royal, Martinique; and, about one
o'clock in the morning of the 11th, a landing was effected at Grosier
Bay. Before daybreak on the 12th, the fort of La Fleur d'Epee was
carried by assault, and the greater part of the garrison put to the
sword. Fort St. Louis, the town of Point a Pitre, and a new battery upon
Islet a Cochon being afterwards abandoned, the possession of Grandeterre
was complete. The reduction of Basseterre was effected on the 21st of
the same month; and the company of the Carolina Corps, with other
troops, being left in garrison in Guadaloupe, the general returned to
Martinique.
The British, however, were not permitted to remain long in peaceable
possession of their most recent conquest; for on the 3rd of June, a
considerable French armament arrived off Point a Pitre. Fort Fleur
d'Epee was taken by storm, and the place not being tenable after this
loss, the British crossed over to Basseterre. Several prisoners were
taken by the French, and amongst them were some of the Carolina Corps,
for in the return of that corps for February, 1795, dated March 1st,
there is the following note: "Some of the corps are prisoners at Point a
Pitre, but their number cannot be ascertained." In a later return,
however, we find that they consisted of one sergeant and eight rank and
file.
On the 2nd of July, the British made an ineffectual attempt to recover
Point a Pitre, and soon after established their head-quarters at
Berville, in Basseterre. The camp at Berville was invested in September,
and on the 6th of October it was compelled to capitulate. Thus the whole
of Guadaloupe, with the exception of Fort Matilda, situated above the
town of Basseterre, and which was still held by a British garrison, was
recovered by the French. At the surrender of Berville, 300 French
Royalists, who were in the British camp, were massacred by the orders of
Victor Hugues, the French commander.
Fort St. Charles, Basseterre, had been rechristened Fort Matilda by the
British on its surrender on the 21st of April, 1794, and against it
Victor Hugues now moved all his forces. The fort was commanded by
Lieutenant-General Prescott with a garrison of 610 men, including the
company of the Carolina Corps which had come to Guadaloupe. General
Prescott, in his despatch, dated "On board H.M.S. _Vanguard_, at sea,
December 11th, 1794," says: "To enter into a minute detail of the siege,
which commenced on the 14th of October, and terminated by evacuating it
on the 10th of December, would not only too much occupy your time, but
might be deemed equally unnecessary. It may be sufficient to remark that
on entering the fort I found it totally out of repair, the materials
composing the wall-work thereof being of the worst kind, and having
apparently but little lime to cement them properly. By the middle of
last month the works were very much injured by the daily and frequent
heavy fire of the enemy, and almost all the carriages of our guns
rendered useless. These were in general in a very decayed state, but
even the new ones for the brass mortars that were made during the siege
gave way from the almost incessant fire we kept up; so that upon the
whole, what from the nature of our defences and the small number of our
garrison, we were in a very unfit state to resist the very vigorous
exertions of our enemy, who began to prepare additional forces about the
20th of last month, but who, from a number of causes, and especially
from heavy and continued rains, could not open their new batteries till
the 6th of this month. On that day they began to fire from twenty-three
pieces of cannon, four of which were thirty-six-pounders, and the rest
twenty-four-pounders, and from eight mortars, two of thirteen inches and
two of ten. The fire was very heavy and continued all day and night, and
by it all the guns on the Gallion bastion were dismounted, and the
bastion itself a heap of ruins. Every day after this grew worse until
the 9th, on the evening of which day I went into the ditch accompanied
by the engineer, when we were both but too well convinced of the
tottering state of the works from the Gallion along the curtain, and
indeed the whole, from the east to the north-east. I could not hesitate
a moment about the necessity of evacuating the fort. I therefore sent
off immediately to Rear-Admiral Thompson, who commanded the detachment
of the squadron left for our protection, to acquaint him with the
necessity of evacuating the fort next evening, and to request that he
would have the boats ready to take off the garrison at seven o'clock. I
kept this my design a profound secret until half-past six o'clock of the
evening of the 10th, when I arranged the march of the garrison.... The
embarkation continued with little or no interruption, and was happily
completed about ten o'clock at night, without its being discovered by
the enemy, who continued firing as usual on the fort till two or three
o'clock on the morning of the 11th, as we could plainly perceive from
the ships. My satisfaction was great at having thus preserved my brave
garrison to their king and country."
During the siege of Fort Matilda, the Carolina Corps lost 1 killed and 3
wounded, 2 of whom afterwards died of their wounds. In the "State of the
Garrison of Fort Matilda, as embarked on the 10th of December, 1794,"
the strength of the company of the Carolina Corps is shown as 1 captain,
1 lieutenant, 4 sergeants, and 30 rank and file. After the evacuation,
this company was stationed at Martinique; so that at the close of the
year 1794, two companies were in that island, and one in St. Lucia.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 10: See map.]
[Footnote 11: Major-General Bruce's despatch.]
[Footnote 12: See map.]