THE RELIEF OF GRENADA, 1796--THE REPULSE AT PORTO RICO, 1797.
Grenada, like St. Vincent, had been ravaged by the French and insurgent
slaves since March, 1795, and the relief of that island was one of the
first cares of Sir R. Abercromby. On leaving St. Lucia, the division of
the troops intended for Grenada was ordered to rendezvous at Cariacou,
one of the Grenadines; there Sir Ralph Abercromby met Major-General
Nicolls, then commanding in Grenada, and arranged with him the general
plan of operations. Before, however, those operations are described, it
will be necessary to go back to the month of March, 1796, when a company
of the Carolina Corps arrived in Grenada from Martinique, with
detachments from the 8th, 63rd, and 3rd Regiments, under Major-General
Nicolls.
Shortly before the arrival of this reinforcement, the French and
insurgents had compelled the British to evacuate Pilot Hill, in the
neighbourhood of Grenville, and had taken up a strong position at Port
Royal. On the 23rd of March, Major-General Nicolls landed to the south
of Port Royal; during the night the guns were got in position, and at
daybreak opened on the enemy's works. The post occupied by the enemy was
a hill of very steep ascent, particularly towards the summit, upon which
a fort was constructed, and furnished with four six-pounders and some
swivels. The first object of the British commander was to gain a
position between the enemy and the open country, and thus leave them no
alternative but to surrender at discretion, or precipitate themselves
over a high cliff; but they had established themselves so strongly to
protect their right that this failed. In the meantime two large vessels
full of troops to reinforce the enemy arrived in the bay under Port
Royal, from Guadaloupe; and Brigadier-General Nicolls found it necessary
to storm the enemy's post without further delay. The troops employed in
this service were detachments from the 3rd, 29th, and 63rd Regiments,
under Brigadier-General Campbell; at the same time, 50 men of the 88th,
with the company of the Carolina Corps, Colonel Webster's Black Rangers,
and Angus' Black Corps, moved against the enemy's right flank, to
dislodge some strong parties which were posted on the heights.
Owing to the difficult nature of the ground, it was nearly two hours
before the latter column could reach the enemy, when a heavy fire
commenced on both sides. The ascent was steep and difficult, encumbered
with rocks and loose stones and covered with dense bush. From the summit
of the ridge the enemy poured in a destructive fire, to which the
British could only reply at a great disadvantage, and, after losing
heavily, the column commenced to retire. Observing this retrograde
movement, Major-General Nicolls sent the 8th Regiment in support and
ordered Brigadier-General Campbell to proceed to the assault of the
redoubt.
Repulsed at the first attempt the troops again pushed on, at length
gained the summit of the ridge, drove the enemy into their redoubt and
scrambled in after them through the embrasures. The enemy then fled in
all directions, some threw themselves down the precipices, whilst others
tried to escape down the hill through the thick underwood; but there was
so heavy a fire kept up on them from above by the British that they were
forced to attempt to escape along a valley, where they were charged by a
detachment of the 17th Light Dragoons, and cut to pieces. The British
loss consisted, in killed and wounded, of 110 Europeans and 40 of the
various black corps. The Carolina Corps lost one man killed and six
wounded.
Affairs were thus situated when the fall of St. Lucia enabled Sir R.
Abercromby to send reinforcements to Grenada. The troops, with whom were
Malcolm's Rangers, disembarked at Palmiste, on the 9th June, while
Brigadier-General Campbell, with the troops already in the island,
advanced from the windward side to take the enemy in rear. Captain
Jossey, the commandant of the French troops at Goyave, near Palmiste,
seeing that resistance must be unavailing, surrendered that post, with
those of Mabouia and Dalincourt; but Fedon, the leader of the insurgent
slaves, who knew he could expect no mercy, retired at the head of about
300 men to two strong and almost unapproachable positions, called Morne
Quaquo and Ache's Camp, or Foret Noir, in the mountains of the interior.
In these recesses he did not despair of being able to tire out his
pursuers; but Major-General Nicolls did not give him time to throw any
additional obstacles in the way of the troops. On the 18th of June he
despatched against him, from opposite quarters, two divisions, under
Brigadier-General Campbell and Count d'Heillemer; while
Lieutenant-Colonel Gledstanes was posted with the 57th Regiment at the
head of Grand Roy Valley, and the grenadiers of the 38th Regiment, with
the Carolina Corps and Malcolm's Rangers, advanced against a post which
the enemy had at the head of Beau Sejour Valley. The dispositions were
so admirably carried into effect, that the whole of the enemy's posts
were captured, nearly at the same moment, on the morning of the 19th.
"Many of the blacks were slain upon the spot, and the remainder were
promptly hunted down in the woods by detachments of the military. No
quarter was given to these ruffians, nor was any deserved by them, their
last efforts having been marked by a foul and wanton murder. When they
saw that their position at Morne Quaquo, which they had regarded as
impregnable, was on the eve of being forced, they led out twenty white
prisoners, stripped them, tied their hands behind them, and put them to
death. It was impossible, after having witnessed this act of baseness
and cruelty, that anything short of their extermination should satisfy
the victors."[26]
Fedon, and a number of his followers, escaped to the woods; what became
of the former was never known, but the black corps were employed up to
December, 1796, in hunting down and capturing the stragglers, and it was
not until the end of that month that peace was entirely restored to
Grenada.
Whyte's, or the 1st West India, Regiment had remained at Martinique
without any addition to its strength during the operations in St. Lucia
and Grenada. It had, however, according to the muster rolls for 1796,
transferred, on the 24th of March of that year, four sergeants and nine
corporals to Malcolm's Rangers, probably in anticipation of the speedy
drafting of the whole of that corps into its own ranks. In the Monthly
Returns of troops for March and April, 1796, Malcolm's Royal Rangers are
shown as "under orders for drafting into the 1st West India Regiment,"
and in the May Return the corps ceases to be shown separately, and has
no "state" of its own. As we have seen, however, it continued to act
separately in St. Lucia in April and May, and in Grenada from June to
December; and it was not until its return to Martinique on the 28th of
December, 1796, that the drafting was finally completed. Of the
Carolina Corps all the men fit for service were collected at Martinique,
the remainder being formed into an invalid company at Grenada. It may be
thought that the process of forming the 1st West India Regiment was
being carried on very slowly, but it was more rapid than that of any
other West India Regiment, except the 2nd; while the 3rd, even on the
24th of December, 1797, had no non-commissioned officers, no privates,
and only two drummers.
No military event worthy of note took place in the year 1797, in which
the Carolina Corps or the 1st West India Regiment took part, except the
expedition to Porto Rico, in which the pioneers of the former corps were
engaged. Sir Ralph Abercromby, with a force of 3000 men, sailed from
Martinique on the 8th of April, and, after a delay at St. Christopher's,
for the purpose of procuring pilots and guides, reached Porto Rico on
the 17th and anchored off Cangrejos Point. Next day the troops
disembarked, and, after a slight skirmish with the enemy, took up a
position before the town. The siege continued for a fortnight without
the British making any appreciable progress, while the force of the
enemy, originally larger than that of the besiegers, was receiving
continual accessions from various parts of the island. Sir Ralph
Abercromby, therefore, determined to abandon the attempt, and the troops
were accordingly re-embarked on the 30th of April.
In March, 1797, one company of the Carolina Corps that was at
Martinique, 78 strong, was drafted into the 1st West India Regiment;
and, on the return of the expedition from Porto Rico, the remaining
company (Pioneer) was also drafted, and the Carolina Corps ceased to
exist.
The following is the list of the officers who were serving in the 1st
West India Regiment in 1797, and it may be observed that so many changes
had taken place that, out of 43 officers who were gazetted to the
regiment in 1795, only 22 were left in 1797:
Rank. Name. Rank in Regiment. Army.
Colonel John Whyte April 24, 1795 M.-G., Feb. 26, 1795.
Lt.-Col. Leeds Booth May 20, 1795
Major Charles Miller Nov. 30, 1796
Captains Edward Cotter July 1, 1795
Francis Costello July 1, 1795
William Powell Aug. 24, 1795
A.A. Nunn Feb. 2, 1797 November 17, 1795.
Robert Brown June 1, 1797 September 30, 1796.
James Maitland July 23, 1797
James Stewart July 24, 1797
Lieuts. William Graham Nov. 30, 1796
James Cassidy Dec. 1, 1796
-- M'Shee Dec. 2, 1796
-- Lightfoot Dec. 3, 1796
-- M'Callum Dec. 4, 1796
-- Froggart Dec. 5, 1796
-- M'Lean Dec. 6, 1796
John Egan Dec. 8, 1796
James Reed Dec. 9, 1796
W.J. Speed Jan. 11, 1797
-- Connor March 1, 1797
William Reid March 2, 1796
Thomas Byrne March 3, 1796
J.C. Roberts July 1, 1796
John C. M'Kay July 2, 1796
Ensigns Donald M'Grace July 1, 1795
-- Dalton Sept. 1, 1795
C.B. Darley Sept. 9, 1795
-- Horsford July 1, 1797
David M'William July 2, 1797
Morgan O'Meara July 3, 1797
Charles Marraud July 4, 1797
Niel Campbell July 5, 1797
Adjutant Thomas Holbrooke April 17, 1796
Qtrmastr. -- M'William Nov. 18, 1795
Surgeon John Lindsay Dec. 25, 1796
During the active operations of the year 1796 the West India colonists
had offered no objection to the scheme of raising five new black
regiments, but, in 1797, when the question of providing for them was
brought before the various Legislatures, the plan met with the most
determined opposition. When, on the 17th of January, Governor Ricketts
communicated it to the House of Assembly in Barbados, and requested the
concurrence of that House, the Speaker, Sir John Gay Alleyne,
immediately rose and moved:
"That the design of five regiments, etc. (as expressed in the message),
will, as far as such a design is likely to affect this island, prove
rather the means of its destruction than its defence."
This resolution was carried, with two others, without a dissenting
voice.
"The Assembly of Jamaica was no less decided and unanimous in its
opposition to the measure. It refused to make any provision whatever
for the subsistence of the 6th West India Regiment, which was commanded
by Lieutenant-Colonel Whitelocke. In this decision it was sanctioned by
the general voice of the white population. Meetings were held in almost
every parish of the island, in all of which the scheme of raising black
corps was heavily censured, as being, in the first place, unnecessary,
the negroes being already compellable to serve in case of emergency;
and, in the second place, as being of a nature to produce ultimately,
and perhaps at no distant period, the most destructive effects to the
persons and the property of the colonial proprietors."[27]
The British ministers were reluctant to abandon that which appeared to
be a cheap and ready mode of recruiting in the western hemisphere, and
consequently persevered in their project, even increasing the number of
West India regiments in 1799 to twelve. That the fears of the colonists
were groundless time soon showed. In 1801, at St. Martin's, the 8th West
India Regiment, "composed of new negroes, who had never before faced a
foe, behaved with the utmost gallantry." In 1803, the 3rd West India
Regiment did good service at the capture of St. Lucia, as did the 6th at
the reduction of Surinam in 1804. In 1809, at the Saintes, where the 3rd
and 8th West India Regiments were engaged, "the black troops
distinguished themselves by their discipline and valour." How the 1st
West India Regiment remained true to its colours the succeeding chapters
will show.[28]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 26: Bryan Edwards.]
[Footnote 27: Bryan Edwards.]
[Footnote 28: It is true that the 8th West India Regiment mutinied at
Dominica, in 1802, but it was under conditions which, to a certain
extent, extenuated it. For more than six months the men had been
defrauded of their pay. Being utterly uneducated and all new negroes,
they were ignorant of the proper methods of obtaining redress, and
consequently showed their resentment by violence.]