HISTORICAL RECORDS

OF THE

BRITISH ARMY.

PREPARED FOR PUBLICATION UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE ADJUTANT-GENERAL.

THE

EIGHTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT OF FOOT;

OR,

CONNAUGHT RANGERS.

LONDON:
Printed by WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS,
14, Charing Cross.

GENERAL ORDERS.

HORSE-GUARDS,
1st January, 1836.

His Majesty has been pleased to command, that, with a view of doing the fullest justice to Regiments, as well as to Individuals who have distinguished themselves by their Bravery in Action with the Enemy, an Account of the Services of every Regiment in the British Army shall be published under the superintendence and direction of the Adjutant-General; and that this Account shall contain the following particulars, viz.,

By Command of the Right Honourable
GENERAL LORD HILL,
Commanding-in-Chief.

JOHN MACDONALD,
Adjutant-General.

PREFACE.

The character and credit of the British Army must chiefly depend upon the zeal and ardour, by which all who enter into its service are animated, and consequently it is of the highest importance that any measure calculated to excite the spirit of emulation, by which alone great and gallant actions are achieved, should be adopted.

Nothing can more fully tend to the accomplishment of this desirable object, than a full display of the noble deeds with which the Military History of our country abounds. To hold forth these bright examples to the imitation of the youthful soldier, and thus to incite him to emulate the meritorious conduct of those who have preceded him in their honourable career, are among the motives that have given rise to the present publication.

The operations of the British Troops are, indeed, announced in the ‘London Gazette,’ from whence they are transferred into the public prints: the achievements of our armies are thus made known at the time of their occurrence, and receive the tribute of praise and admiration to which they are entitled. On extraordinary occasions, the Houses of Parliament have been in the habit of conferring on the Commanders, and the Officers and Troops acting under their orders, expressions of approbation and of thanks for their skill and bravery, and these testimonials, confirmed by the high honour of their Sovereign’s Approbation, constitute the reward which the soldier most highly prizes.

It has not, however, until late years, been the practice (which appears to have long prevailed in some of the Continental armies) for British Regiments to keep regular records of their services and achievements. Hence some difficulty has been experienced in obtaining, particularly from the old Regiments, an authentic account of their origin and subsequent services.

This defect will now be remedied, in consequence of His Majesty having been pleased to command, that every Regiment shall in future keep a full and ample record of its services at home and abroad.

From the materials thus collected, the country will henceforth derive information as to the difficulties and privations which chequer the career of those who embrace the military profession. In Great Britain, where so large a number of persons are devoted to the active concerns of agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, and where these pursuits have, for so long a period, been undisturbed by the presence of war, which few other countries have escaped, comparatively little is known of the vicissitudes of active service, and of the casualties of climate, to which, even during peace, the British Troops are exposed in every part of the globe, with little or no interval of repose.

In their tranquil enjoyment of the blessings which the country derives from the industry and the enterprise of the agriculturist and the trader, its happy inhabitants may be supposed not often to reflect on the perilous duties of the soldier and the sailor,—on their sufferings,—and on the sacrifice of valuable life, by which so many national benefits are obtained and preserved.

The conduct of the British Troops, their valour, and endurance, have shone conspicuously under great and trying difficulties; and their character has been established in Continental warfare by the irresistible spirit with which they have effected debarkations in spite of the most formidable opposition, and by the gallantry and steadiness with which they have maintained their advantages against superior numbers.

In the official Reports made by the respective Commanders, ample justice has generally been done to the gallant exertions of the Corps employed; but the details of their services, and of acts of individual bravery, can only be fully given in the Annals of the various Regiments.

These Records are now preparing for publication, under His Majesty’s special authority, by Mr. RICHARD CANNON, Principal Clerk of the Adjutant-General’s Office; and while the perusal of them cannot fail to be useful and interesting to military men of every rank, it is considered that they will also afford entertainment and information to the general reader, particularly to those who may have served in the Army, or who have relatives in the Service.

There exists in the breasts of most of those who have served, or are serving, in the Army, an Esprit du Corps—an attachment to every thing belonging to their Regiment; to such persons a narrative of the services of their own Corps cannot fail to prove interesting. Authentic accounts of the actions of the great,—the valiant,—the loyal, have always been of paramount interest with a brave and civilized people. Great Britain has produced a race of heroes who, in moments of danger and terror, have stood, “firm as the rocks of their native shore;” and when half the World has been arrayed against them, they have fought the battles of their Country with unshaken fortitude. It is presumed that a record of achievements in war,—victories so complete and surprising, gained by our countrymen,—our brothers—our fellow-citizens in arms,—a record which revives the memory of the brave, and brings their gallant deeds before us, will certainly prove acceptable to the public.

Biographical memoirs of the Colonels and other distinguished Officers, will be introduced in the Records of their respective Regiments, and the Honorary Distinctions which have, from time to time, been conferred upon each Regiment, as testifying the value and importance of its services, will be faithfully set forth.

As a convenient mode of Publication, the Record of each Regiment will be printed in a distinct number, so that when the whole shall be completed, the Parts may be bound up in numerical succession.

HISTORICAL RECORD
OF THE
EIGHTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT
OF FOOT,

OR,

CONNAUGHT RANGERS;

CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF

THE FORMATION OF THE REGIMENT
IN 1793,

AND OF

SUBSEQUENT SERVICES
TO 1837.

LONDON:

PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS,

14, CHARING CROSS.

1838.

THE

EIGHTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT

OF FOOT,

OR

CONNAUGHT RANGERS,

BEARS ON ITS COLOURS

THE HARP AND CROWN,

WITH THE MOTTO

“QUIS SEPARABIT?”

AND THE FOLLOWING INSCRIPTIONS:—

“Egypt”——“Talavera”——“Busaco”——“Fuentes d’Onor”——
“Ciudad Rodrigo”——“Badajoz”——“Salamanca”——
“Vittoria”——“Nivelle”——“Orthes”——
“Toulouse”——and——“Peninsula.”

[Pg v]

CONTENTS.

[Pg 1]

HISTORICAL RECORD

OF THE

EIGHTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT OF FOOT,

OR

CONNAUGHT RANGERS.

When the breaking out of the war with France in 1793 occasioned considerable additions to be made to the British army, this regiment was raised in Ireland, under commission bearing date 25th September, 1793, by Colonel the Honourable Thomas de Burgh (afterwards Earl of Clanricarde). Being recruited chiefly from the province of Connaught, it assumed, as its distinctive appellation, the name of “Connaught Rangers;” and when the new-levied regiments were numbered from Seventy-Eight upwards, received for its number Eighty-Eight. Its facings were yellow, and it bore on its colours and appointments a harp and crown, with the motto “Quis separabit?”

It was not long before the active services of the new regiment were called for in the field: in the summer of 1794 a reinforcement of seven thousand men, under the command of Major-General the Earl of Moira, was sent to join the army of the Duke of York in Flanders; and of this force the Eighty-Eighth Regiment, one thousand strong, and commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Keppel, formed part. The expedition landed at Ostend on the 26th of June, at which time the Duke of York, pressed by superior numbers, was retiring upon Antwerp;[2] and the Earl of Moira resolved not to attempt the defence of Ostend, but to endeavour to join his Royal Highness. After a tedious and difficult march, in the face of a superior and victorious enemy, whose troops were already overrunning the country in all directions, his Lordship arrived at Alost, where he was attacked by the French, on the 6th of July, with great fury; the enemy was, however, repulsed; the steadiness and valour of the troops, with the skill of their leader, overcame all difficulties, and the junction between Lord Moira’s corps and the army under his Royal Highness the Duke of York was accomplished at Malines, on the 9th of July, when the Eighty-Eighth was formed in brigade with the Fifteenth, Fifty-third, and Fifty-Fourth Regiments.

In the harassing operations of the autumn of 1794, and in the disastrous winter campaign and retreat which followed, the Eighty-Eighth had a full share. For some time it formed part of the garrison of Bergen-op-Zoom, where it was reviewed by the Prince of Orange and some Hessian officers of high rank, and received much commendation for its appearance and efficiency. When Bergen-op-Zoom was considered no longer tenable, the Eighty-Eighth was withdrawn in the night by boats, under the command of Lieutenant (afterwards Admiral Sir Home) Popham, and proceeded to join the army near Nimeguen; in which fortress it was also subsequently placed in garrison, but was withdrawn a few nights before the surrender. It was then formed in brigade with the Eighth, Thirty-Seventh, Forty-Fourth, and Fifty-Seventh Regiments, under the command of Major-General de Burgh, and stationed near the Waal, to defend the passage of that river.

On the 27th of November, 1794, General John Reid was appointed Colonel of the Regiment, in succession to[3] Major-General de Burgh, who was removed to the Sixty-Sixth Regiment.

The Waal having become frozen so as to bear an army with its matériel, the Eighty-Eighth retired across the Leek, and the men, being exposed to the storms of a severe winter, endured great hardships. Robert Brown states in his Journal (7th January, 1795), “Nearly half the army are sick, and the other half much fatigued with hard duty; this is now the tenth night since any of us had a night’s rest.” The enemy continuing to advance in overwhelming numbers, the army retreated during the night of the 14th of January, through a country covered with ice and snow. On the subsequent days, numbers of the men, exhausted with fatigue and want of food, were unable to proceed, and many were frozen to death by the road-side. The Eighty-Eighth proceeded to Deventer, the capital of a district in the province of Overyssel; from whence the Regiment marched on the 27th of January, and, continuing its route for several days across a region of ice and snow, arrived in the Duchy of Bremen.

In April the Regiment embarked for England; after its arrival it went into quarters at Norwich, and proceeded to fill up its thinned ranks with recruits from Ireland.

In the autumn of 1795, the Eighty-Eighth was ordered to form a part of the expedition under Major-General Sir Ralph Abercrombie, destined for the reduction of the French West India Islands, and accordingly embarked under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel (now Viscount) Beresford. The disasters which attended the sailing of this expedition form a sad page in the naval history of England, and were not easily obliterated from the memory of the survivors. Various circumstances co-operated to delay the fleet, under Admiral Christian, till[4] a very late period of the year, and it had scarcely quitted port when it encountered a hurricane by which it was completely dispersed. Many of the ships foundered at sea; some returned disabled into English ports; some were taken by the enemy, and a small part only were able to weather the storm and proceed to their original destination. The dispersion of the Eighty-Eighth Regiment was as complete as that of the fleet; two companies, commanded by Captain Trotter, were all that reached the West Indies; of the others, some were in the captured ships, some in those which put back to England, and a crazy transport, in which one division under Captain Vandeleur was embarked, was actually blown through the Straits of Gibraltar as far into the Mediterranean as Carthagena. Here the vessel was frapped together, and with great difficulty navigated back to Gibraltar, where the men were removed out of her, and on loosening the frapping the transport fell to pieces.

The two companies which reached the West Indies, after being employed in the reduction of Grenada and the siege of St. Lucie, returned to England in the autumn of 1796, when the whole battalion was again assembled, and embarked under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Beresford for Jersey, where its numbers were once more completed to a full establishment, by recruits from Ireland.

On the 1st of January, 1799, it sailed from Portsmouth for the East Indies, still commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Beresford, and arrived at Bombay 10th June, 1800.

The next active service of the Eighty-Eighth was with the expedition which the government of India fitted out, under the command of Major-General Sir David Baird, in 1800, to co-operate with the army under[5] Lieutenant-General Sir Ralph Abercrombie, in the expulsion of the French from Egypt.

The troops sailed from India in December, and arrived at Cosseir on the Red Sea in June, 1801. On this occasion, in the fourteen days’ march across what is called the “Long Desert” from Cosseir on the Red Sea to Kenna on the Nile, the Eighty-Eighth formed the van of Sir David Baird’s army, preceding the rest of the troops a day’s march, and it was thus the first British regiment to tread this dangerous route.

From Kenna it sailed in boats down the Nile, and reached Grand Cairo on the day on which that fortress surrendered to the British troops under Major-General (afterwards Lord) Hutchinson.

On the final evacuation of Egypt by the English, the Eighty-Eighth, instead of returning to India, as had been originally intended, proceeded to England in order to be reduced, but arrived at Portsmouth on the very day that the war with France was renewed, the 5th of May, 1803, and was consequently saved from that fate. Its numbers being then much weakened by time and casualties, and its effective strength still more so by the ophthalmia, which the soldiers had contracted in Egypt, the corps was ordered into quarters in Kent and Sussex, where it remained three years.

Amongst the measures of defence taken at this time by the government to secure the country against the invasion with which it was threatened by Buonaparte, a general order was issued from the Horse-Guards on the 2nd of December, 1803, commanding that (in case of the enemy’s effecting a landing in any part of the United Kingdom) all officers below the rank of general officers, and not attached to any particular regiment, should report themselves in person to the general officer commanding[6] the district in which they might happen to reside; and requesting all general officers not employed on the staff to transmit immediately their addresses to the Adjutant-General. The Colonel of the Eighty-Eighth, the Veteran General Reid, was then in his 82nd year; yet he immediately obeyed the summons, and transmitted his address in a letter so spirited as to deserve a place in the memoirs of the regiment which he commanded, and upon which his gallantry reflected honour.

A second battalion was formed in 1804, and a statement of its services is given at the end of this record.

In 1805, the regiment being then quartered in East Bourne barracks, together with the Derby Militia and a detachment of the Tenth Hussars, the whole under the command of Lieut.-Colonel the Honourable Alexander Duff, of the Eighty-Eighth, a quarrel unfortunately[7] occurred between the soldiers of the two corps, which might have led to very serious results; but which that officer, with a degree of tact and knowledge of the nature and feelings of a British soldier that were highly creditable to him, not only rendered innoxious, but converted into a source of eventual benefit to the regiment.

The result of this conduct on the part of the commanding officer was the making of the two regiments such attached friends, that when, a short time after, the Derby Militia was permitted to furnish three hundred and fifty men to regiments of the line, more than two hundred of the number volunteered for the “Connaught Rangers,” although they were beset by the officers and recruiting-parties of many English regiments, who naturally, but vainly, hoped to gain the preference over a corps then exclusively Irish. The volunteers from the Derby Militia proved as good and gallant soldiers as any in the army, and a very large portion of them were killed in the various actions in which the regiment was afterwards engaged.

It was about this period that His Royal Highness the Commander in Chief ordered Sir John Moore’s improved system of drill to be adopted throughout the army: under the active superintendence of Lieutenant-Colonel Duff, the Eighty-Eighth was quickly perfected in the new system, and was, in all respects, in the highest state of discipline. The commander of the district, Major-General Sir Arthur Wellesley, was reviewing Major-General Sir Brent Spencer’s brigade, to which the Eighty-Eighth belonged, in Crowhurst Park, near Hastings, when he received an express for the regiment to march on the following day to Portsmouth, and join the expedition under Brigadier-General Robert Craufurd. When the review was over, Sir Arthur made known the[8] orders he had received, and addressed the regiment in very flattering terms, concluding a short and animated speech with these words:—“I wish to God I was going with you!—I am sure you will do your duty—ay—and distinguish yourselves too.” He then took leave amidst the loud cheers of the corps.

The expedition[1] sailed from Falmouth on the 12th of November, 1806, and, after remaining at St. Jago, in the Cape de Verde Islands, from the 14th of December, 1806, to the 11th of January, 1807, arrived in Table Bay, Cape of Good Hope, on the 22nd of March following. Here the Eighty-Eighth landed in marching order, and was for the first time inspected by Brigadier-General Craufurd, who expressed himself in terms of approbation of its general appearance. From the Cape the expedition sailed again on the 6th of April; called at St. Helena on the 21st, to complete its stock of water and provisions; and, quitting that island on the 26th, arrived on the 14th of June at Monte Video, then occupied by the British troops under Lieutenant-General Whitelocke, who had arrived there in May, preceding, and now assumed the command of the whole British force in South America.

On the 26th of June the army arrived off Ensenada da Baragon, a port on the river Plata, about thirty-two miles distant from Buenos Ayres, and landed on the 28th without firing a shot. The Thirty-Sixth and Eighty-Eighth regiments were brigaded together under the orders of Brigadier-General the Honourable W. Lumley. On the 29th the troops moved forward; the light brigade,[9] composed of the rifle corps and nine light infantry companies, formed the advance, which was supported by Brigadier-General Lumley’s brigade, and followed by the other corps in succession. On the 1st of July the army was concentrated near the village of Reduction, about seven miles from Buenos Ayres, from whence it again advanced on the following day, crossed the Chuelo, a rivulet, by a ford called the Chico, and traversed the low ground on the opposite bank, at the extremity of which stands the city of Buenos Ayres.

Hitherto the enemy had offered only a very feeble resistance, which the discharge of a few round shot was sufficient to overcome; but when the right column, commanded by Major-General Leveson Gower, arrived near the Coral de Miserere, the Spaniards displayed a formidable body of infantry and cavalry, supported by a brigade of guns, with others in reserve. Brigadier-General Craufurd, placing himself at the head of his brigade, consisting of the Ninety-Fifth Rifles and light battalion, immediately made a vigorous charge; drove the enemy back in confusion; captured nine guns and a howitzer; and, profiting by the panic which had seized his opponents, pursued them into the very suburbs of the city, where his career of victory terminated, and Major-General Leveson Gower ordered the troops, first to halt, and then to take up a position for the night about a mile in the rear, near the principal slaughtering-place of the town. During the advance into the town, Captain William Parker Carroll, with his company, took a tilted waggon loaded with bread, and an eight-pounder brass gun, on which Eighty-Eighth was immediately scored with the point of a soldier’s bayonet, to mark it as a regimental prize.

The troops remained under arms during the night, exposed[10] to heavy and incessant torrents of rain. In the morning Lieutenant-General Whitelocke summoned the governor to surrender; the Spaniards, however, made an attack upon the piquets, in which the Eighty-Eighth, which had relieved the rifle corps, lost about twenty men killed and wounded. The assault of the town was now determined upon, and the morning of the 5th fixed for carrying it into execution. For this service the Eighty-Eighth regiment was divided into wings, the right being commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Duff, and the left by Major Vandeleur, who were directed to enter the town separately by two different streets, and, having gained the banks of the river on the opposite side of the city, to possess themselves of the houses and form on the flat roofs; but what further steps they were to take, or what they were to do after so forming, was not stated.

At half-past six o’clock on the morning of the 5th of July the attack commenced: the right wing of the Eighty-Eighth, formed in sections, advanced at a rapid pace through several streets unmolested, and indeed without encountering, or even seeing, a single human being. A death-like silence reigned throughout the town, or was interrupted only by the measured tread of those who were most at a loss to comprehend the meaning of the apparent solitude and desertion that surrounded them. At length a few detached shots seemed to give a prearranged signal, at which the entire population of a vast town was to burst from its concealment, and in an instant the flat roofs of the houses swarmed with a mass of musqueteers, who poured a deadly, and almost unerring, fire upon the British soldiers. Under any circumstances the combat between men exposed in an open street, and adversaries ensconced behind the parapets of the houses on each side, must have been an unequal one; but the British[11] troops were for some time absolutely defenceless in the midst of their enemies, having been positively ordered to advance with unloaded arms.[2]

Lieutenant-Colonel Duff, however, penetrated as far as a church on the right-hand side of the street in which his column had been directed to establish itself; but the strength of the barricadoed doors defied all attempts to force an entrance. His situation now became desperate; to remain stationary was to expose himself and his little band to certain massacre, unmitigated even by the being able to sell their lives dearly; to advance was nearly as pregnant with destruction; and even returning, independent of the repugnance every British officer feels to the very idea of retreat, was “as bad as to go on.” Lieutenant-Colonel Duff’s resolution was as prompt as the necessity was urgent; he made up his mind, on the instant, to hazard every thing while there was the most distant chance of success, and determined to push on; a determination which was received by his men with shouts, and seconded by them as if every individual soldier had felt himself personally responsible for the issue of the contest. With the few brave companions[12] that survived, he succeeded in making his way into a cross street, and forcing open two houses, the doors of which were not so ponderous, or so well secured as those of the church: the houses, however, were not carried till after a severe struggle, in which all the men that defended them were put to death: and even when taken they afforded the captors but little shelter, being lower than the surrounding buildings, and, consequently, commanded on every side. At length, after a vain and murderous contest of four hours’ duration, but not until the last round of ammunition was expended, Lieutenant-Colonel Duff and his few remaining men were reduced to the necessity of surrendering prisoners of war.

The left wing of the regiment, under Major Vandeleur, had been, in the mean time, engaged in a contest equally murderous, equally hopeless, and equally unfortunate. It had penetrated a considerable way into one of the main streets of the town before a single enemy appeared: two mounted videttes were at length observed retiring slowly, and, as they retired, constantly looking up to the tops of the houses, evidently giving directions to the armed men, who were as yet concealed behind the parapets. Major Vandeleur ordered his men to advance in double-quick time; a terrific shout now burst from behind the parapets, and, in an instant, a dreadful fire of musketry, accompanied by hand-grenades and other missiles, carried death through the British ranks. Revenge or even resistance was out of the question; nevertheless the men remained undismayed, and continued to press on. A deep trench with a parapet cut across the street stopped them but for a moment; they carried it at the point of the bayonet, though with immense loss, and, finally, surmounting every obstacle, succeeded in reaching the river, where they found themselves exposed to an enfilading[13] fire from the guns of the citadel, at about three hundred yards’ distance: they broke open a house, but it afforded no protection, the yard being surrounded by other parapeted houses, from whence an incessant and destructive fire was poured upon them; artillery was brought against them, and a large body of troops surrounded them in a cul-de-sac, from which either advance or retreat was impracticable. For three hours and a half did this devoted little band protract the hopeless struggle, and not until they were nearly annihilated, and until the firing had ceased on every other point, and until, like their comrades under Colonel Duff, they had expended the last ball cartridge that could be found even in the pouches of their dead or dying companions, did they adopt the sad alternative of surrender.

Thus ended the fatal 5th of July, 1807, the first and only occasion on which the Eighty-Eighth sustained a defeat. They had the consolation, however, of knowing, that all that men could do they had done, and of reflecting on many individual acts of devoted bravery highly honourable to the corps. Lieutenant Robert Nickle (late Lieutenant-Colonel of the Thirty-Sixth) led the advance of Brigadier-General Craufurd’s division column into the town, and fell, dangerously wounded, after having given repeated proofs of cool intrepidity united with the most daring courage. Lieutenant William Mackie (now Major, and late Captain, in the Ninety-Fourth Regiment) was severely wounded in the thigh, but, although fainting from loss of blood, continued at the head of his men, until a second bullet struck him across the spine, and stretched him, to all appearance, dead upon the ground; contrary to every expectation, however, though to the unfeigned delight of his comrades in arms, he survived, to gather fresh laurels in the Peninsula. Lieutenant[14] George Bury also distinguished himself by vanquishing, in single combat, a Spanish officer of grenadiers. Serjeant-Major William Bone, for his gallant conduct on the same occasion, was recommended by Lieutenant-Colonel Duff for an ensigncy, to which he was promoted, and died a Captain in the Royal African regiment.

When the regiment was ordered for embarkation, Captain Oates, who was doing duty with the first, though in fact belonging to the second battalion, volunteered and received the permission of his Royal Highness the Duke of York to accompany the regiment; being a supernumerary he was attached to the Thirty-Eighth, a company of which he commanded in the attack on the Plaza de Toros.

Some of the other divisions of the army had met with less opposition than this regiment; the Plaza de Toros, a strong post on the enemy’s right, and the Residencia, a good post on their left, were taken; at the same time part of the army had gained an advanced position opposite the enemy’s centre; but these advantages had cost two thousand five hundred men in killed, wounded, and prisoners.

The loss of the Eighty-Eighth on this occasion amounted to twenty officers, and two hundred and twenty non-commissioned officers and privates killed and wounded.

Officers killed.

Wounded.

[15]

On the following morning Lieutenant-General Whitelocke consented, at the instance of the Spanish commander, to desist from further hostilities, and to evacuate the place, on condition of having the captured regiments released.

The conduct of the Spanish towards the Eighty-Eighth, after its surrender, was marked by much kindness, and few instances occurred of officers being plundered. Captain M‘Gregor was robbed of his gold watch by a black soldier, but recovered it again three days afterwards, upon pointing out the man to a Spanish officer. The same officer was afterwards introduced by Captain Parker Carroll, who remained in the country as one of the British hostages, to General Liniers, and invited by the General to breakfast. The room in which he was received was decorated with coloured drawings of the different corps of militia and volunteers which had been raised within the last few months, and whose officers appeared to be of all hues and colours, from the real jet black to the mulatto, tawny, and even the pale mestee. The General, who entered freely into conversation with his guest, asked Captain M‘Gregor what he thought of the troops by whose portraitures he was surrounded?—receiving, of course, a complimentary answer, he replied, “Ay, it is I who have done all this for them. Those Spaniards knew nothing of military tactics until I arrived amongst them.” He spoke in terms of high praise of Brigadier-General Beresford, and said they were indebted to that officer for teaching them how to defend the town.

On the 10th of July the Eighty-Eighth re-embarked at Buenos Ayres, and descended the River Plate to Monte Video, at which place it arrived on the 18th; on the 8th of August it sailed with the first division of the[16] army for England, and, after a tedious and boisterous passage, made Spithead on the 5th, and landed at Portsmouth on the 8th of November, 1807. During the voyage it lost two officers by death, Lieutenant Lawson and Ensign Jackson.

In February, 1807, while the regiment was abroad engaged in the arduous services just detailed, its Colonel, General John Reid,[3] died, and was succeeded in the command by W. Carr Beresford, at that time Senior Lieutenant-Colonel of the regiment, with the rank of Colonel in the army. Such an instance of promotion is unusual in the service at the present period, and must be considered, therefore, as highly complimentary, not only to Colonel Beresford, but also to the regiment of which he had been for so many years the acting commander.

Soon after its arrival in England the battalion was marched into Sussex, and from thence to Ashford in Kent. From Ashford it was moved in the spring of 1808 to Maldon, in Essex, where it received a draft of four hundred men from the second battalion; this detachment had unfortunately contracted the ophthalmia in Hilsea barracks, and, notwithstanding all the precautions that were taken to prevent the contagion spreading, upwards of two hundred men were in a short time[17] afflicted with the disease; nor was it until towards October that the battalion again became quite effective.

On the 28th of December the Eighty-Eighth sailed from Falmouth for the Peninsula, but encountered, in the Bay of Biscay, a gale of three weeks’ duration, by which the transports on board which it was embarked, were at length forced into Cork, and detained there until the 21st of February following. While at Cork, Colonel Duff, to the great regret both of officers and soldiers, quitted the regiment, in consequence of the recent death of his uncle the Earl of Fife, and the command devolved on Major Vandeleur.

The original destination of the Eighty-Eighth was Cadiz, off which city it arrived on the 6th of March, 1809; but the Spanish Government refusing to receive any British troops into the fortress, it was ordered to Lisbon, where it landed on the 13th, and being brigaded with the Eighty-Seventh, was marched, early in April, to Coimbra. About this time, two of its non-commissioned officers, Serjeant-Major Nicholas Torrence, and Quarter-Master Serjeant William Hill, were promoted to commissions in the Portuguese army, of which the Colonel of the Eighty-Eighth (Lieutenant-General Beresford) was Commander-in-Chief, with the rank of Field Marshal.

When the combined British and Portuguese army moved from Lisbon to the north of Portugal to expel Marshal Soult from Oporto, the Eighty-Eighth was one of the regiments attached to the Portuguese army under Marshal Beresford, destined to act upon the Upper Douro and in the province of Tras os Montes, and intercept the retreat of the French. The march upon Amarante, the passage of the Douro, and the occupation of Oporto, are justly ranked high among the many brilliant achievements of the Duke of Wellington: nevertheless,[18] the very nature of the service in which the Eighty-Eighth was engaged unquestionably tended to put to severe trial the discipline of every corps employed in it. The rapidity and length of the marches; the very unfavourable state of the weather; the obstacles presented by the nature of the country in the Tras os Montes, where the men were frequently obliged to use torch-light to avoid the risk of being dashed to pieces in the craggy paths they were obliged to traverse; the hospitality of the peasantry, who, totally ignorant of the imperious demands of military duty, were loud in commiserating and anxious to alleviate the hard fate of their deliverers thus compelled to march through their country in such inclement weather, and at such unseasonable hours; all offered temptations to straggling, which it is not at all wonderful that the men in many instances yielded to. The best-regulated army during a campaign, even if carried on under the most favourable circumstances, always becomes more or less relaxed in its discipline; and when it is considered that the wreck of the Eighty-Eighth regiment, after its capture at Buenos Ayres, was made up by drafts from the second battalion, that a few short months, only, were allowed it to recruit and re-organize before it was again employed in Portugal, it may be matter of regret, but certainly not of surprise, that it did not form an exception to the general rule. In fact many men were left behind, and some period of repose was necessary to remedy these irregularities, but that repose could not be obtained; for towards the end of June the whole disposable British force was marched into Spain, and on the 27th and 28th of July was fought the battle of Talavera de la Reyna.

The post of the Eighty-Eighth, on the first day, was in the wood on the river Alberche, and its conduct was much praised by Colonel Donkin, who commanded[19] the brigade. It retired in line under a heavy fire, protecting by its steady front the advanced troops, who were greatly out-numbered by the enemy. During the retreat the soldiers were forbidden to fire unless they could cover their man. Corporal Thomas Kelly, of the fourth company, was the first who pulled a trigger; going up to the Adjutant, Lieutenant Stewart, and pointing out a French officer, he said, “Do you see that officer standing by the olive-tree in front of me? He is a dangerous man, and has been giving directions to his soldiers that won’t sarve us; four of the company have been hit already, but if you will allow me I think I could do for him.” “Try, then, Kelly,” was the reply;—he fired; the French officer fell, and the men, disconcerted by the loss of their leader, ceased to harass the regiment, which continued its retreat through the wood, and took post upon a hill on the left of the allied army, which was the key of the position. The hill was steep and rugged towards the enemy, but on the other side it was of smoother ascent; the French, however, resolved to attack this post.

The sun was set, and the shades of night had gathered over the hostile armies, when suddenly a body of French troops was seen advancing boldly to the attack, and in an instant the regiments were engaged in a sharp conflict. Colonel Donkin’s brigade beat the enemy in front, and the Twenty-Ninth Regiment, by a gallant charge, drove back part of the Ninth French Regiment. The enemy returned to the attack; the fighting became vehement; “and in the darkness the opposing flashes of the musketry showed with what a spirit the struggle was maintained: the combatants were scarcely twenty yards asunder, and for a time the event seemed doubtful; but soon the well-known shout of the British[20] soldier was heard, rising above the din of arms, and the enemy’s broken troops were driven once more into the ravine below.”[4] The fighting now ceased; and the bivouac fires blazed up on both sides.

At day-break on the 28th the combat was renewed; a burst of artillery rattled round the height and swept away the English by whole sections; the roar of musketry succeeded, and the hill sparkled with fire. At length, unable to sustain the increasing fury of the British, and having lost above fifteen hundred men in the space of forty minutes, the French retired in disorder to their own lines.

About two o’clock the enemy again advanced; their commander “gave the signal for battle, and eighty pieces of artillery immediately sent a tempest of bullets before the light troops, who, coming on with the swiftness and violence of a hail-storm, were closely followed by the broad black columns in all the majesty of war. The English regiments, putting the French skirmishers aside, met the advancing columns with loud shouts, and breaking in on their front, and lapping their flanks with fire, and giving them no respite, pushed them back with a terrible carnage.”[5] The attack was, however, soon renewed; a fierce conflict raged along the whole front, and the Eighty-Eighth nobly maintained its post on the hill on the left; it had no opportunity of gaining distinction in close fight, but displayed great steadiness in sustaining a heavy fire of artillery. The French at length relaxed their efforts, the fire of the British grew hotter, and their loud and confident shouts—sure augury of success—were heard along the whole line; finally the French retreated without venturing another attack.

[21]

The loss of the Eighty-Eighth in killed and wounded amounted to six officers and one hundred and thirty non-commissioned officers and privates. The officers were Captains Blake, Graydon, and Whittle, and Lieutenant M‘Carthy killed; and Captain Browne and Lieutenant Whitelaw wounded.

In the movement upon Almaraz the Eighty-Eighth joined Brigadier-General Craufurd’s brigade. In this position, very appropriately named by the soldiers “Hungry Hill,” it suffered much from the tardy and defective supply of rations; a situation the more trying to the men from its contrast to the exuberant plenty they had recently enjoyed in the north of Portugal. Subsequently, the regiment occupied, for some time, the town of Campo Mayor, where Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Wallace joined and took the command of the battalion, which received, also, a detachment of three hundred men from the second battalion. Advantage was immediately taken of the regiments becoming, even for a short time stationary, to commence a system of drilling necessary for the re-establishment of that discipline which, during the incessant activity of the preceding months, had unavoidably been somewhat neglected. The task required great zeal and firmness, activity and energy; but Lieutenant-Colonel Wallace showed himself fully competent to it, and had the satisfaction and honour of rendering his corps, what it afterwards was acknowledged to be, one of the finest service regiments in the Peninsular army. At Campo Mayor, also, the Eighty-Eighth set the example, which was speedily followed by other regiments, of forming a regimental mess; indeed, a marked friendliness and cordiality reigned throughout the corps.

About this time Major Vandeleur died,[6] and Colonel[22] Donkin, who commanded the brigade, quitted the army, addressing previous to his departure a letter to Colonel Wallace, from which the following are extracts:—

Towards the end of the year (1809), the Eighty-Eighth removed from Campo Mayor, and occupied the town of Pinhel in the province of Beira: it was brigaded with the Forty-Fifth and Seventy-Fourth, under Colonel Henry Mackinnon, and formed part of the third (or what was afterwards known by the appellation of the “fighting”) division of the army commanded by Lieutenant-General Picton.

The advance of Marshal Massena in the summer of 1810, preceded by the proud but vain boast, that in pursuance of the Imperial orders he would drive the English leopards into the sea, and plant the eagles of France on the towers of Lisbon; the successes with which his first operations were attended; the reduction one after another of Ciudad Rodrigo and Almeida, belong to the general history of the Peninsular war, into which the particular memoirs of the Eighty-Eighth regiment must glide on to the night of the 26th of September, the eve of the battle of Busaco.

On that night the combined British and Portuguese[23] armies were assembled in line, on the ridge of a lofty and precipitous range of hills, taking its denomination from the village and convent of Busaco. The Second division, under Lieutenant-General Hill, formed the right; the Light division, commanded by Brigadier-General Craufurd, was posted on the left near the convent; the Third division was in the centre, while the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth occupied the intermediate spaces, and the First, together with the cavalry, were in reserve in the rear of the left. In their front, within little more than half a cannon shot distance, lay the army of Massena. The weather was calm and fine, and the dark mountains rising on either side were crowned with innumerable fires. The French were apparently all bustle and gaiety, and following their usual avocations with as much sang froid as if employed in preparing for a review, not a battle. Along the whole British line not a fire was to be seen; the soldiers in stern silence, examined their flints, cleaned their locks and barrels, and then stretched themselves on the ground to rest, each with his firelock within his grasp. In their rear, unsheltered by any covering but his cloak, lay their distinguished leader. During the night the French light troops, dropping by twos and threes into the lowest part of the valley, endeavoured to ascend the woody dells and hollows, and establish themselves near the British piquets.

An hour before day on the 27th of September, Lord Wellington passed through the ranks on foot. He passed in comparative silence, for the English soldiers seldom indulge in those boisterous demonstrations of joy so common with the troops of other nations, and indeed rarely are known to huzza, except when closing with the enemy; but wherever he was recognised, his presence was felt as the sure presage of another victory, to be gained by the men whom he had already led in so many fields of triumph.[24] To be beaten when He commanded, seemed, in the opinion of his soldiers, next to impossible. As the light appeared, the fire of musketry commenced in the deep hollows which separated the two armies. Shortly afterwards two French columns, throwing forward a cloud of skirmishers, emerged from the hollow beneath.

On the left, Marshal Ney advanced against the Light division under Brigadier-General Craufurd, and, in spite of the fire of the riflemen, broke through all opposition, and mounted the crest of the ridge, to remain there, however, only for a moment, before the bayonets of the Forty-Third, Fifty-Second, and Ninety-Fifth drove him down again in confusion, leaving the ground covered with dead and wounded, and the French General Simon, who led the attack, together with many other officers and soldiers, prisoners.

In the mean time the left centre of the British army was assailed with equal impetuosity by the second corps of Massena’s army under General Reynier. The disposition of the Third division was as follows:—four companies of the Forty-Fifth and Eighty-Eighth occupied the crest of the hill to the left; the Seventy-Fourth was considerably to the right of these two battalions, the Eighth Portuguese a little to the right and rear, the Fifth and Eighty-Third British were to the left of all, and the Ninth and Twenty-First Portuguese on a rising ground to the right of the division. Major-General Lightburne and Colonel Mackinnon commanded the two British Brigades, and Colonel Champelmond the Portuguese, the whole division being under the orders of Major-General Picton. Lord Wellington, stationed on a rising ground near the Eighty-Eighth, had a full view of these dispositions.

The advance of Reynier’s corps was made with the impetuous rush on which the French troops so much[25] depend, and a crowd of sharp-shooters pressed forward in front of the Eighty-Eighth; Lieutenant-Colonel Wallace saw he was about to be attacked by a column; a misty cloud had settled on the mountain, and he sent Captain Dunne to observe the movements of the enemy on his right, which was a little exposed.

The light troops, after a severe struggle, succeeded in driving back the enemy, but were repulsed themselves in turn. Lieutenant-Colonel Wallace with the utmost coolness, took two men from each of his battalion companies, and placing them under the command of Lieutenant Mackie, reinforced the advance, and thus for some time again kept the French in check; at length, however, they were compelled to retire before the overwhelming force that pressed upon them. The situation was in the highest degree critical, and demanded decision and coolness; the French light troops were rushing on with loud shouts, closely followed by a column of infantry; General Picton was not within reach at the instant, and the Eighty-Eighth was without orders. At this moment Colonel Wallace addressed his men.

This animating address was received by the men, not with shouts and hurrahs, but still better, with a deep and[26] silent attention, indicating firmness of decision and earnestness of purpose.

The regiment was drawn up in line, and many men had already fallen; the colours carried by Ensigns Joseph Owgan and William Grattan, were pierced by numerous bullets, and three of the colour-serjeants were wounded, when Captain Dunne returned, and reported to Colonel Wallace, that besides the mass in his front, which was only the advance of a column about to assail him, a body of riflemen had occupied a cluster of rocks on the right of the regiment, and the main body of the enemy was moving towards an open space which separated the Eighty-Eighth from the Forty-Fifth regiment. Cool and unruffled amongst the dangers that surrounded him, Lieutenant-Colonel Wallace asked Captain Dunne if he thought half the battalion would be sufficient to do the business. “No,” was the reply, “you will want every man you can bring forward.” “Very well,” said Colonel Wallace, “I am ready—Soldiers; mind what I have said to you—I have nothing more to add—it now rests with yourselves.”

Lieutenant-Colonel Wallace then threw the battalion into column right in front, but had scarcely reached the rocks, when a murderous fire was opened upon him; without losing his presence of mind for a moment, he filed the grenadiers and two battalion companies out of the column, ordering them to carry the rocks at all hazards, while with the remainder of the battalion he pressed on against the main body of the enemy.

The Eighth Portuguese regiment had not yet opened its fire; it was too distant: four companies of the Forty-Fifth were engaged in an unequal combat, bravely but ineffectually disputing every inch of ground with a far superior force by which they were assailed: their brave commander, Major Gwynne, had already fallen, and these[27] companies were on the very brink of being annihilated, when the Eighty-Eighth rushed to their assistance, and the two corps precipitated themselves into the midst of the French column, consisting of their Second, Fourth, and Thirty-Sixth regiments, and Irish brigade, and forming the advance of Reynier’s division; they received one dreadful discharge of musketry, but only one; before a second could be thrown in, they had passed through the French column, and completely overthrowing it, drove it down the mountain side with a mighty clamour and confusion, covering the ground with the dead and dying, even to the bottom of the valley.

In the mean time, the three companies of the Eighty-Eighth which had been detached to drive the French riflemen from the rocks on the right, had been engaged in a severe and desperate struggle. In the advance they were exposed to the deliberate aim of practised marksmen ranged amphitheatrically rank above rank, and protected by the rocks of which they had just taken possession; arrived at the point of contest, both officers and men were soon engaged in a hand-to-hand fight. The French defended themselves with more than usual desperation, for they were aware that escape was out of the question, and that they had no alternative between repelling their assailants and being slain on the spot, or hurled headlong down the precipitous rocks on which they had established themselves. Twenty minutes, however, sufficed to decide the question, and to teach the heroes of Marengo and Austerlitz[7] that, with every advantage of position on their side, they must yield to the Rangers of Connaught.

During this short but arduous conflict Captain Dansey was severely wounded, and Captain Dunne had a hair-breadth[28] escape of swelling the return of killed. He had made a cut with his sabre at one of the French riflemen, but struck short, the man being above the reach of his weapon; the Frenchman’s bayonet, on the other hand, was within a few inches of Captain Dunne’s breast, and his finger on the trigger; one word was shouted by Captain Dunne—it was the name of a serjeant in the regiment, “Brazel!” He heard the call through all the din of battle, and rushing forwards, although he fell upon his face in making the lunge, buried his halberd in the Frenchman’s body, and rescued his officer from certain death.

Lord Wellington, who had been a near spectator of the achievements of the Eighty-Eighth, bestowed the warmest encomiums on the regiment. He galloped up to it, and taking Lieutenant-Colonel Wallace by the hand, said, “Wallace, I never saw a more gallant charge than that just now made by your regiment.” In his public despatches he repeated the expressions of approbation which he had used during the heat of the combat, as the following extracts will show:—

[29]

The Colonel of the Eighty-Eighth, Marshal Beresford, joined in the praises bestowed upon his regiment, and recognised the faces of some of the veteran soldiers who had served in India, Egypt, and South America: these men crowded around him with that affectionate familiarity which the high-wrought feelings of such a moment, the sense of a community in past dangers, from which rank gave no protection, and a companionship in present safety, sometimes permitted even from the private soldier to the general.

The cluster of rocks, so lately the scene of deadly conflict, presented a singular spectacle even to those whom use had familiarized with such sights. At their foot many of the Eighty-Eighth were stretched on the field, while in the chasms were to be seen numerous Frenchmen still in the very attitude in which death had overtaken them; some reclining backwards against a crag as if asleep, others leaning forwards over a projecting stone, as in the act of firing; while at the foot of the precipice, on the further side, were many who had been dashed to pieces in their vain endeavours to escape.

The instances of individual bravery displayed by the officers and men of the Eighty-Eighth at Busaco were numerous. Colonel Wallace, finding the charger on which he was mounted at the commencement of the day, was terrified by the firing, and reared frequently, at once abandoned his horse, and fought for some time on foot at the head of his men. Captain Dansey, who commanded one of the companies that attacked the rocks, and who was severely wounded, distinguished himself so as not only to obtain the immediate commendation of his Colonel and the admiration of his comrades, but was also particularly noticed in the despatches of the Commander-in-Chief. Lieutenant William Mackie, to whom Lieutenant-Colonel[30] Wallace confided the command of the battalion-men sent early in the day to support the light infantry, displayed all the courage and coolness necessary in so critical a moment; he was frequently nearly surrounded by the enemy, but escaped unhurt, and, on rejoining the regiment, was loudly cheered by the men. Lieutenant Heppenstall, a young officer, whose first appearance under fire was on this occasion, was frequently mixed with the enemy’s riflemen, and shot two of them, one an officer. Lieutenant William Nickle, serving with the light company, was deliberately singled out by a Frenchman whose third shot passed through his body, but without killing him; as he was proceeding to the rear the same Frenchman sent a fourth shot after him, which knocked off his cap, cheering at the same time. “Get on, Nickle,” said Heppenstall, “I’ll stop that fellow’s crowing.” He waited quietly till the man approached within sure distance, and then revenged his wounded comrade by shooting the Frenchman dead. Corporal Thomas Kelly, of the fourth company, (the same man who shot the French officer in the retreat through the wood near the Alberche at Talavera,) was severely wounded in the thigh at the commencement of the charge against the French column, but continued to run with his company down the hill, until he fell through exhaustion and loss of blood.

The loss of the regiment at Busaco amounted to nine officers and one hundred and twenty-four non-commissioned officers and privates killed and wounded. The officers killed were Major Silver, Lieutenant H. Johnston, and Ensign Leonard; the wounded, Major Macgregor, Captains Dansey, M‘Dermot, and Bury; and Lieutenants Fitzpatrick and Nickle.

Unable to overcome the allied army in combat, the[31] French commander turned its flank; when Lord Wellington retired to the celebrated lines of Torres Vedras, where he opposed a resistance which compelled the French Marshal, notwithstanding his superior numbers, to relinquish his design upon Lisbon. The Eighty-Eighth formed part of the troops which occupied the town and lines of Torres Vedras. The weather was unusually wet, and the army being but indifferently supplied with the materials necessary for the construction of good huts, suffered much from the inclemency of the season; yet, notwithstanding the fatigues of the severe campaign it had gone through, the unfavourableness of the weather to health, and the living principally on salted provisions, of which the rations served out to the army chiefly consisted, the regiment continued in the most effective state. The French, however, suffered much greater privations, and eventually they were forced to retire.

On the 14th of November, Marshal Massena (Prince of Esling) left his position during the night, and took the road to Santarem. This operation was performed under cover of a dark and stormy night, and the enemy effectually succeeded in deceiving the British piquets by substituting straw figures, in place of his veteran tirailleurs, admirably appointed with caps and accoutrements, and by this ruse succeeded in effecting his movement without loss; verifying an old remark, that “men of straw,” by putting on a good appearance, often deceive their neighbours.

The allied army moved forward; the head-quarters were established at Cartago, and the third division occupied the village of Togarro. The French commander was subsequently forced to retire from his position.

In the pursuit of Massena towards the frontiers of Portugal, the Third division was not much engaged with[32] the enemy, but the continual marches to turn the flanks of the French army subjected it to great fatigue. In the course of these marches and constant skirmishes, the regiment lost a most intelligent and enterprising officer, Lieutenant Heppenstall, already mentioned; he fell in the action of Foz-d’Aronce, on the 15th of March, 1811. He was buried at the foot of a pine, near the spot where he fell, under the direction of Dr. Arthur Stewart.

In the action at Sabugal, the Eighty-Eighth, though present, was not actually engaged, a severe storm of snow and hail, which fell just at the moment the Third division, having issued from the woods on the enemy’s right, was about to charge, completely hiding the French corps (General Reynier’s) from view, and giving its commander an opportunity of retiring unattacked.

On the first two days of Fuentes d’Onor, it was in position, but on the third and decisive day of that glorious battle it had a brilliant opportunity of distinguishing itself, and earning another honorary inscription for its colours.

The village of Fuentes d’Onor, which is situated on some low ground, with an old chapel and a few buildings on a craggy eminence at one end, had been the scene of a long, protracted, and sanguinary contest on the 3rd of May; the lower part of the village had been several times taken and retaken, and during the night each army occupied that part of the village which had remained in its possession when darkness and mutual exhaustion put a temporary stop to the battle. The following day was wholly passed in reconnoitering and manœuvres; the British force in Fuentes d’Onor was considerably reinforced from the First division, and amongst other regiments sent to aid in its defence were the Seventy-First and Seventy-Ninth. Soon after day-break on the 5th, the attack was recommenced by the[33] French with increased numbers and renewed fury. Lord Wellington observing the serious efforts of Massena upon this point, and fully appreciating its importance, ordered the Twenty-Fourth, Forty-Fifth, Seventy-Fourth, and Eighty-Eighth British, together with the Ninth and Twenty-First Portuguese regiments, to its support.

It was now about half-past twelve o’clock; the combat in the village had lasted without intermission for eight hours during a day of oppressive heat, and our ammunition was nearly expended. The Highlanders were driven to the church-yard at the top of the town, where they were fighting with the French grenadiers over the tomb-stones and graves, while the Ninth French light infantry had penetrated as far as the chapel, only a short distance from our line, and were preparing to débouche upon our centre. Lord Wellington was on the spot, and surveyed what was passing with the immovable coolness which always characterized him; the troops in the town were nearly worn out in the contest and about to retire, when the Eighty-Eighth was ordered to their support, and changed the face of affairs. Colonel the Honourable Edward Pakenham, who was in the hottest of the fire, had inquired what regiments were in reserve; and when the Eighty-Eighth was named amongst others, asked, “Is Wallace with the Eighty-Eighth?” and on being replied to in the affirmative, said, “Tell him to come down then, and drive these fellows back; he will do the thing properly.”

The battalion was ordered to advance in column of sections, left in front, in double-quick time. As it passed down the road leading to the chapel it was warmly cheered by the troops lying at each side the wall, but the soldiers gave no cheer, no reply; they were placed, and they felt it, in a situation of great distinction; they were[34] about to fight not only under the eye of their own general and his army, but in full view, also, of the French army; their feelings were wound up to the highest pitch of enthusiasm, but there was no huzzaing, no noise, or talking in the ranks; the men, headed by their brave Colonel, stepped together at a smart pace under a very heavy fire of artillery and musketry, as steady and as silent as if on parade. The company which led this attack was commanded by Ensign William Grattan. When they came within sight of the French Ninth regiment, which was drawn up at the corner of the chapel ready to receive them, he turned round to observe the state of his men; the soldiers understood his look and action, and replied to it by a cheer, the first they had given, and which, so given, showed plainly that their hearts were in a right state.

The enemy had not remained idle spectators of this movement; a battery of eight pounders advanced at a gallop on the opposite side of the river, and opened a heavy fire on the Eighty-Eighth, hoping to annihilate it, or at least to check its progress and cripple its efforts, but the battalion, regardless of the grape which was showered upon it, continued to press on, and, in fact, suffered but slightly from the cannonade to which it was exposed. Arrived within a few yards of the chapel they were met by the Ninth French regiment, supported by some hundreds of the Imperial Guard, who rushed on with their usual impetuosity and bravery, uttering loud shouts and throwing in their fire as they advanced; the Eighty-Eighth replied with the bayonet, and rapidly closing with their enemies, so totally overthrew them, that they were not able to rally afterwards. The exhausted but brave troops that had been so seriously engaged all the morning, now joined in the pursuit, and[35] in less than fifteen minutes from the time the Eighty-Eighth commenced its attack there was not a French combatant in the village: their whole force was driven across the rivulet, and many of the British in their pursuit fell on the French side of the stream.

About one hundred and fifty of the Old French Guard in their flight ran down a street which was one of the few that had escaped the fury of the morning attack, and the further end of which, unknown to them, had been barricaded by our troops the night before. Shut up thus in a complete cul-de-sac, the result may be easily imagined;—it was a frightful slaughter, but it was unavoidable. Troops advancing to assault a town, flushed, indeed, with victory, but uncertain whether that victory may not be wrenched the next minute from their grasp, have no time to deliberate. Some of the French Guard sought a vain refuge in bursting open the houses and ascending the chimneys, but their enemies were too close at their heels for them to succeed. This attack was headed by Lieutenant George Johnston, who, not satisfied with clearing one street, immediately proceeded to the next, where the enemy still made a show of resistance, and at length carried away by feelings very natural at such a moment, he climbed up to the top of a stone cross, erected in a square at the river’s edge, and taking off his hat waved it in defiance towards the enemy. The French, however, made no further effort to recover the place, but confined themselves to a heavy cannonade which they continued to pour into the streets, utterly regardless of its murderous effects upon their own wounded. From this cannonade the men of the Eighty-Eighth were ordered by Colonel the Honourable Edward Pakenham to shelter themselves, when they took a position behind a wall in the rear of the chapel, and soon afterwards evacuated the town,[36] which was occupied by the light division under Brigadier-General Robert Craufurd.

When the Eighty-Eighth was ordered by Colonel Mackinnon to resume its place in brigade, the enemy’s fire had ceased, but as soon as they were seen in motion, it recommenced with double fury; the wall was knocked down in several places, and one round shot passed between Colonel Pakenham and Lieutenant-Colonel Wallace, who were on horseback close to each other. It carried away the top of the wall, one of the stones striking Lieutenant-Colonel Wallace on the head and knocking his hat off, but doing him no further injury, though, for the moment, his men believed he had been killed. The regiment then quitted the place by companies in file as the safest way to avoid the effects of the cannonade: the companies returned, left in front. Colonel Pakenham, with his hat shot through the leaf, and his hand wrapped up in a pocket handkerchief, called out to Ensign Grattan as he passed at the head of the foremost company, to know where he was going, and why he left the village. Being told that it was in consequence of orders from Colonel Mackinnon, Colonel Pakenham replied, “I did not observe your number. Do as you are directed; your regiment has done enough for this day; but you may tell whatever troops you meet, that each man may as well bring a keg of ammunition under his arm, for those rascals shall never get possession of the town as long as I have life.” By four o’clock in the afternoon the regiment had joined its brigade.

The conduct of the Eighty-Eighth at Fuentes d’Onor (as at Busaco) obtained the particular notice of Lord Wellington, who, in his despatch containing the account of that battle, says, “On one of these occasions, the Eighty-Eighth, with the Seventy-First and Seventy-Ninth,[37] under the command of Colonel Mackinnon, charged the enemy, and drove them through the village. Colonel Mackinnon has reported particularly the conduct of Lieutenant-Colonel Wallace and Lieutenant and Adjutant Stewart of the Eighty-Eighth regiment.”

The loss of the regiment was not so great as might have been expected from the brilliancy and seriousness of the affair in which it had been engaged. This comparatively small loss is to be attributed to the great steadiness and regularity of the men in their different attacks, and to the rapidity with which, on all occasions, they closed with their adversaries. Only one officer, Captain Irwin, was killed, and four wounded, viz. Lieutenants Stewart, Macalpin, and Halket, and Ensign Owgan. Of non-commissioned officers and privates, seven were killed and fifty-three wounded.

For a few days after the battle of Fuentes d’Onor, the Eighty-Eighth occupied the village of Navez de Aver, and was then ordered to the south to join the forces engaged in the siege of Badajoz. No opportunity occurred during this siege for the regiment to distinguish itself as a body, but many detached instances of intrepidity were displayed by the men as circumstances gave them an opportunity. Amongst others, on the day before the first assault on St. Christoval (the 5th of June), Private Edmund Man, of the grenadier company, was employed in repairing a damaged embrasure in one of the batteries against the castle. He was sitting outside the embrasure, pegging in a fascine, when Colonel Fletcher, the commanding engineer, who, though fearless of any danger as far as regarded himself, was particularly tenacious of allowing the soldiers to expose themselves unnecessarily, called to him, “Come in, my fine fellow, and you will do[38] your work as well, or nearly so at all events.” “It’s hardly worth while, Colonel,” replied Man, “I am just finished, and they cannot hit me, for they have been trying it hard this quarter of an hour.” The words were scarcely out of the brave fellow’s mouth, when a round shot cut him in two, the French cannoniers cheering loudly at the same time at the accuracy of their practice.

When the siege of Badajoz was raised in the month of June, the Eighty-Eighth proceeded to quarters in Campo Mayor, where the second battalion, which had joined the army on the advance from the lines of Torres Vedras, was drafted into the first, making it a fine effective corps, numbering upwards of one thousand bayonets. The staff of the second battalion then returned to England to recruit.

In the autumn of this year the regiment was selected to support the outposts of the army against the attacks of the French garrison of Ciudad Rodrigo, and was cantoned in the villages of El Bodon, La Encina, and Pastores. The French had been in the habit of plundering the country around, and successful in several of their excursions previous to the arrival of the Eighty-Eighth. A few nights after the regiment occupied Pastores, its outposts were attempted by a party from the garrison, which was immediately repulsed with loss, and its commander killed on the spot by Corporal John Walsh of the light infantry company. It was the first and also the last attempt the enemy made on the Eighty-Eighth during its stay in the neighbourhood.

The blockade of Ciudad Rodrigo was completed on the 5th of September, and preparations for the siege commenced, when the junction of Marshal Marmont and Count Dorsenne obliged Lord Wellington to abandon[39] the design for a time. On the 25th of the same month, the third division was attacked at El Bodon by General Montbrun, and fell back upon Fuente Guinaldo, in good order and with little loss, although the distance was eight miles, and the retreat was made in the face of a powerful artillery and cavalry force. The Eighty-Eighth suffered but slightly in this affair, and occupied for its winter-quarters, or rather quarters of repose, the village of Aldea da Ponte.

In the depth of the ensuing winter the army was suddenly called from its cantonments to the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo, the investment of which fortress was effected on the 8th of January, 1812. The service of the trenches was carried on by the first, third, fourth, and light divisions alternately, each taking the duty for four-and-twenty hours. The weather was severe, and the troops without covering, but the men were in high health and spirits, and the siege was prosecuted with so much vigour, that on the 19th of the same month, two practicable breaches having been made in the body of the place, Lord Wellington determined to carry it by storm.

The third and light divisions had the honour to be selected for this service; the latter was directed to attack the left or smaller breach, while the assault of the grand breach was confided to the former. The fourth division was in reserve. It was half-past six in the evening when the orders for storming the town arrived; Colonel Wallace was absent from the army on account of ill-health, and the command of the Eighty-Eighth devolved upon Major Thompson. A few minutes before the brigade was formed for the attack, Major-General Mackinnon sent for Major Thompson, and told him, he wished the forlorn hope to be led by a subaltern officer of the Eighty-Eighth; adding, that in the event of such officer surviving,[40] he should be recommended for, and as a matter of course would obtain, a company. Major Thompson felt the distinguished compliment to the Eighty-Eighth which this intimation of the General’s wish conveyed, and calling his officers together, informed them of it. Lieutenant William Mackie, then senior-lieutenant, instantly stepped forward, and dropping his sword, said, “Major, I am ready for that service.” “Go then,” replied the Major, taking him by the hand, “Go, and God bless you!” The soldiers, who were close at hand, heard what passed, and some difficulty arose in selecting, out of the numbers who pressed forward claiming on some pretence or other the preference in danger, the twenty to which the Forlorn Hope was limited. The selection, however, was quickly made from the company which Lieutenant Mackie commanded.

The regiment was formed in sections, right in front, and everything in readiness to obey the signal gun for the advance, when Lieutenant-General Picton and Major-General Mackinnon appeared accompanied by their staff. Long harangues are seldom made to British soldiers, and in the present instance Lieutenant-General Picton’s words were few, but at the same time too animating, and too characteristic of himself, not to be recorded verbatim. They were, “Rangers of Connaught! It is not my intention to expend any powder this evening: we will do this business with the cold iron.”

The troops then entered the trenches with Major-General Mackinnon at their head; on leaving the approaches they advanced rapidly over the rugged ground leading to the breach, many of the men carrying bags filled with grass to throw into the ditch and break the descent. Arrived at the foot of the breach they speedily mounted, but met with a very gallant resistance, and many men[41] and officers fell: amongst the latter was the commander of the Brigade, Major-General Mackinnon, who was killed with many others by an explosion of gunpowder in the moment of victory. On each side the breach was a twenty-four pounder, every discharge from which swept it with a raking fire. Major Thompson of the Seventy-Fourth (acting engineer), observing the destruction occasioned by these guns, ordered the few men who were next at hand to storm the one on the left; the nearest men happened to be three of the Eighty-Eighth, Brazel, who saved Captain Dunne’s life at Busaco, Kelly and Swan. Beneath them and the gun was a deep retrenchment, which would have rendered it impossible for them to reach it in time to anticipate its next fatal discharge, if they were encumbered with their firelocks. Without a moment’s hesitation they threw aside the heavier weapon, and armed only with their bayonets, leaped the interposing barrier, rushed up to the muzzle of the piece, and after a short but terrific combat (in which Swan lost his arm by the stroke of a sabre) put all the French cannoniers to death and silenced the gun. The troops on the breach were now safe from the havock which had a few minutes before been so fatal to their comrades, and in half an hour the town was carried.

Lieutenant Mackie, guided by the fugitives of the garrison, was the first to arrive with his party at the gates of the citadel, where the enemy inquired for a General Officer to receive their surrender. The Lieutenant being a Grenadier officer, pointed to his epaulettes as a guarantee of their safety in surrendering to him, and the gate was immediately opened. The officer commanding the advance of the light division coming up at the moment, the governor and his staff were conducted to Lord Wellington, who had by this time reached the ramparts.

[42]

Lieutenant Faris was engaged during the assault in a desperate hand-to-hand conflict. Two French grenadiers, observing him far in advance of his men, attacked him. One fired and immediately ran away, his bullet passing through the Lieutenant’s coat; the other then fired, wounded him slightly in the thigh, and immediately closed upon him with the bayonet, making a thrust at the body, which Lieutenant Faris parried with his sabre, but received a severe wound in the leg; a personal struggle then took place, from which Lieutenant F. at length succeeded in disengaging himself, and killed his adversary by a sabre cut on the head. By this time he was completely exhausted, and was obliged to be carried into the next house. His wounds, however, though severe, were neither of them dangerous, and he soon recovered.

The loss of the Eighty-Eighth before Ciudad Rodrigo was one officer, Lieutenant Beresford, and twenty rank and file killed; four Lieutenants, Flack, Armstrong, Johnston, and W. Kingsmill, two serjeants, and fifty-four rank and file wounded. Lord Wellington in his despatches notices the third division and this regiment in the following words,—

After the reduction of Ciudad Rodrigo, the regiment[43] occupied the village of Albergeria until the middle of February, when it marched towards the South to join the forces in Alentejo, and act against the fortress of Badajoz. In this siege the duty of the trenches was performed by the third, fourth, and sixth divisions, about sixteen thousand strong, while the French garrison amounted to six thousand. The place was invested on the 16th of March, and the trenches opened the same night. On the night of the 19th the garrison made a sortie with two thousand men against the right of the trenches with great gallantry, and at first with considerable success, but were finally driven back to the town with loss. In that part of the British line which faced the advanced fort called La Picurina, were two batteries in a forward state, occupied by a party of the Forty-Fifth and Eighty-Eighth, under the command of Captain Hogan of the Eighty-Eighth. The trenches were in such a state from the rain which had fallen almost incessantly from the commencement of the siege, that the working parties were up to their knees in water, and it was deemed right to keep the covering troops as much as possible out of the wet ground. About half an hour before the usual time of relieving the guard of the trenches, Ensigns Darcy and Grattan of the Eighty-Eighth, although the smoke of the French batteries combined with a heavy fog rendered it impossible to distinguish objects at any distance, thought they observed symptoms of the enemy’s meditating a sortie from the Picurina Fort. Without waiting for orders, they instantly directed the working party to throw down their tools and resume their arms; in the next moment, and before many of the men were in readiness to act, the French made a rush at the battery No. 2, but were received at the point of the bayonet, by the few assembled[44] men of the Forty-Fifth and Eighty-Eighth, and thus the readiness and presence of mind of two young officers, and the firmness of a handful of brave men, preserved the half finished works from destruction. Some of the soldiers pursued the repulsed enemy as far as the glacis of the town, and two privates of the Eighty-Eighth, Kelly of the fourth company (who has been already mentioned for his conduct at Talavera, Busaco, and Ciudad Rodrigo) and M‘Gowan of the grenadiers particularly distinguished themselves.

On the 24th the regiment lost one Lieutenant (North) killed, and had another Lieutenant (Stewart) wounded, by the fire of the place. On the evening of the 25th it was determined to storm the Picurina redoubt; five hundred men of the third division were ordered upon that duty, and amongst them a detachment of the Eighty-Eighth, commanded by Captain Oates and Lieutenant George Johnston. The latter officer was a volunteer; it was not his tour of duty in the trenches, and he still carried his arm in a sling from the effects of his wound at Ciudad Rodrigo; but the moment he heard that Captain Oates, who was the Captain of his company, was to be of the storming party, he determined to join him. The first attack was made at the gorge of the redoubt, but the defences were too strong and the resistance too obstinate even for troops accustomed to victory; repulsed there, however, and with severe loss, they did not abandon the attack in despair; gliding round the flanks and faces of the work, they sought for, and at length obtained, an entry by scaling the ramparts. In one of these attempts the ladders proving too short, Captain Oates observing that the ditch though very deep was narrow, called out, “Come, boys, though the ladders are too short to mount up the ditch, let us try our hand with them[45] across it.” In a few minutes three ladders were pitched from the glacis into the mouth of an embrasure, and across them, in spite of a severe fire of musketry and grape. Captain Oates led the way into the redoubt; here he soon fell, disabled by a severe wound, and Lieutenant Johnston was killed within a few paces of him; in fact, of fifteen officers who were with the party not one escaped unhurt.

During the further progress of the siege, the regiment lost a field-officer, Major Thompson, who was killed in the trenches on the night of the 28th, and on the same night Brevet-Major Murphy was wounded. In the final assault on the 6th of April, the escalade of the castle was the duty allotted to the third division. Lieutenant Whitelaw of the Eighty-Eighth volunteered to lead the advance of twenty men, but less fortunate than his brother officer, Lieutenant Mackie at Ciudad Rodrigo, fell at the moment of victory; Captain Lindsay of the Eighty-Eighth was also killed while in the act of raising a ladder for his company to escalade the castle wall; three other Lieutenants were killed (Mansfield, Cotton, and Macalpine); and one Captain (Peshall) and four Lieutenants (Faris, Armstrong, Davern, and Grattan) wounded. Mr. Thomas Martin, eldest son of Richard Martin, Esq., many years M.P. for Galway, who had joined the regiment as a volunteer soon after the opening of the trenches and accompanied the grenadiers in the assault, was also wounded in the shoulder. The total loss of the regiment before Badajoz, during the sieges in June, 1811, and in March and April, 1812, amounted to eight officers, five serjeants, and forty-two rank and file killed; and eight officers, ten serjeants, and one hundred and sixty-six rank and file wounded.

After the fall of Badajoz, the regiment returned to the[46] frontiers of Beira, where it remained till the army again took the field in June. At the battle of Salamanca, (22nd July) the Eighty-Eighth, together with the Forty-Fifth and Seventy-Fourth, formed the right brigade of the third division, which was posted on the right of the army, opposite to the Seventh French division, under General Bonnet. Lieutenant-General Picton being at this time absent from the field on account of ill-health, the division was commanded by Major-General the Honourable Edward Pakenham, the brigade by Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Wallace of the Eighty-Eighth, and the Eighty-Eighth itself by Major Seton, who had succeeded to that rank upon the death of Major Thompson in the trenches at Badajoz. It was five in the afternoon, when Lord Wellington rode up and desired Major-General the Hon. E. Pakenham to move the third division forward, and carry the heights and guns in his front. The division was at this time formed in open column, right in front, facing a hill behind which the French were posted, and on which were erected two batteries. The colours were just uncased, and the bayonets fixed, when Lieutenant-Colonel Wallace addressed a few animating words to the men, explaining their situation, and cautioning them to be aware of the enemy’s cavalry, which was watching them closely, and hanging on their flank: to the officers he said, “Gentlemen, the regiment is on this day, as it generally is on such occasions, tolerably strong, and (pointing to the batteries which crowned the hill in front) we are likely to have a good deal of noise about our ears. I would recommend you to place yourselves in the centre and front of your companies, which will prevent any mistake.”

The brigade now moved forward in one column, the Forty-Fifth leading, followed immediately by the Eighty-Eighth;[47] the enemy opened a heavy fire from fourteen guns, which was replied to by a brigade of nine-pounders firing over the heads of the advancing column. When the smoke cleared away, Bonnet’s division was perceived advancing rapidly round the face of the hill, as if determined to anticipate attack; Major-General Pakenham now rode up to Lieutenant-Colonel Wallace and ordered him to wheel the brigade into line without halting, a manœuvre which evidently disconcerted the enemy, who nevertheless continued to advance with drums beating and keeping up a heavy fire of musketry. In spite of the enemy’s fusillade, Major-General Pakenham, Lieutenant-Colonel Wallace, and Majors Seton and Murphy, remained at the head of the Eighty-Eighth, which formed the centre of the brigade, and continued to advance steadily in line with firelocks on the rest. As the British advanced, the fire of the enemy slackened, and they seemed inclined to give way, when several of their officers advanced in front to animate the men, and one officer of the Twenty-Second, (the leading regiment of the French column,) seizing a firelock, ran out in front of his men and shot Major Murphy of the Eighty-Eighth through the heart. At the same moment a ball struck the pole of the King’s colour, cutting it nearly in two, and taking the epaulette off the shoulder of Lieutenant D’Arcy who carried it. The men now, for the first time, became impatient, and called out for revenge; Major-General Pakenham cheered, and desired Lieutenant-Colonel Wallace to let them loose; the men rushed into the midst of the fire, and a close and desperate, but short, conflict took place. The deep and ponderous column, so formidable in attack, was now completely overthrown, and at the mercy of its assailants; many of the French were killed and wounded, and the broken[48] column pursued for about a quarter of a mile through an extensive but thinly-planted wood of cork-trees. At this moment a shout in the rear caused the pursuers to expect to have a charge of French cavalry to repel, but they were agreeably disappointed by having Major-General Le Marchant’s brigade of heavy cavalry to greet, instead of a fresh enemy to resist. The French could not withstand this new attack, and the whole column, originally seven thousand strong, was cut to pieces or captured, together with two eagles and eleven pieces of cannon.

Owing to the previous casualties at Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz, only four Captains were present with the regiment at Salamanca, and of these, one (Captain Mackie) acted as Aide-de-Camp to Lieutenant-Colonel Wallace, and when the heavy brigade charged, joined them in the attack. Two others (Murphy, brevet-major, and Hogan) were killed, and the fourth (Captain Adair) so severely wounded, as to survive the effects only a few months. Captain Tryon of the Eighty-Eighth, D.A.A.G., was likewise severely wounded. The Eighty-Eighth had also four Lieutenants (Meade, Nickle, Grattan, and Kingsmill) wounded; one serjeant and eighteen rank and file killed, and one serjeant and one hundred and nine rank and file wounded; the total of casualties amounting to seven officers and one hundred and twenty-nine non-commissioned officers and privates.

After the battle of Salamanca the Eighty-Eighth formed part of the corps which occupied Madrid during Lord Wellington’s march to Burgos, and on the evacuation of that capital in October following, returned to quarters in Portugal, where it received a strong detachment of the Second battalion, which again raised its effective strength to near one thousand rank and file.[49] For the first time, also, since its arrival in the Peninsula, it was furnished with tents in common with the other regiments.

On the 16th of May, 1813, the Eighty-Eighth broke up from its cantonments at Leomel, and joined in the general advance of the army into Spain, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Macpherson. In the course of the march an accident occurred both annoying and prejudicial to the regiment. In order to facilitate the movements of the army, to render the column of march less encumbered, and to lessen the fatigue of the troops, it was customary, when not in the presence of the enemy, to proceed either by brigades or single corps: Major-General Sir Thomas Brisbane’s brigade, of which the Eighty-Eighth formed part, moved by regiments. The Eighty-Eighth, on the route from Leomel to St. Jean de Pasquera, arrived at a spot where the road branched off in different directions, one leading to its proper point of destination, the other descending into the steep and precipitous country which forms the left bank of the Douro. By some unaccountable ignorance or misconception on the part of its guide, the regiment took the wrong road, and after struggling for some time through a series of rugged defiles, found itself at a late hour in the evening embedded in the mountains, and as distant from St. Jean de Pasquera as it had been when starting from its cantonments at Leomel. Some men died of the heat and fatigue, but the esprit de corps sustained the regiment through the long and severe forced march, across a country deeply intersected with ravines, thickly covered with gum cistus, and traversable only by goat-paths, by which it rejoined its division.

On the 27th of May the regiment entered Spain, and on the 20th of June, it was posted near the river Bayas,[50] when dispositions were made for attacking the enemy in his position in front of Vittoria.

The troops were under arms an hour before daylight on the 21st, and the third and seventh divisions were destined to attack the enemy’s centre; but the French, having weakened their centre to support their flanks, which were first attacked, the centre column of the allied army did not meet with serious opposition. In front of the Eighty-Eighth the enemy occupied a hill of considerable elevation, from which he was forced by that regiment, while the Forty-Fifth and Seventy-Fourth made flank movements round its base, the French retiring to a second hill in the rear of their former position. The Eighty-Eighth, which had hitherto been in column, now deployed into line, and notwithstanding a heavy fire of musketry and artillery, continued to advance, till the enemy having rallied and brought up fresh troops, there was momentary halt by order of Sir Thomas Brisbane, who commanded the brigade. At this instant Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Picton coming up, and feeling displeased at the halt, made use of some harsh expressions to the Eighty-Eighth as the leading corps, which led to an immediate explanation from Sir Thomas Brisbane, when the regiment again moved forward and headed the brigade in the attack upon the town of Vittoria. During the day the Eighty-Eighth charged several times, but the enemy never waited to receive them, and it was generally observed among the soldiers, that so far as this regiment was concerned, King Joseph’s army at Vittoria proved decidedly the worst fighting army they had encountered.

The loss of the regiment at Vittoria was one officer, Ensign Saunders, and thirty rank and file killed; four officers, Captain M‘Dermott, and Lieutenants Flood,[51] Fitzpatrick, and Faris; two serjeants, and one hundred and ninety-five rank and file wounded; in all, two hundred and thirty-two.

The expressions used by Sir Thomas Picton became afterwards the subject of remonstrance, and even of a memorial to the Duke of Wellington. The result was that, after due explanations, a letter satisfactory to the regiment was addressed by Sir Thomas Picton to Sir Thomas Brisbane, as Commander of the brigade, declaring that, after the many instances of gallantry he had witnessed in the Eighty-Eighth, it could never have been his intention to cast any reflections on that corps, by words uttered in a moment of irritation, and adding, that his divisional order after the battle should be received as a sufficient proof of this. The following is an extract of that order:—

On the 28th of July, two companies of the Eighty-Eighth had an opportunity of earning distinction for themselves and their corps under the immediate eye of the whole third division, as well as of a strong and select body of the French. The attempt of Marshal Soult to[52] raise the siege of Pampeluna, which had been invested by the Duke of Wellington’s army shortly after the battle of Vittoria, and the series of actions which took place between the covering army and that of Soult in the passes of the Pyrenees between the 25th and 30th of July, which ended in the complete repulse of the French, gave rise to the display of British valour with a splendour never exceeded in the annals of war. The allied army was posted immediately in front of Pampeluna, the right in front of the village of Huarte, the third division being to the right, and those of Lieutenant-General Cole, and Major-General the Honourable E. Pakenham, together with the Spaniards, to the left. The main efforts of Soult during the day were directed against the allied left, but about five in the afternoon, some of his tirailleurs were pushed forward as if to feel the countenance of the third division, and ascertain whether its position would be seriously defended or not. The light company of the Eighty-Eighth, commanded by Captain Robert Nickle (late Lieutenant-Colonel of the Thirty-Sixth Foot) was ordered to drive them back, which it speedily accomplished: a select body of French, headed by an officer of the staff, who had volunteered for that service, now advanced to support the repulsed tirailleurs, and two battalion companies of the Eighty-Eighth hurried to the assistance of their comrades. The skirmish, fought in sight of the two armies, took almost the type of a national trial of skill and courage; the French rushed forward with their characteristic impetuosity, shouting “Vive l’Empereur;” the Connaught rangers, accompanied by the cheers of their division, met them with the bayonet, and overthrew them at the first onset. The French commanding officer was left on the field mortally wounded; Captain Nickle, as[53] soon as the conflict was decided, went up to render any assistance in his power to his fallen antagonist, and, finding him already dead, tied his handkerchief on the point of his sabre, and waving it towards the retreating French, beckoned to them to return for the body of their officer, which they did, and carried him off to render the last honours to his remains.

During the movements of the succeeding day, when the allied army resumed the offensive, a heavy column of French infantry was routed by Major-General Brisbane’s brigade, and the greater part made prisoners by the Forty-Fifth, Seventy-Fourth, and Eighty-Eighth. After this the third division re-occupied the pass of Roncesvalles, where it remained till the 8th of August, when Major-General Brisbane’s brigade was relieved by Colonel Downie’s brigade of Spaniards, and proceeded by the valley of Los Alduides to the pass of Maya.

On the 31st of August the whole of the third division crossed the frontiers of France, and Major-General Brisbane’s brigade occupied the pass of Echalar, replacing there the Seventh division, which had proceeded to reinforce the troops before St. Sebastian; on the 4th, however, it returned to the pass of Maya, and on the 15th resumed its old position near the village of Erisoun, and remained in the valley of Bastan till the 7th of October, when, in consequence of the left of the army having crossed the Bidassoa and entered France, the Eighty-Eighth and the rest of the division moved to the village of Zagarramundi to the right and in front of the pass of Echalar.

During this interval (9th of September, 1813) Lieutenant-Colonel Taylor joined the regiment, and superseded Lieutenant-Colonel Macpherson in the command.

[54]

The colours of the Eighty-Eighth bear testimony that it had its share on the 10th of November, in the storming of the formidable lines which the French had erected on the river Nivelle, and in the various actions which took place on the banks of the Nive, between the 9th and 13th of December; but on neither of these occasions had it the good fortune to come into actual contact with the enemy. On the 17th of December it went into cantonments in the village of Urcuray, situated on the high road leading from Bayonne to St. Jean Pied de Port, and the adjacent hamlets, where it remained till the army again moved forward in February following.

In the battle of Orthes, 28th of February 1814, the third division was directed to attack the heights on which the enemy’s centre and left stood, and the Eighty-Eighth had once more an opportunity of distinguishing itself, when its loss was more severe than on any other occasion, except the siege of Badajoz. The Fifty-Second led the attack; the Eighty-Eighth advanced on the right; the heights were carried, and the regiment advancing in pursuit, its left flank was charged by a body of French cavalry, which it entirely overthrew, killing, wounding, or taking prisoners the whole detachment, which was hemmed in in a narrow road, and precluded from all retreat. In this battle, Captain Oates’s conduct was particularly noticed, and procured for him the Brevet rank of Major in the army. The loss of the battalion was three officers, Captain M‘Dermott, Lieutenant Moriarty, and Ensign Reynolds, five Serjeants and thirty-six Rank and File killed; and eleven Officers, Lieutenant-Colonel Taylor, Captains Oates and Bunworth, Lieutenants Fitzpatrick, Davern, Faris, Creswell, Holland, and Stewart, Ensign M‘Intosh, Ensign and Adjutant[55] Mitchell, thirteen Serjeants, and two hundred and one Rank and File wounded. Total, two hundred and seventy-seven.

After this severe action the regiment was placed in cantonments until the 13th of March, when it again took the field, and was present on the 4th of April, at the battle of Toulouse. Although only three companies of the regiment were engaged on this occasion, they had the good fortune to perform a critical and important service, in supporting the Forty-Fifth and Seventy-Fourth when engaged with very unequal numbers of the enemy. The Light Infantry Company, in particular, suffered, and its Captain, R. Nickle, was severely wounded: the loss of the three companies in killed, was equal to that of the whole battalion at Vittoria, amounting to one Serjeant and twenty-nine Men; the wounded were Captain Nickle and Lieutenant Poole, one Serjeant, and fifty-three Rank and File.

The Serjeant who fell at Toulouse, was much regretted by the whole corps; his name was Thorpe, and he was Serjeant-Major of the battalion. He had been originally Drum-Major, in which capacity he was present at the battle of Busaco: on that occasion, when ordered with the band and drummers, to the rear, he entreated his commanding officer to allow him to join his company, and having obtained permission he fell into the ranks, behaving with the utmost gallantry throughout that memorable day. This, and other instances of his courage, induced Lieutenant-Colonel Wallace to consider him qualified for a higher situation, and to remove him from the band into the line. He had for some time been recommended for a commission, to which the Gazette which arrived from England a few days after his death, contained his appointment.

[56]

The peace of Paris in 1814, having put an end to the war on the Continent, the Eighty-Eighth Regiment was among the corps ordered to proceed to America, where hostilities were still raging. It embarked in the Gironde on the 15th of June, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Macpherson, and, without returning to England, sailed direct to Quebec, where it arrived on the 3rd of August following. The unfortunate failure of the combined military and naval operations on Lake Champlain and at Plattsburgh put a stop to active hostilities in Canada, and the Eighty-Eighth had only one opportunity of coming into contact with the enemy, viz., at the passage of the Savannah, where the light company, under Captain Nickle, distinguished itself.

If, however, the period of its stay in Canada was barren of laurels to the Eighty-Eighth, it gave the regiment an opportunity of displaying qualities which, if not so dazzling and brilliant, are equally valuable in, and honourable to the soldier, namely, firm discipline and unshakeable fidelity to his king, his country, and his colours. The extent to which desertion prevailed amongst the British troops in America, is unhappily but too well known; but although the Eighty-Eighth was stationed on the banks of the river Richelieu, within a few hours’ sail of the province of Vermont; although the men were considerably in debt to their officers, and under stoppages to pay off an incumbrance, of which desertion would at once have relieved them; although tempting rewards awaited such as should reach the American territory, which could be done without the slightest risk; although American ships were daily arriving and departing, and the facilities were such that, if so disposed, the whole battalion might have deserted in a night, the Eighty-Eighth did not lose one man by desertion,[57] during the whole eleven months that it remained in Canada!!

This honourable conduct of the men of the Eighty-Eighth did not go unnoticed or unrewarded; their reward was exemption from the painful duty of being present when the extreme sentence of martial law was executed upon deserters from other regiments. The following is a copy of the brigade order on one occasion of the kind, more than nine months after the arrival of the regiment in America.

The subject was again honourably adverted to by Major-General Brisbane, in a letter addressed to the regiment in Brigade Orders, when, in consequence of the escape of Napoleon from Elba, and the prospect of renewed and active warfare in Europe, it had been ordered to return to England.

On the 29th of May the regiment marched from St. John’s, reached William Henry on the 1st of June, where it embarked in small craft, and arrived at Trois Rivieres on the 4th. At Trois Rivieres it was shifted into transports, reached Quebec on the 8th, sailed again on the 10th, and arrived at Spithead on the 15th of July.

The battle of Waterloo had decided the contest in Europe before the arrival of the Eighty-Eighth; nevertheless the regiment was ordered to proceed, without disembarking, to Flanders. After two days’ stay, therefore, at Spithead, it sailed again on the 17th, and landed at Ostend on the 21st of July. From thence it proceeded towards Paris, and on the 12th of August took up its quarters at St. Denis, and was once more attached to Sir Thomas Brisbane’s brigade. In December following it was removed to that of Sir John Keane, on which occasion Major-General Brisbane caused the following letter to be addressed to Colonel Wallace, who had again taken command of the regiment.

From January, 1816, to the end of the spring, 1817, the Eighty-Eighth was in garrison at Valenciennes, when it returned to Great Britain, and was quartered in Edinburgh about two years. Some time after its arrival in Scotland, a letter was received from Lieutenant-General the Honourable Sir Charles Colville, who had frequently had it under his command, as part of the third division, in the Peninsula, and more recently during its stay at Valenciennes, “expressing his hearty wish for the honour and well-being of the regiment in whatever situation it may be placed, and requesting the Officers, Non-Commissioned Officers and Privates, to accept his thanks for the ready attention paid to his orders during the period the regiment was under his command.”

During the period of repose at Edinburgh, it occurred to Colonel Wallace to establish an Order of Merit in the regiment, by conferring some honorary mark of distinction on the non-commissioned officers and privates, proportioned to their regimental character, length of service, and the number of general engagements in which they had been present. This was, however, a design which could not be carried into execution without the consent and approbation of the Commander-in-Chief,[60] which Colonel Wallace applied for in the following letter:—

The answer of the Commander-in-Chief, communicated in a letter from Sir Henry Torrens, dated 28th of the same month, sanctioned Colonel Wallace’s plan, leaving it to his “discretion to grant such testimonials in the case alluded to, as he might deem essential to the good of the regiment.” The proper authority thus obtained, Colonel Wallace’s intentions were carried into effect without delay. Silver medals of three distinct classes were struck at the expense of the officers of the regiment. The first class was bestowed on men who had been present in twelve general actions, and consisted of a Maltese cross on which the names of the twelve actions[61] were stamped. The second class was given to those who had served in from six to eleven general actions, and the third to such as had served in any number less than six. The name of the man to whom it was given was engraved on each medal. The total number distributed was,—

On the 11th of March, 1819, Lieutenant-General Sir Gordon Drummond, G.C.B., was appointed Colonel of the Regiment, in succession to Lieut.-Gen. Viscount Beresford, who was removed to the Sixty-Ninth Regiment.

In the summer of 1819, the Eighty-Eighth moved from Edinburgh to Hull, sending detachments to Manchester and Stockport. In August of the same year, Colonel Wallace, after more than fourteen years’ service with the regiment, was promoted to the rank of Major-General, and was succeeded in the command by Lieutenant-Colonel James Ferguson.

During the time the regiment was quartered at Hull, the manufacturing districts of England were in a high state of discontent, and attempts were made to circulate inflammatory publications amongst the military. Private James Tracy, of the Eighty-Eighth, being tampered with for this purpose, received the papers, but, instead of distributing them amongst his comrades, instantly gave them up to his commanding officer, Major Nickle, furnishing, at the same time, such information as led to the apprehension and conviction of the man from whom he had received them. For this conduct Tracy received a liberal[62] reward, as well as the approbation of Lieutenant-General Sir John Byng, commanding the district, which was conveyed to him through a letter to Colonel Ferguson.

From Hull the Eighty-Eighth removed to Chester, and from thence, in the summer of 1821, to Liverpool, where it embarked for Ireland, landed at Dublin, and proceeded to Enniskillen, where it took up its head-quarters, furnishing sixteen officers’ detachments. In July, 1822, it moved from Enniskillen to Castlebar in Connaught, where it remained, again furnishing fifteen officers’ detachments, till December, 1823, when it marched to barracks at Naas. On quitting Castlebar it received a very flattering address from the magistrates and resident gentlemen of the town and neighbourhood.

On the 16th of January, 1824, Lieutenant-General Sir Gordon Drummond was removed to the Seventy-First regiment, and the Colonelcy of the Eighty-Eighth was conferred upon Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Frederick Campbell, K.C.B., G.C.H.

It was February, 1825, before the last detachment joined from Connaught, when the regiment, once more united, removed to Dublin, occupying first the Richmond, and subsequently the Royal barracks. While the Eighty-Eighth remained in Dublin, orders were issued for increasing the establishments of regiments from eight to ten companies. The zealous exertions of Lieutenant-Colonel Ferguson, aided by the high popularity the corps enjoyed, enabled the Eighty-Eighth to complete its numbers in little more than six weeks, and to be the first regiment reported as complete to the Commander-in-Chief, a circumstance honourably noticed in a letter from the Adjutant-General of the Forces to Major-General Sir Colquhoun Grant, then commanding the garrison of Dublin, under date of 20th of June, 1825. “I[63] have it in command,” says the letter of the Adjutant-General, “to express His Royal Highness’s approbation of the zeal manifested by Lieutenant-Colonel Ferguson, the commanding officer, in thus rapidly raising the augmentation, and which being the first instance of completion yet reported, is most creditable to that officer, and the corps under his command.”

In the latter part of the summer of 1825, the regiment removed to Templemore, furnishing fourteen detachments in the counties of Tipperary and Limerick. Here Lieutenant-Colonel O’Malley joined on the 10th of August, and took the command in place of Lieutenant-Colonel Ferguson, who had been removed to the Fifty-Second Regiment. In September it received orders for the Mediterranean, embarked by divisions at Cork on the 7th and 21st of October and 12th of December, 1825, and proceeded to Corfu, where the last division arrived on the 27th of January, 1826.

During the year 1828 the regiment furnished several detachments to the neighbouring islands of Ithaca, Cerigo, Calamos, and Santa Maura; the detachment in the last-named island suffered severely from a malignant fever which raged during the months of June, July, and August, and carried off thirty-six men out of seventy-five, of which it originally consisted. On the 19th of September, the head-quarters were removed to Cephalonia, on which occasion Major-General Woodford took leave of it in the following very flattering terms:—

In April, 1830, the Eighty-Eighth again returned to Corfu, where it remained until September, 1831, when it was removed to Vido, and continued there until December, 1831, when it again proceeded to Corfu. The reserve companies remained in Ireland from 1825, to April, 1830, when they embarked for England.

From the time of its original formation, the Eighty-Eighth regiment had, as stated at the commencement of the Record, borne on its colours and appointments a device, consisting of a Harp and Crown, with the motto “Quis separabit?” No direct authority appears to have authorised this appropriation of a badge and motto, but use had sanctioned it, and the recollection of the fields of glory in which it had waved before the enemy, endeared it to the sympathies of the officers and men. In an official design for a new stand of colours preparing for the regiment towards the end of 1830, this device and motto were omitted. Colonel O’Malley immediately wrote to the Adjutant-General representing the case, and the strong wishes of the regiment for its retention, for the consideration of the Commander-in-Chief. His application was successful, and obtained distinct authority for the corps to continue the use of the badge to which it was so strongly and so reasonably attached. The Adjutant-General,[65] in a letter dated from the Horse-Guards, 30th of December, 1830, says—

The Eighty-Eighth regiment having been omitted among the regiments authorised to bear, as an honorary distinction, the word “Pyrenees” on its Colours, the Commanding Officer, Lieutenant-Colonel O’Malley, in the year 1830, made the most strenuous exertions to obtain this additional honour for the regiment, in commemoration of its services in the actions in the Pyrenees, as narrated at pages 52, &c.; and testimonials of its gallant conduct on the occasions in question, were furnished by Major-General Sir Thomas Brisbane, who commanded the brigade of which the Eighty-Eighth formed a part,—by Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Frederick Stovin, who acted as Assistant-Adjutant-General to the third division,—and by Lieutenant-Colonel James Campbell, who was Major of Brigade.

[66]

This omission occurred in consequence of the officer who commanded the regiment on the occasion alluded to, not having received a medal for that service, perhaps owing to an accident, or clerical error at the time; but, as Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Picton, who commanded the third division, fell in the battle of Waterloo, the requisite form of recommendation for honours of this description could not be procured, and the General Commanding-in-Chief did not feel himself justified in departing from the general rule which had been established, as the ground on which these distinctions should be submitted for the King’s approval. This honorary inscription is, consequently, not borne on the colours of the Eighty-Eighth regiment, for its services in the Pyrenees.

On the 20th October, 1831, Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Frederick Campbell, K.C.B., was removed to the Twenty-Fifth regiment, and Major-General Sir John Alexander Wallace, Bart. and K.C.B., who had commanded the regiment in many of the arduous campaigns during the Peninsular war, was appointed to the Colonelcy of the Connaught Rangers.

The Eighty-Eighth regiment continued in Corfu from the year 1830 to 1836, furnishing occasionally working parties for the island of Vido, and detachments to Santa Maura, and the other islands: the detachment to Santa Maura in April, 1832, continued there ten months, and consisted of two Captains, three Subalterns, one Assistant-Surgeon, six Serjeants, two Drummers, and one hundred and fifty Rank and File.

To those persons interested in the well-being of the corps, and who recollect the extent of sickness and mortality experienced by a former detachment at this station, and of not more than half the strength, in the year 1828,[67] it will be gratifying to know, that not more than two deaths took place, neither of which was caused by climate, one of them was accidental drowning, and the other the consequence of delirium tremens; indeed, such was the health of this detachment, that the hospital was, for the greater part of the time, unoccupied during its stay at Santa Maura.

From the period of the return of the regiment from the Island of Cephalonia to Corfu, Major-General Sir Alexander Woodford, in making his half-yearly inspections, expressed in every instance his approbation of the corps, more especially in June, 1831, when he addressed a letter, of which the following is a copy, to Major O’Hara, then Commanding Officer, upon whom, and the regiment altogether, the sentiments expressed by the Major-General reflect much credit:—

Nothing of importance connected with the history of the regiment, occurred from the date of its return to Corfu, with the exception of the melancholy circumstance of Captain the Honourable Charles Gustavus Monckton having been assassinated by a villain, private James Clarke, on the 9th August, 1831, under the impression, as it is believed, that his being accidentally met out of barracks at a late hour of the night, by Captain Monckton, when in the act of committing felony, might tend to his conviction thereof.

The constitution of a regiment is such that the acts of individuals, more or less, reflect honour or disgrace on the whole corps, and much of the fame and high character to which the Eighty-Eighth regiment has claim, would perhaps be tarnished, if grounds existed for imagining that any other individual belonging to it was concerned in this diabolical act; the feelings evinced by the soldiers[69] of the regiment, particularly those of the company to which the assassin belonged, when forgetful of the forbearance due to religion and to the laws, they were with difficulty restrained from taking vengeance, as well as their subsequent conduct in requesting to be permitted to subscribe one dollar (4s. 4d.) per man, to erect a monument to the memory of their much-lamented officer, and thereby make known to posterity, their horror and indignation at the disgraceful occurrence, are convincing proofs that no other soldier was implicated in this disgraceful transaction.

The request of the regiment was acquiesced in; at the same time it was deemed prudent to limit the subscription of the Non-Commissioned Officers and Privates, to one day’s pay each, with which a monument has been erected in the military burial-ground of Corfu.

The following notification was made to the regiment on this occasion:—

The monument bears the following inscription in English, and in Greek, viz.:—

SACRED
To the Memory of
THE HONOURABLE CHARLES GUSTAVUS MONCKTON,
Late Captain in
His Majesty’s Eighty-Eighth Regiment (or Connaught Rangers),
Who died by the hand of an Assassin, on the 9th August, 1831,
Aged Twenty-Six years.
This Monument is erected by the Non-Commissioned Officers and Private
Soldiers of the Regiment, in testimony of their respect and regard
for this most lamented young Officer, and to record their
abhorrence of the atrocious act by which he was
deprived of life.
The feeling of grief and indignation, strongly and universally expressed
by the Regiment, was only moderated on witnessing the prompt
punishment of the murderer, Private James Clarke, who
was executed on the 11th August, 1831.

It may be here told, in further justice to the feelings of the men of the company to which this assassin Clarke belonged, that such was the horror of the wretch’s memory amongst them, that not one of those soldiers could be prevailed with, unless positively ordered, to receive, and do duty with the arms and accoutrements which had been in his charge, and this having come to the knowledge of the Commanding Officer, in March, 1833, when a draft of men was received from the reserve companies, which made it necessary to bring in use some spare arms and accoutrements, Colonel O’Malley (in proof of his acquiescence in the feeling) caused the accoutrements and appointments in question to be cut in pieces on the parade of the regiment, and the objectionable firelock[71] was delivered into the Ordnance stores in exchange for another.

The ceremony of presenting new colours to the regiment, took place at Corfu on the 27th of February, 1834, the anniversary of the battle of Orthes, in which the Eighty-Eighth regiment bore a distinguished part, and suffered a severe loss in officers and men.

The presentation of colours, which is under any circumstances interesting, caused on the present occasion an unusual excitement, it being known that they were to be given by Lady Woodford, the wife of Major-General Sir Alexander Woodford, commanding the troops in the Ionian Islands. A vast concourse of people, with all the beauty and fashion of the place, assembled at an early hour on the esplanade of the citadel, which is finely situated, commanding a view of the rugged and snow-topped mountains of Albania, of the sea, and of the fertile hills of the island covered with olives, and green with the opening vegetation of an early spring. The fineness of the day was in unison with the beauty of the scenery, and nature herself seemed to smile on the expected ceremony. The Lord High Commissioner, Lord Nugent, the President of the Senate, and the Senators with their families, and the nobility and gentry of the island, honoured the corps with their presence.

The regiment being assembled and drawn up in line, at about eleven o’clock Lady Woodford arrived in her carriage, attended by the Major-General and his Staff on horseback; and on her Ladyship’s descending in front of the line, the regiment presented arms, the band playing “God save the King.” The grenadier company then moved from the right, and drew up facing the centre of the battalion: having opened its ranks, it presented[72] arms to the old colours, of which it took charge, and escorted them to the citadel, the regiment presenting arms to them. Shortly afterwards the grenadiers returned with the new colours, which had been consecrated on the previous Sunday, and had remained in the garrison chapel. These were delivered by the Rev. Charles Küper to the Major and senior Captain, by whom they were borne to the parade, where those officers placed themselves on either side of Lady Woodford, continuing to hold the colours unfurled. The grenadiers having resumed their place on the right of the line, the regiment formed three sides of a square, leaving the fourth open to the public. During this formation, in order that a suitable impression might be made on their young minds, the school children of the regiment (boys and girls), neatly and uniformly dressed in green, moved into the square.

Ensigns Herbert and Honeywood, upon whom the honour of receiving the colours devolved, were then ordered to advance towards Lady Woodford, when her Ladyship delivered the colours to those officers, with the following exhortation:—

At this moment a light breeze expanded the Colours, emblazoned with the names of the many battles in which the corps had borne a distinguished part, and a simultaneous burst of admiration and applause issued forth from the numerous spectators.

The Ensigns then moved to their places in the line of[73] Officers; as they advanced, the regiment presented arms, the band playing “God save the King.”

The Major-General then stepped forward and addressed the regiment in the following terms:—

[75]

The Commanding Officer, Colonel O’Malley, replied to the Major-General as follows:—

The square was then reduced, and the regiment being in line, fired a feu de joie, the drums beating a point of war between each fire, and at the close the band played “God save the King;” after which the regiment gave three hearty cheers in honour of the occasion. The regiment then broke into column and marched past, the[77] Officers saluting, and the line being re-formed, opened its ranks, advanced, and again presented arms.

At two o’clock, the whole of the Non-Commissioned Officers and Soldiers, with their families, were provided with an excellent dinner on the parade in the citadel.

The Service Companies embarked from Corfu on board the Barosa troop ship, under command of Major Eden, on 29th July, 1836, and landed at Portsmouth the 23rd of September, where they joined the Depôt Companies after a separation of nearly eleven years, those companies having arrived only two days previously from Ireland.

The Depôt Companies after being moved from Ireland to Languard Fort and Harwich in 1830, continued to occupy those quarters until July, 1832, when they moved to Chatham, leaving a detachment of one company at Harwich, under command of Captain Orr; on the 1st January, 1833, Major O’Hara joined and assumed the command of the depôt, Major Eden having proceeded to join the Service Companies, and in this year the depôt moved to Sheerness, where Captain Orr’s detachment joined in June from Harwich, on quitting which place Captain Orr received a letter expressive of the admiration of the Mayor, Justices, and Inhabitants, of the good conduct of the detachment, of which letter and of Captain Orr’s reply, the following are copies, viz.:—

In June, 1834, the depôt marched in two divisions from Sheerness, and returned to Chatham, where, soon after, one of those incidental riots took place between some soldiers and some of the seamen and labourers in the Dock-yard, which, as in most cases of the kind, originated from some trifling cause, and was in the first instance considered of no importance; but unhappily it shortly after assumed a more grave and serious form, as very frequent opportunities were taken to grossly insult and assault the soldiers, who, though fully impressed[79] with that good sense of discipline which commands forbearance, were forced in self-defence to retaliate. Again, on the 21st August, after the races, an altercation took place between some soldiers and sailors, the origin of which could not be ascertained, but the sailors were joined by a vast rabble of the lowest kind, who aided in seriously maltreating the soldiers, whose numbers being comparatively few, acted alone in self-defence, until some of the well-disposed of the inhabitants ran to the barracks and gave notice to the guard of what was passing: when the soldiers in barracks were made aware of it, they rushed therefrom to the aid of their comrades, some of whom they met, in appearance frightfully maimed, the consequences of which might have been most serious, had not the Officers of the depôt hurried forward and arrested the advance of the soldiers, who in obedience to orders immediately returned to the barracks. In the course of this proceeding, no interference was made by the civil authorities, nor on the following day when a party of seamen in a state of intoxication, accompanied by a vast rabble armed with bludgeons, and preceded by persons with musical instruments, marched up to the barrack-gate and called for the soldiers of the Eighty-Eighth, to come out for fight, and decide the affray of the previous day, a challenge which no doubt would have been readily accepted, more especially as the men were termed cowards, &c. had not the serjeant of the barrack-guard and his men done their duty by keeping their comrades within the walls, until the Commanding Officer and Officers were made aware of what was passing, and ordered the barrack-gates to be closed, and thus terminated this threatened fight. A detailed report of these proceedings was made by the Officer commanding the depôt to the Commandant of Chatham, and a[80] complaint against the military having been forwarded in the name of the inhabitants of that place, a Court of Enquiry of five Officers (Major Dubourdieu of the Provisional Battalion, President) was assembled on the 1st September for the investigation of the complaints, of which due notice was given to the complainants, with an invitation to attend and support the charges they had preferred: notwithstanding which, not one individual appeared before the court; and however blameable the civil authorities may be considered for their non-interference to check the scenes which took place, it may be justly inferred that no guilt could be established against the military, more especially, as such a report was made for the General Commanding-in-Chief’s information, as brought a letter from the Adjutant-General, expressive of Lord Hill’s satisfaction at the exertions of Major O’Hara and that of the Non-Commissioned Officers, in supporting his exertions to prevent and stop the irregular proceedings which took place, of which letter the following is a copy, viz.:—

The depôt marched in two divisions to Dover, on the 6th and 8th of September, and arrived on the 10th and 12th. They occupied the Western Height Barracks, giving a detachment to the Castle until the 3rd of January, 1835, when the entire of the depôt were moved to the Castle. Soon after its arrival in Dover it actively assisted with the Artillery in extinguishing a fire, for which the thanks of the inhabitants were received; and after being quartered in Dover for eleven months, it embarked for Ireland in the Messenger steamer, the 5th August. The feeling of the inhabitants at its departure will be best understood by reading the following description thereof, extracted from the “Dover Telegraph,” which, with a letter from the Magistrates, and a garrison order, on the occasion, sufficiently refute the calumny cast on the corps when at Chatham.

From the Dover Telegraph.

DEPARTURE OF THE EIGHTY-EIGHTH.

The official documents which follow this article, so justly embody the sentiments of the chief civil and military authorities of the town and garrison, on the uniform good conduct of the depôt companies of the Connaught Rangers, since they have been stationed here, as to leave us but the alternative of referring to our humble testimony in their favour on the first arrival of their route for Ireland.

That the inhabitants of all ranks fully concur in these[82] testimonies, is best proved by the voices of the thousands assembled to greet them with a farewell cheer. At five o’clock on Wednesday evening, the depôt marched from their quarters in the Castle through the town to the new cross wall, where they were immediately embarked on board the Messenger steamer, and from that hour till nearly half-past eight, the piers and quays were literally crowded with the largest concourse of persons witnessed there for many years. During the flowing of the tide the brass band gave their final entertainment, by performing several national and appropriate airs in their acknowledged excellent style, and considerable amusement was afforded to those near the vessel by the leave-takings of the soldiers’ female friends, most of whom seemed more desirous of taking leave to accompany them. At nearly half-past eight the Messenger was warped into the middle of the harbour, and presently afterwards the paddle wheels were in motion. At this moment the most perfect silence was observed by the troops, an arrangement that seemed necessary for every order being distinctly heard, relative to navigating in the harbour a vessel of eight hundred tons, propelled by machinery of two hundred horse power. But no sooner had she passed the boom-house jetties, than the cheers of the troops burst forth in a genuine Hibernian hurra, which was immediately answered most cordially by the multitude assembled on the piers, and continued for some minutes. The band played “Rule Britannia” as the ship glided majestically to sea, and in a few minutes the Connaught Rangers were out of sight and progressing towards their native land.

We have entered more into detail than is usual on the embarkation of a single corps, but the peculiarly disadvantageous circumstances under which the Eighty-Eighth arrived at Dover, thus contrasted with the interest[83] excited by their departure, after a stay of nearly twelve months amongst us, we think may warrant our doing so, as a proof that the odium attached to the corps at Chatham was undeserved. We now turn cheerfully to the documents before alluded to, the communication from the town clerk, and the garrison order of Colonel Arnold, viz.:—

Copy of a Garrison Order issued by the Commanding Officer at Dover, on the departure of the depôt of the Eighty-Eighth regiment:—

On the arrival of the Messenger steamer at the Cove of Cork, orders were received to convey the depôt to Kinsale, where it disembarked the 10th September, and went into barracks at Charles Fort, from which a company was detached to Bandon on the 14th. On the 6th October, the depôt was inspected by Major-General Sir Thomas Arbuthnot, K.C.B., commanding the southern[85] district, who expressed himself highly satisfied with it in every particular. On 19th October, Assistant-Surgeon Douse, Lieutenant Mackie, with one serjeant, and twenty-one privates, proceeded to Spike Island, where (with the exception of Surgeon Douse, promoted to the 14th foot, who was replaced by Assistant-Surgeon Dalmage) they remained until the 9th February, 1836, when they embarked in the Bristol freight ship to join the service companies at Corfu. On the 31st March, a company was detached to Dunmanway.

The depôt received the route for Nenagh, and two companies, with head-quarters, marched from Charles Fort on the 19th of April, detaching, en route, a company to Killaloe, and relieved the depôt of the 27th regiment at Nenagh, on the 27th. The companies at Bandon and Dunmanway joined head-quarters on the 12th May, and the depôt was inspected by Major-General Sir James Douglas, K.C.B., commanding the south-western district, on the 14th, who was pleased to say, “he had seen no depôt of which he should make a more favourable report.”

A letter, of which the following is a copy, was received by Captain Rutherford, commanding the detachment at Bandon, on his departure from that town:—

To the foregoing Captain Rutherford made the following reply:—

The depôt marched from Nenagh to Buttivant on the 9th June, where it arrived on the 14th, and received orders to hold itself in readiness to embark for England, which it did in September following, on board the Athol troop ship, and joined the service companies at Portsmouth, on the 23rd of that month, when they landed from Corfu.

The regiment continued to do duty in the garrison of Portsmouth nearly eleven months, in the course of which time it was twice inspected by Major-General Sir Thomas M‘Mahon, K.C.B., who, on each occasion, expressed his most unqualified approbation of it in every particular, and his intention to report accordingly to the General Commanding-in-Chief. Whilst at Portsmouth the regiment discharged nine serjeants and ninety-two rank and file, most of them after long service, worn out and unfit for further service; those numbers were, however, recruited in the course of fourteen weeks, forty-one of whom were chosen from disbanded soldiers of Evans’s legion on their return from Spain, and the regiment discontinued to recruit. It marched for Weedon Barracks, Northamptonshire, in three divisions, on the 14th, 15th, and 16th August, 1837, and on the 20th of September, it was inspected by Lord Hill, General Commanding-in-Chief, when his Lordship was pleased to express himself in high terms of approbation. After a stay of only seven weeks at this most desirable station, it again marched in[88] four divisions into Lancashire, on 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th, of October, to Bolton (head-quarters), Wigan, Haydock Loch, and Liverpool.

The Eighty-Eighth, or Connaught Rangers, though comparatively a young regiment, has performed much arduous service. A few months after it was embodied, it was engaged in operations against the enemy in Flanders and Holland, and shared in all the difficulties and privations of a winter campaign in 1794. A portion of the corps was afterwards employed in active operations in the West Indies. In a few years it appeared on the shores of India; and it formed the van of the Indian army through the deserts of Egypt. In South America the Connaught Rangers performed their duty as gallant soldiers: and throughout the Peninsular campaigns their services are associated with the Third Division of the British army, which was eminently distinguished for gallantry. After a series of victories in Europe, the services of the regiment were transferred to North America, where it was distinguished for a praiseworthy national feeling, which is inherent in brave men, and was evinced by the absence of desertion. Its services may be estimated from the circumstance, that in a period of six years it lost forty-three Officers, twenty-eight of whom fell in the field; the remainder died from wounds, from the effects of climate, or from fatigue; and its loss in Non-Commissioned Officers and Privates during the same period, and from the same causes, was above two thousand. Since the termination of the war, this regiment, whether on home service, or in garrison abroad, has been eminent for good conduct; and its past services furnish a laudable incentive to perseverance in well-doing, to all who have the honour of being enrolled under its Colours.

[89]

[90]

SECOND BATTALION OF THE EIGHTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT.

This battalion was composed of recruits raised in Ireland, for limited service, under the authority of the Additional Force Act, which passed 4th of July, 1804, and was placed on the establishment of the army, December 25th of the same year. It was formed at Dumfries, in Scotland, in November, 1805, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel John Alexander Wallace, embarked at Leith for the Thames, and landing at Gravesend, marched into Sussex, where it occupied various quarters, and furnished, from time to time, reinforcements for the First Battalion. In January, 1807, it returned to Ireland, and was quartered principally in Connaught, where it recruited numerous volunteers from the Irish militia regiments.

In the summer of 1809 it embarked from Cork for Lisbon; but on its arrival, and subsequent inspection there, it was sent, in consequence of the youth of the men, to Gibraltar, and did duty in that garrison for a few months. From Gibraltar it was ordered, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Taylor, to Cadiz, in which city it was quartered during the operations against Fort Matagorda. After the reduction of that fort it was encamped for two or three months in the Isla de Leon, under the command of Major (afterwards Lieutenant-Colonel) Macpherson, and assisted in the construction[91] of the lines thrown up for the defence of that island against the French. A short time before Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Graham engaged in the expedition which led to the battle of Barossa, the Second Battalion of the Eighty-Eighth was ordered again to Lisbon, where Colonel Taylor resumed the command.

In the pursuit of Massena’s army from the lines of Torres Vedras, the second battalion, under the command of Major Dunne, was attached to the third division of the army. It was engaged in the action at Sabugal, and was present in the operations of the army down to the storming of Badajoz, after which, it furnished, as formerly stated, a large draft of men to the First Battalion and returned to England. In the end of 1813 it was ordered to Ireland, for the greater facility of recruiting. The very liberal encouragement which Lieutenant-General Lord Beresford afforded to this service, enabled Major Dunne to obtain a number of volunteers from the Irish militia; the liberality of the Colonel, and the judicious management of the Commanding Officer, were so successful, that in two months the battalion was increased from one hundred and forty to eight hundred strong. It continued in Ireland, furnishing occasional drafts to the First Battalion until January, 1816, when it was finally reduced at Clare Castle, after transferring all the men who were fit for service to the 1st battalion, then quartered in France.

[92]
[93]

SUCCESSION OF FIELD OFFICERS;

THE

NAMES of OFFICERS, &c., KILLED and WOUNDED;

WITH A

LIST OF NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS, &c.,

WHO HAVE RECEIVED MEDALS FOR MERITORIOUS
SERVICE.

[94]

SUCCESSION OF FIELD OFFICERS.

[95]

[96]

[98]

[100]

[101]

[102]