Chapter XIV: Part 14

Cost of 450 men at £15 (£10 bounty and £5 levy-money)
would be 6750
----
Balance £150
====

Thus the country is saved all expense but £5 a man levy-money. _S.C.L.B._ 15th April, 1st and 12th November 1793; 20th January 1794.

[195] _S.C.L.B._ 9th July 1794.

[196] _Star_, 13th April 1793.

[197] One Lieutenant drew half-pay for 80 years after the drafting of the 104th (Royal Manchester Volunteers), which was one of these ephemeral corps. _Records and Badges of the British Army_, p. 833.

[198] _St. James’s Chronicle_, 26th April 1794.

[199] _Public Advertiser_, 2nd February 1793.

[200] _St. James’s Chronicle_, 19th July 1794.

[201] _Ibid._ 19th August 1794.

[202] _Narrative of an Officer of the Guards_, ii. 76–79; Bunbury, _Great War with France_, Introd. p. xx.; _St. James’s Chronicle_, 27th January 1795 (debate on Army Estimates of 21st January); _Journal of Sir Henry Calvert_, pp. 360, 384–85. The letters of Lady Sarah Lennox (the mother of the Napiers) throw a curious light on the scramble for promotion through the enlistment of recruits at this period. “Think of my bad luck about recruits. If I had seen an officer one fortnight sooner who is here, he would have sold me 20 at 11 guineas per man. Is not that unfortunate; but they are now gone. My Dublin stock too, which was 40, has been reduced to 26,” ii. 109, _and see also_ ii. 101. “Is there any chance of recruiting men of five feet four inches for 10 guineas, and as much under as possible, in your neighbourhood.” Evidently the wives of poor officers plunged into speculation to help their husbands with recruits.

[203] _S.C.L.B._ 15th April 1793. _Daily Chronicle_, 16th April 1793.

[204] York to Dundas, January 1794.

[205] _Chronicle_, June 1793.

[206] _St. James’s Chronicle_, 24th and 26th July 1793.

[207] _S.C.L.B._ 26th March 1794.

[208] _Ibid._ 29th April 1794.

[209] York to Dundas, 2nd February 1794 (with enclosures).

[210] Dr. Hayes to Lord Cathcart, 1st February 1794; Monthly returns, 1st February to 1st May; Ditfurth, ii. 32.

[211] Witzleben, iii. 64 _seq._

[212] Sybel, iii. 49–65; York to Dundas, 22nd March, 3rd April 1794; Witzleben, iii. 70–84.

[213] Witzleben, iii. 91, 62, 29; Ditfurth, ii. 10 _sqq._, 28.

[214] Ditfurth, ii. 30, 31.

[215] Craig to Nepean, 7th, 22nd, 31st March, 11th April; to York, 7th, 15th, 16th March; York to Dundas, 9th, 22nd, 26th March, 1794.

[216] Ditfurth (ii. 43) reckons the field force at from 120,000 to 130,000, but he includes British troops which were not on the spot, and reckons the strength of those present at too high a rate.

[217] Witzleben, iii. 94.

[218] Calvert, p. 187.

[219] Three squadrons of the 1st Dragoon Guards, two squadrons each of the Blues, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th Dragoon Guards, 1st Royals, 2nd Greys, 6th Inniskilling Dragoons, 7th, 11th, 15th, 16th Light Dragoons. The 8th and 14th Light Dragoons were embarked or embarking to join the army. It has been a matter of much difficulty to discover how these regiments were brigaded.

_Harcourt’s Brigade._ (?) 1st, 5th, 6th D.G. = 7 squadrons.

_Mansel’s Brigade._ (?) Blues, 3rd D.G., Royals = 6 squadrons.

_Laurie’s Brigade._ (certainly), Bays, Greys, Inniskillings = 6 squadrons.

_Ralph Dundas’s Brigade._ 7th, 11th, 15th, 16th Light Dragoons, 1st squadron of the Carbineers = 9 squadrons.

After the death of Mansel on the 26th of April, Dundas took over his brigade, and Colonel Vyse took Dundas’s. But the regiments seem to have been much shifted from one brigade to another.

Calvert, pp. 197, 204. _Cannon’s Records_, Royal Horse Guards, p. 102.

[220] Ditfurth, ii. 54. Craig to Nepean, 18th April 1794.

[221] So say the records of the 15th Hussars. I suspect that there were two squares with the guns between them, as at Avesnes-le-Sec on 12th September 1793. Two squares side by side would give an appearance of oblong shape to the formation.

[222] The records of the 15th Hussars for some reason seek to excuse the slaughter of the fugitives, by mentioning that the National Convention had decreed that no quarter should be given to the English; and this mistake has been copied by Sir Evelyn Wood in his excellent account of the action in _Achievements of Cavalry_. As a matter of fact the decree was not made until the 26th of May; and three hundred men need no excuse for taking no prisoners when attacking five thousand.

[223] In _Cannon’s Records_ of the 3rd Dragoon guards these casualties are ascribed to the action of the 26th of April. Whether the mistake be due to accident or to design, it is to be regretted.

[224] Going over the ground, my companion and myself fixed upon a hollow about half a mile to west of Inchy, and on the north side of the road, as the spot where Otto concentrated his squadrons out of sight of the French. The left flank of the French infantry, upon which the attack was opened, we reckoned to have stood in a hollow about half a mile south-east of Inchy. After very careful study of the ground, I put forward these conjectures with some confidence.

[225] The establishment of an Austrian Cuirassier Regiment was six squadrons; the British regiments, as originally organised in 1793, should have made thirteen squadrons; but I imagine that losses had reduced one or other of them to a single squadron, for both Witzleben (iii. 132) and Ditfurth (ii. 57) give the number as six Austrian and twelve British squadrons.

[226] Stewart to Dundas, 30th April; Craig to Nepean, 25th April; Adjutant-general to Duke of York, 22nd April, 1794. These two unfortunate battalions spent three weeks on the passage.

[227] York to Dundas, 6th May 1794.

[228] It is curious to note that Jomini’s account makes the French force front to the south, whereas Craig conceived of it as facing to the north; so that evidently it was prepared to face either way.

[229] Witzleben, ii. 167. Memorandum of the 28th of April in _W.O. Corres._

[230] Clerfaye (including the reinforcements from Ostend), nineteen thousand; Walmoden at Warcoing, six thousand; Duke of York at Tournai, eighteen thousand (Craig to Dundas, 6th May 1794). Witzleben, however, reckons the united force at thirty thousand men only (iii. 143), and Ditfurth gives but four thousand men to Walmoden.

[231] _Life of Lord Combermere_, i. 38.

[232] The regiments engaged were the Blues, Second, Third, Sixth Dragoon Guards; First, Second, Sixth Dragoons; Seventh, Eleventh, Fifteenth, Sixteenth Light Dragoons. Which were engaged throughout and which came up as reinforcements, I have been unable to discover. The account of the action is drawn chiefly from Calvert, _Journal_, pp. 203–205. _Narrative of an Officer_, ii. 41. Ditfurth, ii. 75. _Life of Lord Combermere_, i. 38–39. The first is the most important.

[233] Sybel, iii. 118–120. Witzleben, iii. 157–167.

[234] Ditfurth, ii. 90. He says actually that there was nearly room for the full width of a company, of course in triple rank.

[235] Great part of the battle-field is now built over. Lille alone covers a vast extent of it, and Roubaix and Lannoy are to all intent part and parcel of Lille. But the general character of the ground, and in particular its blindness, remains unchanged.

[236] Witzleben (iii. 197–198) considers the slowness both of Clerfaye and the Archduke Charles on this day to have been inexcusable.

[237] Brigade of Guards (4 battalions); 14th, 37th, 53rd Foot, 2 Hessian and 5 Austrian battalions; 7th, 15th, 16th Light Dragoons (6 squadrons); 4 squadrons of Austrian Hussars.

[238] Hamilton (_History of the Grenadier Guards_, ii. 304) says, I know not on what authority, that the pretext for this order was that Clerfaye required assistance. It is certain that the Austrian Headquarters had heard nothing and knew nothing of Clerfaye’s situation at this time, so that, if General Hamilton’s story be more than mere gossip, the order was probably urged by Waldeck or some other of Mack’s enemies, with the object of bringing his elaborate combinations into contempt. The fact that the British would be the chief sufferers in case of mishap, would rather have encouraged this faction in the Austrian Staff to the measure.

[239] The _Gazette_ prints this place as Bouderes; and the mistake has been copied into many regimental histories. It is only one among innumerable instances of the slovenliness of the clerks of the War Office at that time.

[240] Not to be confounded with the village of the same name further north, on the road from Tournai to Lannoy.

[241] The evidence upon this point is very conflicting. All the English accounts state that, when the British reached Lannoy on their retreat, the place was in possession of the French. Ditfurth, on the other hand (ii. 133, 137 _seq._), is very positive that it was held by the Hessians until 1 p.m., which, in his opinion, was long after the British would have reached it; and the evidence which he adduces is very strong. Against this, it is certain that the British would have been only too thankful to rally at Lannoy if they could, and that they were greatly disappointed to find themselves cut off from it. It is also to be noted that Ditfurth rakes up everything that he can to the discredit of the English, but was not at the pains to read a single English account of the action, except the Duke of York’s letter as published in the _Gazette_, and that his account of their movements is consequently full of errors. I incline to the opinion that the Hessians were still in Lannoy, but that the French around them were so numerous as to cut the British off from it—in fact, that the French practically held it invested, with a covering force powerful enough to keep the British at a distance. The same was the case at Roubaix, which the Sixteenth Light Dragoons contrived to hold till Abercromby retreated, though the Austrians, the Duke of York, and Abercromby himself all believed it to be in the hands of the French. It still remains to be explained why the Hessians made no sign of their presence when Abercromby’s column approached, for the British artillerymen actually began to lay their guns upon it in the assurance that it was in the enemy’s hands.

[242] There are few actions which I have found so difficult to describe as this of the 18th of May. I have drawn my account from Witzleben, iii. 201–230; Ditfurth, ii. 130–157; Jomini; _Narrative of an Officer_, ii. 47–51; Cannon’s _Records of the Seventh and Fifteenth Hussars and Sixteenth Lancers_; Calvert’s _Journal_; and Craig’s letters to Nepean of 19th May 1794 (Record Office).

[243] Calvert, p. 269.

[244] The French brigades at this period were of the strength of divisions.

[245] Jones, _Campaign of 1794_. The author was a captain in the Fourteenth.

[246] Witzleben, iii. 168–169.

[247] Sybel, iii. 120–125. York to Dundas, 26th May 1794 (with enclosures).

[248] Captain William Parker to the Admiralty, 3rd June 1794.

[249] Duke of York to Dundas, 10th, 13th, 14th June 1794. Craig to Nepean, 10th, 13th, 14th June 1794. Calvert, pp. 238–253.

[250] Duke of York to Dundas, 28th June 1794. Ditfurth, ii. 171–172.

[251] Calvert, 277. _Life of Lord Lynedoch_, 91.

[252] 3rd, 19th, 27th, 28th, 40th, 42nd, 54th, 57th, 59th, 63rd, 87th, 89th.

[253] Moira to Dundas and to Nepean, 26th June 1794.

[254] Duke of York to Dundas, 28th June, 2nd July; Craig to Nepean, 27th June; Moira to Dundas, 28th and 29th June, 1st July 1794.

[255] York to Dundas, 2nd and 3rd July; Dundas to Diepenbrock, 3rd and 7th July; Diepenbrock to Dundas, 5th July 1794.

[256] Coburg to York, 7th and 8th July; York to Coburg, 7th July; to Dundas, 7th and 10th July; Craig to Nepean, 11th July 1794.

[257] Sybel, iii. 150–152, 171. Craig to Nepean, 4th July 1794.

[258] York to Dundas, 15th, 19th, 20th, 23rd July 1794.

[259] _Narrative of an Officer of the Guards_, ii. 35.

[260] Craig to Nepean, 11th July 1794.

[261] Cornwallis to Dundas, 8th and 18th June 1794, and see _Cornwallis Correspondence_, ii. 239–255; _Malmesbury Correspondence_; _Dropmore Papers_, ii. 564–566, 577, 592, 594.

[262] Sybel, iii. 240–243.

[263] Poisson, iv. 262.

[264] Ditfurth, iii. 217.

[265]

CAVALRY—
_David Dundas’s Brigade_—2nd, 6th D.G.; 2nd, 6th D.
_Ralph Dundas’s Brigade_—Blues; 3rd, 5th D.G.; 1st D.
_Laurie’s Brigade_—7th, 11th, 15th, 16th L.D.
_Vyse’s Brigade_—1st D.G.; 8th, 14th L.D.
_Foreign Troops_—
Uhlans Britanniques, Irving’s Hussars, Choiseul’s Hussars.

INFANTRY—
_First Brigade_—3rd, 88th, 63rd.
_Second Brigade_—8th,[266] 44th,[266] 33rd.[266]
_Third Brigade_—12th,[266] 55th,[266] 38th.
_Fourth Brigade_—14th, 53rd, 37th.
_Fifth Brigade_—19th, 54th, 42nd.
_Sixth Brigade_—27th, 89th, 28th.
_Seventh Brigade_—40th,[266] 57th, 59th, 87th.
_Foreign Troops_—
Loyal Emigrants, York Rangers, Rohan’s Regiment.

[266] The flank companies of these battalions were in the West Indies.

Officers N.C.O.’s and men.
British Cavalry, 165 4,350
Hanoverians }
and Hessians } 168 2,939
--- -----
Total Cavalry 333 7,289
British Infantry, 583 21,170
Hanoverians }
and Hessians } 322 8,722
---- ------
Total 1,238 37,181
===== ======

Total of all arms, including artillery, etc., say, 1300 officers, 40,000 N.C.O.’s and men.

[267] Craig to Nepean, 5th August 1794; Ditfurth, ii. 213 _seq._; Memorandum of the Duke of York, 23rd December 1794; Calvert, pp. 385–386; see vol. ii. of this _History_, p. 88.

[268] No officer could hope to master these mysteries without the help of two fat little duodecimo volumes called _The Regimental Companion_, and a third and slighter volume entitled _Military Finance_.

[269] Craig to Nepean, 31st August; Craig’s Memorandum of 23rd December 1794.

[270] _Sunday Reformer_, 29th December 1793.

[271] Craig to Nepean, 12th and 31st August, 5th and 8th September 1794. The class of medical officer obtained by Government is described in _Autobiography of Sir J. M’Grigor_, pp. 93, 94.

[272] York to Dundas, 25th, 27th, 30th July, 1st and 6th August; Craig to Nepean, 25th July 1794.

[273] Its flank companies, and those of the 34th, were detained for the West Indies.

[274] Dundas to Mulgrave, 7th and 13th August; Mulgrave to Dundas, 17th, 19th, 26th, 30th August, 3rd September; Dundas to York, 22nd August 1794.

[275] On the 29th of August the Duke reorganised his force as follows:

_First Brigade_—Maj.-gen. Stewart, 3rd, 40th, 55th, 59th, 89th.
_Second Brigade_— 8th, 27th, 28th, 57th.
_Third Brigade_— 12th, 33rd, 42nd, 44th.
_Fourth Brigade_—Maj.-gen. Fox, 14th, 37th, 38th, 63rd.
_Fifth Brigade_— 19th, 53rd, 54th, 88th.

[276] Craig to Dundas, 19th September 1794.

[277] The Bommeler Waert is the triangular tongue of land enclosed between the Waal and the Meuse immediately to the east of Gorkum. It is very nearly an island, the entrance to it from the east being very narrow and defended by a fort, then, as now, called Fort St. Andries.

[278] York to Dundas, 19th, 21st, 22nd September (enclosing correspondence with Clerfaye); Craig to Dundas, 19th September 1794.

[279] Craig to Nepean, 20th September 1794. Sybel, iii. 432 _note_. From this it appears that all documentary evidence of the agreement has been carefully destroyed, but that there is a hint of secret negotiations actually proceeding on the 18th of September 1794.

[280] York to Dundas, 25th and 29th September, 1st and 3rd October; Craig to Nepean, 1st October; Grenville to York, 25th September 1794.

[281] Dundas to York, 10th, 12th, 16th, 18th October; York to Dundas, 16th, 18th, 23rd October 1794.

[282] Craig explained that this was owing chiefly to the inexperience of a young Colonel. Thus the army-brokers had contrived to lift children to the command even of regiments that had been eighteen months on active service.

[283] The troops engaged were the 15th Light Dragoons, 8th, 27th, 28th, 55th, 63rd, 78th. The last-named regiment, together with the 80th, had arrived at Flushing at the end of September, when Dundas intended to withdraw some of the older regiments for service in the West Indies.

[284] York to Dundas, 7th and 11th November; Craig to Nepean, 10th November 1794.

[285] _Narrative of an Officer of the Guards_, ii. 89–91; York to Dundas, 27th November 1794; Harcourt to York, 15th December 1794.

[286] Ditfurth, who never loses an opportunity of abusing the English, of course puts a discreditable construction upon the Duke’s departure, not knowing that he was sent for by Ministers (ii. 313).

[287] York to Dundas, 27th and 29th November; Harcourt to York 11th and 15th December 1794. Ditfurth, ii. 310.

[288] Dundas to Harcourt, 13th and 24th December; Harcourt to Dundas, 23rd December; to York, 25th and 29th December; Walmoden to York, 22nd, 25th, 29th December 1794, 1st January 1795. The regiments engaged in the action were the 19th, 33rd, 42nd, 78th, 80th.

[289] Jones, _Campaign of 1794_, pp. 171–175; Ditfurth, ii. 362 _sq._; _Narrative of an Officer of the Guards_, ii. 100–104.

[290] 15th Light Dragoons; 27th, 28th, 80th, and 84th Foot.

[291] Walmoden to York, 3rd February; Harcourt to York (three letters), 11th February 1795.