Chapter V (2)

During the month of January the army under Sir Thomas Graham, which originally amounted to hardly 6,000 men, was increased by reinforcements of about 3,000 men. And at this time Major and Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel Cameron of the 1st Battalion arrived in Holland and took command of the detachments from the three Battalions.

As the French had 12,000 men in Antwerp under Carnot’s command, no regular siege could be attempted with this force and with the means at Graham’s disposal; it was resolved therefore to attempt to set fire to the enemy’s ships at Antwerp. With this object the troops were moved forward. And the Riflemen returned on January 30 from Eckeren to Calmthout; on the 31st marched to Braeschaet; and on February 1 advanced to Donk. On that evening the picquets had some fighting with those of the enemy. On the 2nd the enemy advanced to Merxem, which had been strengthened with field works, and the Riflemen had some hard fighting in and about that village, and at Schooten. Merxem was carried in gallant style; and Graham specially notes the conduct of ‘the detachments of the three Battalions of the Rifle Corps,’ under Colonel Cameron’s command, ‘for the distinguished manner in which they attacked the left and centre of the village, forcing the enemy from every stronghold.’[142]

On this day Lieutenant Wright of the 1st Battalion was returned as wounded;[143] as were Captain William Eeles, Lieutenants Ferguson and Fitzgerald of the 3rd Battalion. One bugler and 2 Riflemen of the 2nd Battalion were killed, and 6 wounded.[144]

The attempt to burn the ships in the Scheldt and in the docks was unsuccessful; for our mortars numbering only seventeen, two-thirds of which were Dutch or French ones found on the ramparts of Willemstadt (where part of the force had disembarked), were unserviceable, and unable to throw shells a sufficient distance. The enemy too nightly flooded the decks with water, which the intense frost converted into a thick coating of ice, which, at that range, helped to resist the shells thrown by the imperfect mortars. And the enemy were able at once to extinguish any fire among the shipping which might take place.

On the 3rd the Riflemen occupied the château of Merxem, where they remained until the 6th, when the partial investment of Antwerp and the attempt on the ships having been found a failure, they moved to Braeschaet. On the next day they were again moved forward to Donk to repel a sortie of the garrison, which having effected they returned to Braeschaet; and on the 9th fell back to Klein Zundert, and on the 15th to Loënhout.

About this time the Prussians, having received orders to proceed to the south, separated from the British force; and Graham’s position on the frontier of Holland was far from secure. He fell back, as we have seen, from Antwerp, and occupied ground between that place and Breda. He eventually resolved to attempt the capture of Bergen-op-Zoom. The Riflemen moved on February 28 to West Wesel. In the storm of Bergen and its failure they had no part; for on March 8 (the day on which the attempt was made) they marched in the evening towards Antwerp, it being understood that their destination was to attack Fort Lillo. They marched all night, and towards morning were countermanded and halted; and some hours afterwards heard of the failure at Bergen-op-Zoom. However a picquet of the 3rd Battalion was left near Bergen; and on the failure of the attack on it, they were ordered late in the night of the 8th to retire, and to make the best of their way to their companies. This they effected; but with barely sufficient time to call in their advanced sentries.[145]

On the 9th the Riflemen halted at Stabroek, and on the 11th moved to Capellen.

Another sortie was made by the enemy from Antwerp on March 26, and the Riflemen were under arms expecting an attack; but none took place on them, the enemy having retired. Such alarms and affairs occasionally occurred; for on the 30th the Riflemen pursued a foraging party of the enemy, but unsuccessfully, for they made good their return into Antwerp before the Riflemen could intercept them. But all really active operations of this expedition terminated with the failure at Bergen-op-Zoom. Some further operations were contemplated; but as Graham was on the point of executing them, news reached the Riflemen on April 4 of the entrance of the Allies into Paris on March 31.

However by the Treaty of Paris the Kingdom of the Netherlands was to be established; and pending the details of that measure being arranged by the Congress of Vienna, an Anglo-Hanoverian force was to remain in the country. The Rifle detachments formed part of it.

Early in April a detachment of one company was sent to occupy Fort Batz, and on April 15 the Riflemen moved from Capellen to Braeschaet and Schooten; on the 29th they marched to Contich, and on the 30th to Mechlin, where they remained about a fortnight. On May 14 they arrived at Brussels; where on the 30th they were reviewed by the Prince Sovereign of the Netherlands, as he was then styled, afterwards the King of the Netherlands.

On Sir Thomas Graham, then Lord Lynedoch, returning to England, the Anglo-Hanoverian force was placed under the command of General the Prince of Orange. The Riflemen remained at Brussels until August 29, when they moved to Ypres, and on the 31st arrived at Courtrai. On September 5, they marched to Menin; but returned to Ypres on October 12. Remaining there till November 22, they moved on that day to Dixmude, and to Furnes on December 9. About this time the Rifle detachments received some reinforcements. Captain Logan, Lieutenant Robert Cochrane and 45 men of the 2nd Battalion embarked at Deal on November 7 to join them. On March 8, 1815, they were at Nieuport, with a detachment of two companies at Furnes; their strength being then 4 captains, 14 subalterns, 2 staff, 21 sergeants, 9 buglers and 388 rank and file, under the command of Captain Glasse of the 1st Battalion. But on March 24 they were re-united at Menin.[146]

On the renewal of hostilities in 1815 the companies of the 1st and 2nd Battalions joined those Battalions on their arrival in Flanders. The 2nd Battalion company joined at Leuze on April 18; and the two companies of the 3rd Battalion were (with the 2nd Battalion) in Sir Frederick Adam’s brigade at Waterloo.[147]

I have said that the five companies of the 3rd Battalion, on their return from the Peninsula disembarked at Plymouth, and moved into barracks there. On September 18, 1814, exactly two months after their arrival in England, they re-embarked for service; the commanding officer, Major Mitchell, and three companies on board the ‘Fox,’ and the other two companies on board the ‘Dover’ frigates. Their destination and the nature of their service were kept a profound secret, but they were, in fact, intended to effect a descent on the American coast near New Orleans. They reached Madeira on the 8th October, where they remained till the 11th, and having touched at Barbadoes early in November, anchored in Negril Bay, Jamaica, on the 25th. Here they were joined by four line regiments, and two West India regiments; and setting sail on the 29th, arrived off the American coast near Mobile on December 10, and on the 11th anchored near the Chandeleur Islands near the entrance to Lake Borgne.

New Orleans is situated on the left bank of the Mississippi, here about 800 or 1,000 yards across; below the town are great marshes, covered with reeds six or seven feet high. While on the river bank runs a strip of firm ground, varying from one to three miles across, and mostly under sugar plantations. From this the marsh extends six or seven miles to the shores of Lake Pontchartrain, which communicates by Lake Borgne with the sea.

It was deemed impossible to approach New Orleans by the Mississippi, as well because very strong works existed at its mouth, and on the way up to the city, as because the course of the river is so tortuous that no wind would have carried the ships up, without considerable delay. It was therefore resolved to disembark the troops on the shore of one of the lakes. But it was ascertained that the Americans, already cognisant of the intended invasion, had placed gun-boats on these lakes to prevent the landing. The previous destruction of these was therefore necessary; and this was effected in very fine style and in a very short time by the boats of the fleet under Captain Lockyer.

On the 15th the Riflemen were moved from the ships of war into brigs, which drew less water, but in which they were so crowded as to be unable to lie down or almost to turn. But even these were too deep for the shoal waters of the lake, and they were transferred into long boats, from which they were landed on the 19th on the Île au Poix (or as our men called it Pearl Island), formed by the branches of the Pearl river. The weather in moving from the ships to the island was very bad; and on arrival at it, it was found to be a perfect desert. Nothing but reeds grew on it, except a few scrubby pine-trees at one end. To add to their discomfort, a severe frost came on at night; the men were without shelter of any kind, and they suffered severely. And as all their supplies had to be furnished from the fleet, want of provisions was added to their other hardships.

On the 22nd the Battalion (which formed part of the advance under Colonel Thornton) embarked in boats, and about two o’clock pushed off to land on the mainland. The place decided on for their disembarkation was at the head of a creek called Bayou Catalan in Lake Borgne. The distance was between thirty and forty miles, and the men were so crowded in the boats that they could not move. They did not reach the entrance to the creek till after dark. As a picquet of the enemy was posted about half a mile up the creek, Captain James Travers, with his company, were placed in small boats and pushed forward. The picquet was stationed at some huts; near these Travers landed, and having moved his men to both ends of the huts, prevented the escape of the picquet, which was secured without a shot being fired. This was admirably effected; and was a most important service. For had this picquet escaped or raised an alarm, the landing would have been opposed. And this would have been a serious check; for on the morning of the 23rd, when the leading boat reached the narrow part of the Bayou it was found impracticable to ascend higher, and the boats being drawn up one after another the men passed over them as a bridge. This of course was a very slow operation, and one which, if opposed, would have been very difficult. The Battalion disembarked about an hour after daylight, having been upwards of sixteen hours cramped in the boats.

As soon as the whole advance were on shore, they marched, Travers’ company leading; and to give their force as imposing an appearance as possible, and to scour the country, they advanced with extended files. They moved in this order through a wood which skirted the swamp on this side, and as soon as they had cleared it, came upon a house, surrounded with out-buildings and huts for slaves, belonging to a M. Villeroy. The Battalion advancing at the double, took possession of it; and in this and some neighbouring houses took about thirty prisoners, and a good many stand of arms, belonging, as was supposed, to the local militia. Unhappily M. Villeroy escaped, and probably gave information to the enemy; this, before the night was over, entailed very disastrous consequences. The Battalion then advanced, and turning to the right, marched for about a mile on the road to New Orleans, and then bivouacked in a green field in quarter distance column.

The road ran near the river’s bank which was on the left; and an embankment about three or four feet high was thrown up to keep the overflow of the river from the cultivated ground, here about three-quarters of a mile or a mile broad; beyond this was a strip of wood, the way through which was, in fact, impracticable, the ground under the trees being wet and swampy. The cultivated land was much intersected with wet ditches, and divided by strong wooden palings five feet high.

On arriving at the bivouack Travers’ company, which had formed the advanced guard on the march, was pushed forward about a mile to the front, on the main road, as a picquet.

The troops halted somewhat after mid-day; and as the men had been without provisions since the morning before, they began as soon as dismissed to cook. While doing so, between three and four o’clock, firing was heard in the front from the picquet; it turned out to be in consequence of an American officer, attended by some mounted men, riding up to the picquet to reconnoitre. However, the Riflemen saluted him with a few shots, one of which wounded him, and another killed the horse of one of the party, on which they retired, getting off the wounded officer with them.

At nightfall, Captain Hallen’s company relieved Travers at the advanced picquet; and the men of the rest of the Battalion, being much fatigued by their uncomfortable night in the boats, their tedious landing, and their march, lay down in bivouack. They had torn down some of the palings dividing the fields, and had made good fires which then burned brightly. While they were thus, as they fancied, secure, a schooner dropped down the Mississippi, and guided by the light of their fires, opened a heavy cannonade upon them with great effect. The men of course were aroused and dispersed; but no shelter could be found, in this dead flat, except by crouching under the embankment by the riverside. Hallen had seen the schooner pass his post and had sent a man off to alarm the Battalion; but the schooner having the current of the river in her favour reached the bivouack before the Rifleman could get there.

While in this state of alarm from the sudden cannonade from the schooner, heavy and continued firing was heard in the front. A body of 5,000 Americans had attacked Hallen’s picquet, detaching 1,500 men through the wood to turn the right of the troops. Nobly Hallen kept them at bay; but being himself wounded, and his picquet threatened by such overpowering odds, reinforcements advanced from the Battalion. Meanwhile the enemy made way through the garden of a house on the right, where a picquet of the 85th had been placed; and the night being very dark, a hand to hand fight took place. Every deception was practised by the enemy; and having discovered (from prisoners probably made in the _mêlée_) the regiments opposed to them, they would call out, ‘Come on my brave ninety-fifth (or eighty-fifth),’ and then make those who advanced prisoners.

But this _ruse_ was not always successful; more than once they found that instead of making Riflemen prisoners, they had themselves ‘caught a Tartar.’ On one such occasion an officer and some men of the Battalion made a body of the Yankees prisoners, and when they were desired to lay down their arms, the cowardly officer who commanded them made a stab at the 95th officer with a knife. He was summarily disposed of; for a Rifleman instantly shot him through the body.

Meanwhile the fight continued at Hallen’s post. Two battalions came up and fired volleys by word of command as at a drill. Not much to their advantage, for the Riflemen, warned by the words, ‘Ready! Present!’ took care to lie pretty close before the word ‘Fire!’ which, having been pronounced and obeyed, they sprang up, and gave them a severe return before they could reload. This continued for some time; but at last, the picquet was obliged to give way before superior numbers. Yet they only retired a little way to get under cover and re-form. Eventually the Riflemen advanced again, attacked their assailants, repulsed them, and regained the post. Hallen, as I have said, was wounded, so was Lieutenant Forbes, who held a separate post, and about forty men were killed or wounded. This defence by Hallen has truly been characterised as ‘an affair of posts but rarely equalled, and never surpassed in devoted bravery.’[148]

‘Had the expedition terminated more favourably,’ he who makes the foregoing remark goes on to observe, ‘it is to be presumed that the brave commander of the company would not have gone unrewarded.’ It may be so: this is the presumption; the fact is, that Hallen retired from the Service in 1824 with the rank of Captain, which he had obtained fifteen years before. Thus England rewarded acts of valour performed by all but her superior officers.

When the fire was first heard at Hallen’s picquet, Major Mitchell, taking with him twenty or thirty Riflemen, had hurried to the front to reinforce it. On the way, however, he fell in with a body of the enemy, whom, in consequence of the darkness of the night, he could not distinguish, and he and the men with him were made prisoners. Altogether the loss of the Battalion on that night was 6 Sergeants and 17 Riflemen killed; Captain Hallen, Lieutenants Daniel Forbes, (severely), and W. S. C. Farmer (slightly), 5 Sergeants and 54 Riflemen wounded; and Major Samuel Mitchell, 2 Sergeants, and 39 Riflemen missing. A total (exclusive of officers) of 123, or one-fifth of their whole number.

The loss of the Americans, who were finally driven off about midnight, must have been very great, for the field was strewn with their dead.

Yet still the schooner, and a ship which had joined her, inflicted amazing annoyance on our people. With a brutality happily unknown among European nations, they fired into the houses to which the wounded had been carried. One shot struck a house in which a wounded Rifleman was lying, and knocked away his knapsack, which he was using as a pillow, without doing him any actual injury.

However, this savage warfare was to end. On the night of the 25th a battery was constructed close to the river’s edge, and furnaces erected for heating red-hot shot. At daybreak on the 26th the battery commenced its fire on the schooner. Its crew, whose courage did not equal their cruelty, at once took to their boats and fled; the fourth shot set her on fire, and she soon afterwards blew up. While the ship, warned by her fate, and esteeming discretion as the better part of valour, had herself towed, as rapidly as possible, out of the range of the little English battery.

In this bivouack the Riflemen continued till the 28th. But it was toilsome work. The picquets were continually fired at; the reliefs waylaid; the officers going round their sentries exposed to chance shots from a concealed marksman. How different this from the courtesies and chivalry of their European enemies, which I have so often had occasion to narrate!

Operations near NEW ORLEANS
in 1814-15.

_Compiled & Drawn by Capt^n H. M. Moorsom, Rifle Brigade._
E. Weller, _Litho._
_London, Chatto & Windus._
]

Early on the 28th the army advanced towards New Orleans, the Riflemen leading, by the high road along the river’s bank. They drove in the enemy’s picquets, and proceeded along the road here called ‘_Le détour des Anglais_,’ till, on turning round some houses on the left, they suddenly found themselves in front of a strong work the enemy had thrown up, and from which they opened a cannonade from four guns; while their old enemy the ship, now moored a little in advance of the work, brought a flank fire to bear on them. The Riflemen, leading and extended, did not suffer so much;[149] but the 85th which followed in close formation were mown down by this fire. Some houses were on the right, which might have afforded some temporary cover; but the enemy, by their shells, set them on fire, and the flames added to the confusion. To escape in some measure from the effects of the fire the regiments were deployed to the right, while the Riflemen advancing about a hundred yards got into a ditch, which in a great degree sheltered them. In the afternoon the regiments moved off by wings, so as to present as small a body as possible to the enemy’s fire. The Riflemen, however, did not move off till after dark, nor till some of the Yankees had ventured out of their works ‘in a very triumphant manner.’ But a few shots from the Riflemen immediately produced the conviction among them that it was more advisable to return to the protection of their rampart. This work was a stout parapet, in front of which was a wet ditch or canal. Its extent was about 1,000 yards, and its left touched the river, while its right was defended by the wood.

The army now took up a position about a mile and a half or two miles from this work. The Battalion was placed in a house rather in advance, and on the left of the line. This was exposed, not only to the fire from the work, but also, as it was near the bank, from a redoubt which the enemy had constructed on the opposite side of the river. The men were placed in a sugar-house belonging to this farm, the floor of which being sunk below the level of the natural ground afforded some protection. Yet on one occasion at least their cooking utensils were knocked off the fire by shot passing through this house.

So matters continued until the 31st. It was resolved to bring up some of the ships’ guns and to place them in battery against the enemy’s work. Accordingly on the night of the 31st strong working parties were employed in constructing two batteries near it; one with the object of keeping down the flank fire from the ship; the other with the view of breaching the centre of the rampart. The night was dark; the men worked in silence; and before daylight the batteries were completed, and the guns in position.

Early in the morning of January 1, 1815, the troops were moved up, with the object of attacking the enemy’s work. A thick fog favoured their advance, and concealed their movements from the Americans. About nine o’clock the fog rose, and our batteries at once began their fire. This threw the Yankees, who were seen on parade, into utter confusion; and had a charge on the works been made at that moment, no doubt it would have been successful. But unhappily the orders were that the attack was not to be made till the enemy’s fire had been silenced, and his works breached. When, therefore, the Americans saw that nothing took place but a cannonade, their courage returned, and after about twenty minutes they began to return our fire; and gradually increased to a vigorous cannonade, which effectually overpowered our guns, and dismounted some of them. The flank fire too from the battery on the opposite bank of the river, in which they had placed their ship’s guns, was very galling.

After being kept under this fire inactive till between two and three o’clock in the afternoon, the troops were withdrawn and bivouacked on the ground, and some occupied the houses they had held during the last few days. At night the troops were turned out and employed in withdrawing the guns from the batteries in which they had been placed. This was hard work; and some of the guns had to be buried, it being found impossible to remove them before daylight. Thus the men had been up, and at hard work, two nights; and in the intervening day had been for many hours under the enemy’s fire, without the chance of fighting them. The loss of the Battalion was, 1 Rifleman killed, and 2 missing.

Things continued in this state till the 7th, the picquets being as before constantly harassed by the enemy.

No other course remained but to carry the enemy’s work by an attack _de vive force_, and it was decided that this should take place on the 8th. Three companies of the Battalion were to precede the advance of the right column under General Gibbs, consisting of the 4th, 21st and 44th regiments; while the other two companies were in like manner to act with the left column. The Riflemen were to extend along the edge of the canal or ditch in front of the enemy’s rampart, and both parties so extended were to occupy the whole of the bank, or as it might be called, the crest of the glacis. At four o’clock in the morning the troops paraded; and by daylight the Riflemen were in their place. But the 44th Regiment, which had been appointed to carry ladders and fascines to enable the attacking force to cross the ditch, had come without them. Their commanding officer, the Hon. Colonel Mullens, had said loudly the night before when the regiment was detailed for this duty in orders, that ‘his regiment was sent on a forlorn hope’ and ‘was doomed.’ And on the regiment returning to fetch the ladders and fascines, he prudently did not come back to the front with them. The enemy meanwhile opened a furious fire on the troops, specially destructive to the Riflemen who were extended within 100 or 150 yards of the work. One regiment of the right attack, finding itself exposed to this fire, and without the fascines and ladders they had been led to expect, wavered, broke up, and fled to the rear, throwing the regiment which was following in support into confusion. Sir Edward Pakenham, who commanded, in trying to rally this column was killed; General Gibbs, who commanded it, was mortally wounded; and General Keane, who commanded the left attack, was wounded. This attack succeeded better; and for a time the troops composing it held a redoubt which the enemy had constructed in front of the ditch, and which they had stormed. But in the end they were obliged also to give way. Thus the Riflemen, extended in skirmishing order along the edge of the ditch, were left unsupported, and were obliged to retire as best they could. As their files were extended they presented a less prominent object for the enemy’s guns, and they eventually got away with comparatively small loss. Some of them had got quite to the edge of the ditch, and reported that they could have passed it, but the attacking columns which they expected never came up; and to have entered the enemy’s work without them would, of course, have been certain destruction.

A gallant and successful diversion was made on the right bank of the Mississippi by a column under Colonel Thornton; but as the Battalion did not form part of it, it is not my province, as historian of the Regiment only, farther to notice it.

It was regretted by the Riflemen, that Pakenham, himself a Peninsular soldier, did not employ troops who had seen fighting more prominently in so arduous an operation as storming this work. The 7th and 43rd had arrived just before; beside both these regiments the Riflemen had fought in Spain and Portugal; the latter were especially companions in arms, and they had hailed their advent with delight. Yet these he held in reserve, while he advanced comparatively unseasoned troops to the fire of the Americans.

The Battalion retired at last, sorrowful and weary, to its bivouack. It lost 1 Sergeant and 10 Riflemen killed; and Captains James Travers (severely) and Nicholas Travers (slightly), Lieutenants John Reynolds, Sir John Ribton, John Gossett, William Backhouse, and Robert Barker (severely), 5 Sergeants and 89 Riflemen wounded.[150]

During the night the wounded were removed, and a truce for two days, to enable the dead to be buried and the wounded cared for, was made between General Lambert (who succeeded to the command) and General Jackson who commanded the American force. This truce was effected, not without difficulty, by Major Harry Smith, Assistant Adjutant-General, who passed and repassed frequently between the opposing armies.

During this truce every attempt was made by the Yankees to induce our men to desert. The non-commissioned officers were promised commissions, the men land, if they would enter the American service. On one such occasion two Sergeants and a private of the 95th were accosted by an officer of American Artillery, who with such large promises invited them to enter the American service. The Riflemen heard the tempter out; and then, in language perhaps rather forcible than complimentary, assured him that they would rather be privates in their own Corps, than officers with such ‘a set of ragamuffins’ as they saw before them; assuring him that if he did not move off, he should have a taste of their rifles. On that hint, he fled; but getting into the work turned a gun on them and fired, knocking over the private, whom however he only wounded.

A Rifleman on sentry was exposed to the solicitations of another of these gentry. He heard all his generous offers of money, land, and promotion; but pretending he did not, he begged him to come a little nearer and ‘tell him all about it.’ The Yankee elated at his success walked up to the post, and when he was well within range, the Rifleman levelled and shot him in the arm. Then walking forward, he led him prisoner to the guard-room; on the way informing him what a real soldier thought of such sneaking attempts on his fidelity.[151]

These attempts were not always unsuccessful, and much desertion took place; but Surtees records with natural pride, that as far as he knew not a single instance took place among the Riflemen of the 3rd Battalion.

During this truce an officer of the American army was observed plundering a wounded soldier. This excited the ire of Corporal Scott of the 3rd Battalion, who (with the permission of his officer) took a shot at the marauder, and tumbled him over the man he was plundering.

The last duties having been paid to the dead, and all the wounded that were capable of being moved having been withdrawn, a retreat was effected on the night of the 18th. The fires were trimmed, and the men fell in and marched in silence. The weather had latterly broken up; heavy rains by day, and sometimes thunderstorms, were often followed by frost at night. As it was impossible, owing to the narrowness and shallow water of the Bayou Catalan, to embark the troops where they had landed, a road, or an attempt at a road, had been constructed across the marsh, from the great road to New Orleans, along the river’s bank to the shore of Lake Borgne. This extended some miles, and was made of reeds, which it was thought would support the men across the morass; and where it crossed open ditches, as it frequently did, the reeds were laid on boughs of trees brought with great labour from the wood. This road, a bad one at the best, was much injured by the rains, and sunk in with the tramp of the head of the column; so that this night march was very fatiguing, the men often sinking in to the knees, and sometimes in the dark slipping off into the marsh, from whence they were with difficulty rescued.

However at last on the 19th they reached the shore of the lake about one mile from its entrance. Here they were ordered to hut themselves; but this was no easy task, the place being a desert, and almost the only material the reeds which grew on the marsh.

Here they remained till the 25th, when the Battalion embarked on board the ‘Dover,’ which had brought out two of its companies. The Battalion was reduced by its losses in the field to almost half its strength on landing. On the 27th they set sail; and it was resolved to attempt the capture of Mobile. This place, lying about 100 miles to the eastward of New Orleans, is situated in a bay, the entrance to which is defended by a work called Fort Boyer, which therefore had first to be reduced. In order to effect this the 4th, 21st, and 44th Regiments were landed, and commenced the investment of and approach to the place. While on the 8th February the Riflemen and the rest of the troops were disembarked on Île Dauphine at the other side of the bay, till the reduction of Fort Boyer should enable them to move up to Mobile. Here the men hutted themselves; for the island, though otherwise almost a desert, is well covered with pine wood; while the officers, or some of them, had tents.

During the time that they were here, General Lambert inspected the troops by regiments. On making his inspection of the 3rd Battalion, James Travers (in Mitchell’s absence, who had been taken prisoner) was in command. ‘Well, Travers,’ said the General, ‘I hear your Sergeant-Major ran away on the night of the 23rd December.’ ‘Nay, General,’ answered Travers, ‘that he did not. He fought as well as any man could, and was towards the end of the affair severely wounded. But,’ added he, ‘I think I know what may have given rise to that report. A sergeant of ours was in or near one of the houses where the wounded were taken, and the surgeon made him remain there as Hospital Sergeant. I did all I could to get him back to the Battalion; but I could not succeed.’ ‘Well,’ said the General, ‘since I had done the Sergeant-Major some wrong, I must see what I can do to make him amends.’ He did procure him an ensigncy in a West India Regiment, to which he was gazetted soon after.

While the Battalion was on Île Dauphine, a gallant act was performed by Sergeant Thomas Fukes. He, with four or five Riflemen, was sent over to the mainland to shoot bullocks. Fukes with a couple of Riflemen went inland, leaving the other men in charge of the boat. Here one Shiel of the American navy (who had captured a boat in bad weather with some of the 14th Light Dragoons, when embarking at Lake Borgne, and who in consequence fancied himself a hero) came upon them round a jutting point, and having captured them, put them in charge of some of his own crew into their own boat, and dispatched them to an American ship or post. Then waiting for the sergeant, the other two Riflemen, and the Commissary, he of course made them prisoners, since their boat and the rest of their party had disappeared. The Commissary was placed aft with Mr. Shiel; Sergeant Fukes and his two men forward; and they were being rowed off. When well off the shore the Commissary seizing Shiel by the thighs chucked him overboard, while Sergeant Fukes at the same instant sent one of the boat’s crew to follow him, and the Riflemen disposed of the rest. They now recovered their rifles, and having taken security of Mr. Shiel for his good behaviour, admitted him at his urgent importunity into the boat, from whence they landed him, a moist and dispirited prisoner of war, on Île Dauphine.

The approaches to Fort Boyer being completed, Harry Smith was sent in with a summons to surrender. The poor Yankee commandant, sadly puzzled, asked Major Smith what he would advise him to do. He strongly recommended him to surrender immediately, as the place must be taken by assault. Acting on such good advice, which fell in probably with his own sinking courage, he surrendered with his garrison, and signed a capitulation on the 11th February.

This important work having fallen, immediate preparations were made for re-embarking the troops, and attacking Mobile. But on the 14th news arrived of the preliminaries of peace between England and the United States having been settled at Ghent on December 24. All warlike operations of course terminated; and the troops only awaited on Île Dauphine the ratification of the treaty by President Madison. Intelligence of this reached them on the 5th March, and on the 15th the officers and Riflemen who had been made prisoners re-joined the Battalion, having been released under the terms of the treaty. Major Mitchell had been roughly treated by General Jackson, because he refused to furnish him with information of our strength or movements.

On the 31st March the Battalion embarked on board the ‘Dover,’ some few men being placed on board the ‘Norfolk’ transport. On the 4th April they set sail, and, having called at the Havannah, arrived at Plymouth, whence they were ordered round to Dover, where they disembarked on the 2nd June and moved to Shorncliffe, where they found three companies of the Battalion, the remaining two being in Flanders, as is now to be narrated.

FOOTNOTES:

[131] George Simmons had been brought up to the medical profession.

[132] ‘Napier,’ Book xxiii. chap. 3.

[133] Nineteen men of the 1st Battalion, and 1 bugler and 12 men of the 2nd Battalion, were returned as ‘missing.’

[134] He was, while the 1st Battalion were absent, temporarily attached to the 2nd Battalion; being employed on the telegraph of the Light Division.

[135] ‘Twelve Years’ Military Adventure.’

[136] See Napier, Book xxiv. chap. 5.

[137] Surtees, 296, 297. The context is very confused, the editor not having been able to decipher or to arrange Surtees’ MS.

[138] Record, 2nd Battalion. As the return in the ‘London Gazette’ does not distinguish the regiments of the non-commissioned officers and privates, I am unable to give the casualties of the other Battalions.

[139] It is evident from Sir Thomas Graham’s letters to Lord Bathurst and Lord Wellington (‘Supplementary Despatches,’ viii. 376-7) that he undertook this command very unwillingly and only from a sense of duty. To Lord Wellington he says ‘I cannot look forward to it otherwise than an irksome service, with scarce a chance of any material success.’

[140] It would appear from a private letter from Lord Bathurst to Lord Wellington, that the strength of the detachment of the 3rd Battalion was 250 men. ‘Supplementary Despatches,’ viii. 390. This is a clerical or typographical error for ‘of the three Battalions.’ The depôt companies were at this time very weak, and the strength of the whole detachment was about 250 men.

[141] Graham’s Despatch, ‘Annual Register,’ lvi., 154.

[142] Despatch, ‘Annual Register,’ 157.

[143] I am informed by Mr. Wright that he was _not_ wounded on this occasion. This is a curious illustration of Byron’s remark about ‘Gazette fame’ (‘Don Juan,’ canto viii., stanza 18 and note). The officer of the 1st Battalion who was wounded at Merxem on February 2 was Lieutenant Church. He had been taken prisoner in one of the fights at Arcangues on December 10, 1813 (see p. 160); but had made his escape, had found his way across France without being discovered, and had joined Glasse’s company in Holland. Like M’Cullock after the Coa (p. 56) he had trusted himself to the fair sex, who had assisted his disguise, and favoured his escape.

[144] ‘London Gazette,’and 2nd Battalion Record. As the ‘Gazette’ does not distinguish the regiments of the non-commissioned officers and lower ranks, I am unable to state the losses of the detachments of the other two Battalions.

[145] I derive this information from Michael Mappin, a pensioner in the Royal Hospital at Chelsea, who served in the 3rd Battalion from April 1813 till it was disbanded, and afterwards in the 2nd Battalion, and who was himself on this picquet. He was wounded before Antwerp.

[146] ‘Wellington Supplementary Despatches,’ x. 704-5-6, and 718.

[147] I owe almost all the particulars of this expedition to the kindness of Lieutenant Wright, on half-pay of the Regiment, who served in it, and who survives in good health and perfect memory, whose acquaintance I had the pleasure of making while these sheets were passing through the press. The information and papers he communicated to me enable me to supply many details of this campaign, which, squeezed out between the Peninsular and Waterloo campaigns, and eclipsed by the latter, has never had its history sufficiently written. Yet it was arduous service, albeit unsuccessful.

[148] Leach, ‘Sketch of Field Services,’ 27.

[149] Their loss between December 25 and 31 was 1 Rifleman killed; 1 Sergeant and 3 Riflemen wounded; and 1 Rifleman missing.

[150] Major James Travers, K.H., died February 5, 1841. The ball received at New Orleans had never been extracted, and is said eventually to have caused his death. Lieutenant Backhouse died of his wounds.

[151] Gleig, ‘Campaigns of the British Army at Washington and New Orleans’ p. 186. He regrets that he has forgotten, or did not know, the name of this soldier; a regret in which all Riflemen will join.