Chapter I: Preface

The period of English history covered by the contents of this book is one of very considerable interest, for within that period Great Britain rose to be a mighty power, saving Europe from destruction, and gathering to herself the commerce of the world. One has only to glance at a chronological table of events to satisfy oneself that, from 1793 to 1815, the British Navy and British Army fought continuously and desperately in the making of the Empire, winning many great and glorious victories by sea and by land, and handing down to posterity the names of British sailors and soldiers to be sworn by as long as the British Empire shall exist. It was an age of heroic deeds by heroic men. Let us call to mind how the Navy fought at Cape St Vincent, Camperdown, the Nile, Copenhagen, and Trafalgar; and how the Army fought in the Peninsula and at Waterloo. Let us think of the countless minor expeditions in all parts of the world in which army and navy together added to their laurels; of such sailors as Nelson, Cochrane, Collingwood, Duncan, Hood, Hawke, Howe, Hotham, Jervis, and others, and of such soldiers as Wellington, Moore, and all the former's famous generals; and let us remember that it was by such victories, won by such men, that England gained her place in the world.

The stories of the lives of the great soldiers have been written over and over again; we know all about their strategy and their tactics, and how they guided the machines confided to their care; but of the lesser men, who, as it were, helped to turn the wheels of, or to apply oil to, the machinery, we know very little. Without their aid the machine must have come to a stop; and how they kept it going deserves to be remembered.

Samuel Rice, extracts from many of whose letters will be found in the following pages, was one of a host of Englishmen who played a part--even though it may have been an insignificant one--in the making of the Empire. He was, in every sense of the word, a Regimental Officer--one who never sought and never accepted employment outside the Regiment. Joining the 51st in 1793 as Ensign, he served with it, in good times and in bad, until 1831, the last fourteen years in command. He represents a type not uncommon at the commencement of the last century; and, at that period, probably most regiments of the British army contained men of the same stamp, who cared nothing for personal honour or glory, who cared little for the good or bad opinion of their superior officers, but who lived for THE REGIMENT, finding their reward in a conscientious performance of regimental duty, and content to let their own actions go unnoticed so long as they helped to uphold the reputation of their beloved Regiment.

Nowadays, such men, from force of circumstances, are rare. The British officer can no longer afford to remain with his regiment; for, even if he is fortunate enough to possess sufficient private means to do so, he can stay in the regiment for only a limited number of years, and is forced to make way for others when still in the prime of life. And there are wider reasons for the disappearance of the regimental officer of the old school. Modern methods of warfare, resulting from the improvement in weapons and the invention of new means of locomotion and communication, require deeper thought and deeper study than was accorded to military matters by our ancestors. It is not enough that the officer of to-day should be acquainted only with such things as pertain to his own branch of the service; for he must be conversant with the tactics of all arms, and he must know a hundred and one other things which he cannot learn by remaining with his regiment. Furthermore, the officer who nowadays has no ambition beyond regimental soldiering is liable to be regarded as lacking in zeal and efficiency; and if he allows himself to drift along into the regimental backwater, he is bound to find his progress barred before very long. But he has advantages such as his ancestors never had. By passing examinations he can qualify himself to hold appointments on the staff, and he can obtain other living-wage employment away from his regiment. A century ago there was nothing of this kind; examinations were little indulged in; and it is not too much to say that the majority of the staff officers came to the front and remained in the front by personal (and often political) interest--by a system of nepotism pure and simple. The officer, therefore, who knew that he had no friend at court to push him on made up his mind to remain with his regiment, and trust to good fortune to bring him rapid promotion. He affected to despise the staff officer as a butterfly and a place-seeker, and he threw all his heart into his regimental duties. If proof of the value of these regimental officers is wanting, it will be found, writ large, in the account of every Peninsular fight, and by the aid of these men was Wellington's fame built up. "Their most marked characteristics," says Colonel Henderson, when discussing in his 'Science of War' the officers of the Light Division regiments, "were that when they were left alone they almost invariably did the right thing; that they had no hesitation in assuming responsibility; that they could handle their regiments and companies, if necessary, as independent units; and that they consistently applied the great principle of mutual support." Such were the regimental officers who had received their initial training under the guidance of Sir John Moore, and such was Samuel Rice, of the 51st Regiment, himself one of the earliest disciples of that great master of the art of war.

By way of apology for bringing to notice a man unknown to fame, and who had no pretensions to be considered famous, I may, perhaps, be permitted to explain that, in putting this book together, my aim has been not so much to give a biographical sketch of one individual as to describe the lot of an ordinary regimental officer of the period; and it seems to me that there is no more satisfactory way of doing this than by following the career of one officer, chosen to represent the type. With such an object in view, I believe that it would be difficult to find a more suitable representative than Colonel Samuel Rice, who served with the same regiment for upwards of thirty-eight years--possibly in itself a record. Moreover, he fought with his regiment in 1793, at the very commencement of England's great war in Europe, and he saw the final shots fired in 1815. From what is known of his character, it is probable that Samuel Rice would have been the last person to have desired notoriety; but his descendants have preserved, hitherto unpublished, letters written by him one hundred and twenty years ago, and I have thought that some of these, showing as they do the ways of the military world when England's reputation was being made, are of sufficient general interest to be worthy of publication.

My best thanks are due to Miss Lucy Augusta Rice for the loan of her great-uncle's papers, and to the past and present officers of the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry--the old 51st--for information concerning their gallant regiment.

A. F. MOCKLER-FERRYMAN.

ST JOHN'S HOUSE,
TAVISTOCK.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

STUDYING FOR THE ARMY.
PAGE

Samuel Rice--Birth and parentage--Education--Sent to St
Omer in 1792--French Revolution--Preparations for war--French
hussars and their moustaches--Massacre of
aristocrats--Expulsion of Jesuits--Founding of Stoneyhurst
College--Duke of Brunswick's manifesto--Citizen Rice--French
victories over Prussians and Austrians--Troublous
times--Rice returns to England 1

CHAPTER II.

ENSIGN OF THE 51ST.

Rice joins the army--How commissions were obtained--The
Purchase System--Officer's pay--Dress of officers--On
board a transport--Disorder among the troops--Courts-martial--
Flogging--Many false starts--Gibraltar--_Sans culottes_--
Affairs at Toulon at the end of 1793--The 51st proceeds on
active service--Evacuation of Toulon--Loss of the regimental
baggage--Hyères Bay 14

CHAPTER III.

THE ATTACK ON CORSICA.

Lieut.-Colonel John Moore--The British army in 1793--The
officers--Moore interviews Admiral Lord Hood--England's
position in the Mediterranean--Elba and Corsica--Horatio
Nelson--Operations against St Fiorenzo--Origin of Martello
towers--Operations against Bastia and against Calvi--Nelson
loses an eye--Moore wounded--Rice's experiences--Surrender
of Calvi--French driven from Corsica--Sickness
among the troops 35

CHAPTER IV.

CORSICA WON AND LOST.

Taking over the island--The life of a subaltern--Garrison
gaieties--The Viceroy of Corsica--Misunderstandings--Disease
and deaths--The 51st garrisons Corte--Corsican
regiments--Sea-fights--Disaffection among the Corsicans--Pascal
Paoli and Sir Gilbert Elliott--Bastia--General rising
in favour of the French--Hasty evacuation of Corsica by
the British--The army takes refuge in Elba 56

CHAPTER V.

FROM THE MEDITERRANEAN TO CEYLON.

The situation at Elba--News of Admiral Jervis's victory off
Cape St Vincent--Evacuation of Elba--The 51st reaches
Gibraltar--Moves to Lisbon--Napoleon's drastic methods--Position
of Portugal--Rice a captain of light infantry--Naval
warfare--Convoys--The 51st sails for the East
Indies--Lands at the Cape of Good Hope--Arrives at
Madras--Tippoo of Mysore--Prize-money and plunder--Ceylon--King
of Kandy--A long and unfortunate war--Rice
invalided--Affairs in Europe--The 51st returns to England 81

CHAPTER VI.

THE REFORM OF THE ARMY.

Sir John Moore's great work--His treatment of regimental
officers--He trains a brigade for war--Shorncliffe Camp--Light
troops--Their origin and history--Discipline--Intelligent
code--Napoleon's proposed invasion of England--Nelson's
victory at Trafalgar--Regimental life--Uniform
of 1808--The beginning of the Peninsular War--Sir Arthur
Wellesley--Vimiera--Occupation of Lisbon 102

CHAPTER VII.

THE CORUNNA CAMPAIGN, AND AFTER.

Sir John Moore at Lisbon--The 51st accompanies Sir David
Baird to Corunna--Situation in the Peninsula--Moore
advances north--Baird ordered to co-operate--Napoleon's
forced march from Madrid--Retreat on Corunna commences--
Hardships--Lack of discipline--Good work of the 51st at
Lugo--Corunna reached--The battle--Death of Sir John Moore--The
51st arrives in England--The Walcheren Expedition--Wellesley's
operations in the Peninsula in 1810 126

CHAPTER VIII.

CAMPAIGNS OF 1811 IN THE PENINSULA.

The 51st ordered to take the field--Joins Wellington's army--
Condition of Portugal--Major Rice's letters--Beresford at
Badajoz--Battle of Fuentes d'Onor--Major Rice has an
"all-but"--The French escape from Almeida--Second siege
of Badajoz--Assaults on St Christoval--Failure and withdrawal--
The colours of the 51st--Strange episode--Regimental
officers--Wellington's reticence--Winter quarters 145

CHAPTER IX.

CIUDAD RODRIGO AND BADAJOZ.

Sports and amusements of the army--Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo--The
covering force--Guarding snow-passes--Fall of the
fortress--Marching south--Siege of Badajoz--Attempt to
surprise Llerena--Disastrous night march--Storming of
Badajoz--Wild scenes--Remarks on the battle of Albuhera--
Wellington's plans--Indiscipline of the army--Marauding--
Punishments--Peninsular generals--The soldiers' opinion of
Wellington--Flogging in the army 180

CHAPTER X.

SALAMANCA AND MADRID.

Wellington isolates Marmont--Follows him to Salamanca--General
Graham gives a ball--Major Rice's horse shot
under him and afterwards eaten--Grand manœuvres--Battle
of Salamanca--Rout of the French--Advance on Madrid--Triumphal
entry into the capital--Capture of the Retiro--The
51st marches with Wellington to Burgos--Abortive
assaults--The bridge at Valladolid--French valour at
Tordesillas--Retreat from Burgos--Drunkenness of the two
armies--Brave regimental women--Affair at San Muños--Numerous
stragglers--Major Rice invalided 205

CHAPTER XI.

DRIVING THE FRENCH OUT OF SPAIN, 1813.

Wellington reorganises his army--The situation discussed--The
51st marches to the Esla river--Passage of the Esla--King
Joseph--Battle of Vittoria--Complete victory--Flight
of the king and his army--Marauding and drunkenness--Wellington's
strictures--Pursuit to Pampeluna--The 51st reaches the Pyrenees--
Sharp skirmishes--Siege of San Sebastian--A hard day's fighting--
The French 51st Regiment--Regimental numbers--Capture of San
Sebastian 227

CHAPTER XII.

THE CLOSE OF THE PENINSULAR WAR.

Young regimental officers--Their effect upon the campaign--
Casualties in the 51st--Wellington plans the invasion of
France--Crosses the Bidassoa--Fights his way into the
Pyrenees--Major Rice commands the 51st at the battle of
the Nivelle--Peninsular medals--Battles before Bayonne--A
short winter's rest--Campaign of 1814--Battle of
Orthes--With Beresford to Bordeaux--Toulouse--Napoleon
abdicates--Peace 247

CHAPTER XIII.

THE WATERLOO CAMPAIGN.

Napoleon escapes from Elba--Europe decides to crush him--The
51st proceeds to Belgium--Lieut.-Colonel Rice commands
the regiment--The situation at the beginning of
June 1815--The French invasion--Quatre Bras and Ligny--The
battle of Waterloo described--The part played by
the 51st--Rout of the French--Flight of Napoleon--Honours
and rewards--Colonel Rice's letter about the battle 273

CHAPTER XIV.

PARIS--AND PEACE.

The advance on Paris--The storming of Cambray--Rapid
pursuit by the Prussians--Last shots--Anecdote of a 51st
officer--Friendly enemies--Paris occupied--Napoleon's fate--Life
in the French capital--Return of the regiment--The
beginning of the long peace--Garrison duty--New
uniform--Ten years in the Ionian Isles--Colonel Rice
concludes his regimental soldiering--His subsequent employment
and death 296

INDEX 313

THE LIFE OF A REGIMENTAL OFFICER DURING THE GREAT WAR,

1793-1815.