FOOTNOTES[1]Four troops of life guards, ten regiments of horse, five of dragoons, forty-seven battalions of foot.[2]I had almost written that France was then, as always, the first military nation; and though Prussia wrested the position from her under Frederick the Great and again in 1870, the lesson of history seems to teach that she is as truly the first military, as England is the first naval, nation.[3]Belhomme, p. 153.[4]Feuquières.[5]That is to say, of land-transport. After the sad experience of the Irish war the marine transport was entrusted to an officer specially established for the purpose.—Commons Journals.[6]I spell the village according to the popular fashion in England, and according to the Flemish pronunciation. So many names in Flanders seem to halt between the Flemish and the French that it is difficult to know how to set them down.[7]Fifty-three battalions of infantry and seven regiments of dragoons.—Beaurain.[8]No battlefield can be taken in more readily at a glance than that of Landen. On the path alongside the railway from Landen Station is a mound formed of earth thrown out of a cutting, from the top of which the whole position can be seen.[9]St. Simon. With the exception of one hollow, which might hold three or four squadrons in double rank in line, there is not the slightest shelter in the plain wherein the French horse could find protection.[10]Life Guards, 1st, 3rd, 4th, 6th Dragoon Guards, Galway’s Horse.[11]This is, of course, the Talmash ofTristram Shandyand of Macaulay’s History. He signed his name, however, as I spell it here, and I use his own spelling the more readily since it is more easily identified with the Tollemache of to-day.[12][13]Namur, Luxemburg, Mons, Charleroi, Ath, Oudenarde, Nieuport, Ostend.[14]By the defensive alliance concluded between England and Holland early in 1668, it was laid down that either party, on being attacked, had the right to require from the other the aid of a fixed proportion of forces both naval and military. This treaty was arranged by Sir William Temple shortly after the Treaty of Breda had brought to a close the Dutch War of 1665–1667; it was known as the Triple Alliance, Sweden being the third signatory.[15]12th, 22nd, 27th.[16]1st batt. First Guards, 1st Royals (2 batts.), 8th, 9th, 10th, 13th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 23rd, 24th. The Guards had been substituted (after careful explanation to Parliament) by William’s own direction for the 9th Foot.[17]Seven regiments of horse and dragoons, fourteen battalions of foot, fifty-six guns.[18]Coxe, vol. i. p. 182.[19]So Quincy. Coxe gives August 25–September 5 as the date, but the difference depends merely on the interpretation of the word investment.[20]See the description in Kane.[21]St. Simon gives a curious account of Lewis’s difficulty in arriving at the truth, owing to the general unwillingness to tell him bad news.[22]It is stated inRecords and Badges of the Armythat Lillingston’s was formed in 1702. But Narcissus Luttrell, Millar, and the Military Entry Books all give the date as 25th March (New Year’s Day) 1705.[23]Quincy’s account of this portion of the campaign is, so far as concerns Marlborough, full of falsehoods.[24]Four British regiments were of this detachment. Two battalions of the 1st Royals, the 3rd Buffs, and the 10th Foot.[25]Narcissus Luttrell.[26]It is worth noting that this was the first campaign in which Marlborough and the British took the post of honour at the extreme right of the Allied order of battle.[27]His camp thus lay across the whole of Wellington’s position at Waterloo, from east to west and considerably beyond it to westward, but fronted in the reverse direction.[28]Order of Battle. Campaign of 1705.Right.Right Wing Only.1st Line.Scots Greys, 3 squadrons.5th Dragoons, 3 squadrons.1st Dragoon Guards, 3 squadrons.5th Dragoon Guards, 2 squadrons.7th Dragoon Guards, 2 squadrons.6th Dragoon Guards, 2 squadrons.3rd Dragoon Guards, 2 squadrons.1 Batt. 1st Guards.1 Batt. Royal Scots.18th Royal Irish.23rd Royal Welsh.28th Foot.Stringer’s Foot.26th Cameronians.16th Foot.3rd Buffs.21st Royal Scots Fusiliers.37th Foot.Macartney’s Foot.Evans’s Foot.24th Foot15th FootForeign Troops.2nd Line.Foreign Troops.Extreme Right of Centre.2nd Batt. Royal Scots.10th Foot.Temple’s Foot.29th Foot.8th Foot.Left.Newspaper.[29]Peterborough’s Dragoons; Mark Kerr’s, Stanwix’s, Lovelace’s, Townsend’s, Tunbridge’s, Bradshaw’s, Sybourg’s, Price’s Foot. Sybourg’s was made up of Huguenots.[30]Marlborough’sDespatches, vol. ii. p. 262.[31]This is the story told in Lamberti.[32]The ground, though now drained, is still very wet.[33]I have described the field at some length, since the map given by Coxe is most misleading.[34]Coxe, by a singular error, makes the left consist exclusively of infantry, in face of Quincy, Feuquières, theLondon Gazetteand other authorities, thereby missing almost unaccountably an important feature in the action.[35]Apparently the whole of Meredith’s brigade, viz.: 1st, 18th, 29th, 37th, 24th, and 10th regiments. The place is still easily identifiable.[36]Molesworth escaped and was rewarded four years later, at the age of twenty-two, with a regiment of foot.[37]Order of Battle. Ramillies, 12th–23rd May 1706.Right.Right Wing Only.1st Line.Scots Greys.5th Royal Irish Dragoons.1st Dragoon Guards.5th Dragoon Guards.7th Dragoon Guards.6th Dragoon Guards.3rd Dragoon Guards.Eighteen Dutch Squadrons.1 Batt. 1st Guards.1 Batt. Royal Scots.16th Foot.26th Cameronians.28th Foot.23rd Royal Welsh.8th Foot.3rd Buffs.21st Royal Scots Fusiliers.Evans’s Foot.Macartney’s Foot.Stringer’s Foot.15th Foot.Foreign Infantry.2nd Line.Foreign Cavalry.2nd Batt. Royal Scots.18th Royal Irish.29th Foot.37th Foot.24th Foot.10th Foot.Foreign Infantry.Left.From Kane’sCampaigns.[38]Despatches, vol. ii. p. 554.[39]The British regiments regularly employed in the besieging army were the 8th, 10th, and 18th, and Evans’s Foot; the Scots Greys, 3rd and 6th Dragoon Guards. The total loss of the Allies was 32 officers and 551 men killed, 83 officers and 1941 men wounded. The 18th Royal Irish alone lost 15 officers, and in one attack over 100 men in half an hour.[40]Parker.[41]Order of Battle. Campaign of 1707.Right.Right Wing Only1st Line.Stair’s Brigade.Scots Greys.5th Royal Irish Dragoons.Palmer’s Brigade1st Dragoon Guards.5th Dragoon Guards.7th Dragoon Guards.6st Dragoon Guards.3rd Dragoon Guards.Orrery’s Foot.Evans’s Foot.Foreign horse.Meredith’s Brigade.1 Batt. 1st Guards.1 Batt. Royal Scots.16th Foot.23rd Royal Welsh.8th Foot.Temple’s Brigade2nd Batt. Royal Scots.18th Royal Irish.Temple’s Foot.24th Foot.10th Foot.Lord North and Grey’s Brigade.3rd Buffs21st Royal Scots Fusiliers37th Foot26th Cameronians15th Foot.Gore’s Foot.No British in the Second Line.Left.Postboy26th June 1707.[42]Slane’s, Brazier’s, Delaune’s, Jones’s, Carles’s, all raised in September.[43]Mixed battalion of Guards, 19th Foot, Prendergast’s (late Orrery’s).[44]16 battalions and 30 squadrons. In these were included the brigades of Sabine, viz., 8th, 18th, 23rd, 37th; of Evans, viz., Orrery’s, Evans’s, and two foreign battalions; and of Plattenberg, which included the Scottish regiments in the Dutch service.[45]Among them the Royal Scots and Buffs.[46]That is to say, on the western side of the road from Oudenarde to Deynze.[47]The ground, though drained and built over about Bevere, seems to have lost little of its original character, and is worth a visit.[48]British losses: 4 officers and 49 men killed, 17 officers and 160 men wounded.[49]The force consisted of detachments of the 3rd and 4th Dragoons (now Hussars), 12th, 29th, Hamilton’s, Dormer’s, Johnson’s, Moore’s, Caulfield’s, Townsend’s, Wynne’s Foot.[50]See, for instance, the commendations of Feuquières.[51]135 battalions, 260 squadrons.[52]122 battalions, 230 squadrons.[53]These were, according to a contemporary plan (Fricx), the 16th, 18th, 21st, 23rd, 24th Foot.[54]He is claimed as a Guardsman by General Hamilton (Hist. Grenadier Guards), though Millner assigns him to the 16th Foot. This is the only name of a man below the rank of a commissioned officer that I have encountered in any of the books on the wars of Marlborough, not excluding the works of Sergeants Deane and Millner. Littler was deservedly rewarded with a commission.[55]The Allied order of battle was peculiar. The artillery was all drawn up in front, in rear of it came a first line of 100 squadrons, then a second line of 80 squadrons, then a third line of 104 battalions, with wings of 14 squadrons more thrown out to the right and left rear.Daily Courant, 6th September 1708.[56]The five English regiments lost about 350 killed and wounded in this assault. This would mean probably from a fifth to a sixth of their numbers.Daily Courant, 6th September 1708.[57]I have failed, in spite of much search, to identify the British regiments present, excepting one battalion of the 1st Royals. Marlborough, as Thackeray has reminded us by a famous scene inEsmond, attributed the credit of the action in his first despatch to Cadogan. Another letter, however, which appeared in theGazettethree days later (23rd September), does full justice to Webb, as does also a letter from the Duke to Lord Sunderland of 18th–29th September (Despatches, vol. iv. p. 243). Webb’s own version of the affair appeared in theGazetteof 9th October, but does not mention the regiments engaged. Webb became a celebrated bore with his stories of Wynendale, but the story of his grievance against Marlborough would have been forgotten but for Thackeray, who either ignored or was unaware of the second despatch.[58]Notably Prendergast’s.Gazette, 25th November.[59]The British troops employed were the 6th Foot, 600 marines, and a battalion of seamen.[60]There are still some remains of the old walls of Tournay on the south side of the town, and the ruins of Vauban’s citadel close by, from which the extent of the works may be judged.[61]The British regiments employed in the siege were the 1st Royals (2 battalions), 3rd Buffs, 37th, Temple’s, Evans’s and Prendergast’s Foot.[62]The following description written from the trenches gives some idea of the work: “Now as to our fighting underground, blowing up like kites in the air, not being sure of a foot of ground we stand on while in the trenches. Our miners and the enemy very often meet each other, when they have sharp combats till one side gives way. We have got into three or four of the enemy’s great galleries, which are thirty or forty feet underground and lead to several of their chambers; and in these we fight in armour by lanthorn and candle, they disputing every inch of the gallery with us to hinder our finding out their great mines. Yesternight we found one which was placed just under our bomb batteries, in which were eighteen hundredweight of powder besides many bombs: and if we had not been so lucky as to find it, in a very few hours our batteries and some hundreds of men had taken a flight into the air.”—Daily Courant, 20th August.[63]8th, 10th, 15th, 16th.[64]Parker.[65]A nominal list in thePostboyof 1st October gives 36 officers killed and 46 wounded. An earlier list of 17th September gives 40 officers and 511 men killed, 66 officers and 1020 men wounded; but this is admittedly imperfect.[66]Order of Battle. Campaign of 1709.Right.Right Wing Only1st Line.Sybourg’s Brigade.Scots Greys, 3 squadrons.5th Royal Irish Dragoons, 2 squadrons.Kelburn’s Brigade1st Dragoon Guards, 2 Squadrons.5th Dragoon Guards, 2 Squadrons.7th Dragoon Guards, 2 Squadrons.6th Dragoon Guards, 1 Squadron.3rd Dragoon Guards, 2 Squadrons.Orrery’s Brigade26th Cameronians.Two foreign battalions.Prendergast’s Foot.Two Foreign Brigadiers.Twenty-seven squadrons of foreign dragoons.1 Batt. 1st Guards.1 Batt. Coldstream Guards.1 Batt. Royal Scots.37th Foot.10th Foot.2nd Batt. Royal Scots.23rd Royal Welsh.Orrery’s Foot.3rd Buffs.Temple’s FootEvans’s Foot.16th Foot.8th Foot.24th Foot.21st Royal Scots Fusiliers.18th Royal Irish.No British troops in the second line; but the 15th and 19th Foot were also present at the action of Malplaquet.Left.[67]11th, 37th, Kane’s, Clayton’s, and one foreign battalion of foot. The losses of the expedition were 29 officers and 676 men drowned.[68]Honey wood to Carteret, Jan. 7/18; Ligonier to Carteret, March 21/April 1, 1744.[69]Ligonier to Carteret, April 29/May 10.[70]Wade to Carteret, May 30/June 10, June 25/July 6.[71]Carteret to Wade, May 25/June 5.[72]Carteret to Wade, July 13/24, 17/28.[73]Carteret to Wade, July 31/Aug. 11, Aug. 14/25, 17/28.[74]Wade to Carteret, Aug. 26/Sept. 6.[75]Ibid., Aug. 19/30, Aug. 25/Sept. 5, Sept. 16/27,Sept. 22/Oct. 3, Oct. 1/12, 10/21[76]Ligonier to Carteret, July 31/Aug. 11, 1744.[77]Ligonier to Harrington, Jan. 29/Feb. 9, Feb. 6/17, 1745.[78]Gazette, Feb. 23/March 6, March 1/12, 1745.[79]Cumberland to Harrington, April 1/12, 12/23.[80]The ground immediately before Fontenoy presents for fully eight hundred yards a gentle and unbroken slope. An officer, who went over the ground with me, assured me that St. Privat itself does not offer a more perfect natural glacis for modern rifle-fire.[81]Every one knows the legend of “Messieurs les Gardes Françaises, tirez les premiers.” “Non, messieurs, nous ne tirons jamais les premiers.” But every English account agrees that the French fired first, long before the question had been raised, and I take the authority of Ligonier (who drew up the official account) as final. He says distinctly, “We received their fire.”[82]Campagnes des Pays Bas.[83]Ligonier to Harrington, May 5/16.Cumberland to Harrington, May 11/22.[84]Fawkener to Harrington, July 19/30.[85]General Bligh to Cumberland, June 28/July 9.[86]Cumberland to Harrington, July 2/13.[87]Cumberland to Harrington, July 14/25.[88]Ligonier to Harrington, July 14/25.[89]Harrington to Cumberland, Sept. 4/15; Oct. 1/12, 19/30.[90]Dunmore to Harrington, Jan. 20/31, Jan. 27/Feb. 7, Feb. 12/23.[91]Ligonier to Harrington, July 1/12, 1746.[92]Ligonier to Harrington, July 9/20, 13/24, 16/27.[93]Ibid., July 23/Aug. 3, Aug. 2/13.[94]Ligonier to Harrington, Aug. 9/20, 19/30, Aug. 26/Sept. 6, Sept. 4/15.[95]Ligomer to Harrington, Sept. 24/Oct. 5, Sept. 28/Oct. 9.[96]Ligonier to Harrington, Sept. 28/Oct. 9, Oct. 20/31.[97]1st, 15th, 28th, 30th, 39th, and 42nd Foot.[98]Cumberland to Harrington, Feb. 6/17, March 20/31,March 24/April 4.[99]Cumberland to Chesterfield, May 1/12, 9/20.[100]Cumberland blamed the Austrian General, Baroney, and his irregulars for supine negligence on the march.Cumberland to Chesterfield, July 6/17, 1747.[101]The regiments present at Lauffeld were the Greys, 4th Hussars, Inniskillings, 7th Hussars, and Cumberland’s dragoons, one battalion each of the 1st and 3rd Guards, 3rd, 4th, 13th, 19th, 21st, 23rd, 25th, 32nd, 33rd, 36th, 37th, 48th Foot. The two last had no casualties.[102]Cumberland to Newcastle, March 18/29, March 22/April 2,March 26/April 6.[103]Dropmore Papers, Auckland to Grenville, 21st and 25th January; 14th and 15th February.F.O. Holland, 16th February 1793. And seeAuckland CorrespondenceandDropmore Papersgenerally, November 1792 to February 1793.[104]The head of the column was able to keep sober; the rear, under the endearments of the populace, subsided dead drunk on the road and was brought on in carts.Narrative of an Officer of the Guards.[105]Lake to Dundas, 2nd March 1793. Lake’s Instructions, 23rd February. Grenville to Auckland, 20th February 1793.F.O. Holland, Auckland to Grenville, 4th March 1793.[106]Dropmore Papers, Auckland to Grenville, 5th and 13th March 1793.S.C.L.B.5th March; Abercromby’s instructions, 9th March; Dundas to York, 15th March 1793;C.C.L.B.2nd March; Adj.-gen. to York, 27th March, 12th April 1793. Calvert, pp. 53, 67.[107]S.P. Ireland, Cooke to Hobart, 23rd April; Westmoreland to Hobart, 27th April; Dundas to Westmoreland, 16th May, 31st July 1793;S.C.L.B.18th May 1793.[108]S.C.L.B.7th February.C.C.L.B.Adj.-gen. to Duke of York, 2nd and 12th April 1793. Dundas to Williamson, 4th April 1793.[109]Duke of Argyll’s and Earl of Sutherland’s, 1759; Lord Fred. Campbell’s, 1778; Earl of Sutherland’s, Fauconberg’s (Yorkshire), North’s (Cinque Ports), 1779.[110]Athol’s or the Manx, Sir J. Grant’s, Gower’s (or Wemyss’s), Eglinton’s (or Montgomery’s), Breadalbane’s, Argyll’s, Duke of Gordon’s, Hopetoun’s, Balfour’s (Orkney). Their strength was 650 of all ranks, except the Manx, which were 323 strong.[111]Murray to Dundas, 26th March 1793.[112]Sybel, ii. 230; Grenville to Auckland, 3rd April 1793.[113]S.C.L.B.21st March, 2nd April;C.C.L.B.25th March 1793.Dropmore Papers, ii. 360, 387–89. Buckingham to Grenville, 20th January; the King to Grenville, 29th March; Pitt to Grenville, 1st April 1793. Auckland to Grenville, 31st May 1793.[114]Sybel, ii. 142.[115]The insisting upon an indemnity must have been the work of Pitt, probably under the influence of Dundas. Grenville trembled at the word indemnity.Dropmore Papers, ii. 392.[116]Protocol of conference of 7th April. Dundas to Auckland and to Murray, 16th April Auckland to Grenville, 19th April 1793.[117]Murray to Dundas, 22nd April 1793.[118]Prussians, 8000, of which 1800 cavalry; Austrians, 55,000, of which 10,000 cavalry; Dutch, 15,000, of which 2500 cavalry; Hanoverians, 12,000, of which 3000 cavalry; Hessians, 8000, of which 1500 cavalry; British, 7200, of which 3000 cavalry. Total, 105,200, of which 27,200 in the pay of England. About 5000 of the Austrians and the 8000 Hessians were not expected till June. Witzleben, ii. 117, 181–186. Coburg to York, 1st and 3rd May; Murray to Dundas, 5th May; Dundas to Murray, 10th May 1793.[119]The authorities for this and the next paragraph are Ditfurth, i. 29, 35, 36; Witzleben, ii. 59; Calvert, p. 83; Sybel, ii. 154.[120]Ditfurth, i. 48.[121]231 horses, draught and pack, and 116 drivers, etc., per battalion of 1100 men, of which 82 horses and 34 men were for the officers. Each company had one four-horse waggon, and each battalion one pair-horse hospital-waggon.[122]Ditfurth, i. 33; Witzleben, ii. 66. York to Dundas, 25th January 1794. Vol. iii. of thisHistory, pp. 524, 525.[123]Dropmore Papers, ii. 349.[124]Bunbury,Great War with France, p. 46.[125]Poisson, ii. 239, 240.[126]Rousset, p. 183.[127]Vie de Carnot, i. 138.[128]“The squadron of men of war and transports was collected, the commodore’s flag hoisted, and the expedition sailed withmost secretorders, which as usual were as well known to the enemy and everybody in England as to those by whom they were given” (Marryat,The King’s Own, ch. vii.ad init.). Marryat attributes this failing to the multitude of counsellors that compose a Cabinet. He may be right, but those who are acquainted with the scandalous carelessness with which Ministers treat confidential military documents, find no difficulty in accounting for it otherwise. This evil still continues, and will continue until Cabinet Ministers are subjected to the same penalties for abuse of trust as other servants of the King.[129]Calvert, p. 72.[130]Dropmore MSS.Lieut.-colonel Freemantle to Buckingham, 13th May 1793. Calvert, p. 79.Narrative by an Officer of the Guards, i. 29–31. Murray to Dundas, 10th May (private) 1793. There are some significant omissions from his public letter of the same date as published in the Gazette.Auckland Correspondence, iii. 58.[131]7th, 11th, 15th, 16th Light Dragoons.[132]Murray to Dundas, 15th and 17th May 1793.[133]Witzleben, ii. 194.[134]That is to say, guns not allotted to the infantry as battalion-guns.[135]The brigade was reckoned at four battalions, the flank companies being massed into a fourth battalion.[136]The Fourteenth and Fifty-third, with the flank companies of these two regiments and of the Thirty-seventh, massed into a third battalion. Witzleben (ii. 199) gives a larger number of British troops, calling all squadrons and battalions in British pay by the name English.[137]Murray to Dundas, 24th May 1793.[138]Witzleben, ii. 210–211. This author states that the Duke of York asked for the command of the siege, which I believe to be absolutely incorrect, and indeed incredible. See Murray to Dundas, 26th and 29th May; Dundas to Murray, 30th and 31st May 1793.[139]Blues, Royals, Greys, Inniskillings.[140]Vie de Carnot, i. 321,sq.[141]Dundas to Murray, 29th May, 14th June, 12th July; Murray to Dundas, 18th June and 16th July 1793.[142]Murray to Dundas, 25th July.[143]Sybel, ii. 370–373.[144]Ditfurth, i. 69. Witzleben, ii. 263–64. Murray to Dundas (private), 9th August 1793.[145]Witzleben, ii. 264, 370. Dundas to Murray, 1st August 1793.[146]Ditfurth, i. 73. 47½ battalions, 58 squadrons. British, 5200 infantry, 1300 cavalry; Austrians, 10,000 infantry, 1000 cavalry; Hanoverians, 9000 infantry, 1600 cavalry; Hessians, 5500 infantry, 1500 cavalry. Total, 29,700 infantry, 5400 cavalry, 1900 artillery.[147]Hamilton,History of the Grenadier Guards, ii. 285.[148]The British engaged were the flank companies of the Guards and Line, and Royal Artillery. Casualties, seventy-eight killed and wounded.[149]Murray to Dundas, 16th July; Dundas to Murray, 19th July 1793.[150]Dropmore Papers, ii. 444. Dundas to Grenville, 12th October 1793.[151]Dundas to Murray, 16th April 1793.[152]Calvert, vi. 118; Murray to Dundas, 3rd September.[153]Vie de Carnot, i. 394.[154]Murray to Dundas, 28th and 31st August 1793.[155]Murray to Dundas, 31st August 1793.[156]Sybel, ii. 417.[157]Murray to Dundas (private), 9th September 1793.[158]Narrative of an Officer, pp. 91–92; Ditfurth, i. 127–128.[159]Ibid.pp. 91–93, and see Ditfurth, i. 126.[160]Flank companies 9th, nine companies 4/60th, 50 artillery.[161]Cuyler to Dundas, 22nd March 1793.[162]Battalion companies of the 21st; flank companies (apparently) of the 9th, 15th, 21st, 45th, 48th, 3/60th, 4/60th, 67th. Bruce speaks of eighteen flank companies, perhaps including details of the 25th and 29th, which were serving on the fleet as marines.[163]Mr. Balfour to Dundas, 20th July 1793.[164]The official despatch reached the Government on 13th September, but the fact was known to Pitt on the 7th.Dropmore Papers, i. 422.[165]Hood to Dundas, 25th August 1793.[166]Brenton’sNaval History, i. 101.[167]Mulgrave to Dundas, 1st September 1793.[168]3rd, 19th, 27th, 28th, 42nd, 54th, 57th, 59th.[169]Dundas to Murray, 11th, 14th September; to Hood, 14th September; to Bruce, 18th September 1793; Pitt to Grenville,Dropmore Papers, ii. 43 (the conjectural date of September attached to this last is wrong, and should be changed to October).[170]Narrative of an Officer, i. 92.[171]19th, 57th, three companies of the 42nd.[172]Poisson, ii. 525–526.[173]Dundas to Murray, 13th September 1793.[174]Dundas to Murray, 13th, 14th, and 28th September; 14th October. Murray to Dundas, 14th and 15th October 1793.[175]Ditfurth, i. 147.[176]Murray to Dundas, 6th October. Dundas to Ainslie, 12th October; to Abercromby, 13th October 1793.[177]3rd, 28th, 54th, 59th. They had already made one voyage to Ostend and back.[178]Murray to Dundas, 18th October; Ainslie to Dundas, 23rd October; Dundas to Grey, 26th October; to Murray, 27th October 1793.[179]Two Austrian battalions, 3rd Guards, flank battalion of Guards, one squadron 7th L.D., and one squadron 15th L.D.[180]Murray to Dundas, 30th October and 12th November; Dundas to Murray, 8th November 1793.[181]Chat huant.[182]Poisson, iii. 139seq.[183]Ibid.239–248; Rousset, pp. 293, 299.[184]Rousset, 123–124, 236, 249; also generally, pp. 78–148.[185]Sybel, iii. 26–27;Vie de Carnot, i. 470;Dropmore Papers, ii. 501.[186]Life of Lord Minto, ii. 383.[187]“I think, if you see Dundas, it may not be amiss to urge the danger of running after distant objects while the great object lies still—of hunting the sheep till you have killed the dog. The most fatal error will be, I apprehend, the seeking to preserve the popularity of the war by feeding the avarice of the nation with conquests.”—Windham to Mr. Elliot, December 1793.Life of Lord Minto, ii. 196.[188]Pitt to Grenville, 5th and 7th July 1794.Dropmore Papers, ii. 595, 597.[189]Parliamentary History, vol. xxxi.; Debates of 21st January, 3rd February, 10th April 1794.[190]Adj.-gen. to the Duke of York,C.C.L.B.31st October 1793.[191]These regiments are arranged according to the dates of their letters of service.[192]Campbell’s was originally numbered 98th; Huntly’s 100th.[193]Adj.-gen. to Prince Edward,C.C.L.B.17th March 1794.[194]C.C.L.B., Adj.-gen. to Lieut.-gen. Cunninghame, 8th October 1793.Here is an example of the scheme as used for raising a regiment of 10 companies each of 60 men.Proceeds of sale of 1 Lieut.-colonelcy, 1 Majority,1 Company, 1 Lieutenancy, 1 Ensigncy, amount to£9250Cost of 600 men at £159000Balance£250Another scheme for augmenting battalions of infantry. As soon as 450 approved recruits have been raised, there shall be added to it a Lieutenant-colonel, and a Major.The Major will pay for his Lieut.-colonelcy£600The senior Captain will pay for his senior Majority700Another Captain will pay for his junior Majority550Two Companies thus vacated will sell for2800Levy-money of £5 granted by Government for 450 men2250Total£6900Cost of 450 men at £15 (£10 bounty and £5 levy-money) would be6750Balance£150Thus 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 alsoii. 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. 64seq.[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. 10sqq., 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 inAchievements 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]InCannon’s Recordsof 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 inW.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]TheGazetteprints 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, 137seq.), 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 theGazette, 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’sRecords of the Seventh and Fifteenth Hussars and Sixteenth Lancers; Calvert’sJournal; 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 seeCornwallis 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.OfficersN.C.O.’s and men.British Cavalry1654,350Hanoverians and Hessians1682,939Total Cavalry3337,289British Infantry58321,170Hanoverians and Hessians3228,722Total1,23837,181Total 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. 213seq.; Memorandum of the Duke of York, 23rd December 1794; Calvert, pp. 385–386; see vol. ii. of thisHistory, p. 88.[268]No officer could hope to master these mysteries without the help of two fat little duodecimo volumes calledThe Regimental Companion, and a third and slighter volume entitledMilitary 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 inAutobiography 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. 432note. 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. 362sq.;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.
FOOTNOTES
[1]Four troops of life guards, ten regiments of horse, five of dragoons, forty-seven battalions of foot.
[2]I had almost written that France was then, as always, the first military nation; and though Prussia wrested the position from her under Frederick the Great and again in 1870, the lesson of history seems to teach that she is as truly the first military, as England is the first naval, nation.
[3]Belhomme, p. 153.
[4]Feuquières.
[5]That is to say, of land-transport. After the sad experience of the Irish war the marine transport was entrusted to an officer specially established for the purpose.—Commons Journals.
[6]I spell the village according to the popular fashion in England, and according to the Flemish pronunciation. So many names in Flanders seem to halt between the Flemish and the French that it is difficult to know how to set them down.
[7]Fifty-three battalions of infantry and seven regiments of dragoons.—Beaurain.
[8]No battlefield can be taken in more readily at a glance than that of Landen. On the path alongside the railway from Landen Station is a mound formed of earth thrown out of a cutting, from the top of which the whole position can be seen.
[9]St. Simon. With the exception of one hollow, which might hold three or four squadrons in double rank in line, there is not the slightest shelter in the plain wherein the French horse could find protection.
[10]Life Guards, 1st, 3rd, 4th, 6th Dragoon Guards, Galway’s Horse.
[11]This is, of course, the Talmash ofTristram Shandyand of Macaulay’s History. He signed his name, however, as I spell it here, and I use his own spelling the more readily since it is more easily identified with the Tollemache of to-day.
[12]
[13]Namur, Luxemburg, Mons, Charleroi, Ath, Oudenarde, Nieuport, Ostend.
[14]By the defensive alliance concluded between England and Holland early in 1668, it was laid down that either party, on being attacked, had the right to require from the other the aid of a fixed proportion of forces both naval and military. This treaty was arranged by Sir William Temple shortly after the Treaty of Breda had brought to a close the Dutch War of 1665–1667; it was known as the Triple Alliance, Sweden being the third signatory.
[15]12th, 22nd, 27th.
[16]1st batt. First Guards, 1st Royals (2 batts.), 8th, 9th, 10th, 13th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 23rd, 24th. The Guards had been substituted (after careful explanation to Parliament) by William’s own direction for the 9th Foot.
[17]Seven regiments of horse and dragoons, fourteen battalions of foot, fifty-six guns.
[18]Coxe, vol. i. p. 182.
[19]So Quincy. Coxe gives August 25–September 5 as the date, but the difference depends merely on the interpretation of the word investment.
[20]See the description in Kane.
[21]St. Simon gives a curious account of Lewis’s difficulty in arriving at the truth, owing to the general unwillingness to tell him bad news.
[22]It is stated inRecords and Badges of the Armythat Lillingston’s was formed in 1702. But Narcissus Luttrell, Millar, and the Military Entry Books all give the date as 25th March (New Year’s Day) 1705.
[23]Quincy’s account of this portion of the campaign is, so far as concerns Marlborough, full of falsehoods.
[24]Four British regiments were of this detachment. Two battalions of the 1st Royals, the 3rd Buffs, and the 10th Foot.
[25]Narcissus Luttrell.
[26]It is worth noting that this was the first campaign in which Marlborough and the British took the post of honour at the extreme right of the Allied order of battle.
[27]His camp thus lay across the whole of Wellington’s position at Waterloo, from east to west and considerably beyond it to westward, but fronted in the reverse direction.
[28]Order of Battle. Campaign of 1705.
Right.
Right Wing Only.
1st Line.
Scots Greys, 3 squadrons.5th Dragoons, 3 squadrons.
1st Dragoon Guards, 3 squadrons.5th Dragoon Guards, 2 squadrons.7th Dragoon Guards, 2 squadrons.6th Dragoon Guards, 2 squadrons.3rd Dragoon Guards, 2 squadrons.
1 Batt. 1st Guards.1 Batt. Royal Scots.18th Royal Irish.23rd Royal Welsh.28th Foot.Stringer’s Foot.26th Cameronians.16th Foot.
3rd Buffs.21st Royal Scots Fusiliers.37th Foot.Macartney’s Foot.
Evans’s Foot.24th Foot15th Foot
Foreign Troops.
2nd Line.
Foreign Troops.
Extreme Right of Centre.
2nd Batt. Royal Scots.10th Foot.Temple’s Foot.29th Foot.8th Foot.
Left.
Newspaper.
[29]Peterborough’s Dragoons; Mark Kerr’s, Stanwix’s, Lovelace’s, Townsend’s, Tunbridge’s, Bradshaw’s, Sybourg’s, Price’s Foot. Sybourg’s was made up of Huguenots.
[30]Marlborough’sDespatches, vol. ii. p. 262.
[31]This is the story told in Lamberti.
[32]The ground, though now drained, is still very wet.
[33]I have described the field at some length, since the map given by Coxe is most misleading.
[34]Coxe, by a singular error, makes the left consist exclusively of infantry, in face of Quincy, Feuquières, theLondon Gazetteand other authorities, thereby missing almost unaccountably an important feature in the action.
[35]Apparently the whole of Meredith’s brigade, viz.: 1st, 18th, 29th, 37th, 24th, and 10th regiments. The place is still easily identifiable.
[36]Molesworth escaped and was rewarded four years later, at the age of twenty-two, with a regiment of foot.
[37]Order of Battle. Ramillies, 12th–23rd May 1706.
Right.
Right Wing Only.
1st Line.
Scots Greys.5th Royal Irish Dragoons.
1st Dragoon Guards.5th Dragoon Guards.7th Dragoon Guards.6th Dragoon Guards.3rd Dragoon Guards.Eighteen Dutch Squadrons.
1 Batt. 1st Guards.1 Batt. Royal Scots.16th Foot.26th Cameronians.28th Foot.23rd Royal Welsh.8th Foot.
3rd Buffs.21st Royal Scots Fusiliers.Evans’s Foot.Macartney’s Foot.Stringer’s Foot.15th Foot.
Foreign Infantry.
2nd Line.
Foreign Cavalry.
2nd Batt. Royal Scots.18th Royal Irish.29th Foot.37th Foot.24th Foot.10th Foot.
Foreign Infantry.
Left.
From Kane’sCampaigns.
[38]Despatches, vol. ii. p. 554.
[39]The British regiments regularly employed in the besieging army were the 8th, 10th, and 18th, and Evans’s Foot; the Scots Greys, 3rd and 6th Dragoon Guards. The total loss of the Allies was 32 officers and 551 men killed, 83 officers and 1941 men wounded. The 18th Royal Irish alone lost 15 officers, and in one attack over 100 men in half an hour.
[40]Parker.
[41]Order of Battle. Campaign of 1707.
Right.
Right Wing Only
1st Line.
Stair’s Brigade.
Scots Greys.5th Royal Irish Dragoons.
Palmer’s Brigade
1st Dragoon Guards.5th Dragoon Guards.7th Dragoon Guards.6st Dragoon Guards.3rd Dragoon Guards.
Orrery’s Foot.Evans’s Foot.
Foreign horse.
Meredith’s Brigade.
1 Batt. 1st Guards.1 Batt. Royal Scots.16th Foot.23rd Royal Welsh.8th Foot.
Temple’s Brigade
2nd Batt. Royal Scots.18th Royal Irish.Temple’s Foot.24th Foot.10th Foot.
Lord North and Grey’s Brigade.
3rd Buffs21st Royal Scots Fusiliers37th Foot26th Cameronians15th Foot.Gore’s Foot.
No British in the Second Line.
Left.
Postboy26th June 1707.
[42]Slane’s, Brazier’s, Delaune’s, Jones’s, Carles’s, all raised in September.
[43]Mixed battalion of Guards, 19th Foot, Prendergast’s (late Orrery’s).
[44]16 battalions and 30 squadrons. In these were included the brigades of Sabine, viz., 8th, 18th, 23rd, 37th; of Evans, viz., Orrery’s, Evans’s, and two foreign battalions; and of Plattenberg, which included the Scottish regiments in the Dutch service.
[45]Among them the Royal Scots and Buffs.
[46]That is to say, on the western side of the road from Oudenarde to Deynze.
[47]The ground, though drained and built over about Bevere, seems to have lost little of its original character, and is worth a visit.
[48]British losses: 4 officers and 49 men killed, 17 officers and 160 men wounded.
[49]The force consisted of detachments of the 3rd and 4th Dragoons (now Hussars), 12th, 29th, Hamilton’s, Dormer’s, Johnson’s, Moore’s, Caulfield’s, Townsend’s, Wynne’s Foot.
[50]See, for instance, the commendations of Feuquières.
[51]135 battalions, 260 squadrons.
[52]122 battalions, 230 squadrons.
[53]These were, according to a contemporary plan (Fricx), the 16th, 18th, 21st, 23rd, 24th Foot.
[54]He is claimed as a Guardsman by General Hamilton (Hist. Grenadier Guards), though Millner assigns him to the 16th Foot. This is the only name of a man below the rank of a commissioned officer that I have encountered in any of the books on the wars of Marlborough, not excluding the works of Sergeants Deane and Millner. Littler was deservedly rewarded with a commission.
[55]The Allied order of battle was peculiar. The artillery was all drawn up in front, in rear of it came a first line of 100 squadrons, then a second line of 80 squadrons, then a third line of 104 battalions, with wings of 14 squadrons more thrown out to the right and left rear.Daily Courant, 6th September 1708.
[56]The five English regiments lost about 350 killed and wounded in this assault. This would mean probably from a fifth to a sixth of their numbers.Daily Courant, 6th September 1708.
[57]I have failed, in spite of much search, to identify the British regiments present, excepting one battalion of the 1st Royals. Marlborough, as Thackeray has reminded us by a famous scene inEsmond, attributed the credit of the action in his first despatch to Cadogan. Another letter, however, which appeared in theGazettethree days later (23rd September), does full justice to Webb, as does also a letter from the Duke to Lord Sunderland of 18th–29th September (Despatches, vol. iv. p. 243). Webb’s own version of the affair appeared in theGazetteof 9th October, but does not mention the regiments engaged. Webb became a celebrated bore with his stories of Wynendale, but the story of his grievance against Marlborough would have been forgotten but for Thackeray, who either ignored or was unaware of the second despatch.
[58]Notably Prendergast’s.Gazette, 25th November.
[59]The British troops employed were the 6th Foot, 600 marines, and a battalion of seamen.
[60]There are still some remains of the old walls of Tournay on the south side of the town, and the ruins of Vauban’s citadel close by, from which the extent of the works may be judged.
[61]The British regiments employed in the siege were the 1st Royals (2 battalions), 3rd Buffs, 37th, Temple’s, Evans’s and Prendergast’s Foot.
[62]The following description written from the trenches gives some idea of the work: “Now as to our fighting underground, blowing up like kites in the air, not being sure of a foot of ground we stand on while in the trenches. Our miners and the enemy very often meet each other, when they have sharp combats till one side gives way. We have got into three or four of the enemy’s great galleries, which are thirty or forty feet underground and lead to several of their chambers; and in these we fight in armour by lanthorn and candle, they disputing every inch of the gallery with us to hinder our finding out their great mines. Yesternight we found one which was placed just under our bomb batteries, in which were eighteen hundredweight of powder besides many bombs: and if we had not been so lucky as to find it, in a very few hours our batteries and some hundreds of men had taken a flight into the air.”—Daily Courant, 20th August.
[63]8th, 10th, 15th, 16th.
[64]Parker.
[65]A nominal list in thePostboyof 1st October gives 36 officers killed and 46 wounded. An earlier list of 17th September gives 40 officers and 511 men killed, 66 officers and 1020 men wounded; but this is admittedly imperfect.
[66]Order of Battle. Campaign of 1709.
Right.
Right Wing Only
1st Line.
Sybourg’s Brigade.
Scots Greys, 3 squadrons.5th Royal Irish Dragoons, 2 squadrons.
Kelburn’s Brigade
1st Dragoon Guards, 2 Squadrons.5th Dragoon Guards, 2 Squadrons.7th Dragoon Guards, 2 Squadrons.6th Dragoon Guards, 1 Squadron.3rd Dragoon Guards, 2 Squadrons.
Orrery’s Brigade
26th Cameronians.Two foreign battalions.Prendergast’s Foot.
Two Foreign Brigadiers.
Twenty-seven squadrons of foreign dragoons.
1 Batt. 1st Guards.1 Batt. Coldstream Guards.1 Batt. Royal Scots.37th Foot.10th Foot.
2nd Batt. Royal Scots.23rd Royal Welsh.Orrery’s Foot.
3rd Buffs.Temple’s FootEvans’s Foot.16th Foot.
8th Foot.24th Foot.21st Royal Scots Fusiliers.18th Royal Irish.
No British troops in the second line; but the 15th and 19th Foot were also present at the action of Malplaquet.
Left.
[67]11th, 37th, Kane’s, Clayton’s, and one foreign battalion of foot. The losses of the expedition were 29 officers and 676 men drowned.
[68]Honey wood to Carteret, Jan. 7/18; Ligonier to Carteret, March 21/April 1, 1744.
[69]Ligonier to Carteret, April 29/May 10.
[70]Wade to Carteret, May 30/June 10, June 25/July 6.
[71]Carteret to Wade, May 25/June 5.
[72]Carteret to Wade, July 13/24, 17/28.
[73]Carteret to Wade, July 31/Aug. 11, Aug. 14/25, 17/28.
[74]Wade to Carteret, Aug. 26/Sept. 6.
[75]Ibid., Aug. 19/30, Aug. 25/Sept. 5, Sept. 16/27,Sept. 22/Oct. 3, Oct. 1/12, 10/21
[76]Ligonier to Carteret, July 31/Aug. 11, 1744.
[77]Ligonier to Harrington, Jan. 29/Feb. 9, Feb. 6/17, 1745.
[78]Gazette, Feb. 23/March 6, March 1/12, 1745.
[79]Cumberland to Harrington, April 1/12, 12/23.
[80]The ground immediately before Fontenoy presents for fully eight hundred yards a gentle and unbroken slope. An officer, who went over the ground with me, assured me that St. Privat itself does not offer a more perfect natural glacis for modern rifle-fire.
[81]Every one knows the legend of “Messieurs les Gardes Françaises, tirez les premiers.” “Non, messieurs, nous ne tirons jamais les premiers.” But every English account agrees that the French fired first, long before the question had been raised, and I take the authority of Ligonier (who drew up the official account) as final. He says distinctly, “We received their fire.”
[82]Campagnes des Pays Bas.
[83]Ligonier to Harrington, May 5/16.Cumberland to Harrington, May 11/22.
[84]Fawkener to Harrington, July 19/30.
[85]General Bligh to Cumberland, June 28/July 9.
[86]Cumberland to Harrington, July 2/13.
[87]Cumberland to Harrington, July 14/25.
[88]Ligonier to Harrington, July 14/25.
[89]Harrington to Cumberland, Sept. 4/15; Oct. 1/12, 19/30.
[90]Dunmore to Harrington, Jan. 20/31, Jan. 27/Feb. 7, Feb. 12/23.
[91]Ligonier to Harrington, July 1/12, 1746.
[92]Ligonier to Harrington, July 9/20, 13/24, 16/27.
[93]Ibid., July 23/Aug. 3, Aug. 2/13.
[94]Ligonier to Harrington, Aug. 9/20, 19/30, Aug. 26/Sept. 6, Sept. 4/15.
[95]Ligomer to Harrington, Sept. 24/Oct. 5, Sept. 28/Oct. 9.
[96]Ligonier to Harrington, Sept. 28/Oct. 9, Oct. 20/31.
[97]1st, 15th, 28th, 30th, 39th, and 42nd Foot.
[98]Cumberland to Harrington, Feb. 6/17, March 20/31,March 24/April 4.
[99]Cumberland to Chesterfield, May 1/12, 9/20.
[100]Cumberland blamed the Austrian General, Baroney, and his irregulars for supine negligence on the march.Cumberland to Chesterfield, July 6/17, 1747.
[101]The regiments present at Lauffeld were the Greys, 4th Hussars, Inniskillings, 7th Hussars, and Cumberland’s dragoons, one battalion each of the 1st and 3rd Guards, 3rd, 4th, 13th, 19th, 21st, 23rd, 25th, 32nd, 33rd, 36th, 37th, 48th Foot. The two last had no casualties.
[102]Cumberland to Newcastle, March 18/29, March 22/April 2,March 26/April 6.
[103]Dropmore Papers, Auckland to Grenville, 21st and 25th January; 14th and 15th February.F.O. Holland, 16th February 1793. And seeAuckland CorrespondenceandDropmore Papersgenerally, November 1792 to February 1793.
[104]The head of the column was able to keep sober; the rear, under the endearments of the populace, subsided dead drunk on the road and was brought on in carts.Narrative of an Officer of the Guards.
[105]Lake to Dundas, 2nd March 1793. Lake’s Instructions, 23rd February. Grenville to Auckland, 20th February 1793.F.O. Holland, Auckland to Grenville, 4th March 1793.
[106]Dropmore Papers, Auckland to Grenville, 5th and 13th March 1793.S.C.L.B.5th March; Abercromby’s instructions, 9th March; Dundas to York, 15th March 1793;C.C.L.B.2nd March; Adj.-gen. to York, 27th March, 12th April 1793. Calvert, pp. 53, 67.
[107]S.P. Ireland, Cooke to Hobart, 23rd April; Westmoreland to Hobart, 27th April; Dundas to Westmoreland, 16th May, 31st July 1793;S.C.L.B.18th May 1793.
[108]S.C.L.B.7th February.C.C.L.B.Adj.-gen. to Duke of York, 2nd and 12th April 1793. Dundas to Williamson, 4th April 1793.
[109]Duke of Argyll’s and Earl of Sutherland’s, 1759; Lord Fred. Campbell’s, 1778; Earl of Sutherland’s, Fauconberg’s (Yorkshire), North’s (Cinque Ports), 1779.
[110]Athol’s or the Manx, Sir J. Grant’s, Gower’s (or Wemyss’s), Eglinton’s (or Montgomery’s), Breadalbane’s, Argyll’s, Duke of Gordon’s, Hopetoun’s, Balfour’s (Orkney). Their strength was 650 of all ranks, except the Manx, which were 323 strong.
[111]Murray to Dundas, 26th March 1793.
[112]Sybel, ii. 230; Grenville to Auckland, 3rd April 1793.
[113]S.C.L.B.21st March, 2nd April;C.C.L.B.25th March 1793.Dropmore Papers, ii. 360, 387–89. Buckingham to Grenville, 20th January; the King to Grenville, 29th March; Pitt to Grenville, 1st April 1793. Auckland to Grenville, 31st May 1793.
[114]Sybel, ii. 142.
[115]The insisting upon an indemnity must have been the work of Pitt, probably under the influence of Dundas. Grenville trembled at the word indemnity.Dropmore Papers, ii. 392.
[116]Protocol of conference of 7th April. Dundas to Auckland and to Murray, 16th April Auckland to Grenville, 19th April 1793.
[117]Murray to Dundas, 22nd April 1793.
[118]Prussians, 8000, of which 1800 cavalry; Austrians, 55,000, of which 10,000 cavalry; Dutch, 15,000, of which 2500 cavalry; Hanoverians, 12,000, of which 3000 cavalry; Hessians, 8000, of which 1500 cavalry; British, 7200, of which 3000 cavalry. Total, 105,200, of which 27,200 in the pay of England. About 5000 of the Austrians and the 8000 Hessians were not expected till June. Witzleben, ii. 117, 181–186. Coburg to York, 1st and 3rd May; Murray to Dundas, 5th May; Dundas to Murray, 10th May 1793.
[119]The authorities for this and the next paragraph are Ditfurth, i. 29, 35, 36; Witzleben, ii. 59; Calvert, p. 83; Sybel, ii. 154.
[120]Ditfurth, i. 48.
[121]231 horses, draught and pack, and 116 drivers, etc., per battalion of 1100 men, of which 82 horses and 34 men were for the officers. Each company had one four-horse waggon, and each battalion one pair-horse hospital-waggon.
[122]Ditfurth, i. 33; Witzleben, ii. 66. York to Dundas, 25th January 1794. Vol. iii. of thisHistory, pp. 524, 525.
[123]Dropmore Papers, ii. 349.
[124]Bunbury,Great War with France, p. 46.
[125]Poisson, ii. 239, 240.
[126]Rousset, p. 183.
[127]Vie de Carnot, i. 138.
[128]“The squadron of men of war and transports was collected, the commodore’s flag hoisted, and the expedition sailed withmost secretorders, which as usual were as well known to the enemy and everybody in England as to those by whom they were given” (Marryat,The King’s Own, ch. vii.ad init.). Marryat attributes this failing to the multitude of counsellors that compose a Cabinet. He may be right, but those who are acquainted with the scandalous carelessness with which Ministers treat confidential military documents, find no difficulty in accounting for it otherwise. This evil still continues, and will continue until Cabinet Ministers are subjected to the same penalties for abuse of trust as other servants of the King.
[129]Calvert, p. 72.
[130]Dropmore MSS.Lieut.-colonel Freemantle to Buckingham, 13th May 1793. Calvert, p. 79.Narrative by an Officer of the Guards, i. 29–31. Murray to Dundas, 10th May (private) 1793. There are some significant omissions from his public letter of the same date as published in the Gazette.Auckland Correspondence, iii. 58.
[131]7th, 11th, 15th, 16th Light Dragoons.
[132]Murray to Dundas, 15th and 17th May 1793.
[133]Witzleben, ii. 194.
[134]That is to say, guns not allotted to the infantry as battalion-guns.
[135]The brigade was reckoned at four battalions, the flank companies being massed into a fourth battalion.
[136]The Fourteenth and Fifty-third, with the flank companies of these two regiments and of the Thirty-seventh, massed into a third battalion. Witzleben (ii. 199) gives a larger number of British troops, calling all squadrons and battalions in British pay by the name English.
[137]Murray to Dundas, 24th May 1793.
[138]Witzleben, ii. 210–211. This author states that the Duke of York asked for the command of the siege, which I believe to be absolutely incorrect, and indeed incredible. See Murray to Dundas, 26th and 29th May; Dundas to Murray, 30th and 31st May 1793.
[139]Blues, Royals, Greys, Inniskillings.
[140]Vie de Carnot, i. 321,sq.
[141]Dundas to Murray, 29th May, 14th June, 12th July; Murray to Dundas, 18th June and 16th July 1793.
[142]Murray to Dundas, 25th July.
[143]Sybel, ii. 370–373.
[144]Ditfurth, i. 69. Witzleben, ii. 263–64. Murray to Dundas (private), 9th August 1793.
[145]Witzleben, ii. 264, 370. Dundas to Murray, 1st August 1793.
[146]Ditfurth, i. 73. 47½ battalions, 58 squadrons. British, 5200 infantry, 1300 cavalry; Austrians, 10,000 infantry, 1000 cavalry; Hanoverians, 9000 infantry, 1600 cavalry; Hessians, 5500 infantry, 1500 cavalry. Total, 29,700 infantry, 5400 cavalry, 1900 artillery.
[147]Hamilton,History of the Grenadier Guards, ii. 285.
[148]The British engaged were the flank companies of the Guards and Line, and Royal Artillery. Casualties, seventy-eight killed and wounded.
[149]Murray to Dundas, 16th July; Dundas to Murray, 19th July 1793.
[150]Dropmore Papers, ii. 444. Dundas to Grenville, 12th October 1793.
[151]Dundas to Murray, 16th April 1793.
[152]Calvert, vi. 118; Murray to Dundas, 3rd September.
[153]Vie de Carnot, i. 394.
[154]Murray to Dundas, 28th and 31st August 1793.
[155]Murray to Dundas, 31st August 1793.
[156]Sybel, ii. 417.
[157]Murray to Dundas (private), 9th September 1793.
[158]Narrative of an Officer, pp. 91–92; Ditfurth, i. 127–128.
[159]Ibid.pp. 91–93, and see Ditfurth, i. 126.
[160]Flank companies 9th, nine companies 4/60th, 50 artillery.
[161]Cuyler to Dundas, 22nd March 1793.
[162]Battalion companies of the 21st; flank companies (apparently) of the 9th, 15th, 21st, 45th, 48th, 3/60th, 4/60th, 67th. Bruce speaks of eighteen flank companies, perhaps including details of the 25th and 29th, which were serving on the fleet as marines.
[163]Mr. Balfour to Dundas, 20th July 1793.
[164]The official despatch reached the Government on 13th September, but the fact was known to Pitt on the 7th.Dropmore Papers, i. 422.
[165]Hood to Dundas, 25th August 1793.
[166]Brenton’sNaval History, i. 101.
[167]Mulgrave to Dundas, 1st September 1793.
[168]3rd, 19th, 27th, 28th, 42nd, 54th, 57th, 59th.
[169]Dundas to Murray, 11th, 14th September; to Hood, 14th September; to Bruce, 18th September 1793; Pitt to Grenville,Dropmore Papers, ii. 43 (the conjectural date of September attached to this last is wrong, and should be changed to October).
[170]Narrative of an Officer, i. 92.
[171]19th, 57th, three companies of the 42nd.
[172]Poisson, ii. 525–526.
[173]Dundas to Murray, 13th September 1793.
[174]Dundas to Murray, 13th, 14th, and 28th September; 14th October. Murray to Dundas, 14th and 15th October 1793.
[175]Ditfurth, i. 147.
[176]Murray to Dundas, 6th October. Dundas to Ainslie, 12th October; to Abercromby, 13th October 1793.
[177]3rd, 28th, 54th, 59th. They had already made one voyage to Ostend and back.
[178]Murray to Dundas, 18th October; Ainslie to Dundas, 23rd October; Dundas to Grey, 26th October; to Murray, 27th October 1793.
[179]Two Austrian battalions, 3rd Guards, flank battalion of Guards, one squadron 7th L.D., and one squadron 15th L.D.
[180]Murray to Dundas, 30th October and 12th November; Dundas to Murray, 8th November 1793.
[181]Chat huant.
[182]Poisson, iii. 139seq.
[183]Ibid.239–248; Rousset, pp. 293, 299.
[184]Rousset, 123–124, 236, 249; also generally, pp. 78–148.
[185]Sybel, iii. 26–27;Vie de Carnot, i. 470;Dropmore Papers, ii. 501.
[186]Life of Lord Minto, ii. 383.
[187]“I think, if you see Dundas, it may not be amiss to urge the danger of running after distant objects while the great object lies still—of hunting the sheep till you have killed the dog. The most fatal error will be, I apprehend, the seeking to preserve the popularity of the war by feeding the avarice of the nation with conquests.”—Windham to Mr. Elliot, December 1793.Life of Lord Minto, ii. 196.
[188]Pitt to Grenville, 5th and 7th July 1794.Dropmore Papers, ii. 595, 597.
[189]Parliamentary History, vol. xxxi.; Debates of 21st January, 3rd February, 10th April 1794.
[190]Adj.-gen. to the Duke of York,C.C.L.B.31st October 1793.
[191]These regiments are arranged according to the dates of their letters of service.
[192]Campbell’s was originally numbered 98th; Huntly’s 100th.
[193]Adj.-gen. to Prince Edward,C.C.L.B.17th March 1794.
[194]C.C.L.B., Adj.-gen. to Lieut.-gen. Cunninghame, 8th October 1793.
Here is an example of the scheme as used for raising a regiment of 10 companies each of 60 men.
Another scheme for augmenting battalions of infantry. As soon as 450 approved recruits have been raised, there shall be added to it a Lieutenant-colonel, and a Major.
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 alsoii. 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. 64seq.
[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. 10sqq., 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 inAchievements 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]InCannon’s Recordsof 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 inW.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]TheGazetteprints 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, 137seq.), 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 theGazette, 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’sRecords of the Seventh and Fifteenth Hussars and Sixteenth Lancers; Calvert’sJournal; 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 seeCornwallis 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.
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. 213seq.; Memorandum of the Duke of York, 23rd December 1794; Calvert, pp. 385–386; see vol. ii. of thisHistory, p. 88.
[268]No officer could hope to master these mysteries without the help of two fat little duodecimo volumes calledThe Regimental Companion, and a third and slighter volume entitledMilitary 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 inAutobiography 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:
[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. 432note. 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. 362sq.;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.