Historical record of the eighty-seventh regiment, or the royal Irish fusiliers

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

PREFACE.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

INTRODUCTION
TO
THE INFANTRY.

The natives of Britain have, at all periods, been celebrated for innate courage and unshaken firmness, and the national superiority of the British troops over those of other countries has been evinced in the midst of the most imminent perils. History contains so many proofs of extraordinary acts of bravery, that no doubts can be raised upon the facts which are recorded. It must therefore be admitted, that the distinguishing feature of the British soldier is Intrepidity. This quality was evinced by the inhabitants of England when their country was invaded by Julius Cæsar with a Roman army, on which occasion the undaunted Britons rushed into the sea to attack the Roman soldiers as they descended from their ships; and, although their discipline and arms were inferior to those of their adversaries, yet their fierce and dauntless bearing intimidated the flower of the Roman troops, including Cæsar’s favourite tenth legion. Their arms consisted of spears, short swords, and other weapons of rude construction. They had chariots, to the[x] axles of which were fastened sharp pieces of iron resembling scythe-blades, and infantry in long chariots resembling waggons, who alighted and fought on foot, and for change of ground, pursuit or retreat, sprang into the chariot and drove off with the speed of cavalry. These inventions were, however, unavailing against Cæsar’s legions: in the course of time a military system, with discipline and subordination, was introduced, and British courage, being thus regulated, was exerted to the greatest advantage; a full development of the national character followed, and it shone forth in all its native brilliancy.

The military force of the Anglo-Saxons consisted principally of infantry: Thanes, and other men of property, however, fought on horseback. The infantry were of two classes, heavy and light. The former carried large shields armed with spikes, long broad swords and spears; and the latter were armed with swords or spears only. They had also men armed with clubs, others with battle-axes and javelins.

The feudal troops established by William the Conqueror consisted (as already stated in the Introduction to the Cavalry) almost entirely of horse: but when the warlike barons and knights, with their trains of tenants and vassals, took the field, a proportion of men appeared on foot, and, although these were of inferior degree, they proved stout-hearted Britons of stanch fidelity. When stipendiary troops were employed, infantry always constituted a considerable portion of the military force;[xi] and this arme has since acquired, in every quarter of the globe, a celebrity never exceeded by the armies of any nation at any period.

The weapons carried by the infantry, during the several reigns succeeding the Conquest, were bows and arrows, half-pikes, lances, halberds, various kinds of battle-axes, swords, and daggers. Armour was worn on the head and body, and in course of time the practice became general for military men to be so completely cased in steel, that it was almost impossible to slay them.

The introduction of the use of gunpowder in the destructive purposes of war, in the early part of the fourteenth century, produced a change in the arms and equipment of the infantry-soldier. Bows and arrows gave place to various kinds of fire-arms, but British archers continued formidable adversaries; and, owing to the inconvenient construction and imperfect bore of the fire-arms when first introduced, a body of men, well trained in the use of the bow from their youth, was considered a valuable acquisition to every army, even as late as the sixteenth century.

During a great part of the reign of Queen Elizabeth each company of infantry usually consisted of men armed five different ways; in every hundred men forty were “men-at-arms,” and sixty “shot;” the “men-at-arms” were ten halberdiers, or battle-axe men, and thirty pikemen; and the “shot” were twenty archers, twenty musketeers, and twenty harquebusiers, and each man carried, besides his principal weapon, a sword and dagger.

Companies of infantry varied at this period in numbers from 150 to 300 men; each company had a colour or ensign, and the mode of formation recommended by an English military writer (Sir John Smithe) in 1590 was; the colour in the centre of the company guarded by the halberdiers; the pikemen in equal proportions, on each flank of the halberdiers; half the musketeers on each flank of the pikes; half the archers on each flank of the musketeers, and the harquebusiers (whose arms were much lighter than the muskets then in use) in equal proportions on each flank of the company for skirmishing.[1] It was customary to unite a number of companies into one body, called a Regiment, which frequently amounted to three thousand men; but each company continued to carry a colour. Numerous improvements were eventually introduced in the construction of fire-arms, and, it having been found impossible to make armour proof against the muskets then in use (which carried a very heavy ball) without its being too weighty for the soldier, armour was gradually laid aside by the infantry in the seventeenth century: bows and arrows also fell into disuse, and the infantry were reduced to two classes, viz.: musketeers, armed with matchlock muskets,[xiii] swords, and daggers; and pikemen, armed with pikes from fourteen to eighteen feet long, and swords.

In the early part of the seventeenth century Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, reduced the strength of regiments to 1000 men. He caused the gunpowder, which had heretofore been carried in flasks, or in small wooden bandoliers, each containing a charge, to be made up into cartridges, and carried in pouches; and he formed each regiment into two wings of musketeers, and a centre division of Pikemen. He also adopted the practice of forming four regiments into a brigade; and the number of colours was afterwards reduced to three in each regiment. He formed his columns so compactly that his infantry could resist the charge of the celebrated Polish horsemen and Austrian cuirassiers; and his armies became the admiration of other nations. His mode of formation was copied by the English, French, and other European states; but so great was the prejudice in favour of ancient customs, that all his improvements were not adopted until near a century afterwards.

In 1664 King Charles II. raised a corps for sea-service, styled the Admiral’s regiment. In 1678 each company of 100 men usually consisted of 30 pikemen, 60 musketeers, and 10 men armed with light firelocks. In this year the King added a company of men armed with hand grenades to each of the old British regiments, which was designated the “grenadier company.” Daggers were so contrived as to fit in the muzzles of the muskets, and bayonets,[xiv] similar to those at present in use, were adopted about twenty years afterwards.

An Ordnance regiment was raised in 1685, by order of King James II., to guard the artillery, and was designated the Royal Fusiliers (now 7th Foot). This corps, and the companies of grenadiers, did not carry pikes.

King William III. incorporated the Admiral’s regiment in the second Foot Guards, and raised two Marine regiments for sea-service. During the war in this reign, each company of infantry (excepting the fusiliers and grenadiers) consisted of 14 pikemen and 46 musketeers; the captains carried pikes; lieutenants, partisans; ensigns, half-pikes; and serjeants, halberds. After the peace in 1697 the Marine regiments were disbanded, but were again formed on the breaking out of the war in 1702.[2]

During the reign of Queen Anne the pikes were laid aside, and every infantry soldier was armed with a musket, bayonet, and sword; the grenadiers ceased, about the same period, to carry hand grenades; and the regiments were directed to lay aside their third colour: the corps of Royal Artillery was first added to the Army in this reign.

About the year 1745, the men of the battalion companies of infantry ceased to carry swords; during[xv] the reign of George II. light companies were added to infantry regiments; and in 1764 a Board of General Officers recommended that the grenadiers should lay aside their swords, as that weapon had never been used during the Seven Years’ War. Since that period the arms of the infantry soldier have been limited to the musket and bayonet.

The arms and equipment of the British Troops have seldom differed materially, since the Conquest, from those of other European states; and in some respects the arming has, at certain periods, been allowed to be inferior to that of the nations with whom they have had to contend; yet, under this disadvantage, the bravery and superiority of the British infantry have been evinced on very many and most trying occasions, and splendid victories have been gained over very superior numbers.

Great Britain has produced a rate of lion-like champions who have dared to confront a host of foes, and have proved themselves valiant with any arms. At Crecy, King Edward III., at the head of about 30,000 men, defeated, on the 26th of August, 1346, Philip King of France, whose army is said to have amounted to 100,000 men; here British valour encountered veterans of renown:—the King of Bohemia, the King of Majorca, and many princes and nobles were slain, and the French army was routed and cut to pieces. Ten years afterwards, Edward Prince of Wales, who was designated the Black Prince, defeated at Poictiers, with 14,000 men, a French army of 60,000 horse, besides infantry, and took John I., King of France, and his son,[xvi] Philip, prisoners. On the 25th of October, 1415, King Henry V., with an army of about 13,000 men, although greatly exhausted by marches, privations, and sickness, defeated, at Agincourt, the Constable of France, at the head of the flower of the French nobility and an army said to amount to 60,000 men, and gained a complete victory.

During the seventy years’ war between the United Provinces of the Netherlands and the Spanish monarchy, which commenced in 1578 and terminated in 1648, the British infantry in the service of the States-General were celebrated for their unconquerable spirit and firmness;[3] and in the thirty years’ war between the Protestant Princes and the Emperor of Germany, the British Troops in the service of Sweden and other states were celebrated for deeds of heroism.[4] In the wars of Queen Anne, the fame of the British army under the great Marlborough was spread throughout the world; and if we glance at the achievements performed within the memory of persons now living, there is abundant proof that the Britons of the present age are not inferior to their ancestors in the qualities[xvii] which constitute good soldiers. Witness the deeds of the brave men, of whom there are many now surviving, who fought in Egypt in 1801, under the brave Abercromby, and compelled the French army, which had been vainly styled Invincible, to evacuate that country; also the services of the gallant Troops during the arduous campaigns in the Peninsula, under the immortal Wellington; and the determined stand made by the British Army at Waterloo, where Napoleon Bonaparte, who had long been the inveterate enemy of Great Britain, and had sought and planned her destruction by every means he could devise, was compelled to leave his vanquished legions to their fate, and to place himself at the disposal of the British Government. These achievements, with others of recent dates, in the distant climes of India, prove that the same valour and constancy which glowed in the breasts of the heroes of Crecy, Poictiers, Agincourt, Blenheim, and Ramilies, continue to animate the Britons of the nineteenth century.

The British Soldier is distinguished for a robust and muscular frame,—intrepidity which no danger can appal,—unconquerable spirit and resolution,—patience in fatigue and privation, and cheerful obedience to his superiors. These qualities, united with an excellent system of order and discipline to regulate and give a skilful direction to the energies and adventurous spirit of the hero, and a wise selection of officers of superior talent to command, whose presence inspires confidence,—have been the leading causes of the splendid victories gained by the British[xviii] arms.[5] The fame of the deeds of the past and present generations in the various battle-fields where the robust sons of Albion have fought and conquered, surrounds the British arms with a halo of glory; these achievements will live in the page of history to the end of time.

The records of the several regiments will be found to contain a detail of facts of an interesting character, connected with the hardships, sufferings, and gallant exploits of British soldiers in the various parts of the world where the calls of their Country and the commands of their Sovereign have required them to proceed in the execution of their duty, whether in[xix] active continental operations, or in maintaining colonial territories in distant and unfavourable climes.

The superiority of the British infantry has been pre-eminently set forth in the wars of six centuries, and admitted by the greatest commanders which Europe has produced. The formations and movements of this arme, as at present practised, while they are adapted to every species of warfare, and to all probable situations and circumstances of service, are calculated to show forth the brilliancy of military tactics calculated upon mathematical and scientific principles. Although the movements and evolutions have been copied from the continental armies, yet various improvements have from time to time been introduced, to ensure that simplicity and celerity by which the superiority of the national military character is maintained. The rank and influence which Great Britain has attained among the nations of the world, have in a great measure been purchased by the valour of the Army, and to persons who have the welfare of their country at heart, the records of the several regiments cannot fail to prove interesting.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] A company of 200 men would appear thus:—


20	20	20	30	20	30	20	20	20
Harquebuses.		Muskets.		Halberds.		Muskets.		Harquebuses.
	Archers.		Pikes.		Pikes.		Archers.

The musket carried a ball which weighed ¹/₁₀th of a pound; and the harquebus a ball which weighed ¹/₂₅th of a pound.

[2] The 30th, 31st, and 32nd Regiments were formed as Marine corps in 1702, and were employed as such during the wars in the reign of Queen Anne. The Marine corps were embarked in the Fleet under Admiral Sir George Rooke, and were at the taking of Gibraltar, and in its subsequent defence in 1704; they were afterwards employed at the siege of Barcelona in 1705.

[3] The brave Sir Roger Williams, in his Discourse on War, printed in 1590, observes:—“I persuade myself ten thousand of our nation would beat thirty thousand of theirs (the Spaniards) out of the field, let them he chosen where they list.” Yet at this time the Spanish infantry was allowed to be the best disciplined in Europe. For instances of valour displayed by the British Infantry during the seventy Years’ War, see the Historical Record of the Third Foot, or Buffs.

[4] Vide the Historical Record of the First, or Royal Regiment of Foot.

[5] “Under the blessing of Divine Providence, His Majesty ascribes the successes which have attended the exertions of his troops in Egypt to that determined bravery which is inherent in Britons; but His Majesty desires it may be most solemnly and forcibly impressed on the consideration of every part of the army, that it has been a strict observance of order, discipline, and military system, which has given the full energy to the native valour of the troops, and has enabled them proudly to assert the superiority of the national military character, in situations uncommonly arduous, and under circumstances of peculiar difficulty.”—General Orders in 1801.

In the General Orders issued by Lieut.-General Sir John Hope (afterwards Lord Hopetoun), congratulating the army upon the successful result of the Battle of Corunna, on the 16th of January 1809, it is stated:—“On no occasion has the undaunted valour of British troops ever been more manifest. At the termination of a severe and harassing march, rendered necessary by the superiority which the enemy had acquired, and which had materially impaired the efficiency of the troops, many disadvantages were to be encountered. These have all been surmounted by the conduct of the troops themselves: and the enemy has been taught, that whatever advantages of position or of numbers he may possess, there is inherent in the British officers and soldiers a bravery that knows not how to yield,—that no circumstances can appal,—and that will ensure victory, when it is to be obtained by the exertion of any human means.”

HISTORICAL RECORD
OF
THE EIGHTY-SEVENTH REGIMENT,
OR
THE ROYAL IRISH FUSILIERS.

PRINTERS TO THE QUEEN’S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY,
FOR HER MAJESTY’S STATIONERY OFFICE.

ALSO THE WORDS, “MONTE VIDEO,”
IN COMMEMORATION OF THE GALLANTRY DISPLAYED
BY THE FIRST BATTALION AT THE CAPTURE OF THAT PLACE,
ON THE 3RD OF FEBRUARY, 1807;

THE WORD, “TALAVERA,”
IN TESTIMONY OF THE CONDUCT OF THE SECOND BATTALION IN THAT
BATTLE, ON THE 27TH AND 28TH OF JULY, 1809;

AN EAGLE WITH A WREATH OF LAUREL ABOVE THE HARP,
AND THE WORD, “BARROSA,”
IN COMMEMORATION OF THE GALLANTRY OF THE SECOND BATTALION,
AND OF THE TROPHY ACQUIRED IN THAT BATTLE,
ON THE 5TH OF MARCH, 1811;

ALSO THE WORD, “TARIFA,”
FOR THE DISTINGUISHED GALLANTRY OF THE SECOND BATTALION
IN THE DEFENCE OF THAT PLACE,
ON THE 31ST OF DECEMBER, 1811;

AND
THE WORDS, “VITTORIA,” “NIVELLE,” “ORTHES,”
“TOULOUSE,” AND “PENINSULA,”
IN TESTIMONY OF THE DISTINGUISHED SERVICES OF THE SECOND BATTALION
IN THE SEVERAL ACTIONS FOUGHT DURING THE WAR
IN PORTUGAL, SPAIN, AND THE SOUTH OF FRANCE,
FROM 1809 TO 1814;

AND
THE WORD “AVA,”
TO DENOTE THE MERITORIOUS CONDUCT OF THE REGIMENT DURING
THE BURMESE WAR, IN 1825-26.

CONTENTS
OF THE
HISTORICAL RECORD.

OF
THE SECOND BATTALION

SUCCESSION OF COLONELS

APPENDIX.

PLATES.

HISTORICAL RECORD

The disturbed state of affairs on the continent of Europe in 1793, particularly in France, arising from the principles of the Revolution in that country, which threatened surrounding nations with universal anarchy, occasioned preparations to be made throughout the several countries, in order to oppose the dangerous doctrines which were then diffused under the specious terms of “Liberty and Equality.”

On the 1st of February 1793, the National Convention of France, after the decapitation of King Louis XVI. on the 21st of the previous month, declared war against Great Britain and Holland. Augmentations were immediately made to the regular army, the militia was embodied, and the British people evinced their loyalty and patriotism by forming volunteer associations, and by making every exertion for the maintenance of monarchical principles, and for the defence of those institutions which had raised their country to a high position among the nations of Europe.

Upwards of fifty regiments of infantry were authorised[2] to be raised, on this emergency, in the several parts of Great Britain and Ireland, by officers and gentlemen possessing local influence, sixteen of which regiments, viz. from the Seventy-eighth to the Ninety-third, continue at this period on the establishment of the army.

Of the officers thus honored with the confidence of their Sovereign and his Government, Lieut.-Colonel John Doyle (afterwards General Sir John Doyle, Bart., and G.C.B.) was selected, to whom a letter of service was addressed on the 18th of September 1793, authorising him to raise a regiment, to consist of ten companies of sixty rank and file in each company. The corps was speedily completed, and was designated the Eighty-seventh, or The Prince of Wales’s Irish Regiment.

The following is a copy of the Letter of Service, addressed by the Secretary-at-War to Major John Doyle, on the half-pay of the late One hundred and fifth regiment, dated

“War Office,
“18th September 1793.

“Sir,

“I am commanded to acquaint you, that His Majesty approves of your raising a regiment of foot, without any allowance of levy money, to be completed within three months, upon the following terms, viz.:

“The corps is to consist of one company of Grenadiers, one of Light Infantry, and eight battalion companies. The Grenadier company is to consist of one captain, two lieutenants, three serjeants, three corporals, two drummers, two fifers, and fifty-seven private men. The Light Infantry company of one captain, two lieutenants, three serjeants, three corporals, two drummers, and fifty-seven men; and each battalion company of one captain, one lieutenant, and one ensign, three serjeants, three corporals, two drummers,[3] and fifty-seven private men, together with the usual staff officers, and with a serjeant-major and quartermaster-serjeant, exclusive of the serjeants above specified. The captain-lieutenant is (as usual) included in the number of lieutenants above mentioned.

“The corps is to have one major with a company, and is to be under your command as major, with a company.

“The pay of the officers is to commence from the dates of their commissions, and that of the non-commissioned officers and privates from the dates of their attestations.

“His Majesty is pleased to leave to you the nomination of the officers of the regiment; but the lieut.-colonel and major are to be taken from the list of lieut.-colonels or majors on half-pay, or the major from a captain on full pay. Six of the captains are to be taken from the half-pay, and the other captain and the captain-lieutenant from the list of captains or captain-lieutenants on full pay. All the lieutenants are to be taken from the half-pay; and the gentlemen recommended for ensigns are not to be under sixteen years of age.

“No officer, however, is to be taken from the half-pay who received the difference on going upon the half-pay, nor is any officer coming from the half-pay to contribute any money towards the levy, but he may be required to raise such a quota of men as you may agree upon with him.

“The person to be recommended for quartermaster must not be proposed for any other commission.

“In case the corps should be reduced after it has been once established, the officers will be entitled to half-pay.

“No man is to be enlisted above thirty-five years of age, nor under five feet five inches high. Well-made, growing lads, between sixteen and eighteen years of age, may be taken at five feet four inches.

[4]

“The recruits are to be engaged without limitation as to the period or place of their service.

“The non-commissioned officers and privates are to be inspected by a general officer, who will reject all such as are unfit for service, or not enlisted in conformity to the terms of this letter.

“In the execution of this service, I take leave to assure you of every assistance which my office can afford.

“I have, &c., &c.,
(Signed) “George Yonge.

“To Major John Doyle, on the half-pay of the late
One hundred and fifth regiment.”

The following officers were appointed to commissions in the Eighty-seventh regiment, viz.:—

The effective numbers were quickly recruited, and the regiment was so far formed as to be considered fit[5] to be employed on active continental service. It was consequently embarked in the summer of 1794, as part of a force under Major-General the Earl Moira, and was sent to join the British army in Flanders, under the command of His Royal Highness the Duke of York. While on the march the Eighty-seventh regiment was attacked on the 15th of July 1794, at the outpost of Alost, by a strong corps of the enemy’s cavalry, which it repulsed, and for which act of bravery it received the thanks of the general officer in public orders. It is a circumstance worthy of being recorded in the regimental history, that the first individual of the regiment who was wounded, was the Lieut.-Colonel by whom it was raised. In the general orders of the Earl of Moira upon this occasion, “he expressed his admiration of the cool intrepidity with which the Eighty-seventh regiment repulsed an attack from the enemy’s cavalry, at the bridge of Alost, where its commander, Lieut.-Colonel Doyle, received two severe wounds, but would not quit his regiment, until the enemy had given up the attack.” The Duke of York, in his public letter, thus mentioned the affair:—

“Head-quarters, Cortyke,
“15th July 1794.

“Lord Moira speaks highly of the conduct of the officers and men of the Eighty-seventh regiment on this occasion, particularly of Lieut.-Colonel Doyle, commanding the corps, who was severely wounded.

(Signed) “Frederick.”

In 1795 the Eighty-seventh regiment was sent into Bergen-op-Zoom to be drilled; but soon after its arrival, the Dutch garrison revolted against the government, opened the gates, and joined the French, who[6] entered with twenty thousand men, and made a capitulation with the Eighty-seventh, the only British corps in the town, then commanded by Lord Dungarvan (afterwards Earl of Cork), Lieut.-Colonel Doyle having been sent to England for the recovery of his wounds. The capitulation was however broken by the French, and the Eighty-seventh were marched prisoners of war into France.

The regiment was again filled up, and, with the Tenth foot, and some marines, was sent upon a secret expedition to the North Sea, under the command of Brigadier-General John Doyle, who had been promoted Colonel of the Eighty-seventh, on the 3rd of May 1796, to co-operate with Admiral (the late Lord) Duncan; but, having been delayed in England until the end of September, the tempestuous weather, usual at that season of the year in those seas, dispersed the ships and small craft by which the troops were to be landed, and put an end to the object of the expedition. The troops returned to England in the ships of war, in which they embarked under the orders of Admiral Sir Richard Bickerton.

Spain having united with France in hostility to Great Britain, an expedition under Lieut.-General Sir Ralph Abercromby, K.B., proceeded against the Spanish island of Trinidad, which capitulated on the 18th of February 1797. No men were killed or wounded. Lieutenant R—— Villeneuve, of the Eighth foot, major of brigade to Brigadier-General Hompesch, was the only officer wounded, and he died of his wounds.

After the reduction of Trinidad, the force (of which the Eighty-seventh formed part) destined for the expedition against Porto Rico, being assembled, the fleet sailed from Martinique on the 8th of April 1797, and on the 10th arrived at St. Kitt’s, where it remained for[7] a few days. On the 17th the fleet anchored off Congrejos Point, and a landing was effected on the island of Porto Rico on the following day. The troops advanced, when it was perceived that the only point on which the town could be attacked was on the eastern side, where it was defended by the Castle and Lines of St. Christopher, to approach which it was necessary to force a way over the lagoon which formed that side of the island. This passage was strongly defended by two redoubts and gun-boats, and the enemy had destroyed the bridge connecting, in the narrowest channel, the island with the main land. After every effort the British could never sufficiently silence the fire of the enemy, who was likewise entrenched in the rear of these redoubts, to hazard forcing the passage with so small a number of troops. It was next endeavoured to bombard the town from a point to the southward of it, near to a large magazine abandoned by the enemy. This was tried for several days without any great effect, on account of the distance. Lieut.-General Sir Ralph Abercromby, seeing that no act of vigour, or any combined operation between the sea and land services, could in any manner avail, determined to re-embark the troops, which was effected during the night of the 30th of April. Four Spanish field-pieces were brought off, but not a sick or wounded soldier was left behind, and nothing of any value fell into the hands of the enemy. Sir Ralph Abercromby in his despatch alluded to the troops in the following terms: “The behaviour of the troops has been meritorious; they were patient under labour, regular and orderly in their conduct, and spirited when an opportunity to show it occurred.” The Eighty-seventh had two rank and file killed, three wounded, and thirteen missing.

The regiment subsequently proceeded to St. Lucia, which had been captured from the French in May 1796.

In April 1801 the regiment embarked from Dominica for Barbadoes, and in August following proceeded to Curaçoa.

The preliminaries of peace, which had been agreed upon between Great Britain and France in the previous year, were ratified on the 27th of March 1802; but the peace which had been thus concluded was but of short duration. Napoleon Bonaparte, who had been elected First Consul of the French Republic, showed, on several occasions, that he continued to entertain strong feelings of hostility against Great Britain.

After a few months, during which further provocations took place between the two countries, war was declared against France on the 18th of May 1803. The preparations which had been making in the French ports, the assembling of large bodies of troops on the coast, and the forming of numerous flotillas of gun-boats, justified the British government in adopting the strongest measures of defence, and in calling upon the people for their aid and services. Numerous volunteer associations were formed in all parts of the kingdom in defence of the Sovereign, the laws, and the institutions of the country. The militia was re-embodied, and the regular army was considerably augmented, under the “Army of Reserve Act,” as shown in the Appendix, page 97.

The Eighty-seventh regiment embarked from the island of Curaçoa for England on the 12th of January 1803, on board of the ship “De Ruyter,” which, meeting with tempestuous weather, was obliged to put[9] into Jamaica, from whence it proceeded to Antigua, where it arrived in April 1803. The regiment proceeded to St. Kitt’s in June following.

On the 28th of July 1804 the regiment embarked from St. Kitt’s, and on the 28th of September following it landed at Plymouth, after a service of eight years in the West Indies, having lost during that period, by the diseases incident to the climate, many officers, and between seven and eight hundred men.

On the 31st of October the regiment embarked, under the command of Lieut.-Colonel Sir Edward Butler, from Plymouth, for Guernsey, of which island Major-General Doyle had been appointed to the command and to the Lieutenant-Governorship.

The British Government, having ascertained that the King of Spain had engaged to furnish powerful aid to France, felt itself compelled to consider Spain as an enemy, and accordingly issued orders for intercepting some frigates off Cadiz, which were on their way to France with cargoes of treasure: a declaration of war was consequently issued by the Court of Madrid against Great Britain on the 12th of December 1804.

The establishment of the Eighty-seventh regiment, which had been authorised to receive men raised in certain counties of Ireland, under the Act of Parliament, dated 14th July 1804, termed the “Additional Force Act,” was augmented by a second battalion, of which a distinct account is commenced at page 41.[6]

On the 10th of March 1805, a detachment, consisting of twenty-eight serjeants, fifteen drummers, and five hundred and twenty-eight rank and file, being drafts from the levy then raising in the county of Mayo by the Honorable H. E. Browne, embarked from Ireland for Guernsey, and joined the first battalion on the 15th[10] of April following, thus considerably augmenting the effective strength of the Eighty-seventh regiment.

On the 2nd of November 1805, the first battalion embarked from Guernsey, and proceeded to Portsmouth.

The first battalion of the Eighty-seventh regiment embarked at Portsmouth on the 23rd of July 1806, and proceeded to Plymouth, where it disembarked on the 6th of September following. On the 12th of that month it embarked for South America, under the command of Lieut.-Colonel Sir Edward Butler; the effective numbers were, fifty-three serjeants, eighteen drummers, and eight hundred and five rank and file.[7]

The first battalion arrived in the Rio de la Plata in January 1807, and disembarked on the 16th of that month near Monte Video, where it took up a position in advance, protecting the breaching batteries, it having been arranged between Brigadier-General Sir Samuel Auchmuty and Rear-Admiral Stirling to lay siege to the place. The piquets of the Eighty-seventh,[11] under Major Miller, were attacked by the Spaniards, who were defeated with great loss. On the 3rd of February, a practicable breach being made, the troops proceeded to storm the town, which was carried, and the citadel soon afterwards surrendered.

The Eighty-seventh, under Lieut.-Colonel Sir Edward Butler, had three officers and sixty men killed, and three officers and eighty men wounded: total, one hundred and forty-six; strength in the field, seven hundred and eighty-eight.

In the public thanks issued by Brigadier-General Sir Samuel Auchmuty, the regiment is thus mentioned:—

“The Eighty-seventh, under Lieut.-Colonel Sir Edward Butler, were equally forward; and to their credit, it must be noticed, that they were posted under the great gate, to rush into the town when it should be opened by the troops, who entered at the breach; but their ardour would not allow them to wait; they scaled the walls, and opened themselves a passage.

(Signed) “T. Bradford,
“Dep. Adjutant-General.”

The Eighty-seventh subsequently received the royal authority to bear the words “Monte Video” on the regimental colour and appointments in commemoration of the gallantry evinced in the capture of that place on the 3rd of February 1807.

On the 10th of May, Lieut.-General Whitelocke having arrived from England with reinforcements, proceeded as Commander-in-chief to prepare for the attack of Buenos Ayres. In a brilliant affair at Colonia on the 7th of[12] June, the light company of the battalion was creditably engaged. On the 18th of June the troops embarked at Monte Video, and on the 28th of the same month landed at Ensenada da Barragon, about twenty-eight miles from Buenos Ayres, without firing a shot. Major-General John Levison Gower was the second in command to Lieut.-General Whitelocke, and the Eighty-seventh were posted in the right brigade under Brigadier-General Sir Samuel Auchmuty.

In the assault of Buenos Ayres on the morning of the 5th of July 1807, the Eighty-seventh were formed by wings, the right commanded by Lieut.-Colonel Sir Edward Butler, and the left by Major Miller. The orders were to pierce by the two streets to the right of the Retiro, in performing which (in company with the Thirty-eighth regiment) they suffered very severely. In the course of this service, Lieutenant William Hutchinson, in command of Captain Frederick Desbarres’s company, took two of the enemy’s guns, turned them on the Plazo del Toro, and, after a few rounds, the enemy, to the number of fifteen hundred, surrendered to him. The thanks of Sir Samuel Auchmuty were given to Lieutenant Hutchinson for his gallant conduct upon this occasion. Serjeant Byrne also distinguished himself by his bravery. Twenty-nine pieces of artillery, with a quantity of military stores, were taken. The light company, which was detached from the regiment, was taken prisoners in the convent of St. Domingo, and remained for three days, when it was restored agreeably to the articles of the treaty.

The loss of the Eighty-seventh on this occasion was seven officers and eighty men killed, and ten officers and three hundred and twenty men wounded: total, four hundred and seventeen; strength in the field, six hundred and forty-two; remained, two hundred and twenty-five.

The evening before this attack, there was an order that the great coats and kits of the regiment should be left in the house which the commanding officer had occupied, under the charge of the Quartermaster; or, in his absence, of a subaltern officer, with the sick or lame men who could not march, as a guard for this baggage. The Quartermaster was employed on the general staff as an assistant engineer, and the tour of duty fell upon Lieutenant Michael Barry, of the grenadier company; but this high-spirited young man earnestly solicited, and obtained permission, to accompany his regiment, and was the first officer who fell the next day. No other subaltern being found willing to remain behind, the charge was entrusted to Quartermaster-Serjeant William Grady. He was the first man who joined the corps on its formation, and had been distinguished for his bravery, intelligence, and trustworthiness; his guard, inefficient as it must be, mustered somewhat more than twenty men. In front of the house there was a thick orchard, with a narrow path leading to it; upon this he placed double sentries during the night, and a piquet of half his force in the day-time. It appeared that at the further end of this orchard a mounted body of the enemy was concealed; these men had been posted in advance of the town, but being unable to return, in consequence of the[14] British troops having got between it and their position, they determined to get into the country by this narrow pass; but when they rushed out of the orchard, they were fired upon by Serjeant Grady’s sentries, and, their leader falling, they retreated into their cover, and after several ineffectual attempts to escape in that direction, the party, consisting of two officers and seventy men, well mounted and armed, surrendered to the Quartermaster-Serjeant’s small force. Having secured their arms and ammunition, he marched the prisoners to head-quarters, and delivered them up to Major-General Gower. Two hours after he received written orders from Lieut.-General Whitelocke to return the arms, &c. to the prisoners, who were released, and not to fire upon or stop any party, whether armed or not, going into or coming out of the town. At nine o’clock the next night, upwards of five hundred mounted men came out of the town and surrounded the house, the owner of which was an officer of the party, who, in addition to national hostility, was in a state of great irritation at his house having been taken from him, and, as he stated, plundered by the advanced guard of the British army. They surrounded and made prisoners Serjeant Grady and his party, who had orders not to fire upon any armed body. They were marched into the town, and thrust into loathsome dungeons. The Serjeant was a peculiar object of revenge, because he refused to accept a commission in their service, and to drill their troops. This brave and excellent soldier was subsequently rewarded for his exemplary conduct by being appointed Quartermaster to the second battalion of the regiment. After the capture of Serjeant Grady and his party, the stores were plundered, and the baggage carried off or destroyed.

Notwithstanding the intrepidity displayed by the troops, the enterprise failed. On the morning of the 6th of July the Governor-General Liniers sent a letter[15] to Lieut.-General Whitelocke, offering to restore the prisoners taken in the action of the preceding day, and also those made with Brigadier-General Beresford, on condition that the whole of the British forces should be withdrawn from South America, which proposals were accepted. The Lieutenant-General’s conduct subsequently became the subject of inquiry by a court-martial, and he was cashiered.

During the attack upon Buenos Ayres, a number of the Spanish and native soldiers were seen in the uniform of the Eighty-seventh regiment; this was accounted for by a ship with the clothing for that regiment, which had been sent out from England to Monte Video, having been captured and carried into Buenos Ayres by a Spanish privateer, and the clothing had thus been distributed to the armed populace.

Subsequently to the assault on Buenos Ayres, the Commander of the Forces issued the following general order:—

“Buenos Ayres, 8th July 1807.

“General Order.

“Volunteer Peter Benson Husband, of the Eighty-seventh regiment, is appointed Ensign in that corps, in consequence of his very gallant behaviour on the morning of the 5th instant.

(Signed) “T. Bradford,
“Deputy-Adjutant-General.”

The Eighty-seventh returned to Monte Video, after the cessation of hostilities, and was completed by volunteers from the different corps returning to Europe. On the 2nd of August the regiment embarked for the Cape of Good Hope; and on the 4th of September following it landed at Simon’s Bay, and marched to Cape Town, where it formed part of the garrison.

During the years 1808 and 1809, the first battalion continued to be stationed at the Cape of Good Hope.

On the 23rd of October 1810, the first battalion embarked from the Cape, having been selected to form part of an expedition designed to co-operate with troops from India, under the command of Lieut.-General John Abercromby, in the capture of the Mauritius. A landing of the troops from India had taken place a few days before the division from the Cape, under Major-General William Cockell, had arrived. Its appearance off the island was, however, particularly opportune, as the French governor had previously resolved to defend his lines before Port Louis; but when he saw the force from the Cape approach the island, he relinquished the hope of being able to make effectual resistance, and surrendered this valuable colony to the British. The battalion disembarked at Port Louis on the 1st of December, where it remained on duty, after the other regiments composing the expedition returned to their respective quarters. Captain Henry C. Streatfeild with two officers and one hundred men were embarked on board a ship of war, in advance of the expedition, and landed before the force from the Cape.

The first battalion continued to form part of the garrison of the island during the four following years.

In May 1815, the first battalion at the Mauritius was directed to hold itself in readiness for active service in India, and embarked on board of transports on the 16th of June, and landed at Fort William, in Bengal, on the 3rd of August.

The light company embarked in an Arab ship, with the flank companies of the Twelfth and Twenty-second regiments, and were carried into the Gulf of Manaar; the ship being there weather-bound, the troops were landed, with the assistance of country-boats, at Calpenterre, in Ceylon, and having remained fourteen days at Point de Galle, embarked again in the Arab ship for Calcutta, where they arrived, and rejoined the regiment on the 25th of September.

On the 1st of October 1815, the first battalion of the Eighty-seventh regiment embarked in boats, and sailed for Berhampore, where it arrived on the 14th, and again embarked and sailed for Dinapore on the 13th of November, at which place it disembarked on the 18th of December.

The Rajah of Nepaul having broken the terms of treaty made by him with the Honorable East India Company, the battalion marched for his territories on the 15th of January 1816, and arrived at Bullvee Camp on the 24th, where it joined the army under the command of Major-General Sir David Ochterlony, K.C.B., who commanded the forces assembled on the frontiers of Nepaul; on the 3rd of February the brigades advanced by their respective routes into Nepaul, Sir David Ochterlony remaining in company with the third and fourth brigades (to the former of which the Eighty-seventh belonged), and marched through the forest at the foot of the Nepaul Hills on the 9th. The light company of the battalion with those of the native infantry of the brigade with two guns under the command of Lieut. John Fenton, formed the advanced guard, and had a very arduous duty to perform, in carrying the guns through the forest, which was accomplished by the personal exertions of each individual. On the 10th, the third brigade arrived at Semul Cassa Pass, and at nine o’clock A. M. the light company of the Eighty-seventh, commanded by Lieutenant Fenton, accompanied by Sir David Ochterlony, was drawn up the pass, a height of thirty feet, by the officers’ sashes, the brigade then about five miles from the pass; on the 19th it reached the village of Etoundah on the banks of the Rapti. The advanced guard again exerted themselves in opening a communication between the third and fourth brigades through the Cheria Ghanty Pass.

On the 27th of February it arrived at Muckwanpore, and on the 28th the brigade was ordered to take possession[18] of the heights of Sierapore, and reconnoitre the position of the enemy. Lieutenant Thomas Lee, with a piquet of forty men of the Eighty-seventh, and strong piquets of native infantry, under their own officers, was directed to take possession of the deserted height of Sierapore. Captain Pickersgill, acting Quartermaster-General, conducted them to their ground, where having planted them, Lieutenant Lee and twenty men of the Eighty-seventh proceeded to reconnoitre the ground in advance: the enemy advanced to recover his position; the piquet retired, and the reconnoitering party, in danger of being cut off; had to descend a hill covered with jungle, pursued by a strong party (nearly four hundred) of the enemy, and would not have escaped but for the gallantry of two soldiers of the Eighty-seventh, Corporal James Orr of No. 5. company, and Private Patrick Boyle of the Grenadier company, who seeing the danger of the officers, placed themselves on the pathway, and by their steadiness and fire, checked the advance of the enemy. On the officers making good their retreat, these gallant fellows retired uninjured: the corporal was promoted to the rank of serjeant at the particular desire of Major-General Sir David Ochterlony; the unfortunate habit of drinking alone prevented the promotion of the private. An action afterwards took place, in which the light company, under the command of Captain Fenton, suffered considerably. The action commenced about noon, and ceased at six o’clock P. M., leaving the British in possession of the heights for a considerable distance from Sierapore, and of one field-piece.

In this affair Lieut.-Colonel Francis Miller commanding the battalion, and Lieutenant Fenton[8] in the command of the light company (detached in the advance), particularly distinguished themselves, and received the public thanks of Major-General Sir David Ochterlony,[19] and also of the Marquis of Hastings, the Commander-in-chief and Governor-General of India. The regiment had ten men killed, and above thirty wounded, many of whom died; the loss of the enemy was very considerable.

The Rajah, perceiving that resistance was unavailing, sued for peace, and a treaty was concluded on the 4th of March; on the 9th of that month the battalion commenced its return to Bengal, and arrived at Amowah on the 22nd of March, where it was cantoned until the 30th of June, on which day it commenced its march to Govingunge on the river Gonduck, and embarked in boats in progress to Cawnpore; on the 17th of August, the battalion arrived at Jangemowe, within a few miles of Cawnpore, but did not disembark at the latter station, until the 10th of September. About this period the battalion became very sickly from being so long confined in boats; the hospital list amounted to about four hundred and eighty, exclusive of numbers who could not be admitted for want of room. Not less than one hundred and fifty men died in this and the following month, when the cold weather coming on, in a great measure, renovated the corps.

On the 6th of February 1817, the regiment marched from Cawnpore towards Hattrass, which fortress the Commander-in-chief had given instructions to Major-General Marshall to besiege: the division from Cawnpore arrived before Hattrass, and joined the field army, on the 20th of February.

The pettah of the fort of Hattrass having been breached, it was resolved to storm on the evening of the 25th of February, and accordingly his Majesty’s Fourteenth regiment was appointed for that duty, and the Eighty-seventh to cover; however, the breach being found impracticable, the troops returned to their lines, but the pettah was evacuated during the night, and taken possession of on the following morning by the British troops; batteries were immediately erected[20] against the fort, which was heavily bombarded with shells and rockets: at length the principal magazine blew up on the 2nd of March, the explosion of which was said to be distinctly heard at Meerut, nearly two hundred miles distant.

Dya Ram, Rajah of the fortress, having determined on abandoning it, most gallantly cut his way through some of the piquets of the besieging army, and effected his escape. On the morning of the 3rd of March, the right wing of the Eighty-seventh marched into and took possession of the fortress of Hattrass, which was reduced to a mass of ruins. On the 8th of March the regiment commenced its return to Cawnpore.

In July and August the Eighty-seventh regiment, in Bengal, was increased by a detachment of thirteen serjeants, three drummers, and two hundred and sixty-nine rank and file, men who had been transferred on the second battalion being disbanded on the 1st of February 1817.

The regiment remained at Cawnpore until the 15th of October, when it received orders to march to Secundra, where the grand army was formed under the command of the Marquis of Hastings, against the Pindaree hordes, and having remained there until a bridge of boats was completed over the Jumna, it crossed that river on the 27th, and marched to the banks of the Sind, opposite Gualior; but the grand army being, about this time, attacked by that fatal disease, the cholera morbus, compelled the Marquis, with his troops, to retire to Erich on the Bettwah: the mortality for four or five days was very great, particularly among the natives, who died in vast numbers on the road and in the villages through which the army passed. The Eighty-seventh lost one subaltern (Lieutenant John Coghlan), three serjeants, and forty rank and file; total, forty-four, in three days. The army having in some measure recovered, his Lordship returned to the banks of the Sind, and took up a position at Lonaree, within twenty-one[21] miles of Gualior, where Scindiah, with a powerful force, was ready to take the field, to support the Mahratta States, which had revolted.

On the 14th of February 1818, the different divisions of the army were broken up, in consequence of peace being concluded, and the Eighty-seventh returned to Cawnpore, at which station it arrived on the 26th of that month.

On the 21st of October 1820, the regiment marched from Cawnpore for Fort William, by the new road, and arrived in that garrison on the 21st of December, a distance of six hundred and sixty miles.

On the night of the 6th of September 1821, a very alarming fire broke out in the Honorable Company’s Dispensary, situated in Calcutta, and surrounded by many valuable houses. As soon as intelligence reached the fort, two captains and ten subalterns, with about three hundred men, immediately marched to the spot, and, by the greatest exertions, prevented the fire from spreading to the neighbouring houses. The strictness with which the armed party protected the property of the inhabitants, called forth their admiration, which was followed by the annexed letter from the Governor-General, the Marquis of Hastings.

“Council Chamber, 17th Sept. 1821.

“My dear Sir,

“It was a great satisfaction to me, though no surprise, to learn the zealous and meritorious conduct of the detachment of the Eighty-seventh, employed in the endeavour to stop the fire last night. As some of the men have suffered in articles of dress, to repair that damage, as well as to reward the activity of the party, the Council has directed that five hundred rupees be paid to you, which you will please to distribute according to your opinion of claims.

“I have, &c.,
(Signed) “Hastings.

“Lieut.-Colonel Miller,
Eighty-seventh regiment.”

This mark of approbation from the Governor-General in Council, towards the party in general, was followed by one to the officers employed, each being presented with a piece of plate, accompanied by the following letter:

“Council Chamber, 18th December 1821.

“Sir,

“The Most Noble the Governor-General in Council, being desirous to evince the sense which Government entertains of the laudable exertions of those officers of his Majesty’s Eighty-seventh regiment, who were present with the detachment sent from Fort William on the occasion of the fire at the Honorable Company’s dispensary, has commanded me to transmit to you the accompanying silver cups, with a request that you will, on the part of his Lordship in Council, present one to each of the several officers named below, who are understood to have accompanied the troops on the night of the 6th of September last.”

Captain—George Rodney Bell.
” W. G. Cavanagh.
Lieutenant and Adjutant—James Bowes.
Lieutenant—John G. Baylee.
” Richard Irvine.
” Henry Gough Baylee.
” Alexander Irwin.
” George Tolfrey.
” Edmund Cox.
” John Shipp.
” Henry Spaight.
Ensign—Lawrence Halstead.

A very handsome piece of plate, which is now in the mess, was likewise presented to the above officers by Doctor M^cWhirter, whose house adjoined the Dispensary, and which was saved by great exertion.

In April 1822, another alarming fire occurred in Calcutta, at the cotton stores of Mr. Laprimaudage,[23] in which a detachment of the Eighty-seventh exerted itself in a very laudable manner, and a letter of thanks was received by Lieut.-Colonel Miller, from that gentleman, for the service rendered by the officers and men on this occasion.

In 1822 the arrival of regiments from Europe, caused the Eighty-seventh to embark (by wings) in boats for the Upper Provinces, and on the 11th of July the right wing sailed for Dinapore, the left following on the 22nd of that month.

The right wing experienced bad weather and lost a number of boats, by which one serjeant, two drummers, five women, and four children were drowned. On the 19th of August the right wing landed at Dinapore, and the left on the 25th, having made a very prosperous voyage, not meeting with a single accident in the passage: on the 1st of November, the regiment marched to Ghazeepore.

On the 17th of May 1823, Lieut.-Colonel Francis M. Miller, C.B., died, after having served his Majesty upwards of thirty-four years, during which he had commanded the Eighty-seventh regiment at different periods for sixteen years. He was deeply and most deservedly regretted by every officer and soldier who had served with him, and had invariably received the marked approbation of every general officer under whom he had been placed. The command of the regiment subsequently devolved on Lieut.-Colonel Matthew Shawe, C.B.

Serjeant Stephen Carr was appointed quartermaster on the 24th of June 1824, as a reward for his distinguished gallantry and honorable trustworthy conduct: he was present in every action in which the second battalion was employed during the Peninsular war.

In consequence of the Forty-seventh regiment having embarked at Calcutta for Ava, the Eighty-seventh left Ghazeepore in boats oh the 9th of June 1824, and reached Berhampore on the 29th of the same month.

On the 14th of January 1825, the regiment proceeded towards Calcutta to replace the second battalion of the Royals on its departure for Ava; the left wing moved by land, the right by water, and were reunited on the 29th in Fort William, of which garrison Lieut.-Colonel Shawe became commandant.

On the 6th of June, the regiment performed the melancholy duty of attending to the grave the remains of its beloved and lamented commanding officer, Lieut.-Colonel Henry Browne. He had entered the regiment in 1800 as an ensign, when sixteen years of age, and had never belonged to any other: his qualities as a man and a soldier endeared him to all. In the meantime hostilities had commenced between the British and the Burmese, and on the 5th of October the regiment embarked for Ava, to reinforce the army in that country, in four divisions, which landed at Rangoon between the 3rd and 10th of November, and immediately proceeded in boats towards Prome, the head-quarters of the army. During the passage, Major William Slade Gully’s division was attacked from the bank of the river, on the 25th of November, by a strong party of Burmese, which was immediately repulsed on the troops being landed. Lieutenant and Adjutant James Bowes, in command of the advanced guard, was wounded, and two privates killed.

Six companies of the regiment, with Major Gully, Captains Charles Lucas and George Rodney Bell, and John Day; Lieutenants John Baylee, William Bateman, Robert Joseph Kerr, William Lenox Stafford, with Assistant Surgeons William Brown, M.D., and William Peter Birmingham, reached Prome in time to share in the operations of the 1st and 2nd of December, which terminated in the entire discomfiture of the enemy. On this occasion the regiment maintained its unvarying reputation for cool and distinguished gallantry: Lieutenant Baylee and two men were killed; Major Gully and twenty-one men were wounded.

On the 8th of January 1826, Lieut.-Colonel Hunter Blair joined the regiment, and was appointed a Brigadier, the Eighty-seventh being in his brigade.

On the 19th of January Brigadier Thomas Hunter Blair, Lieut.-Colonel of the regiment, commanded the right column of attack at the capture of Melloone, consisting of the Eighty-ninth regiment and the flank companies of the Forty-seventh and Eighty-seventh with Captain James Moore (major of brigade), Brevet Captain James Kennelly, Lieutenants Henry Gough Baylee, Edmund Cox, George Mainwaring, William Lenox Stafford, and Joseph Thomas, and Assistant Surgeon Birmingham. No loss was sustained.

The day after the fall of Melloone, the Bengal division, under Brigadier Shawe, made a flank movement from the river Irrawaddy, and entered a well-cultivated country abounding in cattle, eight hundred head of which were secured, and they proved a most seasonable supply to the army.

On the 28th of January the Eighty-seventh, with the flank companies of the Twenty-eighth native infantry, and detachments of the Governor-General’s body-guard and artillery, under Brigadier Hunter Blair, were sent from Tongwyn, to attack the position of Moulmein, eleven miles distant. The flank companies of the Eighty-seventh had one man killed and five wounded in forcing a piquet half way to Moulmein, which had been in part evacuated the preceding day. The position, being a great annoyance to the surrounding country, was destroyed, and the troops returned to camp the same evening.

On the 21st of February, the Bengal division rejoined head-quarters at Yandaboo; and on the 24th of February a royal salute announced the termination of the Burmese war.

The constancy and valour of the British troops had thus forced the monarch of an Eastern empire, with its myriads of inhabitants, to sue for peace; and their conduct[26] is thus alluded to in the order issued by the Governor-General of India.

“While the Governor-General in Council enumerates, with sentiments of unfeigned admiration, the achievements of the First or Royals, the Thirteenth, Thirty-eighth, Forty-first, Forty-fifth, Forty-seventh, Eighty-seventh, and Eighty-ninth regiments, the Honorable Company’s Madras European regiment, and the Bengal and Madras European artillery, as the European troops which have had the honor of establishing the renown of the British arms in a new and distant region, his Lordship in Council feels that higher and more justly-merited praise cannot be bestowed on those brave troops than that, amidst the barbarous hosts which they have fought and conquered, they have eminently displayed the virtues and sustained the character of the British soldier.”

In commemoration of the meritorious conduct of the Eighty-seventh and other corps, the royal authority was subsequently granted for the word “Ava” to be borne on the regimental colour and appointments.

Brigadier Shawe, on the 1st of March, was compelled to proceed to Rangoon, in consequence of ill health.

On the 8th of March, the portion of the army that was ordered to return by land, marched from Yandaboo, under the command of Brigadier Hunter Blair. It consisted of the Eighty-seventh, the Governor-General’s body-guard, the Horse artillery, the Twenty-eighth, Thirty-eighth, and Forty-third Madras native infantry, and a battalion of the Madras pioneers. The column reached Prome, a distance of two hundred and ninety miles, on the 3rd of April, having had only one halting day, which was St. Patrick’s.

The Eighty-seventh remained at Prome, as the rear-guard of the army, until the arrangements for the final evacuation of the province was completed; on the 15th of April it embarked in the flotilla, and reached Rangoon on the 21st of that month.

On the 27th of April was received the melancholy intelligence of the death of Lieut.-Colonel Matthew Shawe, C.B., which lamented event took place on board His Majesty’s sloop, “Slany,” Captain Thornton, on the 10th of that month, within one day’s sail of Penang, where he was buried with all military honors. He was much regretted as an excellent man, and an officer of conspicuous gallantry. His life was sacrificed to his zeal for active service, for such was the state of his health, on leaving Calcutta, that his medical advisers used every endeavour to dissuade him from proceeding to Ava.[9]

Lieut.-Colonel Hunter Blair, became senior Lieut.-Colonel of the regiment, of which he assumed the command on the 1st of June, on the reduction of the staff in Ava.

On the 1st of September, Lieutenant Edmund Cox, with twenty-eight flankers, proceeded to Ava, as escort to the envoy, they being the first British soldiers who had visited that capital.

An order was received at Rangoon, on the 16th of October, directing that in consequence of the intended return of the Eighty-seventh to England, the men should be permitted to volunteer for the Forty-fifth regiment, also in garrison: one hundred and twenty-three men availed themselves of this offer.

On the 22nd of October, the head-quarters embarked for Calcutta, which they reached on the 16th of November, and were joined by the rest of the regiment on the 24th of that month.

Besides those already named, the regiment had to regret the death (in Ava) of two old and much valued officers, Captain Peter Benson Husband and Surgeon Alexander Leslie; and of Lieutenant Nicholas Milley Doyle, and Ensign Richard Loveday, two most promising young men, who were drowned in the Irrawaddy,[28] and of above one hundred and eighty non-commissioned officers and soldiers, chiefly from dysentery.

After the return of the regiment from Ava, it had the honor of being reviewed at Calcutta by General Lord Combermere, G.C.B., Commander-in-chief in India, and inspected by Major-General Robert Alexander Dalzell, afterwards the Earl of Carnwath.

On the 13th of November, the volunteering re-commenced, and continued, with intervals, to the 27th of December, during which two hundred and fifty-nine men turned out, for the Sixteenth lancers, Thirteenth, Thirty-first, Thirty-eighth, and Forty-fourth regiments and East India Company’s service, reducing the regiment in India to two hundred and eighty men.

On the 1st of February the head-quarters, with nine companies, sailed from Calcutta in the free trader “Lord Lynedoch,” leaving the remainder of the regiment to follow in the “Cornwall.”

It may be remarked, as a singular circumstance, that the regiment should return to England in a ship bearing the name of the hero under whom it gained the decoration of the eagle at Barrosa, and still more remarkable, that its actual commanding officer, Lieut.-Colonel Hunter Blair, had proceeded to India in the “Barrosa.”

The following general order, dated the 29th of January, was published by his Excellency General Lord Combermere, on the embarkation of the regiment.

“The Commander-in-Chief having directed the embarkation of the Eighty-seventh regiment, on its return home, his Lordship cannot allow the corps to leave India, without expressing his high approbation of its services. Of the conduct of this corps, during its services in Ava, his Lordship has had the most favourable reports; and he has every confidence that, wherever its future destinies may lead it, the Eighty-seventh regiment will always add to its spirited and distinguished military reputation.”

On the 27th of April the head-quarters reached St. Helena, and remained there four days.

On the 23rd of June 1827 the Eighty-seventh landed in England, and was placed on the British establishment from that day inclusive, and marched into Chatham Barracks; from thence, after being inspected, and the invalids discharged, the regiment was moved by water on the 7th of July to Albany Barracks, Isle of Wight, the effective strength at head-quarters being two hundred and eighty rank and file.

In consequence of the continued career of brilliant services which has distinguished the regiment from its first taking the field, to its return to England, a period of thirty-three years, General Sir John Doyle felt it an imperative duty, as its Colonel, to bring those services under the notice of its revered and beloved Sovereign, and humbly to solicit for the corps some mark of His Majesty’s royal favour.

The gracious manner in which the King had condescended to view the conduct of his Eighty-seventh regiment, and the encouraging expressions with which His Majesty has been pleased to convey his approbation of its services, must be so cheering to the hearts of every member of the corps, that the circumstance naturally claims a place in the records of the regiment.

On the 20th of June 1827, the Colonel addressed the following letter to the Adjutant-General of the Forces, Major-General Sir Henry Torrens, K.C.B.:

“4. Somerset Street, Portman Square,
“20th June 1827.

“Sir,

“I have the honor to represent to you that the Eighty-seventh regiment, under my command, has arrived in England, after a service of twenty-one years in tropical climates.

“It has just returned from the Burmese campaign, where it has obtained additional honors to those it had formerly won.

[30]

“To you, Sir, who so well know the character of every corps in the army, it is unnecessary to detail the services of the Eighty-seventh. It is now thirty-three years since I had the honor to raise it, thirty-one years of which period it has been upon foreign service; on the continent of Europe, the Peninsula, South America, and the East and West Indies. In all the well-fought actions where it bore a part in both hemispheres, it has been distinguished in general orders. My authority is the Government Gazette.

“Under these circumstances, may I be permitted to hope that you will do me the favour to lay at His Majesty’s feet my humble petition that the Eighty-seventh regiment may be appointed a light infantry corps, which, as being a mark of His Majesty’s approbation, would be most gratifying to those brave men, who have so freely bled, and would lay down their lives, to manifest their devoted attachment to their gracious and beloved Sovereign. Perhaps, Sir, you will have the less difficulty in complying with my request, when I mention that, immediately after the action of Barrosa, I received the following note from Lord Lynedoch, written from the field of battle:

“My dear Doyle,

“Your regiment has covered itself with glory. Recommend it and its commander to the notice of its illustrious patron, the Prince Regent. Too much cannot be done for the corps.”

“I presented it to his Royal Highness, who graciously said, ‘It is very true, and I will do any thing you wish for the regiment; will you have it made Royal?’ I respectfully declined the honor, for reasons his Royal Highness did not disapprove.

“For the correctness of this statement I humbly appeal to His Majesty, who never forgets any circumstance[31] relating to those who have faithfully and zealously served him.

“I have, &c.,
(Signed) “I. Doyle,
“Colonel of the Eighty-seventh,
or Prince of Wales’s Own Irish
Regiment, and General.

“Major-General Sir Henry Torrens, K.C.B., Adjutant-General
of the Forces, Horse Guards.”

“Horse Guards,
“6th July 1827.

“Sir,

“I have had the honor to lay before the King your letter of the 20th instant, requesting that the Eighty-seventh, or Prince of Wales’s Own Irish regiment, of which you are colonel, may be made a corps of Light Infantry.

“On this occasion His Majesty has commanded me to express to you the perfect sense he entertains of the high and meritorious character of the Eighty-seventh regiment, and of the long course of brilliant services which have distinguished its career,—services which, the King has condescended to observe, have been impressed upon his memory by the recollection of more than one trophy captured from the enemy, and by the interest His Majesty must always take in a regiment which possesses, from its title, an early and peculiar claim to his protection.

“But with every disposition to accede to your wishes, the King laments that it is out of his power to grant your request without inconvenience to the public service, as well as a deviation from the principle that has guided His Majesty’s refusal on similar occasions. I am at the same time instructed to accompany this expression of the King’s regret, with the assurance of[32] the gracious sense which His Majesty entertains of the services of the Prince of Wales’s Own Irish regiment, and of the personal interest he must always take in its welfare and honor.

“I have, &c.,
(Signed) “H. Torrens,
“Adjutant-General.

“General Sir John Doyle, Bart., G.C.B., Colonel
of the Eighty-seventh Regiment.”

In his reply to the above communication, in a letter dated the 11th of July 1827, General Sir John Doyle preferred a request, that the Eighty-seventh might be styled the “Prince of Wales’s Own Irish Regiment of Fusiliers,” in the following terms:—

“England, Scotland, and Wales, have each their national fusilier regiments; Ireland alone is without one. The prayer of my petition is, that the blank may be filled up by the Prince of Wales’s Own Irish regiment, to be honored by the title of the Prince of Wales’s Own Irish Fusiliers. Thus shall we preserve the endearing title we so highly prize; retain the national colours under which we have so long fought; and avoid collision with any regiment that might have been honored with the name of Royal.”

This request was complied with, and the result was communicated to General Sir John Doyle in the following letter from the Adjutant-General:

“Horse Guards,
“16th July, 1827.

“Sir,

“In reply to your letter of the 11th instant, I have the honor to acquaint you, that the King has been graciously pleased to approve of the Eighty-seventh regiment, of which you are Colonel, receiving the title of the Prince of Wales’s Own Irish Fusiliers, as a mark of His Majesty’s most gracious favour, and[33] in consideration of the extraordinary distinction that has marked the career of the corps on all occasions.

“I have, &c.
(Signed) “H. Torrens,
“Adjutant-General.

“General Sir John Doyle, Bart. G.C.B.,
Colonel of the Eighty-seventh Regiment, &c. &c.”

It was directed that the Eighty-seventh should wear blue facings, instead of green, in order to render it uniform with the other fusilier regiments.

A further communication was made by the Adjutant-General to General Sir John Doyle, of which the following is an extract:—

“Horse Guards,
“17th November 1827.

“Sir,

“I have the honor to acquaint you, that the King has been pleased to approve of the Eighty-seventh regiment assuming the title “Royal,” and its being in future styled the Eighty-seventh or Royal Irish Fusiliers, instead of the Prince of Wales’s Own Irish Fusiliers.

“His Majesty has further been pleased to approve the patterns of facings and lace proposed by you for the uniform of the officers, non-commissioned officers, drummers, and privates of the Eighty-seventh or Royal Irish Fusiliers, and to command that the same be adopted from the 25th of December 1829, when the clothing now in possession of the regiment shall be worn out.

“I have, &c.
(Signed) “H. Torrens,
“Adjutant-General.

“General Sir John Doyle, Bart., G.C.B., Colonel
of the Eighty-seventh, or Royal Irish Fusiliers.”

The regiment was inspected on the 2nd of November by Major-General Sir James Lyon, K.C.B. and G.C.H., who was pleased to express his unqualified approbation of the progress made during four months in the formation of a corps nearly composed of recruits, and which he declared to have surpassed his most sanguine expectation.

On the 19th of May 1828 the regiment was reviewed by General Lord Hill, commanding in chief, who expressed himself highly pleased with its evolutions and general appearance; and his Lordship also alluded to the favorable opinion entertained of the corps by the inhabitants of the Isle of Wight, in consequence of its quiet and orderly conduct in quarters.

The regiment was inspected on the 5th of June by Major-General Sir Colin Campbell, K.C.B., and had the gratification of obtaining his approbation.

The regiment, which, upon its arrival at Albany Barracks eleven months previously, had only two hundred and eighty rank and file present, was now within thirty-four of its establishment (seven hundred and forty), the recruits having been chiefly enlisted in Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Carrick-on-Shannon, and Galway.

The regiment quitted Albany Barracks on the 7th of July, where it had been stationed one year, and marched by Portsmouth and Maidstone to Chatham, which it reached on the 15th of that month.

On the 24th July, a route was received directing the regiment to march immediately for London, thence to proceed by the Paddington Canal to such destination as might be ordered. It was mustered, and marched in three hours after the receipt of the route, and arrived in Lambeth on the third day.

The regiment was reviewed on the 28th of July by General Sir John Doyle, Bart., attended by Major-General Sir Henry Torrens, K.C.B., Adjutant-General[35] of the forces, and numerous other officers, when its appearance elicited unqualified approbation.

On the 29th of July the regiment embarked in seventeen boats on the Paddington Canal, landed at Northwich and Middlewich on the 2nd, and marched into Chester Castle on the 4th of August.

Towards the end of September two alarming fires broke out in the city of Chester: the very serious consequences that threatened were chiefly counteracted by the bold and active intrepidity displayed by the soldiers of the regiment in extinguishing the conflagration, and by the exertions of the officers to secure the property of the inhabitants.

These services were acknowledged in a vote of thanks from the Commissioners of Police to Lieut.-Colonel Blair, the officers, and soldiers of the regiment.

Various letters of thanks to the regiment also appeared in the Chester newspapers, from those inhabitants whose property was chiefly endangered.

On the 11th of October the regiment was inspected by Major-General Sir Henry Bouverie, K.C.B., who was pleased to express himself much pleased with its appearance, movements, and interior economy.

A circular from the Horse Guards, dated the 5th of December, was received, which directed regiments not to recruit beyond six hundred and ninety rank and file, being fifty short of the nominal establishment of seven hundred and forty rank and file.

On the 19th of April 1829, under instruction from the Secretary of State, three companies, commanded by Major Gully, marched towards Abergelly, in Denbighshire, forty miles distant, in order to prevent a riot, expected on the ejection by the high sheriff, at the suit of the Bishop of St. Asaph, of a body of miners, from an extensive lime quarry, of which they refused to give up possession, in consequence of having enjoyed[36] the privilege of working it for many years. The miners having submitted, the detachment rejoined head-quarters in four days, and fortunately without its interference being required.

On the 14th of May the regiment was again inspected by Major-General Sir Henry Bouverie, and received his entire approbation.

The regiment moved from Chester on the 19th of May, where it had been quartered between nine and ten months. Previously to its departure, the following letter was received from the mayor of Chester.

“Town Clerk’s Office,
“Chester, 16th May 1829.

“Sir,

“Understanding that the Eighty-seventh Royal Irish Fusiliers are about to quit Chester, the mayor and magistrates of this city cannot allow you to leave without expressing the very high sense entertained of the general urbanity of yourself and brother officers; and the prompt exertions of the officers, and good conduct of the privates upon several trying occasions, when the safety and property of the city were threatened by fire.

“For the Magistrates of the City,
(Signed) “Robert Morris,
“Mayor.

“Lieut.-Colonel Hunter Blair, &c.”

On the 20th of May the regiment occupied the following stations: head-quarters and four companies at Stockport; two companies at Macclesfield; two at Oldham; one company at Hyde, and one at Ashton-under-Lyne.

“Head Quarters, Rotherham,
“11th June 1829.

“Sir,

“It is with great pleasure that I obey the orders of the General Commanding in chief, to express to you the satisfaction he has felt at the favorable report which I was enabled to make in my half-yearly confidential report upon the state of the Eighty-seventh regiment under your command; and it is his Lordship’s desire that you make this expression of his sentiments known to the regiment.

(Signed) “H. F. Bouverie,
“Major-General.

“Lieut.-Colonel Hunter Blair,
Commanding Eighty-seventh Regiment.”

On the 7th of July, the regiment left Salford Barracks, Manchester, and occupied the following stations. Head-quarters and four companies at Bolton in Lancashire; four companies at Blackburn, and two companies at Oldham. Prior to quitting Manchester a letter was received from Robert Sharpe, Esq., constable of Manchester, expressive of the regret of his colleagues, the inhabitants of the place, and himself, at the sudden departure of the regiment, and in which a marked tribute was paid by the authorities to its “exemplary conduct” while stationed in that town.

On the 25th of December 1830, the regiment commenced wearing the royal uniform and appointments, in compliance with the Adjutant-General’s letter of the 15th of October 1827: also Oxford-mixture pantaloons, which were introduced into the army by circular, dated 10th of February 1829.

By circular letter from the Adjutant-General, dated the 18th of March, a red fatigue jacket was substituted for the infantry of the army, in lieu of the white jacket formerly in wear.

By a circular letter from the Adjutant-General, dated the 22nd of April, regiments were directed not to recruit beyond six hundred and sixty rank and file, being eighty under the nominal establishment of seven hundred and forty.

The regiment was twice inspected at Manchester by Major-General Sir Henry Bouverie, on the 21st of November 1829, and the 28th of May 1830, on which last occasion the Major-General declared that it had gained, in all respects, his most unqualified approbation.

The regiment remained at Manchester until July 1830, when it was removed to Bolton-le-Moors: it embarked for Ireland in September following, and was stationed at Newry until November, when it returned to England, and was quartered at Plymouth.

On the 1st of January 1831, an orderly-room clerk was authorised to be borne on the establishment.

In the early part of the year 1831, directions were given for the formation of the regiment into six service and four depôt companies, and on the 23rd of February the service companies embarked for the Mauritius, where they arrived in June following: the depôt companies were left at Devonport.

The depôt companies remained at Devonport until October 1833, when they proceeded to Fort Cumberland; from thence to Gosport in December following, and to Portsmouth in February 1834.

On the 15th of August 1834, Major-General Sir Thomas Reynell, Bart., K.C.B., was removed from the colonelcy of the Ninety-ninth to that of the Eighty-seventh regiment, in succession to General Sir John Doyle, Bart., G.C.B., deceased.

The depôt companies remained at Portsmouth until August 1835, when they were moved to Chatham: they embarked for Ireland in August 1836, and were stationed at Nenagh; proceeded to Birr in September 1837, to Longford in December, and Castlebar in May[39] following, where they remained until April 1839, when they were removed to Boyle: they proceeded to Virginia in July, to Drogheda in August, and to Dublin in September 1839.

On the 12th of August 1839, the establishment of the Eighty-seventh Royal Irish Fusiliers was increased to forty-seven serjeants, fourteen drummers, forty corporals, and seven hundred and sixty privates.

The depôt companies of the regiment returned to England in June 1840, and were stationed at Carlisle: they were removed to Tynemouth in May, and to Hull in June 1841: they remained at the latter station until August 1842, when they proceeded to Airdrie, and in the following month they marched to Paisley.

On the 15th of March 1841, Major-General Sir Hugh (now Viscount) Gough, K.C.B., was removed from the colonelcy of the Ninety-ninth to that of the Eighty-seventh regiment, in succession to Lieut.-General Sir Thomas Reynell, Bart., K.C.B., appointed to the Seventy-first light infantry.

The number of drummers on the establishment of the regiment was increased from fourteen to seventeen, on the 1st of April 1843.

The service companies had continued at the Mauritius from June 1831 to the 20th of June 1843, when they embarked for the United Kingdom on board Her Majesty’s ship “Thunderer,” and disembarked at Devonport on the 30th of September 1843.

On the 29th of September 1843, the depôt companies marched from Paisley en route to Fort George.

The head-quarters of the regiment were embarked for Scotland on the 2nd, and arrived at Glasgow on the 4th of October 1843; and on the 29th the depôt companies were taken on the strength, and amalgamated with the regiment.

The regiment remained at Glasgow until August 1844, when it marched for Edinburgh, and in July 1845[40] it moved to Aberdeen: in September 1846 the regiment proceeded to Newport in Monmouthshire, and in September 1847 it marched for Weedon.

On the 1st of April 1848, the regiment was augmented to fifty-seven serjeants, twenty-one drummers, fifty corporals, and nine hundred and fifty privates, and another serjeant was added in the following year, to raise it to the India establishment.

The regiment proceeded to Gravesend in April 1849, and on the 20th of that month it embarked for the East Indies, and arrived at Calcutta on the 31st of July 1849, and is at present serving in the Bengal presidency.

The depôt company was moved, in March 1849, from Weedon to Chatham, where it now continues a part of the provisional battalion.

FOOTNOTES:

[6] A list of the battalions formed from men raised under the “Army of Reserve” and “Additional Force Acts” is inserted in pages 97, &c. of the Appendix.

[7] In June 1806, Buenos Ayres had been captured by the British under Brigadier-General William Carr Beresford, afterwards General Viscount Beresford; the place was, however, recovered by the Spaniards in August following, and the troops became prisoners.

In the autumn of 1806, an armament, consisting of the Ninth and Seventeenth light dragoons, detachment of the Twenty-first light dragoons, Royal artillery and engineers, Fortieth, first battalion of the Eighty-seventh, and Ninety-fifth (rifle corps) regiments, proceeded to share in the contest in South America. In October the Thirty-eighth regiment commanded by Colonel Vassal, and the Forty-seventh, under Colonel Backhouse, proceeded from the Cape of Good Hope to the Rio de la Plata, and on finding that Buenos Ayres had been recaptured by the Spaniards, the troops under the command of Colonel Backhouse, in conjunction with the naval squadron under Commodore Sir Home Popham, took possession of the town of Maldonado, and the island of Gorreti, on the left bank of the river Plate. In the summer of 1807 an expedition for a second attempt on Buenos Ayres proceeded to that part of the world, under the command of Lieut.-General Whitelocke, who assumed the command of the troops in South America. Other corps had also proceeded to South America, of which a list is inserted in the Appendix, page 91.

[8] Lieutenant Fenton was promoted to the rank of Captain in the Eighty-seventh regiment on the 22nd of April 1817.

[9] A Memoir of the services of Lieut.-Colonel Shawe, is inserted in the Appendix, page 95.

HISTORICAL RECORD
OF THE
SECOND BATTALION

The British Government continued to adopt the most vigorous measures for the defence of the kingdom, and for the prosecution of the war. In addition to the acts of Parliament passed in July 1803 for raising “The Army of Reserve,” further Acts were passed in June and July 1804 for levying a larger number of men in the several counties of Great Britain and Ireland, which were termed the “Additional Force Acts.”

The Eighty-seventh regiment was augmented by a second battalion, which, with seven other regiments, was appointed to receive men raised in Ireland under the act of the 14th of July 1804; the men raised in the counties of Tipperary, Galway, and Clare, were allotted to the Eighty-seventh regiment; the assembling quarter of the second battalion was appointed at Frome in Somersetshire, and the battalion was placed on the establishment of the army, from the 25th of December 1804, at six hundred rank and file, which was augmented in the following year to eight hundred, and in the year 1807 to one thousand rank and file, and continued at that number to December 1814,[42] when it was reduced to eight hundred, and from December 1815 to six hundred rank and file.

The second battalion marched from Frome to Bristol in March 1805, and embarked for Ireland.

On the 27th of October 1806 the battalion, consisting of twenty-nine serjeants, nine drummers, and five hundred and sixty-eight rank and file, embarked from Ireland for England.

On the 27th of April 1807 the battalion embarked at Plymouth, and proceeded to Guernsey.

The following report was made to Lieut.-General Sir John Doyle, Bart., commanding the troops at Guernsey, by Brigadier-General John Fraser, after his inspection of the second battalion of the Eighty-seventh regiment.

“Guernsey, 30th June 1807.

“Sir,

“I have the honor to report, that when I minutely inspected the second battalion of the Eighty-seventh regiment two months after their arrival in this island, I found every thing in a state of perfection that would have done credit to an old established regiment, and which could not have been expected in a battalion so lately formed. The flank companies are uncommonly fine. The battalion men are in general of good size, young and stout, and the whole appear healthy and well fed: they march well, are steady under arms, and perfect in their discipline. The interior regulations are excellent, barracks and hospital clean, books regular, women and children decent in their appearance, and every thing to be commended. The appointments are in good order, the clothing is very good and well fitted, gaiters, shoes, &c. good without exception. There have been very few courts martial, very few non-commissioned officers reduced, and not one punished man in the battalion.

[43]

“The officers are well dressed and very attentive to their duty. Since their arrival here, the Eighty-seventh have occupied the town district, where I have had daily opportunities of seeing them, and I have always found them attentive on duty, well dressed in the streets, quiet and regular, no complaints, no drunkenness, even at the monthly settlements.

“I am of opinion that the second battalion of the Eighty-seventh is fit for any service, and very likely to be distinguished, especially while commanded by Lieut.-Colonel Doyle, who appears one of the best and most attentive officers I have ever seen, and who is to be particularly commended for keeping up very strict discipline without the least appearance of severity.

“I have, &c.,
(Signed) “John Fraser,
“Brigadier-General.

“To Lieut.-General Sir John Doyle, Bart., commanding
His Majesty’s Forces in Guernsey and Alderney.”

The above report of Brigadier-General Fraser was highly gratifying to His Royal Highness the Duke of York, Commander-in-Chief, whose approbation thereof was signified to Lieut.-Colonel Doyle, and to the second battalion, through Lieut.-General Sir John Doyle, by the Adjutant-General on the 10th of July 1807.

Important events had in the meantime occurred on the continent of Europe. Napoleon having reduced Germany to submission to his will, and forced Russia to accede to his decrees, next attempted the subjugation of Spain and Portugal. The Spaniards and Portuguese rose in arms to assert their national rights, the French emperor having conferred the crown of Spain on his[44] brother Joseph, who relinquished the throne of Naples in favour of Marshal Murat. In the summer of 1808 Portugal was delivered by a British army under Lieut.-General Sir Arthur Wellesley, and in the autumn Lieut.-General Sir John Moore received orders to advance with a body of British troops from Portugal into the heart of Spain; several regiments were embarked from the United Kingdom to co-operate in the enterprise.

On the 4th of June 1808, the battalion embarked from Guernsey, proceeded to Harwich, and from thence to Ramsgate, having previously occupied Weely Barracks and Danbury Camp.

Lieut.-Colonel Charles W. Doyle[10] having been appointed a brigadier-general and employed on a special mission in Spain, the command of the second battalion devolved upon Major Hugh Gough, and on the 28th of December following, it embarked at Ramsgate to join the army under Lieut.-General Sir John Moore, with numerous supplies of men and stores; but being dispersed by a storm, it rendezvoused at Cork, from whence it was ordered to proceed to Portugal.

The battalion arrived at Lisbon on the 12th of March 1809, and joined the army under the command of Lieut.-General Sir Arthur Wellesley. It was employed in the operations against the French at Oporto, and advanced in April following in pursuit of the French army, which had retreated from Portugal towards Madrid.

After suffering many privations in common with the rest of the troops, a junction was effected at Oropesa on the 20th of July with the Spanish army under General Cuesta. On the 27th of July, when General Cuesta had retreated from Alcabon under cover of Lieut.-General Sherbrooke’s divisions, Lieut.-General Sir[45] Arthur Wellesley, K.B., withdrew to the position of Talavera, leaving Major-General John Randoll McKenzie on the Alberche to protect the movement. When the French on the 27th of July crossed this river, Major-General McKenzie’s division was posted near the Casa des Salinas, his infantry in the forest, and cavalry on the plain. The attack was somewhat sudden, and the second battalions of the Thirty-first and Eighty-seventh regiments, which were in the wood on the right of the Alberche, sustained some loss. As the enemy increased his numbers on the British side of the river, Major-General McKenzie fell back gradually, and entering the position by the left of the combined army, took up his ground in a second line in rear of the foot guards. In the dusk of the evening the enemy commenced his attack on the British left, but failed. In the night the attack was repeated, and on the morning of the 28th of July the French renewed the attack on the height on the British left, and were again repulsed with considerable loss.

After a pause of some hours the attacks were renewed upon the whole British front, and the action became general. Brigadier-General Alexander Campbell’s division, on the British right, sustained the assault of the enemy’s fourth corps, assisted by Major-General McKenzie’s brigade. “The English regiments, putting the French skirmishers aside, met the advancing columns with loud shouts, and breaking in on their front, and lapping their flanks with fire, and giving no respite, pushed them back with a terrible carnage. Ten guns were taken; but as General Campbell prudently forbore pursuit, the French rallied on their supports, and made a show of attacking again. Vain attempt! The British artillery and musketry played too vehemently upon their masses, and a Spanish regiment of cavalry charging on their flank at the[46] same time, the whole retired in disorder, and the victory was secured in that quarter.”[11]

In the action on the 28th of July, Major-General McKenzie, who commanded the division of which the Eighty-seventh formed part, was killed.

The news of the victory of Talavera gained over the French army, commanded by Joseph Bonaparte in person, excited great joy in England, and Lieut.-General Sir Arthur Wellesley was raised to the peerage by the title of Viscount Wellington.

The loss of the British amounted to six thousand in killed, wounded, and missing; that of the French was much more considerable. The loss sustained by the second battalion of the Eighty-seventh regiment consisted of one officer and one hundred and ten men killed, and thirteen officers and two hundred and thirty men wounded: total three hundred and fifty-four; strength in the field, eight hundred and twenty-six, leaving a remainder of four hundred and seventy-two.

Acting Serjeant-Major Paterson was promoted to an ensigncy for good conduct in this action, and Quartermaster-Serjeant Cowell was shortly afterwards promoted also to an ensigncy for length of service and gallant conduct.

The Eighty-seventh subsequently received the royal authority to bear the word “Talavera,” on the regimental colour and appointments, in commemoration of the conduct of the second battalion on that occasion.

The junction of the divisions of Marshals Soult, Ney, and Mortier, in the rear of the British, compelled them to fall back on Badajoz. On the 10th of September, the second battalion of the Eighty-seventh regiment received orders to repair to Lisbon, where it arrived on the 24th; and two strong detachments having arrived from England, and a number of wounded men joining from the hospitals, the battalion was again reported fit for service.

On the 5th of February 1810, the battalion embarked at Lisbon for Cadiz, and disembarked there on the 12th, which city was at that time besieged by a powerful French army, under Marshal Soult. The whole of this year the battalion was employed in erecting batteries, and strengthening the defence of the place, during which the battalion lost several men.

Lieut.-General Thomas Graham (afterwards Lord Lynedoch) commanded the British forces in Cadiz, and an expedition was resolved upon for the purpose of making a combined attack on the rear of the blockading army under Marshal Victor, who now commanded at the siege of Cadiz, in consequence of Marshal Soult having proceeded with a body of troops into Estremadura.

On the 18th of February 1811, the battalion embarked at Cadiz, and sailed for Gibraltar.

The army under the command of Lieut.-General[48] Graham consisted of about three thousand men[12], and a body of seven thousand troops commanded by General La Pena. The force of which the Eighty-seventh formed part, disembarked at Algesiras on the 23rd of February, and the troops being united at Tarifa, marched from thence on the 28th of February.

General Zayas pushed a strong body of Spanish troops across the river Santi Petri near the coast on the 1st of March, threw a bridge over, and formed a tête-de-pont. This post was attacked by the enemy on the nights of the 3rd and 4th of March, who was repulsed, though the Spaniards sustained considerable loss.

On the 5th of March 1811, Lieut.-General Graham, and the army under his command, arrived on the low ridge of Barrosa, and gained a decisive victory over the French army under Marshal Victor, composed of the two divisions of Generals Rufin and Laval.

The circumstances under which Lieut.-General Graham found himself placed were such as compelled him to attack the very superior force, in point of numbers, of his opponents. The allied army, after a night-march of sixteen hours from the camp near Veger, arrived on the morning of the 5th at the low ridge of Barrosa, about four miles to the southward of the mouth of the Santi Petri river. This height extends inland about a mile and a half, continuing on the north the extensive heathy plain[49] of Chiclana. A great pine forest skirts the plain, and circles round the height at some distance, terminating down to Santi Petri, the intermediate space between the north side of the height and the forest being uneven and broken. A well-conducted and successful attack on the rear of the enemy’s lines near Santi Petri by the vanguard of the Spaniards under Brigadier-General Ladrizabel, opened the communication with the Isla de Leon, and Lieut.-General Graham received General La Pena’s directions to move down from the position of Barrosa to that of the Torre de Bermeja, about half way to the Santi Petri river, in order to secure the communication across the river, over which a bridge had been recently constructed. This latter position occupied a narrow woody ridge, the right on the sea cliff, the left falling down to the Almanza creek on the edge of the marsh. An easy communication between the western points of these two positions was kept up by a hard sandy beach. Lieut.-General Graham, while on the march through the wood towards the Bermeja, received intelligence that the enemy had appeared in force on the plain of Chiclana, about fifty miles from Tarifa, and was advancing towards the heights of Barrosa.

The British general, considering that position as the key to that of Santi Petri, immediately countermarched in order to support the troops left for its defence, and the alacrity with which this manœuvre was executed served as a favourable omen. It was, however, impossible in such intricate and difficult ground to preserve order in the columns, and time was never afforded to restore it entirely.

Before the British could get quite disentangled from the wood, the troops on the Barrosa hill were seen returning from it, while the enemy’s left wing was rapidly ascending. His right wing at the same time stood on the plain, on the edge of the wood, within cannon-shot. A retreat in the face of such an enemy, already within[50] reach of the easy communication by the sea-beach, must have involved the whole allied army in all the danger of being attacked during the unavoidable confusion of the different corps arriving nearly at the same time on the narrow ridge of the Bermeja.

Lieut.-General Graham relying on the heroism of British troops, and regardless of the number and position of the enemy, determined on an immediate attack. Major Duncan soon opened a powerful battery of ten guns in the centre. The right wing proceeded to the attack of General Rufin’s division on the hill, while that under General Laval, notwithstanding the havoc made by Major Duncan’s battery, continued to advance in very imposing masses, opening his fire of musketry, and was only checked by that of the left wing.

The left wing now advanced firing; and a most determined charge by the three companies of Guards and the second battalion of the Eighty-seventh regiment, supported by the remainder of the wing, soon decided the defeat of General Laval’s division. In this charge the Eagle of the eighth French regiment of light infantry (which suffered immensely) and a howitzer were captured, and remained in possession of Major Gough, now Lieut.-General Viscount Gough, G.C.B., and colonel of the Eighty-seventh regiment.[13] These attacks were zealously supported by Colonel Belson with the Twenty-eighth, and Lieut.-Colonel Prevost with a portion of the Sixty-seventh regiment.

A reserve formed beyond the narrow valley, across which the enemy was closely pursued, next shared the same fate, and was routed by the same means.

The right wing meanwhile was not less successful, and, after a sanguinary contest, General Rufin’s division was driven from the heights in confusion, leaving two pieces of cannon. In less than an hour and a half from the commencement of the action, the French were in full retreat. The retiring division met, halted, and seemed inclined to form; but a new and more advanced position of the British artillery quickly dispersed the enemy. The exhausted state of the troops rendered pursuit impossible, and a position was occupied on the eastern side of the hill. When the conflict had ceased, Lieut.-General Graham remained on the field of battle; but the Spanish general, La Pena, who had looked on while this terrible battle was fought, did not seize the favourable opportunity which the valour of the British troops had put into his hands, of striking a severe blow at the remains of the French army retreating in disorder. The inactivity of the Spaniards continuing, the British proceeded to Cadiz on the following day.

In this battle the Eighty-seventh had one officer and forty-four men killed; four officers and one hundred and twenty-four men wounded: the strength of the battalion in the field was seven hundred and twenty-two.

Lieut.-General Graham stated, in his public despatch, “No expressions of mine could do justice to the conduct of the troops throughout. Nothing less than the almost unparalleled exertions of every officer, the[52] invincible bravery of every soldier, and the most determined devotion to the honor of His Majesty’s arms, in all, could have achieved this brilliant success, against such a formidable enemy so posted.”

Among the prisoners were the General of Division Rufin, the General of Brigade Rousseau; the Chief of the Staff, General Bellegarde; an Aide-de-camp of Marshal Victor; the Colonel of the Eighth regiment, and several other officers. The prisoners amounted to two general officers, one field officer, nine captains, eight subalterns, and four hundred and twenty rank and file. The enemy lost about three thousand men in killed, wounded, and prisoners, while that of the British amounted to one thousand two hundred and forty-three killed and wounded. Six pieces of cannon were also captured.

Lieut.-General Graham, on this glorious occasion, wrote a short but comprehensive note from the field of battle, to General Sir John Doyle, the colonel of the Eighty-seventh regiment, in these words, congratulating him on the steadiness and gallantry displayed by the second battalion in an action which redounded so much to the fame of the British arms.

“Barrosa, 5th March, 1811.

“My dear Doyle,

“Your regiment has covered itself with glory. Recommend it and its commander (Gough) to their illustrious patron, the Prince Regent: too much cannot be done for it.

“Ever yours,
(Signed) “T. Graham.”

Major Hugh Gough was promoted to the brevet rank of Lieut.-Colonel, in consequence of Lieut.-General Graham’s recommendation, for his gallantry at Barrosa, and also received a medal for that battle.

On the 18th of April 1811, His Royal Highness the Prince Regent was pleased to approve of the Eighty-seventh being in future styled “The Eighty-seventh, or Prince of Wales’s Own Irish Regiment,” and of its bearing, as a badge of honor, on the regimental colour and appointments an Eagle with a Wreath of Laurel, above the Harp, in addition to the arms of His Royal Highness, in commemoration of the distinguished gallantry of the second battalion on various occasions, and particularly at the battle of Barrosa on the 5th of March 1811.

Both Houses of Parliament unanimously voted their thanks to Lieut.-General Graham, and the officers and men under his command, for this victory, and their valour and ability were highly applauded by the nation.

The importance of the victory was fully appreciated by Lieut.-General Viscount Wellington, K.B., who in a letter to Lieut.-General Graham, of the 25th of March, thus expressed himself:—

“I beg to congratulate you and the brave troops under your command, on the signal victory which you gained on the 5th instant. I have no doubt whatever, that their success would have had the effect of raising the siege of Cadiz, if the Spanish corps had made any effort to assist them; and I am equally certain, from your account of the ground, that if you had not decided with the utmost promptitude to attack the enemy, and if your attack had not been a most vigorous one, the whole allied army would have been lost.

“You have to regret that such a victory should not have been followed by all the consequences which might reasonably be expected from it; but you may console yourself with the reflection that you did your utmost, and, at all events, saved the allied army; and that the failure in the extent of benefit to be derived from your exertions is to be attributed to those who would have derived most advantage from them.

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“I concur in the propriety of your withdrawing to the Isla on the 6th, as much as I admire the promptitude and determination of your attack of the 5th; and I most sincerely congratulate you and the brave troops under your command, on your success.”

And in a letter of the same date to Marshal Sir William Carr Beresford, K.B., Viscount Wellington stated:—

“General Graham has returned to the Isla, after having fought the hardest action that has been fought yet. The Spaniards left him very much to his own exertions. The Spanish General is to be brought to a court-martial.”

In a letter of the 27th of March to the Earl of Liverpool, Secretary of State, Lieut.-General Viscount Wellington expressed similar sentiments to the foregoing, and added:—

“I am convinced that His Royal Highness the Prince Regent will duly appreciate the promptitude with which Lieut.-General Graham decided to attack the enemy in the important position of which they had obtained possession; the vigour with which he carried that decision into execution, and the gallantry displayed by all the officers and troops upon that glorious occasion.”

The Eighty-seventh having returned to Cadiz, after the battle of Barrosa, remained there until the 10th of October, when it embarked with a brigade under the command of Colonel Skerrett, of the Forty-seventh regiment, and landed at Tarifa on the 15th of that month. A strong division of the French army, amounting to ten thousand men, under the immediate orders of General Laval, invested the town of Tarifa on the 20th of December 1811. The garrison consisted of a thousand British, and about seven hundred Spanish troops, and was commanded by Colonel Skerrett. In the night of the 29th the enemy fired salvos of grape on the breach, and on the 30th the breaching[55] fire was renewed. A heavy rain filled the bed of the river during the night, and the torrent bringing down planks, fascines, gabions and dead bodies from the French camp, broke the palisades, and bent the portcullis backward. The surge of the waters also injured the defences behind the breach. After a heavy cannonading and bombardment, with considerable skirmishing, a breach in the walls was effected, and preparations were made for storming on the 31st of December.

The post of the Eighty-seventh was at the breach; and about eight o’clock in the morning of the 31st, the French troops, amounting to two thousand chosen men, composed of all the grenadiers and voltigeurs of the army, advanced thereto, where they were received by the Eighty-seventh with three cheers, the battalion at the same time pouring in a most tremendous and well directed fire, which, for a moment, checked the enemy, who, as if to escape the fire, ran with desperation towards the breach, which they found impracticable; they then hurried along the wall, to endeavour to force the portcullis, but without effect, on which they fled precipitately to their own lines.

During the attack, the drums and fifes of the regiment played the favourite Irish airs of Patrick’s Day and Garryowen, and nothing but the steadiness and discipline of the corps could have prevented them from pursuing the enemy.

The following eloquent description of this assault is given by Lieut.-General Sir William Napier, K.C.B., in his History of the Peninsular War.

“The waters subsided in the night as quickly as they had risen, but at daylight a living stream of French grenadiers glided swiftly down the bed of the river, and as if assured of victory, arrived, without shout or tumult, within a few yards of the walls, when, instead of quitting the hollow, to reach the breach, they, like the torrent of the night, continued[56] their rapid course, and dashed against the portcullis. The British soldiers who had hitherto been silent and observant, as if at a spectacle which they were expected to applaud, now arose, and with a crashing volley smote the head of the French column. The leading officer, covered with wounds, fell against the portcullis, and gave up his sword through the bars to Colonel Gough. The French drummer, a gallant boy, who was beating the charge, dropped lifeless by his officer’s side, and the dead and wounded filled the hollow. The remainder of the assailants then breaking out to the right and left, spread along the slopes of ground under the ramparts, and opened a quick irregular musketry. At the same time, a number of men coming out of the trenches, leaped into pits digged in front, and shot fast at the garrison, but no escalade or diversion at the other points was made, and the storming column was dreadfully shattered; for the ramparts streamed forth fire, and from the north-eastern tower a field-piece, held in reserve expressly for the occasion, sent, at pistol-shot distance, a tempest of grape whistling through the French masses, which were swept away in such a dreadful manner, that they could no longer endure the destruction, but plunging once more into the hollow returned to their camp, while a shout of victory, mingled with the sound of musical instruments, passed round the wall of the town.”

This gallant affair cost the regiment but little; Lieutenants M. Carroll and Waller being the only officers wounded, and a few of the men.

Volunteer William Ireland was promoted to an ensigncy for his own good conduct and that of the regiment at the siege of Tarifa; and Serjeant Irwin very much distinguished himself.

The following is the return of killed and wounded in the action at Tarifa on the 31st of December:—

Royal Engineers.—Lieutenant Joseph Longley, killed.

Forty-seventh Regiment, Second Battalion.—Lieutenant Richard Hall and one man killed; Lieutenant George Hill and two rank and file wounded.

Eighty-seventh Regiment, Second Battalion.—Five rank and file killed; Lieutenant Morgan Carroll, Ensign Waller, and twenty-one rank and file wounded.

Ninety-fifth Regiment, Second Battalion (Rifles.)—One man killed, and one wounded.

Total.—Two officers, and seven rank and file killed: three officers, and twenty-four rank and file wounded.

“Colonel Skerrett most sincerely congratulates the British garrison on the glorious result of the affair of to-day. Two thousand of the enemy’s best troops attacked the breach, and were totally defeated with immense loss. On our side all behaved nobly; but the conduct of Lieut.-Colonel Gough, and the Eighty-seventh regiment, surpasses praise.”

The situation of the enemy’s wounded, with which the ground was covered between his battery and the British fire, where they must have inevitably perished, induced Colonel Skerrett, from motives of compassion, to hoist a flag of truce to carry them off. Some were brought into the place over the breach; but from the extreme difficulty attending this, the French were allowed to carry the remainder away. General Laval expressed his acknowledgment of the conduct of the British and Spanish nations on this occasion in the most feeling and grateful terms. The enemy’s loss was very severe, and ten officers were amongst the prisoners.[14]

From the movements of the enemy on the 4th of January 1812, it was supposed that another assault was intended, and the garrison waited in eager expectation to display another proof of British valour. On the following morning, at daylight, the columns of the enemy were already at a distance, having taken advantage of a dark and stormy night to make a precipitate retreat, leaving in the possession of the British all his artillery, ammunition, and stores. Marshal Victor was present in the French camp to give orders for the retreat. Major Richard Broad, with a part of the Forty-seventh regiment, was immediately ordered to follow the enemy, and he took possession of the artillery, waggons, and a quantity of stores in sufficient time to save them from the flames, the French having set fire to them. Some prisoners were made on this occasion. In an intercepted despatch from Marshal Soult, three months after the siege, it was stated,—“The taking of Tarifa will be more hurtful to the English and to the defenders of Cadiz, than the taking of Alicant or even Badajoz, where I cannot go without first securing my left and taking Tarifa.”[15]

The royal authority was afterwards granted for the Eighty-seventh to bear the word “Tarifa” on the regimental colour and appointments, in commemoration of the distinguished gallantry of the second battalion in successfully defending the breach at that place against a very superior French force on the 31st of December 1811.

Four companies being left in Tarifa, the six companies returned to Cadiz, the siege of which place having been raised, the six companies marched in August 1812 with other corps from Cadiz, and occupied Seville, where they were shortly joined by the[59] four companies from Tarifa. The battalion quitted Seville on the 30th of September, in order to join the army under the Marquis of Wellington, to which it was transferred on the first of October 1812.

The battalion proceeded to join the fourth division of the Peninsular army at Aranjuez, near Madrid, on the 25th of October. On the morning of the 31st, at eight o’clock, the advanced guard of Marshal Soult, consisting of nine thousand men, attacked the passage of the bridge and fort of Puerto Largo, several times during the day, but was defeated with considerable loss.

The second battalion of the Eighty-seventh regiment on this occasion behaved with great gallantry, and, continuing its march to Madrid, reached it that night, but, on the following one, commenced its retreat to Salamanca, during which the rear-guard, being formed by the third brigade, of which the Eighty-seventh then composed a part, was, on the 16th of November, attacked several times by the enemy’s cavalry. In the end of December, the regiment arrived at Salamanca, having lost during the retreat to Portugal, two officers, namely, Ensigns De Courcy Ireland and William Ireland, eight Serjeants, two drummers, and one hundred and eighty-two rank and file, by disease caused by fatigue and extreme bad weather. It rained continually for three days and nights, during which the regiment had no tents to cover them. The men were obliged to sit down in line each night to receive the enemy.

Serjeants Coppin, M’Mahon, Milligan, O’Hara, and Palmer, were promoted to be ensigns after the retreat, on account of the good conduct of the regiment.

A striking instance of intrepidity and presence of mind occurred on one of those marches in the Peninsula, which so frequently terminated in a general action. During a short halt, the Eighty-seventh took up its ground upon a hill not far from the enemy, and the[60] men were sitting down to rest, when a howitzer, that had been masked, opened upon them; some shells fell short, but one alighted in the centre of one of the companies. The men naturally endeavoured to get out of its reach, when James Geraghty, a private grenadier, called out to the men, “that he would show them how they played foot-ball at Limerick;” and immediately kicked the live shell, with its burning fuse, over the edge of the hill: the moment it touched the ground it exploded without injuring a man of the regiment. For this gallant act the commanding officer made the man a handsome present.

The army took the field in 1813, and arrived in the neighbourhood of Vittoria on the 18th of June, and on the 21st of that month the regiment was engaged with the French army until dark, when the enemy was routed with immense loss; one hundred and fifty-one pieces of artillery, a stand of colours, with all his baggage, falling into the hands of the victors.

The Eighty-seventh formed part of the third division; the Marquis of Wellington ordered that an attack should be made on three separate points; on the right by Lieut.-General Sir Rowland Hill, with the second division, upon the French left at Puebla; while on the left, Lieut.-General Sir Thomas Graham, with the first and fifth divisions, was to make a wide detour to the left, and crossing the Zadorra at Vittoria to attack their right, and cut off their retreat by the great road to Bayonne. The centre, consisting of the fourth and light divisions (under the Marquis of Wellington himself) on the right, and the third and seventh (under Lieut.-General the Earl of Dalhousie) on the left, were to pass the bridges in front, and attack as soon as the movements on the flanks should be executed. The difficult nature of the country prevented the communication between the different columns moving to the attack from their stations on[61] the river Bayas, at as early an hour as was expected. The fourth and light divisions, however, passed the Zadorra immediately after Lieut.-General Sir Rowland Hill had obtained possession of Subijana de Alava; and almost as soon as these had crossed, the column under the Earl of Dalhousie arrived at Mendoza. The third division, under Lieut.-General Sir Thomas Picton, crossed at the bridge higher up, followed by the seventh division under the Earl of Dalhousie. The seventh division, and the centre brigade of the third division, then attacked the French right centre, in front of the villages of Margarita and Hermandad; and the Marquis of Wellington, seeing the hill in front of the village of Arinez weakly occupied by the enemy, ordered the right brigade of the third division, under Lieut.-General Sir Thomas Picton, in close columns of battalions, at a run diagonally across the front of both armies, to that central point. The hill was carried immediately, and the French withdrew, under cover of a cannonade from fifty pieces of artillery and a crowd of skirmishers, to the second range of heights on which their reserve had been posted; they, however, still held the village of Arinez, on the great road leading to Vittoria. The brigade then advanced to the attack of the village of Arinez, and the French were finally driven back in confusion at the point of the bayonet. These four divisions, forming the centre of the army, were destined to attack the height on which the right of the enemy’s centre was placed, while Lieut.-General Sir Rowland Hill should move forward from Subijana de Alava to attack the left. The enemy, however, having weakened his line to strengthen his detachment on the hills, abandoned his position in the valley as soon as he saw the British position to attack it, and ultimately commenced his retreat in good order towards Vittoria.

Notwithstanding the difficulty of the ground, the[62] allied troops continued to advance in admirable order. Other movements took place, the result of which terminated in a complete victory. King Joseph, whose carriage and court equipage were seized, had barely time to escape on horseback. The defeat was the most complete that the French had sustained in the Peninsula.

The Marquis of Wellington, in his despatch, stated that “Major-General the Honorable Charles Colville’s brigade of the third division was seriously attacked in its advance by a very superior force well formed, which it drove in, supported by General Inglis’s brigade of the seventh division, commanded by Colonel Grant, of the Eighty-second. These officers and the troops under their command distinguished themselves.”

In this conflict the Eighty-seventh, under Lieut.-Colonel Gough, had the honor of taking the bâton of Marshal Jourdan. The circumstance was thus alluded to upon the Marquis of Wellington being appointed a Field Marshal. In a most flattering letter, the Prince Regent, in the name and behalf of His Majesty, thus conferred the honor:—“ You have sent me among the trophies of your unrivalled fame the staff of a French Marshal, and I send you in return that of England.”

The Eighty-seventh had one ensign, four serjeants, and eighty-three rank and file killed; three captains, four lieutenants, two ensigns, seven serjeants, two drummers, and one hundred and forty-eight rank and file wounded, making a total of two hundred and fifty-four. The strength of the battalion in the field was six hundred and thirty-seven.

The royal authority was subsequently granted for the word “Vittoria” to be borne on the regimental colour and appointments of the Eighty-seventh, in commemoration of the gallantry of the second battalion in this battle.

Volunteer O’Grady, and Serjeant-Major Wallace, were promoted for their good conduct; and Lieutenant and Adjutant Moore had two horses shot under him in this battle.

The army pursued the French, who, after throwing in reinforcements into the fortress of Pampeluna, continued their retreat. Being reinforced, and Marshal Soult, who had been selected by Napoleon for the command of the French army in Spain, with the rank of “Lieutenant of the Emperor,” having arrived, they forced the British to retire on a position in the Spanish range of the Pyrenees; when the brigade, in which the Eighty-seventh was placed, held the right of the position from the 27th of July to the 1st of August, during which the enemy twice made demonstrations of attack. The French being defeated on the 1st of August, retreated and took up and fortified a position in their own territories; the British pursued through the famous pass of Roncesvalles, and on the 8th of August 1813, first came in view of France, and entered its territories on the 10th of November, having during the intermediate period being engaged in skirmishes, in which a few were killed and wounded.

On the 10th of November the British troops were engaged at the Nivelle, from five o’clock in the morning until dark, meeting with a most obstinate resistance in[64] an entrenched camp. The gallantry of the allies, however, drove the French to Saint Jean de Luz. The Eighty-seventh on this occasion called forth from Major-General the Honorable Charles Colville, who commanded the division, and Colonel John Keane (afterwards Lieut.-General Lord Keane), who commanded the brigade, the most animated praises. One ensign, six serjeants, one drummer, and sixty-eight rank and file, were killed; one lieut.-colonel, four lieutenants, eleven serjeants, one drummer, and one hundred and twenty-three rank and file, wounded. Total, two hundred and sixteen. The strength of the battalion in the field was three hundred and eighty-six.

The word “Nivelle,” borne on the regimental colour and appointments, by royal authority, is commemorative of the gallantry of the second battalion of the Eighty-seventh on this occasion.

During the remaining part of the year, the regiment was frequently engaged with the enemy in skirmishes.

Private Robert Smith, of the Grenadiers, was, at the request of Sir Charles Colville, promoted to be serjeant for his gallantry.

Volunteers Bourne and Bagenall, who were attached to the light company, were both severely wounded, and promoted to be ensigns for their gallant conduct. Serjeant Prideaux, of the light company, also distinguished himself.

In 1814 the army, strengthened by recruits and recovered men, continued its march into France, and on the 24th of February arrived at Salvatira.

The light company was engaged with those of the brigade, when a much superior force of the enemy attacked them; the light companies were in consequence recalled, and the brigade brought down to cover their retreat. On this occasion two rank and file were killed; Lieutenants Joseph Barry and William Wolsley Lanphier, with nine rank and file, wounded; and Lieutenant George Jackson taken prisoner.

On the 25th of February the regiment crossed the ford, attacked the French at Orthes on the 27th, and drove them from their entrenchments with immense loss. In this action the second battalion of the Eighty-seventh regiment drew from the general officers in command the greatest praises for its bravery. It had one lieutenant, five serjeants, and eighty-seven rank and file killed; one major, four lieutenants, eight serjeants, and one hundred and fifty-eight rank and file wounded: total, two hundred and sixty-four. The strength in the field was five hundred and fifty-one.

In commemoration of this battle, the Eighty-seventh received the royal authority to bear the word “Orthes” on the regimental colour and appointments.

In an affair which took place on the 19th of March at Vic Bigorre, three rank and file were killed, and two[66] lieutenants and twelve rank and file wounded: total, seventeen. The strength of the battalion was five hundred and seventy.

Having continued the pursuit of the enemy and crossed the river Garonne, four leagues below Toulouse, on the 5th of April, and attacked the French on the 10th of the same month at Toulouse on the left of the town, the redoubts were taken and retaken several times during the day. The enemy retreated at night, having suffered great loss; that of the Eighty-seventh was one brevet-major, four serjeants, one drummer, and twenty-two rank and file killed; one lieutenant, one ensign, six serjeants, and sixty-four rank and file wounded: total, one hundred. Its strength in the field was four hundred and sixty-four.

Patrick Connors never went into action without attracting the notice of his officers. On this occasion he particularly distinguished himself, and was promoted to the rank of serjeant, which situation he retained until his death.

Serjeant Carr, who was wounded at Tarifa, and served with credit in every action with the battalion, distinguished himself; likewise Serjeants Rideaux and Irwin. Lieutenant and Adjutant Moore had a horse shot under him. Private Thomas Byrne was also badly wounded, but recovered, and was promoted.

The royal authority was afterwards granted for the Eighty-seventh to bear the word “Toulouse” on the regimental colour and appointments, in commemoration of the second battalion having shared in this battle.

During the night of the 11th of April the French troops evacuated Toulouse, and a white flag was hoisted. On the following day the Marquis of Wellington entered the city amidst the acclamations of the inhabitants. In the course of the afternoon of the 12th of April intelligence was received of the abdication of Napoleon; and had not the express been delayed on the journey by the French police, the sacrifice of many valuable lives would have been prevented.

A disbelief in the truth of this intelligence occasioned much unnecessary bloodshed at Bayonne, the garrison of which made a desperate sortie on the 14th of April, and Lieut.-General Sir John Hope (afterwards Earl of Hopetoun) was taken prisoner, Major-General Andrew Hay was killed, and Major-General Stopford was wounded. This was the last action of the Peninsular war.

A Treaty of Peace was established between Great Britain and France; Louis XVIII. was restored to the throne of his ancestors, and Napoleon Bonaparte was permitted to reside at Elba, the sovereignty of that island having been conceded to him by the allied powers.

Prior to the breaking up of the Peninsular army, the Duke of Wellington issued the following general order:

“Bordeaux, 14th June 1814.

“General Order.

“The Commander of the Forces, being upon the point of returning to England, again takes this opportunity of congratulating the army upon the recent events which have restored peace to their country and to the world.

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“The share which the British army have had in producing those events, and the high character with which the army will quit this country, must be equally satisfactory to every individual belonging to it, as they are to the Commander of the Forces, and he trusts that the troops will continue the same good conduct to the last.

“The Commander of the Forces once more requests the army to accept his thanks.

“Although circumstances may alter the relations in which he has stood towards them for some years so much to his satisfaction, he assures them he will never cease to feel the warmest interest in their welfare and honor, and that he will be at all times happy to be of any service to those to whose conduct, discipline, and gallantry their country is so much indebted.”

In addition to the other distinctions acquired during the war in the Peninsula and the south of France, the Eighty-seventh received the royal authority to bear the word “Peninsula” on the regimental colour and appointments.

The war being ended, the battalion marched from Toulouse to Blanchfort, and embarked at Pouillac on the 7th of July, and arrived at Cork on the 20th of that month.

After being inspected, on landing at Cork, by the General commanding the district, the battalion was marched to Mallow to relieve the Twentieth regiment. It subsequently marched to the city of Limerick, and was stationed there for a few days, when orders were received for it to proceed to Middleton, in the county of Cork, to await the arrival of transports.

The battalion embarked at the Cove of Cork on the 23rd of August, and landed at Portsmouth, after a protracted voyage, on the 14th of September. On the day of disembarkation it proceeded en route to Horsham, where the depôt of the regiment was stationed. After[69] a stay of some days at Horsham, it marched to Plymouth for garrison duty, where it remained until December, having taken its tour of a month’s duty over the American prisoners of war at Dartmoor.

On the 6th of December 1814 the battalion embarked for Guernsey, of which island General Sir John Doyle, Bart., the Colonel of the regiment, was Governor, and where it arrived on the 8th of that month.

The battalion continued on duty at Guernsey until the 2nd of April 1816, when it embarked for Portsmouth, from whence it marched to Colchester in September following.

On the 25th of January 1817, in pursuance of measures being taken for the reduction of the army, orders were received for the disbandment of the second battalion of the Eighty-seventh regiment, on which occasion Lieut.-Colonel Sir Hugh Gough issued the following orders:—

“Colchester Barracks, 24th January, 1817.

“Regimental Orders.

“It is with the most painful feeling of regret Lieut.-Colonel Sir Hugh Gough is necessitated to announce to the second battalion, Prince’s Own Irish, that their services as a corps are no longer required, in consequence of the military arrangements it has been found necessary to adopt.

“In making this distressing though necessary communication, and in taking leave of those brave officers and men, at whose head it has been Sir Hugh Gough’s good fortune so long to have been placed, he feels himself on this occasion called upon to recapitulate the leading ones of so many brilliant achievements performed by his gallant comrades now about to separate. The recollection of such scenes must be a source of gratification to all, whether called on to serve their country in India, or to retire to their[70] families and native land. To their Commanding Officer it ever has and ever will be, a source of heartfelt exultation. By their country and by their illustrious master, their services have been duly appreciated, and nobly rewarded by that designation, and by those badges so peculiar, so honorable, and so gratifying.

“The Eighty-seventh had the good fortune to serve under the first General of the age, throughout the greater part of the Peninsular war, and longer than most corps in the service. At the battle of Talavera on the 27th of July, 1809 (when the battalion first encountered the enemy), they had to sustain unsupported the repeated attacks of the advance corps, and did not retire until both flanks were turned, the battalion nearly surrounded by an infinitely superior force, and two-thirds of the officers and men either killed or wounded. The movement of the regiment to the rear, and its formation on the other corps of the division, was a counterpart of their conduct, in having instantly recovered, on the first attack of the enemy, a temporary confusion which was occasioned by the fire of a British regiment into the rear of the battalion, the thickness of the wood having made it impossible for that distinguished corps to have perceived the new position which the Eighty-seventh had taken up.

“On this memorable occasion the charge of the two centre companies did them and their officers the greatest honor. The gallantry of the whole was conspicuous, and obtained the personal thanks of the brave officer who commanded the division[16], and who unfortunately fell on the following day, and also the repeated thanks of the officer commanding the brigade.

“At the brilliant action of Barrosa the conduct of[71] the Eighty-seventh in taking up the first position under a most destructive fire from the enemy’s artillery, and a column three times its numbers, when it formed with the precision of parade movements, gave a happy omen of the issue of the day. The advance of the battalion in line, its volley into the two battalions of the eighth, and its charge on that corps, called for and received the proudest meed of gallantry, the enthusiastic approbation of such an officer as Sir Thomas Graham.

“This charge was rewarded by the wreathed eagle of the eighth French regiment, and a howitzer: it led in a great measure to the total discomfiture of the right column under General Laval, and nearly annihilated two battalions of one of the finest regiments in the French army: of one thousand six hundred men, which they brought into the field, only three hundred and fifty returned to Chiclana. The ready formation of the right wing from amidst the ranks of the retreating enemy, and their charge on the fifty-fourth French regiment, which at this moment attacked the right of the Eighty-seventh, was rewarded by the marked approbation of their esteemed chief. The ultimate advance of the battalion on the enemy’s guns was equally praiseworthy.

“At Tarifa, a species of service new to the British army called for a renewal of that steady gallantry which marked the conduct of the Eighty-seventh at Barrosa. The immense superiority, in number, of the enemy, added enthusiasm to discipline: the cool intrepidity, the strict observance of orders, the exulting cheer when the enemy’s columns pressed forward to the attack, proved the feelings which influenced the defenders of the breach of Tarifa, and was as honorable to them as soldiers, as their humane conduct to the wounded (when the enemy fled) was to their characters as men.

[72]

“The persevering attention to their duty on the walls, in conjunction with their brave comrades, the second battalion of the Forty-seventh, exposed to the continued fire of an enemy ten times the number of the garrison, and to the most dreadfully inclement weather, led to the ultimate abandonment of the siege, and was rewarded by the approbation of their General, their Prince, and their Country.

“The battle of Vittoria renewed the claim the Eighty-seventh had to a place in the third division, and under its lamented leader[17] the battalion acquired fresh laurels. The charge of the Prince’s Own on the hill crowned with the enemy’s artillery, and covered with a strong column, called forth the marked approbation of Major-General the Honorable Charles Colville, as did the pursuit of that column, though flanked by a corps greatly superior in numbers. The cool steadiness with which they preserved their second position, under the fire and within a short range of a large portion of the enemy’s field artillery, although the battalion at this time had lost upwards of half the number it took into the field, showed the steady perseverance in bravery and discipline which ever marked the glorious career of the corps.

“The attack on the fortified hill at the action of the Nivelle, and the gallantry which rendered the conduct of the battalion so conspicuous in the subsequent attacks on that day, called for those animated expressions from Major-General the Honorable Charles Colville and Colonel John Keane, who commanded the division and brigade, ‘Gallant Eighty-seventh!’ ‘Noble Eighty-seventh!’ and deservedly were those titles bestowed.

“The actions of Orthes and Toulouse were also most glorious to the character of the corps, and its conduct[73] was rewarded by the repeated thanks of the Generals commanding.

“Since the return of the Eighty-seventh from service, they have shown, that to gallantry in the field, they add the most essential requisite in a soldier, orderly and correct conduct in garrison, which has acquired for them the approbation of every general officer under whom they have served, and the good wishes and esteem of the inhabitants with whom they have been placed.

“While the foregoing detail will be most gratifying to the gallant men who have survived, the recital must also be consoling to the families of those who fell. The Prince’s Own Irish bled prodigally and nobly; they have sealed their duty to their King and country by the sacrifice of nearly two thousand of their comrades. But, while Lieut.-Colonel Sir Hugh Gough feels an honest pride in recounting these achievements, he wishes to caution his brother soldiers from assuming any exclusive right to pre-eminence over their gallant comrades; the Army of the Peninsula nobly did their duty, and repeatedly received the thanks of their Prince and their country.

“In parting with the remains of that corps in which Sir Hugh Gough has served twenty-two years, at the head of which, and by whose valour and discipline, he has obtained those marks of distinction with which he has been honored by his Royal Master, he cannot too emphatically express the most heartfelt acknowledgments and his deep regret.

“From all classes of his officers he has uniformly experienced the most cordial and ready support. Their conduct in the field, while it called for the entire approbation of their Commanding Officer, acquired for them the best stay to military enterprise and military renown, the confidence of their men, and led to the accomplishment of their wishes, the Approbation of[74] their Prince, the Honor of their country, and the Character of their Corps. Every non-commissioned officer and man is equally entitled to the thanks of his Commanding Officer. To all he feels greatly indebted, and he begs to assure all, that their prosperity as individuals, or as a corps, will ever be the first wish of his heart, and to promote which he will consider no sacrifice or exertion too great.”

The second battalion was disbanded at Colchester on the 1st of February 1817, having transferred to the first battalion three hundred and thirty effective men, most of whom were embarked in the same month, to join the first battalion in the Bengal Presidency.

FOOTNOTES:

[10] A memoir of Lieut.-General Sir Charles William Doyle, C.B., is inserted in the Appendix, page 92.

[11] Lieut.-General Sir William Napier’s History of the Peninsular War.

[12] The following corps were employed in the battle of Barrosa on the 5th of March 1811, viz.—

2nd Hussars, King’s German Legion.	47th Foot, 2nd batt. (flank comp.)
Royal Artillery.	67th Foot, 2nd batt.
Royal Engineers.	82nd Foot, 2nd batt. (flank comp.)
1st Foot Guards, 2nd batt.	87th Foot, 2nd batt.
Coldstream Guards, 2nd batt.	Rifle Brigade	{ 2nd batt.
3rd Foot Guards, 2nd batt.		{ 3rd batt.
9th Foot, 1st batt. (flank companies.)	20th Portuguese Regiment.
28th Foot, 1st batt.	Royal Staff Corps, 1 comp.

[13] In the midst of the engagement, Serjeant Patrick Masterson seized and kept possession of the Eagle of the eighth French regiment of light infantry (which was the first taken in action since the commencement of the Peninsular war), and for which His Royal Highness the Prince Regent promoted the serjeant to an ensigncy in the Royal York Light Infantry Volunteers; he was subsequently removed to the Eighty-seventh regiment.

Volunteer de Courcy Ireland, and Serjeant-Major McKeldon, were also promoted to be ensigns for their conduct in this action.

[14] In a letter, dated the 21st of January 1812, from General Viscount Wellington, K.B., to the Earl of Liverpool, Secretary of State, appeared the following tribute from that illustrious commander to the conduct of the troops at Tarifa:—“I cannot refrain from expressing my admiration of the conduct of Colonel Skerrett, and the brave troops under his command, nor from recommending them to the protection of your Lordship.”

[15] History of the War in the Peninsular and in the South of France, by Lieut.-General Sir William Napier, K.C.B.

[16] Major-General John Randoll McKenzie, who fell at Talavera on the 28th of July 1809.

[17] Lieut.-General Sir Thomas Picton, G.C.B., who was killed at Waterloo on the 18th of June 1815.

SUCCESSION OF COLONELS

This officer was descended from an ancient Irish family, and was born at Dublin in the year 1756. He was at first intended for the law, which, on the death of his father, he relinquished for the military profession, and was appointed Ensign in the Forty-eighth regiment on the 21st of March 1771, in which he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant on the 17th of September 1773, and was wounded while on duty in Ireland. Lieutenant Doyle exchanged to the Fortieth regiment on the 1st of March 1775, and embarked with that corps for North America in the same year. During the War of Independence in that country he served with his regiment in the descent on Long Island in August 1776, and was present at the actions of Brooklyn, White Plains (28th of October), Fort Washington, Haerlem Creek, Springfield, and Iron Hills. In the action at Brooklyn, on the 27th of August, Lieutenant Doyle was brought into notice by conduct which combined the best feelings with the most animated courage. He was Adjutant of the Fortieth, commanded by Lieut.-Colonel Grant, who was regarded as a father by the younger portion of the corps. The Lieut.-Colonel was desperately wounded early in the action, which becoming very hot where he lay, Lieutenant Doyle, fearing he might be trampled to death, rushed with a few followers into the[76] midst of the enemy, and dragged away the body of his friend; but it was too late, for he had expired. This act made a strong impression on all who witnessed it, and produced a handsome compliment from the Commander-in-Chief, General the Honorable Sir William Howe.

Lieutenant Doyle was present at the action of Brandywine, fought on the 11th of September 1777, which was followed by the capture of Philadelphia. He shared in the surprise of General Wayne’s corps during the night of the 20th of September, and was again wounded at the battle of Germantown on the 4th of October. In the latter the Fortieth regiment highly distinguished itself by the defence of Chew’s Stone House, which was occupied under the following circumstances:—About three weeks after the affair of Brandywine, when the American troops were supposed to be totally dispersed, General Washington made a movement with the intention of surprising the British at Germantown. The advanced post of the British army was occupied by a battalion of light infantry and the Fortieth regiment, then commanded by Lieut.-Colonel Musgrove. These troops were attacked about daybreak on the 4th of October by the main body of the American army, commanded by General Washington in person. After a very spirited defence they were obliged to give way to numbers, and to retire towards Germantown. In this retreat Colonel Musgrove took possession of a large stone house, with such of the regiment as were nearest to it. This small body, not exceeding five officers and about one hundred and fifty men, stopped the progress of the enemy’s whole column, consisting of five thousand men, for a considerable time, notwithstanding cannon being brought to bear upon the house. This gallant defence was highly instrumental in saving the British army. In this affair Lieutenant Doyle and two officers were wounded. For this service the detachment was honored with His Majesty’s particular thanks.

In the spring of 1778, General the Honorable Sir William Howe, K.B., returned to England, and the command of the army in North America devolved on General Sir Henry Clinton, K.B. The next action in which Lieutenant Doyle shared was that at Monmouth Court-House on the 28th of June 1778, and on the 24th of October following he was[77] promoted to a company in the corps raised by Lord Rawdon (afterwards Marquis of Hastings), which was at first named the “Volunteers of Ireland,” but which was subsequently numbered the One hundred and fifth regiment. Shortly after General Sir Henry Clinton assumed the chief command, it was deemed a measure of policy to withdraw from the ranks of the enemy the natives of Scotland and Ireland. Two regiments were raised by distinguished noblemen of these countries; one was designated the “Caledonian Volunteers,” and the other the “Volunteers of Ireland.” The former was given to Lord Cathcart, and the latter to Lord Rawdon, then Adjutant-General in America. The officers were chosen from the line, and Lieutenant Doyle obtained a company as above stated.

In the celebrated retreat through the Jerseys, Captain Doyle acted as Major of Brigade. During the winter of 1779 his regiment was ordered to South Carolina, under the command of Lord Rawdon, where he assisted at the siege of Charleston. After the fall of this place in May 1780, Captain Doyle accompanied Lieut.-General the Earl Cornwallis up the country, by whom he was appointed Major of Brigade, and was honorably mentioned in his Lordship’s despatch relative to the action at Camden, which was fought on the 16th of August 1780.

Upon Lord Cornwallis quitting the province of South Carolina, Captain Doyle served in the same capacity to Colonel Lord Rawdon, who succeeded to the command of this portion of the troops, and soon had another opportunity of distinguishing himself. General Green, having contrived after the battle of Guildford, on the 15th of March 1781, to turn Lord Cornwallis’s left, by a rapid movement penetrated the upper parts of South Carolina, and presented himself before the village of Camden, where Lord Rawdon commanded a small detachment, not exceeding nine hundred men, while the enemy’s force consisted of three thousand regulars, a fine corps of cavalry, and a numerous body of militia, strongly posted on the heights above the village in which the British were quartered. His Lordship seeing the difficulty of a retreat, boldly determined to advance against the enemy. Accordingly on the 25th of April 1781, he chose the hour of mid-day to make his attempt, when[78] least expected, his march being concealed by a circuitous route through thick woods. This sudden and rapid manœuvre enabled his Lordship to reach Hobkirk Hill before General Green became aware of the movement, and the British gained a complete victory. The exertions of Brigade-Major Doyle on this well-fought field were alluded to in highly honorable terms in his Lordship’s despatch. Having raised the siege of Ninety-six, Lord Rawdon returned to England on account of ill health, when the Brigade-Major prepared to join the Earl Cornwallis in Virginia; but in consequence of the effects of the action at Ewtaw Springs on the 8th of September 1781, he was requested, from his knowledge of the country, to remain in the province to fill a more prominent situation. He subsequently acted as Adjutant-General and Public Secretary to Colonel Paston Gould; and on that officer’s decease in the following year, he was honored with the same confidence by his successors, Major-General James Stuart and Lieut.-General the Honorable Alexander Leslie.

Captain Doyle was promoted on the 21st of March 1782 to the rank of Major in the “Volunteers of Ireland,” which corps at this period was numbered the One hundred and fifth regiment. Major Doyle formed a corps of light cavalry from amongst the backwoodsmen, with which he rendered essential service to the army, and was again severely wounded. In the expedition against General Marion he charged the State regiment of Carolina dragoons with his advanced corps of seventy horse, the killed, wounded, and prisoners of the enemy exceeding his whole force. The American War shortly afterwards terminated, and the One hundred and fifth regiment was ordered to Ireland, when Major Doyle was entrusted with public despatches to the ministers.

Peace having now taken place, Major Doyle entered upon a new scene of action, and was returned member for Mullingar in the Irish parliament of 1782, when his exertions were devoted to the improvement of the establishment in Ireland, similar to Chelsea Hospital, for the relief of disabled and worn-out soldiers. The One hundred and fifth regiment was disbanded in 1784, and Major Doyle remained[79] on half-pay from the 25th of June of that year until the war of the French Revolution in 1793, when he offered to raise a regiment of his countrymen for the service of Government; and his Royal Patron honored the corps with the appellation of “The Prince of Wales’s Irish Regiment,” and it was numbered the Eighty-seventh, of which Major Doyle was appointed Lieut.-Colonel Commandant on the 18th of September 1793, and with which he proceeded in the following year to the Continent, with the force commanded by Major-General the Earl of Moira, under whom (as Lord Rawdon) he had served in America.

Lieut.-Colonel Doyle served during the campaign of 1794 under His Royal Highness the Duke of York, and repulsed an attack of the enemy at Alost, on the 15th of July of that year, after having been twice severely wounded, being the first individual of the regiment who was wounded. His conduct was honorably noticed in His Royal Highness’s despatch. Lieut.-Colonel Doyle next proceeded to Antwerp, and ultimately to England for the recovery of his wounds, when he was afterwards appointed Secretary-at-War in Ireland.

In consequence of the reduction of the Prince of Wales’s household, Lieut.-Colonel Doyle lost the appointment of Secretary to His Royal Highness; but, notwithstanding this decrease of income, he closed his political career by a mark of generosity worthy of being recorded. His regiment being still prisoners in France, under the circumstances narrated at page 6., he collected their wives and families, and distributed five hundred pounds amongst them.

On the 3rd of May 1796, Lieut.-Colonel Doyle was promoted to be Colonel of the Eighty-seventh regiment, and proceeded in the command of a secret expedition to Holland, with the rank of Brigadier-General; but contrary winds, violent gales, and unavoidable delays, rendered the expedition fruitless, its object being to surprise and destroy the Dutch fleet in the Helder.

In 1797 Colonel Doyle was appointed a Brigadier-General upon the staff, and was ordered to Gibraltar, where he remained until the expedition was determined on for Malta and Egypt, when, having volunteered his services, he was[80] placed on the staff under General Sir Ralph Abercromby, whom he accompanied to Minorca, Malta, and Cadiz, and was selected as one of his brigadier-generals upon the expedition to Egypt, when he shared in the actions, near Alexandria, of the 8th, 13th, and 21st of March 1801, after which he was selected by Lieut.-General Hutchinson, who succeeded to the command on the death of General Sir Ralph Abercromby, to accompany him in the expedition against Grand Cairo. He was also at the affair of Rhamanie on the 9th of May, subsequently to which the army halted at the village of Algam. On the morning of the 17th of May, when the army was encamped upon the borders of the Lybian Desert, an Arab was conducted to Brigadier-General Doyle’s tent, who brought intelligence that a body of French troops, which he computed at two thousand men, was within a few miles of the camp, with a large convoy of camels. Brigadier-General Doyle immediately requested permission to pursue the enemy with such of the cavalry as might be in the camp; and Lieut.-General Hutchinson acceding to his request, he repaired thither, where he ascertained that the Turkish cavalry had been detached a day or two before, and that a squadron of the Twelfth light dragoons had, prior to his arrival, been sent to water at some distance. As success depended on promptness and expedition, the Brigadier immediately struck into the desert in search of the enemy, without waiting for the absent squadron, which he left to an officer to bring on. After a long pursuit, the cavalry came up with the French troops, when they formed a hollow square, and commenced an irregular fire of musketry. The French commander, after some parley, was obliged to surrender on the terms offered; twenty-eight officers, five hundred and sixty-nine rank and file, two hundred horses, four hundred and sixty camels, one four-pounder, besides a stand of colours, were taken on this occasion by the detachment under Brigadier-General Doyle, which consisted of two hundred and fifty dragoons.

After the capitulation of Grand Cairo in June 1801, Lieut.-General Hutchinson (afterwards the Earl of Donoughmore) in his public despatches, expressed his obligations to Major-General Cradock and Brigadier-General Doyle,[81] and recommended them as “officers highly deserving His Majesty’s favour.” Upon the surrender of Cairo, the country fever seized many of the troops, and Brigadier-General Doyle, with several others, was sent ill to Rosetta, where, before his recovery, he heard a rumour of an intended attack upon the French at Alexandria. Urged by this intelligence, he left his sick bed, mounted his horse, and rode forty miles through the desert, under the intense heat of an Egyptian sun, and arrived the night before the attack. In that successful enterprise he commanded, and had the good fortune to defeat the attempts subsequently made by General Menou upon a part of his position. Lieut.-General Hutchinson, on the following day, thanked him publicly in the field in the most animated manner; but in writing his official despatch, not only omitted to forward the Brigadier-General’s report of the action of the Green Hills, near Alexandria, on the 17th of August 1801, but unfortunately stated his brigade to have been commanded by another. This omission was afterwards fully rectified by the Lieut.-General, and the matter was adverted to by Lord Hobart in the House of Commons, who particularly alluded to the conduct of Brigadier-General Doyle, when moving the thanks of Parliament to the army and navy employed in Egypt.

While at Naples, after the close of the Egyptian campaign, whither Brigadier-General Doyle had proceeded for the recovery of his health, he was requested by the British ambassador to become the bearer of important despatches to the Government. This proved a service of great danger, as the country through which he passed was infested with banditti, who robbed and assassinated all who fell into their hands. His conduct on this occasion was gratefully acknowledged by His Majesty’s ministers. Upon his arrival in England, he was promoted to the rank of Major-General on the 29th of April 1802, and was placed on the staff at Guernsey, and was soon afterwards appointed Lieut.-Governor of that island, where his services during the threatened invasion of England by Napoleon were highly appreciated. Shortly afterwards the island of Alderney was added to his command. In October 1805, he was created a[82] Baronet of the United Kingdom, and received His Majesty’s royal license to wear the Order of the Crescent conferred by the Grand Seignior, and to bear supporters to his arms, with an additional crest. On the 25th of April 1808, he was promoted to the rank of Lieut.-General.

Lieut.-General Sir John Doyle was selected to organise and command the Portuguese army, but the despatch ordering him to report himself for that purpose to the Secretary of State, was prevented from reaching him by a gale of wind that lasted for twenty-eight days, and another officer was consequently sent upon that service, which did not admit of delay. In 1812 he was nominated a Knight of the Bath, and in 1815 became a Knight Grand Cross of that Order.

Whilst the Sovereign and the Government were thus marking their approbation of the services of Lieut.-General Sir John Doyle, the inhabitants of Guernsey, whose government he had so long administered, were not slow in manifesting their gratitude for the benefits they derived from his fostering care. The States of the Island voted him an address of thanks under their great seal, and presented him with a splendid piece of plate, in the form of a vase, with suitable inscriptions; their example was followed by the militia and other public bodies with similar valuable and elegant testimonials; and when he was recalled in consequence of the reduction of the staff on the peace of 1815, they unanimously petitioned the Prince Regent that they might retain their Lieutenant-Governor, and voted the erection of a pillar, at the public expense, as a memorial of their gratitude for the services rendered by him to the island and its inhabitants.

Lieut.-General Sir John Doyle, Bart., was appointed Governor of Charlemont on the 21st of September 1818, and on the 12th of August of the following year he was advanced to the rank of General. His decease occurred in London, on the 8th of August 1834, after a lengthened service of sixty-three years.

This distinguished officer commenced his military career as an Ensign in the Thirty-eighth regiment, his commission being dated the 30th of September 1793. He joined the regiment in January 1794, at Belfast, and in April proceeded with it to Flanders, where it formed part of the army commanded by His Royal Highness the Duke of York. On arrival at the seat of war, the Thirty-eighth regiment was ordered to join the corps under the Austrian General Count Clèrfait, who commanded the troops in West Flanders, and it was attached to the division under Major-General Hammerstein, together with the Eighth light dragoons and Twelfth foot. Ensign Reynell was present in the action on the heights of Lincelles on the 18th of May, and at the battle of Hoglade on the 13th of June 1794. He afterwards served with the army under the Duke of York, and was in Nimeguen when that town was besieged. On the 3rd of December following, when cantoned between the rivers Rhine and the Waal, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in the Thirty-eighth regiment. Lieutenant Reynell served during the winter campaign of 1795, and the retreat through Westphalia to the Weser, and there embarked for England. He accompanied the Thirty-eighth regiment to the West Indies in May 1796, and was present at the capture of the island of Trinidad in the early part of 1797. On the 22nd of July 1797 he was promoted to a company in the Second West India regiment, and joined that corps at Grenada.

Captain Reynell quitted Grenada early in 1798, in consequence of being appointed Assistant Adjutant-General at St. Domingo, where he remained until that island was evacuated by the British in September, when he returned to England. In the beginning of 1799 he revisited St. Domingo, as one of the suite of Brigadier-General the Honorable Thomas Maitland, then employed in framing a commercial treaty with the negro chief Toussaint L’Ouverture, who had risen to the supreme authority at St. Domingo. When it was concluded, Captain Reynell returned to England in July of the same year.

On the 8th of August 1799 Captain Reynell was transferred to a company in the Fortieth regiment, with the first battalion of which he embarked for the Helder in that month, and joined the army, which was at first commanded by Lieut.-General Sir Ralph Abercromby, and afterwards by the Duke of York. Captain Reynell was present in the action of the 10th of September; also in the battle of the 19th of September, when he was the only captain of the first battalion of the Fortieth regiment that was not killed or wounded; he was also present in the subsequent battles of the 2nd and 6th of October. Captain Reynell, upon the British army being withdrawn from Holland, re-embarked with the first battalion of the Fortieth regiment, and arrived in England in November 1799.

In April 1800 Captain Reynell embarked with his regiment for the Mediterranean, and went in the first instance to Minorca, afterwards to Leghorn; returned to Minorca, and proceeded with a large force under Lieut.-General Sir Ralph Abercromby, for the attack of Cadiz. Signals for disembarking were made; but although the boats had actually put off from the ships, a recall was ordered, in consequence of the plague raging at Cadiz. After this, he proceeded up the Mediterranean again, and in November landed at Malta. The flank companies of the Fortieth regiment having been allowed to volunteer their services in the expedition to Egypt, Captain Reynell proceeded thither in command of the light company (one of the four flank companies detached under Colonel Brent Spencer), and was present in the action at the landing on the 8th of March 1801. On this occasion the flank companies of the Fortieth were on the right of the line, and were particularly noticed for the gallant style in which they mounted the sand-hills immediately where they landed. Captain Reynell was present in the battle of the 13th of March, and commanded the right out-piquet of the army in the morning of the 21st of that month, when the French attacked the British near Alexandria, on which occasion General Sir Ralph Abercromby was mortally wounded. Soon after Captain Reynell proceeded with a small British corps and some Turkish battalions to Rosetta, of which easy possession was taken. He was[85] present in the action at Rhamanie, on the 9th of May, and followed the French to Grand Cairo, where that part of their army capitulated, and returned as escort in charge of the French troops to Rosetta; and after they had embarked he joined the force under Major-General Sir Eyre Coote before Alexandria. The surrender of Alexandria on the 2nd of September 1801 terminated the campaign, for his services in which he received the gold medal conferred by the Grand Seignior on the several officers employed.

Captain Reynell was afterwards appointed Aide-de-camp to Major-General Cradock, who was ordered to proceed from Egypt with a force of four thousand men to Corfu; but while at sea counter-orders were received, and he proceeded to Malta, and subsequently to England. In July 1804 he embarked as Aide-de-camp to Lieut.-General Sir John Cradock, K.B., who had been appointed to the command of the troops at Madras; and while on the passage, namely, the 3rd of August 1804, he was promoted to the rank of Major in the Fortieth regiment.

On the 10th of March 1805 Major Reynell received the brevet rank of Lieutenant-Colonel upon being appointed Deputy Quartermaster-General to the King’s troops in the East Indies. In July following he was appointed Aide-de-camp to the Marquis Cornwallis, Governor-General of India, and accompanied his Lordship from Madras to Bengal, with whom he remained until his Lordship’s decease at Ghazepore in October 1805. Lieut.-Colonel Reynell returned to Madras immediately afterwards, and was appointed Military Secretary to Lieut.-General Sir John Cradock, the Commander-in-Chief at that presidency. He officiated during several months of the year 1806 as Deputy Adjutant-General in India, in which country he remained until October 1807, when he returned with Lieut.-General Sir John Cradock to Europe, and arrived in England in April 1808.

Lieut.-Colonel Reynell resigned the appointment of Deputy Quartermaster-General in India, and was brought on full pay as Major of the Ninety-sixth regiment on the 5th of May 1808, and on the 22nd of September following was appointed Major in the Seventy-first regiment.

In October 1808, Brevet Lieut.-Colonel Reynell embarked[86] as Military Secretary to Lieut.-General Sir John Cradock, who had been appointed to command the forces in Portugal, and landed in November at Lisbon. He remained in Portugal until April 1809, when Sir John Cradock was superseded in the command of the forces in Portugal by Lieut.-General Sir Arthur Wellesley. Lieut.-Colonel Reynell afterwards accompanied Lieut.-General Sir John Cradock to Cadiz, Seville, and Gibraltar, of which latter place Sir John Cradock was appointed Governor, and Lieut.-Colonel Reynell remained there as Military Secretary until September, when he returned to England.

Lieut.-Colonel Reynell joined the Seventy-first regiment at Brabourne-Lees Barracks in December 1809, immediately after its return from Walcheren. In September 1810 he embarked at Deal with six companies of the Seventy-first regiment for Portugal, landed at Lisbon towards the end of that month, marched soon after to Mafra, and thence to Sobral, where the six companies joined the army under Lieut.-General Viscount Wellington. In October Lieut.-Colonel Reynell had the honor of being particularly mentioned by Viscount Wellington in his despatch, containing an account of the repulse of the attack of the French at Sobral on the 14th of that month. The British army shortly afterwards retired to the lines of Torres Vedras, and Brevet Lieut.-Colonel Reynell was appointed Assistant Adjutant-General to the fourth division under Major-General the Honorable George Lowry Cole.

Early in March 1811, the army of Marshal Massena broke up from its entrenched position at Santarem, and retreated to the northward. Brevet Lieut.-Colonel Reynell entered Santarem with the fourth division the day after Marshal Massena had left it, and continued in the pursuit of the French army to the Mondego. In the affair of Redinha he had a horse killed under him. From Espinhal the fourth division was ordered to retrograde, and recross the Tagus, for the purpose of reinforcing Marshal Sir William Carr Beresford. In 1811 he joined the Marshal at Portalegre, and being the senior British assistant adjutant-general, was directed to join Marshal Beresford’s head-quarters, and proceeded with him to Campo Mayor, from which the enemy[87] retired; was also present at the capture of Olivença, and subsequently accompanied the Marshal to Zafra, between which place and Llerena a smart skirmish occurred with the enemy’s hussars. In May 1811, Lieut.-Colonel Reynell returned to England from Lisbon with despatches from Viscount Wellington.

In July 1811, Brevet Lieut.-Colonel Reynell embarked as Military Secretary to Lieut.-General Sir John Cradock, K.B., who had been appointed Governor and Commander of the forces at the Cape of Good Hope, where he arrived by the end of September. On the 4th of June 1813, he received the brevet rank of Colonel; and on the 5th of August 1813, he was promoted Lieut.-Colonel of the Seventy-first regiment, in succession to Lieut.-Colonel the Honorable Henry Cadogan, who was mortally wounded at the battle of Vittoria. In February following, being desirous of joining the corps, Colonel Reynell resigned his staff situation at the Cape, and proceeded to England, where he arrived in May 1814. In July of that year he was appointed Adjutant-General to the force then preparing for service in America under Lieut.-General Lord Hill; but, other operations being then in view, that appointment was cancelled.

Colonel Reynell took the command of the first battalion of the Seventy-first regiment at Limerick in December 1814, and embarked with it from Cork in January of the following year, as part of an expedition for North America; but peace having been concluded with the United States, and contrary winds having prevented the sailing of the vessels, the destination of the battalion was changed. In March Colonel Reynell received orders to proceed with his battalion to the Downs, where, in the middle of April, it was trans-shipped into small vessels, and sent immediately to Ostend, to join the army forming in Flanders, in consequence of Napoleon Bonaparte having returned from Elba to France.

In the memorable battle of Waterloo, fought on the 18th of June 1815, Colonel Reynell commanded the first battalion of the Seventy-first regiment, and was wounded in the foot on that occasion. He afterwards succeeded to the command of Major-General Adam’s brigade, consisting of the first battalions of the Fifty-second and Seventy-first, with six[88] companies of the second, and two companies of the third battalion of the Ninety-fifth regiment, in consequence of that officer being wounded. Colonel Reynell commanded the light brigade in the several operations that took place on the route to Paris, and entered that capital at the head of the brigade on the 7th of July 1815, and encamped with it in the Champs Elysées, being the only British troops quartered within the barriers. In this year he was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath, and received the Cross of a Knight of the Austrian Military Order of Maria Theresa, also a Cross of the fourth class of the Russian Military Order of St. George.

Colonel Reynell remained with the “Army of Occupation” in France until October 1818, when, after a grand review of the united British, Danish, and Russian contingents at Valenciennes, the Seventy-first marched to Calais, and embarked for England. Colonel Reynell continued in command of the regiment until the 12th of August 1819, the date of his promotion to the rank of Major-General.

In April 1820 Major-General Reynell was suddenly ordered to proceed to Glasgow, having been appointed to the staff of North Britain as a Major-General, in which country he remained until March 1821, when, in consequence of the tranquillity of Scotland, the extra general officer was discontinued. Immediately after he was appointed to the staff of the East Indies, and directed to proceed to Bombay, for which presidency he embarked in September following, and where he arrived in March 1822. After remaining there a month, Major-General Reynell was removed to the staff of the Bengal Presidency, by order of the Marquis of Hastings. In August Major-General Reynell proceeded up the Ganges, and took the command of the Meerut division on the 3rd of December 1822.

The next operation of importance in which Major-General Reynell was engaged was the siege of Bhurtpore. Early in December 1825 a large force had been assembled for this purpose, to the command of which he had been appointed, when, just as the troops were about to move into the Bhurtpore states, General Lord Combermere, the new Commander-in-Chief in India, arrived from England, and Major-General[89] Reynell was then appointed to command the first division of infantry. He commanded that division during the siege, and directed the movements of the column of assault at the north-east angle on the 18th of January 1826, when the place was carried, and the citadel surrendered a few hours after. For this service he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Bath, as well as honored with the thanks of both Houses of Parliament.

Major-General Sir Thomas Reynell succeeded to the baronetcy upon the decease of his brother, Sir Richard Littleton Reynell in September 1829; and on the 30th of January 1832 was appointed by His Majesty King William IV. to be Colonel of the Ninety-ninth regiment, from which he was removed to the Eighty-seventh Royal Irish Fusiliers on the 15th of August 1834. On the 10th of January 1837 he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-General, and on the 14th of June 1839 was appointed a member of the Consolidated Board of General Officers, for the inspection and regulation of the clothing of the army. On the 15th of March 1841 he was appointed by Her Majesty to the Colonelcy of the Seventy-first regiment. Lieut.-General Sir Thomas Reynell, Bart., K.C.B., died at Avisford, near Arundel, on the 10th of February 1848.

APPENDIX.

Memoir of the Services of Lieut.-General Sir Charles William Doyle, C.B., G.C.H., and K.C., formerly Lieut.-Colonel of the Eighty-seventh regiment.

This officer entered the army on the 28th of April 1783, as Ensign in the One hundred and fifth regiment, which was disbanded in the following year, and on the 12th of February 1793, was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in the Fifty-ninth regiment, from which he was removed to the Fourteenth foot on the 7th of March following, and to the Ninety-first regiment on the 30th of October of the same year. Lieutenant Doyle served with the Fourteenth regiment until the beginning of 1794, in Holland and Brabant. In the assault of the heights of Famars in 1793 he acted as Brigade-Major to the brigade under Lieut.-General Sir Ralph Abercromby, whose thanks he received upon the field of battle for his conduct in storming the redoubts upon the heights over Valenciennes. During the siege of that city Lieutenant Doyle was employed as orderly officer in attendance upon the Austrian generals. While on service in the trenches he received a contusion in the head from the splinter of a shell. The Fourteenth regiment having suffered considerably, was left to garrison Courtray. He obtained permission to join the army, and served the remainder of the campaign as Aide-de-camp to Lieut.-General Sir Ralph Abercromby, by whom he was sent to the Duke of York with the account of the affair at Lannoi, in which he received a contusion in the hand, and was again thanked upon the field of battle by Lieut.-General Sir Ralph Abercromby. On the 21st of June 1794, Lieutenant Doyle was promoted from the Ninety-first, in which he had acted as Adjutant, to the Captain-Lieutenancy and Adjutancy of the One hundred and eighth regiment; proceeded to Gibraltar, where, upon that corps being drafted, he was appointed Aide-de-camp to the governor of that fortress. On the 3rd of September 1795, he was removed to the Eighty-seventh, as Captain-Lieutenant and Adjutant, and embarked in 1796 as Brigade-Major to the expedition against the Texel, under his uncle Brigadier-General John Doyle. In that year Captain Doyle proceeded to the West Indies in the same capacity, but finding that his regiment was destined to attack Porto Rico, he resigned his staff situation, accompanied[93] the Eighty-seventh, and received the thanks of Sir Ralph Abercromby for his conduct in covering the retreat of the army in April 1797, and was appointed his Aide-de-camp. In 1798 he received the thanks of the Governor of Barbadoes, for having driven off the coast a large French privateer. Captain Doyle proceeded as Brigade-Major under General Sir Ralph Abercromby with the expedition for the attack of Cadiz in 1800; sailed from Minorca for the relief of Genoa, and from Malta proceeded to Egypt, where he served upon the staff of the army during the campaign. While suffering from illness at Rosetta, in consequence of a wound he had received in the battle of the 21st of March 1801, near Alexandria, he obtained precise and important information regarding the strength of the garrison and the state of the works at Cairo, which led to the operations that resulted in the surrender of the place without a shot being fired. For this service he received the warm thanks of Lieut.-General Hutchinson, who assumed the command upon the death of General Abercromby, and also the approbation of His Royal Highness the Duke of York, Commander-in-Chief.

In 1803 Captain Doyle returned from the Mediterranean, was appointed Major of Brigade under Lieut.-General Sir James Henry Craig, K.B., by whom he was employed, with other staff officers, to make separate reports of the best mode of defence of Hosely Bay; his plan was highly approved by Sir James Craig, who recommended him to the Commander-in-Chief, and he was promoted to the rank of Major of the second battalion of the Sixty-first regiment, on the 9th of July 1803. In the following year Major Doyle commanded a corps composed of light infantry companies, and of regiments of volunteers, formed for the defence of the northern coasts of England by Lieut.-General Sir Hew Dalrymple, whose warm thanks he received. At the close of 1804 he was appointed by General Sir David Dundas, K.B., to command a corps of light infantry at Barham Downs, where he received the thanks of the Adjutant-General for his system of light infantry practice, and about the same time his Military Catechism was published. He was appointed Assistant Quartermaster-General at Guernsey, and on the 22nd of August 1805 was promoted to the rank of Lieut.-Colonel of the Eighty-seventh regiment. He received[94] the thanks of the Governor of Plymouth, of the Royal Court of Guernsey, and of the Commander-in-Chief, for the exemplary conduct of both battalions of the Eighty-seventh, each having been under his command. In 1808 he was sent into Spain by His Majesty’s Government as a Military Commissioner.

The rank of Major-General in the Spanish armies was Conferred upon him, and a regiment was raised and named “Regiment of Doyle” for his conduct in an affair at Olite. A badge of honor (to be worn on the left arm) was conferred upon him in 1809 for assuming the command of, and saving the city of Tortosa, threatened with insurrection by the inhabitants, whilst the French were at the gates of the town. The motto, “The Reward of Enthusiasm, Efficiency, and Valour.” The arms of this city were engrafted upon his family arms, by order of the Government of Spain at that period, and ratified by King Ferdinand. He was appointed a Knight of the Order of Charles III., for his services in the years 1808-9, and his conduct reported by the Spanish to the British Government. In 1809 he was wounded at the attack of the Col de Balaguer. A medal was struck by the Spanish Government, specially to mark its approbation of the conduct of the General, when he took by assault the tower and battery of Bagur upon the 10th of September 1810, and assisted in the operations against, and the taking the Castle of Palamos upon the 14th of September. The motto, “Spanish Gratitude to British Intrepidity.” A medal was presented to him at the close of the campaign. The motto, “For distinguished Valour,” and he was recommended by the Duke of Wellington to be appointed Colonel of a regiment to be raised in Catalonia, and in 1811 obtained the Cross of Distinction for the defence of Tarragona in 1811, where he was wounded; likewise received the Cross of Distinction for the three principal battles in Catalonia, and also the rank of Lieut.-General in the Spanish armies, for his services in Catalonia, Arragon, and Valencia, conferred by the Government at that period, and ratified by King Ferdinand: he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Army of Reserve, raised and disciplined at Cadiz during the siege, and was nominated Director of the Establishment for Military Instruction.

The honor of knighthood was conferred upon him by the Prince Regent in 1812, and he was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath for the important services rendered by him in Spain. On the 30th, Lieut.-Colonel Sir Charles Doyle was removed to the Eighty-fourth regiment, and was placed on the half-pay of that corps on the 25th of February 1819, and on the 12th of August following was advanced to the rank of Major-General. On the 1st of November 1819 he was appointed Colonel of the Tenth Royal Veteran Battalion (since disbanded). Sir Charles Doyle, in addition to the honors enumerated, had received the medal of the Order of the Crescent conferred by the Grand Seignior for services in Egypt, the Legion of Honor, and had been appointed a Knight Commander of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order, of which order he was subsequently nominated a Knight Grand Cross. In 1825 Major-General Sir Charles Doyle was appointed to the command of the South-western District of Ireland, and in 1829 was appointed President of the Board assembled at the War Office to investigate the services and pensions of soldiers. On Jan. 10. 1837 he was promoted to the rank of Lieut.-General.

Lieut.-General Sir Charles William Doyle died at Paris on the 25th of October 1842, after a service of nearly sixty years in various parts of the world.

Memoir of the Services of Lieut.-Colonel Matthew Shawe, C.B., of the Eighty-seventh regiment.

Mr. Shawe was appointed an Ensign in the Twelfth foot on the 7th of May 1799, and was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in the Seventy-fourth Highlanders on the 15th of November 1801, with which regiment he served at the storming and capture of the important fortress and town of Ahmednuggur on the 8th and 12th of August 1803; was wounded severely at the battle of Assaye on the 23rd of September following, when the troops under Major-General the Honorable Arthur Wellesley gained a victory over the combined army of Scindiah and the Rajah of Berar. His next service was at the battle of Argaum, on the 29th of November; afterwards at the siege and storming of Gawilghur, on the 15th of December 1803: this was a very strong fort, situated on a range of mountains between the[96] sources of the rivers Poorna and Taptee. Lieutenant Shawe served with the Seventy-fourth at the siege of Chandore, a strong hill fort in Candeish. This place surrendered on the 12th of October 1804. Lieutenant Shawe was also at the siege of Gaulnah in the same month; on the 30th of October he was promoted to the rank of Captain in the Seventy-fourth regiment.

Captain Shawe proceeded with his regiment to the Peninsula in January 1810; was present at the battle of Busaco on the 27th of September following; also at the affairs of Redinha on the 12th of March 1811, Condeixa on the day following, Foz d’Aronce on the 15th of that month, Sabugal on the 3rd of April, and at the battle of Fuentes d’Onor on the 3rd and 5th of May 1811; in the latter action Captain Shawe was wounded. He was advanced to the brevet rank of Major on the 30th of May 1811, and served at the siege and storming of Ciudad Rodrigo in January 1812; the siege of Badajoz and the escalading of Fort Picurina on the 25th of March. This fort was assaulted and carried by five hundred men of the third division, two hundred of whom were under Brevet-Major Shawe, who was dangerously wounded; he however recovered, and received the brevet of Lieut.-Colonel, which was dated the 27th of April 1812, for his services on this occasion. He was also thanked in general orders by Viscount Wellington for his conduct, received a medal, and was subsequently nominated a Companion of the Order of the Bath.

Brevet Lieut.-Colonel Shawe was appointed Major in the Fifty-ninth regiment on the 4th of June 1813, and was promoted Lieut.-Colonel in the Eighty-fourth regiment on the 15th of April 1817, and was removed to the Eighty-seventh regiment on the 30th of April 1818, the command of which devolved upon him in May 1823 in consequence of the decease of Lieut.-Colonel Miller. Lieut.-Colonel Shawe died on the 10th of April 1826, on board His Majesty’s sloop “Slany,” while within one day’s sail of Penang, where he was buried with all military honors. His life was sacrificed to his zeal for his duty, his health being such that, on leaving Calcutta, his medical advisers tried every argument to dissuade him from proceeding to join his regiment, then employed in the Burmese territory.

List of Fifty-six Battalions formed from Men raised under the Army of Reserve and Additional Force Acts, in the Years 1803 and 1804.

The following Nineteen Regiments were appointed to receive men raised for limited service in Great Britain and Ireland, under the Army of Reserve Acts, passed in the year 1803, and were augmented by second battalions, viz.:

In addition to the above corps, Sixteen Reserve Battalions were also formed from the men raised in the several counties of Great Britain and Ireland, under the Army of Reserve Acts, as under specified, viz.:

In the year 1804, thirty-seven other Regiments (as shown in the following list) were augmented by second battalions, in consequence of having been appointed to receive men raised for limited service in Great Britain and Ireland, under the Additional Force Acts passed on the 29th of June, and 10th and 14th of July, 1804, viz.:

List of the Fifty-six regiments which were appointed to receive men, raised for limited service in England, Scotland, and Ireland, under the Additional Force Acts, passed in the year 1804, including the Nineteen regiments (marked thus *) which had been augmented by Second Battalions from the men raised under the Army of Reserve Acts passed in the previous year (1803), and specifying the counties allotted to the several regiments.

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Year.		Page
	Introduction	41


1804.	Formation of the second battalion	ib.


1805.	Embarked for Ireland	42


1806.	Returned to England	ib.


1807.	Proceeded to Guernsey	ib.


1808.	Embarked for Portugal	44


1809.	Battle of Talavera	45
”	Authorised to bear the word “Talavera” on the regimental colour and appointments	47


1810.	Embarked for Cadiz	ib.


1811.	Battle of Barrosa	48
”	Capture of a French Eagle by the battalion	ib.
”	Styled “The Eighty-seventh, or Prince of Wales’s Own Irish Regiment,” and authorised to bear on the regimental colour and appointments the word “Barrosa,” and an Eagle with a Wreath of Laurel, above the Harp	53
”	The second battalion embarked for Tarifa	54
”	Siege of Tarifa by the French	55


1812.	Gallant defence of the place	58
”	Authorised to bear the word “Tarifa” on the regimental colour and appointments	ib.
”	The battalion returned to Cadiz	ib.
”	Action at the bridge and fort of Puerto Largo	59


1813.	Battle of Vittoria	60
”	Bâton of Marshal Jourdan taken by the battalion	62
”	Authorised to bear the word “Vittoria” on the regimental colour and appointments	63
1813. [xi]	Actions in the Pyrenees	63
”	Battle of the Nivelle	64
”	Authorised to bear the word “Nivelle” on the regimental colour and appointments	ib.


1814.	Action near Salvatira	65
”	Battle of Orthes	ib.
”	Authorised to bear the word “Orthes” on the regimental colour and appointments	ib.
”	Affair at Vic Bigorre	65
”	Battle of Toulouse	66
”	Authorised to bear the word “Toulouse” on the regimental colour and appointments	67
”	Termination of the Peninsular War	ib.
”	Authorised to bear the word “Peninsula” on the regimental colour and appointments	68
”	Embarkation of the battalion for Cork	ib.
”	Removed to Portsmouth	69
”	Proceeded to Guernsey	ib.


1815.	Stationed in that island	ib.


1816.	Removed to Portsmouth, and subsequently to Colchester	ib.


1817.	The second battalion disbanded	74

	Page
List of troops in South America in 1806-7	91
Memoir of Lieut.-General Sir Charles William Doyle, C.B., and G.C.H.	92
Memoir of Lieut.-Colonel Matthew Shawe, C.B.	95
List of battalions formed from men raised in 1803 and 1804, under the “Army of Reserve” and “Additional Force Acts”	97-100

	Page
Costume of the regiment in 1793	to face 1
Colours of the regiment	40
The French Eagle captured at the battle of Barrosa on the 5th of March 1811	50
Costume of the regiment in 1853	74

Killed.	Wounded.
Captain—Charles Beaumont.	Captain—John Evans.
Lieutenant—Hugh Irwine.	” R. McCrea.
Surgeon—Wilde.	Lieutenant—W. Boucher.

Killed.	Wounded.
Capt.—David Considine.	Major—Francis Miller.
” Noblet Johnston.	Capt.—Alexander Rose.
” Peter Gordon.	” Frederick Desbarres.
	” Henry Blake.
Lieut.—Robert Hamilton.	Lieut.—James O’Brien.
” Michael Barry.	” Edward Fitzgerald.
Quartermr.—Wm. Buchanan.	” William Crowe.
Assist.-Surgeon—Buxton.	” Hen. Taylor Budd.
	” Robert John Love.
	Ensign—Godfrey Green.

The Project Gutenberg eBook of Historical record of the Eighty-seventh Regiment, or the Royal Irish Fusiliers

GENERAL ORDERS

PREFACE.

INTRODUCTION
TO
THE INFANTRY.

FOOTNOTES:

HISTORICAL RECORD
OF
THE EIGHTY-SEVENTH REGIMENT,
OR
THE ROYAL IRISH FUSILIERS.

CONTENTS
OF THE
HISTORICAL RECORD.

OF
THE SECOND BATTALION

SUCCESSION OF COLONELS

APPENDIX.

PLATES.