| GOVERNMENT
having determined to reduce the French and Dutch possessions in the West Indies, a large
armament was fitted out under the command of Lieutenant-General Sir Ralph Abercromby. The
land forces consisted of 460 cavalry and 16,479 infantry. The Royal Highlanders formed
part of this expedition. Another expedition, destined also for the West Indies, consisting
of 2600 cavalry and 5680 foot, assembled at Cork during the embarkation of the first.
Great care was taken to furnish the troops with everything necessary for the voyage, and
particular attention was paid to their clothing. To protect them from the damps and chills
of midnight, they were supplied with flannel, and various changes were made in their
clothing to guard them against the effects of the yellow fever. Among other changes, the
plaid kilt and bonnet of the Highlanders were laid aside, and their place supplied by
Russian duck pantaloons and a round hat; but experience showed that the Highland dress was
better suited to a campaign in the West Indies during the rainy season, than the articles
which superseded it.
The embarkation was completed by the 27th of
October 1795; but in consequence of damage sustained by some of the ships in a hurricane,
and the loss of others, the expedition did not sail till the 11th of November. On that day
the fleet, amounting to 328 sail, got under weigh with a favourable breeze. Owing to
accidents which befell two of the ships, the fleet did not clear the channel till the 13th
of December; but it had scarcely got out when a violent storm arose, which continued
almost without intermission for several weeks. The greater part of the fleet was
scattered, and many of the ships took refuge in different ports in England. Admiral
Crichton struggled with such of the ships as remained with him till the end of January,
but was at last obliged, from the disabled state of some of the ships, to return to
Portsmouth, where he arrived on the 29th of that month with about 50 sail. Seventy-eight
of the ships which kept the sea proceeded on their voyage, and reached Barbadoes in a
straggling manner. Had the troops been sent off in detachments as they embarked, these
misfortunes would have been avoided.
After the partial return of the expedition,
the destination of some of the returned regiments was changed. Five companies of the
Highlanders were in a few weeks embarked for Gibraltar, under the commanded of
Lieutenant-Colonel Dickson. The other five companies reached Barbadoes on the 9th of
February in the Middlesex East Indiaman, one of the straggling ships which had proceeded
on the voyage. The expedition again put to sea on the 14th of February, and arrived at
Barbadoes on the 14th of March. By the great care of Sir Ralph Abercromby, in ordering the
transports to be properly ventilated on their arrival, and by enforcing cleanliness and
exercise among the troops, few deaths occurred; and of the five Highland companies, none
died, and only 4 men with trifling complaints were left on board when the troops
disembarked at St Lucia in April. The troops from Cork, though favoured with better
weather, were less fortunate in their voyage, several officers and a great many men having
died.
The first enterprise was against the Dutch
colonies of Demerara and Berbice, which surrendered to a part of the Cork division under
Major-General White on the 22d of April. On the same day the expedition sailed from
Barbadoes, and appeared off St Lucia on the 2 6th, it being considered imprudent to
attempt Guadaloupe with a force which had been so much diminished.
The troops landed in four divisions at
Lengueville Bay, Pigeon Island, Chock Bay, and Ance ha Raze. The Highlanders, under the
command of Brigadier-General John Moore, landed in a small bay close under Pigeon Island.
The army moved forward on the 27th to close in upon Morne Fortunée, the principal post in
the island. To enable them to invest this place, it became necessary to obtain possession
of Morne Chabot, a strong and commanding position overlooking the principal approach.
Detachments under the command of Brigadier-Generals Moore and the Hon. John Hope, were
accordingly ordered to attack this post on two different points. General Moore advanced at
midnight, and General Hope followed an hour after by a less circuitous route; but falling
in with the enemy sooner than he expected, General Moore carried the Morne, after a short
but obstinate resistance, before General Hope came up. Next day General Moore took
possession of Memo Duchassaux. By the advance of Major-General Morshead from Ance la Raze,
Morne Fortunée was completely invested, but not until several officers and about 50 of
the grenadiers, who formed the advanced post under Lieutenant-Colonel Macdonald, had been
killed and wounded.
To dispossess the enemy of the batteries they
had erected on the Cul de Sac, Major-General Morshead’s division was ordered to
advance against two batteries on the left; whilst Major-General Hope, with the five
companies of the Highlanders, the light infantry of the 57th regiment, and a detachment of
Malcolm’s Rangers, supported by the 55th regiment, was to attack the battery of
Secke, close to the works of Morne Fortunée. The light infantry and the rangers quickly
drove the enemy from the battery; but they were obliged to retire from the battery in
their turn under the cover of the Highlanders, in consequence of the other divisions under
Brigadier-General Perryn and Colonel Riddle having been obstructed in their advance. In
this affair Colonel Malcolm, a brave officer, was killed, and Lieutenant J. J. Fraser of
the 42d, and a few men, wounded. The other divisions suffered severely.
So great were the difficulties which
presented themselves from the steep and rugged nature of the ground, that the first
battery was not ready to open till the 14th of May. In an attempt which the 31st regiment
made upon a fortified ridge called the Vizie, on the evening of the 17th, they were
repulsed with great loss; but the grenadiers, who had pushed forward to support them,
compelled the enemy to retire. For six days a constant fire was kept up between the
batteries and the fort. Having ineffectually attempted to drive back the 27th regiment
from a lodgment they had formed within 500 yards of the garrison, the enemy applied for
and obtained a suspension of hostilities. This was soon followed by a capitulation and the
surrender of the whole island. The garrison marched out on the 29th, and became prisoners
of war. The loss of the British was 2 field officers, 3 captains, 5 subaltemns, and 184
non-commissioned officers and rank and file killed; and 4 field officers, 12 captains, 15
subaltemns, and 523 non-commissioned officers and rank and file wounded and missing.
As an instance of the influence of the mind
on bodily health, and of the effect of mental activity in preventing disease, General
Stewart adduces this expedition as a striking illustration :—" During the
operations which, from the nature of the country, were extremely harassing, the troops
continued remarkably healthy; but immediately after the cessation of hostilities they
began to droop. The five companies of Highlanders. who landed 508 men, sent few to the
hospital until the third day subsequent to the surrender; but after this event, so sudden
was the change in their health, that upwards of 60 men were laid up within the space of
seven days. This change may be, in part, ascribed to the sudden transition from incessant
activity to repose, but its principal cause must have been the relaxation of the mental
and physical energies, after the motives which stimulated them had subsided."
The next enterprise was against St Vincent,
where the expedition, consisting of the Buffs, the 14th, 34th, 42d, 53d, 54th, 59th, and
63d regiments, and the 2d West Indian Regiment, landed on the 8th of June. The enemy had
erected four redoubts on a high ridge, called the Vizie, on which they had taken up a
position. The arrangements for an attack having been completed on the 10th, the troops
were drawn up in two divisions under Major-Generals Hunter and William Morshed, at a short
distance from the ridge. Another division formed on the opposite side of the hill. The
attack was commenced by a fire from some field-pieces on the redoubts, which was kept up
for some hours, apparently with little effect. As a feint, the Highlanders and some of the
Rangers in the meantime moved forward to the bottom of a woody steep which terminated the
ridge, on the top of which stood one of the redoubts, the first in the range. Pushing
their way up the steep, the 42d turned the feint into a real assault, and, with the
assistance of the Buffs, by whom they were supported, drove the enemy successively from
the first three redoubts in less than half an hour. Some of the Highlanders had pushed
close under the last and principal redoubt, but the general, seeing that he had the enemy
in his power, and wishing to spare the lives of his troops, recalled the Highlanders, and
offered the enemy terms of capitulation, which were accepted. The conditions, inter alia,
were, that the enemy should embark as prisoners of war; but several hundreds of them broke
the capitulation by escaping into the woods the following night. The total loss of the
British on this occasion was 181 in killed and wounded. The Highlanders had 1 sergeant and
12 rank and file killed; and 1 officer (Lieutenant Simon Fraser), 2 sergeants, 1 drummer,
and 29 rank and file wounded)
In order to subjugate the island, the troops
were divided and sent to different stations, and military posts were established in the
neighbourhood of the country possessed by the Caribs and brigands. Favoured by the natural
strength of the country, the enemy carried on a petty warfare with the troops among the
woods till the month of September, when they surrendered. The French, including the
brigands, were sent prisoners to England, and the Indians or Caribs, amounting to upwards
ol 5000, were transported to Ratan, an island in the gulf of Mexico.
[General Stewart says that in the assault on
the redoubts, when proceeding from the second to the third, he found a lad of seventeen
years of age whom he had enlisted in August preceding, with his foot on the body of a
French soldier, and his bayonet thrust through from ear to ear, attempting to twist off
his head. Lieutenant Stewart touched him on the shoulder, and desired him to let the body
alone. Oh, the brigand," said he "I must take off his head." When told that
the man was already dead, and that he had better go and take the head off a living
Frenchman, he answered, "You are very right, Sir; I did not think of that;" and
immediately ran forward to the front of the attack. Yet such is the power of example, that
this young man, so bold, turned pale and trembled, when, a few days after he had enlisted,
he saw one of his companions covered with blood from a cut he had received in the head and
face in some horseplay with his comrades].
[In one of the skirmishes in the woods
between a party of the 42d and the enemy, Lieutenant-Colonel Graham (afterwards a
lieutenant-general and govornor of Stirling Castle) was wounded, and lay senseless on the
ground. "His recovery from his wound," says General Stewart, "was attended
by some uncommon circumstances. The people believing him dead, rather dragged than carried
him over the rough channel of the river, till they reached the sea-beach. Observing here
that he was still alive, they put him in a blanket and proceeded in search of a surgeon.
After travelling in this manner four miles, I met them, and directed the soldiers to carry
him to a military post, occupied by a party of the 42d under my command. All the surgeons
were out in the woods with the wounded soldiers, and none could be found. Colonel Graham
was still insensible. A ball had entered his side, and passing through, had come out under
his breast. Another, or perhaps the same ball, had shattered two of his fingers. No
assistance could be got but that of a soldier’s wife, who had been long in the
service, and was in the habit of attending sick and wounded soldiers. She washed his
wounds, and bound them up in such a manner, that when a surgeon came and saw the way in
which the operation had been performed, he said he could not have done it better, and
would not unbind the dressing. The colonel soon afterwards opened his eyes, and though
unable to speak for many hours, seemed sensible of what was passing around him. In this
state he lay nearly three weeks, when he was carried to Kingston, and thence conveyed to
England. He was still in a most exhausted state, —the wound in his side discharging
matter from both orifices. He went to Edinburgh, with little hopes of recovery; but on the
evening of the illumination for the victory of Camperdoun, the smoke of so many candles
and flambeaux having affected his breathing, he coughed with great violence; and, in the
exertion, threw up a piece of cloth, carried in and left by the ball in its passage
through his body. From that day he recovered as by a charm.
"The soldier’s wife," continues the General,
"who was so useful to him in his extremity, was of a character rather uncommon. She
bad been long a follower of the camp, and had acquired some of its manerisms. While she
was so good and useful a nurse in quarters, she was bold and fearless in the field. When
the arrangements were made previously to the attack on the Vine on the 10th of June, I
directed that her husband, who was in my company, should remain behind to take charge of
the men’s knapsacks, which they had thrown off to be light for the advance up the
hill, as I did not wish to expose him to danger on account of his wife and family. He
obeyed his orders, and remained with his charge; but his wife, believing, perhaps, that
she was not included in these injunctions, pushed forward to the assult. When the enemy
had been driven from the third redoubt, I was standing giving some directions to the men,
and preparing to push on to the fourth and last redoubt, when I found myself tapped on the
shoulder, and turning round, I saw my Amazonian friend standing with her clothes tucked up
to her knees, and seizing my hand, ‘Well done, my Highland lad,’ she exclaimed,
‘see how the brigands scamper like so many deer ‘—‘Caine,’ added
she, ‘let us drive them from yonder hill!’ On inquiry, I found that she had been
in the hottest fire, cheering]. |
