Rifles: Six Years With Wellington's Legendary Sharpshooters (44 page)

223 ‘By throwing up redoubts on the heights one regiment may hold up’: Hennell, letter of 16 July 1813.

224 ‘Marshal Soult predicted that his enemy would suffer 25,000 casualties’: this emerges in a letter of Soult’s quoted in
Campagne du Maréchal
Soult dans Les Pyrénées Occidentales
1813–1814
, Le Commandant Clerc, Paris, 1894.

– ‘Our cavalry therefore and I understand a considerable part of our artillery’: Leach MS Journal.

225 ‘an enthusiastic apostle of light troops and the rifle’: one example of Barnard’s zeal in this respect is the story told by Harry Smith of how the colonel took Wellington to see the aftermath of the Combat of Tarbes, a tale which will be told in Chapter 23.

226 ‘actually flogged the infantry with their sabres to drive them before the rearguard’: John Cox MS Journal.

227 ‘In truth, though, neither of the officers who went from the 95th were original members of the battalion either’: these officers were Lieutenants Percival and Hamilton. The first was an experienced officer but neither had been serving as long in the Peninsula as the likes of Leach, Simmons, MacNamara
et al
. of the 1st Battalion. Kincaid says even Hamilton had seen enough fighting to satisfy any reasonable man, which is as maybe, but I still think the absence of the
real
veterans interesting in this case.

– ‘This affair caused lasting rancour between the Rifles and Skerrett’: Harry Smith is the prime example of this feud.

228 ‘They are expressly told to fire first at officers and in particular commanders and generals’: this fascinating quotation of Soult’s comes from a letter dated 1 September 1813 to Clarke, the Minister of War, and is reproduced in Clerc. Soult attributed all the killing to the 5th/60th – an error since the bridge of Vera was an affair fought entirely by the 2nd/95th and some men of the 3rd/95th and was mentioned in Soult’s letter as part of the phenomenon he was discussing. Evidently the French High Command knew that the assassination of their officers by riflemen had reached epic proportions, but they were fuzzy on the details of exactly
who
was doing it. The 5th/60th may have been held responsible because they had more desertions than the 95th and much French knowledge of this kind would have been based on deserters. It is also worth pointing out that Soult was exaggerating his officer losses for effect, just as he understated them on other occasions when he wished to minimise the magnitude of his setbacks.

229 ‘Kempt’s attack, however, was ordered almost entirely in skirmish order’: Leach’s MS Journal, Hennell and Cooke are good sources on this.

– ‘The 95th moved regularly (I do not mean in a line) up the hill’: Hennell’s letter to his brothers of 13 October 1813; ditto the following quotation about the 95th’s prowess.

– ‘they fired off some ineffective volleys which all went too high’: a good deal of detail in this passage comes from Moore Smith’s life of Colborne.

230 ‘The only way was to put a brave face on the matter’: Moore Smith.

– ‘We remained a whole month idle spectators of their preparations’: Kincaid,
Adventures
.

– ‘One soldier of the 3rd Battalion, 95th, for example, … transported for life’: Private John Howley of the 3rd/95th was tried on 3 November 1813, according to General Orders. The 1st Battalion’s desertions are recorded in WO 25/2139.

231 ‘The successes in Germany are most exhilarating’: this letter from Judge Day is quoted in FitzMaurice’s book.

– ‘Peace is now I think fairly beyond doubt’: this letter was written by Hennell on 25 November 1813. I’ve taken a slight liberty with the timings here, but there was plenty of speculation about the downfall of Napoleon even before late November. Hennell is also the source of the lovely phrase about ‘gaping for news’.

232 ‘I have been thinking of visiting you this winter after the campaign is over’: Simmons, letter of 30 August 1813.

– ‘These fellows think themselves invulnerable’: this Wellington ‘O Group’ is recounted in Moore Smith.

233 ‘That this was an anxious, I might say awful moment’: Leach MS Journal.

– ‘Eh, but Fitz, just see how easy it slips in’: FitzMaurice. It is curious how similar this anecdote of Church is to some of those later (e.g. Vietnam) accounts of soldiers who, when asked the question ‘How can you shoot women and children?’ replied ‘You just lead a little less.’

– ‘One of our officers gallantly jumped into the second fort’: Cooke.

235 ‘“a swarm of skirmishers” had made the attack’: this is General Marinsin’s report of the battle, quoted by Clerc.

236 ‘opened his mouth and well and truly said the wrong thing’: the accounts of Cooke and Hennell of this bloody incident are both gripping. Neither explicitly blames Hobkirk but he was the senior officer of the two companies concerned and his guilt is implied in certain passages.

236 ‘to the front of the wood, each man to his tree, and kept up a fire’: Cooke.

– ‘Hobkirk’s bugler sounded the advance’: Hennell.

237 ‘Some young sanguine officers who are more vain than good’: Major William Napier’s letter is quoted in Glover’s edition of Hennell’s letters.

238 ‘Some Light Division officers having received
The Times
of 8 November’: Hennell.

– ‘the pickets would approach tapping the stocks of their weapons’: this signalling is discussed in various places, including Napier’s
History
.

– ‘Well, I won’t kill these unfortunate rascals’: Gairdner is quoted by Kincaid in his
Adventures
and he is the source for this entire anecdote.

239 ‘The night before the French attack had been one of heavy, driving rain’: detailed French accounts of this appear in Clerc.

240 ‘The enemy are going to attack us’: Harry Smith.

– ‘where the Highland Company had made its outposts’: WO 25/2139 records the prisoners’ names and details. Ten of the fourteen are listed with Scottish places of birth, evidence that 7th Company retained its Highland character until the end of the Peninsular War.

– ‘Lieutenant Gairdner was mustered along with the reserve for the outlying picket’: the Gairdner MS Journal is the source of these details and the subsequent quotations.

241 ‘Although Clausel … got to the base of the church walls’: this report of the fighting (undated) was written by one Colonel Lapene and found its way into the French Army archives. It is quoted at length by Clerc.

– ‘the French wheeled up twelve cannon’: Clerc.

242 ‘Riflemen may be employed also with great success against field artillery’: Manningham’s lectures.

– ‘We kept up an incessant discharge of small arms’: Cooke. Kincaid also mentions the long-range firing in
Adventures
.

– ‘The artillerymen fled back over to the safe side of the ridge’: see the French version of this in Lieutenant Colonel Dumas’ book.

243 ‘Hopwood and Brotherwood had been stripped of all their belongings’: Costello.

– ‘whether we had been surprised on 10 December’: Cooke.

245 ‘Colonel Barnard … had managed to scrounge them enough shakoes’: the issue of new uniforms happened on 23–4 February, according to the diarists. The headgear situation is described by Barnard in a letter to Alexander Cameron of 1 April 1813 and included in the
Rifle Brigade
Chronicle
, 1931. This long letter (sadly few from Barnard on military matters survive) is the source of much information on Tarbes, including a long quotation near the end of this chapter.

245 ‘The general quickly ordered the 2nd Battalion’: Barnard, above, noted that Wellington personally ordered the Rifles into the attack.

246 ‘On gaining the summit of the hill we found a much larger force’: William Cox MS Journal. This Cox sailed with the 1st Battalion in May 1809 but had been promoted as captain into the 2nd.

– ‘The whole of their heavy infantry [was] drawn up on a steep acclivity’: William Surtees.

– ‘having been accustomed for many years to oppose imperfectly organised Spaniards’: Leach,
Rough Sketches
.

– ‘This column was driven back by a rapid advance of the 1st Batt 95th Rifles’: John Cox MS Journal.

247 ‘a heavy tirallade was then kept up in the vineyards’: William Cox.

– ‘Ah, there you are, as usual, just where you should be’: Du Cane citing Molloy.

– ‘The loss of the enemy from the fire of our Rifles was so great’: Harry Smith, as is the Wellington quotation immediately before it.

– ‘Official French returns indicate only around 180 killed and wounded’: these figures are contained in the histories of the 45th and 116th regiments. I am grateful to Tony Broughton for his help on the issue of French casualties at Tarbes. It would be easy to conclude that the Rifles officers were exaggerating. However, I have found them sufficiently honest about such matters during the writing of this book that I suspect some statistical error or sleight of hand in the French figures (which was quite common). It may be that certain men were returned as casualties for the battles of Orthez in February or Toulouse in May rather than Tarbes or listed as having deserted rather than being battle casualties.

– ‘Their estimates ranged from asserting that the French suffered as many casualties’: the high estimate is Surtees, the low one William Cox.

248 ‘I never saw such skirmishers as the 95th, now the Rifle Brigade’: Major J. Blakiston,
Twelve Years’ Military Adventure
, London, 1829.

249 ‘one of the intruders, flying into a fury, killed him on the spot’: this saga is told by a number of the diarists, including Simmons, Surtees and Costello.

– ‘We tried every means to find out the villain, but to no purpose’: Simmons.

251 ‘They walked along the banks of the Garonne, escorted the prettiest French girls to dances’: life there is described by Simmons, Leach (
Rough Sketches
), Kincaid (
Adventures
), Harry Smith, Cooke and Gairdner.

252 ‘was most confoundedly annoyed when the officers of the Rifle corps were taken for Portuguese’: Cooke.

253 ‘Great regret was expressed when the order arrived which obliged us to leave’: Leach,
Rough Sketches
.

254 ‘In six cases though, the riflemen chose to desert’: the names are in WO 25/2139, casualty returns for the 1st Battalion, 95th Regiment. Given the writing off of twenty-one names in the March 1814 return (see Chapter 27), it is quite possible that more than just the named six deserted at this time.

– ‘Some of the followers, evidently feeling cheated, stole before they went’: Surtees being one victim of such theft.

– ‘the role of his British or Irish accomplices in the company was to remain a secret’: Costello is the source of this information. It is quite possible that in choosing to blame Blanco for the crime, the 2nd Company men were shielding themselves and Costello was complicit in this deception.

– ‘William MacFarlane, a soldier who had deserted the regiment’: his return is shown by the 25 May pay list.

255 ‘The British rank of colour sergeant had been introduced’: by General Order, 6 July 1813.

– ‘One subaltern of the 43rd calculated his net loss at
£
70’: Cooke.

256 ‘three cheers … from the yardarms’: Costello.

– ‘only six were still serving with the Peninsular Army at the end of the campaigns’: names followed through to WO 17/282, the monthly returns for 1814.

– ‘the vagaries of Army record keeping do not allow every man’s fate to be precisely determined’: the difficulties are compounded by the fact that the 1st/95th received drafts of new recruits in 1812 and in May 1814, just after the fighting had stopped but before they embarked for England. A small number of men – perhaps a dozen – were also transferred between different Rifle battalions in the field. In making my calculations, I have had to discount these numbers.

257 ‘those for whom no satisfactory account could be given’: the period ending 25 March 1814 in WO25/2139.

– ‘it is to be presumed that nearly the whole of these men have died in hospitals’: Adjutant General’s letter of 28 May 1814, in
Wellington’s
Dispatches
.

– ‘about 180 were sent home during the course of the war’: these figures are obtained by following through the monthly returns in WO 17.

– ‘The largest portion of the original group, 421, were those who had died in Iberia’: research conducted by Eileen Hathaway and myself from pay lists and casualty returns.

257 ‘Here we enjoyed the luxuries of London life for a short time, having three years’ pay to receive’: William Cox MS Journal.

258 ‘there was a strong desire to resume some sort of quiet domesticity’: this becomes apparent from the case of the married Corporal Pitt, which will be described in the following chapter.

– ‘Fairfoot married Catherine Campbell, a slip of a girl of sixteen, on 2 October 1814’: this comes from the description book cited earlier. My speculation about it being a happy union arises from the five children it produced.