Adventures of the Connaught Rangers, from 1808 to 1814

Chapter I

The sacking of Badajoz— Neglect of the wounded— Spaniards and their plunderers— Disgraceful occurrences— Calamities of War— Fine sayings of the Duke of Wellington— Extent of plunder— Martin of Galway, and his servant— Paddy Aisy's opinion of the Duke— The French consider the capture of Badajoz a mystery ..... 1 1

Chapter II

Departure from Badajoz— The wounded left to the protection of Spanish soldiers — Subsequently removed to Elvas — Capture of forts on the Tagus — The author leaves Elvas to join the army — Spaniards and Portuguese — Rodrigo re-visited — A Spanish ball— Movements of Marshal Marmont— Fall of the forts of Salamanca— Amicable enemies . . .22

Chapter III

State of the opposing armies, previously to the Battle of Salamanca — Preliminary movements — Nelson at Trafalgar — Pakenham's division — The Duke of llagusa's false movement — Pakenham engaged with the enemy's left— Defeats the division under General Thornier— Reinforced, they again advance to the attack— Their destruction by a brigade of British cavalry— The Portuguese repulsed — Desperate exertions of the French— Final charge of Clinton's division- Complete defeat of the French army . .. .42 CONTENTS. VI

Chapter IV

Importance of the battle of Salamanca -Consequences of defeat -Gallantry of Captain Robert Nickle— Pursuit of the defeated Army of Marshal Marmont— French infantry in square broken and destroyed by cavalry-March on Madrid— Frolics at St. Ildefonso -Sudden attack of the French lancers— Disgraceful conduct of the Portuguese dragoons . . .67 67

Chapter V

The British army approach Madrid— Enthusiastic welcome — Preparations to carry by assault the Fortress of La Chine — It surrenders— Description of Madrid— The Puerto del Sol— The Prado— Unsociability of English officers— Seizure of a Spanish priest— Proved to be a spy in the service of the enemy— His execution by the garrotte . . . Sci

Chapter VI

Arrests at Madrid— Advantages of speaking French— Seizure of Don Saturio de Padilla by the police — The author effects his liberation— Bulls and bull-fights — A bull day at Madrid — Lord Wellington in the Plaza de los Toros — A courageous bull . - . . . . .107

Chapter VII

The entertainments of the Plaza de los Toros continued — A cowardly hull — Private theatricals— Frederick Meade — Horrors of amputation — Lord Wellington leaves Madrid — Qualities of French and English soldiers— The retreat from Burgos Evacuation of the capital— Disasters of the retreat . 120

Chapter VIII

Sufferings of the army on the retreat— Jokes of the Connaught Rangers— Letter of Lord Wellington— The junior officers- Costume of the author during the retreat — An unusual enjoyment -Lord Wellington's censure on Officers of Regiments ....... CONTENTS. VII

Chapter IX

Shocking effects of excess in eating — The neighbourhood of Moimenta de Beira — Wolves — The author employed to cater for his regiment on St. Patrick's day — Is attacked by wolves on his return — Measure for measure — The priest and his plate ....... 163

Chapter X

Priests carousing — San Carlos gambling house at Lisbon — Cocking the card — The author quits the Peninsula — Arrival at Spithead — Visit to Vauxhall Gardens — The lobster feast — The priest of St. Omers— Pay of French priests — Adventures on the road — The author's return to Ireland — Irish farmers . . . . . . .180

Chapter XI

Breaking up of the British Peninsular army at the abdication of Napoleon — Separation of the soldiers wives — The elopement — Thorp, the Drum-major — The Connaught Rangers embark for Canada — Obeying orders — Provisions for the voyage — A comfortable fight — A main of cocks on ship-board— Dr. Crowe's disaster . . . . . 1 99

Chapter XII

Commencement of the voyage to Canada — Absence of the Commodore — Tempestuous weather — Excessive sea-sickness— Our Captain — Arrangements on ship-board — United Irishmen — Being fond of the button — Melancholy accident — The fleet in full sail— Culpable conduct of Lord George Stewart— Cannibals and vultures — Appearances of a storm — Our ship is separated from the fleet— Disastrous effects of the tempest . 224

Chapter XIII

Dancing at sea— Employment of time— Curious cases of Somnambulism — Icebergs a-head — Alarm on the approach of a strange vessel — Our Ship visited by a Privateer — Her reception, and subsequent capture — A duel prevented — Scarcity of water — Stopping a run on the bank — Thirsty souls— The Somnambulist awakened ..... CONTENTS.

Chapter XIV

Cod fishing off Newfoundland — The Green family — Moll Thompson's mark— Fine sport— Change of diet— Peggy Cleary 's disaster — Repairing a broken nose — Symptoms of a storm — Arrival at the mouth of the St. Laurence . . 249

Chapter XV

Jerry the pilot — Our ship strikes on a rock— Approach to Quebec —First impressions of the city — Superfluous stores — Description of Quebec— A relic of Wolfe— Abundance of fish — Preparations for a journey to Three Rivers — A love adventure — French reading of the English marriage service . 259

Chapter XVI

Travelling between Quebec and Three Rivers — Arrangements on the road— Peasantry of the district — Description of Three Rivers— Convent of St. Ursula — Visit to Montreal— Indian village — Arrival of the troops at Three Rivers— Ragged heroes — Inefficiency of our fleet on Lake Champlain— Gallantry of Sir Thomas Brisbane — Discreditable want of judgment in our commanders . ... . . . 270

Chapter XVII

Departure from Three Rivers — Meeting old comrades — Sentimental reflections— The officers' ball— Visit to Three Rivers to invite the guests— The sleigh party to the ball— Seasonable supply of noyeau— Rashness of O'Hara— Wonderful escape of Mrs. Gugy— A promising set of young men . . 280

Chapter XVIII

March to St. John's — A Yankee ball — A general row— A lady worth a Jew's eye— The officers' subscription for the banker's widow — The apothecary damaged — News in Canada of the return of Buonaparte from Elba— The Peninsular army unrewarded—The Connaught Rangers set sail for Europe . 288 Conclusion . . . . . .295 Appendix ....... ADVENTURES OF the CONNAUGHT RANGERS.

Chapter I

The sacking of Badajoz — Neglect of the wounded — Spaniards and their plunderers — Disgraceful occurrences — Calamities of War — Fine sayings of the Duke of Wellington — Extent of plunder — Martin of Galway, and his servant — Paddy Aisy's opinion of the Duke — The French consider the capture of Badajoz a mystery. Badajoz, one of the richest and most beautiful towns in the south of Spain, whose inhabitants had witnessed its siege in silent terror for one and twenty days, and who had been shocked by the frightful massacre that had just taken place at its walls, was now about to be plunged into all the horrors that are, unfortunately, unavoidable upon an enterprise such as a town taken by storm. Scarcely had Count Phillipon and his garrison commenced their march towards Elvas, when the work of pillage commenced.

Some — many indeed — of the good soldiers turned to the ditch of the castle and to the breaches to assist and carry off their wounded companions ; but hundreds were neglected in the general and absorbing thirst for plunder. VOL. II. B ADVENTURES OF The appearance of the castle was that of a vast wreck : the various ladders lying shattered at the base of its walls, the broken piles of arms, and the brave men that lay as they had fallen — many holding their firelocks in their grasp — marked strongly the terrible contest in which they had been engaged, and pre sented to the eye of a spectator ample food for reflection. It was not possible to look at those brave men, all of them dead or frightfully maimed, without recol lecting what they had been but a few short hours before ; yet those feelings, fortunately perhaps, do not predominate with soldiers, and those sights, far from exciting reflections of a grave nature, more usually call forth some jocular remark, such as, " that he will have no further occasion to draw rations ; " or — " that he has stuck his spoon in the wall and left off mess ing," — such is the force of habit.

At the breaches, the light and fourth division soldiers lay in heaps upon each other — a still warm group; and many of those veterans from whom the vital spark had not yet fled, expired in the arms of the few of their companions who sought to remove them to a place better suited to their miserable condition. But war, whatever its numerous attractions to a young mind may be, is but ill calculated to inspire it with those softer feelings so essential to soothe us in the moment of our distress; it must not, therefore, be wondered at, that a wish for plunder and enjoyment took the place of humanity, and that hundreds of gallant men were left to perish from neglect. A military writer,* whose book has been the theme of admiration by all who have read it, — and I hope, for their own sakes, that there are few who have not, — in speaking of this epoch, says, that three days after the fall of the town he rode towards the Guadiana, and that in passing the verge of the camp of the fifth * Captain Kincaid. division, he was surprised and shocked to find two soldiers standing at the door of a small shed; they made signs to him, and upon examination he found that each had lost a leg !

The surgeon had dressed their wounds on the night of the assault,* and although their melancholy and destitute situation was known to hundreds of their companions, who had promised them relief, they were actually famishing within three hun dred yards of their own regiment. Before six o'clock in the morning of the 7th of April, all organization amongst the assaulting columns had ceased, and a scene of plunder and cruelty, that it would be difficult to find a parallel for, took its place. The army, so fine and effective on the preceding day, was now transformed into a vast band of brigands, and the rich and beautiful city of Badajoz presented the turbulent aspect that must result from the concourse of numerous and warlike multitudes nearly strangers to each other, or known only by the name of the nation to which they belonged.

The horde of vagabonds, Spaniards as well as Portuguese, women as well as men — that now eagerly sought for admission to plunder, nearly augmented the number of brigands to what the assailing army had reckoned the night before ; and it may be fairly said that twenty thousand people — armed with full powers to act as they thought fit, and all, or almost all, armed with weapons which could be turned, at the pleasure or caprice of the bearer, for the purpose of enforcing any wish he sought to gratify— were let loose upon the ill-fated inhabitants of this devoted city. These people were under no restraint — -had no person to control them, and in a short time got into such an awful state of intoxication that they lost all control over their own actions. What a frightful picture is this of a town carried by storm ! — it is true, nevertheless, and unfortunately for the sake of humanity, it is considered necessary; because if such latitude was b2 not allowed to the soldiery, I believe that few for tresses would be carried by assault; the alternative is not, however, the less painful.

If the reader can for a moment fancy a fine city, containing an immense population, amongst which may be reckoned a pro portion of the most beautiful women that Andalusia, or perhaps the world could boast of, — if he can fancy that population, and those females, left to the mercy of twenty thousand infuriated and licentious soldiers for two days and two nights, — if, I say, he can fancy this, he can well imagine the horrors that were acted within the walls of Badajoz. In the first burst, all the wine and spirit stores were forced open and ransacked from top to bottom ; and it required but a short time for the men to get into that fearful state that was alike dangerous to all— officers or soldiers, or the inhabitants of the city. Casks of the choicest wines and brandy were dragged into the streets, and when the men had drunk as much as they fancied, the heads of the vessels were stove in, or the casks otherwise so broken that the liquor ran about in streams.

In the town were a number of animals that belonged to the garrison, several hundred sheep, numerous oxen, as likewise many horses ; these were amongst the first taken possession of; and the wealthy occupier of many a house was glad to be allowed the employ, ment of conducting them to our camp, as, by doing so, he got away from a place where his life was not worth a minute's purchase; but terrible as was this scene, it was not possible to avoid occasionally laugh ing, for the conducteur was generally not only obliged to drive a herd of cattle, but also to carry the bales of plunder taken by his employers — perhaps from his own house — and the stately gravity with which the Spaniard went through his work, dressed in short breeches, frilled shirt, and a hat and plumes that might vie with our eighth Henry, followed, as he was, by our ragamuffin soldiers with fixed bayonets, presented a scene that would puzzle even Mr. Cruik shank himself to justly delineate.

The plunder so captured was deposited in our camp, and placed under a guard chiefly composed of the soldiers' wives. The shops were rifled, first by one group, who despoiled them of their most costly articles, then by another, who thought themselves rich in capturing what had been rejected by their predecessors ; then another, and another still, until every vestige of pro perty was swept away. A few hours was sufficient for this; night was fast drawing near, and then a scene took place that has seldom fallen to the lot of any writer to describe. Every insult, every infamy that human invention could torture into practice was com mitted. Age as well as youth was alike unrespected, and perhaps not one house, or one female, in this vast town, escaped injury: but war is a terrible engine, and, when once set in movement, it is not possible to calculate when or where it will stop.

Happy are those countries that have not been visited by its scourge ; and grateful ought the nation to be that can boast of having had such an armv and such a man as the Duke of Wellington, who, by his great genius as a general and steel-hardiness as a man — because nothing but the latter quality, in which, perhaps, he surpasses all ancient or modern heroes, could have enabled him or his army to remain in the Peninsula one day after the invasion of Portugal by the Prince of Esling, in 1810, have kept the British empire free from such a calamity. For the latter, everything that a sovereign and a nation could do, has been done ; but, the former — as a body — have met with nothing but — neglect. The day of the eighth of April was also a fearful one for the inhabitants ; the soldiers became reckless, and drank to such an excess, that no person's life, no matter of what rank, or station, or sex, was safe.

If they entered a house that had not been emptied of all its furniture or wine, they proceeded to destroy it ; or, if it happened to be empty, which was generally the case, they commenced firing at the doors and windows, and not unfrequently at the inmates, or at each other ! They would then sally forth into the streets, and fire at the different church-bells in the steeples, or the pigeons that inhabited the old Moorish turrets of the castle — even the owls were frighted from this place of refuge, and, by their discordant screams, announced to their hearers the great revolution that had taken place near their once peaceful abodes. The soldiers then fired upon their own comrades, and many men were killed, in endeavouring to carry away some species of plunder, by the hands of those who, but a few hours before, would have risked their own lives to protect those they now so wantonly sported with : then would they turn upon the already too deeply injured females, and tear from them the trinkets that adorned their necks, fingers, or ears ! and, finally, they would strip them of their wearing apparel.

Some, 'tis said there were — ruffians of the lowest grade, no doubt — who cut the ear-rings out of the ears of the females' who bore them, when they discovered a band of marauders approach ing the unfortunate beings that were subjected to such brutal treatment, and whom they feared might antici pate them in their infamy; for here, as in all such disgraceful scenes, " might made right ;" and the con duct of the soldiers during the sacking of Badajoz, is a sufficient proof, if such proof be wanting, of the dangers attendant upon anything where the multitude are allowed to think and act for themselves. Hundreds of those fellows took possession of the best warehouses, and for a time fulfilled the functions of merchants ; those, in their turn, were ejected by a stronger party, who, after a fearful strife and loss of lives, displaced them, and occupied their position, and those again were conquered by others, and others more powerful ! and thus was Badajoz circumstanced on the morning of the 8th of April, 1812.

It presented a fearful picture of the horrors that are inevitable upon a city carried by assault ; and although it is painful to relate these disgraceful facts, it is essential neverthe less. All writers, no matter how insignificant they may be, — and I am willing to place myself at the bottom of the list of those persons,— should, in any detail which may lay claim to historical facts, be extremely cautious that they in no way mislead their readers ; and in anything that I have ever written, or may hereafter write, I shall not deviate from this prin ciple. I feel as much pride as any man can feel in having taken a part in actions that must ever shed lustre upon my country ; but no false feeling of deli cacy shall ever prevent me from speaking the truth — no matter whether it touches the conduct of one man or ten thousand !

To put a stop to such a frightful scene, it was necessary to use some forbearance, as likewise a portion of severity. In the first instance, parties from those regiments that had least participated in the combat were ordered into the town to collect the hordes of stragglers that filled its streets with crimes too horrible to detail ; but the evil had spread to such an extent that this measure was inadequate to the end proposed, and in many instances the parties so sent became infected by the contagion, and in place of remedying the disorder, increased it, by joining once more in revels they had for a time quitted. At length a brigade of troops was marched into the city, and were directed to stand by their arms while any of the marauders remained ; the Provost-Marshals attached to each division were directed to use that authority with which they are of necessity invested.

Gibbets and triangles were in consequence erected, and many men were flogged, but, although the contrary has been said, none were hanged — yet hundreds deserved it A few hours, so employed, were sufficient to purge the town of the infamous gang of robbers that still lurked about its streets, and those ruffians — chiefly Spaniards or Portuguese, not in any way attached to the army — were infinitely more dangerous than our fellows, bad as they were. Murder — except indeed in a paroxyism of drunkenness, and in many cases, I regret to say, it did occur in this way, — never entered their thoughts, but the miscreants here referred to would commit the foulest deed for less than a dollar. Towards evening tranquillity began to return, and, protected as they now were by a body of troops, untainted by the disease which had spread like a con tagion, the unfortunate inhabitants took advantage of the quiet that reigned : yet it was a fearful quiet, and might be likened to a ship at sea, which after having been plundered and dismasted by pirates, is left floating on the ocean without a morsel of food to supply the wants of its crew, or a stitch of canvass to cover its naked masts; by degrees, however, some clothing, such as decency required, was procured for the females, by the return of their friends to the town ; and many a father and mother rejoiced to find their children, who were still dearer to them than ever from the dangers they had escaped, alive, although it was impossible to hide from them the fact that they had been seriously and grossly injured.

But there were also many who were denied even this sad consolation, for numbers of the towns-people had fallen in the confusion that prevailed, some of our officers also were killed in this way, and it has been said, I believe truly, that one or two, one a colonel commanding a regiment, lost their lives by the hands of their own men. These calamities are, however, the unavoidable attendants on war ; and a great victory, gratifying as it unquestionably is to the General who achieves it, is not without its alloy, and brings forcibly to my recol lection the fine reply of the Duke of Wellington after the battle of Waterloo, to a lady of great literary celebrity in Paris. This lady was amongst the many French who were at a ball given at the time the allied armies occupied Paris in Inla. She was most pointed in her attentions to the Duke, and devoted almost her entire conversation to him in preference to the two Emperors, the King of Prussia, or the other distin guished allied generals.

" My lord," said she, in the course of conversation, •' do you not think the gaining a great battle a delightful thing?" " Ne pensez vous pas, qu'une grande victoire est la plus agreable de tontes choses ?" " Madam," replied the Duke, with a degree of coldness bordering on austerity, " I look upon it as the greatest calamity — except losing one!" "Je la regarde, Madame, cumme le plus grand malhe.ur — ex cepte une defaite !" It was a fine saying and worthy of him who uttered it. The plunder with which our camp was now filled was so considerable, and of so varied a description, that numerous as were the purchasers, and different their wants, they all had, nevertheless, an opportunity of suiting themselves to their taste ; still the sale had not commenced in form, although, like other markets, " some private sales were effected."

From the door of my tent I had a partial view of what was taking place ; but for the present, I shall leave the marche, and describe how I, myself, was circumstanced from the period I reached my tent, wounded, on the morning of the 7th. she two faithful soldiers, Bray and Macgowan, that conducted me there, on entering, found my truss of straw, or bed, if the reader will so allow me to desig nate it, occupied by Mrs. Nelly Carsons, the wife of my bat-man, who, I suppose, by the way of banishing b3 care, had taken to drinking divers potations of rum to such an excess, that she lay down in my bed, thinking, perhaps, that I was not likely again to be its occupant; or, more probably, not giving it a thought at all. Macgowan attempted to wake her, but in vain ! a batter)* of a dozen guns might have been fired close to her ear without danger of disturbing her repose.

" Why then, sir," said he, " sure the bed's big enough for yees both, and these are no times to stand on saramony with another man's wife,— and she'll keep you nate and warm, for, be the powers, you're kilt with the cold and the loss ov blood." I was in no mood to stand on ceremony, or, indeed, to stand at all ; and I will venture to say that no man ever entered a bed occupied by the wife of another with a clearer conscience. I allowed myself to be placed beside my partner, without any further persuasion ; and the two soldiers left us to ourselves, and returned to the town. Weakness from loss of blood soon caused me to fall asleep, but it was a sleep of short duration. I awoke, and saw the awkward dilemma in which I was placed. I was unable to move, and was completely at the mercy of Mistress Carsons, or any freak or gambol she might think fit to play.

I, in fact, lay like an infant. The fire of small arms, the screams of the soldiers' wives, and the universal buzz throughout the camp, acted powerfully upon my nervous and worn-out frame ; but having a clear conscience, and mine was certainly a clear one as far as regarded my bed-fellow at least, — Somnus conquered Mars, — at least he did so in my case, for I soon fell into another doze, in which I might have remained very comfortable had not my companion awoke sooner than I wished ; dis charging a huge grunt, and putting her hand upon my leg, she exclaimed, " Arrah ! Dan, jewel, what makes you so stiff this morning ?" It required but few words from me to undeceive her. Tea and chocolate were soon in readiness, and having tasted some of the former, I sat up in my bed waiting the arrival of the first surgeon to dress my wound.

My bat-man, Dan Carsons, shortly afterwards made his appearance ; he led up to the door of my tent three sheep whose soft fleeces would not have disgraced the pen of Monsieur le Baron Torneaux, who sent to the mountains of Caucasus for a supply of rare sheep for the purpose of improving the French shawl manufactory. He had, moreover, a pig-skin of enormous size filled with right good wine which the Spaniards call la tinta de la Mancha : " And sure," said he, " I hard of your being kilt, and I brought you this (pointing to the pig-skin of wine), thinking what a nate bolster it i'd be for you while you slept at your aise ; " and, without waiting for my reply, he thrust the pig-skin under my head. " And look," said he, shewing me a spigot at the mouth of my bolster, "when you're thirsty at all at all, you see nothing is more pleasant or aisy than to clap this into your mouth, and sure won't it be mate and dhrink for you too?"

" Oh ! Jasus !" responded Nelly, " he 's kilt out and out; see, Dan, how the blood is in strames about the blankets." " A little learning is a dangerous thing," so— under certain circumstances— is a little laughing ! and Dan Carsons and his wife made me laugh so im moderately, that a violent discharge of blood from my wound nearly put an end to my career in this world. Had it not been for the arrival of Dr. Grant, the staff-surgeon of the division, who just now made his appearance, I doubt much if any of my readers would ever have had the pleasure of reading these my reminiscences. But 1 must have done with myself, Dan Carsons, and his wife Nelly; and resume my I fU ADVENTURES OF narrative of the sale of the plunder with which our camp was, to use a mercantile phrase, glutted. Early on the morning of the 9th of April, a great concourse of Spaniards had already thronged our lines ; the neighbouring villages poured in their quota of persons seeking to be the purchasers of the booty captured by our men, and each succeeding hour increased the supply for their wants, numerous and varied as they were, and our camp presented the ap pearance of a vast market.

The scene after the taking of Rodrigo was nothing in comparison to the present, because the resources of Badajoz might be said to be in the ratio of five to one as compared with her sister fortress, and, besides, our fellows were, in an equal proportion, more dexterous than they had been in their maiden effort to relieve Rodrigo of its valuables. It may, therefore, be well supposed, and the reader may safely take my word for it, that the transfer of property was, on the present occasion, considerable. Some men realized upwards of one thousand dollars (about 250/.), others less, but all, or almost all, gained handsomely by an enterprise in which they had displayed such unheard-of acts of devotion and bravery; and it is only to be lamented that they tarnished laurels so nobly won by traits of barbarity for which it would be difficult to find a parallel in the annals of any army.

But such atrocities are ever the attendants upon anything where those, hitherto dependent upon their superiors — whose station in society enables them to be the most competent judges of what is proper — are allowed to think and act for themselves; and a licentious army, although not by the half so bad as a licentious mob, is never theless a terrible scourge. The sale of the different commodities went on rapidly, notwithstanding we had no auctioneers ; there was no " king's duty," but, most undeniably, if the Spaniards paid no "king's duty," they paid the piper ! While the divers articles were carried away by the purchasers, the wounded were removed to the hospitals and camp, and the lamentations of the women for their dead or wounded husbands was a striking contrast to the scene of gaiety which almost everywhere prevailed.