The autobiography of Lieutenant-General Sir Harry Smith, baronet of Aliwal on the Sutlej, G.C.B.

Front matter

THIS BOOK WAS LEFT TO DE COURCY WRIGHT THOM BY

Joseph Earl and Genevieve Thornton

Arrington

Preface

The Life of Sir Harry Smith here offered to the public consists of an Autobiography covering the period 1787 to 1846 (illustrated by notes and appendices), and some supplementary chapters contributed by myself on the last period of Sir Harry’s life (1846-1860). The first volume carries the reader to the year 1829. This, it is interesting to remark, is a true turning point in the life of the great soldier. Till then he had seen warfare only on two continents, Europe and America (the Peninsula, France, the Netherlands, Monte Video, Buenos Ayres, Washington, New Orleans) ; from that date onwards the scene of his active service was Africa and Asia. Till 1829 his responsibility was small ; after 1829 he had a large or paramount share in directing the operations in which he was engaged. This difference naturally affects the tone of his narrative in the two periods.

The Autobiography (called by its author “ Various Anecdotes and Events of my Life ”) was begun by Sir Harry Smith, then Lieutenant-Colonel Smith,

VI

PREFACE.

at Glasgow in 1824. At that time it was only con¬ tinued as far as page 1 5 of the present volume. On nth August, 1844, when he had won his K.C.B., and was Adjutant-General of Her Majesty’s Forces in India, he resumed his task at Simla. He then wrote with such speed that on 1 5th October he was able to tell his sister that he had carried his narrative to the end of the campaign of Gwalior, that is, to 1844 (vol. ii. p. 132). Finally, on 7th September, 1846, when at Cawnpore in command of a Division, he began to add to what he had previously written an account of the campaign of the Sutlej, which had brought him fresh honours. This narrative was broken off abruptly in the middle of the Battle of Sobraon (vol. ii. p. 192), and was never completed. Accordingly, of Sir Harry Smith’s life from February, 1846, to his death on 12th October, i860, we have no record by his own hand.

The Autobiography had been carefully preserved by Sir Harry’s former aide-de-camp and friend, General Sir Edward Alan Holdich, K.C.B., but, as it happened, I was not myself aware of its existence until, owing to the fresh interest awakened in Sir Harry Smith and his wife by the siege of Ladysmith early in 1900, I inquired from members of my family what memorials of my great-uncle were preserved. Sir Edward then put this manu¬ script and a number of letters and documents at my disposal. It appeared to me and to friends

PREFACE.

VU whom I consulted that the Autobiography was so full of romantic adventure and at the same time of such solid historical value that it ought no longer to remain unpublished, and Mr. John Murray, to whom I submitted a transcription of it, came at once to the same conclusion.

My task as Editor has not been a light one. In Sir Harrys letter to Mrs. Sargant of 15th October, 1844,* he says of his manuscript, “ I have never read a page of it since my scrawling it over at full gallop;” and in a letter of 14th January, 1845, “ Harry Lorrequer would make a good story of it. You may ask him if you like, and let me know what he says of it.” It is clear from these passages that Sir Harry did not contemplate the publication of his story in the rough form in which he had written it, but imagined that some literary man, such as Charles Lever, might take it in hand, rewrite it with fictitious names, and so fashion out of it a military romance. The chapters f on Afghanistan and Gwalior, already written, were, however, of a serious character which would make them unsuitable for such treatment ; and the same was the case with the chapters on the Sikh War, afterwards added. Whether Lever ever saw the manuscript I do not know ; at any rate, the author’s idea was never carried out.

* See vol. ii. Appendix iv.

t Sir Harry s original narrative is not broken into chapters.

Vlll

PREFACE.

It is obvious that now that fifty years have passed, some of the reasons which made Sir Harry suggest such a transformation of his story are no longer in force. The actors in the events which he describes having almost all passed away, to suppress names would be meaningless and would deprive the book of the greater part of its interest. And for the sake of literary effect to rewrite Sir Harry’s story would be to destroy its great charm, the intimate relation in which it sets us with his fiery and romantic character.

The book here given to the public is not indeed word for word as Sir Harry wrote it. It has often been necessary to break up a long sentence, to invert a construction — sometimes to transpose a paragraph in order to bring it into closer connexion with the events to which it refers. But such changes have only been made when they seemed necessary to bring out more clearly the writer’s intention ; the words are the author’s own, even where a specially awkward construction has been smoothed ; and it may be broadly said that nothing has been added to Sir Harry’s narrative or omitted from it. Such slight additions to the text as seemed desirable, for example, names and dates of battles,* have been included in square brackets. In some cases, to avoid awkward parentheses, sentences of

* The Peninsular dates are generally borrowed from A British Rifleman (Major Simmons’ diary).

PREFACE.

IX

Sir Harry’s own have been relegated from the text to footnotes. Such notes are indicated by the addition of his initials (“ H.G.S.”).

Sir Harry’s handwriting was not of the most legible order, as he admits, and I have had con¬ siderable difficulty in identifying some of the persons and places he mentions. Sometimes I have come to the conclusion that his own recollec¬ tion was at fault, and in this case I have laid my difficulty before the reader.

I have not thought it my duty to normalize the spelling of proper names, such as those of towns in the Peninsula and in India, and the names of Kafir chiefs. Sir Harry himself spells such names in a variety of ways, and I have not thought absolute consistency a matter of im¬ portance, while to have re-written Indian names according to the modern official spelling would have been, as it seems to me, to perpetrate an anachronism.

I have, indeed, generally printed “Sutlej,” though Sir Harry frequently or generally wrote “ Sutledge ; ” but I have kept in his own narrative his spelling “ Ferozeshuhur ” (which is, I believe, more correct) for the battle generally called “ Ferozeshah.” Even Sir Harry’s native place (and my own) has two spellings, “Whittlesey” and “ Whittlesea.” In his narrative I have pre¬ served his usual spelling “ Whittlesea,” but I have

X

PREFACE.

myself used the other, as I have been taught to do from a boy.

Perhaps it is worth while to mention here that Sir Harry’s name was strictly “ Henry George Wakelyn Smith,” and it appears in this form in official documents. But having been always known in the army as “ Harry Smith,” after attaining his knighthood he stoutly refused to become “ Sir Henry,” and insisted on retaining the more familiar name.* As the year of his birth is constantly given as 1 788, it is worth while to state that the Baptismal Register of St. Mary’s, Whittlesey, proves him to have been born on 28th June, 1787.

While the documents put into my hands by Sir Edward Holdich enabled me to throw a good deal of additional light on the events recorded in the Autobiography, I thought it a prime duty not to interrupt Sir Harry’s own narrative by interpola¬ tions. Accordingly I have thrown this illustrative matter into Appendices. In some of these, especially in his letters to his wife of 1835 (vol. ii., Appendix ii. ), one sees the writer, perhaps, in still more familiar guise than in the Autobiography.

But I had not merely to illustrate the period of Sir Harry’s life covered by his Autobiography ; I

* Sir Harry’s ordinary signature was “ H. G. Smith.” His letters to his wife were commonly signed “ Enrique ” ; to members of his family, “Harry Smith”; to his friend and interpreter for the Kafir language, Mr. Theophilus Shepstone, “Inkosi” (“Chief”). He addressed Mr. Shepstone as “ My dear Sumtseu ” (“ Hunter ”).

PREFACE.

xi had a further task before me, viz. to construct a narrative of the rest of his life (1846-1860), includ¬ ing his Governorship of the Cape (1847-1852). For the manner in which I have done this, I must crave indulgence. At the best it would have been no easy matter to continue in the third person a story begun by the main actor in the first, and in this case the letters and personal memoranda, which were tolerably abundant for Sir Harry’s earlier years, suddenly became very scanty when they were most required. Accordingly, for much of Sir Harry’s life I had no more sources to draw on than are accessible to anybody — histories, blue-books, and newspapers. I can only say that in this situation I have done the best I could. My chief difficulty was, of course, in dealing with the time of Sir Harry’s command at the Cape. It would have been inconsistent with the scope of the whole book to have attempted a systematic history of the colony or of the operations of the Kafir War. At the same time I could not enable my readers to form an estimate of Sir Harry’s conduct at this time without giving them some indication of the circumstances which surrounded him. If I am found by some critics to have subordinated bio¬ graphy too much to history, I can only hope that other critics will console me by finding that I have subordinated history too much to biography.

Amid a certain dearth of materials of a private

b

VOL. I.

Xll

PREFACE.

kind, I do congratulate myself on having been able to use the packet of letters docketed by Sir Harry, “John Bell's and Charlie Beckwith’s Letters.’* General Beckwith was an earlier General Gordon, and his letters are so interesting in matter and so brilliant in expression that one is tempted to wish to see them printed in full. Perhaps some readers of this book may be able to tell me of other letters by the same remarkable man which have been preserved.

The latter part of this book would have been balder than it is, if it had not been for the help I have received from various friends, known and unknown. I must express my thanks in particular to the Misses Payne of Chester, who lent me letters addressed to their father, Major C. W. Meadows Payne; to Mrs. Thorne of Chippenham, who lent me letters addressed to her father, Major George Simmons ; to Mrs. Fasson, daughter of Mr. Justice Menzies of the Cape, and Mr. W. F. Collier of Horrabridge, who gave me their reminiscences; to Colonel L. G. Fawkes, R.A., Stephen A. Aveling, Esq., of Rochester, Major J. F. Anderson of Faringdon, R. Morton Middleton, Esq., of Ealing, Captain C. V. Ibbetson of Preston, Mrs. Henry Fawcett, my aunt Mrs. John A. Smith, Mrs. Farebrother of Oxford, Mr. B. Genn of Ely, Mr. Charles Sayle of Cambridge, Mr. G. J. Turner of Lincoln’s Inn, Mr. A. E. Barnes of the Local Government Board,

PREFACE .

Xlll the Military Secretary of the War Office, and others, for kind assistance of various kinds. I am indebted to my cousins, Mrs. Lambert of i, Sloane Gardens, S.W., and C. W. Ford, Esq., for per¬ mission to reproduce pictures in their possession, and to General Sir Edward Holdich for much aid and interest in my work in addition to the permission to use his diary of the Boomplaats ex¬ pedition. Lastly, my thanks are due to my brothers and sisters who assisted in transcribing the Auto¬ biography, and in particular to my sister, Miss M. A. Smith, who did most of the work of preparing the Index.

I shall feel that any labour which I have bestowed on the preparation of this book will be richly repaid if through it Harry and Juana Smith cease to be mere names and become living figures, held in honour and affection by the sons and daughters of the Empire which they served.

G. C. MOORE SMITH.

Sheffield,

September , 1901.

DATES OF LIEUT.-GENERAL SIR HARRY SMITH’S COMMISSIONS AND APPOINTMENTS.

REGIMENTAL RANK.

Second Lieutenant, ist Battalion 95th Regiment

Lieutenant

Captain

Major, unattached Lieut.-Colonel, unattached Lieut.-Colonel, 3rd Foot ...

Lieut.-Colonel, unattached Colonel, 47th Foot Colonel, 2nd Battalion Rifle Brigade Colonel, 1 st Battalion Rifle Brigade

ARMY RANK.

Major ...

Lieut.-Colonel

Colonel

Local rank of Major-General in the East Indies Major-General ...

Local rank of Lieut.-General in South Africa Lieut.-General ...

STAFF APPOINTMENTS.

Peninsular War.

A.D.C. to Colonel T. S. Beckwith ...

Brigade Major, 2nd Brigade, Light Division under Major-General Drummond, Major-General Vandeleur, Major-General Skerrett, and Colonel Colborne successively ...

Washington Expedition.

D.A.G. to Major-General R. Ross ...

Oct. 1810 Mar. 1811 to the end of the war, Mar. 1814

XVI

COMMISSIONS AND APPOINTMENTS .

New Orleans Expedition.

A.A.G. to Major-General Sir E. Pakenham Military Secretary to Major-General Sir J. Lambert

Waterloo Campaign.

Brigade- Major, afterwards A.O.M.G. to 6th Division (Major-General Sir J. Lambert and Major-General Sir Lowry Cole successively) ...

[Returns to his regiment.]

Occupation of France.

Major de Place of Cambray ... ... ...

[Returns to his regiment.]

Glasgow.

Major of Brigade to Major-General Sir T. Reynell (commanding Western District) and Lieut- General Sir T. Bradford (Commander-in-Chief in Scotland) successively ... ...

[Returns to his regiment.]

Nova Scotia.

A.D.C. to Lieut.-General Sir James Kempt, Governor

Jamaica.

D.Q.M.G. under Lieut.-General Sir John Keane, Governor ...

Cape of Good Hope.

D.Q.M.G. under Lieut.-General Sir Lowry Cole, Lieut.- General Sir B. D’Urban, Major-General Sir G. T. Napier, Governors, successively ... ...

Chief of the Staff under Sir Benjamin D’Urban in the Kafir War ... ...

India.

A.G. to Her Majesty’s Forces, under Lieut.-General Sir Jasper Nicolls and Lieut.-General Sir Hugh Gough, Commanders-in-Chief, successively

Sikh War.

In Command of the ist Division Infantry ...

1815-1818

1819-1825

1828 1*35

1840-1845

1845-1846

COMMISSIONS AND APPOINTMENTS .

XVII

Cape of Good Hope.

Governor and Commander-in-Chief ... ... 1847-1852

Home Staff.

In Command of the Western Military District ... 1853-1854

In Command of the Northern and Midland Military

STEPS IN THE ORDER OF THE BATH.

G.C.B. for Aliwal and Sobraon ... ... ... 1846

BOOKS USEFUL FOR REFERENCE IN CONNEXION WITH SIR HARRY SMITH’S LIFE.

Sir William F. P. Napier : History of the War in the Peninsula.

Sir H. E. Maxwell : Life of Wellington.

Sir William H. Cope : History of the Rifle Brigade (1877).

Edward Costello : Adventures of a Soldier.

A British Rifleman (Major George Simmons* Diary), edited by Colonel Willoughby Verner.

Sir John Kincaid : Random Shots by a Rifleman.

Sir JOHN Kincaid : Adventures in the Rifle Brigade.

Recollections of Rifleman Harris (1848).

Surtees : Twenty-five Years in the Rifle Brigade (1833).

Colonel Jonathan Leach : Rough Sketches in the Life of an Old Soldier (1831).

Charles Dalton : The Waterloo Roll Call (1890).

George McC. Theal : History of South Africa, , vol. iv. (1893).

Sir J. E. Alexander : Narrative of a Voyage , etc. (1837). This work contains in vol. ii. a history of the Kafir War of 1835, with illustrations.

H. Cloete : The Great Boer Trek.

The War in India. Despatches of Viscount Hardinge, Lord Gough , Major-General Sir Harry Smith , Bart., etc. (1846).

General Sir Chas. Gough and A. D. Innes : The Sikhs and the Sikh Wars (1897).

J. W. Clark and T. McK. Hughes : Life of Adam Sedgwick.

Harriet Ward : Five Years in Kaffir l and.

J. Noble: South Africa (1877).

A. Wilmot and J. C. Chase : Annals of the Colony of the Cape 0 Good Hope (1869).

Alfred W. Cole: The Cape and the Kaffirs (1852).

W. R. King: Campaigning in Kaffirland (with illustrations), (1853).

W. A. Newman : Memoir of John Montagu (1855).

Correspondence of General Sir G. Cathcart (1856).

Earl Grey : The Colonial Policy of Lord John Russell's Admin istration (1853).

Blue-Bqoks : Cape of Good Hope (1830-1852).

M. Meille : Memoir of General Beckwith , C.B. (1873).

CONTENTS OF VOL. I

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Monte Video and Buenos Ayres, 1806-7 ... 1

II. With Sir John Moore — Battle of Coruna,

III. Back to the Peninsula under Sir Arthur

IV. Campaign of 1810— The ist German Hussars 24

V. Campaign of 1810— Battle of the Coa ... 28

VII. Campaign of 1812 : Storming of Ciudad Rodrigo 55

VIII. Campaign of 1812: The Storming of Badajos

— Harry Smith’s Marriage ... ... ... 61

IX. Campaign of 1812 : Battle of Salamanca— Occupation of Madrid— Retreat to Sala¬ manca ... ... ... ... ... 75

X. Campaign of 1812: Retreat to the Lines of

Torres Vedras— Winter of 1812-13 "... 84

XI. Campaign of 1813 : Battle of Vittoria ... 93

XII. Campaign of 1813: Advance to Vera ... ... 104

XIII. Campaign of 1813 : In the Pyrenees— General

Skerrett — Combat of Vera — Fight at the Bridge, and Death of Cadoux ... ... 113

XXII

CONTENTS .

CHAPTER

XIV.

PAGE

Campaign of 1813: Colonel Colborne— Second Combat of Vera ... ... ... ... 129

XV.

Campaign of 1813: Battle of the Nivelle 140

XVI.

Combat of the ioth December — Harry Smith’s Dream and the Death of his Mother ... 152

XVII.

Campaign of 1814: Battle of Orthez— Anecdote of Juana Smith ... ... 162

XVIII.

Campaign of 1814 : at Gee, near Aire— Battle of Tarbes— Battle of Toulouse — end of the War ... ... ... ... 170

XIX.

Harry Smith parts from his Wife before

STARTING FOR THE WAR IN AMERICA ... 182

XX.

Voyage to Bermuda — Rendezvous in the

Chesapeake — Battle of Bladensburg and

Capture of Washington — Harry Smith sent Home with Dispatches ... ... 19

XXI.

Harry Smith once more in England— Re¬

union with his Wife in London— Interview

with the Prince Regent — Dinner at Lord Bathurst’s — A Journey to Bath — Harry Smith introduces his Wife to his Father

— Visit to Whittlesey — He receives Orders

to return to America under Sir Edward Pakenham ... ... ... ... 209

XXII.

Sails with Sir Edward Pakenham on the

Expedition against New Orleans — Re¬ verse of 8th January, 1815, and Death of Pakenham — Sir John Lambert succeeds to the Command, appoints Harry Smith his Military Secretary, and withdraws the Force ... ... ... ... ... 226

XXIII. Capture of Fort Bowyer— Disembarcation on Ile Dauphine— End of the American War — Visit to Havana and Return-Voyage

CONTENTS .

XXU1

CHAPTER

XXIV.

XXV.

XXVI.

XXVII.

XXVIII.

XXIX.

XXX.

PAGE

to England— News of Napoleon’s Return to Power — Harry Smith at his Home at Whittlesey ... ... ... ... 248

Harry Smith and his Wife start together for the Waterloo Campaign — Ghent — Battle of Waterloo ... ... ... 263

March to Paris— Harry Smith Quarter¬

master - General of the Reserve — He

BECOMES LlEUT.-COLONEL AND C.B. — THE 6TH

Division moved from Neuilly to St. Germain

— THE Due DE BERRI AS A SPORTSMAN — ON the Reduction of the 6th Division Harry Smith rejoins his Regiment as Captain — March to Cambray — He is made Major de Place of that Town ... ... ... 290

Cambray, 1816-1818— Sport and Gaiety— The Duke of Wellington — Harry Smith receives a Visit from his Father ... ... ... 301

Return to England (1818)— Harry Smith re¬ joins his Regiment — Shorncliffe — Gosport — Discharge of the Peninsular Veterans 317

Glasgow (1819-1825) — Radical Disturbances — Harry Smith once more on the Staff as Major of Brigade — George IV.’s Visit to Edinburgh — Harry Smith revisits Paris —

He rejoins his Regiment in Ireland ... 324

1825-1828: Harry Smith accompanies his Regiment to Nova Scotia — Sir James Kempt — Harry Smith parts with his old Regiment on being appointed Deputy Quartermaster- General in Jamaica — He has to deal with an Epidemic of Yellow Fever among the Troops— Appointed Deputy Quartermaster- General at the Cape of Good Hope ... 338

XXIV

CONTENTS'

CHAPTER PAGE

XXXI. After staying Three Weeks at Nassau, Harry Smith and his Wife sail for Eng¬ land, ^and after a Miserable Voyage land at Liverpool — He visits London and Whittlesey, and leaves England (1829),

APPENDIX I.— Diary of the Expedition to Monte

APPENDIX II. — Some Family Letters preserved by

Harry Smith with Particular Care ... 368

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

VOL. I.

Lieut.-Colonel Harry Smith ...

(From a picture painted in Paris in 1815.)

Sir Harry Smith’s Birthplace, Whittlesey

(From a photograph by A. Gray , Whittlesey , 1900.)

Juana Smith ...

(From a picture painted in Paris in 1815.)

St. Mary’s, Whittlesey

(From a photograph by A. Gray, Whittlesey, 1900.)

John Smith (Sir Harry Smith’s Father)

(From a picture painted by J. P. Hunter in 1837.)

On the Cover.

Arms granted to Sir Harry Smith in 1846.

They are thus described by Sir Bernard Burke : —

Arms — Argent, on a chevron between two martlets in chief gules, and upon a mount vert in base, an elephant proper, a fleur-de-lis between two lions rampant, of the first : from the centre-chief, pendant by a riband, gules, fimbriated azure, a representation of the Waterloo medal.

Crest — Upon an Eastern crown or, a lion rampant argent, supporting a lance proper ; therefrom flowing to the sinister, a pennon gules, charged with two palm-branches, in saltier, or.

The supporters are a soldier of the Rifle Brigade and a soldier of the 52nd Regiment.

Frotitispiece '0 face p. 156 „ 218

„ 260

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF

Lt.-Gen. Sir Harry Smith,

BARONET OF ALIWAL, G.C.B.

Chapter I. Monte Video And Buenos Ayres

1806-7.

Written i?i Glasgow in 1824. — H. G. Smith.

I was born in the parish of Whittlesea and county of Cambridgeshire in the year [1787]. I am one of eleven children, six sons and five daughters. Every pains was taken with my education which my father could afford, and I was taught natural philosophy, classics, algebra, and music.*

* The birthplace of Sir Harry Smith in St. Mary’s Street, Whit¬ tlesey, is now called “ Aliwal House.” In his MS. he left the year of his birth vacant, and it would appear that he was uncertain of his own age (cp. p. 73). This may account for the date of his birth having been often given wrongly as 1788. The east end of the south aisle of St. Mary’s church was at this time partitioned off and used as a schoolroom, the vicar or curate teaching. It was here that Harry Smith received his education from the Rev. George Burgess, then curate, who survived to welcome him in Whittlesey in 1847 on his return after the battle of Aliwal. This part of the church, having been restored in 1862 as a memorial to him, is now known as “Sir Harry’s Chapel.”

Harry Smith’s father, John Smith (son of Wakelyn Smith), VOL. I.

B

BOYHOOD AT WHITTLESEY.

[Ch. I.

In 1804 the whole country was en masse collected in arms as volunteers from the expected invasion of the French, and being now sixteen years of age, I was received into the Whittlesea troop of

surgeon, born 1756, died 2 Sept. 1843, married in 1781 Eleanor (born 1760, died 12 Dec. 1813), daughter of the Rev. George Moore, M.A. (Queens’ College, Cambridge), vicar of St. Mary and St. Andrew, Whittlesey, and minor canon of Peterborough Cathedral. They had in all fourteen children, but only eleven survived infancy, viz. 1, Mary Anne; 2, John Stona ; 3, Eleanor Moore; 4, Elizabeth; 5, Henry George Wakelyn (b. 28 June, 1787) ; 6, Jane Alice (Mrs. Sargant), b. 1789 ; 7, William ; 8, Thomas Lawrence (b. 25 Feb. 1792) ; 9, Anna Maria ; 10, Charles (b. 10 Aug. 1795) ; 11, Samuel.

Mrs. Sargant, Harry Smith’s favourite sister, resided for many years in Clapton Square, and died in 1869. She was the author of Joan of Arc , a Play , Charlie Burton (a tale, translated into French and German), and many other works.

Thomas Lawrence (frequently mentioned in this book) received his commission in the 95th (Rifle Brigade) on 3 March, 1808, and took part in the actions of Sir John Moore’s expedition to the battle of Corunna. Like his brother Harry, he served with the Light Division throughout the Peninsular War to the battle of Toulouse, being dangerously wounded at the Coa. He was recommended for promotion for his conduct at Waterloo. He proceeded with his regiment to Paris, and riding as Adjutant at the head of the 2nd Battalion, was the first British officer who entered the city on 7 July, 1815. He went on half-pay in 1817. In 1824 he was ap¬ pointed Barrack-master, in which capacity he served in Ireland till 1838, when he was transferred to Chatham. On the formation of Aldershot Camp in 1855, he was appointed Principal Barrack-master there, and held his appointment till 1868. On retirement he was made a C.B. and granted a special pension. He died in London on 6 April, 1877, an(l was buried in the cemetery, Aldershot.

Charles was present as a “Volunteer” with the 1st Battalion 95th at Quatrebras and Waterloo, after which he received a commission as Second Lieutenant. Two or three years later he retired from the army and settled at Whittlesey. He became J.P. and D.L. for Cam¬ bridgeshire, and Lieut.-Colonel of the Yeomanry Cavalry of the county, and died at Whittlesey on 24 Dec. 1854.

Further information about Sir Harry Smith’s family was given to Mr. Arthur M. Smith, at his request, for his book The Smiths of Exeter , and will there be found, although, in the opinion of the present editor, no connexion between the two families can be established.

THE 95 TH REGIMENT.

Yeomanry Cavalry, commanded by Captain Johnson. During this year the Yeomanry in the neighbour¬ hood patrolled through Norman Cross Barracks, where 15,000 French prisoners were kept, when the Frenchmen laughed exceedingly at the young dragoon, saying, “ I say, leetel fellow, go home with your mamma; you most eat more pudding.” In the spring of 1805 the Whittlesea Yeomanry kept the ground at a review made by Brigadier-General Stewart (now Sir W. Stewart), when I was orderly to the General, who said, “ Young gentleman, would you like to be an officer ? ” “ Of all things,” was

my answer. “ Well, I will make you a Rifleman, a green jacket,” says the General, “and very smart.” I assure you the General kept his word, and upon the 15th [8th ?] May, 1805, I was gazetted second lieutenant in the 95th Regiment Riflemen,* and joined at Brabourne Lees upon the 18th of August. A vacancy of lieutenant occurring for purchase, my father kindly advanced the money, and I was gazetted lieutenant the 15th September [August ?], 1805. This fortunate purchase occurred when the 2nd Battalion of the corps was raising and the

* In consequence of a representation made to the Government by Colonel Coote Manningham and Lieut.-Colonel the Hon. William Stewart, an “ experimental Corps of Riflemen ” was formed early in 1800, with Manningham as colonel and Stewart one of the lieut.- colonels. It was actually organized by Stewart. On the 25th of December, 1802, the corps was ordered to be numbered as the 95th Regiment. In 1803 they were brigaded with the 43rd and 52nd as part of Sir John Moore’s Camp of Instruction at Shorncliffe. The 2nd Battalion was formed on the 6th of May, 1805, according to Cope, and joined the 1st Battalion at Brabourn Lees, near Ashford, in June (see Cope’s History of the Rifle Brigade , p. 1, etc.).

4 MONTE VIDEO AND BUENOS AYRES. [Ch. I.

officers had not been appointed, by which good luck twenty-seven steps were obtained by £100.

In the summer of 1806 a detachment of three Companies was directed to proceed from the 2nd Battalion of the corps from Faversham to Portsmouth, there to embark and form part of an army about to proceed to South America under the command of Sir Samuel Auchmuty. This detachment was under the command of Major Gardner, and I was appointed Adjutant, a great honour for so young an officer.* The army sailed for America, touching at Plymouth, Falmouth, Peak of Teneriffe, and Rio Janeiro, at which place it stayed one week to take in water, stores, etc., and, covered by the detachment of Riflemen, landed within a few miles of Monte Video upon the 16th of January, 1807. Some skirmishing took place the whole day with the light troops of the enemy. Upon the 17th and 1 8th the army halted for the artillery, stores, etc., to be landed. The outposts (Riflemen) were em¬ ployed both of these days.

Upon the 19th the army moved forward, and a general action took place, the result of which was most favourable to the British, and a position was taken up in the suburbs of Monte Video. Upon the 20th the garrison made a most vigorous sortie in three columns, and drove in our outposts, and a heavy and general attack lasted for near two hours, when the enemy were driven to the very walls of the place. The