HISTORICAL RECORD OF THE SECOND, (continued 2)
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In conjunction with this operation, the Third Division, under Sir Thomas Picton, having advanced on the enemy's left, the French fled in great confusion, leaving 4000 of their infantry unsupported in the valley, one half of whom were obliged to surrender at discretion. Thus were the attempts of the French Marshal to relieve Pampeluna frustrated, and his army doomed to suffer defeat and severe loss in defiance of extraordinary exertions, which gave them sanguine expectation of success. In these affairs several men of the Queen's were killed, and Lieutenant Hutton and a great number wounded.
On the 2nd of August, the Fourth Division advanced to the Puerto de Echalar, and afterwards moved to Lezaca to cover the head-quarters. At the latter place the Duke of Wellington remained stationary with his army in position to cover the siege of St. Sebastian, at this time pushed with great vigour by a portion of the allied army under Sir Thomas Graham.
No movement of consequence was made until the 31st of August, when the French crossed the Bidassoa in considerable force. With great fury they made repeated attacks on the Spanish position on the heights of San Marcial. The First and Fourth Divisions were, in consequence, moved forward to protect the flanks of the Spaniards, but the latter repulsed the enemy with such spirit, that they sought protection under their cannon; and giving up all hope of the relief of St. Sebastian, they re-crossed the Bidassoa, and during the night retreated from their position on the left bank of that river. In this operation the Second Provisional Battalion was left at the pass of the Crown Mountain, to keep up the communication with the Seventh Division.
On the 31st of August also the fortress of St. Sebastian was attacked and carried by assault. The British army had the proud satisfaction of victoriously entering the territory of France, and was led by its able commander to a position in front of the Bidassoa, considered one of the strongest in the Pyrenees, extending from Zugano Mardie by La Rhona to the sea.
In the storming of Marshal Soult's intrenched position on the river Nivelle, on the 10th of November, the attack of the centre columns was led by the four companies of the Queen's, supported by their comrades of the Fifty-third. The men carried bags of fern to fill up the ditch, and small scaling-ladders to mount the rampart of a redoubt which they were ordered to take. In this service they were completely successful. The battalion advanced with a British huzza, and the enemy abandoned the redoubt and fled. A deep ravine, immediately in the rear of the work, prevented the further advance of the Queen's, who from the crest of the hill had opened a sharp fire upon the fugitives. For the gallant and successful services on this occasion, his Majesty has graciously sanctioned the addition of the word Nivelle to its other badges of distinction.
Soon after this action the army went into quarters for a short time, while preparations were making for crossing the Adour, and forming the blockade of Bayonne. The Queen's was sent to St. Jean de Luz for new clothing, and rejoined the division at St. Severe. The Fourth Division proceeded towards Bourdeaux, to support the Seventh under Lieutenant-General Lord Dalhousie, and after the surrender of that city returned to the Plains of Toulouse.
1814
In the night of the 8th of April, 1814, the Fourth Division struck its tents, and proceeding by forced marches crossed the Garonne over a pontoon bridge; on the next day the army closed upon Toulouse. On the 10th the Division proceeded along the front of the enemy's strongly fortified position, exposed to a galling fire of grape, until it reached the right of their line, when it advanced up the heights; while the rest of the troops formed in two lines in its rear. A strong column of French now issued from the works, and threatened the flank and rear of the Fourth Division; but the Second Provisional Battalion, being thrown back en potence, opened a heavy fire and charged the enemy, who thereupon retreated to their trenches; the brigade then pushed up the hill, and carried the point to which its efforts had been directed. The city of Toulouse was now enclosed on all sides except that of the canal of Languedoc, along which a road was left open by the Duke of Wellington, in order to save the town from the destruction which must have followed its being taken by storm. Of this road the French availed themselves, and, retreating during the night, encamped about three leagues off. Both armies being now apprised of the abdication of Napoleon, the battle of Toulouse closed at once the campaign and the war. In addition to the other marks of distinction granted to the regiment for meritorious services, it has been authorised by his Majesty to assume the word Toulouse.
In commemoration of the meritorious services performed during the Peninsula war, his Majesty was also graciously pleased to authorise the word Peninsula, to be borne upon the colours and appointments of the Queen's Royal.
The division of the Queen's Royal serving on the continent embarked at Barsac in June, and landing at Cork marched to Fermoy, where it stayed about a month, after which it proceeded to Plymouth, and subsequently joined the head-quarters at Chichester.
1815
During the whole of the year 1815 the regiment was stationed at Gosport; and in January 1816 it was moved to Chatham, and from thence, on the 11th of April, to Portsmouth, where it embarked for the West Indies on the 24th of April, 1816, having previously received 300 general service men from the depôt in the Isle of Wight. It landed at Barbadoes on the 5th of June, where it was quartered in barracks at St. Anne's.
Some time before the Queen's arrived in Barbadoes, martial law had been proclaimed in consequence of an insurrection among the negroes, which, however, was soon quelled. The sickly season, which usually sets in about the month of September, was this year one of the most fatal remembered for a long period, and the Queen's Royal felt all its severity. In October the yellow fever broke out and raged with unabated fury until Christmas, during which short space it carried off 11 officers, upwards of 200 men, and more than half the women and children of the regiment. The officers who fell victims to its fury were Major Conolly, Captain Gordon, Lieutenants Clutterbuck, M'Dougall, Grey, Norman, and Grant; Lieutenant and Adjutant Spencer, Assistant-Surgeon Pendergrast, and Ensigns Massie and Richmond, to whose memory their surviving brother-officers erected a handsome marble monument in the Cathedral Church of Bridgetown.
1817
In 1817, the right wing of the regiment embarked for St. Vincent, and the left for Grenada; the men continued to suffer from dysentery, and other complaints which followed the ravages of the fever, and many were carried off. Amongst the number was Lieutenant Adams, who died of fever in Grenada.
1819 1820
In April, 1819, the regiment embarked for Demerara and Berbice, the head-quarters with seven companies being stationed at the first, and the three other companies at the latter place. The men were very healthy at the time of their arrival, but the climate of these colonies (originally settled by the Dutch), the soil of which lies below the level of the sea, soon, and severely, affected both officers and privates. They suffered first under intermittent fever, but the yellow fever afterwards made its appearance, and carried off great numbers. The detachment stationed at Berbice, which remained perfectly healthy until the month of November 1820, was, in a few subsequent weeks, nearly annihilated by that baneful malady, amongst whose victims were Major Thistlethwaite, the commandant, and Lieutenant Glasson.
About this time the regiment received a new pair of colours, which were consecrated, in due form, on the parade ground near Eve Leary barracks, on the 10th of November, 1820, and presented by Mrs. Jordan, wife of Lieutenant-Colonel John Jordan, then commanding the regiment. After the ceremony a splendid entertainment was given by the officers.
1821
The regiment having completed five years' service on the West Indian station, was relieved, in 1821, by the Twenty-first Fusiliers, and ordered home; it embarked on the 10th, sailed on the 13th of April, and landed at Gosport on the 13th of June. From Gosport it proceeded to Winchester, and after a short stay there, to Brighton, where it was reviewed by the Duke of York, when his Royal Highness was pleased to express his approbation of the appearance of the corps. On the 24th of August, 1821, the regiment, still at Brighton, was reduced to eight companies on the following establishment:—1 colonel, 1 lieutenant-colonel, 2 majors, 8 captains, 10 lieutenants, 6 ensigns, 5 staff, 29 serjeants, 24 corporals, 12 drummers, and 552 privates.
1822
In April, 1822, the regiment received a route to march to Hull in Yorkshire, where it remained in garrison a few weeks: in June it was ordered to proceed to Dublin, and arrived there on the 13th of July following.
General Coates[32], after commanding the regiment nearly twenty-eight years, died on the 22nd of July, 1822, and was succeeded in the Colonelcy by Major-General Sir Henry Torrens, K.C.B., Adjutant-General to the Forces.
1824
The regiment remained at Dublin until May, 1824, when it embarked for England, and proceeded to Gosport, and in the month of August following it was moved to Chatham.
1825 1826 1827
In the early part of February, 1825, the regiment, consisting of thirty-two serjeants, twenty drummers, and seven hundred and forty rank and file, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel J. Williams[33], marched from Chatham, and embarked at Gravesend for Bombay, where it arrived in the beginning of June, 1825. An augmentation of two companies, with a recruiting company, was made to the regiment on its embarkation for India service. This reinforcement sailed shortly after, and the whole corps, after assembling at Bombay, marched to Poonah, the capital of the Deccan, in which cantonment it arrived early in 1826. From Poonah four companies of the Queen's Royal were detached in September, 1827, on an expedition against the Rajah of Koolapore, in the Mahratta country, south of Bombay. The light company of the Queen's, with the light companies of the 20th and other regiments, were formed into a light battalion, under Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Place[34], of the Queen's, and proceeded for the above destination. The service terminated the same year by the surrender of the territory and the capitulation of the Rajah.
1828
Major-General Sir Henry Torrens, K.C.B.[35] (Adjutant-General of the Forces), died on the 22nd of August, 1828, and was succeeded, as Colonel of the Queen's Royal, by General the Right Honourable Sir William Keppel, G.C.B., from the Sixty-seventh Regiment.
1831
In the beginning of 1831, the regiment marched to Bombay, to take a tour of duty at the Presidency, and occupied its former cantonments at Calaba. The monsoon of 1831 passed off without any of the destructive effects which marked that of 1825, when the regiment lost many valuable men. The casualties in the regiment, from climate, were little beyond what might be expected in European countries; and during its service in India, the same result has attended the good order and regularity maintained in the Queen's. It is due to the corps to observe, that drunkenness has so far been kept within bounds as to be considered an unusual crime, and to be unknown in a company for a month together. To this happy cause may be attributed the healthy state of the regiment, and the circumstance of the hospital having at times been without a single soldier in it. If greater proof of the efficiency of the regiment were required, such would be perceived by reference to the reports of the inspecting generals.
1834
In 1834 the Queen's was relieved by the 40th Regiment, and returned to its former cantonments in the Deccan.
General the Right Honourable Sir William Keppel[36], G.C.B., died on the 11th of December, 1834, and the Colonelcy of the Queen's Royal was by his Majesty given to Lieutenant-General the Right Honourable Sir James Kempt, G.C.B. and G.C.H., from the 40th Regiment.
1837
The Queen's Royal Regiment has continued to be employed in the Presidency of Bombay to the end of the year 1837, the period of the termination of this Record. It remains an efficient corps, and the laurels which it acquired in every quarter of the globe are preserved untarnished in the distant shores of India.
Note.—The Compiler of this Record feels it his duty to acknowledge the most effective assistance which he has derived from Major Charles Head, late of the Queen's Royal Regiment, and from the devotedness which that gentleman has evinced in searching for the detail of all occurrences in which the honour of his late corps was concerned.