FOOTNOTES:

[6] Upon the representation of Major-General Gerard Lake, who was appointed Colonel of the Seventy-third Regiment, in November 1796, the Royal Authority was granted for the word “Mangalore” being borne on the Regimental Colour and Appointments, in consideration of the gallant conduct displayed in the defence of that place.

[7] “A View of the Origin and Conduct of the War with Tippoo Sultan, by Lieut.-Colonel Alexander Beatson, late Aide-de-camp to the Marquis Wellesley, Governor-General of India.”

[8] Seringapatam derived its name from the god Serung, to whom one of the pagodas was dedicated.

[9] The history of the second battalion is resumed at [page 43].

[10] Memorandum.

Horse Guards, 7th April, 1809.

As the population of the Highlands of Scotland is found to be insufficient to supply recruits for the whole of the Highland corps on the establishment of His Majesty’s army, and as some of these corps laying aside their distinguishing dress, which is objectionable to the natives of South Britain, would, in a great measure, tend to facilitate the completing of their establishment, as it would be an inducement to the men of the English militia to extend their services in greater numbers to these regiments:—it is in consequence most humbly submitted, for the approbation of His Majesty that His Majesty’s 72nd, 73rd, 74th, 75th, 91st, and 94th regiments should discontinue, in future, to wear the dress by which His Majesty’s regiments of Highlanders are distinguished, and that the above corps should no longer be considered as on that establishment.

(Signed) Harry Calvert,
Adjutant-General.

[11] Major-General Macquarie formerly commanded the SEVENTY-THIRD regiment.—Vide Memoir in [Appendix, page 69].

[12] A fourth division of the SEVENTY-THIRD sailed from Port Jackson on the 26th of January 1815, and arrived at Ceylon in the ship “General Brown,” on the 2nd of March. There still remained some men of the battalion for whom room could not be provided in the four ships already named, and those were embarked in the colonial brig “Kangaroo,” which arrived at Colombo on the 19th of August 1815.

[13] A memoir of the services of Lieut.-General Sir Maurice O’Connell, K.C.H., is contained in the [Appendix, page 70].


HISTORICAL RECORD
OF
THE SECOND BATTALION

OF

THE SEVENTY-THIRD REGIMENT.

1802

Europe enjoyed but a short interval of tranquillity by the treaty of Amiens, which was signed on the 27th of March, 1802. In May of the following year, the war was renewed, and Napoleon Bonaparte, the First Consul of the French Republic, threatened the invasion of Great Britain. On the 18th of May, 1804, Napoleon was invested with the dignity of Emperor of the French, and on the 26th of May of the succeeding year, he was crowned at Milan as King of Italy.

1804

In December, 1804, Spain issued a declaration of war against England, and agreed to furnish a powerful aid to the French Emperor.

1805

While the French pursued a victorious career in Germany, they experienced dreadful reverses from the British navy, particularly on the 21st of October, 1805, when the combined fleets of France and Spain were completely defeated off Cape Trafalgar. The victory was, however, clouded by the death of Admiral Viscount Nelson, to whose memory a grateful and admiring nation paid the highest honors.

1806
1808

In the year 1806, the SEVENTY-THIRD regiment arrived in England from the East Indies, and two years afterwards was ordered to embark for New South Wales. On the promulgation of the orders for this embarkation, it was directed that a second battalion should be added to the regiment, which was to be placed on the establishment of the army from the 24th of December, 1808.

The second battalion was, in the first instance, to consist of four companies, at a hundred rank and file each; upon the effectives exceeding four hundred, it was to be augmented to six hundred, which number being completed, it was to be augmented to a thousand rank and file.

1809

The battalion was embodied at Nottingham, and was considerably strengthened, within the year 1809, by volunteers from the English, Irish, and Scotch Militia.

1810

In March, 1810, the battalion proceeded to Ashborne, and subsequently to Derby and Ashford.

1811

On the 25th of October, 1811, the establishment of the battalion was augmented to six companies, consisting of thirty-four serjeants, twelve drummers, and six hundred rank and file.

1812

In July, 1812, the battalion was removed from Ashford to Deal, and afterwards proceeded to the Tower of London.

1813

While quartered in the Tower of London, in 1813, the battalion was augmented to ten companies, consisting of forty-five serjeants, twenty-two drummers, and eight hundred rank and file. The battalion proceeded to Colchester in April.

The dreadful disasters experienced by the French in their retreat from Russia, combined with the successes obtained over the forces of Napoleon in the Peninsula by the allies under the Marquis of Wellington, caused the separation of Prussia and other states from the interest of France, and a treaty of alliance and subsidy was concluded between Great Britain and Sweden, in which it was stipulated that a Swedish army, commanded by the Crown Prince,[14] should join the Allies.

On the 25th of May, 1813, the battalion, under the command of Lieut.-Colonel William George (afterwards Lord) Harris, embarked on a particular service at Harwich, but subsequently joined the expedition to Stralsund, in Swedish Pomerania, under the command of Major-General Samuel Gibbs, and landed at that town on the 7th of August.

From Stralsund the SEVENTY-THIRD proceeded to join the allied forces under the command of Lieut.-General Count Wallmoden, who engaged, and completely defeated, the enemy on the plains of Gorde, on the 16th of September, 1813. The SEVENTY-THIRD was the only British battalion in the action.[15]

The battalion was afterwards ordered to join the British forces, then in the north of Germany, under the command of Major-General Samuel Gibbs, at Rostock, and subsequently embarked for England at Warnemunde on the 2nd of November, but on arriving at Yarmouth the battalion was ordered, without landing, to join the army in Holland under General Sir Thomas Graham, afterwards Lord Lynedoch: the battalion arrived at Williamstadt on the 18th of December.

1814

The Prussian General, Bulow, having requested that the British would make a forward movement upon Antwerp, to favour his operations, the battalion accordingly marched to the attack of that place, which was bombarded by the British forces on the 13th of January, 1814; and again from the 2nd until the 6th of February, for the purpose of destroying the French fleet lying there.

In the attack on the village of Merxem on the 2nd of February, 1814, where the enemy was strongly posted, Lieutenant John McConnell, and Lieutenant and Adjutant Thomas Frederick James were wounded, the former severely. A volunteer, named J. Simpson, was also dangerously wounded. This youth was about sixteen years of age, and was attached to the light company. Soon after the action commenced, and in the course of a few minutes, he was shot through both his legs, before which a bullet had lodged in the butt of his firelock. His military career was short, as he died of his wounds in a few days.

On this occasion, the light company, under Captain Richard Drewe, supported the ninety-fifth (rifle brigade) in driving the enemy from the abatis formed at the entrance to the village. The troops suffered very severely during the foregoing operations from the intense cold, the winter being unusually severe, and though sleeping on the line of march was generally fatal, it was no easy matter to prevent it.

General Sir Thomas Graham stated in his despatch, “All the troops engaged behaved with the usual spirit and intrepidity of British soldiers,” and the conduct of Major Dawson Kelly, of the SEVENTY-THIRD, was particularly noticed.

After this success the British troops were employed in constructing a breastwork and battery; on the 3rd of February several pieces of heavy ordnance opened upon the city of Antwerp, and on the French shipping in the Scheldt; the cannonade was continued until the 6th, when General Bulow, having received orders to march southward, to act with the grand army of the Allies, it became necessary to relinquish the attack on Antwerp, when the British retired towards Breda.

On the 16th of March, 1814, a detachment of the SEVENTY-THIRD, consisting of two hundred men, under the command of Major Dawson Kelly, was bombarded by a French seventy-four gun-ship and eight gun brigs, in Fort Frederick on the river Scheldt.

Peace was shortly afterwards concluded. On the 4th of April, Napoleon Bonaparte signed his abdication in favour of his son; but this proposal being rejected, he signed in a few days a second abdication, renouncing the thrones of France and Italy entirely for himself and heirs. He afterwards selected Elba for his residence, which island was ceded to him in full sovereignty for life, and a pension payable from the revenues of France, and by the treaty which was signed at Paris on the 11th of April between the Allies and Napoleon, it was agreed that he should enjoy the imperial title for life. Ample pensions were also assigned to his relatives.

On the 3rd of May, 1814, Louis XVIII. entered Paris, and ascended the throne of his ancestors, and on the 30th of that month the general peace between France and the allied powers of Austria, Russia, Great Britain, and Prussia, was signed at Paris.

In the beginning of May, the battalion was ordered into quarters at Antwerp, and in September following it marched to Tournay, where it arrived in October.

1815

The commencement of the year 1815 saw Louis XVIII. apparently firmly seated on the throne of France; but various causes of discontent existed in that country. The army, long accustomed to war, still retained a chivalrous veneration for Napoleon Bonaparte, who was kept acquainted with the state of the public mind, and this feeling of his former troops. In the evening of the 26th of February he embarked at Porto Ferrajo, in the island of Elba, with about a thousand troops, of whom a few were French, and the remainder Poles, Corsicans, Neapolitans, and Elbese. With this motley band he landed at Cannes, in Provence, on the 1st of March, 1815, and the result proved that his calculations were correct. After being joined by the garrison of Grenoble, he proceeded to Lyons, and entered that city amidst the acclamations of “Vive l’Empereur!” from the soldiers and the people. The possession of the second city in France being thus obtained, Napoleon assumed his former dignity of Emperor, and continued his advance to Paris, which he reached on the 20th of March, his progress having been a continued triumph.

In the meantime, Louis XVIII. had withdrawn from Paris to Ghent, and Napoleon took possession of the throne of France as Emperor, but the allied powers refused to acknowledge his sovereignty, and determined to effect his dethronement.

The battalion had remained stationed between Tournay and Courtray until March, 1815, when, in consequence of the foregoing events, it was ordered to join the division of the army under the command of Lieut.-General Baron Alten, and formed part of the brigade of Major-General Sir Colin Halkett, K.C.B.

On the 11th of April, 1815, it was announced to the army in Flanders that His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, in the name and behalf of His Majesty, had appointed Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington, K.G., to be commander of His Majesty’s forces on the continent of Europe, and it was directed that the Fifth British brigade of infantry should be composed of the second battalion of the thirtieth, the thirty-third, and the second battalions of the sixty-ninth and seventy-third regiments.[16]

Napoleon left Paris on the 12th of June, and endeavoured, by one of those rapid and decisive movements for which he had been celebrated, to interpose his forces between the British and Prussian armies, and then attack them in detail. Information of this movement arrived at Brussels during the evening of the 15th of June, and the troops were immediately ordered to prepare to march.

On the 16th of June, the division of which the second battalion of the SEVENTY-THIRD formed part, pursued its course, with the other portions of the army, through the forest of Soignies, Genappe, and along the road towards Charleroi. After a march of twenty-two miles the troops arrived at the post of Les Quatre Bras, where the second French corps, under Marshal Ney, was developing a serious attack against that position, with very superior numbers.

As the British regiments arrived at the scene of conflict, they were instantly formed for action. The repeated charges of the French were repulsed, but a considerable loss was incurred, including his Serene Highness the Duke of Brunswick, who fell at the head of his troops.

The SEVENTY-THIRD had the following officers wounded:—Lieutenants John Acres and John Lloyd, and Ensigns Robert Greville Heselrige and Thomas Deacon. Lieutenant Acres died of his wounds. One drummer, and three rank and file were killed, and one serjeant and forty-three rank and file wounded.

Marshal Blucher had been attacked on the 16th of June by Napoleon at Ligny, and the Prussians, after a desperate conflict, were compelled to retreat to Wavre. This caused the Duke of Wellington to make a corresponding movement, to keep up his communication with them.

In the course of the morning of the 17th of June, the troops were withdrawn from Quatre Bras, and proceeded towards Waterloo. On this day, the SEVENTY-THIRD had Lieutenant Joseph William Henry Streaphan and three rank and file killed.

The position which the Duke of Wellington occupied in front of Waterloo, crossed the high roads leading from Charleroi and Nivelle to Brussels, and which roads united at the village of Mont St. Jean, in the rear of the British. The right wing extended to a ravine near Merke Braine, which was occupied. The left extended to a height above the hamlet of Ter la Haye, which was likewise occupied. In front of the right centre, and near the Nivelle road, the house and garden of Hougomont were taken possession of, and in front of the left centre, the farm of La Haye Sainte was occupied. By the left the British communicated with Marshal Prince Blucher at Wavre, through Ohaim.

Napoleon collected his army on a range of heights in front of the British, with the exception of his third corps, which he had sent to observe the Prussians. About ten o’clock the French commenced a furious attack upon the post at Hougomont. Then ensued a conflict which will ever be memorable in the history of Europe. The attacks of the French troops were frequently calculated to spread confusion through any army. They were supported by the thunder of a numerous artillery, and followed up by such a succession of column after column, rolling onwards like the waves of the sea, that it required a degree of unexampled fortitude and courage to oppose effectual resistance to so fierce and continued a storm of war.

That degree of courage was not wanting in the British ranks, and paralysed by the fierce determination of his opponents, the attacks of Napoleon’s legions relaxed; the Prussians arrived on the left to co-operate; the Anglo-Belgian army formed line, and with one impetuous charge decided the fortune of the day. The French were driven from the field with the loss of their cannon and equipage, and the hopes of Bonaparte were annihilated.

During the greater part of the battle, the SEVENTY-THIRD, with the second battalion of the thirtieth, were very much exposed to the enemy’s artillery, and constantly engaged in repelling numerous charges of cavalry that appeared determined to break their square, which ultimately was reduced to a very small size, from the casualties occasioned by round and grape shot. Lieutenant Robert Stewart, one of the junior officers of the SEVENTY-THIRD, commanded the battalion at the termination of the battle, and in consequence was some years afterwards promoted to a company without purchase.[17]

The casualties amongst the officers were unusually great. Of twenty-three who marched into action on the 16th of June at Quatre Bras, twenty-two were killed and wounded on that and the two following days.

In the battle on the 18th of June the SEVENTY-THIRD had Captains Alexander Robertson and John Kennedy; Lieutenant Matthew Hollis; and Ensigns William Law Lowe and Charles Page killed.

The officers wounded were Lieut.-Colonel William George Harris (Colonel) commanding the battalion, severely; Major Archibald John Maclean, who died of his wounds; Captains Henry Coane, William Wharton, and John Garland, all severely. Lieutenants John McConnell, Thomas Reynolds, and Donald Browne all severely; Lieutenant Browne afterwards died of his wounds. Ensigns William McBean, Charles Bedford Eastwood, and George Dondridge Bridge (severely), and Ensign and Adjutant Patrick Hay severely.

Three serjeants, one drummer, and forty-three rank and file were killed, and thirteen serjeants, two drummers, and one hundred and sixty rank and file were wounded; twenty-four of the above number died of their wounds; forty-one rank and file were missing.

In acknowledgment of the services which the army performed in the battle of Waterloo, and the actions immediately preceding it, each subaltern officer and soldier present were permitted to count two years additional service, and silver medals were conferred on all ranks, bearing on the one side an impression of His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, and on the reverse the figure of Victory, holding the palm in the right hand, and the olive branch in the left, with the word “Wellington” over its head, and “Waterloo,” 18th June, 1815, at its feet.

The thanks of both Houses of Parliament were voted to the army with the greatest enthusiasm, “for its distinguished valour at Waterloo;” and the SEVENTY-THIRD and other regiments engaged, were permitted to bear the word “Waterloo” on their colours and appointments, in commemoration of their distinguished services on the 18th of June, 1815.

After the battle of Waterloo, the battalion, which was reduced to a complete skeleton, advanced with the army to Paris, where it arrived in the first week in July, and encamped in the Bois de Boulogne until November, when it was placed in cantonments in the vicinity of that metropolis.

Meanwhile Louis XVIII. had entered Paris, and was again reinstated on the throne of his ancestors. Napoleon Bonaparte had surrendered himself to Captain Maitland, commanding the “Bellerophon” British ship of war, and the island of St. Helena having been fixed for his residence, he was conveyed thither, with a few of his zealous adherents.

When the allied forces retired from Paris in December, 1815, with the exception of the “Army of Occupation” left in France, the second battalion of the SEVENTY-THIRD regiment was ordered to return to England; it embarked at Calais on the 23rd of December, and landed on the same day at Ramsgate; from Ramsgate it marched to Colchester to join the depôt, which continued in that town during the absence of the battalion on foreign service.

1816

The battalion afterwards marched to Nottingham, where it arrived on the 12th of February, 1816.

1817

The battalion was stationed between Nottingham, Weedon, and Colchester, until May, 1817, when it was ordered to proceed to Chelmsford to be disbanded, which measure took place on the 4th of May, 1817, the most effective men, consisting of three hundred and ten non-commissioned officers and privates being embarked to join the first battalion of the regiment at Ceylon.

1817.

Conclusion.

The earlier services of the SEVENTY-THIRD regiment, originally formed as a second battalion to the forty-second Highlanders, are connected with the wars against Hyder Ali and his son, Tippoo Saib, the powerful sultans of the Mysore territory: the word “Mangalore,” granted by royal authority for the gallant defence of that fortress in 1783, and the word “Seringapatam” for the share taken by the regiment in the capture of the capital of Tippoo’s country in 1799, when that sovereign terminated his career by a soldier’s death, are borne on the regimental colour and appointments, in commemoration of these arduous campaigns in India.

Other services were, however, performed by the regiment in the East, among which may be named the capture of the French settlement of Pondicherry in 1793, and that of the Dutch island of Ceylon in 1796, when the French Directory had caused Holland to become involved in hostilities with Great Britain.

After a service of twenty-four years in India, the regiment returned to England, and arrived at Greenwich in July, 1806.

In 1809 the regiment proceeded to New South Wales, when a second battalion was added to its establishment.

Brief as was the career of the second battalion, namely from 1809 to 1817, it added the imperishable word “Waterloo” to the regimental colour and appointments, that distinction being conferred by the Sovereign to commemorate its services in that battle, which gave a lengthened peace to the powers of Europe.

In 1814 the first battalion embarked from New South Wales for Ceylon, in the capture of which island the regiment had formerly participated.

The regiment returned to England in 1821, and continued on home service until 1827, when it embarked for Gibraltar, from which fortress it proceeded to Malta in 1829, and in 1834 to the Ionian Islands, whence it returned to Gibraltar in 1838, and embarked for North America.

In 1841 the regiment returned to England, and, in 1845, proceeded to the Cape of Good Hope, where it is now employed in active operations against the Kaffirs.

The orderly behaviour of the regiment in quarters, whether employed at home, or on foreign stations, combined with its soldier-like conduct in the field, have secured the confidence of the nation, and the approbation of the Sovereign.

1851.

SEVENTY-THIRD REGIMENT.
For Cannon’s Military Records.

Madeley lith. 3 Wellington S^t Strand