FOOTNOTES:
[1] Doddridge's Life of Colonel James Gardiner.
[2] Major Vigoureux, who was employed on the reconnoitring service, gave Captain White information of the presence of the enemy, and concerted with him the plan of attack. He requested Captain White to mount him, which he did, on one of the largest horses of his troop, and being a very tall and powerful man, his appearance was most formidable. He charged with Captain White at the head of the Thirteenth, and rode with uplifted sabre straight at the French commanding-officer who was leading: on their meeting, that officer, instead of defending himself, dropped his sword to the salute, and turning it, presented the hilt to Major Vigoureux; the sword was afterwards presented by Colonel Vigoureux to Lieut.-Colonel Brunton, and is now in his possession.
[3] Captain White was afterwards appointed to the staff of the army. He was killed at the battle of Salamanca.
[4] List of French cavalry attacked by two squadrons of the Thirteenth Light Dragoons at Campo Mayor, 25th March, 1811.
| Second French Hussars | 300 | men. |
| Tenth ditto | 350 | " |
| Twenty-sixth Heavy Dragoons | 150 | " |
| Fourth Spanish Chasseurs | 80 | " |
| —— | ||
| 880 | " |
[5] Paymaster Gardiner obtained possession of Colonel Chamarin's handsome helmet, and brought it to England. The colonel's sword was given to Lieut.-Colonel Head.
[6] The following incident in allusion to the Campo Mayor affair is taken from the journal of an officer published in Clarke's Life of the Duke of Wellington:—
"Yesterday a French captain of dragoons brought over a trumpet, demanding permission to search amongst the dead for his colonel. His regiment was a fine one, with bright brass helmets and black horse-hair, exactly like what the old Romans are depicted with. It was truly a bloody scene, being almost all sabre wounds. It was long before we could find the French colonel, for he was lying on his face, his naked body weltering in blood; and as soon as he was turned up, the officer knew him: he gave a sort of scream and sprang off his horse, dashed his helmet on the ground, knelt by the body, took the bloody hand and kissed it many times in an agony of grief; it was an affecting and awful scene. I suppose there were about six hundred naked dead bodies lying on the ground at one view. The French colonel was killed by a corporal of the Thirteenth. This corporal had killed one of his men, and he was so enraged, that he sallied out himself and attacked the corporal, who was well mounted and a good swordsman, as was the colonel himself. Both defended for some time; the corporal cut him twice across the face; his helmet came off at the second, when the corporal slew him by a cut which nearly cleft his skull asunder, cutting in as deep as the nose through the brain."
[7] Serjeant-Major Rosser was appointed cornet in the regiment in 1818, lieutenant in 1819, and captain in 1831, without purchase; he was adjutant from October, 1818, to September, 1831; and retired from the service by the sale of his commission 8th January, 1841.
[8] So named from the motley and tattered state of their garments, owing to the constant exposure and hard work to which they had been subjected.
[9] In the narrative of the campaigns of the Twenty-eighth Regiment, by Lieut.-Colonel Cadell, is the following remark in relation to the action at St. Gaudens:—
"This gallant corps (the Thirteenth) in a very short time cut the Tenth French Hussars to pieces, taking upwards of one hundred men and horses. Captain Macalister, who commanded the advance, distinguished himself. When we came up, the sight was truly melancholy: throughout the many actions in which we had taken share, we never had seen men and horses so dreadfully mangled. The horses were sold next day; but the best brought very little."
[10] The seal used by the Thirteenth when a corps of heavy cavalry, with the motto "Viret in æternum" on a scroll upon it, is still preserved in the regiment. The same motto was also embroidered on the green horse furniture used when the regiment was heavy.
[11] On this march the regiment lost forty men by cholera, and two from other causes.