Historical Record of the Thirty-ninth, or the Dorsetshire Regiment of Foot: containing an account of the formation of the regiment in 1702, and of its subsequent services to 1853.

by Richard Cannon

HISTORICAL RECORD

OF

THE THIRTY-NINTH,

OR THE

DORSETSHIRE REGIMENT OF FOOT.

---

1700.
1701.

The long-expected decease of King Charles II. of Spain occurred on the 1st of November 1700, and the circumstance of his bequeathing his crown to Philip, Duke of Anjou, second son of the Dauphin of France, involved the several Powers of Europe in a lengthened contest, which has been designated the “War of the Spanish Succession.” England would, probably, have abstained from becoming a principal in the war, had not Louis XIV., upon the death of James II. at St. Germains, on the 16th of September 1701, proclaimed that monarch’s son, known as the Pretender, as King of England, Scotland, and Ireland, which so aroused the feelings of the English people as to lead the nation to support with ardour Charles, Archduke of Austria, the second son of Leopold, Emperor of Germany, in his efforts to obtain the throne of Spain, particularly as it was considered that the anticipated union of the crowns of France and Spain would be inimical to the “balance of power” in Europe.

1702.

Active preparations for war commenced, and the Thirty-ninth was one of the regiments raised at this period, and has been since retained on the establishment of the army.[6] The regiment was raised in Ireland by Colonel Richard Coote, under the authority of a royal warrant dated the 13th of February 1702, and continued to be stationed in that country for the five following years.

The sudden decease of King William III. on the 8th of March 1702, did not retard the breaking out of hostilities, for his views were carried into effect by his successor Queen Anne, who declared war against France and Spain on the 4th of May following, and the Earl of Marlborough was appointed to command the forces in Flanders, with the rank of Captain-General.

1703.

Colonel Nicholas Sankey was appointed to the colonelcy of the regiment on the 17th of March 1703, in succession to Colonel Richard Coote, deceased.

1704.

Gibraltar, a name which, in subsequent years, is so gloriously connected with the Thirty-ninth regiment,[7] was taken in July 1704 by the British and Dutch marines, aided by the seamen, under Major-General the Prince of Hesse Darmstadt, and Admiral Sir George Rooke. In October following, the French and Spaniards endeavoured to retake the fortress, but after a siege of some months they desisted from the attempt in March 1705.

1705.
1706.

While the army under the Duke of Marlborough was pursuing a victorious career in Flanders and Germany, the troops which had been employed in Portugal and Spain had likewise gained important successes. In October 1705, the allied troops under the Earl of Peterborough captured Barcelona, and that celebrated city was successfully defended by them in April and May of the following year. Madrid was taken possession of by the Earl of Galway in June 1706, and the fortunes of Charles III. appeared in the ascendant; but the delay of that prince to avail himself of these advantages, by marching at once to the capital of Spain, enabled Philip V. to collect an army superior in numbers to the Allies, and Madrid was again occupied by the enemy in August of the same year.

1707.

On the 25th of April 1707, the allied forces under the Earl of Galway were defeated by the Duke of Berwick at Almanza[8], which materially changed the aspect of affairs in Spain.

Additional troops were shortly afterwards selected for embarkation for Portugal, and the Thirty-ninth was one of the regiments directed to proceed to that country.

Accordingly the Fifth, Twentieth, Thirty-ninth, and a newly raised regiment commanded by Colonel Stanwix (since disbanded), having been selected for this service, sailed from Cork on the 22nd of May 1707, and landed at Lisbon on the 8th of June. This seasonable reinforcement arriving soon after the defeat of the allied army at Almanza, in the south-east of Spain, and at the moment when the enemy, having captured Serpa and Moura in the Alemtejo, had seized on the bridge of Olivenza in Portuguese Estremadura, and menaced that important place with a siege, its presence revived the drooping spirits of the Portuguese.

These four regiments being the only British troops in that part of the country, were disembarked with every possible expedition, and marched to the frontiers under the command of the Marquis de Montandre, when the enemy immediately ceased to act on the offensive, and retired. The four regiments having halted at Estremos, a strong town of the Alemtejo, situated in an agreeable tract on the Tarra, remained in this pleasant quarter during the summer heats, and afterwards encamped in the fruitful valley of the Caya, near Elvas, having detached parties on the flanks to prevent the enemy making incursions into Portugal, in which service the regiments were engaged until November, when they went into quarters in the frontier towns of Portugal.

1708.

In the spring of 1708 the regiment again took the field, and was encamped at Fuente de Sapatores, between Elvas and Campo Mayor. The British division was soon afterwards increased to six regiments, by the arrival of the Thirteenth foot, and a newly raised regiment (Paston’s) from England. The little army in the Alemtejo was commanded by the Marquis de Fronteira, but the characteristic inactivity of the Portuguese occasioned the services of the Thirty-ninth to be limited to defensive operations. The regiment was encamped in the autumn at Campo Mayor, and afterwards went into cantonments.

1709.

The regiment moved from its quarters in the spring of 1709, and became engaged in active operations. It was first encamped near Estremos, and proceeded from thence to Elvas on the 23rd of April 1709; the regiment was subsequently encamped with the army on the banks of the Caya, where the Earl of Galway, who had been removed from the army in Catalonia, appeared at the head of the British division.

On the 7th of May, the French and Spaniards, commanded by the Marquis de Bay, marched in the direction of Campo Mayor; when the Portuguese generals, contrary to the Earl of Galway’s advice, resolved to pass the Caya, and attack the enemy. The Portuguese cavalry and artillery took the lead, and having passed the river and gained the opposite heights, opened a sharp cannonade; but upon the advance of their adversaries to charge, the squadrons faced about and galloped from the field, leaving their cannon behind. The British division, arriving at the moment, repulsed the enemy; the leading brigade, consisting of the Thirteenth, Stanwix’s and Galway’s regiments, commanded by Brigadier-General Thomas Pearce, charging furiously, recaptured the Portuguese guns; but the three regiments, pressing forward too far, were surrounded and made prisoners, and with them Major-General Sankey, the Colonel of the Thirty-ninth; and the Earl of Barrymore, together with Brigadier-General Thomas Pearce, fell into the hands of the enemy.

At the same time the Fifth, Twentieth, Thirty-ninth, and Lord Paston’s regiments, though deserted by the whole of the cavalry, made a determined stand, bearing the brunt of the enemy’s reiterated attacks with admirable firmness, until the Portuguese infantry had retired; then moving to the rear in firm array, while the balls flew thickly on every side, and the Earl of Galway’s horse was shot under him, the enemy advanced in full career, threatening the destruction of this little band; yet, with ranks unbroken and steady tread, these undaunted English calmly retraced their steps, exhibiting one of the noblest spectacles of war, and occasionally punishing the temerity of their pursuers with a cool and deliberate resolution, which laid a thousand Spaniards dead upon the field, and impressed the enemy, and likewise the Portuguese, with a sense of British courage and magnanimity. Thus they effected their retreat, with the loss of only one hundred and fifty men killed and wounded, and passed that night at Arronches.

The Thirty-ninth acquired great honour by its gallantry on this occasion. The regiment was afterwards encamped at Elvas, was subsequently in position on the banks of the Guadiana, and again passed the winter in cantonments in the Alemtejo.

1710.

The casualties of the preceding campaign having been replaced by recruits from England, the regiment again took the field in the spring of 1710, and was employed in the Alemtejo; but the army was weak and unequal to any important undertaking, and the French having obtained some success in the province of Tras os Montes, occasioned a detachment to be sent thither. In the autumn the army advanced across the Guadiana, and on the 4th of October arrived at the rich plains of Xeres de los Cabaleros, on the river Ardilla, in Spanish Estremadura. It was determined to attack this place by storm on the following day, and the Fifth, Twentieth, and Thirty-ninth regiments, having been selected to perform this service under the command of Brigadier-General Stanwix, advanced at four in the afternoon to attack the works near St. Catherine’s gate by escalade. A few minutes after the regiments had commenced the assault, the Governor sent proposals to surrender, which were agreed to, and the garrison, consisting of seven hundred men, became prisoners of war. The army afterwards retired to Portugal by the mountains of Orlor, and went into quarters.

During this summer, the army on the other side of Spain gained two victories—one at Almanara, and the other at Saragossa,—and afterwards advanced to Madrid, when the most pressing instances were made by King Charles III. and General Stanhope to induce the army of Portugal to advance upon the Spanish capital; but the Portuguese generals were unwilling to engage in so great an undertaking.

1711.

The Thirty-ninth, during the campaign of 1711, formed part of the army which assembled at Olivenza in May, and having passed the Guadiana by a pontoon bridge at Jerumenha, advanced against the enemy, who took refuge under the cannon of Badajoz. The regiment was afterwards engaged in the capture of several small towns, and in levying contributions in Spanish Estremadura; but the summer passed without any occurrence of importance, excepting a discovery made by the Earl of Portmore, who commanded the British troops in Portugal, of a clandestine treaty in progress between the crown of Portugal and the enemy, in which the former had agreed to separate from the Allies; to give an excuse for this, a mock battle was to have been fought, in which the British troops were to have been sacrificed. This treaty was broken off, but the British Government soon afterwards entered into negotiations with France.

The claimant of the Spanish throne, Charles III., was in October 1711 elected Emperor of Germany by the title of Charles VI., his brother Joseph having died at Vienna in the preceding April. This circumstance materially affected the war, and inclined Great Britain to agree to peace, for the consolidation of Spain with the empire of Germany would have perilled the balance of power in Europe as much as the anticipated union of the crowns of France and Spain. The course of events had also shown, that a French, and not an Austrian prince, was the choice of the Spanish nation.

1712.

The regiment remained in Portugal, and during the summer of 1712 was encamped on the pleasant plains of the Tarra. In the autumn a suspension of hostilities was proclaimed at the camp by Major-General Pearce, and the regiment went into cantonments.

1713.

On the 11th of April 1713, the Treaty of Utrecht was signed, and by its provisions the fortress of Gibraltar and the island of Minorca, which had been taken by the English during the war, were ceded to Great Britain. The Thirty-ninth proceeded in the first instance to Gibraltar; but in the course of the year 1713, the regiment was selected to form part of the garrison at Minorca.[9]

1719.

Upon the decease of Lieut.-General Nicholas Sankey, in March 1719, His Majesty King George I. appointed, on the 11th of that month, Brigadier-General Thomas Ferrers to be Colonel of the Thirty-ninth regiment.

The Thirty-ninth regiment remained at Minorca until the year 1719, when it embarked for Ireland, in which country it was stationed for some years.

1722.

Colonel William Newton was appointed by King George I. to the colonelcy of the Thirty-ninth regiment on the 28th of September 1722, in succession to Brigadier-General Thomas Ferrers, removed to the Seventeenth regiment of foot.

1726.

Spain had relinquished its claim on Gibraltar with reluctance; and that country having resolved to engage in war with Great Britain, a large army, under the command of the Count de las Torres, was assembled in Andalusia towards the end of 1726, in order to commence hostilities with the siege of this important fortress, for which purpose the Spaniards had made very extensive preparations.

The British Government resolved to send certain regiments to reinforce the garrison of Gibraltar, and six men-of-war were also fitted out at Portsmouth with all possible expedition. Admiral Sir Charles Wager was appointed to command the fleet, on board of which three regiments of infantry, Anstruther’s, Disney’s, and Newton’s (Twenty-sixth, Twenty-ninth, and Thirty-ninth regiments), were embarked. On the 24th of December 1726, Sir Charles Wager arrived at Portsmouth, and shortly afterwards sailed for Gibraltar, but was detained for some time at Spithead by the southerly winds. Two other regiments of infantry, Middleton’s and Hayes’s (Twenty-fifth and Thirty-fourth), were ordered to embark at Cork, for the purpose of joining Sir Charles Wager, and of reinforcing the garrison of Gibraltar.

1727.

Admiral Sir Charles Wager arrived in the Bay of Gibraltar on the 2nd of February 1727, after a voyage of fourteen days from Portsmouth. In the previous month the Spanish troops, under General Count de las Torres, had encamped before the fortress, and the bringing up of cannon and mortars occupied several weeks. In February they commenced constructing batteries before any declaration of war had been made, and persisted in the work, notwithstanding the remonstrances of the Lieut.-Governor, Colonel Jasper Clayton.

The garrison opened its fire upon the besiegers towards the end of February, and the reverberation of the thunder of the cannon and mortars among the mountains of Andalusia, proclaimed the strenuous efforts of the enemy, and the gallant defence made by the garrison. The tremendous fire of the Spaniards produced little effect beyond the bursting of many of their own cannon, and rendering others useless. The siege was continued until thousands of the enemy had perished, while very little loss was sustained by the garrison.[10] In the early part of June the fire slackened; and shortly afterwards hostilities ceased, in consequence of preliminary articles for a treaty of peace having been agreed upon. Thus the fortress of Gibraltar was a second time preserved, and continued to form one of the trophies of British prowess.

1729.

Peace having been concluded between Great Britain, France, and Spain, in November 1729, the regiment was ordered to proceed from Gibraltar to Jamaica, and it embarked for that island in the course of the year following.

1730.

Colonel John Cope was appointed to the colonelcy of the Thirty-ninth regiment on the 10th of November 1730, in succession to Brigadier-General William Newton, deceased.

1732.

In the year 1732 the regiment returned from Jamaica to Ireland.

Colonel Thomas Wentworth was appointed to the colonelcy of the Thirty-ninth regiment on the 15th of December 1732, in succession to Colonel John Cope, removed to the Fifth fusiliers.

The regiment continued to be stationed in Ireland during 1733 and ten following years.

1737.

Colonel John Campbell, afterwards Duke of Argyle, was appointed to the colonelcy of the Thirty-ninth regiment on the 27th of June 1737, in succession to Colonel Thomas Wentworth, who was removed to the Twenty-fourth regiment.

1738.

Upon Colonel Campbell being removed to the Twenty-first Royal North British Fusiliers on the 1st of November 1738, King George II. appointed Colonel Richard Onslow to the colonelcy of the Thirty-ninth regiment from that date.

1739.

Colonel Onslow was removed to the Eighth regiment of foot on the 6th of June 1739, and the colonelcy of the Thirty-ninth was conferred, from the same date, on Lieut.-Colonel Robert Dalway.

While the regiment was stationed in Ireland, war was proclaimed on the 23rd of October 1739, by Great Britain against Spain, in consequence of the Spanish depredations in the West Indies.

1740.

Lieut.-Colonel Samuel Walter Whitshed was promoted from the Eighth dragoons to the colonelcy of the Thirty-ninth regiment on the 28th of December 1740, in succession to Colonel Dalway, removed to the Thirteenth dragoons.

While the war was being carried on between Great Britain and Spain, the decease of Charles VI. Emperor of Germany, on the 20th of October 1740, and the support given by France to Charles Albert, Elector of Bavaria, in opposition to the claims of the Archduchess Maria Theresa, the eldest daughter of the late Emperor, to her father’s hereditary territories, occasioned the contest that is designated the “War of the Austrian Succession.”

1742.

The Elector of Bavaria was chosen Emperor of Germany at Frankfort on the Maine, and crowned as Charles VII. on the 11th of February 1742; and in the summer of that year the King of England sent an army of sixteen thousand men, under Field-Marshal the Earl of Stair, to Flanders, in order to support the Queen of Hungary, Maria Theresa.

1743.

Colonel Edward Richbell was appointed to the colonelcy of the Thirty-ninth regiment on the 14th of June 1743, in succession to Colonel Samuel Walter Whitshed, who was removed to the Twelfth dragoons.

The battle of Dettingen was fought on the 27th of June 1743, and is remarkable as the last action in which a British monarch was present; but King George II. at this period did not act as a principal in the war, his troops having been furnished as allies to the Austrians.

1744.

On the 9th of March 1744, the Thirty-ninth regiment proceeded from Ireland to Great Britain, and was employed on board the fleet, as Marines, for two years.

War was at last declared by France against Great Britain on the 20th of March 1744, and a counter-declaration was made by the latter country on the 29th of the same month; thus these two powers, from auxiliaries, now became principals in the contest.

1745.

In January 1745, the Emperor Charles VII. died at Munich, and Francis, Grand Duke of Tuscany, consort of Maria Theresa, became a candidate for the imperial crown; this circumstance changed the aspect of affairs in Germany, and led to the re-establishment of the House of Austria in the imperial dignity.

In July Prince Charles Edward, eldest son of the Pretender, arrived in Scotland, and being joined by several clans, obtained some advantages; but after advancing as far as Derby, he retreated towards the north in December following.

1746.

The hopes of the Pretender were annihilated by the battle of Culloden on the 16th of April 1746, and part of the military force of the kingdom becoming available for other services, an expedition proceeded against the coast of Brittany. Sixteen sail of the line under Admiral Lestock, and eight frigates, conveying five thousand troops (of which the Thirty-ninth formed part), exclusive of Marines, under Lieut.-General St. Clair, sailed from Plymouth on the 14th of September, in order to make an attack on Port L’Orient, the principal station for the French East India Company’s shipping and stores.

The troops landed in Quimperlay Bay on the morning of the 20th of September, and marched on the following day in two columns against Plymeur, which surrendered, and on the following day advanced to within a mile of Port L’Orient. Some affairs took place between the 21st and 26th of September, and the town was cannonaded; but the enemy having assembled a formidable force, it was determined to withdraw the troops, and they were accordingly re-embarked.

The British troops landed on the peninsula of Quiberon on the 4th of October, and captured a fort mounting eighteen guns; and after destroying all the forts and guns, together with those on the islands of Houat and Hedic, the force was re-embarked, sailed for England, and arrived at Spithead on the 26th of October.

1747.

During the years 1747 and 1748, the regiment again served as Marines on board the fleet.

1748.

On the 7th of October 1748, the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle was signed, which terminated the war, and the regiment was again stationed in Ireland, where it remained upwards of five years.

1751.

In the royal warrant, dated the 1st of July 1751, for establishing and maintaining uniformity in the clothing, standards, and colours of the army, and regulating the number and rank of regiments, the facings of the Thirty-ninth regiment were directed to be green. The first, or King’s colour, was the Great Union; the second, or regimental colour, was of green silk, with the Union in the upper canton; in the centre of the colour the number of the rank of the regiment, in gold Roman characters, within a wreath of roses and thistles on the same stalk.

At this period the uniform of the regiment was cocked hats bound with white lace; scarlet coats faced and turned up with green, and ornamented with white lace; scarlet waistcoats and breeches; white gaiters, white cravats, and buff belts.

1752.

Colonel John Adlercron was appointed to the colonelcy of the Thirty-ninth regiment on the 14th of March 1752, in succession to Brigadier-General Edward Richbell, removed to the Seventeenth foot.

1754.

In the beginning of 1754, the Thirty-ninth proceeded from Ireland to the East Indies, being the first King’s regiment employed in that country.

1756.

The regiment remained at Madras until 1756, when events transpired which occasioned a portion of the Thirty-ninth to be embarked for Bengal. Upon the decease of Allaverdy Khan, in April 1756, Surajah Dowlah was proclaimed Soubah, or Nabob of Bengal. During nearly half a century the British at Calcutta had pursued a profitable commerce in peace; but the new ruler soon evinced his hostility to them, and taking the field shortly afterwards, with a numerous army, invested Calcutta, which was captured by him on the 20th of June. Then followed that awful sacrifice of life in the “Black Hole,” a dungeon at Calcutta only eighteen feet square, into which one hundred and forty-six of the prisoners were thrust, and on the following morning only twenty-three survived,—their unfortunate companions having perished from suffocation.

Dark was the cloud which hung over the affairs of the East India Company at this period; self-preservation made it imperative to adopt measures of retaliation, and it was a proud epoch in the career of the Thirty-ninth when a portion of the regiment was selected for service in Bengal, where the subsequent successes, obtained under Lieut.-Colonel Clive, dispersed the prevailing gloom, and paved the way for British ascendancy in India.

The intelligence of these events reached Madras in August 1756, and it was determined to send a force to Bengal, of which Colonel Adlercron, of the Thirty-ninth, claimed the command, but Lieut.-Colonel Robert (afterwards Lord) Clive, was eventually appointed to command the troops. The armament consisted of nine hundred Europeans and fifteen hundred Sepoys: two hundred and fifty of the Europeans belonged to the Thirty-ninth regiment, and the remainder were the best men of the Company’s troops. The naval squadron comprised the Kent of 64 guns, Cumberland of 70, Tiger of 60, Salisbury of 50, Bridgewater of 20, and a fire-ship; to which were added, as transports, three of the Company’s ships, and two smaller vessels. The fleet under Rear-Admirals Watson and Pocock having the troops on board, sailed from Madras on the 16th of October 1756, and anchored in the river Hoogly, off Fulta, twenty miles from Calcutta, on the 15th of December, with the exception of the Cumberland, in which Admiral Pocock had hoisted his flag, which grounded on the sandheads off Saugur, but afterwards bore up to Vizagapatam. The fleet left Fulta on the 27th of December, and anchored in the afternoon of the day following at Mayapore, a town ten miles below the fort of Budge-Budge.

It was determined to attack this fort on the following day, and it was resolved to lay an ambuscade in order to intercept the retreat of the garrison towards Calcutta. All the men of the Thirty-ninth who had arrived, being one hundred and twenty, remained on board the ships of war; but five hundred Europeans, with the Sepoys, and two field-pieces, landed, and marched from Mayapore, at sunset, under the command of Lieut.-Colonel Clive. Monickchund, the Governor of Calcutta, attempted to make a stand near the fort of Budge-Budge, but was defeated, and forced to return to Calcutta.

Meanwhile the Kent, having outsailed the other ships, anchored before Budge-Budge, and alone silenced the cannon of that fort, which was abandoned by the garrison during the night of the 30th of December.

1757.

The fleet left Budge-Budge on the 31st of December, and anchored, on the 1st of January 1757, between the forts of Tanna and Aligur, which were abandoned by the enemy without firing a shot. On the following morning Lieut.-Colonel Clive, with the greater portion of the Europeans and Sepoys, landed, and advanced towards Calcutta. At nine o’clock the Kent and Tiger anchored before the British fort, which, after a brisk cannonade, was deserted by the enemy, and also the town shortly afterwards, when a detachment from the ships under Captain Eyre Coote, of the Thirty-ninth, (afterwards Lieut.-General Sir Eyre Coote, K.B.), hoisted the British colours in the fort, as the troops under Lieut.-Colonel Clive had not then arrived.

Hoogly, a town about twenty-three miles above Calcutta, was the next object of attack: one hundred and seventy of the Thirty-ninth regiment, with two hundred Sepoys, were embarked on this service on the 4th of January, sailed on the following day, and arrived before the place on the 10th of that month, the delay having been caused by one of the vessels having struck on a sandbank. The fort was garrisoned by two thousand men; three thousand more had been sent from Moorshedabad to guard the town, but these retreated upon the landing of the British troops, remaining, however, within a few miles distance. The fort was battered until night, and although the breach was scarcely practicable, it was resolved to storm it before dawn. At the main gate a false attack was made, while Captain Coote, of the Thirty-ninth, with the other division, accompanied by some sailors, mounted the breach undiscovered by the garrison, who no sooner saw their assailants on the ramparts, than they quitted their posts and fled. Three Europeans and ten Sepoys were killed in the attack. The booty taken in the expedition against Hoogly was estimated at 15,000l. sterling.

On the 12th of January Captain Coote, with fifty of the Thirty-ninth regiment, and twice that number of Sepoys, marched to Bandell, a large village three miles off, where they destroyed several granaries of rice, but on their return were surrounded by the fugitive garrison and the troops sent from Moorshedabad, from whom they disengaged themselves without loss. On the 19th of January the portion of the Thirty-ninth employed on this service, with the smaller vessels, returned to Calcutta.

While this expedition was in progress, the news of the war, which had been declared between Great Britain and France in May of the previous year, was received in India. The Nabob, Surajee Dowlah, exasperated by the attack of Hoogly, commenced his march towards Calcutta, and the British made every preparation to oppose his approach. On the 30th of January the Nabob’s forces commenced their passage of the river about ten miles above Hoogly, and arrived before Calcutta on the 3rd of February. In the afternoon of that day, a numerous body of the enemy commenced entrenching themselves in a large garden, within a mile and a half of the British camp. Upon this Lieut.-Colonel Clive immediately advanced with the greater portion of his troops, and six field-pieces. The attack of so numerous a force appeared extremely hazardous, and Lieut.-Colonel Clive restrained the action to a cannonade, which continued only for an hour, in order that the troops might be enabled to regain the camp before dark. Negotiations for peace had been proposed by Lieut.-Colonel Clive, and failed; it was therefore determined to attack the Nabob’s camp in the morning. At midnight five hundred and sixty-nine sailors, armed with firelocks, were landed from the ships of war: the Europeans amounted to six hundred and fifty, the artillerymen to one hundred, and the Sepoys to eight hundred. Shortly before dawn on the 5th of February, the British line came upon the advance-guards of the enemy, who fled after discharging their matchlocks and some rockets: one of the latter struck the cartouch-box of a Sepoy, set fire to the charges, which exploded, and communicated the mischief to several others: the dread of catching this fire threw the division into confusion, but fortunately none of the enemy were at hand to take advantage of this accidental circumstance, and Captain Coote, of the Thirty-ninth, who marched at the head of the grenadiers, in the rear of the Sepoys, rallied them, and restored the line of march. A desperate contest ensued, during which Ensign Martin Yorke, of the Thirty-ninth, with a platoon of the regiment, rescued one of the field-pieces which was on the point of being captured by the enemy. The British sustained a loss in killed of twenty-seven Europeans, twelve seamen, and eighteen Sepoys: seventy Europeans, twelve seamen, and thirty-five Sepoys were wounded. The Nabob lost twenty-two officers of distinction, six hundred men, four elephants, five hundred horses, some camels, and several bullocks.

A treaty of peace was concluded between the Nabob and the East India Company on the 9th of February, and hostilities terminated.

It was, however, perceived that the Nabob was only temporising, and it was ascertained that he had sent a present of one hundred thousand rupees to the government of Chandernagore, then in possession of the French; and that Nuncomar, the governor of Hoogly, had received instructions to assist the French in case they should be attacked by the British.

Lieut.-Colonel Clive then resolved upon placing Meer Jaffier, one of the distinguished chieftains in Bengal, on the musnud, or government-seat, and of deposing the Nabob Surajee Dowlah, the former having engaged, in the event of his being elevated to the viceroyship, to aid in expelling the French from Bengal. Accordingly, Chandernagore, on the Hoogly, sixteen miles above Calcutta, was invested by Lieut.-Colonel Clive on the 14th of March, and, after a gallant defence, the place surrendered on the 24th of that month. A part of the garrison escaped, and joined the Nabob’s army.

Lieut.-Colonel Clive marched into Chandernagore with the King’s troops, on the following day. Admiral Watson, in his despatch of the 31st of March, 1757, stated that “all the officers and men behaved with great spirit and resolution on this occasion; as did also the Land Forces, who kept up a good and constant fire the whole time from two batteries and two guns which they had raised very near the fort.”

Meer Jaffier having signed the treaty with Admiral Watson, Lieut.-Colonel Clive, and the other counsellors, it was determined to commence operations. On the 12th of June, the troops which were at Calcutta, with one hundred and fifty seamen from the squadron, proceeded to join the army quartered at Chandernagore. The necessary preparations having been made, the army marched from Chandernagore on the following day, leaving a hundred seamen to garrison the fort, so that every soldier might serve in the field.

The British army arrived and halted on the 16th of June at Patlee, a town on the western shore of the Cossimbuzar river. Twelve miles above Patlee was situated the Fort of Cutwah, which commanded the passage of the river. Captain Coote was detached on the 17th against Cutwah, which was taken two days afterwards.

The main body of the army arrived at Cutwah in the evening, and encamped on the plain. The rainy season commenced on the following day with such violence that the troops were compelled to strike their tents, and shelter themselves in the houses of the town.

The co-operation of Meer Jaffier appearing doubtful at this period, made Lieut.-Colonel Clive hesitate as to crossing into the island of Cossimbuzar, and at all risks attack the Nabob Surajee Dowlah. A council of war consisting of sixteen officers was summoned; and contrary to the usual practice of taking the voice of the youngest officer first, and ascending from this to that of the president, Lieut.-Colonel Clive at once declared for remaining at Cutwah, and to continue there during the rainy season. Eight other officers were of the same opinion, and only seven voted for immediate action. Captain Eyre Coote, of the Thirty-ninth, was one of the latter, and argued, “that the soldiers were at present confident of success, and that a stop so near the enemy would naturally quell this ardour, which it would be difficult to restore; that the arrival of the French troops with Mr. Law would add strength to the Nabob’s force and vigour to his councils; that they would surround the English army, and cut off its communication with Calcutta, when distresses, not yet foreseen, might ruin it as effectually as the loss of a battle. He therefore advised that they should either advance and at once decide the contest, or immediately return to Calcutta.”

Lieut.-Colonel Clive’s anxieties were not alleviated by the sanction of the majority. He retired into the adjoining grove, and remained for nearly an hour in deep meditation; the result was that he determined to act on the opinion of Captain Coote and the minority, by giving orders for the passage of the river of Cossimbuzar, a branch of the Ganges.

At sunrise on the 22nd of June, the British troops commenced to pass the river, and all were landed on the opposite shore by four in the afternoon. After a march of fifteen miles they arrived at one o’clock on the following morning at Plassey, and immediately occupied the adjoining grove. The guards being stationed, the remainder of the wearied soldiers were allowed a short interval of repose, which was broke at daybreak, when the Nabob’s hosts issued from their entrenched camp, amounting to about fifteen thousand cavalry, thirty-five thousand infantry, and upwards of forty pieces of cannon.[11] This was a fearful disparity of numbers when contrasted with the small army under Lieut.-Colonel Clive, which consisted of two thousand one hundred Sepoys, one hundred Topasses[12], one hundred Malabar Portuguese, six hundred and fifty European infantry, and one hundred and fifty artillerymen, including fifty seamen, together with eight six-pounders and one howitzer.

The Nabob commenced the attack by six o’clock, and his numerous artillery kept up a heavy cannonade for some hours, which was warmly responded to by the British. Lieut.-Colonel Clive sheltered his troops in the adjacent grove; and they were ordered to sit down, while the field-pieces alone answered the enemy’s cannon from behind the bank. At eleven o’clock Lieut.-Colonel Clive consulted his officers at the drumhead, when it was resolved to maintain the cannonade during the day, and at midnight to attack the enemy. At noon a heavy shower of rain covered the plain, and damaged the enemy’s powder to such on extent that his fire slackened, but the British ammunition remained serviceable.

A crisis had arrived, and Lieut.-Colonel Clive, no longer acting on the defensive, became the assailant. Seizing the opportunity, he advanced, and obtained possession of a tank, and two other posts of consequence, which the enemy vainly attempted to recover. A successful attack was then made upon the eminence and angle of the Nabob’s camp, defended by forty French soldiers (the men who had escaped from the garrison of Chandernagore), and their two pieces of cannon were captured. This was followed by a general rout, and the discomfited enemy was pursued for six miles: upwards of forty pieces of cannon, abandoned by the fugitives, fell into the hands of the victors.

In this astonishing victory, which laid the foundation of the British dominion in Bengal, five hundred of the enemy were killed, while the army under Lieut.-Colonel Clive sustained a loss of only twenty-two killed and fifty wounded.

It appears from a manuscript journal kept by Captain Eyre Coote, now in the library of the Honourable East India Company, that the following officers of the Thirty-ninth were present in the battle of Plassey: namely, Captains Archibald Grant, and Eyre Coote; Lieutenant John Corneille; and Ensigns Joseph Adnett, and Martin Yorke.

The motto “Primus in Indis,” and the word “Plassey,” borne by royal authority on the regimental colour and appointments of the Thirty-ninth, are proud memorials of its having been the first King’s regiment which served in India, and of the gallantry displayed in this battle.[13]

Lieut.-Colonel Clive, accompanied by a guard of two hundred Europeans, and three hundred Sepoys, entered the city of Moorshedabad on the 29th of June, and saluted Meer Jaffier as Nabob, who received the usual homage from the people as Soubah of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa. Surajee was subsequently taken prisoner, and fell a victim to the dagger of the son of Meer Jaffier.

Mr. Law, who was the French chief at Cossimbuzar, had collected nearly two hundred French European troops, and was proceeding to the assistance of the late Nabob;—when within a few hours’ march of him, he was taken prisoner, and Mr. Law, receiving that intelligence, advanced no further. Lieut.-Colonel Clive thereupon detached a party in pursuit under the command of Captain Coote, of the Thirty-ninth regiment, consisting of two hundred Europeans and five hundred Sepoys, who were to be joined by two thousand of Meer Jaffier’s cavalry. After long and harassing marches, in which the troops suffered much fatigue, Captain Coote received orders to return, and arrived at Moorshedabad in September, when his detachment was subsequently stationed in the factory at Cossimbuzar. The rest of the troops, which had served at Plassey, proceeded to Chandernagore, that station being considered more healthy than Calcutta.

While the portion of the Thirty-ninth had been thus engaged in Bengal, the remainder of the regiment left at Madras had not been unemployed. An expedition having been determined upon against Nelloure, Major Francis Forde, of the Thirty-ninth, was selected to command the force selected for that service, which consisted of one hundred Europeans, fifty-six Caffres, and three hundred Sepoys. He effected a junction with the army of the Nabob of Arcot, or of the Carnatic, at Serapely on the 25th of April 1757. Two days afterwards the troops encamped before Nelloure. A practicable breach having been made, at sunrise on the 5th of May the assault was commenced; but in consequence of the Sepoys being seized with a panic, the attack was not successful. The troops subsequently returned towards Serapely, where Major Forde received express orders to return to Madras, in order to prevent the designs of the French on Trichinopoly.

In consequence of the danger to which Trichinopoly was exposed, Colonel Adlercron marched from Madras on the 26th of May with three hundred Europeans, being the whole of the Thirty-ninth at that station, together with five hundred Sepoys, thirty of the King’s artillery, and four field-pieces. Intelligence having been received of the relief of Trichinopoly by Captain Caillaud, who had been selected to command the expedition against Madura[14], Colonel Adlercron was directed to invest the fortress of Wandewash, and accordingly marched towards that place on the 5th of June. On the following day he entered the town; but before the heavy cannon could arrive, the greater part of the French army from Trichinopoly reached Pondicherry, and marched to the relief of Wandewash, upon which Colonel Adlercron withdrew from the town, and encamped a few miles off. Several marches and countermarches were afterwards made, but no general engagement took place, and it being seen that nothing but the certainty of advantage would bring the enemy from his entrenched camp to action, the troops marched for Conjeveram on the 26th of July, at which place they arrived on the 28th of that month, where five hundred Europeans and fifteen hundred Sepoys remained in cantonments under the command of Major Francis Forde, of the Thirty-ninth, and the rest of the troops returned to the garrisons and stations from whence they had been drawn.

Shortly afterwards orders were received from England recalling the Thirty-ninth regiment, when most of the men, and certain of the officers, entered the East India Company’s service.

1758.

The regiment remained in India until the end of the year 1758, when it returned to Ireland, on the western coast of which it was wrecked.

1759.

After remaining in Ireland some time, and being recruited to its establishment, the regiment was greatly reduced by a large detachment sent to Germany to join the British troops serving under Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick. No record has been preserved by the regiment of the services of this detachment, and the research made to supply the deficiency has not been attended with success.

1763.

The Seven Years’ War, which had commenced in 1756, while the regiment was serving in India, was terminated by the peace concluded at Paris in February 1763.

1766.

Colonel Robert Boyd was appointed from the First foot guards to the colonelcy of the Thirty-ninth regiment on the 6th of August 1766, in succession to Lieut.-General Adlercron, deceased.

1767.

During the years 1766, 1767, and 1768, the regiment continued to be stationed in Ireland.

1769.

In the year 1769 the Thirty-ninth again proceeded to Gibraltar; and while serving in that garrison, events transpired which enabled the regiment to acquire additional honor.

1779.

The possession of this fortress by the English had been regarded by the Spaniards with great jealousy, but every effort for its recovery had signally failed. The contest between the colonists in North America and Great Britain, seemed to offer the Spanish monarch a favourable opportunity for regaining possession of Gibraltar. The French monarch, in the previous year, had concluded a treaty of defensive alliance with the American colonies, which involved Great Britain in a war with France. The Court of Versailles subsequently engaged that of Madrid to take a part in the contest, and on the 16th of June 1779 the Spanish ambassador presented a manifesto at St. James’s, equivalent to a declaration of war, and immediately departed from London; and shortly afterwards the siege of Gibraltar was commenced by the Spaniards, the anticipated reduction of that important fortress being one of the principal objects which induced Spain to become a party in the contest.

Gibraltar was accordingly beset, by sea and land, by the Spanish fleets and armies. The following return shows the strength of the garrison at the commencement of the blockade on the 21st of June 1779:—

British.	Officers.	Men.
Royal Artillery	25	460
Royal Engineers	8	114[15]
12th foot	29	570
39th ”	29	557
56th ”	27	560
58th ”	28	577
72nd ” (Royal Manchester Volunteers), disbanded in 1783	33	1013
	——	——	4030
Hanoverian.
Hardenberg’s regiment	29	423
Reden’s ”	27	417
De La Motte’s ”	33	423
	——	——	1352
Total			——	5382

The Thirty-ninth regiment was commanded by Brevet Lieut.-Colonel William Kellett, major of the corps, and the garrison, mustering five thousand three hundred and eighty-two men, was under the orders of General the Right Hon. George Augustus Eliott, afterwards Lord Heathfield. Being thus blockaded by sea and besieged by land, the troops at Gibraltar became cut off from communication with other countries, and the garrison appeared a little world within itself.[16] The arrangements for the defence were devised with judgment, and executed with skill. The soldiers cheerfully conformed to the strict rules which their circumstances rendered necessary, and severe exercise and short diet became habitual to them; at the same time the great importance of the place, and the determined character of General Eliott and his garrison, occasioned this siege to be regarded with universal interest by the several nations of Europe.

The following officers of the Thirty-ninth regiment were appointed to the staff at Gibraltar: Captain James Horsburgh, from town-major, to be adjutant-general; Captain William Wilson and Lieutenant Richard Henry Buckeridge, to be aides-de-camp to Lieut.-General Robert Boyd, Colonel of the Thirty-ninth, and Lieut.-Governor of Gibraltar.

On the 20th of August the marksmen of the garrison were embodied into a company of two non-commissioned officers and sixty-four men, and the command was given to Lieutenant Charles Burleigh of the Thirty-ninth regiment.

As the enemy’s works progressed, the pavement of the streets was taken up, the towers of conspicuous buildings were pulled down, the guard-houses unroofed, the stone sentry-boxes removed, traverses raised, a covered way commenced, and every measure adopted to lessen the effects of a bombardment.

In Colonel Drinkwater’s Work on the siege of Gibraltar, from which the particulars relating to the Thirty-ninth, in connection with that event, have been chiefly collected, is given the following account of an experiment recommended by Captain John Mercier of the regiment; “namely, to fire out of guns 5½ inch shells, with short fuses, which were tried on the 25th of September, and found to answer extremely well. These small shells, according to Captain Mercier’s method, were thrown with such precision, and the fuses cut by calculation with such exactness, that the shell often burst over their heads, and wounded them before they could get under cover. This mode of annoyance was eligible on several other accounts: less powder was used, and the enemy were more seriously molested. The former was an advantage of no small consequence, since it enabled the Governor to reserve, at this period, what might be probably expended to the greater benefit of the service on a future occasion. It will also account for the extraordinary number of shells which were discharged from the garrison.”

1780.

Early in 1780 provisions became short, and the soldiers willingly submitted to privation; but soon afterwards the garrison was relieved by a fleet from England: the wants of the troops were, however, not supplied in many important articles.

1781.

The Spaniards renewed the blockade by sea, and sent nine fire-ships into the harbour, but failed in their attempt to destroy the shipping. Provisions again became deficient: vegetables were cultivated on the rock with partial success: a precarious supply of several articles was obtained from the Moors, and in April 1781 the garrison was again relieved.

The siege was continued, and a severe bombardment reduced a great portion of the town to a heap of ruins.

The efforts of the enemy were deliberately watched by the Governor, General Eliott, who kept his garrison close within the fortress until a favourable opportunity occurred for a sally, and on the evening of the 26th of November the following garrison order was issued:—

“Countersign, Steady.—All the grenadiers and light infantry in the garrison, and all the men of the Twelfth and Hardenberg’s regiments, with the officers and non-commissioned officers on duty, to be immediately relieved and join their regiments; to form a detachment, consisting of the Twelfth and Hardenberg’s regiments complete; the grenadiers and light infantry of all the other regiments[17]; one captain, three lieutenants, ten non-commissioned officers, and a hundred artillery; three engineers, seven officers, ten non-commissioned officers, overseers, with a hundred and sixty workmen from the line, and forty workmen from the artificer corps; each man to have thirty-six rounds of ammunition, with a good flint in his piece, and another in his pocket; the whole to be commanded by Brigadier-General Ross, and to assemble on the red sands, at twelve o’clock this night, to make a sortie upon the enemy’s batteries. The Thirty-ninth and Fifty-eighth regiments to parade at the same hour, on the Grand Parade, under the command of Brigadier-General Picton, to sustain the sortie, if necessary.”

At midnight the soldiers assembled for this enterprise; the moon at first shining brightly on the sands, but between two and three o’clock darkness overspread the place, and the troops silently issued from the fortress. They were challenged and fired upon by the enemy’s sentries, but the British soldiers rushed forward, overpowered the Spanish guards, and captured the batteries in gallant style: the defenders of the works fled in dismay, and communicated the panic to the troops in their rear. The wooden batteries were soon prepared for ignition; the flames spread with astonishing rapidity, and a column of fire and smoke arose from the works, illuminating the surrounding objects and casting a lurid glare upon this unparalleled scene, of which words fail to give an adequate description. In an hour the object of the sortie was effected: the Spaniards, being dismayed, did not venture to interrupt the work; trains were laid to the enemy’s magazines, and the soldiers withdrew. As they entered the fortress, tremendous explosions shook the ground, and rising columns of smoke, flame, and burning timber, proclaimed the destruction of the enemy’s immense stores of gunpowder to be completed. General Eliott declared in orders:—“The bearing and conduct of the whole detachment—officers, seamen, and soldiers—on this glorious occasion, surpass my utmost acknowledgments.”

For some days the Spaniards appeared confounded at their disgrace: the smoke of the burning batteries continued to rise, and no attempt was made to extinguish the flames; but several executions took place in their camp, probably of persons who fled so precipitately from the batteries. In the beginning of December they began to arouse themselves, and a thousand workmen commenced labouring to restore the batteries, in which they were retarded by the fire of the garrison. The gallant defenders of the fortress were equally indefatigable: every serjeant, drummer, musician, officer’s servant, and private soldier was required to use the musket, shovel, and pickaxe, as his services became necessary.

The Spaniards, by their heavy fire on the fortress, had already spoiled three sets of guns; but the Court of Madrid appeared determined to obtain possession of Gibraltar. An immense collection of ordnance of larger calibre was provided, several batteries were prepared, and the Duke of Crillon assumed the command of the besieging army. He was assisted by a celebrated French engineer, Monsieur d’Arcon, and by Admiral Moreno: a French army likewise arrived to take part in the siege. At the same time stupendous preparations were made on a new principle, and floating batteries were constructed with great art and labour, which were reckoned the most perfect contrivance of the kind ever seen.

1782.

A crisis was evidently approaching, and in the spring and summer of 1782, the garrison of Gibraltar made preparations with calm determination for the hour of trial: both officers and men were fully impressed with the importance of the fortress confided to their care, and their successful resistance against the efforts of the Spanish army and navy for upwards of two years, inspired them, if possible, to greater exertions. All the damaged works were carefully repaired, new ones were constructed, vast subterraneous works were made, and forges for heating red-hot shot were prepared.[18] The effect of the red-hot shot was proved on some of the enemy’s wooden batteries on the sands, which were speedily destroyed.

Princes of the royal blood of France, the Spanish nobility, and other celebrated characters of Europe, visited the camp of the Duke of Crillon, who naturally anticipated the most signal success from his extensive preparations. The new batteries on shore were unmasked, and fired a volley of sixty shells, which was succeeded by the thunder of one hundred and seventy guns of large calibre. Gibraltar was thus assailed by a storm of iron, which threatened to reduce the place to a heap of ruins; and this was only a prelude to the tremendous fire which was afterwards opened upon the garrison.

The ten battering ships took their station before the fortress on the 13th of September, in the presence of the combined fleets of France and Spain: the enemy’s camp and the neighbouring hills were crowded with spectators from various parts of Europe to witness the effect of these stupendous vessels; and such a storm of war was opened upon the place, as had probably never been equalled since the invention of cannon. The batteries of the fortress answered this tremendous fire with vigour, and the deafening thunder of four hundred pieces of heavy artillery was heard for several miles. For some hours the attack and defence were so equally well supported, as scarcely to admit any appearance of superiority in the cannonade on either side. The wonderful construction of the battering ships appeared to bid defiance to the heaviest ordnance: shells rebounded from their tops, and a thirty-two pound shot scarcely seemed to make any impression on them. The effect of the red-hot shot was doubted; sometimes smoke came from the ships, but the fire-engines within soon occasioned it to cease, and the result was uncertain: the fire was, however, persevered in, and incessant showers of red-hot bullets, shells, and carcases flew through the air. In the afternoon the red-hot shot had performed its work, and volumes of smoke issued from the flagship: the admiral’s second ship was soon perceived to be in the same condition, and confusion prevailed. The Spaniards expected that the firing of red-hot bullets could not be persevered in beyond a few rounds; but the fire was continued with the same precision and vivacity as cold shot; this occasioned the enemy’s cannonade to abate, and about eight o’clock it almost totally ceased. The battering ships made signals to inform the combined fleets of their extreme danger and distress, when several boats were sent to their assistance.

At this period the fire of the garrison produced great carnage, and the most pitiable cries and groans were heard, as the incessant showers of shot and shells were poured into the floating batteries. Soon after midnight one ship was in flames, and by two o’clock it appeared one sheet of fire from head to stern; a second was soon in the same condition, and the light of the conflagration enabled the British artillery to point their guns with precision, when soon after three o’clock six more ships exhibited the effects of the red-hot shot. The burning ships exhibited one of the grandest spectacles of destruction ever beheld; and amidst this exciting scene the British seamen pushed off in boats to rescue the Spaniards from the blazing vessels. They preserved between three and four hundred, and while they were thus engaged, one of the ships blew up with a dreadful explosion; four others met the same fate before seven o’clock, and another shortly afterwards, and the remainder burnt to the water’s edge, their magazines having been inundated. Not one could be preserved as a trophy.

During the hottest period of “the enemy’s cannonade (Colonel Drinkwater relates), the Governor was present on the King’s bastion, whilst Lieut.-General Boyd took his station upon the South bastion, animating the garrison by their presence, and encouraging them to emulation. The exertions and activity of the brave artillery in this well fought contest deserve the highest commendations. To their skill, perseverance, and courage, with the zealous assistance of the line (particularly the corps in town, the Thirty-ninth, and the late Seventy-second regiment), was Gibraltar indebted for its safety against the combined powers, by sea and land, of France and Spain.”

The Colonel also adds the following singular circumstance. When Lieut.-General Boyd laid the foundation stone of the King’s bastion in 1773, upon fixing the stone in its place, he remarked that “this is the first stone of a work which I name the ‘King’s Bastion;’ may it be as gallantly defended, as I know it will be ably executed; and may I live to see it resist the united efforts of France and Spain!” This wish was fully accomplished.

In this manner the mighty efforts of France and Spain ended in defeat and destruction, while the conduct of the garrison of Gibraltar elicited the admiration of the nations of Europe. In England the most enthusiastic applause was universal; illuminations and other modes of testifying the joy of the people followed the receipt of the news of the destruction of the supposed invincible battering ships, and every family which could boast a defender of Gibraltar belonging to it, was proud of the honor. The loss of the garrison on the 13th and 14th of September, was limited to one officer, two serjeants, and thirteen private soldiers killed; five officers and sixty-three rank and file wounded: that of the enemy exceeded two thousand officers and soldiers.

Although the enemy gave up all hopes of reducing Gibraltar by force of arms, yet some expectation was entertained, that, if the blockade was continued, the garrison might be forced to surrender from the want of provisions; the combined fleet therefore remained in the bay, the besieging army continued in the lines, and about a thousand shots were fired every day from the Spanish batteries. The garrison was encouraged to continue resolute in the defence of the fortress by assurances of their Sovereign’s favour and high approbation. The principal Secretary of State, writing to General Eliott, stated,—“I am honored with His Majesty’s commands to assure you, in the strongest terms, that no encouragement shall be wanting to the brave officers and soldiers under your command. His royal approbation of the past will no doubt be a powerful incentive to future exertions; and I have the King’s authority to assure you, that every distinguished act of emulation and gallantry, which shall be performed in the course of the siege by any, even of the lowest rank, will meet with ample reward from his gracious protection and favour.”

In October the combined fleet was much damaged by a storm, and soon afterwards a British naval force arrived, and the garrison was again relieved, when two regiments, the Twenty-fifth and Fifty-ninth, landed to take part in the defence of the fortress.

1783.

After the garrison was thus relieved and reinforced a third time, the Court of Madrid relinquished the idea of recovering Gibraltar either by force or stratagem; negotiations ensued, and in February 1783 the Spanish army withdrew, the preliminary articles for a treaty of peace having been signed in the preceding month. Thus terminated the siege of Gibraltar, which is celebrated in the military annals of the eighteenth century; and the successful defence of that fortress ranks amongst the noblest efforts of the British arms: it exceeded in duration the famous siege of Ostend in the beginning of the seventeenth century; and it is a proud circumstance in the services of the Thirty-ninth, that the regiment had twice shared in the defence of Gibraltar, having (as stated at [page 9]) been present when the place was besieged by the Spaniards in the year 1727.

The Thirty-ninth regiment was rewarded, with the other corps which took part in this long and arduous service, with the thanks of the Sovereign, and of the Houses of Parliament, and with the honor of bearing on the regimental colour and appointments the word “Gibraltar,” with the “Castle and Key,” and the motto “Montis Insignia Calpé,” in commemoration of its services during the siege.[19]

The loss of the regiment during the siege was—

	Officers.	Serjeants.	Drummers.	Rank and File.
Killed	1	3	1	16
Died of wounds	1	1	-	6
Disabled by wounds	-	-	-	10
Wounded, that recovered	3	5	1	44
Died of diseases	-	1	-	37
Total	5	10	2	113

During the period the Thirty-ninth were engaged in the defence of Gibraltar, county titles were given to the several regiments of infantry; and the communication with England having become free, the Thirty-ninth received directions to assume, in addition to the numerical title, the designation of “The East Middlesex” regiment, in order that a connexion between the corps and that part of the county should be cultivated, which might be useful in promoting the success of the recruiting service. The letter conveying His Majesty’s pleasure that county titles should be conferred on the infantry, was dated the 31st of August 1782.

In November 1783 the Thirty-ninth regiment quitted Gibraltar, and on its arrival in England was for some time stationed in South Britain.

1789.

The regiment proceeded from Great Britain to Ireland in May 1789.

1790 to 1792.

During the years 1790, 1791, and 1792, the regiment continued to be stationed in Ireland.

1793.

While the regiment was stationed in Ireland, the National Convention of France declared war against Great Britain and Holland. This occurred on the 1st of February 1793, and in September following, the Thirty-ninth regiment, under the command of Lieut.-Colonel Stephen Fremantle, embarked from Ireland for Barbadoes, in order to take part in an attack on the French West India Islands.

1794.

An armament was assembled at Barbadoes in the beginning of 1794, under Lieut.-General Sir Charles, afterwards Earl Grey, K.B., and Vice-Admiral Sir John Jervis, K.B., for the capture of Martinique, and the Thirty-ninth had the honor to share in this enterprise. This island had been captured by the British in 1762, but was restored to France at the Peace of Fontainebleau of the following year. The expedition sailed from Carlisle Bay, Barbadoes, early in February, and landing at three different points on the island of Martinique, on the 5th, 6th, and 8th of that month, drove the enemy from several strong posts. Fort Royal and Fort Bourbon were afterwards besieged; the former was captured on the 20th of March, and the latter surrendered two days afterwards. The loss of the regiment on this service was limited to a few soldiers killed and wounded.

While the brigade of grenadiers under the command of His Royal Highness Prince Edward, afterwards Duke of Kent, the brigade of Light Infantry under Major-General Dundas, and the Sixth, Ninth, and Forty-third regiments under Colonel Sir Charles Gordon, proceeded to St. Lucia, which island was captured on the 4th of April, the Thirty-ninth remained to garrison Martinique.

An expedition subsequently proceeded from Martinique against Guadeloupe: a determined resistance was experienced at this place, but the island was captured by the 20th of April. Sir Charles Grey stated in his public despatch, that he “could not find words to convey an adequate idea, or to express the high sense he entertained of the extraordinary merit evinced by the officers and soldiers in this service.”

France did not view with indifference the loss of these valuable possessions, and in June a French armament arrived at Guadeloupe for the recovery of that island. In the night attack on the French camp at Point Gabbare on the 13th of June 1794, the Thirty-ninth regiment, under the command of Major Henry Magan[20], greatly distinguished itself, and was thanked in general orders by Sir Charles Grey. In this severe conflict the enemy precipitated themselves into the sea in order to swim across the harbour to Point-à-Pitre; but few succeeded in the desperate attempt, many being drowned, and more shot by the British infantry, who followed them closely in their flight. One hundred and seventy-nine of the enemy were left dead on the field, while the loss of the British was limited to seven men killed and twelve wounded. The enemy’s camp, colours, baggage, and ammunition, with one piece of artillery, fell into the hands of the victors.

Major-General Nisbett Balfour was appointed colonel of the Thirty-ninth regiment on the 2nd of July 1794, in succession to General Sir Robert Boyd, K.B., deceased.

During the remainder of the operations the Thirty-ninth regiment remained at Berville. Several skirmishes took place at various poets, but the troops suffered so severely from the climate at Guadeloupe, and the arduous duties they had to perform, that on the 1st of September only three hundred and eighty-nine soldiers could be mustered fit for duty.[21]

Lieut.-Colonel Colin Graham, of the Twenty-first Royal North British Fusiliers, was appointed to the command of the troops in Basse Terre; and he defended Berville camp with the utmost gallantry, until the 6th of October, when he was forced to surrender, his force having become reduced by excessive exertion, and the unhealthiness of the climate, to one hundred and twenty-five rank and file fit for duty.

By the articles of capitulation the British troops were to march out with the honors of war, and it was agreed to send the garrison to England on board French ships, as soon as transports were ready. The latter part of the agreement was not, however, complied with, as they remained prisoners for more than a year afterwards, during which time many of them died. The garrison consisted of the flank companies of the Seventeenth, Thirty-first, and Thirty-fourth regiments; the Thirty-ninth, Forty-third, Fifty-sixth (three companies), and Sixty-fifth regiments. Their loss in the different actions between the 27th of September and the 6th of October amounted to two officers killed and five wounded; twenty-five non-commissioned officers and privates killed, and fifty-one wounded.

The whole island of Guadeloupe, with the exception of Fort Matilda, had been recaptured by the French under General Victor Hughes: this fort was defended by the troops under Lieut.-General Prescott until the 10th of December, when it was evacuated by the British.

During this campaign the Thirty-ninth regiment lost several officers, who died of fever or other disorders, amongst whom was Lieut.-Colonel Stephen Fremantle. Captain George Bell and some few officers escaped with the colours of the regiment, and arrived in open boats at the Islands of the Saints; in the beginning of the forthcoming year, they proceeded to Ireland.

1795.

The regiment, having speedily recruited its ranks by large drafts from the One hundred and fourth and other corps, was again destined to proceed to the West Indies, and it embarked for Barbadoes towards the end of the year 1795.

1796.

Great Britain now began to see her former allies converted into enemies; and Holland, having become united to France in the early part of the previous year, was styled the Batavian Republic. In April 1796, a secret service having been ordered by Lieut.-General Sir Ralph Abercromby, then Commander-in-chief in the West Indies, the Thirty-ninth, and the late Ninety-third and Ninety-ninth regiments, with a detachment of the Royal Artillery, were embarked at Barbadoes on this expedition, which proved to be against the Dutch colonies of Demerara, Essequibo, and Berbice. The troops were under the orders of Major-General John Whyte, and the Thirty-ninth regiment was commanded by Lieut.-Colonel Thomas Hislop. The force sailed for its destination on the 15th of April, and arrived on the coast of Demerara on the 21st of that month: on the following day the Governor and Council were summoned to surrender the colony to His Britannic Majesty, and the capitulation was signed on the 23rd of April. The British troops accordingly occupied the fort and colony, and Lieut.-Colonel Hislop was left as Commandant of Demerara and Essequibo; but Major-General Whyte proceeded to take possession of the neighbouring colony of Berbice, which accepted the terms offered to Demerara.[22]

The Thirty-ninth remained at Demerara, upon the capitulation of that colony, and, in September, it received six hundred and ninety-one men, from the Ninety-third and Ninety-ninth having been directed to be drafted into the regiment. This raised the regiment to fifty-two serjeants, twenty-two drummers, and one thousand and ninety-three rank and file.

1797 to
1799.

During the years 1797, 1798, and 1799, the Thirty-ninth regiment continued to be stationed at Demerara. On the 1st of November 1799, the regiment had been reduced by deaths to twenty-five serjeants, ten drummers, and four hundred and sixty-eight rank and file.

1800.

In October 1800 the regiment proceeded from Demerara to Surinam.

1801.

The regiment remained at Surinam during the year 1801.

1802.

On the 27th of March 1802, a definitive treaty of peace was signed at Amiens between the French Republic, Spain, and the Batavian Republic, on the one part, and Great Britain on the other. The principal features of the treaty were, that Great Britain restored all her conquests during the war, excepting Trinidad and Ceylon, which were ceded to her, the former by Spain, and the latter by the Batavian Republic. Portugal was maintained in its integrity, excepting that some of its possessions in Guiana were ceded to France. The territories of the Ottoman Porte were likewise maintained in their integrity. The Ionian Republic was recognised, and Malta was to be restored to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. The French agreed to evacuate the Neapolitan and Roman States, and Great Britain all the ports that she held in the Adriatic and the Mediterranean.

Surinam was evacuated in December 1802, and the Thirty-ninth regiment embarked for Barbadoes, and proceeded thence to Antigua.

1803.

In the beginning of March 1803, the Thirty-ninth embarked for England; and the regiment, consisting of thirty-three serjeants, nineteen drummers, and three hundred and fifteen rank and file, under the command of Lieut.-Colonel George Bell, arrived at Spithead on board the “Thalia” transport, on the 22nd of April. During its service on the different stations in South America, upwards of two thousand men had fallen victims to the climate.

The Peace of Amiens was of short duration, and on the 18th of May 1803 war was declared against France. Preparations were accordingly made by the British Government to meet the emergency, and the “Army of Reserve Act” was passed in July following, for raising men for home service by ballot, by which a second battalion was added to the Thirty-ninth regiment.[23] The second battalion was placed on the establishment from the 9th of July 1803, and was composed of men raised in Cheshire, Shropshire, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire. The chief part of the men immediately afterwards volunteered for general service, whereby the first battalion of the regiment became available for foreign service.

At this period, Napoleon Bonaparte, the Chief Consul of France, was making preparations for the invasion of England, for which purpose he collected an immense flotilla at Boulogne. The threat of invasion aroused the patriotism of the British people, and the most strenuous measures were adopted to defeat this design; volunteer and yeomanry corps were formed in every part of the kingdom, and all parties united in one grand effort for the preservation of their native land.

1804.

In May 1804 Napoleon was invested with the dignity of Emperor of the French, and on the 26th of May of the following year he was crowned at Milan as King of Italy.

2nd Batt.

Further measures of defence were adopted by Great Britain, and the “Additional Force Act” was passed on the 29th of June 1804.[24] Under the provisions of this act, the second battalion was augmented with men raised in the county of Shropshire, and its establishment was subsequently fixed at the same strength as the first battalion, namely, forty-four serjeants, twenty-two drummers, and eight hundred rank and file. The second battalion, which, since its formation, had been quartered at Battle, in Sussex, embarked at Plymouth on the 27th of November 1804 for Guernsey, under the command of Lieut.-Colonel George Wilson.

1st Batt.

In the year 1804, during the threatened invasion, the first battalion was stationed on the coast of Sussex.

The first battalion, under the command of Lieut.-Colonel the Honorable Robert William O’Callaghan, which was selected to proceed with the expedition under Lieut.-General Sir James Craig to the Mediterranean, embarked at Portsmouth on the 26th of March 1805, and arrived at Malta on the 22nd of July following, where it formed part of the garrison.

In the autumn of 1805, Napoleon led his army into Germany to crush the confederacy forming against his interests. From the commencement of the war with England, Naples was occupied by French troops; but at this period a treaty of neutrality was concluded between France and Naples, the French troops were withdrawn, and the King of Naples was bound not to admit the fleets or armies of any power engaged in hostilities with France into his ports or territories. While the war in Germany was undecided, the flank companies of the first battalion of the Thirty-ninth regiment were, in November 1805, detached to Naples, and landed at that city on the 22nd of that month. A Russian armament also arrived at Naples.

The Emperor Napoleon being triumphant in Germany, seized the moment of victory to denounce vengeance against the King of Naples for permitting a British and Russian armament to enter his ports and land on his shores; and on the morning after signing the Treaty of Presburg, Napoleon issued a proclamation declaring that “the Neapolitan dynasty had ceased to reign.” This was followed by the march of a numerous French army, under Joseph Bonaparte, to take possession of Naples: the Russians withdrew; and the British, under Lieut.-General Sir James Craig, were too few in numbers to think of defending that kingdom against the numerous forces sent to that devoted country.

1806. 1st Batt.

The flank companies of the first battalion embarked from Naples in January 1806, and proceeded to Sicily, to which island the King and Queen of Naples had resorted, and which was preserved in their interest by the British. The Neapolitans abandoned their royal family to its fate, and submitted to the dictates of Napoleon, who issued a decree conferring the crown of Naples on his brother Joseph. The city of Naples was illuminated, and the nobles were eager to show their attachment to their new sovereign. Insurrections occurred in several places; but the French arms were successful, and the provinces became tranquil.

The flank companies returned to Malta in February 1806.[25]

2nd Batt.

The second battalion remained at Guernsey until the 26th of February 1806, when it proceeded to Ireland, and arrived at Cork on the 15th of March. Having been a short time stationed in the county of Cork, it proceeded to Dublin, and, after performing garrison duty for some months, received orders to transfer all its limited service men to a garrison battalion, and all its disposable men to the first battalion at Malta.

1807.

Being thus reduced to a skeleton, the officers and non-commissioned officers proceeded to England in January 1807, for the purpose of recruiting the ranks of the second battalion, and arrived at Liverpool on the 30th of that month. Having distributed recruiting parties to various stations, the head-quarters marched to Edmonton and Enfield, near London.

On the 29th of October 1807, His Majesty King George III. was pleased to direct that the county title of the Thirty-ninth regiment should be changed from East Middlesex to Dorsetshire.

1808. 1st Batt.

The flank companies of the first battalion proceeded from Malta to Sicily in May 1808.

2nd Batt.

The recruiting continued from the militia and in the ordinary mode with such success that the second battalion was soon increased to five hundred strong; and after being some time stationed at Berry-Head, embarked from thence for Guernsey, where it arrived on the 24th of May 1808. Subsequently, a general volunteering from the militia took place, when the battalion was augmented to about seven hundred rank and file, and being organised in the course of a short period, Lieut.-General Sir John Doyle, Bart., then Lieut.-Governor of Guernsey, was so pleased with the general appearance of the corps as to express his entire satisfaction with it, and to report the battalion fit for immediate foreign service.

1809. 1st Batt.

In June 1809, Lieut.-General Sir John Stuart, commanding in chief in the Mediterranean, resolved to menace the capital and kingdom of Naples, as a diversion in favour of the Austrians, who were contending against numerous difficulties in their war with France. The flank companies of the first battalion were employed on this service; and after menacing a considerable extent of coast, which produced much alarm, the romantic and fruitful island of Ischia, celebrated for the beauty of its scenery, and situated in the Bay of Naples, about six miles from the coast, was attacked. A landing was effected in the face of a formidable line of batteries, from which the enemy was speedily driven. The siege of the castle was undertaken, and in a few days the garrison was forced to surrender. The island of Procida surrendered on being summoned. Two valuable islands were thus rescued from the power of the Grand Duke of Berg, General Murat, upon whom the Emperor Napoleon had, in the preceding year, conferred the sovereignty of Naples, in succession to Joseph Bonaparte, who had been nominated by his brother to be King of Spain; and one thousand five hundred regular troops, with one hundred pieces of ordnance, were captured. An attempt was, at this period, made to reduce the castle of Scylla; but the large force which the enemy possessed in Calabria, rendered this impracticable.

2nd Batt.

The assumption of the sovereignty of Spain by Joseph Bonaparte, although the strongest places and most commanding positions in the Peninsula were occupied by French troops, had excited the indignation of the Spanish people, who solicited, and readily obtained, the aid of Great Britain; and the latter power had, in April 1809, sent Lieut.-General Sir Arthur Wellesley with reinforcements to Portugal, to save that country from invasion, and also to assist the Spaniards in their struggle for independence.

The second battalion was selected to proceed to join the army in the Peninsula under the command of Lieut.-General the Honorable Sir Arthur Wellesley: it embarked on the 22nd of June 1809 for the Tagus, and arrived at Lisbon on the 2nd of July. The battalion shortly afterwards proceeded with a division, consisting of reinforcements, under the command of Brigadier-General Catlin Crawfurd, who endeavoured, by a forced march, to arrive in time for the battle of Talavera, which was fought on the 27th and 28th of July, and for which victory Lieut.-General the Honorable Sir Arthur Wellesley was raised to the peerage by the title of Viscount Wellington. When the second battalion arrived at Sarza la Mayor, a despatch was received from Sir Arthur Wellesley, ordering the brigade and detachments to halt and bivouac at Niza until his arrival with the head-quarters at Badajoz, after which the battalion was stationed at the village of Torre Mayor: here it suffered severely from sickness, which at that season of the year is prevalent in Estremadura, and particularly on the banks of the Guadiana. On the 3rd of September the head-quarters arrived at Badajoz, and the army was distributed about Elvas, Campo Mayor, and other places adjacent; but when Viscount Wellington broke up from the Guadiana in the month of December, and crossed the Tagus, he left Major-General Rowland Hill (afterwards Viscount Hill), with a force of 10,000 men, British and Portuguese, at Abrantes: among the former was the second battalion of the Thirty-ninth regiment.

1810. 1st Batt.

In the summer of 1810, Joachim Murat, King of Naples, assembled upwards of a hundred heavy gunboats, a number of others more lightly armed, and about four hundred transport boats, and brought thirty thousand troops to the coast of Calabria for the purpose of invading Sicily. The battalion companies, under the command of Brevet-Lieut.-Colonel Cavendish Sturt, accordingly proceeded from Malta, in June 1810, to Sicily, where they were employed in the defence of the island against the threatened invasion.

2nd Batt.

The second battalion accompanied the force under Major-General Rowland Hill in all its movements in Portugal and on the frontiers of Spain, and in August 1810 was one of the corps of the second division, when it formed, by forced marches, the memorable junction with Viscount Wellington on the heights of Busaco. Lieut.-Colonel George Wilson being appointed to the charge of a brigade, Major Patrick Lindesay, afterwards Major-General Sir Patrick Lindesay[26], commanded the battalion, which formed part of the right of the army in the battle at Busaco, on the 27th of September, but the battalion was not engaged in the action. When General Regnier attacked the position held by the third and fifth divisions, Major-General Hill withdrew towards his left to support them: it was unnecessary, however, these divisions having repulsed the enemy, and he therefore continued in his original position.

After the battle of Busaco, the second battalion accompanied the army in its retrograde movement to the Lines of Torres Vedras, where it remained until orders were given to advance in pursuit of the French troops towards Santarem, when it crossed the Tagus with the corps under Major-General Hill, and occupied cantonments at Almeirem, immediately opposite the head-quarters of the enemy.

1811. 2nd Batt.

In consequence of the French army retreating from Portugal into Spain, the second battalion of the Thirty-ninth regiment accompanied the second division in its movements towards the frontiers, and was present at the expulsion of the enemy from the fortress of Campo Mayor on the 25th of March 1811; subsequently the battalion crossed the Guadiana at Jerumenha, and was present with the second division in a variety of skirmishes at Los Santos and Zafra, as well as at the investment of Badajoz on the 2nd of May, where the battalion was actively employed in making approaches and constructing batteries against that fortress until the 14th of May, when it marched with the corps under Marshal Sir William Carr (now Viscount) Beresford to Albuhera, where the battalion arrived on the evening of the 15th of that month, and was attacked on the following day by the French army under Marshal Soult.

In the battle of Albuhera, fought on the 16th of May, the second battalion of the Thirty-ninth regiment, although only four hundred strong, bore a distinguished part. The brigade to which it belonged, having been brought up at a critical moment, materially assisted in deciding the fate of the day, preventing by its fire the deployment of a heavy column of the enemy’s reserve, which was ultimately obliged to give way with considerable loss, and retreated in confusion across the river Albuhera.

On this occasion the second battalion had Lieutenant George Beard and fourteen rank and file killed; Captain James Brine, Lieutenants John William Pollard, Francis H. Hart, Ensign Charles Cox, four serjeants, and seventy-three rank and file wounded.

For this action Major Patrick Lindesay, being in command of the battalion, obtained the brevet rank of Lieut.-Colonel, and was presented with a medal. Captain Charles Carthew, who commanded the light company, was publicly thanked by Major-General the Honorable William Stewart, commanding the division, for the gallant conduct of himself, the officers, and company, in their skirmishing with the enemy.

The royal authority was afterwards given for the Thirty-ninth to bear the word “Albuhera” on the regimental colour and appointments, to commemorate the distinguished conduct of the second battalion on that occasion.

The French army having retreated on the road to Seville, the battalion moved forward with the corps, and on the march made many prisoners, the hospitals and wounded having, in many instances, fallen into the hands of the British. The enemy having been completely driven over the Sierra Morena, the battalion retired with the division, and was cantoned on the frontiers until the 22nd of October, when it marched with the troops under Lieut.-General Rowland Hill, and on the 28th of that month arrived close to the village of Arroyo dos Molinos, where a division of the French army was surprised, and about fourteen hundred prisoners, with all its artillery and baggage, were taken. Several officers of rank and consideration, including General Brun and Colonel the Prince d’Aremberg, were amongst the prisoners. The light companies of the brigade, acting in battalion, were under the command of Major Roger Parke of the Thirty-ninth regiment.

General Girard, who commanded the French division, escaped, with about five hundred men, by ascending the Sierra de Montanches, when the second battalion of the Thirty-ninth was ordered to pursue them; but the French throwing away their knapsacks, and in many instances their appointments, they marched with such rapidity, that the battalion could only come up with the rear-guard, which occasionally occupied most favorable positions to cover their retreat. After some skirmishing the French descended into the plain: the battalion being excessively fatigued by a continued and harassing march, from two o’clock in the morning until six in the evening, Brevet-Lieut.-Colonel Patrick Lindesay, then in command, finding further pursuit unavailing, tried the success of a “ruse de guerre,” by riding up to the enemy with a flag of truce, and proposing to General Girard to surrender, as no doubt he would be intercepted by the British cavalry on the plain, and that a Spanish corps under General Morillo was at hand. A captain and twenty men left the column, and surrendered to the battalion, then rapidly advancing in pursuit. The French general, mortified by the surprise and loss of his division, declared he would rather die than surrender. Unfortunately only one troop of cavalry arrived, and Morillo’s force was unable to come up, so that General Girard, and the remainder of his division, escaped by the bridge of Medellin.

In this affair the second battalion had Captain Hardress Saunderson, one serjeant, and nine rank and file wounded.

On the following morning the second battalion rejoined the division at Arroyo dos Molinos, and returned to Albuquerque.

1st Batt.

Meanwhile the first battalion, under the command of Lieut.-Colonel the Honorable Robert William O’Callaghan, had embarked from Sicily on the 20th of August 1811, to join the army in the Peninsula, and arrived at Lisbon in October following. The battalion moved towards the frontiers of Portugal, and on its arrival at Crato was joined by the second battalion on the 24th of December 1811, commanded by Brevet-Lieut.-Colonel Patrick Lindesay.

2nd Batt.

On the 25th of December 1811, the second battalion transferred all its effective men to the first battalion, after which the skeleton marched to Lisbon, where it embarked for England on the 27th of January following.

1st Batt.

The first battalion, thus completed to twelve hundred rank and file, proceeded on the 26th of December to join the second division of the army under Lieut.-General Rowland Hill.

1812. 2nd Batt.

The portion of the second battalion, which had proceeded to England, disembarked at Weymouth on the 2nd of March 1812.

1st Batt.

In March Badajoz was invested for the third time, and the first battalion formed part of the covering army under Lieut.-General Sir Rowland Hill[27] at the successful siege of this important fortress, which was taken by the British on the night of the 6th of April. The battalion afterwards continued with the division in all its various movements from the frontiers of Portugal to the Spanish capital. The victory gained at Salamanca on the 22nd of July by the army under the immediate command of the Earl of Wellington, for which he was raised to the title of Marquis, was followed by the surrender of Madrid to the allies, who entered that city on the 12th of August, and were joyfully received by the inhabitants. The situation of the British commander at Madrid was critical; and it being deemed impracticable to remain there, the Marquis of Wellington on the 1st of September departed from that city, and advanced to Burgos; but the siege of the castle at that place was not successful, and a retrograde movement was made in order to unite with the troops under Lieut.-General Sir Rowland Hill, information having been received that Marshal Soult and King Joseph, with their combined forces, were advancing from Valencia, and that their advanced guard was in the neighbourhood of Ocanna, and moving on Madrid. Lieut.-General Hill, at the approach of Marshal Soult, abandoned that city, and retired slowly towards Salamanca. On the retreat from Madrid to the Tormes, the first battalion formed part of the rear-guard of the army; here the battalion rejoined the second division, and continued the march by Salamanca until its arrival at Coria on the 1st of December 1812, where it remained for the winter.

2nd Batt.

The second battalion, upon its arrival in England in February 1812, was stationed at Weymouth until October following, when it proceeded to Exeter, but returned to Weymouth in December.

1813. 1st Batt.

Shortly after the arrival of the first battalion at Coria, the Thirty-ninth sustained the loss of a most gallant and distinguished officer in Colonel George Wilson, who died on the 6th of January 1813. This officer had served in the regiment upwards of twenty-nine years, and was at the period of his decease aide-de-camp to His Majesty King George III., lieut.-colonel of the second battalion, colonel on the staff of the army, and commanding the brigade to which the first battalion was attached.[28]

On the 15th of May the first battalion, still belonging to the second division, moved forward without interruption until its arrival at Vittoria on the 21st of June: it bore a considerable share in the battle on that day, in taking, defending, and maintaining the village of Subijana de Alava, a post in front of the left of the French line, which they considered of such importance as to induce them to make several vigorous attacks to repossess themselves of it, but which proved unavailing. In this glorious action the battalion lost, in killed and wounded, above one-third of its number. Captains Charles Carthew, Robert Walton, and William Hicks, were wounded. Captain Hicks died of his wounds on the 3rd of July; Lieutenant the Honorable Michael De Courcy Meade died of his wounds on the 9th of July. Lieutenants Francis C. Crotty, Coyne Reynolds, Thomas Baynes, and Alexander G. Speirs, were wounded.

Two serjeants and thirty-two rank and file were killed; six serjeants and one hundred and ninety-four rank and file were wounded.

The French, being driven from all their defences, retreated with such precipitation towards Pampeluna as to abandon all their baggage, artillery, ammunition, military chests, and the court equipage of King Joseph, whose carriage being seized, he had barely time to escape on horseback. The defeat was the most complete that the French had experienced in Spain.

The baton of Marshal Jourdan was taken by the Eighty-seventh regiment, and the Prince Regent, in the name and behalf of His Majesty, appointed the Marquis of Wellington a Field-Marshal. In a most flattering letter, the Prince Regent thus conferred the honor:—“You have sent me among the trophies of our unrivalled fame, the staff of a French Marshal, and I send you in return that of England.”

To commemorate this victory the Thirty-ninth subsequently received the royal authority to bear the word “Vittoria” on the regimental colour and appointments. A medal was granted to Colonel the Honorable Robert William O’Callaghan, of the Thirty-ninth regiment, in temporary command of the brigade, who was specially noticed in the Marquis of Wellington’s despatch, “as having maintained the village of Subijana de Alava against all the efforts of the enemy to gain possession of it;” and also to Brevet-Lieut.-Colonel Charles Bruce, in immediate command of the first battalion.

From Vittoria the first battalion moved forward with the army on the evening of the same day towards the Pyrenees. Some affairs of little importance occurred, and on the 7th of July the French occupied a position across the valley of Bastan; the second battalion of the Thirty-fourth and the first battalion of the Thirty-ninth regiments were moved through the mountains to turn their right; towards evening they fell in with a piquet of the enemy near the extremity of the valley, which was driven in, and found to be supported by a great portion of the French army, which kept up a heavy fire until night. From a thick fog, and the nature of the ground, the enemy did not perceive the comparatively small force opposed to him, nor did the battalion suffer much for the same reason. On the morning of the 8th the enemy retired within the French territory. Four days afterwards Marshal Soult, who had been sent to the seat of war by Napoleon, with the rank of “Lieutenant of the Emperor,” assumed the command of the army of Spain, when all his energies were directed to retrieve its disasters, and to drive the British across the Ebro.

Nothing particular occurred until the 25th of July, when Count D’Erlon attacked the pass of Maya with an overwhelming force. This pass was occupied by the piquets of the brigade, to whose support the battalion, with the brigade, moved forward; but on their arrival found the pass in possession of the enemy: this circumstance, and his great superiority of numbers, obliged the troops to retire, which they did in good order, but with great loss.

In the subsequent action near Pampeluna the battalion occupied some strong ground on the left of the British line, and was but little engaged. It again moved forward on the retreat of the enemy, and on the 31st of July, two attempts having failed to carry the heights of Donna Maria, the Thirty-ninth, being selected for a third, happily succeeded. The enemy after this made no further stand, but retreated beyond the Pyrenees.

In the operations of the army from the 25th to the 31st of July, the loss of the Thirty-ninth was as follows:—

Lieutenants John Lord, and Trevor Williams, killed in action on the 25th of July. Lieutenant Connell Scanlan was wounded and taken prisoner, and died of his wounds. Captain Joseph A. Jones, Lieutenants Francis H. Hart, Charles Cox, and Purefoy Poe, Ensigns William Allan Courtenay and Robert Rhodes were wounded on the 25th of July. Lieutenant William Johnston Hughes was taken prisoner.

Six serjeants and twenty-three rank and file were killed; five serjeants and one hundred and four rank and file were wounded; two serjeants, one drummer, and nineteen rank and file were missing.

For the several actions in the Pyrenees from the 25th to the 31st of July, His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, in the name and behalf of His Majesty, was graciously pleased to grant medals to Colonel the Honorable Robert William O’Callaghan, commanding the brigade, Brevet-Lieut.-Colonel Charles Bruce, commanding the battalion; and to Captain Duncan Campbell, of the Thirty-ninth, in command of the light companies of the brigade.

The Thirty-ninth also received the royal authority to bear the word “Pyrenees” on the regimental colour and appointments, to commemorate the services of the first battalion in these actions.

The enemy having been driven over the Pyrenees, the British remained in possession of the several passes, the Thirty-ninth occupying those of Maya, Roncesvalles, and Alduides, alternately, until the 9th of November, when the battalion entered France by the pass of Maya without opposition, except driving in the enemy’s advance-posts, until its arrival at the river Nivelle, the passage of which was contested by the French army. The battalion, however, succeeded in crossing with trifling loss on the 10th of November, and the enemy was afterwards driven from all his strong and fortified positions on the heights of Sarre, where the Thirty-ninth remained for the night. In commemoration of this service the Thirty-ninth subsequently received the royal authority to bear the word “Nivelle” on the regimental colour and appointments.

Captain George D’Arcy, of the Thirty-ninth, was promoted to the brevet rank of Major on the 22nd of November 1813.

The battalion subsequently moved forward to the Nive, the left bank of which it occupied until the 9th of December, when the army crossed that river,—the Thirty-ninth by a ford at Laressor, under great difficulties, as well from the depth of the river as the opposition made by the enemy. The passage having been effected, the enemy retired to the heights of St. Pierre, near Bayonne.

In crossing the Nive the battalion had one man killed, and twelve rank and file wounded.

On the morning of the 10th of December the division took possession of the high ground in the neighbourhood of Bayonne, the Thirty-ninth occupying Ville Franche on the left of the line, and on the right bank of the Nive. Early on the morning of the 13th of December, Marshal Soult made a most desperate attack on the second division with all his force; but the battalion being on the extreme left of the position was not materially engaged, having only one serjeant killed, and Ensign John Burns and thirteen rank and file wounded. The enemy, being defeated in his attack, retired to Bayonne that night; the division still retained its position and continued therein until the 13th of February, the Thirty-ninth occupying the village of Petite Moguerre.

For the services connected with the passage of the river Nive, the Thirty-ninth subsequently received the royal authority to bear the word “Nive” on the regimental colour and appointments. Medals were also granted to Colonel the Honorable Robert William O’Callaghan, commanding the battalion, and to Brevet-Lieut.-Colonel Charles Bruce, commanding the light companies of the brigade.

2nd Batt.

During the year 1813 the second battalion continued to be stationed at Weymouth; and having completed its ranks from the militia, and by means of recruiting parties, it sent several large drafts to the first battalion in the Peninsula.

1814. 1st Batt.

On the 13th of February 1814, the division moved forward, and on the evening of the 15th of that month fell in with the enemy posted on some strong heights near the town of Garris; after halting a few minutes to observe him, an order was received from the Marquis of Wellington “to take the hill before dark,” when the first battalions of the Twenty-eighth and Thirty-ninth regiments, composing Major-General William Henry Pringle’s brigade, were instantly put in motion, and after crossing a deep ravine, steadily and briskly ascended the hill in contiguous close columns. The Twenty-eighth meeting with some little delay in the ascent, Major-General Pringle left them, and put himself at the head of the Thirty-ninth, who gained the summit under the continued fire of the enemy without returning a single shot. The French retired from the brow of the hill, and the battalion, wheeling to the right, continued to drive them along the ridge until it reached a spot where their principal force appeared to be concentrated: here they made an obstinate resistance. The other brigades of the division not being so soon in motion, and having a greater distance to proceed to their points of attack, did not gain the heights for some time, and the Twenty-eighth having proceeded in a different direction, the Thirty-ninth had to sustain, in this place, the whole efforts of the enemy for about twenty minutes. During this time the French made three attempts to drive the battalion from the position it had gained, and repeated instances occurred of personal conflict, and bayonets crossing: the battalion, however, maintained its ground, and charging in its turn, the enemy was eventually forced to retire in confusion with the loss of several prisoners.

On the following morning Lieut.-General the Honorable Sir William Stewart, K.B., who commanded the division, assembled the officers in front of the battalion, and expressed to them his high satisfaction at the gallant conduct of the corps on the preceding evening; and at the same time offered to recommend to the notice of the Marquis of Wellington any officer or non-commissioned officer that Colonel the Honorable Robert William O’Callaghan might point out: upon which Captain Duncan Campbell was recommended for the brevet rank of Major, which he obtained on the 3rd of the following month.

The battalion had also the proud satisfaction of being mentioned by the Marquis of Wellington, who was an eye-witness of its conduct, as having particularly distinguished itself on this occasion. In his Lordship’s despatch of the 20th of February, it was stated, “Much of the day had elapsed before the attack could be commenced, and the action lasted till after dark, the enemy having made repeated attempts to regain the position, particularly in two attacks, which were most gallantly received and repulsed by the Thirty-ninth regiment under the command of the Honorable Colonel O’Callaghan, in Major-General Pringle’s brigade. The Major-General and Lieut.-Colonel Bruce, of the Thirty-ninth, were unfortunately wounded. We took ten officers and about two hundred prisoners.”

In addition to Brevet-Lieut.-Colonel Charles Bruce, who was severely wounded, the battalion had two serjeants and eleven rank and file killed; one serjeant and twenty-eight rank and file were wounded.

The battalion moved forward without interruption until its arrival in the neighbourhood of Orthes on the 25th, and was present at the battle there of the 27th of February; but the division being employed in turning the enemy’s left, the Thirty-ninth did not suffer any loss. Brevet-Major George D’Arcy, who commanded the battalion on that day, was presented with a medal for the battle of Orthes.

The royal authority was subsequently granted for the Thirty-ninth to bear the word “Orthes” on the regimental colour and appointments.

The battalion moved forward on the road to Toulouse, and on the 18th of March fell in with the rear-guard of the enemy, near the village of Castillon, which was driven in. On this occasion Lieutenant Charles Cox was wounded.

The Thirty-ninth having arrived in the neighbourhood of Toulouse, nothing particular occurred until the battle of Toulouse on the 10th of April, when the operations of the division being confined to the left bank of the Garonne, the battalion was only occupied in driving in the enemy’s outposts, and taking some field-works which had been thrown up to defend the entrance to the town. In accomplishing this, Captain Samuel Thorpe, one serjeant, and a few men were wounded.

During the night of the 11th of April the French troops evacuated Toulouse, and a white flag was hoisted. On the following day the Marquis of Wellington entered the city amidst the acclamations of the inhabitants. In the course of the afternoon of the 12th of April intelligence was received of the abdication of Napoleon; and had not the express been delayed on the journey by the French police, the sacrifice of many valuable lives would have been prevented.

A disbelief in the truth of this intelligence occasioned much unnecessary bloodshed at Bayonne, the garrison of which made a desperate sortie on the 14th of April, when Lieut.-General Sir John Hope (afterwards Earl of Hopetoun) was taken prisoner, Major-General Andrew Hay was killed, and Major-General Stopford was wounded. This was the last action of the Peninsular war.

A treaty of peace was established between Great Britain and France; Louis XVIII. was restored to the throne of France, and Napoleon Bonaparte was permitted to reside at Elba, the sovereignty of that island having been conceded to him by the Allied Powers.

In addition to the other distinctions acquired during the war in Spain, Portugal, and the south of France, the Thirty-ninth received the royal authority to bear the word “Peninsula” on the regimental colour and appointments.

Shortly after the termination of the war in Europe, the first battalion of the Thirty-ninth was ordered to proceed to North America in consequence of the hostilities between Great Britain and the United States. The battalion accordingly marched to Bourdeaux under the command of Brevet-Lieut.-Colonel Charles Bruce, and embarked for Canada on the 8th of June.

While the battalion was on its voyage to North America, the Duke of Wellington, prior to the breaking up of the Peninsular army, issued the following General Order:—

“Bourdeaux, 14th June 1814.

“General Order.

“The Commander of the Forces, being upon the point of returning to England, again takes this opportunity of congratulating the army upon the recent events which have restored peace to their country and to the world.

“The share which the British army have had in producing those events, and the high character with which the army will quit this country, must be equally satisfactory to every individual belonging to it, as they are to the Commander of the Forces, and he trusts that the troops will continue the same good conduct to the last.

“The Commander of the Forces once more requests the army to accept his thanks.

“Although circumstances may alter the relations in which he has stood towards them for some years so much to his satisfaction, he assures them he will never cease to feel the warmest interest in their welfare and honor, and that he will be at all times happy to be of any service to those to whose conduct, discipline, and gallantry their country is so much indebted.”

The first battalion of the Thirty-ninth regiment arrived at Quebec on the 5th of August, and marched from thence to Chambly.

After the arrival of the reinforcements from Europe, the Governor-General of Canada, Lieut.-General Sir George Prevost, Bart., assembled all the disposable forces in the lower province for an attack upon the state of New York. On the 2nd of September the first battalion of the Thirty-ninth, with the other corps employed on this service, proceeded towards the United States to co-operate with the naval force on Lake Champlain. As the troops approached the line of separation, the Americans abandoned their entrenched camp on the river Chazy, and this post was occupied by the British on the 3rd of September.

The first battalion remained at Chazy to keep up the communication, having sent forward the light company to Plattsburg, a fortified place on Lake Champlain; two officers and sixty men of the Thirty-ninth were detached on board the fleet to act as marines. The attack was made on the morning of the 11th of September; but the defeat of the British naval force on the lake rendered it necessary to abandon the enterprise, as the most complete success on shore would have proved unavailing after the loss of the shipping. The troops accordingly retired to Lower Canada.

1815. 1st Batt.

After the failure of these operations the first battalion returned to Chambly, where it remained until the 27th of May 1815, and then proceeded to embark at Quebec under the command of Brevet-Lieut.-Colonel Patrick Lindesay, its services being again required in Europe in consequence of the return of Napoleon Bonaparte to France, who resumed his former title of Emperor of the French, but which assumption the Allied Powers refused to recognise.

The first battalion sailed from the river St. Lawrence on the 12th of June, and arrived at Portsmouth on the 15th of July. Meanwhile the destiny of France had been decided on the field of Waterloo, and Louis XVIII. had been again restored to the throne. The battalion proceeded on the 18th of July for Ostend, disembarked on the 21st, and immediately marched to join the British army at Paris. On the 26th of August it was reinforced by a strong detachment from the second battalion under Lieut.-Colonel Cavendish Sturt, who assumed the command.

2nd Batt.

In April 1815 the second battalion was removed from Weymouth to Winchester Barracks, and, after having transferred all the effective men to the first battalion, was disbanded at the latter place on the 24th of December following.

The regiment remained near Paris until the Army of Occupation was formed, and on the 27th of December 1815 marched to take up the cantonments appointed for it in the Pas-de-Calais, between the towns of Arras and St. Pol, moving annually to the camps of St. Omer and Valenciennes until the breaking up of the Army of Occupation in 1818.

1818.

On the 30th of October 1818, the regiment embarked at Calais, disembarked at Dover on the 31st, and marched to Portsmouth, where it arrived on the 11th of November. The Thirty-ninth regiment embarked for Ireland on the 17th of December following, arrived at Cork on the 24th, and disembarked on the 26th of that month.

1819.

The regiment proceeded on its route for Castlebar in the county of Mayo, where it arrived on the 7th of January 1819.

1820.

The Thirty-ninth marched from Castlebar to Dublin in August 1820, and arrived at its destination on the 17th of that month.

1821.

In March 1821, the regiment was removed from Dublin to Cork.

On the 24th of August 1821, the establishment of the regiment was reduced from ten to eight companies, of three serjeants and seventy-two rank and file each; and on the 26th of November it marched from Cork to Tralee.

1822.

In January 1822, some detachments of the regiment were employed in suppressing a partial insurrection of the Whiteboys. Brevet-Major George D’Arcy was attacked at Millstreet, in the county of Cork, and beat off considerable bodies of the insurgents. Brevet-Major Charles Carthew was also engaged with a large body of them near Bantry, when one private of the regiment was killed.

1823.

The regiment marched, on the 1st of October 1823, from Tralee to Limerick.

Lieut.-General Sir George Airey, K.C.H., was appointed colonel of the Thirty-ninth regiment on the 28th of October 1823, in succession to General Nisbett Balfour, deceased.

1824.

On the 12th of August 1824, Brevet Lieut.-Colonel Patrick Lindesay, C.B., was appointed Lieut.-Colonel of the Thirty-ninth regiment, in consequence of the retirement of Colonel Cavendish Sturt; Brevet-Major Donald M^cPherson succeeded to the vacant majority.

The regiment marched to Buttevant, in the county of Cork, in the beginning of October 1824, and in this place was at length brought together, having been continually broken into small detachments during the whole of its service in Ireland, with the exception of a few months while stationed in Dublin.

1825.

On the 25th of March 1825, the regiment, in common with the rest of the infantry, received an augmentation of two companies, raising its establishment to forty-two serjeants, fourteen drummers, and seven hundred and forty rank and file. These companies were given to the two senior subalterns, Lieutenants Simon Newport and Francis Henry Hart, whose commissions as captains were dated 7th and 8th of April 1825. At this period it was directed that each battalion of infantry in the United Kingdom, as well as those on foreign stations (the East Indies excepted), should consist of six service companies of eighty-six rank and file each, and four dépôt companies of fifty-six rank and file each, making seven hundred and forty in all. The dépôts of such regiments as were serving at home, continued united with their respective corps.

An order was received on the 10th of July 1825, intimating that the regiment was destined to proceed to New South Wales, and ultimately to India. On the 19th of July, it marched to Cork to be embarked for Chatham, from whence it was ordered to proceed to New South Wales, as guards over convicts. The first division left Cork on the 19th, and the head-quarters on the 30th of September.

A detachment, consisting of one captain, one subaltern, one serjeant, and twenty rank and file, embarked in the “Woodman” convict ship on the 4th of November 1825, and proceeded to Van Diemen’s Land and Sydney.

The last division of the regiment arrived at Chatham from Cork, on the 25th of November 1825.

1826.

Several detachments of the regiment proceeded to New South Wales during the year 1826.

In the latter part of 1826, Captain Joseph Wakefield proceeded to assist in establishing a settlement at King George’s Sound on the southern coast of New Holland; and in the beginning of the following year, Captain Henry Smyth was despatched to effect a similar purpose on the northern coast, and succeeded in forming a settlement named Fort Wellington, in Raffles’ Bay.

1827.

The head-quarters under the command of Colonel Lindesay, were embarked for New South Wales in the ship “Cambridge” on the 26th of April 1827, and arrived at their destination on the 17th of September following.

From the 4th of November 1825, to the 5th of May 1827, the whole of the men of the service companies, together with two officers and fifty-nine men drawn from the dépôt, were embarked for New South Wales.

1828.

In consequence of the breaking-up of the reserve or dépôt companies of the regiment in the beginning of 1828, the officers and men composing those companies proceeded by detachments to the head-quarters in New South Wales, leaving a dépôt company in England, on the 24th of August 1830, of two captains, two lieutenants, one ensign, five serjeants, six corporals, four drummers, and thirteen privates. The first detachment embarked for New South Wales on the 1st of February 1828, and the last sailed on the 30th of August 1830.

During the period the regiment was employed in New South Wales, detachments were stationed at Van Diemen’s Land, at King George’s Sound, and on the northern coast, which were distant six hundred, fifteen hundred, and two thousand miles from the head-quarters.

1829.
1830.

The attention of Lieut.-General Ralph Darling, governor of the colony, having for some time been drawn to the importance and advantages which would result from a greater knowledge of the interior of the country, yielded to the entreaties of Captain Charles Sturt of the Thirty-ninth, and permitted him to proceed for the purpose of prosecuting the discoveries already commenced by other travellers. This officer departed from Sydney on his first expedition, on the 6th of November 1828, proceeding in a westerly direction, and remained absent until the 2nd of April 1829, when he rejoined the regiment, having performed the task allotted to him in a manner highly satisfactory to the government; so much so, that having again most particularly requested permission to proceed once more for the purpose of exploring the country in another direction, his request was readily acceded to by the governor, and he accordingly departed from Sydney on the 3rd of November 1829. Proceeding southerly, he had the good fortune to make the coast at Spencer’s Gulf, having traced a large and important river through a vast tract of country, until it discharged its waters into the ocean, on the point of which he emerged. Captain Sturt returned from this expedition on the 26th of May 1830, and was subsequently detached to Norfolk Island; but his health having received a severe shock from the fatigue incident to his labours, he received permission to return to England in 1832.

Serious disturbances having arisen amongst the convicts in the Bathurst district in August 1830, large detachments of the regiment were ordered to proceed thither, where Major Donald M^cPherson was stationed in command, and Captain Horatio Walpole was directed to pursue a body of those deluded men, who had fled from their employment, and furnishing themselves by plunder with arms and horses, bade defiance to all law and authority. He succeeded in ascertaining the direction which they had taken, and following them for several days over a large tract of country, finally succeeded in capturing the whole gang without any loss on the part of his detachment.

In the month of October of the same year, Lieut.-General Ralph Darling addressed a letter to Colonel Lindesay, to ascertain if the immediate services of Captain John Douglas Forbes could be dispensed with by the regiment, as it was his wish to place him in command of the mounted police; to which a reply was sent by Colonel Lindesay, stating his consent to Captain Forbes being withdrawn from his regimental duties; “for that, although he could ill be spared, yet he did not wish to deprive the colonial government of the services of an officer who, he had every reason to believe, would prove both valuable and efficient.” The result fully realized his anticipations; and on the 16th of October, Captain Forbes was by a general order placed in command of this corps; a body of men drawn in equal numbers from the regiments in garrison, and mounted by government, for the more effectually assisting of the civil power, by dispersing them over the various settled parts of the colony. They had, at the time of Captain Forbes’s appointment, no recognized commanding-officer, but were nominally under the superintendence of the Major of Brigade, whose various avocations rarely allowed him to examine into their interior economy; consequently, their discipline had become relaxed, and their duties were but too often performed with carelessness.

Soon after Captain Forbes assumed the command, a manifest change took place; the mounted police rapidly became an efficient and highly disciplined body of men, and their utility and zeal in the discharge of their duty were universally acknowledged.

1831.

New colours were presented to the Thirty-ninth by Lieut.-General Ralph Darling, in the Barrack Square of Sydney, on the 16th of May 1831, being the anniversary of the battle of Albuhera, in which engagement the second battalion of the regiment had twenty years before distinguished itself. On this occasion the following speech was delivered by the Lieut.-General, the ceremony of consecration having been first performed by the Venerable Archdeacon Broughton:—

“Thirty-ninth! It is highly gratifying to me to present you, on the part of your Colonel, with these colours, henceforth the proud record of your general and distinguished services.

“It is unnecessary for me, Thirty-ninth, to emblazon your achievements; your friends will ever remember, and your enemies can never forget, that during the Peninsular War, which in its results was as glorious to the British Arms as it was important to the general interests of Europe, you, led on by your present gallant Commander, fought at Albuhera, of which battle this is the twentieth anniversary; that you were also engaged with, and defeated, the enemy at Vittoria, at the Pyrenees, the Nivelle, the Nive, and at Orthes. You have indeed, Thirty-ninth, nobly redeemed the pledge which your predecessors in arms first gave at the battle of Almanza[29], now one hundred and twenty-four years ago, which was as admirably seconded in the glorious field of Plassey, as it was successfully followed up at the memorable defence of Gibraltar!

“Soldiers! It is not necessary to the fame of your corps, that you should augment the honors which it has so gallantly acquired; but I am sure, whenever your King and country shall require your services, you will add fresh laurels to the noble wreath which now so proudly adorns your banners.

“Gentlemen! In addressing you more particularly to whom this sacred trust, the immediate charge of these colours is especially confided, I need only point out, that they will be the objects to which the eyes of your corps will be directed. You will protect them with your lives; and may the Almighty, who alone can shield you in the day of battle, guide and preserve you in the faithful discharge of this sacred duty!”

Colonel Lindesay having made a suitable reply to the foregoing address, the ceremony was concluded in the usual manner.

The festivity consequent on the presentation of colours was damped by the melancholy intelligence of the death of Captain Collett Barker, who was barbarously murdered on the 30th of April 1831, by the native tribes on the southern coast of New Holland, near the spot at which Captain Sturt had made the coast on his second expedition. Captain Barker had served in the Thirty-ninth regiment for a period of twenty-five years, and was highly esteemed. At the time of his death he was returning from King George’s Sound, where he had been for some time commandant, but which settlement he had been ordered to deliver over to the government of Western Australia, and had landed for scientific purposes near the spot where he was murdered. Captain Barker had also for a considerable period been commandant at the settlement of Fort Wellington, in Raffles’ Bay, on the northern coast of New Holland, where his services were highly estimated by the Colonial Government.

On the 30th of May 1831, a general order was issued, acquainting the regiment that it was destined to proceed to India, upon the arrival of the Fourth foot in New South Wales.

Lieut.-General Darling embarked for England on the 22nd of October 1831, leaving the administration of the government of the colony in the hands of Colonel Lindesay, who continued to act as governor until the arrival of Major-General Richard Bourke, C.B., on the 2nd of December. During this period the command of the regiment devolved upon Major M^cPherson, who was withdrawn from the Bathurst district for that purpose.

1832.

On the 5th of July 1832, a general order was issued, directing the head-quarters of the regiment to embark for Madras; upon which occasion an address was unanimously voted by the civil officers of the colony to Colonel Lindesay on his departure, as a mark of sincere esteem and respect; and he, together with the officers of the Thirty-ninth, received an invitation to a dinner, immediately after which the address, most numerously signed, and highly complimentary to the Colonel and to the regiment, was read by Chief-Justice Forbes. Colonel Lindesay, in reply, expressed his thanks for the honor conferred upon him and upon the Thirty-ninth regiment.

Six companies of the regiment embarked at Sydney on the 21st of July 1832, in three divisions, and disembarked at Madras on the 22nd of September, 10th and 14th of October. The remaining four companies embarked at Sydney on the 3rd of December, and arrived at Madras on the 21st of February of the following year.

The regiment was for a short period stationed at Poonamallee, about thirteen miles from Madras.

1833.

After receiving several contradictory orders as to its final destination, the regiment marched on the 22nd of January 1833, for Bangalore in the Mysore territory, where it arrived on the 14th of February. On the following day, Colonel Lindesay assumed the command of the cantonment of Bangalore, and that of the regiment devolved on Lieut.-Colonel M^cPherson. A week afterwards the remainder of the corps, with the exception of forty men left behind, had disembarked at Madras from New South Wales, under the command of Major Thomas Poole, and joined the head-quarters on the 15th of April; the strength of the corps had also been increased by one hundred and fifteen volunteers received from the Forty-sixth regiment. Lieutenant Charles Cox, who had been detached under the command of Captain Wakefield, to take charge of these volunteers, died of cholera while on the route to Hyderabad.

Lieut.-General the Honorable Sir Robert William O’Callaghan, K.C.B., was removed from the colonelcy of the Ninety-seventh to that of the Thirty-ninth regiment, on the 4th of March 1833, in consequence of the decease of Lieut.-General Sir George Airey, K.C.H.

Cholera broke out among the European troops at Bangalore about the 22nd of March 1833; and in the course of fire weeks the regiment lost Captain Thomas Meyrick, four serjeants, forty-two rank and file, two women, and eleven children. Captain Meyrick had served twenty-two years in the Thirty-ninth, fourteen of which he had been adjutant of the regiment.

In consequence of Lieut.-Colonel M^cPherson proceeding to England on the 15th of December 1833, on two years’ leave of absence, Major Poole became the commanding officer of the regiment.

1834.

Early in 1834, the regiment was called upon to take part in active field operations against the Rajah of Coorg. This prince, a dependent ally of the British, had for some time excited the attention of the government by a series of cruelties and oppression towards his subjects, and had made open preparations to resist its authority. Confiding in the natural difficulties of his country, he presumed to defy the arm of British power, and encouraged proclaimed rebels to take refuge in his jungles and mountains; he finally reached the climax of misconduct, by the outrageous act of arresting an accredited envoy from the government, who had been sent to endeavour to re-establish amicable relations.

A field force, consisting of upwards of seven thousand men, was formed and divided into four columns; the command of the whole was assigned to Colonel Patrick Lindesay, C.B., who received the temporary rank of Brigadier, and Captain John Douglas Forbes, of the Thirty-ninth, was appointed deputy assistant adjutant-general of the force.

The regiment was directed to furnish four hundred rank and file to form the European force of the Eastern Column; and on the 17th of March, the following detail, under the command of Major Thomas Poole, marched from Bangalore in light service order:—

Field Offr.	Captns.	Subs.	Staff.	Serjts.	Drms.	Rk. & File
1	6	12	1	25	6	400

The column rendezvoused at Periapatam, within a few miles of the hostile country, where final arrangements were made for the attack.

It having been decided that the column should move on two points, it was divided into two divisions, and a part of the regiment attached to each. On the 1st of April, the head-quarters, consisting of four companies, with the part of the column under the personal direction of the Brigadier, marched for Bedalapoor; and Major Poole was nominated to the command of the Infantry Brigade, while Captain Horatio Walpole succeeded to the charge of that portion of the regiment. Captain Smyth, with the other three companies of the regiment, remained with the division under Lieut.-Colonel Stewart, of the East India Company’s service.

On the 2nd of April, the Cavery was crossed, and the Coorg country entered by both divisions; the opposition made by the enemy was trifling, and the casualties in the regiment were very few. Captain Smyth and one serjeant were wounded.

On the following day the troops advanced, and succeeded in carrying all the barriers and positions opposed to them; one private was wounded at the stockade, near Harringharry.

The difficulties of the country, both natural and artificial, became excessive, and demanded, as they received, the very utmost exertions of the troops to bring forward the artillery. In one day’s march of continued labour, for upwards of fourteen hours, a distance was gained of only five miles.

On the evening of the 4th, a flag of truce arrived from the rajah, proposing that the troops should halt until he could conclude a negotiation, into which he proposed entering. The Brigadier received the flag, and consented to a truce so far as regarded actual hostilities, provided the enemy refrained from them; but he signified his determination to advance until the rajah surrendered himself an unconditional prisoner.

No further opposition was experienced, and the increasing strength of the stockades and positions, rendered it evident that, if adequately defended, they could only have been carried at an enormous sacrifice. The head-quarter division reached Mercara, the capital, on the 6th; and the British ensign displayed on the walls of its fort, speedily announced the addition which the force had made to British power. The rajah, who had retreated to a country palace, surrendered his person on the 10th of April, and the war was considered at an end.

The conduct of the regiment had throughout this short campaign met with the unqualified praise and approval of the Brigadier, who concluded one of his despatches by saying:—

“It remains, therefore, for me only to bring to the notice of His Excellency the excellent conduct of that part of the Eastern Column which has been acting under my orders. To Major Poole of His Majesty’s Thirty-ninth regiment, whom I placed in immediate command of the Infantry Brigade, I have been indebted for the most zealous and able assistance; and I do but justice in reporting that the officers and soldiers, of every rank and degree, have under all circumstances, and in all respects, merited my most perfect approbation.”

The following is an extract from the despatch of Lieut.-Colonel Stewart, commanding the second division of the Eastern Column:—

“The detachment of His Majesty’s Thirty-ninth regiment surmounted all difficulties with the characteristic behaviour of British soldiers.”

On the 11th of April, the three companies with Captain Smyth, who had been latterly employed in opening the communications, rejoined, and the regiment remained in camp at Mercara until the 11th of May, when, in consequence of an order for the reduction of the force, it marched for Bangalore, and arrived there on the 28th of May.

The casualties by war have already been shown to be trifling; those by sickness, notwithstanding the fatigue and exposure, were also singularly few. The regiment returned to Bangalore but six men weaker than it left that place.

Upon the Forty-eighth regiment being ordered to embark for England, thirty men of that corps volunteered to the Thirty-ninth, and joined the head-quarters on the 14th of November.

1835.

Early in the year 1835, the following general order was received at the regiment, marking His Majesty’s extreme approbation of the conduct of Brigadier-General Lindesay, C.B., whilst commanding the force employed in the expedition against the Rajah of Coorg.

“Head-Quarters,
Madras, 17th April 1835.

“General Order.

“His Excellency Lieut.-General The Honorable Sir Robert William O’Callaghan, commanding His Majesty’s Forces in India, has much satisfaction in publishing the following extract of a letter from the Right Honorable the General Commanding-in-chief, expressive of His Majesty’s approval of the conduct of Brigadier-General Lindesay, and the troops employed under his orders, during the late operations in Coorg, and of His Majesty having been graciously pleased in consequence to nominate that officer to be a Knight Commander of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order.”

Extract of a letter from General the Right Honorable Lord Hill, Commanding-in-chief, dated Horse Guards, 22nd October, 1834, to the Right Honorable Lord William Bentinck, G.C.B., Commander-in-chief in India.[30]

“I have had the honor to receive your Lordship’s letter on the 22nd of May, transmitting a copy of your General Order, on the termination of the war against the Rajah of Coorg; and I beg leave to offer to your Lordship my best congratulations on the success of that operation.

“Having felt it my duty to lay your communication before the King, and to solicit His Majesty’s attention to the terms in which you speak of the conduct of Colonel Lindesay, of His Majesty’s Thirty-ninth Regiment, to whom you confided the command of the Field Force, I have the honor to acquaint you, that the King has remarked with much satisfaction, that the ability and judgment of Colonel Lindesay in the performance of his important service, have been eminently conspicuous; and in testimony of His Royal approbation His Majesty has been pleased to nominate him a Knight Commander of the Royal Guelphic Order, the decoration of which will be duly transmitted to him by the Hanoverian minister at this court.

“By order of His Excellency Lieut.-General the Hon.
Sir Robert William O’Callaghan,
Commanding His Majesty’s Forces in India.
(Signed) “R. Torrens,
“Colonel, Adjutant-General H. M.’s Forces in India.”

Colonel Lindesay had, previously to the receipt of this communication, been removed from the command of the cantonment of Bangalore, and appointed on the 3rd of January to that of the southern division of the Madras army, with the temporary rank of Brigadier-General. He accordingly proceeded to Trichinopoly, the head-quarters of that division. From this place he made application that the Thirty-ninth might be permitted to resume the following distinctions, which had been borne on the regimental colour and appointments for many years, but which had been discontinued about the year 1807, namely the motto “Primus in Indis,” and the word “Plassey;” also the device of the “Castle and Key,” in addition to the word Gibraltar and the motto “Montis Insignia Calpé.” His Majesty King William the Fourth was graciously pleased to approve of these distinctions being resumed by the Thirty-ninth, and the result was communicated by the Adjutant-General on the 24th of November 1835, to Lieut.-Colonel Sir Robert William O’Callaghan, Colonel of the regiment.

On the 14th of December 1835, the regiment was reviewed at Bangalore by Major-General Hawker, commanding the Mysore division of the army, who after a minute inspection expressed to Major Poole his perfect approbation of its appearance, movements, and discipline.

1836.

In February 1836, Colonel Lindesay embarked for Europe, having been relieved in the command of the southern division of the Madras army by Major-General Sir John Forster Fitzgerald, K.C.B., in the preceding October.

Colonel Lindesay, on his departure, was presented by the officers with a gold snuff-box, value nine hundred rupees, bearing the distinctions of the regiment, in which he had served for upwards of forty years.

1837.

A gold snuff-box, value five hundred rupees, was also presented, in January 1837, to Arthur Hamilton, Esq., surgeon of the regiment, on his return to Europe.

A detachment, consisting of two captains, seven subalterns, nine serjeants, four drummers, and two hundred rank and file, marched from Bangalore on the 10th of April 1837, under the command of Captain Walpole, to assist in quelling an insurrection which had taken place in Canara and Malabar.

Directions were given to Captain Walpole to proceed with all expedition to the French Rocks, there to place himself under the orders of Lieut.-Colonel William Williamson, commanding the force moving towards Bisley Ghaut. On arriving at the former place, Captain Walpole received instructions to continue his march in the direction of Mercara; and came up with Colonel Williamson’s force, consisting of a brigade of horse artillery, one squadron of native cavalry, and the Twenty-seventh Native Infantry, five miles to the west of Seringapatam, after a march of twenty-five miles. This force then marched to Frazerpet, and from thence (its movement to Mercara having been countermanded) along the Cavery river to Bisley, where it arrived on the 23rd of April, after thirteen days of very harassing marching from Bangalore, upon an average of nineteen miles a day, and with only one halting-day.

The Pass of the Bisley Ghaut was cleared after some slight resistance offered by the insurgents at the barriers which they had erected, and the force descended upon the Canara country and encamped at Cuddal, until tranquillity was restored.

Captain Walpole’s detachment was then ordered back to Bangalore, where it arrived on the 20th of May without any casualties, and only sixteen sick, although the men had been exposed in small tents in the jungle to the heat of the sun, and had performed a succession of forced marches, besides the laborious duty of assisting in drawing the artillery guns up the difficult ascent of the Ghaut. Lieut.-Colonel Williamson, of the East India Company’s army, who commanded the force, was in the following year nominated a Companion of the Order of the Bath.

1838.

On the 6th of January 1838, the regiment received a very handsome piece of plate from their late Lieut.-Colonel, Major-General Sir Patrick Lindesay, C.B. and K.C.H.

The right wing marched to Bellary on the 20th of October 1838, to replace the Forty-first regiment, and was followed by the left wing and head-quarters on the 16th of January 1839.

1839.

Upon the head-quarters leaving Bangalore, the following order was issued by Major-General Sir Hugh Gough K.C.B. (now Viscount Gough), then commanding the Mysore division of the army:—

“Division Orders.

“Bangalore, 15th January 1839.

“Major-General Sir Hugh Gough on parting with Her Majesty’s Thirty-ninth Regiment feels great satisfaction in being able to record his unqualified approbation of the soldier-like, creditable, and uniformly correct conduct of the corps during the sixteen months it has been under his immediate command at the head-quarters of the Mysore division; and he requests Lieut.-Colonel Poole will, himself, accept the Major-General’s best thanks for his judicious arrangements and unceasing attention to the various duties attendant on his situation as commanding-officer, and that he will also convey to the officers, non-commissioned officers, and privates of Her Majesty’s Thirty-ninth regiment his best thanks and good wishes, with the assurance that the Major-General will consider it a most gratifying event again to have this distinguished corps under his orders, the more particularly should his services be required in the field.

“The Major-General cannot avoid at the present moment noticing the circumstance so confirmatory of the good feeling and high state of discipline of Her Majesty’s Thirty-ninth regiment; namely, that for the six years it has been quartered at Bangalore, not one solitary instance of complaint has been preferred against an officer, or a soldier, by an inhabitant for insult or injury of any kind.

“By Order,
(Signed) “G. C. Whitelock,
“Deputy Assistant Adjutant-General,
“Mysore Division of the Army.”

The head-quarters arrived at Bellary on the 5th of February, and the regiment was stationed there at the end of March when the cholera broke out in the regiment, and raged for some time with considerable violence. One of the last victims to the disease was the Senior Lieut.-Colonel Thomas Poole, who died on the 23rd of April, and was succeeded in the command of the regiment by Lieut.-Colonel Joseph Wakefield. Lieut.-Colonel Poole entered the service on the 4th of September 1803, as Ensign in the Twenty-second regiment, and was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant on the 20th of June 1805, and served for some time as Adjutant; he was appointed Captain in the same regiment on the 26th of December 1811, and was advanced to the rank of Major on the 14th of February 1828; he exchanged from the Twenty-second to the Thirty-ninth regiment on the 21st of February 1828, and was promoted Lieut.-Colonel in the latter corps on the 10th of January 1837. Major Thomas Wright was promoted to the vacant Lieut.-Colonelcy on the 24th of April 1839.

On the 30th of August 1839, the regiment left Bellary for field service under Major-General Wilson, C.B. The intended destination of the force was at that time unknown to the Major-General himself. The troops reached Adoni, which had formerly been a favourite stronghold of one of the minor branches of the Mogul dynasty, and the ruins of which attest its former strength and magnificence, on the 3rd of September.

The regiment was halted there until the 21st, during the greater part of which time it rained heavily, but the men were very healthy. On the 27th it reached Coodamoor, where the whole force was assembled, consisting, in addition to the Thirty-ninth, of two squadrons of the Thirteenth light dragoons, the Seventh regiment of Native cavalry, the Third, Sixteenth, Thirty-fourth, Thirty-ninth, and Fifty-first regiments of Native infantry. The head-quarters of the Sappers and Miners, a troop of horse and two companies of foot artillery, with four eighteen-pounders, four twelve-pounders, several mortars, howitzers, and a large and well equipped park. A formidable resistance was, therefore, expected by the Government; and subsequent inquiries proved that the intended antagonist was supplied with most numerous and well constructed implements of destruction, and that a part of his force consisted of brave and determined soldiers.

At Coodamoor the regiment remained halted for many days; and on the 1st of October the cholera unfortunately broke out, and lasted with considerable violence for about ten days, during which time Lieut. Samuel Philips, Assistant Surgeon Robert Martin Davis, M.D., of the Thirty-ninth regiment (a most valuable and excellent medical officer), and six men died therefrom.

On the 3rd of October, an order was received from the Commissioners for the affairs of Kurnool to detach a portion of the force in advance; two companies of the Thirty-ninth, under the command of Captain Henry Clarence Scarman (who died of cholera in the Fort of Kurnool on the 12th of the same month), with a detachment of the artillery, and the Fifty-first Native infantry, marched on the 4th of October. This force was led into the Fort of Kurnool by the Nuwaub’s head minister, Numder Cawn, who subsequently was proved to have been a traitor to both parties. The Nuwaub and his party vacated the fort by an opposite gate. This apparent surrender turned out to be a ruse de guerre, as the Nuwaub, it is believed, fully expected to re-occupy the fort; for there were no visible symptoms of preparations, all munitions of war being buried or built up, and the whole wore a peaceful aspect; subsequent discoveries proved that peace was not his object, but that he contemplated lulling the Company into security, until he was prepared for active operations. On the 9th of October, the Commissioners applied for a reinforcement; and two companies of the Thirty-ninth, the whole of the Thirty-fourth Native infantry, with a detachment of cavalry and artillery, were despatched under the orders of Lieut.-Colonel Thomas Edward Wright. These two companies were encamped outside the Fort of Kurnool for some days; but on the morning of the 18th, Lieut.-Colonel Wright was privately informed that his two companies would be required to assist in endeavouring to force the Nuwaub to surrender, and to make his followers, principally composed of Arabs, Rohillahs, and Patans, lay down their arms. It is well known that Arabs particularly have a great objection to do this, and will rather fight under very adverse circumstances than comply; resistance was, therefore, expected. Negotiations were soon seen to be unavailing, as some of the Rohillah chiefs (a brave people, whose sole and only occupation is mercenary fighting) accused their opponents of cowardice.

A fire of artillery and musketry of twenty minutes’ duration was opened upon, and returned by the Nuwaub’s party, when an order was given to the Thirty-ninth to charge, which they did, and after a well contested struggle obtained possession of the person of the Nuwaub, and made prisoners a great number of his followers. Several escaped, and were pursued by a party of the Thirteenth light dragoons, which guarded the ford of the river; about three hundred are supposed to have fallen on the side of the enemy. The two companies of the Thirty-ninth were about eighty strong in rank and file. Lieut. Thomas White, one colour-serjeant, and one private were killed; and Lieut.-Colonel Wright was most dangerously wounded. Four privates were dangerously wounded, two of whom died, and one had his arm amputated; five privates were slightly wounded.

The conduct of Lieut.-Colonel Wright, and that of the officers and men of his detachment, was highly commended in the public despatch on the occasion. Captain William Wood, Lieut. Edward Croker, and Ensign Owen Wynne Gray, were the officers present, together with Lieut. Thomas White, who was killed.

In the despatch of Lieut.-Colonel Dyce, commanding the detachment of the Kurnool field force, giving an account of the affair at Zorapore, near Kurnool, on the 18th of October, it was stated “that the conduct of the detachment of the Thirty-ninth was such as always characterises British soldiers;” and he added,

“I beg particularly to bring to the notice of superior authority the conspicuously gallant conduct of Lieut.-Colonel Wright, of Her Majesty’s Thirty-ninth regiment, who has been dangerously wounded.”

The loss of the enemy was severe; several chiefs were among the slain, and a number of elephants, horses, and treasure were captured.

The Governor of Madras in Council stated in general orders, dated Fort George, 25th October 1839, in publishing Lieut.-Colonel Dyce’s despatch, that “while he laments the humane efforts of that officer to prevent bloodshed have been defeated by the infatuation of the Nuwaub of Kurnool’s followers, he cannot refrain from expressing the high sense he entertains of the gallantry and soldier-like conduct displayed by Lieut.-Colonel Dyce, and the officers and men of the detachment in the attack upon the durgah at Zorapore.”

The regiment returned to Bellary on the 8th of November 1839, leaving two companies to garrison the Fort at Kurnool. Shortly afterwards intimation was received that it was to march for Kamptee, and accordingly on the 24th of December the regiment quitted Bellary.

1840.

The two companies which had been left at Kurnool, rejoined the head-quarters at Nagumpilly, near Secunderabad, on the 12th of January 1840, and the regiment arrived at Kamptee by the route of Secunderabad and Hingolee, a distance of six hundred and forty miles, without a single casualty. Previously to quitting Bellary the regiment received from Major-General Francis W. Wilson, C.B., in orders, the expression of his entire approbation of its “excellent discipline, efficiency, and exemplary behaviour both in garrison and the field.”

Lieut.-Colonel Wakefield died of fever on the 17th of May 1840, and Lieut.-Colonel Wright assumed the command of the regiment. Major Horatio Walpole was promoted to the vacant Lieut.-Colonelcy.

Lieut.-General Sir Frederick Philipse Robinson, G.C.B., was removed from the colonelcy of the Fifty-ninth to that of the Thirty-ninth regiment on the 15th of June 1840, in succession to Lieut.-General the Honorable Sir Robert William O’Callaghan, G.C.B., deceased.

1841.

From the unsettled state of India, rumours were constantly stirring that the regiment would be ordered to march in the direction of Bombay; it remained quiet, however, until November 1841, when two companies were ordered at a few hours’ notice to join a small force under Lieut.-Colonel Dowker, of the Madras army, for the purpose of pursuing and chastising a pretender to the name and person of Appa Sahib, who had been deposed from the Nagpore throne in 1818, and had made his escape from the escort of British troops, and, although frequently heard of, had never been seen by the British authorities.

These two companies did not fall in with the rebels, and their return to Kamptee was hastened by an order for the regiment to march to Cawnpore, in the Bengal presidency, with the least possible delay. On the 27th of December 1841, the regiment left Kamptee, and on approaching Jubbulpore received orders to change its route to Agra, which it accordingly did, and reached its destination, viâ Sangor, Jhansi, and Gwalior, a distance of five hundred and twenty miles, on the 1st of March 1842, with only two casualties.

1842.
1843.

On the 8th of October 1842, the regiment marched, viâ Muttra, Delhi, and Kurnaul, to join the army of reserve assembled at Ferozepore, on the return of the troops from Affghanistan, where it remained until the army was dissolved in January 1843, when it marched to Delhi, and formed part of the Governor-General’s escort there, returning to Agra by way of Allyghur, on the 4th of March following.

On the morning of the 23rd of March 1843, at six o’clock, Lord Ellenborough, the Governor-General of India, presented new colours to the regiment.

The corps received his Lordship with a general salute, after which the ranks were closed. It then formed three sides of a square, and the new colours were deposited in front, where they were consecrated with a prayer every way suited to the solemnity of the occasion, by the Rev. Mr. Rice, Chaplain at Agra. His Lordship then affably desired that sufficient space might be afforded for his voice to be heard by all the regiment, and spoke as follows:—

“Lieut.-Colonel Wright, officers, non-commissioned officers, and privates of Her Majesty’s Thirty-ninth regiment, I present to you new colours, consecrated with all the solemn ceremonies of religion, to be borne, as your colours always have been, with honor before the enemy.

“These colours have already inscribed on them the names of many victories, wherein those who have preceded you in the Thirty-ninth, and some amongst yourselves, have borne part.

“There is yet space for more inscriptions to commemorate other victories; and be assured that, if the necessity for action should occur, I shall afford you the opportunity of acquiring distinctions similar to those which have been obtained by your predecessors, with the conviction that you will display courage like that which distinguished them upon the field of battle, that these colours will never retreat before the enemy, but that every one of you would give his life to bear them on to victory.

“In England and in the colonies, and in other parts of the world, Her Majesty’s Thirty-ninth regiment may stand in the same line with other regiments which have gained glory in the field. In India you are the first. Your predecessors laid, at Plassey, the foundation of the glorious empire you now behold; an empire won by arms, and by arms alone to be preserved.

“Other inscriptions on your colours commemorate victories in which your predecessors participated in Spain, under the immediate eye and direction of the greatest of generals, of him who now again in the command of the army in England, watches over the interest and honor of those he so often led to victory. Loyalty to our Sovereign is the first duty of us all. It has at all times been the virtue of the British soldier; but how much is there to animate our loyalty, to give the character of enthusiasm to our feelings for our Sovereign, when the Queen evinces, as Her Majesty always has done, the deepest personal interest, the warmest zeal and regard for the honor of the army!

“Eleven regiments of Her Majesty’s army have, in this last year, obtained from Her Majesty’s gracious favour, for their services in Affghanistan and China, medals commemorative of those services, to be for ever worn upon their breasts.

“I know that whenever your services may be required in the field, you will follow these colours, not with any thought of pecuniary advantage to be gained by success, but with the one absorbing thought, that, through the success you may obtain by your courage, you may return to your families, to your friends, and to your country, bearing upon your breasts the decorations which evince your Queen’s approval of your devotion to Her Majesty, and of your duty well performed before the enemy.

“My fortune has given to me, and I regret it, a career different from yours. I have been, and must remain, employed in civil duties; but I tell you, as I have already told some of your comrades, the first of all professions is that of a soldier, and the first of all rewards is military honor!!!

“I now deliver to you these colours, in the conviction that they will ever be borne before you with honor, and that there is not a man amongst you who would not give his life to preserve them.”

Lieut.-Colonel Wright replied to his Lordship to the following effect:—

“That both himself and the officers and soldiers of the regiment were deeply sensible of the honor his Lordship had conferred upon them; that he was unable to enlarge on the topics usually advanced on such occasions, as his Lordship’s speech had both anticipated and exhausted his resources; but that his Lordship might rely upon it, every member of the corps would endeavour to maintain the honor of their colours, and the renown of Her Majesty’s arms, unsullied.”

The regiment then reformed line and the audience retired. The colours were trooped in the usual form; and on arriving at the right of the line were brought up by the grenadiers (the band playing their march) along the front of the line, opposite to the old colours, where they were exchanged; the senior ensigns falling in with the new colours in the centre of the line, whilst the old colours fell in respectively on the flanks of the grenadier company, which were faced outwards by sub-divisions, and conveyed (music playing) round the flanks of the regiments to the rear of the centre, when they were sent away. The grenadiers then resumed their post in line, and the regiment then marched past in slow and quick time, reformed line, and presented arms.

A ball and supper were given by the officers to commemorate the event, to which every member of society in and around Agra was invited. These festivities were attended by his Lordship, and were subsequently followed by others on succeeding evenings, in which the serjeants, corporals, and privates of the regiment participated.

In the month of August 1843, cholera appeared with great virulence. Brevet Lieut.-Colonel Donald Urquhart, Surgeon Robert Stark, M.D., two serjeants, two corporals, forty-eight privates, women, and children, died of this disease in the course of a month, after a few hours’ seizure. The hospital was crowded with patients. All the officers, Lieut.-Colonel Wright with about five others excepted, were attacked with cholera symptoms. Captain Charles T. Van Straubenzee of the Thirty-ninth regiment, was promoted to the rank of Major on the 27th of August, in succession to Brevet Lieut.-Colonel Urquhart.

The regiment was encamped at Rambaugh, near Agra, for ten days, in consequence, until the disease disappeared.

The Thirty-ninth regiment formed part of the fifth brigade of the “Army of Exercise,” assembled at Agra on the 25th of November 1843. This force had been assembled in consequence of affairs in the state of Gwalior, which had for some time required the attention of the Indian Government, although it was not anticipated that actual hostilities would take place. The events which led to the collision between the Anglo-Indian troops and those of the once powerful Mahratta kingdom, are as follow:—Upon the decease of Maharajah Jhunkojee Rao Scindia, the British Government promptly acknowledged as his successor the Maharajah Jyajee Rao Scindia, who was nearest in blood to the late sovereign of Gwalior, and whose adoption by the Maharanee, his Highness’s widow, was approved by the chiefs. During the minority of the Maharajah, the office of regent was to be held by Mama Sahib. In a short period the regent was compelled by force to quit the Gwalior state, and the Dada Khasgee Walla succeeded to the confidence of the Maharanee without possessing generally that of the chiefs, and by his influence various acts were committed insulting and injurious to the British Government. The delivery of the Dada being peremptorily insisted upon as a necessary preliminary to the re-establishment of the customary relations with the Gwalior state, the Maharanee at length complied with the request. The Governor-General, in order to give friendly support to the youthful Maharajah, directed the immediate advance of forces sufficient for the purpose. The Anglo-Indian troops entered the dominions of Scindia, and a strong government having been established at Gwalior, they received orders to withdraw; but were not destined to return to their own territory without a severe conflict. They had quitted Agra in the early part of December, immediately after the arrival there of the Governor-General of India, The Right Honorable Lord Ellenborough. His Lordship accompanied the troops, and on the 23rd of December they crossed the Chumbul river, and halted at Hingona, about twenty miles from Gwalior, where the army rested for five days.

During this interval the Mahratta vakeels, or agents for the Gwalior durbar, had an interview with the Governor-General, and the negotiations appeared proceeding to an amicable issue. The design of the enemy was, however, merely to gain time to concentrate his forces, and this at last became so evident that his Lordship determined upon active measures of hostility. While the main body of the army, of which the Thirty-ninth formed part, moved on from Agra under General Sir Hugh (now Viscount) Gough, Bart., G.C.B., Commander-in-Chief in India, another division under Major-General John Grey, C.B., advanced on Gwalior from Bundlekund.

The Thirty-ninth, with the main division, crossed the Koharee river early in the morning of the 29th of December, and found the Mahratta forces drawn up in front of the village of Maharajpore, in a very strong position, which they had occupied during the previous night, and which they had carefully entrenched. The British were about fourteen thousand strong, with forty pieces of artillery, while the enemy mustered eighteen thousand men, including three thousand cavalry with a hundred guns. Notwithstanding the extreme difficulty of the country, intersected by deep and almost impassable ravines, the whole of the Anglo-Indian troops were in their appointed positions by eight o’clock in the morning of the 29th of December. The action commenced by the advance of Major-General Littler’s column, which was exactly in front of Maharajpore; and although the Mahratta troops fought with desperate bravery, nothing could withstand the rush of British soldiers. The part taken by the Thirty-ninth in the victory which ensued, is shown in the accompanying extracts from the despatch of General Sir Hugh Gough, Bart., G.C.B. “Her Majesty’s Thirty-ninth foot, with their accustomed dash, ably supported by the Fifty-sixth Native infantry, drove the enemy from their guns into the village, bayonetting the gunners at their posts. Here a most sanguinary conflict ensued; the Mahratta troops, after discharging their matchlocks, fought sword in hand with the most determined courage.

“Major-General Littler, with Brigadier Wright’s brigade, after dispersing the right of the enemy’s position at Maharajpore, steadily advanced to fulfil his instructions of attacking the main position at Chonda in front, supported most ably by Captain Grant’s troop of horse artillery, and the First regiment of light cavalry. This column had to advance under a very severe fire over very difficult ground; but when within a short distance, again the rush of the Thirty-ninth regiment, us before, under Major Bray, gallantly supported by the Fifty-sixth regiment of Native infantry under Major Dick, carried every thing before them, and thus gained the entrenched main position of Chonda. In this charge the Thirty-ninth regiment lost the services of its brave commanding-officer, Major Bray, who was desperately wounded by the blowing up of one of the enemy’s tumbrils in the midst of the corps, and were ably brought out of action by Major Straubenzee. This gallant corps on this occasion captured two regimental standards.

“A small work of four guns on the left of this position was long and obstinately defended, but subsequently carried, and the guns captured by the grenadiers of the Thirty-ninth, under Captain Campbell, admirably supported by a wing of the Fifty-sixth Native infantry under Major Phillips.”

Major-General Grey, who had been directed to push on with the left wing as rapidly as practicable to Punniar, twelve miles south-west of Gwalior, gained also a complete victory on the same day as the battle of Maharajpore was fought, namely, 29th of December. The Mahratta army were thus placed between two corps capable of supporting each other, should it remain in the vicinity of its capital; or of subdividing that army to repel, or attack, these two columns; the latter alternative was adopted by the enemy, and the consequence was most decisive and honorable to the British arms, and the mutinous troops which had overawed and controlled the government of His Highness the Maharajah Jyajee Rao Scindia, were signally defeated.

These victories were not gained without severe loss, owing to the enemy’s force considerably outnumbering the British, particularly in artillery, and to the commanding position of his guns, which were well served and determinedly defended both by the gunners and infantry; the peculiar difficulties of the country gave also additional advantages to the gallantry of the Mahratta troops, whose loss was exceedingly great;—in the battle of Maharajpore fifty-six guns were captured, together with the whole of the enemy’s ammunition waggons.

The Thirty-ninth had Ensign Theodore David Bray, two serjeants, one drummer, and twenty-six rank and file killed. The following officers were wounded:—Major Edward William Bray (severely), Captains Robert Newport Tinley (severely), and Charles Campbell; Lieutenant and Adjutant William Munro (severely); Lieutenants James S. Atkinson (severely), Humphrey Gray (very severely), Robert Hamilton Currie, and Hugh George Colvill (very severely); Ensigns Simon George Newport, and Thomas Scarman (severely); seventeen serjeants, and one hundred and fifty-seven rank and file were wounded.

Lieut.-Colonel Thomas Wright, of the Thirty-ninth, who served os a Brigadier-General, and commanded the brigade of which his regiment formed part, was particularly noticed in the official despatch. Major Bray, who commanded the regiment, Major Charles T. Van Straubenzee, Captain Marmaduke George Nixon (Major of Brigade), Captain Charles Campbell, and Lieutenant Edward Croker, Assistant Quartermaster General, fifth brigade of infantry, were all honorably mentioned.

Lieut.-Colonel Wright and Major Bray were subsequently nominated Companions of the Order of the Bath: the latter officer with Major Straubenzee, received the brevet rank of Lieut.-Colonel; Captains Nixon and Campbell were promoted to the rank of Major in the army.

The Thirty-ninth also received the Royal authority to bear the word Maharajpore on the regimental colour and appointments, in commemoration of this victory.

The Governor-General in his proclamation thus alluded to the Thirty-ninth regiment:—

“The Governor-General’s especial thanks are due to Her Majesty’s Thirty-ninth and Fortieth regiments, to the Second and Sixteenth regiments of Native Grenadiers, and to the Fifty-sixth Native Infantry, which took with the bayonet the batteries in front of Maharajpore.

“Her Majesty’s Thirty-ninth regiment had the peculiar fortune of adding to the honor of having won at Plassey the first great battle which laid the foundation of the British empire in India, the further honor of thus nobly contributing to this, as it may be hoped, the last and crowning victory by which that empire has been secured.

“Her Majesty’s Fortieth regiment, and the Second and the Sixteenth regiments of Native Grenadiers, again serving together, again displayed their pre-eminent qualities as soldiers, and well supported the character of the ever victorious army of Candahar.

---

“The Government of India will, as a mark of its grateful sense of their distinguished merit, present to every general and other officer, and to every soldier engaged in the battles of Maharajpore and Punniar, an Indian Star of bronze, made out of the guns taken in these battles; and all officers and soldiers in the service of the Government of India will be permitted to wear the Star with their uniforms.

---

“A triumphal monument commemorative of the campaign of Gwalior will be erected at Calcutta, and inscribed with the names of all who fell in the two battles.”

Major Thomas Ryan, of Her Majesty’s Fiftieth regiment, was attached to the Thirty-ninth, and distinguished himself by his cool and gallant conduct at the battle of Maharajpore. Major Ryan and Lieut.-Colonel Wright had their horses shot under them.

1844.

The “Army of Gwalior” was broken up on the 28th of January 1844. The Thirty-ninth remained at Gwalior from the 29th of January until the 4th of March, when the right brigade, with the regiment, commanded by Lieut.-Colonel Wright, returned to Agra, where it arrived on the 10th of that month.

In addition to the star manufactured from the ordnance captured at Maharajpore, a donation of six months’ batta was granted by the Governor-General in Council to the army employed during the campaign in Gwalior.

The regiment remained at Agra until the 20th of October, when it marched for Dinapore, and arrived at that station on the 13th of December following.

1845.

On the embarkation of the Thirteenth light infantry at Kurrachee for England, two hundred of the men volunteered to the Thirty-ninth regiment. These formed a portion of Major-General Sir Charles Napier’s force in his expedition against the mountain desert robbers of Beloochistan in the spring of 1845.

In storming the nearly inaccessible heights of Truckee a serjeant’s party of fifteen men pre-eminently distinguished themselves by their undaunted gallantry, in forcing their way, after a lengthened and sanguinary struggle, to the summit of a hill, which was defended by about a hundred and eighty of the enemy.

This exploit called forth the following letters from His Excellency Sir Charles Napier, and His Grace the Duke of Wellington.

“Sukkur, 30th March, 1845.

“Sir,

“It will gratify you, and be just to some brave men, who volunteered from the Thirteenth for your regiment, to send to you a copy of my letter to the Commander-in-Chief, relative to a gallant action performed by them on the 8th instant.

“The whole of the volunteers for your regiment have behaved admirably during the five months they have been serving under my own immediate observation; they have shown themselves worthy of the regiment they have left, and of that which is under your command. I have, &c.,

(Signed) “C. J. Napier, Major-General,
“Governor of Scinde.

“Officer commanding H. M. 39th regiment.”

“Camp Sukkur, 25th March 1845.

“Sir,

“It is with regret I have to say that, misled by the report of Captain Beatson, I stated that the six soldiers, who, on the 8th instant, fell on the heights of Truckee, were killed in consequence of their own imprudence. This was incorrect and unjust. They acted in obedience to their orders, and died in the fulness of glory, worthy of the brightest names in our military annals. The enclosed return, received from the orderly room, is more eloquent than any thing I can say. I am convinced that one who has so often witnessed the gallantry of soldiers, will not read unmoved this proud but distressing record of heroism and death.

“The survivors of those who reached the top, merit the honor to have their names laid before His Grace the Duke of Wellington, and it would be very grateful to their feelings if your Excellency would do this. They are men of excellent character; most of them had two, and some three medals. The bold Sepoy of the camel corps is highly praised by them for his courageous conduct.

“Hoping that some mark of approbation may be bestowed on these admirable soldiers, I have, &c.

(Signed) “C. J. Napier, Major-General,
“Governor of Scinde.”

“His Excellency,
“General Sir Hugh Gough, Bart., G.C.B.,
“Commander-in-Chief in India.
“&c. &c. &c.”

Nominal roll of the serjeant’s party of a detachment of Her Majesty’s Thirty-ninth, volunteers, which stormed the hill at Truckee on the 8th of March 1845:—

Rank.	Names.	Remarks.
Serjeant	John Power	Reached the summit of the hill, and was slightly wounded.
Corporal	Thomas Waters	Did not quite reach the summit of the hill.—Three medals.
”	John Kenny	Did not quite reach the summit of the hill.—Three medals.
Private	John Action	Reached the top, killed three of the enemy, and was then killed himself.—Two medals.
”	Robert Adair	Reached the top, killed two of the enemy, and was then killed himself.—Two medals.
”	Hugh Dunlap	Reached the top, killed two of the enemy, and was then killed himself.
”	Patrick Fullon	Reached the summit of the hill, and was killed.—Two medals.
”	Samuel Lowrie	Reached the top, killed the Commander of the enemy and another man, and was then killed himself.—Two medals.
”	William Lovelace	Reached the top, and was killed.
”	Anthony Burke	Reached the top, killed three of the enemy (shot one, bayonetted another), broke his musket on the head of the third.—Two medals.
”	John Malony	Reached the top, bayonetted two of the enemy, saved Burke and Rohan’s lives, and was severely wounded.—Three medals.
”	Bartholomew Rohan	Reached the top, bayonetted one of the enemy, and was very severely wounded.—Two medals.
”	George Campbell	Reached the top, and killed two of the enemy.
”	Phillip Fay	Did not quite reach the summit.—Two medals.
”	Mark Davis	Did not quite reach the summit.—Two medals.
”	Charles Hawthorn	Did not quite reach the summit.—Two medals.
Camel Corps	Ruinzan Aheer	Did not quite reach the summit.

“Horse Guards,
“12th June 1845.

“Sir,

“I have had the honor to receive your letter on the 15th of April, with a letter and its accompanying return from Major-General Sir Charles Napier, setting forth the conspicuous gallantry of a party of Volunteers from the Thirteenth Light Infantry to the Thirty-ninth regiment, in storming the almost inaccessible hill position of Truckee, occupied by a strong force of the Mountain Desert Robbers; and having laid these papers before the Commander-in-Chief, I am instructed to request that you will cause the expression of his highest approbation to be conveyed to such of these brave men as have survived the attack; and that you will further be pleased to recommend them specially to the notice and protection of the commanding officer of the Thirty-ninth regiment, and ascertain and report for His Grace’s information whether the Serjeant is qualified to hold a commission in Her Majesty’s service.

“The Duke of Wellington deeply laments the loss of those who fell on this memorable occasion.

“I have, &c.
(Signed) “Fitzroy Somerset.

“General Sir Hugh Gough, Bart., G.C.B.,
“Commander-in-Chief in India.
“&c. &c. &c.”

In the month of October 1845, four companies, under the command of Captain Wood, were detached to garrison Fort William.

1846.

In the beginning of 1846, in consequence of the great demand for fighting men on the north-west frontier, the regiment was directed to volunteer to the extent of five hundred men: the detached wing rejoined the head-quarters at Dinapore in March. In October 1846, the Thirty-ninth again volunteered, preparatory to embarkation for England, when two hundred and seventeen men were transferred to other corps.

On the 30th of December following the remainder of the corps, consisting of about three hundred men, embarked in boats for Calcutta.

1847.

The regiment arrived at Calcutta on the 27th of January 1847; and on the 7th of February, the head-quarters, under the command of Lieut.-Colonel Wright, consisting of seven officers, seven serjeants, five corporals, six drummers, and one hundred and eleven privates, embarked in the “Tudor,” and landed at Gravesend on the 9th of June following, losing one serjeant, one corporal, and three privates, during the passage.

The remainder of the regiment, consisting of ten serjeants, nine corporals, eight drummers, and one hundred and forty-five privates, with six officers, under the command of Captain Wilbraham, embarked in the “Pekin” on the 23rd of February, and arrived in England on the 13th of July 1847, losing only one man during the voyage.

On the departure of the Thirty-ninth, with other corps, from India, the Right Honorable Lord Gough, Commander-in-Chief in that country, issued the following complimentary orders:—

“Head-Quarters,
“Camp Seharunpore,
“9th February 1847.

“GENERAL ORDER.

“The Right Honorable the Commander-in-Chief in India avails himself of the opportunity which the approaching departure from India of those distinguished regiments, the Ninth, Thirty-ninth, and Sixty-second foot affords, of recording the high sense he entertains of their respective merits, and the admiration with which he has witnessed their uniform good conduct in quarters, and their gallantry in the field.

“Each regiment bears on its colours the names of many hard-fought battles in the “Peninsula,” and each regiment will carry home the record of victories achieved in the wars of this country, nobly gained by their indomitable bravery under his Lordship’s immediate command.

“The Ninth regiment has completed a service abroad of upwards of fourteen years. In 1842 it formed part of the force under Major-General Sir George Pollock in the second campaign of ‘Affghanistan,’ and subsequently had the good fortune to partake in the memorable battles of the Sutlej. The despatches of the former period have testified to its gallantry, its noble bearing, and high spirit under extreme sickness and privation; and upon the latter, Lord Gough has recently in orders and by his despatches, expressed his sense of its valuable services.

“The Thirty-ninth regiment, ‘Primus in Indis,’ having obtained imperishable renown in the earlier wars in India, bearing upon its colours the record of its gallantry at ‘Plassey,’ quitted this country in 1758; and after a lapse of seventy-four years, during which it reaped a rich harvest of glory in the ‘Peninsula,’ again returned to India, and has again profited by the opportunities, which a long service in this country has afforded, of adding fresh lustre to its fame. The victory of ‘Maharajpore’ is already recorded on its colours, and nobly did it earn that badge. The distinguished conduct of the Thirty-ninth regiment on the 29th of December 1843, could not be surpassed for bravery and determination.

“The Sixty-second regiment gallantly aided in the defence of Ferozepore, when that station was invested by an overwhelming force; and when called into action in the late brilliant campaign, it evinced that indomitable bravery and obedience to orders, for which the British army is justly renowned.

“Lord Gough feels happy in having it in his power to state, that the conduct of these regiments throughout their Indian service has always been such as to merit his warmest commendation. He feels a pride in recording all that he has said in praise of these gallant corps; and in parting with them, begs to assure them that he will always feel a lively interest in their welfare.

“By order of the Right Honorable the Commander-in-Chief.
(Signed) “C. R. Cureton, Colonel,
“Adjutant-General H. M. Forces in India.”

The Thirty-ninth regiment, on arrival in England, was stationed at Canterbury, and on the 13th, 14th, and 15th of December 1847, proceeded to Gosport by railway.

1848.

On the 15th of March, 1848, the regiment moved over to Portsmouth, and at the end of the same month proceeded to the northern and midland districts, the head-quarters and three companies occupying the citadel at Hull, with detachments at Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield, and Halifax.

The regiment proceeded by railway on the 22nd and 23rd of June to Preston, in Lancashire.

1849.

During the year 1849 the regiment remained at Preston.

1850.

On the 25th, 26th, and 27th of April, 1850, the regiment proceeded from Preston, in three divisions, by railway to Fleetwood, and embarked for Belfast. Previous to the departure of the Thirty-ninth from Preston for Ireland, the mayor of that borough forwarded a complimentary resolution to Lieut.-Colonel Wright from the magistrates, relative to the excellent conduct of the regiment while stationed in the neighbourhood of Preston.

The regiment was stationed at Belfast from the 28th of April to the 16th of November 1850, when it proceeded to Newry.

1851.

On the 17th of July 1851 the regiment proceeded from Newry to Dublin, and was quartered in the Linen Hall barracks.

1852.

Lieut.-General George Burrell, C.B., was appointed Colonel of the Thirty-ninth regiment on the 11th of February 1852, in succession to General Sir Frederick Philipse Robinson, G.C.B., deceased.

In February and March nine companies were removed to Richmond barracks, Dublin; in consequence of the want of accommodation at the head-quarters, a portion of the regiment proceeded to Island Bridge barracks.

On the 15th of July five companies of the regiment, under the command of Major William Munro, proceeded from Dublin to Cork, there to be stationed during the elections. A company of the regiment, under Major Robert Newport Tinley, detached at Drogheda, proceeded on the 21st of July to Balbriggan, in aid of the civil authorities during the elections in that town, and subsequently joined the head-quarters at Dublin.

Towards the end of July the head-quarters received orders to move from Dublin to Clonmel, and proceeded to that station by railway on the 5th of August, where they arrived on the same day.

The five companies on election duty at Cork were detached, on the removal of the head-quarters from Dublin to Clonmel, to the following stations: two companies to Carrick-on-Suir, one to Clogheen, one to Dungarvon, and one to Cappoquin; the latter returned to head-quarters on the 23rd of September.

1853.

Major-General Richard Lluellyn, C.B., was appointed Colonel of the Thirty-ninth regiment on the 17th of January 1853, in succession to Lieut.-General George Burrell, C.B., deceased.

The regiment proceeded from Clonmel to Cork in February 1853, where it was stationed on the 30th of June, the date to which this Record has been brought.

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Note.—The compiler of the Regimental Records feels it his duty to acknowledge the assistance which he has received in the compilation of the History of the Thirty-ninth and certain other regiments, from Mr. Thomas Carter, of the Adjutant-General’s Office, who, by much labour and research, has endeavoured to supply the deficiencies in the manuscript narratives transmitted by regiments, particularly in the details of their earlier services.

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1853.

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THIRTY-NINTH REGIMENT.
For Cannon’s Military Records