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ADVENTURES
IN
Holland and at Waterloo;
AND
EXPEDITION TO PORTUGAL.
PROCEEDINGS IN HOLLAND, UNDER THE COMMAND
OF GENERAL SIR THOMAS GRAHAM, &c., &c.
By Corporal Knight.
MELBOURNE:
R. BELL, PRINTER, 97 LITTLE COLLINS STREET EAST.
1870.

About thirty-three years ago, Thomas Knight (the author of this work) published a very interesting account of his adventures. A few members of the Stock Exchange bore the principal portion of the expense of printing them. While attached to the Army in Portugal, he was in the same regiment as my brother, Major F. E. Ebsworth, and servant to him.

FRED. EBSWORTH.

Sydney, 11th March, 1867.

Adventures in Holland and Waterloo;
AND THE
EXPEDITION TO PORTUGAL.

My father was a cabinet maker at Frome, in Somersetshire. I was bound apprentice to a weaver, not liking such a quiet life I ran off to sea, and entered on board a collier at Southampton, as cabin-boy. In returning we were driven into Ramsgate by a squall. The cook and I left the captain to prepare his own dinner. We were fortunate enough to fall in with a return post-chaise, and were carried along like gentlemen to Canterbury. This was in the year 1811, or the beginning of 1812, when soldiers were much wanted, and I thought myself a sharp sort of fellow, and was fond of a frolic. More than one sergeant tried to cajole me. Two rifle brigadesmen came to the town on furlough; they had green jackets; but their fine promises were too much for me. At length they got the best of me, and enlisted me. I was taken down to Shawn Cliff to the regiment, and had to be inspected by the doctor; and the following day I was taken to Hyde to be sworn in by the magistrate. He asked me which I would go for—limited service or unlimited service. “What is the difference in the money?” I asked. “Limited service is 10 guineas, and unlimited service 16 guineas.” I said, “as I may not live seven years, I will take the 16 guineas.” I received 8 guineas (one half of my bounty) and returned towards the barracks. I was gaping about at what the soldiers were doing, when one old chap came up to me and said I was his first cousin. “I am not quite so green as to be done in that way,” I answered. However, I soon fell in with a few jolly comrades, and spent forty shillings out of the half of my bounty. After buying a few articles I stood in need of, the rest of my bounty went in two days more. Then I had to go through my discipline, after which I went on guard, and considered myself an old soldier. There were 200 of the ablest men picked out to go to Holland. One was a married man, who had a family of children; the wife was making a great fuss about her husband going out, and I said I would not mind taking his place. I did so. The following day the general had to inspect us. He said it was not proper I should go out, as I could not stand the fatigue; and asked who selected me. I told him I had a notion of going out in place of private Rourke, who had a wife and family. “Bravo!” he cried. “Well, we will try you.”

The day after, we marched to Dover, and then went on to Deal, in all eighteen miles. This I found severe work, but did not let it appear so, as we were about to leave England. I and five others were billetted at Deal Castle, in the Walmer Road. In the course of the evening a mutton pieman came into the room, calling out, “All hot! toss or buy.” We bought and ate all his pies, shied the little dishes at one another, made the pieman drunk, and enlisted him. His master came to fetch him away, and we compelled him to pay a guinea smart money, which lengthened the treat.

The next day we went to Ramsgate, and had hopes of passing a night there; but were marched through the town, put on board ship, and not allowed to pass the sentry without leave from the commanding officer. As I and the rest of my comrades could not get leave, I was resolved to get the better of them; so when night came I pulled off some off my clothes, slipped over the side, and swam on shore. I had a good “spree” that night among some friends I had been living with, as I thought it might be my last in Great Britain. The next morning I went on board, and was confined in the chain locker, which I did not mind, since I was happy there as on the quarter-deck. We set sail the following day, and soon came in sight of Ostend. We had to land in boats; and before the last men were on shore, the first were quite uproarious from drinking Hollands. The colonel, in “falling us in,” said he would work us for that. We then marched to Ghent, and were quartered in some old outlandish buildings for that night.

We then proceeded to Bergen-op-Zoom, to which our army was laying siege. After the town had been taken, additional troops were placed to keep possession of it, whilst other regiments had to march to the rear. We next marched to Cotterie, from there to Ypres, and then (in 1814) to Dixmieux, and quartered at a house in the town. The people were very sulky; they obliged me to cook in my canteen, and gave me a pretty piece of work to make it look smart on field-day, which was not so whenever I found people desirous to attend on me and treat me as they ought. But these people were so bothersome and troublesome, that I bothered them in every fashion, by marching into their clean rooms with my dirty shoes, till at last I forced them to pay me proper attention. Notwithstanding, I went to the billet-master to procure a fresh billet; and he asked me where I would like to go. I was fortunate enough to get a billet on a shop. I went with the billet to a house in the Market-square, knocked at the door, and two beautiful girls made their appearance, one about my age (seventeen years), the other about nineteen. They kindly accepted the billet, and in I walked; and they sent me down good refreshment, which I required. I was very thankful to get into such good quarters, and assisted them in all the little jobs about the house, such as cooking and serving other men.

Our rations were drawn from the town butchers and bakers, and our grog issued by the non-commissioned officers of companies. Some used to take the bottles and canteens “after,” but I used to take the right sort of canteen (when once down my throat I thought it was the best place for it), consisting of a half-pint of good Hollands gin. One afternoon, after the gin had been served out, some of us soldiers assembled and decided that we would have some sport with snowballs. There were a dozen or fifteen round it, and we consulted as to what we had better do with it. It would not do to leave it in one of the public streets, and the colonel not being a favorite with us, we rolled the snowball up to the front door of his quarters, which obliged him to go out at the back of the house. He laughed at the trick, but was never after without a sentry. Sometimes the inhabitants gave us a challenge (arranged to be outside the town) to have some sport with snowballs. There we commenced the battle with officers and soldiers. We beat the inhabitants up and down, the snow congealing over the ditches and houses; and down it was with many a one: plump they went into the ditches, roaring out for help. The windows that day had a bad time of it. After all was over we offered to pay for the broken ones, but the inhabitants would not permit such a thing; as we accepted the challenge they would pay all expenses.

What with skating, sliding, and drinking “schnapps,” we spent our time pretty merrily; and then had orders to advance into the frontiers of France (1815). We marched to Louis, and brigaded with the 52nd Light Infantry, the 71st Scotch, and the 15th Hussars attached to our brigade (the 1st Brigade, 2nd Division), commanded by General Sir Frederick Adam. Our field-days (two in the week) were Tuesdays and Fridays; the French occupied the ground on Mondays and Thursdays. Our brigade sent out daily 100 rank and file, one captain, two subalterns, and a portion of the squadron considered on piquet duty. The river divided the small town called Munge. The 15th Hussars, with their horses, occupied the Market House; the sentries were on a portion of the bridge (a division across it), the French sentry on one side, and the British on the other; the 7th Black Horse had the barracks, opposite the French side of the river; fourteen sentries by day and twenty-eight by night, a portion of the 15th Hussars, patrolling on the banks of the river, looking out for any alarm. Two companies of the Rifles were ordered to take the advance post. We marched to Turp, two leagues from Louis, head-quarters, there to remain till further orders.

Our field-days were as usual. We had a league further to go. I was very badly off for clothing at the time, and the colonel told us we could patch our clothing with any thing of a dark nature, as our rifle uniform was supposed to be of a dark green. I went to the quarter-master’s stores to procure two pairs of pantaloons, at eighteen francs per pair; I also drew a pair of boots at the same price. I put on a pair of pantaloons to go to field-day in. In jumping of ditches in skirmishing order, I split the first pair of pantaloons into pieces; the other pair went in the same manner; I then had to put on my old patched friends, while I could get one pair made out of the two damaged ones; my boots went in the same way,—coming home from field-day the weather was very severe, the soles parted company from the upper leathers, so I had to tread along on my bare toes.

I went on guard on the 15th day of June: it came to my turn at eleven o’clock at night to relieve a soldier on outlying sentry. The sentry, in giving up the orders to me, said that “I was to keep a sharp look out betwixt those two trees, and when you see the beacon guard blaze up, you are to set fire to this.” I said, “What do you mean, you gapes? Do you mean to set fire to a turnip field as the seed of the turnips is up to our heads?” I found out by his winks and words that I was not to set fire to any such sort of thing, but to retire to the guard-house and give the sergeant information when I saw the beacon blaze. About one o’clock on the sixteenth morning the sergeant of the guard informed the colonel what the sentry had seen. The colonel gave orders to the orderly bugler who was on guard, to sound the assembly; I got permission, after changing the guard, to go and take leave of the people I was quartered on. The woman of the house filled my haversack with bread and cheese, etc. I fell in, marched off about four o’clock on the morning. We marched on during the sixteenth day, and on the sixteenth evening came into a long town called Tourwee; halted outside the town to take a little refreshment, and proceeded on during the night with a guide. After some distance, about three leagues (nine miles), the guide left us, giving the colonel instructions which way he was to take, but the latter, missing his way, came upon a battery occupied by the French: the sentry on the ramparts called out, “Qui Vive?” (Qui Vive—English, “Halt! who comes there?”) The colonel gave orders to the men to retire in double time; the sentry challenging three times, and no answer in return, fired a round shot from the battery after us; but, fortunately enough, without doing any harm. We came into a village which we had passed through during the night: the colonel thought it was requisite to put the men into the different houses till the following morning, till the seventeenth approached. Accordingly, myself, with eleven others, were put into one house together. We kept the old man (Pizan) busily employed in bringing wine out of the cellars during the remainder of that night; so we had an excellent “chevot.” The following morning the bugle sounded “turn out the whole,” just at the dawn of day. We formed companies, marching off in sections from the right, down a hill in the breadth of the township. At the foot of the hill there was a rapid stream of water, and a narrow bridge over it, wide enough for about one rank and file to go over abreast. The colonel waded through the river on horseback; it took him up rather higher than the flaps of his saddle; the men began to file march over the river, officers and soldiers. The colonel observing the men coming over the bridge, he called out, “Advance through the water;” I saw a great many of my height up to the armpits; I put up my pouch over my shoulder, and also my rifle—I had a hard struggle to stand against the stream. After we had crossed the river we formed companies; we marched off up a lane and through a wood, and passed by our old friends, the 52nd, lying down half dead at the top of the hill, from fatigue; they gave us three cheers, and we turned and saluted the same; we marched on to where the French had been encamped on the fifteenth night, and our army had driven them back on the sixteenth morning. The ground was covered with dead and wounded—we marched on to Mount Reveille; from there to Quatre Bras, and from there to Mount St. Jean, in which place the French lay in the rear. On Saturday, the seventeenth, we took up our position in the meadow at the foot of the hill of Mount St. Jean, when the commissary butchers were ordered to kill and cut up for the Light Brigade—some having got wood, others muddy water from the ditch—hanging our camp kettles, we lost no time in cooking it, when we were not a little astonished by a volley of shot rattling about us; but being loathe to lose our beef, some of which was cooked, and some quite raw, we tore off a few morsels, stuffing what we could into our haversacks, quickly ready to advance. Great was our disappointment, however, to find that we had been disturbed by the Brunswickers, who never having seen a rifleman in our dark uniform, took us for French. We still kept on the advance, and came into the hard road turning towards Brussels, to the left, passing by the Coldstream Guards on our present right; they gave us three cheers, and returned a salute. We marched leisurely towards Brussels, within four leagues, or twelve miles, turning towards Brussels to the left, coming into Moret Reveille early in evening.