In the month of March following, Picton’s division again encountered the enemy, and falling upon him at Vic Bigorre, drove him from his position, and compelled him to continue his retreat.
In this affair the 83rd Regiment was vigorously engaged, and lost 1 sergeant and 6 men killed, and 2 Lieutenants (Hingstone and Lane) and 16 men wounded.
TOULOUSE
1814.
On the 10th April, the British army fought and won the crowning battle of Toulouse, and Picton again led his division into the middle of the fight. The 83rd Regiment, with the left brigade, was but partially engaged and suffered a slight loss, and it has received the royal commission to bear the word “Toulouse” on its colours and appointments, for its services in that victory.
The war was at this period brought to a conclusion; the illustrious Emperor of the French, Napoleon Bonaparte, being compelled to abdicate. His able lieutenant, Marshal Soult, gave in his adhesion to the new government, and hostilities accordingly ceased.
The 83rd was quartered at La Mao, where Major Blaquiere, having recovered from his wounds, rejoined and assumed the command. It was afterwards removed to Blanque Fort Camp, near Bordeaux, where 1 captain, 2 lieutenants, 1 assistant-surgeon, and 15 rank and file joined from prisoners of war.
The whole army was there reviewed by the Duke of Wellington; and on the 1st of June the battalion embarked from Bordeaux for England.
As a reward for their own and their regiment’s service during this memorable war, his Majesty was pleased to appoint Lieutenant-Colonel H. W. Carr a Knight Commander, and Major George Hext a Companion, of the Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath; and the word “Peninsula,” inscribed by the royal authority on the colours and appointments of the 83rd, commemorates the valiant achievements of the 2nd Battalion throughout the whole of the Peninsular campaigns.