The arrangements made by Captain Frazer for the transport and service of the Artillery were admirable and exhaustive. In General Whitelocke’s report of the subsequent operations, he used the following terms of commendation:—“I ‘London Gazette’ extraordinary, 13 Sept. 1807. cannot sufficiently bring to notice the uncommon exertions of Captain Frazer, commanding the Royal Artillery, the fertility of whose mind, zeal, and animation, in all cases left difficulties behind.” That Captain Frazer was staunchly supported by the officers and men under his command is apparent from his letters. Captain Dickson, whom he had superseded, and under whom, singularly enough, he was destined to serve in the Peninsula, was most loyal in his Captain Frazer to D. A. Gen. 21 June, 1807. exertions, and earned the following acknowledgment:—“I have met with so much assistance from Captain Dickson, whom I found in command of the Artillery on my arrival, that it is at once my duty and my inclination to report to you the sense I entertain of his valuable assistance. But it is unnecessary for me to mention more than the name of a brother-officer who is at once so highly and so deservedly valued.” And again, after the conclusion of the campaign: “If, in my several letters to you, I have not mentioned Captains Hawker and Dickson, you will, I trust, impute this to the real cause—a delicacy in venturing to express an opinion of officers of equal standing in the Regiment with myself, and with whom, in many cases, I should feel myself flattered to be compared.”
Captain Frazer had urged the propriety of heavy artillery accompanying the army, with a view to a bombardment of the city, prior to an assault; and in answer to an argument employed—that Monte Video would be left unprotected—he drew out a detailed statement showing that no less than 145 guns, mortars, and howitzers would be left mounted in that city, besides 270 dismounted. He further showed that there was an abundance of ammunition for these guns; and he detailed three officers to remain behind, of whom he was Captain Frazer to D. A. G. R. A. afterwards able to say: “Colonel Brown, Commandant of the Garrison of Monte Video, has expressed to me his high sense of the exertions of Captain Durnford and Lieutenants England and Stopford, whose exertions were unremitting during our temporary absence.” But his appeal was to no purpose. General Whitelocke had determined to land at a place about thirty miles from Buenos Ayres, called Enfinada de Barragon, and thence march over the swamps which intervened, and which would have made the movement of heavy artillery very difficult. With great difficulty, Captain Frazer obtained permission to take three 24-pounders, two 12-inch Spanish mortars, and two 5½-inch howitzers as a reserve, in addition to his field guns; but these, which would have been so useful in the subsequent attack, were not allowed to proceed farther than the village of Reduccion, where the first encounter with the enemy took place. The following was the detail of the Royal Artillery which actually took part in the attack on Buenos Ayres, on the 5th July, 1807:—
MS. Returns in R. A. Record Office.
| 1st Brigade— | Captain A. S. Frazer. | 98 | N.C. officers and men. |
| 2nd Captain W. D. Nicolls. | 4 | 6-pounder guns. | |
| Lieutenant Lloyd Down. | 2 | 3-pounder guns. | |
| 2nd Brigade— | Captain James Hawker. | 100 | N.C. officers and men. |
| 2nd Captain Henry Lane. | 5 | 4-pounder guns. | |
| Lieutenant Thomas Trotter. | 1 | 5½-inch howitzer. | |
| 3rd Brigade— | Captain Alexander Dickson. | 100 | N.C. officers and men. |
| Lieutenant J. Mackonochie. | 3 | 12-pounder guns. | |
| Lieutenant Falkner Hope. | 4 | 6-pounder guns. | |
| 2 | 5½-inch howitzers. | ||
Captain Frazer erred rather in being too minute in his arrangements, than the reverse; he wrote his orders with his own hand, and knowing the nature of the country which the men would have to traverse after disembarkation, he issued the most detailed instructions before leaving Monte Video, as to dress, diet, horses, &c. These are too long for reproduction, but some are quaintly amusing, and one suggests a new use for foot-straps to a gunner dismounted. “The men will land with one great coat and blanket each, with a flannel waistcoat, brush, comb, razor, and shaving-brush rolled up in the blanket; and with such proportion of cooked provisions as may be directed. Every man to have shoe-straps tied round his shoes to keep them on in boggy ground; the men’s hair to be plaited up behind, not tied in a queue; the great coats and blankets to be rolled up so as to leave them as much as possible the full and free use of their limbs.”
To each Brigade of guns was attached a cart containing long troughs, which were laid over very swampy ground or across ditches, and in which the gun-wheels were made to travel, which otherwise would have sunk to the axletrees. In fact everything which ingenuity could devise to lighten the difficulties of the operation was thought of by Captain Frazer. That he was rewarded by success is apparent by Captain Frazer, R.H.A., to D. A. Gen. the following extract:—“During the advance the Artillery exerted themselves to the admiration of the whole army; the Artillerymen pulling at the drag-ropes up to their waists in water.... In the most difficult ground they were continually obliged to restrain their zeal, lest they should outmarch the army, whose repeated intimations of ‘Easy the Artillery!’ were most gratifying.” Of the services of his own troop of Horse Artillery, Captain Frazer wrote: “The conduct of the officers and men was admirable, yet it were better that the praise due to Quartermaster-Sergeant Hay and the men of the Horse Artillery should come from any other pen than mine; but their gallantry and intelligence have ensured the respect of the whole army. It would be injustice not to mention in terms of the most unequivocal commendation Quartermaster-Sergeant Hay, in whom the valuable qualities of clear arrangements and undaunted courage are joined to the greatest zeal; this man is cast in no ordinary mould.”
On arrival at Buenos Ayres, after two engagements at Reduccion and Passo Chico, in which the English were successful, General Whitelocke completely invested the city. The plan of attack on which he decided was to enter the place in separate columns by totally different entrances ‘Gazette,’ 13 Sept. 1807. and streets; each column to march “along the street directly in its front, till it arrived at the last square of houses next the River La Plata, of which it was to possess itself, forming on the flat roofs, and there wait for further orders. No firing was to be permitted until the columns had reached their final points and formed.” The reader, who has already been informed of the size of Buenos Ayres, and the style of the houses, will at once see the madness of such a method of attack; but the extraordinary thing to be noted is that General Whitelocke employed, as an argument for the course he adopted, the very circumstance which should have forbidden him to hazard his troops in the dangerous and unsatisfactory occupation of street fighting. “The knowledge,” he wrote, “that the enemy meant to occupy the flat roofs of the houses gave rise to the plan of attack.”
The guns accompanied the columns; but “the detachments of the Horse Artillery were not mounted, and of the Cavalry only two squadrons had their horses.” The attack took place on the 5th July, and if endurance and courage among the troops could have redeemed their General’s blunder, this would have been done. At the end of the day no fewer than 2500 men were killed, wounded, or prisoners. The battle was just what might have been foreseen. In General Whitelocke’s own words, “The nature of the fire to which the troops were exposed was violent in the extreme. Grape shot at the corners of all the streets, musketry, hand grenades, bricks, and stones from the tops of all the houses; every householder with his negroes defended his dwelling, each of which was in itself a fortress, and it is not, perhaps, too much to say that the whole male population of Buenos Ayres was employed in its defence.” General Whitelocke’s subsequent conviction by court-martial for incapacity might have been assured on his own testimony.
The only real gain to the English army at the end of the day was the possession of the Plaza de Toros: and its situation was such, that, if fortified, it would have commanded the town, and perhaps compelled the inhabitants to insist on a surrender. Captain Frazer urged this without success: he pointed out that with some guns captured that day from the Spaniards he could construct a battery of 26 guns, immediately serviceable, and strengthen it by unspiking 10 other pieces of ordnance which had been for a time rendered unserviceable by the enemy, prior to their capture: he assured the General that there were not less than 600 barrels of powder, captured that day in the Arsenal of Buenos Ayres, and an apparent abundance of every requisite for the service of a battery; and he reminded him that each gun which they had brought from Monte Video was provided with 200 rounds: but all was to no purpose. A loop-hole for an escape without utter disgrace, as he thought, was opened to General Whitelocke, of which he availed himself, and which he thus described in his official report:—“On the morning of the 6th inst. General Linières addressed a letter to me, offering to give up all his prisoners taken in the late affair, together with the 71st Regiment and others taken with General Beresford, if I desisted from any other attack on the town, and withdrew His Majesty’s forces from the River Plata, intimating at the same time, from the exasperated state of the populace, he could not answer for the safety of the prisoners, if I persisted in offensive measures. Influenced by this consideration (which I knew from better authority to be founded on fact), and reflecting of how little advantage would be the possession of a country, the inhabitants of which were so absolutely hostile, I resolved to forego the advantages which the bravery of the troops had obtained, and acceded to the annexed Treaty, which I trust will meet the approbation of His Majesty.”
It may be here mentioned that the Treaty was carried out; the English army returning to Monte Video, and MS. Narratives of Captains Hawker and Nicolls, and Lieut. Trotter, relative to attack on Buenos Ayres. thence to England. But as, fortunately, an immense number of private and unpublished papers on this subject had been accumulated by Sir A. Frazer, and ultimately reached the Royal Artillery Record Office with a view to embodiment in some such work as this, it seems desirable to analyze the conduct of General Whitelocke at this crisis, and to ascertain, as far as is practicable, whether any other course would have been successful.