To an Artilleryman the Walcheren Expedition has an interest which well repays him for turning his eyes and thoughts from the Peninsula to this strange island in the Northern Sea. Here no less than seventeen troops and companies of his Corps were present; and so important was their duty considered, that the Master-General, Lord Chatham, who was also Commander-in-Chief of the forces employed, requested the Deputy-Adjutant-General, Brigadier Macleod, himself to accompany the army in command of the Artillery. And on this island, so baneful to our troops, and yet so beautiful, a singular historical question connected with the Regiment was settled, which will receive detailed notice in this chapter.
Forming the right bank of the West Scheldt at its mouth, the islands of South Beveland and Walcheren, now united by a railway embankment, present to the traveller the most singular appearance. Rich and fertile beyond measure, they are yet only saved from submersion by the sea by means of costly dykes, kept efficient by incessant labour. In most places the island of Walcheren, especially, is many feet below the level of the sea; and even its highest points, the towns of Middleburg and Flushing, have frequently suffered great injury from the inroads of the ocean. One such inundation had occurred in 1808, and tended to make the autumn of 1809 exceptionally unhealthy. Dykes now not merely surround the island itself, but also the individual villages and farmhouses on its surface, giving a curious fortified appearance to the whole.
Flushing and Antwerp, in the hands of Napoleon, strongly fortified, and offering protection and anchorage to his fleets, were a strong and perpetual menace to England, and gave an appearance of probability to his threats of invasion, both in the eyes of the English people and their Government. One of the strongest arguments against the Walcheren Expedition has always been that it was a dissipation of England’s military resources, which, if concentrated on the Peninsular campaign, would have produced infinitely greater results. But it is easy to argue thus with the wisdom which follows the fact. The danger which was involved in the fortifications of Antwerp and Flushing was very present to the English people; and immunity in that respect seemed then more desirable than victory at a distance, even although that victory might, in the end, have been a more serious blow at Napoleon’s power. And the importance of Flushing, armed as it was, may be now better realised by imagining it in the hands of a powerful Continental dynasty,—not dismantled and disarmed, as it has been since the siege to be treated of in this chapter,—but with batteries sufficiently strong to protect the anchorage in front, and with a fleet riding there, within a few hours of the English coast. Were such a thing ever to occur again—and it is by no means impossible—Englishmen would perhaps confess that there was more wisdom in the Expedition of 1809, which rendered Flushing harmless, than has generally been allowed.[17]
Much of the unpopularity attending it, and all the incompleteness of execution, were due to a want of harmony between the naval and military commanders, which has never yet been satisfactorily explained, but which undoubtedly was the main cause of the first part of the scheme—the capture of Flushing—being the only part that was executed. Lord Chatham would appear to have been much to blame in the matter; but there has been a mystery connected with it all, which cannot be cleared up. Of that nobleman’s military incapacity there is, however, no doubt; nor is the reader surprised to find that his name disappeared, soon after this Expedition, from the list of the Masters-General of the Ordnance.
The troop of Horse Artillery which accompanied the force was that commanded by Captain A. Macdonald, and is now D Battery, A Brigade. The sixteen companies will be found enumerated in the various tables of the battalions. General Macleod took Captain—afterwards Sir Robert—Gardiner as his Brigade-Major; and it is from the private diaries of these officers that the main Regimental incidents connected Sir J. T. Jones’s ‘Sieges.’ with this Expedition have been obtained. Captain Drummond was the General’s Aide-de-camp. The field officers who accompanied the Artillery were Colonel Terrot, Lieut.-Colonels Dixon, Franklin, Cookson, and Wood, and Majors Griffiths, Dixon, and Waller. The immense battering train included 70 guns and 74 mortars; and we learn that not merely was a large supply of Congreve’s rockets taken for A.-A.-Gen. to Colonel Neville, 18 July, 1809. employment as siege weapons, but also that every man in the Regiment who had been trained to the use of rockets was ordered to embark with the army.
The name of nearly every Artillery officer with the Expedition will appear in the course of the narrative. In the meantime the following numerical return of the force under General Macleod’s command will be found worthy of perusal. (See opposite page.)
The Second Division of the army, which General Macleod accompanied, sailed from the Downs on Saturday, the 29th July, 1809, and anchored the same evening in the Stein Diep. On the following day they weighed anchor, and moved into the Room Pot, where they found the First Division, and where orders were at once given for the troops to land in light marching order. At 4 P.M. the first six battalions landed, without opposition, at the Bree Zand, and during the night the remainder of the troops, under the command of Sir Eyre Coote, continued to disembark, with the several brigades of Artillery attached to them,—the last named being under the command of Colonel Terrot. The following detail shows the Artillery attached to this part of the army:—
| Captain | Marsh’s Light 6-pr. | Brigade, | attached to | Lieut-Gen. Frazer. |
| ” | Webber Smith’s | ” | ” | Major-Gen. Graham. |
| ” | Massey’s | ” | ” | Lieut.-Gen. Lord Paget. |
There was also a Heavy Brigade under Captain S. Adye.
About 3 P.M. the reserve, under Sir John Hope, proceeded to South Beveland (immediately adjoining Walcheren), accompanied by Captain Wilmot’s Light 6-pounder Brigade.