Narrative of a Private Soldier in His Majesty's 92d Regiment of Foot

by George Billany

CHAPTER III.

I continued in a very careless and listless state of mind during the passage to England. We landed at Dover, and marched to Barham downs, where we were encamped. About ten thousand troops were assembled at this place in a few days, and Sir Ralph Abercrombie was appointed to command them. Our regiment was put into a brigade under the command of Sir John Moore. Lord Huntly went upon the expedition as Colonel of the regiment, for he was not yet a General upon the English staff. We marched to Ramsgate, and embarked on board of transports, on the 5th of August, and sailed next day for Holland, under convoy of a fleet of war ships, commanded by Admiral Mitchell. A short time after we sailed, the wind became contrary and stormy, and continued so for about three weeks, which was an uncommon circumstance at this season of the year; so that, although the distance was short, the voyage was tedious. This delay allowed time for reflection, but I did not improve it, for whatever were the passing thoughts of my mind, I was not seriously impressed until a few days before we landed. The wind becoming favourable and moderate, we stood in for the coast of Holland, and anchored on the evening of the 24th, near the entrance to the Helder, and began to prepare to land. The Dutch fleet, of eight sail of the line and three frigates, lay in our sight in the outer road of the Helder; and the fleet of Admiral Duncan, of about an equal number, lay at anchor a few miles from them. The fleet under Admiral Mitchell had an imposing appearance; for it consisted of fifteen sail of the line, and about fifty frigates, sloops of war, cutters, and gun vessels, with about 130 transports. The wind, however, became stormy again on the 25th, and the fleet, under Admiral Mitchell, put to sea; but it moderated during the night, and we returned and anchored nearer the shore than before, on the 26th, and prepared to land next morning. The ships of war hoisted the English and Dutch flags together, because the object of our intended invasion was to expel the French and restore the former government. The troops on board of the ships nearest the shore (of which the ship I was in was one) were ordered to land first. Our danger was now more imminent than ever it had been before; the probability of being suddenly called from time to eternity, was more than ever apparent; and I began again to pray and to meditate. We cooked three days' provisions, to carry with us, and were served out with ammunition on the evening previous to our landing; we did not go to rest that night, but kept on our accoutrements, to be ready to go into the boats when a signal should be made. Such a period is one of great agitation and anxiety. The prospect of landing in the twilight of the morning, on an enemy's coast, ignorant of the nature and extent of the danger, where one can not tell whether we may reach the shore, or be driven back as soon as we land, or suddenly overpowered before we can get assistance. These, and the like, are serious considerations at a time like this. During the night I was often praying in my mind for mercy, that the Lord would spare me: and I put on fresh resolutions, that if I was spared, I would serve God with fidelity and diligence. All my prayers were for the preservation of life: I durst not resign myself to death, because I was conscious I was not prepared for judgment. All my hopes for eternity, were founded in reformation of character, and that I had yet to begin; for had I been cut off, at that time, I had no hope of heaven.

The province of North Holland is a peninsula, formed by the German ocean on the west, and the Zuyder-sea on the east. The town of Helder stands at the northern extremity, where the Zuyder-sea communicates with the German ocean, between the Helder point and the Texel island, distant about six miles. The city of Amsterdam stands on the south side of the Zuyder-sea, the common passage to which is by the Helder. A range of sand-hills runs along the coast of the German ocean, close to the beach, and the country between them and the Zuyder-sea is nearly a perfect flat. Large dykes, or mounds of earth, run along the shores of the Zuyder-sea to protect the tide from overflowing the country, which is below the level of high water. The sand-hills serve for an embankment on the side of the German ocean. The principal arsenal for equipping and repairing the Dutch fleet is near the town of Helder, the greater part of which rendezvouses there; but they are built at Amsterdam and other places in the interior, and floated down the Zuyder-sea, on account of the shallowness of its water, and are fitted out for sea at Helder.

We embarked in the boats early in the morning, and collected at the stern of a gun vessel that lay nearest the shore, where we waited until daylight began to make the coast visible; I continued at intervals offering up ejaculatory prayers to God, for preservation and deliverance. As soon as the coast was discernible, the gun vessel began to fire her guns upon the shore, and the boats rowed off, giving three loud cheers. The fire of the different vessels of war that lay along the shore was dreadful: but as the shot and shells were all thrown at random, the enemy not being visible, it did little damage; but it probably prevented the enemy from appearing on the open beach, by which means we got safely landed. The enemy's troops were posted among the sand-hills at the different points opposite to our extended anchorage, that were most favourable for landing. These points were chiefly at some distance to the right of the place we landed at, where the beach, not being so favourable, was not so strongly guarded. A part of his force was also to our left, near the Fort at the entrance to the Helder, where they had a camp. We formed on the beach as we landed, and began to advance into the sand-hills. Our regiment was near the left of the line; there were only a few of the enemy's picquets that appeared in our front, who retired as we advanced: but the troops on the right had not proceeded far before they fell in with a division of the enemy, when a smart action began. The enemy were quickly driven farther to the right, but fresh columns soon arriving, the action became increasingly warm, but our troops continued to press upon the enemy, and took up a position across the sand-hills, to cover the right of the debarkation. Sir John Moore's brigade, in which our regiment was, penetrated also across them as soon as possible, and took up a position to cover the left.

The sand-hills at this place are not of great breadth; the road from Helder to the interior runs along the interior side of them, the peninsula at this place is narrow, and the ground between the sand-hills and the Zuyder-sea is a flat, in many parts swampy. As soon as the first party of our regiment had reached the further side of the sand-hills, they descried that part of the enemy's force that had been posted on our left, passing along the Helder road to join their forces that were engaged with our right. They were composed of horse artillery, cavalry, and infantry. As soon as they observed our advance picquets, they left the road, and made a circuit through the flat ground to their left: and when they were out of the reach of musketry they made a pause, and fired two field pieces at us, which did us no hurt, and then passed on and joined their own troops. The fire of the ships of war that were anchored to the right and left of the point of debarkation, prevented the enemy from attempting to march along the beach to disturb the landing. They also protected the right flank of the troops that were engaged with the enemy, but he attacked their front with his infantry, and their left flank with his artillery; which he kept upon the flat ground, on the inside of the sand-hills, protected by his cavalry. Indeed infantry were the only troops that were capable of fighting among the sand-hills. Fresh columns continuing to arrive during the course of the day, to the support of the enemy, he maintained the contest and renewed his efforts to dislodge our troops, but as they also were reinforced by those that continued to land, they repulsed all his attacks and gained ground; but, as we had neither artillery nor cavalry, we dared not to attack his that were posted in the plain, nor was it expedient to advance far until the army should all be landed. The enemy continued his efforts from five o'clock in the morning till four o'clock in the afternoon, when the army was nearly all landed, and some pieces of artillery were brought to bear upon the enemy's cavalry and artillery. The troops then charged his infantry, and drove them beyond Challantes Ogg, a place where an inundation of water from the Zuyder-sea contracts the peninsula nearly to the breadth of the sand-hills. The enemy then retreated into the interior, and left us in possession of our position, which separated him from the Helder. Another fleet of transports, with five thousand additional troops from England, appeared at sea in the afternoon, and anchored in the evening. Our regiment was not engaged through this day; but Sir John Moore's brigade was destined to attack the batteries and town of Helder next morning, if the enemy's garrison still remained in them. The loss of the army during this day's conflict was about a thousand men killed and wounded. Our regiment lost sixteen men, who were drowned in the act of landing, the boat having struck on a bank at some distance from the shore; the men got out of the boat, but got into deep water before they reached the beach, and the swell having increased at the time they were landing, they, along with several seamen belonging to the boat, were drowned. I knew most of them; one of them was a particular acquaintance, whose death made a strong impression on my mind.

As soon as it was fully dark our brigade marched away for the Helder. There is something impressive in a march under the cloud of night, in a strange land, where we can not tell the danger we are in, and have to move forward in solemn silence. It was ordered, that no man was to speak above his breath during the march; and all orders to halt, or move forward, were given the same way. We had frequent stops, which made us, who were not in the front, often wonder what was the matter. Such a march is a service in which the mind undergoes much harassing anxiety, and the body much fatigue. Having come near to the Helder, we halted, and lay under arms, in a state of great anxiety, until daylight; several of their ships of war were then seen at anchor near the town, but they got quickly under weigh, and their whole fleet anchored in the Zuyder-sea, about 12 miles from the Helder; which was the farthest distance they could go to on account of the shallowness of the water. After waiting some time we obtained information that the enemy had evacuated the various forts and batteries about the place. We sent out small detachments, who found that it was so, and we then entered the place, and put guards in the different works. When I reflected on the dangers we had escaped, I was filled with wonder; but I soon forgot them all; and during the few days that we lay in the town of Helder, my conduct, in place of being better, was worse than ordinary.

The transports, and a number of our frigates, came into the Helder next day, and the artillery, cavalry, and stores, were landed in the harbour. The day following the ships of the line came in, and admiral Mitchel went forward to the Dutch fleet, with a squadron of nine sail of the line, and five frigates. The Dutch fleet then surrendered without firing a shot, and hoisted the orange flag. Their crews were in a state of mutiny at the time, partly out of disaffection to the new republican government, but more particularly for want of pay. When they were ordered to prepare for action they refused to fight, and threw the balls and cartridges into the sea. It would, indeed, have been a useless waste of blood for them to have resisted, for if the squadron that went to them had not been sufficient to have reduced them, there were more than enough of war ships, of all descriptions, at hand to have completely overwhelmed them; for after the batteries of the Helder were in our possession, they had no way of saving their ships to their country but by taking out their guns and masts to lighten them, and towing them through the shallow water to some of the ports in the interior, out of our reach. And why they did not do so is not easily accounted for. Besides this fleet of eight sail of the line, three frigates, and a sloop, there were two sail of the line, eleven frigates and smaller vessels of war, and three East India ships lying in the harbour, in various conditions. A large quantity of ammunition and stores, and a great number of cannon for the equipment of ships, were found in the arsenal, exclusive of the guns and mortars that were on the batteries, many of which were brass.

The army lay among the sand-hills, where it had fought on the day of landing, until the 1st September, when the artillery and cavalry being landed, it moved forward into the interior of the country. Our regiment left the Helder, another occupying it, and joined the army, which took up a position in the afternoon, upon one of those huge dykes that are in Holland, which extended from the German Ocean, where we posted our right, to the Zuyder-sea, where we posted our left, a distance of about eight miles. We occupied it, at all the parts that were passable, and threw up works upon it, particularly at the extremities. It formed a most excellent position of defence in such a flat country, on account of its thickness and height. The top of it was so broad that any carriages had full liberty to pass, and was one of the best roads in the country; and it was not made in a straight line, but bent in curves, like the bastions of a garrison line wall. A large ditch runs the whole length in front of it, with large reservoirs of water in the curves. The use of this dyke was to prevent the rain that falls in the winter, on the south side of it, from flooding the country on the north side, where the level is lower. The reservoirs in the curves of the dyke receive the water, and there are sluices that are opened to allow it to pass by degrees, under the dyke, into a large canal, a little in the rear of it, from whence it is let out into the sea, when the tide is low. We had no tents, but were lodged in the farm houses, which, in Holland, are large, and of a peculiar construction, having the byre, stable, hayloft, and barn, under one large oblong square roof, made of thatch. A great number of these houses were ranged at such regular distances, along the banks of the canals, in the rear of the dyke, that they formed convenient cantonments; and each house contained from one to two hundred, who slept in a loft among the hay, without any other covering than their great coats and the hay. The fields are all divided by broad and deep ditches, in place of hedges, which are only to be seen upon parts of the road sides, and round the orchards at the farm houses and gentlemen's seats. All the ditches have communications with the large canals that communicate with the sea. A great number of wind-mills are employed in forcing the water up into the canals, which are above the level of the ground in the winter time, and in forcing the water into the ditches whose elevation is highest, from whence it flows over locks into the lower ditches in the summer season, so that the ditches are always full. The apparatus of the wind-mills is simple: a number of long broad paddles are fixed in an axle, the lower ends of which dip into a box of little more than their own breadth, into which the water of the lower level flows, and the rapidity with which the paddles are driven makes them throw the water off their flat sides, to all the height that is needed. The country being below the level of the sea, there are no spring-wells of fresh water in it. The rain that falls on the roofs of their houses is conveyed into a cistern, built of brick, sunk in the ground at the side of the door, or under one of the corners of the house, and some of them have an opening into the cistern both within and on the outside of the house. The Dutch are proverbial for their cleanliness and ingenious industry. I admired, among other things, their way of churning their butter. A large wheel, with a broad rim, the spokes of which were fastened to the one side of the rim, was fixed upon a nave in the wall, at one of the corners of the house, with the spokes next to the wall; small pieces of wood were nailed across the inside of the rim; a belt that was upon the rim turned a crank that was above it; the churn stood on the floor under the crank which lifted the churn staff up and down; there was a close lid upon the churn, with a slit in the centre, in which the churn staff moved, so much of which was flat as allowed it to move in the slit. The wheel was turned round by a dog, who was put into the inside of the rim upon the open side; he catched the small cross pieces of wood, that were on the inside of the fore part of the rim, at some height, with his feet, and the weight of his body turned the wheel. The poor dog was tied by a cord round his neck at such a height, to an upright post at the side of the fore part of the wheel, that if he did not work he would be hanged. There were generally two dogs employed, the one relieving the other.

The Dutchmen wear large small-clothes and cocked hats; the women wear stays and hoops in their petticoats, and low crowned broad brimmed straw hats; but I did not see any that were gaudy, or ragged, in any part of the country I was in.

On the 10th of September, 1799, the enemy, having received accessions to their number, attacked us in our position. It was known to them, that we were shortly to receive large reinforcements; and they determined to attack us before these arrived. A strong party attacked the position entrusted to our regiment, which was the first time that we were in actual action with an enemy. The dyke sheltered us from their shot; for when they drew near, we stood on the top of it and fired a volley or two, which drove them back, and then we sheltered ourselves from the fire of their artillery by sitting down on the near side of it. The shot whistled over our heads, and fell, when its strength was spent, on the ground in our rear. The enemy was repulsed at all points with loss. Our regiment's loss was small; one man killed, and the captain of the grenadiers, and three men wounded. General Moore was also slightly wounded. When the main body of the enemy retreated, a number of their riflemen remained behind them, under the cover of a house that was near the dyke; one of them came from under the cover, and ran to join the main body; he was instantly fired at I dare say by twenty; yet he got clear off, without any appearance of being hurt. The risk that he ran deterred the remainder from following him, and they surrendered themselves prisoners of war, in number about one hundred.