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

by George Billany

The result of the battle of the 2d October compelled the enemy to abandon his positions, and evacuate the town of Alkmaar, which was his head quarters, and fall back nearer to Amsterdam.—Alkmaar was occupied by our troops on the 3d, and as our brigade had been much reduced in number, we were ordered to go there to form a part of its intended garrison. The peninsula is here of considerable breadth, and the country much superior to that on the north side of the long dyke, but it is still intersected with deep broad ditches and canals, which greatly impede military operations. The rain that had lately fallen had filled the canals and ditches so full of water, that the edges and lower parts of the roads were beginning to be covered, as we passed from Egmont to Alkmaar; and as the roads, for want of stone, were made of earth, or a slight layer of sand upon earth or clay, they were beginning to be deep. There are narrow foot-paths laid with brick, between some of the towns. Alkmaar is a town of considerable size, surrounded with a high mound of earth and a canal; all the entrances to it are over drawbridges and through gates, the principal of which have cannon mounted on them. The streets are paved with whinstone in the centre, and on the sides with brick or flags, and a number of large canals run through the centre of the principal of them.

We entered the town on the 5th, and next day, which was Sunday, the garrison was taken to the church, to attend divine service. The Dutch congregation had been dismissed; but their minister, and a number of others, remained, to be a witness of our service. The church was large, and of Gothic structure, and had the largest and most highly ornamented organ I ever saw. The enemy had received reinforcements the day before, and he commenced an attack upon the positions of the army, at the time we were in the church. The prayers of the liturgy had been read, and the minister had begun his sermon, when we began to hear the noise of cannon at a distance; by the time the sermon was ended, the firing of cannon had approached nearer the town and was beginning to be heavy, and the musketry was heard to mingle in the roar; and the large organ played Malbrouk as we left the church, to repair to our alarm posts. The action continued to be warmly contested, until after it was dark; but the enemy was repulsed, and fell back to his position, and one hundred and eighty-eight prisoners were taken, and brought into Alkmaar on the morning of the 7th.

About two o'clock in the afternoon the prisoners were assembled, and a captain and forty men, of whom I was one, were appointed to escort them to our former head-quarters, on the north side of the long dyke. Only thirty of the prisoners were French; the others were Dutchmen, and had put up the orange cockade after they were made prisoners. Numbers of them had money, with which they procured gin before we left the town; and they drank and sung songs (which we believed were in praise of their former government), as we went along the road. The Frenchmen, who were enthusiastic republicans, scorned the Dutch for putting up the orange cockade, and kept by themselves, on the front of the party. We kept them all in good humour, and until the fatigue of travelling had exhausted our strength, the march of the prisoners resembled more the merry air of a wedding procession, than of that gloom which the thought of their being under an escort of their enemies, and on the way to a prison in a foreign land, might naturally be expected to produce. It continued to rain upon us the greater part of the way, this, with the deepness of the roads and the length of the journey, fatigued us exceedingly, and scattered us into parties; yet, notwithstanding of this, and although a great part of the journey was performed after it was dark, and although the prisoners were in their own country, none of them attempted to escape. When we had delivered them over to another guard, to watch them through the night, we retired to rest in the expectation of returning to Alkmaar next day, but we were surprised to hear in the morning, that the army was retreating; and in a few hours, the various divisions arrived and resumed the positions they had occupied previous to the battle of the 2d.

The reasons of this retrograde movement were the badness of the roads from Helder to the interior. The army received its bread from the fleet, and all the ammunition and military stores; the roads were becoming impassable, and the farther we advanced, the difficulties of fetching our supplies from the Helder were increasing. The French armies in Switzerland, and on the Rhine, had gained decisive victories, which enabled them to detach large bodies of troops, which were on their way, to reinforce their army in Holland, which would then become so strong as to be able to overpower us. It had, therefore, been determined to retreat while the roads were passable, lest our retreat might be cut off. The army retired from all its positions early in the morning, and the rear guard left Alkmaar early in the day.—The enemy, after being repulsed on the 6th, was apprehensive that we might attack him, and was prepared, in that case, to retire to Haarlem; our retreating was not expected by him, and it was about 10 o'clock in the forenoon before his advanced cavalry picquets discerned that Alkmaar was evacuated, when they entered and found a few drunken women and soldiers, whose intoxication prevented them from knowing that the army had retreated. In a few days after the retreat of the army, an armistice was agreed upon, the conditions of which were, that we should evacuate Holland by the end of November, and release eight thousand prisoners without exchange, as a boon for our being allowed quietly to re-embark. This agreement put an end to hostilities, and preparations were made to send home the troops with all possible expedition; but, before we left the country, I caught the ague, and after we had arrived in England, in the beginning of November, 1799, I was put into the hospital in Chelmsford, twenty-six miles from London. I was greatly reduced in body before I recovered, which was not until the beginning of the next year, 1800.—God's mercy in granting me a recovery from the ague, impressed my mind with the additional obligations I was now laid under to serve him:—but, as formerly, my resolutions of mind were soon broken; conscience soon found matter of accusation against me; I was at times careless and listless, and at other times thoughtful and pensive. The barracks in which we lay, were about a mile from the town of Chelmsford. There was a tabernacle in the town, where there was a sermon once a fortnight in the evening. I went several times to it; and the sermons served to awaken my religious impressions. One evening, the preacher described a case of conscience; which I thought not unlike my own; and among other directions, he exhorted the person who might be in such a case, to lay it before God in prayer. After the service was over, I shunned my companions; returned to the barracks alone, and prayed to God for light and direction as I went along the road; and I set about reforming my conduct once more. But I soon fell through it, and was thrown as far back as ever.—There were no religious meetings in the regiment, from the time we left Ireland until a good while after this.

CHAPTER IV.

We left Chelmsford on the 14th of April, and marched to the Isle of Wight, where we lay until the 27th May. I was once in the Methodist meeting house while we lay in the town of Newport. On the 27th May, 1800, we embarked on board the Diadem, 64 guns, and the Inconstant frigate, both armed en flute (i. e. partially armed), and fitted for the reception of troops. We left all our women and heavy baggage in the Isle of Wight; and as we were not informed where we were going, this circumstance led us to conjecture, that we were destined for some desperate and secret enterprise. We were joined by some more ships with troops, and sailed down the English channel, until we fell in with the Channel fleet, under the command of Sir John Jarvis. Sir Edward Pellew, (now Lord Exmouth,) was sent along with us, with a squadron of eight ships of war. It was a magnificent sight to see the Channel fleet in regular order. They were in number forty-four ships of the line, (a large proportion of them three-deckers) and a number of frigates. We sailed along the cost of France until we came to the bay of Quiberon, where we came to an anchor on the 2d June, near a small island called Houet, lying betwixt the isle of Belleisle and the main land, about four or five miles from the latter, and six or seven from Belleisle.

On the 4th, which was the anniversary of his Majesty's birth, a singular occurrence took place. A sloop of war, and a number of boats armed with carronades, having detachments of troops in them, were despatched in the morning, to attack a battery situated on a projecting point of the main land, where it approaches nearest to Belleisle, and from which ships coming to our present anchorage, were liable to be fired upon. It lay about eight or ten miles from us: but as the wind was light, the sloop of war and the boats did not get near the battery, until it was past twelve o'clock. The battery then opened a fire from two 24 pounders, which played briskly upon them. The day was fine and clear, which permitted us to see the smoke of every gun that was fired, and where the shot struck the water. We looked on with eager anxiety, and observed all the movements of the sloop of war and the boats. It was near one o'clock before she was in a position to return the fire of the battery, which she did briskly. The armed boats then pulled towards the shore, under cover of her fire. At one o'clock they were close to the battery, and commenced a smart fire upon it from their carronades, and the contest was at the hottest, just at the instant that the ships we were in, were firing the salute in honour of his Majesty's birth day. The enemy precipitately retired from the battery, and the troops and seamen landed, dismounted the guns, broke the carriages, and did what other damage they could, and then returned to the fleet. We all remarked the singularity of the circumstance, that while we were saluting with blank shot, they were saluting with round, double headed, and grape shot, in real earnest, by which several lives were lost, and some were wounded, besides other damages.

We landed on the island of Houet on the 6th June. It was a small place, almost destitute of cultivation, and only a little fishing village on it. Some more ships arrived from England with troops, and preparations were made for attacking Belleisle. On the 15th June, we were embarked on board the ships of the line, in order to go near the island, and make our debarkation from them, under the cover of their guns. Our regiment was wholly on board of the Terrible, 74. We were five days in this ship; and here there were a number of the sailors, who were serious, and united together few prayer and praise; some of them were known to several of our men; the seamen were all very kind, and uncommonly obliging to us; every thing was orderly and quiet; religion appeared to have so far prevailed in this ship, as to give a general tone to the manners and conversation of the seamen; so that they were not like the same kind of men that we met with in other ships of war. Those men, who were not religious, did not make a mock at religion; and those who were serious, were in the habit of having what might be called public prayers between decks, at stated periods. This was intimated through the ship, by two or more individuals going round and informing the sailors that there were to be prayers at such a gun, say, No. 9 or 10, on the starboard or larboard side. At these public meetings, I understood, that one or other of them addressed their fellow seamen.—In these practices they appeared to be protected by their officers; and they held a meeting for prayer and praise, on the forecastle, evening and morning: I had some conversation with some of them who were natives of Scotland; but I was never actually present at any of the meetings. We were so crowded, that it was with difficulty we could move from one part of the ship to another; and we durst never be any time absent from the place where our arms were, lest we should lose them, and not find them readily, as we were under orders to be ready at a moment's notice to go into the boats. Our coming to this ship, was one of the steps of divine Providence for my good; for seeing and hearing something of religion in it, awakened once more in my heart, a concern for my soul; and, although it wore off, as before, it was a means of preventing me from becoming confirmed in a state of careless indifference.

On the 18th June, the Captain 74, while under sail, happened to approach the shore, and went within reach of shot. When she put about, to stand out from the shore, she was fired upon from several points nearly in the same instant, and received some damage before she got out of reach. The batteries which fired upon her were concealed from view; and we were informed, that the shore was defended by batteries, at all the points where it was convenient to land. We were waiting for the arrival of some more troops from England, which were hourly expected, but did not arrive.—On the 20th, the enterprise was given up. It was said, that during the hazy weather, which had prevented us from seeing to any distance, re-enforcements had been sent into Belleisle. We returned to the isle of Houet, and to our tents, which had been left standing. Our number was said to be about 5000. On the next day, orders arrived for us to embark, which was done; and we sailed on the day following under sealed orders, and left the ships of war that belonged to the Channel fleet.

We had a pleasant and quick passage to the Straits of Gibraltar, where our Commodore informed us, that we were destined for the island of Minorca, to join an expedition that was forming under Sir Ralph Abercrombie, to assist the Austrians in Italy. We passed through the Straits, but did not touch at Gibraltar. We arrived at Minorca on the 21st July. We then learned, that Sir Ralph Abercrombie had already been at Leghorn; but that the Austrians having sustained a severe defeat from the French, under Buonaparte, had made an agreement, which did not allow of British troops being landed, and that Sir Ralph had brought back what troops he had to Minorca. We landed for refreshment and exercise on the 7th of August, and the whole regiment embarked again, on the 30th, on board of the Stately, 64. We sailed on the 31st for Gibraltar, where we arrived on the 14th September. We were there joined by another expedition, under the command of Sir James Pulteney. They had sailed from England in the beginning of July, and had made a descent on the coast of Spain at Ferrol, but had not effected any thing, except alarming the country. There was now a large body of troops on board this fleet; their number being about 25000. There were in all, upwards of 100 sail of large ships; two-thirds of which were war vessels of one description or other. We were in want of water, to get which, we went to Tetuan bay, which is on the Barbary shore, to the south-east of Gibraltar, belonging to Morocco. Here the whole fleet completed their stores of provisions and water. We set sail on the 27th, with an intention to pass the straits of Gibraltar; but the wind changed, and after beating about, we put back to Tetuan on the 29th. On the 1st October, the wind having become fair, we set sail, passed through the Straits, and anchored next day near to Cadiz in Spain. On the 3d of October we got orders to be in readiness to land. A flag of truce came from the shore to the Admiral on the 4th, and returned back the same day. On the 6th, the day being fine, we weighed anchor and stood across the bay of Cadiz, with the intention of landing near the town of St. Mary's. The dispositions having been made for landing, the ships of war, intended to cover the debarkation, were moving towards the shore, and a cutter had gone so near as to be fired upon. The first division of troops were in the boats, and had rowed off for the shore: we were all in readiness, and were receiving our ammunition; I had just got mine in six parcels, of ten cartridges each, when a flag of truce, which we had seen coming from the harbour, reached the Admiral's ship; and before I had got the half of the cartridges into my pouch, a signal was made by the Admiral, for the boats to return, and put the troops on board their respective ships, the design of landing being relinquished.—We were struck with the suddenness of the change. The flag of truce returned to the shore; and a report was spread, that the place had been ransomed by money; but whether there was any truth in this, or whether any political concession had been made, can not be known. There was one thing, however, and possibly it might be the only thing that prevented our landing; the plague was raging in Cadiz at the time.