A detachment from the second battalion, consisting of 1 captain, 4 subalterns, and 134 rank and file, under the command of Major Arthur Jones, joined at Aire.
On the 25th of March, part of the battalion was engaged in an affair at Tarbes, in which Lieutenant Robert Law was wounded, and upon the 10th of April was in position at Toulouse, where some of the companies were employed skirmishing, and sustained a loss of 1 sergeant and 3 rank and file killed; 6 rank and file were wounded.
During the night of the 11th of April, the French troops evacuated Toulouse, and a white flag was hoisted. On the following day, the Marquis of Wellington entered the city, amidst the acclamations of the inhabitants. In the course of the afternoon of the 13th of April, intelligence was received of the abdication of Napoleon, and had not the express been delayed on the journey by the French police, the sacrifice of many valuable lives would have been prevented.
A disbelief in the truth of this intelligence occasioned much unnecessary bloodshed at Bayonne, the garrison of which made a desperate sortie on the 14th of April, and Lieutenant Sir John Hope (afterwards Earl of Hopetoun) was taken prisoner. Major-General Andrew Hay was killed, and Major-General Stopford was wounded.
A treaty of peace was established between Great Britain and France; Louis XVIII was restored to the throne of France, and Napoleon Bonaparte was permitted to reside at Elba, the sovereignty of that island having been conceded to him by the Allied Powers.
The war being ended, the first battalion of the Seventy-first regiment marched from Toulouse to Blanchfort, where it was encamped for 16 days, and afterwards proceeded to Pouillac, where it embarked on the 15th of July for England, on board of His Majesty’s ship “Sultan” of seventy-four guns.
Prior to the breaking up of the Peninsula army, the Duke of Wellington issued the following General Order:—
“Bordeaux, 14th June, 1814.
“General Order.
“The Commander of the Forces, being upon the point of returning to England, again takes this opportunity of congratulating the army upon the recent events which have restored peace to their country and to the world.