ADJUTANT.—This name is given to the officer, generally a lieutenant, whose business it is to assist the superior officers, by receiving and communicating orders.
ADMIRAL.—This, the highest title in the navy, does not appear to have been adopted till about 1300. This title was first given in England to William de Leybourne, by Edward I, in 1297. The first Lord High Admiral of England was created by Richard II in 1388. It is an office which has seldom been trusted to single hands. Prince George of Denmark, consort to Queen Anne, was Lord High Admiral in her reign. Since that time (1708) the duties were uninterruptedly executed by Lords Commissioners until 1827, when the Duke of Clarence, afterwards William IV, was appointed. He resigned August 12th, 1828, and the office has ever since been vested in the Lords of the Admiralty.
AEGOS POTAMOS.—This place is famous for the victory of Lysander over the Athenian fleet, on the 13th December, B.C. 405, in the last year of the Peloponnesian war. All the triremes of the Athenians, 180 in number, were either lost or captured, without the loss of a single ship on the side of Lysander.
AFGHAN WAR.—A fierce rebellion broke out on November 2nd, 1842, at Cabul; Burnes and Macnaughten, the British ministers, with other civil and military officers, were successively murdered, and the whole country rose in arms under the treacherous Akbar Khan, the son of the deposed king, Dost Mohammed, who determined on the massacre of the whole British force. Pusillanimity and indecision in the councils of the general-in-chief, led to an immediate evacuation of the country. 4,500 fighting men, together with about 12,000 camp followers, besides women and children, set forward, through ice and snow, on their lamentable retreat; and no sooner had they cleared out of their cantonments, than the blood-thirsty Afghans began to plunder the baggage, and fire upon the soldiery; they continued without ceasing their revengeful assaults upon the bewildered and desponding multitude, till there was nothing left to plunder, and none left to kill. Out of a host of about 26,000 human beings, only a few hundreds were rescued from death by captivity. The ladies and the wounded had been given up to the enemy early in the march, and Dr. Brydon was the only officer who made good his retreat. In the following year, however, on the appointment of Lord Ellenborough to the governor-generalship of India in the place of Lord Auckland, the British national character was repaired, the honour of their arms retrieved, and the unfortunate prisoners rescued. General Pollock was despatched into Afghanistan with an invading army; he advanced on Cabul with all possible rapidity; while, on the other side, General Nott, who had held out at Candahar during the recent difficulties, brought his forces also to bear on the capital. Victory everywhere attended the British arms; and the British officers and ladies, who had been taken prisoners, were also rescued, at Bameean, on the road to Turkistan. These disgraces having been so gloriously redeemed, it was determined to evacuate a country which ought never to have been entered; the fortifications and other works of Cabul having been destroyed, the British troops set forward, on their return home, and, after a march of about ten weeks, arrived safely on the banks of the Sutlej, December 17th, 1842.
AGINCOURT.—Fought on the 25th of October, 1415, between the English and French. When all his preparations were completed, King Henry V embarked at Southampton with a gallant army of 30,000 men, and landing at the mouth of the river Seine, invested the town of Harfleur. After a brave resistance of five months’ duration, the town surrendered; the inhabitants were expelled like those of Calais, and an English garrison occupied it. To his mortification, Henry, at the end of the siege, found his army no longer in a condition for active operations; for it had suffered so severely from dysentery, that when the sick and wounded had been sent home, it did not count more than one half of its original number. In spite however, of the remonstrances of his council, Henry resolved to march with his diminished force to Calais. He reached unopposed the ford by which Edward III had crossed the Somme, but found it secured by lines of palisades, behind which troops were posted. All the other fords were secured in like manner, and the bridges were broken. At length finding a ford unguarded, the English passed over. The constable of France, who commanded the French army, fell back towards Calais, and having received orders from his court to fight without delay, he sent heralds to King Henry to ask which way he intended to march. Henry replied, by that which led straight to Calais, and dismissed the heralds with a present of 100 crowns.
As the English were advancing, the Duke of York, having ascended an eminence, descried the masses of the enemy. The troops were instantly formed in line of battle, but the French would not advance to attack them, the experience of Cressy and Poitiers having inspired them with a dread of the cloth-yard arrows of the English. But as their army presented an array of 50,000 horsemen, they had no doubt whatever of the victory; and though the night was dark and rainy, they assembled round their banners revelling and discussing the events of the coming day; and such was their confidence that they even fixed the ransoms of King Henry and his barons. English, on the contrary, made their wills, and passed the night in devotion. Sickness, famine, and the smallness of their numbers, depressed their spirits; but their courage rose when they thought on Cressy and other victories, and on the gallant spirit of their king. Henry himself visited all their quarters, and he ordered bands of music to play all through the night to cheer their drooping spirits.
Before sunrise, on the 25th of October, 1415, being St. Crispin’s day, the English army, having heard mass, stood in order of battle. The king, wearing a helmet of polished steel, wreathed with a crown of sparkling stones, rode on a grey pony from rank to rank, inspecting and encouraging them. Hearing an officer say to another that he wished a miracle would transfer thither some of the good knights who were sitting idle at home, he declared aloud that “he would not have a single man more, as if God gave them the victory, it would be plainly due to His goodness; if he did not, the fewer that fell, the less the loss to their country.” Three French knights now came, summoning them to surrender. The king ordered them off and cried out, “Banners, advance.” The archers fell on their knees on the ground, then rose and ran on with a shout. They halted, and poured their hail of arrows on the first division of the French; and when they had thrown it into some confusion, they slung their bows behind their backs, and grasping their swords and battle-axes, killed the constable and his principal officers, and routed the whole division. They then advanced to attack the second division, led by the Duke of Alençon. Here the resistance was obstinate. Alençon forced his way to the royal standard, killed the Duke of York, and cleft the crown in the helmet of the king; but he was slain, and the division turned and fled. Henry was advancing to attack the third division, when word came that a large force was falling on the rear. The king gave hasty orders to put the prisoners to death, and numbers had perished before it was discovered that it was a false alarm, caused by an attempt of some peasantry to plunder the baggage. The slaughter was then stopped, but this cruel act tarnished the victory which was already won, for the third division offered but a slight resistance.
When Montjoy, the French king-at-arms, appeared, “To whom,” said Henry, “doth the victory belong?” “To you, sir.” “And what castle is that I see at a distance?” “It is called the castle of Agincourt.” “Then,” said the king, “be this battle known to posterity by the name of the battle of Agincourt.” The prime nobility of France were taken or slain, and 8000 knights and gentlemen lay dead on the field. The loss of the English was only the Duke of York, the Earl of Suffolk, and about 600 men.
AGRA.—This celebrated city is called the Key of Hindostan. It was surrendered, in the war of the Mahrattas, to the British forces, October 17th, 1803. The great Mogul frequently, before its surrender, resided here. It now exhibits the most magnificent ruins.
AIDE-DE-CAMP.—(From the French.) An officer whose duty is to receive and communicate the orders of a general or superior officer.