Towards the end of February, 1814, the Fifth Dragoon Guards again advanced. After passing through the Pyrenean mountains, they entered France, and followed the route of the French troops retreating on Bayonne. On the 19th of March, the army, under Marshal Soult, was discovered in position near Tarbes, when a division of infantry and Major-General Ponsonby's brigade of cavalry were ordered to turn the enemy's right flank at Rabastens, but the French, being thus threatened, retired. Following the rear of the French army, the brigade crossed the Garonne, on a pontoon bridge, at St. Roques, on the 31st of March, and seized the bridge on the Arriege, at Cintagabelle; but the roads were found so bad in this direction, that the troops were recalled, and the pontoon bridge being removed to Grenade, the brigade passed the river on the 4th of April, took post at Grissolles, and placed a strong picquet on the road to Montauban.
In the mean time, the French army had taken up a strong position to cover Toulouse, where they were attacked by the allied army on the 10th of April. The infantry attacked the enemy's entrenchments with their usual intrepidity. The cavalry brigade, consisting of the Fifth Dragoon Guards, and Third and Fourth Dragoons, was commanded on this occasion by Lieutenant-Colonel Lord Charles Manners; it was employed in supporting the Spanish forces, and, by its firm countenance, it enabled them, after having been thrown into some confusion, to rally and re-form their broken ranks. It also saved the Portuguese guns from being captured by the French, and subsequently supported Lieutenant-General Clinton's division: at length, the enemy was driven from his works, and forced to take shelter in the town. The Fifth Dragoon Guards had one corporal killed and Cornet Lucas wounded; and their services on this occasion were rewarded with the honour of bearing the word Toulouse on their standards and appointments.
Shortly after this victory hostilities were terminated, by the removal of Buonaparte from the throne of France, and the restoration of the Bourbon dynasty. Thus ended the toils and conflicts of this destructive war, and the Fifth Dragoon Guards, after traversing kingdoms, enduring privations, and gaining victories, had the gratification of witnessing the restoration of peace. The French forces, after fighting to add province to province, and kingdom to kingdom, to found new empires upon the ruins of conquered states, to subject mankind to the tyranny of a lawless despot, saw their hopes blasted, their conquests wrested from them, their country invaded and subject to the power of foreigners; but the British army, which fought under the immortal Wellington for the good of Europe,—for the welfare of other nations, preserved its own country from the horrors of war, and had the glory of conquering to establish the peace of Christendom.
The Fifth Dragoon Guards remained in cantonments until the 1st of June, when, having sent their dismounted men and heavy baggage to Bourdeaux, they commenced their march for Boulogne.[12] This long march, from one extremity of France to another, was performed in the short period of six weeks; and, previous to embarking, Major-General Ponsonby expressed to the three regiments in brigade orders, "the high sense he entertained of their uniformly excellent conduct both in quarters and in the field:" adding, "It is a gratifying circumstance that, during the whole period of service, they have, in no instance, individually or collectively, incurred animadversion in general orders; that no individual of the brigade has been brought before a general court martial; and that not one instance has occurred (to the major-general's knowledge) of interior disagreement in the brigade. With equal truth the major-general can assert, that upon every occasion which has presented itself of acting against the enemy, whether regimentally or in brigade, they have nobly sustained the superiority of the British cavalry, and fully justified the high opinion so repeatedly expressed with regard to them by his Grace the Duke of Wellington. The three regiments will ever have to congratulate themselves on its having fallen to their lot to be the brigade employed in that glorious and effectual charge, which contributed in so eminent a degree to decide the fate of the day at Salamanca, and to secure the signal and complete defeat of the French army. It only remains for the major-general to declare his satisfaction at the exemplary conduct of the brigade during the march through France; and he concludes by requesting that Lieutenant-Colonel Lord Charles Manners, Lieutenant-Colonel Prescott, and Major Hugonin, will themselves accept, and have the goodness to communicate to the regiments under their respective commands, his best and warmest thanks for their zealous and steady services during the time he has had the honour of commanding the brigade, together with his earnest and sincere good wishes for their future welfare. He also requests Brigade-Major Hill will accept his best thanks for the zeal and assiduous attention with which he has discharged the duties of his situation."
The Fifth Dragoon Guards embarked at Boulogne on the 17th and 18th of July, landed at Dover on the 19th and 20th, and marched from thence to Woodbridge barracks, where the depôt and heavy baggage joined from Canterbury, and a reduction of two troops was made in the establishment. In October the regiment marched to Ipswich and adjacents.
1815
In April, 1815, "His Royal Highness the Prince Regent was pleased, in the name and on the behalf of His Majesty, to approve of the Fifth, or Princess Charlotte of Wales's Regiment of Dragoon Guards, being permitted to bear on its standards and appointments (in addition to any other badges or devices which may have been heretofore granted to the regiment), the word 'Peninsula,' in commemoration of its services during the late war in Portugal, Spain, and France, under the command of Field-Marshal the Duke of Wellington."
On the 8th of April, the regiment marched to Nottingham, Coventry, Northampton, and Leicester; and the return of Napoleon Buonaparte to France, in breach of the treaty of 1814, having occasioned a declaration of war, six troops were ordered to be held in readiness for foreign service; but, to the great regret of the officers and men, who panted for another opportunity of signalizing themselves under the Duke of Wellington, the order was subsequently countermanded in consequence of the number of young and untrained horses in the regiment.
In June, the officers and men of the Fifth Dragoon Guards received the painful intelligence of the fall of Major-General Sir William Ponsonby, G.C.B., at the battle of Waterloo.[13]