The Fourteenth Regiment gained great honor on this occasion; its loss was one serjeant and four rank and file killed; Captain Cochrane, Major of brigade, died of his wounds; one serjeant and twenty-eight rank and file wounded; five men missing. Lieutenant-Colonel Ramsay's horse was killed, and the Lieutenant-Colonel received four musket balls through his hat.
The following general order, dated Tournay, 23rd of May, 1794, was published.—
"His Royal Highness the Commander-in-chief desires to express his most particular thanks to Major-General Fox; to the Fourteenth Regiment under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Ramsay; to the Thirty-seventh Regiment commanded by Captain Lightburne; to the Fifty-third Regiment commanded by Major Wiseman, and to the detachment of artillery attached to them under the command of Captain Trotter, for that display of intrepidity and good conduct, which reflects the greatest honor upon themselves, at the same time that it was highly instrumental in deciding the important victory of the 22nd instant.
"His Royal Highness much laments the loss they have sustained; but flatters himself they feel it, in some measure, compensated by the credit they have gained."
In his public despatch the Duke of York, speaking of the Fourteenth, Thirty-seventh, and Fifty-third Regiments, stated,—"Nothing could exceed the spirit and gallantry with which they conducted themselves, particularly in the storm of the village of Pontechin, which they forced with the bayonet." Historians have recorded the gallant conduct of the regiment[10]; and the royal authority was afterwards given for it to bear the word "Tournay" on its colours, to commemorate its distinguished conduct on this memorable occasion.
Notwithstanding these displays of valour, the enemy brought forward so great a superiority of numbers that it was found necessary to retreat, and a series of retrograde movements followed, during which little fighting occurred, and few corps had opportunities of distinguishing themselves. Various positions were occupied for short periods, and after quitting the Austrian Netherlands, attempts were made to defend Holland; but the people of that country had imbibed the doctrines of republicanism, and they made little effort to preserve the United Provinces from the French. In August the Fourteenth regiment was encamped near Antwerp; it was afterwards in position in the vicinity of Breda, from whence it retired to a post beyond Bois-le-duc, and, subsequently, to Nimeguen: it formed part of the garrison of Nimeguen for a short period, and when that town was evacuated, the regiment proceeded to Linden Castle; the army occupying a position beyond the Waal, for the defence of the passage of that river. Towards the end of December the river became frozen, and a body of the enemy crossed on the ice; but was driven back on the 30th of that month.
1795
The frost afterwards became more severe, and on the 4th of January, 1795, another body of French troops passed the river on the ice. At this period, the Fourteenth Regiment was at Linden Castle, from whence it advanced to take part in a combined attack on the enemy, under Major-General David Dundas. On the 7th of January it traversed the Rhine on the ice at Rhenen, and proceeded to Bueren Castle. On the following morning Major-General Lord Cathcart advanced with the light companies, thirty hulans, and a detachment of the Twenty-seventh Regiment, to reconnoitre; and the Fourteenth and Twenty-seventh regiments were afterwards brought up to attack the enemy at Gueldermalsen. The Fourteenth formed on the ice, on the left of the dyke, and the Twenty-seventh across the inclosure on the right, supported by the piquets, hulans, and afterwards by a squadron of light dragoons; and the field pieces were protected by the grenadiers of the Fourteenth under Lieutenant Elrington, who marched before the guns. Advancing in this order, the troops drove the French before them, until they arrived at Gueldermalsen, where a protracted resistance was made. Lieutenant Elrington, with the grenadiers of the Fourteenth, charged the French artillery at the bridge, and bayonetted the enemy at the gun, carrying the post with great gallantry. The British battalion guns cleared the street; the soldiers rushed forward, and were engaged from house to house, until they had passed the village, when they were assailed by the enemy in force. The Fourteenth defended the streets; the Twenty-seventh, the church-yard; and the Twenty-eighth coming up most opportunely on the right, threw in a flanking fire, which compelled the enemy to retire[11]. The brigade remained in the village during the night; it was ordered to retire on the following morning, and the three regiments were thanked in orders for their distinguished conduct: Lieutenant Elrington, of the Fourteenth, was thanked by name for his gallantry at the attack of the bridge defended by a gun. The regiment had twelve rank and file killed; Lieutenant-Colonel Hope (afterwards General Sir Alexander Hope, G.C.B.), Captain Perry, one serjeant, and twenty rank and file, wounded: Lieutenant-Colonel Hope lost the use of his right arm from a wound in the shoulder[12]. Captain Perry died of his wounds.
After this action the regiment marched to Cullenburg, and was on duty about a week, on the banks of the Leek, without house, tent, or any other cover from the weather, which was particularly severe.
Numerical superiority gave the enemy so decided an advantage, that a retreat through Holland to Germany became necessary, which took place in the depth of winter, and was attended with severe privation and suffering. On one occasion, after a long march, the Fourteenth Foot found themselves on a dreary heath, on a dark night, exposed to severe frost, and a snowstorm; the men's limbs were so benumbed with cold, that the most fatal results were apprehended; but the discovery of a large farm-house, and a barn upon the heath, proved particularly fortunate to the soldiers. These hardships were aggravated by the mortifying reflection, that the regiment was retiring before an enemy, whom it had never encountered without proving victorious. At length the regiment arrived in Germany, where it obtained repose in comfortable quarters; it embarked at Bremen-lee on the 9th of April, and landed at Harwich on the 7th of May.