1815
During the night a battery was constructed, and opening a fire of red-hot shot, it destroyed the American schooner; but when the troops proceeded towards the town, they encountered so many local difficulties, were opposed by such immense bodies of Americans, with extensive fortified lines and batteries, and armed vessels on the river, that the advance was checked and considerable loss sustained. Attempts were made to overcome these difficulties; the canal from Bayo de Catiline was cleared out, widened, and opened to the river, to admit the boats from the lake; and while the soldiers were labouring at this work Major-General Lambert joined with two additional regiments. Arrangements were made for attacking the enemy's fortified lines at day-break on the morning of the 8th of January, 1815. The boats were to be brought along the canal in the night, part of the army was to embark, and proceeding up the river with muffled oars, to gain the flank and rear of the works unperceived; and simultaneous attacks were to be made on different parts of the enemy's fortified position. This plan was, however, partly disconcerted by the tardy arrival of the boats; and at the moment of attack the scaling ladders and fascines had to be sent for. Day-light arriving, the troops were visible to the enemy, who opened a tremendous fire, with dreadful execution. Under these disadvantages, the British rushed forward to storm the position in front. A detachment of the King's Own, twenty-first, and ninety-fifth, captured a three-gun battery, and advanced to attack a body of Americans who were forming for its recovery; but having to pass a deep ditch by a single plank, they were repulsed; and the enemy forcing his way into the battery, re-captured it with immense slaughter. Meanwhile the remainder of the King's Own were exposed to a dreadful fire, and the regiment was nearly annihilated by the tempest of bullets by which it was assailed. Major-General Pakenham having galloped to the front to encourage the men, was shot on the top of the glacis. Major-Generals Gibbs and Keane were borne from the field dangerously wounded; and success being found impracticable, the troops withdrew from the unequal contest. The King's Own had upwards of four hundred men killed and wounded in this desperate service: also, Lieutenant Edward Field, and Ensign William Crowe, killed; and Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Brooke, Brevet Lieutenant-Colonels Alured D. Faunce, and Timothy Jones, Brevet Major John Williamson, Captains John Wynne Fletcher, Robert Erskine, and David S. Craig, Lieutenants J. P. Hopkins, Jeffrey Salvin, W. H. Brooke, Benjamin Martin, George Richardson, Peter Bowlby, George H. Hearne, William Squires, C. H. Farrington, James Marshall, Henry Andrews, and Adjutant William Richardson, with Ensigns Arthur Gerard, Thomas Benwell, J. L. Fernandez, and Edward Newton, wounded.
The capture of New Orleans appearing impracticable, a temporary road was constructed through the morass, and the regiments having reached the lake by a night march, embarked in boats and returned to the fleet.
An attack on Mobile was afterwards resolved on, and the King's Own were engaged in the siege of Fort Bowyer, which commanded the entrance to the harbour; this place surrendered on the 12th of February, and the second American regiment of the line having marched out with the honours of war, delivered its arms and colours to the King's Own.
Further hostilities against the Americans were, however, prevented by a treaty of peace, and the Fourth being ordered to return to England, arrived on the 16th of May at Portsmouth, from whence they sailed to the Downs; and having landed on the 18th, were stationed in Deal barracks.
On the extension of the Order of the Bath, in the beginning of this year, Lieut.-Colonel Francis Brooke and Brevet Lieut.-Colonels John Piper and Alured Dodsworth Faunce, of the King's Own, were nominated Companions of that Order.
On the arrival in England of the surviving officers and men of the King's Own from these difficult enterprises in America, they found Europe involved in another war. Bonaparte had violated the treaty of 1814; he had quitted Elba; had invaded France with a few guards; had been received with acclamations by the French army; and while Louis XVIII. fled to Flanders, Napoleon had re-ascended the throne of France. The nations of Europe declared war against the usurper; and the King's Own were immediately ordered to proceed to Flanders to engage in the approaching contest. The effective men of the second battalion were added to the first battalion, which again embarked for foreign service on the 10th of June, and having landed at Ostend on the 12th, proceeded up the country. Bonaparte attacked the advanced-posts of the army commanded by Field-Marshal His Grace the Duke of Wellington in the middle of June; and the King's Own, by forced marches, arrived at the position in front of the village of Waterloo on the morning of the 18th of June, about an hour before the battle commenced.
The regiment was commanded by Lieut.-Colonel Brooke, and being formed in brigade with the twenty-seventh and fortieth regiments, under the orders of Major-General Lambert, took part in the gigantic contest which followed. On this occasion the stern valour and undaunted character of the British troops were pre-eminently displayed; whether assailed by the thunder of artillery, volleys of musketry, the bayonets of infantry, or the furious charges of the French cavalry, the British regiments stood firm, and repulsed with sanguinary perseverance the legions of Bonaparte, and drove them back in confusion. After resisting the attacks of the superior numbers of the enemy for many hours, the Prussians arrived to co-operate; when the allied army assumed the offensive, and by a general charge of the whole line, overthrew the French host, and drove it from the field with dreadful slaughter, and the loss of its artillery, ammunition waggons, &c.
The King's Own had one hundred and thirty-four men killed and wounded in this hard-contested and glorious battle; also the following officers wounded,—Brevet Major G. D. Willson, Captain James Charles Edgell, Lieutenants John Brown, B. M. Collins, Hygat Boyd, George Richardson, William Squire, Arthur Gerard, Adjutant William Richardson, and Ensign W. M. Matthews.
The honour of bearing the word Waterloo on the colours was conferred on the regiment; every officer and man present received a silver medal; and Major Willson, being second in command, was promoted to the rank of lieut.-colonel, and nominated a companion of the Order of the Bath.