The Royal Fusiliers returned to the army, and had the honour to take part in the battle of Toulouse on the 10th of April, when the French were once more defeated. The battalion was not seriously engaged on this occasion, and its loss was limited to one man killed and three wounded. Its gallant bearing was conspicuous, and was rewarded with the word "Toulouse" on its colours, and an honorary distinction for its commander, Major John W. Beatty, who was also promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. Major S. B. Auchmuty, commanding the light companies of the brigade, was rewarded with a medal and the rank of lieutenant-colonel.
The French army withdrew within the town, with the view of defending the place to the last extremity, but subsequently retired, and hostilities were soon afterwards terminated by the abdication of Napoleon and the restoration of Louis XVIII. to the throne of France.
Thus years of toil and bloodshed, which had developed—in vast combinations—in astonishing exhibitions of skill, firmness, iron hardihood, heroic valour—the true character of Wellington and the soldiers he led from kingdom to kingdom, from victory to victory, and had forced all the nations of Europe to confess the glory of the British arms, terminated in the restoration of peace to the troubled states of Europe. The Royal Fusiliers had fought and toiled for the good of other countries; at this glorious termination of their labours, they were placed in quarters of refreshment among the French peasantry, and they received the blessings of the people they had delivered from usurpation and tyranny.
Among the numerous instances in which a very excellent spirit had been displayed by individuals during this arduous struggle, the Record Book of the Royal Fusiliers bears extraordinary testimony of the most laudable and indefatigable exertions of Adjutant James Hay, who, making the duties of his appointment the business of his life, aided with praiseworthy zeal his commanding officer in maintaining the efficiency, discipline, and reputation of his corps, in which he took a lively interest; he was never absent from his regiment during the whole of the Peninsular campaigns, excepting from wounds, and he thus earned an imperishable fame in the annals of the Royal Fusiliers.
At the end of May the regiment was withdrawn from its cantonments, and, proceeding towards Bourdeaux, was encamped a few days near that city; on the 14th of June it was embarked at Pouillac in transport brigs, and conveyed down the Garonne to the "Clarence" (a British seventy-four), lying in Verdun roads. In this ship the regiment sailed to England, where it arrived, after an absence of nearly seven years, towards the end of June, and on landing at Plymouth was greeted with the hearty cheers of crowds of countrymen assembled on the occasion, who testified their admiration of the brilliant career of the regiment in a most lively manner.
After landing, the regiment occupied quarters at Totness for several weeks; it subsequently proceeded to Portsmouth, where both battalions were stationed in garrison; the second battalion having returned in August from Jersey, where it had been stationed since November, 1811.
At the termination of the Peninsular War, Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Blakeney was honoured with the dignity of Knight of the Tower and Sword by the Prince Regent of Portugal; he was also rewarded with a cross and clasp for his services at Martinique, Albuhera, Badajoz, Vittoria, and in the Pyrenees.
The Royal Fusiliers were not long permitted to enjoy repose, before an order from the Horse Guards summoned them to engage in scenes of conflict beyond the Atlantic ocean. The impressing of British seamen on board of American vessels, with the enforcing of certain Orders in Council, designed to counteract the decrees of Buonaparte, who, in the height of his power, endeavoured to destroy the commerce of Great Britain, had been followed by a war with the United States, and the Seventh were selected to proceed with the forty-third light infantry under Major-General Lambert, to join the troops engaged in active service against the American coast. The first battalion was completed to a thousand rank and file from the second, and embarked on the 4th of October, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Blakeney; it proceeded, in the first instance, to Plymouth, from whence it sailed to the West Indies.[24]
1815