Historical Record of the Sixth, or Royal First Warwickshire Regiment of Foot / Containing an Account of the Formation of the Regiment in the Year 1674, and of Its Subsequent Services to 1838

by Richard Cannon

LANCELOT BAUGH,

Appointed 18th April, 1787.

This officer served many years in the first foot guards, in which regiment he was appointed lieutenant and captain in 1747, and captain and lieut.-colonel in 1758. In 1771 he was promoted to the rank of colonel, in 1777 to that of major-general, and in 1779 to that of lieut.-general. The colonelcy of the Sixth Foot was conferred by King George III. on Lieut.-General Baugh in 1787; and he retained this appointment until his decease in April, 1792.

SIR RALPH ABERCROMBY, K.B.,

Appointed 26th April, 1792.

This distinguished officer commenced his military career as cornet in the third dragoon guards in 1756; in 1762 he was appointed captain in the third horse (now sixth dragoon guards), and was promoted to the lieut.-colonelcy of the regiment in 1773. Under his vigilant care and attention to all the duties of commanding officer, his regiment became distinguished as an efficient cavalry corps; and he was rewarded with the rank of colonel in the army in 1780; in the following year he was appointed colonel of the 103d regiment, or King's Irish infantry, which corps was disbanded at the peace in 1783. In 1787 he was promoted to the rank of major-general; and in September, 1790, he was appointed colonel of the sixty-ninth regiment, from which he was removed in 1792 to the Sixth foot.

On the breaking out of the war with France in 1793, he was promoted to the local rank of lieut.-general on the continent, and he held a command under the Duke of York, in Flanders. In this service he highly signalized himself, and his conduct was spoken of in the warmest terms of commendation in his Royal Highness's despatches; particularly his gallantry at the battle of Cateau on the 26th of April, 1794, and in the general attack made on the French posts on the 11th of May following. He also took an active and distinguished part in conducting the unfortunate retreat through Holland, and was wounded before Nimeguen on the 27th of October, 1794.

Shortly after his return to England he was sent with an expedition to the West Indies, to complete the deliverance of the French West India islands from the power of the republican government, and to reduce to obedience the insurgents in the islands of St. Vincent and Grenada. In this service he had distinguished success: he took Grenada—obtained possession of the settlements of Demarara and Essequibo—completed the capture of St. Lucia and St. Vincent—and afterwards reduced the Spanish colony in the island of Trinidad, and placed it under the dominion of the British crown. In the mean time he had been appointed to the colonelcy of the Princess Royal's dragoon guards, and created a Knight of the Bath; and in November, 1796, he was removed to the command of the Scots Greys. His distinguished merit was also rewarded with the appointment of lieut.-governor of the Isle of Wight, and the government of Forts George and Augustus.

In 1799 he was selected to command the first division of the Anglo-Russian army destined to attempt the deliverance of Holland from the power of France; and in effecting a landing on the 27th of August,—in repulsing the troops assembled to oppose him,—and in gaining possession of the forts of the Helder, which was followed by the surrender of the Dutch fleet, he evinced the abilities of a consummate general and the valour of a hero. He was also successful in the action of the Zyp on the 10th of September. After the arrival of the Duke of York he commanded a division under His Royal Highness with reputation; and in the accounts of the engagements which followed, his conduct was mentioned in terms of the highest praise.

After his return from Holland he was appointed to the command of an expedition sent into the Mediterranean. He captured Malta, and appeared before Cadiz; but an epidemic disease raging in the city at the time, the attempt on this fortress was desisted in for fear of infection. He subsequently directed his course towards Egypt, with the view of driving the French army from that country; and while the fleet anchored in the bay of Marmorice, in Asiatic Turkey, he arranged a plan of co-operation with the Turks. In February, 1801, he again put to sea, and on the 8th of March he effected a landing in the bay of Aboukir, and defeated a body of French troops. On the 13th he drove the French from their position beyond Mandora Tower, on which occasion he had a horse shot under him; and on the 19th Fort Aboukir capitulated. On the 21st of the same month he repulsed a furious attack of the enemy on the position which he occupied near Alexandria, and during the action he received a mortal wound which deprived his king and country of his most valuable services. He appears to have been wounded in the early part of the day, but continued in the field giving his orders with that coolness and perspicuity which had ever marked his character, till after the action was over, when he fainted through weakness and loss of blood, and died on the 28th of March, 1801.