3rd July.
On the 3rd July General Whitelocke managed to lose his army; but on the next day he found it again, and on the 5th July made his attack on the city. 5th July. That is to say, that he sent 6000 men up fourteen different streets through three miles of a hostile town, with strict orders not to fire until they reached the far end. What is more, the 6000 men did it. Nearly every street was entrenched and defended with cannon; every house was strongly barricaded and a fortress in itself; from every roof came a shower not only of bullets but of stones, bricks, and tiles, and every description of missile. Nevertheless the men did fight their way to the other end of the town without firing a shot; but by the time they had reached their allotted positions 1000 of them were down, and 1500 more, Craufurd himself among them, had been overpowered and compelled to surrender. Nevertheless Auchmuty on the left held a strong position, to which many men had rallied, where he had captured 32 guns and 600 prisoners; and with him sixteen mounted men of the Seventeenth, together with some infantry, opened communication, through all the fire, from the reserve. 1807. On the extreme right the British also held a strong position, and thither also some mounted men of the Seventeenth made their way from Reduction, to keep in touch with the city. But all was to no purpose. Next day Whitelocke came to terms with the Spaniards, and agreed to withdraw every British soldier from the country.
So ended the ill-fated expedition to the Plata. Whitelocke was tried by court-martial on his return, and cashiered. The British in any case could hardly have kept a hold on the country; but Popham’s error was no excuse for Whitelocke’s mismanagement. This was the third time in fifty years in which the Seventeenth was sent on a fool’s errand to a country where the population was expected to receive them with open arms, and met them in fact with loaded muskets. Carolina in 1781, St. Domingo in 1796, and the Plata in 1806, were all part of one great blunder; and for all three the Seventeenth suffered. It is not a soldier’s business when sent on active service to inquire as to the wisdom or unwisdom of the statesmen who send him. He must simply obey orders, and do his duty. But it is hard when years of good and gallant service by a regiment are buried under the cloud of a statesman’s blunder; and this has been the fate of the Seventeenth.
CHAPTER X
FIRST SOJOURN OF THE 17TH IN INDIA, 1808–1823—THE PINDARI WAR
1807.
The army evacuated the Plata in November. The Seventeenth was driven by stress of weather into Cork Harbour, and thus spent their second consecutive Christmas Day on shipboard. 1808. Leaving Cork early in January it sailed to Portsmouth, disembarked on the 17th, and joined the depôt troop at Chichester, where it remained for six weeks dismounted under orders for the East Indies. Every man who asked for a furlough within a hundred miles of London obtained it; and this was well, for there were not many of them that saw their homes again. Still, though the furlough was extended to the 20th February, every man, with the exception of one detained by sickness, was present at the expiration of the term. Moreover, though the men had money in their pockets, having arrears of pay due to them on their return, there was not a single case of misconduct at Chichester; and that meant a great deal in these hard-drinking days. The men had gone through much since they were last in England—147 days at sea in miserable transports, most of the time within the tropics; then a campaign with plenty of hardships and very little glory, wherein their horses were taken from them just when they could have been most useful; then a two months’ passage home in bad weather, and the mortification of landing as part of an unsuccessful army, and unsuccessful through no fault of its own. Finally it was under orders to sail in six weeks to the East Indies, a very deadly quarter to Europeans in those days.
1808.
The Mayor and Corporation of Chichester could not understand how a regiment in such circumstances could spend £3000 in the town in six weeks without a single instance of misbehaviour, 29th Feb. and went so far as to express their thanks to the Seventeenth for its exemplary conduct.
A few days later the regiment embarked at Portsmouth, 800 strong, under the command of Major Cotton; Lieutenant-Colonel Evan Lloyd being detained to give evidence on General Whitelocke’s court-martial. On the 1st of June it arrived at the Cape of Good Hope, 4th June. where it found one of its old colonels, Major-General H. G. Grey, and was inspected by him. From the Cape the regiment sailed for Calcutta. As it was approaching the Hugli one of the transports, the Hugh Inglis, was set on fire by the carelessness of a petty officer, but the fire was extinguished without serious damage. Next day the three topmasts were carried away by a squall, and swept fourteen or fifteen men overboard with them, of whom, however, all but one were saved. The Seventeenth has gone through a good many adventures at sea between gales, founderings, fires, and service as marines.
On the 25th August the regiment was disembarked at Calcutta, 790 men strong, and did garrison duty in Fort William until December; during which time Major Cotton, the regimental quartermaster, and sixty-two non-commissioned officers and men, fell sick and died—a melancholy opening to its first term of Indian service. 1809.In the following year it was placed on the Bombay establishment, and sailing from Calcutta arrived at Bombay on the 1st February. From thence it was moved up to its destined quarters at Surat on the Tapti River, some two hundred miles north of Bombay. Two galloping guns worked by its own men were added, as was usual, to the establishment; and by a concurrence of testimony the regiment was excellently mounted.