The British minister at the Sicilian court thus alluded to the battle in his despatch:—“There is not to be found in the annals of military transactions an enterprise prepared with more deliberate reflection or executed with greater decision, promptitude, and success, than the late invasion of Calabria by Sir John Stuart. I trust, therefore, you will not think me presumptuous for venturing to add my testimony of the high sense entertained by this court of the merits of the British General and of his gallant army, who, on the fertile plains of Maida, have added new trophies to those which the same troops had formerly earned, from the same enemy, on the sandy regions of Egypt.”
The King of the Two Sicilies created Sir John Stuart, Count of Maida. In England he received the thanks of Parliament, a pension of £1000 per annum, the Order of the Bath, a sword of honour, and the freedom of the city of London.
In commemoration of this victory a gold medal was struck, and conferred upon all the superior officers who were present.
The troops were re-embarked on the 2nd of August, and on the night of the 9th the regiment made Messina harbour, and having been disembarked, was ordered to take over quarters in the town of Taormina, where it became subjected to the consequences of its fatigues and privations during the late campaign, frequently suffering from ill-health to the extent of from twenty to thirty men per month. On the 13th of October, however, it was ordered round to Syracuse, where it arrived on the 17th, and remained during the rest of its stay in Sicily, until it was ordered to embark and join the Egyptian expedition.
Early in 1807 an armament was fitted out in Sicily for the purpose of occupying Alexandria, Rosetta, and the adjoining coast of Egypt. The force on this occasion consisted of a detachment of artillery, the 20th Light Dragoons, the 31st, 35th, 78th, and De Rolle’s regiment, and the corps of Chasseurs Britanniques, all under the command of Major-General Mackenzie-Fraser. The expedition sailed on the 6th of March, but, encountering bad weather, the “Apollo” frigate and nineteen transports were separated from the fleet. The remainder, with the commodore, anchored on the 16th off the Arab’s Tower to the west of Alexandria. General Fraser, in consequence of the absence of so large a proportion of his force, hesitated about landing; but, being pressed by Major Misset, the British resident, who informed him that the inhabitants were favourably disposed, and that there were not more than 500 men in garrison, he disembarked his troops on the 17th and 18th. On the morning of the 19th took up a position on the same ground that the British army occupied in March 1801. The town, on being summoned, surrendered the next day, and in the evening the other transports anchored in Aboukir bay. Vice-Admiral Duckworth, with a fleet from the Dardanelles, arrived in the bay on the 22nd.
On the 27th of March a detachment, under Major-General Wauchope and Brigadier-General Meade, took possession, without opposition, of the forts and heights of Abûmandûr, a little above Rosetta. The capture of this place was the next object. General Wauchope, unconscious of danger, marched into the town at the head of the 31st Regiment. Not a human being was to be seen in the streets, nor was a sound to be heard. The troops wended their way through the narrow and deserted streets towards an open space or market-place in the centre of the town; but they had not proceeded more than half-way when the portentous silence was broken by showers of musketry from every house, from the first floor to the roof. Cooped up in these narrow lanes, the troops were unable to return the fire with any effect, nor, amidst the smoke in which they were enveloped, could they see their assailants, and could only guess their position from the flashes of their guns. They had, therefore, no alternative but to retire as speedily as possible; but, before they had extricated themselves, General Wauchope was killed, and nearly 300 officers and soldiers were killed and wounded. General Meade was among the wounded.
After this repulse the troops returned to Alexandria; but General Fraser, resolved upon the capture of Rosetta, sent back a second detachment, consisting of the 35th, 78th, and De Rolle’s regiment, under the command of Brigadier-General the Hon. William Stewart and Colonel Oswald. This detachment, after some skirmishing, took possession of Abûmandûr on the 7th of April, and on the following day Rosetta was summoned to surrender, but without effect. Batteries were therefore speedily erected, and a position was taken up between the Nile and the gate of Alexandria; but, from the paucity of the troops, it was found impossible to invest the town on all sides, or prevent a free communication across the Nile to the Delta. The batteries opened their fire; but with no other effect than damaging some of the houses.
The enemy having erected some batteries on the Delta for the purpose of taking the British batteries in flank, Major James Macdonell of the 78th, with 250 men, under Lieutenant John Robertson, and 40 seamen from the Tigre, were detached on the 16th across the river, opposite to Abûmandûr, to destroy these batteries. To conceal his movements, Major Macdonell made a considerable circuit, and coming upon the rear of the batteries at sunrise, attacked the enemy, and driving him from the batteries, turned the guns upon the town. But as the enemy soon collected in considerable force, he destroyed the batteries, and embarking the guns, recrossed the river with only four men wounded.
General Stewart had been daily looking for a reinforcement of Mamelukes from Upper Egypt; but he was disappointed in this expectation. While a detachment of De Rolle’s, under Major Vogelsang of that regiment, occupied El Hamet, another detachment, consisting of five companies of the Highlanders, two of the 35th Regiment, and a few cavalry and artillery under Lieut.-Colonel Macleod, was sent on the 20th to occupy a broad dyke or embankment, which, with a dry canal, runs between the Nile and the Lake Etko, a distance of about two miles. On reaching his destination, Colonel Macleod stationed his men, amounting to 720, in three divisions, with an equal number of dragoons and artillery between each. One of these he disposed on the banks of the Nile, another in the centre, and the third upon the dry canal.
Meanwhile the enemy was meditating an attack on the position, and on the morning of the 21st, while numerous detached bodies of their cavalry began to assemble round the British posts, a flotilla of about 70 djerms or large boats full of troops was observed slowly descending the Nile. With the intention of concentrating his force, and of retreating if necessary to the camp at Rosetta, Colonel Macleod proceeded to the post on the right, occupied by a company of the 35th and the Highland grenadiers. He had not, however, sufficient time to accomplish this object, as the enemy left their boats with great rapidity; and while they advanced on the left and centre posts, their cavalry, with a body of Albanian infantry, surrounded the right of the position, and attacked it furiously at all points. Colonel Macleod formed his men into a square, which, for a long time, resisted every effort of the enemy. Had this handful of men been attacked in one or two points only, they might have charged the enemy; but they were so completely surrounded that they could not venture to charge to any front of the square, as they would have been assailed in the rear the moment they faced round. At every successive charge made by the cavalry, who attempted, at the point of the bayonets, to cut down the troops, the square was lessened, the soldiers closing in upon the vacancies as their comrades fell. These attacks, though irregular, were bold, and the dexterity with which the assailants handled their swords proved fatal to the British.