Here they remained till the 25th, when the Battalion embarked on board the ‘Dover,’ which had brought out two of its companies. The Battalion was reduced by its losses in the field to almost half its strength on landing. On the 27th they set sail; and it was resolved to attempt the capture of Mobile. This place, lying about 100 miles to the eastward of New Orleans, is situated in a bay, the entrance to which is defended by a work called Fort Boyer, which therefore had first to be reduced. In order to effect this the 4th, 21st, and 44th Regiments were landed, and commenced the investment of and approach to the place. While on the 8th February the Riflemen and the rest of the troops were disembarked on Île Dauphine at the other side of the bay, till the reduction of Fort Boyer should enable them to move up to Mobile. Here the men hutted themselves; for the island, though otherwise almost a desert, is well covered with pine wood; while the officers, or some of them, had tents.
During the time that they were here, General Lambert inspected the troops by regiments. On making his inspection of the 3rd Battalion, James Travers (in Mitchell’s absence, who had been taken prisoner) was in command. ‘Well, Travers,’ said the General, ‘I hear your Sergeant-Major ran away on the night of the 23rd December.’ ‘Nay, General,’ answered Travers, ‘that he did not. He fought as well as any man could, and was towards the end of the affair severely wounded. But,’ added he, ‘I think I know what may have given rise to that report. A sergeant of ours was in or near one of the houses where the wounded were taken, and the surgeon made him remain there as Hospital Sergeant. I did all I could to get him back to the Battalion; but I could not succeed.’ ‘Well,’ said the General, ‘since I had done the Sergeant-Major some wrong, I must see what I can do to make him amends.’ He did procure him an ensigncy in a West India Regiment, to which he was gazetted soon after.
While the Battalion was on Île Dauphine, a gallant act was performed by Sergeant Thomas Fukes. He, with four or five Riflemen, was sent over to the mainland to shoot bullocks. Fukes with a couple of Riflemen went inland, leaving the other men in charge of the boat. Here one Shiel of the American navy (who had captured a boat in bad weather with some of the 14th Light Dragoons, when embarking at Lake Borgne, and who in consequence fancied himself a hero) came upon them round a jutting point, and having captured them, put them in charge of some of his own crew into their own boat, and dispatched them to an American ship or post. Then waiting for the sergeant, the other two Riflemen, and the Commissary, he of course made them prisoners, since their boat and the rest of their party had disappeared. The Commissary was placed aft with Mr. Shiel; Sergeant Fukes and his two men forward; and they were being rowed off. When well off the shore the Commissary seizing Shiel by the thighs chucked him overboard, while Sergeant Fukes at the same instant sent one of the boat’s crew to follow him, and the Riflemen disposed of the rest. They now recovered their rifles, and having taken security of Mr. Shiel for his good behaviour, admitted him at his urgent importunity into the boat, from whence they landed him, a moist and dispirited prisoner of war, on Île Dauphine.
The approaches to Fort Boyer being completed, Harry Smith was sent in with a summons to surrender. The poor Yankee commandant, sadly puzzled, asked Major Smith what he would advise him to do. He strongly recommended him to surrender immediately, as the place must be taken by assault. Acting on such good advice, which fell in probably with his own sinking courage, he surrendered with his garrison, and signed a capitulation on the 11th February.
This important work having fallen, immediate preparations were made for re-embarking the troops, and attacking Mobile. But on the 14th news arrived of the preliminaries of peace between England and the United States having been settled at Ghent on December 24. All warlike operations of course terminated; and the troops only awaited on Île Dauphine the ratification of the treaty by President Madison. Intelligence of this reached them on the 5th March, and on the 15th the officers and Riflemen who had been made prisoners re-joined the Battalion, having been released under the terms of the treaty. Major Mitchell had been roughly treated by General Jackson, because he refused to furnish him with information of our strength or movements.
On the 31st March the Battalion embarked on board the ‘Dover,’ some few men being placed on board the ‘Norfolk’ transport. On the 4th April they set sail, and, having called at the Havannah, arrived at Plymouth, whence they were ordered round to Dover, where they disembarked on the 2nd June and moved to Shorncliffe, where they found three companies of the Battalion, the remaining two being in Flanders, as is now to be narrated.
FOOTNOTES:
[131] George Simmons had been brought up to the medical profession.
[132] ‘Napier,’ Book xxiii. chap. 3.
[133] Nineteen men of the 1st Battalion, and 1 bugler and 12 men of the 2nd Battalion, were returned as ‘missing.’