[134] He was, while the 1st Battalion were absent, temporarily attached to the 2nd Battalion; being employed on the telegraph of the Light Division.
[135] ‘Twelve Years’ Military Adventure.’
[136] See Napier, Book xxiv. chap. 5.
[137] Surtees, 296, 297. The context is very confused, the editor not having been able to decipher or to arrange Surtees’ MS.
[138] Record, 2nd Battalion. As the return in the ‘London Gazette’ does not distinguish the regiments of the non-commissioned officers and privates, I am unable to give the casualties of the other Battalions.
[139] It is evident from Sir Thomas Graham’s letters to Lord Bathurst and Lord Wellington (‘Supplementary Despatches,’ viii. 376-7) that he undertook this command very unwillingly and only from a sense of duty. To Lord Wellington he says ‘I cannot look forward to it otherwise than an irksome service, with scarce a chance of any material success.’
[140] It would appear from a private letter from Lord Bathurst to Lord Wellington, that the strength of the detachment of the 3rd Battalion was 250 men. ‘Supplementary Despatches,’ viii. 390. This is a clerical or typographical error for ‘of the three Battalions.’ The depôt companies were at this time very weak, and the strength of the whole detachment was about 250 men.
[141] Graham’s Despatch, ‘Annual Register,’ lvi., 154.
[142] Despatch, ‘Annual Register,’ 157.
[143] I am informed by Mr. Wright that he was not wounded on this occasion. This is a curious illustration of Byron’s remark about ‘Gazette fame’ (‘Don Juan,’ canto viii., stanza 18 and note). The officer of the 1st Battalion who was wounded at Merxem on February 2 was Lieutenant Church. He had been taken prisoner in one of the fights at Arcangues on December 10, 1813 (see [p. 160]); but had made his escape, had found his way across France without being discovered, and had joined Glasse’s company in Holland. Like M’Cullock after the Coa ([p. 56]) he had trusted himself to the fair sex, who had assisted his disguise, and favoured his escape.