Richard Cannon

“ Great Britain has produced a race of lion-like champions who have dared to confront a host of foes, and have proved themselves valiant with any arms. At Creçy, King Edward III., at the head of about 30,000 men, defeated, on the 26th of August, 1346, Philip King of France, whose army is said to have amounted to 100,000 men; here British valour encountered veterans of renown:—the King of Bohemia, the King of Majorca, and many princes and nobles were slain, and the French army was routed and cut to pieces. ”

“ The little army under Colonel Pater traversed the country in almost every practicable direction, ascending hills, cutting roads through almost impenetrable jungle of bamboos, skirmishing with the warlike inhabitants, and forcing them to submit, in which service the Twelfth had several men killed and wounded: the climate, and extraordinary fatigue undergone by the troops, also occasioned the loss of many lives from disease. ”

“ THE INFANTRY. The natives of Britain have, at all periods, been celebrated for innate courage and unshaken firmness, and the national superiority of the British troops over those of other countries has been evinced in the midst of the most imminent perils. History contains so many proofs of extraordinary acts of bravery, that no doubts can be raised upon the facts which are recorded. ”

“ The Twelfth regiment remained at Gibraltar. The possession of this fortress by the English, with a British garrison on the top of the rocky promontory overlooking the provinces of Spain, had been regarded by the Spaniards with great jealousy: every attempt to retake it had failed. Great Britain attached much importance to the possession of it; but the contest between the revolted provinces in North America and England appeared to present to the Spanish monarch a favourable opportunity for regaining possession of this valuable fortress. ”

“ The conduct of the British Troops, their valour, and endurance, have shone conspicuously under great and trying difficulties; and their character has been established in Continental warfare by the irresistible spirit with which they have effected debarkations in spite of the most formidable opposition, and by the gallantry and steadiness with which they have maintained their advantages against superior numbers. ”

“ The island was given up in October, and the few remaining officers and soldiers proceeded to St. Domingo.
Meanwhile the Twelfth regiment, serving under the Duke of York, in Holland, was exposed to much suffering and privation. The Dutch, having imbibed the revolutionary doctrines of equality, beheld the advance of the French without alarm, and surrendered their fortresses without much resistance. The British troops had no chance of ultimate success, yet they held their positions with firmness, and they did not fail to impress the enemy with a just idea of British valour. ”

“ In the wars of Queen Anne, the fame of the British army under the great Marlborough was spread throughout the world; and if we glance at the achievements performed within the memory of persons now living, there is abundant proof that the Britons of the present age are not inferior to their ancestors in the qualities [xvii] which constitute good soldiers. Witness the deeds of the brave men, of whom there are many now surviving, who fought in Egypt in 1801, under the brave Abercromby, and compelled the French army, which had been vainly styled Invincible, to evacuate that country ”

“ Being myself a soldier of fifty-seven years' standing, I am alive to every instance of meritorious conduct in my brother soldiers, and it is extremely gratifying to me to reflect, that the Twelfth Regiment, which so early established its fame, has continued to augment it on every occasion ”

“ Bows and arrows gave place to various kinds of fire-arms, but British archers continued formidable adversaries; and owing to the inconvenient construction and imperfect bore of the fire-arms when first introduced, a body of men, well trained in the use of the bow from their youth, was considered a valuable acquisition to every army, even as late as the sixteenth century.
During a great part of the reign of Queen Elizabeth each company of infantry usually consisted of men armed five different ways; in every hundred men forty were "men-at-arms," and sixty "shot;" ”

“ The arrangements for the defence were devised with judgment, and executed with skill. The soldiers conformed to the strict rules which their circumstances rendered necessary, and severe exercise and short diet became habitual to them; at the same time the extensive preparations of the enemy, the great importance of the fortress, and the determined character of General Eliott and his garrison, [40] occasioned this siege to become a subject of universal interest, and the eyes of all Europe were directed towards Gibraltar, watching the result of the contest. ”

“ In Great Britain, where so large a number of persons are devoted to the active concerns of agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, and where these pursuits have, for so [v] long a period, been undisturbed by the presence of war, which few other countries have escaped, comparatively little is known of the vicissitudes of active service, and of the casualties of climate, to which, even during peace, the British Troops are exposed in every part of the globe, with little or no interval of repose. ”

“ The feudal troops established by William the Conqueror consisted (as already stated in the Introduction to the Cavalry) almost entirely of horse; but when the warlike barons and knights, with their trains of tenants and vassals, took the field, a proportion of men appeared on foot, and, although these were of inferior degree, they proved stout-hearted Britons of stanch fidelity. When stipendiary troops were employed, infantry always constituted a considerable portion of the military force ”

“ Henry Wharton served in the foot guards in the reign of King Charles II., and in the summer of 1685, when the Duke of Monmouth raised the standard of rebellion in the west of England, he raised a company of foot for the service of King James II., which was incorporated in the Duke of Norfolk's regiment. He proved a very zealous and determined supporter of the interests of the Protestant religion, and on the 31st of December, 1688, the Prince of Orange promoted him to the Colonelcy of the regiment. ”

“ In their tranquil enjoyment of the blessings which the country derives from the industry and the enterprise of the agriculturist and the trader, its happy inhabitants may be supposed not often to reflect on the perilous duties of the soldier and the sailor,—on their sufferings,—and on the sacrifice of valuable life, by which so many national benefits are obtained and preserved. ”

“ When the pursuing Mysoreans discovered, by their fire-balls, the line of Europeans before them, they fell back to a greater distance, but without any relaxation in their fire, and so many spent balls struck the officers and soldiers of the Twelfth, that they were ordered to sit down to await the approach of day for the completion of the enterprise; the nullah was at some distance, and it could only be approached by a road of difficult access. The regiment did not fire a shot, but large quantities of ammunition were sent from the camp ”

“ The allies followed the retiring enemy with great energy, ascending precipices, passing morasses, overcoming numerous difficulties, and pressing upon and attacking the retreating army, with so much resolution, [34] that several French corps were nearly annihilated, and many prisoners, with a great quantity of baggage, were captured. The Twelfth foot shared in the hazards, toils and conflicts of this brilliant success, and when the weather became too severe for the troops to remain in the field, the regiment went into cantonments in the bishopric of Osnaburg in Westphalia. ”

“ In the early part of the seventeenth century Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, reduced the strength of regiments to 1000 men; he caused the gunpowder, which had heretofore been carried in flasks, or in small wooden bandoliers, each containing a charge, to be made up into cartridges, and carried in pouches; and he formed each regiment into two wings of musketeers, and a centre division of pikemen. He also adopted the practice of forming four regiments into a brigade; and the number of colours was afterwards reduced to three in each regiment. ”

“ The elevation of the Prince and Princess of Orange to the throne, under the title of King William and Queen Mary, was resisted in Ireland; and King James arrived in that country, with a body of troops, from France. King William sent an army thither, under Marshal Duke Schomberg, to rescue that part of his dominions from the power of the Roman Catholics, and the Twelfth regiment, commanded by Colonel Henry Wharton, was selected to take part in this service. ”

“ In the meantime the war with France was approaching to a crisis; Napoleon Bonaparte had attained the summit of power, and the efforts of Great Britain were commensurate with the importance of the contest; the army was augmented, and in the autumn of 1811 a second battalion was added to the Twelfth regiment of four hundred and fifty-one officers and soldiers, into which the recruiting companies of the regiment were incorporated. ”

“ The regiment sailed from Port Louis on the 25th of July, arrived at Portsmouth on the 10th of November, and afterwards proceeded to Cork, where it landed on the 26th of December, after an absence from Europe of nearly twenty-two years.
A representation of the distinguished services of the regiment in the Travancore country, and other parts of India, with its gallantry at the capture of the islands of Bourbon and Mauritius, procured for it the royal authority to bear the word "India" on its colours. ”

“ The Twelfth appeared on parade at the appointed hour, and mustered twenty-six officers, twenty-eight serjeants, two drummers, and four hundred and thirty rank and file, ready to engage in this enterprise. It was the hour of midnight; the moon shone brightly, and all was still in the enemy's camp. The soldiers waited two hours, when the moon set, darkness overspread the sky, and they issued silently from the fortress. The Spanish regiments were asleep in the camp; their guards at the batteries were also reposing, when suddenly the sound of a trampling multitude was heard approaching them ”

“ The French monarch made preparations for the invasion of England in favour of King James, and in the spring of 1696, several regiments were withdrawn from Flanders, when the Twelfth marched from Malines to Ostend and Bruges; but the enemy did not venture to put to sea, and the regiment was not required to embark for England. ”

“ The weapons carried by the infantry, during the several reigns succeeding the Conquest, were bows and arrows, half-pikes, lances, halberds, various kinds of battle-axes, swords, and daggers. Armour was worn on the head and body, and in course of time the practice became general for military men to be so completely cased in steel, that it was almost impossible to slay them. ”

“ About mid-day, the Twelfth were ordered to charge with bayonets, and capture the enemy's artillery; they rushed forward with distinguished bravery, the soldiers shouting "Remember our murdered comrades at Alleppi!" as they precipitated themselves upon their opponents. The Travancoreans made a resolute defence, many of them being bayoneted at their guns; and a discharge of grape-shot, from one field-piece, killed eleven grenadiers of the Twelfth regiment. ”

“ King George III. was highly gratified at having a corps, which had distinguished itself during the memorable siege of Gibraltar, employed near his person, and on the 1st and 8th of June, 1784, His Majesty reviewed the Twelfth regiment in Windsor Park, in the presence of the Royal Family, and many distinguished personages, and expressed, in very gracious terms, his high approbation of its appearance and discipline, and of its conduct during the siege of Gibraltar. ”

“ On the following morning, the army continued its advance upon the capital of Mysore, and the enemy used various stratagems to retard the movement until the approach of the rainy season should render the siege of Seringapatam impracticable. The water was found impregnated with poison; many men were taken seriously ill, and several horses fell down dead while in the act of drinking; the smoking ruins of villages, and other scenes of devastation presented themselves; at the same time large bodies of hostile cavalry hovered round the army, and the camp was often annoyed by rockets ”