Battle of Sedgemoor

“ The severe fighting for the day is over, and it is sunset.”
During this time the right had also been hotly engaged. The fighting began with an attack by General Sedgwick upon the line opposing him; and the result was a furious battle. Two divisions, only, of Sedgwick’s corps were engaged—the third had not taken position. A desperate effort was made by the enemy to turn Sedgwick’s right, and the enemy bore so hard upon him that he was obliged to send to General Burnside, whose corps from Fredericksburg had now joined the army, for assistance. ”

“ When the Civil War came, in her seventieth year, she had "an intense desire to live to see the conclusion of the struggle," but could not conjecture "how peace and good neighborhood are ever to follow from this bitter hate." "It is delightful to see the gallantry of some of our men, who are repeating the heroic deeds that seemed fast receding to fabulous times." Some of these young heroes were very near to her. Maj. William Dwight Sedgwick, who fell on the bloody field of Antietam was her nephew, Gen. John Sedgwick, killed at the battle of Spottsylvania, was her cousin. ”

“ While in this careless order, Seward's vanguard found themselves suddenly within reach of a small but chosen body of troops, amounting to eight thousand men, commanded by Sir John Comyn, the guardian, and a gallant Scottish knight, Sir Simon Fraser. Seward was defeated, but the battle was scarce over when his second division came up. The Scots, flushed with victory, reestablished their ranks, and having cruelly put to death their prisoners, attacked and defeated the second body also. ”

“ Benjamin were busy to-day—perhaps combating the Attorney-General’s opinion. Will Mr. Seddon have the nerve to act? It is a trying time, and every man is needed for defense.
The enemy were drawn up in line of battle this morning below the fortifications. The Department Guard (my son Custis among them) were ordered out, and marched away; and so with the second class militia. A battle is looked for to-morrow; and there has been skirmishing to-day. A dispatch from Hanover Court House says the enemy is approaching likewise from the north in large force—and 15 guns. ”

“ Hyderabad.—The Ameers, who still held out against the British army, made a stand with 20,000 men at the village of Duppa, near Hyderabad, under Meer Shere Mahomed, where on March 24th they were attacked by Sir Charles Napier with 5,000 troops, and defeated with great loss. The arch enemy of the British, Hoche Mahomed Seede, was killed, and Meer Shere Mahomed fled to the desert; the battle was decided by the 22nd Regiment and the troop of Bombay Horse Artillery. In this battle the 22nd, which numbered 560 rank and file, lost 23 men killed, 5 officers and 134 men wounded. ”

“ Lee's right. No thought of retreating during the night was entertained on our side; and, unless the enemy did, the next day promised a decisive battle. By our leaving sufficient force in front of the right wing of the enemy to hold our breastworks, the whole of the rest of our force was to be thrown upon his left at dawn of day, with every prospect of annihilating it. To render this success more complete, Gen. Sedgwick, with the Sixth Corps, (about twenty thousand strong,) was to leave his position in front of the enemy's lines at Fredericksburg, and fall upon Gen. Lee's rear at daylight. ”

“ It is only necessary to show the miserable mismanagement of the advance into the enemy's country. The troops were marched into an ambuscade, where they were slaughtered by the enemy at will. Even after finding his troops ambuscaded, and within two hundred yards of the confederate fortifications, General Seymour did not attempt to fall back and form a line of battle, though he had sufficient artillery, but rushed brigade after brigade up to the enemy's guns, only to be mowed down by the withering storm of shot. ”

“ The news which I brought of the hangings and massacres on Sedgemoor added to the terror and despair of the people. The bands of soldiers melted away, the poor wretches fearing for their lives, as well they might; and Bridgewater was left defenceless to the fury of the avenger. ”

“ Arrange matters with the shah of Persia, who is also the enemy of the Russians; encourage him to stand fast, and to attack warmly the common enemy. I have beaten the Russians in a great battle; I have taken from them seventy-five pieces of cannon, sixteen standards, and a great number of prisoners. I am at the distance of eighty leagues beyond Warsaw, and am about to take advantage of the fifteen days' repose which I have given to my army, to repair thither, and there to receive thy ambassador. I am sensible of the want thou hast of artillerymen and troops ”

“ The 80th Regiment was sent with the 1st European Light Infantry to silence the guns, and the 80th was successful in capturing three. "A more wonderful battle never was. Within 150 yards of one another were 8,000 British troops against an unknown number of enemies yet unbroken." All the Governor-General's staff were killed or wounded before the day of retribution arrived. The Commander-in-Chief and the Governor-General of India, Sir Henry Hardinge, placed themselves in front of the two wings of the army "to prevent the troops from firing" until they closed! ”

“ Near the town are the three fine old churches of Weston Zoyland, Chedzoy and Middlezoy, containing some good brasses and carved woodwork. The battlefield of Sedgemoor, where the Monmouth rebellion was finally crushed in 1685, is within 3 m. ”

“ Many, throwing down their arms, thronged around Sedgwick as if for protection, while the rest fled in confusion, plunging into the woods to avoid the troops who were now advancing in plain sight on all three roads. A few scattered shots were exchanged between the fugitives and the militia, and the almost bloodless conflict was over.
"Who'd have thought they were such a set of cowards?" said a young militia officer, contemptuously.
"They are not cowards," replied Sedgwick reprovingly. ”

“ Millions of sighs and groans arise on every side; and the sun is overcast with blood, as they clash their arms, and wound each other with their dreadful instruments of destruction.
“Now the battle is fought with the iron-spiked club, and, as they close, with clenched fist; and the din of war ascendeth to the heavens. They cry ‘Pursue! {211} strike! fell to the ground!’ so that a horrid and tumultuous noise is heard on all sides.
“In the midst of this dreadful hurry and confusion of the fight, Nar and Narayan entered the field together. ”

“ Sedgwick, with his 40,000 or more, was still threatening Lee's right, below Fredericksburg; at the same time some 13,000 Federal cavalry were threatening his railway communications.
Exulting in the success of his strategic movement which had placed him, without loss, on Lee's flank. Hooker issued to his command, on the 30th, a general order, in which he said, among other boastful things: "Our enemy must ingloriously fly or come from behind his defenses and give us battle on our own ground, where certain destruction awaits him." ”

“ In the subsequent war against the Mahrattas he commanded at the battle of Assye, against an army exceeding his own number in the proportion of ten to one; and whose disciplined troops, under French officers, more than doubled the British force. The action was severe beyond all former example in India: having won the enemy’s artillery, consisting of an hundred pieces, which were served with perfect skill, he had to take them a second time with the bayonet, when men who had feigned death rose from the ground and turned them upon the conquerors as they pressed forward in pursuit. ”

“ Once forced on to the plain, they fell into disorder, and, charged and pursued by the British cavalry, they hastened to the river, over which they passed in scattered parties, and Soult retreated towards Toulouse, where the last and most unnecessary battle of the campaign was to be fought. It is estimated that 8,000 men were lost to the French in killed and wounded, while the allies lost 18 officers, 25 sergeants, and 234 men killed; 134 officers (including the Duke of Wellington) , 89 sergeants, and 1,700 rank and file wounded; 1 officer, 5 sergeants, and 64 men missing. ”

“ Meantime, while the battle raged with fury on the north side of the Chickahominy, there was active work in our own front. Our Second division, at Golden's Farm, was joined on the left by Sedgwick's division, of the Third corps. The two divisions held the key to Richmond; for, had the brave men composing them, under the leadership of such men as Smith and Sedgwick, been ordered to break through the rebel line, there was no power in their front to restrain them. The rebels, aware of this, and designing to prevent reinforcements from going to Porter, made frequent feints all along our line. ”

“ It is rarely, however, that a single battle between armies has decided the issue of a war. The campaigns of Jena and Sadowa are indeed instances in point. But they are in their way as exceptional as is the Boer War—decided without a pitched battle being fought at all. ”

“ Sedgwick was twice wounded and carried from the field. The command of his division involved on General Howard.
It was now about noon and the battle had been raging since early in the morning. Another deadly conflict was in progress near the center. Sumner's corps had crossed the stream and made a desperate assault on the Confederates under D. H. Hill, stationed to the south of where the battle had previously raged and along a sunken road, since known as "Bloody Lane." The fighting here was of a most desperate character and continued nearly four hours. ”

“ Sedgwick to command the three corps, and make a demonstration in full force on Wednesday morning to secure the telegraph road. Should any considerable force be detached to meet the movement of the right wing, Sedgwick is to carry the works at all hazards. Should the enemy retreat towards Richmond, he is to pursue on the Bowling-Green road, fighting wherever he reaches them, while Hooker will pursue on parallel roads more to the west. ”

“ Ralph and Hortensia said little, but gazed on the scene before them, with the stars twinkling faintly above, and the wide expanse of Sedgemoor nearly vailed in mist, looking like a dim, uncertain sea.
"Ay, we none of us can rest to-night," said the old woman; and then, after a pause and two or three more stitches, she continued. "That's because we all feel as if something were going to happen ”

“ As the fortified heights commanded the Plank Road by which Sedgwick was to advance, it became necessary to attack immediately. The plan of assault which was devised by General Newton, and approved by General Sedgwick, was to attenuate the rebel force by attacking it on a wide front, so that it could not be strong anywhere, and to use the bayonet alone. Accordingly, Gibbon was directed to advance on the right to turn their flank there if possible, while Newton was to demonstrate against the centre and Howe to act against the left. ”

“ Immediately after the battle of Fuentes d'Onor, the second battalion of the Fifth was detached to the south to join the forces under Marshal Beresford, and it was employed in the second siege of Badajoz, where it was one of the first corps to break ground. In the operations of this siege, which was raised on the morning of the 17th of June, Lieutenant Sedgwick of the Fifth (acting as engineer) and three rank and file were killed, and one serjeant and three rank and file were wounded. ”

“ The order to withdraw, though sent by Hooker before the receipt of Sedgwick's despatch saying he would hold the corps south of the river, was received by Sedgwick long before the countermand, which was exceptionally delayed, and was at once, under the urgent circumstances, put into course of execution.
As soon as the enemy ascertained that Sedgwick was crossing, Alexander's artillery began dropping shells in the neighborhood of the bridges and river banks; and Gen. Wilcox, with his own and Kershaw's brigades, followed up Sedgwick's movements to the crossing, and used his artillery freely. ”

“ The 72nd Highlanders suffered most severely in the battle of "Kandahar," losing among their dead Colonel Brownlow. Two other officers were killed, and 11 wounded, the loss in men being 46 killed and 200 wounded.
The following troops were engaged at "Kandahar" on September 1st, 1880: 7th, 60th, 66th, 72nd, and 92nd; three batteries artillery and 9th Lancers. Native regiments: 1st, 4th, 19th, 28th, and 29th Bombay Infantry; 2nd and 3rd Sikhs; 2nd, 4th, and 5th Goorkas; 15th, 23rd, 24th, and 25th Bengal Infantry; 3rd Bengal, 3rd Bombay, and 3rd Punjab Cavalry; 3rd Scinde Horse ”

“ There seemed to be no risk that men would not take to secure that which was worse than useless for them, an enemy to steal away their brains. Several days of continued routine of police, picket, drill and other features of camp life follow, but entirely agreeable after the exactions of May and June. Thursday, the 21st, the enemy varied the monotony by making an artillery demonstration against Fort Sedgwick, possibly lest its occupants should forget its nick name, "Hell." ”

“ The ground carried by the hussars of the 8th was disputed with him, and his advance-column, composed of the divisions Bruyères and Saint Germain, and of the 8th corps of infantry, was compelled to maintain itself there against an army.
They defended themselves as victors always do, by attacking. Each hostile corps, as it presented itself to assail our flanks, was in turn assaulted. Their cavalry were driven back into the woods, and their infantry broken at the point of the sabre. Our troops, nevertheless, were getting fatigued with victory, when the division Delzons arrived ”