Chapter VI: Part 6

Colonel Dundas was employed in that rank in the West Indies as adjutant-general to the army under General Sir Charles (afterwards Earl) Grey, and was present at the siege of Martinique and the other adjacent islands in 1794. Upon his return to England, being appointed on the 9th of October 1794, colonel of the Scots brigade, afterwards numbered the ninety-fourth regiment, he joined it in Scotland, and raised a new battalion.

Major-General Dundas, to which rank he was advanced on the 26th of February 1795, was employed on the staff in North Britain until ordered to join the army preparing for foreign service under Lieut.-General Sir Ralph Abercromby, at Southampton. Having returned to Portsmouth with the expedition, he was soon afterwards appointed to the command at the Cape of Good Hope, and in August 1796 he embarked for that colony. Being appointed lieut.-governor, with the command of the troops under the governor, he continued to hold that appointment until Lord Macartney returned to England in November 1798, leaving him to act as civil governor. Upon the arrival of Lord Macartney’s successor, in December 1799, Major-General Dundas resumed his former situation; but that officer being recalled in 1801, the civil with the military authority again devolved on Major-General Dundas, and he held both until the Cape was restored to the Dutch by the treaty of peace concluded in 1803. Upon his return to England in June 1803, Lieut.-General Dundas, to which rank he had been promoted on the 29th of April of the previous year, was placed on the staff in the southern district of Great Britain, under General Sir David Dundas, K.B. Towards the end of 1805 Lieut.-General Dundas was appointed to the command of a division ordered to join the army assembling in Hanover under Lieut.-General Lord Cathcart, and on his return, in 1806, he was again appointed to the staff in the southern district. On the 7th of January 1809, Lieut.-General Dundas was appointed by His Majesty to be colonel of the SEVENTY-FIRST regiment, and on the 1st of January 1812 was advanced to the rank of general. He had been appointed governor of Carrickfergus in Ireland in 1787, and was transferred in January 1817 to the governorship of Dumbarton Castle in Scotland.

The decease of General Dundas occurred at Edinburgh on the 16th of January 1824.

SIR GORDON DRUMMOND, G.C.B.

_Appointed 16th January 1824._

Removed to the forty-ninth regiment on the 21st of September 1829, and to the eighth foot on the 24th of April 1846.

SIR COLIN HALKETT, K.C.B.

_Appointed 21st September 1829._

Removed to the thirty-first regiment on the 28th of March 1838, and to the forty-fifth regiment on the 12th of July 1847.

SIR SAMUEL FORD WHITTINGHAM,

_Appointed 28th March 1838._

This officer was appointed ensign in the sixty-sixth regiment on the 20th of January 1803, lieutenant in the ninth foot on the 25th of February, and was removed to the first life guards on the 10th of March of the same year. On the 14th of February 1805 he was promoted to the rank of captain in the twenty-eighth regiment, and was removed to the thirteenth light dragoons on the 13th of June following, and in 1809 was appointed deputy assistant quartermaster-general in the army in the Peninsula under Lieut.-General Sir Arthur Wellesley. In March 1810, Captain Whittingham was promoted to the rank of major, serving with the Portuguese army. He was subsequently employed in America; but the chief scene of his services was with the army in Spain, for which he was peculiarly qualified by his perfect knowledge of the Spanish language. He was first permitted to join that service as aide-de-camp to General Castanos, and in that capacity shared in the battle and victory of Baylen. Major Whittingham afterwards served under the Duke of Albuquerque, and was severely wounded at Talavera. Soon afterwards he obtained the command of the Spanish cavalry, and was present at the battle of Barrosa, fought on the 5th of March 1811. On the 30th of May following he was promoted lieut.-colonel in the Portuguese army. He was next intrusted to raise and command a large corps of Spanish troops clothed and paid by the British Government. In 1812, as major-general in command of this well-disciplined corps, he was, in junction with the British army at Alicant, successfully opposed to Marshal Suchet, and was again wounded at the battle of Castalla; after which he served with distinction in command of a division of infantry under Lieut.-General Sir John Murray, and subsequently under Lieut.-General Lord William Bentinck on the eastern coast of Spain.

At the restoration of peace in 1814, Lieut.-Colonel Whittingham returned to England, his conduct in Spain being reported in very flattering terms by the British ambassador in Spain and by the Duke of Wellington. On the 4th of June 1814, he was appointed aide-de-camp to His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, with the rank of colonel in the army; and was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath, with the honor of knighthood, on the 4th of June 1815.

Upon the return of Napoleon from Elba in March 1815, Colonel Sir Samuel Ford Whittingham returned to the Peninsula, at the particular request of the King of Spain, and on his arrival at Madrid, he was invested with the Grand Cross of the Order of San Fernando. In the year 1819 he was appointed governor of Dominica, and in 1822 his services were transferred to India as quartermaster-general of the king’s troops; he subsequently held the command as major-general, to which rank he was promoted on the 27th of May 1825, successively in the Cawnpoor and Meerut divisions.

Major-General Sir Samuel Ford Whittingham served at the siege of Bhurtpore, which was captured in January 1826; and received the thanks of Parliament for his conduct on that occasion. He was also nominated a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath on the 26th of December following.

Having returned from India in 1835, Major-General Sir Samuel Ford Whittingham was appointed to the command of the forces in the Windward and Leeward Islands in 1836. On the 28th of March 1838, he was appointed colonel of the SEVENTY-FIRST Regiment, and on the 28th of June following was advanced to the rank of lieut.-general. He was permitted to resign the Windward and Leeward command in 1839, in order to undertake the command-in-chief at Madras, receiving at the same time from General Lord Hill, then commanding-in-chief, a flattering testimonial of his services while in the West Indies.

Lieut.-General Sir Samuel Ford Whittingham arrived at Madras on the 1st of August 1840, where he continued until the 19th of January 1841, the date of his decease.

SIR THOMAS REYNELL, BART., K.C.B.

_Appointed 15th March 1841._

This distinguished officer commenced his military career as an ensign in the thirty-eighth regiment, his commission being dated the 30th of September 1793. He joined the regiment in January 1794 at Belfast, and in April proceeded with it to Flanders, where it formed part of the army commanded by His Royal Highness the Duke of York. On arrival at the seat of war, the thirty-eighth regiment was ordered to join the corps under the Austrian General Count Clèrfait, who commanded the troops in West Flanders, and it was attached to the division under Major-General Hammerstein, together with the eighth light dragoons and twelfth foot. Ensign Reynell was present in the action on the heights of Lincelles on the 18th of May, and at the battle of Hoglade on the 13th of June 1794. He afterwards served with the army under the Duke of York, and was in Nimeguen when that town was besieged. On the 3d of December following, when cantoned between the rivers Rhine and the Waal, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in the thirty-eighth regiment. Lieutenant Reynell served during the winter campaign of 1795, and retreat through Westphalia to the Weser, and there embarked for England. He accompanied the thirty-eighth regiment to the West Indies in May 1796, and was present at the capture of the island of Trinidad in the early part of 1797. On the 22d of July 1797 he was promoted to a company in the second West India regiment, and joined that corps at Grenada.

Captain Reynell quitted Grenada early in 1798, in consequence of being appointed assistant adjutant-general at St. Domingo, where he remained until that island was evacuated by the British in September, when he returned to England. In the beginning of 1799 he revisited St. Domingo, as one of the suite of Brigadier-General the Honorable Thomas Maitland, then employed in framing a commercial treaty with the negro chief Toussaint L’Ouverture, who had risen to the supreme authority at St. Domingo. When it was concluded, Captain Reynell returned to England in July of the same year.

On the 8th of August 1799 Captain Reynell was transferred to a company in the fortieth regiment, with the first battalion of which he embarked for the Helder in that month, and joined the army, which was at first commanded by Lieut.-General Sir Ralph Abercromby, and afterwards by the Duke of York. Captain Reynell was present in the action of the 10th of September; also in the battle of the 19th of September, when he was the only captain of the first battalion of the fortieth regiment that was not killed or wounded; he was also present in the subsequent battles of the 2d and 6th of October. Captain Reynell, upon the British army being withdrawn from Holland, re-embarked with the first battalion of the fortieth regiment, and arrived in England in November 1799.

In April 1800 Captain Reynell embarked with his regiment for the Mediterranean, and went in the first instance to Minorca, afterwards to Leghorn; returned to Minorca, and proceeded with a large force under Lieut.-General Sir Ralph Abercromby for the attack of Cadiz. Signals for disembarking were made; but although the boats had actually put off from the ships, a recall was ordered, in consequence of the plague raging at Cadiz. After this he proceeded up the Mediterranean again, and in November landed at Malta.

The flank companies of the fortieth regiment having been allowed to volunteer their services in the expedition to Egypt, Captain Reynell proceeded thither in command of the light company (one of the four flank companies detached under Colonel Brent Spencer), and was present in the action at the landing on the 8th of March 1801. On this occasion the flank companies of the fortieth were on the right of the line, and were particularly noticed for the gallant style in which they mounted the sand-hills immediately where they landed. Captain Reynell was present in the battle of the 13th of March, and commanded the right out-piquet of the army, in the morning of the 21st of that month, when the French attacked the British near Alexandria, on which occasion General Sir Ralph Abercromby was mortally wounded. Soon after Captain Reynell proceeded with a small British corps and some Turkish battalions to Rosetta, of which easy possession was taken. He was present in an action at Rhamanie, and followed the French to Grand Cairo, where that part of their army capitulated; and returned as escort in charge of the French troops to Rosetta; and after they had embarked he joined the force under Major-General Sir Eyre Coote before Alexandria. The surrender of Alexandria, on the 2d of September 1801, terminated the campaign, for his services in which he received the gold medal conferred by the Grand Seignior on the several officers employed.

Captain Reynell was afterwards appointed aide-de-camp to Major-General Cradock, who was ordered to proceed from Egypt with a force of four thousand men to Corfu; but while at sea counter-orders were received, and he proceeded to Malta, and subsequently to England. In July 1804 he embarked as aide-de-camp to Lieut.-General Sir John Cradock, K.B., who had been appointed to the command of the troops at Madras, and while on the passage, namely, the 3d of August 1804, he was promoted to the rank of major in the fortieth regiment.

On the 10th of March 1805 Major Reynell received the brevet rank of lieut.-colonel, upon being appointed deputy quartermaster-general to the King’s troops in the East Indies. In July following he was appointed aide-de-camp to the Marquis Cornwallis, governor-general of India, and accompanied his lordship from Madras to Bengal, with whom he remained until his lordship’s decease, at Ghazepore, in October 1805. Lieut.-Colonel Reynell returned to Madras immediately afterwards, and was appointed military secretary to the Lieut.-General Sir John Cradock, the commander-in-chief at that presidency. He officiated during several months of the year 1806 as deputy adjutant-general in India, in which country he remained until October 1807, when he returned with Lieut.-General Sir John Cradock to Europe, and arrived in England in April 1808.

Lieut.-Colonel Reynell resigned the appointment of deputy quartermaster-general in India, and was brought on full pay as major of the ninety-sixth regiment on the 5th May 1808, and on the 22d of September following was appointed major in the SEVENTY-FIRST regiment.

In October 1808, Brevet Lieut.-Colonel Reynell embarked as military secretary to Lieut.-General Sir John Cradock, who had been appointed to command the forces in Portugal, and landed in November at Lisbon. He remained in Portugal until April 1809, when Sir John Cradock was superseded in the command of the forces in Portugal by Lieut.-General Sir Arthur Wellesley. Lieut.-Colonel Reynell afterwards accompanied Lieut.-General Sir John Cradock to Cadiz, Seville, and Gibraltar, of which latter place Sir John Cradock was appointed governor, and Lieut.-Colonel Reynell remained there as military secretary until September, when he returned to England.

Lieut.-Colonel Reynell joined the SEVENTY-FIRST regiment at Brabourne-Lees Barracks in December 1809, immediately after its return from Walcheren. In September 1810 he embarked at Deal with six companies of the SEVENTY-FIRST regiment for Portugal, landed at Lisbon towards the end of that month, marched soon after to Mafra, and thence to Sobral, where the six companies joined the army under Lieut.-General Viscount Wellington. In October Lieut.-Colonel Reynell had the honor of being particularly mentioned by Viscount Wellington in his despatch, containing an account of the repulse of the attack of the French at Sobral on the 14th of that month. The British army shortly afterwards retired to the lines of Torres Vedras, and Brevet Lieut.-Colonel Reynell was appointed assistant adjutant-general to the fourth division under Major-General the Honorable George Lowry Cole.

Early in March 1811, the army of Marshal Massena broke up from its entrenched position at Santarem, and retreated to the northward. Brevet Lieut.-Colonel Reynell entered Santarem with the fourth division the day after Marshal Massena had left it, and continued in the pursuit of the French army to the Mondego. In the affair of Redinha he had a horse killed under him. From Espinhal the fourth division was ordered to retrograde, and recross the Tagus, for the purpose of reinforcing Marshal Sir William Carr Beresford. In 1811 he joined the Marshal at Portalegre, and being the senior British assistant adjutant-general, was directed to join Marshal Beresford’s head-quarters, and proceeded with him to Campo Mayor, from which the enemy retired; was also present at the capture of Olivença, and subsequently accompanied the marshal to Zafra, between which place and Llerena a smart skirmish occurred with the enemy’s hussars. In May 1811, Lieut.-Colonel Reynell returned to England from Lisbon with despatches from Viscount Wellington.

In July 1811, Brevet Lieut.-Colonel Reynell embarked as military secretary to Lieut.-General Sir John Cradock, K.B., who had been appointed governor and commander of the forces at the Cape of Good Hope, where he arrived by the end of September. On the 4th of June 1813, he received the brevet rank of colonel; and on the 5th of August 1813, he was promoted lieut.-colonel of the SEVENTY-FIRST regiment, in succession to Lieut.-Colonel the Honorable Henry Cadogan, who was mortally wounded in the battle of Vittoria; in February following, being desirous of joining the corps, Colonel Reynell resigned his staff situation at the Cape, and proceeded to England, where he arrived in May 1814. In July of that year he was appointed adjutant-general to the force then preparing for service in America under Lieut.-General Lord Hill; but, other operations being then in view, that appointment was cancelled.

Colonel Reynell took the command of the first battalion of the SEVENTY-FIRST regiment at Limerick in December 1814, and embarked with it from Cork in January of the following year, as part of an expedition for North America; but peace having been concluded with the United States, and contrary winds having prevented the sailing of the vessels, the destination of the battalion was changed. In March Colonel Reynell received orders to proceed with his battalion to the Downs, where, in the middle of April, it was transhipped into small vessels, and sent immediately to Ostend, to join the army forming in Flanders, in consequence of Napoleon Bonaparte having returned from Elba to France.

In the memorable battle of Waterloo, fought on the 18th of June 1815, Colonel Reynell commanded the first battalion of the SEVENTY-FIRST regiment, and was wounded in the foot on that occasion. He afterwards succeeded to the command of Major-General Adam’s brigade, consisting of the first battalions of the fifty-second and SEVENTY-FIRST, with six companies of the second, and two companies of the third battalion of the ninety-fifth regiment, in consequence of that officer being wounded. Colonel Reynell commanded the light brigade in the several operations that took place on the route to Paris, and entered that capital at the head of the brigade on the 7th of July 1815, and encamped with it in the _Champs Elysées_, being the only British troops quartered within the barriers. In this year he was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath, and received the Cross of a Knight of the Austrian Military Order of Maria Theresa, also a Cross of the fourth class of the Russian Military Order of St. George.

Colonel Reynell remained with the “_Army of Occupation_” in France until October 1818, when, after a grand review of the united British, Danish, and Russian contingents at Valenciennes, the SEVENTY-FIRST marched to Calais, and embarked for England. Colonel Reynell continued in command of the regiment until the 12th of August 1819, the date of his promotion to the rank of major-general.

In April 1820 Major-General Reynell was suddenly ordered to proceed to Glasgow, having been appointed to the staff of North Britain as a major-general, in which country he remained until March 1821, when, in consequence of the tranquillity of Scotland, the extra general officer was discontinued. Immediately afterwards he was appointed to the staff of the East Indies, and directed to proceed to Bombay, for which presidency he embarked in September following, and where he arrived in March 1822. After remaining there a month, Major-General Reynell was removed to the staff of the Bengal Presidency, by order of the Marquis of Hastings. In August Major-General Reynell proceeded up the Ganges, and took the command of the Meerut division on the 3d of December 1822.

The next operation of importance in which Major-General Reynell was engaged was the siege of _Bhurtpore_. Early in December 1825 a large force had been assembled for this purpose, to the command of which he had been appointed, when, just as the troops were about to move into the Bhurtpore states, General Lord Combermere, the new commander-in-chief in India, arrived from England, and Major-General Reynell was then appointed to command the first division of infantry. He commanded that division during the siege, and directed the movements of the column of assault at the north-east angle on the 18th of January 1826, when the place was carried, and the citadel surrendered a few hours after. For this service he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Bath, as well as honored with the thanks of both Houses of Parliament.

Major-General Sir Thomas Reynell succeeded to the baronetcy upon the decease of his brother Sir Richard Littleton Reynell in September 1829; and on the 30th of January 1832 was appointed by His Majesty King William IV. to be colonel of the ninety-ninth regiment, from which he was removed to the eighty-seventh Royal Irish fusiliers on the 15th of August 1834. On the 10th of January 1837, he was promoted to the rank of lieut.-general, and on the 14th of June 1839 was appointed a member of the consolidated board of general officers for the inspection and regulation of the clothing of the army. On the 15th of March 1841, he was appointed by Her Majesty to the colonelcy of the SEVENTY-FIRST regiment. The decease of Lieut.-General Sir Thomas Reynell, Bart., K.C.B., occurred at Avisford, near Arundel, on the 10th of February 1848.

SIR THOMAS ARBUTHNOT, K.C.B.

_Appointed 18th February 1848._

This officer entered the army as ensign in the twenty-ninth regiment on the 23d of November 1794, and was promoted lieutenant in the fortieth regiment on the 1st of May 1796. He was advanced to the rank of captain in the eighth West India regiment on the 25th of June 1798, and on the 26th of May 1803 was appointed captain in the royal staff corps, and on the 7th of April 1808 was promoted major in the fifth West India regiment, in which year he joined the staff of the army in the Peninsula, first as assistant adjutant-general, and afterwards as assistant quartermaster-general. Major Arbuthnot was present at the battles of Roleia, Vimiera, and Corunna.

On the 24th of May 1810, he received the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the army, and was appointed deputy quartermaster-general at the Cape of Good Hope, where he arrived on the 25th March 1811. Lieut.-Colonel Arbuthnot was appointed aide-de-camp to His Royal Highness the Prince Regent on the 7th of February 1812, and in May 1813 proceeded from the Cape to the Peninsula, and was present at the battles of the Pyrenees, Nivelle, and Orthes. For these services in the Peninsula and south of France he was decorated with a cross and one clasp. On the 24th of March 1814, Brevet Lieut.-Colonel Arbuthnot was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the fifty-seventh regiment, and on the 4th of June following received the brevet rank of colonel in the army. In January 1815 he was nominated a Knight Commander of the Bath, and on the 12th of August 1819 was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the SEVENTY-FIRST regiment. On the 27th of May 1825 he attained the rank of major-general, and on the 15th of August 1836 was appointed colonel of the ninety-ninth regiment. Sir Thomas Arbuthnot was advanced to the rank of lieutenant-general on the 28th of June 1838, and was removed to the fifty-second regiment on the 23d of December 1839. In August 1842 he was appointed to the command of the northern and midland districts of Great Britain, which he retained until his decease. On the 7th of December 1844 Lieut.-General Sir Thomas Arbuthnot was removed from the fifty-second to the ninth foot, and on the 18th of February 1848 was appointed colonel of the SEVENTY-FIRST regiment. Lieut.-General Sir Thomas Arbuthnot, K.C.B., died at Salford, near Manchester, on the 26th of January 1849.

SIR JAMES MACDONELL, K.C.B. and K.C.H.

_Appointed from the seventy-ninth regiment on the 8th February 1849._

APPENDIX.

_Memoir of Captain_ PHILIP MELVILL _of the_ SEVENTY-FIRST _Regiment_.

Captain Philip Melvill was the fourth and youngest son of John Melvill, Esq., of Dunbar, and was born on the 7th of April 1762. At the age of sixteen he obtained a commission, on the 31st December 1777, as a lieutenant in the seventy-third now the SEVENTY-FIRST regiment, commanded by Colonel John Lord Macleod, on condition of raising a certain number of men, which, by the influence of his relatives in the north of Scotland, he effected. Lieutenant Melvill joined the regiment at Elgin, and was appointed to the light company. In 1779 he embarked for India with his regiment, and arrived at Madras in January 1780. His services now became identical with those of Captain Baird, under whose command he proceeded as part of a reinforcement to Lieut.-Colonel Baillie, as detailed in the foregoing pages. In the action on the 10th of September 1780, at Perambaukum, Lieutenant Melvill was severely wounded in both arms; his left being broken, and, after surrendering, the muscles of his right arm were cut in two by a sabre. He was dashed unmercifully to the ground, and as he lay exhausted, a horseman wounded him in the back with his spear. In this miserable situation he continued for two days and two nights, exposed to the intense heat of a burning sun, and to the danger of being torn to pieces by beasts of prey. He was afterwards conveyed to Hyder’s camp, and was confined at Bangalore with the other prisoners. After three years and a half of confinement, they obtained their release in March 1784.

Lieutenant Melvill had been advanced to the rank of captain on the 22d of June 1783; and being disabled from military duty by the condition of his wounds, was, on being released from captivity, enabled to visit his brother at Bengal, where he remained until the beginning of the year 1786. Captain Melvill then returned to England, when he was appointed, on the 3d of January 1787, to the command of an invalid company stationed in Guernsey, where he remained for five years. He subsequently exchanged into a company at Portsmouth, and was afterwards placed on the retired list, in consequence of ill-health. After remaining a year in retirement at Topsham, in Devonshire, Captain Melvill, on the 29th of September 1796, exchanged his full pay as a retired captain for the command of an invalid company stationed at Pendennis Castle in Cornwall.

In the year 1797, when preparations were made by France for invading Great Britain, Captain Melvill, who had been appointed lieut.-governor of Pendennis Castle, was mainly instrumental in forming a corps of volunteers, which was subsequently retained, first as the Pendennis Volunteer Artillery, and afterwards as a body of local militia.

Lieut.-Governor Melvill died on the 27th October 1811, aged forty-nine, and was interred in Falmouth Church.

_Memoir of the services of General the Right Honorable Sir David Baird, Bart., G.C.B. & K.C., formerly Lieut.-Colonel of the_ SEVENTY-FIRST _Regiment_.

This celebrated commander commenced his military career as an ensign in the second foot, his commission being dated the 14th of December 1772. He joined the regiment at Gibraltar in April 1773, and in 1775 returned with it to England. In February 1778 he was promoted lieutenant in the second foot, and on the 16th of December 1777 was promoted to a company in the seventy third regiment, then being raised by Colonel Lord Macleod, which was afterwards numbered the SEVENTY-FIRST regiment. This corps Captain Baird joined at Elgin, from whence he marched to Fort George, and embarked for Guernsey. In January 1779 he embarked with his regiment for India, and arrived at Madras in January 1780. The regiment, shortly after its arrival in India, was called upon to take part in the war against Hyder Ali, the powerful sovereign of the Mysore, whose army exceeded eighty thousand, besides a strong body under a general of the name of Meer Saib, who had entered the Company’s territories on the north. This force was rendered still more formidable and effective by the aid of Monsieur Lally’s troops, and a great number of French officers who served his artillery, and even directed all his marches and operations. The British army ready to oppose this invasion did not consist of five thousand men. These were commanded by Major-General Sir Hector Munro, K.B., and were stationed at St. Thomas’s Mount, in the immediate neighbourhood of Madras, in order to cover that city. Here they were joined by Colonel Lord Macleod and the seventy-third regiment.

Hyder Ali, after a march across the country, which he marked by fire and sword, suddenly turned upon Arcot, and on the 21st of August 1780 sat down before that city, as the first operation of the war. Arcot was the capital town of the territory of the nabob of that name, the only prince in India who was friendly and in alliance with the Company. It contained immense stores of provisions, and, what was equally wanted, a vast treasure of money. There was another important reason, which required on the part of the British an immediate attention to this movement. Lieut.-Colonel Baillie, with a body of troops, was in the Northern Circars; and Hyder Ali, by besieging Arcot, had interposed himself between this detachment and the main army under Major-General Sir Hector Munro. Orders were immediately sent to Lieut.-Colonel Baillie to hasten to the Mount, to join the main army; and Sir Hector Munro, at once to meet Lieut.-Colonel Baillie and to raise the siege of Arcot, marched on the 25th of August with his army for Conjeveram, a place forty miles distant from Madras, in the Arcot road.

The British troops were followed during the whole way by the enemy’s horse. They were four days on their march to Conjeveram, and when they arrived, they found the whole country under water, and no provisions of any kind to be procured. So relax were the commissaries appointed by the Madras government, that the army had but four days’ provisions; in the midst of the most fertile region of India, and in the very onset and commencement of a war, the troops were in danger of being famished. The army had no other resource than to spread itself individually over the fields, and, at the risk of being destroyed in detail by the enemy’s horse, collect the growing rice, up to their knees in water.

Hyder Ali, as the British general foresaw, raised the siege of Arcot upon this movement towards Conjeveram; but, what he had not foreseen, his politic enemy threw his army in such a manner across the only possible road of Lieut.-Colonel Baillie’s detachment, as to prevent the desired junction, which had been expected to have taken place on the 30th of August, the day after the arrival of the army at Conjeveram. Lieut.-Colonel Baillie, before this last movement of the enemy to cut him off, had been stopped for some days, at no great distance, by the sudden rising of a small river. Hyder made use of this time to throw his army between them. On the 5th of September Lieut.-Colonel Baillie effected his passage over the river, but Hyder, being informed of it, made a second movement, which completely intercepted him. In order in some degree, however, to defeat this movement, but with slight hopes of success, Sir Hector Munro changed his position likewise, and advanced about two miles, to a high ground on the Tripassoor road, which was the way that the expected detachment was to come. By these movements the hostile camps were brought within two miles of each other, the enemy lying about that distance to the left of the British.

Lieut.-Colonel Baillie had passed the river in his way on the afternoon of the 5th of September, and encamped for the night. Hyder, on receiving this information, made the movement before related, and other arrangements on the following morning, the 6th of September, and Sir Hector Munro changed his own position at the same time. This change was scarcely effected when the evident bustle in the enemy’s army explained its purpose. In fact the purport of Hyder’s movement was to cover and support a great attack at that moment making on Lieut.-Colonel Baillie’s detachment. He had already sent his brother-in-law, Meer Saib, with eight thousand horse upon that service, and immediately afterwards detached his son, Tippoo Saib, with six thousand infantry, eighteen thousand cavalry, and twelve pieces of cannon, to join in a united and decisive attack. They encountered Lieut.-Colonel Baillie at a place called Perambaukum, where he made the most masterly dispositions to withstand this vast superiority of force. After an exceedingly severe and well-fought action, of several hours’ continuance, the enemy was routed, and Lieut.-Colonel Baillie gained as complete a victory as a total want of cavalry and the smallness of his numbers could possibly admit. Through these circumstances he lost his baggage. His whole force did not exceed two thousand sepoys, and from one to two companies of European artillery.

This success, however, by diminishing Lieut.-Colonel Baillie’s force, only added to his distress. The British camp was within a few miles, but Hyder’s army lay full in his way, and he was, moreover, in the greatest want of provisions. Under these circumstances, Lieut.-Colonel Baillie despatched a messenger to Major-General Sir Hector Munro, with an account of his situation, stating that he had sustained a loss which rendered him incapable of advancing, while his total want of provisions rendered it equally impossible for him to remain in his present position. A council of war being held, at which Colonel Lord Macleod assisted, it was resolved to send a reinforcement to Lieut.-Colonel Baillie, to enable him to push forward in despite of the enemy. Lieut.-Colonel Fletcher, Captain Baird, and other officers were sent off with a strong detachment to the relief of Lieut.-Colonel Baillie. The main force of this detachment consisted of the flank companies of the first battalion of the _Seventy-third_, afterwards numbered the SEVENTY-FIRST regiment, the light company being commanded by Captain Baird. There were two other companies of European grenadiers, one company of sepoy marksmen, and ten companies of sepoy grenadiers. In all about a thousand men. The junction was effected with some difficulty on the 9th of September, and the following day was appointed for the march of the united detachment. Accordingly, day-light had scarcely broken when it commenced its march. By seven o’clock in the morning of the 10th of September the enemy poured down upon them in thousands. The British fought with the greatest heroism, and at one time victory seemed to be in their favour. But the tumbrils containing the ammunition accidentally blew up with two dreadful explosions in the centre of their lines. The destruction of men was great, but the total loss of their ammunition was still more fatal to the survivors. This turned the fortune of the day, and after successive prodigies of valour the brave sepoys were almost to a man cut to pieces.

Lieut.-Colonels Baillie and Fletcher, assisted by Captain Baird, made one more desperate effort. They rallied the Europeans, and, under the fire of the whole of the immense artillery of the enemy, gained a little eminence, and formed themselves into a fresh square. In this form did this invincible band, though totally without ammunition, the officers fighting with their swords and the soldiers with their bayonets, resist and repulse the myriads of the enemy in thirteen different attacks, until at length, incapable of withstanding the successive torrents of fresh troops which were continually pouring upon them, they were fairly borne down and trampled on, many of them still continuing to fight under the legs of the horses and elephants.

The loss of the British in the action at Perambaukum was of course great; and it is a reasonable subject of surprise that any escaped. Lieut.-Colonel Fletcher was amongst the slain. Lieut.-Colonel Baillie, Captain Baird, after being severely wounded in four places, together with Captain the Honorable John Lindsay, Lieutenant Philip Melvill, and other officers, with two hundred Europeans, were made prisoners. They were carried into the presence of Hyder, who, with a true Asiatic barbarism, received them with the most insolent triumph and ferocious pride. The British officers, with a spirit worthy of their country, retorted his pride by an indignant coolness and contempt. “Your son will inform you,” said Lieut.-Colonel Baillie, appealing to Tippoo, who was present, “that you owe the victory to our disaster rather than to our defeat.” Hyder angrily ordered them from his presence, and commanded them instantly to prison, where they remained for three years and a half, enduring great hardships, Captain Baird being chained by the leg to another prisoner.

In March 1784 Captain Baird was released, and in July joined his regiment at Arcot. In 1786 the _Seventy-third_ was directed to be numbered the SEVENTY-FIRST regiment. Captain Baird was promoted to the rank of major in the SEVENTY-FIRST regiment on the 5th of June 1787, and in October obtained leave of absence, when he returned to Great Britain. He was advanced to the lieut.-colonelcy of the regiment on the 8th of December 1790, and in 1791 proceeded to India, and joined the army under General the Earl Cornwallis. Lieut.-Colonel Baird commanded a brigade of sepoys, and was present at the attack of a number of droogs or hill forts; also at the siege of Seringapatam in 1791 and 1792; likewise at the storming of Tippoo’s lines and camps on the island of Seringapatam. In 1793 the Lieut.-Colonel commanded a brigade of Europeans, and was present at the siege of Pondicherry. On the 21st of August 1795, he was promoted to the brevet rank of colonel, and in October 1797 embarked at Madras with the SEVENTY-FIRST for Europe, but on arrival at the Cape of Good Hope, in January following, he was appointed brigadier-general, and placed on that staff in command of a brigade. He was promoted to the rank of major-general on the 18th of June 1798, and was removed to the staff in India. Major-General Baird sailed from the Cape of Good Hope for Madras in command of two regiments of infantry and the drafts of the twenty-eighth dragoons, and arrived at his destination in January 1799. On the 1st of February he joined the army forming at Vellore for the attack of Seringapatam, and commanded a brigade of Europeans. On the 4th of May Major-General Baird commanded the storming party with success, and, in consequence, was presented by the army, through Lieut.-General, afterwards Lord Harris, Commander-in-Chief, with Tippoo Sultan’s state sword, and a dress sword from the field officers serving under his immediate command. In 1800 he was removed to the Bengal staff, and on the 9th of May of that year was appointed colonel-commandant of the fifty-fourth, and colonel of that regiment on the 8th of May 1801, in which year he was appointed to command the forces which were sent from India to Egypt, and arrived at Cosseir in June, afterwards crossed the desert, and embarked on the Nile, arriving in the following month at Grand Cairo. He joined the army under Lieut.-General Sir John Hutchinson, afterwards the Earl of Donoughmore, a few days before the surrender of Alexandria, which capitulated on the 2d of September, and terminated the campaign in Egypt.

In 1802 Major-General Baird returned across the desert to India, and was removed to the Madras staff in 1803, and commanded a large division of the army forming against the Mahrattas. He marched into the Mysore country, where the Commander-in-Chief, Lieut.-General James Stuart, joined him, and afterwards arrived on the banks of the river Jambudra, in command of the line. Major-General Wellesley, the present Duke of Wellington, being appointed to the command of the greater part of the army, Major-General Baird proceeded into the Mahratta country, and subsequently obtained permission to return to Great Britain. He sailed in March with his staff from Madras, and was taken prisoner by a French privateer. In October he was re-taken as the ship was entering Corunna. He arrived in England on the 3d of November, having given his parole that he should consider himself as a prisoner of war; but shortly after Major-General Baird and staff were exchanged for the French General Morgan and his staff.

Major-General Sir David Baird, who had received the honour of knighthood, was promoted to the rank of lieut.-general on the 30th of October 1805, and commanded an expedition against the Cape of Good Hope, where he arrived on the 5th of January 1806, and effected a landing on the following day. On the 8th, the Dutch army was defeated; on the 10th, the castle and town of Cape Town surrendered; and on the 18th, General Janssens surrendered the colony. In 1807 Lieut.-General Sir David Baird returned to England, and on the 19th of July of that year was removed from the colonelcy of the fifty-fourth to that of the twenty-fourth regiment. His next service was in the expedition to Copenhagen under Lieut.-General Lord Cathcart, at the siege of which he commanded a division, and was twice slightly wounded. In 1808 Lieut.-General Sir David Baird was placed on the staff in Ireland, and commanded the camp on the Curragh of Kildare. In September of that year he embarked at the Cove of Cork, in the command of a division, consisting of about five thousand infantry, for Falmouth, where he received reinforcements, and sailed in command of about ten thousand men for Corunna, where he arrived in the beginning of November, and formed a junction with the army under Lieut.-General Sir John Moore. Lieut.-General Sir David Baird commanded the first division of that army, and in the battle of Corunna, on the 16th of January 1809, he lost his left arm. Sir David Baird received the thanks of both Houses of Parliament for his services at Corunna; “an honor of which,” he remarked in his reply to the House of Peers, “no one can be more fully sensible than myself, having had the good fortune to be deemed worthy of this eminent distinction on four several occasions;” alluding to his name having been included in the votes of thanks for the operations of the army in India in 1799, for those of Egypt in 1801, and in the Danish expedition in 1807.

In testimony of the Royal approbation, Lieut.-General Sir David Baird was created a baronet, by patent dated 13th April 1809, and was promoted to the rank of general on the 4th of June 1814; on the 2d of January 1815 he was nominated a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, and was appointed governor of Kinsale on the 11th of March 1819, and of Fort George, North Britain, on the 4th of December 1827. He was also a privy councillor for Ireland. His decease occurred at his seat, Ferntower, in Perthshire, on the 18th of August 1829.

_Memoir of the services of Major-General Sir Denis Pack, K.C.B. and C.T.S., formerly Lieut.-Colonel of the_ SEVENTY-FIRST _regiment_.

This distinguished officer entered the army as a cornet in the fourteenth light dragoons, his commission being dated 30th November 1791, and joined that regiment in Dublin in January 1792. He served in Ireland, and was engaged in quelling some disturbances, between that period and 1794, when he embarked at Cork for the Continent, and landed with the forces under Lieut.-General the Earl of Moira at Ostend. After his lordship’s march from thence to form a junction with the army under His Royal Highness the Duke of York, Cornet Pack offered his services and was employed to carry an important despatch to Nieuport, in which attempt he fortunately succeeded, and was thanked for it by Major-General Richard Vyse. His commanding officer’s squadron of the fourteenth light dragoons was destined, after the embarkation at Ostend, to retreat to Nieuport, which it effected by the advance of a corps from that place to its support. Nieuport being almost immediately invested, farther retreat from thence became extremely hazardous and difficult. Cornet Pack was in a boat with about two hundred emigrants, and did not gain the sea without a sharp action and a severe loss. It conveyed the last of those who escaped the horrors which befell that ill-fated garrison. He joined the Duke of York’s army near Antwerp, and was in the action at Boxtel, and some partial affairs. He served that severe winter campaign, and in 1795 returned to England, and was promoted to a lieutenancy in the fourteenth light dragoons on the 12th of March of that year.

Lieutenant Pack subsequently embarked at Southampton in command of a detachment of eighty dragoons destined for Quiberon Bay. After the failure of the emigrants there, he proceeded under the orders of Major-General Welbore Ellis Doyle to the Isle de Dieu, where he landed, and did duty for some months as field officer. In 1796, Lieutenant Pack returned to England, and on the 27th February of that year was promoted to the rank of captain in the fifth dragoon guards, which regiment he accompanied to Ireland, and was frequently engaged during the rebellion in that country, and was noticed in a despatch dated 21st of June 1798, from General the Marquis Cornwallis, K.G., on the occasion of Captain Pack’s detachment defeating a party of rebels, on the 19th of that month, between Rathangan and Prosperous.

When the French landed a force in that country, Captain Pack was specially employed by General the Marquis Cornwallis, with a detached squadron, and after the surrender of General Humbert he was appointed to command the escort which was despatched in charge of him and the other French generals to Dublin.

On the 25th of August 1798 Captain Pack was advanced to the rank of major in the fourth royal Irish dragoon guards, and embarked with his regiment in the expedition to Holland, but was countermanded, and stationed in England and Scotland until 1800, when he was promoted, on the 6th of December of that year, to the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the SEVENTY-FIRST regiment, and on the 24th of April 1801 joined that corps in Ireland, in which country he served until August 1805, when he embarked at Cork with the first battalion of the SEVENTY-FIRST regiment in the expedition to the Cape of Good Hope under Major-General Sir David Baird, and was engaged and severely wounded in effecting the landing at the Cape on the 6th of January 1806, but continued in the field, and was, on the 8th of January, in the action at Bleuberg. These operations led to a treaty, which was signed on the 19th of the same month, by which the Cape of Good Hope was surrendered to Great Britain.

In April 1806 Lieut.-Colonel Pack proceeded, with the first battalion of the SEVENTY-FIRST, in the expedition to South America under the command of Brigadier-General William Carr Beresford, afterwards General Viscount Beresford, and was present in six actions with the enemy in that country, and was wounded, and detained a prisoner, contrary to the capitulation which restored the town of Buenos Ayres to the Spaniards. Lieut.-Colonel Pack subsequently effected his escape with Brigadier-General Beresford, and joined the army at Monte Video, under Brigadier-General Sir Samuel Auchmuty, who, at the request of Lieut.-Colonel Pack, directed a board of naval and military officers to inquire into the particulars of his escape, by whom it was unanimously approved, and he was declared free to serve.[34] Lieut.-Colonel Pack was then detached with a small force to Colonia, where he commanded successfully in two actions; namely, in an attack on the enemy on his post, and in one made on his, at St. Pedro, when, after a forced night march, the troops under his orders, amounting to 1,013 rank and file, routed the enemy, on the 7th of June 1807, and captured a standard, together with 105 prisoners, including one lieut.-colonel and five other officers; all his artillery, baggage, &c. were likewise taken.

Lieut.-Colonel Pack was shortly afterwards appointed by Lieut.-General John Whitelocke to the command of all the light companies in his army, and joined the force then in the River Plate destined to act against Buenos Ayres. He was engaged in two successful actions with the enemy prior to the unfortunate attack on the town, in which he was three times wounded. Towards the end of 1807 he returned to Europe, and early in 1808 had the SEVENTY-FIRST completely re-equipped; and, proceeding with the first battalion of the regiment from Cork to Portugal, on the 17th of June following, in the expedition under Lieut.-General Sir Arthur Wellesley, was present in the battles of Roleia and Vimiera, on the 17th and 21st of August 1808, which rescued Portugal from the French. The conduct of the battalion and of Lieut.-Colonel Pack was noticed in the public despatches, and the troops received the thanks of both Houses of Parliament.

Lieut.-Colonel Pack afterwards marched into Spain, under Lieut.-General Sir John Moore, and was at the affair of Lugo on the 5th of January 1809, and at the battle of Corunna on the 16th of that month, after which he returned to England, and embarked in July following for Holland, under Lieut.-General the Earl of Chatham. On landing at Walcheren, Lieut.-Colonel Pack was appointed to command a small corps of cavalry and light infantry; was employed in the siege of Flushing, and particularly named by Lieut.-General Sir Eyre Coote for the command of a detachment to storm an advanced work on the right of the enemy’s line. These orders were successfully executed, the detachment taking forty-nine prisoners, and spiking the guns, though defended by five times the number of men under Lieut.-Colonel Pack. After the surrender of Flushing he was appointed commandant of Ter Veer, where he was dangerously ill for a short period, but remained until the island was evacuated, on which occasion, in conjunction with Commodore Owen, he commanded the rear-guard of the army.

Soon after the return of the SEVENTY-FIRST to England, in December 1809, the battalion was prepared again for active service; but the government did not consider the men had sufficiently recovered from the effects of the Walcheren fever.

Lieut.-Colonel Pack, being extremely anxious to bear a part in the momentous campaign about to commence in the Peninsula, obtained His Majesty’s permission to proceed to Portugal, and offer his services to Viscount Wellington and Marshal Beresford. Both generals having decided that he could not be more usefully employed than with the Portuguese troops, he accepted an infantry brigade in that service, and took the command of it just before the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo by Marshal Massena, previously to his invasion of Portugal.

On the 25th of July 1810 Lieut.-Colonel Pack was appointed aide-de-camp to the king, with the rank of colonel in the army. After the surrender of Ciudad Rodrigo, of Almeida, and Marshal Massena’s passage of the Coa, Colonel Pack’s brigade (an independent one) was directed to take a separate route with a regiment of cavalry attached to it, and remained in presence of the enemy’s army at St. Combadoa, retiring slowly before it, on his advance to the position at Busaco. The conduct of the brigade was noticed in that battle, which was fought on the 27th of September 1810. In the admirable retreat afterwards to the lines of Lisbon, it formed, with the light division and cavalry, the rear-guard of the allied army. The first battalion of the SEVENTY-FIRST having at that period joined Viscount Wellington, Colonel Pack’s wish was to have returned to the battalion, but by the desire of both commanders-in-chief, he continued to serve in the Portuguese army.

In 1811 the brigade was in the advance guard in following the enemy up to his position at Santarem; was at the out-posts there, and again in the advance on the further retreat of the French from Portugal. It was employed in the investment of Almeida, and in the operations against Marshal Marmont, on his advance to the relief of Ciudad Rodrigo in January 1812. At the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo it bore a distinguished part. It marched to the siege of Badajos, and was in active operations against the enemy on his advance to the Tagus, and subsequent retreat from Portugal. It moved in the advanced guard on the march of the allies to Salamanca and the Douro. It suffered severely in the battle of Salamanca on the 22d of July 1812.

The brigade was in the march to and capture of Madrid; in the march to Burgos, and subsequent siege of that place. Previously to the siege of Burgos, detachments under Colonel Pack’s command carried by assault the horn-work of that castle, after a desperate and gallant action, for which the special thanks of His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, and the Commander-in-Chief, were given to the troops, through the Marquis of Wellington. In the retreat from Burgos, which commenced in October 1812, the brigade under Colonel Pack formed the rear-guard, and from thence to the frontier of Portugal was very frequently in presence of the enemy.