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Battles of the nineteenth century, vol. 1 of 7 cover

Battles of the nineteenth century, vol. 1 of 7

Chapter 11: FOOTNOTES:
By Archibald Forbes
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About This Book

This collected volume presents a series of descriptive accounts of nineteenth-century military engagements, combining eyewitness reportage and researched narrative to reconstruct campaigns, sieges, and battlefield actions. Contributors supply maps, plans, and illustrations alongside tactical overviews that trace troop movements, decisive moments, and operational outcomes. The pieces balance attention to command decisions and tactical technique with scenes of individual courage and hardship, arranging distinct episodes into a broader view of how warfare and military practice changed across the century.

“THE BATTLE WAS MAINTAINED WITH UNABATED FURY FOR ABOVE FOUR HOURS” (p. 368).

Navarino was fought without any declaration of war, and the news of hostilities created great surprise in England. Many questions were asked in Parliament as to whether the British Commander-in-Chief had done wisely to treat the Turks as enemies, and there was much vacillation displayed by the weak Government—Lord Goderich’s—then in power. In the following June Sir Edward Codrington received a letter of recall from Lord Aberdeen, dated at the Foreign Office, London, May, 1828. It was a most elaborate document of twenty paragraphs, embodying a number of charges of misconception and actual disobedience of his instructions, and concluded: “His Majesty’s Government have found themselves under the necessity of requesting the Lord High Admiral to relieve you in the command of the squadron in the Mediterranean.” He left Malta for England on September 11th, amid the hearty regret of his companions-in-arms, and arrived home in the Warspite on the 7th of October, 1828. A revulsion of public feeling had meanwhile taken place during the interval—indignation at his recall and general reprobation of the injustice with which he had been treated. The Duke of Wellington’s ministry was now in office. His Grace summoned Sir Edward to an interview, but seems to have behaved in a very cavilling manner. The pride and sense of honour of the fine old naval officer were deeply injured by the treatment he was receiving from a country to whose annals he had just added fresh laurels. His resentment of the injustice done him is well illustrated by the following anecdote:—About a year after he had been recalled, Sir Edward Codrington was present at a party given by Prince Leopold, when the Duke of Wellington came up to him and said: “I have made arrangements by which I am enabled to offer you a pension of £800 for your life.” The admiral’s answer was ready, and immediate: “I am obliged to your Grace, but I do not feel myself in a position to accept it.... I cannot receive such a thing myself while my poor fellows who fought under me at Navarin have had no head-money, and have not even been repaid for their clothes which were destroyed in the battle.” The duke remonstrated, said there was no precedent for head-money, and insisted that, as the pension was bestowed by the king, Sir Edward could not refuse it. But refuse it he did, stoutly and resolutely. Shortly afterwards one of the duke’s political friends inquired: “What are you going to do with Codrington?” “Do with him!” answered the duke, “what are you to do with a man who won’t take a pension?” But time rights most things; and Sir Edward Codrington lived to see full honour accorded to him, and those who had fought under him at the battle of Navarino.

NAVARINO.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Shadwell’s “Life of Lord Clyde,” p. 33.

[2] The heavier armament of most of the Austrian ships consisted of smooth-bore 48-pounders. New rifled guns of larger calibre were being made for the Austrian fleet by Krupp at Essen, but when war became probable the Prussian Government stopped the delivery of them. On the other hand, one of the Italian ships carried 300-pounder Armstrong guns, mounted in a turret, and some of the other ironclads had 150-pounders in their armament.

[3] The Affondatore was a new ship built in the Thames just before the war. A correspondent of the Times who saw her at Cherbourg, where she called on her way down Channel, wrote that she looked sufficiently formidable to destroy the whole Austrian ironclad fleet singlehanded.

[4] For an account of many striking incidents of the march, some of our readers may be glad to be referred to the graphic narrative of Sergeant Arthur V. Palmer, of the 79th Highlanders, in the Nineteenth Century for March, 1890, entitled “A Battle Described from the Ranks,” and to the controversy to which it gave rise in ensuing numbers of the same publication.

[5] Now Sir George White, Commander-in-Chief in India.

[6] “La Guerre de la Pologne.”

[7] There is a slight inaccuracy here. The Gorze road runs into the main road to Verdun at Rezonville.

[8] It was known that a number of French officers were in the enemy’s ships, and to these Admiral de Rigny addressed a letter of warning.

Transcriber’s Notes:

1. Obvious printers’, punctuation and spelling errors have been corrected silently.

2. Some hyphenated and non-hyphenated versions of the same words have been retained as in the original.