A History of the Coldstream Guards, Robert Ross-of-Bladensburg.

“Calais, November 23, 1818. Major-General Sir J. Lambert cannot relinquish the command of the Brigade without congratulating the Officers and soldiers on the termination of a service of four years' duration, during which they have acquired to themselves on many occasions the greatest honour and credit. The Major-General requests that the Officers will be assured that he was perfectly sensible of the honour conferred upon him on his appointment to the Brigade, and feels certain, had circumstances permitted that its exertions in the field might have been more efficiently called for, that he should now have had the satisfaction of expressing his admiration of that distinguished conduct which has ever called forth the encomiums of those who have had the good fortune to be in command.”^[124]

Arrived at Dover, the Coldstream marched to Chatham, where they arrived on the 28th of November, and remained quartered in that garrison till further orders.

Thus ended this stirring drama that began in March, 1815, and in which the Coldstream Guards participated to the fullest extent. During these eventful years, services were not only rendered to King and country, on the field of battle, at one of the most momentous crises of modern history; but duty was also zealously performed, in a less acknowledged sphere, when a war-like nation was induced, with much difficulty, to abate her military ardour, to renounce her menacing attitude, and to resume a pacific policy towards her neighbours. The years spent in France were useful to the British troops quartered there. It was a time when they had to be prepared for every emergency, when they had to cultivate amicable relations with a foreign people who resented deeply their presence among them, when their demeanour towards the inhabitants had to be both firm and conciliatory, and when their military efficiency and discipline could alone enable them to discharge the delicate duties with which they were entrusted.

This chapter must not conclude without recording that, at the end of the occupation, the Duke of Wellington was created a Field-Marshal in the armies of Austria, Russia, and Prussia; and that his services to Europe, which could not be further rewarded by his own Sovereign, were acknowledged in simple language, which expressed the difficulties of the situation, and the Royal approbation at the manner in which they had been overcome.

“The command of the army,” said Lord Bathurst, “composed of so many nations, and belonging to Sovereigns eminently distinguished for their military exploits, not stationed within any of their own dominions, but in temporary and partial occupation of a given district within the territories of a martial people, with whom His Majesty had so recently closed an almost uninterrupted warfare of more than twenty years' duration, presented difficulties of no ordinary magnitude, which could only be surmounted by no ordinary measure of judgment and discretion. In this command your Grace maintained the British army (divided for the relief of the inhabitants in separate and distant quarters) unimpaired in their discipline, and even improved in their condition. You preserved the several contingents composing the Allied army in the utmost harmony with each other, and in the best understanding with the authorities of the country which they occupied. You won so much upon the esteem and confidence of His Majesty’s Allies, that they all spontaneously applied for your arbitration of their respective claims upon France; and you impressed that Government with such a sense of your justice, impartiality, and exertions, that you had the gratification of receiving assurances from His Most Christian Majesty that, but for your intervention, that intricate negotiation could not have been satisfactorily concluded. Amidst, therefore, the signal achievements which will carry your name and the glory of the British Empire down to the latest posterity, it will not form the least part of your Grace’s renown, that you have exercised and concluded a command, unexampled in its character, with the concurrent voice of approbation from all whom it could concern.”^[125]

75. Captain Gunthorpe, Grenadier Guards, Brigade Major of the 1st Guards Brigade during the campaign, was appointed to the same post in the 1st Brigade, First Division of the army of occupation (General Order, Dec. 2, 1815).

76. Supplementary Despatches, etc., xi. 248, etc.

77. See Appendix, No. III. It will be observed therein that the Coldstream Battalion was to be reinforced by 204 men. On the 13th of November a detachment of that strength, from the 1st Battalion, marched from London for this purpose, under Lieut.-Colonel Adams, Captain Wedderburn, and Lieutenants Powys and Kortright, (the first two were to return to the 1st Battalion), and arrived in Paris on the 6th of December. On March 7, 1816, Officers were posted as follows in the 2nd Battalion:—

Captains.	Lieutenants.	Ensigns.	Staff.
Grenadier Company: Lt.-Colonel D. MacKinnon.	Capt. Anstruther. ” Hon. J. Rous. ” ” R. Moore.	...	Assist.-Surg. Smith.
No. 1 Company: Lt.-Colonel J. Macdonell, C.B.	Capt. Sowerby.	Lt. Kortright. ” Montagu.	Adjt. Capt. J. Prince. Quarter-M. Selway. Surg. W. Whymper.
No. 2 Company: Colonel Hon. A. Abercromby, C.B.	Capt. Sandilands.	Lt. Cuyler. ” Short.
No. 3 Company: Lt.-Colonel Sir W. Gomm, K.C.B.	Capt. Drummond.	Lt. Vane. ” Douglas.
No. 4 Company: Lt.-Colonel Hon. E. Acheson, C.B.	Capt. Chaplin.	Lt. Gooch. ” Gordon.
No. 5 Company: Lt.-Colonel Hon. H. Pakenham, C.B.	Capt. Walton.	Lt. Powys. ” Bowen.
No. 6 Company: Lieut.-Colonel H. Wyndham.	Capt. Lord Hotham.	Lt. Griffiths. ” FitzClarence.
No. 7 Company: Lt.-Colonel Sir R. Arbuthnot, K.C.B.	Capt. Cowell.	Lt. Armytage. ” Hon. W. Forbes.
No. 8 Company: Lt.-Col. H. Dawkins.	Capt. Girardot.	Lt. Beaufoy. ” Hervey.
Light Infantry Company: Lt.-Colonel Hon. J. Walpole.	Major Bowles. Capt. Shirley. ” Harvey.	...	Asst.-Surg. Hunter.

78. The number of guns is not stated.

79. Supplementary Despatches, etc., xi. 240.

81. Supplementary Despatches, etc., xi. 192.

82. The law of Amnesty, as it was called, raised many fierce animosities. It received the Royal sanction on January 12th. By this law, the ordinances against proscribed persons were ratified and extended. Exiled persons might be deprived of their property; the relations of Napoleon were excluded for ever from the kingdom, and were declared incapable of enjoying civil rights or of possessing any property. “Regicides, who, in contempt of a clemency almost boundless, ... accepted offices or employment from the Usurper, and who, by so doing, declared themselves irreconcilable enemies of France and of the lawful Government, are for ever excluded the realm, and are bound to quit it in the space of one month, under pain of the punishment enacted by the 33rd Article of the Penal Code; they cannot possess any civil right in France, nor any property, title, or pension granted to them of favour” (Annual Register , 1816, “General History,” p. 107). It was in virtue of this clause, that Fouché was banished by his recent allies.

83. Supplementary Despatches, etc. , xi. 265.

84. Supplementary Despatches, etc. , xi. 301, 296.

85. Under Article No. 4 of the Convention of November 20th, Lauterburg and Weissemburg had been allotted to the French, who were permitted to place garrisons there of 200 and 150 men respectively. The French Government, however, consented to give them up to the Allies, in January, and were allowed to occupy Abbeville instead (Ibid. , xi. 292).

86. Supplementary Despatches, etc. , xi. 355, 410, etc.

87. As the termination of the occupation of Paris approached, the public duties were gradually reduced, and, on the 26th of January, Officers' guards were found at only six of the barriers of the town.

88. “It is of the utmost importance to the comfort and the discipline of the soldiers, that the Officers of companies should inspect and visit the quarters of their men frequently, and the Commanding Officer trusts that they will see the necessity of extraordinary exertion on these occasions” (Battalion Orders , Paris, Jan. 26, 1816).

89. Appendix No. IV. On April 25th, the 2nd and 3rd companies were ordered to march to Cambrai, being relieved by the 8th and Light-infantry companies. On May 14th two more companies were brought into the town, and the remainder rejoined head-quarters on the 3rd and 5th of June, when the Battalion was complete in Cambrai, six companies being quartered in the Cavalry barracks, and four in the Citadel.

90. It was not until April that “soldiers composing the garrison have permission to pass out of the gates, when properly dressed in side-arms, to walk within one mile of the fortress, unprovided with passes” (Garrison Orders , Cambrai, April 29, 1816).

91. The following are the musketry results of the Battalion in 1816:—

Two rounds were fired at 60, 85, and 90 yards, and four rounds at 100 yards. Total cartridges issued, 9,448; total shots on the target, 3,785. Of these the Grenadier company fired 852 rounds, and put 436 shots on the target. Fourteen battalion prizes were given. The company Officers offered, in 1817, prizes to their best shots; and the Commanding Officer gave three prizes to the best battalion shots. The same was repeated in 1818, the Commanding Officer stipulating that the prizes were only to be awarded if the men were of good character (Battalion Orders , Nov. 25, 1816; Aug. 20, 1817; and June 10, 1818).

92. “The following certificate being added to the Monthly Return, the Commanding Officer requests Officers commanding companies will forward their reports to him, respecting the settlement of the men’s accounts, in good time, so as to enable him to sign the Monthly Return on the morning of the 25th: 'I certify that the company’s accounts have been settled by the Captain, or the Officer commanding the company, up to the 24th of ——, and that the balances then due have been regularly paid to the men in daily proportions, in conformity with the General Orders of June 3, 1815'” (Battalion Order , April 25, 1818).

93. Supplementary Despatches, etc. , xi. 426, 501; xii. 31, 538. It may be interesting to remark that the review of infantry in column, not contained in “His Majesty’s Regulations” of the day, was ordered and provided for by the Field-Marshal.

94. Ibid., xi. 522. The following Brigade Order, dated Cambrai, Oct. 23, 1816, concerned these manœuvres: “The light companies of the Brigade and the three leading companies of the Coldstream marched yesterday through the village of Denain in a soldierlike and exemplary manner. The rest of the Brigade did anything but follow their example. That loose marching, which it fell into, has two effects. The troops either arrive late at their destination, or they arrive harassed and unfit for their operations. Either is an evil of the first magnitude. The principle on which this march originated is pure selfishness. The individual would save himself a little inconvenience at the expense of serious evil to no matter how many of his comrades in rear. The Brigade, with the exception of those companies already mentioned with approbation, and the leading and rear companies of the Grenadier Guards, will assemble every morning at the usual place, the Bapaume gate, at half-past seven o’clock, till they receive an order to the contrary.” The latter portion of this order was countermanded on the 25th.

95. Supplementary Despatches, etc., xii. 783.

96. Ibid. , xii. 711. The following letter, written by the Duke of Wellington to General Woronzow, commanding the Russian contingent, dated Aix-la-Chapelle, Oct. 13, 1818, just before the review at which the Emperor of Russia was present, is not without interest: “I write you just one line to tell you that, from what the Emperor has said to me, I judge that he thinks, from the reports he has heard, that, in marching in open column your troops do not preserve their distances regularly. You will, of course, attend to those hints, and make them preserve their distances from front rank to front rank” (Ibid. , xii. 765).

97. The three cavalry brigades were, however, still maintained in France, each consisting of two regiments, instead of three.

98. Ibid. , xi. 386.

99. Supplementary Despatches, etc. , xi. 485, 506.

100. Ibid. , xi. 573.

101. Ibid. , xi. 592.

102. Ibid. , xi. 589, etc.

103. See Annual Register , 1817, “General History,” p. 103, where the note is given in extenso.

104. Supplementary Despatches, etc. , xi. 622, 638, 657. The order for sending home these detachments from the Guards Battalions “originates in the reduction of the whole establishment of the Guards, and the consequent necessity of the Battalions in France bearing their proportion of the non-effectives. H.R.H. desires me to express his hope that this diminution of 400 Guards may not embarrass you in regard to the amount of reduction” (Major-General Sir H. Torrens to Field-Marshal the Duke of Wellington: ibid., xi. 639). The detachments marched from Cambrai on March 15, 1817, under the command of Lieut.-Colonel Hon. J. Walpole, Coldstream Guards. Captain Sowerby and Lieutenant Hervey were in charge of the Coldstream; and Assistant-Surgeon Smith, Coldstream Guards, accompanied the troops to Calais.

105. For a short account of the Band of the Coldstream Guards, see Appendix No. V.

106. Supplementary Despatches, etc. , xi. 439.

107. Wellington perceived clearly the weakness of the new system; but he blamed the stupidity of the ultra-Royalist party, who, ruling the King, endeavoured to gain a cheap popularity at the expense of the Allies, to whom they owed entirely their restoration to power. “The descendants of Louis XV. will not reign in France; and I must say, and always will say, that it is the fault of Monsieur” (afterwards Charles X.) “and his adherents.... I wish Monsieur would read the histories of our Restoration and subsequent Revolution, or that he would recollect what passed under his own view, probably at his own instigation, in the Revolution. The conduct of the Royalists in joining with the Jacobins against the Moderate party, certainly led to the King’s death. There are persons now at Paris who recollect the triumph of these parties when they obtained the vote for excluding from office, and from the Legislative Assembly, all who had been in the Constituante Assembly; and yet it is certain that that vote, more than any other single measure, was the cause of all the subsequent misfortunes, confiscations, murder of the King, etc.; and they could not avoid comparing that triumph with the senseless one over the Government the other day, upon a vital question in the law for regulating the press” (The Duke of Wellington to the Right Hon. J. C. Villiers, Jan. 11, 1818: Supplementary Despatches, etc. , xii. 213).

108. One order may be quoted, illustrating the condition of the rural districts in France at the time: “It having been represented by the Civil Authority that smoking out of doors of houses, in the villages, is contrary to the Police Laws, from the danger to which the houses would be exposed to fire from their being generally low and thatched, Commanding Officers are requested to take measures to prevent it. Smoking can only be allowed inside of the houses” (Divisional Orders , Cambrai, May 2, 1816).

109. Fifteen Subalterns per regiment (nine in the cavalry), half the Captains, and one-third of the Field-Officers had to be present (General Order , Paris, Feb. 27, 1816). By another General Order, dated Cambrai, June 1st, the above rule, relating to Field-Officers, applied to Regimental Captains of the Brigade of Guards.

110. “Je suis bien heureux de pouvoir faire rapport à Votre Majesté que le système de l’occupation militaire d’une partie de la France remplit les attentes de ceux qui l’ont adopté plus que l’on pouvait l’espérer. Les officiers et les troupes de toutes les nations se comportent envers les habitants du pays de manière à les concilier; et je suis bien heureux de pouvoir assurer Votre Majesté que les siennes en donnent le meilleur exemple” (The Duke of Wellington to the Emperor of Russia, April 24, 1816: Supplementary Despatches, etc. , xi. 373).

111. Supplementary Despatches, etc. , xi. 421, 436, 440, 737; see also pp. 630, 726.

112. Ibid. , xi. 478, 570, 579; and xii. 77. “The measure” (the occupation) “has succeeded beyond our most sanguine expectations. Not only are there no complaints, but I really believe that the common people of the Departments occupied, particularly those occupied by us, are delighted to have the troops, and the money spent among them. But not so the gentry, particularly the Royalists; not so those employed by the Government, and even the Ministers themselves.... All this would be of little importance in the decision of the question of reduction, if the King’s Government possessed any real authority and strength, and if the people of the country were not of a character easily disturbed and irritated, and led to acts of violence and outrage whenever they find weakness. I believe that although we, the English, behave better than others, we are on that account the worst treated. There are constant broils between individuals of the middling and better classes, and Officers of the army, particularly at Valenciennes. We can get no justice from the authorities of the country—indeed, that is a general complaint in each of the contingents; and in more than one instance it has happened that a mob has collected with impunity upon the occasion of an assault upon or broil with an Officer” (The Duke of Wellington to Viscount Castlereagh, Cambrai, Dec. 11, 1816: ibid., xi. 572).

113. “Supplementary Despatches, etc. , xi. 420. General Ziethen had previously given orders that all these gambling establishments should be closed in the places where the Prussian contingent were cantoned” (ibid., xi. 409).

114. Supplementary Despatches, etc. , xi. 303. Elsewhere, the Duke of Wellington, writing to the French Government, says: “Je suis très loin d’approuver les mesures de rigueur que je vois adoptées souvent comme mesure de police, mais il n’est pas très facile de les empêcher. L'existence d’une police militaire une fois admise, l’examen par les commandants militaires des passeports de ceux, qui passent par le pays occupé, en est une conséquence, qui ne peut pas être évitée. Il faudrait voir, si en mettant en exécution ces mesures de police, il se trouve des abus. Pour ce qui regarde la demande au maire de Stenay de la liste des militaires qui s’y trouvent ou aux environs, V.E. verra que j’avois suggéré cette mesure dans ma lettre au Général Ziethen. Elle devient onéreuse à cause du nombre de militaires que se trouvent dans ces environs; mais aussi il faut observer, que la nécessité de tenir les militaires en observation, est urgente en proportion de leurs nombres, et le Général Ziethen m’apprend dans une lettre du 20, qu’il n’y a pas moins que 20,000, dans les districts occupés par l’armée Prussienne” (Duke of Wellington to the Duc de Richelieu, Paris, March 2, 1816: ibid., xi. 323).

115. “Si on me croit assez fripon pour vouloir m’emparer d’une place occupée par un garnison du Roi, on devrait au moins me faire la justice de croire que je ne suis pas assez bête pour le faire.... L'occupation est une mesure de paix; son objet est, en affermissant le trône du Roi, et en donnant au Roi le temps de s’affermir lui-même dans son gouvernement, de maintenir la paix parmi les nations, et d’assurer autant que possible la tranquillité du monde. Les troupes des Puissances étrangères qui se trouvent en France sont donc les alliées du Roi; et quel que soit l’opinion à présent sur le bien ou le mal qu’elles font à S.M., on ne peut pas nier que l’année passée on croyait que leur présence était absolument nécessaire pour assurer les objets que tout homme bien pensant avait en vue. Mais quand des troupes amies ou alliées se trouvent dans un pays, est-ce l’usage que, ... si on veut faire passer un détachment de troupes par une ville fortifiée (et observez que si on veut marcher en hiver ou en été cette armée-ci, il faut passer par les places fortes), il faut désarmer les officiers et les soldats à la porte, placer les armes sur les chariots, et passer ainsi comme prisonniers! Vraiment je rougis en écrivant sur cette matière, dont je n’ai appris les détails que dernièrement; et je m’assure que V.E. verra comme moi la nécessité de mettre fin à de telles absurdités. Je sais bien qu’elles sont contraires aux ordres du Roi.... Le principe et les usages militaires exigent qu’il y ait des précautions en admettant une troupe, même de la même nation, dans une place forte; mais est-ce nécessaire, est-ce l’usage de les désarmer? Est-ce possible que je puisse m’y soumettre? N'y a-t-il pas des précautions d’une autre nature qui seraient réelles, et qui sont d’usage, et qui pourraient concilier tous les objets de la sécurité de la ville à passer, avec ce qui est dû au caractère et au respect dû à l’armée d’une autre nation? Par exemple, ne pourrait-on pas avertir du passage, et convenir du nombre qui pourrait passer par la porte au même moment?... Je ne peux pas, ni ne veux pas, me soumettre au désarmement de mes soldats, en passant par une ville quelconque” (Supplementary Despatches, etc. , xi. 493).

116. Brigade Order , Cambrai, May 11, 1818.

117. Supplementary Despatches, etc., xii. 381.

118. Sir Archibald Alison, History of Europe from the Fall of Napoleon in 1815, to the Accession of Louis Napoleon in 1852 , i. 538 (London, 1852). Supplementary Despatches, etc. , xii. 119, 156, 193.

119. M. de Richelieu, present on the part of France, was instructed only to obtain the emancipation of France. “Make every sacrifice,” said the King to him at his departure, “to obtain the evacuation of the territory. It is the first condition of our independence. No flag but our own should wave in France. Express to my Allies how difficult my government will be so long as it can be reproached with the calamities of the country, and the occupation of the territory.... Obtain the best conditions possible; but at any sacrifice, get quit of the stranger” (Alison, History of Europe, 1815-1852 , i. 566).