In 1814 the army, strengthened by recruits and recovered men, continued its march into France, and on the 24th of February arrived at Salvatira.
The light company was engaged with those of the brigade, when a much superior force of the enemy attacked them; the light companies were in consequence recalled, and the brigade brought down to cover their retreat. On this occasion two rank and file were killed; Lieutenants Joseph Barry and William Wolsley Lanphier, with nine rank and file, wounded; and Lieutenant George Jackson taken prisoner.
On the 25th of February the regiment crossed the ford, attacked the French at Orthes on the 27th, and drove them from their entrenchments with immense loss. In this action the second battalion of the Eighty-seventh regiment drew from the general officers in command the greatest praises for its bravery. It had one lieutenant, five serjeants, and eighty-seven rank and file killed; one major, four lieutenants, eight serjeants, and one hundred and fifty-eight rank and file wounded: total, two hundred and sixty-four. The strength in the field was five hundred and fifty-one.
| Killed. | |
| Lieutenant— | James Fitz Gerald. |
| Wounded. | |
| Major—Frederick Desbarres. | |
| Lieutenant— | William Mountgarrett. |
| ” | James Thompson. |
| ” | Grady. |
| ” | William Maginnis. |
In commemoration of this battle, the Eighty-seventh received the royal authority to bear the word “Orthes” on the regimental colour and appointments.
In an affair which took place on the 19th of March at Vic Bigorre, three rank and file were killed, and two lieutenants and twelve rank and file wounded: total, seventeen. The strength of the battalion was five hundred and seventy.
Wounded.
Lieutenant—William Dunlevie.
Lieut. and Adjt.—James T. Moore.
Having continued the pursuit of the enemy and crossed the river Garonne, four leagues below Toulouse, on the 5th of April, and attacked the French on the 10th of the same month at Toulouse on the left of the town, the redoubts were taken and retaken several times during the day. The enemy retreated at night, having suffered great loss; that of the Eighty-seventh was one brevet-major, four serjeants, one drummer, and twenty-two rank and file killed; one lieutenant, one ensign, six serjeants, and sixty-four rank and file wounded: total, one hundred. Its strength in the field was four hundred and sixty-four.
Killed.
Brevet-Major—Henry Bright.
Wounded.
Lieutenant—William Wolsley Lanphier.
Ensign—Abraham F. Royse.
Patrick Connors never went into action without attracting the notice of his officers. On this occasion he particularly distinguished himself, and was promoted to the rank of serjeant, which situation he retained until his death.
Serjeant Carr, who was wounded at Tarifa, and served with credit in every action with the battalion, distinguished himself; likewise Serjeants Rideaux and Irwin. Lieutenant and Adjutant Moore had a horse shot under him. Private Thomas Byrne was also badly wounded, but recovered, and was promoted.
The royal authority was afterwards granted for the Eighty-seventh to bear the word “Toulouse” on the regimental colour and appointments, in commemoration of the second battalion having shared in this battle.
During the night of the 11th of April the French troops evacuated Toulouse, and a white flag was hoisted. On the following day the Marquis of Wellington entered the city amidst the acclamations of the inhabitants. In the course of the afternoon of the 12th of April intelligence was received of the abdication of Napoleon; and had not the express been delayed on the journey by the French police, the sacrifice of many valuable lives would have been prevented.
A disbelief in the truth of this intelligence occasioned much unnecessary bloodshed at Bayonne, the garrison of which made a desperate sortie on the 14th of April, and Lieut.-General Sir John Hope (afterwards Earl of Hopetoun) was taken prisoner, Major-General Andrew Hay was killed, and Major-General Stopford was wounded. This was the last action of the Peninsular war.
A Treaty of Peace was established between Great Britain and France; Louis XVIII. was restored to the throne of his ancestors, and Napoleon Bonaparte was permitted to reside at Elba, the sovereignty of that island having been conceded to him by the allied powers.
Prior to the breaking up of the Peninsular army, the Duke of Wellington issued the following general order:
“Bordeaux, 14th June 1814.
“The Commander of the Forces, being upon the point of returning to England, again takes this opportunity of congratulating the army upon the recent events which have restored peace to their country and to the world.
“The share which the British army have had in producing those events, and the high character with which the army will quit this country, must be equally satisfactory to every individual belonging to it, as they are to the Commander of the Forces, and he trusts that the troops will continue the same good conduct to the last.
“The Commander of the Forces once more requests the army to accept his thanks.
“Although circumstances may alter the relations in which he has stood towards them for some years so much to his satisfaction, he assures them he will never cease to feel the warmest interest in their welfare and honor, and that he will be at all times happy to be of any service to those to whose conduct, discipline, and gallantry their country is so much indebted.”
In addition to the other distinctions acquired during the war in the Peninsula and the south of France, the Eighty-seventh received the royal authority to bear the word “Peninsula” on the regimental colour and appointments.
The war being ended, the battalion marched from Toulouse to Blanchfort, and embarked at Pouillac on the 7th of July, and arrived at Cork on the 20th of that month.
After being inspected, on landing at Cork, by the General commanding the district, the battalion was marched to Mallow to relieve the Twentieth regiment. It subsequently marched to the city of Limerick, and was stationed there for a few days, when orders were received for it to proceed to Middleton, in the county of Cork, to await the arrival of transports.
The battalion embarked at the Cove of Cork on the 23rd of August, and landed at Portsmouth, after a protracted voyage, on the 14th of September. On the day of disembarkation it proceeded en route to Horsham, where the depôt of the regiment was stationed. After a stay of some days at Horsham, it marched to Plymouth for garrison duty, where it remained until December, having taken its tour of a month’s duty over the American prisoners of war at Dartmoor.
On the 6th of December 1814 the battalion embarked for Guernsey, of which island General Sir John Doyle, Bart., the Colonel of the regiment, was Governor, and where it arrived on the 8th of that month.
The battalion continued on duty at Guernsey until the 2nd of April 1816, when it embarked for Portsmouth, from whence it marched to Colchester in September following.
On the 25th of January 1817, in pursuance of measures being taken for the reduction of the army, orders were received for the disbandment of the second battalion of the Eighty-seventh regiment, on which occasion Lieut.-Colonel Sir Hugh Gough issued the following orders:—
“Colchester Barracks, 24th January, 1817.
“It is with the most painful feeling of regret Lieut.-Colonel Sir Hugh Gough is necessitated to announce to the second battalion, Prince’s Own Irish, that their services as a corps are no longer required, in consequence of the military arrangements it has been found necessary to adopt.
“In making this distressing though necessary communication, and in taking leave of those brave officers and men, at whose head it has been Sir Hugh Gough’s good fortune so long to have been placed, he feels himself on this occasion called upon to recapitulate the leading ones of so many brilliant achievements performed by his gallant comrades now about to separate. The recollection of such scenes must be a source of gratification to all, whether called on to serve their country in India, or to retire to their families and native land. To their Commanding Officer it ever has and ever will be, a source of heartfelt exultation. By their country and by their illustrious master, their services have been duly appreciated, and nobly rewarded by that designation, and by those badges so peculiar, so honorable, and so gratifying.
“The Eighty-seventh had the good fortune to serve under the first General of the age, throughout the greater part of the Peninsular war, and longer than most corps in the service. At the battle of Talavera on the 27th of July, 1809 (when the battalion first encountered the enemy), they had to sustain unsupported the repeated attacks of the advance corps, and did not retire until both flanks were turned, the battalion nearly surrounded by an infinitely superior force, and two-thirds of the officers and men either killed or wounded. The movement of the regiment to the rear, and its formation on the other corps of the division, was a counterpart of their conduct, in having instantly recovered, on the first attack of the enemy, a temporary confusion which was occasioned by the fire of a British regiment into the rear of the battalion, the thickness of the wood having made it impossible for that distinguished corps to have perceived the new position which the Eighty-seventh had taken up.
“On this memorable occasion the charge of the two centre companies did them and their officers the greatest honor. The gallantry of the whole was conspicuous, and obtained the personal thanks of the brave officer who commanded the division[16], and who unfortunately fell on the following day, and also the repeated thanks of the officer commanding the brigade.
“At the brilliant action of Barrosa the conduct of the Eighty-seventh in taking up the first position under a most destructive fire from the enemy’s artillery, and a column three times its numbers, when it formed with the precision of parade movements, gave a happy omen of the issue of the day. The advance of the battalion in line, its volley into the two battalions of the eighth, and its charge on that corps, called for and received the proudest meed of gallantry, the enthusiastic approbation of such an officer as Sir Thomas Graham.
“This charge was rewarded by the wreathed eagle of the eighth French regiment, and a howitzer: it led in a great measure to the total discomfiture of the right column under General Laval, and nearly annihilated two battalions of one of the finest regiments in the French army: of one thousand six hundred men, which they brought into the field, only three hundred and fifty returned to Chiclana. The ready formation of the right wing from amidst the ranks of the retreating enemy, and their charge on the fifty-fourth French regiment, which at this moment attacked the right of the Eighty-seventh, was rewarded by the marked approbation of their esteemed chief. The ultimate advance of the battalion on the enemy’s guns was equally praiseworthy.
“At Tarifa, a species of service new to the British army called for a renewal of that steady gallantry which marked the conduct of the Eighty-seventh at Barrosa. The immense superiority, in number, of the enemy, added enthusiasm to discipline: the cool intrepidity, the strict observance of orders, the exulting cheer when the enemy’s columns pressed forward to the attack, proved the feelings which influenced the defenders of the breach of Tarifa, and was as honorable to them as soldiers, as their humane conduct to the wounded (when the enemy fled) was to their characters as men.
“The persevering attention to their duty on the walls, in conjunction with their brave comrades, the second battalion of the Forty-seventh, exposed to the continued fire of an enemy ten times the number of the garrison, and to the most dreadfully inclement weather, led to the ultimate abandonment of the siege, and was rewarded by the approbation of their General, their Prince, and their Country.
“The battle of Vittoria renewed the claim the Eighty-seventh had to a place in the third division, and under its lamented leader[17] the battalion acquired fresh laurels. The charge of the Prince’s Own on the hill crowned with the enemy’s artillery, and covered with a strong column, called forth the marked approbation of Major-General the Honorable Charles Colville, as did the pursuit of that column, though flanked by a corps greatly superior in numbers. The cool steadiness with which they preserved their second position, under the fire and within a short range of a large portion of the enemy’s field artillery, although the battalion at this time had lost upwards of half the number it took into the field, showed the steady perseverance in bravery and discipline which ever marked the glorious career of the corps.
“The attack on the fortified hill at the action of the Nivelle, and the gallantry which rendered the conduct of the battalion so conspicuous in the subsequent attacks on that day, called for those animated expressions from Major-General the Honorable Charles Colville and Colonel John Keane, who commanded the division and brigade, ‘Gallant Eighty-seventh!’ ‘Noble Eighty-seventh!’ and deservedly were those titles bestowed.
“The actions of Orthes and Toulouse were also most glorious to the character of the corps, and its conduct was rewarded by the repeated thanks of the Generals commanding.
“Since the return of the Eighty-seventh from service, they have shown, that to gallantry in the field, they add the most essential requisite in a soldier, orderly and correct conduct in garrison, which has acquired for them the approbation of every general officer under whom they have served, and the good wishes and esteem of the inhabitants with whom they have been placed.
“While the foregoing detail will be most gratifying to the gallant men who have survived, the recital must also be consoling to the families of those who fell. The Prince’s Own Irish bled prodigally and nobly; they have sealed their duty to their King and country by the sacrifice of nearly two thousand of their comrades. But, while Lieut.-Colonel Sir Hugh Gough feels an honest pride in recounting these achievements, he wishes to caution his brother soldiers from assuming any exclusive right to pre-eminence over their gallant comrades; the Army of the Peninsula nobly did their duty, and repeatedly received the thanks of their Prince and their country.
“In parting with the remains of that corps in which Sir Hugh Gough has served twenty-two years, at the head of which, and by whose valour and discipline, he has obtained those marks of distinction with which he has been honored by his Royal Master, he cannot too emphatically express the most heartfelt acknowledgments and his deep regret.
“From all classes of his officers he has uniformly experienced the most cordial and ready support. Their conduct in the field, while it called for the entire approbation of their Commanding Officer, acquired for them the best stay to military enterprise and military renown, the confidence of their men, and led to the accomplishment of their wishes, the Approbation of their Prince, the Honor of their country, and the Character of their Corps. Every non-commissioned officer and man is equally entitled to the thanks of his Commanding Officer. To all he feels greatly indebted, and he begs to assure all, that their prosperity as individuals, or as a corps, will ever be the first wish of his heart, and to promote which he will consider no sacrifice or exertion too great.”
The second battalion was disbanded at Colchester on the 1st of February 1817, having transferred to the first battalion three hundred and thirty effective men, most of whom were embarked in the same month, to join the first battalion in the Bengal Presidency.
1817.