On the 28th of July, two companies of the Eighty-Eighth had an opportunity of earning distinction for themselves and their corps under the immediate eye of the whole third division, as well as of a strong and select body of the French. The attempt of Marshal Soult to raise the siege of Pampeluna, which had been invested by the Duke of Wellington’s army shortly after the battle of Vittoria, and the series of actions which took place between the covering army and that of Soult in the passes of the Pyrenees between the 25th and 30th of July, which ended in the complete repulse of the French, gave rise to the display of British valour with a splendour never exceeded in the annals of war. The allied army was posted immediately in front of Pampeluna, the right in front of the village of Huarte, the third division being to the right, and those of Lieutenant-General Cole, and Major-General the Honourable E. Pakenham, together with the Spaniards, to the left. The main efforts of Soult during the day were directed against the allied left, but about five in the afternoon, some of his tirailleurs were pushed forward as if to feel the countenance of the third division, and ascertain whether its position would be seriously defended or not. The light company of the Eighty-Eighth, commanded by Captain Robert Nickle (late Lieutenant-Colonel of the Thirty-Sixth Foot) was ordered to drive them back, which it speedily accomplished: a select body of French, headed by an officer of the staff, who had volunteered for that service, now advanced to support the repulsed tirailleurs, and two battalion companies of the Eighty-Eighth hurried to the assistance of their comrades. The skirmish, fought in sight of the two armies, took almost the type of a national trial of skill and courage; the French rushed forward with their characteristic impetuosity, shouting “Vive l’Empereur;” the Connaught rangers, accompanied by the cheers of their division, met them with the bayonet, and overthrew them at the first onset. The French commanding officer was left on the field mortally wounded; Captain Nickle, as soon as the conflict was decided, went up to render any assistance in his power to his fallen antagonist, and, finding him already dead, tied his handkerchief on the point of his sabre, and waving it towards the retreating French, beckoned to them to return for the body of their officer, which they did, and carried him off to render the last honours to his remains.

During the movements of the succeeding day, when the allied army resumed the offensive, a heavy column of French infantry was routed by Major-General Brisbane’s brigade, and the greater part made prisoners by the Forty-Fifth, Seventy-Fourth, and Eighty-Eighth. After this the third division re-occupied the pass of Roncesvalles, where it remained till the 8th of August, when Major-General Brisbane’s brigade was relieved by Colonel Downie’s brigade of Spaniards, and proceeded by the valley of Los Alduides to the pass of Maya.

On the 31st of August the whole of the third division crossed the frontiers of France, and Major-General Brisbane’s brigade occupied the pass of Echalar, replacing there the Seventh division, which had proceeded to reinforce the troops before St. Sebastian; on the 4th, however, it returned to the pass of Maya, and on the 15th resumed its old position near the village of Erisoun, and remained in the valley of Bastan till the 7th of October, when, in consequence of the left of the army having crossed the Bidassoa and entered France, the Eighty-Eighth and the rest of the division moved to the village of Zagarramundi to the right and in front of the pass of Echalar.

During this interval (9th of September, 1813) Lieutenant-Colonel Taylor joined the regiment, and superseded Lieutenant-Colonel Macpherson in the command.

The colours of the Eighty-Eighth bear testimony that it had its share on the 10th of November, in the storming of the formidable lines which the French had erected on the river Nivelle, and in the various actions which took place on the banks of the Nive, between the 9th and 13th of December; but on neither of these occasions had it the good fortune to come into actual contact with the enemy. On the 17th of December it went into cantonments in the village of Urcuray, situated on the high road leading from Bayonne to St. Jean Pied de Port, and the adjacent hamlets, where it remained till the army again moved forward in February following.

In the battle of Orthes, 28th of February 1814, the third division was directed to attack the heights on which the enemy’s centre and left stood, and the Eighty-Eighth had once more an opportunity of distinguishing itself, when its loss was more severe than on any other occasion, except the siege of Badajoz. The Fifty-Second led the attack; the Eighty-Eighth advanced on the right; the heights were carried, and the regiment advancing in pursuit, its left flank was charged by a body of French cavalry, which it entirely overthrew, killing, wounding, or taking prisoners the whole detachment, which was hemmed in in a narrow road, and precluded from all retreat. In this battle, Captain Oates’s conduct was particularly noticed, and procured for him the Brevet rank of Major in the army. The loss of the battalion was three officers, Captain M‘Dermott, Lieutenant Moriarty, and Ensign Reynolds, five Serjeants and thirty-six Rank and File killed; and eleven Officers, Lieutenant-Colonel Taylor, Captains Oates and Bunworth, Lieutenants Fitzpatrick, Davern, Faris, Creswell, Holland, and Stewart, Ensign M‘Intosh, Ensign and Adjutant Mitchell, thirteen Serjeants, and two hundred and one Rank and File wounded. Total, two hundred and seventy-seven.

After this severe action the regiment was placed in cantonments until the 13th of March, when it again took the field, and was present on the 4th of April, at the battle of Toulouse. Although only three companies of the regiment were engaged on this occasion, they had the good fortune to perform a critical and important service, in supporting the Forty-Fifth and Seventy-Fourth when engaged with very unequal numbers of the enemy. The Light Infantry Company, in particular, suffered, and its Captain, R. Nickle, was severely wounded: the loss of the three companies in killed, was equal to that of the whole battalion at Vittoria, amounting to one Serjeant and twenty-nine Men; the wounded were Captain Nickle and Lieutenant Poole, one Serjeant, and fifty-three Rank and File.

The Serjeant who fell at Toulouse, was much regretted by the whole corps; his name was Thorpe, and he was Serjeant-Major of the battalion. He had been originally Drum-Major, in which capacity he was present at the battle of Busaco: on that occasion, when ordered with the band and drummers, to the rear, he entreated his commanding officer to allow him to join his company, and having obtained permission he fell into the ranks, behaving with the utmost gallantry throughout that memorable day. This, and other instances of his courage, induced Lieutenant-Colonel Wallace to consider him qualified for a higher situation, and to remove him from the band into the line. He had for some time been recommended for a commission, to which the Gazette which arrived from England a few days after his death, contained his appointment.

The peace of Paris in 1814, having put an end to the war on the Continent, the Eighty-Eighth Regiment was among the corps ordered to proceed to America, where hostilities were still raging. It embarked in the Gironde on the 15th of June, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Macpherson, and, without returning to England, sailed direct to Quebec, where it arrived on the 3rd of August following. The unfortunate failure of the combined military and naval operations on Lake Champlain and at Plattsburgh put a stop to active hostilities in Canada, and the Eighty-Eighth had only one opportunity of coming into contact with the enemy, viz., at the passage of the Savannah, where the light company, under Captain Nickle, distinguished itself.

If, however, the period of its stay in Canada was barren of laurels to the Eighty-Eighth, it gave the regiment an opportunity of displaying qualities which, if not so dazzling and brilliant, are equally valuable in, and honourable to the soldier, namely, firm discipline and unshakeable fidelity to his king, his country, and his colours. The extent to which desertion prevailed amongst the British troops in America, is unhappily but too well known; but although the Eighty-Eighth was stationed on the banks of the river Richelieu, within a few hours’ sail of the province of Vermont; although the men were considerably in debt to their officers, and under stoppages to pay off an incumbrance, of which desertion would at once have relieved them; although tempting rewards awaited such as should reach the American territory, which could be done without the slightest risk; although American ships were daily arriving and departing, and the facilities were such that, if so disposed, the whole battalion might have deserted in a night, the Eighty-Eighth did not lose one man by desertion, during the whole eleven months that it remained in Canada!!

This honourable conduct of the men of the Eighty-Eighth did not go unnoticed or unrewarded; their reward was exemption from the painful duty of being present when the extreme sentence of martial law was executed upon deserters from other regiments. The following is a copy of the brigade order on one occasion of the kind, more than nine months after the arrival of the regiment in America.

The subject was again honourably adverted to by Major-General Brisbane, in a letter addressed to the regiment in Brigade Orders, when, in consequence of the escape of Napoleon from Elba, and the prospect of renewed and active warfare in Europe, it had been ordered to return to England.

On the 29th of May the regiment marched from St. John’s, reached William Henry on the 1st of June, where it embarked in small craft, and arrived at Trois Rivieres on the 4th. At Trois Rivieres it was shifted into transports, reached Quebec on the 8th, sailed again on the 10th, and arrived at Spithead on the 15th of July.

The battle of Waterloo had decided the contest in Europe before the arrival of the Eighty-Eighth; nevertheless the regiment was ordered to proceed, without disembarking, to Flanders. After two days’ stay, therefore, at Spithead, it sailed again on the 17th, and landed at Ostend on the 21st of July. From thence it proceeded towards Paris, and on the 12th of August took up its quarters at St. Denis, and was once more attached to Sir Thomas Brisbane’s brigade. In December following it was removed to that of Sir John Keane, on which occasion Major-General Brisbane caused the following letter to be addressed to Colonel Wallace, who had again taken command of the regiment.

From January, 1816, to the end of the spring, 1817, the Eighty-Eighth was in garrison at Valenciennes, when it returned to Great Britain, and was quartered in Edinburgh about two years. Some time after its arrival in Scotland, a letter was received from Lieutenant-General the Honourable Sir Charles Colville, who had frequently had it under his command, as part of the third division, in the Peninsula, and more recently during its stay at Valenciennes, “expressing his hearty wish for the honour and well-being of the regiment in whatever situation it may be placed, and requesting the Officers, Non-Commissioned Officers and Privates, to accept his thanks for the ready attention paid to his orders during the period the regiment was under his command.”

During the period of repose at Edinburgh, it occurred to Colonel Wallace to establish an Order of Merit in the regiment, by conferring some honorary mark of distinction on the non-commissioned officers and privates, proportioned to their regimental character, length of service, and the number of general engagements in which they had been present. This was, however, a design which could not be carried into execution without the consent and approbation of the Commander-in-Chief, which Colonel Wallace applied for in the following letter:—

The answer of the Commander-in-Chief, communicated in a letter from Sir Henry Torrens, dated 28th of the same month, sanctioned Colonel Wallace’s plan, leaving it to his “discretion to grant such testimonials in the case alluded to, as he might deem essential to the good of the regiment.” The proper authority thus obtained, Colonel Wallace’s intentions were carried into effect without delay. Silver medals of three distinct classes were struck at the expense of the officers of the regiment. The first class was bestowed on men who had been present in twelve general actions, and consisted of a Maltese cross on which the names of the twelve actions were stamped. The second class was given to those who had served in from six to eleven general actions, and the third to such as had served in any number less than six. The name of the man to whom it was given was engraved on each medal. The total number distributed was,—

On the 11th of March, 1819, Lieutenant-General Sir Gordon Drummond, G.C.B., was appointed Colonel of the Regiment, in succession to Lieut.-Gen. Viscount Beresford, who was removed to the Sixty-Ninth Regiment.

In the summer of 1819, the Eighty-Eighth moved from Edinburgh to Hull, sending detachments to Manchester and Stockport. In August of the same year, Colonel Wallace, after more than fourteen years’ service with the regiment, was promoted to the rank of Major-General, and was succeeded in the command by Lieutenant-Colonel James Ferguson.

During the time the regiment was quartered at Hull, the manufacturing districts of England were in a high state of discontent, and attempts were made to circulate inflammatory publications amongst the military. Private James Tracy, of the Eighty-Eighth, being tampered with for this purpose, received the papers, but, instead of distributing them amongst his comrades, instantly gave them up to his commanding officer, Major Nickle, furnishing, at the same time, such information as led to the apprehension and conviction of the man from whom he had received them. For this conduct Tracy received a liberal reward, as well as the approbation of Lieutenant-General Sir John Byng, commanding the district, which was conveyed to him through a letter to Colonel Ferguson.

From Hull the Eighty-Eighth removed to Chester, and from thence, in the summer of 1821, to Liverpool, where it embarked for Ireland, landed at Dublin, and proceeded to Enniskillen, where it took up its head-quarters, furnishing sixteen officers’ detachments. In July, 1822, it moved from Enniskillen to Castlebar in Connaught, where it remained, again furnishing fifteen officers’ detachments, till December, 1823, when it marched to barracks at Naas. On quitting Castlebar it received a very flattering address from the magistrates and resident gentlemen of the town and neighbourhood.

On the 16th of January, 1824, Lieutenant-General Sir Gordon Drummond was removed to the Seventy-First regiment, and the Colonelcy of the Eighty-Eighth was conferred upon Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Frederick Campbell, K.C.B., G.C.H.

It was February, 1825, before the last detachment joined from Connaught, when the regiment, once more united, removed to Dublin, occupying first the Richmond, and subsequently the Royal barracks. While the Eighty-Eighth remained in Dublin, orders were issued for increasing the establishments of regiments from eight to ten companies. The zealous exertions of Lieutenant-Colonel Ferguson, aided by the high popularity the corps enjoyed, enabled the Eighty-Eighth to complete its numbers in little more than six weeks, and to be the first regiment reported as complete to the Commander-in-Chief, a circumstance honourably noticed in a letter from the Adjutant-General of the Forces to Major-General Sir Colquhoun Grant, then commanding the garrison of Dublin, under date of 20th of June, 1825. “I have it in command,” says the letter of the Adjutant-General, “to express His Royal Highness’s approbation of the zeal manifested by Lieutenant-Colonel Ferguson, the commanding officer, in thus rapidly raising the augmentation, and which being the first instance of completion yet reported, is most creditable to that officer, and the corps under his command.”

In the latter part of the summer of 1825, the regiment removed to Templemore, furnishing fourteen detachments in the counties of Tipperary and Limerick. Here Lieutenant-Colonel O’Malley joined on the 10th of August, and took the command in place of Lieutenant-Colonel Ferguson, who had been removed to the Fifty-Second Regiment. In September it received orders for the Mediterranean, embarked by divisions at Cork on the 7th and 21st of October and 12th of December, 1825, and proceeded to Corfu, where the last division arrived on the 27th of January, 1826.

During the year 1828 the regiment furnished several detachments to the neighbouring islands of Ithaca, Cerigo, Calamos, and Santa Maura; the detachment in the last-named island suffered severely from a malignant fever which raged during the months of June, July, and August, and carried off thirty-six men out of seventy-five, of which it originally consisted. On the 19th of September, the head-quarters were removed to Cephalonia, on which occasion Major-General Woodford took leave of it in the following very flattering terms:—

In April, 1830, the Eighty-Eighth again returned to Corfu, where it remained until September, 1831, when it was removed to Vido, and continued there until December, 1831, when it again proceeded to Corfu. The reserve companies remained in Ireland from 1825, to April, 1830, when they embarked for England.

From the time of its original formation, the Eighty-Eighth regiment had, as stated at the commencement of the Record, borne on its colours and appointments a device, consisting of a Harp and Crown, with the motto “Quis separabit?” No direct authority appears to have authorised this appropriation of a badge and motto, but use had sanctioned it, and the recollection of the fields of glory in which it had waved before the enemy, endeared it to the sympathies of the officers and men. In an official design for a new stand of colours preparing for the regiment towards the end of 1830, this device and motto were omitted. Colonel O’Malley immediately wrote to the Adjutant-General representing the case, and the strong wishes of the regiment for its retention, for the consideration of the Commander-in-Chief. His application was successful, and obtained distinct authority for the corps to continue the use of the badge to which it was so strongly and so reasonably attached. The Adjutant-General, in a letter dated from the Horse-Guards, 30th of December, 1830, says—

The Eighty-Eighth regiment having been omitted among the regiments authorised to bear, as an honorary distinction, the word “Pyrenees” on its Colours, the Commanding Officer, Lieutenant-Colonel O’Malley, in the year 1830, made the most strenuous exertions to obtain this additional honour for the regiment, in commemoration of its services in the actions in the Pyrenees, as narrated at pages 52, &c.; and testimonials of its gallant conduct on the occasions in question, were furnished by Major-General Sir Thomas Brisbane, who commanded the brigade of which the Eighty-Eighth formed a part,—by Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Frederick Stovin, who acted as Assistant-Adjutant-General to the third division,—and by Lieutenant-Colonel James Campbell, who was Major of Brigade.

This omission occurred in consequence of the officer who commanded the regiment on the occasion alluded to, not having received a medal for that service, perhaps owing to an accident, or clerical error at the time; but, as Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Picton, who commanded the third division, fell in the battle of Waterloo, the requisite form of recommendation for honours of this description could not be procured, and the General Commanding-in-Chief did not feel himself justified in departing from the general rule which had been established, as the ground on which these distinctions should be submitted for the King’s approval. This honorary inscription is, consequently, not borne on the colours of the Eighty-Eighth regiment, for its services in the Pyrenees.

On the 20th October, 1831, Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Frederick Campbell, K.C.B., was removed to the Twenty-Fifth regiment, and Major-General Sir John Alexander Wallace, Bart. and K.C.B., who had commanded the regiment in many of the arduous campaigns during the Peninsular war, was appointed to the Colonelcy of the Connaught Rangers.

The Eighty-Eighth regiment continued in Corfu from the year 1830 to 1836, furnishing occasionally working parties for the island of Vido, and detachments to Santa Maura, and the other islands: the detachment to Santa Maura in April, 1832, continued there ten months, and consisted of two Captains, three Subalterns, one Assistant-Surgeon, six Serjeants, two Drummers, and one hundred and fifty Rank and File.

To those persons interested in the well-being of the corps, and who recollect the extent of sickness and mortality experienced by a former detachment at this station, and of not more than half the strength, in the year 1828, it will be gratifying to know, that not more than two deaths took place, neither of which was caused by climate, one of them was accidental drowning, and the other the consequence of delirium tremens; indeed, such was the health of this detachment, that the hospital was, for the greater part of the time, unoccupied during its stay at Santa Maura.

From the period of the return of the regiment from the Island of Cephalonia to Corfu, Major-General Sir Alexander Woodford, in making his half-yearly inspections, expressed in every instance his approbation of the corps, more especially in June, 1831, when he addressed a letter, of which the following is a copy, to Major O’Hara, then Commanding Officer, upon whom, and the regiment altogether, the sentiments expressed by the Major-General reflect much credit:—

Nothing of importance connected with the history of the regiment, occurred from the date of its return to Corfu, with the exception of the melancholy circumstance of Captain the Honourable Charles Gustavus Monckton having been assassinated by a villain, private James Clarke, on the 9th August, 1831, under the impression, as it is believed, that his being accidentally met out of barracks at a late hour of the night, by Captain Monckton, when in the act of committing felony, might tend to his conviction thereof.

The constitution of a regiment is such that the acts of individuals, more or less, reflect honour or disgrace on the whole corps, and much of the fame and high character to which the Eighty-Eighth regiment has claim, would perhaps be tarnished, if grounds existed for imagining that any other individual belonging to it was concerned in this diabolical act; the feelings evinced by the soldiers of the regiment, particularly those of the company to which the assassin belonged, when forgetful of the forbearance due to religion and to the laws, they were with difficulty restrained from taking vengeance, as well as their subsequent conduct in requesting to be permitted to subscribe one dollar (4s. 4d.) per man, to erect a monument to the memory of their much-lamented officer, and thereby make known to posterity, their horror and indignation at the disgraceful occurrence, are convincing proofs that no other soldier was implicated in this disgraceful transaction.

The request of the regiment was acquiesced in; at the same time it was deemed prudent to limit the subscription of the Non-Commissioned Officers and Privates, to one day’s pay each, with which a monument has been erected in the military burial-ground of Corfu.

The following notification was made to the regiment on this occasion:—

The monument bears the following inscription in English, and in Greek, viz.:—

SACRED
To the Memory of
THE HONOURABLE CHARLES GUSTAVUS MONCKTON,
Late Captain in
His Majesty’s Eighty-Eighth Regiment (or Connaught Rangers),
Who died by the hand of an Assassin, on the 9th August, 1831,
Aged Twenty-Six years.
This Monument is erected by the Non-Commissioned Officers and Private
Soldiers of the Regiment, in testimony of their respect and regard
for this most lamented young Officer, and to record their
abhorrence of the atrocious act by which he was
deprived of life.
The feeling of grief and indignation, strongly and universally expressed
by the Regiment, was only moderated on witnessing the prompt
punishment of the murderer, Private James Clarke, who
was executed on the 11th August, 1831.

It may be here told, in further justice to the feelings of the men of the company to which this assassin Clarke belonged, that such was the horror of the wretch’s memory amongst them, that not one of those soldiers could be prevailed with, unless positively ordered, to receive, and do duty with the arms and accoutrements which had been in his charge, and this having come to the knowledge of the Commanding Officer, in March, 1833, when a draft of men was received from the reserve companies, which made it necessary to bring in use some spare arms and accoutrements, Colonel O’Malley (in proof of his acquiescence in the feeling) caused the accoutrements and appointments in question to be cut in pieces on the parade of the regiment, and the objectionable firelock was delivered into the Ordnance stores in exchange for another.

The ceremony of presenting new colours to the regiment, took place at Corfu on the 27th of February, 1834, the anniversary of the battle of Orthes, in which the Eighty-Eighth regiment bore a distinguished part, and suffered a severe loss in officers and men.

The presentation of colours, which is under any circumstances interesting, caused on the present occasion an unusual excitement, it being known that they were to be given by Lady Woodford, the wife of Major-General Sir Alexander Woodford, commanding the troops in the Ionian Islands. A vast concourse of people, with all the beauty and fashion of the place, assembled at an early hour on the esplanade of the citadel, which is finely situated, commanding a view of the rugged and snow-topped mountains of Albania, of the sea, and of the fertile hills of the island covered with olives, and green with the opening vegetation of an early spring. The fineness of the day was in unison with the beauty of the scenery, and nature herself seemed to smile on the expected ceremony. The Lord High Commissioner, Lord Nugent, the President of the Senate, and the Senators with their families, and the nobility and gentry of the island, honoured the corps with their presence.

The regiment being assembled and drawn up in line, at about eleven o’clock Lady Woodford arrived in her carriage, attended by the Major-General and his Staff on horseback; and on her Ladyship’s descending in front of the line, the regiment presented arms, the band playing “God save the King.” The grenadier company then moved from the right, and drew up facing the centre of the battalion: having opened its ranks, it presented arms to the old colours, of which it took charge, and escorted them to the citadel, the regiment presenting arms to them. Shortly afterwards the grenadiers returned with the new colours, which had been consecrated on the previous Sunday, and had remained in the garrison chapel. These were delivered by the Rev. Charles Küper to the Major and senior Captain, by whom they were borne to the parade, where those officers placed themselves on either side of Lady Woodford, continuing to hold the colours unfurled. The grenadiers having resumed their place on the right of the line, the regiment formed three sides of a square, leaving the fourth open to the public. During this formation, in order that a suitable impression might be made on their young minds, the school children of the regiment (boys and girls), neatly and uniformly dressed in green, moved into the square.

Ensigns Herbert and Honeywood, upon whom the honour of receiving the colours devolved, were then ordered to advance towards Lady Woodford, when her Ladyship delivered the colours to those officers, with the following exhortation:—

At this moment a light breeze expanded the Colours, emblazoned with the names of the many battles in which the corps had borne a distinguished part, and a simultaneous burst of admiration and applause issued forth from the numerous spectators.

The Ensigns then moved to their places in the line of Officers; as they advanced, the regiment presented arms, the band playing “God save the King.”

The Major-General then stepped forward and addressed the regiment in the following terms:—

The Commanding Officer, Colonel O’Malley, replied to the Major-General as follows:—

The square was then reduced, and the regiment being in line, fired a feu de joie, the drums beating a point of war between each fire, and at the close the band played “God save the King;” after which the regiment gave three hearty cheers in honour of the occasion. The regiment then broke into column and marched past, the Officers saluting, and the line being re-formed, opened its ranks, advanced, and again presented arms.

At two o’clock, the whole of the Non-Commissioned Officers and Soldiers, with their families, were provided with an excellent dinner on the parade in the citadel.

The Service Companies embarked from Corfu on board the Barosa troop ship, under command of Major Eden, on 29th July, 1836, and landed at Portsmouth the 23rd of September, where they joined the Depôt Companies after a separation of nearly eleven years, those companies having arrived only two days previously from Ireland.

The Depôt Companies after being moved from Ireland to Languard Fort and Harwich in 1830, continued to occupy those quarters until July, 1832, when they moved to Chatham, leaving a detachment of one company at Harwich, under command of Captain Orr; on the 1st January, 1833, Major O’Hara joined and assumed the command of the depôt, Major Eden having proceeded to join the Service Companies, and in this year the depôt moved to Sheerness, where Captain Orr’s detachment joined in June from Harwich, on quitting which place Captain Orr received a letter expressive of the admiration of the Mayor, Justices, and Inhabitants, of the good conduct of the detachment, of which letter and of Captain Orr’s reply, the following are copies, viz.:—