Fire and Folly (Man of Conflict Series Book 3)

by Andrew Wareham

  The three begged permission to speak, one after the other admitted the charge; they had seen the Gordons to be looting and had been tempted; they were very sorry.

  "There are very nearly one thousand men in this battalion. Nine hundred and ninety did their duty. Just three thought they were no better than a mob of Highlands vagabonds! Why?"

  The three had nothing to say.

  "I am disappointed in you. You have let the battalion down. You deserve five hundred apiece, because you have betrayed all of the other men in the Hampshires! But, if I give you five hundred then you will lie in idleness in the surgeon's tents for a month, doing nothing while the rest of the men perform their duty. You will stand double sentry duty for the next month. Come before me again and I will send you to field court martial - and that will result in one thousand, or worse!"

  "Very light punishment, sir?"

  "Perhaps too light, Mr Green. I have no wish to be seen to flog the men, not if it can be avoided. I would far rather have a hanging or firing party when on active service - it conveys the message so much more effectively, I think."

  "I do not quite understand, sir."

  "Flogging is often seen by the men as cruelty rather than punishment - a long drawn out process of torture. The death penalty is quick and simple and is unquestionably punishment. It is not offered at a whim by a perverse officer, as flogging is sometimes thought to be. Thus, I prefer to offer death if the need arises. If the offence is none so severe, then a penalty that the others can laugh at while still causing great inconvenience will be effective, I think. Those three will get no more than two nights of undisturbed sleep in each of the next four weeks; they will be tired beyond belief, and none of their squad-mates will have an ounce of sympathy for them."

  "Yet most regiments use the cat freely, sir."

  "They may be right to do so. I do not know. At the moment it is hard to lay hands upon recruits and we must not be wasteful of them. A thousand lashes will always break a man, cripple him; five hundred may be sufficient to do the same - such punishment must be reserved for those who will never carry a musket again. A man who can still be trusted to stand in line must be preserved in sufficient health for the purpose. I am unwilling to weaken the battalion unnecessarily, Mr Green."

  "One is reminded, sir, that the Good Book says 'who loveth, chastiseth'."

  "So I have been informed, Mr Green. I am sure you will wish to discuss that point with the chaplain. On which note, sir, I did not observe Mr Scott to be present at the battlefield committals yesterday."

  "Mr Scott did not feel very well, sir. I believe his bowels were somewhat upset, sir."

  "I understand that the smell of powder can have that effect on some unfortunate mortals, Mr Green. Inform the good gentleman that I shall be perfectly understanding if he chooses to invalid out and take an early ship to England. I shall in fact be quite happy never to see him again!"

  "I fear that you may be making an unwarranted assumption, sir!"

  "We shall be taking our place in the lines around Copenhagen in the morning, Mr Green. Tell the reverend gentleman that he will be at my side or aboard ship at tomorrow's dawn!"

  In fact Septimus was in conference with the general at dawn, together with all of the commanders of the Reserve Division. Wellesley was in rarely happy mood.

  "A force greater than ours by one half, gentlemen, defeated in the open field. Fifty-eight officers and more than eleven hundred of other ranks taken prisoner; some five hundred estimated as killed and wounded; five thousand or thereabouts running, dispersed and under no command. Eleven guns brought to battle; all of them taken. Our own casualties seem to be some fifty dead and missing and one hundred and twenty wounded enough to be reported. More than one hundred horses brought in, most of them farm beasts, but nonetheless they will sell for the prize-fund. I noticed the good conduct of the Ninety-Fifth and of the Hampshires. I also noticed a deplorable lapse of discipline by the Gordons, Colonel! I am most displeased and will expect to hear of the ensuing courts-martial in the immediate future. A number of officers were present and failed to hold their men under control, sir; it has indeed been reported to me that one at least was cheering his men on to loot and molest civilians. I will wish to hear of the gentleman's arrest, sir!"

  Septimus had heard that a lieutenant of the Gordons had been placed in confinement, had not realised the offence to be so gross.

  The colonel, his surname Gordon, in common with several of the officers, presumably all drawn from the original clan, reddened and stood to reply.

  "The gentleman has been confined to quarters since last evening, sir. I have sent my written report, recommending a General Court-Martial, to your staff, sir. The young man has offered to send in his papers, sir; I have so far refused him that option."

  "I will speak to General Cathcart this day, sir. I hope that a court may sit within the week."

  That was not the answer the Gordons had hoped for.

  Septimus shrugged - it did not concern him. He could reasonably expect that the officers of the court would be drawn from outside the Reserve Division; they had all been present at the battle and could be argued to be biased so would be no more than onlookers.

  "For the next few days, gentlemen, until the siege pieces are all emplaced, the cavalry will patrol the whole of Zealand, ensuring that no concentration of Danish forces may occur. The infantry battalions will be placed at General Cathcart's order but may expect to hold the line towards the Amager side of the city. It is thought that a final plea for surrender will be made two or three days from now."

  "And after that, sir?"

  "After that, Colonel Gordon, the bombs will descend from the mortars; the shells be thrown from the howitzers; and, if they may be pointed in the right direction, the fiery rockets will set light to the town."

  "It is a dishonour and a shame to the name of Britannia, sir!"

  "You are at liberty to send in your papers, Colonel Gordon, if your honour will not permit you to play a part in the bombardment."

  "There are men here, sir, who have achieved some honour in the field and whose reputation might be tarnished by taking part in this brutal assault upon the civilian population of a previously neutral country. Colonel Pearce, what say you?"

  Septimus swore inwardly; he had not wanted to be part of controversy. There was nothing worse for a soldier than to question his orders. Almost certainly the colonel of the Gordons had been angered by the insistence on a court-martial for his young man, quite possibly a nephew or cousin, quite close in his clan.

  "I am a soldier of the King, sir. The King has ordered that the Danish fleet must be taken and there is no other course than to force the capitulation of Copenhagen. If you wish to say that your King is in the wrong, sir, then that is a matter for your conscience. I am no metaphysician, sir, to chop logic and define right and wrong - I am a soldier and I shall obey all lawful orders without question. My battalion will do the same, sir!"

  The final sneer at the indiscipline of the Gordons would cause offence that would rankle forever, but it was necessary to make his point vigorously. General Wellesley agreed.

  "Well said, Colonel Pearce. There is no place for this debate among serving officers in the field, gentlemen. This argument is for politicians, not for us. I am a member, and have the honour to be a Minister of the Crown, gentlemen, and shall defend myself in the House of Commons, if need arises, but I wish to hear no more of this matter now."

  Wellesley, one of the younger men in the room looked about him for dissent; there was none. His was a commanding presence. He dismissed the meeting and intercepted Colonel Gordon as he made a line towards Septimus.

  "There will be no quarrelling among my officers, Colonel Gordon. I shall see you cashiered, sir, if you attempt to force a duel. I will add that I know that Colonel Pearce has killed his man at least once, and I have no doubt that he would be quite willing to repeat the process, but it will not occur under my command, sir. I will not have it!"


  Septimus bowed his assent, left the room with no further word.

  The Hampshires took their place in the lines around Copenhagen, setting the men to face both ways, rather unusually. There was a possibility of a sally from the city and the off chance of an attack from inland. It was a nervous time, for they had no knowledge of the numbers of regular troops inside Copenhagen and there was always the possibility that General Bernadotte's fifty thousand strong army might be brought across from the German mainland. In addition, it was September the First and snow could be expected within six weeks and the Baltic sometimes iced up in early November; they were running out of time.

  The demand for capitulation was refused, indignantly and Cathcart and Gambier gave the word for the guns to fire.

  There was a battery of long twenty-four pound guns, presumably brought ashore from a line-of-battle ship, emplaced close to the Hampshires and offering conventional siege. They fired at the walls surrounding the city, hammering the stone walls hopefully.

  "They are new walls, Major Perceval, backed and infilled with earth which will absorb the bulk of the impact of the cannon balls. A month, perhaps longer, to make a practicable breach which we could storm. A conventional siege will need bigger guns - ideally forty-two pounders - and at least two more batteries so that the defenders cannot concentrate themselves at a single breach."

  "I see, sir."

  Perceval knew nothing of siege warfare - he was not particularly comfortable with the written word and had read nothing on the topic.

  "What is to be done then, sir?"

  "The civilian population is to be forced to demand the surrender of the town. The Danish Army is small and it is thought that the bulk of defenders will be of various sorts of militia and fencible. It is assumed that they will not fight to the last while their homes and families burn behind them."

  "I do not approve, sir."

  "Nor should you, Major Perceval. We are officers of lesser rank; it is not our function to approve or disapprove of the actions of generals. Except that is, where their orders are clearly criminal. We do not accept orders to murder unarmed civilians in our custody. We do not argue with the conduct of a siege, however much we dislike it. The mortars are to fire after dark, so that their effect may be more easily seen."

  The navy tried to bring its bomb-ketches to bear on the waterfront, but the Danes had gunboats, rowing galleys independent of the wind and able to place themselves on the bows of the sailing vessels and use their great guns to considerable effect. The navy withdrew. Those of the army who could see across the harbour laughed mightily: so much for the Senior Service!

  Every battery of field artillery had a single five and a half inch howitzer which could throw an explosive shell high over the walls of the town. These small shells were added to the bombs thrown by the six- and ten-inch mortars and contributed to the fires rapidly set in the predominantly wooden city.

  The mortar shells weighed up to eighty pounds and crashed through the tile and thatch roofs, setting their fires inside the houses and shops and churches of the city; families who had fled into their cellars for safety were taken by surprise, some hundreds of them killed in that first night.

  Major Congreve was present in person, overseeing the firing of his rockets. He had only brought three hundred with him and fired them in pairs, presumably to husband them for use during the whole of the siege. They hissed and roared and climbed away from their firing troughs trailing a pillar of flame. They were useful in this function, none of them missing a target the size of Copenhagen.

  The soldiers watched, mostly in silence, as the town began to burn. The spires of the churches showed particularly boldly as they flamed against the night skies.

  The Danes fought the fires and succeeded in putting most out in the first day, but their brigades were themselves vulnerable to the bombardment; fewer men were able to do less in the second night and the smoke clouds grew and spread. The civilians began to abandon the town, congregating in the open spaces left to the south of the city which remained free of attack.

  The Danes lasted three days before they called for an armistice and reluctantly agreed to surrender their fleet. Cathcart demanded six weeks of occupation of the city to give the navy and its working parties time to ready the fleet to sail; it would also allow for the basic training of the thousands of soldiers needed to make up crews for the taken ships.

  Messengers from the Danish Crown Prince had tried to enter the city with orders for the fleet to be destroyed. He had not given thought to the practicalities of the matter - it was not simple to penetrate siege lines and then climb the walls of the town. The couriers were taken prisoner and their letters were removed from them and read with great interest. The commander of the Danish forces in Copenhagen knew that burning the fleet was possible but was quite sure that to do so would be to destroy the remaining part of the city that the British had not incendiarised; sixty and more of ships would make a large bonfire. Winter was coming and the siege had killed only two thousand of the inhabitants; the remaining ninety and more thousands would not survive the Baltic snows without roofs.

  The British forces marched into the town and occupied the fortresses and the dockyard; Admiral Gambier's troop carriers and storeships came to a mooring at the wharves and the working parties spread into the dockyard.

  Half a dozen Danish ships, including those on the slips under construction, were destroyed as unseaworthy. The rest were put into order to sail.

  With the sole exception of the Royal Yacht, which had been a present from George III, every vessel bigger than a rowing dinghy was given a crew and made ready for sea. The contents of the yard and of the warehouses surrounding it were loaded into the storeships. The spare masts were towed out of their storage pond and were taken aboard the larger ships as deck cargo; masts were in short supply in England and these were the best the Baltic forests could supply.

  The ropewalk was stripped down to the last ball of string and the sail lofts were emptied of their supplies of canvas. Barrels containing tens of thousands of gallons of pitch and tar and turpentine were rolled up the gangplanks or lifted in cargo nets and stored carefully into the holds.

  The arsenal was inspected and looted as well, though the bulk of its cannon were destroyed rather than taken, regarded as inferior to those made in the new English foundries. Barrels of gunpowder were marked as 'red grain', fit only for use in quarrying and mining, but valuable enough for that and put away carefully to go to auction in England. A large number - how many was not recorded exactly - of muskets were taken and ended up in the African trade, sold eventually on the Slave Coast; little mention was made of their destination, but they all added to the Prize Fund.

  "More than three hundred thousand pounds, Colonel Pearce, at a first valuation!"

  The more senior the officer, the larger his share, and Wellesley still had a few debts to clear, though his service in India had rendered him solvent for the first time in his career. The Danish expedition left him in a comfortable position. Septimus glanced at the figures and estimated that he would pocket well in excess of one thousand, which could not be unwelcome, especially as it was not subject to the Income Tax.

  "Courts-martial will be sitting tomorrow, Colonel Pearce. Your regiment is the only one unrepresented, sir. I am not complaining, far from it, but why?"

  "In part, General, because I am well served by my officers and, especially, the sergeants. They have kept their men in hand. My quartermaster deserves the highest of praise as well, sir. He has worked miracles in feeding the men. There is fresh meat in the stew pot once or twice a week. There is cabbage two or three times and boiled potatoes from Ireland on the days when there are no greens. Fresh-baked loaves of bread are a commonplace, and sometimes there is cheese as well. Once a week, at least, there is half a pint of milk for each man. They eat far better than they did in their homes, sir, and they are grateful for it. On top of that, somehow, and I do not ask the detail, he laid his hands on barrels of best po
teen in Ireland and the men find themselves with an extra - and unlawful - ration of spirits very frequently. The food is the single most important cause of the battalion's good behaviour, sir."

  "It must cost a great deal, Colonel Pearce."

  "I believe not, sir. I am of the opinion that each night a half company goes out to a farming village a mile or two distant from the lines, sir, and sets its pickets out to protect the barns and storehouses from casual looters. The people sleep in safety, sir, and express their gratitude to us. They would otherwise have sold their harvest in the markets in Copenhagen; when we go they will still have some left for that purpose, and the prices will be very high because many other villages have been despoiled of their all."

  "I am not entirely certain that your actions are legal, sir. They are highly sensible, however. I shall bear them in mind, if the occasion arises. What of the triangle, sir? Does it play a part in your discipline?"

  "Of course, sir. It must. But not a large part. There are a few men who will not, perhaps cannot, behave all of the time. Through idleness, or moral weakness - and who is to say the two are not the same thing? They will not keep to our laws. The most common problem is those who will not be clean in their ways, sir. In a camp such as ours we must have the most rigorous of public hygiene; we have latrine trenches, dug every week and filled in properly, and a hundred paces at least distant from the tents, yet there are still men who will squat behind the nearest bush! Not so many now, for it is a dozen for any discovered in the habit!"

  Wellesley was inclined to be amused, could not see that it was so very important.

  "The Surgeon has fewer than a dozen men in his tents, sir. Only two of them dysenteries. I have not asked of the other battalions, sir, but I doubt that many are so fortunate."

  Wellesley knew they were not. He consulted with his own senior medical officer on the matter, was assured it was merest coincidence. Colonel Pearce had a bee in his bonnet, it transpired: there was no possible relationship between latrines and dysentery and camp fevers, it was a known fact that the diseases were caused by bad airs, miasmas which happened not to be located in the Hampshires' camp.