Death Before Glory

by Martin Howard

  By the end of January, Grey had gathered in the troops from leeward and the British force had grown to just over 7,000 men with an escort of 19 ships of war. Mindful of the dispersed French defences, he decided on a strategy of multiple simultaneous attacks on the island. In his own words, the three separate landings would be, ‘…distant from each other, not only for the Purpose of dividing the Enemy’s Force and Attention, but to alarm him in every quarter at the same Time…’ The first of the three divisions of the force under Commodore Charles Thompson and General Thomas Dundas was to make for the Bay of Galion on the east coast of the colony (see map 3). Dundas was to capture the fortified refuge at Gros Morne in the centre of the island, thus threatening both St Pierre and Fort Royal from the rear. The second part of the force under Captain Josiah Rogers of the HMS Quebec and Colonel Sir Charles Gordon were to make for Case de Navire to the north-west of Fort Royal. This area was relatively well fortified with coastal batteries and defensive lines and the landing was intended to be a substantial diversion. The main landing, under the supervision of the two commanders, was to be at Sainte Luce in the south. Once ashore, part of this contingent, under the command of Major General Whyte, was to march along the coast to the west capturing the sea batteries while Grey was to move inland to join Dundas’s force around Fort Royal Bay. British knowledge of the geography was good enough to allow detailed lines of march to be provided; these contained names of local guides and information pertaining to plantations and even individual houses. On 22 and 24 January, Grey issued general orders leaving his men in no doubt as to what he expected of them. The tone was optimistic. He praised their fighting qualities. If they were fighting the best troops in France, ‘it would not be a contest of ten minutes’, but their enemies on Martinique would be largely untrained. Rochambeau’s defensive force was probably between 1,000 and 2,000 men, with only around 200 regular troops, 3−400 National Guards and 160 sailors, the remainder an indeterminate number of mulattoes and blacks. Most of the regular force was in Fort Royal. Jervis had so effectively cleared the surrounding seas of enemy ships that the British arrival caught the French by surprise.3

  On the evening of 5 February, a small number of Grey’s men landed at Pointe de Borgnesse and silenced the enemy batteries before re-embarking. The general was disinclined to land more men in the gloom and it was 3 am on the following day before 2,700 troops of Robert Prescott’s 3rd Brigade, the 3rd Battalion of Grenadiers and the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of Light Infantry started to go ashore at Trois Rivières to the west of Sainte Luce. The latter units were made up of the grenadier and light companies of the various line regiments. Within a few hours, the division was safely landed and Grey joined his men. He then immediately marched with one column along the difficult and mountainous road to Rivière Salée. The troops were under cover in the village by 7pm. The sufferings on this eight-mile march, one sergeant dying of heat exhaustion, were a brutal introduction to Caribbean warfare. In accordance with the plan, Whyte was detached westward with the 2nd Battalion of Light infantry to take the seaward batteries of Cape Solomon and Pointe Bourgos in the rear. The ultimate objective was to capture Pigeon Island, a heavily fortified enemy stronghold which was preventing the navy entering the harbour of Fort Royal Bay.

  Rochambeau now made his first move, sending men from Fort Royal across the bay to the height of Morne Charlotte Pied to cut communications between Whyte and headquarters at Rivière Salée. Grey responded vigorously, ordering the 70th Regiment and two howitzers to dislodge them with a bayonet charge, a successful action which, according to the general’s dispatch, was ‘executed with great spirit’. By the next day, the 9th, Whyte had been reinforced by artillery, two companies of the 15th Regiment, and 200 seamen. Armed with pikes and pistols, the sailors made ‘unequalled exertions’ to bring up supplies through mountain and forest, thereby allowing Whyte to erect a battery on Morne Matharine only 400 yards to the south of Pigeon Island. The two 5½-inch howitzers opened up on the morning of the 11th, taking the island’s defences in the rear and forcing the garrison to surrender after two hours’ bombardment with the loss of 15 killed and 25 wounded out of 200 defenders. The capture of Pigeon Island opened Fort Royal Bay and allowed proper naval support for the land forces.4

  Grey was now well established to the south of Fort Royal. To the north, Gordon had also made some progress. It has been noted that this force was landing on a more heavily guarded part of the island and Gordon’s 1,654 officers and men suffered casualties from the beach batteries at Case de Navire before effecting a landing on the 8th at Case Pilote to the northwest. The coastal road to Fort Royal was strongly occupied by the enemy and the British force had to strike through the mountains in a turning movement. This was draining work for the troops but, by the 12th, the five enemy batteries between Case de Navire and Negro Point had been carried and the force was encamped within a league of Fort Royal. Contemporary and more recent opinions vary as to Gordon’s efforts; Fortescue portrays his operation as being as triumphant as Grey’s and indeed the army’s commander was upbeat in his subsequent dispatch, applauding Gordon’s ‘complete success’ and emphasising the gains. Not all Gordon’s men were so impressed. Captain William Stewart comments that the force commander gave little instruction to his officers and that when the 12th company of Grenadiers were surprised by a night attack by a small party of the enemy, there was panic and confusion. Duffy describes Gordon’s success as ‘partial’ and his occupation of the heights of St Catherine as a ‘dead stop’.5

  The third landing was made by Dundas at Galion Bay on the 5th. Here there was unequivocal success. A naval squadron silenced the shore batteries before Dundas landed his troops and moved on Trinité, which was defended by the mulatto commander General Bellegarde. After some skirmishing, Bellegarde set fire to the evacuated town, which was promptly occupied by British forces who managed to salvage much of the place. Poyen informs us that Bellegarde was later criticised by Rochambeau for retreating towards St Pierre rather than falling back on the strategically important fortified passes of the Gros Morne. Fully exploiting the enemy’s error, Dundas reached this central position at midnight on the seventh. Leaving the 64th to hold Gros Morne and delayed only by heavy rain he then pushed forward again and seized the Heights of Bruneau, the site of an old fort six miles to the north-east of Fort Bourbon, at noon on the 9th. He was now within sight of the outposts of Fort Royal.

  Three companies under Lieutenant Colonel Craddock took possession of Fort Matilde, a good landing place on the Cohé du Lamentin to the left of the force. On the 10th, Colonel Campbell was despatched with five companies of light infantry to seize Colon. Bellegarde’s men made an attack on Matilde but they were repulsed by Craddock, the grenadiers of the 9th Regiment dispersing their opponents with a bayonet charge. Campbell was reinforced at Colon by Lieutenant Colonel Eyre Coote, and moved on to take possession of Lemaitre. Three enemy attacks during the night of the 11th were beaten off. The bulk of Dundas’s men were dug in at Bruneau sheltering from persisting rain; on the 14th, they were joined by Grey’s contingent moving up from Rivière Salée. A week into the operation, the junction of the two forces landed north and south of Fort Royal had been achieved.

  Dundas now returned to Trinité with the 2nd Battalion of Grenadiers, the light companies of the 33rd and 40th and the 65th Regiment. This force was split into two. Under the command of Colonel Campbell, the two light companies and the 65th moved northwest with instruction to await the arrival of Dundas’s men on a spur of mountain extending south-west from Mont Pelée. The latter force commenced their march on the evening of the 14th, first along the coast north of Trinité and then westwards to the pass of La Calebasse, 4,000 feet above sea level. These manoeuvres through the ‘impenetrable’ ravines, mountains and jungle of the interior of Martinique required considerable determination and some skill. When he reached La Calebasse, Dundas had travelled 20 miles through this terrain in just 12 hours. After a short respite, his exhausted men scaled the
steep slopes and drove the enemy back before linking with Campbell’s column (to the south near Montigné) which was also involved in heavy fighting with five or six hundred of the enemy. Dundas’s intervention with his advance guard was vital, the French again repulsed. Campbell had been killed earlier in the day leading a bayonet charge at the head of the 40th light company. Fending off a final enemy counter attack, the British force took a well deserved rest on Morne Rouge.6

  At daybreak on the 17th, two columns advanced towards St Pierre, the next objective. By the time Dundas reached the town, he found it already in the possession of Colonel Richard Symes, whose detachment of three light companies and the 58th Regiment had been disembarked to the north. A second force of five companies of the 1st Battalion of Grenadiers and five companies of the 2nd Battalion of Light Infantry under Colonel William Myers stood to the immediate south of the town. This wealthy commercial capital had been abandoned, those Republicans still willing to fight all retreating to Fort Royal. Willyams says that Symes’s troops had occupied the place in good order. ‘No man was suffered to quit his ranks, nor was the least injury done to any of the inhabitants, who, with the women and the children, sat at their doors and windows to see our army march in, the same as when troops pass through a town in England.’7

  The fall of St Pierre meant that the only obstacles to Grey’s mastery of Martinique were the defences of the town of Fort Royal, the fortifications of Fort Bourbon and Fort Louis. Here, Rochambeau had concentrated his regular forces and was determined to resist for as long as possible. Time might prove to be the French commander’s greatest asset; the sickly season was approaching, any delay frustrated Grey’s ambitions with respect to the other islands, and there was still hope of reinforcement from France. Of the two forts, Bourbon was the more formidable, but it was dominated by the Heights of Sourier to the north. Grey concluded that he could not properly invest Bourbon without possession of this higher ground, which was occupied by Bellegarde with a considerable number of mulatto and black troops. The British commander planned his attack for one o’clock in the morning of 19 February but, as Grey himself describes, his adversary made an impulsive first move.

  At noon on the preceding day [18 February] a most fortunate Event anticipated my Wishes and his Ruin. Bellegarde, with part of his Troops, descending the Heights, attacked my Left, towards the Landing-Place, in a very daring and spirited Manner; to which Part Lieutenant-General Prescott led a Reinforcement, with great Judgement and in good Time, checking and charging the Enemy. Availing myself of this favourable moment, when Bellegarde’s camp was weakened, I ordered from my Right, the 3rd Battalion of Grenadiers, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel [Joseph] Buckeridge, and supported by the 1st and 2nd Battalions of Light Infantry, under Lieutenant-Colonels Coote and [Bryan] Blundell, who attacked his Camp upon the Left, in such a Superior Style of Spirit and Impetuosity, as to prove irresistible: and I got possession of it and his Cannon, with inconsiderable Loss; which might have proved very different if my Attack had not taken place until one o’clock the next morning…

  The mulatto leader had played into Grey’s capable hands. British losses were only 60 killed and wounded whilst Bellegarde had lost 200 of his men. The survivors of this rout fled to Fort Bourbon where Rochambeau, furious at Bellegarde’s precipitate attack, refused them entry. Seven days later, Bellegarde and his 300 chasseurs surrendered. Poyen asserts that he was bribed by the payment of 200,000 livres, but it may be that he was more influenced by Rochambeau’s antagonism. The captured general was sent to Boston.8

  The cession of the Height of Sourier did not deter Rochambeau and he rejected Grey’s offer of a negotiated surrender. The British made their siege preparations in unusually persistent and heavy rain which turned the ground into a quagmire. Progress was frustratingly slow but methodical, directed by the army’s engineers and carried out by every available man. Entrenchment was made difficult by the rocky terrain and fascines were constructed to protect the batteries. The seamen moved guns and ammunition and dug roads. This brutal work was often interrupted by fire from the fort, the Republicans starting to find their range. Lieutenant George Colville helped to construct one of the batteries on Sourier and saw nine black labourers killed or wounded by a single cannon shot. Snipers were also a constant danger.

  Despite the appalling weather and difficult ground, the batteries were ready. According to Grey, these were at a distance of four to five hundred yards from the fortress’s walls. The effect of the subsequent bombardment of Fort Bourbon was witnessed by Cooper Willyams.

  At day-break on the 7th (the gun boats having as usual attacked Fort Louis in the night) mortars, howitzers, and great guns opened from five batteries at the same instant, keeping up an incessant fire on the fort and advanced redoubt all of that day and the night, from each of which it was returned with equal fury. All the following day the same spirited attack and defence was continued.

  Other observers could see the houses in the fort collapsing as they were struck by shells ‘which hit them in all possible directions’. The enemy made a sortie on the 9th on the side of Case de Navire but they were driven back by the 3rd Light Infantry and a company of seamen.

  The defenders’ problems are well documented in Rochambeau’s journal. Fort Bourbon was not as strong as its reputation. Among its defects was a narrow front to the north towards Sourier, which meant that only a proportion of the 100 available guns could be turned against Grey’s batteries. The French commander worked hard to overcome these physical flaws, but in the face of the powerful British attack and escalating losses – the first day’s bombardment cost a twelfth of the garrison – he struggled to maintain his force’s morale. On the 9th, Colville counted more than a hundred shots fired by the three 24-pounders. Three days later, Grey, conscious of the wider implications of a prolonged siege, again offered Rochambeau surrender terms. The Frenchman refused.

  12 March – The general Grey and the vice-admiral Jervis have written to me, as well as to the local authorities and to the citizens of the town of the Republic to summon us to surrender the forts. They give four hours for a response…I replied that, resigned to the future, I will defend myself in a manner to deserve the estimation of the English generals and troops, and that we will restart hostilities when the parleying officer is returned.

  At this time, a sixth of the garrison were affected by wounds and another sixth by dysentery.

  The stubborn resistance of the depleted Republican garrison was starting to frustrate the besiegers. Grey was reluctant to storm Fort Bourbon along the ridge from Sourier, wary of the heavy casualties he was likely to suffer in first capturing the redoubt and then entering the fortress. The general and admiral instead decided to launch an attack against Forts Royal and Louis from the sea. The combined operation, planned for 20 March, would serve to isolate Fort Bourbon. This was to prove the breakthrough.

  Having concerted measures with the Admiral for a combined attack by the Naval and Land forces upon the Fort and Town of Fort Royal, and the Batteries of my Second Parallel being ready, those on Morne Tortenson and Carriere kept up an incessant fire upon Fort Royal, and all the other Batteries on Fort Bourbon, during the Day and Night of the 19th Instant, and on the Morning on the 20th following, till the Ships destined for this Service had taken their Stations. The Asia of 64 Guns, Captain Browne, and the Zebra Sloop of 16 Guns, Captain Faulkner, with Captain Rogers, and a body of Seamen in Flat Boats, the whole under Commodore Thompson, composed the Naval Force; and the Land Force consisted of the 1st Battalion of Grenadiers, under Lieutenant-Colonel Stewart; and the 3rd Light Infantry under Lieutenant-Colonel Close, from Prince Edward’s camp at La Coste; with the 3rd Grenadiers, under Lieutenant-Colonel Buckeridge, and the 1st Light Infantry, under Lieutenant-Colonel Coote, from General Prescott’s camp at Sourriere.

  By this stage, the fire from the batteries in Fort Bourbon had much slackened. The intrepid Faulkner took his Zebra sloop directly against the high walls of Fort Royal under the enem
y’s guns. His sailors threw across bamboo scaling ladders from the rigging and stormed the place. They met little opposition and the bulk of the garrison fled up the hill to Fort Bourbon. At the same time, the land forces gained entrance to Fort Royal town and raised the Union Jack, changing its name to Fort Edward to honour the Duke of Kent, who had just joined the force.

  Rochambeau’s situation was now desperate. Following consultation with the local authorities and his troops, he decided to surrender. The French commander was covered in the blood of a wounded fellow officer, had few stores and little water, had lost half of his artillery, and was surrounded by demoralised men. Fortescue acknowledges that his defence of Fort Bourbon was ‘gallant’. The British bombardment ceased after 2.30pm on the 20th and negotiations began. It was agreed that the garrison should march out with the full honours of war. Colville watched them from the side of the harbour road.

  The Regiment of Turenne leading them, very weak in numbers but in general well looking men. The mulattos and blacks next followed in every respect a most despicable enemy, half naked and half starved. Between 6−700 souls marched out and a most pitiful appearance did they make.

  Rochambeau was sent to America and his men were immediately embarked in transports to take them to France on condition that they should not serve again in the war.9

  The siege of Fort Bourbon had delayed Grey for almost seven weeks but it was a valuable prize. Its occupation gave Britain a major strategic advantage in the West Indies. Deprived of this key naval base, the French would now be limited to small expeditions. Only by creating unrest and insurrection would the Republic be able to sustain the struggle. Grey had vowed to make every effort to preserve his troops and he had kept his word. The arduous operations leading to the capture of Martinique resulted in the loss of only around 300 killed and wounded. He did, however, have 500 men sick and a line infantry strength of less than 6,000. During the siege he had asked Dundas for reinforcement to continue the campaign, to capture and occupy as many French islands as possible before the start of the sickly season.10