Death Before Glory

by Martin Howard

  One of the few initiatives taken to tackle this deficiency took place on Grenada at the end of 1795. The so-called ‘Royal Hospital Corps’ was established with the object that orderlies would be formally supplied to the hospitals from this organisation rather than haphazardly from the regiments. It was well organised with a command structure and a hundred men to do the ward duties but it only survived six months, probably decimated by infectious disease. William Fergusson gives an account of a similar body but he places it in Saint Domingue. It failed to solve the problem of low-quality orderlies.

  Had they a man amongst them whom they were tired of flogging, and who could neither be induced to die or to desert, he was the elect for the hospital corps, or at best he might be a simpleton, not fit to stand sentry in a position of trust, or so awkward in the ranks that he could not be trusted with ball-cartridge. In short, such a collection of incorrigible and incapable villains I believe never was brought together; and it was a true relief to the army when their drunkenness and the yellow fever killed them off.

  There are also references to a hospital corps on Martinique in 1797 so it may be that the idea was resurrected on other islands but we must assume that the outcome was much the same.

  Sick soldiers sought sympathetic nursing wherever they could. Captain Lasalle de Louisenthal, suffering from yellow fever on Martinique in 1796, was fortunate to be cared for by the young wife of the regimental surgeon. ‘Day and night, she sat next to my bed, calming me, giving me courage, and, gradually, things improved.’ No doubt other army women made similar contributions but most sick men turned to the locals. Doctors and soldiers testify that these women were often superb nurses and that they saved many European lives. On no other subject related to the West Indian campaigns is there such unanimity in the eyewitness accounts. William Fergusson, whose writing is often sceptical, is unstinting in his praise.

  In the colonies, the colonial women of every class, whether blacks, mulattoes, or mustees [of mixed ancestry], make the best sick nurses in the world. Nothing can exceed their vigilance and tenderness. They also delight in the office far beyond European women of any class…

  This opinion was based on personal experience, the doctor having contracted yellow fever whilst in residence at Port au Prince.

  I had no sooner taken possession of the sick quarter assigned to me, than two respectable-looking females of that class [local women], of matronly age, came to pay me a visit. They told me, for my comfort, that nine others had died in the very corner of the room where I was then lying – that the English doctors had killed them all, they killed every one, and certainly would me, if I took their physic, which I was never to do, but when any was left for me, to send for them; that they knew many herbs, and could prepare from them drinks (ptisans) of sovereign virtue. This to me, myself a mediciner, was very amusing and when my servant, in the course of the afternoon, brought in some new-baked bread, I, with his help, prepared a set of bread pills, and then sent to my new friends, to say that the English doctors had been with me and left their medicines. They came immediately. The pills were produced, which they crumbled down between their fingers, smelled them well, and bit, but very cautiously, with their teeth, and then declaring that they were the identical poison that had destroyed so many people, threw them with great indignation out of the window. They soon discovered who I was, but so far from resenting the trick I had played upon them, they were unwearied in kindness, and I was much beholden to their Creole kitchen for many comforts during a long and difficult convalescence.

  It is likely that by intercepting the army doctors’ remedies the nurses did more good than harm. Others testify equally strongly to the crucial role played by such women. Thomas Phipps Howard was tended by local nurses on two occasions and was impressed that they demanded neither fee nor reward. Their comportment, he believed, would have made them ‘an Honour to the most Civilised Society’. Norbert Landsheit, also in Saint Domingue, attributed his gradual recovery from fever to a black nurse, who looked after him with extreme kindness. ‘She carried me about in her arms like an infant – she watched beside my bed day and night, and brought me through.’ French soldiers fighting in the colony relate near-identical experiences. Sergeant-Major Philippe Beaudoin describes a young mulatto woman who assured him that his only hope of recovery from illness was to entrust his case to her. She was as good as her word. Unsurprisingly, such close liaisons led to romantic attachments. When Beaudoin was evacuated from Môle St Nicolas he tried to smuggle his Sophie on board dressed as a man and was devastated when she was discovered and sent back.10

  When a soldier died there was a need to sort out his affairs and inform his family. The latter unpleasant duty generally fell to a senior officer of the regiment. Lieutenant Edward Teasdale’s letters home from Jamaica stop in September 1808; the final letter in the file in the archive of the National Army Museum is in the hand of Major Robert Frederick, addressed to the soldier’s mother and dated 19 November 1808.

  … most truly do I console with you Madame on the loss of this admirable young man but it must be a great consolation to you to know that in the Circle in which he moved he was most highly respected and most deservedly beloved. His remains were interred with military honours, he was regretted by all, but by those who knew him his loss was most severely felt.

  Another National Army Museum file details the arrangements which followed the death of Major George Tinling of the 38th Regiment on Martinique in 1797. He had been attached to the Royal Hospital Corps and, like Edward Teasdale, he very likely died of yellow fever. The responsibility for the disposal of his belongings was given to James Thornton of the 17th Dragoons, also seconded to the hospital corps. Thornton wrote to the dead officer’s family from St Pierre.

  I should be glad to know what furniture and effects were in his house, as the keys were left in charge of the Woman whom he lived in the house with: when I went into the room I saw two trunks and a small box, his sword and sash, the Books of the Royal Hospital Corps, the pattern of a scarlet coat, a quantity of shoes and boots, a Bed, Bedstead and Coverlid, with some Tables and Chairs, the latter articles the Woman of the house claimed. There is also a fine Parrot and Cage.

  Similar letters must have been written innumerable times and funerals became part of the routine of the West Indian garrison. Henry Ross-Lewin describes the burial arrangements in Saint Domingue in 1797.

  … the officer of the guard had orders to attend all internments, and see that three shovelfuls of quicklime were thrown into each grave. As the hospital-carts, each carrying three bodies, arrived almost without intermission during the day, this was both a sad and wearisome duty.

  During the French campaigns in the colony the mortality was so great that the living and the dead became intermingled. Historian Antoine Métral claims that as it was necessary to remove the dying from the hospitals before they had actually expired it was not uncommon for soldiers to be thrown into graves still alive.

  …in the bottom of the graves, they heard on several occasions, plaintive cries, muffled and pathetic. It was even said that some soldiers escaped from the piles of dead, reappearing among the living…

  British graves were mostly respected; the alleged desecration of General Thomas Dundas’s Guadeloupe grave by Victor Hugues, if it occurred, was exceptional. When Thomas Henry Browne walked through the churchyards of Barbados in December 1808 he found them already full of the resting places of British officers of all ranks who had fallen victim to disease. The battle honours ‘Martinique’ and ‘Guadeloupe’ emblazoned on regimental colours revive fading memories of the Caribbean campaigns of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Perhaps the truest memorials of the British soldier who lived and fought in the West Indies are these inscribed gravestones, many still standing today.11

  Notes

  Chapter 1

  1. Houlding, J.A., Fit for Service, pp. 3−4, 395; Buckley, R.N., The British Army in the West Indies, pp. 49−50, 56; Brumwell, S.B., Redcoats. The British
Soldier and War in the Americas 1755−1763, pp. 69, 72.

  2. Knight, R., Britain against Napoleon, pp. 77, 439−40; Duffy, M., Soldiers, Sugar and Seapower, pp. 195−6, 295; Houlding, pp. 12−13, 322; Mackesy, P., British Victory in Egypt 1801, p. 3; Steppler, G.A., The British Army on the Eve of War, p. 4.

  3. Steppler, pp. 5−15; Mackesy, pp. 28−9, 35−7; Houlding, pp. 99−1, 115; Gates, D., The British Light Infantry Arm c. 1790−1815, pp. 49−50.

  4. Houlding, pp. 13, 117, 125−6, 132; Buckley, The British Army in the West Indies, pp. 92−7; Duffy, Soldiers, Sugar and Seapower, pp. 170−1; Buckley, R.N., Slaves in Redcoats, p. 3; Coss, E.J., All For The King’s Shilling, pp. 50−85; Haythornthwaite, P.J., The Armies of Wellington, p. 47; Durey, M., Whites Slaves: Irish Rebel Prisoners and the British Army in the West Indies 1799−1804, pp. 296−312.

  5. Chartrand, R., British Forces in the West Indies 1793−1815, p. 3; Duffy, M., The Caribbean Campaigns of the British Army 1793−1801, pp. 23, 28; Buckley, The British Army in the West Indies, pp. 85−8; Bamford, A., Sickness, Suffering and the Sword, pp. 41−2; Facts Relative to the Conduct of the War in the West Indies, p. 65; Fortescue, J.W., A History of the British Army, Vol. IV (1), pp. 446−91; Duffy, Soldiers, Sugar and Seapower, pp. 144, 153−4, 231−2; Geggus, D., Slavery, War and Revolution, pp. 225, 275; Moore, J., The Diary of Sir John Moore, Vol. I, pp. 203−13; Gates, pp. 42−3.

  6. Fortescue, Vol. IV (2), p. 896, Vol. VII, p. 1; Bamford, pp. 42−3; Buckley, The British Army in the West Indies, pp. 108−16; Howard, T.P., The Haitian Journal of Lieutenant Howard, pp. xl−l; Knight, pp. 78, 440; Chartrand, pp. 9−24; Haythornthwaite, p. 146; Duffy, Soldiers, Sugar and Seapower, pp. 175−6, 229−30, 281−9, 244; Lasalle de Louisenthal, Adventures de guerre aux Antilles, pp. 12−20, 26, 46; Landsheit, N., The Hussar, Vol. I, pp. 52−6.

  7. Buckley, Slaves in Redcoats, pp. 5−6; Geggus, pp. 130, 317−8; Chartrand, pp. 16−17; Gates, pp. 68−9; Ellis, A.B., The History of the First West India Regiment, p. 55.

  8. Buckley, Slaves in Redcoats, pp. 12−21, 33−8; Ellis, pp. 71−2; Nugent, M., Lady Nugent’s Journal of her residence in Jamaica, p. xxiv; Geggus, p. 315; Duffy, Soldiers, Sugar and Seapower, p. 363.

  9. Buckley, Slaves in Redcoats, pp. 24−36, 54−7, 65−6, 70, 79, 83−94, 113−18; Chartrand, pp. 4, 18; MacArthur, R., The British Army Establishment during the Napoleonic Wars, pp. 158, 164; Ellis, pp. 59, 72, 82, 92; Geggus, pp. 316−7; Pinckard, G., Notes on the West Indies, Vol. I, pp. 382−3; Moore, Vol. I, p. 240; Dyott, W., Dyott’s Diary 1781−1845, Vol. I, p. 94; Browne, T.H., The Napoleonic War Journal of Captain Thomas Henry Browne, pp. 94−5.

  10. Chartrand, pp. 35−42; Nugent, pp. xxvii−xxviii; Carmichael, NAM 1988−06−30; Buckley, Slaves in Redcoats, p. 7; Geggus, p. 110; Balcarres, Lives of the Lindsays, Vol.III, pp. 79, 92; Ellis, p. 79.

  11. Chartrand, pp. 10−13; Geggus, pp. 116, 165−7, 174, 185, 217, 221; Howard, pp. 68, 133; Dyott, Vol. I, p. 114.

  Chapter 2

  1. Lynn, J.A., The Bayonets of the Republic, pp. 43−8, 60−1; Elting, J.R., Swords around a Throne, pp. 29−34; Chartrand, R., Napoleon’s Overseas Army, pp. 8−11, 23−4; Poyen, H., Les Guerres des Antilles de 1793 à 1815, pp. 39, 46, 206, 230, 298, 339−40, 353, 378; Boyer-Peyreleau, E.E., Les Antilles Françaises particulièrement la Guadeloupe, pp. 227−8, 239, 246; Arvers, P., Historique de 82e regiment d’infanterie de ligne, pp. 77−95.

  2. Chartrand, pp. 6−10, 20−33, 41; Poyen, pp. 46, 345, 357−8.

  3. Duffy, M., Soldiers, Sugar and Seapower, pp. 119−20; Poyen, pp. 143, 144, 152; Chartrand, pp. 8−9; Willyams, C., An Account of the Campaign in the West Indies in the year 1794, appendix, p. 2; Ross-Lewin, H., With the Thirty-Second in the Peninsula and Other Campaigns, p. 23; Moore, J., The Diary of Sir John Moore, Vol. I, p. 205.

  4. Chartrand, pp. 12−13, 16−17; Geggus, D., Slavery, War and Revolution, pp. 116, 131−2, 287−8, 318; Rainsford, M., An Historical Account of the Black Empire of Hayti, pp. 217−8, 255, 283; Ros, M., Night of Fire, pp. 38−40, 56, 95−7; Chalmers, C., Remarks on the Late War in St Domingo, pp. 61−5; Howard, T.P., The Haitian Journal of Lieutenant Howard, pp. 134−5; Lemonnier-Delafosse, M., Seconde Campagne de Saint Domingue, pp. 34−5.

  5. Ros, pp. 105−6; Geggus, pp. 120, 124, 196, 264, 289, 330.

  6. Schofield, V., The Highland Furies, pp. 193−4; Moreau de Jonnès, A., Adventures in Wars of the Republic and Consulate, pp. 120, 140−3.

  7. Balcarres, Lives of the Lindsays, Vol. III, pp. 3−6; Fortescue, J.W., A History of the British Army, Vol. IV (1), pp. 459−60; Robinson, C., The Fighting Maroons of Jamaica, pp. 66−8; Dallas, R.C., The History of the Maroons, Vol. I, pp. 35−43.

  8. Dyott, W., Dyott’s Diary 1781−1845, Vol. I, pp. 104, 119, 124; Moore, Vol. I, pp. 234−5.

  9. Chartrand, p. 38; The London Gazette, June 1804, 15712, p. 759; Duffy, pp. 278−89, 322−5; Bulletins of the Campaign 1797, pp. 49−50.

  Chapter 3

  1. Buckley, R.N., The British Army in the West Indies, p. 5; Duffy, M., Soldiers, Sugar and Seapower, pp. 5−27; Brumwell, S.B., Redcoats. The British Soldier and War in the Americas 1755−1763, pp. 31−2, 309; Duffy, M., The Caribbean Campaigns of the British Army 1793−1801, pp. 23−4; James, W.M., The Naval History of Great Britain, Vol. I, p. 112; Geggus, D., Slavery, War and Revolution, pp. 1−2, 34−64, 86−7; Fortescue, J. W., A History of the British Army, Vol. IV (1), pp. 75−9; Ros, M., Night of Fire, pp. 2, 5−8, 27−8, 43−7; Gasper, D.B., A Turbulent Time, pp. 78−84.

  2. Bulletins of the Campaign 1793, pp. 30−42; Laurence, K.O., Tobago in Wartime 1793−1815, pp. 7−8; Fortescue, Vol. IV (1) p. 134; Duffy, Soldiers, Sugar and Seapower, pp. 31−5; Poyen, H., Les Guerres des Antilles de 1793 à 1815, pp. 18−19; James, Vol. I, pp. 114−15.

  3. Bulletins of the Campaign 1793, pp. 95−8; Duffy, Soldiers, Sugar and Seapower, pp. 35−7; James, Vol. I, pp. 115−16; Poyen, pp. 21−8; Ellis, A.B., The History of the First West India Regiment, pp. 39−40; Fortescue, Vol. IV (1), pp. 134−5.

  4. Fortescue, Vol. IV (1), pp. 327−9; Ros, pp. 12−13; Rainsford, M., An Historical Account of the Black Empire of Hayti, pp. 169−71; Geggus, pp. 65−8, 78−9, 101−4, 228−9; McLean, H., An Enquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Great Mortality, pp. 9−13, 215−23.

  5. Bulletins of the Campaign 1793, pp. 224−39; Rainsford, pp. 172−4; Geggus, pp. 65, 105−8; James, Vol. I, pp. 116−17; Fortescue, Vol. IV (1), pp. 330−2.

  6. Geggus, pp. 109−11; Duffy, Soldiers, Sugar and Seapower, pp. 97−8; Fortescue, Vol. IV (1), pp. 332−4; James, Vol. I, p. 118.

  7. Geggus, pp. 111−13; Fortescue, Vol. IV (1), p. 334; Duffy, Soldiers, Sugar and Seapower, p. 98.

  8. Geggus, pp. 112−13; Bulletins of the Campaign 1794, pp. 92−4, 112−15; Rainsford, pp. 175−9; James, Vol. I, pp. 225−6; Fortescue, Vol. IV (1), pp. 334−7.

  9. Rainsford, pp. 182−3; Geggus, p. 113; Fortescue, Vol. IV (1), pp. 337−8.

  10. Rainsford, pp. 179−82; Geggus, pp. 113−14; Fortescue, Vol. IV (1), p. 338.

  11. Bulletins of the Campaign 1794, pp. 266−80; Duffy, Soldiers, Sugar and Seapower, pp. 101−4; Rainsford, pp. 184−90; Fortescue, Vol. IV (1), pp. 339−41; Geggus, p. 114; James, Vol. I, pp. 226−7.

  12. Geggus, pp. 116−18; Fortescue, Vol. IV (1), pp. 342−3.

  13. Geggus, pp. 118−24; Duffy, Soldiers, Sugar and Seapower, pp. 103−4; Fortescue, Vol. IV (1), pp. 340−1.

  14. Bulletins of the Campaign 1794, p. 375; Geggus, pp. 128−9; Fortescue, Vol. IV (1), pp. 344−5; Rainsford, pp. 194−5.

  15. Geggus, pp. 129−32, 151,

  16. Fortescue, Vol. IV (1), pp. 345−6 Rainsford, p. 193; Geggus, p. 152.

  17. Rainsford, pp. 195−6; Fortescue, Vol. IV (1), pp. 346−7; James, Vol. I, p. 227; Geggus, pp. 153−4.

  18. Geggus, pp. 154−5; Fortescue, Vol. IV (1), pp. 347−9.

  Chapter 4

  1. Duffy, M., Soldiers, Sugar and Seapower, pp. 41−58; Nelson, P.D., Sir Charles Grey, Fi
rst Earl Grey, pp. 136−40; Fortescue, J.W., A History of the British Army, Vol. IV (1), pp. 350−3.

  2. Fortescue, Vol. IV (1), pp. 351−2; Duffy, pp. 59−61; Nelson, p. 141; Willyams, C., An Account of the Campaign in the West Indies in the Year 1794, pp. 9−10.

  3. Bulletins of the Campaign 1794, pp. 97−8; Duffy, pp. 67−72; Poyen, H., Les Guerres des Antilles de 1793 à 1815, pp. 31, 39−40; Nelson, pp. 142−3; Pearse, H.W., History of the East Surrey Regiment, p. 275, Ellis, A.B., The History of the First West India Regiment, p. 41; Fortescue, Vol. IV (1), pp. 353−4; Willyams, pp. 16−17; James, W.M., The Naval History of Great Britain, Vol. I, p. 216.

  4. Bulletins of the Campaign 1794, pp. 99−101; Duffy, pp. 73−6; Pearse, p. 281; James, The Naval History of Great Britain, Vol. I, pp. 216−17; Willyams, pp. 26−8; Fortescue, Vol. IV (1), pp. 354−6; Poyen, p. 32; James, B., Journal of Rear-Admiral Bartholomew James 1752−1828, pp. 229−30.

  5. Bulletins of the Campaign 1794, p. 101; Duffy, p. 75; Fortescue, Vol. IV (1), p. 356; Cumloden Papers, p. 4.

  6. Bulletins of the Campaign 1794, pp. 98−103; Fortescue, Vol. IV (1), pp. 356−9; Poyen, pp. 33−4; Duffy, pp. 74−5; Willyams, pp. 33−40.

  7. Bulletins of the Campaign 1794, p. 103; Fortescue, Vol. IV (1), p. 359; Duffy, p. 77; Willyams, pp. 41−2; Poyen, pp. 34−5.

  8. Bulletins of the Campaign 1794, pp. 103−5; Fortescue, Vol. IV (1), pp. 359−60; Duffy, pp. 77−80; James, Journal of Rear-Admiral Bartholomew James, pp. 232−3; Willyams, pp. 49−51; Poyen, p. 35.