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STUDYING FOR THE ARMY. PAGE

Samuel Rice--Birth and parentage--Education--Sent to St Omer in 1792--French Revolution--Preparations for war--French hussars and their moustaches--Massacre of aristocrats--Expulsion of Jesuits--Founding of Stoneyhurst College--Duke of Brunswick's manifesto--Citizen Rice--French victories over Prussians and Austrians--Troublous times--Rice returns to England 1

ENSIGN OF THE 51ST.

THE ATTACK ON CORSICA.

Lieut.-Colonel John Moore--The British army in 1793--The officers--Moore interviews Admiral Lord Hood--England's position in the Mediterranean--Elba and Corsica--Horatio Nelson--Operations against St Fiorenzo--Origin of Martello towers--Operations against Bastia and against Calvi--Nelson loses an eye--Moore wounded--Rice's experiences--Surrender of Calvi--French driven from Corsica--Sickness among the troops 35

CORSICA WON AND LOST.

Taking over the island--The life of a subaltern--Garrison gaieties--The Viceroy of Corsica--Misunderstandings--Disease and deaths--The 51st garrisons Corte--Corsican regiments--Sea-fights--Disaffection among the Corsicans--Pascal Paoli and Sir Gilbert Elliott--Bastia--General rising in favour of the French--Hasty evacuation of Corsica by the British--The army takes refuge in Elba 56

FROM THE MEDITERRANEAN TO CEYLON.

The situation at Elba--News of Admiral Jervis's victory off Cape St Vincent--Evacuation of Elba--The 51st reaches Gibraltar--Moves to Lisbon--Napoleon's drastic methods--Position of Portugal--Rice a captain of light infantry--Naval warfare--Convoys--The 51st sails for the East Indies--Lands at the Cape of Good Hope--Arrives at Madras--Tippoo of Mysore--Prize-money and plunder--Ceylon--King of Kandy--A long and unfortunate war--Rice invalided--Affairs in Europe--The 51st returns to England 81

THE REFORM OF THE ARMY.

Sir John Moore's great work--His treatment of regimental officers--He trains a brigade for war--Shorncliffe Camp--Light troops--Their origin and history--Discipline--Intelligent code--Napoleon's proposed invasion of England--Nelson's victory at Trafalgar--Regimental life--Uniform of 1808--The beginning of the Peninsular War--Sir Arthur Wellesley--Vimiera--Occupation of Lisbon 102

THE CORUNNA CAMPAIGN, AND AFTER.

Sir John Moore at Lisbon--The 51st accompanies Sir David Baird to Corunna--Situation in the Peninsula--Moore advances north--Baird ordered to co-operate--Napoleon's forced march from Madrid--Retreat on Corunna commences-- Hardships--Lack of discipline--Good work of the 51st at Lugo--Corunna reached--The battle--Death of Sir John Moore--The 51st arrives in England--The Walcheren Expedition--Wellesley's operations in the Peninsula in 1810 126

CAMPAIGNS OF 1811 IN THE PENINSULA.

The 51st ordered to take the field--Joins Wellington's army-- Condition of Portugal--Major Rice's letters--Beresford at Badajoz--Battle of Fuentes d'Onor--Major Rice has an "all-but"--The French escape from Almeida--Second siege of Badajoz--Assaults on St Christoval--Failure and withdrawal-- The colours of the 51st--Strange episode--Regimental officers--Wellington's reticence--Winter quarters 145

CIUDAD RODRIGO AND BADAJOZ.

Sports and amusements of the army--Siege of Ciudad Rodrigo--The covering force--Guarding snow-passes--Fall of the fortress--Marching south--Siege of Badajoz--Attempt to surprise Llerena--Disastrous night march--Storming of Badajoz--Wild scenes--Remarks on the battle of Albuhera-- Wellington's plans--Indiscipline of the army--Marauding-- Punishments--Peninsular generals--The soldiers' opinion of Wellington--Flogging in the army 180

SALAMANCA AND MADRID.

Wellington isolates Marmont--Follows him to Salamanca--General Graham gives a ball--Major Rice's horse shot under him and afterwards eaten--Grand manoeuvres--Battle of Salamanca--Rout of the French--Advance on Madrid--Triumphal entry into the capital--Capture of the Retiro--The 51st marches with Wellington to Burgos--Abortive assaults--The bridge at Valladolid--French valour at Tordesillas--Retreat from Burgos--Drunkenness of the two armies--Brave regimental women--Affair at San Mu?os--Numerous stragglers--Major Rice invalided 205

DRIVING THE FRENCH OUT OF SPAIN, 1813.

Wellington reorganises his army--The situation discussed--The 51st marches to the Esla river--Passage of the Esla--King Joseph--Battle of Vittoria--Complete victory--Flight of the king and his army--Marauding and drunkenness--Wellington's strictures--Pursuit to Pampeluna--The 51st reaches the Pyrenees-- Sharp skirmishes--Siege of San Sebastian--A hard day's fighting-- The French 51st Regiment--Regimental numbers--Capture of San Sebastian 227

THE CLOSE OF THE PENINSULAR WAR.

Young regimental officers--Their effect upon the campaign-- Casualties in the 51st--Wellington plans the invasion of France--Crosses the Bidassoa--Fights his way into the Pyrenees--Major Rice commands the 51st at the battle of the Nivelle--Peninsular medals--Battles before Bayonne--A short winter's rest--Campaign of 1814--Battle of Orthes--With Beresford to Bordeaux--Toulouse--Napoleon abdicates--Peace 247

THE WATERLOO CAMPAIGN.

Napoleon escapes from Elba--Europe decides to crush him--The 51st proceeds to Belgium--Lieut.-Colonel Rice commands the regiment--The situation at the beginning of June 1815--The French invasion--Quatre Bras and Ligny--The battle of Waterloo described--The part played by the 51st--Rout of the French--Flight of Napoleon--Honours and rewards--Colonel Rice's letter about the battle 273

PARIS--AND PEACE.

The advance on Paris--The storming of Cambray--Rapid pursuit by the Prussians--Last shots--Anecdote of a 51st officer--Friendly enemies--Paris occupied--Napoleon's fate--Life in the French capital--Return of the regiment--The beginning of the long peace--Garrison duty--New uniform--Ten years in the Ionian Isles--Colonel Rice concludes his regimental soldiering--His subsequent employment and death 296

INDEX 313

THE LIFE OF A REGIMENTAL OFFICER DURING THE GREAT WAR,

STUDYING FOR THE ARMY.

Samuel Rice was born at Chislehurst on the 19th August 1775, and was the son of John Rice, one of an old Welsh family long established at Mydfai . His mother was a daughter of Samuel Plumbe, who had married the sister of Henry Thrale, M.P., the then sole proprietor of what subsequently became Barclay & Perkins' Brewery, and the husband of the lady who has been named by posterity "Dr Johnson's Mrs Thrale."

Being one of a family of thirteen, young Rice was fortunate in having grandparents possessed of the wherewithal to give their grandchildren a start in life, and possessed, moreover, of sufficient intelligence to assure themselves that the money spent on education was well laid out. It is, perhaps, remarkable that, although very ordinary boys at school and not above getting into scrapes, all of John Rice's seven sons entered honourable professions and did well. The eldest took Holy Orders; two were in the Royal Navy; two in the Army; and two were lawyers, one of the latter becoming an Indian judge and receiving the honour of knighthood. John Rice himself, who was an only child, had been at Eton, but his sons were educated at Cheam , and Samuel, the second son, remained there until 1792, when, as was customary in those days, he was sent abroad to learn French before entering the army.

Those were stirring times. France was in a state of revolution, with her king and queen in prison; a republican Government on the point of being established, and Continental Europe up in arms, with the hope of being able to restore order in the country and prevent the excesses which were likely to result from the indiscipline of a republican army in league with the mob. At first England maintained a strict neutrality, and held aloof from interference with the internal affairs of France; thus, when, in the spring of 1792, Sam Rice took up his residence at St Omer , he found the French well-disposed towards his countrymen, though he, the true British boy of the period, was disinclined to regard his new hosts otherwise than as the natural enemies of his country.

In spite of the fact that he was kept hard at work, learning not only French, but also drawing, fencing, and dancing, he appears, from his letters home, to have found leisure for shooting, fishing, and riding, and he thoroughly enjoyed the change of scene as well as the novelty of being at a tutor's instead of at school. On this subject he wrote, soon after his arrival in France, to his elder brother, then at Cambridge--

This matter of wine, which in those days was considered a necessity even for a young gentleman of barely seventeen, eventually led Sam Rice to complain to his father about the scanty allowance which he made him. Twenty guineas a-year for extras, including clothes, was, he said, a ridiculously small sum upon which to attempt to "live as other gentlemen do"; and he summed up his necessary annual expenses as follows: "Wine , half a bottle a-day, and occasionally giving to friends, eight guineas; washing, hairdressing, and hair powder, six guineas." His appeal, however, had little effect, and on his father's refusal to increase his allowance, the young student cut down his wine bill in order to have more money to spend on shooting.

That he benefited by his sojourn abroad is evident from the letters which he wrote in French to his father from time to time; and his knowledge of the language proved of the greatest value to him in after life. Living as he did at St Omer, in an atmosphere of military preparedness for war, he acquired at an early age habits of careful observation; he learned also to form his own opinions and to use his own judgment, and he became imbued with the true military spirit. His remarks on the situation as he found it at St Omer in 1792 are of interest--

"St Omer," he wrote, "is well fortified with ramparts and flanked with bastions; and there are several drawbridges before you get out of the town, which, of course, makes it very inaccessible, if well garrisoned. But the worst part is that they have got such a few meagre dogs that, I am sure, at the sight of an Austrian army they would be glad to accept of any terms of capitulation. To be sure there is one battalion of Swiss, who are undoubtedly good soldiers; but I believe that it is generally thought that they will not fight, because the Swiss remain neutral, and they cannot fight against the Germans, as they are allies. The people do not seem much afraid of the Austrians; they stump and bully now, but when the enemy comes a little closer, I am very much mistaken if they will not draw in their horns."

Again, a little later, he wrote--

"There is a great preparation for war here. I don't know how many hundred men are employed every day in repairing the batteries, in forming new ones, and in making new drawbridges, as well as in cutting rivers to surround the town. All this is done by order of General Lukener. Also vast quantities of stores and ammunition are daily brought into the town, and hay in abundance, for I never walk out of the town but I meet twenty or thirty waggon-loads of hay coming from the country to be laid up in the town in case of want. I heard yesterday that a party of hussars belonging to the French had killed no less than four hundred of the Austrian cavalry, but that General Gouire , a French general, was killed. I cannot say that this is a fact; but, if it is, most likely you will have heard of it before this reaches you. Some gentlemen from here have been to see the camps at Valenciennes and Lille, and all along the side of French Flanders, which they say are so strongly entrenched that it will be impossible for the enemy to come into the country. They saw ten thousand hussars pass them all at once as they were in their carriage, and had to wait four hours to let the cannons pass. All the hussars had great moustaches, which gave them a savage appearance."

The wearing of moustaches by the French cavalry was a new idea, and the infantry soon adopted the same method of producing a "savage appearance." The British soldier of the period, on the other hand, prided himself on his clean-shaved face, with, at the most, a suspicion of side whisker, cut square with the line of the mouth. "Shaved clean, and with the hair neatly tied and powdered," was the regulation. Moustaches were not worn in the British army until many years after Waterloo, and the order to wear them was received with suspicion and dislike, being regarded as an attempt to Frenchify the British army. It is recorded of one famous cavalry regiment that the officers paid no attention to the order until the inspecting general made strong comments on their shaved upper lips, and ordered the colonel to enforce the moustache regulation. Within a few days each officer appeared on parade fully equipped with a false moustache, and this appendage was removed when parade was over. How long this continued is not stated, but for a long time the officers of this particular regiment were observed to be clean shaved when in plain clothes and heavily moustached when in uniform. The British infantry shaved the upper lip almost up to Crimean times.

But the Frenchmen's moustaches did not impress young Rice in 1792, for he regarded the Republican soldiers as effete and useless, and likely to become an easy prey to the invading Austrians and Prussians. His dislike for the French as a nation was intense, and he prayed for their downfall. "I think the French," he wrote, "a parcel of d--d rascals, and I heartily hope the Austrians will give them a good thrashing. We are to have a garrison of six thousand men here, for they expect this town to be attacked by the Austrians, who propose to burn the place by firing red-hot bullets, and so pass over its ashes to Brussels." As events turned out, St Omer was not attacked, but it was hardly the place for quiet study, and it is wonderful that, under such circumstances, the boy learned anything. As an experience, his seven months' residence in France must have been full of interest and excitement. He lived, as it were, on the outskirts of the fight--at times with the enemy's guns within earshot, and he constantly saw troops marching to the front to the tune of "?a ira." He lived also in the midst of the Revolution, for although St Omer itself was comparatively quiet, the accounts which came from Paris sickened him and filled him with righteous indignation. In one of his letters he mentions that he has just heard of the massacre of some thousands of Aristocrats in Paris, and he gives vent to his feelings in no measured terms. "The cruelties and barbarities which have been committed will ever be a stain upon the national character. This French nation, which was once the most gentle, has now by its cruelties rendered itself the most savage and barbarous. I am now a strong Aristocrat, and I should imagine that people in England who favoured the Revolution must have changed their opinions since the recent horrible massacre in Paris."

Though Sam Rice held French revolutionary methods in general abhorrence, he appears to have approved of the treatment dealt out to the religious orders, for, in describing events at St Omer, he says: "The nuns are all going to be turned out of their convents, and also the friars. Most of them have been sent away, and there only remains one church of them, from which they will be speedily dislodged. There were twelve capital houses with nice gardens which those rascals the monks inhabited--one for each, and they were allowed a considerable sum for their maintenance; but now the people have seen what rogues they were, and have turned them out neck and crop, and have sent them into the country to live upon twelve pounds a-year. Their library and church are turned into magazines for hay and different stores, and all the religious houses are to be converted into barracks for the soldiers." It is perhaps worthy of remark that eighteen of these persecuted Jesuit fathers of St Omer were granted, in 1794, an asylum in England, and, bringing with them several of their pupils, founded Stonyhurst College, for the education of Roman Catholics.

On the 7th September, just after the news of the September massacres had reached him, he discussed the situation again: "The Allies have already taken two towns--Longwy and Verdun, and there are no fortified towns between them and Paris, but it seems to me that they cannot reach Paris without an immense army, otherwise they will be cut to pieces by the French armies. They say that on Sunday and Monday two thousand Aristocrats were massacred in Paris in the prisons."

His next letter was dated October 3, and in it he makes no mention of the brilliant victory of the French at Valmy, where, on the 20th September, Kellermann defeated the Prussians under the Duke of Brunswick, and thus gave heart to the Republican forces. He must have known of the victory, and he may have already referred to it in a letter which has not been preserved, for he seems to have begun to fear that all was not going well with the Allies. "I make no doubt but what you have heard," he says, "that Lille is besieged. My father, I am afraid, will be anxious for my safety, but I assure you as yet there is nothing to cause anxiety; neither do I think that there will be. It is not possible that they can take Lille, as it is one of the strongest towns in France, and has a garrison which is determined to hold out to the last. They have kept up a brisk cannonading for these two or three days past, and even here I can hear the report of the cannons very distinctly. Most people think that it is only a false attack to draw off the French armies from Verdun, where the Prussians are being kept blocked up. I think this most probable, as they would never attempt to attack such a place as Lille with only 20,000 men. Lille is very much damaged, as the enemy fire red-hot balls, which, of course, have set fire to a great many houses. Numbers of people are saving themselves from Lille and taking shelter in St Omer. They come, some in carriages, with their children; others in carts, with their household furniture; and a pitiful sight it is to see the poor women and children reduced to such extremities. I was up at half after five this morning to see a regiment depart for Lille, and I was very well amused for my pains. The soldiers seemed to wear a melancholy air, though they marched to the tune of '?a ira,' which generally gives them courage and consolation."

With regard to Lille Citizen Rice's forecast was correct; for, on the 7th October, the Prussians raised the siege and departed, thus shattering Rice's hopes of a speedy occupation of Paris by the Allies. The Duke of Brunswick's manifesto, which he mentioned in a previous letter, did more harm than good, as the insolence of its tone irritated the French into deposing their king forthwith, massacring Aristocrats wholesale in Paris, and putting forth all their strength to defeat the Austrians and Prussians. In this they succeeded beyond all expectation, for the victory of Valmy was repeated at Jemappes ; and, a week later, the French entered Brussels and occupied the Austrian Netherlands. St Omer appears now to have settled down to comparative quiet, and the young Englishman to his studies and amusements; but, before the end of the year, his father began to be anxious about the state of affairs in France, and wrote, "the complexion of the times is such as, in my opinion, renders it no longer proper for a young man designed for the British army to remain in France." The people of England realised that the climax was approaching. A revulsion of feeling against the French had set in with the suspension of King Louis in August; the September massacres had increased it; and the arraignment of the unfortunate king on December 11 raised it to boiling-point. Neither was this all, for England saw in the high-handed acts of the victorious Revolutionary leaders a menace to the "rights and liberties of Europe."

ENSIGN OF THE 51ST.

On the 12th February 1793 , Samuel Rice was appointed to an Ensigncy, by purchase, in the 51st Regiment .

At that time, under ordinary circumstances, young gentlemen obtained commissions in the army in one of two ways. Free commissions were granted to a limited number of the sons of officers who had performed good service for their country, and all other commissions were purchased, upon the recommendation of two or more officers of high rank. There were no examinations or other means of ascertaining the standard of education of the would-be officer, and it may be taken that Sam Rice was better educated than most young officers who then joined the army. The greater number of commissions were obtained by purchase, but in times of war, when the supply of officers was short, colonels of regiments were allowed to employ the services of young gentlemen , who were termed "volunteers," and who hoped, by distinguishing themselves on active service, to be granted free commissions. During the many years of war which terminated with Waterloo, a vast number of officers entered the army in this way, and being, for the most part, men whose very livelihood depended upon their zeal, proved themselves valuable officers.

The so-called purchase system, in one form or another, was almost as old as the British standing army itself, and dated back to the time when the colonel of a regiment was entirely responsible for his corps, which was known by his name. For many years there was no fixed scale of charges for commissions, the colonels charging more or less what they liked, and employing agents to sell the commissions, so that both the colonels and the agents feathered their nests very satisfactorily. In this manner many useless officers found their way into the army, and it was not until 1765 that the authorities took the matter up and issued strict regulations on the subject. Then the price to be paid to Government for a commission as Ensign, and for promotion to each subsequent rank, was clearly laid down, the colonels being forbidden to make any profit for themselves, though the matter of what was termed "over regulation" was not touched on, but left to the regimental officers themselves.

When Sam Rice entered the army he paid ?450 for his first commission as ensign in an infantry regiment; and the regulation prices paid to Government at that time by officers of infantry on promotion were as follows: to lieutenant, ?250; captain, ?1100; major, ?1400; lieut.-colonel, ?1300. Consequently, by the time an officer had reached the rank of lieut.-colonel, he had paid to Government altogether ?4500. But if he could not find the money to purchase any step, it was open to him to purchase promotion to the half-pay list, at a considerably reduced price, subsequently exchanging or purchasing back to full pay, if he desired to do so. Eventually, on retirement, the officer received from Government a lump sum equivalent to the value of his commission, so that he got back the sums which he had expended. This was termed Retirement by the Sale of Commissions, but the regulations varied from time to time, and later on lieutenant-colonels were given the choice of taking the lump sum, or of retiring on full pay.

The above is a brief outline of the purchase system, in so far as transactions between officers and the Government were concerned, but many and various complications arose from the over-regulation prices of commissions, with which the Government had nothing to do. These transactions were carried out among the officers of the regiment, with the assistance of the regimental agents, and the object of them was to maintain a healthy flow of promotion by buying out the senior officers. Death was the only other way of displacing them, for there was no regulation by which an officer was forced to give up the command of a regiment after holding it for a certain length of time, and no age limit for any other officers. Every regiment appears to have had its own recognised tariff, depending principally on the purses of the officers; thus the over-regulation price of, say, a lieutenant-colonelcy of a cavalry regiment was considerably higher than that of an infantry regiment, and a lieutenant-colonel would not retire unless the officers junior to him subscribed the sum which he considered his rank and appointment were worth. In such a case the procedure would be something as follows: the lieutenant-colonel would name his price to the senior major, who would then see how the amount could be made up by voluntary subscriptions from such officers as would benefit by the retirement of the lieutenant-colonel. The senior major would, of course, pay the largest amount, and the senior captain and senior lieutenant would probably subscribe handsomely, if they intended to purchase their respective steps. It frequently happened, however, that officers could not afford to purchase their promotion, in which case a junior officer could purchase over the heads of his seniors, the latter deciding to wait for a death vacancy, for which no over-regulation money was required.

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