The Autobiography of Lieutenant-General Sir Harry Smith, Baronet of Aliwal on the Sutlej, G.C.B.

FOOTNOTES

[2] Sir Harry’s original narrative is not broken into chapters.

[3] The Peninsular dates are generally borrowed from A British Rifleman (Major Simmons’ diary).

[4] Sir Harry’s ordinary signature was “H. G. Smith.” His letters to his wife were commonly signed “Enrique”; to members of his family, “Harry Smith”; to his friend and interpreter for the Kafir language, Mr. Theophilus Shepstone, “Inkosi” (“Chief”). He addressed Mr. Shepstone as “My dear Sumtseu” (“Hunter”).

[5] The birthplace of Sir Harry Smith in St. Mary’s Street, Whittlesey, is now called “Aliwal House.” In his MS. he left the year of his birth vacant, and it would appear that he was uncertain of his own age (cp. p. 73). This may account for the date of his birth having been often given wrongly as 1788. The east end of the south aisle of St. Mary’s church was at this time partitioned off and used as a schoolroom, the vicar or curate teaching. It was here that Harry Smith received his education from the Rev. George Burgess, then curate, who survived to welcome him in Whittlesey in 1847 on his return after the battle of Aliwal. This part of the church, having been restored in 1862 as a memorial to him, is now known as “Sir Harry’s Chapel.”

Harry Smith’s father, John Smith (son of Wakelyn Smith), surgeon, born 1756, died 2 Sept. 1843, married in 1781 Eleanor (born 1760, died 12 Dec. 1813), daughter of the Rev. George Moore, M.A. (Queens’ College, Cambridge), vicar of St. Mary and St. Andrew, Whittlesey, and minor canon of Peterborough Cathedral. They had in all fourteen children, but only eleven survived infancy, viz. 1, Mary Anne; 2, John Stona; 3, Eleanor Moore; 4, Elizabeth; 5, Henry George Wakelyn (b. 28 June, 1787); 6, Jane Alice (Mrs. Sargant), b. 1789; 7, William; 8, Thomas Lawrence (b. 25 Feb. 1792); 9, Anna Maria; 10, Charles (b. 10 Aug. 1795); 11, Samuel.

Mrs. Sargant, Harry Smith’s favourite sister, resided for many years in Clapton Square, and died in 1869. She was the author of Joan of Arc, a Play, Charlie Burton (a tale, translated into French and German), and many other works.

Thomas Lawrence (frequently mentioned in this book) received his commission in the 95th (Rifle Brigade) on 3 March, 1808, and took part in the actions of Sir John Moore’s expedition to the battle of Corunna. Like his brother Harry, he served with the Light Division throughout the Peninsular War to the battle of Toulouse, being dangerously wounded at the Coa. He was recommended for promotion for his conduct at Waterloo. He proceeded with his regiment to Paris, and riding as Adjutant at the head of the 2nd Battalion, was the first British officer who entered the city on 7 July, 1815. He went on half-pay in 1817. In 1824 he was appointed Barrack-master, in which capacity he served in Ireland till 1838, when he was transferred to Chatham. On the formation of Aldershot Camp in 1855, he was appointed Principal Barrack-master there, and held his appointment till 1868. On retirement he was made a C.B. and granted a special pension. He died in London on 6 April, 1877, and was buried in the cemetery, Aldershot.

Charles was present as a “Volunteer” with the 1st Battalion 95th at Quatrebras and Waterloo, after which he received a commission as Second Lieutenant. Two or three years later he retired from the army and settled at Whittlesey. He became J.P. and D.L. for Cambridgeshire, and Lieut.-Colonel of the Yeomanry Cavalry of the county, and died at Whittlesey on 24 Dec. 1854.

Further information about Sir Harry Smith’s family was given to Mr. Arthur M. Smith, at his request, for his book The Smiths of Exeter, and will there be found, although, in the opinion of the present editor, no connexion between the two families can be established. See also p. 794 inf.

[6] In consequence of a representation made to the Government by Colonel Coote Manningham and Lieut.-Colonel the Hon. William Stewart, an “experimental Corps of Riflemen” was formed early in 1800, with Manningham as colonel and Stewart one of the lieut.-colonels. It was actually organized by Stewart. On the 25th of December, 1802, the corps was ordered to be numbered as the 95th Regiment. In 1803 they were brigaded with the 43rd and 52nd as part of Sir John Moore’s Camp of Instruction at Shorncliffe. The 2nd Battalion was formed on the 6th of May, 1805, according to Cope, and joined the 1st Battalion at Brabourn Lees, near Ashford, in June (see Cope’s History of the Rifle Brigade, p. 1, etc.).

[7] For his diary of the voyage, etc., see Appendix I.

[8] The following extracts from Hughes and Clark’s Life of Adam Sedgwick (i. p. 76, etc.) refer to this time—

“Sedgwick went on December 17, 1804, to spend Christmas with Ainger at his father’s house at Whittlesea.... He never forgot the simple pleasures which he there enjoyed.... It was on this occasion that he made the acquaintance of Henry Smith, son to the surgeon of Whittlesea, then a boy of sixteen. Sedgwick watched his career with affectionate interest.

“In 1807 he wrote to Ainger—

“‘Pray has Henry Smith escaped the fate which many of our brave countrymen have met in Egypt? I believe his Regiment was in the expedition.’

“W. Ainger replies—

“‘Whittlesea, August 3, 1807.

“‘Henry Smith, after whom you inquired, did not go into Egypt, but to Buenos Ayres. His father had a letter from him after the engagement. His Captain was killed by his side in the outset; the command of the Company then of course devolved to Henry, who, I believe, acquitted himself very creditably, and did not, to use his own expression, get a single scratch. Last week brought his friends another letter from Monte Video, which acquainted them that he was then (in April) just recovering from the attack of a fever, which appears, Sedgwick, to have been not less formidable than yours was. He says he has lost all his flesh; but I find he retains all his spirit.’”

[9] I.e. the English spring.

[10] Cope says he could find no particulars of this affair of the 7th of June beyond the mention of it and the casualties. Pack’s own report of the affair, however (with Whitelock’s covering despatch), is given under his name in Philippart’s Royal Military Calendar (1820). It is interesting to compare that account with the one in the text, as each has some details not in the other. It seems that the Spaniards, two thousand in number, were under Major-General Elio (see p. 79, below), and the name of their position was San Pedro.

[11] See his reference to this time, p. 159.

[12] The author, writing many years after the events described, does not discriminate the titles borne at different dates by his revered commander, but speaks of him as “the Duke,” even from the time he was Sir Arthur Wellesley. At the risk of offending the historical sense of some readers, I have made no attempt to remove such a harmless anachronism.

[13] Cp. E. Costello, Adventures of a Soldier, p. 36: “For bread we took the corn from the fields, and, having no proper means of winnowing and grinding it, were obliged, as a substitute, to rub out the ears between our hands and then pound them between stones to make it into dough, such as it was. From this latter wretched practice, we christened the place ‘Dough Boy Hill,’ a name by which it is well remembered by the men of our Division.” Cp. p. 321, below.

[14] Cp. Cope, p. 55: “Why Craufurd did not use his guns or let loose the Riflemen at the French infantry, seems inexplicable.”

[15] Elder brother of Sir Henry Havelock. See p. 297.

[16] George Simmons writes in his diary for the 17th of September, 1810: “I removed to Pedroso for the convenience of sea-bathing, my thigh being much better, which enabled me, with crutches, to move about. Lieutenant Harry Smith was also with me. I found great benefit from the sea-bathing.” Sir Harry Smith, writing to Major George Simmons on the 16th of June, 1846 (soon after the battle of Aliwal, when he had driven the Sikhs into the Sutlej), refers to their bathing together at this time, though he says at Belem, not at Pedroso (both places are close to Lisbon): “Dear George,—We little thought at Bellam [Belem], when hopping about there, I should become a master of that art we were both ‘girning’ under, or a swimming master for pupils in the Sutledge!”

[17] Simmons states in his diary that the Commandant was Major Murphy (not Ironmonger), and writes that at the end of the second day’s march “another one hundred heroes had disappeared, which made our Commandant raving mad. Smith called upon me to assist him in a medical capacity. I had a bucket of spring water thrown upon him, which did him good; he had several fits, but this put an end to them” (p. 111). According to the Army Lists, Major Barnaby Murphy, 88th Regiment, was killed at Salamanca, July, 1812. Lieut.-Colonel W. Iremonger, 2nd Foot, retired 2 May, 1811 (? 12 May). There is no Ironmonger in the Army List. The garrison of Almeida escaped on 11 May, 1811. In his despatch of 15 May, 1811, Wellington censures a Lieutenant-Colonel (name not given), but it is for “imprudence,” not cowardice.

[18] Cp. Kincaid, Random Shots, pp. 101, 102.

[19] He was at Lisbon from 3 Dec. to 4 Feb., when he returned to his Regiment with Colonel Beckwith (A British Rifleman, pp. 124, 135).

[20] Cope says Major John Stewart was killed in this fight near Casal Nova, and Lieut. Strode mortally wounded (14 March).

[21] The duties of a Major of Brigade are given in a letter of Sir W. Gomm, Sept. 19, 1808: “The pay and rank are the same as those of Aide-de-camp. The officer has the rank of Major during the time he holds the employment, and he is not considered as generally belonging to the General’s family so much as the Aide-de-camp. The situation is more independent” (Carr-Gomm’s Life of Sir W. Gomm, 1881, p. 106).

[22] See p. 34.

[23] Colonel Rowan (from 1848 Sir Charles Rowan, K.C.B.) was Chief Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Force from its institution in 1829 till 1850. He died in 1852.

[24] Costello (p. 140) tells how, after the taking of Fort San Francisco, many of the French wounded prisoners were stripped naked by the Portuguese CaÇadores. One of them, a sergeant, on being marched in, and seeing his officer in the same plight with himself, “ran to embrace him, and, leaning his head on his shoulder, burst into tears over their mutual misery. Captain Smith, the General’s aide-de-camp, being present, generously pulled forth his pocket-handkerchief and wrapped it round the sergeant’s totally naked person, till further covering could be obtained.”

[25] There is an interesting account of this heroic soldier in the United Service Journal for 1837, Part I. p. 354, by J. K. (John Kincaid), written after Johnstone’s death at the Cape.

[26] Not till 24 March (Napier, iv. 105).

[27] Random Shots by a Rifleman, by Sir John Kincaid, pp. 292-296. I venture to quote the rest of Kincaid’s interesting passage: “Thrown upon each other’s acquaintance in a manner so interesting, it is not to be wondered at that she and I conceived a friendship for each other, which has proved as lasting as our lives—a friendship which was cemented by after-circumstances so singularly romantic that imagination may scarcely picture them! The friendship of man is one thing—the friendship of woman another; and those only who have been on the theatre of fierce warfare, and knowing that such a being was on the spot, watching with earnest and increasing solicitude over his safety alike with those most dear to her, can fully appreciate the additional value which it gives to one’s existence.

“About a year after we became acquainted, I remember that our Battalion was one day moving down to battle, and had occasion to pass by the lone country-house in which she had been lodged. The situation was so near to the outposts, and a battle certain, I concluded that she must ere then have been removed to a place of greater security, and, big with the thought of coming events, I scarcely even looked at it as we rolled along, but just as I had passed the door, I found my hand suddenly grasped in hers. She gave it a gentle pressure, and, without uttering a word, had rushed back into the house again, almost before I could see to whom I was indebted for a kindness so unexpected and so gratifying.

“My mind had, the moment before, been sternly occupied in calculating the difference which it makes in a man’s future prospects—his killing or being killed, when ‘a change came o’er the spirit of the dream,’ and throughout the remainder of that long and trying day I felt a lightness of heart and buoyancy of spirit which, in such a situation, was no less new than delightful.

“I never until then felt so forcibly the beautiful description of Fitz-James’s expression of feeling, after his leave-taking of Ellen, under somewhat similar circumstances—

“‘And after oft the knight would say,

That not when prize of festal day

Was dealt him by the brightest fair

That e’er wore jewel in her hair,

So highly did his bosom swell

As at that simple, mute, farewell.’”

[28] From the time of their first residence at the Cape in the thirties, Juana Smith conformed to the Church of England, and was in consequence disowned by her remaining Spanish relatives.

[29] He was really twenty-four, but he seems never to have known his own age. His wife (born 27 March, 1798) was just past fourteen.

[30] Her relations are numerous. She was in three sieges of her native city: in one her wounded brother died in her arms. She was educated in a convent, and is a lineal descendant of Ponce de Leon, the Knight of Romance, and certainly she, as a female, inherits all his heroism. Her name, Juana Maria de Los Dolores de Leon, at once gives the idea of Hidalgo consanguinity, and she is of one of the oldest of the notoriously old Spanish, not Moorish, families. After Talavera, when the Duke’s headquarters were at Badajos, and my wife was a child, Colonel Campbell and Lord Fitzroy Somerset were billeted in her sister’s house. That was in the palmy days of their affluence, when they derived a considerable income from their olive groves. These, alas! were all cut down by the unsparing hand of the French, and the sisters’ income seriously reduced. An olive tree requires great care and cultivation, nor does it bear well until twenty or thirty years old.—H.G.S.

[31] Vide Duke’s letter, Nov. 23, 1812, to Lord Liverpool, in his Grace’s letter to Marshal Beresford, Oct. 31, “You see what a scrape we have been in, and how well we have got out of it.”—H.G.S.

[32] Cope, p. 141.

[33]

“Lord Dacre, with his horsemen light.

Shall be in rearward of the fight,

And succour those that need it most.”

Marmion, VI. xxiv.

[34] At the battles of the Pyrenees.

[35] See pp. 129, 130.

[36] Sir R. D. Henegan writes thus of Col. Skerrett, in describing the defence of Tarifa: “The commanding-officer of this expedition, although unimpeachable in the courageous bearing of a soldier, was wanting in the bold decision which, in military practice, must often take the lead of science and established rules.”—Henegan’s Seven Years’ Campaigning (1846), vol. i. p. 234. Colonel T. Bunbury, Reminiscences of a Veteran, i. p. 116, gives a similar account: “Skerrett as an individual was brave to rashness; but I should have doubted it had I not so frequently witnessed proofs of his cool intrepidity and contempt of danger. At the head of troops, he was the most undecided, timid, and vacillating creature I ever met with.”

[37] Cope’s account of Cadoux’s death (pp. 149, 150), derived, he tells us, from Colonel Thomas Smith, is rather different. According to this, Skerrett sent to desire Cadoux to evacuate his post. Cadoux refused, saying that he could hold it. At 2 a.m. the French made a rush, but Cadoux, by his fire from the bridge-house, kept the head of the advancing column in check. Skerrett now peremptorily ordered Cadoux to leave the bridge-house. Cadoux could only comply, but remarked that “but few of his party would reach the camp.” And as a matter of fact every officer present was either killed or wounded (Cadoux being killed), besides 11 sergeants and 48 rank and file out of a total strength of 100 men. Until the party left the bridge-house, Cadoux had not lost a man except the double sentries on the bridge, who were killed in the rush made by the French. Accordingly, while Harry Smith in the text blames Skerrett for leaving Cadoux in an almost impossible position without support, Thomas Smith’s charge against Skerrett is that he recalled Cadoux when he was well able to hold his own.

[38] In the Recollections of Rifleman Harris (1848), we have an account of Cadoux which tallies closely with that of the text: “I remember there was an officer named, I think, Cardo, with the Rifles. He was a great beau; but although rather effeminate and ladylike in manners, so much so as to be remarked by the whole Regiment at that time, yet he was found to be a most gallant officer when we were engaged with the enemy in the field. He was killed whilst fighting bravely in the Pyrenees, and amongst other jewellery he wore, he had a ring on his finger worth one hundred and fifty guineas.”

[39] Kincaid (Random Shots, p. 273) tells the story at second hand with his usual esprit.

[40] Cope writes Arrhune. The Duke’s Despatches have Rhune.

[41] St. PÉ, Nov. 13, 1813. No. 847.

[42] Cope’s account (p. 155) represents Barnard as falling wounded in the attack on the redoubt described in the text below. But he seems here to have read George Simmons’s rather carelessly. Though Simmons, in his Journal for Nov. 10, says Barnard was wounded “towards the end of this day’s fighting” (p. 321), in his letter of Dec. 7, he makes it clear that it was before the final attack on the redoubt; in fact, as Barnard was “reconnoitring how to move to the best advantage” (p. 326). There is no discrepancy between this and the text above.

[43] It is difficult to reconcile this story with that told by Colonel Gawler (quoted by Leeke, Lord Seaton’s Regiment at Waterloo, vol. ii. p. 365). Speaking of the check received by Colborne and the 52nd in their advance on the redoubt, he goes on: “At this moment an interesting episode occurred. Baron Alten, seeing from the lower ridge the desperate nature of the effort, endeavoured to send an order to prevent further attempts. It was confided to the Brigade-Major, Harry Smith. Trusting to the shifting character of the mark of a horseman in motion, he tried the desperate venture; but it was impossible; no single living creature could reach the 52nd under the concentrated fire from the forts. The horse was soon brought down, and Captain Smith had to limit his triumph to carrying off his good and precious English saddle, which he performed with his accustomed coolness, to the amusement of observing friends and enemies.”

[44] Query, Lindsell? See W. Tomkinson, Diary of a Cavalry Officer (1894), p. 195.

[45] So in the Duke’s despatch. But query, Barrouilhet? See Napier, Bk. xxiii. ch. ii., and the plan in Sir H. E. Maxwell’s Life of Wellington, i. p. 358.

[46] Query, Baring? The name Beyring seems not to occur in the Army Lists of 1813, 1814.

[47] See Appendix II. The hour of the death is not stated in the letter.

[48] Charles, from 1819 5th Duke of Richmond, after the introduction of the Catholic Emancipation Bill became a vigorous opponent of Wellington. Though reckoned an ultra-Tory, he joined the Reform Ministry in 1830, and afterwards supported Lord Melbourne. On the other hand, in 1845-6 (after the date when the remarks in the text were written), he was a leader of the opposition to corn-law abolition. He died within a few days of Sir Harry Smith, on 21st October, 1860.

[49] According to G. Simmons’ diary (p. 340), this attack on the French Cavalry took place on 16th March, two days before the advance of the Division. Simmons says the French captain “died soon after.”

[50] The 3rd CaÇadores at this period were commanded by a fine gallant soldier and a good fellow, but as he rejoiced in a name of unusual length—Senhor Manuel TerÇeira Caetano Pinto de Silvuica y Souza—we gave him the much shorter appellation of “Jack Nasty Face,” for he was an ugly dog, though a very good officer.—H.G.S.

[51] He was nearly twenty-seven. See p. 1 n.

[52] Ross wrote, “So unexpected was our entry and capture of Washington, and so confident was Madison of the defeat of our troops, that he had prepared a supper for the expected conquerors; and when our advanced party entered the President’s house, they found a table laid with forty covers” (Dictionary of National Biography, “Ross”).

[53] The biblical account of Belshazzar’s feast (Daniel v.) does not mention a storm. Sir H. Smith’s mental picture was no doubt derived from engravings of Martin’s representation of the scene.

[54] “From Major-General Ross to Earl Bathurst.

“Tonnant in the Patuxent, Aug. 30, 1814.

“Captain Smith, assistant adjutant-general to the troops, who will have the honor to deliver this dispatch, I beg leave to recommend to your lordship’s protection, as an officer of much merit and great promise, and capable of affording any further information that may be requisite” (Given in W. James’s Military Occurrences of the Late War (1818), ii. p. 498).

[55] Charles Cavendish Fulke Greville (1794-1865), Clerk to the Privy Council from 1821; author of the Greville Memoirs; known to his friends as Punch, or the Gruncher (Dict. Nat. Biog.).

[56] See p. 158.

[57] Byron, The Giaour:

“Swift as the hurled on high jerreed,

Springs to the touch his startled steed.”

[58] See p. 209.

[59] Augustus Frederick (b. 1794), only son of Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex (son of George III.), by his marriage with Lady Augusta Murray. The two children of this marriage, when disinherited by the Royal Marriage Act, took the name D’Este.

[60] Sir J. Lambert was always in the Guards, and prided himself on being Adjutant of the Grenadier Guards, as his eldest son now is.—H.G.S. (1844).

[61] I.e. make a scapegoat of.

[62] Colonel Mullins was blamed for not having the ladders and fascines ready.

[63] Pluck?

[64] After that attack I have always been of opinion that General Keane should have occupied the narrow neck of land behind the deep ditch which ran across from the river to the morass, and was afterwards (but then not at all) so strongly fortified by the enemy. I admit there were many, very many objections, but I still maintain there were more important reasons for its occupation, since our Army had been shoved into such a position, for, to begin from the beginning, it ought never to have gone there.—H.G.S.

[65] “From Major-General Lambert to Earl Bathurst.

“His Majesty’s Ship Tonnant, off Chandeleur’s Island,
“January 28, 1815.

“Major Smith, of the 95th Regiment, now acting as Military Secretary, is so well known for his zeal and talents, that I can with great truth say that I think he possesses every qualification to render him hereafter one of the brightest ornaments of his profession.”

[66] Cope’s order of events (p. 192) is as follows: Disembarcation of troops on Ile Dauphine, Feb. 8; surrender of Fort Bowyer, Feb. 11; arrival of news of the preliminaries of peace, Feb. 14. According to the text, the disembarcation on Ile Dauphine would appear to have followed the peace-news. There is no inconsistency, however. Only one Brigade (the 4th, 21st, and 44th Regiments) was employed in reducing Fort Bowyer. This Brigade disembarked on Ile Dauphine after the capture of the Fort, the rest of the army having disembarked previously.

[67] They were separated for a great part of a year during the Kafir War, 1835. Perhaps he is thinking especially of separation by sea.

[68] “During the Peninsular War, and how long before I know not, it was very occasionally permitted to young men who had difficulty in getting a commission, with the consent of the commanding officer, to join some regiment on service before the enemy. In action the Volunteer acted as a private soldier, carrying his musket and wearing his cross-belts like any other man. After a campaign or two, or after having distinguished himself at the storming of some town or fortress, he would probably obtain a commission. He messed with the officers of the company to which he was attached. His dress was the same as that of an officer, except that, instead of wings or epaulettes, he wore shoulder-straps of silver or gold, to confine the cross-belts.”—W. Leeke, Lord Seaton’s Regiment at Waterloo (1866), vol. i. p. 6.

[69] See p. 151.

[70] See p. 80.

[71] The Regiment of Orange Nassau held Smohain and La Haye, and part of the second Regiment of Nassau the farm of Papelotte.

[72] See p. 155.

[73] In 1833, Major G. Gawler, of the 52nd, published The Crisis of Waterloo, in which he claimed for his regiment the honour of having by their flank-attack defeated the Imperial Guards in their last charge, an honour generally given to the Guards. His contention was supported by Rev. W. Leeke in Lord Seaton’s Regiment at Waterloo (1866).

[74] There was one case at least: John Luard, Lieutenant, 16th Light Dragoons, and George Luard, Captain, 18th Hussars.

[75] The MS. is in Harry Smith’s hand, and the wording is probably his.

[76] See p. 259.

[77] See Appendix II., pp. 708, 709.

[78] Battle of Denain, 24 July, 1712. Denain is only about five miles from Cambray. Marlborough was removed from the command of the armies of the Grand Alliance by the intrigues of Oxford and St. John in order to force the allies into the peace of Utrecht. The withdrawal of the British troops in the field a little later was immediately followed by the first really serious defeat sustained by the allies in the central field of the war since Marlborough had assumed the command; Villars cutting up and annihilating an isolated force of 8000 men under the Earl of Albemarle, who were holding a bridge across the Scheldt at Denain to cover Eugene’s force besieging LandrÉcy. For the clearing up of this passage (left incomplete in the MS.) I am indebted to my colleague, Mr. H. W. Appleton, M.A.

[79] “Few good riders haggle at a ditch, but an abattis of trees, with their trunks towards their friends, and their branches spread out towards the foe, is a less manageable obstacle.”—H. Havelock, in his account of his brother W. H. (Buist’s Annals of India for 1848).

[80] See p. 19, bottom.

[81] The 1st Battalion landed at Leith on 27th Sept. (Cope, p. 217.)

[82] See p. 166, bottom.

[83] Henry Havelock, writing to his old Captain, then Major-General Smith, Oct. 3, 1840, refers perhaps to the events of this day. [Was it April 2, 1820? See Cope, p. 220.] “I feel that it is time I ought to be trying to ascend the ladder, if ever, for as the Battle of Glasgow Green was fought in 1820, I fear I must now be not very far from forty-six.” It is perhaps not the least of Harry Smith’s services to his country that he incited his subaltern, Henry Havelock, to make a serious study of the science of his profession. Havelock writes to him Sept. 5, 1840, as his “master,” and writes of him on Oct. 2, 1847 (after his appointment to the Governorship of the Cape): “When I was a boy, he was one of the few people that ever took the trouble to teach me anything; and while all the rest around me would have persuaded me that English soldiering consisted in blackening and whitening belts with patent varnish and pipe-clay, and getting every kind of mercenary manoeuvre, he pointed my mind to the nobler part of our glorious profession. As a public man I shall ever acknowledge his merits. He is an excellent soldier—one of the few now extant among us who have set themselves to comprehend the higher portions of the art. He has a natural talent for war, and it has been improved by the constant reflection of years, and much experience. There is no species of business which Harry Smith’s mental tact will not enable him to grasp.”—Marshman’s Memoirs of Sir H. Havelock (1867), pp. 66, 165.

[84] “Peterloo,” 16 August, 1819. It is amusing to contrast the soldierly reference to an “affair of Yeomanry,” with Shelley’s Masque of Anarchy, called forth by the same occurrence.

[85] “In 1819 and onwards for a few years, when the country was supposed to be in danger from a rising of the “Radicals,” and there was certainly a good deal of disaffection, Glasgow was the centre of the agitation. In these circumstances it was resolved to re-embody the “Glasgow Volunteer Sharpshooters,” a Corps which in 1808 had made way for the “Local Militia.” This was accordingly done, the senior surviving officer of the old corps, the well known Samuel Hunter, of the “Glasgow Herald,” being appointed Lieut.-Colonel Commandant, and Robert Douglas Alston, the Major. Colonel Hunter retired in 1822, and Major Alston became Colonel.

Colonel Alston was a capital officer, and the regiment, in appearance, discipline and drill, a very fine one. Some of the older citizens of Glasgow must still remember the grand reviews on the green, in which the Sharpshooters and Regulars took part under the command of Colonel Smith, afterwards Sir H. Smith, the hero of Aliwal.”—The Old Country Houses of the Old Glasgow Gentry, 2nd edit., p. 6.

[86] “By an order dated ‘Horse Guards, Feb. 16, 1816,’ the 95th was removed from the regiments of the line, and styled The Rifle Brigade.”—Cope, p. 214.

[87] He was now admitted to the Freedom of the City of Glasgow.

[88] Then the seat of Archibald Speirs, Esq. His family consisted of five sons and nine daughters.—The Old Country Houses of the Old Glasgow Gentry, 2nd edit. pp. 95, 96.

[89] I supply this name from Cope, p. 226.

[90] “Colonel Norcott feels himself bound by every principle of public and private duty to express to Lieutenant-Colonel Smith and the officers and battalion at large his most sincere and deep regret for the loss of an officer who has served for twenty-two years with such indefatigable zeal, distinguished bravery, and merit, and now retires from its active duties on promotion and an appointment on the staff in Jamaica, but to resume in that situation the same persevering devotion to his profession, his king, and country.

“The Colonel knows how truly every officer in the Brigade participates his feelings and sentiments, and is assured of the lively and warm wishes of every non-commissioned officer and soldier for the welfare of one who, with every attribute of as good and as gallant an officer as ever lived, invariably united the most kind and peculiar interest for the comfort and happiness of the soldier.

“At the particular request of this officer, it affords the Colonel much pleasure to release from confinement to barracks, and punishments of every description, all soldiers now under their sentences; he only hopes, and is ready to believe, that they will prove sensible and grateful for Colonel Smith’s kindness, shown up to the very last moment he remains amongst them, in addition to every noble and honourable feeling which all soldiers ought to show in the performance of their duty and conduct on every occasion, by a determination to relinquish every habit tending to injure the good of the service, their corps, and individual respectability, comfort, happiness, and future welfare.

“A. Norcott, Colonel.

“Halifax, Nova Scotia, June 4, [? Jan.] 1827.”

[91] See p. 336.

[92] Algernon Frederick Greville (1798-1864), younger brother of the author of the Greville Memoirs (see p. 216), after being present as an ensign at Quatre Bras and Waterloo, served as aide-de-camp during the occupation of France, first to Sir John Lambert and afterwards to the Duke of Wellington. When the Duke became Commander-in-Chief, January, 1827, Greville became his private secretary and continued so during the Duke’s premiership.

[93] See pp. 340 and 97, 98.

[94] For an interesting memorandum on the diet and treatment of military prisoners, submitted by Harry Smith to Sir B. D’Urban in 1834, see Appendix III.

[95] With this and the four following chapters, compare Appendix II.

[96] This disposes of part of H. Cloete’s dramatic story, which, however, should be compared (Great Boer Trek, pp. 78, 79).

[97] The following characteristic story of Harry Smith about this time is told by Mr. H. A. Bryden in Temple Bar, April, 1902. “In the Kafir War, when irregular troops were much employed, odd scenes occasionally happened. A corps of Grahamstown Volunteers was drawn up and paraded before Colonel Smith, then Chief of the Staff. As he passed down the ranks, one of the men touched his hat. ‘None of your d—d politeness in the ranks, sir,’ was the response.”

[98] Cp. for this incident, and the whole history of the war, Sir J. E. Alexander’s Narrative of a Voyage, etc. London, 1837.

[99] Given by Alexander, vol. ii. p. 14.

[100] Writing of this to his wife, on the 7th April, he says, “Well, yesterday, alma mia, was the anniversary of that which led to our blessed union, and, after my check at the natural fortress, which, by Jupiter, was very strong—inaccessible, in short—I thought to myself, ‘Well, this day so and so many years ago, I had a good licking in Badajos breaches, and the old Duke tried something else.’ So the blood rushed into my heart again as gay as ever. ‘By G—d, I’ll have them out yet.’ I had no information but my spyglass, and I made a dÉtour, and was lucky in hitting off the plan to approach.”

[101] Alexander, vol. ii. p. 99.

[102] The slaying of the ox on this occasion is also described by Alexander, vol. ii. p. 132.

[103] Afterwards Sir Theophilus Shepstone.

[104] Alexander, vol ii. p. 147.

[105] The same speech is quoted by Alexander, vol. ii. p. 160.

[106] Alexander gives the river as Gnabacka. Schmidt’s map (1876) gives it as Xnabeccana and Gnabecca.

[107] Mpako?

[108] Lord Glenelg.

[109] Alexander says “the Intabakandoda range” (vol. ii. p. 248).

[110] For Warden’s report of the conference, see Alexander, vol. ii. p. 335.

[111] These ants are most venomous—creep into the eyes, ears, etc., and cause a pain which no creature was ever known to bear without lamentation; in all other punishments not even a sigh escapes them.—H. G. S.

[112] See p. 441.

[113] Alexander, vol. ii. p. 222: “NonubÉ, the mother of the young Siwana of the T’Slambies, ... is the great widow of Dushani.”

[114] The author seems inadvertently to have omitted the rest of this particular story.

[115] See p. 433.

[116] See Appendix V.

[117] So Alexander, vol. ii. pp. 134, 135: “A Highland piper was ordered to play for Hintza’s amusement. Hintza was asked what he thought of the music. He answered, that some of it reminded him of his children at home and made him cry, and that he supposed that the instrument had been invented by us out of regard for the General [Sir B. D’Urban], to imitate his crying when he was a little boy, and to remind him of the crying of his children.”

[118] Captain Andries Stockenstrom, afterwards Sir A. Stockenstrom, Bart. Lord Glenelg’s dispatch was dated 26th Dec. 1835.

[119] Given above, p. 454.

[120] He succeeded Sir B. D’Urban, 22 Jan. 1838.

[121] With Chapters XL. to XLIV. compare the extracts from letters given in Appendix VI.

[122] On this very day twelve months, this ship, the David Scott, was burned in harbour in the Mauritius, having previously buried her captain at sea on the voyage from Calcutta.—H. G. S.

[123] Colonel Harry Smith was appointed on 21st August, 1840, to the rank of Major-General (in the East Indies only). Writing to his friend Captain Payne, 72nd Highlanders, on 17th January, 1841, he says, “I get on very well here with the public functionaries of all descriptions, tho’ they are odd fellows to deal with. But I have very much learned to restrain an impetuosity which never produces so favourable a result as moderation, for, if right, it frequently makes you wrong.”

[124] Henry Thoby Prinsep, Member of Council at Calcutta, 1835-1843; Member of the Court of Directors of the East India Company, 1850-1858; Member of the Indian Council, 1858-1874. Died 1878.

[125] Elphinstone had commanded the 33rd Regiment during the years of the occupation of France, 1815-1818.

[126] I.e. Nott.

[127] In Memorandum No. 1, dated “Simla, 7th August, 1842,” the policy advocated is, “strike a decisive blow which will maintain our prestige in India, and then abandon Afghanistan, which ought never to have been entered.”

In Memorandum No. 2, dated “Simla, 29th August,” he states that his policy has been adopted. But the method involved “A division of force; an advance into the heart of the enemy’s country; the siege of two cities with no positive means, one the venerated city of the Prophet, Guznee, the other Cabool, the capital; a retreat; the destruction of the base of these operations, Candahar.” The plan, therefore, involved too many risks.

In Memorandum No. 3, dated “Simla, 7th September,” he says that the evacuation of Candahar before Cabool and Guznee had been reduced was contrary to all military science. “Nott’s column is now a single ship in the midst of the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by hostile fleets.” “The science of war dictates that as rapid a concentration as can be effected of the forces of Nott and Pollock should be made to Guznee—reduce it, hence to Cabool. Thus the union of force ensures one of the primary objects in war—‘one line of operations, one base, and a union of resources.’” “A kind of drawn battle with fluctuating advantages is worse to the general cause than if no attempt whatever had been made to ‘strike a blow.’” “Our force is on the verge of winter in the prosecution of two sieges—having abandoned its base previously to the reduction of either, and it has a fair probability of being distressed for food and forage.” “Our present base Jellalabad is of the most difficult and almost inaccessible character—and a whole country, the Punjaub, between it and our natural frontier.” “If the enemy knew how to apply his means, he would fall upon either Nott or Pollock.”

These Memoranda, marked “confidential,” were sent to a number of Indian officers of high rank, civil and military, and their answers (preserved) show a general acceptance of Harry Smith’s views. Among them is the following letter from Henry Havelock and note from Broadfoot to Havelock:—

“My dear General,

“I have the pleasure to return the Minutes which Broadfoot, the most gallant and talented fellow that I met beyond the Indus, has read, as you will see by the accompanying note.

“I too, though all unworthy to be mentioned in the same day, have perused them, and agree with you in every point, excepting one or two minor matters which those only who were in Afghanistan could be correctly informed upon.

“I feel like a man worn out, which is perhaps not surprising after having had my mind pretty much on the stretch for four years, but will come and speak to you upon General Skelton’s affairs to-morrow morning, by God’s help, and try to get a look at the charges.

“I thought Sir R. S[ale] would not go home. He is to blame, but generally takes odd views of things and then is not easy to move. He ought to make a personal fight for his pension.

“Ever yours very truly,
“H. Havelock.”

“My dear Havelock,

“The bearer will deliver to you General Smith’s minutes. I have read them with much interest, and am much tempted to give you some of the reflections they have given rise to, but if I began I should run into a dissertation. Give the General my best thanks, and believe me,

“[G. Broadfoot] [Signature cut off].

“Major Havelock, C.B.”

[128] “DÂk: post, relays of palanquins or other carriages along a road” (Anglo-Indian Dictionary).

[129] For 26 December, 1843.

[130] “The Governor-General, with the ladies of his camp, rode on elephants beside the advancing columns” (Trotter, India under Victoria, vol. i. p. 100).

[131] Lord Keane.

[132] Sir Charles Napier, writing to Harry Smith early in 1844, treats humorously of the presence of Lady Gough, Juana Smith, etc., under fire at this battle. “I congratulate you on your feats of arms. You had a tough job of it: these Asiatics hit hard, methinks. How came all the ladies to be in the fight? I suppose you all wanted to be gloriously rid of your wives? Well, there is something in that; but I wonder the women stand so atrocious an attempt. Poor things! I dare say they too had their hopes. They talk of our immoral conduct in Scinde! I am sure there never was any so bad as this. God forgive you all. Read your Bible, and wear your laurels.”—W. Napier’s Life of Sir Charles Napier (1857), vol. iii. p. 45.

[133] On Sir Harry Smith’s appointment to the command of the 1st Division, his duties as Adjutant-General devolved upon Lieut.-Colonel Barr.

[134] It will be noted that Sir Harry Smith, in spite of all that followed, supports Sir H. Hardinge’s military judgment in the famous dispute on this occasion between him and Sir H. Gough. A contrary view is taken in Gough and Innes’ The Sikhs, etc., p. 107.

[135] General Avitabile, an Italian, had been employed by Runjeet Singh in training his troops.

[136] Son of Lord Fitzroy Somerset, afterwards Lord Raglan, and great-nephew of the Duke of Wellington, his mother (a daughter of Lord Mornington) being the Duke’s niece.

[137] Sir Harry Smith’s capture of the village of Ferozeshah and his retention of it during the night were vaguely referred to in Sir H. Gough’s dispatch in these terms: “I now brought up Major-General Sir Harry Smith’s Division, and he captured and long retained another point of the position.” On this circumstance General Sir James Kempt, in a letter to Sir Harry Smith dated “5th April, 1846,” makes the following comment, which I give for what it may be worth:—

“Sir H. Gough does not in his public Dispatches of the action mention your carrying the village of Ferozeshah, or allude to the difficulty in which you were placed, and my first impression was that he had written the Dispatch before he received your Report. But as Gilbert in his Report of the proceedings of his Division (which has been published in India) says that after driving the enemy from their position opposed to him, he was induced (from circumstances which he mentions) to withdraw from the position they had so gallantly won and to take up a position under instructions 400 yards in the rear, where he bivouacked for the night—this, and Littler having also withdrawn on your left, fully accounts for the unprotected state in which you were left after carrying the village. But Sir H. Gough could not mention you in the way which your service deserved in the public Dispatch without telling the whole truth, and letting the public know how miserably the thing was managed.”

[138] Colonel T. Bunbury writes of the battle of Ferozeshah: “Everybody was so famished with hunger that Sir H. Smith, hearing that (one of our officers had secured a lamb), sent to beg of us a mutton chop. But he was too late. The sheep had been slaughtered, cooked, and devoured.” (Reminiscences of a Veteran, iii. p. 289).

The same story is told in a letter of a private soldier, dated “January 5th, 1846” (printed in the Cambridge Chronicle, 25th April, 1846): “The Governor-General, the Commander-in-Chief, the General of Division, the A.D.C., and the whole of the staff—with this one exception, they rode and we marched—fared the same as ourselves—without food, without water.” The same writer relates, “General Smith has command of the 1st Division. He exposed himself very much, too much in fact, for when the whole of the men were lying down to escape the shower of shot, the gallant General remained on his horse in front of the line, exhorting the men to lie still as they could not get up and live, and when they charged the guns, he led them in truly gallant style. His escape was truly miraculous.” “The gallant General Smith has just passed—he looks somewhat thinner, and no wonder, for he has a very busy time of it. I hope to God he will come off unscathed, and may he receive the reward of his services from his sovereign.”

[139] Before sending the dispatch given in the next chapter, Sir Harry wrote in pencil from the field of battle the following short note to the Commander-in-Chief:—

“Bank of the Sutlej, 28th January.

“Hearing the enemy had received a reinforcement yesterday of twelve guns, and 4000 men last night, I moved my troops at daylight this morning to attack. I think I have taken every gun he had and driven him from the river. My guns are now battering him from the opposite bank. He came out to fight me. I expect fifty guns are on the field at least. My loss I hope not great. The Cavalry charged several times, both black and white, like soldiers, and infantry vied with each other in bravery. To the God of victory we are all indebted. God bless you, dear Sir Hugh. My staff all right. Mackeson and Cunningham, of the Political Department, bore heavily on some villages. The enemy required all I could do with such brave fellows to teach him to swim.

“H. G. Smith,
“Major-General.”

[140] Not received by the Secret Committee.

[141] Eleven guns since ascertained to be sunk in the river, total sixty-seven; thirty odd jingalls fell into our hands.

[142] He wrote these lines in September, 1846.

[143] No one but those who have encountered it, can be aware of the difficulty there is in disposing of the stores and captured guns of your enemy. I had 52 to move, and most of their own draught animals had been killed in action or shot by the victors. The country yields no resources in aid, thus I had to use the transport of my own 32 guns to send on to Loodiana 47 of the enemy’s, and this delayed my return to Headquarters three days.—H. G. S.

[144] A trooper in the 16th Lancers, named Eaton, writing on 2nd Feb., 1846, of the battle of Aliwal, says, “As soon as the Commander-in-Chief received the dispatches, which he did on horseback while reconnoitring, he leaped from his horse and gave three cheers, a salute of eighteen guns was fired, and the line gave three hearty cheers for us, their gallant comrades, as they called us.” The same writer gives a very characteristic picture of Sir Harry Smith: “The General told us that when our regiment was in Lahore in 1837, the King thought us all gentlemen, but had he seen us on that day, he would have proclaimed us all devils, ‘for you charged their ranks more like them than anything else.’ As he left us we saw tears in the poor old man’s eyes, and he said, ‘God bless you, my brave boys; I love you.’”—See Cambridge Independent Press, 4th April, 1846.

Of the above letter Professor Sedgwick wrote, “Excepting Harry Smith’s dispatch, which nothing can reach, it is one of the most soul-stirring letters that has come from India.”—Life of Sedgwick, ii. p. 102.

[145] Prince Waldemar of Prussia, travelling as Count Ravensburg, was present with his suite at the battles of Moodkee, Ferozeshah, Aliwal, and Sobraon.

[146] His aide-de-camp, now General Sir Edward A. Holdich, K.C.B.

[147] A coloured print of the 31st Regiment at Sobraon was published afterwards by Ackermann. There is also a large engraving, “The triumphal reception of the Seikh guns” (at Calcutta), after W. Taylor, in which Sir Harry Smith is a prominent figure.

[148] The following extract from a letter from Lieut.-Col. Bellers, who believes himself to be the only officer now surviving who served in the 50th during the Sikh War (during the greater part of which he was Adjutant), shows that the admiration expressed by Sir Harry for the 50th regiment was fully reciprocated. “With us Sir Harry Smith was ever most popular, I may say, beloved: a strict disciplinarian, but never exacting more than was necessary. His figure on ‘Aliwal’ with his cloak on in front of our Division is well in my memory.”

Mr. B. Genn of Ely, who served in India in the 15th Hussars in 1846 under Sir Harry, gives us the soldiers’ view of him. “He was about the most popular man in the army. He always had something jocose to say. He would gammon us by complimenting us in comparison with some other regiment—then we should hear from the men of the other regiment that he had complimented them in the same manner. He would stroll round the tents, and there would be a cry, ‘Sir Harry Smith’s coming!’ Then he would call out, ‘Trumpeter, order a round of grog; and not too much water: what I call “fixed bayonets”!’”

[149] The official dispatches not till March 26th.

[150] Kincaid, in his generous enthusiasm, wrote a letter signed “Veteran” to the Times of March 30th, to acquaint the public with his friend’s past services and military character. Speaking of Peninsular days, he writes, “Those only who have served under a good and an indifferent staff officer can estimate the immense value of the former, and Smith was one of the very best, for his heart and soul were in his duty. His light wiry frame rendered him insensible to fatigue, and, no matter what battle or march might have occupied the day or night, or what elementary war might be raging, Smith was never to be found off his horse, until he saw every man in his brigade housed, if cover could possibly be had. His devotion to their comforts was repaid by their affection.... No one who knew Harry Smith (his familiar name) in those days could doubt for a moment that whenever he acquired the rank, and the opportunity offered, he would show himself a General worthy of his illustrious preceptor.... The battle of Aliwal speaks for itself, as the dispatch of Sir H. Smith would alone proclaim that he had been trained under Sir John Moore and finished under the master-mind of Wellington.”

[151] Sir James, writing to Sir Harry Smith himself on 5th April, said, “I well knew that you only wanted an opportunity to display the great military qualities which I knew you possessed in no common degree.... Most nobly did you perform your part and show how a battle ought to be fought when the troops are commanded by a skilful and brave General who feels himself ‘at home’ in the thickest of the fight, and who knows how to handle them, and how to make use of each arm at the proper time as an auxiliary to the other. The Great Duke in his speech in the House of Lords makes you the Hero of the day.... On the day that thanks were voted to you in Parliament, I invited Barnard, Johnny Kincaid, Rowan, Alex. McDonald, and other of your old friends and comrades to dine with me, and we drank a bumper to your health and that of Lady Smith.”

[152] Compare an extract from the journal of Sir C. Napier (Life of Sir C. Napier, iii. p. 398): “[Hardinge’s] army is for discipline the worst I have seen.... There were no picquets or patrols, not even when close to and in sight of the enemy! I am told, however, that Harry Smith’s Division was an honourable exception.” And another from the same journal, dated “July 9” (p. 434): “Harry Smith is a good-hearted, brave fellow, and it gladdens me that he has been rewarded, for he was the only man that acted with any science and skill as a general officer.”

[153] Written, as Sir Edward Holdich tells me, on the battlefield on the night of the battle, and hardly altered afterwards.

[154] W. M. Thackeray, Book of Snobs: “Military Snobs.”

[155] Professor Sedgwick wrote similarly, “I do not believe the old Duke ever spoke so much praise in the course of his life before, and all he said was from the heart” (Life of Sedgwick, ii. p. 102).

[156] See p. 329.

[157] Sir Robert Peel, in a letter of 21st April, requesting Sir Harry’s acceptance of a copy of his speeches of April 2nd, added, “Sir Robert Peel trusts that the special reference in the Gazette and the Patent for conferring a Baronetcy on Sir Henry Smith to the name of Aliwal (unusual in the case of a Baronetcy) will be acceptable to the feelings of Sir Henry Smith.”

[158] See p. 33. The letter has been printed by Col. Verner in A British Rifleman (George Simmons’ diaries).

[159] See p. 331.

[160] Charles Beckwith, so often mentioned in the first volume, lost a leg at Waterloo. During his time of suffering he underwent a religious conversion. “I was carried away by the love of glory, but a good God said to me, ‘Stop, rascal!’ and He cut off my leg; and now I think I shall be the happier for it.” Through casually opening a book in the Duke of Wellington’s library, he became interested in the Vaudois or Waldensian Protestants, and from 1827 onwards spent a great part of his life among them as a father or apostle. He died in 1862 (see Dictionary of National Biography).

[161] Sir Harry passed Gen. Beckwith’s letter on to Col. W. Havelock, the “Young Varmint” of the Light Division (destined to die a soldier’s death at Ramnuggur two years later), and received a characteristic letter of acknowledgment of the “treat” it had given to “yours affectionately, Old Will.”

[162] Lord Malmesbury wrote in his diary for May 8th, “Dined with the Eglintons. General Sir Harry Smith was the great lion of the evening. He is a little old man, very clever-looking. She is a Spanish woman, and has been very handsome” (see Memoirs of an Ex-minister).

[163] The Peninsular Medal had just been granted.

[164] For his early friendship with Harry Smith, see p. 5, n.

[165] On the opposite page is given a facsimile of the handbill issued for the occasion.

[166] Dean Peacock, who presided, referred to the character he had received of Sir Harry from Sir John Herschel, as one not only valiant in the field, but able to conciliate a foe and turn the enemies of the British Empire into its friends.

[167] Life of Sedgwick (Clark and Hughes), vol. ii. p. 124. The Illustrated London News of 10th July, 1847, has an illustration representing Sir Harry passing the house of his birth.

[168] Then commanded by his “third Waterloo brother,” Captain Charles Smith, with whom Sir Harry stayed during his visit.

[169] See p. 158.

[170] During his Whittlesey visit an address was presented to Sir Harry at Thorney, on behalf of the inhabitants of that village.

[171] The Whittlesey troop of Yeomanry Cavalry, under the command of Captain Charles Smith, formed the guard of honour at the Installation.

[172] A letter from the Rev. Canon Charles Evans tells us of an incident which took place within the Senate House. “I was present in the Senate House and stationed close to the platform on which Sir Harry was conversing with the Duke of Wellington, as we were waiting for the arrival of the Queen and Prince Albert, from whom I was to have the honour of receiving the Senior Chancellor’s Medal. The undergraduates were loudly cheering the Duke, when laying his hand on Sir Harry’s shoulder, he said, ‘No, no, this is the man you ought to cheer; here is the hero of the day.’ Sir Harry Smith burst into tears and said, ‘I little thought I should live to hear such kind words as these from my old chief.’ I distinctly heard every word.”

[173] Life of Sedgwick, ii. pp. 125-127 and 573.

[174] Told me by General Sir Edward Holdich, who sailed with Sir Harry as his aide-de-camp.

[175] Theal’s History of South Africa, iv. p. 308.

[176] Mrs. Ward, Five Years in Kaffirland.

[177] After the abandonment of the Province of Queen Adelaide, King William’s Town had been deserted. Mrs. Ward, early in 1847 (p. 147), speaks of “the ruins of what had once promised to be a flourishing town.” “The walls of Sir Harry Smith’s abode are still standing.” Sir Harry now ordered Colonel Mackinnon to cause it to be laid out in squares and streets on both sides the Buffalo. He also established in British Kaffraria a chain of forts, and four military villages called Juanasburg, Woburn, Auckland, and Ely.

[178] Theal, iv. p. 311.

[179] The choice of this date shows Sir Harry’s pleasure in restoring all his old arrangements. It was the date of the great meeting of chiefs in 1836 (see pp. 437, 438, and Appendix V.), and it was then arranged that on every 7th January there should be a similar meeting.

[180] Theal, iv. p. 315.

[181] On his way he stayed from January 12th to 14th at Shiloh, and then selected a site for a town at the junction of the Klipplaats and Ox Kraal Rivers to which he gave the name of his native place, Whittlesea.

[182] Theal, iv. p. 421.

[183] Ibid., iv. p. 422.

[184] Theal, iv. p. 427.

[185] The question was submitted to a Committee of Privy Council, whose report was approved on 13th July, 1850. They gave it as their opinion that to abandon a sovereignty virtually assumed by Sir P. Maitland in 1845 and proclaimed by Sir H. Smith in 1848 would be productive of more evil than good. But they add sentences which read strangely in these changed times. “We cannot pass from this part of the subject without submitting for your Majesty’s consideration our opinion that very serious dangers are inseparable from the recent, and still more from any future, extension of your Majesty’s dominions in Southern Africa. That policy has enlarged, and, if pursued further, may indefinitely enlarge, the demands on the revenue and the military force of this kingdom with a view to objects of no perceptible national importance, and to the hindrance of other objects in which the welfare of the nation at large is deeply involved.... Unless some decisive method can be taken to prevent further advances in the same direction, it will be impossible to assign any limit to the growth of these unprofitable acquisitions, or to the extent and number of the burdensome obligations inseparable from them. In humbly advising that the Orange River Sovereignty should be added to the dominions of your Majesty’s crown, we think ourselves therefore bound to qualify that recommendation by the further advice that all officers, who represent, or who may hereafter represent, your Majesty in Southern Africa, should be interdicted, in terms as explicit as can be employed, and under sanctions as grave as can be devised, from making any addition, whether permanent or provisional, of any territory however small to the existing dominions of your Majesty in the African Continent, and from doing any act, or using any language, conveying, or which could reasonably be construed to convey, any promise or pledge of that nature. And we are further of opinion that the proposed interdict should be published in the most formal manner in your Majesty’s name; that so, in the contingency of any future disregard of it by your Majesty’s officers, your Majesty may be able to overrule any such act, or to disappoint any such promise of theirs, without risking the imputation of any breach of the public faith.”

[186] J. Noble, South Africa (1877), p. 126.

[187] “The Governor—likened to a thunderbolt in presence of an enemy—acted with characteristic promptitude.”—Noble, p. 132.

[188] Called in Sir Harry Smith’s dispatch “Kroom Alem Boh,” by Theal “Kromme-Elleboog.”

[189] “Up to this moment he was confident that no European in South Africa would point a weapon against his person. In this confidence he had dressed himself that morning in blue jacket, white cord trousers, and drab felt hat, the same clothing which he had worn when he met Mr. Pretorius in the emigrant camp on the Tugela seven months before. He was exceedingly anxious to avoid a collision.”—Theal, iv. p. 437.

[190] A picture of the sharp skirmish of Boomplaats (from a drawing by the late Lieut.-Col. Evelyn) appeared in the Graphic, 17th Feb., 1900, with some comments by Major-General C. E. Webber.

[191] “It was remarkable how his Excellency came out unhurt, for from the beginning to the end he was in the thickest of the fire.”—Noble, p. 135.

[192] It appeared afterwards that only nine Boers were killed.

[193] In connexion with this, I may quote a story told to my sister, Miss Moore Smith of Durban, by the late Sir Theophilus Shepstone. “Sir Harry always read part of the service on Sunday morning at Grahamstown [? in 1835], and was so particular that all should come that he imposed a fine of half a crown on every absentee. He read extremely well, and was very proud of it. One Sunday a dog came into the room when service was going on, and began to create a disturbance. Sir Harry stood it for a little time, then in the middle of a prayer said suddenly, ‘Take that d——d dog away,’ after which he continued his prayer in the same tone as before.”

[194] The execution of Dreyer as a rebel was long bitterly resented by the Boers.

[195] Here, or near here, on 12th May, 1849, the town of Aliwal North was founded by Mr. Chase, the Civil Commissioner.—Wilmot and Chase, p. 417.

[196] Under Sir Henry Pottinger’s rule the Eastern Province had had an able Lieutenant-Governor in Sir Henry Young, and there was a strong feeling during Sir Harry’s governorship that the interests of the Eastern Province could not be ensured by a government at Cape Town. Sir Harry himself finally gave in to this view, and on 14th June, 1851, recommended “a separate and distinct government for the Eastern Province.”

[197] In May and June, 1849, Sir Harry was seriously ill from a carbuncle on his neck. On 20th June he gave a ball at Government House, which many refused to attend owing to the agitation against the Government. Sir Harry, with soldierly punctiliousness, appeared among his guests for half an hour, but his appearance was so ghastly, and made the more so by his dark green Rifle uniform, that it was said “one might have imagined that he had just stepped out of his coffin.”

[198] Mr. W. A. Newman (Memoir of J. Montagu) quotes a reply made by Sir Harry to the Anti-Convict Association on 18th June: “This is the anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo. For four and forty years have I served my sovereign—I say it with pride—and I would rather that God Almighty should strike me dead than disobey the orders of Her Majesty’s Government and thereby commit an act of open rebellion.”

[199] Chase writes (Wilmot and Chase, p. 458), “Sir Harry, perfect soldier as he was, had an instinctive horror of shedding blood, which was never more strongly developed than when he curbed the military from retaliating the insults offered to Her Majesty and to themselves by the mobs of the western metropolis during the anti-convict Émeute.” We may remember that he had shown the same spirit during the Radical disturbances at Glasgow (see pp. 326-328, 335).

[200] In connexion, however, with the delays encountered in receiving the new constitution, Lord Grey was much reviled both in the Colony and in England. Sir W. Napier (Life of C. Napier, iv. p. 327) quotes the following epigram:—

“This point was long disputed at the Cape,

What was the devil’s colour and his shape.

The Hottentots, of course, declared him white,

The Englishmen pronounced him black as night;

But now they split the difference and say

Beyond all question that Old Nick is Grey.”

[201] On the 20th December, Sutu, Sandilli’s mother, was made chief.

[202] Wilmot and Chase, Annals of the Cape Colony (1869), p. 437.

[203] W. A. Newman’s Memoir of J. Montagu, 1855.

[204] A good deal might have been excused in a document issued under such circumstances, but the word “exterminate” was not a happy one, and was frequently seized on afterwards by opponents of Sir Harry in England. How little it represented the writer’s real feeling is shown by a sentence in a letter to his wife of 24th May, 1851: “I hope yet to see all the ringleaders hung, while I would willingly forgive the poor wretches who have been led astray by the wickedness of others.”

[205] Consisting of the 6th, 73rd, 91st, and 45th Regiments.

[206] Dispatch to Lord Grey, 17th March, 1852.

[207] Cape Town Mail, April 5th and 8th, 1851.

[208]

“Horse Guards, 7th March, 1851.

“It appears to me that this insurrection of the Caffres is general and quite unjustifiable, sudden, and treacherous.

“In my opinion Sir Henry Smith ought to have the means in Regular Troops and Light Equipments of ordnance to form two bodies of troops, each capable of acting independently in the field, each of which should give countenance and support to the detachments of Boers, Hottentots, and loyal Caffres, by which the rebel and insurgent Caffres should be attacked and driven out of the country.

“The occupation of the numerous posts in the country marked Adelaide in the map was very proper and necessary when the frontier was the Buffalo River, but it would be much better to carry it to the Key and there fix it permanently, and to form a place d’armes or fortified Barrack for Troops somewhere about King William’s Town, between that and Fort Wellington, or possibly a little to the westward near the sources of the river.

“In such place d’armes there might be the means of giving cover to more than the small body which might be required for the permanent garrison.”

[209] Lord Grey.

[210] Wilmot and Chase, p. 458.

[211] Cp. pp. 791 bot., 792. The Cape Town Mail (some indication of colonial feeling) protested both on the 25th January and on 5th April against the military execution of rebels.

[212] The Cape Town Mail of 9th Dec. 1851 wrote prophetically, “This abandonment of a really flourishing and promising British colony would be an Imperial calamity; but the full extent of the mischief would not be understood until it became necessary, as in a few years it certainly would be found, to reconquer the territory so dishonourably and foolishly deserted;” and Chase in 1869 speaks of the “abandonment of that splendid country, the Orange River Sovereignty, through a gross ignorance and a disgraceful misstatement of its capabilities, and permitting in its place the formation of the Free State Republic—one of the most imprudent acts ever committed, involving the Colony in entanglements, troubles, and cost, the end and consequence of which cannot be predicted.”

[213] Correspondence of Gen. Sir G. Cathcart, p. 358.

[214] Lord John Russell stated that the dispatch had never been seen by the Queen, and Lord Ellenborough, in a kind letter dated “Feb. 7,” says, “What I am told is that Lord Grey recalled you, not without asking the Duke’s opinion, but against it, after he had asked it.”

[215] Sir George Napier, himself an ex-Governor of the Cape, wrote in April, 1852:—“Had the Duke of Wellington ever seen the ‘Cape bush,’ he would not have said what he did about making roads through it; the thing is quite out of the question.... You may rely upon it that Sir Harry Smith would never have delayed one day in making roads had it been feasible.... As for Harry Smith, I am glad to see Lord Grey is abused by everybody for the harsh unjust manner of his recall. In my opinion the great mistake Smith made was in ever giving in to Lord Grey’s folly of withdrawing a single soldier; and when the war did break out, he should have at once acknowledged his error, and boldly demanded reinforcements to the extent of 5000 troops at once. I still hope he may be able to finish the war before his successor arrives, for till lately he had not force to do more than he did.”—Life of Sir W. Napier, ii. pp. 310-312.

[216] By the Sand River Convention signed on 17th January, 1852, by the Assistant-Commissioners Major Hogg and Mr. Owen, and subsequently ratified by General Cathcart, the Transvaal emigrant farmers had their independence recognized, and being thus reconciled to us were detached from the Boers within the Orange River Sovereignty, who now had no one to look to but the British Government. The Convention was no doubt politic on the assumption that the Sovereignty was to be resolutely kept. When the Sovereignty was abandoned, it took a different character. But for this Sir Harry Smith was not responsible.

[217] The supersession of the Governor at this crisis was no doubt a main cause of the war’s being protracted, though in a less severe form, for some months longer. See Mr. Brownlee’s report dated “Fort Cox, 4th March, 1852.”

[218] Correspondence of General Sir George Cathcart (1856), p. 36.

[219] Cape Town Mail, 20th April, 1852. Sir Harry’s departure from King William’s Town in 1836 was strangely similar. See pp. 458, 459.

[220] See Cape Town Mail, April 17th and 20th, 1852.

[221] Wilmot and Chase, pp. 417, 459. With regard to Mr. Chase’s last assertion, it is perhaps worth remarking that Sir Harry Smith reflected the spirit of the Romantic School in his religious feelings as well as in much else.

The weakness which Mr. Chase previously mentions is thus referred to in the Natal Witness (Jan. 1889): “It was a common habit with Sir Harry Smith to threaten to jump down people’s throats,—boots, spurs, and all; and he once on a field of battle sent a message, seasoned with some fearful expletives, to a colonel that if he kept his regiment so much to the front, he’d have him knee-haltered. But the fine old General drew a line at swearing and never allowed of personal abuse.”

[222] Portsmouth Times, 5th June, 1852.

[223] Lord Grey fully appreciated Sir Harry’s chivalry. He writes, “On a question of this kind we were not at liberty to consult our private feelings. This was fully understood by Sir Harry Smith himself, of whose most handsome and honourable conduct I cannot too strongly express my sense. He has shown no resentment against us for what we did, but has fairly given us credit for having been guided only by considerations of public duty. I feel individually very deeply indebted to him for the kindness with which he has acted towards me since his return.”—The Colonial Policy of Lord John Russell’s Administration (1853), vol. ii. p. 247. Men will decide according to their dispositions whether such conduct was “lowering” to Sir Harry or not. It was at least part and parcel of his nature.

[224] Portsmouth Times, 11th Sept. 1852.

[225] Life of Sir W. Napier, vol. ii. p. 327.

[226] Martin’s Life of the Prince Consort, vol. iv. p. 37.

[227] Sir Harry felt a strong personal devotion to the Queen, and would speak of her as “the most gracious lady in the whole world.”

[228] Henry Havelock’s elder brother, Will, as before stated, was called in the Peninsula “Young Varmint” for “his keenness and daring in the saddle and in every manly sport.” See account of W. H. by H. H. in Buist’s Annals of India for 1848.

[229] See p. 33 n. It is characteristic of Sir Harry’s kindness of nature that he now brought home from Lisbon some little presents for the children of his aide-de-camp, Major Payne.

[230] See p. 184 n.

[231] Cope, p. 451.

[232] Miss Alice E. Smith (daughter of Major Thomas Smith), now Mrs. Lambert, was a great deal with her uncle and aunt from 1852 onwards.

[233] Cp. p. 657.

[234] Sir H. E. Maxwell’s Life of Wellington, vol. ii. pp. 361-364.

[235] I.e. the war then being waged in Italy.

[236] Tortona was laid waste in 1155 and 1163 by Frederick Barbarossa.

[237] Glasgow Gazette, 11th Feb. 1860.

[238] See p. 1 n.

[239] Called by Lady Smith, “not quite, yet like my own Henrique!”

[240] The date should be 1787.

[241] The first twelve names represent the 12 clasps attached to Sir Harry’s Peninsular medal; for Waterloo, Maharajpore, and South Africa (1853) he had separate medals; the remaining three names are those of his clasps for the Sutlej Campaign. He wore, besides, the Grand Cross of the Bath and the Portuguese Order of St. Bento d’Aviz.

[242] See p. 653.

[243] In his last years the gallant old General would say that “he did not care any longer to go to the club and meet a lot of old fogies whom he didn’t know.”

[244] She died Jan. 10, 1902.

[245] Cape Town Mail, 5th April, 1851.

[246] I visited last year at Ely, Mr. B. Genn, late of the 15th Hussars, who had served under him in India in 1846, and who had fired over his grave. As soon as I had opened the door, a fine engraving of Sir Harry greeted me. It had been bought at a sale. The old veteran spoke of his commander always as the “dear old man.” When I asked him if he thought him a good General, he fired up quickly, “Why, think of the battle of Aliwal! Not a mistake anywhere.”

[247] The following characteristic story has been sent me by Major J. F. Anderson, of Coxwell Lodge, Faringdon: “Sir Harry was very quick-tempered, and on one occasion (during the Kafir War of 1835?), when my father remonstrated with him as to an order he gave, he said, ‘Learn to obey, sir,’ and ordered him into his tent under arrest. In the evening he sent to ask my father to dine with him!”

[248] In this and the following items, the story given above is repeated.

[249] Afterwards married to Charles Smith.

[250] Vicar of St. Mary and St. Andrew, Whittlesey, and cousin to Harry Smith’s mother.

[251] Query, 11th? See preceding letter.

[252] I possess this document only in the form of rough drafts. The document as here printed is therefore to some extent a compilation. It is clear that the Board of Officers were proposing a more stringent treatment of prisoners than that which Harry Smith had adopted and which they maintained was more lenient than was permitted by the Royal Warrant.

[253] Col. W. Johnstone was then living at Cape Town. See p. 58.

[254] “My dearest wife!”

[255] His house at Rondebosch, near Cape Town.

[256] Major William Cox.

[257] See p. 212.

[258] I.e. tired of doing nothing.

[259] See p. 737.

[260] See p. 100.

[261] “Knife.”

[262] I.e. soldiers of the Rifle Brigade.

[263] I.e. brown, buckskin trousers (Munro, Records of Service, i. 205).

[264] “A little oil and a clove of garlic.”

[265] Alexander has a picture of this scene, with others of the war, drawn by Major Michell, Surveyor-General.

[266] “Do you remember, poor child?”

[267] See p. 168.

[268] “Nonsense.”

[269] See p. 476, sup.

[270] Hugh Smith, son of Harry Smith’s “Waterloo brother,” Thomas.

[271] Harry Smith, son of the “third Waterloo brother,” Charles.

[272] See pp. 673, 674.

[273] Edward Law, Lord Ellenborough, Lord Chief Justice of England.

[274] His youngest sister, Miss Anna Maria Smith.

[275] The Peninsular medal was granted in 1847.

[276] “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.”

[277] I am not aware what use, if any, Sir Harry made of these “memoranda.”

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