CHAPTER VI
RETURN OF THE 17TH FROM AMERICA, 1783--IRELAND, 1793--EMBARKATION FOR THE WEST INDIES, 1795
[Sidenote: 1783.]
In 1783 the Seventeenth embarked from New York and returned to Ireland, after an absence of eight years. I have failed to discover the exact date. [Sidenote: 1784.] The last muster in America is dated New York, 29th June 1783; the first in Ireland, Cork, 14th January 1784, which latter date must be approximately that of their arrival. This muster-roll at Cork is somewhat of a curiosity. Firstly, it is written on printed forms, the earliest instance thereof in the history of the Seventeenth; in the second place, it shows the regiment to be 327 men short of its proper strength, which is, to say the least of it, singular; and, lastly, it shows that every troop had lost exactly forty horses, no more and no less, cast and dead in America,--a coincidence which sets one wondering who may have been the person or persons that made money out of it. The regiment was now reduced to a peace establishment of 204 non-commissioned officers and men, and stationed at Mount Mellick, Maryborough, and other quarters in King’s and Queen’s Counties. It also received new clothing, and for the first time discarded the scarlet, which it had hitherto worn, for blue.
The new kit, which, saving regimental distinctions, was issued to the whole of the Light Dragoons, [Sidenote: April.] consisted of a blue jacket, with white collar and cuffs and the whole front laced with white cord, similar to the jackets now worn by the Horse Artillery. The shade of blue was dark for regiments serving at home, [Sidenote: 1784.] and French gray for regiments serving in India. The helmet also was altered to the new and seemingly very becoming pattern which is to be seen in so many old prints. The leather breeches remained the same, but the boots, for officers at any rate, were more in the Hessian style. A coloured picture published at the beginning of the century makes the new dress appear a very handsome one, in the case of the Seventeenth Light Dragoons--the combination of light blue, silver lace, and crimson sash, relieved by the black fur on the cap, being decidedly pleasing. Let us note that the Seventeenth still retained their mourning lace round the helmet, and the plume of scarlet and white. The badge, of course, appears both on helmet and sabre-tasche, though, if so small a point be worth notice, the skull is below and not above the cross-bones. Shoulder-belts continued to be of buff leather, but the sword-belt of 1784, henceforward worn round the waist, was black. It is painful to have to add that in this year, when the Light Dragoons were on the whole more becomingly and sensibly dressed than at any other period of their existence, the abomination known as the shako made its first appearance in the cavalry, being in fact the head-dress for field-day order. Though not yet quite so extravagantly hideous as it became under King George IV. it was sufficiently ugly--felt in material and black in colour, with white lace curling spirally around it, and a short red and white plume.
Of the life of the regiment during the nine ensuing years there is neither material nor, I think, occasion for an annual chronicle. Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel Birch still retained the command, and held it until 1794. The only one of the original officers that remained, Captain Robert Archdale, disappears from the regimental list after 1794, so that for two whole years Birch was the sole survivor.
Meanwhile these were troublous days for Ireland. In the course of the American War the country had been so far stripped of troops that, in the alarm of French invasion in 1779, corps of volunteers, to the nominal strength of 50,000 men, had been raised for purposes of defence. [Sidenote: 1784.] Unfortunately, however, these volunteers did not confine themselves to military matters. They were, in Mr. Froude’s words, armed politicians not under military law. As such they twice received the thanks of the Irish House of Commons for political services, and finally extorted the independence of the Irish Parliament in 1782. They then attempted to establish a Legislative Assembly side by side with the House of Commons, and virtually to dictate to it the government of the country, and this although the peace of 1783 had rendered their existence as a defending force wholly unnecessary. They were suppressed by a little firmness, and therewith their character changed. Hitherto, though supported in part by Catholic subscriptions, the volunteers had consisted of Protestants only--men of position and good character. These men now retired, and their arms fell into the hands of ruffians and bad characters of every description. At last in 1787 these volunteers, once the idol of Ireland, appeared to have ceased their existence, but it was only for a time.
The outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789, with its cant words of liberty, equality, and fraternity, turned many heads all the world over, and nowhere more than in Ireland. The most significant symptom thereof was the foundation of the Society of United Irishmen by the rebel Wolfe Tone; whereof the main object was the propagation and adoption of revolutionary principles, and ultimately rebellion. [Sidenote: 1792.] In 1792 some of Tone’s associates formed two battalions of “National Guards,” which were to hold a great review on the 9th December, but having been informed that they would muster at their peril, very sensibly took care, after all, not to put in an appearance. This happened in Dublin. But at Belfast and in the North there was not less sympathy with the Jacobins and the extreme revolutionists of France, and in Ulster too there were “National Guards” of the same stamp.
[Sidenote: 1793.]
The services of a regiment in aid of the civil power are so ungrateful that they are better left unrecorded, nor would allusion here be made to those of the Seventeenth but for the coincidence that they have found a place in history. For in the year 1786 began one of those periodic outbreaks of agrarian crime which have so often troubled Ireland, the perpetrators being what are now called moonlighters but were then known as whiteboys or defenders. Of the share taken by the Seventeenth in the suppression of these defenders it is best to say nothing, arduous though the work undoubtedly was. But it was a far more serious matter when, early in April 1793, the “National Guard” of Northern Republicans paraded in their green uniforms at Belfast, undeterred by the suppression of their brethren in Dublin. In March, General Whyte was sent down to compel their submission, the Seventeenth forming part of his force. He thereupon sent four troops of the regiment to disarm the “Guard” of these Republican volunteers. The rest of the story is best told in Mr. Froude’s own words:--
[Sidenote: 1793.]
On the evening of the 9th March, a corporal and a private of the 17th, off duty, strolled out of the barracks into the city where they met a crowd of people round a fiddler who was playing _Ça ira_. They told the fiddler to play God save the King. The mob damned the King with all his dirty slaves, and threw a shower of stones at them. The two dragoons, joined by a dozen of their comrades, drew their sabres and “drove the town before them.” Patriot Belfast had decorated its shops with sign-boards representing Republican notables. The soldiers demolished Dumouriez, demolished Mirabeau, demolished the venerable Franklin. The patriots so brave in debate, so eloquent in banquet, ran before half a dozen Englishmen. A hundred and fifty volunteers came out, but retreated into the Exchange and barricaded themselves. The officers of the 17th came up before any one had been seriously hurt, and recalled the men to their quarters. In the morning General Whyte came in from Carrickfergus, went to the volunteer committee room, and said that unless the gentlemen in the Exchange came out and instantly dispersed, he would order the regiment under arms. They obeyed without a word. The dragoons received a reprimand, but not too severe, as the General felt that they had done more good than harm.[8]
[Sidenote: 1793.]
Thus through two men of the Seventeenth the Irish volunteers were finally brought to an end. It must be remembered in defence of these two dragoons that their regiment had fought through the whole of the American War, which had failed mainly through the Alliance of the French with the Americans; and that it was a little hard on them, when at home, to hear abuse of the King whom they served, and witness the exaltation of French and American heroes. Moreover, in those days the Irish had injured so many soldiers by hamstringing them when peaceably walking in the streets that there was a deal of bad blood between the Irish and the Army.
In that same year began the great war with France which was destined to last, with only a few months intermission, for the next twenty years, and to be finally closed by the victory of Waterloo. The efforts of Mr. Pitt were early directed against the French possessions in the West Indies--a policy which, after having been for many years condemned, in deference to the verdict of Lord Macaulay, has lately been vindicated by a more competent and impartial authority, Captain Mahan of the United States Navy. The richest of the French West Indies was the Island of St. Domingo, which accordingly became one of Pitt’s first objects. Ever since 1790, when the revolutionary principles of Paris had first found their way thither, the island had been in a state of disturbance, which had culminated, partly through mismanagement and
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against the whites, accompanied by all the atrocities that inevitably attend a servile war and a war of colour. Of the white planters many took refuge in Jamaica, whence they pressed the British Government to take possession of St. Domingo, averring that all classes of the population would welcome British dominion, and that on the first appearance of a British force the Colony would surrender without a struggle. It was the story of the Carolinas repeated, and we shall see that the story had the same end.
[Sidenote: 1793.]
St. Domingo, an island almost as large as Great Britain, in shape greatly resembles a human right hand cut off at the wrist, and with the thumb, second and third fingers doubled inwards; the wrist forming the eastern end, and two long promontories, represented by the little and first fingers, the western extremities. The French garrison in the island consisted of 6000 regular troops, 14,000 white militia, and 25,000 negroes. The British force first directed against it consisted of 870 rank and file, which with the help of a small squadron captured [Sidenote: 19th Sept.] and garrisoned the ports of Jeremie and Mole St. Nicholas, [Sidenote: 22nd Sept.] situated near the extremities of the south and north promontories respectively. These posts, as commanding the windward passage between St. Domingo and Cuba, were of considerable strategic importance to the Navy. From Jeremie an expedition was undertaken against Cape Tiburon, in reliance on the help of 500 friendly Frenchmen, whom a French planter undertook to raise for the purpose. Not 50 Frenchmen appeared, and the attack was a total failure. Then came the rainy season, and with it the yellow fever, which played havoc among the troops. Reinforcements being imperatively needed, more men were withdrawn from Jamaica to St. Domingo, whereby, as will presently appear, the safety of Jamaica was seriously compromised.
[Sidenote: 1794.]
In the spring of 1794 the British succeeded in taking Tiburon and one or two more ports, and finally in June they effected the capture of Port au Prince. But the revolted negroes, under the command of a man of colour, Andrew Rigaud, showed plainly by an attack on the British post at Tiburon that they at any rate did not mean to accept British rule. And now yellow fever set in again with frightful severity. A small British reinforcement of 300 men lost 100 in the short passage between Guadeloupe and Jamaica, left 150 more dying at Jamaica, and arrived at Port au Prince with a bare 50 fit for duty. [Sidenote: 1795.] Then Rigaud again became active, and on 28th December succeeded in recapturing Tiburon, after the British had lost 300 men out of 480.
When the news of all these calamities arrived in England, it was resolved that four regiments of Light Cavalry should be sent dismounted to St. Domingo in August, and that meanwhile detachments amounting to eight troops of the 13th, 17th and 18th Light Dragoons should be despatched to Jamaica forthwith. These last were, if required by the General, to be sent on to St. Domingo; and as the General required them very badly, being able to raise only 500 men fit for duty out of seven regiments, he lost no time in asking for them.
The detachments, including that from the Seventeenth, were accordingly shipped off, when or from whence I have been unable to discover. As little is known of the life on a transport in those days, it may be worth while to put down here such few details as I have succeeded in collecting. In the first place, then, hired transports seem generally to have been thoroughly bad ships. That they should have been small was unavoidable; but they seem as a rule to have been in every respect bad, and by no means invariably seaworthy. Those who have seen in the naval despatches of those days the extraordinary difficulty that was found in keeping even men-of-war clean, and the foul diseases that were rampant in the fleet through the jobbery and mismanagement of the Admiralty, will not be inclined to expect much of the hired transports. Let us then imagine the men brought on board a ship full of foul smells from bad stores and bilge-water, and then proceed to a brief sketch of the regulations.
The first regulation is that the ship is to be frequently fumigated with brimstone, sawdust, or wet gunpowder--no doubt to overcome the pervading stench. Such fumigation was to begin at 7 A.M., when the berths were brought up and aired, and be repeated if possible after each meal. Moreover, lest the free circulation of air should be impeded unnecessarily, it was ordained that married couples should not be allowed to hang up blankets, to make them separate berths, _all over the ship_, but in certain places only. [Sidenote: 1795.] The men were to be divided into three watches, one of which was always to be on deck; and in fine weather every man was to be on deck all day, and kept in health and strength by shot drill. For the rest the men were required to wash their feet every morning in two tubs of salt water placed in the forecastle for the purpose, to comb their heads every morning with a small tooth comb, to shave, to wash all over, and to put on a clean shirt at least twice a week.
At the very best the prospects of a voyage to the West Indies a century ago could not have been pleasant; but the experience of these unfortunate detachments of dragoons seems to have been appalling. After a terrible passage, in which some ships were cast away, and all were seriously battered, a certain number of transports arrived in July at Jamaica, and among them those containing two troops of the Seventeenth. Jamaica not being their destination, they were told that their arrival was an unfortunate blunder, and packed off again to St. Domingo. Think of the feelings of those unhappy men at being bandied about in such a fashion. They had not sailed clear of the Jamaican coast, however, when they were hastily recalled. The Maroons had broken out into rebellion; and the “unfortunate blunder” which brought the Seventeenth to Jamaica was fated to prove a piece of great good luck to the island and a cause of distinction to the regiment. But something must first be said of the story of the Maroons themselves.
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