Rifles - Mark Urban [192]
– ‘Their estimates ranged from asserting that the French suffered as many casualties’: the high estimate is Surtees, the low one William Cox.
248 ‘I never saw such skirmishers as the 95th, now the Rifle Brigade’: Major J. Blakiston, Twelve Years’ Military Adventure, London, 1829.
249 ‘one of the intruders, flying into a fury, killed him on the spot’: this saga is told by a number of the diarists, including Simmons, Surtees and Costello.
– ‘We tried every means to find out the villain, but to no purpose’: Simmons.
TWENTY-FOUR Castel Sarrazin
251 ‘They walked along the banks of the Garonne, escorted the prettiest French girls to dances’: life there is described by Simmons, Leach (Rough Sketches), Kincaid (Adventures), Harry Smith, Cooke and Gairdner.
252 ‘was most confoundedly annoyed when the officers of the Rifle corps were taken for Portuguese’: Cooke.
253 ‘Great regret was expressed when the order arrived which obliged us to leave’: Leach, Rough Sketches.
254 ‘In six cases though, the riflemen chose to desert’: the names are in WO 25/2139, casualty returns for the 1st Battalion, 95th Regiment. Given the writing off of twenty-one names in the March 1814 return (see Chapter 27), it is quite possible that more than just the named six deserted at this time.
– ‘Some of the followers, evidently feeling cheated, stole before they went’: Surtees being one victim of such theft.
– ‘the role of his British or Irish accomplices in the company was to remain a secret’: Costello is the source of this information. It is quite possible that in choosing to blame Blanco for the crime, the 2nd Company men were shielding themselves and Costello was complicit in this deception.
– ‘William MacFarlane, a soldier who had deserted the regiment’: his return is shown by the 25 May pay list.
255 ‘The British rank of colour sergeant had been introduced’: by General Order, 6 July 1813.
– ‘One subaltern of the 43rd calculated his net loss at £70’: Cooke.
256 ‘three cheers … from the yardarms’: Costello.
– ‘only six were still serving with the Peninsular Army at the end of the campaigns’: names followed through to WO 17/282, the monthly returns for 1814.
– ‘the vagaries of Army record keeping do not allow every man’s fate to be precisely determined’: the difficulties are compounded by the fact that the 1st/95th received drafts of new recruits in 1812 and in May 1814, just after the fighting had stopped but before they embarked for England. A small number of men – perhaps a dozen – were also transferred between different Rifle battalions in the field. In making my calculations, I have had to discount these numbers.
257 ‘those for whom no satisfactory account could be given’: the period ending 25 March 1814 in WO25/2139.
– ‘it is to be presumed that nearly the whole of these men have died in hospitals’: Adjutant General’s letter of 28 May 1814, in Wellington’s Dispatches.
– ‘about 180 were sent home during the course of the war’: these figures are obtained by following through the monthly returns in WO 17.
– ‘The largest portion of the original group, 421, were those who had died in Iberia’: research conducted by Eileen Hathaway and myself from pay lists and casualty returns.
257 ‘Here we enjoyed the luxuries of London life for a short time, having three years’ pay to receive’: William Cox MS Journal.
258 ‘there was a strong desire to resume some sort of quiet domesticity’: this becomes apparent from the case of the married Corporal Pitt, which will be described in the following chapter.
– ‘Fairfoot married Catherine Campbell, a slip of a girl of sixteen, on 2 October 1814’: this comes from the description book cited earlier. My speculation about it being a happy union arises from the five children it produced.
TWENTY-FIVE Quatre Bras