Fusiliers (60 page)

143 ‘
What followed escalated quickly
’: my dialogue is a composite of many witnesses at the court martial. There are some minor differences between American and British versions but they are not that great, and, in order to be fair, most of the words in my exchange are taken from the evidence of Captain Wild of the American militia. The transcript of these proceedings was published by David Henley as
Proceedings of a Court Martial Held at
Cambridge by Order of Major General Heath, Commanding the American
Troops for the Northern District, for the Trial of Colonel David Henley,
Accused by General Burgoyne of Ill Treatment of the British Soldiers &c’
, taken in shorthand by an officer who was present, London 1778.

145 ‘
it was not infrequent for thirty or forty persons
’: this chapter relies, unsurprisingly, quite heavily on Lamb’s two books, in their combined version edited by Don Hagist.

— ‘
I was about five feet nine inches
’: this comes from Lamb’s scrapbook, kept in his family and copied by Hagist for his article (forthcoming) in the
Journal for the Society of Army Historical Research
. This account also contains Lamb’s account of losing his corporal’s knot, an experience so shaming he did not discuss it in his published memoirs.

148 ‘
there were hangings galore of those accused of diverse offences
’: for an excellent modern study of the Convention Army issue, see
Escape in
America, The British Convention Prisoners 1777–1783
, by Richard Sampson, Chippenham, 1995. He cites several examples of hangings of ‘collaborators’ in 1778.

— ‘
They do very well in the hanging way
’: Stark’s letter is cited by Sampson.

— ‘
I was arraigned, tried, condemned
’: Cresswell’s journal.

— ‘
Ten Fusiliers deserted in May and June 1778
’: Muster Rolls
TNA: PRO WO
12/3960.

149 ‘
the ill usage I received
’: Sullivan’s journal.

— ‘
a peace delegation arrived from Britain
’: they got to Philadelphia on 6 June according to Peebles.

— ‘
Neither honour nor credit could be expected
’: Clinton,
American Rebellion
.

149 ‘
Alas Britain how art thou fallen
’: Peebles.

150 ‘
The enemy had all along
’: this journal is attributed to Brigadier Pattison, commander of British artillery, published as ‘A New York Diary of the Revolutionary War’, edited by Carson I. A. Ritchie, in
Narratives of the
Revolution in New York
, New-York Historical Society, 1975.

— ‘
they spotted a group of enemy officers watching them from a hill
’: the Lee Papers are a key source for the primary documents used in my account of Monmouth, including a letter from Laurens in which he describes the reconnaissance party, and Clinton’s dispatch to Lord Germain of 5 July 1778 in which he asserts that Lafayette was in the group.

151 ‘
the sun beating on our heads with a force
’: Hale (in Wilkin). I make no apology for relying quite a bit on Hale in this narrative, his letters about Monmouth and Brandywine in particular are superb reportage.

— ‘
it was no longer a contest
’: ibid.

— ‘
Charge Grenadiers, never heed forming!
’: ibid.

152 ‘
Captain Wills, commanding the grenadiers of the Welch Fusiliers
’: Cannon’s
Historical Record
, citing a journal by Thomas Saumarez of the 23rd that has sadly eluded subsequent historians.

— ‘
Our officers and men behaved with that bravery
’: Laurens letter of 30June 1778, in the Lee Papers.

153 ‘
The most mortifying circumstances attending the action
’: Pattison.

— ‘
I fear I must descend, painful thought
’: Hale. Peebles also recorded his unhappiness.

154 ‘
Everybody turned out that were near the fleet
’: Dansey letter of 28 July 1778,
HSD
.

— ‘
The atmosphere was acrimonious
’: this will emerge in Balfour’s altercation with Rivington, in the next chapter.

155 ‘
With late summer, Britain’s Convention prisoners
’: readers will forgive, I hope, my taking a chronological liberty here. These events on the Convention Army’s march did not happen until October 1778, after most of those episodes described in the next chapter.
TNA: PRO WO
12/3960 shows that Lamb and his mates from the 9th were not formally enrolled in the 23rd until 21December 1778.

156 ‘
Lamb was one of forty-two men of the Convention Army
’:
TNA: PRO WO
12/3960. Brendan Morrissey’s excellent work on my behalf on the 23rd Muster Rolls suggests that Sampson is at error in his otherwise very good book on the Convention Army in underestimating the numbers that escaped and re-enlisted. Many of the forty-two Fusiliers found by Brendan are not in the lists of escaped prisoners in Sampson.

157 ‘
The appearance of two French frigates
’: Mackenzie’s diary is the principal source of detail in these sections on Rhode Island, although other journals have been used too, most interestingly, Dohla’s.

— ‘
As the French ships turned south
’: The ships’ names are of interest. From Classical mythology came
Juno
(the Roman queen of the gods),
Orpheus
(the musical hero) and
Cerberus
(the three-headed dog who guarded the gates of the Underworld). The
Pigot
was named after the commander after the battle of Rhode Island. It was also the same vessel that had brought Howe, Burgoyne and Clinton to Boston in 1775.

159 ‘
Percy effectively resigned and went back to England
’: there are interesting documents on this in the family archives,
DON
, of course, but more accessibly in Clinton’s
American Rebellion
, and the biographical sketch on Percy in Scull’s book of Evelyn’s letters.

— ‘
The
Languedoc
was a monster bristling with eighty heavy cannon
’: much interesting primary material and commentary on the naval aspects of the war can be found in
Navies and the American Revolution 1775–1783
, edited by Robert Gardiner, London 1996.

160 ‘
The regiment itself had been split into parcels
’: a return of 23rd men, naming their ships, is in Cary and McCance.

161 ‘
a sizeable reinforcement from the
Philippa, Betsy’: the
Isis’s
pay lists are in
TNA: PRO ADM
36/7913, and they itemise where all the men had come from.

— ‘
in the highest spirits, anxiously wishing for an opportunity
’: this is actually Mackenzie, paraphrasing someone who told him the 23rd had arrived with Howe.

— ‘
heavy gales and a heavy sea
’: Captain Raynor’s log book
TNA: PRO ADM
51/484, a key source for the subsequent narrative.

162 ‘Languedoc
had been completely dismasted
’: Gardiner, above, contains, for example, a beautiful drawing of the ship, jury-rigged after the storm, by an officer who was there.

163 ‘
Their musketry
’: this is Hale, a remarkable letter writer who appears to have known Smythe and was on his way home from America.

— ‘
the enemy sheered off and bore away to the south west’:
TNA: PRO ADM
51/484.

— ‘
He has lost his right [yard] arm
’: Smythe’s account of the engagement, in a letter to Earl Percy, 11 September 1778,
DON
.

165 ‘
The meeting of Parliament will determine
’: Smythe’s letter to Earl Percy, 23 November 1778,
DON
.

166 ‘
As he sat reading the
New York Gazette’: Balfour’s objections were spelt out in detail by Rivington in a letter of 23 November 1778 to Richard Cumberland at the Board of Trade, in
TNA: PRO CO
5/155. This letter is the source of Rivington’s quotes too.

167 ‘
this hated country
’: Balfour letter of 5 June 1777 (on completing his last Atlantic crossing from east to west), Polwarth Papers,
LBRO
l29/215.

168 ‘
a very violent scorbutic disorder
’: Balfour letter of 6 January, 1779,
LBRO
l30/12/3/6.

— ‘
No family ever experienced so many tragical accidents
’: Balfour 31 December 1778,
LBRO
l30/12/3/5.

169 ‘
Always a volatile woman
’: Balfour’s fear of her emotional state emerges from his letters at this time. Katherine Balfour’s own letter in the Balfour Papers,
LOC
, confirms the impression of someone barely in control of herself – unsurprisingly, perhaps, given her unfortunate life.

169 ‘
my good and friendly General
’: Balfour letter of 5 June 1777,
LBRO
L
29/215.

— ‘
were frequently thrown by unnoticed
’: Howe’s speech of 4 December 1778 reported in
Gentleman’s Magazine
, April 1779.

170 ‘
George usually rose at around
5
a.m.
’: details of court life are from
Farmer
George
, 2 vols, by Lewis Melville, London 1907.

171 ‘
the hurly burly of life in Georgian England
’: these stories are all taken from issues of the
Gentleman’s Magazine
, vol. 49, 1779 – they are not necessarily accurate in all respects.

— ‘
thirty-six rank and file, and thirteen pressed men
’: Cary and McCance.

— ‘
Balfour intervened
’: according to Calvert in his unpublished autobiography, 9/111 in
CHT
.

172 ‘
the advantage of witnessing actual service
’: a direct quotation from 9/111.

— ‘
Temple had set himself up in Preston
’: there are many papers relating to the 1779 recruiting drive in the
DON
.

173 ‘
attended with many disagreeable circumstances
’: Cuthbertson.

— ‘
One of the 23rd’s recruiting serjeants … left England with the regiment
’: the story of Serjeant Fleck emerges from letters in
TNA: PRO WO
4/90 and
WO
1/991, his demotion is noted in
WO
12/3960.

— ‘
absolutely impossible to keep many recruits long
’: Temple’s letter to War Office, 26 December 1775,
TNA: PRO WO
1/994. There are several more letters from him in the
WO
1 series describing his activities.

174 ‘
no longer be expected to exert themselves on a service
’: letter from Temple to Percy, 5 March 1779,
DON
. As above, Temple wrote frequently to Percy too.

— ‘
William Smith, who came to the 23rd
’: details of Smith’s case and of the offences committed by those in the House of Corrections can be found in
LRO QRB
1.

— ‘
four pressed men escaped from Preston House of Correction
’: this is the date given in the
QRB
1 records, but Temple suggests the escape has already happened in a letter of 24 March to Percy.

— ‘
Please inform me in what manner
’: Captain Cochran went to the Manchester House of Corrections and this letter of 5 May 1779 to the War Office is in
TNA: PRO WO
1/1002.

175 ‘
The magistrates from several parts had sent in wretched objects
’: General Calcraft writing to the War Office, 8 July 1780,
TNA: PRO WO
1/1007.

— ‘
The cries and lamentations of the poor, raw country soldiers
’:
John Robert
Shaw, an Autobiography of Thirty Years 1777–1807
’, edited by Oressa M. Teagarden, Athens Ohio 1992.

— ‘
epidemic distemper
’: this is Charles Stuart writing on 25 August 1779 (in Wortley) and refers, apparently, to the same convoy that Calvert arrived with.

— ‘
more than half of those recruited in 1779 died of various fevers
’: analysis of
TNA: PRO WO
12/3960.

176 ‘
William Howe’s first witness, Earl Cornwallis
’: this was before the days of reliable Hansard reporting. The fullest version of who said what is [Anon.]
The Detail and Conduct of the American War Under Generals Gage, Howe
and Burgoyne and Vice Admiral Lord Howe
, London 1780.

177 ‘
the General who has taken the field and has not committed faults
’: Balfour, March 1779,
LBRO
l30/12/3/9.

— ‘
a nest of faction and disingenuity
’: Balfour 2 May 1779,
LBRO
l30/12/3/10.

— ‘
food for opposition and death to the American minister
’: Balfour 23 May 1779,
LBRO
l30/12/3/11.

— ‘
Balfour believed the Ministry had nailed its colours
’: a sentiment expressed in his letter of 2 May 1779.

— ‘
various secret plans had been pushed forward
’: those plans are in vol. IV of Fortescue.

178 ‘
General Amherst produced another argument
’: this memo of 15September 1779 (in Fortescue) is most interesting in providing an insight into the making of grand strategy.

— ‘
only weighing such events in the scale of a tradesman behind his counter
’: letter to North of 11 June 1779, in Fortescue.

179 ‘
There is hardly one general officer who does not declare his intention
’: Stuart letter of 7 October 1778 (in Wortley).

— ‘
not with views of conquest and ambition
’: Cornwallis’s letter to his brother, cited in
Cornwallis and the War of Independence
, by Franklin and Mary Wickwire, London 1970.

— ‘
Those fashionable ladies of the great Whig families
’: Georgiana
, Duchess of
Devonshire
, by Amanda Foreman, London 1998, gives a good insight into this.

180 ‘
How strange must our system of
politicks
appear
’: Balfour, 27 August 1779,
LBRO
l30/12/3/13.

— ‘
she had reacted with horror at the idea that Nisbet
’: Balfour, 17 August 1779,
LBRO
l30/12/3/12. Katherine Balfour’s letter in the loc shows how right Nisbet was in his reading of her mood.