[SZ3 A ^ y L I E) RARY OF THE UNIVERSITY Of ILLI NOIS V.I 764 "Military^ Sketch Book. Reminis- cences of Seventeen Years in the Service Abroad and at Home, by an Officer of the Line, 2 vols, cr. Svo, handsomely bound in dark blue calf, siiper extra, inside gilt borders, 5S Jj4^€^/^,S^ Colburn, 1827 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2009 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign http://www.archive.org/details/militarysketchbo01magi THE MILITARY SKETCH-BOOK, VOL. I. : IN THE PRESS. THE LANCERS. IN THREE VOLUMES LONDON I'UINTEI) BY S. AND R. BENTI.liV, DORSET STKEET. : THE MILITARY SKETCH-BOOK. REMINISCENCES OF SEVENTEEN YEARS IN THE SERVICE ABROAD AND AT HOME. BY AN OFFICER OF THE LINE. " Tlie wight can tell A melancholy and a merry tale Of field, and fight, and chief, and lady gay." IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDON HENRY COLBURN, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. 1827. 213 In presenting these Sketches to the public, the Author begs leave to say, that although in their production he sometimes indulged his imagination, fancy has only been employed to decorate truth. Facts form the ground-work of his book ; and although the ornaments may have been carelessly or tastelessly placed, real incidents have neither been obscured nor distorted. To the gentleman who supplied the Author with the necessary hints for the sketch entitled " Mess Table Chat, (No. IV.)'' and also to the gal- lant officer whose memory and kindness furnished him with the facts relative to the Bush-rangers of Van Diemen's Land, the Author returns his most sincere thanks. ^ ^ ^ CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME. Page FIRST WEEK IN" THE SERVICE 1 THE soldier's ORPHAN 43 KIGHTS IN THE GUARD-HOUSE, N O. I. : —STORY OF MARIA DE CARMO 61 OLD CHARLEY 98 MESS-TABLE CHAT, NO. I. 108 A DAUGHTER OF OSSIAN 125 THE MULETEER 136 RATIONS, OR ELSE 153 INFERNAL DUTY 15(5 NIGHTS IN THE GUARD-HOUSE, NO. II. IfiO CONTENTS. Page THE FATE OF YOUNG GORE . 173 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE WALCHEREN EXPEDITION . 182 JOURNAL OF A CAMPAIGN AT THE HORSE-GUARDS . 231 II. MESS-TABLE CHAT, NO. ... 235 GERAGHTY's KICK .... 257 DUELLING IN THE SERVICE .... 266 NIGHTS IN THE GUARD-HOUSE, NO. III. 284 THE BISCUIT ..... 300 THE BATTLE OF THE GRINDERS . 309 A ROUGH PASSAGE TO PORTUGAL . 319 THE MILITARY SKETCH-BOOK. FIRST WEEK IN THE SEllVICE. *' For now sits expectation in the air, And shews a sword from hilt unto the point." Henry V. Never shall I forget the delightful sensations my mind experienced on reading, in the long- expected Gazette^ the announcement of my first military appointment. I was in London at the time, and had been residing three weeks at Old Slaughter s Coffee House, in St. Martin's Lane, deferring from Tuesday 'till Saturday, and from Saturday 'till Tuesday, the fulfilment of my mo- ther's strict injunctions '* to take lodgings and VOL. I. B ^ FIRST WEEK IN THE SERVICE. live economically^' when one evening the waiter handed to me, damp from the press, the oflficial sheet which was to terminate all my anxiety. There I was in print,—in absolute print ; and that, too, in the Gazktte—by the King's Royal Au- thority ! There are many youths, who, in such a situa- tion, would, from the ecstatic impulse of their feel- ings, have upset the table ; or have flung the de- canter at the waiter''s head ; or, perhaps, have snatched the wig off the head of any respectable gentleman who might have happened to be sitting within reach ; but I acted differently. Had it been an ordinary impulse of gladness, I should, no doubt, have poured forth my ebullition of plea- sant feeling upon tables, decanters, waiters, and wigs of elderly gentlemen ; but this was no every- day sensation,—no flash in the pan : it was a splen- did coruscation, the intensity of which dazzled all my senses, and marvellously heightened my ideas of self-importance. The auditory organs of the Waterloo hero thrilled not more at the first announcement of his Grace's Dukedom, than mine, FIRST WEEK IN THE SERVICE. 3 as my lips pronounced the consummation of my almost wearied hopes—an Ensigncy. I v. as more than a Duke, more than a King, more than an Em- peror : I was A Subaltern. In idea, I was already a Captain, a Colonel, a General ! I gave the reins to my enthusiastic imagination, and would not, I be- lieve, have exchanged my commission for a coronet. I instantly brought my body to an acute angle with my inferior extremities, by placing the latter longitudinally on the seat of the box in which I had placed myself, and, elevating my shirt-collar to a parallel line with my nose, ordered the waiter to bring me a bottle of claret. For the half hour I was engaged in drinking it, I continued to gaze at the Gazette, to the no small mortifica- tion of several fidgetty gentlemen who were waiting for a sight of it. Yet all I read, and all I could read, was " W**=^*, a***=^-, B***. Gent, to be Ensign, vice Thompson, killed in action r I was just turned of nineteen, a well grown and somewhat precocious lad, generally considered by my father and his friends as a shrewd and well- disposed fellow, who was likely one day or other 4) riRST WEEK IN THE SERVICE.. to cut a figure in the army ; but, by my mother and her female coterie, (all above the middle age,) I was set down, nem. con., as an arch wild dog, on whom a little military discipline would be by no means thrown away ; for I was a second son, and my mother, although affectionate enough, did not evince towards me that strength—or, more properly speaking, that weakness—of maternal fond- ness which she lavished on my elder brother, (her favourite.) who was specially designed for the pulpit by her and her devout advisers. My own opinion of my disposition was about half-way between that of my father and mother. I never, to my know- ledge, did much harm, except occasionally hoaxing our parson and apothecary ; or operating a few nocturnal exchanges of signs* between barbers, pawnbrokers, inn-keepers, and undertakers ; or perhaps an occasional shot at a villager's cat. But the best cannot please every body ; and even in the case of their own fathers and mothers, young * The practical joke of changing signs from one house to another, Avell nigh cost some officers of infantry their lives, some years ago, in the good city of Bath. —;: FIRST WEEK IN THE SERVICE. 5 fellows experience different opinions upon tlieir me- rits. However, this I knew—that I pleased myself I was backed by an indulgent father, health, spirits, and plenty of money ; so, in military phrase, I may say that I was ready primed for mischief, and did not care a doit for the devil. When I had finished my bottle, and tolerably satisfied myself with repeating over and over the terms of my appointment, in a semi-audible tone, I sallied forth. It was a fine evening in the begin- ning of July 1809, and town was crammed with mi- litary men in mufti. They had, as it seemed to me, even in plain clothes, an air peculiarly striking and it excited at once my delight and envy to see them stared at by all ; but particularly by the ladies, whose glances, to me, from my earliest age, were always bewitching in the extreme. I burned to mingle in the glory, and to share with my noic bro- ther-officers, the smiles of the fair ; but my sun- burned drab coat, with broad buttons, together with my slouched hat, white Windsor-cord breeches and top-boots, presented an odious barrier to my hopes and desires. O for a military tailor ! ; FIRST WEEK IN THE SERVICE. " That great enchanter, at whose rod's command, Beauty springs forth, and nature's self turns paler Seeing how art can make her work more grand, When she don't pin men's limbs in like a jailor." Of course, I soon found one. My first few paces in the Strand brought me in front of a shop-window, within which were profusely displayed braided coats, epaulettes, sword-knots, and brass heel-spurs. 1 could no more have passed it, without entering, than could the camel of the desert a clear and gushing spring without dipping his nostrils into it. Although particularly directed, both by my father and mother, to order my regimentals from our family tailor, I immediately proceeded to the man of measures, who, at first, eyed me in a careless, tooth-picking sort of way; but when he learned the nature and purport of my visit, he be- came the most polite and complaisant of tailors. " I 'm an Ensign in the army," said I, " and I want a suit of uniform for the —th regiment of the line." " Thank you. Captain,"^ repHed he, bowing and fidgetting, " I am much obliged to you. Captain, for the order ; and I can assure you, Captaw, that I can furnish you with every article of regi- — FIRST WEEK IN THE SERVICE. 7 mentals, of a superior quality, and at the shortest notice Captain^ Although I was somewhat disgusted at the first appearance of inattention discovered by the tailor to a man of my rank, (for I thought any body could see I was an officer in the army, even through my sun-burnt coat,) yet his subsequent politeness, and even obsequiousness, joined to my anxiety to put on regimentals for the first time—but, above all, his dubbing me " Captain," at once determined me to order my appointments from him.