and the conflict was maintained till the close of the day with unexampled fury The marquis of Huntley, who, with his regiment (the ninety-second) was eminently distinguished, received a wound by a musket ball in the shoulder; and general Sir John Moore, after receiving two severe wounds, was reluctantly carried out of the field. Sir Ralph Abercromby had two horses shot under him; but he continued to animate the troops by his example, and the most desperate efforts of the enemy were unavailing. As the night began to close in, the French made a most furious charge, in which they took two field-pieces. Fortunately lord Paget at the moment rushed from between two sand hills and fell upon them with such irresistible impetuosity, that they fled in the utmost confusion, leaving the guns they had taken behind them. Their loss in this day's engagement was upwards of four thousand men. During the night they abandoned their posts on the Lange Dyke and at Bergen, and next day the British took up the positions that had been occupied by the French at Alckmaer and Egmont-op-Zee. Brune having taken up a strong position between Beverwyck and the Zuyder Zee, it was determined to dislodge him before the arrival of his daily expected reinforcements. In the first inovements made for this purpose, the British met with little opposition; but the Russians under general D'Esson, attempting to gain a height near Buccum, were suddenly charged by an overwhelming body of the enemy. Sir Ralph Abercromby, observing the critical situation of the Russians, hastened with his column to support them. The enemy also sent up fresh forces, and the action, undesignedly by either party, became general along the whole line, from Lemmen to the sea, and was contested on both sides with the most determined obstinacy. About two o'clock in the afternoon, the right and centre of the Anglo-Russian army began to lose ground and to retire upon Egmont; where, with the co-operation of the brigade under major-general Coote, they succeeded in keeping the enemy in check during the remainder of the day. Evening closed over the combatants, evening darkened by deluges of rain; yet the work of mutual destruction knew no intermission. The fire of musketry, which ran in undulating lines along the hills, with the thunder-flash of the artillery, and the fiery train of the death-charged shell, lighted up with momentary and fitful blaze the whole horizon. About ten o'clock at night, worn out by such a lengthened period of exertion, though their mutual hostility was not in the least abated, the contending parties ceased fighting, and the British were left in possession of the ground, upon which they had fought, with upwards of two thousand of their companions lying dead around them. General Brune was in the course of the night or next morning reinforced by an addition of six thousand men, and the ground he occupied was by nature and art rendered nearly impregnable. The British lay through the night exposed to the weather, which was terrible, on the naked sand hills; their clothing drenched, and their arms and ammunition rendered useless by the rain. Nor was the inhospitality of the people less than that of the elements, the greater part being violently hostile, and the remainder sunk in supine indifference. Retreat was therefore a measure of necessity, and next night, the 7th of the month, about ten o'clock, amidst a deluge of rain, the troops marched back to their former station at Petten and Alckmaer, which they reached without immediate pursuit or any serious loss. To embark, however, upon such a shore and in the face of such an enemy, without great loss, was impossible, and to prevent the unnecessary effusion of blood, an armistice was proposed by the duke of York, till the troops should be quietly embarked. The French general was willing to accede to the proposal, provided the Dutch fleet were restored, and all forts, dykes, &c., &c., left as they had been taken, or if any improvements had been made upon them, in their improved state. To the first part of the proposal the duke utterly refused for a moment to listen, and 9 being in possession of the principal dykes, he threatened to break them down and inundate the country. The fleet was of course given up, but in lieu thereof, eight thousand French and Dutch prisoners that had been taken previous to this campaign, were to be restored, with all that had been taken in it, the Dutch seamen excepted. The troops were instantly embarked, and safely landed in England, with the exception of the Russians, who were landed in the islands of Guernsey and Jersey. Though this expedition totally failed in its main object, the liberation of Holland, it was not without advantage. The capture of the Dutch fleet in the then state of affairs was of very considerable importance. Nor was the impression it left upon the enemy of the superior skill of British officers, particularly of the subject of this memoir, and the daring valour of British troops, without its use in the succeeding periods of the war. Sir Ralph Abercromby was now a universal favourite with the public, and supposed to be the most skilful officer in the British service; and he was in consequence sent out in the month of June, 1800, to take the command of the troops sent out upon a secret expedition to the Mediterranean, and which were for the time quartered on the island of Minorca, where he arrived on the 22d of June. The very next day the troops were again embarked, and sailed for Leghorn, where they arrived on the 9th of July; but in consequence of an armistice having been concluded between the French and the Austrians, they were not allowed to land. Part of them now proceeded to Malta, and the remainder sailed back to Minorca. Sir Ralph himself arrived again at that island on the 26th of July, and on the 30th of September the troops were again embarked, and on the 14th the fleet came to anchor off Europa point in the bay of Gibraltar. for the bay of Teutan to procure water, and on the 23d returned to Gibraltar. On the 20th the whole sailed 'In a few days the fleet was again ordered to rendezvous in the bay of Teutan, and, on the 3d of October, the whole, consisting of upwards of two hundred sail, came to anchor off Cadiz, and preparations were made for landing the troops without delay. On the 6th the troops got into the boats, and everything was ready for the disembarkation. In consequence of a flag of truce from the shore, the landing was delayed, and in the afternoon the troops returned to their respective ships. The negotiations between the commanders having failed, the order was renewed for disembarking the troops next day. This order was again countermanded about midnight; the morning became stormy and at break of day the signal was made for the fleet to weigh. The ammunition that had been served out to the men was of course taken from them and returned to the governor's store; and by the afternoon the whole fleet was again under sail. Part of the forces were now ordered for Portugal under the command of general Sir James Pulteney, and the remainder for Malta, where they arrived about the middle of November. Than this sailing backwards and forwards, ordering and counter-ordering, nothing was ever exhibited more strongly indicative of extreme folly and absolute imbecility in the national councils. In the whole history of this expedition it is impossible to discover that there was any rational object in view; and one is almost tempted to suspect that it was meant only to demonstrate how indifferent the administration of that day was to the waste of human life, and to any thing like a reasonable use of the national resources. It was now resolved by the British government to drive the French out of Egypt by force; although that government had but a short time before refused to ratify a treaty made with Sir Sydney Smith, by which they had engaged to evacuate the country, leaving all the fortified places in that state of improvement to which they had been brought under the most skilful of the French generals. The armament, which had uselessly rolled about the Mediterranean for so many months, was appointed for that purpose. Sir Ralph Abercromby, B after having inspected all the troops, and issued such general orders as the occasion seemed to call for, embarked at Malta on the 20th of December for the bay of Marmorice, on the coast of Caramania; where cavalry horses were to be procured, and stores collected for the expedition, which, it was calculated, would sail for Alexandria by the first of January, 1801. Many things however occurred to retard their preparations. Among others of a like nature, three hundred horses, purchased by order of lord Elgin, the British ambassador at Constantinople, were found, when they arrived at Marmorice, so small and so galled in their backs, as to be of no use, so that it was found necessary to shoot some, and to sell others at the low price of a dollar a piece. It was believed that lord Elgin had paid for a very different description of horses, but the persons to whose care they had been confided, had found their account in changing them by the way. Good horses were procured by parties sent into the country for that purpose; but the sailing of the expedition was in consequence delayed till the end of February, instead of the first of January, as had been originally intended; and from the state of the weather and other casualties the landing could not be attempted before the 8th of March, on which day it was accomplished in Aboukir Bay, in a manner that reflected the highest honour on the British troops. During the stay of the British armament at Marmorice, Bonaparte had found means to reinforce his army in Egypt, and to furnish it with all necessary stores; and the state of the weather, preventing the immediate disembarkation of the troops, enabled the French to make every possible preparation to receive them. The sand hills which form the coast they had lined with numerous bodies of infantry, and every height was bristled with artillery. A most tremendous discharge of grape-shot and shells from the batteries, and of musketry from the numerous bodies of infantry that lined the shore, seemed for a moment to stay the progress of the boats as they approached. But it was only for a moment. The rowers swept through the iron tempest to the beach; the troops leaped on shore, formed as they advanced, and rushing up the slippery declivity without firing a shot, drove the enemy from their position at the point of the bayonet. Successive bodies, as they were disembarked, proceeded to the help of their precursors, and, in spite of every obstruction, the whole army was Landed before night; and Sir Ralph Abercromby advancing three miles into the country, took up a position with his right resting upon lake Maadie or Aboukir, and his left stretching to the Mediterranean. On the 12th he moved forward to attack the French, who were most advantageously posted on a ridge of sand hills, their right towards the sea, and their left resting upon the canal of Alexandria. On the morning of the 13th, the army marched in two lines by the left, to turn the right flank of the enemy. Aware of their intention, the French, with their whole cavalry and a considerable body of infantry, poured down from the heights and attacked the heads of both lines with the utmost impetuosity. They were, however, repulsed by the advanced guard, consisting of the ninetieth and ninety-second regiments, with incomparable gallantry. The first line then formed into two, and in that manner continued to advance, while the second line turned the right of the French army, and drove it from its position. The enemy, however, made a regular retreat, and contested every inch of ground till he had reached the heights of Nicopolis, which form the principal defence of Alexandria. Anxious to carry these heights, Sir Ralph Abercromby unfortunately ordered forward the reserve under Sir John Moore, and the second line under general Hutcheson, to attack (the latter the right, and the former the left,) both flanks at once. Advancing into the open plain they were exposed to the whole range of the enemy's shot, which they had it not in their power to return, and, after all, the position was found to be commanded by the guns of the forts of Alexandria, so that it could not have been kept though they had stormed it. They were accordingly withdrawn, but with a most serious loss of: men; and the British army took up the ground from which the enemy had been driven, occupying a position with its right to the sea and its left to the canal of Alexandria, a situation of great advantage, as it cut off all communication with Alexandria, except by the way of the desert. In this action, Sir Ralph was nearly enveloped in the charge made by the French cavalry, and was only saved by the intrepidity of the ninetieth regiment. The garrison of Aboukir surrendered on the 18th; but to counterbalance this advantage, the French commander-in-chief, Menou, arrived at Alexandria from Cairo on the 20th, bringing with him a reinforcement of nine thousand men. Expecting to take the British by surprise, Menou, next morning, March the 21st, between three and four o'clock, attacked their position with his whole force, amounting to from eleven to twelve thousand men, The action was commenced by a false attack on the left, their main strength being directed against the right, upon which they advanced in great force and with a prodigious noise, shouting, "Vive la France Vive la Republique !" They were received, however, with perfect coolness by the British troops, who not only checked the impetuosity of the infantry, but repulsed several charges of cavalry. Greater courage was perhaps never exhibited than on this occasion, and that by both parties. The different corps of both nations rivalled each other in the most determined bravery, and exhibited the extraordinary spectacle of an engagement in front, flanks, and rear, at the same time; so much were the contending parties intermingled. Every man fought as if the honour of his nation and the fate of the day had centred in his individual person. Nine hundred of Bonaparte's best soldiers, and from their tried valour denominated Invincibles, succeeded in turning the right of the British, between the walls of a large ruin and a battery. Three times did they storm the battery, and three times were the successive parties exterminated. Getting at last into the rear of the reserve, the forty-second and the twenty-eighth regiments charged them with the bayonet, and drove them step by step into the inclosure of the ruin, where, between six and seven hundred of them being already stretched lifeless on the ground, the remainder called out for quarter, and were made prisoners. Not one of them returned. Equally determined was their attack on the centre, and it was there repelled with equal success. A heavy column having broken through the line, the cavalry accompanying it wheeled to their left and charged the rear of the reserve; but this charge was broken by the accidental state of the ground, which had been excavated into pit-holes about three feet deep for the men to sleep in, before the arrival of their camp equipage. Over these holes they had to make their charge, and in consequence were completely routed, more than three hundred of them being left dead on the spot. Finding that all his movements had been frustrated, general Menou at length ordered a retreat, which he was able to effect in good order; the British having too few cavalry to pursue. His loss was supposed to be between three and four thousand men, including many officers, among whom were general Raize, commander of the cavalry, who fell in the field, and two generals who died of their wounds. The loss of the British was also heavy, upwards of seventy officers being killed, wounded, and missing. Among these was the lamented commander-in-chief. Having hastened, on the first alarm, towards the cannonading, Sir Ralph must have ridden straight among the enemy, who had already broken the front line and got into its rear. It was not yet day, and, being unable to distinguish friend from foe, he must have been embarrassed among the assailants, but he was extricated by the valour of his troops. To the first soldier that came up to him, he said, “Soldier, if you know me, don't name me." A French dragoon, at the moment, conceiving the prize he had lost, rode up to Sir Ralph, and made a cut at him, but not being near enough, only cut through the clothes, and grazed the skin with the point of his sabre. The dragoon's horse wheeling about, brought him again to the charge, and he made a second attempt by a lounge, but the sabre passed between Sir Ralph's side and his right arm. The dragoon being at the instant shot dead, the sabre remained with the general. About the same time it was discovered that he had been wounded in the thigh, and was entreated to have the wound examined; but he treated it as a trifle, and would not for a moment leave the field. No sooner, however, had the enemy begun to retreat, and the excitement of feeling under which he had been acting to subside, than he fainted from pain and the loss of blood. His wound was now examined, and a large incision made in order to extract the ball, but it could not be found. He was then put upon a litter and carried aboard the Foudroyant, where he languished till the 28th, when he died. Of the character of Sir Ralph Abercromby there can be but one opinion. Bred to arms almost from his infancy, he appeared to be formed for command. His dispositions were always masterly, and his success certain. He had served in America, in the West Indies, in Ireland, in the Netherlands, in Holland, and in Egypt, and had in all of these countries gained himself great distinction. In the two latter countries, especially, he performed services that were of incalculable advantage to his country. The battle of the 21st of March, or of Alexandria, while it decided the fate of Egypt, left an impression of British skill and of British valour upon the minds of both her friends and her enemies, that materially contributed to the splendid results of a contest longer in continuance and involving interests of greater magnitude than Britain had ever before been engaged in. The manner in which he repressed the licentiousness of the troops in Ireland, was at once magnanimous and effective; and he ended a life of dignified exertion by a death worthy of a hero. "We have sustained an irreparable loss," says his successor, "in the person of our never enough to be lamented commander-in-chief, Sir Ralph Abercromby; but it is some consolation to those who tenderly loved him, that, as his life was honourable, so was his death glorious. His memory will be recorded in the annals of his country, will be sacred to every British soldier, and embalmed in the recollection of a grateful posterity." How sleep the brave, who sink to rest, 1 The following panegyric upon Sir Ralph in another character was written before his death." As a country gentleman, ever attentive to all within the circle of his movement, he stands high in the estimation of his neighbours and dependants; and when his military glory shall have fallen into oblivion, it will be gratefully remembered that he was the friend of the destitute poor, the patron of useful knowledge, and the promoter of education among the meanest of his cottagers: as an instance it may be mentioned, that in the village of Tullibody, on his paternal estate, a reading school, under his immediate inspection, was established many years back."-Campbell's Journey through Scotland, 4to, 1802, vol. ii. |