50th Regiment foot - Dirty half hundred 2
Jun. 4th, 2012 07:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
patches_the_shipcatAt Vimiero, on the things that the 50th were able to get hold of and again about those red plumes for the band, They arrived from there to Lisbon (encamped with the 29th, 40th and 79th at Campo Santa Anna, and reached Monte Santo in 28th Semptember, 1808 :
(p99) The loss of the 50th consisted of Captain Coote killed, Major Charles Hill and Captain J.N.Wilson wounded and 2 sergeants, 2 corporals, 1 drummer and 38 privates either killed or died of wounds. They captured a standard, pole and box, which were borne by a sergeant between the colours during succeeding campaigns [...] On the 23rd August they commenced their march to Lisbon, negotiations for the convention of Cintra having stopped further hostilities. They were well received everywhere on their route through Portugal;...[...] Colonel G.T. Walker having obtained leave of absence after the battle of Vimiero, the command of the regiment devolved on Major Charles Napier, who had joined from the second battalion to replace Major Hill, severly wounded.
After the above action 15 volunteers from the French 70th Regiment joined the 50th, and their long red plumes were afterwards worn as trophies by the band of the regiment.
The 50th adopt children as well:
(p134) A soldier of the 50th Light Company was seen at Bettanzos with a fine child about 2 years old seated on the top of his knapsack. ON inquiring about its parents the man stated that the mother had dropped dead on the road and he had picked up the child determined to adopt it, the father having been killed at Vimiero. He brought the child to England where it grew into a fine young man and became a shoemaker near Bury St. Edmund's.
The confusion that left Major Napier with only a few at his side, thereabouts of Elvina:
(p119) Sir John Moore having ordered up a battalion of the Guards, the 42nd retired, believing that the Guards had been sent to relieve them. Sir John Moor seeing this, again sent them to the front; but too late; and before the 50th Regiment could be supported, General Baird commanding the Division, was wounded; and Sir John Moore having received that fatal wound, [...] was no longer capable of giving orders for his support.
An order was sent instead to recall the 50th, and Napier and the few men with him were left alone in front of the enemy. [...] All the ammunition being expended and it being impossible for the regiment to maintain their position against such fearful odds, orders were given to retire; and on being relieved by the Guards the troops of the first brigade fell back, the shattered remnant of the 50th resuming their place upon the hill, from which it had at the outset advanced.
The retreat of the rest of the regiment left Major Charles Napier, with only four survivors of his party, and completely surrounded by the enemy. Gathering a few men together, he made a desperate attempt to cut his way through, but was dangerously wounded and taken prisoner, and his life was only saved by the intervention of a French drummer (by name of Guibert). He was almost the sole survivor of that gallant little band, which he had led so bravely against the great battery.
While the names are not known there was a Private by the name of Henessey, an Irish soldier of the 50th, taken prisoner at the same time. There is word of Major Charles Napier, who had been taken prisoner and then released by Marshal Ney, on the 20th March 1809.In may 1810 he joined the Light Division in the Peninsula as a volunteer, under Crawford and was employed on Lord Wellington's Staff at Busaco.
(p128) "He was urged to dismount , as the only man in a red coat, to which he replied:"No! This is the uniform of my regiment, and in it I will show or fall this day." He had hardly spoken when a bullet entered on the right of his nose, and lodged in the left jaw near the ear. He was moved to the Convent of Busaco, but in spite of his sever wound he was at Cintra next day, and from there rode to Lisbon."
(p99) The loss of the 50th consisted of Captain Coote killed, Major Charles Hill and Captain J.N.Wilson wounded and 2 sergeants, 2 corporals, 1 drummer and 38 privates either killed or died of wounds. They captured a standard, pole and box, which were borne by a sergeant between the colours during succeeding campaigns [...] On the 23rd August they commenced their march to Lisbon, negotiations for the convention of Cintra having stopped further hostilities. They were well received everywhere on their route through Portugal;...[...] Colonel G.T. Walker having obtained leave of absence after the battle of Vimiero, the command of the regiment devolved on Major Charles Napier, who had joined from the second battalion to replace Major Hill, severly wounded.
After the above action 15 volunteers from the French 70th Regiment joined the 50th, and their long red plumes were afterwards worn as trophies by the band of the regiment.
The 50th adopt children as well:
(p134) A soldier of the 50th Light Company was seen at Bettanzos with a fine child about 2 years old seated on the top of his knapsack. ON inquiring about its parents the man stated that the mother had dropped dead on the road and he had picked up the child determined to adopt it, the father having been killed at Vimiero. He brought the child to England where it grew into a fine young man and became a shoemaker near Bury St. Edmund's.
The confusion that left Major Napier with only a few at his side, thereabouts of Elvina:
(p119) Sir John Moore having ordered up a battalion of the Guards, the 42nd retired, believing that the Guards had been sent to relieve them. Sir John Moor seeing this, again sent them to the front; but too late; and before the 50th Regiment could be supported, General Baird commanding the Division, was wounded; and Sir John Moore having received that fatal wound, [...] was no longer capable of giving orders for his support.
An order was sent instead to recall the 50th, and Napier and the few men with him were left alone in front of the enemy. [...] All the ammunition being expended and it being impossible for the regiment to maintain their position against such fearful odds, orders were given to retire; and on being relieved by the Guards the troops of the first brigade fell back, the shattered remnant of the 50th resuming their place upon the hill, from which it had at the outset advanced.
The retreat of the rest of the regiment left Major Charles Napier, with only four survivors of his party, and completely surrounded by the enemy. Gathering a few men together, he made a desperate attempt to cut his way through, but was dangerously wounded and taken prisoner, and his life was only saved by the intervention of a French drummer (by name of Guibert). He was almost the sole survivor of that gallant little band, which he had led so bravely against the great battery.
While the names are not known there was a Private by the name of Henessey, an Irish soldier of the 50th, taken prisoner at the same time. There is word of Major Charles Napier, who had been taken prisoner and then released by Marshal Ney, on the 20th March 1809.In may 1810 he joined the Light Division in the Peninsula as a volunteer, under Crawford and was employed on Lord Wellington's Staff at Busaco.
(p128) "He was urged to dismount , as the only man in a red coat, to which he replied:"No! This is the uniform of my regiment, and in it I will show or fall this day." He had hardly spoken when a bullet entered on the right of his nose, and lodged in the left jaw near the ear. He was moved to the Convent of Busaco, but in spite of his sever wound he was at Cintra next day, and from there rode to Lisbon."
