Lord Wellington. liar value to the French bulletins. With a due allowance for exaggerations, reserves, &c. but all of which an acute mind may sift from the actual substance, the series of French bulletins is a series of the most invaluable military lessous. It is our purpose to de❤ vote some whole number to reprint them complete from the first campaign of Buonaparte as General to the present period. This man has given his character both to the nation and the army. Į remember a kind reproof which the late Mr, Windham once gave me upon the occasion of speaking of him (Buonaparte) with some inconsiderate violence," Abuse him as you please, you must allow him one thing, he has a most magnificent mind; he has no narrow conceptions; he is nothing formal, minute, or in detail; he sees his point, bears down upon it, and carries all before him. "Monte decurrens velut Amnis, imbres Quem super notas aluere ripas, Fervet, immensusque ruit profundo Pindarus ore." To return, however, to our subject. Massena, under the cir cumstances above mentioned, commenced his retreat from Santarem on the 5th of March, His baggage, sick, &c. had been previ❤ ously sent on before on mules and asses, and had gained two marches before the columns began to move. In the evening of the 5th the army moved off in three columns and routes; the right column taking the road to Espinhal, the central to Ancio, the third, which comprehended the greater part of the army, under the commander in chief in person, to Pombal, It was now seen, if it had ever been doubted, that the former re putation of Massena was in no way inferior to his actual merit, Nothing could possibly exceed the military skill of this compul sory retreat. The columns did not move by parallel but by angu lar lines, all converging to a vertex or point, upon gaining which they all formed in mass; and thus continued their retreat, cover. ing their rear by a body selected from the flower of the army, and that under the command of a general (marshal Ney), who, by the mere skill of his positions, repeatedly foiled and delayed the pursuit against a force ten times as numerous as his own rear guard. The nature of the country, indeed, was peculiarly favourable for such positions, the roads being through clefts of mountains, and thus its Lord Wellington. necessarily flanked by the heights on both sides. The merit of Ney, however, was eminently displayed in the choice of them, and in improving the advantages of nature by the most consummate military skill. Whilst Ney thus covered the retreat of the main body, the main body in its turn, under the immediate command of the commander in chief, so directed its march and its stations, as to be at hand to receive and protect its rear guard; the latter, when too hardly pressed, falling gradually back, and thereby bringing enemy with it upon the main army waiting in mass and in the most favourable position to receive it. Lord Wellington and Massena, indeed, were here fairly pitted against each other. Had the English army been under the command of a less experienced general, that army, whilst in pursuit, would have been forced into a pitched battle with its enemy, and Massena would have effected in his flight what he could never accomplish in his advance. On the other hand, had the French been upon their part less ably commanded, their army would have perished. The two generals together presented a military spectacle which Europe has not beheld since the days of Frederic. The one pursued without confusion; and the other retreated, not indeed without loss, but with little more loss than would have attended an offensive march in advance. (To be continued.) TO THE Editor. SIR,-The following notes are at your service. You may depend on their accuracy. JOURDAN. This general has served in the French army first as a private, and afterwards as a serjeant, before the revolution. When that took place, he followed the business of a fencing master, and his wife that of a milliner. He was then appointed an officer of the national guard, went to the frontier when the war broke out, and was advanced gradually to the command of an army. It was he who commanded the French at Maubeuge in 1793, and at Fleurus in 1794. It is known, that in the former, prince Coburgh and general Jourdan both believed that they had been defeated, and both retreated at the same time. We may also recollect, that Jourdan, quickly informed of the retreat of his ene Moreau-Bernadotte-Berthier. mies, returned to his former position, and retook forty pieces of cannon, which he had left in a wood. Although he repaired his mistake, Robespierre did not forgive him: it, cost him for some time the loss of his command. Few of the republican general have been so often defeated as he has been. MOREAU. This general was, in 1789, the first of the clerks of the parliament of Rheims, in which his father exercised the func tions of an advocate. Moreau was named in the first of the revolution chief of the national guard at Rheims. The war being declared, he was sent with the national guards of Brittany to the army of La Fayette. He there distinguished himself on many occasions, and obtained very soon the rank of a general officer. In 1794, he took the fortress of l'Ecluse (Sluys), on the same day that his father was guillotined in France. BERNADOTTE. This general had served before the revolution as a common soldier in the regiment of royal marine, which he left after having attained the rank of serjeant. He became clerk to the parliament of Pau, the town where he was born. When the revolution gave rise to the establishment of the national guards, his good appearance, his service in the regular troops, and, above all, his violent democracy, procured him the adjutancy in the guards at Pau. On the breaking out of the war, he went to the armies, where he shewed courage, boldness, and activity, and made a rapid progress. He commanded Jourdan's advanced guard in 1796, and was completely beaten. When sent to Buonaparte's army in 1797, he distinguished himself in the short campaign of that year, by summoning the town of Gradisku, more briefly in deed, but not in a more honourable manner, than he did Philipsburgh in 1799. Being dissatisfied with Jourdan and the directory, he left the army a short time after the opening of the campaign of 1799, and was placed by the jacobins at the head of the war department. - BERTHIER. This general is the son of the late first clerk of the war office, and of the repository of plans at Versailles. He owes his military fortune to marshal de Broglio, to whom he was aidede-camp in 1789, when the marshal commanded the army assembled round Paris. A. B. History of the British Army. HISTORY OF THE BRITISH ARMY. THE SIXTH, OR FIRST WARWICKSHIRE, REGIMENT OF FOOT. This regiment derives its origin from the seventy years' war, by which the united provinces of Holland threw off their subjection to Spain. Its regular establishment did not take place till the year 1673; but it had previously served under the three first princes of Orange of the house of Nassau, whose respective regiments had been disbanded some time between the peace of Munster and the restoration of king Charles the second. This was one of the three English regiments intended, upon their formation, to serve in Holland; it was, therefore, paid by the Dutch republic. Upon the death of king Charles the second, in February 1684, when James the second ascended the throne, the duke of Monmouth, natural son to the former, being then in Holland, with a reward set upon his head, for being concerned in plots against the deceased king his father, invaded England, and proclaimed himself king. On this occasion, James desired the assistance of his subjects, and the six regiments, of which this was one, were sent over to England with all possible expedition. The prince of Orange offered at the same time to come in person, at the head of other forces, but the offer was thankfully declined. Monmouth being soon routed, taken, and executed, this and the other five regiments were sent back to Holland. It came over to this country with king William, at the revolution in 1688, and was incorporated in our military establishment, numbering as the 6th in the British military line. This corps was considered as the most formidable part of the armament that accompanied the prince of Orange in his expedition. Sir John Dalrymple says, "His army was composed of near 4,000 cavalry, and about 11,000 infantry, of the best troops of the republic, with 300 French officers, protestant refugees. Of these troops the most formidable were the six British regiments (there were three denominated the Scotch brigade) in the service and pay of the Dutch." The same writer observes, "that the first action in which these troops were engaged was at the battle of Gillikranky," where, it is worthy of remark, the commanders on both sides, the viscount Dundee and general Mackay, had been bred in the Scotch brigade. At the time of its embarking for England, it was commanded by general Babbington, but was soon after given to George prince of Hesse Darmstadt, who, in the year 1694, was succeeded in the command of it by the marquis du Rada, another favourite officer of the new British sovereign. From the facility with which most of the officers spoke the Dutch language, it cannot be a wonder that this regiment was always near the royal staff, during the life of king William. It embarked for Ireland, under his favourite general, duke Schomberg, at Highlake, on the 12th of August, 1689, and landed at Bangor, near Carrickfergus; the whole kingdom, except Londonderry and Inniskilling, being at that time in the bands of king James. It VOL. II. NO. 11. 3 H History of the British Army. assisted in the reduction of Carrickfergus, in which was a garrison of 3,000, commanded by M'Carty More. Carrickfergus being made a place of arms, it advanced with duke Schomberg to Newry, which the enemy abandoned upon their approach, flying to the mountains of Dundalk, from which places, as well as the town of the same name, they further fled to Atherdee. This regiment suffered much in the winter of this year, from neglecting the commander's orders to provide timber and straw for erecting convenient huts; a precaution which the Dutch and French regiments in king William's service did not fail to take, and by which they preserved themselves from the inclemency of the cather in that severe season. The newly entered recruits in this and other regiment perished in numbers from the rains and cold weather. Thus weakened by mortality and sickness, it became necessary to send it into one of the garrison towns, which had fallen into the hands of William ; for we do not find it in the duke's army, after it had been reinforced by the Inniskillingers and other troops which general Kirk bad brought from Eng. land, and consequently it could have no share in the battle of the Boyne on the 1st of July, 1690, when Schomberg himself was killed, and the king received a slight wound in the shoulder, which occasioned a report of his death, and the consequent rejoicings in Paris at the false news. James embarking at Concannon for France, immediately on this defeat, and the count Lauzon, who commanded the French troops, following his steps, by embark, ing his whole force at Galway, there remained, after the surrender of Drog heda, Waterford, and various other places, no occasion for so large an army in Ireland, though it still persisted in carrying on the war in the fugitive king's interest, in hopes, according to his promise, of being reinforced with a fresh army from France; and indeed their lieutenant-general Sarsfield had rallied a considerable body of men at Athlone. But whether the 6th regiment left Ireland at this time, or remained in it till the famous capitulation of Limerick, when the Irish surrendered both the town and kingdom, we cannot precisely say. It is evident that it either made one of the twenty-three regi ments which embarked at Waterford, under the earl of Galway, with the view of making a descent near Ushant, but ultimately landed at Ostend, accompanied king William in his expedition into Flanders. King William dying in March, 1701, and James the second in the September following, at St. Germains, the war took a wider latitude, by the court of France declaring the pretended prince of Wales king of Great Britain. Another cause was superadded to those which served to foment the quarrel, and that was the exertion of Louis the fourteenth to set his grandson, Philip the fifth, fornin', de `te of Anjou, upon the throne of Spain, in consequence of the recent death of Flip the second, or it had To oppose this design, troops were sent to act against the French and their allies in Spain. The 6th joined the fleet commanded by sir Cloudesly Shovel, |