24 MAY 1834, Page 17

THE LIFE OF A SOLDIER.

OUR Field Officer has seen much service, and had a long expe- rience of the British Army under various conditions. He joined it as a Militia ensign in 1793, when barely fifteen, and shortly after volunteered into the Line—at that time, in the words of Sir RALPH ABERCROMIWa "formidable to every one save the enemy." He had scarcely entered when he was appointed to an ensigncy, and proceeded to the West Indies, with the expedition under ABERCROMBY'S command, and in which Sir JOHN MOORE first became known as a general. Being invalided, he returned to England ; recruited his health; joined his regiment in country quarters; and was subsequently engaged in Ireland during the Rebellion. His next employment was in the army which bom- barded Copenhagen under Lord CATFICART. He was afterwards ordered to Portugal ; was present at the earliest actions, those of Rolica and Vimiera ; and with the exception of an occasional leave of absence, and an attack on Walcheren, served throughout the whole of the Peninsular war. Waterloo wound up his mar- tial exploits; and after a few years of garrison-duty at Alderney and in the Ionian Islands, he retired from the Army, having attained (as we understand) the rank of Brevet Major. Here, it would seem, was a goodly subject for an autobiographer. During so long a period of active service, mingling with so many persons, beholding such a variety of scenes, frequently under circumstances of great excitement, and engaged in some of the most important events in modern history, the author must have seen and suffered much that was interesting to relate. But, whether it be that an active military life is really less fruitful in "moving accidents" and strange events than civilians imagine, or that it requires a peculiar gift or some kind of training for a man to become his own biographer, the outline of the Soldier's Ltfe promises more than the filling up performs. The Field Officer seems to have confounded the historian and the traveller with the autobiographer. In the life of an individual soldier, we do not look for sketches of campaigns, or whole chapters devoted to an account of the people amongst whom he happened to be quartered. In point of composition, the work is more than respectable : the Brevet-Major has probably had practice in drawing up memorials and conducting the regimental correspondence. Even the ex- crescences are rather out of place than bad. The chief defect is diffuseness, which for continuous reading creates a languor. We get along easily enough, it is true, but then it is over a dead

level; pleasant travelling for a little space, but tedious during long journey. " In a face, however devoid of character, the painter has always nature to work upon." In a narrative of real occurrences—in a description of actual manners—there is truth, however literal; and this is better by far than a bad novel. These volumes indicate pretty plainly the uncomfortable position in which a man of in- dependent spitit without interest may be placed in the Army ; the tyranny which an officer in favour at home may exeicise over his subordinates; how easy it is to mark out a soldier for professional ruin, and to find persons who will lend themselves to the pursuit.

" My harp has one unchanging theme, One strain that still comes o'er."

Be a book good, bad, or indifferent—be its writer Tory, Whig, or Radical—if it touch upon public affairs, the evils of an oligarchy —of what Lord Jonsr RUSSELL calls the legitimate" influence' of property—distinctly appear, though the lines may be more or less strongly drawn. Men born to greatness and high place can- not attain qualification by the appointment ; their style of education and mode of life prevent them from acquiring it by the usual way ; they are mostly too proud to profit by the ability of others,. or they know not where to seek for it, or cannot distinguish between knowledge and presumption; the " high spirit" of which the lovers of an aristocracy boast, is too often merely an ignorant and headstrong wilfulness, which, unused to opposition from depen- dents at home, requires from the world at large the obsequious- ness of a toadeater. To represent these defects as crimes in the individuals, would be foolish as well as false. Their apology is that of the unbelieving Jews—they know not what they do. But this personal excuse for the men cannot alter the result of their actions. It has been displayed by gross mismanagement in war, by the lowering of the national character in peace; and is shown, we fear, almost as bad as ever, in the misgovernment of our Colo- nial possessions, and the consequent unhappiness of those pm sons subjected to our rule.

Besides these points, some of which are rather indicated than told, the hardships, miseries, and harassing duties of war, are strongly brought out. Take the following illustrative cases.

WEST INDIAN WARFARE.

OR the route, I conversed fur some time with a Frenchman, who had had'se- veral skit mishes with the brigands: in one of these encounters he took an offi- cer of colour, and carried him behind him on his horse. " What became of him ultimately ?" I inquired. " I kept him seven days," s:tid the Frenchman, " and every marning I cut off one of his fingers; yet the rogue escaped into the woods after all with three." Owing to the number of men and horses that had been killed at different times by the blacks, in the attempt to pass along•tbis- line, and now lay in a state ot putrefac,ion in all directions, the air became quite tainted ; and habit made us such connoisseurs that we could readily dis- tinguish the dead holly of a man from that of a horse by the scent alone.

The burial-ground happened to be near one of the principal batteries, called the Polygon, and the officer of the guard had orders to attend all interments, and see that three shovelsful of quick lime were thrown into each grave. As the hospital-carts, each carrying three bodies, arrived almost without intermis- sion during the day, this was both a sad and a wearisome duty. The number of the hospital assistants was now reduced to the ratio of one to a hundred pa- tients, when at least ten times as many were necesswy ; the consequences of this alteration to the sick were deplorable; the poor fellows, being unable to fan away the flies themselves and having no proper attendance, died with their mouths full of them ; and frequently, as their heads were shaved, they were covered with such swarms that the skin was completely hid. The regiments in camp were the greatest sufferers; as the rain at times, and principally at night, fell in tot rents, and soon penetrated the old moth- eaten tents.

I have passed whole nights, sitting in my tent up to my uncles in water and holding an umbrella over toy head. In the taunting, when the sun shone out, the camp was enveloped in a cloud of steam. Our living in snch damp brought on various fatal diseases, which in a few months reduced strong regiments to skeletons. Sudden deaths also happened occasionally : I recollect one instance in particular. I was invited to dine one day by Lieutenant R—t of the 32nd; and at the hour appointed, I walked to his tent and asked the servant, who stood at the door of it, if dinner was not ready ; the answer was, " Master is dead, Sir." It was too true ; for the hospital-cart was soon brought up for the corpse of him who in the morning had asked we to dine, little thinking then that he had eaten his last meal ! " • The number of effective officers in my regiment was gradually diminished to two, another subaltern and myself, and for some time we did all the duty ; but at length a few officers from black corps were sent to us. For three weeks I have been on picquet every night. Nevertheless, I continued to enjoy good health for about twelve months; but one evening at the end of that period, I was attacked by the yellow fever at the mess-table, and rolled up in a blanket at once, and taken to the hospital. There I remained thirty-six days without amendment ; though in general the disorder proved fatal in forty eight hours. At length the medical officers abandoned me to may fate ; baying sapiently come to the conclusion that a few hours more would terminate my existence. I heard them express this opinion as they walked off, and it had the good effect of rous- ing me a little. My servant was at hand, and I had strength sufficient to desire I' to dress a salt herring, which was the only thing I felt any inclination to take. I ate it with some appetite, and drank in consequence copious draughts of Madeira and water. I continued on the same diet for several days, at the end of which the fever left me, to the great surprise of the doctors.

My pay-sergeant of the grenadier company was also in the hospital at this time, and having seen the dead bodies merely sewed up in blankets before they were thrown into the graves, and feeling great horror at the idea of being buried without a coffin, he took care to buy one and kept it at his bedside until he got what is called a "lightening before death;" he then fancied that he 'was re- covering, and sold the coffin to the patient on the stretcher next to his butt relapsing soon after, he died, and was buried without one.

CIVILIZED WAR.

Sir Arthur Wellesley proceeded with the light brigade into the interior of the' island, to prevent the militia from assembling. On the 29th, he defeated the Danes near Kioge„ and took about eleven hundred prisoners. This duty was performed effectually, but the Men Were guilty of many excesses. The Danes pay the greatest respect to the remains of their deceased relations, keeping the churchyards uncommonly neat, and adorning them with well-executed WOW.

merits, chiefly of white marble. Some rd. these were war.tonly injured by the soldiers, awl several of the tombs were broken open by them, in the expectation. ed finding money, rings, and other trinkets. Not content with these insults to the dead, they stripped many living females of their necklaces and earrings, -sometimes teariug the latter through the flesh; but immediate eteps were taken to put a stop to such outrages. All persons of consideration living in Copenhagen have also neat villas in its 'environs, standing in the midst of gardens and pleasure-grounds, which are kept in excellent order ; a great proportion of them have observatories, as the Danes are a studious people, and particularly fond of astronomy. Those who resided in the country, and had lied when our fleet anchored, abandoned, in their pre- cipitate flight, all their effects, except their plate, jewellery, and some other easily portable articles. Though every individual of the army, who was pos- sessed of proper feelings, must have ree,retted the destruction of property that ensued, and exerted himself accordingly to prevent all wanton injury, still the nature of the set vice required that all ornamental improvements of the Danes, happening to impede in the least our progress in the siege, should be levelled or removed. If a fine garden afforded the best site for a battery., one was raised there, and the fruit-trees were cut down to be made use of in Its erection ; and the crops which were standing on our arrival were inure effectually destroyed by our bivouacking in the fields than if an immense Slight of locusts had de- scended on them ; so that the country within two miles of the walls of Copen- hagen was speedily converted by us into a melancholy waste. Among the men there were certainly many addicted to plunder and I regret to aay, that the ex- ample set by some few officers, showed that they too were not free from a pm- peusity so disgraceful to the character of a soldier. I know one, who packed in a cask a handsome service of china, with the view of carrying it off on our re- turn ; but lie did not take the precaution to fasten down the -head at once, and another person, either through dislike to the act of plunder or to the plunderer, placed, unobserved, a nine-pound shot in a tureen that was uppermost. When the cask was opened afterwards in England, all the china was found smashed to atoms by the working of the shot. The drawbridge was then (after the capitulation') lowered, and the inhabitants rushed out, anxious to ascertain the state in which their houses and grounds were, after an occupation of en many days by the troops of an enemy: A sad sight was to meet their eyes, and realize their most gloomy apprehensions ; all their property plundered and destroyed, excepting the hare shells of the buildings.

One elderly gentleman came up to two or three of our officers, who were standing with me where his villa stood when last he saw that spot, but it had since been razed to the ground. We were riot very conversant with his language, but he pointed to the ruins, and then turning to the burial-ground of an adjoining church, gave us to understand, that the only home we had left him was there. Though he was grieved and dejected, his manners were still composed and gentlemanly ; he neither in word nor look seemed to upbraid the authors of his loss, which he was too old then to think of repairing ; and, when he had done speaking, he politely handed to us his snuff-box. We were glad to profit by the opportunity of shutting up in it, unperceived by him, one or two gold pieces ; they might have been of use to him, and I do not think that he could have been offended with the liberty that we had taken.

The grand events of war are not so clearly or so interestingly done. It may, indeed, be questioned whether a veteran can paint a battle or an assault with picturesque vigour and °Met. The circumstances which give the general character of terror and grandeur are to him things of ordinary occurrence. The unceas- ing chatter of the musketry, the thunder of the artillery, the measured tramp of the infantry, the distant roar or the closer rumble of the vast machinery if war, and the clangour and clatter of cavalry in rapid motion, produce no more effecCupon him than the wonder-working steam-engine does upon the stoke-boy. Habit has hardened him to

" The shock, the shout, the groan of war."

Thernost striking parts to the unprofessional person—the regular appearance, the rapid and ready evolutions of vast bodies of men, now exhibited distinctly and clearly to the eye, now obscured by distance, or half hidden by smoke—are looked upon by the vete- ran with indifference. A brilliant or a steady manceuvre will ex- cite his applause for the valour it displays; but the picturesque effect of "the soldiers" is too mechanical to merit description. Even NAPIER'S battles are too often scientific, or deal in the re- sults of carnage. Excepting perhaps Waterloo, the Field Officer's accounts are for the most part technical. This arises from his at- tempting to give a general account of the battle, instead of a narrative of what befel himself, or what was done under his own eye.

A retreat is not so grand an affair, nor perhaps so imposing to the imagination of the reader; and in his account of that from Burgos, the Field Officer is more successful. We give a few bits.

Our retreat commenced after nightfall. We passed over the Bridge of Bur- gos, which was commanded by the castle on a still, dark night, with the ut- most caution ; not a word was spoken, and no sound was heard, save the tread of the numerous troops marching past, while the garrison threw blue lights at shert intervals over the ramparts, that no enemy might approach unobserved. There was something peculiarly awful in this night-march a so great a body of men ; the cautious silence, the dead hour, and the consideration that in an in- stant the guns of the castle might send death among us. Some of the last troops had a few shots fired at them ; but altogether this clever movement was so well conducted, that the garrison were ignorant of it until it was too late for them to cause us any serious annoyance. 'Ile army was at this time madly reduced by sickness; my regiment did not muster more than one hundred and fifty men, although it had seven hundred and fifty in the country. The French army followed us ; and on the Tdel, some skirmishing took place between their van and our rear guard. They were greatly superior to us in cavalry. We marched for the Douro under circumstances of severe privation; only one pound of biscuit was served out to each man for his six days' provi • miens. All the bridges were blown up as soon as the last of our men had pressed over, which of course checked the pursuit ; but the enemy's advanced guard con- trived to conic up with us in the evenings, when a show of resistance would be made on our part. In the mornings we continued our retreat some hours be- fore daybreak. We had to ford a number of small rivers, which, having become much swollen by the late heavy rains, contributed to render our march still more uncomfortable. One day that it had rained incessantly, the Colonel and I got in late to our bivouac, and were waiting with impatience for the arrival of our baggage-horses, when the Colonel's batman staggered in, quite drunk, and bringing the pleasing intelligence that they were lost. It was evident that he in the first place had opened the panniers and drunk our stock of spirits, and that hen a party of Spaniards who had ci ossed our route, finding the bosses without Intendants, had taken the liberty to make them their own : the deplorable con.

/ sequence was, that neither the Colonel nor Iliad left us a single article, whether

I of clothes or of comforts, besides what we chanced to carry clout se. • • So much rain had fallen latterly, that the roads were in a most wretched con- dition, and in many places knee- deep, and we had, as usual, various deep streams to ford. All this was dreadfully distressing to men who were already nearly worn out by long marches, want of rest, bad living, anti the weight of their arms and accoutrements ; and several, sinking through weakness, were smothered in the mud. On one spot, I saw the wife of a Portuguese soldier lying dead with an infant at her breast, from which the little orphan vainly tried to extract its aecustomed nourishment. A little further on there was a poor fellow stretched by the road side, with his mouth full of mud, and evidently at the point of death ; and as we passed, a Spanish muleteer stooped down to him, and said jestingly, in his language, for he was his countryman, "It is very cold, Sir." Such tents as we had began were now to be left standing on the ground that we had occupied for the night, as we no longer possessed the means of carrying them. The heaviness of the rain and the chillness of the air induced mete sacrifice appearance, in some measure, to comfort, for I was desirous, if possible, to escape a fit of the ague ; I therefore unrolled my blanket, spread it as a man- tle over my shoulders, anal fastened it in front with a skewer, somewhat after the manner in which a Moor wears his haick, and then flapping my cocked hat behind, I rode, thus attired, on the flank of my company. This alteration in my costume was neither very becoming nor very military, but it was very comfort. able ; and, although it at first excited much laughter at my expense, a long COW of white mantles was visible the next day on the line of march.

The biography of the soldier may be said to close with the second volume. A considerable part of the third is devoted to an account of' the Ionian Islands ; pleasant enough, if not very strik- ing, and adding another chapter to the book of Colonial misgovern- ment. There are also some judicious remarks on the character of the different European soldiers, and a few sharp observations on the English military system, both as regards the internal arrange- ment of the Army and the mode in which promotion takes place.