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  The American Sharpe

  The Adventures of an American Officer of the 95th Rifles in the Peninsular and Waterloo Campaigns

  Also by Gareth Glover and Published by Frontline Books

  Fighting Napoleon

  The Recollections of Lieutenant John Hildebrand 35th Foot in the

  Mediterranean and Waterloo Campaigns

  The Waterloo Archive

  Volume I: British Sources

  The Waterloo Archive

  Volume II: German Sources

  The Waterloo Archive

  Volume III: British Sources

  The Waterloo Archive

  Volume IV: British Sources

  The Waterloo Archive

  Volume V: German Sources

  The Waterloo Archive

  Volume VI: British Sources

  An Eloquent Soldier

  The Peninsular War Journals of Lieutenant Charles Crowe of the

  Inniskillings, 1812–1814

  Wellington’s Voice

  The Candid Letters of Lieutenant Colonel John Fremantle, Coldstream

  Guards, 1808–1837

  From Corunna to Waterloo

  The Letters and Journals of Two Napoleonic Hussars, 1801–1816

  Waterloo: The Defeat of Napoleon’s Imperial Guard

  Henry Clinton, the 2nd Division and the End of a 200-year-old Controversy

  The American Sharpe

  The Adventures of an American Officer of the 95th Rifles in the Peninsular and Waterloo Campaigns

  Gareth Glover

  Frontline Books

  THE AMERICAN SHARPE

  The Adventures of an American Officer of the 95th Rifles in the Peninsular and Waterloo Campaigns

  This edition published in 2016 by Frontline Books,

  an imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd,

  47 Church Street, Barnsley, S. Yorkshire, S70 2AS

  Copyright © Gareth Glover, 2016

  The right of Gareth Glover to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  ISBN: 978-1-84832-777-1

  eISBN: 978-1-47388-417-5

  Mobi ISBN: 978-1-47388-416-8

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

  CIP data records for this title are available from the British Library

  For more information on our books, please visit

  www.frontline-books.com, email [email protected]

  or write to us at the above address.

  Contents

  Introduction

  Acknowledgements

  Chapter 1 The Gairdner Family

  Chapter 2 Enlistment and Training

  Chapter 3 Journey Out to the Battalion

  Chapter 4 Two Sieges in Four Months

  Chapter 5 Recovery

  Chapter 6 Salamanca

  Chapter 7 Retreat

  Chapter 8 Winter Quarters

  Chapter 9 The Great Advance

  Chapter 10 San Millan

  Chapter 11 Into France

  Chapter 12 The Battle of the Nive

  Chapter 13 Napoleon Returns

  Chapter 14 The Waterloo Campaign

  Chapter 15 Paris in Peacetime

  Chapter 16 Army of Occupation

  Chapter 17 Demob

  Chapter 18 Aftermath

  References and Notes

  Selected Bibliography

  Introduction

  Anumber of journals and collections of letters have already been published by members of what is undoubtedly the most famous British regiment of the Napoleonic wars, the 95th Regiment1 of the Line (Rifles); more commonly known as the ‘95th’ or ‘the Rifles’, although the latter does ignore the fact that the regiment was not the only unit of the British Army of that time to be armed with a rifle rather than the smoothbore musket carried by most of the infantry.

  It does seem that the members of the 1st Battalion 95th Foot were particularly adept at keeping journals, with over half of the published journals from this three-battalion regiment actually emanating from the 1st Battalion.

  Now yet another is published for the first time, some two hundred years after the events it describes. This set of journals and the accompanying letters form a fascinating and very extensive view of the life of a rifle officer, just like Bernard Cornwell’s fictitious character Richard Sharpe, but what makes them even more fascinating is that they have the added twist of the fact that the author was an American by birth!

  James Penman Gairdner served in the Peninsular War without a break, from the siege of Ciudad Rodrigo in January 1812 until the end of the war in 1814 and then continued with his subsequent experiences during the Waterloo campaign and the ensuing occupation of France for the next three years. He was also wounded three times during his active service.

  Three surviving hand written journals, written generally on a daily basis, in ink, in small leather bound pocket books have survived, although occasionally, at times of heightened activity, it can be seen that he has caught up with events a little later; or paradoxically during periods of acute boredom he skips rapidly over the dates. But what they do offer are truly contemporary accounts of occurrences, full of the honest description of actions he experienced and saw with his own eyes, but also with the inevitable confusions and misunderstandings of events outside of his personal knowledge. But beyond everything else, it is refreshingly untainted by the dreaded hindsight which inevitably creeps almost imperceptibly into the narratives of those who edited their journals in later years for publication. There are feint hints that at times James has revisited odd sections of the journals, but these are rare and do not materially affect the immediacy of his narrative.

  Despite the fact that these journals are preserved with the greatest care by the National Army Museum, at Chelsea in London, some parts of the journal have faded almost to the point that it is impossible to read the writing. Luckily I was able to obtain images of these pages with which I have used some special techniques that I have developed to draw out the little remaining ink, allowing me to transcribe them in full. It has been a high priority of mine to complete this project because it will not be long, literally months, before the ink has deteriorated beyond the possibility of ever being transcribed, particularly with reference to parts of the 1815 journal, which have certainly taxed the vision of this editor.

  But a very interesting aspect of his journals and letters is the relationship of the now fully independent Americans and their family still in the ‘Old Country’. It is clear that their relationships were still strong and in fact their loyalties remained fluid in many situations, family often being more important than country. These exchanges, particularly with his father, make for very interesting reading in this regard and throw valuable light on this confusion of identity for many, including even those born in an Independent United States.

  It astonishes me that such valuable source material has been virtually ignored for so long and it is high time that they were published and I am very glad that I am able to do so now.

  Gareth Glover

  Cardiff, 2016

  1 The author knows of published accounts by eleven members of the 95th, Private Edward Costello; Lieutenant Robert Fernyhough, Bugler William Green; Private John Harris; Captain John Kincaid; Captain Jonathan Leach; First Lieutenant George Simmons; Captain Harry Smith, Private George Walton, Private Thomas Knight
and Quarter Master William Surtees. Of these, six served in the 1st Battalion 95th Foot.

  Acknowledgements

  Icannot fail to start by offering my heartfelt thanks to Dr. Alastair Massie Head of Academic Access, Collections, at the National Army Museum, Chelsea, London and his staff for their help in providing me with suitable images of the letters and journals to work from and permission to publish the completed text.

  I have received a great deal of help and advice from both Mrs Eleanor Hoare, the college archivist at Eton, who confirmed that James did not attend there, despite family claims to the contrary; and Miss Joanna Badrock, Archivist and Records Manager at Harrow School, where he almost certainly did attend, which does this time agree with the family histories.

  But without doubt I have received great encouragement and a mass of invaluable information, which has certainly enhanced this work very materially from surviving descendants of James. This support has been very ably coordinated by Sue Martin, a descendant of John Gordon and a severely overworked tax accountant in America, who however has made the time to supply me with copies of copious documents and obtained even more, including a further set of letters, from other branches of the family (the Blackmores) who reside in Australia. I must therefore also thank Greg Blackmore who generously granted permission to utilise all of the information he had gathered regarding James and his family.

  Thanks must also go to Christa Hook who kindly allowed me to reproduce her portrait of James Penman Gairdner in this book.

  I must also offer my thanks to Robert Burnham and Ron McGuigan who answer all my incessant and probably inane questions with such good humour and grace. Finally I must as always offer my grateful thanks to my wonderful wife Mary, who could not be more supportive of my efforts and now knows more about Napoleonic warfare than she ever wanted to!

  Chapter 1

  The Gairdner Family

  The story of James Penman Gairdner is very much one tied up in the history of the Scottish traders who traded with the Southern states of America and where many of them found their homes and indeed their graves. This had been common practise for decades and does not seem to have been interrupted at all by the American War of Independence. Indeed even after the American states became a unified nation, the Scottish merchants continued to trade and live harmoniously in the Southern states whilst still trading with Britain. The Gairdners were slightly late to this trade, but seem to have made up for this quite quickly, to establish themselves rapidly within the upper echelons of Charleston society.1

  James Gairdner, the father of our man James Penman Gairdner, was of Scottish descent2, but very soon after the end of the American Revolution he moved out to Charleston where he traded as a merchant in a company set up with his brother Edwin, the firm being known simply as James & Edwin Gairdner. This mercantile company was located at 114 East Bay Street, Charleston and existed throughout at least the first two decades of the 19th Century. He also seems to have run a separate shipping company with his brother Gordon, which owned a number of trading ships.3

  Around 1802 his brother Edwin was made a bankrupt in America, although he continued to own large plantations in Jamaica and then appears to have branched off into administering landed estates as an attorney for Penman, Shaw and Company. In this role he had sought and received assurances that he would be sent the powers of attorney to administer the estates of those who died in debt to Penman, Shaw and Co. He had apparently carried out this role previously on the estate of a Mr Manly and he seemingly performed his duties to everyone’s satisfaction.

  But this changed completely in the case of the estate of a Mr Shiras. In this case, Edwin was apparently on the brink of bankruptcy again and despite the fact that he produced very questionable accounts stating that Shiras had died owing him nearly $7,000 it became clear that he had used his position to procure this money for himself over his obligations to Penman, Shaw & Co and may well have passed other bills to himself against Shiras’s estate.

  Penman, Shaw and Co. looked to Edwin’s guarantors, Moodie & Black by name to cover his losses. This eventually led to a court case with Moodie (his brother-in-law) & Black (a friend) arguing that Edwin had acted for Penman, Shaw & Co. and that they were therefore entirely responsible for his losses, not themselves. But they lost this court case brought at Charleston in February 1812 and Edwin and his guarantors were held liable to cover the losses.

  An appeal however was held on 7th March 1812 and the decision was overturned in favour of Moodie & Black which put the losses squarely back on Penman, Shaw & Co. No further appeal was allowed.4 The comments in James Penman’s’ early letters regarding his Uncle Edwin Gairdner and Aunt Moodie5 all refer to the arguments between the two parties before the court case came to pass. Edwin however survived all of these machinations and continued to own extensive plantations in Jamaica where he eventually died.

  Our man, James Penman Gairdner, was actually born in Charleston, the son of James Gairdner and Mary Gordon6 and was baptised on 15 July 1792 at the Independent (Circular) Congregational Church in Charleston. It is certain that James had two sisters, Elizabeth, who married a Colonel Foster, and Margaret. It is probable that James had further siblings; Edwin Gordon, whose birth is unknown but died in 1791, and Mary Catherine, born in 1794 and who died 29 September 1800.7

  In 1804, aged around twelve, James was sent to England to stay with his aunt and to receive his formal education. He appears to have been a boarder at Harrow from 1804 until 1809 and in his first year may indeed have been Lord Byron’s ‘flunkie’.8

  But the merchant trade does not seem to have enamoured our James, who decided to join the army as an officer without purchase in the even then famous 95th Rifle Regiment.

  He became a Second Lieutenant vice Austin who had become a 1st Lieutenant vice Macleod9 deceased.10

  Two years later James gained promotion to First Lieutenant but did not rise any further in rank during his army career.

  James saw a great deal of active service during the final years of the wars against Napoleon. Having arrived literally just in time to be involved in the capture of the fortress of Ciudad Rodrigo in January 1812, he was then present at the final bloody siege of Badajoz where he was wounded, the battles of Salamanca, Vitoria where he was wounded again, this time more severely, the Pyrenees, Nive, Nivelle, Orthes and the final battle of the war at Toulouse in 1814.

  After some tense correspondence with his father regarding the terrible possibility of him, as an American, being posted to America to fight against the country of his birth in the War of 1812, he instead found himself fighting in the Waterloo campaign where he was wounded once more and then formed part of the Army of Occupation for the next three years.

  But the prospect of years of a boring life in some garrison town, with little or no opportunity for advancement or action seems to have convinced James to abandon his army career and return to America, where he married, raised a family and saw out his days as a plantation owner.

  Chapter 2

  Enlistment and Training

  James Penman Gairdner was sent from Charleston, South Carolina, to England at the age of twelve, for his education at Harrow, but it was not long before his youthful fearlessness and innate sense of adventure caused James to turn his back on a future in the mercantile trade and instead to obtain a commission in the British Army.

  It may perhaps appear odd, to say the least, that a young American lad should wish to join the British forces, so long after the American war of Independence. However, his father had been born in Scotland and although James had been born in Charleston, it is clear that family ties were still strong with the ‘Old country’ and loyalties were clearly riven. Indeed, a number of years later, James’ father summed up their confused loyalties, by stating that his son could continue to serve in the British Army as long as he never fought against Americans.

  Although his father had become wealthy by trade, it is not clear whether his father had offered to provide any money towards
purchasing a commission in the army or whether influential relatives were acting to gain the favour of a free commission. Whatever attempts were made, it is clear that they did eventually succeed in 1810 in securing James Penman a commission ‘without purchase’ as a Second Lieutenant (equivalent to an Ensign in line regiments),1 in the 2nd Battalion of the 95th Foot, later to become famous as the Rifle Brigade.

  The use of rifled weapons, already commonplace for hunting, had been experimented with by many European armies since the 1750s with limited success, its proven accuracy often thought to be severely outweighed by its cumbersome loading, hence slow rate of fire.

  In 1800 an Experimental Corps of Riflemen was set up under Colonel Coote-Manningham wearing a green uniform and armed with the new Baker Rifle. This corps was formalised in 1802 as the 95th Foot, it was expanded to two battalions in 1805 and a third was added in 1809. All three of the battalions regularly fought abroad, often operating at company level, being individually attached to different brigades of the army. When James joined he was initially allocated to the 2nd Battalion which then had only three companies serving at Cadiz, and hence James actually joined the remaining seven companies at their depot for instruction.

  To James Gairdner esquire, Augusta, Georgia2

  London, Sunday 10th September 18103