A Bold and Ambitious Enterprise by Andrew Bamford

Author:Andrew Bamford
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781783468782
Publisher: Frontline Books
Published: 2013-08-29T16:00:00+00:00

Thankfully, the anchors held until the wind died down, but the Union was too battered to continue the voyage and the men were obliged to transfer to another ship, the Sophia, at Ramsgate in which they completed their voyage. Four days later, on 14 February, the missing Saragossa with the rest of the battalion on board also arrived off Helvoetsluys and, thus reunited, the 2/30th was able to join the 2/81st and march overland to join Graham.39

In many respects, the two new battalions were similar units: both had served abroad earlier in the war before returning home to serve in garrison and act as feeder units for their respective 1st Battalions overseas. Of the two, the 2/30th was the more experienced, having gone out to the Peninsula in 1809, served with Graham at Cadiz and then with Wellington during the 1811 and 1812 campaigns before returning home, much reduced in numbers, in early 1813. It was well-led, with many veteran officers and a first-class commanding officer in the shape of Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Hamilton, but the 464 rank and file were a mixed bag of Peninsular veterans and new recruits, and the manpower situation was not helped by the fact that a draft had been sent off to the 1/30th in India on 1 January.40 The 2/81st was a little weaker, with only 376 rank and file on strength, and although it had seen previous active service this had been in the twin debacles of Corunna and Walcheren since when most of the regiment’s effective manpower had gone to the 1st Battalion in the Mediterranean. Nevertheless, there were enough veterans left for Major General John Hatton, when inspecting the battalion three months previously, to note that ‘the privates, with the exception of a hundred and fifty much too young for service, are a good body of men’ and that there was a good cadre of experienced NCOs. This was not exactly unreserved praise, but considerably better than the state of most of the first batch of regiments sent to Holland the previous December.41 Both of these newly arrived battalions were assigned to the Second Division.

If the 2/81st was a decent enough unit, though, there is no denying that Graham quite evidently thought the 2/30th the better bargain. He demonstrated this preference when he chose the 2/30th as the new home for one Edward Nevil McCready, a volunteer who had arrived in Holland with a letter of introduction asking Graham to post its young bearer to one of his battalions, where he would serve in the ranks in the hope of distinguishing himself sufficiently to obtain an ensign’s commission. This way into the Army was not unusual for someone like McCready, who had the social standing expected of a potential officer but lacked the money to buy his first step, but it is certainly telling that although he had connections with Captain John Lewis Watson of the 2/69th, and sought to join that unit, Graham dismissed this and sent McCready to the 2/30th, where he assured him that Hamilton would take care of him.

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