An Historical Account of the Island of St Vincent by Charles Shepard

Author:Charles Shepard [Shepard, Charles]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, General, Social Science, Regional Studies
ISBN: 9781136990458
Google: zVGzAQAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2013-10-23T01:19:52+00:00

SECTION VI.

Arrival of the fortieth, fifty-fourth, and fifty-ninth regiments with General Irving—Attack of the Vigie—Evacuation by the Enemy—March to Colonarie—General Stewart—English Camp taken—Arrival of General Hunter—The Troops withdrawn to Kingstown—The Vigie occupied by the Enemy—Skirmishes at Miller’s Ridge.

THUS were the unfortunate inhabitants continued the prey of anxiety, and the subjects of fatigue until the evening of the 29th of September, when His Majesty’s ship Scipio, and several Transports appeared in sight to leeward; as calm weather prevailed, Captain Barrett ordered all the small vessels in the bay to go down to the fleet, for the purpose of taking out the troops, and several hundred landed that night. The next day the Transports came into the bay, when part of the fortieth regiment commanded by Major Harcourt, the fifty-fourth by Lieutenant-Colonel Godday Strutt,* and the fifty-ninth by Lieutenant-Colonel Francis Fuller,* were landed. These regiments had only returned a few weeks from the continent before embarkation; Major-General Irving† also arrived, having been appointed by the Commander-in-Chief, General Leigh, to this command. Nothing passed in town of which the enemy were not apprised; they retired from their position on Fairbairn’s Ridge, and made every possible provision to maintain the occupancy of the Vigie. The necessary preparations being made, Lieutenant-Colonel Strutt, and Lieutenant-Colonel Leith of the Rangers, with a detachment of seven hundred and fifty men, marched on the night of the 1st of October, about ten o’clock, round by Calliaqua, and proceeded to the heights of Calder Estate, the east side of the Vigie, and gained their situation about three in the morning. Generals Irving and Myers, with the principal body, consisting of the Artillery under Major Duvernette, the fifty-ninth under Lieutenant-Colonel Fuller, the flank companies of the fifty-fourth, four companies of the fortieth, and the remains of the forty-sixth, under Lieutenant-Colonel Leighton, the whole amounting to about nine hundred men, marched from Sion Hill and Arno’s Vale about two o’clock, proceeding up Warrawarou Valley. On crossing the river, Lieutenant-Colonel Leighton with a part of the forty-sixth, and two guns were detached to go round by Calliaqua, and at the Fountain Estate pasture, the flank companies of the fifty-fourth and fifty-ninth, with the four companies of the fortieth, under Captain Boland* of the latter, were also detached up the valley, with orders to gain the heights by Debuques; the fifty-ninth struck off to the right at the pasture, and gained Fairbairn’s Ridge, from which they drove off one of the enemy’s pickets; the artillery having joined the fifty-ninth on the Ridge, the whole halted about half way from the top, which Major M‘Leod with that regiment was ordered to gain.

Attack on the Vigie.

During this time, the detachment that had been ordered to proceed by Debuque’s had been attacked by the enemy in their ascent to the place where the house formerly stood, to gain which, they had to cross a deep rivulet, and then ascend a steep hill covered with brushwood; the enemy advantageously posted behind trees and bushes, galled the advancing troops

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