Death Before Glory by Martin Howard

Author:Martin Howard [Howard, Martin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Modern / 19th Century
ISBN: 9781473871519
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2015-09-30T04:00:00+00:00

Nogues bravery was laudable but his paltry forces were no match for the British troops who attacked the Morne on the 22nd led by George Prevost and Robert Brereton. Grinfield, in his peremptory dispatch, describes the assault commencing at 4 o’clock and lasting for half an hour. Most of the fighting was borne by the Royal Scots and the 64th. A number of senior officers on both sides were wounded; the brother of General Nogues suffered a severe wound to the thigh and was only saved from the wrath of the rank and file by Brereton who took him in his arms. Louisenthal expresses his surprise that the overweight British general (‘son extraordinaire embonpoint’) had reached the top of the Morne. The British total losses were 20 killed, 120 wounded and eight missing, reflecting the stiff French resistance. Despite the intensity of the fighting there was a good relationship between the adversaries, Grinfield commenting that, ‘…no sooner were the Works carried by Assault and the Opposition no longer existed, that every Idea of Animosity appeared to cease and not a French soldier was either killed or wounded’. Six hundred and forty French prisoners were sent back to France and Nogues and several of his officers were permitted to return to Martinique. The victorious Grinfield garrisoned the new acquisition with the 68th Regiment and three companies of black troops under Brereton’s command.5

The next target was Tobago. Most of the island’s inhabitants were British and the chief town and fort of Scarborough (see map 2) was defended by a French garrison of little more than 200 soldiers and sailors under the command of General César Berthier. Hood and Grinfield sailed from St Lucia and reached Tobago on 25 June, the greater part of the troops being landed by the late afternoon. It was, as Grinfield related in his dispatch, a bloodless coup.

…the two leading columns [the most advanced column of two companies of the 64th and five companies of the 3rd West India Regiment under the command of Brigadier General Thomas Picton] marched forward towards Scarborough and meeting with no Opposition in the Defiles of St Mary’s, advanced to Mount Grace, from which place I sent a Summons to the Commandant-General Berthier, who returned an answer by proposing Terms of Capitulation…

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