Women, Families and the British Army, 1700–1880 Vol 3 by Jennine Hurl-Eamon Lynn MacKay

Author:Jennine Hurl-Eamon, Lynn MacKay [Jennine Hurl-Eamon, Lynn MacKay]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, General
ISBN: 9781000028898
Google: rdHVDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2020-03-10T01:38:14+00:00

with all the other vanities and circumstance of war. Being in high spirits, aided it is likely with a little vanity, so likely to cleave to a man who seeks to recommend himself by feats of arms, I had no objection to dwell ocasionally upon the perils and deliverances of bygone time. But during the whole of this season my spirit was not humbled by the least sense of moral defect. I knew nothing of myself. Indeed, such was the loftiness of carriage which I thought it right to assume, that it was with me a point of honour never to sustain an affront unavenged. And yet, on looking back, I can trace an invisible but resistless influence, which even then guided me aright, and saved me from various threatening dangers: what I mean is, I was never utterly abandoned to my own devices. My furlough having expired, I returned to England, and landed at Liverpool, in the winter of 1814; which was remarkable for one of the hardest frosts known in this country for many preceding years. Here I received orders from the Paymaster to proceed to Kent, with a party of recruits destined for that district; and as most of the young fellows were rude and unruly, and strangers to military restraint, it required no common share of firmness, tempered with discretion, properly to conduct and manage them. I arrived, without missing a man, in the vicinity of Maidstone.

[Benjamin was then stationed at the citadel in Plymouth. When the battalion was disbanded in March of 1817, he was placed on the pension list and was serving in a veteran battalion within three years. Because the battalion was allowed a limited number of sergeants, Benjamin’s rank was reduced and he instead enlisted in the 7th Foot as a private. Serving in the north of England, he remained susceptible to the temptations of drink and missed his old companions. He retired when the forces underwent further reductions in November of 1823. His memoir went on to express his dissatisfaction with the Catholic faith during his years in service and then mentioned the testimonials he had received about his soldierly conduct from the officers under which he had served in the Peninsular campaigns. . . .] It would be mere affectation, were I to profess myself indifferent to opinions so generously expressed; and, as military reputation, founded on faithful services, is frequently the only riches of which an old soldier can boast, I shall be pardoned for introducing some extracts from letters received about this time from several gentlemen well known in superior military circles. I ought to premise, that I had applied to Lieut.-Col. Williamson, Commandant at the Royal Military Asylum, Chelsea, for admission into that Institution as one of the superintendents of the children; to secure which, I found it necessary to obtain respectable references as to previous character. Colonel, now General Pearson, observed concerning me, “I have much pleasure in stating, that his conduct on every occasion merited

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