tars strain every sinew. Several boats were sunk by the bursting of the shells, and about two hundred and seventy men were killed before they reached the shore. At length, with all their prows touching the beach at the same instant, the boats grounded. Then a spectacle was presented that will be ever memorable. Two hundred of the French cavalry actually charged into the sea, and were seen for a few seconds hacking the men in the boats: these assailants were every one killed. It was now about ten o'clock; and within the space of six minutes, from this important crisis, the contest was decided. The 42d regiment, leaping up to their middle in water, formed rapidly upon the shore; and with a degree of impatience nothing could restrain, without waiting to load their muskets, broke from the main line before it could be formed, and ran gallantly up the hill, sinking deep in the sand at every step they took.* In this perilous situation a body of French cavalry pushed down upon them; but instead of being thrown into any disorder, they coolly received the charge upon the points of their bayonets; and the rest of the army coming up, routed the enemy on all sides. The French fled with the greatest precipitation." Our troops had been taught to expect no quarter, and therefore none was given. The wounded and the dying neither claimed nor obtained mercy; all was blood, and death, and victory. It is in the midst of the glory this day's success reflected upon the British arms, that humanity remembers some things she may wish to forget, but never will record. The cool and patient valour with which our soldiers had sustained the torrent of French artillery, and beheld the streaming wounds of their companions, previous to their landing, could but prove a prelude to the fury they would manifest, when it became their turn to attack; and a consequence so inseparable from human nature must bring along with it thoughtless havoc, and indiscriminate slaughter. Our loss in killed and wounded upon this occasion amounted to five hundred and sixty. *Sir R. Wilson relates, that the 23d and 40th ran first up the hill, and, charging with the bayonet the two battalions which crowned it, carried the two Note hills in the rear, and took three pieces of cannon. "The 42d," says he," had landed, and formed as on a parade" Hist. of Exped. p. 14. Where almost præternatural energy" was every where displayed, it is of little moment to ascertain the most impetuous. Sir Robert had every opportunity of ascertaining the truth; but a diference in his statement would not justify the author in altering notes made from testimony upou the spot, in order to copy the narrative even of a more accurate writer. Having afterward an occasion to examine the place of landing, the author visited the hill here alluded to; and was at a loss to conceive, how troops could charge rapidly with fixed bayonets against a heavy fire, where, unimpeded by any other difficulty than the sinking of his feet in the loose sand, he found it almost impracticable to ascend. The fact, however, only proves what ardent valour may accomplish; for that this was really done, it would be absurd to doubt. ૨ When our troops landed, Jaques Abd'allah Menou, commander in chief of the French forces in Egypt, was in Cairo. Intelligence had been repeatedly sent to him, accompanied by entreaty, that he would hasten to the relief of Alexandria. The French described him as a pompous, obstinate, corpulent man, entirely absorbed in composing or in delivering harangues to his soldiers. No persuasion could induce him to move. He considered the affair of our invasion as of little importance. Until our army had actually gained footing in the country, and twice defeated the French troops, he took no measures to interrupt their progress. According to the French statement, General Friant, with a body of cavalry, amounting to fifteen hundred men, was the only force upon the spot to oppose the landing of the English army. Had the resistance been greater, and Menou present, it is believed, that, with all the advantages possessed by the French, a descent upon the coast would have been impracticable. A skirmish took place upon the twelfth of March. In this affair the 12th regiment of dragoons, by too precipitate a charge, suffered very considerably. Colonel Archdale, who commanded it, lost an arm, receiving a shot in the very instant that he raised his sabre as a signal for his troop to advance, from one of the French tirailleurs. This did not prevent him from leading his men gallantly through a body of the enemy, much superior in numbers. Captain Butler of the same regiment was also taken prisoner. This brave, but rash action, was publicly noticed by our commander in chief; and a caution promulga ted, warning the army against the ill effects of too impetuous zeal and intemperate valor. The command of the 12th devolved upon Colonel Brown, and Colonel Archdale came on board the Braakel. On the thirteenth, the following day, our army attacked and drove the enemy from the heights to which they had retreated after the action of the eighth. This battle was desperately fought on both sides, and mutual loss sustained to a very con siderable amount. The result, however, made it evident that no resistance could be offered to the English bayonet. It was also discovered, that upon this occasion the French used bullets and cannon shot of copper and brass; generally deemed a dishonourable practice, as calculated only to gratify cruelty and malice. The slightest wounds so inflicted are said, with what truth others may determine, to be mortal. This species of ammunition was obtained from the sheathing of ships in the port Alexandria. Several of those balls were exhibited in the fleet, and some of them we afterward found in the sand where the action took place. An opinion then prevailed, that if the action of the thirteenth had been properly followed up, the English would have been the same day in possession of Alexandria. We had reason afterward to believe this would have been the case, by information from the people of the city; stating, that no reinforcement having arrived from Cairo, the merchants, tradesmen, and other inhabitants, were compelled to mount the ramparts, and attend the gates as sentinels; who would gladly have cast away their arms to receive the English, or would have turned them upon the French during their retreat. Instead of this being done, the enemy were allowed to establislr themselves, in a very advantageous position, upon some heights before the walls, whence it was found exceedingly difficult to dislodge them. To this place our army pursued them, and, then retreated to an eminence near some ruins, rendered after ward renowned, as the theatre of the most dreadful carnage during the glorious battle of the twenty-first. About the nineteenth, Menou arrived in Alexandria, pouring forth a torrent of abuse upon the garrison and troops who had opposed the landing of the English army. Delivering one of his turgid harangues, he reproached them, "in allowing, to their everlasting shame, an army of heroes to be chas tised by a mob of English school boys." The fat figure of Menou, added to his blustering and gasconading manner, rendered him a pleasant object of ridicule to the natural vivacity of Frenchmen, who distinguished him by the appellation of "Cochon General;" frequently retiring from the parade highly diverted by his fanfaronnades. Having ended the speech he had prepared for the occasion of his arrival, immediate preparations were made for a general attack upon the English, with his whole force; "pour anéantir les Anglois,” as he termed it, "tout d'un coup.” The day for this great event was fixed for the twenty-first, when our army was to be surprised before day light in its encampment, routed, and tumbled into the lake of Aboukir. At the hour appointed, the attack was made. In the beginning of it, the French conducted themselves with admirable skill. It is certain our army did not then expect them; al *The words were given to me by some French officers present upon that occasion. The literal translation of culbuter, the word used by Menou in the orders given of that attack; as found in the pocket of General Roise, whose head was taken off by cannon ball. See the original, in Sir Robert Wilson's Hist. of the Expedition. though, for two preceding nights, the soldiers had been ordered to lie down upon their arms, and be ready at a moment's notice. They came silently on, and in good order; which is the more remarkable, as it was said the greater part of them had been dosed with brandy. They had crept with amazing perseverance, even upon their hands and knees, through fear of alarming our videttes. The French videttes were, however, observed to draw nearer and nearer to ours, until, at length, the English sentinel observed the French army close behind, coming slowly on in a line. This man gave the alarm, by firing his piece, and retreating with all possible expedition. The French instantly and rapidly charged up the hill, beginning a false attack upon our left, and, carrying a redoubt by means of the bayonet, hoped thereby to throw our army into confusion, by drawing the attention from its right, where the main assault was intended. This project was soon perceived by our commander in chief, and failed of its effect. It was still dark. The firing ceased upon the left, and was soon heard very warm upon the right. To that point General Abercrombie directed all his attention, although both armies discharged their artillery without discerning a single object, except during the flashes of the cannon; when, as an officer belonging to the reserve assured us, the French army was not otherwise visible, although now so near, than by the appearance of a long black line, disclosed du ring those momentary coruscations. As dawn appeared, the French were found to have succeeded in turning our right wing; and a party of their cavalry were actually seen advan eing in the rear of the 28th regiment. The prudence and gal. lant conduct of this regiment gave the first favourable turn to the conflict of the day. Cavalry, in the rear of infantry, have generally the power to throw them into disorder. It was, at this critical moment, decisive as to the fate of Egypt, that an adjutant of the 28th, gave the word, “Rear rank! right about, face!" This was readily obeyed, and the soldiers, with astonish ing firmness and presence of mind, sustained a severe attack in front and rear at the same time, without a single man moving from his place.* At this juncture, the 42d regiment, coming up to aid the 28th, were themselves overwhelmed and broken by a body of the enemy's cavalry. Still, although dispersed, they resisted to a man; and were seen so intermingled with The 58th is said to have been also in a similar situation. Wilson's Hist. of the Exped. p. 32. the enemy, that the flank companies of the 40th, stationed in the openings of the ruin upon the right, were afraid to fire, for fear of destroying them. Menou had promised a Louis to every French soldier who should be concerned in establishing a position in that building; and several attempts were made for the purpose. The 58th had been stationed there in the beginning of the action, with a part of the 23d, and had already repulsed a colump of the enemy in its attack upon this place; when, during the severe conflict sustained by the 28th in front, three columus forced in behind the redoubt where that regiment was stationed; and while some of them remained to carry on the attack upon its rear, the principal part penetrated into the quadrangular area formed by the ruin. Here they were received by the 58th and 23d, and followed by a part of the 42d, who cut off their retreat, so that a most desperate contest ensued. Our men attacked them like wolves, with less order than valour, displaying a degree of intrepidity nothing could resist. After expending all their ammunition, they had recourse to stones and the but ends of their pieces, transfixing the Frenchmen with their bayonets against the walls of the building, until they had covered the sand with the blood and bodies of their ene mies; where they remain heaped, at this hour, a striking monu ment of the tremendous glory of that day. Not fewer than seven hundred Frenchmen were bayonetted or shot among those ruins. * By some unaccountable negligence, the principal part of the artillery and ammunition had not been brought to the station then occupied by our army; hence originated a saying, that the French had been defeated by an enemy destitute of artillery. Certain it is, that both the 28th and 42d regiments, toward the termination of the contest, were reduced to the necessity of throwing stones.* General Sir Ralph Abercrombie, with a view, as it is related, of rallying the 42d, and restoring order among their ranks, hastening toward the dreadful conflict in the ruin upon the right, where the action was hottest, was nearly surrounded by a party of French cavalry. A dragoon made a thrust at him; but Sir Raph, receiving the sabre between his breast and his left arm, wrested the weapon from his antagonist. At this instant, an English soldier, seeing another "The French on the right, during the want of ammunition among the British, having also exhausted theirs, pelted stones from the ditch at the 28th; who returned these unusual, yet not altogether harmless, instruments of violence, as a sergeant of the 28th was killed by one breaking through his forehead." Hist. of the Exped. p. 34 |
